Sea-level changes in Iceland and the influence of the North Atlantic Oscillation during the last half millennium

We present a new, diatom-based sea-level reconstruction for Iceland spanning the last -500 years, and investigate the possible mechanisms driving the sea-level changes. A sea-level reconstruction from near the Icelandic low pressure system is important as it can improve understanding of ocean-atmosphere forcing on North Atlantic sea-level variability over multi-decadal to centennial timescales. Our reconstruction is from Viarhólmi salt marsh in Snæfellsnes in western Iceland, a site from where we previously obtained a 2000-yr record based upon less precise sea-level indicators (salt-marsh foraminifera). The 20th century part of our record is corroborated by tide-gauge data from Reykjavik. Overall, the new reconstruction shows ca0.6m rise of relative sea level during the last four centuries, of which ca0.2m occurred during the 20th century. Low-amplitude and high-frequency sea-level variability is super-imposed on the pre-industrial long-term rising trend of 0.65m per 1000 years. Most of the relative sea-level rise occurred in three distinct periods: AD 1620-1650, AD 1780-1850 and AD 1950-2000, with maximum rates of ~3±2mm/yr during the latter two of these periods. Maximum rates were achieved at the end of large shifts (from negative to positive) of the winter North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) Index as reconstructed from proxy data. Instrumental data demonstrate that a strong and sustained positive NAO (a deep Icelandic Low) generates setup on the west coast of Iceland resulting in rising sea levels. There is no strong evidence that the periods of rapid sea-level rise were caused by ocean mass changes, glacial isostatic adjustment or regional steric change. We suggest that wind forcing plays an important role in causing regional-scale coastal sea-level variability in the North Atlantic, not only on (multi-)annual timescales, but also on multi-decadal to centennial timescales.

S21 Culture Independent Identification Of Bacterial Communities In The Respiratory Tract Of Patients With Copd, Healthy Non-smokers And Healthy Smokers

Introduction and aims: The role bacteria play in the development and progression of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is unclear. We used culture-independent methods to describe differences and/or similarities in microbial communities in the lower airways of patients with COPD, healthy non-smokers and smokers.

Methods: Bronchial wash samples were collected from patients with COPD (GOLD 1–3; n = 18), healthy non-smokers (HV; n = 11) and healthy smokers (HS; n = 8). Samples were processed using the Illumina MiSeq platform. The Shannon-Wiener Index (SW) of diversity, lung obstruction (FEV1/FVC ratio) and ordination by Non-Metric Multidimensional Scaling (NMDS) on Bray-Curtis dissimilarity indices were analysed to evaluate how samples were related. Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to assess the effect specific taxa had within each cohort. Characteristics of each cohort are shown in Table 1.

Results: There was no difference in taxa richness between cohorts (range: 69–71; p = 0.954). Diversity (SW Index) was significantly lower in COPD samples compared to samples from HV and HS (p = 0.009 and p = 0.033, respectively). There was no significant difference between HV and HS (p = 0.186). The FEV1/FVC ratio was significantly lower for COPD compared to HV (p = 9*10–8) and HS (p = 2*10–6), respectively. NMDS analysis showed that communities belonging to either of the healthy groups were more similar to each other than they were to samples belonging to the COPD group. PCA analysis showed that members of Streptococcus sp. and Haemophilus sp. had the largest effect on the variance explained in COPD. In HS, Haemophilus sp., Fusobaterium sp., Actinomyces sp., Prevotella sp. and Veillonella sp. had the largest effect on the variance explained, while in HV Neisseria sp., Porphyromonas sp., Actinomyces sp., Atopobium sp., Prevotella and Veillonella sp. had the largest effect on the variance explained.

Conclusions: The study demonstrates that microbial communities in the lower airways of patients with COPD are significantly different from that seen in healthy comparison groups. Patients with COPD had lower microbial diversity than either of the healthy comparison groups, higher relative abundance of members of Streptococcus sp. and lower relative abundance of a number of key anaerobes.Characteristics

Periodontal Manifestations of Chronic Atypical Neutrophilic Dermatosis With Lipodystrophy and Elevated Temperature (CANDLE) Syndrome in an 11 Year Old Patient

Introduction: Chronic atypical neutrophilic dermatosis with lipodystrophy and elevated temperature (CANDLE) is an auto inflammatory syndrome caused by an autosomal recessive gene mutation. This very rare syndrome has been reported in only 14 patients worldwide. A number of clinical signs have been reported including joint contractures, muscle atrophy, microcytic anaemia, and panniculitis-induced childhood lipodystrophy. Further symptoms include recurrent fevers, purpuric skin lesions, periorbital erythema and failure to thrive. This is the first reported case of periodontal manifestations associated with CANDLE syndrome. 
Case Presentation: An 11 year old boy was referred to Cork University Dental School and Hospital with evidence of severe periodontal destruction. The patient’s medical condition was managed in Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital, London. The patient’s dental management included initial treatment to remove teeth of hopeless prognosis followed by prosthodontic rehabilitation using removable partial dentures. This was followed by further non-surgical periodontal treatment and maintenance. In the long term, the potential definitive restorative options, including dental implants, will be evaluated in discussion with the patient’s medical team.
Conclusion: Periodontitis as a manifestation of systemic disease is one of seven categories of periodontitis as defined by the American Academy of Periodontology 1999 classification system. A number of systemic diseases have been associated with advanced periodontal destruction including Diabetes Mellitus, Leukaemia and Papillon-Lefevre Syndrome. In the case described, treatment necessitated a multidisciplinary approach with input from medical and dental specialities for a young patient with severe periodontal destruction associated with CANDLE syndrome.

Dublin’s ephemeral and imaginary architectures

In 1989, the Irish architectural practice O’Donnell and Tuomey were commissioned to build a temporary pavilion to represent Ireland at the 11 Cities/11 Nations exhibition at Leeuwarden in the Netherlands. Citing Peter Smithson, John Tuomey suggested the pavilion, which drew inspirations from the forms and materials of the modern Irish barn, embodied an intention ‘not just to build but to communicate’. Its subsequent reassembly for the inauguration of the Irish Museum of Modern Art in the courtyard of the seventeenth-century Royal Hospital Kilmainham in Dublin in 1991, drew comparisons between the urban sophistication of this colonial building, its svelte new refit, and the rural expression of O’Donnell + Tuomey’s barn. It was, one critic recently noted, as if ‘a wedding had been crashed by a country cousin who had forgotten to clean his boots’.
It has been argued that temporary or ephemeral pieces of architecture, unburdened by the traditional constraints of firmitas or utilitas, have the ability to offer a concise distillation of meaning and intention. Approaching the qualities of rhetoric, such architectures share similarities with the monument and yet differ in fundamental ways. Their rapid construction in lightweight materials can allow for an almost instantaneous negotiation of zeitgeist. And, unlike the monument, from the outset the space and form of these installations is designed to disappear.
This paper analyses the ephemeral architectures of Dublin in the modern period contextualising their qualities and intentions as they manifest themselves across colonial, post-colonial and contemporary epochs. It finds origins in the theatrical sets of the late eighteenth century and traces their movements into the semi-public sphere of the pleasure garden and finally into the theatre of the streets. It is here that temporary architecture in the city has been at its most potent, allowing the amplification or subversion of the meanings of much larger spaces. Historically, much of Dublin’s most conspicuous instances of ephemeral architecture have been realised as a means of articulating mass spectacle in political, religious or nationalistic events. And while much of this has sought to confirm dominant ideologies, it has also been possible to discern moments of opposition.
The contemporary period, however, has arguably witnessed a shift in ephemeral architectures from explicitly representing ‘positive ideologies’ towards something more oblique or nebulous. This turn towards abstraction in form and space has rendered an especially communicative form of architecture particularly elusive. By examining continuities within the apparent disjuncture between historical and contemporary examples, this paper begins to unpick the language of recent ephemeral architecture in Dublin and situate it within wider global trends where political and economic imperatives are often simultaneously obscured and expressed in public space by a vocabulary of universality. As Jurgen Habermas has suggested, the contemporary value given to the transitory and the ephemeral ‘discloses a longing for an undefiled, immaculate and stable present’.