Atmospheric Carbon and Transport - America (ACT-America) Data Sets: Description, Management, and Delivery.

The ACT-America project is a NASA Earth Venture Suborbital-2 mission designed to study the transport and fluxes of greenhouse gases. The open and freely available ACT-America data sets provide airborne in situ measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide, methane, trace gases, aerosols, clouds, and meteorological properties, airborne remote sensing measurements of aerosol backscatter, atmospheric boundary layer height and columnar content of atmospheric carbon dioxide, tower-based measurements, and modeled atmospheric mole fractions and regional carbon fluxes of greenhouse gases over the Central and Eastern United States. We conducted 121 research flights during five campaigns in four seasons during 2016-2019 over three regions of the US (Mid-Atlantic, Midwest and South) using two NASA research aircraft (B-200 and C-130). We performed three flight patterns (fair weather, frontal crossings, and OCO-2 underflights) and collected more than 1,140 h of airborne measurements via level-leg flights in the atmospheric boundary layer, lower, and upper free troposphere and vertical profiles spanning these altitudes. We also merged various airborne in situ measurements onto a common standard sampling interval, which brings coherence to the data, creates geolocated data products, and makes it much easier for the users to perform holistic analysis of the ACT-America data products. Here, we report on detailed information of data sets collected, the workflow for data sets including storage and processing of the quality controlled and quality assured harmonized observations, and their archival and formatting for users. Finally, we provide some important information on the dissemination of data products including metadata and highlights of applications of ACT-America data sets.

Fibromatosis Desmoide en Pediatría. Presentación de un caso clínico / DESMOID FIBROMATOSIS IN PEDIATRICS ; CASE REPORT AND REVISION

Se conoce como fibromatosis desmoide a la proliferación fibroblástica clonal que surge de partes blandas y se caracteriza por un crecimiento infiltrativo, localmente invasivo y con tendencia a la recurrencia local, pero con baja capacidad de metastatizar. Es un patología infrecuente en la edad padiatrica, sobre todo en la localización de cabeza y cuello. su tratamiento esta en discusión entre la cirugía radical, la conducta expectante y la radio o quimioterapia. Se presenta el caso clínico de un varón de 4 años de edad con diagnostico de fibromatosis desmoide laterocervical de cuello, adyacente a paquete vascular yugulocarotideo, en el cual se practico con éxito la resección total.

Desmoid fibromatosis is a fibroblastic monoclonal proliferation of soft tissues, and is characterized by an infiltrative growth, locally invasive and with tendency to local recurrence, but with a low metastatic capacity . It is an uncommon condition in pediatric patients, especially in head and neck locations. The treatment is under discussion between radical surgery, expectant management and radio or chemotherapy. We report the clinical case of a 4 years old male with a diagnosis of laterocervical desmoid fibromatosis of the neck, adjacent to a vascular jugulocarotide package, in which the total resection was successfully performed.

Cascaded gain fibers for increasing output power and the stimulated Brillouin scattering threshold of narrow linewidth fiber Raman amplifiers.

We show both experimentally and theoretically a method to increase the stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) threshold and output power of narrow linewidth fiber Raman amplifiers. This method employs two or more fibers with varying concentrations of the Raman gain material dopant such as GeO2 or P2O5 in silicate-based glasses. These fibers are then cascaded to form an amplifier gain stage, disrupting the buildup of SBS that normally occurs in single continuous fibers. The numerical model shown is applicable to arbitrary amplifier systems for gain stage optimization and increased power scaling. We give experimental results for phosphosilicate fibers that agree well with simulation predictions that support the numerical model used.

Partial oxidation of methanol on well-ordered V(2)O(5)(001)/Au(111) thin films.

The partial oxidation of methanol to formaldehyde on well-ordered thin V(2)O(5)(001) films supported on Au(111) was studied. Temperature-programmed desorption shows that bulk-terminated surfaces are not reactive, whereas reduced surfaces produce formaldehyde. Formaldehyde desorption occurs between 400 K and 550 K, without evidence for reaction products other than formaldehyde and water. Scanning tunnelling microscopy shows that methanol forms methoxy groups on vanadyl oxygen vacancies. If methanol is adsorbed at low temperature, the available adsorption sites are only partly covered with methoxy groups after warming up to room temperature, whereas prolonged methanol dosing at room temperature leads to full coverage. In order to explain these findings we present a model that essentially comprises recombination of methoxy and hydrogen to methanol in competition with the reaction of two surface hydroxyl groups to form water.

[High volume vs. activated root canal irrigation]. / Grossvolumige versus aktivierte Wurzelkanalspülung.

Irrigation of the root canal is carried out to remove the smear layer and the overlying pulp tissue remnants and dentin chips left by preparation. Our results show that even high volume irrigation is less effective in the apical section than towards cervical. A positive effect of activated continuous irrigation was demonstrated above all in the apical third of the root canal. Almost complete removal of both the smear layer and the overlying debris was achieved. Since high volume, continuous activated irrigation is superior to any other form of irrigation, particularly in the apical section, the results of our studies suggest that further efforts to develop such a root canal irrigation system to the state in which it can be clinically used are necessary.

Outcome of pregnancy in sickle cell anemia and sickle cell-hemoglobin C disease. An analysis of 181 pregnancies in 98 patients, and a review of the literature.

The outcome of pregnancy has been analyzed in 72 women with sickle cell anemia (SS) and 26 women with sickle cell-hemoglobin C disease (SC), part of an unselected population of 148 women over 18 years of age with these hemoglobinopathies, who have been followed at a sickle cell disease clinic for 8 years. In SS women, 22% of first pregnancies were aborted spontaneously, and the overall early fetal loss was 19.2%. A similar figure was calculated from the literature since 1956. In SC women, 12% of first pregnancies were lost, but the overall early fetal loss was only 8.9%. The perinatal mortality, under quite variable conditions of prenatal care and delivery, was 10.2% in SS women and 2% in SC women. There were no stillbirths or midterm deaths in utero among SC women, but these accounted for most of the perinatal mortality in SS women, particularly in first and second pregnancies. There was one neonatal death in each group, but eight third pregnancies in SS women were completed without perinatal mortality. A remarkable finding among the SC women was the number of successful pregnancies, ten in one woman, and many of the pregnancies were completed without the supervision of a physician. Our findings were compared with those in the literature, and the conclusion that we drew is that termination of pregnancy and sterilization of young women are not generally indicated solely on the basis of these hemoglobinopathies.

Microchromatographic quantitation of fetal hemoglobin in patients with sickle cell disease.

A microchromatographic procedure (Isolab Fast Hb Test System) which was developed for the quantitation of Hb AI (10) has been found useful for the quantitation of Hb F in samples that contain Hb S and/or Hb C but no Hb A (% Fmicro). This method has been evaluated through analyses of known mixtures of Hb F and Hb S. The Hb Fmicro levels in patients with sickle cell anemia and related conditions were compared with results obtained by alkali denaturation (% FAD) and conventional DEAE-cellulose chromatography (% FDE). This microchromatographic technique is a fast, simple, and sensitive method for Hb F quantitation in patients with Sickle cell disease.

The Sertoli cell junctional specializations and their relationship to the germinal epithelium as observed after efferent ductule ligation.

Seminiferous tubules from testes of normal and efferent ductule ligated mice were examined with the electron microscope. The tubules in the ligated animals were markedly distended and at most stages of the seminiferous cycle the epithelium exhibited a series of circumferentially-oriented ridges. Cross-sectional profiles of these ridges were studied with particular emphasis on the Sertoli cell junctional specializations and their relationship to the germinal cells. In the ligated specimen the basal cytoplasm of the Sertoli cells is highly attenuated, often appearing as a thin process resting on the basement lamina. Where the cytoplasm of one Sertoli cell ends, it meets in apposition with the cytoplasm of an adjoining Sertoli cell, and at these sites, junctional specializations are present. The ridges are comprised of a stalk of apical Sertoli cell cytoplasm, often appearing like an inverted cone, with young spermatids aligned along the lateral surfaces and the more mature spermatid population embedded within the apical cytoplasm. Junctional specializations were observed along these lateral Sertoli cell surfaces. In some instances, they formed a free surface, but usually early spermatids were in contact with the junctional specializations. With respect to the more mature spermatids, the acrosomal component was typically found in relation to a junctional specialization. Germ cells at the spermatocyte stage were also noted in relation to the Sertoli cell junctional specializations. The findings suggest that spermatocytes cross the Sertoli cell barrier and gain access to the adluminal compartment of the seminiferous tubule through the disengagement of the inter-Sertoli cell junctional complex. It is proposed that when the inter-Sertoli cell junctional specializations separate, the spermatocytes come in apposition with the newly freed junctional surfaces and remain in relation with them through the ensuing divisions. It appears that at some point, firm adhesion between germ cells and the junctional specializations occurs; the spermatid progeny may thus maintain contact with the original inter-Sertoli cell junctional specializations until their release into the tubule lumen.

Structure of sickled erythrocytes and of sickle-cell hemoglobin fibers.

Deoxyhemoglobin from patients homozygous for sickle-cell anemia (deoxyhb S) aggregates into long straight fibers. These may extend through most of the length of the sickled cell, forming either square or hexagonally packed bundles with lattice constants of 170-180 A. Each fiber is a tube made up of six thin filaments, which are wound around the tubular surface with a helical pitch of about 3000 A. Each filament is a string of single hemoglobin molecules linked end to end at intervals of 62 A in dry and 64 A in wet fibers. Molecules in neighboring filaments are in longitudinal register so that they form flat hexagonal rings; these rings are stacked so that successive ones are rotated about the fiber axis by 7.3 degrees . The whole structure repeats after about eight rings. In this structure each molecule makes contact with four neighbors. The likely orientation of the molecules and points of contact between them are discussed. Similar filaments are also observed in normal deoxygenated erythrocytes, but in much lower concentration and aggregated into fibers of irregular diameter. No filaments appear in oxygenated sickle, or normal, adult cells, nor in oxygenated or deoxygenated fetal cells.

Hemoglobin interaction: modification of solid phase composition in the sickling phenomenon.

Direct analyses of solid phase formed by deoxygenating solutions of sickle-cell hemoglobin (Hb S) in the presence of certain other hemoglobin species show that hemoglobins A and C can participate in the filamentous fine structure characteristic of the sickling phenomenon. In contrast, fetal hemoglobin (Hb F) is nearly completely excluded.

The physical state of hemoglobin in sickle-cell anemia erythrocytes in vivo.

Venous blood removed anaerobically from patients with sickle-cell anemia was transferred immediately into fixative, thus precluding significant loss or gain of oxygen by the cells. Electron microscopy demonstrated an intraerythrocytic fibrillar fine structure similar to that described in prior studies on erythrocytes sickled by deoxygenation in vitro. Observations reported here lead to these conclusions: (a) explanations of the sickling process derived from in vitro experimentation may with validity be applied to sickling in vivo; and (b) the term "sickled" must be used with caution: a sickle-shaped membrane does not necessarily endose Hb S in filamentous form.