Global-scale interdecadal variability a skillful predictor at decadal-to-multidecadal timescales for Sahelian and Indian Monsoon Rainfall

In the present study, a sea surface temperature-based index named global-scale interdecadal variability (GIV) encompassing the combined variability of Atlantic multidecadal oscillation (AMO) and interdecadal Pacific oscillation (IPO) has been proposed. The warm phase of GIV exhibits a “cold AMO-like” pattern in the Atlantic basin and a “warm IPO-like” pattern in the Pacific basin. About 84% (R ~−0.914) of Sahelian and 42% (R ~−0.647) of Indian rainfall’s temporal variance is attributed to GIV, showing substantial improvement compared to the variance explained by AMO and IPO individually. The physical mechanism for GIV-rainfall teleconnection is related to a modification of the Walker circulation. Although there is a substantial degree of uncertainty in the current generation of state-of-the-art climate models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5), some still replicate the observed GIV’s spatial structure, its teleconnection, and associated physical mechanism. The results presented herein advance our knowledge about rainfall’s interdecadal variability and have imperative ramifications for developing skillful decadal predictions.

Temporal variance of the ice navigation conditions within the Northern Sea Route

Recognition of satellite images, composition of them and vectorization is used in AARI for ice charts production. There is discussed methodology and results of the ice charts processing by means of computer programs, which were elaborated by Dr. Tretyakov in Python. The paper demonstrates results of analysis of temporal variance of ice navigation circumstances within the buffer zone of the marine transport system from the Sabetta Port (the Yamal Peninsula, Russia) up to the Bering Strait. There are considered the variance for April and May from 1998 up to 2020. This intra-annual interval is the one with the heaviest ice circumstances for shipping. We used conditional length of various age and age and form gradations of the sea ice for the route as a whole, as an integral parameter for estimation of the navigation hardships of ice navigation. The conditional length of an ice age (thickness) diapason is result of multiplication of the diapason partial concentration at the length of the route leg with homogeneous ice characteristics. There were produced series of the conditional lengths for each ten-day periods during April and May. Then statistical homogeneity of the series was tested by various methods.

A Unified Genomic Mechanism of Cell-Fate Change

The purpose of our studies is to elucidate the nature of massive control of whole genome expression with a particular emphasis on cell-fate change. Whole genome expression is coordinated by the emergence of a critical point (CP: a peculiar set of bi-phasic genes) through the genome-engine. In response to stimuli, the genome expression self-organizes three critical states, each exhibiting distinct collective behaviors with its center of mass acting as a local attractor, coexisting with whole genome attractor (GA). Genome-engine mechanism accounts for local attractors interaction in phase space. The CP acts as the organizing center of cell-fate change, and its activation makes local perturbation spread over the genome affecting GA. The activation of CP is in turn elicited by hot-spots genes with elevated temporal variance, normally in charge to keep genome expression at pace with microenvironment fluctuations. When hot-spots oscillation exceeds a given threshold, the CP synchronizes with the GA driving genome expression state transition. The expression synchronization wave invading the entire genome depends on the power law fusion-bursting dynamics of silencing pericentromere-associated heterochromatin domains and the consequent folding-unfolding status of transcribing euchromatin domains. The proposed mechanism is a unified step toward a time-evolutional transition theory of biological regulation.

Resources and Environment Carrying Capacity, Social Development and Their Decoupling Relationship: A Case Study of Hubei Province, China

With the rapid urbanization in recent decades, resource shortage and environmental damage have hindered the process of urban sustainable development (SD). As a yardstick of sustainable development, the evaluation of resources and environment carrying capacity (RECC) and its decoupling relationship with social comprehensive development index (SCDI) are of great significance. In this paper, RECC and SCDI are taken as research objects to establish resource and environment system evaluation index system and social comprehensive development level evaluation index system, respectively. Then, the RECC and SCDI of 17 cities in Hubei province during 2009–2018 are calculated by the projection pursuit model based on genetic algorithm, and their spatial-temporal variance characteristics are analyzed. On this basis, the RECC-SCDI Tapio decoupling model is constructed to explore the decoupling relationship between RECC and SCDI. The result shows that: (1) The RECC of Hubei shows a V-shaped development trend during 2009–2018. The SCDI of Hubei rose steadily during 2009–2018. (2) RECC in western and eastern Hubei Province is higher than that in central Hubei Province. SCDI in eastern and central Hubei Province is higher than that in the west. (3) 11 of the 17 cities in Hubei Province have got rid of excessive dependence on resources environment for social development. The study could contribute to scientific and effective policies be formulated by government to promote urban sustainable development.

Pattern of variation in DNA methylation during pregnancy among mothers who delivered preterm in the GARBH-Ini cohort

BackgroundDNA methylation (DNAm) may play an important role in birth outcomes.Material and MethodsGenome wide DNAm was analysed in peripheral blood DNA of women at multiple time points during gestation. A novel empirical method was used to identify CpG sites with high temporal variance in methylation associating with preterm birth.ResultsHigh variability at 1296 CpG sites from the promoter regions of 1197 genes significantly associated with PTB. These genes belonged to pathways involved in signalling by platelet derived growth factor, platelet homeostasis, collagen degradation, extracellular matrix and circadian clock.ConclusionsThe findings provide novel information which might help in development of predictive biomarkers of preterm birth outcome.

Impacts of Holding Area Policies on Shared Autonomous Vehicle Operations

Shared mobility has an important role in supporting existing transportation options in cities. However, when not deployed carefully, shared services may have operational inefficiencies such as low occupancies and increased deadheading. One reason is the spatio-temporal variance in the distribution of urban trip demand, which may lead to an unbalanced fleet displaced in cities thus unable to serve requested trips. Strategically siting holding areas (depots for dispatching and relocating fleets) could help improve fleet performance. Therefore, this paper considers shared autonomous vehicle (SAV) fleet operations by modeling the impacts of different holding area policies on service performance. Modeling and comparing multiple holding area policies for tactically deploying SAVs is novel, and the insights from this paper can inform service providers on how to site holding areas for improved performance. We develop a model of SAV fleet with pooling in the City of Toronto, with 27,951 total SAV trip requests across a 16-h period. We then integrate four holding area policies estimated using different spatial clustering methods, centralized positioning, and existing taxi stands. Findings indicate that using agglomerative clustering results in superior SAV fleet performances (average passenger waiting times reduced by about 20% compared with the worst performing policy), with increased served demand and reduced deadheading. A single holding area at a high trip density location yields efficient service performance at lower fleets but struggles to serve sparse demand (producing worst results); this method may suffice for operating SAV services within a small geofence with high trip densities.

Spatial and temporal variance of soil and meteorological properties affecting sensor performance—Phase 2

An approach to increasing sensor performance and detection reliability for buried objects is to better understand which physical processes are dominant under certain environmental conditions. The present effort (Phase 2) builds on our previously published prior effort (Phase 1), which examined methods of determining the probability of detection and false alarm rates using thermal infrared for buried-object detection. The study utilized a 3.05 × 3.05 m test plot in Hanover, New Hampshire. Unlike Phase 1, the current effort involved removing the soil from the test plot area, homogenizing the material, then reapplying it into eight discrete layers along with buried sensors and objects representing targets of inter-est. Each layer was compacted to a uniform density consistent with the background undisturbed density. Homogenization greatly reduced the microscale soil temperature variability, simplifying data analysis. The Phase 2 study spanned May–November 2018. Simultaneous measurements of soil temperature and moisture (as well as air temperature and humidity, cloud cover, and incoming solar radiation) were obtained daily and recorded at 15-minute intervals and coupled with thermal infrared and electro-optical image collection at 5-minute intervals.

Improving robustness of 3D multi-shot EPI by structured low-rank reconstruction of segmented CAIPI sampling for fMRI at 7T

Three-dimensional (3D) encoding methods are increasingly being explored as alternatives to multi-slice two-dimensional (2D) acquisitions in fMRI, particularly in cases where high isotropic resolution is needed. 3D multi-shot EPI is the most popular 3D fMRI acquisition method, but is susceptible to physiological fluctuations which can induce inter-shot phase variations, and thus reducing the achievable tSNR, negating some of the benefit of 3D encoding. This issue can be particularly problematic at ultra-high fields like 7T, which have more severe off-resonance effects. In this work, we aim to improve the temporal stability of 3D multi-shot EPI at 7T by improving its robustness to inter-shot phase variations. We presented a 3D segmented CAIPI sampling trajectory ("seg-CAIPI") and an improved reconstruction method based on Hankel structured low-rank matrix recovery. Simulation and in-vivo results demonstrate that the combination of the seg-CAIPI sampling scheme and the proposed structured low-rank reconstruction is a promising way to effectively reduce the unwanted temporal variance induced by inter-shot physiological fluctuations, and thus improve the robustness of 3D multi-shot EPI for fMRI.