The role of climate-driven chemical weathering on soil production

Climate plays an important role in controlling rates of weathering and weathered regolith production. Regolith production functions, however, seldom take climate parameters into account. Based on a climate-dependent weathered regolith production model, at low denudation rates, relative regolith thicknesses are less sensitive to changes in precipitation rates, while at high denudation rates, small changes in climatic parameters can result in complete stripping of hillslopes. This pattern is compounded by the long residence times and system response times associated with low denudation rates, and vice versa. As others have shown, the transition between regolith-mantled and bedrock slopes is dependent on the ratio of denudation to production. Here, we further suggest that this is itself a function of precipitation rate and temperature. We suggest that climatic parameters can be easily incorporated into existing soil production models and that such additions improve the predictive power of soil production models. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Statement on smoking cessation in COPD and other pulmonary diseases and in smokers with comorbidities who find it difficult to quit.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, asthma and pulmonary tuberculosis are common pulmonary diseases that are caused or worsened by tobacco smoking. Growing observational evidence suggests that symptoms and prognosis of these conditions improve upon smoking cessation. Despite increasing numbers of (small) randomised controlled trials suggesting intensive smoking cessation treatments work in people with pulmonary diseases many patients are not given specific advice on the benefits or referred for intensive cessation treatments and, therefore, continue smoking. This is a qualitative review regarding smoking cessation in patients with COPD and other pulmonary disorders, written by a group of European Respiratory Society experts. We describe the epidemiological links between smoking and pulmonary disorders, the evidence for benefits of stopping smoking, how best to assess tobacco dependence and what interventions currently work best to help pulmonary patients quit. Finally, we describe characteristics and management of any "hardcore" smoker who finds it difficult to quit with standard approaches.

Scientific Rationale of a Saturn Probe Mission

We describe the main scientific goals to be addressed by future in situ exploration of Saturn.

Subclinical thyroid dysfunction and fracture risk: a meta-analysis.

IMPORTANCE Associations between subclinical thyroid dysfunction and fractures are unclear and clinical trials are lacking. OBJECTIVE To assess the association of subclinical thyroid dysfunction with hip, nonspine, spine, or any fractures. DATA SOURCES AND STUDY SELECTION The databases of MEDLINE and EMBASE (inception to March 26, 2015) were searched without language restrictions for prospective cohort studies with thyroid function data and subsequent fractures. DATA EXTRACTION Individual participant data were obtained from 13 prospective cohorts in the United States, Europe, Australia, and Japan. Levels of thyroid function were defined as euthyroidism (thyroid-stimulating hormone [TSH], 0.45-4.49 mIU/L), subclinical hyperthyroidism (TSH <0.45 mIU/L), and subclinical hypothyroidism (TSH ≥4.50-19.99 mIU/L) with normal thyroxine concentrations. MAIN OUTCOME AND MEASURES The primary outcome was hip fracture. Any fractures, nonspine fractures, and clinical spine fractures were secondary outcomes. RESULTS Among 70,298 participants, 4092 (5.8%) had subclinical hypothyroidism and 2219 (3.2%) had subclinical hyperthyroidism. During 762,401 person-years of follow-up, hip fracture occurred in 2975 participants (4.6%; 12 studies), any fracture in 2528 participants (9.0%; 8 studies), nonspine fracture in 2018 participants (8.4%; 8 studies), and spine fracture in 296 participants (1.3%; 6 studies). In age- and sex-adjusted analyses, the hazard ratio (HR) for subclinical hyperthyroidism vs euthyroidism was 1.36 for hip fracture (95% CI, 1.13-1.64; 146 events in 2082 participants vs 2534 in 56,471); for any fracture, HR was 1.28 (95% CI, 1.06-1.53; 121 events in 888 participants vs 2203 in 25,901); for nonspine fracture, HR was 1.16 (95% CI, 0.95-1.41; 107 events in 946 participants vs 1745 in 21,722); and for spine fracture, HR was 1.51 (95% CI, 0.93-2.45; 17 events in 732 participants vs 255 in 20,328). Lower TSH was associated with higher fracture rates: for TSH of less than 0.10 mIU/L, HR was 1.61 for hip fracture (95% CI, 1.21-2.15; 47 events in 510 participants); for any fracture, HR was 1.98 (95% CI, 1.41-2.78; 44 events in 212 participants); for nonspine fracture, HR was 1.61 (95% CI, 0.96-2.71; 32 events in 185 participants); and for spine fracture, HR was 3.57 (95% CI, 1.88-6.78; 8 events in 162 participants). Risks were similar after adjustment for other fracture risk factors. Endogenous subclinical hyperthyroidism (excluding thyroid medication users) was associated with HRs of 1.52 (95% CI, 1.19-1.93) for hip fracture, 1.42 (95% CI, 1.16-1.74) for any fracture, and 1.74 (95% CI, 1.01-2.99) for spine fracture. No association was found between subclinical hypothyroidism and fracture risk. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Subclinical hyperthyroidism was associated with an increased risk of hip and other fractures, particularly among those with TSH levels of less than 0.10 mIU/L and those with endogenous subclinical hyperthyroidism. Further study is needed to determine whether treating subclinical hyperthyroidism can prevent fractures.

Genome-wide Association Studies Identify Genetic Loci Associated with Albuminuria in Diabetes

Elevated concentrations of albumin in the urine, albuminuria, are a hallmark of diabetic kidney disease and associate with increased risk for end-stage renal disease and cardiovascular events. To gain insight into the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying albuminuria, we conducted meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies and independent replication in up to 5,825 individuals of European ancestry with diabetes mellitus and up to 46,061 without diabetes, followed by functional studies. Known associations of variants in CUBN, encoding cubilin, with the urinary albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR) were confirmed in the overall sample (p=2.4*10(-10)). Gene-by-diabetes interactions were detected and confirmed for variants in HS6ST1 and near RAB38/CTSC. SNPs at these loci demonstrated a genetic effect on UACR in individuals with but not without diabetes. The change in average UACR per minor allele was 21% for HS6ST1 and 13% for RAB38/CTSC (p=6.3*10(-7) and 5.8*10(-7), respectively). Experiments using streptozotocin-treated diabetic Rab38 knockout and control rats showed higher urinary albumin concentrations and reduced amounts of megalin and cubilin at the proximal tubule cell surface in Rab38 knockout vs. control rats. Relative expression of RAB38 was higher in tubuli of patients with diabetic kidney disease compared to controls. The loci identified here confirm known and highlight novel pathways influencing albuminuria.

Interstellar Flow and Temperature Determination with IBEX: Robustness and Sensitivity to Systematic Effects

The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) samples the interstellar neutral (ISN) gas flow of several species every year from December through late March when the Earth moves into the incoming flow. The first quantitative analyses of these data resulted in a narrow tube in four-dimensional interstellar parameter space, which couples speed, flow latitude, flow longitude, and temperature, and center values with approximately 3° larger longitude and 3 km s⁻¹ lower speed, but with temperatures similar to those obtained from observations by the Ulysses spacecraft. IBEX has now recorded six years of ISN flow observations, providing a large database over increasing solar activity and using varying viewing strategies. In this paper, we evaluate systematic effects that are important for the ISN flow vector and temperature determination. We find that all models in use return ISN parameters well within the observational uncertainties and that the derived ISN flow direction is resilient against uncertainties in the ionization rate. We establish observationally an effective IBEX-Lo pointing uncertainty of ±0°18 in spin angle and confirm an uncertainty of ±0°1 in longitude. We also show that the IBEX viewing strategy with different spin-axis orientations minimizes the impact of several systematic uncertainties, and thus improves the robustness of the measurement. The Helium Warm Breeze has likely contributed substantially to the somewhat different center values of the ISN flow vector. By separating the flow vector and temperature determination, we can mitigate these effects on the analysis, which returns an ISN flow vector very close to the Ulysses results, but with a substantially higher temperature. Due to coupling with the ISN flow speed along the ISN parameter tube, we provide the temperature Tvisn∞=8710+440/-680 K for Visn∞=26 km s⁻¹ for comparison, where most of the uncertainty is systematic and likely due to the presence of the Warm Breeze.

A Review of General Physical and Chemical Processes Related to Plasma Sources and Losses for Solar System Magnetospheres

The aim of this paper is to provide a review of general processes related to plasma sources, their transport, energization, and losses in the planetary magnetospheres. We provide background information as well as the most up-to-date knowledge of the comparative studies of planetary magnetospheres, with a focus on the plasma supply to each region of the magnetospheres. This review also includes the basic equations and modeling methods commonly used to simulate the plasma sources of the planetary magnetospheres. In this paper, we will describe basic and common processes related to plasma supply to each region of the planetary magnetospheres in our solar system. First, we will describe source processes in Sect. 1. Then the transport and energization processes to supply those source plasmas to various regions of the magnetosphere are described in Sect. 2. Loss processes are also important to understand the plasma population in the magnetosphere and Sect. 3 is dedicated to the explanation of the loss processes. In Sect. 4, we also briefly summarize the basic equations and modeling methods with a focus on plasma supply processes for planetary magnetospheres.

Effects, but no interactions, of ubiquitous pesticide and parasite stressors on honey bee (Apis mellifera) lifespan and behaviour in a colony environment

Interactions between pesticides and parasites are believed to be responsible for increased mortality of honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies in the northern hemisphere. Previous efforts have employed experimental approaches using small groups under laboratory conditions to investigate influence of these stressors on honey bee physiology and behaviour, although both the colony level and field conditions play a key role for eusocial honey bees. Here, we challenged honey bee workers under in vivo colony conditions with sublethal doses of the neonicotinoid thiacloprid, the miticide tau-fluvalinate and the endoparasite Nosema ceranae, to investigate potential effects on longevity and behaviour using observation hives. In contrast to previous laboratory studies, our results do not suggest interactions among stressors, but rather lone effects of pesticides and the parasite on mortality and behaviour, respectively. These effects appear to be weak due to different outcomes at the two study sites, thereby suggesting that the role of thiacloprid, tau-fluvalinate and N. ceranae and interactions among them may have been overemphasized. In the future, investigations into the effects of honey bee stressors should prioritize the use of colonies maintained under a variety of environmental conditions in order to obtain more biologically relevant data.

(Data S1) Palynological analysis of IODP and ODP sediment cores around the Antarctic margin

The circum-Antarctic Southern Ocean is an important region for global marine food webs and carbon cycling because of sea-ice formation and its unique plankton ecosystem. However, the mechanisms underlying the installation of this distinct ecosystem and the geological timing of its development remain unknown. Here, we show, on the basis of fossil marine dinoflagellate cyst records, that a major restructuring of the Southern Ocean plankton ecosystem occurred abruptly and concomitant with the first major Antarctic glaciation in the earliest Oligocene (~33.6 million years ago). This turnover marks a regime shift in zooplankton-phytoplankton interactions and community structure, which indicates the appearance of eutrophic and seasonally productive environments on the Antarctic margin. We conclude that earliest Oligocene cooling, ice-sheet expansion, and subsequent sea-ice formation were important drivers of biotic evolution in the Southern Ocean.