Near real-time quantitative precipitation estimates are required for many applications including weather forecasting, flood forecasting, crop management, forest fire prevention, hydropower ...production, and dam safety. Since April 2011, such a product has been available from Environment and Climate Change Canada for a domain covering all North America. This product, known as the Regional Deterministic Precipitation Analysis, is generated using the Canadian Precipitation Analysis (CaPA) system. Although it was designed for near real-time use, an archive of pre-operational and operational products going back to 2002 is now available and has been used in numerous studies. This paper presents a review of the various scientific publications that have reported either using or evaluating CaPA products. We find that the product is used with success both for scientific studies and operational applications and compares well with other precipitation datasets. We summarize the strengths and weaknesses of the system as reported in the literature. We also provide users with information on how the system works, how it has changed over time, and how the archived and near real-time analyses can be accessed and used. We finally briefly report on recent and upcoming improvements to the product based, in part, on the results of this literature review.
ABSTRACT
Mule ducks were force-fed for 12 d to determine whether or not signs of apoptosis could occur during the development of the hepatic steatosis induced by the huge quantities of corn ingested ...twice daily by the birds. Presence of apoptosis in hepatocytes was assessed through the measurements of increased activities of capsase-3 +-7, -8, and -9. From d 0 of the force-feeding period until d 8, activities of the different caspases remained at a low level. On the contrary, at d 10 and d 12, activities of all measured caspases dramatically increased, indicating that apoptosis occurred at this stage, which corresponds to the time of accumulation of large quantities of lipids in the hepatic cells.
The melting level of the liver issued from force-feeding ("foie gras") during cooking is a point of interest for processors because it could degrade the quality of this delicate dish. In this study, we used the levels of caspases activities to improve the predictability of foie gras cooking, in addition to other parameters usually used, such as its weight or lipid content. From this improvement, we suggest that part of the variability of melting during cooking of fatty livers could reside in more or less intense activity of hepatic proteases.
The aim of this experiment was to study the effect of chilling rates on the quality features of fatty livers. Three different chilling rates were applied: ultra-fast (UF), fast (FA), and slow (SL). ...Technological and proteomic results were compared at time T1 when the internal temperature of livers reached 10°C and at time T2 = 24 h post mortem. Samples from the UF group reached the T1 temperature at 50 min post mortem and had the least hard livers and the lowest cooking loss percentage (25 ± 9%) at time T2 = 24 h post mortem (P-value of < 0.01). The FA and SL groups reached the T1 temperature after 120 and 210 min post mortem and presented higher melting (36 ± 9 and 41 ± 9%, respectively, at time T2) and harder livers compared to the UF group. In parallel, we conducted semi-quantifications of proteins by electrophoresis and proteolytic activities by mono-dimensional zymography for three families of proteases: Matrix metalloproteases (MMP), Cathepsins, and Calpains. The proteomic assays revealed less modified proteolytic activities in samples from the UF group, and less associated proteins degradations than in samples from the FA and the SL groups. Effects of the different chilling rates were mainly significant at time T2 (24 h post mortem). As a conclusion we were able to highlight an indirect positive relation between proteolysis and melting yield in ducks’ fatty liver.
ABSTRACT
We investigated a protein profile evolution during steatosis in ducks using 2-dimensional electrophoresis gels to better understand the mechanisms underlying liver steatosis at the level of ...hepatic proteins in waterfowl. Two-dimensional electrophoresis gels were performed in the liver at different stages of steatosis in the duck. Mule ducks were slaughtered after 0, 14, or 23 meals of overfeeding, according to commercial conditions. Thirty-one proteic spots were differentially expressed between 3 or 2 durations of overfeeding: 3 spots were differentially expressed between the 3 times and 28 spots were differentially expressed between 2 times. The identified proteins (14) could be regrouped into 5 categories: enzymes, translation factors, proteins involved in cell structure, proteins with antioxidant properties, and proteins that can link calcium. This study opens new research areas in the understanding of steatosis in waterfowl, such as cell structure and oxidative stress.
In this review, an overview on proteomic studies conducted in livers of farm animals is conducted with a special focus on liver steatosis in waterfowl. Several studies had interest in understanding ...liver metabolism in dairy cows under various conditions (e.g. fasting) or the evolution of liver proteome during embryonic phases or growing periods in chicken. Those studies provide interesting results leading to a better understanding of the liver metabolism. Liver steatosis development in waterfowl represents a special case and a focus on proteomic studies conducted in these birds will be done. Indeed, recent studies aimed at resolving protein evolution during overfeeding in duck. Proteomic analysis combining two complementary approaches (2-dimensional electrophoresis gels and shot gun strategy) in order to better understand the mechanisms underlying the variability of cooking yield of fatty liver will be presented. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Farm animal proteomics.
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► Liver is a central organ in animals but its study by proteomic approaches is still poorly documented. ► Liver proteome mapping is still far to be complete in farm animals. ► In chicken, proteomic analysis revealed a change in the metabolic orientation of the liver with age. ► Liver proteome analyses provide new insights in ketosis and feed restriction in dairy cows. ► Technological quality variability of duck fatty liver is partly explained by proteomic studies.
From 19 to 22 June 2013, intense rainfall and
concurrent snowmelt led to devastating floods in the Canadian Rockies,
foothills and downstream areas of southern Alberta and southeastern British
...Columbia, Canada. Such an event is typical of late-spring floods in cold-region mountain headwater, combining intense precipitation with rapid
melting of late-lying snowpack, and represents a challenge for hydrological
forecasting systems. This study investigated the factors governing the
ability to predict such an event. Three sources of uncertainty, other than
the hydrological model processes and parameters, were considered: (i) the
resolution of the atmospheric forcings, (ii) the snow and soil moisture initial conditions (ICs) and (iii) the representation of the soil texture.
The Global Environmental Multiscale hydrological modeling platform
(GEM-Hydro), running at a 1 km grid spacing, was used to simulate
hydrometeorological conditions in the main headwater basins of southern
Alberta during this event. The GEM atmospheric model and the Canadian
Precipitation Analysis (CaPA) system were combined to generate atmospheric
forcing at 10, 2.5 and 1 km over southern Alberta. Gridded estimates of snow
water equivalent (SWE) from the Snow Data Assimilation System (SNODAS) were used
to replace the model SWE at peak snow accumulation and generate alternative
snow and soil moisture ICs before the event. Two global soil texture
datasets were also used. Overall 12 simulations of the flooding event
were carried out. Results show that the resolution of the atmospheric
forcing affected primarily the flood volume and peak flow in all river
basins due to a more accurate estimation of intensity and total amount of
precipitation during the flooding event provided by CaPA analysis at
convection-permitting scales (2.5 and 1 km). Basin-averaged snowmelt also
changed with the resolution due to changes in near-surface wind and
resulting turbulent fluxes contributing to snowmelt. Snow ICs were the main
sources of uncertainty for half of the headwater basins. Finally, the soil
texture had less impact and only affected peak flow magnitude and timing for
some stations. These results highlight the need to combine atmospheric
forcing at convection-permitting scales with high-quality snow ICs to provide
accurate streamflow predictions during late-spring floods in cold-region mountain river basins. The predictive improvement by inclusion of high-elevation weather stations in the precipitation analysis and the need for
accurate mountain snow information suggest the necessity of integrated
observation and prediction systems for forecasting extreme events in
mountain river basins.
Environment and Climate Change Canada has initiated the production of a 1980–2018, 10 km, North American precipitation and surface reanalysis. ERA-Interim is used to initialize the Global ...Deterministic Reforecast System (GDRS) at a 39 km resolution. Its output is then dynamically downscaled to 10 km by the Regional Deterministic Reforecast System (RDRS). Coupled with the RDRS, the Canadian Land Data Assimilation System (CaLDAS) and Precipitation Analysis (CaPA) are used to produce surface and precipitation analyses. All systems used are close to operational model versions and configurations. In this study, a 7-year sample of the reanalysis (2011–2017) is evaluated. Verification results show that the skill of the RDRS is stable over time and equivalent to that of the current operational system. The impact of the coupling between RDRS and CaLDAS is explored using an early version of the reanalysis system which was run at 15 km resolution for the period 2010–2014, with and without the use of CaLDAS. Significant improvements are observed with CaLDAS in the lower troposphere and surface layer, especially for the 850 hPa dew point and absolute temperatures in summer. Precipitation is further improved through an offline precipitation analysis which allows the assimilation of additional observations of 24 h precipitation totals. The final dataset should be of particular interest for hydrological applications focusing on transboundary and northern watersheds, where existing products often show discontinuities at the border and assimilate very few – if any – precipitation observations.
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