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The subpolar North Atlantic is a hotspot with respect to predictability of sea surface temperature (SST) and upper-ocean heat content, as well as one of the regions worldwide, where initialisation with an observation-based state can further improve this predictability. In contrast to longer-term SST variability, high-frequency, impact-relevant extreme events are still challenging to predict by state-of-art decadal prediction systems.One such eventin the eastern subpolar North Atlantic is the record-cold anomaly in summer 2015, often referred to as "Cold Blob". We analyse ensemble prediction experiments with the MPI-ESM1.2 "eddy-resolving" climate prediction system initialized in November 2013 and 2014 to demonstrate that individual ensemble members can reforecast strength and extent of the 2015 summer record "Cold Blob". About half of the members initialized in November 2014 and one third of the members initialized in November 2013 reforecast cold SST conditions in the entire eastern subpolar North Atlantic, with maximum anomalies reaching a similar magnitude as in observations. With respect to upper-ocean heat content, we expect an even higher skill. As in the real world, strong surface heat loss in the (two) winter preceding winters plays a key role in maintainig and deepening the subpolar cold anomaly in most ensemble members reforecasting the "Cold Blob". In some ensemble members, oceanic drivers such as heat transport divergence seem to be important in shaping subpolar SST anomalies. Individual ensemble members reforecasting the "Cold Blob" also reforecast the associated European summer heat wave., The 28th IUGG General Assembly (IUGG2023) (Berlin 2023)

Nonlinearities in El Niño (EN) and La Niña (LN) teleconnections can arise for many reasons, involving nonlinearities in the two phases of El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) itself and those occurring along the pathway of an atmospheric response. Here we search for nonlinearity in the ENSO stratospheric pathway. The ENSO stratospheric pathway is a teleconnection linking Equatorial Pacific SST anomalies to the North Atlantic and European regions, mediated by the stratospheric polar vortex. To address the question of nonlinear responses to ENSO, we use Large Ensembles (LEs, ~30 members) of historical simulations performed with six CMIP6 models. In addition, we consider the MPI-GE, a set of 95 members. In doing so, we assess the role of internal variability on ENSO related nonlinearities, with consistent atmosphere – ocean coupling. For the models with a stratospheric pathway, three key pathway metrics (tropospheric North Pacific low, polar night jet and North Atlantic pressure dipole) tend to show linearity in the response to moderate to strong EN events, but not so for LN events. Common to these models is also the tendency for asymmetry of strong events, with the EN response larger in amplitude. Instead, all metrics tend to be symmetric for weak and moderate events. The largest variety of outcomes across the models is found in the North Atlantic sea level pressure response, possibly because of the contribution of other factors, such as tropospheric processes, affecting the response., The 28th IUGG General Assembly (IUGG2023) (Berlin 2023)

External forcing is emerging as a factor influencing the internal variabilities of the climate system.However, the external forcing’s influence on the internal variabilities of the large-scale atmospheric circulation modes such as North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and East Atlantic (EA) pattern, has never been identified with a large ensemble model.The study analyzes the extreme events of NAO and EA using geopotential height data of the Max Planck Institute Grand Ensemble (MPI-GE)with 100 ensemble members. The internal variability is quantified as the deviation from the ensemble mean.The extreme NAO and EA are defined as those years where the indexes are above (positive extremes) or below (negative extremes) 2 standard deviations. The influence of global warming on the internal variability is checked with a 1pcCO2 experiment, where the CO2 concentration is increased by 1% every year.The results show increased occurrence of extreme events, especially negative extremes, for both NAO and EA during wintertime, in a warmer climate. While NAO extremes increase consistently across the whole troposphere, EA extremes increase more at higher altitudes (500hpa-200hpa) than at lower altitudes. The warming effect of positive extreme NAO over northern Eurasia gets weaker, while the cooling effect of negative extreme NAO over northern Eurasia gets stronger. The effects of both, positive and negative extremes of EA, extend eastward till Eastern Asia. This studyimplies that care should be taken when attributing the increased frequency of extreme weather events solely to global warming or internal variabilities of NAO and EA.&nbsp, The 28th IUGG General Assembly (IUGG2023) (Berlin 2023)

The frequency of occurrence of extreme weather events, such as heat waves, severe storms, and extreme precipitation has increased dramatically in recent years and is expected to further increase with rising global temperatures. Extreme weather events and their changing characteristic due to rising global temperatures have a large societal impact. Exemplary, extremely warm summers can lead to severe health problems and are thus associated with an increased mortality. Furthermore, economic impacts, such as crop failure and water shortage, and political aspects, such as climate migration and general crisis management are associated with extremely warm summers. Reliable and precise predictability years in advance of these high-impact events would be crucial to reduce potential impacts. We use the demonstrated processes connecting the North Atlantic circulation and European temperatures (Hellmich et al., in review) to enhance the prediction skill of extremely warm European summers. The North Atlantic heat inertia can drive extremely warm European summers on sub-decadal time scales, thus acting as a precursor for the occurrence of such extreme events. Here we demonstrate how the sub-decadal North Atlantic heat inertia can be used to predict extremely warm European summers several years in advance, using a decadal hindcast ensemble based on the Max-Planck-Institute Earth system model., The 28th IUGG General Assembly (IUGG2023) (Berlin 2023)

Introduction: The diseases number with a known inflammatory etiology is constantly increasing. Cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, osteoporosis, cancer, asthma, atherosclerosis, type 2 diabetes and obesity are associated with chronic low-grade inflammation. There is evidence that individuals who engage in intense physical activity or who exercise regularly, shows changes in biomarkers associated with chronic inflammation. Physical exercise is useful in preventing many diseases, due to improved cardiorespiratory, metabolic, musculoskeletal function. All these improve the immunity and antioxidant capacity, thus reducing the incidence of acute and chronic inflammatory diseases. Materials and Methods: In this study were included 90 bibliographic sources, of which the title contains the following keywords: exercise - 23, inflammation - 27, anti-inflammatory - 6, IL-6 - 13, IL-10 - 4, myokine - 3, IL-15 - 3, irisin - 6, obesity - 11, chronic inflammation - 7. This study discussed aspects of exercise, pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines, immunological mechanisms, the dual role of IL-6 cytokine, and the anti-inflammatory effects of physical exercise. Results: Physical exercise is an efficient clinical tool, that limits chronic inflammation activating the immune system that will increase the level of anti-inflammatory IL-6 myokine. There is a direct relationship between the volume and intensity of exercise and the amount of IL-6 myokine in the blood stream. Conclusions: These studies contribute significantly to the understanding of the mechanisms of the anti-inflammatory effect of exercise. More studies on chronic low-grade inflammatory diseases are needed to understand their pathophysiology, and that will inspire the specialists improve long-term treatment strategies. Keywords: physical exercise, chronic low-grade inflammation, anti-inflammatory, IL-6, myokine

Hypertension is considered a risk factor for stroke and dementia. Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) is a useful tool in the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension. This study aimed to evaluate blood pressure using ABPM, in 30 Alzheimer’s disease (AD) patients and 30 vascular dementia (VaD) patients in comparison with 30 healthy controls. BP was recorded every 15 min from 6 AM to 10 PM, and every 30 min from 10 PM to 6 AM. Mean systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure during daytime, nighttime, diurnal index, pulse pressure, and heart rate were extracted from the ABPM recordings. VaD patients presented higher SBP values compared to AD patients and healthy controls. DBP values in the AD group were the lowest, while VaD patients presented the highest DBP values, including day and nighttime. Mean arterial pressure values were also the highest in the VaD group, while AD patients had similar values with the control group. The VaD patients presented the lowest systolic diurnal index compared to AD patients and controls. The mean pulse pressure and nighttime pulse pressure values were higher in both groups of dementia patients when compared with the control group. Increased SBP, pulse pressure, and alteration in the circadian pattern with the highest incidence of the non-dipper and reverse dipper patterns were found in patients with dementia when compared with the healthy elderly. Also, decreased values of DBP were found in AD patients, especially during the night period.

We assess to what extent seven state-of-the-art dynamical prediction systems can retrospectively predict winter sea surface temperature (SST) in the subpolar North Atlantic and the Nordic seas in the period 1970–2005. We focus on the region where warm water flows poleward (i.e., the Atlantic water pathway to the Arctic) and on interannual-to-decadal time scales. Observational studies demonstrate predictability several years in advance in this region, but we find that SST skill is low with significant skill only at a lead time of 1–2 years. To better understand why the prediction systems have predictive skill or lack thereof, we assess the skill of the systems to reproduce a spatiotemporal SST pattern based on observations. The physical mechanism underlying this pattern is a propagation of oceanic anomalies from low to high latitudes along the major currents, the North Atlantic Current and the Norwegian Atlantic Current. We find that the prediction systems have difficulties in reproducing this pattern. To identify whether the misrepresentation is due to incorrect model physics, we assess the respective uninitialized historical simulations. These simulations also tend to misrepresent the spatiotemporal SST pattern, indicating that the physical mechanism is not properly simulated. However, the representation of the pattern is slightly degraded in the predictions compared to historical runs, which could be a result of initialization shocks and forecast drift effects. Ways to enhance predictions could include improved initialization and better simulation of poleward circulation of anomalies. This might require model resolutions in which flow over complex bathymetry and the physics of mesoscale ocean eddies and their interactions with the atmosphere are resolved. Significance Statement In this study, we find that dynamical prediction systems and their respective climate models struggle to realistically represent ocean surface temperature variability in the eastern subpolar North Atlantic and Nordic seas on interannual-to-decadal time scales. In previous studies, ocean advection is proposed as a key mechanism in propagating temperature anomalies along the Atlantic water pathway toward the Arctic Ocean. Our analysis suggests that the predicted temperature anomalies are not properly circulated to the north; this is a result of model errors that seems to be exacerbated by the effect of initialization shocks and forecast drift. Better climate predictions in the study region will thus require improving the initialization step, as well as enhancing process representation in the climate models. Acknowledgments. The research leading to these results has received funding from the Blue-Action Project (European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, Grant 727852), the Trond Mohn Foundation with the project Bjerknes Climate Prediction Unit (BCPU, Grant BFS2018TMT01), the NordForsk under the Nordic Centre of Excellence (ARCPATH, 76654), and from the Bjerknes Centre with the project SKD MEDEVAC. The research leading to these results has also received funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) through the JPI Climate/JPI Oceans NextG-Climate Science-ROADMAP (FKZ: 01LP2002A; DM and Norwegian Grant 316618/JPIC/JPIO-04; HRL and NK and ANR-19-JPOC-003; JM). PO was funded by the Spanish Ministry for the Economy, Industry and Competitiveness through the grant RYC-2017-22772. SY also receives financial support from the Danish National Center for Climate Research (NCKF). The National Center for Atmospheric Research is a major facility sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) under Cooperative Agreement 1852977. EM is supported by the U.S. NSF Office of Polar Programs Grant 1737377. The prediction simulations using EC-EARTH anomaly initialization system were performed by SMHI on resources provided by the Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing (SNIC). Peer Reviewed "Article signat per 16 autors/es: H. R. Langehaug, P. Ortega, F. Counillon, D. Matei, E. Maroon, N. Keenlyside, J. Mignot, Y. Wang, D. Swingedouw, I. Bethke, S. Yang, G. Danabasoglu, A. Bellucci, P. Ruggieri, D. Nicolì, and M. Årthun"

Studies show that the autonomic nervous system (ANS) has an important impact on health in general. In response to environmental demands, homeostatic processes are often compromised, therefore determining an increase in the sympathetic nervous system (SNS)’s functions and a decrease in the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS)’s functions. In modern societies, chronic stress associated with an unhealthy lifestyle contributes to ANS dysfunction. In this review, we provide a brief introduction to the ANS network, its connections to the HPA axis and its stress responses and give an overview of the critical implications of ANS in health and disease—focused specifically on the immune system, cardiovascular, oxidative stress and metabolic dysregulation. The hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis (HPA), the SNS and more recently the PNS have been identified as regulating the immune system. The HPA axis and PNS have anti-inflammatory effects and the SNS has been shown to have both pro- and anti-inflammatory effects. The positive impact of physical exercise (PE) is well known and has been studied by many researchers, but its negative impact has been less studied. Depending on the type, duration and individual characteristics of the person doing the exercise (age, gender, disease status, etc.), PE can be considered a physiological stressor. The negative impact of PE seems to be connected with the oxidative stress induced by effort.

Hypertension is considered a risk factor for stroke and dementia. Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) is a useful tool in the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension. This study aimed to evaluate blood pressure using ABPM, in 30 Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients and 30 vascular dementia (VaD) patients in comparison with 30 healthy controls. BP was recorded every 15 min from 6 AM to 10 PM, and every 30 min from 10 PM to 6 AM. Mean systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure during daytime, nighttime, diurnal index, pulse pressure, and heart rate were extracted from the ABPM recordings. VaD patients presented higher SBP values compared to AD patients and healthy controls. DBP values in the AD group were the lowest, while VaD patients presented the highest DBP values, including day and nighttime. Mean arterial pressure values were also the highest in the VaD group, while AD patients had similar values with the control group. The VaD patients presented the lowest systolic diurnal index compared to AD patients and controls. The mean pulse pressure and nighttime pulse pressure values were higher in both groups of dementia patients when compared with the control group. Increased SBP, pulse pressure, and alteration in the circadian pattern with the highest incidence of the non-dipper and reverse dipper patterns were found in patients with dementia when compared with the healthy elderly. Also, decreased values of DBP were found in AD patients, especially during the night period.

Tourism is one of the most vulnerable industries when facing a global threat of sanitary, economic, or military considerations. From an economic activity comprising nearly 3% of the country's GDP, the tourism has dropped to a flat zero in Romania. For three months, specifically March - May 2020, almost 97% of the accommodation units were closed, and only those hosting medical staff or quarantined persons were open during this period. The present study runs an analysis on the tourism in Bukovina during March-July 2020 and employs both quantitative and qualitative methods. The results have highlighted that tourists were partial to a certain type of accommodation units, namely agritourist and tourist guesthouses in Bukovina. Another visible fact is the predilection for remote places with good accessibility located along the main road axes to Bukovina (stopovers, tourist cottages, chalets, and campsites).

The Blue-Action WP4 research within Task 4.1 has been mainly focusing on assessing in a mechanistic way the key processes responsible for the Arctic-lower latitude predictive linkages and their representation in the current state-of-art prediction systems., The Blue-Action project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No 727852.

Summary: Observational analysis of the Arctic warming impacts: The key driver bridging the winter Arctic warming (1980 to 2014) impact to the Northern Hemisphere has been identified, my means of an advanced multi-variable statistical analysis, to be a tropospheric pathway, linking interannual variability in Arctic warming to the Northern Hemisphere lower atmosphere variability with one month lag. Clearly, the analysis has shown, that the response to the pan-Arctic sea-ice changes does not involve the stratosphere. A covariation of sea-ice variability with Siberian snow cover may be responsible of previously proposed pathways of influences involving the stratosphere. In addition, the analysis suggests that the mechanism of the tropospheric pathway may include the intensification of the Ural anticyclone. Coordinated experiments on Arctic warming impact and its variation on decadal timescale: Warm Arctic Cold Eurasia in winter surface air temperature. Making use of the ensembles of atmospheric model experiment with and without Arctic sea ice forcing it has emerged that the large scale pattern of winter surface air temperature variability is an internal mode of atmospheric variability. At shorter time scales (interannual) the project models capture this internal mode of atmospheric variability. At longer time scales (multi-annual, decadal), however, the models fail to capture the variability/trend of the winter surface air temperature (over 1980-2014). Arctic sea-ice driven variability. Within the Arctic Circle, the sea-ice driven variability explains about 3% of the total variance for sea level pressure and about 23% for surface air temperature in boreal winter at interannual and longer time scales. Regionally, the sea-ice driven variability is 1-1.5 times as large as the variability driven by the other forcings over the Arctic and northern Eurasia. Contrasting Summer and Winter Impact of Arctic sea-ice loss. Large scale features of atmospheric circulation trends over the period 1980-2014 are not reproduced by models, both in winter and summer. While in winter internal atmospheric variability likely plays a role, the difference in summers may point to structural model deficiencies. Multidecadal variability in sea surface temperatures and Arctic warming. The role of variations of the Pacific Ocean surface temperatures on Arctic warming and its impacts many be hard to be identified, given that preliminary results suggest sensitivity to structural model differences.

This poster presents shortly how Blue-Action contributes tothe BluePrint for Ocean Observing in the Atlantic. The poster was presented at OceanObs'2019 by Steffen Olsen (DMI). Blue-Action contributes to defining the future Atlantic monitoring system by: optimizing the monitoring systems at the gateways to the Arctic, assessing and enhancing the usefulness of the North Atlantic ocean observations in decadal prediction systems, demonstrating the value of initialized decadal predictions in climate services &nbsp

The development strategies broadly mirror the vision of the public administrations upon the territorial evolution and hereupon convey their perception into local policies of valorification of the existing resources. Albeit the methodologies standing at the base of development strategies for the communes already encloses interviewing the citizens on matters concerning the development process, the present study aims to catch the very perception of the inhabitants belonging to Moldovița territorial system upon the local development by comparative interrogation of two target groups, namely, the 12grade students from Moldovița and Vatra Moldoviței communes and their parents. Processing the questionnaire revealed, depending on the plans targeted, both a unity of opinions regarding the tourism development and distinct differences on understanding the future role of the woods, migration or infrastructure. The difference in vision upon development in the case of the two groups interviewed shows, in our opinion, the degree of concrete grip held by the local development strategies on the economic exercise for which they are made. Thus, youngsters mostly wish for the development of tourism and access facilities, while their parents have a wider range of opinions largely anchored to the traditional economic development of the community.

Resistance to chemotherapy is a hallmark of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) and has been partly attributed to the dense desmoplastic stroma, which forms a protective niche for cancer cells. Tissue transglutaminase (TG2), a Ca2+-dependent enzyme, is secreted by PDA cells and cross-links proteins in the tumor microenvironment (TME) through acyl-transfer between glutamine and lysine residues, promoting PDA growth. The objective of the current study was to determine whether secreted TG2 by PDA cells alters the response of pancreatic tumors to gemcitabine. Orthotopic pancreatic xenografts and co-culture of PDA and stromal cells were employed to determine the mechanisms by which TG2 alters tumor-stroma interactions and response to gemcitabine. Analysis of the pancreatic The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database demonstrated that increased TG2 expression levels correlate with worse overall survival (hazard ratio = 1.37). Stable TG2 knockdown in PDA cells led to decreased size of pancreatic xenografts and increased sensitivity to gemcitabine in vivo. However, TG2 downregulation did not increase cytotoxicity of gemcitabine in vitro. Additionally, multivessel density and gemcitabine uptake in pancreatic tumor tissue, as measured by mass spectrometry (MS-HPLC), were not significantly different in tumors expressing TG2 versus tumors in which TG2 was knocked down. Fibroblasts, stimulated by TG2 secreted by PDA cells, secrete laminin A1, which protects cancer cells from gemcitabine-induced cytotoxicity. In all, our results demonstrate that TG2 secreted in the pancreatic TME orchestrates the cross talk between cancer cells and stroma, impacting tumor growth and response to chemotherapy. Our study supports TG2 inhibition to increase the antitumor effects of gemcitabine in PDA.

A poster for general use, desribing the Blue-Action project, including: purpose/aims objectives partners who we work with outside of the project (stakeholders)

About this document Deliverable: D4.1 Work package in charge: WP4 Actual delivery date for this deliverable: Project‐month 6 (June 2017) Dissemination level: The general public (PU) Abstract During the course of the project, it was realized that the data needed by the WP5 case studies can also be provided by the WP1 “Improving seasonal long range forecast skill of risks for hazardous weather and climate events” and not only by the WP4 “Enhancing the capacity of seasonal‐to‐decadal predictions in the Arctic and over the Northern Hemisphere”. This was realized at the kick‐off meeting, when the timescales of interest emerged. Since WP`1 focuses on the subseasonal to seasonal scale, and both of the forecast systems used in WP1 (that is the CMCC system and the MPI‐ESM based system) offer initialized hindcast experiments from (sub)seasonal to decadal, all case studies focusing on seasonal predictability established connections to WP1 at the kick‐off meeting. That is why this deliverable has now seen the broader interaction of several teams in WP1 and WP5 as well. This deliverable indicates how the five case studies have received data from WP1/WP4 and how these data are currently being used for the implementation of the activities in each case study. 1. Winter tourism centers in Finland 2. Temperature‐related human mortality in European regions 3. Extreme weather risks to maritime activities 4. Climate services for marine fisheries 5. Russian Arctic resource extraction More information on these case studies can be found here: http://www.blueaction.eu/index.php?id=4139

Presentation held at the kickoff meeting of the project APPLICATE, on 8 February 2017 in Bremerhaven (DE).

A general overview presentation of the Blue-Action project for general technical audiences, to be used by the consortium when presenting Blue-Action.

Illustrationen, Diagramme

BACKGROUND Niraparib is an oral poly(adenosine diphosphate [ADP]-ribose) polymerase (PARP) 1/2 inhibitor that has shown clinical activity in patients with ovarian cancer. We sought to evaluate the efficacy of niraparib versus placebo as maintenance treatment for patients with platinum-sensitive, recurrent ovarian cancer. METHODS In this randomized, double-blind, phase 3 trial, patients were categorized according to the presence or absence of a germline BRCA mutation (gBRCA cohort and non-gBRCA cohort) and the type of non-gBRCA mutation and were randomly assigned in a 2: 1 ratio to receive niraparib (300 mg) or placebo once daily. The primary end point was progression-free survival. RESULTS Of 553 enrolled patients, 203 were in the gBRCA cohort (with 138 assigned to niraparib and 65 to placebo), and 350 patients were in the non-gBRCA cohort (with 234 assigned to niraparib and 116 to placebo). Patients in the niraparib group had a significantly longer median duration of progression-free survival than did those in the placebo group, including 21.0 vs. 5.5 months in the gBRCA cohort (hazard ratio, 0.27; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.17 to 0.41), as compared with 12.9 months vs. 3.8 months in the non-gBRCA cohort for patients who had tumors with homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) (hazard ratio, 0.38; 95% CI, 0.24 to 0.59) and 9.3 months vs. 3.9 months in the overall non-gBRCA cohort (hazard ratio, 0.45; 95% CI, 0.34 to 0.61; P amp;lt; 0.001 for all three comparisons). The most common grade 3 or 4 adverse events that were reported in the niraparib group were thrombocytopenia (in 33.8%), anemia (in 25.3%), and neutropenia (in 19.6%), which were managed with dose modifications. CONCLUSIONS Among patients with platinum-sensitive, recurrent ovarian cancer, the median duration of progression-free survival was significantly longer among those receiving niraparib than among those receiving placebo, regardless of the presence or absence of gBRCA mutations or HRD status, with moderate bone marrow toxicity. (Funded by Tesaro; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01847274.) Funding Agencies|Tesaro; Amgen; Genentech; Roche; AstraZeneca; Myriad Genetics; Merck; Gradalis; Cerulean; Vermillion; ImmunoGen; Pfizer; Bayer; Nu-Cana BioMed; INSYS Therapeutics; GlaxoSmithKline; Verastem; Mateon Therapeutics; Pharmaceutical Product Development; Clovis Oncology; Janssen/Johnson Johnson; Eli Lilly; Merck Sharp Dohme

A recent palaeo-reconstruction of the strength of the Iceland–Scotland overflow during the last 600 years suggests that its low-frequency variability exhibits strong similarity with palaeo-reconstructions of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO). The underlying mechanism of the similar variation remains unclear, however, based on palaeo-reconstructions alone. In this study we use simulations of the last millennium driven by external forcing reconstructions with three coupled climate models in order to investigate possible mechanisms underlying the similar variation of Iceland–Scotland overflow strength and AMO index. Similar variation of the two time series is also largely found in the model simulations. Our analysis indicates that the basin-wide AMO index in the externally forced simulations is dominated by the low-latitude sea surface temperature (SST) variability and is not predominantly driven by variations in the strength of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (MOC). This result suggests that a large-scale link through the strength of the MOC is not sufficient to explain the (simulated) similar variation of Iceland–Scotland overflow strength and AMO index. Rather, a more local link through the influence of the Nordic seas surface state and density structure, which are positively correlated with the AMO index, on the pressure gradient across the Iceland–Scotland ridge is responsible for the (simulated) similar variation. In the model simulation showing a weaker correlation between the Iceland–Scotland overflow strength and the AMO index, the wind stress in the Nordic seas also influences the overflow strength. Our study demonstrates that palaeo-climate simulations provide a useful tool to understand mechanisms and large-scale connections associated with the relatively sparse palaeo-observations. publishedVersion

Operation of one unit treatment basin (common basin) in large wastewater treatment plants has demonstrated that could ensure the simultaneous sediment removal and separation of fats from wastewaters. This fact represents an advantage that leads to high economical and technological benefits. However, in designing activity, the actual standards do not offer design relationships to establish the difference of heights between the two immiscible liquids levels at discharging basin, in order to control the quality of the process. To cover this lack, the authors have established design relationships that can be applied for the primary wastewater treatment, which have in composition fat /extractable substances with variable density in time.

Objective To determine the role of miR-378 as a biomarker for anti-angiogenic therapy response in ovarian cancer. Methods Expression of miR-378 was analyzed in ovarian cancer cell lines and human tumors vs. normal ovarian epithelial cells by qRT-PCR. After miR-378 transfection in SKOV3 cells, dysregulated genes were identified using microarray. Data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) was utilized to correlate miR-378 expression with progression-free survival (PFS) among patients treated with anti-angiogenic therapy by using Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazards. Results MiR-378 was overexpressed in ovarian cancer cells and tumors vs. normal ovarian epithelial cells. Overexpressing miR-378 in ovarian cancer cells altered expression of genes associated with angiogenesis (ALCAM, EHD1, ELK3, TLN1), apoptosis (RPN2, HIPK3), and cell cycle regulation (SWAP-70, LSM14A, RDX). In the TCGA dataset, low vs. high miR-378 expression was associated with longer PFS in a subset of patients with recurrent ovarian cancer treated with bevacizumab (9.2 vs. 4.2 months; p = 0.04). On multivariate analysis, miR-378 expression was an independent predictor for PFS after anti-angiogenic treatment (HR = 2.04, 95% CI: 1.12-3.72; p = 0.02). Furthermore, expression levels of two miR-378 targets (ALCAM and EHD1) were associated with PFS in this subgroup of patients who received anti-angiogenic therapy (9.4 vs. 4.2 months, p = 0.04 for high vs. low ALCAM; 7.9 vs. 2.3 months, p < 0.01 for low vs. high EHD1). Conclusions Our data suggest that miR-378 is overexpressed in ovarian cancer cells and tumors vs. normal ovarian epithelial cells. MiR-378 and its downstream targets may serve as markers for response to anti-angiogenic therapy. © 2014 Elsevier Inc.

This paper provides an update on research in the relatively new and fast-moving field of decadal climate prediction, and addresses the use of decadal climate predictions not only for potential users of such information but also for improving our understanding of processes in the climate system. External forcing influences the predictions throughout, but their contributions to predictive skill become dominant after most of the improved skill from initialization with observations vanishes after about six to nine years. Recent multi-model results suggest that there is relatively more decadal predictive skill in the North Atlantic, western Pacific, and Indian Oceans than in other regions of the world oceans. Aspects of decadal variability of SSTs, like the mid-1970s shift in the Pacific, the mid-1990s shift in the northern North Atlantic and western Pacific, and the early-2000s hiatus, are better represented in initialized hindcasts compared to uninitialized simulations. There is evidence of higher skill in initialized multi-model ensemble decadal hindcasts than in single model results, with multi-model initialized predictions for near term climate showing somewhat less global warming than uninitialized simulations. Some decadal hindcasts have shown statistically reliable predictions of surface temperature over various land and ocean regions for lead times of up to 6-9 years, but this needs to be investigated in a wider set of models. As in the early days of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) prediction, improvements to models will reduce the need for bias adjustment, and increase the reliability, and thus usefulness, of decadal climate predictions in the future.

International audience; The rapidly evolving field of decadal climate prediction, using initialized climate models to produce time-evolving predictions of regional climate, is producing new results for predictions, predictability, and prediction skill.

During a development stage global climate models have their properties adjustedor tuned in various ways to best match the known state of the Earth’s climate system.These desired properties are observables, such as the radiation balance at the top ofthe atmosphere, the global mean temperature, sea ice, clouds and wind fields. Thetuning is typically performed by adjusting uncertain, or even non-observable,parameters related to processes not explicitly represented at the model grid resolution.The practice of climate model tuning has seen an increasing level of attention becausekey model properties, such as climate sensitivity, have been shown to depend onfrequently used tuning parameters. Here we provide insights into how climate modeltuning is practically done in the case of closing the radiation balance and adjusting theglobal mean temperature for the Max Planck Institute Earth System Model (MPIESM).We demonstrate that considerable ambiguity exists in the choice of parameters,and present and compare three alternatively tuned, yet plausible configurations of theclimate model. The impacts of parameter tuning on climate sensitivity was less thananticipated.

Publication in the conference proceedings of EUSIPCO, Aalborg, Denmark, 2010

Robert Strother1,2, Daniela Matei1–51Department of Medicine, 2Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center, 3Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 4Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 5VA Roudebush Hospital Indiana University School of Medicine, 535 Barnhill Drive, Indianapolis, IN, 46202Abstract: The encapsulation of doxorubicin in a pegylated liposomal matrix led to a reformulated agent with a different toxicity profile and improved clinical utility. Liposomal doxorubicin is devoid of the cardiac toxicity associated with doxorubicin, but is associated with predictable muco-cutaneous toxicity. The liposomal formulation leads to improved delivery to the target tumor tissue, allowing enhanced uptake by cancer cells. These properties translate into clinical utility in recurrent ovarian cancer as demonstrated by phase II and III trials, this proven clinical efficacy leading to FDA approval in second-line therapy for ovarian cancer. New combinations with cytotoxics, in particular with carboplatin, have demonstrated an acceptable toxicity profile and clinical utility in platinum-sensitive ovarian cancer. A favorable toxicity profile renders liposomal doxorubicin an ideal partner for combination regimens with other cytotoxics, and more recently with biological agents. Such combinations are the subject of ongoing clinical trials.Keywords: ovarian cancer, doxorubicin, liposomes, pegylated liposomal doxorubicin

In this paper a class of analog algorithms based on the concept of Cellular Neural Network (CNN) is applied in some processing operations of some important medical images, namely retina images, for detecting various symptoms connected with diabetic retinopathy. Some specific processing tasks like morphological operations, linear filtering and thresholding are proposed, the corresponding template values are given and simulations on real retina images are provided., {"references":["O. P. van Bijsterveld, Diabetic Retinopathy, Informa Healthcare, 2000.","K. A. Neely et al., Diabetic retinopathy, Medical Clinics of North\nAmerica, 82(4): 847-876","L.O.Chua, L.Yang, \"Cellular Neural Networks: Theory\", IEEE Trans.\non Circuits and Systems (CAS-I), Vol.35, pp.1257-1272, 1988","K. R. Crounse, L.O.Chua, \"Methods for Image Processing and Pattern\nFormation in Cellular Neural Networks: A Tutorial\", IEEE Transactions\non Circuits and Systems-I, vol.42, pp.583-601, 1995","*** CNN Software Library, version 1.1 - Analogical and Neural\nComputing Laboratory, MTA-SZTAKI, Budapest, 2000","T. Roska, L. O. Chua, \"The CNN universal machine: an analogic array\ncomputer\", IEEE Trans. Circuits Systems II, vol.40, 1993, pp.163-173","T. Roska, \"Cellular Neural Network Technology in Image Processing -\nan overview\", Proceedings of KEPAF Conf. on Image Analysis and\nPattern Recognition, 1997, pp.234","C. Rekeczky, A. Ushida, T. Roska, \"Analogic CNN Algorithms in\nMedical Imaging\", 1st Symposium on Nonlinear Circuits Networks,\n1995, pp.667-672","G. Liszka, T. Roska, A. Zar├índy, J. Hegyesi, L. Kék, C. Rekeczky,\n\"Mammogram analysis using CNN algorithms\", Proceedings SPIE\nMedical Imaging, 1995, pp.461-470\n[10] A. Zar├índy, C. Rekeczky, M. Csapodi, T. Roska, \"Mammogram and\nEchocardiogram Analysis using Cellular Neural Network Technology\",\nERCIM NEWS, 1997, pp.17-18\n[11] S. Jankowski, R. Wanczuk, \"Improvement of Echocardiograms by CNN\nPrograms\", Proc. of 12 European Conference on Circuit Theory and\nDesign, vol. 2, 1995, pp. 995-998\n[12] R. Matei, L. Gora┼ƒ, \"Design methods for CNN spatial filters with\ncircular symmetry\", 7-th Seminar on Neural Network Applications in\nElectrical Engineering, Neurel 2004, Belgrade, Serbia\n[13] D. Matei, R. Matei, \"Analog Linear Filtering of Biomedical Images with\nCellular Neural Networks\", Proc. of 4th European Symposium on\nBiomedical Engineering, ESBME-2004, June 25-27, 2004, Patras,\nGreece\n[14] R. Matei, \"New Image Processing Tasks on Binary Images Using\nStandard CNNs\", Proc. Int. Symp. on Signals, Circuits and Systems,\nSCS'2001, July 10-11, 2001, Ia┼ƒi, Romania"]}

Learning is considered an important component for resilience building in socio-ecological systems, not least because resilience is about dealing with, adapting to and responding to change. Thus, knowledge constantly needs revision and approaches to management require adapting to changing circumstances. This deliverable examines the role that learning plays across the resilience capacities. Through 11 farming system case studies across Europe, this work aims at identifying farmer attributes that enable or constrain learning, understanding the networks of influencers on farmer decision-making, identifying the external factors that enable or constrain learning and at assessing European farmers’ learning capacity in the context of the resilience capacities of robustness, adaptability and transformability., EU; en; contact: jurquhart1@glos.ac.uk

Presentation held within the PAMIP workshop in Devon, UK, 24th to 27th of June, 2019.

Polar amplification – the phenomenon where external radiative forcing produces a larger change in surface temperature at high latitudes than the global average – is a key aspect of anthropogenic climate change, but its causes and consequences are not fully understood. The Polar Amplification Model Intercomparison Project (PAMIP) contribution to the sixth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6; Eyring et al., 2016) seeks to improve our understanding of this phenomenon through a coordinated set of numerical model experiments documented here. In particular, PAMIP will address the following primary questions: (1) what are the relative roles of local sea ice and remote sea surface temperature changes in driving polar amplification? (2) How does the global climate system respond to changes in Arctic and Antarctic sea ice? These issues will be addressed with multi-model simulations that are forced with different combinations of sea ice and/or sea surface temperatures representing present-day, pre-industrial and future conditions. The use of three time periods allows the signals of interest to be diagnosed in multiple ways. Lower-priority tier experiments are proposed to investigate additional aspects and provide further understanding of the physical processes. These experiments will address the following specific questions: what role does ocean–atmosphere coupling play in the response to sea ice? How and why does the atmospheric response to Arctic sea ice depend on the pattern of sea ice forcing? How and why does the atmospheric response to Arctic sea ice depend on the model background state? What have been the roles of local sea ice and remote sea surface temperature in polar amplification, and the response to sea ice, over the recent period since 1979? How does the response to sea ice evolve on decadal and longer timescales? A key goal of PAMIP is to determine the real-world situation using imperfect climate models. Although the experiments proposed here form a coordinated set, we anticipate a large spread across models. However, this spread will be exploited by seeking “emergent constraints” in which model uncertainty may be reduced by using an observable quantity that physically explains the intermodel spread. In summary, PAMIP will improve our understanding of the physical processes that drive polar amplification and its global climate impacts, thereby reducing the uncertainties in future projections and predictions of climate change and variability.