Modeling the role of temperature-dependent microbiome composition in black band disease transmission among coral reefs.

Black band disease (BBD) is one of the most prevalent diseases causing significant destruction of coral reefs. Coral reefs acquire this deadly disease from bacteria in the microbiome community, the composition of which is highly affected by the environmental temperature. While previous studies have provided valuable insights into various aspects of BBD, the temperature-dependent microbiome composition has not been considered in existing BBD models.

Rituximab and antimetabolite treatment of granulomatous and lymphocytic interstitial lung disease in common variable immunodeficiency.

Background: Granulomatous and lymphocytic interstitial lung disease (GLILD) is a life-threatening complication in patients with common variable immunodeficiency (CVID), but the optimal treatment is unknown.

Objective: Our aim was to determine whether rituximab with azathioprine or mycophenolate mofetil improves the high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) chest scans and/or pulmonary function test results in patients with CVID and GLILD.

Methods: A retrospective chart review of clinical and laboratory data on 39 patients with CVID and GLILD who completed immunosuppressive therapy was performed.

Modeling Sustainability: Population, Inequality, Consumption, and Bidirectional Coupling of the Earth and Human Systems.

Over the last two centuries, the impact of the Human System has grown dramatically, becoming strongly dominant within the Earth System in many different ways. Consumption, inequality, and population have increased extremely fast, especially since about 1950, threatening to overwhelm the many critical functions and ecosystems of the Earth System. Changes in the Earth System, in turn, have important feedback effects on the Human System, with costly and potentially serious consequences.

Environmental signatures associated with cholera epidemics.

The causative agent of cholera, Vibrio cholerae, has been shown to be autochthonous to riverine, estuarine, and coastal waters along with its host, the copepod, a significant member of the zooplankton community. Temperature, salinity, rainfall and plankton have proven to be important factors in the ecology of V. cholerae, influencing the transmission of the disease in those regions of the world where the human population relies on untreated water as a source of drinking water.

Remotely sensed biological production in the equatorial Pacific.

A combination of ship, buoy, and satellite observations in the tropical Pacific during the period from 1992 to 2000 provides a basin-scale perspective on the net effects of El Niño and La Niña on biogeochemical cycles. New biological production during the 1997-99 El Niño/La Niña period varied by more than a factor of 2. The resulting interannual changes in global carbon sequestration associated with the El Niño/La Niña cycle contributed to the largest known natural perturbation of the global carbon cycle over these time scales.

An Improved Procedure for EI Nino Forecasting: Implications for Predictability.

A coupled ocean-atmosphere data assimilation procedure yields improved forecasts of El Niño for the 1980s compared with previous forecasting procedures. As in earlier forecasts with the same model, no oceanic data were used, and only wind information was assimilated. The improvement is attributed to the explicit consideration of air-sea interaction in the initialization.

Wind generation of the costa rica dome.

Upwelling in the Costa Rica Dome is seasonal and the result of the localized cyclonic wind stress curl. Fluctuations in the wind stress curl in the fall release the upwelled region as a Rossby wave. Similar low-latitude domes are hypothesized to be ubiquitous to those oceans where a localized cyclonic wind stress curl is associated with an Intertropical Convergence Zone.