Stable water isotope records of six firn cores retrieved from two adjacent plateaus on the northern Antarctic Peninsula between 2014 and 2016 are presented and investigated for their connections with firn-core glacio-chemical data, meteorological records and modelling results. Average annual accumulation rates of 2500 kg m−2 a−1 largely reduce the modification of isotopic signals in the snowpack by post-depositional processes, allowing excellent signal preservation in space and time. Comparison of firn-core and ECHAM6-wiso modelled δ18O and d-excess records reveals a large agreement on annual and sub-annual scales, suggesting firn-core stable water isotopes to be representative of specific synoptic situations. The six firn cores exhibit highly similar isotopic patterns in the overlapping period (2013), which seem to be related to temporal changes in moisture sources rather than local near-surface air temperatures. Backward trajectories calculated with the HYSPLIT model suggest that prominent δ18O minima in 2013 associated with elevated sea salt concentrations are related to long-range moisture transport dominated by westerly winds during positive SAM phases. In contrast, a broad δ18O maximum in the same year accompanied by increased concentrations of black carbon and mineral dust corresponds to the advection of more locally derived moisture with northerly flow components (South America) when the SAM is negative.

An experiment on convective flows induced by the dielectrophoretic force was performed under the microgravity condition provided during a sounding rocket flight. The dielectrophoretic force possesses a non-conservative term that can be seen as resulting from an electric gravity. That gravity can be responsible for an electric Rayleigh–Bénard convection between a hot inner cylinder and a cold outer cylinder when an electric field is applied in the radial direction. Four cells with independent temperature and electric field controls allowed the investigation of eight different values of the electric Rayleigh number relatively close to the onset of the thermo-electric instability. A linear stability analysis is performed to predict the stability threshold and the evolution of the growth rate of the instability. The three-dimensional structure of the flow is captured by simultaneous particle image velocimetry and by shadowgraphy. The amplitude of the instability modes and the time evolution of the flow is analysed, and various methods are proposed to extrapolate the experimental critical value of the electric Rayleigh number for the onset of convection. The measured critical electric Rayleigh number is in agreement with the prediction of the linear stability theory. The comparison of the new experimental results with previous ones from parabolic flight campaigns highlights the importance of long-term microgravity for the achievement of thermal convection at low values of the control parameters.

Alcohol use is influenced by genetic and environmental factors. We examined the interactive effects between genome-wide polygenic risk scores for alcohol use (alc-PRS) and social support in relation to alcohol use among European American (EA) and African American (AA) adults across sex and developmental stages (emerging adulthood, young adulthood, and middle adulthood). Data were drawn from 4,011 EA and 1,274 AA adults from the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism who were between ages 18–65 and had ever used alcohol. Participants completed the Semi-Structured Assessment for the Genetics of Alcoholism and provided saliva or blood samples for genotyping. Results indicated that social support from friends, but not family, moderated the association between alc-PRS and alcohol use among EAs and AAs (only in middle adulthood for AAs); alc-PRS was associated with higher levels of alcohol use when friend support was low, but not when friend support was high. Associations were similar across sex but differed across developmental stages. Findings support the important role of social support from friends in buffering genetic risk for alcohol use among EA and AA adults and highlight the need to consider developmental changes in the role of social support in relation to alcohol use.

While they usually should, people do not revise their beliefs more to expert (economist) opinion than to lay opinion. The present research sought to better understand the factors that make it more likely for an individual to change their mind when faced with the opinions of expert economists versus the general public. Across five studies we examined the role that overestimation of knowledge plays in this behavior. We replicated the finding that people fail to privilege the opinion of experts over the public across two different (Study 1) and five different (Study 5) economic issues. We further find that undermining an illusion of both topic-relevant (Studies 2–4) and -irrelevant knowledge (Studies 3 and 4) leads to greater normative belief revision in response to expert rather than lay opinion. We suggest one reason that people fail to revise their beliefs more in response to experts is because people think they know more than they really do.

Despite the great progress in data transmission systems using dielectric waveguides (DWGs) in the millimeter-wave (mm-wave) frequency band (30–300 GHz), the signal distortions caused by DWGs have not yet been fully understood. However, such investigations would help to optimize DWGs as a transmission channel in order to further increase data rate and transmission distance of such systems without the need for more complex transceivers. Therefore, this paper presents a detailed study of the expected signal distortions caused by frequency-dependent attenuation and frequency-dependent group delay of circular DWGs at mm-wave frequencies. Based on a low-complexity digital transmission system, the effects of DWGs on the signal-to-noise ratio and the intersymbol interference at the receiver are evaluated. The figures and equations given in this paper allow the reader to easily calculate the channel properties and signal distortions for a wide range of circular DWGs without the need of finite element method solver or other time-consuming numerical simulations. Finally, design recommendations are given to minimize signal distortions for transmitting signals along DWGs.

Despite the strong link between childhood maltreatment and psychopathology, the underlying neurodevelopmental mechanisms are poorly understood and difficult to disentangle from heritable and prenatal factors. This study used a translational macaque model of infant maltreatment in which the adverse experience occurs in the first months of life, during intense maturation of amygdala circuits important for stress and emotional regulation. Thus, we examined the developmental impact of maltreatment on amygdala functional connectivity (FC) longitudinally, from infancy through the juvenile period. Using resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) we performed amygdala–prefrontal cortex (PFC) region-of-interest and exploratory whole-brain amygdala FC analyses. The latter showed (a) developmental increases in amygdala FC with many regions, likely supporting increased processing of socioemotional-relevant stimuli with age; and (b) maltreatment effects on amygdala coupling with arousal and stress brain regions (locus coeruleus, laterodorsal tegmental area) that emerged with age. Maltreated juveniles showed weaker FC than controls, which was negatively associated with infant hair cortisol concentrations. Findings from the region-of-interest analysis also showed weaker amygdala FC with PFC regions in maltreated animals than controls since infancy, whereas bilateral amygdala FC was stronger in maltreated animals. These effects on amygdala FC development may underlie the poor behavioral outcomes associated with this adverse experience.

Previous genetic association studies have failed to identify loci robustly associated with sepsis, and there have been no published genetic association studies or polygenic risk score analyses of patients with septic shock, despite evidence suggesting genetic factors may be involved. We systematically collected genotype and clinical outcome data in the context of a randomized controlled trial from patients with septic shock to enrich the presence of disease-associated genetic variants. We performed genomewide association studies of susceptibility and mortality in septic shock using 493 patients with septic shock and 2442 population controls, and polygenic risk score analysis to assess genetic overlap between septic shock risk/mortality with clinically relevant traits. One variant, rs9489328, located in AL589740.1 noncoding RNA, was significantly associated with septic shock (p = 1.05 × 10–10); however, it is likely a false-positive. We were unable to replicate variants previously reported to be associated (p < 1.00 × 10–6 in previous scans) with susceptibility to and mortality from sepsis. Polygenic risk scores for hematocrit and granulocyte count were negatively associated with 28-day mortality (p = 3.04 × 10–3; p = 2.29 × 10–3), and scores for C-reactive protein levels were positively associated with susceptibility to septic shock (p = 1.44 × 10–3). Results suggest that common variants of large effect do not influence septic shock susceptibility, mortality and resolution; however, genetic predispositions to clinically relevant traits are significantly associated with increased susceptibility and mortality in septic individuals.

To understand a sentence, it is crucial to understand who is doing what. The interplay of morphological case marking, argument serialization, and animacy provides linguistic cues for the processing system to rapidly identify the thematic roles of the arguments. The present event-related brain potential (ERP) study investigates on-line brain responses during argument identification in Zurich German, a High Alemannic dialect, and in Fering, a North Frisian variety, which both exhibit reduced case systems as compared to Standard German. Like Standard German, Zurich German and Fering are Continental West Germanic varieties, and indeed argument processing in sentences with an object-before-subject order engenders a qualitatively similar ERP pattern of a scrambling negativity followed by a P600 in all tested varieties. However, the P600 component—a late positive ERP response, which has been linked to the categorization of task-relevant stimuli—is selectively affected by the most prominent cue for argument identification in each variety, which is case marking in Standard German, but animacy in Zurich German and Fering. Thus, even closely related varieties may employ different processing strategies based on the language-specific availability of syntactic and semantic cues for argument identification.*

A growing interest in dielectric waveguides (DWGs) as an alternative to commonly used waveguides (like coaxial or twisted-pair cables) for high data rate interconnects could be observed in the last few years. Especially in the mm-wave frequency range (30–300 GHz) applications with these waveguides benefit from low losses and low dispersion. Moreover, using both polarizations of the fundamental mode in such waveguides could theoretically double the data rate without the need of higher bandwidth or additional fibers. The connection between DWGs and commonly available transceiver chips requires broadband transitions from planar waveguides like microstrip lines to DWGs. In this paper, an overview of the current developments of such transitions is given and a novel low-complexity design is presented that reduces the space consumption by 35% related to recently published works. This allows an easy integration into a printed circuit board layout or a chip package. Furthermore, an extensive sensitivity analysis is presented to prove the robustness toward manufacturing tolerances. The transition is realized at W-band frequencies (75–110 GHz) and achieves a relative 10 dB-bandwidth of more than 25% with a minimum insertion loss of 1.2 dB. It is shown that these properties even hold for manufacturing tolerances of nowadays manufacturing processes.

Evidence linking fasting plasma total homocysteine (tHcy) and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) 677C>T genotype with hypertension is inconsistent. Differences in B vitamin status, other lifestyle factors or their consideration in analyses might explain this. We investigated these associations in the absence of mandatory fortification with folic acid and B vitamin supplement use. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 788 adults, aged 18–75 years, randomly selected from three Catalonian town population registers. Fasting plasma folate, cobalamin, tHcy, erythrocyte folate, erythrocyte glutathione reductase activation coefficient (EGRAC, functional riboflavin status indicator; increasing EGRAC indicates worsening riboflavin status), MTHFR 677C>T and solute carrier family 1 (SLC19A1) 80 G>A genotypes were determined. Medical history and lifestyle habits were recorded. Principal tHcy determinants differed between women (age, plasma folate, plasma cobalamin, cigarettes/d) and men (MTHFR 677TT genotype, plasma folate, plasma cobalamin and CT genotype). The MTHFR 677C>T polymorphism–tHcy association (β standardised regression coefficients) was stronger in male smokers (0·52, P < 0·001) compared with non-smokers (0·21, P = 0·001) and weaker in participants aged >50 years (0·19, P = 0·007) compared with ≤50 years (0·31, P < 0·001). Hypertension was more probable in the third tHcy tertile compared with other tertiles (OR 1·9; 95 % CI 1·2, 3·0), and in participants aged ≤50 years, for the MTHFR 677TT genotype compared with the CC genotype (OR 4·1; 95 % CI 1·0, 16·9). EGRAC was associated with increased probability of hypertension in participants aged >50 years (OR 6·2; 95 % CI 1·0, 38·7). In conclusion, moderately elevated tHcy and the MTHFR 677CT genotype were associated with hypertension. The MTHFR 677C>T genotype–hypertension association was confined to adults aged ≤50 years.

The design of government portfolios – that is, the distribution of competencies among government ministries and office holders – has been largely ignored in the study of executive and coalition politics. This article argues that portfolio design is a substantively and theoretically relevant phenomenon that has major implications for the study of institutional design and coalition politics. The authors use comparative data on portfolio design reforms in nine Western European countries since the 1970s to demonstrate how the design of government portfolios changes over time. Specifically, they show that portfolios are changed frequently (on average about once a year) and that such shifts are more likely after changes in the prime ministership or the party composition of the government. These findings suggest a political logic behind these reforms based on the preferences and power of political parties and politicians. They have major implications for the study of institutional design and coalition politics.

The SKA and its pathfinders will enable studies of H i emission at higher redshifts than ever before. In moving beyond the local Universe, this will require the use of cosmologically appropriate formulae that have traditionally been simplified to their low-redshift approximations. In this paper, we summarise some of the most important relations for tracing H i emission in the SKA era, and present an online calculator to assist in the planning and analysis of observations (http://hifi.icrar.org).