A 50 year record for perfluoroalkyl acids in the high arctic: implications for global and local transport.

Perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) are persistent compounds that are ubiquitous globally, though some uncertainties remain in the understanding of their long-range transport mechanisms. They are frequently detected in remote locations, where local sources may be unimportant. We collected a 16.

Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining Contaminates Snowpack across a Broad Region.

Mountaintop removal coal mining is a source of downstream pollution. Here, we show that mountaintop removal coal mining also pollutes ecosystems downwind. We sampled regional snowpack near the end of winter along a transect of sites located 3-60 km downwind of coal mining in the Elk River valley of British Columbia, Canada.

Winter Dust Storms Impact the Physical and Biogeochemical Functioning of a Large High Arctic Lake.

We found that a winter of abnormally low snowfall and numerous dust storms from eolian processes acting on exposed landscapes (including a major 4-day dust storm while onsite in May 2014) caused a cascade of impacts on the physical, chemical, and ecological functioning of the largest lake by volume in the High Arctic (Lake Hazen; Nunavut, Canada). MODIS imagery revealed that dust deposited in snowpacks on the lake's ice acted as light-absorbing impurities (LAIs), reducing surface reflectance and increasing surface temperatures relative to normal snowpack years, causing early snowmelt and drainage of meltwaters into the lake. LAIs remaining on the ice surface melted into the ice, causing premature candling and one of the earliest ice-offs and longest ice-free seasons on record for Lake Hazen.

Canadian high arctic ice core records of organophosphate flame retardants and plasticizers.

Organophosphate esters (OPEs) have been used as flame retardants, plasticizers, and anti-foaming agents over the past several decades. Of particular interest is the long range transport potential of OPEs given their ubiquitous detection in Arctic marine air. Here we report 19 OPE congeners in ice cores drilled on remote icefields and ice caps in the Canadian high Arctic.

Feasibility of intra-operative image guidance in burn excision surgery with multispectral imaging and deep learning.

Background: Exposing a healthy wound bed for skin grafting is an important step during burn surgery to ensure graft take and maintain good functional outcomes. Currently, the removal of non-viable tissue in the burn wound bed during excision is determined by expert clinician judgment. Using a porcine model of tangential burn excision, we investigated the effectiveness of an intraoperative multispectral imaging device combined with artificial intelligence to aid clinician judgment for the excision of non-viable tissue.