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In the face of a changing climate, the understanding, predictions, and projections of natural and human systems are increasingly crucial to prepare and cope with extremes and cascading hazards, determine unexpected feedbacks and potential tipping points, inform long‐term adaptation strategies, and guide mitigation approaches. Increasingly complex socio‐economic systems require enhanced predictive information to support advanced practices. Such new predictive challenges drive the need to fully capitalize on ambitious scientific and technological opportunities. These include the unrealized potential for very high‐resolution modeling of global‐to‐local Earth system processes across timescales, reduction of model biases, enhanced integration of human systems and the Earth Systems, better quantification of predictability and uncertainties; expedited science‐to‐service pathways, and co‐production of actionable information with stakeholders. Enabling technological opportunities include exascale computing, advanced data storage, novel observations and powerful data analytics, including artificial intelligence and machine learning. Looking to generate community discussions on how to accelerate progress on U.S. climate predictions and projections, representatives of Federally‐funded U.S. modeling groups outline here perspectives on a six‐pillar national approach grounded in climate science that builds on the strengths of the U.S. modeling community and agency goals. This calls for an unprecedented level of coordination to capitalize on transformative opportunities, augmenting and complementing current modeling center capabilities and plans to support agency missions. Tangible outcomes include projections with horizontal spatial resolutions finer than 10 km, representing extremes and associated risks in greater detail, reduced model errors, better predictability estimates, and more customized projections to support next generation climate services. Plain Language Summary: In the face of a changing climate, the understanding, predictions and projections of natural and human systems are increasingly crucial to prepare and cope with extremes and cascading hazards, determine unexpected feedbacks and potential tipping points, inform long‐term adaptation strategies, and guide mitigation approaches. Increasingly complex socio‐economic systems require enhanced predictive information to support advanced practices. Such new predictive challenges drive the need to fully capitalize on ambitious scientific and technological opportunities currently at hand, and working with stakeholders to co‐produce the information that they require. Looking to generate community discussions on how to accelerate progress on U.S. climate predictions and projections, representatives of Federally‐funded U.S. modeling groups outline here perspectives on a six‐pillar national approach grounded in climate science that builds on the strengths of the U.S. modeling community and agency goals. This calls for an unprecedented level of coordination to capitalize on transformative opportunities, augmenting and complementing current modeling center capabilities and plans to support agency missions. Tangible outcomes include projections with horizontal spatial resolutions finer than 10 km, representing extremes and associated risks in greater detail, reduced model errors, better predictability estimates, and more customized projections to support the next generation of climate services. Key Points: Facing the uncharted territory of a changed climate and increasingly complex socio‐economic systems requires the best possible predictionsScientific and technological opportunities are at hand to accelerate progress on U.S. climate predictions and projectionsCapitalizing on the most transformative opportunities calls for an unprecedented level of coordination and resources [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying anomalies, especially weak anomalies in constantly changing targets, is more difficult than in stable targets. In this article, we borrow the dynamics metrics and propose the concept of dynamics signature (DS) in multi‐dimensional feature space to efficiently distinguish the abnormal event from the normal behaviors of a variable star. The corresponding dynamics criterion is proposed to check whether a star's current state is an anomaly. Based on the proposed concept of DS, we develop a highly optimized DS algorithm that can automatically detect anomalies from millions of stars' high cadence sky survey data in real‐time. Microlensing, which is a typical anomaly in astronomical observation, is used to evaluate the proposed DS algorithm. Two datasets, parameterized sinusoidal dataset containing 262,440 light curves and real variable stars based dataset containing 462,996 light curves are used to evaluate the practical performance of the proposed DS algorithm. Experimental results show that our DS algorithm is highly accurate, sensitive to detecting weak microlensing events at very early stages, and fast enough to process 176,000 stars in less than 1 s on a commodity computer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies examine the potential for large urban fires ignited in a hypothetical nuclear exchange of one hundred 15 kt weapons between India and Pakistan to alter the climate (e.g., Mills et al., 2014, https://doi.org/10.1002/2013EF000205, and Reisner et al., 2018, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JD027331). In this study, the global climate forcing and response is predicted by combining two atmospheric models, which together span the micro‐scale to global scale processes involved. Individual fire plumes are modeled using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, and the climate response is predicted by injecting the WRF‐simulated black carbon (BC) emissions into the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) atmosphere model Version 1 (EAMv1). Consistent with previous studies, the radiative forcing depends on smoke quantity and injection height, examined here as functions of fuel loading and atmospheric conditions. If the fuel burned is 1 g cm−2, BC is quickly removed from the troposphere, causing no global mean climate forcing. If the fuel burned is 16 g cm−2 and 100 such fires occurred simultaneously with characteristics similar to historical large urban firestorms, BC reaches the stratosphere, reducing solar radiation and causing cooling at the Earth's surface. Uncertainties in smoke composition and aerosol representation cause large uncertainties in the magnitude of the radiative forcing and cooling. The approximately 4 yr duration of the radiative forcing is shorter than the 8 to 15 yr that has previously been simulated. Uncertainties point to the need for further development of potential nuclear exchange scenarios, quantification of fuel loading, and improved understanding of fire propagation and aerosol modeling. Plain Language Summary: If the detonation of nuclear weapons causes large fires, the smoke emissions could block sunlight and affect the global climate. A commonly studied scenario is the climate impact that would be caused by the detonation of one hundred 15 kt nuclear weapons in a "regional nuclear exchange" between India and Pakistan (Mills et al., 2014, https://doi.org/10.1002/2013EF000205, Reisner et al., 2018, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017JD027331). We simulate the global climate impacts of this scenario using new models for predicting the fire plume and climate and find that, when smoke from the fires remains in the lower troposphere, it is quickly removed and the climate impact is minimal. Conversely, when fires inject smoke into the upper troposphere or higher, more smoke is transported to the stratosphere where enough light is blocked to cause global surface cooling. Our simulations show that the smoke from 100 simultaneous firestorms would block sunlight for about 4 yr, instead of the 8 to 15 yr predicted in other models. Climate impacts are also shown to be sensitive to assumptions about the composition of the smoke. Additionally, we show that the global effects of the fires are sensitive to fuel availability and consumption, factors which are uncertain for cities in India and Pakistan. Key Points: Fire plume and climate modeling of a regional nuclear exchange finds potential global cooling, shorter in duration than previously assessedAerosol emissions from fires and their representation in a climate model contribute uncertainty to the climate responseA wide range of climate impacts are simulated depending on fuel availability at the detonation sites [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) project aims to optimize the use of DOE resources to address the grand challenge of actionable predictions of Earth system variability and change. This requires sustained advancement to (1) integrate model development with leading‐edge computational advances toward ultra‐high‐resolution modeling; (2) represent the coupled human‐Earth system to address energy sector vulnerability to variability and change; and (3) address uncertainty in model simulations and projections. Scientific development of the E3SM modeling system is driven by the simulation requirements in three overarching science areas centering on understanding the Earth's water cycle, biogeochemistry, and cryosphere systems and their future changes. This paper serves as an introduction to the E3SM special collection, which includes 50 papers published in several AGU journals. It provides an overview of the E3SM project, including its goals and science drivers. It also provides a brief history of the development of E3SM version 1 and highlights some key findings from papers included in the special collection. Plain Language Summary: Earth system models are important tools for predicting future changes in the Earth system. Supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) project aims to improve predictions of Earth system variability and change. The latter has a particular focus on predicting changes in the water cycle that influences precipitation and storms, biogeochemistry that influences greenhouse gases and future warming, and cryosphere systems that influence sea‐level rise that threatens coastal communities. This paper serves as an introduction to the E3SM special collection, which includes 50 papers published in several AGU journals. It provides an overview of the E3SM project, including its goals and science drivers. It also provides a brief history of the development of E3SM version 1 and highlights some key findings from papers included in the special collection. Key Points: The Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) project aims to improve actionable predictions of Earth system variability and changeWater cycle, biogeochemistry, and cryosphere systems are the three key science drivers of model development and numerical experimentsThis paper provides an overview of the E3SM project and introduces the E3SM special collection of papers published in AGU journals [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides an overview of the coupled high‐resolution Version 1 of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SMv1) and documents the characteristics of a 50‐year‐long high‐resolution control simulation with time‐invariant 1950 forcings following the HighResMIP protocol. In terms of global root‐mean‐squared error metrics, this high‐resolution simulation is generally superior to results from the low‐resolution configuration of E3SMv1 (due to resolution, tuning changes, and possibly initialization procedure) and compares favorably to models in the CMIP5 ensemble. Ocean and sea ice simulation is particularly improved, due to better resolution of bathymetry, the ability to capture more variability and extremes in winds and currents, and the ability to resolve mesoscale ocean eddies. The largest improvement in this regard is an ice‐free Labrador Sea, which is a major problem at low resolution. Interestingly, several features found to improve with resolution in previous studies are insensitive to resolution or even degrade in E3SMv1. Most notable in this regard are warm bias and associated stratocumulus deficiency in eastern subtropical oceans and lack of improvement in El Niño. Another major finding of this study is that resolution increase had negligible impact on climate sensitivity (measured by net feedback determined through uniform +4K prescribed sea surface temperature increase) and aerosol sensitivity. Cloud response to resolution increase consisted of very minor decrease at all levels. Large‐scale patterns of precipitation bias were also relatively unaffected by grid spacing. Plain Language Summary: The Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) is a relatively new fully coupled Earth system and climate model used in major international model simulation projects and mission‐defined efforts for the U.S. Department of Energy. This paper describes the first simulation of the model in its high‐resolution configuration. This higher‐resolution version is able to capture the most energetic motions in the ocean, which are poorly represented in standard resolution coupled climate models, as well as the largest of storms in the atmosphere. Evaluation of this simulation confirms the benefits of high resolution found by other models with a few notable exceptions. These discrepancies with other studies are interesting because they provide a richer understanding of how and why resolution affects model bias. Another key finding is that climate and aerosol sensitivity in E3SM is unaffected by resolution change. This affirms the usefulness of coarser‐resolution models for understanding global‐scale climate change. This study also confirms the benefits of increased resolution for studying fine‐scale features such as hurricanes and orographic precipitation. Finally, the high‐resolution version of E3SM is shown to compare favorably to its low‐resolution counterpart and to the models participating in Phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project. Key Points: The high‐resolution E3SMv1 model was run for 50 years using 1950 forcing data according to the HighResMIP protocolHigher resolution and associated retuning improved bias relative to coarser versions of E3SMv1, particularly in ocean and sea ice metricsAerosol and climate sensitivity were relatively unaffected by resolution change; resolution‐related tuning had a larger impact [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work documents the first version of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) new Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SMv1). We focus on the standard resolution of the fully coupled physical model designed to address DOE mission‐relevant water cycle questions. Its components include atmosphere and land (110‐km grid spacing), ocean and sea ice (60 km in the midlatitudes and 30 km at the equator and poles), and river transport (55 km) models. This base configuration will also serve as a foundation for additional configurations exploring higher horizontal resolution as well as augmented capabilities in the form of biogeochemistry and cryosphere configurations. The performance of E3SMv1 is evaluated by means of a standard set of Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) Diagnosis, Evaluation, and Characterization of Klima simulations consisting of a long preindustrial control, historical simulations (ensembles of fully coupled and prescribed SSTs) as well as idealized CO2 forcing simulations. The model performs well overall with biases typical of other CMIP‐class models, although the simulated Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation is weaker than many CMIP‐class models. While the E3SMv1 historical ensemble captures the bulk of the observed warming between preindustrial (1850) and present day, the trajectory of the warming diverges from observations in the second half of the twentieth century with a period of delayed warming followed by an excessive warming trend. Using a two‐layer energy balance model, we attribute this divergence to the model's strong aerosol‐related effective radiative forcing (ERFari+aci = −1.65 W/m2) and high equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS = 5.3 K). Plain Language Summary: The U.S. Department of Energy funded the development of a new state‐of‐the‐art Earth system model for research and applications relevant to its mission. The Energy Exascale Earth System Model version 1 (E3SMv1) consists of five interacting components for the global atmosphere, land surface, ocean, sea ice, and rivers. Three of these components (ocean, sea ice, and river) are new and have not been coupled into an Earth system model previously. The atmosphere and land surface components were created by extending existing components part of the Community Earth System Model, Version 1. E3SMv1's capabilities are demonstrated by performing a set of standardized simulation experiments described by the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) Diagnosis, Evaluation, and Characterization of Klima protocol at standard horizontal spatial resolution of approximately 1° latitude and longitude. The model reproduces global and regional climate features well compared to observations. Simulated warming between 1850 and 2015 matches observations, but the model is too cold by about 0.5 °C between 1960 and 1990 and later warms at a rate greater than observed. A thermodynamic analysis of the model's response to greenhouse gas and aerosol radiative affects may explain the reasons for the discrepancy. Key Points: This work documents E3SMv1, the first version of the U.S. DOE Energy Exascale Earth System ModelThe performance of E3SMv1 is documented with a set of standard CMIP6 DECK and historical simulations comprising nearly 3,000 yearsE3SMv1 has a high equilibrium climate sensitivity (5.3 K) and strong aerosol‐related effective radiative forcing (‐1.65 W/m2) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regional differences in vascular physiology and disease response exist throughout the vascular tree. While these differences in physiology and disease correspond to regional vascular environmental conditions, there is also compelling evidence that the embryonic origins of the smooth muscle inherent to the vessels may play a role. Here, we review what is known regarding the role of embryonic origin of vascular smooth muscle cells during vascular development. The focus of this review is to highlight the heterogeneity in the origins of vascular smooth muscle cells and the resulting regional physiologies of the vessels. Our goal is to stimulate future investigation into this area and provide a better understanding of vascular organogenesis and disease. Developmental Dynamics 244:410-416, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An ensemble of simulations covering the present day observational period using forced sea surface temperatures and prescribed sea-ice extent is configured with an 85 truncation resolution spectral transform dynamical core (T85) within the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM), version 4 and is evaluated relative to observed and model derived data sets and the one degree finite volume (FV) dynamical core. The spectral option provides a well-known base within the climate model community to assess climate behavior and statistics, and its relative computational efficiency for smaller computing platforms allows it to be extended to perform high-resolution climate length simulations. Overall, the quality of the T85 ensemble is similar to FV. Analyzing specific features of the T85 simulations show notable improvements to the representation of wintertime Arctic sea level pressure and summer precipitation over the Western Indian subcontinent. The mean and spatial patterns of the land surface temperature trends over the AMIP period are generally well simulated with the T85 ensemble relative to observations, however the model is not able to capture the extent nor magnitude of changes in temperature extremes over the boreal summer, where the changes are most dramatic. Biases in the wintertime Arctic surface temperature and annual mean surface stress fields persist with T85 as with the CAM3 version of T85, as compared to FV. An experiment to identify the source of differences between dycores has revealed that the longwave cloud forcing is sensitive to the choice of dycore, which has implications for tuning strategies of the physics parameter settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A long and productive history in biomedical research defines the chick as a model for human biology. Fundamental discoveries, including the description of directional circulation propelled by the heart and the link between oncogenes and the formation of cancer, indicate its utility in cardiac biology and cancer. Despite the more recent arrival of several vertebrate and invertebrate animal models during the last century, the chick embryo remains a commonly used model for vertebrate biology and provides a tractable biological template. With new molecular and genetic tools applied to the avian genome, the chick embryo is accelerating the discovery of normal development and elusive disease processes. Moreover, progress in imaging and chick culture technologies is advancing real-time visualization of dynamic biological events, such as tissue morphogenesis, angiogenesis, and cancer metastasis. A rich background of information, coupled with new technologies and relative ease of maintenance, suggest an expanding utility for the chick embryo in cardiac biology and cancer research. Developmental Dynamics 243:216-228, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To generate the mature intestine, splanchnic mesoderm diversifies into six different tissue layers each with multiple cell types through concurrent and complex morphogenetic events. Hindering the progress of research in the field is the lack of a detailed description of the fundamental morphological changes that constitute development of the intestinal mesoderm. Results: We used immunofluorescence and morphometric analyses of wild-type and Tg( tie1:H2B-eYFP) quail embryos to establish a comprehensive timeline of mesodermal development in the avian intestine. The following landmark features were analyzed from appearance of the intestinal primordium through generation of the definitive structure: radial compartment formation, basement membrane dynamics, mesothelial differentiation, mesenchymal expansion and growth patterns, smooth muscle differentiation, and maturation of the vasculature. In this way, structural relationships between mesodermal components were identified over time. Conclusions: This integrated analysis presents a roadmap for investigators and clinicians to evaluate diverse experimental data obtained at individual stages of intestinal development within the longitudinal context of intestinal morphogenesis. Developmental Dynamics 241:1678-1694, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals,Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mesothelium is the simple squamous epithelium covering all abdominal organs and the coeloms in which those organs reside. While the structural characteristics of this cell type were documented a century ago, its potential in development, disease, and wound healing is only now becoming apparent. In the embryo, mesothelia provide vasculogenic cells for the developing heart, lungs, and gut. Furthermore, adult mesothelial cells can be reactivated using thymosin β4 and mobilized to aid in tissue repair. Despite their positive role in development and repair, mesothelia are also susceptible to adhesion and tumor formation. With knowledge that the mesothelium is an important mediator of tissue repair as well as disease, it will be important to identify other factors like thymosin β4 that have the ability to potentiate these cells. Future use of chemical and genetic agents in conjunction with mesothelial cells will lead to enhanced therapeutic potential and mitigation of deleterious outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blood vessel/epicardial substance (Bves) is a transmembrane protein that influences cell adhesion and motility through unknown mechanisms. We have discovered that Bves directly interacts with VAMP3, a SNARE protein that facilitates vesicular transport and specifically recycles transferrin and β-1-integrin. Two independent assays document that cells expressing a mutated form of Bves are severely impaired in the recycling of these molecules, a phenotype consistent with disruption of VAMP3 function. Using Morpholino knockdown in Xenopus laevis, we demonstrate that elimination of Bves function specifically inhibits transferrin receptor recycling, and results in gastrulation defects previously reported with impaired integrin-dependent cell movements. Kymographic analysis of Bves-depleted primary and cultured cells reveals severe impairment of cell spreading and adhesion on fibronectin, indicative of disruption of integrin-mediated adhesion. Taken together, these data demonstrate that Bves interacts with VAMP3 and facilitates receptor recycling both in vitro and during early development. Thus, this study establishes a newly identified role for Bves in vesicular transport and reveals a novel, broadly applied mechanism governing SNARE protein function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The perinatal–neonatal course of very-low-birth-weight (VLBW) infants might affect their childhood growth. We evaluated the effect of parental anthropometry and perinatal and neonatal morbidity of VLBW neonates on their childhood growth. Methods: We obtained parental anthropometry, height and weight at age 6–10.5 years of 334 children born as VLBW infants. Parental, perinatal and neonatal data of these children were tested for association with childhood anthropometry. Results: (1) Maternal and paternal weight standard deviation score (SDS) and discharge weight (DW) SDS were associated with childhood weight SDS (R2= 0.111, p < 0.00001); (2) Maternal and paternal height SDS, corrected gestational age (GA) at discharge, maternal assisted reproduction and SGA status were associated with childhood height SDS (R2= 0.208, p < 0.00001); (3) paternal weight SDS, DW SDS and surfactant therapy were associated with childhood body mass index (BMI) SDS (R2= 0.096, p < 0.00001). 31.1% of VLBW infants had DW SDS < −1.88, and are to be considered small for gestational age (‘SGA’). One quarter of these infants did not catch up by age 6–10.5 years. Conclusion: Childhood anthropometry of VLBW infants depends on parental anthropometry, postnatal respiratory morbidity and growth parameters at birth and at discharge. Almost one-third of VLBW premature infants had growth restriction at discharge from neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), a quarter of whom did not catch up by age 6–10.5 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Notch1 is an important regulator of intercellular interactions in cardiovascular development. We show that the nuclear-localized, cleaved and active form of Notch1, the Notch1 intracellular domain (N1ICD), appeared in mesothelial cells of the pro-epicardium during epicardial formation at looped heart stages. N1ICD was also present in mesothelial cells and mesenchymal cells specifically within the epicardium at sulcus regions. N1ICD-positive endothelial cells were detected within the nascent vessel plexus at the atrioventricular junction and within the compact myocardium (Hamburger and Hamilton stage [HH] 25-HH30). The endothelial cells expressing N1ICD were surrounded by N1ICD-positive smooth muscle cells after coronary orifice formation (HH32-HH35), while N1ICD expression was absent in the mesenchymal and mesothelial cells surrounding mature coronary vessels. We propose that differential activation of the hypoxia/HIF1-VEGF-Notch pathway may play a role in epicardial cell interactions that promote epicardial epithelial/mesenchymal transition and coronary progenitor cell differentiation during epicardial development and coronary vasculogenesis in particularly hypoxic sulcus regions. Developmental Dynamics 238:162-170, 2009. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CMF1 protein is expressed in developing striated muscle before the expression of contractile proteins, and depletion of CMF1 in myoblasts results in inability to express muscle-specific proteins. Previous studies of CMF1 identify a functional Rb-binding domain, which is conserved in the murine and human homologues. Here, we show that CMF1 binds Rb family members, while a CMF1 protein with deletion of the Rb-binding domain (Rb-del CMF1) does not. Myogenic cell lines over-expressing Rb-del CMF1 proliferate normally, but exhibit markedly impaired differentiation, including dramatically reduced contractile proteins gene expression and failure to fuse into myotubes. Furthermore, by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, MyoD and Myf5 mRNA levels are comparable to wild-type, while myogenin and contractile protein mRNA levels are significantly attenuated. These data demonstrate that CMF1 regulates myocyte differentiation by interaction with Rb family members to induce expression of myogenic regulatory factors. Developmental Dynamics 237:1424-1433, 2008. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mesothelia comprise the epithelial covering of coelomic organs and line the cavities in which they are housed. Mesothelia contribute to the vasculature of the heart and the intestinal tract by developmental processes of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), migration, and differentiation into endothelial cells, vascular smooth muscle cells, and pericytes. Here, we establish a novel in vitro system to analyze the differentiative potential of mesothelia. Using explants from serosal mesothelium (the mesothelial covering of the gut), we demonstrate that much of the developmental program observed in embryonic mesothelia is retained in the adult structure. Namely, processes of epithelial spreading, EMT, and differentiation into smooth muscle cells from these cells are observed. Interestingly, we were unable to stimulate endothelial cell differentiation using serum or various signaling factors. Taken together, these data reveal that differentiated serosal cells retain vasculogenic potential and provide a generalizable model for future studies on the developmental and differentiative capacity of the mesothelial cell type. Developmental Dynamics 236:2973-2979, 2007. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. To evaluate the validity of fetal heart rate monitoring during the last hour prior to birth, as a predictor of long term neurodevelopmental outcome of very low birth weight infants. Methods. A total of 111 very low birth weight infants were included in the study. Fetal heart rate tracings were obtained during the last hour prior to delivery. A perinatologist, blinded to the neonatal outcome, evaluated the tracings and divided them into three groups: reassuring, nonreassuring, and pathological. Neurodevelopmental status was evaluated at age 2 years. The relationship between fetal heart rate monitoring results and the neurodevelopmental outcome at 2 years of age was assessed with a chi-square test and the Student's t -test. Results. At 2 years of age 97 (87.4%) of the children had normal neurodevelopmental function, while 14 (12.6%) had variable degrees of neurodevelopmental impairment. The fetal heart rate monitoring results were classified as reassuring (normal) in 35 cases (31.5%), nonreassuring in 56 cases (50.5%), and pathological in 20 cases (18.0%). Both normal and pathological fetal heart rate patterns were associated with similar incidence of abnormal neurodevelopmental outcome, 14.3% and 15.0% of cases, respectively ( p =0.778). Pathological fetal heart rate patterns as a predictor of neurodevelopmental outcome had a sensitivity of 27%, specificity of 74%, positive predictive value of 15%, and negative predictive value of 86%. Conclusion. Electronic fetal heart rate monitoring prior to delivery is not a reliable tool for the prediction of neurodevelopmental impairment in premature infants of very low birth weight, at 2 years of age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To investigate variations in the autonomic functions and blood-flow velocity of the arteries supplying to the brainstem in supine and prone positions. Methods: Forty-one full-term infants were studied at the age of 24–72 h. Each infant underwent respiratory, cardiac and eye movement analyses in supine and prone positions. In addition, blood-flow velocity of the basilar and vertebral arteries was measured with a 2 MHz probe for 5 min in each position. Two time domain measures of heart rate variability (HRV) (Standard deviation of normal R–R intervals for long-term and pNN50 for short-term variability) were employed. Results: Significantly decreased short- ( P<0·001) and long ( P = 0·003)-term variabilities were observed in prone when compared with supine position. Increased short-term variability in active sleep with no interaction with position was observed ( P = 0·005). A significant decreased mean ( P = 0·001) and peak ( P = 0·001–0·003) blood-flow velocity in prone when compared with supine position were measured in all three arteries supplying to the brainstem. No significant correlation between HRV and arterial blood-flow velocity (ABFV) was observed in either position. Comment: The results of the present study in agreement with previous studies reflect the vulnerability of infants in prone position as related to brainstem function. However, it appears that ABFV and autonomic functions as reflected by HRV are independent physiological measures, possibly indicating regulation autonomy of the central nervous system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduces a series of articles on developments in the field of computational molecular biology.

Heart rate (HR) changes associated with apnoea (>3 s) were analysed in 10 preterm infants (30·6 ± 1·5 weeks) at post-conceptional age of 40 ± 1·5 weeks and 10 full-term (FT) infants (39 ± 1 weeks) before, during and after exposure to increased environmental temperature (5°C above normothermia). A significantly increased HR was found in the study group during the baseline (normothermia), heating, cooling and final normothermic phase compared with the control infants. No significant difference was found between the groups during the hyperthermic stage. A significant relative increase in HR was found among the preterm infants but not among FT infants during central apnoea at the hyperthermia phase. Our results indicate that HR control during apnoea in preterm infants is more labile then among FT infants while being exposed to increased environmental temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes a group project involving graduate students, medical students, and clinicians designed to promote interdisciplinary collaboration among clinicians and scientists. The project consisted of comparing developmental features of model organisms and humans and creating a poster presentation. Details on self-reported confidence and learning among both medical students and graduate students following the project are presented.

The centrosome is the microtubule organizing center (MTOC) of the cell and plays a primary role in cell division and motility. The linker protein hook2 has been shown to localize to the centrosome and function in microtubule (MT) organization and growth. Potential binding partner cytLEK1 has been shown to interact with the MT network and colocalize with hook2 in COS-7 cells. The interaction between these two proteins is a possible physical link from the MT network to the centrosome. Thus far, yeast-two-hybrid screens, biochemical analysis, and immunofluorescence colocalization studies provide evidence indicative of this physical interaction. Studies are underway to determine the significance of disrupting this interaction on cell structure and motility. Utilizing newly developed cytLEK1 KO fibroblast cells to investigate possible regulation of cell movement and division will be employed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]