Exploring the impact of CMIP5 model biases on the simulation of North Atlantic decadal variability

Instrumental observations, palaeo-proxies, and climate models suggest significant decadal variability within the North Atlantic subpolar gyre (NASPG). However, a poorly sampled observational record and a diversity of model behaviours mean that the precise nature and mechanisms of this variability are unclear. Here, we analyse an exceptionally large multi-model ensemble of 42 present-generation climate models to test whether NASPG mean state biases systematically affect the representation of decadal variability. Temperature and salinity biases in the Labrador Sea co-vary and influence whether density variability is controlled by temperature or salinity variations. Ocean horizontal resolution is a good predictor of the biases and the location of the dominant dynamical feedbacks within the NASPG. However, we find no link to the spectral characteristics of the variability. Our results suggest that the mean state and mechanisms of variability within the NASPG are not independent. This represents an important caveat for decadal predictions using anomaly-assimilation methods.

Manipulation in Newspaper Articles : A Political Discourse Analysis of Lexical Choice and Manipulation in Japanese Newspaper Crisis Reporting in the case of North Korea

This paper analyzes some forms of linguistic manipulation in Japanese in newspapers when reporting on North Korea and its nuclear tests. The focus lies on lexical ambiguity in headlines and journalist’s voices in the body of the articles, that results in manipulation of the minds of the readers. The study is based on a corpus of nine articles from two of Japan’s largest newspapers Yomiuri Online and Asahi Shimbun Digital. The linguistic phenomenon that contribute to create manipulation are divided into Short Term Memory impact or Long Term Memory impact and examples will be discussed under each of the categories.The main results of the study are that headlines in Japanese newspapers do not make use of an ambiguous, double grounded structure. However, the articles are filled with explicit and implied attitudes as well as attributed material from people of a high social status, which suggests that manipulation of the long term memory is a tool used in Japanese media.

Harmonised framework for ecological risk assessment of sediments from ports and estuarine zones of North and South Atlantic

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Gravity Data and Crustal Structure of North-Central Brazil

The Bouguer gravity anomaly of the northwest Ceará state in north-central Brazil was separated into its regional and residual components which were interpreted separately. By assuming that the sources of the regional anomalies are the depth variations of the crust-mantle interface, the mapping of these variations permited identifying crustal thickening zones which may be related to regional structures. The gravity residual sources coincide with occurrences of high-grade rocks (granulites) associated to medium-grade gneisses. Besides, the major strike-slip zones present significant signatures in the gravity data. This geophysical interpretation is compatible with the interpretation that the tectonic framework of the area is related to two crustal blocks conjoined by an A-type suture. The blocks are displaced along an oblique ramp with dextral movement, which played an important role in uplifting high-grade rocks from the lower crust to upper crustal levels. The suture zone corresponds to an imbricated compressive system dipping to the east and complicated by late dextral strike-slip shear zones.

Toward the privatization of water utilities in the Great Lakes region of North America

Includes bibliography

NAFTA's uninvited guest: China and the disintegration of North American trade

Includes bibliography.

Petrified Marattiales pinnae from the Lower Permian of North-Western Gondwana (Parnaiba Basin, Brazil)

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Gastrointestinal nematodes of the lizard Tropidurus hispidus (Squamata: Tropiduridae) from a semi-arid region of north-eastern Brazil

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Distribution of North Pacific right whales (Eubalaena japonica) as shown by 19th and 20th century whaling catch and sighting records

North Pacific right whales (Eubalaena japonica) were extensively exploited in the 19th century, and their recovery was further retarded (severely so in the eastern population) by illegal Soviet catches in the 20th century, primarily in the 1960s. Monthly plots of right whale sightings and catches from both the 19th and 20th centuries are provided, using data summarized by Scarff (1991, from the whale charts of Matthew Fontaine Maury) and Brownell et al. (2001), respectively. Right whales had an extensive offshore distribution in the 19th century, and were common in areas (such as the Gulf of Alaska and Sea of Japan) where few or no right whales occur today. Seasonal movements of right whales are apparent in the data, although to some extent these reflect survey and whaling effort. That said, these seasonal movements indicate a general northward migration in spring from lower latitudes, and major concentrations above 40°N in summer. Sightings diminished and occurred further south in autumn, and few animals were recorded anywhere in winter. These north-south migratory movements support the hypothesis of two largely discrete populations of right whales in the eastern and western North Pacific. Overall, these analyses confirm that the size and range of the right whale population is now considerably diminished in the North Pacific relative to the situation during the peak period of whaling for this species in the 19th century. For management purposes, new surveys are urgently required to establish the present distribution of this species; existing data suggest that the Bering Sea, the Gulf of Alaska, the Okhotsk Sea, the Kuril Islands and the coast of Kamchatka are the areas with the greatest likelihood of finding right whales today.

Switching the mode of sucrose utilization by Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Abstract Background Overflow metabolism is an undesirable characteristic of aerobic cultures of Saccharomyces cerevisiae during biomass-directed processes. It results from elevated sugar consumption rates that cause a high substrate conversion to ethanol and other bi-products, severely affecting cell physiology, bioprocess performance, and biomass yields. Fed-batch culture, where sucrose consumption rates are controlled by the external addition of sugar aiming at its low concentrations in the fermentor, is the classical bioprocessing alternative to prevent sugar fermentation by yeasts. However, fed-batch fermentations present drawbacks that could be overcome by simpler batch cultures at relatively high (e.g. 20 g/L) initial sugar concentrations. In this study, a S. cerevisiae strain lacking invertase activity was engineered to transport sucrose into the cells through a low-affinity and low-capacity sucrose-H+ symport activity, and the growth kinetics and biomass yields on sucrose analyzed using simple batch cultures. Results We have deleted from the genome of a S. cerevisiae strain lacking invertase the high-affinity sucrose-H+ symporter encoded by the AGT1 gene. This strain could still grow efficiently on sucrose due to a low-affinity and low-capacity sucrose-H+ symport activity mediated by the MALx1 maltose permeases, and its further intracellular hydrolysis by cytoplasmic maltases. Although sucrose consumption by this engineered yeast strain was slower than with the parental yeast strain, the cells grew efficiently on sucrose due to an increased respiration of the carbon source. Consequently, this engineered yeast strain produced less ethanol and 1.5 to 2 times more biomass when cultivated in simple batch mode using 20 g/L sucrose as the carbon source. Conclusion Higher cell densities during batch cultures on 20 g/L sucrose were achieved by using a S. cerevisiae strain engineered in the sucrose uptake system. Such result was accomplished by effectively reducing sucrose uptake by the yeast cells, avoiding overflow metabolism, with the concomitant reduction in ethanol production. The use of this modified yeast strain in simpler batch culture mode can be a viable option to more complicated traditional sucrose-limited fed-batch cultures for biomass-directed processes of S. cerevisiae.

Assessing malaria transmission in a low endemicity area of north-western Peru

Background Where malaria endemicity is low, control programmes need increasingly sensitive tools for monitoring malaria transmission intensity (MTI) and to better define health priorities. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in a low endemicity area of the Peruvian north-western coast to assess the MTI using both molecular and serological tools. Methods Epidemiological, parasitological and serological data were collected from 2,667 individuals in three settlements of Bellavista district, in May 2010. Parasite infection was detected using microscopy and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Antibodies to Plasmodium vivax merozoite surface protein-119 (PvMSP119) and to Plasmodium falciparum glutamate-rich protein (PfGLURP) were detected by ELISA. Risk factors for exposure to malaria (seropositivity) were assessed by multivariate survey logistic regression models. Age-specific antibody prevalence of both P. falciparum and P. vivax were analysed using a previously published catalytic conversion model based on maximum likelihood for generating seroconversion rates (SCR). Results The overall parasite prevalence by microscopy and PCR were extremely low: 0.3 and 0.9%, respectively for P. vivax, and 0 and 0.04%, respectively for P. falciparum, while seroprevalence was much higher, 13.6% for P. vivax and 9.8% for P. falciparum. Settlement, age and occupation as moto-taxi driver during previous year were significantly associated with P. falciparum exposure, while age and distance to the water drain were associated with P. vivax exposure. Likelihood ratio tests supported age seroprevalence curves with two SCR for both P. vivax and P. falciparum indicating significant changes in the MTI over time. The SCR for PfGLURP was 19-fold lower after 2002 as compared to before (λ1 = 0.022 versus λ2 = 0.431), and the SCR for PvMSP119 was four-fold higher after 2006 as compared to before (λ1 = 0.024 versus λ2 = 0.006). Conclusion Combining molecular and serological tools considerably enhanced the capacity of detecting current and past exposure to malaria infections and related risks factors in this very low endemicity area. This allowed for an improved characterization of the current human reservoir of infections, largely hidden and heterogeneous, as well as providing insights into recent changes in species specific MTIs. This approach will be of key importance for evaluating and monitoring future malaria elimination strategies.

Distribution of metals in several vineyards of North Italy: from soil to wine

Nowadays we live in densely populated regions and this leads to many environmental issues. Among all pollutants that human activities originate, metals are relevant because they can be potentially toxic for most of living beings. We studied the fate of Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn in a vineyard environment analysing samples of plant, wine and soil. Sites were chosen considering the type of wine produced, the type of cultivation (both organic and conventional agriculture) and the geographic location. We took vineyards that cultivate the same grape variety, the Trebbiano). We investigated 5 vineyards located in the Ravenna district (Italy): two on the Lamone Valley slopes, one in the area of river-bank deposits near Ravenna city, then a farm near Lugo and one near Bagnacavallo in interfluve regions. We carried out a very detailed characterization of soils in the sites, including the analysis of: pH, electric conductivity, texture, total carbonate and extimated content of dolomite, active carbonate, iron from ammonium oxalate, Iron Deficiency Chlorosis Index (IDCI), total nitrogen and organic carbon, available phosphorous, available potassium and Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC). Then we made the analysis of the bulk chemical composition and a DTPA extraction to determine the available fraction of elements in soils. All the sites have proper ground to cultivate, with already a good amount of nutrients, such as not needing strong fertilisations, but a vineyard on hills suffers from iron deficiency chlorosis due to the high level of active carbonate. We found some soils with much silica and little calcium oxide that confirm the marly sandstone substratum, while other soils have more calcium oxide and more aluminium oxide that confirm the argillaceous marlstone substratum. We found some critical situations, such as high concentrations of Chromium, especially in the farm near Lugo, and we noticed differences between organic vineyards and conventional ones: the conventional ones have a higher enrichment in soils of some metals (Copper and Zinc). Each metal accumulates differently in every single part of grapevines. We found differences between hill plants and lowland ones: behaviors of plants in metal accumulations seems to have patterns. Metals are more abundant in barks, then in leaves or sometimes in roots. Plants seem trying to remove excesses of metal storing them in bark. Two wines have excess of acetic acid and one conventional farm produces wine with content of Zinc over the Italian law limit. We already found evidence of high values relating them with uncontaminated environments, but more investigations are suggested to link those values to their anthropogenic supplies.