Atmospheric methane grew very rapidly in 2014 (12.7 ± 0.5 ppb/year), 2015 (10.1 ± 0.7 ppb/year), 2016 (7.0 ± 0.7 ppb/year), and 2017 (7.7 ± 0.7 ppb/year), at rates not observed since the 1980s. The ...increase in the methane burden began in 2007, with the mean global mole fraction in remote surface background air rising from about 1,775 ppb in 2006 to 1,850 ppb in 2017. Simultaneously the 13C/12C isotopic ratio (expressed as δ13CCH4) has shifted, now trending negative for more than a decade. The causes of methane's recent mole fraction increase are therefore either a change in the relative proportions (and totals) of emissions from biogenic and thermogenic and pyrogenic sources, especially in the tropics and subtropics, or a decline in the atmospheric sink of methane, or both. Unfortunately, with limited measurement data sets, it is not currently possible to be more definitive. The climate warming impact of the observed methane increase over the past decade, if continued at >5 ppb/year in the coming decades, is sufficient to challenge the Paris Agreement, which requires sharp cuts in the atmospheric methane burden. However, anthropogenic methane emissions are relatively very large and thus offer attractive targets for rapid reduction, which are essential if the Paris Agreement aims are to be attained.
Plain Language Summary
The rise in atmospheric methane (CH4), which began in 2007, accelerated in the past 4 years. The growth has been worldwide, especially in the tropics and northern midlatitudes. With the rise has come a shift in the carbon isotope ratio of the methane. The causes of the rise are not fully understood, and may include increased emissions and perhaps a decline in the destruction of methane in the air. Methane's increase since 2007 was not expected in future greenhouse gas scenarios compliant with the targets of the Paris Agreement, and if the increase continues at the same rates it may become very difficult to meet the Paris goals. There is now urgent need to reduce methane emissions, especially from the fossil fuel industry.
Key Points
Atmospheric methane is rising; its carbon isotopic ratio has become more depleted in C‐13
The possible causes of the change include an increase in emissions, with changing relative proportions of source inputs, or a decline in methane destruction, or both
If this rise continues, there are significant consequences for the UN Paris Agreement
Abstract
Additive manufacturing promises a major transformation of the production of high economic value metallic materials, enabling innovative, geometrically complex designs with minimal material ...waste. The overarching challenge is to design alloys that are compatible with the unique additive processing conditions while maintaining material properties sufficient for the challenging environments encountered in energy, space, and nuclear applications. Here we describe a class of high strength, defect-resistant 3D printable superalloys containing approximately equal parts of Co and Ni along with Al, Cr, Ta and W that possess strengths in excess of 1.1 GPa in as-printed and post-processed forms and tensile ductilities of greater than 13% at room temperature. These alloys are amenable to crack-free 3D printing via electron beam melting (EBM) with preheat as well as selective laser melting (SLM) with limited preheat. Alloy design principles are described along with the structure and properties of EBM and SLM CoNi-base materials.
This study examined to what extent adolescents’ and their friends’ risk behaviors (i.e., delinquency and alcohol use) hinder or promote their academic achievement (grade point average GPA), and vice ...versa. Longitudinal data were used (N = 1,219 seventh‐ to ninth‐grade adolescents; Mage = 13.69). Results showed that risk behaviors negatively affected adolescents’ GPA, whereas GPA protected against engaging in risk behaviors. Moreover, adolescents tended to select friends who have similar behaviors and friends’ behaviors became more similar over time (same‐behavior selection and influence). Furthermore, although same‐behavior effects seemed to dominate, evidence was found for some cross‐behavior selection effects and a tendency in seventh grade for cross‐behavior influence effects. Concluding, it is important to investigate the interplay between different behaviors with longitudinal social network analysis.
We present the result of a search of the Milagro sky map for spatial correlations with sources from a subset of the recent Fermi Bright Source List (BSL). The BSL consists of the 205 most significant ...sources detected above 100 MeV by the Fermi Large Area Telescope. We select sources based on their categorization in the BSL, taking all confirmed or possible Galactic sources in the field of view of Milagro. Of the 34 Fermi sources selected, 14 are observed by Milagro at a significance of 3 standard deviations or more. We conduct this search with a new analysis which employs newly optimized gamma-hadron separation and utilizes the full eight-year Milagro data set. Milagro is sensitive to gamma rays with energy from 1 to 100 TeV with a peak sensitivity from 10 to 50 TeV depending on the source spectrum and declination. These results extend the observation of these sources far above the Fermi energy band. With the new analysis and additional data, multi-TeV emission is definitively observed associated with the Fermi pulsar, J2229.0+6114, in the Boomerang pulsar wind nebula (PWN). Furthermore, an extended region of multi-TeV emission is associated with the Fermi pulsar, J0634.0+1745, the Geminga pulsar.
(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae and/or non-USASCII text omitted) The Cygnus region is a very bright and complex portion of the TeV sky, host to unidentified sources and a diffuse excess with respect ...to conventional cosmic-ray propagation models. Two of the brightest TeV sources, MGRO J2019+37 and MGRO J2031+41, are analyzed using Milagro data with a new technique, and their emission is tested under two different spectral assumptions: a power law and a power law with an exponential cutoff. The new analysis technique is based on an energy estimator that uses the fraction of photomultiplier tubes in the observatory that detect the extensive air shower. The photon spectrum is measured in the range 1-100 TeV using the last three years of Milagro data (2005-2008), with the detector in its final configuration. An F-test indicates that MGRO J2019+37 is better fit by a power law with an exponential cutoff than by a simple power law. The best-fitting parameters for the power law with exponential cutoff model are a normalization at 10 TeV of ... x 10 super(-10) s super(-1) m super(-2) TeV super(-1), a spectral index of ... and a cutoff energy of ... TeV. MGRO J2031+41 shows no evidence of a cutoff. The best-fitting parameters for a power law are a normalization of ... x 10 super(-10) s super(-1) m super(-2) TeV super(-1) and a spectral index of ... The overall flux is subject to a ~30% systematic uncertainty. The systematic uncertainty on the power-law indices is ~0.1. Both uncertainties have been verified with cosmic-ray data. A comparison with previous results from TeV J2032+4130, MGRO J2031+41, and MGRO J2019+37 is also presented.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a tool for neuromodulation that uses a time-varying magnetic field to stimulate the brain via an induced electric field (E-Field). Clinical data from ...Premier Psychiatric Research Institute on repetitive TMS (rTMS) for the treatment of depression shows that patients older than 55 years respond to deep rTMS with better efficacy than younger patients. Brain volume shrinks with age in adults older than 40 years, increasing the distance between their brain and scalp. In this paper, we have investigated how the induced E-Field from TMS is affected by brain-scalp distance (BSD). We have developed heterogeneous head models from MRI data of 50 subjects and created simplified head models using concentric spheres. Using finite-element analysis, we simulated TMS on these models to test the role of BSD in determining the strength and distribution of the E-Field.
Surface immobilized enzymes have been widely used in many applications such as biosensors, biochips, biofuel production, and biofuel cell construction. Many factors dictate how enzymes’ structure, ...activity, and stability may change when immobilized, including surface functionalization, immobilization chemistry, nature of the solid support, and enzyme surface density. To better understand how immobilization affects enzyme structure and activity, we have developed a method to measure both surface-sensitive protein vibrational spectra and enzymatic activity simultaneously. To accomplish this, an optical/fluorescence microscope was incorporated into a sum frequency generation (SFG) spectrometer. Using β-glucosidase (β-Glu) as a model system, enzymes were covalently tethered to a self-assembled monolayer surface using cysteine-maleimide chemistry. Their orientations were determined by SFG spectroscopy, with a single native cysteine residue oriented toward the functionalized surface, and activity measured simultaneously using a fluorogenic substrate resorufin β-d-glucopyranoside, with a loss of activity of 53% as compared to comparable solution measurements. Measuring β-Glu activity and orientation simultaneously provides more accurate information for designing and further improving enzymatic activity of surface-bound enzymes.
The bulk of grass biomass potentially useful for cellulose-based biofuel production is the remains of secondary wall-containing sclerenchymatous fibers. Hence, it is important to uncover the ...molecular mechanisms underlying the regulation of secondary wall thickening in grass species. So far, little is known about the transcriptional regulatory switches responsible for the activation of the secondary wall biosynthetic program in grass species. Here, we report the roles of a group of rice and maize NAC and MYB transcription factors in the regulation of secondary wall biosynthesis. The rice and maize secondary wall-associated NACs (namely OsSWNs and ZmSWNs) were able to complement the Arabidopsis snd1 nst1 double mutant defective in secondary wall thickening. When overexpressed in Arabidopsis, OsSWNs and ZmSWNs were sufficient to activate a number of secondary wall-associated transcription factors and secondary wall biosynthetic genes, and concomitantly result in the ectopic deposition of cellulose, xylan and lignin. It was also found that the rice and maize MYB transcription factors, OsMYB46 and ZmMYB46, are functional orthologs of Arabidopsis MYB46/MYB83 and, when overexpressed in Arabidopsis, they were able to activate the entire secondary wall biosynthetic program. Furthermore, the promoters of OsMYB46 and ZmMYB46 contain secondary wall NAC-binding elements (SNBEs), which can be bound and activated by OsSWNs and ZmSWNs. Together, our results indicate that the rice and maize SWNs and MYB46 are master transcriptional activators of the secondary wall biosynthetic program and that OsSWNs and ZmSWNs activate their direct target genes through binding to the SNBE sites.
► Corrosion of AA2024 in 0.1
M NaCl was examined for immersion times up to 120
min. ► Rings of corrosion products with H
2 evolution developed as early as 5
min after immersion. ► The rings were ...distinct from corrosion around isolated intermetallics elsewhere on the surface. ► Analyses of chloride containing sites (red) showed a significant level of IM particle clustering. ► The number of neighbors was much higher at these sites than the average particle number density.
Polished specimens of AA2024-T3 alloy were immersed for up to 120
min in 0.1
M NaCl. The development of corrosion was monitored using scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXS) and particle induced X-ray emission spectroscopy (PIXE). Both techniques revealed the intermetallic (IM) particle distributions and attack sites as distinguished by detection of chloride species. The earliest stages of attack involved localized attack around isolated IM particles as reported in Part I. Additionally attack occurred on a larger scale developing rapidly with rings of corrosion product surrounding clusters of IM particles. There were significantly higher numbers of IM particles within the corrosion rings, indicating that local clustering played an important role in co-operative corrosion.
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