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A large amount of carbon is stored in global forests. However, the fraction of carbon stored as plant biomass vs. soil organic carbon (SOC) varies among forest types. The extent to which biomass and SOC pools may change over the 21st century is uncertain, yet important to carbon cycle interactions with climate change. Here, we used data derived from inventories and remote sensing and CMIP6 models to examine the current and 21st century dynamics in the proportion of biomass and SOC across global forests. Our results show contrasting ecosystem carbon pools of forests in colder vs. moist warmer climates. Boreal forests currently store only 14±7% of their ecosystem carbon as plant biomass compared to 50 ±18% for moist tropical forests. We found that annual precipitation, topography, soil, and wildfire were the primary controls of these differences in forest carbon pool fractions. Under the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP5-8.5) climate scenario, CMIP6 models project that the ratio of biomass to ecosystem carbon in global forests will increase across the 21st century, with the largest increases in boreal forests compared to moist tropical forests. Changes in forest ecosystem carbon pools resulting in greater biomass fraction will affect the surface energy balance, disturbance regime, wildfire fuel loads, and ecosystem carbon balances, all of which interact with the climate system.

Soil organic carbon (SOC) responses to atmospheric warming depend on soil biogeochemical and plant responses and their interactions. These processes occur over a wide range of time scales and are spatially heterogeneous, leading to difficulties in predicting emergent ecosystem carbon dynamics. Here we explore coupled soil and plant responses to warming using a mechanistic model (ecosys) and observations from a whole-soil warming experiment in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California (Blodgett Forest Whole Soil Warming Experiment). ecosys represents the coupled hydrological, thermal, soil biogeochemical, and plant processes that affect ecosystem carbon cycling, and has been applied and tested in dozens of ecosystems. We briefly describe the model components relevant to the warming study and then show that it accurately simulates observed soil moisture and temperature, SOC stocks, root biomass, and experimental warming effects on soil T and moisture. Using the simulations, we then show that the emergent short-term effect of warming on respiration losses is dominated by heterotrophic respiration vs changes in plant inputs. However, multi-season to multi-year responses strongly depend on changes in N availability and plant N uptake, leading to increased soil surface CO2 emissions from heterotrophic and autotrophic respiration, increases in aboveground biomass, and relatively small changes in SOC stocks from increased litter inputs. We also explore the roles of microbial thermal adaptation and soil moisture on the SOC stock changes. Finally, we compare the short- and long-term responses to warming to evaluate how well experimental soil warming manipulations directly inform ecosystem carbon dynamics under expected long-term climate change warming. Our work highlights the need to evaluate climate change impacts on the carbon cycle for the integrated plant-soil system, and points to needed improvements in current large-scale land models.

BACKGROUND The global shift towards plant-based diets has been increasing, with more people making the transition for various reasons. In vulnerable subgroups such as patients or older adults, the transition to plant-based diets deserves attention due to the potentially detrimental consequences of lower protein quantity and quality. Guidance in meal formulation to assure optimal protein quantity and quality is needed. This guidance is a complex and time-consuming task for consumers but a viable task for artificial intelligence. OBJECTIVE We aimed to develop a digital tool that uses artificial intelligence to ensure sufficient protein quality in plant-based meals for older adults, utilizing a co-creation design approach that involved interdisciplinary collaboration. METHODS Together with Dutch and Danish dietitians and older adults as potential end-users, three focus groups were held to identify their preferences and dealbreakers. Focus group sessions were based on a User-Task-Environment analysis, the Walt-Disney method, the Brainwriting method, and a Cognitive Walkthrough. The front-end and back-end development of the tool took place in parallel and well-synced to the focus group sessions. RESULTS Both dietitians and older adults from Dutch and Danish sites expressed high interest in a tool that provides feedback and background information on protein quality, sustainability, and (micro)nutrients. The User-Task-Environment analysis delivered useful details on the user, the task of the tool, and the environment in which the tool will be used. The Walt-Disney method delivered usable and realistic solutions to the four challenges presented. Thirty-two percent of the solutions on all themes presented with the Brainwriting method appeared to be highly feasible and relevant, and these suggestions were integrated into the tool. The Cognitive Walkthrough identified certain screens as unclear, necessitating revisions for improved understandability. CONCLUSIONS The results of the focus groups revealed the need for a tool in the guidance of meal planning to ensure sufficient protein quality. A first co-created prototype of the tool is ready, which will be further developed and optimized according to the needs of end users. This user-driven tool, designed to guide meal composition for sufficient protein quality, holds promise for enhancing older adults' dietary choices and health outcomes as they transition to plant-based diets.

The modern world uses predictive computer models for many important purposes, including weather predictions, epidemic management, flood forecasting and warnings, and economic policymaking. We need to know how much we can trust the projections of these models, not only to achieve more accurate projections for systems, but also to undertake scientific learning about systems by incrementally testing hypotheses using models. But we routinely fail to adequately benchmark the performance of our complicated models of systems due to the cost and complexity of the task and owing to social and institutional barriers. Decades of lessons learned from Model Intercomparison Projects (MIPs) and similar community modeling efforts have yielded understanding of both the challenge and the opportunity facing 21st century model benchmarking efforts. To implement this understanding at scale, we call for the establishment of a major national research facility for scientific computer model benchmarking. Such a facility would institutionalize and properly resource the technically challenging and laborious work of computer model benchmarking, thereby establishing a firm foundation for 21st century science and prediction. This facility would advance basic science, overcome many of the social barriers to benchmarking, and would improve projections and decisions.

African and South American (ASA) wildfires account for more than 70 % of global burned areas and have strong connection to local climate for sub-seasonal to seasonal wildfire dynamics. However, representation of the wildfire-climate relationship remains challenging, due to spatiotemporally heterogenous responses of wildfires to climate variability and human influences. Here, we developed an interpretable Machine Learning (ML) fire model (AttentionFire_v1.0) to resolve the complex spatial- heterogenous and time-lagged controls from climate on burned area and to better predict burned areas over ASA regions. Our ML fire model substantially improved predictability of burned area for both spatial and temporal dynamics compared with five commonly used machine learning models. More importantly, the model revealed strong time-lagged control from climate wetness on the burned areas. The model also predicted that under a high emission future climate scenario, the recently observed declines in burned area will reverse in South America in the near future due to climate changes. Our study provides reliable and interpretable fire model and highlights the importance of lagged wildfire-climate relationships in historical and future predictions.

Background:A critical aspect of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) is to achieve full anticoagulation to prevent thrombosis and consumptive coagulation without using excessive amount of heparin. This can be achieved with heparin dose response (HDR) test in vitro to calculate an individualized heparin bolus to reach a target activated clotting time (ACT) and heparin concentration. However, we often observe that the measured ACT (mACT) with the calculated heparin bolus gives significant errors, both positive (mACT is higher than expected) and negative (mACT is lower), from expected ACT (eACT).Methods:We performed a retrospective study of 250 patients who underwent cardiac surgery to attain an error distribution of the mACT from eACT with calculated heparin bolus. In addition, it is aimed to identify possible patterns of baseline ACT (bACT), calculated heparin concentration (CHC) and HDR slope that are associated with the significant positive and negative errors.Results:We found that individualized heparin bolus by HDR test is consistently underestimated while it gave a significant number of positive and negative errors. Further analysis indicates that significant negative errors correlate with high bACT and slope and low CHC while significant positive errors with low bACT and slope and high CHC.Conclusion:The mACT can be substantially different from eACT. The accuracy of the HDR test appears to be dependent upon bACT, slope, and CHC. Based on our analysis, we provide several recommendations and a flow chart to improve the quality of individualized heparin management on CPB.

This Viewpoint discusses several shortcomings in patient attribution systems from the perspective of physicians and patients and proposes strategies to improve patient attribution accuracy to better advance the goals of alternative payment models.

THE AUTHOR DISCUSSES THE ORGANIZATION OF THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE PROFESSION. THE PROBLEMS, CONFUSION, WASTEFUL COMPETITION, AND UNCOORDINATED ACTIVITY RESULTING FROM THE PROLIFERATION OF PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS IN THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE FIELD ARE DESCRIBED. THE SOLUTION SUGGESTED TO REMEDY THIS SITUATION IS THE CREATION OF A NEW, NATIONAL MEMBERSHIP ORGANIZATION TO PROMOTE THE INTERESTS OF ALL TEACHERS OF MODERN AND CLASSICAL LANGUAGES AT ALL LEVELS, AN ORGANIZATION THAT WOULD, AMONG OTHER THINGS, COORDINATE THE SCATTERED ACTIVITIES OF EXISTING GROUPS, ATTACK BASIC PROBLEMS, ISSUE POLICY STATEMENTS, ENCOURAGE EXPERIMENTATION, DISTRIBUTE A PEDAGOGICAL JOURNAL, AND SECURE FOUNDATION AND FEDERAL SUPPORT FOR PROJECTS. THIS PAPER WAS PRESENTED TO THE KENTUCKY FOREIGN LANGUAGE CONFERENCE (19TH, LEXINGTON, APRIL 20, 1966). (AM)

Despite decreased blood use, there are supply limitations. Therefore, it is important to determine the number of people potentially eligible to donate blood. This study updates an analysis from 2007 to estimate the pool of eligible blood donors in the United States.We developed a revised epidemiologic model to account for changes in donor exclusion factors based on AABB standards. Donor exclusionary factors were identified and epidemiologic databases selected to enumerate the population prevalence of the donor exclusion factors. Prevalence data were adjusted for age, duration of exclusion, and comorbidities. The number of excluded individuals is calculated to estimate the current size of the eligible blood donor pool. The current study incorporates changes in demographic characteristics that have altered the pool of eligible blood donors.The pool of eligible blood donors increased by approximately 93.9 million from 111 million persons in 2007 to 204.9 million persons in 2018, while the population of the United States increased by 34 million persons (from 293 million to 327 million). The number of donor exclusion factors increased from 31 to 38. Overall, the pool of eligible blood donors increased from 37.9% to 62.6% of the total population. The single largest change impacting the pool of eligible blood donors is the inclusion of individuals 65 years and older, increasing the eligible blood donor pool by 51 million of the new 93.9 million persons However, this increase in number of potential donors 65 years and older is offset by a corresponding increase in the prevalence of donor exclusion factor impact in individuals aged 65 years and above.A very large number of people are potentially eligible to donate blood. Therefore, blood supply limitations appear to be due to other factors. We suggest that these factors are differences in social commitments by changing demographic populations and the elimination of high-cost blood collection operations by blood suppliers.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVE: The safety of intensive blood pressure (BP) targets is controversial for persons with chronic kidney disease (CKD). We studied the effects of hypertension treatment on cerebral perfusion and structure in those with and without CKD. STUDY DESIGN: Neuroimaging substudy of a randomized trial. SETTING & PARTICIPANTS: A subset of participants in the Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial who underwent brain MRI studies. Presence of baseline CKD was assessed by estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and urine albumin to creatinine ratio (UACR). INTERVENTION: Participants were randomly assigned to intensive (systolic BP 30 mg/g (N=151), the effects of intensive versus standard BP treatment on change in global cerebral blood flow, WMLs and total brain volume were 1.91 ml/100g/min (95% CI −3.01, 6.82), 0.003 cm(3) (asinh transformed, 95% CI −0.13, 0.13), and −7.0 cm(3) (95% CI −13.3, −0.3), respectively. The overall treatment effects on cerebral blood flow and total brain volume were not modified by baseline eGFR or UACR; however the effect on WMLs was attenuated in participants with albuminuria (interaction p-value 0.04). LIMITATIONS: Measurement variability due to multi-site design. CONCLUSIONS: Among hypertensive adults with primarily early kidney disease, intensive versus standard blood pressure treatment did not appear to have a detrimental effect on brain perfusion or structure. The findings support the safety of intensive blood pressure treatment targets on brain health in persons with early kidney disease. FUNDING: The Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial was funded by the National Institutes of Health (including the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the National Institute on Aging, and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke), and this substudy was funded by the National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. TRIAL REGISTRATION: SPRINT was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov with the study number NCT01206062.

A new and efficient strategy for the rapid formation of novel fluorinated tetrahydropyridazines and dihydrooxazines has been developed by fluorocyclisation of β,γ-unsaturated hydrazones and oximes with the fluoroiodane reagent. Mechanochemical synthesis delivered fluorinated tetrahydropyridazines in similar excellent yields to conventional solution synthesis, whereas fluorinated dihydrooxazines were prepared in much better yields by ball-milling.