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Representation of Tropical Storms by the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications Version 2

This study examines the veracity of the tropical cyclone (TC) statistics estimated from the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA-2) global atmospheric reanalysis, focusing on the climatological-mean genesis regions, tracks and their lifetime maximum intensity, as well as the interannual and intraseasonal variations in TC activity. The results are validated against the International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS) data for 1980-2016. MERRA-2 represents the spatial distribution of the TC genesis location and the tracks realistically well over all main development regions (MDRs), but with notable discrepancies including too weak TC activity over the Arabian Sea and the South China Sea and too strong activity over the North Indian Ocean. Over the western North Pacific and the North Atlantic, MERRA-2 underestimates recurving TCs steered by background westerlies in the mid-latitudes and thereby exaggerates northwestward moving TCs, resulting in an overestimate of the landfall probability in East Asia and North America. Excessive development of TCs over the Bay of Bengal also tends to exaggerate the landfall probability in India. In spite of the discrepancies in the annual TC number, the seasonal variation of TC genesis is realistic in MERRA-2. MERRA-2 also captures the TC intensity relationship between the minimum pressure and the maximum surface wind speed at the mature stage, although the maximum intensity is weaker than in the observations. While MERRA-2 tends to reproduce the interannual variations of the observed TC number and the power dissipation index (PDI), the level of accuracy depends on the region. MERRA-2 describes the changes in the TC genesis region and tracks realistically according to the different phases of El Nino and the Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO), although it is less realistic over the North Indian Ocean.

International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewa↗

Perspectives on Data Reproducibility and Replicability in Paleoclimate and Climate Science

This paper summarizes the current state of reproducibility and replicability in the fields of climate and paleoclimate science, including brief histories of their development and applications in climate science, new and recent approaches towards improvement of reproducibility and replicability, and challenges. Recommendations for addressing those challenges include: development of searchable, auto-updated, interlinked, multi-archive public paleoclimate repositories for raw and processed digital datasets; cross-center standardized code base cases, improved data storage techniques, and a focus on replicability for climate simulation storage and access; and support of the development and community awareness of findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR) principles by funding agencies and publishers. This paper is largely based on the May 2018 presentations of a panel of researchers to the Committee on Reproducibility and Replicability in Science, part of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. The commentary and recommendations made here are in alignment with those of its Consensus Study Report on Reproducibility and Replicability in Science (2019).

data repositories↗

Integrating Multi-agency Data Products in a Cloud-based Platform for Streamlined Discovery, Visualization, and Use

Earth science data users almost always have an interest in utilizing geospatial data from multiple agencies. As computing capability and cloud-based infrastructures accelerate the pace at which scientific research can be done, there is a growing need to enable search, discovery, and use of multi-agency geospatial observations relevant for a common use case - without undergoing the search and discovery process in a less efficient, disparate path with each agency. NASA’s Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) and NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS) both support a wide range of Earth science disciplines’ research, operations, and applications activities. Presently, however, there are few examples of data discovery frameworks supporting an inquiry of both NASA’s and NOAA’s extensive archives of Earth observations that are equally suitable for a particular science scenario, regardless of the agency that “owns” the data. NASA and NOAA are collaborating on a data expedition platform for exploring fire weather using data products from both agencies. Users will be able to search, discover, and visualize NASA and NOAA products in one interface. Each agency will curate metadata for its respective datasets, providing for a rich search experience. The collaboration will pilot a shared search interface into these metadata datastores. Data products will be stored in the cloud in cloud-optimized format(s). These formats will allow for optimized data access and visualization to support the “data expedition”. Avenues for further development and application of this cloud-based, multi-agency data provisioning platform will also be discussed.

cloud-based technology↗

The Life and Death of A Subglacial Lake in West Antarctica

Over the past 50 years, the discovery and initial investigation of subglacial lakes in Antarctica have highlighted the paleoglaciological information that may be recorded in sediments at their beds. In December 2018, we accessed Mercer Subglacial Lake, West Antarctica, and recovered the first in situ subglacial lake-sediment record—120 mm of finely laminated mud. We combined geophysical observations, image analysis, and quantitative stratigraphy techniques to estimate long-term mean lake sedimentation rates (SRs) between 0.49 ± 0.12 mm a –1 and 2.3 ± 0.2 mm a –1 , with a most likely SR of 0.68 ± 0.08 mm a –1 . These estimates suggest that this lake formed between 53 and 260 a before core recovery (BCR), with a most likely age of 180 ± 20 a BCR—coincident with the stagnation of the nearby Kamb Ice Stream. Our work demonstrates that interconnected subglacial lake systems are fundamentally linked to larger-scale ice dynamics and highlights that subglacial sediment archives contain powerful, century-scale records of ice history and provide a modern process-based analogue for interpreting paleo–subglacial lake facies.

subglacial lakes↗

Rediscovering Apollo Biomedical Data to Support Artemis: The Apollo Records Synthesis Project

With the first crewed missions of the Artemis Program on the horizon, including the return of humans to another planetary surface, the space medicine and research communities have a renewed interest in buying down risk on these missions using historic Apollo datasets. Archivists with NASA’s Life Sciences Data Archive (LSDA) and epidemiologists with the Lifetime Surveillance of Astronaut Health (LSAH) are collaborating on a project aiming at improving access to historic datasets from the Apollo Program. The Apollo Records Synthesis Project (ARSP) seeks to expand the available historic biomedical knowledge base by examining physical records located across a wide range of collections, including examples such as pre-flight and post-flight physicals, lab reports, and handwritten flight surgeon and biomedical engineer logs from Apollo missions. The ARSP team has been able to identify several previously undocumented sources of biomedical information from Apollo missions. In the future, the team will modernize record storage and accessibility of these resources using digitization and natural language processing. This poster will discuss the progress of the project, give context to the dual research-clinical care nature of the records, and highlight the challenges and opportunities in using data from historical records. This poster will also provide information on how researchers can request access to datasets from these records.

life sciences↗

Rediscovering Apollo Biomedical Data to Support Artemis: The Apollo Records Synthesis Project

With the first crewed missions of the Artemis Program on the horizon, including the return of humans to another planetary surface, the space medicine and research communities have a renewed interest in buying down risk on these missions using historic Apollo datasets. Archivists with NASA’s Life Sciences Data Archive (LSDA) and epidemiologists with the Lifetime Surveillance of Astronaut Health (LSAH) are collaborating on a project aiming at improving access to historic datasets from the Apollo Program. The Apollo Records Synthesis Project (ARSP) seeks to expand the available historic biomedical knowledge base by examining physical records located across a wide range of collections, including examples such as pre-flight and post-flight physicals, lab reports, and handwritten flight surgeon and biomedical engineer logs from Apollo missions. The ARSP team has been able to identify several previously undocumented sources of biomedical information from Apollo missions. In the future, the team will modernize record storage and accessibility of these resources using digitization and natural language processing. This poster will discuss the progress of the project, give context to the dual research-clinical care nature of the records, and highlight the challenges and opportunities in using data from historical records. This poster will also provide information on how researchers can request access to datasets from these records.

life sciences↗

Iron Heterogeneity in Early Active Multiple Sclerosis Lesions

Objective: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a heterogeneous inflammatory demyelinating disease. Iron distribution is altered in MS patients' brains, suggesting iron liberation within active lesions amplifies demyelination and neurodegeneration. Whether the amount and distribution of iron are similar or different among different MS immunopatterns is currently unknown. Methods: We used synchrotron X-ray fluorescence imaging, histology, and immunohistochemistry to compare the iron quantity and distribution between immunopattern II and III early active MS lesions. We analyzed archival autopsy and biopsy tissue from 21 MS patients. Results: Immunopattern II early active lesions contain 64% more iron (95% confidence interval [CI] = 17-127, p = 0.004) than immunopattern III lesions, and 30% more iron than the surrounding periplaque white matter (95% CI = 3–64%, p = 0.03). Iron in immunopattern III lesions is 28% lower than in the periplaque white matter (95% CI = -40 to -14%, p < 0.001). When normalizing the iron content of early active lesions to that of surrounding periplaque white matter, the ratio is significantly higher in immunopattern II (p < 0.001). Microfocused X-ray fluorescence imaging shows that iron in immunopattern II lesions localizes to macrophages, whereas macrophages in immunopattern III lesions contain little iron. Interpretation: Iron distribution and content are heterogeneous in early active MS lesions. Iron accumulates in macrophages in immunopattern II, but not immunopattern III lesions. This heterogeneity in the two most common MS immunopatterns may be explained by different macrophage polarization, origin, or different demyelination mechanisms, and paves the way for developing new or using existing iron-sensitive magnetic resonance imaging techniques to differentiate among immunopatterns in the general nonbiopsied MS patient population.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Hijacking a rapid and scalable metagenomic method reveals subgenome dynamics and evolution in polyploid plants

Premise: The genomes of polyploid plants archive the evolutionary events leading to their present forms. However, plant polyploid genomes present numerous hurdles to the genome comparison algorithms for classification of polyploid types and exploring genome dynamics. Methods: Here, the problem of intra- and inter-genome comparison for examining polyploid genomes is reframed as a metagenomic problem, enabling the use of the rapid and scalable MinHashing approach. To determine how types of polyploidy are described by this metagenomic approach, plant genomes were examined from across the polyploid spectrum for both k-mer composition and frequency with a range of k-mer sizes. In this approach, no subgenome-specific k-mers are identified; rather, whole-chromosome k-mer subspaces were utilized. Results: Given chromosome-scale genome assemblies with sufficient subgenome-specific repetitive element content, literature-verified subgenomic and genomic evolutionary relationships were revealed, including distinguishing auto- from allopolyploidy and putative progenitor genome assignment. The sequences responsible were the rapidly evolving landscape of transposable elements. An investigation into the MinHashing parameters revealed that the downsampled k-mer space (genomic signatures) produced excellent approximations of sequence similarity. Furthermore, the clustering approach used for comparison of the genomic signatures is scrutinized to ensure applicability of the metagenomics-based method. Discussion: The easily implementable and highly computationally efficient MinHashing-based sequence comparison strategy enables comparative subgenomics and genomics for large and complex polyploid plant genomes. Such comparisons provide evidence for polyploidy-type subgenomic assignments. In cases where subgenome-specific repeat signal may not be adequate given a chromosomes' global k-mer profile, alternative methods that are more specific but more computationally complex outperform this approach.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

MACHO 311.37557.169: A VY Scl star

Abstract Optical surveys, such as the MACHO project, often uncover variable stars whose classification requires follow‐up observations by other instruments. We performed X‐ray spectroscopy and photometry of the unusual variable star MACHO 311.37557.169 with XMM‐Newton in April 2018, supplemented by archival X‐ray and optical spectrographic data. The star has a bolometric X‐ray luminosity of about 1 × 10 32 erg s −1 cm −2 and a heavily absorbed two‐temperature plasma spectrum. The shape of its light curve, its overall brightness, its X‐ray spectrum, and the emission lines in its optical spectrum suggest that it is most likely a VY Scl cataclysmic variable.

Wörpel, Hauke↗

Insights from 20 years of the Molecule of the Month

For 20 years, Molecule of the Month articles have highlighted the functional stories of 3D structures found in the Protein Data Bank (PDB). The PDB is the primary archive of atomic structures of biological molecules, currently providing open access to more than 150,000 structures studied by researchers around the world. The wealth of knowledge embodied in this resource is remarkable, with structures that allow exploration of nearly any biomolecular topic, including the basic science of genetic mechanisms, mechanisms of photosynthesis and bioenergetics, and central biomedical topics like cancer therapy and the fight against infectious disease. The central motivation behind the Molecule of the Month is to provide a user-friendly introduction to this rich body of data, charting a path for users to get started with finding and exploring the many available structures. The Molecule of the Month and related materials are updated regularly at the education portal PDB-101 (http://pdb101.rcsb.org/), offering an ongoing resource for molecular biology educators and students around the world.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Prevalence of human papillomavirus genotypes in high-grade cervical precancer and invasive cervical cancer from cancer registries before and after vaccine introduction in the United States

Background. US population-based cancer registries can be used for surveillance of human papillomavirus (HPV) types found in HPV-associated cancers. Using this framework, HPV prevalence among high-grade cervical precancers and invasive cervical cancers were compared before and after HPV vaccine availability. Methods. Archived tissue from 2 studies of cervical precancers and invasive cervical cancers diagnosed from 1993-2005 (prevaccine) were identified from 7 central cancer registries in Florida; Hawaii; Iowa; Kentucky; Louisiana; Los Angeles County, California; and Michigan; from 2014 through 2015 (postvaccine) cases were identified from 3 registries in Iowa, Kentucky, and Louisiana. HPV testing was performed using L1 consensus polymerase chain reaction analysis. HPV-type–specific prevalence was examined grouped by hierarchical attribution to vaccine types: HPV 16, 18, HPV 31, 33, 45, 52, 58, other oncogenic HPV types, and other types/HPV negative. Generalized logit models were used to compare HPV prevalence in the prevaccine study to the postvaccine study by patient age, adjusting for sampling factors. Results. A total of 676 precancers (328 prevaccine and 348 postvaccine) and 1140 invasive cervical cancers (777 prevaccine and 363 postvaccine) were typed. No differences were observed in HPV-type prevalence by patient age between the 2 studies among precancers or invasive cancers. Conclusions. The lack of reduction in vaccine-type prevalence between the 2 studies is likely explained by the low number of cases and low HPV vaccination coverage among women in the postvaccine study. Monitoring HPV-type prevalence through population-based strategies will continue to be important in evaluating the impact of the HPV vaccine.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Comparative clumped isotope temperature relationships in freshwater carbonates

Lacustrine, riverine and spring carbonates represent archives of terrestrial climates and their geochemistry has been used to study palaeoenvironments. Clumped isotope thermometry is an emerging tool that has been applied to freshwater carbonates. Limited work has been done to evaluate comparative relationships between clumped isotopes and temperature in different types of modern freshwater carbonates. This study assembles an extensive calibration data set with 135 samples of modern freshwater carbonates from 96 sites and constrains the relationship between independent observations of water temperature and the clumped isotopic composition of carbonates (denoted by Δ 47 ), including new measurements, and recalculates published data in accordance with current community-defined standard values. For temperature reconstruction, the study reports a composite freshwater calibration and material-specific calibrations for biogenic carbonates (freshwater gastropods and bivalves), fine-grained carbonate (e.g. micrites), biologically mediated carbonates (microbialites and tufas) and travertines. Material-specific calibration trends show a convergence of slopes that are in agreement with recently published syntheses, but statistically significant differences in intercepts occur between some materials (e.g. some biogenics, fine-grained carbonates). These differences may arise due to unresolved seasonal biases, kinetic isotope effects and/or varying degrees of biological influence. The impact of different calibrations is shown through application to new data for glacial and deglacial age travertines from Austria and published data sets. While material-specific calibrations may yield more accurate results for biogenic and fine-grained carbonate samples, the use of material-specific and the composite freshwater calibrations generally produces values within 1.0–1.5°C of each other, and typically fall within calibration uncertainty given limitations of precision.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Benchmark estimate of the effect of anthropogenic emissions on the ocean surface

Abstract Investigations into the role of anthropogenic emissions in the occurrence of extreme weather often use a method that compares simulations of atmospheric climate models run under a factual scenario of historical boundary conditions observed during the period of the event against simulations run under a counterfactual scenario of what those boundary conditions might naturally have been over that same period in the absence of anthropogenic emissions. A particular requirement for this experiment design is an accurate estimation of ocean surface boundary conditions for use by the counterfactual natural simulations. Here we use output from the CMIP5 multi‐climate‐model archive to develop a robust estimate of sea surface temperatures and sea ice conditions for use in counterfactual natural simulations, intended as a benchmark estimate to facilitate comparison across climate models and across studies. This development includes tests to ensure that the final estimate is stable from year‐to‐year and stable against other perturbations to the methodology, as well as consideration of the strengths and weaknesses in comparison to other available attributable warming estimates. While this estimate is tailored specifically for the International CLIVAR C20C+ Detection and Attribution Project, it can be used by related projects as well.

Stone, Dáithí A.↗

Using pollen in turbidites for vegetation reconstructions

Turbidites, deposited by sub-aqueous gravity flows, are common in sedimentary archives worldwide and present a unique challenge and opportunity when reconstructing past vegetation through pollen analysis. When sampling pollen from a sediment core for palaeovegetation records, it is common practice to target background sediments (i.e. pelagic sediment) and avoid sampling turbidites, as they are presumed to portray a misleading picture of past vegetation. This assumption stems from our limited understanding of pollen abundance and distribution through turbidites, meaning that palynologists overlook deposits that could potentially be used to reconstruct past vegetation and climate. We present pollen assemblage and sedimentological data from four recent (<150 years) deep marine turbidite deposits from the Hikurangi Subduction Margin, Aotearoa-New Zealand, with the aim of understanding the abundance and distribution of pollen in fine-grained turbidites. We find that pollen is diluted in the bases of turbidites, but despite this dilution, the proportions of different pollen taxa remain consistent through each turbidite. These results confirm that pollen can be sampled from turbidites for palaeovegetation reconstructions and that sampling the fine-grained upper parts of turbidites will provide the best pollen recovery.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Mode-specific pressure effects on the relaxation of an excited nitromethane molecule in an argon bath

The vibrational and rotational mode-specific relaxations of CH 3 NO 2 with 50 kcal/mol of initial internal energy in an argon bath is computed at 300 K at pressures of 10-400 atm. This work uses archived information from our previously published [J. Chem. Phys. 142, 014303 (2015)] molecular dynamics simulations and employs our previous published [J. Chem. Phys. 151, 034303 (2019)] method for projecting time-dependent Cartesian velocities onto normal mode eigenvectors. The computed relaxations cover three types of energies: vibrational, rotational, and Coriolis. In general, rotational and Coriolis relaxations in all modes are initially fast followed by an orders of magnitude slower relaxation. For all modes, that slower relaxation rate is approximately comparable to the vibrational relaxation rate. For all three types of energies, there are small-scale mode-to-mode variations. Of particular prominence is the exceptionally fast relaxation shared in common by the external rotation about the C-N axis, the internal hindered rotation of the CH 3 group relative to the NO 2 group, and the symmetric stretch of the CH 3 group.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

The 2025 “Hacking Limnology” Workshop Series and DSOS Virtual Summit: A Half Decade of Data‐Intensive Aquatic Science

The 5th Aquatic Ecosystem MOdeling Network—Junior (AEMON-J) “Hacking Limnology” Workshop and 6th Virtual Summit: Incorporating Data Science and Open Science in the Aquatic Sciences (DSOS) convened 21–25 July 2025. As in previous years (Fig. 1; Meyer and Zwart 2020; Meyer et al. 2021b, 2021c, 2022, 2024), the virtual workshops and summit were free of charge, the content was formatted to allow for broad engagement from a globally distributed audience, and workshop materials and recordings were made available on the AEMON-J/DSOS archive (Meyer et al. 2021a). In contrast to previous years, which primarily focused on inland aquatic ecosystems, this year's workshops and summit showcased a notable plurality of ecosystem types, with workshops spanning marine, riverine, and lacustrine environments. The weeklong event brought together researchers and practitioners interested in the nexus of data science, open science, and the aquatic sciences, hosting between 47 and 65 attendees at a single time and a higher number of registrants (n = 389), who might opt to access the material asynchronously.

Meyer, Michael F. [US Geological Survey, Portland,↗

Status of genome function annotation in model organisms and crops

Abstract Since the entry into genome‐enabled biology several decades ago, much progress has been made in determining, describing, and disseminating the functions of genes and their products. Yet, this information is still difficult to access for many scientists and for most genomes. To provide easy access and a graphical summary of the status of genome function annotation for model organisms and bioenergy and food crop species, we created a web application ( https://genomeannotation.rheelab.org ) to visualize, search, and download genome annotation data for 28 species. The summary graphics and data tables will be updated semi‐annually, and snapshots will be archived to provide a historical record of the progress of genome function annotation efforts. Clear and simple visualization of up‐to‐date genome function annotation status, including the extent of what is unknown, will help address the grand challenge of elucidating the functions of all genes in organisms.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

RCSB protein data Bank: Next‐generation advanced search for exploration of experimental structures and computed structure models

Abstract The Protein Data Bank (PDB), established in 1971, is the primary global, open‐access archive for experimentally determined 3D macromolecular structures (proteins, RNA, DNA). The research‐focused RCSB.org web‐portal provides access to these data alongside more than one million machine‐learning‐predicted structure models, greatly expanding the available structural landscape. Rapid growth of both experimental and computational structures has increased the need for powerful yet accessible search tools that serve a broad and diverse scientific community. Herein, we describe a redesigned RCSB Protein Data Bank RCSB.org Advanced Search capability that supports intuitive discovery of 3D structures through a unified interface. This interface integrates annotation‐, sequence‐, and 3D structure‐based searches, embeds an interactive 3D viewer, and incorporates curated biological knowledge, such as catalytic site definitions from Mechanism and Catalytic Site Atlas and ligand‐guided structural motifs, for constructing geometry‐driven queries. A new Chemical Search tool allows definition of chemical queries via an integrated drawing tool or standard identifiers, seamlessly combining them with annotation filters. By allowing query definition directly within spatial and chemical contexts, these search interfaces reduce the need for detailed knowledge of residue numbering, chain identifiers, or external cheminformatics software. This capability enables efficient exploration of structures, chemical diversity, and structure–function relationships across all life domains. The redesigned interfaces can be accessed directly at rcsb.org/search/advanced for Advanced Search and rcsb.org/search/chemical for Chemical Search.

Rose, Yana [Research Collaboratory for Structural ↗