State of the California current 2013-14: El niño looming

In 2013, the California current was dominated by strong coastal upwelling and high productivity. Indices of total cumulative upwelling for particular coastal locations reached some of the highest values on record. Chlorophyll a levels were high throughout spring and summer. Catches of upwelling-related fish species were also high. After a moderate drop in upwelling during fall 2013, the California current system underwent a major change in phase. Three major basin-scale indicators, the PDO, the NPGO, and the ENSO-MEI, all changed phase at some point during the winter of 2013/14. The PDO changed to positive values, indicative of warmer waters in the North Pacific; the NPGO to negative values, indicative of lower productivity along the coast; and the MEI to positive values, indicative of an oncoming El Niño. Whereas the majority of the California Current system appears to have transitioned to an El Niño state by August 2014, based on decreases in upwelling and chlorophyll a concentration, and increases in SST, there still remained pockets of moderate upwelling, cold water, and high chlorophyll a biomass at various central coast locations, unlike patterns seen during the more major El Niños (e.g., the 97-98 event). Catches of rockfish, market squid, euphausiids, and juvenile sanddab remained high along the central coast, whereas catches of sardine and anchovy were low throughout the CCS. 2014 appears to be heading towards a moderate El Niño state, with some remaining patchy regions of upwellingdriven productivity along the coast. Superimposed on this pattern, three major regions have experienced possibly non-El Niño-related warming since winter: the Bering Sea, the Gulf of Alaska, and offshore of southern California. It is unclear how this warming may interact with the predicted El Niño, but the result will likely be reduced growth or reproduction for many key fisheries species

Spatio-temporal Models of Lymphangiogenesis in Wound Healing

Several studies suggest that one possible cause of impaired wound healing is failed or insufficient lymphangiogenesis, that is the formation of new lymphatic capillaries. Although many mathematical models have been developed to describe the formation of blood capillaries (angiogenesis), very few have been proposed for the regeneration of the lymphatic network. Lymphangiogenesis is a markedly different process from angiogenesis, occurring at different times and in response to different chemical stimuli. Two main hypotheses have been proposed: 1) lymphatic capillaries sprout from existing interrupted ones at the edge of the wound in analogy to the blood angiogenesis case; 2) lymphatic endothelial cells first pool in the wound region following the lymph flow and then, once sufficiently populated, start to form a network. Here we present two PDE models describing lymphangiogenesis according to these two different hypotheses. Further, we include the effect of advection due to interstitial flow and lymph flow coming from open capillaries. The variables represent different cell densities and growth factor concentrations, and where possible the parameters are estimated from biological data. The models are then solved numerically and the results are compared with the available biological literature.Comment: 29 pages, 9 Figures, 6 Tables (39 figure files in total

An FPGA-based track finder for the L1 trigger of the CMS experiment at the high luminosity LHC

A new tracking system is under development for operation in the CMS experiment at the High Luminosity LHC. It includes an outer tracker which will construct stubs, built by correlating clusters in two closely spaced sensor layers for the rejection of hits from low transverse momentum tracks, and transmit them off-detector at 40 MHz. If tracker data is to contribute to keeping the Level-1 trigger rate at around 750 kHz under increased luminosity, a crucial component of the upgrade will be the ability to identify tracks with transverse momentum above 3 GeV/c by building tracks out of stubs. A concept for an FPGA-based track finder using a fully time-multiplexed architecture is presented, where track candidates are identified using a projective binning algorithm based on the Hough Transform. A hardware system based on the MP7 MicroTCA processing card has been assembled, demonstrating a realistic slice of the track finder in order to help gauge the performance and requirements for a full system. This paper outlines the system architecture and algorithms employed, highlighting some of the first results from the hardware demonstrator and discusses the prospects and performance of the completed track finder

Understanding plant invasions: An example of working with citizen scientists to collect environmental data

Citizen science programs are useful tools for collecting important environmental science data. To ensure data quality, however, it must be shown that data collected by volunteers can produce reliable results. We engaged 143 volunteers over four years to map and estimate abundance of invasive plants in New York and New Jersey parklands. We found that off trail abundance of only a few of our targeted invasive species were positively correlated with on trail abundance. Our results support that citizen science programs can be a useful and sometimes a much needed addition to environmental science protocols

Neolithic and early Bronze Age of Cis-Baikal: chronology and dietary trends

Analyses of radiocarbon dates (all corrected for the freshwater reservoir effect) and associated stable isotope values obtained from the skeletal remains of ~560 individuals provide many new insights about Middle Holocene hunter-gatherers (HG) of the Cis-Baikal region, Eastern Siberia. The new radiocarbon evidence clarifies the culture history of the region by defining better the boundaries between the chronological (archaeological periods) and cultural (mortuary traditions) units, as well as our understanding of the transitions between them. Furthermore, differences between the four archaeological micro-regions with regard to the timing and duration of these culture historical units have come into focus for the first time. In terms of dietary patterns, the Early Neolithic foragers of the Angara and Southwest Baikal trended towards a greater reliance on aquatic foods. A similar trend was found in the Late Neolithic Isakovo group on the Angara, while the Late Neolithic Serovo group in the Little Sea trended towards an increased dietary reliance on terrestrial game. In the Early Bronze Age HG, a mosaic of dietary patterns was found: some groups experienced dietary shifts (frequently emphasizing different foods), while other groups displayed stability. Such differences were found even between close neighbours. All these results suggest significant variation in patterns of culture change within and between archaeological periods, mortuary traditions, and micro-regions. Some cultural patterns developed at a quick pace, others much more slowly; some appear to have collapsed rapidly, while others probably went through a more gradual transition to a different pattern. Additionally, this large set of radiocarbon dates allows novel insights into patterns of cemetery use: some seem to have been used continuously, others only sporadically, and some show long periods of disuse. Moreover, some cemeteries of the same mortuary tradition were apparently in use substantially earlier than others were even established. In sum, Cis-Baikal Middle Holocene HG strategies underwent a range of changes not only at the boundaries between relevant culture historical units but also within such units. New insights suggest considerable spatio-temporal variation in the nature, pace, and timing of these developments

TRY plant trait database - enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits-the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants-determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait-based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits-almost complete coverage for 'plant growth form'. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait-environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

Measurement of the inclusive and dijet cross-sections of b-jets in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The inclusive and dijet production cross-sections have been measured for jets containing b-hadrons (b-jets) in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements use data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34 pb^-1. The b-jets are identified using either a lifetime-based method, where secondary decay vertices of b-hadrons in jets are reconstructed using information from the tracking detectors, or a muon-based method where the presence of a muon is used to identify semileptonic decays of b-hadrons inside jets. The inclusive b-jet cross-section is measured as a function of transverse momentum in the range 20 < pT < 400 GeV and rapidity in the range |y| < 2.1. The bbbar-dijet cross-section is measured as a function of the dijet invariant mass in the range 110 < m_jj < 760 GeV, the azimuthal angle difference between the two jets and the angular variable chi in two dijet mass regions. The results are compared with next-to-leading-order QCD predictions. Good agreement is observed between the measured cross-sections and the predictions obtained using POWHEG + Pythia. MC@NLO + Herwig shows good agreement with the measured bbbar-dijet cross-section. However, it does not reproduce the measured inclusive cross-section well, particularly for central b-jets with large transverse momenta.Comment: 10 pages plus author list (21 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version published in European Physical Journal

Spatio-temporal patterns of cemetery use among Middle Holocene hunter-gatherers of Cis-Baikal, Eastern Siberia

Hunter-gatherer archaeology typically focusses on the details of subsistence strategies and material culture and, in the case of cemeteries, on various aspects of mortuary practices, beliefs, and social differentiation. This paper aims to look rather at patterns of change over time and space in how past hunter-gatherer cemeteries were used from Late Mesolithic to Early Bronze Age (~8600–3500 cal. BP) in the Cis-Baikal region of Eastern Siberia. The approach is based on a Kernel Density methodology applied to 560 radiocarbon dates obtained for individual burials from 65 cemeteries and representing 5 distinct mortuary traditions. This enables a number of different types of analysis to be performed at different scales: (1) It is possible to examine the overall tempo of burial events at each cemetery or a group of cemeteries; (2) Within each cemetery the spatial patterns of the sequence of graves and burials can be analyzed further; (3) It is possible to compare the different cemetery-specific chronologies within the micro-region or regional context; and (4) Although tentatively at this time, the spatiotemporal pattern of cemetery use over the whole region and can be visualised. The spatio-temporal analysis of individual cemeteries shows that each one had its own pattern, some very distinct and clear in their characteristics, which relate to the role the cemetery played within the microregional or regional population. On the regional scale some broader patterns such as shifts in frequency of burial events between microregions within mortuary traditions are visible. However, at this scale the existing sampling biases require caution in assessment of the results and future fieldwork will help improve the analysis and insights. On the other hand, many of the individual cemeteries have been excavated in full and such comprehensive datasets already provide a range of entirely new and important insights into cemetery use by the Middle Holocene hunter-gatherers of Cis-Baikal

Archaeological supplement B to Damgaard et al. 2018: discussion of the archaeology of Central Asian and East Asian Neolithic to Bronze Age hunter-gatherers and early pastoralists, including consideration of horse domestication

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Zenodo via the DOI in this recordThis is part of the additional supplementary material for Damgaard et al., The first horse herders and the impact of early Bronze Age steppe expansions into Asia. Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.aar7711. Note that the author accepted manuscript version of the article plus supplementary material and additional supplementary material is in ORE at http://hdl.handle.net/10871/32791The archaeological evidence relating to selected key cultures from Central and East Asia from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age is summarized. These cultures include the Eneolithic (Copper Age) Botai culture of northern Kazakhstan, the Bronze Age Okunevo culture from the Minusinsk Basin in Russia and Neolithic to Bronze Age cultures of the Baikal Region in East Siberia. Special consideration is given to the debate surrounding horse domestication within the Botai Culture, and the key lines of evidence are summarized

Emulation of a prototype FPGA track finder for the CMS Phase-2 upgrade with the CIDAF emulation framework

The CMS collaboration is preparing a major upgrade of its detector, so it can operate during the high luminosity run of the LHC from 2026. The upgraded tracker electronics will reconstruct the trajectories of charged particles within a latency of a few microseconds, so that they can be used by the level-1 trigger. An emulation framework, CIDAF, has been developed to provide a reference for a proposed FPGA-based implementation of this track finder, which employs a Time-Multiplexed (TM) technique for data processing.The research leading to these results has received funding from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Unions Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007- 2013/ under REA grant agreement n [317446] INFIERI “Intelligent Fast Interconnected and Efficient Devices for Frontier Exploitation in Research and Industry”. This work was supported in part by the the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council, we gratefully acknowledge their support