How well can inverse analyses of high-resolution satellite data resolve heterogeneous methane fluxes? Observing system simulation experiments with the GEOS-Chem adjoint model (v35)

We perform observing system simulation experiments (OSSEs) with the GEOS-Chem adjoint model to test how well methane emissions over North America can be resolved using measurements from the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) and similar high-resolution satellite sensors. We focus analysis on the impacts of (i) spatial errors in the prior emissions and (ii) model transport errors. Along with a standard scale factor (SF) optimization we conduct a set of inversions using alternative formalisms that aim to overcome limitations in the SF-based approach that arise for missing sources. We show that 4D-Var analysis of the TROPOMI data can improve monthly emission estimates at 25 km even with a spatially biased prior or model transport errors (42 %–93 % domain-wide bias reduction; R increases from 0.51 up to 0.73). However, when both errors are present, no single inversion framework can successfully improve both the overall bias and spatial distribution of fluxes relative to the prior on the 25 km model grid. In that case, the ensemble-mean optimized fluxes have a domain-wide bias of 77 Gg d−1 (comparable to that in the prior), with spurious source adjustments compensating for the transport errors. Increasing observational coverage through longer-timeframe inversions does not significantly change this picture. An inversion formalism that optimizes emission enhancements rather than scale factors exhibits the best performance for identifying missing sources, while an approach combining a uniform background emission with the prior inventory yields the best performance in terms of overall spatial fidelity – even in the presence of model transport errors. However, the standard SF optimization outperforms both of these for the magnitude of the domain-wide flux. For the common scenario in which prior errors are non-random, approximate posterior error reduction calculations (derived via gradient-based randomization) for the inversions reflect the sensitivity to observations but have no spatial correlation with the actual emission improvements. This demonstrates that such information content analysis can be used for general observing system characterization but does not describe the spatial accuracy of the posterior emissions or of the actual emission improvements. Findings here highlight the need for careful evaluation of potential missing sources in prior emission datasets and for robust accounting of model transport errors in inverse analyses of the methane budget.

Temporal variability in quantitative human gut microbiome profiles and implications for clinical research

While clinical gut microbiota research is ever-expanding, extending reference knowledge of healthy between- and within-subject gut microbiota variation and its drivers remains essential; in particular, temporal variability is under-explored, and a comparison with cross-sectional variation is missing. Here, we perform daily quantitative microbiome profiling on 713 fecal samples from 20 Belgian women over six weeks, combined with extensive anthropometric measurements, blood panels, dietary data, and stool characteristics. We show substantial temporal variation for most major gut genera; we find that for 78% of microbial genera, day-to-day absolute abundance variation is substantially larger within than between individuals, with up to 100-fold shifts over the study period. Diversity, and especially evenness indicators also fluctuate substantially. Relative abundance profiles show similar but less pronounced temporal variation. Stool moisture, and to a lesser extent diet, are the only significant host covariates of temporal microbiota variation, while menstrual cycle parameters did not show significant effects. We find that the dysbiotic Bact2 enterotype shows increased between- and within-subject compositional variability. Our results suggest that to increase diagnostic as well as target discovery power, studies could adopt a repeated measurement design and/or focus analysis on community-wide microbiome descriptors and indices.

How well can inverse analyses of high-resolution satellite data resolve heterogeneous methane fluxes? Observation System Simulation Experiments with the GEOS-Chem adjoint model (v35)

We perform Observation System Simulation Experiments (OSSEs) with the GEOS-Chem adjoint model to test how well methane emissions over North America can be resolved using measurements from the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) and similar high-resolution satellite sensors. We focus analysis on the impacts of i) spatial errors in the prior emissions, and ii) model transport errors. Along with a standard scale-factor (SF) optimization we conduct a set of inversions using alternative formalisms that aim to overcome limitations in the SF-based approach that arise for missing sources. We show that 4D-Var analysis of the TROPOMI data can improve monthly emission estimates at 25 km even with a spatially biased prior or model transport errors (42–93 % domain-wide bias reduction; R increases from 0.51 up to 0.73). However, when both errors are present, no single inversion framework can successfully improve both the overall bias and spatial distribution of fluxes relative to the prior on the 25 km model grid. In that case, the ensemble-mean optimized fluxes have a domain-wide bias of 77 Gg/d (comparable to that in the prior), with spurious source adjustments compensating for the transport errors. Increasing observational coverage through longer-timeframe inversions does not significantly change this picture. An inversion formalism that optimizes emission enhancements rather than scale factors exhibits the best performance for identifying missing sources, while an approach combining a uniform background emission with the prior inventory yields the best performance in terms of overall spatial fidelity—even in the presence of model transport errors. However, the standard SF optimization outperforms both of these for the magnitude of the domain-wide flux. For the common scenario in which prior errors are non-random, approximate posterior error reduction calculations for the inversions reflect the sensitivity to observations but have no spatial correlation with the actual emission improvements. This demonstrates that such information content analysis can be used for general observing system characterization but does not describe the spatial accuracy of the posterior emissions or of the actual emission improvements. Findings here highlight the need for careful evaluation of potential missing sources in prior emission datasets and for robust accounting of model transport errors in inverse analyses of the methane budget.

Perspective and Suitable Research Area in Public Research—Patent Analysis of the Czech Public Universities

In the current day and age, innovation is the fodder that keeps companies and institutions running, and universities play an important role. During the crisis and in the post-crisis period, financial support for research and development have undergone significant changes especially at universities. The aim of this research is to conduct a patent focus analysis of the public and state universities in the Czech Republic and to analyze the development in patenting focus structure and to identify perspective and suitable research area. Hierarchical clustering was chosen for its clustering overview clarity and due to the relatively small sample size. Ward’s method was chosen as the clustering algorithm with squared Euclidean distance as the system of measurement. Each cluster was characterized by five dominant IPC subsections to describe the patent focus. The patent focus segmentation of 115 public and state universities identified five main groups: medical/pharmacological, material, organic, construction and mixed measuring and material processing. Universities today are centers of knowledge. In addition, they support the innovation that spurs economic activity in a society. Universities have the potential to spur industrial activity with innovation and then pass information on to private firms.

Genome-centric analyses of seasonal phyllosphere microbiome activities in perennial crops

Plants and microbes form beneficial associations. It is expected that understanding these interactions will allow for microbiome management to enhance crop productivity and resilience to stress. Here, we apply a genome-centric approach to identify key leaf microbiome members and quantify their activities on field-grown switchgrass and miscanthus. We integrate metagenome and metatranscriptome sequencing from 237 leaf samples collected over key time points in crop phenology. We curate metagenome-assembled-genomes (MAGs), and conservatively focus analysis on the highest quality MAGs that were <15.5% contaminated, >70% complete, and detected in a minimum of 10% of samples for each crop. Populations represented by these MAGs were actively transcribing genes, and exhibited seasonal dynamics in key functions, including pyruvate metabolism, threonine, homoserine and serine biosynthesis, and stress response. Notably, we detected enrichment in transcripts annotated to nonmavalonate isoprene biosynthesis in the late season, prior to and during host senescence, concurrent with when plants are expected to decrease their isoprene biosynthesis. We also detected groups of MAGs that had coherent transcript dynamics in thioredoxin reductase, which suggests a response to reactive oxygen species, potentially released by plant hosts experiencing abiotic stress. Overall, this study overcame laboratory and bioinformatic challenges associated with field-based leaf metatranscriptomes analysis to direct to some of the key activities of phyllosphere bacteria. These activities collectively support that leaf-associated bacterial populations can be seasonally dynamic, responsive to host cues, and, likely, interactively engage in feedbacks with the plant.

A systematic review of the association between individual behavioural and psychological symptoms in dementia and carer burden

Purpose The purpose of this paper was to systematically review the association between behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) and the development of carer burden. Although this association has been well established in the literature, it is not clear whether there are individual symptoms or clusters of symptoms that are particularly burdensome for carers. Design/methodology/approach A systematic review of the available literature was carried out to determine whether any specific symptom or cluster of symptoms was most closely associated with carer burden. In addition, the categorisation of behavioural symptoms, conceptualisations of burden and methods of measurement used were examined and quality of the studies appraised. Findings A total of 21 studies measured the association between at least one individual symptom or symptom cluster and carer burden, with all studies finding at least one symptom to be significantly associated with burden. The majority of studies were of fair to good quality. However, there was considerable heterogeneity in focus, analysis, recruitment and measurement of behaviour and burden. Originality/value Symptoms, which were found to be significantly associated with carer burden, were aggression/agitation, frontal systems behaviour, disinhibition, disrupted eating and sleeping behaviour, unusual motor behaviour, anxiety and psychotic symptoms. However, because of the heterogeneity of studies, there was insufficient evidence to establish whether any symptoms are more important than others in the development of carer burden. Future focus on clarifying the dimensions of carer burden and the mechanisms by which BPSD impact negatively on carers could inform the development of effective interventions.

Dialectological evidence for a predicate focus analysis of Gascon que

This contribution provides evidence for a predicate focus analysis of Gascon que, based on unpublished dialectological material gathered in the 1970s in the Occitan area. Even though Pusch (2000: 201) observes that ‘any dia- or panchronic account of Gascon enunciatives inevitably remains conjectural, since we lack sufficient textual data from earlier stages of this Occitan variety’, the data of the locality of Les Esseintes discussed in this paper clearly show that the particle que is used in the context of a fossilized cleft sentence.

Leadership characteristics that influence corporate efficiency

Economic focus analysis alone cannot answer an organisation’s efficiency issues, as the soft attributes associated with management skills and leadership qualities are also important. According to transformational leadership theory (Bass–Avolio 1994, Bass 1990, Judge–Bono 2000, Bass–Bass 2008), there is a transformation between the manager and the subordinate, in which the two parties interact with and affect each other. A joint two-phase study was conducted to investigate the role of management in increasing corporate efficiency. As a first step, financial data of 1752 Hungarian manufacturing firms were analyzed. Companies were grouped according to their TFP (total factor productivity) (Juhász et al. 2020). As a second step, we linked a questionnaire survey to the preliminary TFP categorization. In our questionnaire research, we examined the individual characteristics, qualities, and specialties of leadership practices concerning the economic performance of the organizations. According to our findings, both the individual qualities of the leader and the characteristics of the leadership practice are decisive for the efficiency and results of the organization.

THE USE OF ILLOCUTIONARY ACT IN “WONDER” MOVIE BY RJ. PALACIO

Language is a core of communication and in pragmatics, it is analyzing the information about the development of language and knowledge of language in general and it is related with human language and its context. Pragmatics is concerned with the study of meaning that communicated with the speaker and interpreted by a listener. Context also holds the important rules and cannot be separated in learning pragmatics itself. Therefore, to learn and understand the meaning and it’s context of spoken between speaker and hearer in an utterance, then learning the speech act and it’s parts is one of the important things. This research discusses the use of illocutionary acts in “Wonder” movie. The focus analysis on this research is not only on the main character but on the whole conversation from each character at the movie by classified it into five types by using John Searle’s (1975) theory. The data of illocutionary that appears on Wonder movie is analyzed by using the context situations to find out the flow of each utterance from the speaker and listener. Researcher used the Pragmatic Approach and speech act theory to find out the types of illocutionary act contained in Wonder movie. And, from the result of this analysis, it was found that there are 5 types of illocutionary acts that classified by Searle (1975) in Wonder movie, that known as Representatives or Assertive, Directives, Comissives, Expressive and Declaration. Keywords: Movie / Film, Illocutionary, Pragmatic Approach.