Greenhouse Gas Forcing a Necessary Causation for Marine Heatwaves Over the Northeast Pacific Warming Pool

Over the last decade, the northeast Pacific (NP) experienced strong marine heatwaves (MHWs) that produced devastating marine ecological impacts and received major societal concerns. Here, we assess the link between the well-mixed greenhouse gas (GHG) forcing and the occurrence probabilities of the duration and intensity of the NP MHWs. To begin with, we apply attribution technique on the SST time series, and detect a region of systematically and externally-forced SST increase -- the long-term warming pool -- co-located with the past notably Blob-like SST anomalies. The anthropogenic signal has recently emerged from the natural variability of SST over the warming pool, which we attribute primarily to increased GHG concentrations, with anthropogenic aerosols playing a secondary role. With extreme event attribution technique, we further show that GHG forcing is a necessary, but not a sufficient, causation for the multi-year persistent MHW events in the current climate, such as that happened in 2019/2020 over the warming pool. However, the occurrence of the 2019/2020 MHW was extremely unlikely in the absence of GHG forcing. Thus, as GHG emissions continue to firmly rise, it is very likely that GHG forcings will become a sufficient cause for events of the magnitude of the 2019/2020 record event.

Diversity and divergence in bilingual acquisition

Bilingual settings are perceived as exemplary cases of linguistic diversity, and they are assumed to trigger cross-linguistic interaction. The rationale underlying this assumption is the belief that when more than one language is processed in a brain, this will inevitably affect the way in which linguistic knowledge is acquired, stored and used. However, this idea stands in conflict with results obtained by research on children acquiring two (or more) languages simultaneously. They have been demonstrated to be able to differentiate languages from early on and to develop competences qualitatively identical to those of monolinguals. These studies thus provide little evidence supporting the idea that bilingualism must lead to divergent grammatical development. The question then is what triggers alterations of bilinguals’ grammars, especially of the syntactic core, possibly resulting in non-native competences. This has been claimed to occur in the acquisition of second languages, weaker languages of simultaneous bilinguals, or heritage languages. These acquisition types differ from first language development in that onset of acquisition of one language is delayed or that the amount of exposure to one language is reduced. I will argue that age at onset and severely reduced amount of exposure are potential causal factors triggering divergent developments, whereas bilingualism on its own is not a sufficient cause of divergence.

MAXIMAL INTERACTION OF BINARY FACTORS

In the formal model of the binary sufficient cause theory based on the theory of finite Boolean algebras a dependence of integer invariant from a number of joined acting factors is studied. A constructive description of such a minimal k for which attains a maximal value is given.

EQUIVALENCE OF TWO DEFINITIONS OF JOINT ACTION OF k BINARY FACTORS NOTION

In the formal model of the binary sufficient cause theory two definitions of a notion “joint action of k factors in a given outcome” are known. One of them appeals to a logical structure of the outcome, and another uses some formal notions of Boolean algebras theory. We discuss peculiarities of either definition and formulate their equivalence statement.

Risk factors for bovine respiratory disease in beef cattle

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is the leading cause of death in beef calves 3 weeks of age to weaning and is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in beef feeding and finishing systems. Each outbreak of respiratory disease is the result of the completion of a sufficient cause, which might have also included components of viral and bacterial pathogens, a certain state of immunity, or other component causes of respiratory disease in cattle that we fail to understand. Disease is expressed when a sufficient cause is completed. Disease events we observe, such as the occurrence of BRD, usually have relationships with risk factors that are commonly the subject of epidemiologic research and the primary subject of this paper. However, it is important to understand that underlying systems produce those relationships and, ultimately, the occurrence of disease. The risk factors for BRD include a complex set of component causes that include bacterial and viral pathogens, level of host immunity, and environmental conditions that favor pathogen transmission and stress-induced susceptibility. During the post-weaning phase, these factors are superimposed on a system of marketing, transportation, and decisions made to support economic opportunity that further increase the risk for BRD.

Cardio-Pulmonary Physiology during Yoga Inversion Practice

Introduction: Mass media advertisements have claimed health benefits of body inversion for relaxation and cardiovascular conditioning. We conducted a preliminary study to evaluate real time physiological changes and responses to mediation, Hatha yoga, and specifically inversion and standing postures to determine the O2 consumption recorded by a wearable metabolic device and cardiovascular measures. Methods: Healthy study volunteers executed a sequence of yoga postures that included inversions of whole body while wearing a Cosmed K5 portable metabolic backpack. We obtained brachial blood pressure during the last 30 seconds of each posture. Each trial began seated, followed by a warm-up consisting of gentle flow yoga and ending with relaxation. Results: Twelve experienced yoga practitioners (mean age 44 years, 58% female) participated in 17 trials. Over all trials, mean VO2 for Sirsasana as compared with the supported inversion posture decreased from 8.4 to 4.9 (ml/kg/min). Conclusions: Conflicting findings exist in the literature concerning inversion physiology. Cardiac output response to inversion is not consistent in scientific reports. Participants responded differently under a variety of circumstances in previous studies, making comparisons to this and existing research challenging. We find sufficient cause for further research and suggest that some forms of inversion may be beneficial to heart failure patients. Keywords: yoga, inversion, cardiopulmonary, heart failure, physiology