Heat Precipitation Research Articles

Geomagnetically Quiet Period Analysis of Relativistic Electrons, Auroral Precipitation, Joule Heating, and Ring Current During the Years of 1999, 2000 and 2004

This work presents the study of the quietest time variation in relativistic electrons, auroral precipitation, ring current, and joule heating during 1999, 2000, and 2004. Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) data on relativistic electrons with energies above 0.6 MeV, 2 MeV, and 4 MeV were analyzed. The time-series analysis of the relativistic electrons over a 24-hour averaged interval reveals a precise 24-hour modulation of the relativistic electron population during all seasons for energies above 0.6 MeV and 2 MeV, and during the winter season for higher energies above 4 MeV. In addition, relativistic electron fluxes at energies above 0.6 MeV and above 2 MeV were higher during the descending phase of the solar cycle compared to the ascending and solar-maximum phases. The cross-correlation analysis presented a strong correlation of Joule heating, ring current, and auroral precipitation with the relativistic electron population in three energy bands considered, as indicated by the zero-time lag. Studying the quiet time variation of relativistic electrons will lead to more complete ionospheric models, which were previously limited to the geomagnetically disturbed period.

Spatiotemporal patterns and driving forces of remotely sensed urban agglomeration heat islands in South China

Rapid urbanization and increasing population have widely caused the urban heat island effect. Due to the decreasing distance between cities, there is an urgent need to reevaluate regional heat island intensity (RHII) in an urban agglomeration scale by considering all cities together instead of from conventional single city perspective. Using cropland land surface temperature as the reference temperature, we assessed the diurnal and seasonal RHII variations in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) urban agglomeration in South China. The boosted regression trees (BRT) method was then used to analyze the relative influence and marginal effect of possible drivers to disentangle their underlying driving mechanisms. Results showed that the daytime RHII spatial patterns averaged over the period 2003–2017 illustrated higher intensity and greater heterogeneity than their nighttime counterparts, especially for the stronger RHII in the central GBA around the estuary area. Seasonal dynamics of daytime RHII displayed a generally descending trend from summer to winter, but the opposite for night. BRT analyses indicated that at both annual and seasonal scales, vegetation fraction and background temperature had a dominant influence on RHII in daytime and nighttime, respectively. RHII variations were also considerably attributed to other drivers for different seasons. For daytime RHII, the other influential drivers included anthropogenic heat emissions and precipitation in summer, anthropogenic heat emissions and terrain in the transition season, and temperature and albedo in winter. For nighttime RHII, anthropogenic heat emissions for all seasons, vegetation activities for summer and the transition season, and precipitation for winter also had important contributions. The marginal effects detected the different nonlinear responses of diurnal and seasonal RHII to potential drivers, suggesting contrasting driving mechanisms. Results of this study highlight more targeted and informed strategies for RHII mitigation in the GBA and provide helpful insights into RHI evaluation in other urban agglomerations.

Diminishing Opportunities for Sustainability of Coastal Cities in the Anthropocene: A Review

The world is urbanizing most rapidly in tropical to sub-temperate areas and in coastal zones. Climate change along with other global change forcings will diminish the opportunities for sustainability of cities, especially in coastal areas in low-income countries. Climate forcings include global temperature and heatwave increases that are expanding the equatorial tropical belt, sea-level rise, an increase in the frequency of the most intense tropical cyclones, both increases and decreases in freshwater inputs to coastal zones, and increasingly severe extreme precipitation events, droughts, freshwater shortages, heat waves, and wildfires. Current climate impacts are already strongly influencing natural and human systems. Because of proximity to several key warming variables such as sea-level rise and increasing frequency and intensity of heatwaves, coastal cities are a leading indicator of what may occur worldwide. Climate change alone will diminish the sustainability and resilience of coastal cities, especially in the tropical-subtropical belt, but combined with other global changes, this suite of forcings represents an existential threat, especially for coastal cities. Urbanization has coincided with orders of magnitude increases in per capita GDP, energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, which in turn has led to unprecedented demand for natural resources and degradation of natural systems and more expensive infrastructure to sustain the flows of these resources. Most resources to fuel cities are extracted from ex-urban areas far away from their point of final use. The urban transition over the last 200 years is a hallmark of the Anthropocene coinciding with large surges in use of energy, principally fossil fuels, population, consumption and economic growth, and environmental impacts such as natural system degradation and climate change. Fossil energy enabled and underwrote Anthropocene origins and fueled the dramatic expansion of modern urban systems. It will be difficult for renewable energy and other non-fossil energy sources to ramp up fast enough to fuel further urban growth and maintenance and reverse climate change all the while minimizing further environmental degradation. Given these trajectories, the future sustainability of cities and urbanization trends, especially in threatened areas like coastal zones in low-income countries in the tropical to sub-tropical belt, will likely diminish. Adaptation to climate change may be limited and challenging to implement, especially for low-income countries.

Influence of aluminium-rich intermetallics on microstructure evolution and mechanical properties of friction stir alloyed Al Fe alloy system

In the present investigation, the AlFe alloy system is developed by using the solid-state friction stir alloying (FSA) technique. The objective is realized by using multiple passes (1–4) of FSA with 100% overlap at constant process parameters. The TEM analysis confirms the interfacial reaction between the Al and Fe particles leading to the formation of nano-sized hard and brittle Al13Fe4 intermetallic (IMC) phase. The SEM, EDS, and XRD analysis also indicates the existence of a very small amount of Al5Fe2 IMC layer at the AlFe interface. The microstructural analysis from EBSD confirms that the grain size is reduced from ~27 μm in the base material to ~2 μm in the 4 pass FSAed AlFe alloy through dynamic recrystallization mechanism. The microhardness in the SZ is increased by ~14% in the 4 pass FSAed AlFe alloy as compared to that with 1 pass. The increased hardness of AlFe alloys as compared to the 4 passes processed Al alloy (without Fe) suggest that the AlFe alloys system presented here can be an alternative solution for underwater friction stir welding (UFSW) to compensate for the stir zone softening occurred by the high heat input process parameters or precipitate dissolution in the heat treatable Al alloys. The ultimate tensile strength and percentage elongation are increased by ~30% and ~48% in the 4 pass FSAed AlFe alloy as compared to the alloy fabricated at 1 pass, respectively. The increased strength and hardness of the 4 passes FSAed alloy is attributed to the increased reaction rate between Al and Fe particles owing to the higher heat input which results in the precipitation of a more number of Al13Fe4 IMC phases during 4 passes. Also, the uniform dispersion of nano-sized IMC phases in 4 passes FSAed alloy as compared to the alloy fabricated with 1 pass, contribute significantly to the dislocation blockade and dispersion strengthening mechanism. The shreds of evidence provided in the present investigation suggest that the precipitation hardening is the dominant strengthening mechanism in the AlFe alloy system as compared to the Hall-petch strengthening mechanism.

Large-scale drivers of the mistral wind: link to Rossby wave life cycles and seasonal variability

Abstract. The mistral is a northerly low-level jet blowing through the Rhône valley in southern France and down to the Gulf of Lion. It is co-located with the cold sector of a low-level lee cyclone in the Gulf of Genoa, behind an upper-level trough north of the Alps. The mistral wind has long been associated with extreme weather events in the Mediterranean, and while extensive research focused on the lower-tropospheric mistral and lee cyclogenesis, the different upper-tropospheric large- and synoptic-scale settings involved in producing the mistral wind are not generally known. Here, the isentropic potential vorticity (PV) structures governing the occurrence of the mistral wind are classified using a self-organizing map (SOM) clustering algorithm. Based upon a 36-year (1981–2016) mistral database and daily ERA-Interim isentropic PV data, 16 distinct mistral-associated PV structures emerge. Each classified flow pattern corresponds to a different type or stage of the Rossby wave life cycle, from broad troughs to thin PV streamers to distinguished cutoffs. Each of these PV patterns exhibits a distinct surface impact in terms of the surface cyclone, surface turbulent heat fluxes, wind, temperature and precipitation. A clear seasonal separation between the clusters is evident, and transitions between the clusters correspond to different Rossby-wave-breaking processes. This analysis provides a new perspective on the variability of the mistral and of the Genoa lee cyclogenesis in general, linking the upper-level PV structures to their surface impact over Europe, the Mediterranean and north Africa.

Effects of Precipitation Hardening Variables on Al–Zn–Mg-Sn Alloy as Sacrificial Anode in Seawater: Experimental and Statistical Analysis

This research investigated the effects of tin composition and heat treatment variables on the Al-Zn-Mg alloy as sacrificial anode in seawater using gravimetric technique and statistical analysis. Tin was alloyed with Al-Zn-Mg in varied proportions (0%, 0.01%, 0.05% and 0.1%) to determine the optimum anode efficiency in the marine environment. Precipitation heat treatment was performed by first subjecting the samples to solution treatment at 5380C for 2 hours and later subjected to varying hardening temperatures and times. The samples were hardened for 4, 8 and 12 hours at each of the hardening temperatures of 1300, 1600 and 1900 centigrade. The anode efficiency increases as the tin concentration increases. The experimental result of this study showed that the Al-Zn-Mg alloy with 0.1% tin gives the optimum anode efficiency. It was revealed that the Al-Zn-Mg alloy without tin composition exhibited high output current capacity when hardened at 1900C for 4 hours. Predictive model developed in this work was in consonance with experimental observation except the following; at hardening temperature of 1600C, the model recommended 12 hours as against 4 hours of laboratory experiment and at hardening temperature of 1300C it advocated 8 hours as against 12 hours.Keywords - aluminum alloy, corrosion, precipitation hardening, regression and correlation analysis, and sacrificial anode

РІВЕНЬ ПРОЯВУ ТА ВАРІАЦІЯ БІОМЕТРИЧНИХ ПОКАЗНИКІВ СОРТОЗРАЗКІВ ЯЧМЕНЮ ЯРОГО КОЛЕКЦІЇ УМАНСЬКОГО НАЦІОНАЛЬНОГО УНІВЕРСИТЕТУ САДІВНИЦТВА

Different weather conditions provide unequal growth and development of plants, in addition, biotypes react differently to changes in external environmental factors. Scientists from Ukraine and other countries analyze varieties and samples of spring barley for the purpose of determine donors of useful traits in different soil and climatic conditions. For the purpose of combine a number of useful traits in one genotype, hybridization between geographically distant biotypes is used. Uman National University of Horticulture has a collection of spring barley samples by different geographic origin. The analyze of breeding material by biometric traits, which will allow us to determine the level of manifestation of each of them in different conditions of 2018–2020 and to determine the donors of useful traits for the further breeding process, was carried out. The weather conditions of the years of research were very different. 2018 was the most unfavorable year for early spring crops. The reason for this was the presence of snow cover until the end of March. After that were strong heat and lack of precipitation. 2019 and 2020 were more favorable for spring barley due to the long cool spring. In addition, in 2020, May and June characterized by increased rainfall. The average plant height of the studied biotypes ranged from 50 to 64 cm. Most samples had the lowest plant height 40–57 cm in 2018, and the highest – in 2020 – from 54 to 88 cm. The average spike length of the analyzed samples was 5.9–8.1 cm. There was not dependence between conditions of the research year and spike length. The number of spikelets per spike was naturally determined by the research conditions. The lowest indicators were observed in 2018 — from 7.0 to 12.0 units, while in 2019 — 16.6–23.9 units, and in 2020 — 20.2–27.7 units. The variation of plant height of the analyzed samples was medium and significant with coefficients from 13.7 to 32.6 %. There was a slight, medium and significant variation of the length of the ear (V = 2.9–23.6 %). The index of number of spikelets per spike most varied — the coefficients of variation were 32.6–55.5 %.

Hydrometeorological dataset of West Siberian boreal peatland: a 10-year record from the Mukhrino field station

Abstract. Northern peatlands represent one of the largest carbon pools in the biosphere, but the carbon they store is increasingly vulnerable to perturbations from climate and land-use change. Meteorological observations taken directly at peatland areas in Siberia are unique and rare, while peatlands are characterized by a specific local climate. This paper presents a hydrological and meteorological dataset collected at the Mukhrino peatland, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug – Yugra, Russia, over the period of 8 May 2010 to 31 December 2019. Hydrometeorological data were collected from stations located at a small pine–shrub–Sphagnum ridge and Scheuchzeria–Sphagnum hollow at ridge–hollow complexes of ombrotrophic peatland. The monitored meteorological variables include air temperature, air humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction, incoming and reflected photosynthetically active radiation, net radiation, soil heat flux, precipitation (rain), and snow depth. A gap-filling procedure based on the Gaussian process regression model with an exponential kernel was developed to obtain continuous time series. For the record from 2010 to 2019, the average mean annual air temperature at the site was −1.0 ∘C, with the mean monthly temperature of the warmest month (July) recorded as 17.4 ∘C and for the coldest month (January) −21.5 ∘C. The average net radiation was about 35.0 W m−2, and the soil heat flux was 2.4 and 1.2 W m−2 for the hollow and the ridge sites, respectively. The presented data are freely available through Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4323024, Dyukarev et al., 2020), last access: 15 December 2020) and can be used in coordination with other hydrological and meteorological datasets to examine the spatiotemporal effects of meteorological conditions on local hydrological responses across cold regions.

Summer heat sources changes over the Tibetan Plateau in CMIP6 models

The elevated summer heat sources over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) profoundly influence Asian monsoon and atmospheric general circulation. Model simulations and future changes of condensational latent heat released from precipitation and surface sensible heat (SH) over the eastern TP are investigated with 22 CMIP6 models’ outputs. The models reproduce the mean precipitation pattern well, but the mean intensity is 65% excessive. The SH has scarcely been evaluated. We find that nearly half of the models cannot realistically capture the SH’s spatial structure. The best six models in simulating the SH are the same models that best simulate surface air temperature. The models with high performance are selected to make a multi-model ensemble mean projection. Under the medium emission scenario (SSP2-4.5), the TP’s future summer precipitation will likely increase, despite its weakening thermal forcing effect. The increasing precipitation is primarily due to the future enhancement in vertical moisture transport and surface evaporation. However, the greenhouse gases-induced top-heavy heating stabilizes the atmosphere and diminishes the TP’s thermal forcing effect, weakening the circulation and upward motion. As such, the precipitation sensitivity is only a 2.7% increase per degree Celsius global warming. The projected SH will be likely unchanged in accord with the likely unaltered surface wind speed. These results have important implications for the future change of the water supplies in the heavily populated South and East Asian countries. They could help the modeling groups further improve the climate model performance in the highland regions.

Multi-annual prediction of drought and heat stress to support decision making in the wheat sector

Drought and heat stress affect global wheat production and food security. Since these climate hazards are expected to increase in frequency and intensity due to anthropogenic climate change, there is a growing need for effective planning and adaptive actions at all timescales relevant to the stakeholders and users in this sector. This work aims at assessing the forecast quality in predicting the evolution of drought and heat stress by using user-relevant agro-climatic indices such as Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) and Heat Magnitude Day Index (HMDI) on a multi-annual timescale, as this time horizon coincides with the long-term strategic planning of stakeholders in the wheat sector. We present the probabilistic skill and reliability of initialized decadal forecast to predict these indices for the months preceding the wheat harvest on a global spatial scale. The results reveal the usefulness of the study in a climate services context while showing that decadal climate forecasts are skillful and reliable over several wheat harvesting regions.

Law’s Disaster: Heritage at Risk

Large-scale meteorological and geological events—including hurricanes, tropical storms, tornadoes, floods, blizzards, wildfires, earthquakes, extreme heat, and drought—have many consequences: loss of life, economic catastrophe, and destruction of homes among them. Perhaps less well-known are the threats to the historic and cultural sites that speak to human identity and create a sense of connection across generations. These sites are designated spaces of value, given their historical or cultural significance, and they are preserved to commemorate important moments in the story of the lived human experience. Yet hurricanes can destroy old buildings, especially ones that have not been structurally reinforced. Extreme heat and intense precipitation can reduce the lifespan of historic material through weakened joints, eroded paint and other surface protections, and mold. Climate change has made many of these large-scale events more frequent and more intense. Further, the physical vulnerability of these places is deeply tied to social vulnerability of the populations they serve.
 Given the climate’s increasing risks to historic sites, one might assume that disaster-related planning, mitigation, and recovery efforts are being undertaken with increased urgency. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
 This Article argues that historic places desperately need the protection of legal reforms at the intersection of disaster law and historic preservation law before they succumb to flame, water, wind, or the earth itself. It starts by explaining what is at stake: archaeological sites, vulnerable buildings, and even national landmarks like Mesa Verde and the Statue of Liberty. It then establishes the three stages where disaster-related legal protection of historic resources is needed: before, during, and after disaster. The Article next critiques the multi-governmental, federalist framework for heritage-related disaster law, and highlights two states and four local governments starting to make necessary reforms. While no physical or legal intervention will ever make historic sites last forever, we should change laws and policies to ensure these sites are more resilient in the face of obvious threats.

Ambiguous Agricultural Drought: Characterising Soil Moisture and Vegetation Droughts in Europe from Earth Observation

Long-lasting precipitation deficits or heat waves can induce agricultural droughts, which are generally defined as soil moisture deficits that are severe enough to negatively impact vegetation. However, during short soil moisture drought events, the vegetation is not always negatively affected and sometimes even thrives. Due to this duality in agricultural drought impacts, the term “agricultural drought” is ambiguous. Using the ESA’s remotely sensed CCI surface soil moisture estimates and MODIS NDVI vegetation greenness data, we show that, in major European droughts over the past two decades, asynchronies and discrepancies occurred between the surface soil moisture and vegetation droughts. A clear delay is visible between the onset of soil moisture drought and vegetation drought, with correlations generally peaking at the end of the growing season. At lower latitudes, correlations peaked earlier in the season, likely due to an earlier onset of water limited conditions. In certain cases, the vegetation showed a positive anomaly, even during soil moisture drought events. As a result, using the term agricultural drought instead of soil moisture or vegetation drought, could lead to the misclassification of drought events and false drought alarms. We argue that soil moisture and vegetation drought should be considered separately.

Resistance of African tropical forests to an extreme climate anomaly

The responses of tropical forests to environmental change are critical uncertainties in predicting the future impacts of climate change. The positive phase of the 2015-2016 El Niño Southern Oscillation resulted in unprecedented heat and low precipitation in the tropics with substantial impacts on the global carbon cycle. The role of African tropical forests is uncertain as their responses to short-term drought and temperature anomalies have yet to be determined using on-the-ground measurements. African tropical forests may be particularly sensitive because they exist in relatively dry conditions compared with Amazonian or Asian forests, or they may be more resistant because of an abundance of drought-adapted species. Here, we report responses of structurally intact old-growth lowland tropical forests inventoried within the African Tropical Rainforest Observatory Network (AfriTRON). We use 100 long-term inventory plots from six countries each measured at least twice prior to and once following the 2015-2016 El Niño event. These plots experienced the highest temperatures and driest conditions on record. The record temperature did not significantly reduce carbon gains from tree growth or significantly increase carbon losses from tree mortality, but the record drought did significantly decrease net carbon uptake. Overall, the long-term biomass increase of these forests was reduced due to the El Niño event, but these plots remained a live biomass carbon sink (0.51 ± 0.40 Mg C ha-1 y-1) despite extreme environmental conditions. Our analyses, while limited to African tropical forests, suggest they may be more resistant to climatic extremes than Amazonian and Asian forests.

The role of interannual ENSO events in decadal timescale transitions of the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation

The build-up of decadal timescale upper ocean heat content in the off-equatorial western tropical Pacific can provide necessary conditions for interannual El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events to contribute to decadal timescale transitions of tropical Pacific SSTs to the opposite phase of the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO). This can be viewed as a corollary to subseasonal westerly wind burst events contributing to El Niño interannual timescale transitions. A long pre-industrial control run with CESM1 is analyzed to show that there is a greater chance of ENSO activity to contribute to an IPO transition when off-equatorial western Pacific Ocean heat content reaches either a maximum (for El Niño to contribute to a transition to positive IPO) or minimum (for La Niña to contribute to a transition to negative IPO) as seen in observations. If above a necessary ocean heat content threshold, the convergence associated with westerly anomaly near-equatorial surface winds associated with El Niño activity can draw that heat content equatorward to sustain anomalously warm western and central Pacific SSTs. These are associated with positive precipitation and convective heating anomalies, a Gill-type response and wind stress curl anomalies that continue to feed warm water into the near-equatorial western Pacific. These conditions then sustain the decadal-timescale transition to positive IPO (with the opposite sign for transition to negative IPO). Associated central equatorial Pacific convective heating anomalies produce SLP and wind stress anomalies in the North and South Pacific that can excite westward-propagating off-equatorial oceanic Rossby waves to contribute to the western Pacific thermocline depth and consequent heat content anomalies.

Global Ionospheric Response to a Periodic Sequence of HSS/CIR Events During the 2007–2008 Solar Minimum

AbstractIn this study, we investigate the global ionospheric impact of high‐speed solar wind streams/corotating interaction regions (HSS/CIR). A series of 10 such events are identified between December 1, 2007 and April 29, 2008, characterized in the frequency domain by the main spectral peaks corresponding to 27, 13.5, 9, and 6.75 days. The spectra of solar wind magnetic field, speed, and proton density, as well as those of the geomagnetic indices AE and SYM‐H, are solely dominated by these features. By contrast, the ionospheric NmF2 and to a lesser extent the hmF2 spectra have a much more complex structure, with secondary peaks adding to or replacing the main ones. We argue that this is evidence of the nonlinear nature of the magnetosphere‐ionosphere coupling, highlighted particularly in the NmF2 ionospheric response. Additionally, we show that hmF2 is more closely correlated than NmF2 to all parameters describing the solar wind and geomagnetic activity. Finally, the ionospheric response shows a higher correlation with Bz than any other solar wind parameter, and higher with SYM‐H than AE, indicating that for the low‐frequency part of the spectrum, high‐latitude Joule heating and particle precipitation play a secondary role to that of prompt penetration electric fields in dictating the ionospheric response to geomagnetic activity, in the case of this sequence of HSS/CIR events.

Impact of climate change on health in Karachi, Pakistan

Abstract Climate change is a key indicator of a country's durability in terms of environmental care. When climate shifts from the norm, the whole ecological cycle is disrupted. Karachi has suffered from severe precipitation events and heat waves that have caused outbreaks of malaria, dengue fever, and severe gastroenteritis. These health crises have led to a rise in morbidity and mortality rates in the already low-income city of Karachi. The goal of this review is to highlight the implications of climate change on the health of Karachi residents and actions which need to be undertaken for the betterment of future environmental policies.

41 Macleaya cordata phytotherapic supplementation can modulate immune response in ponies fed a high starch diet

High amounts of grains in equine diet lead to an excessive starch intake modifying microbial populations and fermentative products. These changes could compromise the gastrointestinal barrier which has serious consequences for equine health. Therefore, feed additives are receiving great attention to minimize negative effects related to high starch level inclusion. Macleaya cordata compounds are being used in animal nutrition for their multiple biological effects, including anti-inflammatory and antibiotic properties. However there is no information about effects on horses. The aim of this study was to evaluate effects of increasing levels of a Macleaya cordata commercial phytotherapic on gastrointestinal tract and systemic inflammation of ponies fed a high starch diet. Eight gelding ponies, Mini-Horse breed, healthy, mean age 8.59+0.17 years old and mean body weight (BW) 146.72+16.53 kg were used. Experimental design was contemporary double Latin-square 4 × 4. Experimental unit was the animal inside each experimental period (n = 8 units per treatment). Each experimental period lasted 20 d. Diet attended daily maintenance nutritional requirement of 1.75% BW in dry matter in a concentrate:roughage proportion of 60:40. Daily starch amount was 4.4 g/kg BW, divided in 2 meals. Water and mineral salt were provided ad libitum . Animals were separated in 4 groups: 1) Control: concentrate without food additive, 2) S1: concentrate with 1 mg of phytotherapic/kg BW, 3) S1.5: concentrate with 1.5 mg of phytotherapic/kg BW, 4) S2: concentrate with 2 mg of phytotherapic/kg BW. Right dorsal colon wall thickness was measured by ultrasonography to determine local inflammation at 9:30 a.m. on d 20. Esaote MyLab TM Delta and a micro convex probe were used. Best image was selected using MyLab TM Desk3 software and 3 measures were taken for mean. For systemic inflammation, blood samples were collected at 9 a.m. on d 19. Fibrinogen was dosed by heat precipitation method and interleukins 6 and 10 gene expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) was obtained using qPCR. Data were analyzed by Statistical Analysis System program with PROC MIXED. Significant level was 5%. Intestinal wall was thinner ( P = 0.0071) in all treated groups (Control: 3.08 mm; S1: 2.59 mm; S1.5: 2.53 mm; S2: 2.44 mm). There were no statistical differences between groups for systemic inflammatory parameters. In conclusion, Macleaya cordata commercial phytotherapic addition in high starch equine diet modulates local immunity, but has no impact on systemic inflammation.

Early-onset of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation weakening in response to atmospheric CO2 concentration

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a tipping component of the climate system, is projected to slowdown during the 21st century in response to increased atmospheric CO2 concentration. The rate and start of the weakening are associated with relatively large uncertainties. Observed sea surface temperature-based reconstructions indicate that AMOC has been weakening since the mid-20th century, but its forcing factors are not fully understood. Here we provide dynamical observational evidence that the increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration affects the North Atlantic heat fluxes and precipitation rate, and weakens AMOC, consistent with numerical simulations. The inferred weakening, starting in the late 19th century, earlier than previously suggested, is estimated at 3.7 ± 1.0 Sv over the 1854–2016 period, which is larger than it is shown in numerical simulations (1.4 ± 1.4 Sv).

Laser cladding of aluminum alloy 6061 via off-axis powder injection

Laser cladding is a surface enhancement and repair process in which a high-powered laser beam is used to deposit a thin (0.05 mm to 2 mm) layer of material onto a metal substrate with no cracking, minimal porosity, and satisfactory mechanical properties. In this work, a 4 kW High Power Diode Laser (HPDL) is used with off-axis powder injection to deposit single-tracks of aluminum alloy 6061 powder on a 6061-T6511 substrate. The process parameters were varied to identify the possible processing window in which a successful clad is achieved. Geometrical characteristics were correlated to the processing parameters and the trends were discussed. Micro-hardness testing was employed to examine the mechanical properties of the clad in the as-deposited and precipitation heat treated conditions. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was used to investigate the precipitate structures in the clad and substrate as an explanation for the hardness variations. Experiments were completed on two substrate widths to understand the effect of domain size on the process map, layer size, and hardness.

Drought and its impact on the bio-production of forests

The precipitation deficit, heat waves and subsequent drought significantly affected the forests in the Czech Republic. Primarily, forests were affected by physiological insufficiency and later by biotic and abiotic factors. On the initiative of the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic, a study of the condition and damage of forest functions in the model area was formulated. The study was aimed at the model locality of the Bohemian-Moravian Highlands, especially the forest management unit of the Da?ice municipality (South Bohemian Region). The study uses certified national methodologies for evaluating forest function damage (Vyskot et al. 2003; Vyskot et al. 2014). This paper specifies the state and damage of the bio-production function depending on the represented forest management groups, stand types of woody plants and age phases of stands, in terms of value (in %) and finance in Czech koruna (CZK, the currency of the Czech Republic). In particular, spruce stands and their dominant mixtures of non-matured and fully matured trees were affected by major damage of a destructive nature. Due to the changed ecosystem conditions, a modified concept of forest management was proposed.