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The convective mass flux within tropical convection influences the large-scale circulation, drives cloud radiative forcing, has integral links to the production of fresh water, and impacts extreme weather. CMF forms the focus of the recently selected Investigation of Convective Updrafts (INCUS) mission to be launched in 2026. This NASA mission is comprised of 3 spacecraft, all of which will carry a Ka-band cloud radar. One spacecraft will also carry a passive microwave radiometer. The 3 smallsats are to be separated by time intervals of 30, 90 and 120 seconds, thus allowing for the rapid and systematic sampling of the same storm with all three spacecraft. These time intervals (delta-ts) also facilitate the investigation of the magnitude and evolution of CMF, which will be examined as a function of storm type, storm lifecycle and environmental properties. INCUS will therefore provide the first global systematic investigation into CMF and its evolution within deep tropical convection.A wide range of research tasks have been conducted in preparation for the INCUS mission and the development of the INCUS algorithms including: (1) running and analyzing extensive suites of large-domain, high-resolution model simulations; (2) examining ground-based Doppler radar observations obtained using adaptive scanning techniques during several recent field campaigns; and (3) evaluating anvil characteristics using passive microwave radiometer and geoIR data. This talk will focus on three specific highlights arising from these modeling and observational analyses. First, we will examine the temporal scales of updraft variability. Second, we will analyze the relationship between ice water path cores and convective updrafts. Finally, we will demonstrate proof of the INCUS delta-t concept linking changes in reflectivity to CMF through the use of ground-based radar analyses.

The INvestigation of Convective UpdraftS (INCUS) is a recently selected NASA Earth Ventures Mission. The overarching goal of INCUS is to enhance our understanding of why, when and where tropical convective storms form, and why only some storms produce extreme weather. Life on Earth is bound to convective storms, from the fresh water they supply to the extreme weather they produce. Much of the vertical transport of water and air between Earth’s surface and the upper troposphere is facilitated by convective storms. This vertical transport of water and air, referred to as convective mass flux (CMF), plays a critical role in the weather and climate system through its influence on storm intensity, precipitation rates, upper tropospheric moistening, high cloud feedbacks, and the large-scale circulation. Recent studies have also suggested that CMF may change with changing climates. In spite of the critical role of this vertical transport of water and air within the weather and climate system, much is not understood regarding the way in which various environmental factors govern this mass transport, nor the subsequent impacts of CMF on high clouds and extreme weather. Representation of CMF is also a major source of error in weather and climate models, thereby limiting our ability to predict convective storms and their associated feedbacks on weather through climate timescales.INCUS is a NASA class-D mission. Three RainCube-heritage Ka-band 5-beam scanning radars that are compatible with SmallSat platforms comprise the mission. The satellite platforms will be 30 and 90 seconds apart. Each SmallSat will carry one radar system each, and the middle SmallSat will house a single TEMPEST-D-heritage cross-track-scanning passive microwave radiometer with four channels between 150 and 190 GHz. Through its novel measurements of time-differenced profiles of radar reflectivity, INCUS is the first systematic investigation of the rapidly evolving CMF within tropical convective storms. The primary INCUS objectives are: (1) to determine the predominant environmental properties controlling CMF in tropical convective storms; (2) to determine the relationship between CMF and high anvil clouds; (3) to determine the relationship between CMF and the type and intensity of the extreme weather produced; and (4) to evaluate these relationships between CMF and environmental factors, high anvil clouds, and extreme weather within weather and climate models. The ground breaking observations of convective storms by INCUS are expected to significantly enhance our understanding and prediction of convective processes and extreme weather in current and future climates.

Microwave radiometers and radars in low Earth orbit (LEO) are sensitive to the amount of condensed water in clouds. However, their temporal sampling is quite limited – a single LEO instrument will very rarely observe a weather system more than once during the lifetime of the system. Recent technological advances have enabled the design of miniaturized microwave instruments that are quite capable and, at the same time, inexpensive enough to consider the formation of a convoy of identical radars or radiometers in low-Earth orbit, separated in time by a very short interval, on the order of a minute, the temporal scale required to observe the highly nonlinear cloud dynamics. The time sequences of observations are conceptually similar to the loops that are currently obtained from ground weather radar, as well as geostationary imagery, which readily show the evolution of precipitation (in the radar case) or cloud tops (in the imagery case) over minutes. The satellite convoys overcome the limitations of geostationary images (which are sensitive only to the very top of the clouds), and those of ground radar (with its very limited spatial coverage and its insufficiently short interval between consecutive scans). Because each satellite instrument is sensitive to the 3-dimensional distribution of condensed water within its field of view, the convoy is sensitive to the change in this condensed water over the minute(s) separating the convoy members. NASA’s recently selected INCUS mission will be the first project to demonstrate this new concept, with a convoy of three identical Ka-band reflectivity profiling radars, along with a five-channel microwave radiometer.We have conducted analyses based on simulations – as well as observations from ground-based zenith-pointing profilers – to quantify the ability of a convoy made up of a pair of small Ka-band radars that measures reflectivity only, or a pair of mm-wave radiometers that measures microwave radiances in several mm-wavelength channels, to detect convective updrafts above the freezing level and to quantify their intensity. In the case of a pair of radars, one can retrieve the vertical profile of the vertical transport in the portion of the column where the condensed water concentration is above a minimum threshold (of about 0.05 g/m3 in our analyses) and the vertical velocity exceeds a minimum threshold (of about 2 m/s) with quite low uncertainty (whose characteristics depend on the coarse shape of the vertical velocity as a function of height). These new observation strategies are not only useful to evaluate and improve the model representation of vertical transport in convective storms, they are also uniquely useful to quantify a currently “missing link” in the Hadley circulation, in establishing the potential-energy contribution by an individual convective system to the Upper Troposphere / Lower Stratosphere bubble of high-entropy air mass.Acknowledgement: This research was carried out at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Given differing trajectories of sea turtle populations worldwide, there is a need to assess and report long-term population trends and determine which conservation strategies are effective. In this study, we report on sea turtle nest monitoring in the Cayman Islands over a 22-year period. We found that green (Chelonia mydas) and loggerhead (Caretta caretta) nest numbers increased significantly across the three islands since monitoring began in 1998, but that hawksbill nest numbers remained low with a maximum of 13 nests recorded in a season. Comparing the first 5 years of nest numbers to the most recent 5 years, the greatest percentage increase in green turtle nests was in Grand Cayman from 82 to 1,005 nests (1,126%), whereas the greatest percentage increase for loggerhead turtle nests was in Little Cayman from 10 to 290 nests (3,800%). A captive breeding operation contributed to the increase in the Grand Cayman green turtle population, however, loggerhead turtles were never captive-bred, and these populations began to increase after a legal traditional turtle fishery became inactive in 2008. Although both species have shown significant signs of recovery, populations remain at a fragment of their historical level and are vulnerable to threats. Illegal harvesting occurs to this day, with multiple females taken from nesting beaches each year. For nests and hatchlings, threats include artificial lighting on nesting beaches, causing hatchlings to misorient away from the sea, and inundation of nests by seawater reducing hatch success. The impacts of lighting were found to increase over the monitoring period. Spatial data on nest distribution was used to identify critical nesting habitat for green and loggerhead turtles and is used by the Cayman Islands Department of Environment to facilitate remediation of threats related to beachside development and for targeted future management efforts.

A 70-year-old man presented to the emergency department with fevers, ankle edema and nausea following a presumed insect bite on his ankle 1 month prior. On examination, he was febrile and had left leg pain with passive range of motion. Laboratory studies revealed anemia, thrombocytopenia, acute kidney injury and elevated aminotransaminases. Due to his recent travel to the Northeastern United States, he was suspected of having a possible tick-borne illness. Serologies were positive forBorrelia burgdorferi,Anaplasma phagocytophilumandBabesia microti, and the patient was diagnosed with Lyme disease, babesiosis and anaplasmosis. He was treated with doxycyline, atovaquone and azithromycin, leading to resolution of symptoms. While co-infection with Lyme disease is common, infection with three tickborne illnesses at one time is relatively rare.

Clear cell sarcoma (CCS) is a rare soft tissue tumor thought to originate from tendons and aponeuroses. This is the largest and most comprehensive study of CCS to the best of our knowledge. In addition, this is the first study to determine the estimated 10-year overall survival, specific treatment modalities including neoadjuvant and adjuvant combinations, and sites of distant metastasis in CCS utilizing a national database. The National Cancer Database (NCDB) was used to study 489 patients diagnosed with CCS from 2004 to 2014. Kaplan–Meier methods were used to estimate 5- and 10-year overall survival, and log-rank tests were used to compare survival amongst stage. Median age at diagnosis was 39 years. Males and females were equally affected. Race distribution was 78% Caucasian and 15% Black. Most common primary site was lower limb or hip (53%). Percentage of patients with distant organ metastases was 15%, with lung being the most common site (4%). Median overall survival was 57.2 months. Overall estimated 5- and 10-year survival was approximately 50 and 38%, respectively. Approximate 5-year survival for Stages I–IV was 75, 65, 35, and 15%, respectively. Stages at disease presentation were 34% at Stage I, 13% at Stage II, 16% at Stage III, and 38% at Stage IV. Surgery was the most common form of treatment (83%); 34% received radiation and 20% received chemotherapy. The 5-year overall survival for CCS in Stages III and IV was much worse than Stages I and II. Overall estimated 5- and 10-year survival was approximately 50 and 38%, respectively. Men and women were equally affected and had a median age at diagnosis of 39 years. The most common tumor location was lower limb and hip and the most common site of metastases was the lung.

A 47-year-old man with a history of dyshidrotic eczema presented to the emergency department with diffuse erythema, chills and pruritus of three weeks' duration. The patient had received two injections of methotrexate in the preceding two weeks, both of which had failed to improve his whole-body erythema and pruritus. In the emergency department, the patient was evaluated for infection and admitted for the dermatology consultation. After being seen on the general medical floor by the dermatology service the diagnosis of erythroderma was made and the patient was treated with intravenous (IV) cyclosporine therapy, with which his rash dramatically improved over three days. This case report summarizes the presentation and differential of erythroderma, and highlights the importance of having a high index of suspicion for this potentially fatal disease.

The quarry proposed to extract Amabel formation Dolostone by the St. Marys Cement Inc. near Flamborough, Ontario should be implemented based on the arguments of this paper. The quality of the aggregate material, as well as the quantity that St. Marys Cement Inc. hopes to extract would supply enough building material for all of Ontario for nearly two years. However, the construction of the quarry has been strongly opposed by a local community group, Friends of Rural Communities and the Environment (FORCE). The major concerns raised by FORCE have already been addressed by St. Marys Cement Inc., and any further opposition from the community is either based on misinformation provided by FORCE and/or a “not in my back yard” (NIMBY) mentality. “NIMBY-ism” is a selfish, unjustified hindrance to the process of achieving the most efficient outcome for society, an outcome where the needs of the greater good (in this case, aggregate) are fulfilled. The residents of Flamborough and the surrounding area must acknowledge that they too require aggregate material for their roads, houses, and buildings, and that FORCE’s arguments are not for the community or the environment’s wellbeing, but are a front for a NIMBY mentality.

Objective: To determine the incidence of olfactory dysfunction after head trauma using clinical and radiologic findings, quantitative assessment, and electro-physiologic methods. Participants: A total of 190 patients with head trauma of different severity (n = 32 with mild traumatic brain injury (TBI), n = 94 with signs of moderate TBI, and n = 64 with severe TBI) 6 to 32 months prior to the study. Design: Patients were selected retrospectively, surveyed by telephone (n = 190), and screened for olfactory function with Brief Smell Identification Test (n = 82). Those with olfactory dysfunction were assessed as outpatients using the Sniffin' Sticks (n = 19) and olfactory-evoked potential recording (n = 16). Results: Twenty-one participants (11%) reported a decreased sense of smell after trauma. The incidence of olfactory dysfunction after head injury was 12.8%. The results of the odor-evoked potentials were heterogeneous. A significant correlation was found between olfactory dysfunction and the appearance of skull base fractures and intracranial hemorrhage or hematoma. Conclusion: The site of trauma may be more relevant to prognosis than a simple probability (of olfactory loss) based on incidence. Odor-evoked potentials indicate that functional anosmia can occur even when there is some evidence of intact olfactory nerve function.

Quantitative olfactory assessment is often neglected in clinical practice, although olfactory loss can assist diagnosis and leads to significant morbidity. The aim of this study was to develop normative data for the Australian population for the `Sniffin' Sticks', an internationally established olfactory function test. As in other populations, Australian females performed better than males and both lost olfactory function with age. From the normative data, criterion test scores for males and females were established for clinical classifications (`normosmic', `hyposmic', and `anosmic'). These clinical classifications were assessed in Parkinson's patients: 81.1% were anosmic or severely hyposmic and only 7.7% were normosmic. A new term (`prebyosmia') is introduced to describe age-related loss of olfactory capacity of unknown aetiology. With these norms, the Sniffin' Sticks can be used in the Australian population to compare an individual's olfactory function against the population of others of similar age and sex and to identify olfactory dysfunction.