Climatology of summer midtropospheric perturbations in the US northern plains. Part II: large-scale effects of the Rocky Mountains on genesis

In this study, we explore the long-term trends of floodplain population dynamics at different spatial scales in the contiguous United States (U.S.). We exploit different types of datasets from 1790–2010—i.e., decadal spatial distribution for the population density in the US, global floodplains dataset, large-scale data of flood occurrence and damage, and structural and nonstructural flood protection measures for the US. At the national level, we found that the population initially settled down within the floodplains and then spread across its territory over time. At the state level, we observed that flood damages and national protection measures might have contributed to a learning effect, which in turn, shaped the floodplain population dynamics over time. Finally, at the county level, other socio-economic factors such as local flood insurances, economic activities, and socio-political context may predominantly influence the dynamics. Our study shows that different influencing factors affect floodplain population dynamics at different spatial scales. These facts are crucial for a reliable development and implementation of flood risk management planning.

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A non-targeted LC–MS metabolic profiling of pregnancy: longitudinal evidence from healthy and pre-eclamptic pregnancies

Metabolomics ◽

10.1007/s11306-020-01752-5 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 17 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Tiina Jääskeläinen ◽

◽

Olli Kärkkäinen ◽

Jenna Jokkala ◽

Anton Klåvus ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Scale Effects ◽

Late Pregnancy ◽

Metabolite Profile ◽

Adverse Outcomes ◽

Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry ◽

Targeted Metabolomics ◽

Serum Samples ◽

Healthy Women ◽

Maternal Metabolism

Abstract Introduction Maternal metabolism changes substantially during pregnancy. However, few studies have used metabolomics technologies to characterize changes across gestation. Objectives and methods We applied liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS) based non-targeted metabolomics to determine whether the metabolic profile of serum differs throughout the pregnancy between pre-eclamptic and healthy women in the FINNPEC (Finnish Genetics of Preeclampsia Consortium) Study. Serum samples were available from early and late pregnancy. Results Progression of pregnancy had large-scale effects to the serum metabolite profile. Altogether 50 identified metabolites increased and 49 metabolites decreased when samples of early pregnancy were compared to samples of late pregnancy. The metabolic signatures of pregnancy were largely shared in pre-eclamptic and healthy women, only urea, monoacylglyceride 18:1 and glycerophosphocholine were identified to be increased in the pre-eclamptic women when compared to healthy controls. Conclusions Our study highlights the need of large-scale longitudinal metabolomic studies in non-complicated pregnancies before more detailed understanding of metabolism in adverse outcomes could be provided. Our findings are one of the first steps for a broader metabolic understanding of the physiological changes caused by pregnancy per se.

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Glucose-Limited Fed-Batch Cultivation Strategy to Mimic Large-Scale Effects in Escherichia coli Linked to Accumulation of Non-Canonical Branched-Chain Amino Acids by Combination of Pyruvate Pulses and Dissolved Oxygen Limitation

Microorganisms ◽

10.3390/microorganisms9061110 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (6) ◽

pp. 1110

Author(s):

Ángel Córcoles García ◽

Peter Hauptmann ◽

Peter Neubauer

Keyword(s):

Amino Acids ◽

Dissolved Oxygen ◽

Large Scale ◽

Scale Effects ◽

Branched Chain Amino Acids ◽

Oxygen Limitation ◽

Fed Batch ◽

Fermentation Products ◽

Cultivation Strategy ◽

Branched Chain

Insufficient mixing in large-scale bioreactors provokes gradient zones of substrate, dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, and other parameters. E. coli responds to a high glucose, low oxygen feeding zone with the accumulation of mixed acid fermentation products, especially formate, but also with the synthesis of non-canonical amino acids, such as norvaline, norleucine and β-methylnorleucine. These amino acids can be mis-incorporated into recombinant products, which causes a problem for pharmaceutical production whose solution is not trivial. While these effects can also be observed in scale down bioreactor systems, these are challenging to operate. Especially the high-throughput screening of clone libraries is not easy, as fed-batch cultivations would need to be controlled via repeated glucose pulses with simultaneous oxygen limitation, as has been demonstrated in well controlled robotic systems. Here we show that not only glucose pulses in combination with oxygen limitation can provoke the synthesis of these non-canonical branched-chain amino acids (ncBCAA), but also that pyruvate pulses produce the same effect. Therefore, we combined the enzyme-based glucose delivery method Enbase® in a PALL24 mini-bioreactor system and combined repeated pyruvate pulses with simultaneous reduction of the aeration rate. These cultivation conditions produced an increase in the non-canonical branched chain amino acids norvaline and norleucine in both the intracellular soluble protein and inclusion body fractions with mini-proinsulin as an example product, and this effect was verified in a 15 L stirred tank bioreactor (STR). To our opinion this cultivation strategy is easy to apply for the screening of strain libraries under standard laboratory conditions if no complex robotic and well controlled parallel cultivation devices are available.

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Cities Exacerbate Climate Warming

Urban Science ◽

10.3390/urbansci5010027 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 27

Author(s):

Lahouari Bounoua ◽

Kurtis Thome ◽

Joseph Nigro

Keyword(s):

Surface Temperature ◽

Land Surface ◽

Large Scale ◽

Climate Models ◽

Warming Trend ◽

Climate Mitigation ◽

Temperature Changes ◽

Surface Warming ◽

The Us

Urbanization is a complex land transformation not explicitly resolved within large-scale climate models. Long-term timeseries of high-resolution satellite data are essential to characterize urbanization within land surface models and to assess its contribution to surface temperature changes. The potential for additional surface warming from urbanization-induced land use change is investigated and decoupled from that due to change in climate over the continental US using a decadal timescale. We show that, aggregated over the US, the summer mean urban-induced surface temperature increased by 0.15 °C, with a warming of 0.24 °C in cities built in vegetated areas and a cooling of 0.25 °C in cities built in non-vegetated arid areas. This temperature change is comparable in magnitude to the 0.13 °C/decade global warming trend observed over the last 50 years caused by increased CO2. We also show that the effect of urban-induced change on surface temperature is felt above and beyond that of the CO2 effect. Our results suggest that climate mitigation policies must consider urbanization feedback to put a limit on the worldwide mean temperature increase.

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Solar Thermochemical Hydrogen Production in the USA

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13147804 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (14) ◽

pp. 7804

Author(s):

Christoph Falter ◽

Andreas Sizmann

Keyword(s):

Hydrogen Production ◽

Large Scale ◽

Low Cost ◽

The United States ◽

Solar Irradiation ◽

Transport Sector ◽

Fossil Energy ◽

The Us ◽

The Usa ◽

Solar Thermochemical

Hydrogen produced from renewable energy has the potential to decarbonize parts of the transport sector and many other industries. For a sustainable replacement of fossil energy carriers, both the environmental and economic performance of its production are important. Here, the solar thermochemical hydrogen pathway is characterized with a techno-economic and life-cycle analysis. Assuming a further increase of conversion efficiency and a reduction of investment costs, it is found that hydrogen can be produced in the United States of America at costs of 2.1–3.2 EUR/kg (2.4–3.6 USD/kg) at specific greenhouse gas emissions of 1.4 kg CO2-eq/kg. A geographical potential analysis shows that a maximum of 8.4 × 1011 kg per year can be produced, which corresponds to about twelve times the current global and about 80 times the current US hydrogen production. The best locations are found in the Southwest of the US, which have a high solar irradiation and short distances to the sea, which is beneficial for access to desalinated water. Unlike for petrochemical products, the transport of hydrogen could potentially present an obstacle in terms of cost and emissions under unfavorable circumstances. Given a large-scale deployment, low-cost transport seems, however, feasible.

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Understanding racial differences of COPD patients with an ecological model: two large cohort studies in the US and Korea

Therapeutic Advances in Chronic Disease ◽

10.1177/2040622320982455 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

pp. 204062232098245

Author(s):

Hye Yun Park ◽

Hyun Lee ◽

Danbee Kang ◽

Hye Sook Choi ◽

Yeong Ha Ryu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Racial Differences ◽

Large Scale ◽

Ecological Model ◽

Prevalence Ratio ◽

Poor Quality ◽

Smoking History ◽

Chronic Obstructive ◽

Obstructive Pulmonary Disease ◽

Copd Patients ◽

The Us

Background: There are limited data about the racial difference in the characteristics of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients who are treated at clinics. We aimed to compare sociodemographic and clinical characteristics between US and Korean COPD patients using large-scale nationwide COPD cohorts. Methods: We used the baseline demographic and clinical data of COPD patients aged 45 years or older with at least a 10 pack-per year smoking history from the Korean COPD Subtype Study (KOCOSS, n = 1686) cohort (2012–2018) and phase I (2008–2011) of the US Genetic Epidemiology of COPD (COPDGene) study ( n = 4477, 3461 were non-Hispanic whites [NHW], and 1016 were African Americans [AA]). Results: Compared to NHW, AA had a significantly lower adjusted prevalence ratio (aPR) of cough >3 months (aPR: 0.67; 95% CI [confidence interval]: 0.60–0.75) and phlegm >3 months (aPR: 0.78, 95% CI: 0.70–0.86), but higher aPR of dyspnea (modified Medical Round Council scale ⩾2) (aPR: 1.22; 95% CI: 1.15–1.29), short six-minute walk distance (<350 m) (aPR: 1.98; 95% CI: 1.81–2.14), and poor quality of life (aPR: 1.10; 95% CI: 1.05–1.15). Compared to NHW, Koreans had a significantly lower aPR of cough >3 months (aPR: 0.53; 95% CI: 0.47–0.59), phlegm >3 months (aPR: 0.75; 95% CI: 0.67–0.82), dyspnea (aPR: 0.72; 95% CI: 0.66–0.79), and moderate-to-severe acute exacerbation in the previous year (aPR: 0.73; 95% CI: 0.65–0.82). NHW had the highest burden related to chronic bronchitis symptoms and cardiovascular diseases related to comorbidities. Conclusion: There are substantial differences in sociodemographic characteristics, clinical presentation, and comorbidities between COPD patients from the KOCOSS and COPDGene, which might be caused by interactions between various intrapersonal, interpersonal, and environmental factors of the ecological model. Thus, a broader and more comprehensive approach would be necessary to understand the racial differences of COPD patients.

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Wildfires in the southern Canadian Rocky Mountains and their relationship to mid-tropospheric anomalies

Canadian Journal of Forest Research ◽

10.1139/x93-153 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 23 (6) ◽

pp. 1213-1222 ◽

Cited By ~ 128

Author(s):

E.A. Johnson ◽

D.R. Wowchuk

Keyword(s):

North America ◽

Rocky Mountains ◽

Large Scale ◽

Fire Frequency ◽

Fuel Moisture ◽

Large Fire ◽

Canadian Rocky Mountains ◽

Area Burned ◽

Upper Level ◽

Moisture Conditions

In this paper we present evidence for a large-scale (synoptic-scale) meteorological mechanism controlling the fire frequency in the southern Canadian Rocky Mountains. This large-scale control may explain the similarity in average fire frequencies and timing of change in average fire frequencies for the southern Canadian Rocky Mountains. Over the last 86 years the size distribution of fires (annual area burned) in the southern Canadian Rockies was distinctly bimodal, with a separation between small- and large-fire years at approximately 10–25 ha annual area burned. During the last 35 years, large-fire years had significantly lower fuel moisture conditions and many mid-tropospheric surface-blocking events (high-pressure upper level ridges) during July and August (the period of greatest fire activity). Small-fire years in this period exhibited significantly higher fuel moisture conditions and fewer persistent mid-tropospheric surface-blocking events during July and August. Mid-tropospheric surface-blocking events during large-fire years were teleconnected (spatially and temporally correlated in 50 kPa heights) to upper level troughs in the North Pacific and eastern North America. This relationship takes the form of the positive mode of the Pacific North America pattern.

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Grabbing Life by the Ballot: Creating an Effective Ballot through Design

Inquiry@Queen's Undergraduate Research Conference Proceedings ◽

10.24908/iqurcp.14022 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Katharine McCoy

Keyword(s):

Product Design ◽

Design Process ◽

Large Scale ◽

Scale Effects ◽

The World ◽

Ballot Design ◽

The Government ◽

Democratic Elections ◽

Effective Design ◽

Undergraduate Thesis

This presentation, reflecting a politics undergraduate thesis, will explore the design process behind the ballots that voters use in democratic elections around the world. Ballots are an inherently political objects, and in many cases, the most direct line of communication a citizen has to the government of their country. As such, the design of the ballot affects the legitimacy of higher level electoral and democratic institutions. This project argues that by co-opting the language of product design, a universal ballot design process would make more efficient ballots across the globe. Product design starts with a brainstorming stage that explores at the user, the goal of the object, and the context of its use to create an effective design. By applying these observations to the process of designing a ballot, each electoral commission can produce a more effective ballot. Currently there is no standardization for ballot design other than ensuring that electoral commissions tried to make it “friendly.” By examining cases of bad ballot design, it is possible to see what element of the design process was missed or misused to create a process that corrects for these mistakes. This project examines poorly designed ballots in Florida, Scotland, and Colombia to explore the large-scale effects these small design choices make, and how to fix them.

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What's new in the "new" US course towards the DPRK?

Азия и Африка сегодня ◽

10.31857/s032150750015952-9 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 16

Author(s):

Alexander Zhebin

Keyword(s):

North Korea ◽

Large Scale ◽

The United States ◽

Negotiation Process ◽

Republic Of Korea ◽

Us Economy ◽

The Us ◽

Nuclear Problem ◽

The Republic ◽

Taiwan Straits

The article analyzes the prospects for US-North Korean and inter-Korean relations, taking into account the completed policy review of the new US administration towards the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), as well as the results of the President of the Republic of Korea Moon Jae-in’s trip to Washington in May 2021 and his talks with US President Joe Biden. It is concluded that the “new" course proposed by the United States in relation to the DPRK will not lead to a solution to the nuclear problem of the Korean Peninsula and will interfere with the normalization of inter-Korean relations. During his visit to the US President Moon failed to obtain the US consent on ROK more “independent policy” toward North Korea. In spite of lavish investments into US economy and other concessions, Seoul was forced to promise to coordinate his approaches to the DPRK with US and Japan and support US position on Taiwan straits and South China Sea. The author argues that in the current conditions, the introduction of a regime of arms limitation and arms control in Korea should be a necessary stage on the way to complete denuclearization of the peninsula. The transition to a such method of the settlement of the nuclear problem could lead to the resumption of the negotiation process, mutual concessions, including reductions in the level of military-political confrontation, partial or large-scale lifting of economic sanctions in exchange for North Korea's restrictions of its nuclear weapon and missile systems.

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Investment in the agricultural sector as a way to solve food security problems in developing countries: the example of investment activity of the US agribusiness

Social'naja politika i social'noe partnerstvo (Social Policy and Social Partnership) ◽

10.33920/pol-01-2106-04 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Elena Stepanovna Ustinovich ◽

Tatyana Petrovna Boldyreva

Keyword(s):

Developing Countries ◽

Large Scale ◽

Agricultural Sector ◽

International Investment ◽

Investment Activity ◽

Agricultural Investment ◽

Wide Range ◽

The Us ◽

The World ◽

Potential Benefits

It is clear to everyone that investment in the agricultural sector in developing countries is one of the most effective ways to reduce poverty and hunger in the world. Agricultural investment can generate a wide range of development opportunities. However, these benefi ts cannot be expected to arise automatically. Some forms of large-scale investment pose significant risks to investor states. It should be noted, however, that, despite discussions about the potential benefits and risks of international investment, there is still no evidence of negative actual consequences for the countries receiving investments. This article examines the issues of investment activity in relation to developing countries using the example of US agribusiness entities.

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