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Recent progress has been made in quantifying snowmelt in the Himalaya. Although the conditions are favorable for refreezing, little is known about the spatial variability of meltwater refreezing, hindering a complete understanding of seasonal snowmelt dynamics. This study aims to improve our understanding about how refreezing varies in space and time. We simulated refreezing with the seNorge (v2.0) snow model for the Langtang catchment, Nepalese Himalaya, covering a 5-year period. Meteorological forcing data were derived from a unique elaborate network of meteorological stations and high-resolution meteorological simulations. The results show that the annual catchment average refreezing amounts to 122 mm w.e. (21% of the melt), and varies strongly in space depending on elevation and aspect. In addition, there is a seasonal altitudinal variability related to air temperature and snow depth, with most refreezing during the early melt season. Substantial intra-annual variability resulted from fluctuations in snowfall. Daily refreezing simulations decreased by 84% (annual catchment average of 19 mm w.e.) compared to hourly simulations, emphasizing the importance of using sub-daily time steps to capture melt–refreeze cycles. Climate sensitivity experiments revealed that refreezing is highly sensitive to changes in air temperature as a 2°C increase leads to a refreezing decrease of 35%.
In schizophrenia, sex differences related to age of onset, course of illness and response to antipsychotic treatment may be mirrored by differences in the underlying molecular pathways. We attempted to increase our understanding of these phenomena by carrying out multiplex immunoassay profiling of 95 serum molecules using samples from 4 independent cohorts of male and female first episode antipsychotic naive schizophrenia patients (n=133) and matched controls (n=133). The concentrations of 16 molecules associated with hormonal, inflammation and growth factor pathways showed significant sex differences in schizophrenia patients compared with controls. In line with the numerous sex differences reported in schizophrenia, our findings included alterations in the levels of several hormones, including elevated free and total testosterone in female patients and concomitant sex differences in sex hormone binding globulin and prolactin concentrations. We also found higher levels of thyroxine binding globulin and seven inflammatory markers in male schizophrenia patients only, raising the possibility that some aspects of the widely-reported immunological abnormalities in schizophrenia may be specific for males. Several of these markers showed sexspecific associations with positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS) scores and changes in concentration after 6 weeks of treatment with antipsychotics. Finally, we also evaluated overlapping and distinct sex-specific biomarkers for schizophrenia, Asperger syndrome, major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder. We propose that future studies should investigate the common and sex-specific aetiologies of schizophrenia, as the current findings suggest that different therapeutic strategies may be required for male and female patients.
Maternal mental well being influences offspring development. Research suggests that an interplay between genetic and environmental factors underlies this familial transmission of mental disorders.
Objectives
To explore an interaction between genetic and environmental factors to predict trajectories of maternal mental well being, and to examine whether these trajectories are associated with epigenetic modifications in mothers and their offspring.
Method
We assessed maternal childhood trauma and rearing experiences, prenatal and postnatal symptoms of depression and stress experience from 6 to 72 months postpartum, and genetic and epigenetic variation in a longitudinal birth-cohort study (n = 262) (Maternal adversity, vulnerability and neurodevelopment project). We used latent class modeling to describe trajectories in maternal depressive symptoms, parenting stress, marital stress and general stress, taking polygenetic risk for major depressive disorder (MDD), a composite score for maternal early life adversities, and prenatal depressive symptoms into account.
Results
Genetic risk for MDD associated with trajectories of maternal well being in the postpartum, conditional on the experience of early life adversities and prenatal symptoms of depression. We will explore whether these trajectories are also linked to DNA methylation patterns in mothers and their offspring. Preliminary analyses suggest that maternal early life adversities associate with offspring DNA methylation age estimates, which is mediated through maternal mental well being and maternal DNA methylation age estimates.
Conclusion
We found relevant gene-environment interactions associated with trajectories of maternal well being. Our findings inform research on mechanisms underlying familial transmission of vulnerability for psychopathology and might thus be relevant to prevention and early intervention programs.
Disclosure of interest
The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
Animal and human studies suggest that individual differences in maternal parenting behaviour are transmitted from one generation to the next.
Objective
This study aimed to examine potential psychosocial mechanisms underlying an intergenerational transmission of conceptualization of parenting, including affect, cognition, and parental support.
Methods
In a subsample of 201 first-time mothers participating in the Maternal Adversity, Vulnerability and Neurodevelopment (MAVAN) project, we assessed maternal childhood rearing experiences, using the Parental Bonding Instrument and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. At 6 months postpartum, mothers completed questionnaires on parenting stress, symptoms of depression, internalization of maternal care regulation and current relationship with mother and father.
Results
We found significant direct associations of maltreatment and rearing by the grandmother with parenting stress at 6 months. These associations were mediated through distinct psychosocial pathways: the association of maltreatment on higher parenting stress was fully mediated through more maternal symptoms of depression (z = 2.297; P = 022). The association between sub-optimal rearing provided by the mother and higher parenting stress was mediated through lower internalization of maternal care regulation (z = -2.155; P = 031) and to a lesser degree through more symptoms of depression (z = -1.842; P = 065). Finally, higher quality rearing by the grandfather was indirectly related to lower parenting stress through positive current relationship with the father (z = -2.617; P = 009).
Conclusions
There are distinct pathways by which early experiences manifest in parenting stress. By understanding the structure of dysregulated parenting, clinicians will have practical information to specifically target maternal motivation, social supports, and depressed mood to disrupt maladaptive parenting cognitions and practices.
Disclosure of interest
The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are objects in which a supermassive black hole is fed by gas and, as this generates energy, can ionise the environment and interact with it by jets and winds. This work is focused on the processes of feeding and feedback in the nucleus of NGC 613. This object is a case in which both phenomena can be studied in some detail. The kinematics and morphology of the molecular gas trace the feeding process while the ionization cone, seen in [O iii]λ5007 and soft X-rays, as well as the radio jet and wind/outflows are associated with feedback processes. In addition, we see 10 HII regions, associated with nuclear and circumnuclear young stellar populations, dominant in the optical, that makes the analysis complicated, though more interesting. For all these phenomena, NGC 613 nucleus is a vibrant example of the interplay between the AGN and the host galaxy.
The aim of diagnostic diagrams is to classify galactic nuclei according to their photoionizing source using emission-line ratios, differentiating starburst regions from active galactic nuclei (AGN). However, the three traditional diagnostic diagrams can sometimes be ambiguous with regard to a single object. The main goal of the present work is to propose alternative diagnostic diagrams by using distinct combinations of emission lines ratios. We present these diagrams using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. With these new diagrams, it is possible to better distinguish the ionizing source in nuclei of galaxies and also to study the parameters that are relevant when considering both kinds of objects, starbursts and AGN.
The DIVING3D Survey (Deep Integral Field Spectrograph View of Nuclei of Galaxies) aims to observe, with high signal/noise and high spatial resolution, a statistically complete sample of southern galaxies brighter than B = 12.0 The main objectives of this survey are to study: 1) the nuclear emission line properties; 2) the circumnuclear emission line properties; 3) the central stellar kinematics and 4) the central stellar archaeology. Preliminary results of individual or small groups of galaxies have been published in 18 papers.
In this work we derive stellar archaeology and kinematics of the central 400 pc of NGC 5643. The star formation history (SFH) reveals nuclear contribution of stellar populations older (20% older than 3.5 Gyr) and younger (60% younger than 320 Myr) as compared to the circumnuclear region. The [OIII] 5007 Å kinematics reveals the eastern ionization cone with an outflow (−60 km/s ⩽ v ⩽ 120 km/s).
We use near-infrared Integral Field Unit (IFU) data to analyze the galaxies NGC 4151 and NGC 1068, which have very different Eddington ratios - ˜50 times lower for NGC 4151. Together with a detailed data cube treatment methodology, we reveal remarkable similarities between both AGN, such as the detection of the walls of an “hourglass” structure for the low-velocity [Fe ii] emission with the high-velocity emission within this hourglass; a molecular outflow - detected for the first time in NGC 4151; and the fragmentation of an expanding molecular bubble into bullets of ionized gas. Such observations suggest that NGC 4151 could represent a less powerful and more compact version of the outflow seen in NGC 1068, suggesting a universal feedback mechanism acting in quite different AGN.
We present the first results of the Deep Integral Field Spectroscopy View of Nuclei of Galaxies (DIVING3D) survey, obtained from the analysis of the nuclear emission-line spectra of a sub-sample we call mini-DIVING3D, including all southern galaxies with B < 11.2 and |b| >15°. In comparison with previous studies, very few galaxies were classified as Transition objects. A possible explanation is that at least part of the Transition objects are composite systems, with a central low-ionization nuclear emission-line region (LINER) contaminated by the emission from circumnuclear H II regions. The high spatial resolution of the DIVING3D survey allowed us to isolate the nuclear emission from circumnuclear contaminations, reducing the number of Transition objects.
In this work, we present preliminary results regarding the nuclear emission lines of a statistically complete sample of 56 early-type galaxies that are part of the Deep Integral Field Spectroscopy View of Nuclei of Galaxies (DIVING3D) Project. All early type galaxies (ETGs) were observed with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph Integral Field Unit (GMOS-IFU) installed on the Gemini South Telescope. We detected emission lines in 93% of the sample, mostly low-ionization nuclear emission-line region galaxies (LINERs). We did not find Transition Objects nor H II regions in the sample. Type 1 objects are seen in ∼23% of the galaxies.
Edited by
Susanna Pietropaolo, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris,Frans Sluyter, University of Portsmouth,Wim E. Crusio, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Paris
Context: we present a study of the central 200 pc of NGC 6951, in the optical and NIR, taken with the Gemini North Telescope integral field spectrographs, with resolution of ~ 0”.1 Methods: we used a set of image processing techniques, as the filtering of high spatial and spectral frequencies, Richardson-Lucy deconvolution and PCA Tomography (Steiner et al.2009) to map the distribution and kinematics of the emission lines. Results: we found a thick molecular disk, with the ionization cone highly misaligned.
High post-release survival, low dispersal and the recruitment of captive-reared individuals into the wild population are critical to the success of any reintroduction programme. Reintroducing a migratory species poses an additional challenge as success also depends on the return of captive-reared individuals to breeding grounds in subsequent years. We investigated the effects of seven husbandry and management factors on the return rate of captive-reared eastern loggerhead shrikes Lanius ludovicianus migrans and documented the recruitment of returning individuals. During 2004–2010, 564 juveniles were released in Ontario, Canada, as part of a field propagation and release programme and there were 27 confirmed sightings of returning birds during 2005–2011. Returning birds were significantly more likely to have been released in large groups of juveniles (9–10 birds) at 5.5 weeks post-fledging from the Carden field propagation site. Comparisons of the number of young fledged and survival to 2 weeks post-fledging revealed similar results for pairs comprising one captive-reared and one wild-reared individual and pairs comprising two wild individuals. These results highlight the contribution of captive-reared shrikes to the recovery of the wild population and the importance of monitoring outcomes and evaluating techniques.
The Sunrise balloon-borne solar observatory consists of a 1m aperture Gregory telescope, a UV filter imager, an imaging vector polarimeter, an image stabilization system and further infrastructure. The first science flight of Sunrise yielded high-quality data that reveal the structure, dynamics and evolution of solar convection, oscillations and magnetic fields at a resolution of around 100 km in the quiet Sun. Here we describe very briefly the mission and the first results obtained from the Sunrise data, which include a number of discoveries.
The Honduran Emerald Amazilia luciae is endemic to dry forests of Honduras and currently recognised as ‘Critically Endangered.’ Here we present the first modern assessment of its distribution, ecology, and conservation, based partly on our rediscovery of the species in western Honduras and on our observations in three Honduran departments. We found that dry forests inhabited by the emerald differed in structure and species composition between eastern and western Honduras, where we observed emeralds in open-canopied deciduous thorn forests and closed-canopied semi-deciduous woodlands, respectively. We interpret these differences in light of the geological and anthropogenic origins of dry forests in Honduras, and discuss the implications of such origins for the conservation of dry forests. Although our findings expand the known distribution and population size of the species, its status as ‘Critically Endangered’ is warranted due to its restricted distribution in dry forest fragments and increasing human pressures on this habitat.