Antarctic springtime depletion of atmospheric mercury

Unlike other heavy metals that are inherently associated with atmospheric aerosols, mercury in ambient air exists predominantly in the gaseous elemental form. Because of its prolonged atmospheric residence time, elemental mercury vapor is distributed on a global scale. Recently, Canadian researchers have discovered that total gaseous mercury levels in the lower tropospheric boundary layer in the Canadian Arctic are often significantly depleted during the months after polar sunrise. A possible explanation may involve oxidation of elemental mercury, followed by adsorption and deposition of the oxidized form, leading to an increased input of atmospheric mercury into the Arctic ecosystem. Here we present the first continuous high-time-resolution measurements of total gaseous mercury in the Antarctic covering a 12-month period between January 2000 and January 2001 at the German Antarctic research station Neumayer (70 degrees 39' S, 8 degrees 15' W). We report that mercury depletion events also occur in the Antarctic after polar sunrise and compare our measurements with a data setfrom Alert, Nunavut, Canada. We also present indications that BrO radicals and ozone play a key role in the boundary-layer chemistry during springtime mercury depletion events in the Antarctic troposphere.     

Towards a European tephrochronological framework for Termination 1 and the Early Holocene

The record of deposition of tephras in Europe and the North Atlantic during the period 18.5-8.0 (14)C ka BP (the Last Termination and Early Holocene) is reviewed. Altogether, 34 tephras originating from four main volcanic provinces (Iceland, the Eifel district, the Massif Central and Italy) have been identified so far in geological sequences spanning this time-interval. Most of the records have been based, until very recently, on observations of visible layers of tephras. Here, we report on the potential for extending the areas over which some of the tephras can be traced by the search for layers of micro-tephra, which are not visible to the naked eye, and on the use of geochemical methods to correlate them with known tephra horizons. This approach has greatly extended the area in Northern Europe over which the Vedde Ash can be traced. The same potential exists in southern Europe, which is demonstrated for the first time by the discovery of a distinct layer of micro-tephra of the Neapolitan Yellow Tuff in a site in the Northern Apennines in Italy, far to the north of the occurrences of visible records of this tephra. The paper closes by considering the potential for developing a robust European tephrostratigraphy to underpin the chronology of records of the Last Termination and Early Holocene, thereby promoting a better understanding of the nature, timing and environmental effects of the abrupt climatic changes that characterized this period.     

Vision-based global localization and mapping for mobile robots

We have previously developed a mobile robot system which uses scale-invariant visual landmarks to localize and simultaneously build three-dimensional (3-D) maps of unmodified environments. In this paper, we examine global localization, where the robot localizes itself globally, without any prior location estimate. This is achieved by matching distinctive visual landmarks in the current frame to a database map. A Hough transform approach and a RANSAC approach for global localization are compared, showing that RANSAC is much more efficient for matching specific features, but much worse for matching nonspecific features. Moreover, robust global localization can be achieved by matching a small submap of the local region built from multiple frames. This submap alignment algorithm for global localization can be applied to map building, which can be regarded as alignment of multiple 3-D submaps. A global minimization procedure is carried out using the loop closure constraint to avoid the effects of slippage and drift accumulation. Landmark uncertainty is taken into account in the submap alignment and the global minimization process. Experiments show that global localization can be achieved accurately using the scale-invariant landmarks. Our approach of pairwise submap alignment with backward correction in a consistent manner produces a better global 3-D map.     

Weight suppression is a robust predictor of outcome in the cognitive-behavioral treatment of bulimia nervosa.

This study examined weight suppression (difference between highest premorbid weight and pretreatment weight) as a predictor of outcome in 188 outpatients with bulimia nervosa enrolled in a cognitive- behavioral therapy intervention. Participants who dropped out of treatment had significantly higher levels of weight suppression than treatment completers. Of participants who completed treatment, those who continued to engage in binge eating or purging had significantly higher levels of weight suppression than those who were abstinent from bingeing and purging. Results did not change when body mass index, dietary restraint, weight and shape concerns, or other relevant variables were controlled. Relinquishing bulimic behaviors and adopting normal eating patterns may be most feasible for patients who are closest to their highest premorbid weights. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Vision-based 3-D trajectory tracking for unknown environments

This paper describes a vision-based system for 3-D localization of a mobile robot in a natural environment. The system includes a mountable head with three on-board charge-coupled device cameras that can be installed on the robot. The main emphasis of this paper is on the ability to estimate the motion of the robot independently from any prior scene knowledge, landmark, or extra sensory devices. Distinctive scene features are identified using a novel algorithm, and their 3-D locations are estimated with high accuracy by a stereo algorithm. Using new two-stage feature tracking and iterative motion estimation in a symbiotic manner, precise motion vectors are obtained. The 3-D positions of scene features and the robot are refined by a Kalman filtering approach with a complete error-propagation modeling scheme. Experimental results show that good tracking and localization can be achieved using the proposed vision system.     

Antimicrobial activity in the skin of the channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus: characterization of broad-spectrum histone-like antimicrobial proteins

BACKGROUND: A major reduction in the energy demand of the myocardium results from the electromechanical arrest, and cooling contributes to a lesser degree to this reduction. It is from this assumption that strategies of myocardial protection, utilizing warm blood cardioplegic induction, followed by cold cardioplegia with terminal warm reperfusion before removal of the aortic cross clamp, became established as optimal myocardial protection. Continuous normothermic perfusion 'closed the loop' by avoiding myocardial ischemia and linking warm induction and terminal reperfusion. A series of laboratory and clinical data confirmed the benefits of warm heart surgery on myocardial function and metabolism. The disadvantages of continuous warm blood cardioplegia including disturbance of the operative field, led surgeons to administer warm hyperkalaemic blood intermittently as a new cardioplegic strategy. METHODS: This review examines the laboratory and clinical data with reference to the intermittent warm blood cardioplegia, to establish its experimental basis and place in clinical practice. CONCLUSIONS: Experimental observation and clinical application have established intermittent warm blood cardioplegia as a practical, effective and cheap myocardial protection technique, particularly with reference to coronary artery surgery.     

Isolation and characterization of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae DPP1 gene encoding diacylglycerol pyrophosphate phosphatase

Diacylglycerol pyrophosphate (DGPP) is involved in a putative novel lipid signaling pathway. DGPP phosphatase (DGPP phosphohydrolase) is a membrane-associated 34-kDa enzyme from Saccharomyces cerevisiae which catalyzes the dephosphorylation of DGPP to yield phosphatidate (PA) and then catalyzes the dephosphorylation of PA to yield diacylglycerol. Amino acid sequence information derived from DGPP phosphatase was used to identify and isolate the DPP1 (diacylglycerol pyrophosphate phosphatase) gene encoding the enzyme. Multicopy plasmids containing the DPP1 gene directed a 10-fold overexpression of DGPP phosphatase activity in S. cerevisiae. The heterologous expression of the S. cerevisiae DPP1 gene in Sf-9 insect cells resulted in a 500-fold overexpression of DGPP phosphatase activity over that expressed in wild-type S. cerevisiae. DGPP phosphatase possesses a Mg2+-independent PA phosphatase activity, and its expression correlated with the overexpression of DGPP phosphatase activity in S. cerevisiae and in insect cells. DGPP phosphatase was predicted to be an integral membrane protein with six transmembrane-spanning domains. The enzyme contains a novel phosphatase sequence motif found in a superfamily of phosphatases. A dpp1Delta mutant was constructed by deletion of the chromosomal copy of the DPP1 gene. The dpp1Delta mutant was viable and did not exhibit any obvious growth defects. The mutant was devoid of DGPP phosphatase activity and accumulated (4-fold) DGPP. Analysis of the mutant showed that the DPP1 gene was not responsible for all of the Mg2+-independent PA phosphatase activity in S. cerevisiae.     

A transmembrane form of annexin XII detected by site-directed spin labeling

Previous studies of the annexin family of Ca2+ binding proteins identified a soluble monomer in the absence of Ca2+ and a trimer adsorbed on the membrane surface in the presence of Ca2+. On the basis of site-directed spin-labeling studies of annexin XII at low pH, we now report a membrane-inserted form of the protein with a dramatically different structure. The data suggest that upon insertion a continuous transmembrane alpha-helix is reversibly formed from a helix-loop-helix motif in the solution structure. Other regions with similar membrane-insertion potential were identified in the amino acid sequence, and we propose that the corresponding helices come together to form an aqueous pore that mediates the ion channel activity reported for several annexins.