Lightning is the main precursor of natural wildfires and Long-Continuing-Current (LCC) lightning flashes are proposed to be the main igniters of lightning-ignited wildfires (LIW). Previous studies ...predict a change of the global occurrence rate and spatial pattern of total lightning. Nevertheless, the sensitivity of lightning-ignited wildfire occurrence to climate change is uncertain. Here, we investigate space-based measurements of LCC lightning associated with lightning ignitions and present LCC lightning projections under the Representative Concentration Pathway RCP6.0 for the 2090s by applying a recent LCC lightning parameterization based on the updraft strength in thunderstorms. We find a 41% global increase of the LCC lightning flash rate. Increases are largest in South America, the western coast of North America, Central America, Australia, Southern and Eastern Asia, and Europe, while only regional variations are found in northern polar forests, where fire risk can affect permafrost soil carbon release. These results show that lightning schemes including LCC lightning are needed to project the occurrence of lightning-ignited wildfires under climate change.
Lightning is one of the main sources of NOx in the Earth's atmosphere. However, there is a large variability in NOx production during the lifetime of thunderstorms. In this study, we used the ...TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) cloud and NO2 research products along with Lightning Mapping Array (LMA) measurements to investigate the possible relation between the amount of NOx produced per lightning flash and flash channel length in the Ebro Valley. We found that there is a positive relationship between both variables. In turn, the vertical structure of the analyzed lightning flashes indicates that longer flashes could release more LNOx at lower altitudes than shorter flashes, while higher flash rates produce less LNOx per flash.
Plain Language Summary
Lightning produces significant amounts of NOx in the Earth's atmosphere. However, the quantity of NOx generated during thunderstorms exhibits significant variation. In this study, we used a space‐based instrument called TROPOMI to look at clouds and measure NO2, and we also used a network of antennas called Lightning Mapping Array to map the spatial structure of lightning strikes. Our main goal was investigating if there is a connection between the amount of NOx produced by lightning and how long the lightning flashes were in the Ebro Valley. We found that there is a positive relationship between the two variables. We also looked at the structure of the lightning flashes and found that longer flashes release more NOx at lower altitudes compared to shorter flashes. Additionally, when there are more frequent lightning flashes, each flash produces less NOx.
Key Points
Lightning Mapping Array data reveals a positive correlation between lightning NOx production efficiency and the lightning flash lengths
The investigation of space‐based data demonstrates a negative correlation between lightning NOx production efficiency and flash frequency
Mean NOx per flash length obtained in this work vary between 1.9 × 1021 and 3.8 × 1021 molec NOx/m
Living species are continuously subjected to all extrinsic forms of reactive oxidants and others that are produced endogenously. There is extensive literature on the generation and effects of ...reactive oxygen species (ROS) in biological processes, both in terms of alteration and their role in cellular signaling and regulatory pathways. Cells produce ROS as a controlled physiological process, but increasing ROS becomes pathological and leads to oxidative stress and disease. The induction of oxidative stress is an imbalance between the production of radical species and the antioxidant defense systems, which can cause damage to cellular biomolecules, including lipids, proteins and DNA. Cellular and biochemical experiments have been complemented in various ways to explain the biological chemistry of ROS oxidants. However, it is often unclear how this translates into chemical reactions involving redox changes. This review addresses this question and includes a robust mechanistic explanation of the chemical reactions of ROS and oxidative stress.
Chronic inflammatory diseases are associated with altered hematopoiesis that could result in neutrophilia and anemia. Here we report that genetic or chemical manipulation of different inflammasome ...components altered the differentiation of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPC) in zebrafish. Although the inflammasome was dispensable for the emergence of HSPC, it was intrinsically required for their myeloid differentiation. In addition, Gata1 transcript and protein amounts increased in inflammasome-deficient larvae, enforcing erythropoiesis and inhibiting myelopoiesis. This mechanism is evolutionarily conserved, since pharmacological inhibition of the inflammasome altered erythroid differentiation of human erythroleukemic K562 cells. In addition, caspase-1 inhibition rapidly upregulated GATA1 protein in mouse HSPC promoting their erythroid differentiation. Importantly, pharmacological inhibition of the inflammasome rescued zebrafish disease models of neutrophilic inflammation and anemia. These results indicate that the inflammasome plays a major role in the pathogenesis of neutrophilia and anemia of chronic diseases and reveal druggable targets for therapeutic interventions.
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•The inflammasome regulates the erythroid-myeloid decision in HSC•Caspase-1 inhibition rapidly upregulates GATA1 protein in HSC•Caspase-1 regulates terminal erythroid differentiation•Caspase-1 inhibition rescues neutrophilic inflammation and anemia
Chronic inflammatory diseases are associated to altered hematopoiesis that could result in neutrophilia and anemia. In this issue of Immunity, Tyrkalska et al. (2019) provide evidence of an evolutionarily conserved mechanism by which inflammasome regulates the erythroid/myeloid decision in HSC, which might contribute to the hematopoietic bias of these diseases.
Flavonoids, including around 6000 phenolic compounds, are products of the secondary metabolism of plants which can be a part of one's diet via the consumption of many edible plants.....
Purpose
Medical and health policy providers should be aware of the impact of adult spinal deformity (ASD) on health-related quality of life (HRQL). The purpose of this study was to compare the ...relative burden of four chronic conditions with that of ASD.
Methods
The International Quality of Life Assessment project gathered data from 24,936 people and published the SF-36 scores of patients with self-reported arthritis, chronic lung disease, diabetes and congestive heart failure from 8 industrialized countries (3 continents) Alonso et al. (Qual Life Res Int J Qual Life Asp Treat Care Rehabil 13:283–298,
2004
). We compared these with the SF-36 baseline data of consecutive patients with ASD enrolled in a prospective multicentre international database with the following inclusion criteria: age >18 years and scoliosis >20°, sagittal vertical axis >5 cm, pelvic tilt >25° or thoracic kyphosis >60°. Four ASD groups were considered: all ASD patients, surgical candidates (preop HRQL scores), and non-surgical candidates with and without previous surgery. Adjusted estimates of the impact of chronic disease were calculated using separate multivariate linear regression models. Individuals without chronic conditions were used as the reference group. Coefficients for each chronic condition and ASD represent the difference compared with this healthy group.
Results
766 patients (mean age 45.8 years) met the inclusion criteria for ASD. The scores on all SF-36 domains were lower in ASD patients than in any other chronic condition. Differences between ASD and the other chronic conditions were always greater than the reported minimal clinically important differences. When compared with individuals reporting no medical conditions, SF-36 scores from the population with self-reported chronic conditions ranged from −2.5 to −14.1. Comparable scores for patients with ASD ranged from −10.9 to −45.0. Physical function, role physical and pain domains showed the worst scores. Surgical candidates with ASD displayed the worst HRQL scores (−17.4 to −45.0) and patients previously operated the best (−10.9 to −33.3); however, even the latter remained worse than any scores for the other self-reported chronic conditions.
Conclusions
The global burden of ASD was huge compared with other self-reported chronic conditions in the general population of eight industrialized countries. The impact of ASD on HRQL warrants the same research and health policy attention as other important chronic diseases.
Summary
The analysis of plant elemental composition and the underlying factors affecting its variation are a current hot topic in ecology. Ecological adaptation to atypical soils may shift plant ...elemental composition. However, no previous studies have evaluated its relevance against other factors such as phylogeny, climate or individual soil conditions.
We evaluated the effect of the phylogeny, environment (climate, soil), and affinity to gypsum soils on the elemental composition of 83 taxa typical of Iberian gypsum ecosystems. We used a new statistical procedure (multiple phylogenetic variance decomposition, MPVD) to decompose total explained variance by different factors across all nodes in the phylogenetic tree of target species (covering 120 million years of Angiosperm evolution).
Our results highlight the relevance of phylogeny on the elemental composition of plants both at early (with the development of key preadaptive traits) and recent divergence times (diversification of the Iberian gypsum flora concurrent with Iberian gypsum deposit accumulation). Despite the predominant phylogenetic effect, plant adaptation to gypsum soils had a strong impact on the elemental composition of plants, particularly on sulphur concentrations, while climate and soil effects were smaller.
Accordingly, we detected a convergent evolution of gypsum specialists from different lineages on increased sulphur and magnesium foliar concentrations.
CO2 as feedstock: An air‐ and moisture‐stable iridium(III) catalyst effectively promotes the hydrosilylation of CO2. This reaction leads to silyl formate in a highly selective manner and proceeds ...efficiently under mild conditions, most likely by an outer‐sphere mechanism, as suggested by theoretical calculations.
Mesospheric Green emissions from excited Oxygen in Sprite Tops (ghosts) are infrequent and faint greenish transient luminous events that remain for hundreds of milliseconds on top of certain ...energetic sprites. The main hypothesis to explain this glow persistence is the long lifetime of excited atomic oxygen at 557.73 nm, a well-known emission line in aurora and airglow. However, due to the lack of spectroscopic campaigns to analyse such events to date, the species involved in the process can not yet be identified. Here we report observational results showing the temporal evolution of a ghost spectrum between 500 nm and 600 nm. Besides weak -but certain- traces of excited atomic oxygen, our results show four main contributors related to the slow decay of the glow: atomic iron and nickel, molecular nitrogen and ionic molecular oxygen. Additionally, we are able to identify traces of atomic sodium, and ionic silicon, these observations being consistent with previous direct measurements of density profiles of meteoric metals in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. This finding calls for an upgrade of current air plasma kinetic understanding under the influence of transient luminous events.
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