High-mobility group box 1 protein (HMGB1), which previously was thought to function only as a nuclear factor that enhances transcription, was recently discovered to be a crucial cytokine that mediates the response to infection, injury and inflammation. These observations have led to the emergence of a new field in immunology that is focused on understanding the mechanisms of HMGB1 release, its biological activities and its pathological effects in sepsis, arthritis, cancer and other diseases. Here, we discuss these features of HMGB1 and summarize recent advances that have led to the preclinical development of therapeutics that modulate HMGB1 release and activity.

High-mobility group box 1 protein (HMGB1): nuclear weapon in the immune arsenal.

SCIAMACHY (Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography) is a spectrometer designed to measure sunlight transmitted, reflected, and scattered by the earth’s atmosphere or surface in the ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared wavelength region (240–2380 nm) at moderate spectral resolution (0.2–1.5 nm, λ/Δλ ≈ 1000–10 000). SCIAMACHY will measure the earthshine radiance in limb and nadir viewing geometries and solar or lunar light transmitted through the atmosphere observed in occultation. The extraterrestrial solar irradiance and lunar radiance will be determined from observations of the sun and the moon above the atmosphere. The absorption, reflection, and scattering behavior of the atmosphere and the earth’s surface is determined from comparison of earthshine radiance and solar irradiance. Inversion of the ratio of earthshine radiance and solar irradiance yields information about the amounts and distribution of important atmospheric constituents and the spectral reflecta...

/pdf/sciamachy-mission-objectives-and-measurement-modes-3hyob1r0ns.pdf

SCIAMACHY: Mission Objectives and Measurement Modes

The rapid expansion of the Chinese economy is making its mark on the environment. Atmospheric pollution due to the release of nitrogen oxides from fossil fuel and biomass burning is expected to decrease in most industrialized countries but in some parts of the world rapid economic development could have the opposite effect. Satellite observations over the period 1996–2004 now provide confirmation of these predictions. Across parts of Europe and North America there have been dramatic reductions in nitrogen oxide concentrations in the lower atmosphere (the troposphere). But there was a significant increase of about 50% — with an accelerating trend in annual growth rate — over the industrial areas of China; this is much larger than predictions made based on emission inventories. Emissions from fossil fuel combustion and biomass burning reduce local air quality and affect global tropospheric chemistry. Nitrogen oxides are emitted by all combustion processes and play a key part in the photochemically induced catalytic production of ozone, which results in summer smog and has increased levels of tropospheric ozone globally1. Release of nitrogen oxide also results in nitric acid deposition, and—at least locally—increases radiative forcing effects due to the absorption of downward propagating visible light2. Nitrogen oxide concentrations in many industrialized countries are expected to decrease3, but rapid economic development has the potential to increase significantly the emissions of nitrogen oxides4,5,6,7 in parts of Asia. Here we present the tropospheric column amounts of nitrogen dioxide retrieved from two satellite instruments GOME8,9 and SCIAMACHY10 over the years 1996–2004. We find substantial reductions in nitrogen dioxide concentrations over some areas of Europe and the USA, but a highly significant increase of about 50 per cent—with an accelerating trend in annual growth rate—over the industrial areas of China, more than recent bottom-up inventories suggest6.

/pdf/increase-in-tropospheric-nitrogen-dioxide-over-china-1fao14l0ep.pdf

Increase in tropospheric nitrogen dioxide over China observed from space

An efficient ghost-cell immersed boundary method (GCIBM) for simulating turbulent flows in complex geometries is presented. A boundary condition is enforced through a ghost cell method. The reconstruction procedure allows systematic development of numerical schemes for treating the immersed boundary while preserving the overall second-order accuracy of the base solver. Both Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions can be treated. The current ghost cell treatment is both suitable for staggered and non-staggered Cartesian grids. The accuracy of the current method is validated using flow past a circular cylinder and large eddy simulation of turbulent flow over a wavy surface. Numerical results are compared with experimental data and boundary-fitted grid results. The method is further extended to an existing ocean model (MITGCM) to simulate geophysical flow over a three-dimensional bump. The method is easily implemented as evidenced by our use of several existing codes.

A Ghost-Cell Immersed Boundary Method for Flow in Complex Geometry

https://academicworks.medicine.hofstra.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1534&context=articles

HMGB1 in Health and Disease

The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) is a new instrument aboard ERS-2. The main scientific objective of the GOME mission is to measure the global distribution of ozone and several trace gases which play an important role in the ozone chemistry of the Earth's stratosphere and troposphere, for example, NO 2 , BrO, OClO, and SO 2 . GOME measures the sunlight scattered from the Earth's atmosphere and/or reflected by the surface in nadir viewing mode in the spectral region 240-790 nm. For a 960 km swath width the size of one GOME ground pixel is 40 x 320 km2 for the major part of the orbit. Global coverage is achieved in three days. Operational data products of GOME as generated by DLR-DFD comprise absolutely calibrated and geolocated earthshine radiance spectra, the spectral solar irradiance (level 1 products) and global distributions of total column amounts of ozone and NO2 (level 2 products). In addition to these operational products, GOME has been shown to provide other important information about, for example, height resolved ozone, several minor (i.e. low concentration) trace gases, surface reflectance, solar variability indices, and aerosol information. The GOME scientific objectives, the instrument concept and results from the first 18 months of the GOME operation will be described briefly here.

The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (Gome) : Mission, instrument concept, and first scientific results

Drag forces and heat transfer coefficients for spherical, cuboidal and ellipsoidal particles in cross flow at sub-critical Reynolds numbers

http://www.doas-bremen.de/paper/asr_01_richter_bro.pdf

GOME MEASUREMENTS OF STRATOSPHERIC AND TROPOSPHERIC BrO

New correlations for heat and fluid flow past ellipsoidal and cubic particles at different angles of attack

Vertical and slant tropospheric NO2-columns from the new satellite instrument SCIAMACHY on ENVISAT are validated by measurements of the Airborne Multi AXis DOAS (AMAXDOAS) instrument on board the DLR Falcon. The results presented here were obtained in February 2003 on a flight over the Alps, the Po-Valley and the Mediter5 ranean. The tropospheric vertical column measured by AMAXDOAS varied between 12.8 and 27.2*10molec/cmover the Po-Valley where SCIAMACHY data resulted in 14.4 to 27.5*10molec/cm. Over less polluted areas a similarly good agreement was found. The overall correlation between the two datasets results in a slope of the linear fit of 0.89. The slight differences observed might be attributed to the different spatial 10 resolution and the temporal mismatch between the measurements over the Po-Valley.

/pdf/validation-of-sciamachy-tropospheric-no2-columns-with-23qpj2grfo.pdf

Andreas Richter

Papers

The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (Gome) : Mission, instrument concept, and first scientific results

Drag forces and heat transfer coefficients for spherical, cuboidal and ellipsoidal particles in cross flow at sub-critical Reynolds numbers

GOME MEASUREMENTS OF STRATOSPHERIC AND TROPOSPHERIC BrO

New correlations for heat and fluid flow past ellipsoidal and cubic particles at different angles of attack

Validation of SCIAMACHY tropospheric NO2-columns with AMAXDOAS measurements