Integrated Calendar

Global climate models represent small-scale processes, such as clouds and convection, using subgrid models known as parameterizations. Traditional parameterizations are usually based on simplified physical models, and inaccuracies in these parameterizations are a main cause for the large uncertainty in climate projections. One alternative to traditional parameterizations is to use machine learning to learn new parameterizations which are data driven. However, machine-learning parameterizations might violate physical principles and often lead to instabilities when coupled to an atmospheric model. I will show how machine learning algorithms, such as neural networks and random forests, can be used to learn new parameterizations from the output of a three-dimensional high-resolution atmospheric model, while obeying physical constraints such as energy conservation. Implementing these parameterizations in the atmospheric model at coarse resolution leads to stable simulations that replicate the climate of the high-resolution simulation, and capture important statistics such as precipitation extremes. I will also discuss how machine-learning parameterizations can give further insights into the parameterization problem. Specifically, I will show that failures of machine-learning parameterizations can be used to better understand the relationship between large-scale fields and subgrid processes.

The rapid retreat of the Dead Sea during the past decades led the exposure of unique structures of massive gypsum and aragonite crusts: large capes pointing towards the open lake (termed here “gypsum deltas”) and numerous small gypsum mounds scattered on the lake’s exposed shores. Geological field relations, 14C and 34S measurements and thermodynamic calculations provide evidence that the gypsum deltas and the mounds were formed during time-intervals of low lake stands (~420±10 m below mean sea level), when sulfate-rich Ca-chloride brines discharged from the coastal aquifer via saline springs, mixed with the Dead Sea brine and precipitated the gypsum. This mixing process describes a mechanism of “gypsum outsalting”, which is completely different from the conventional view of gypsum as a product of evaporative deposition.
Condition for enhanced saline springs discharge and “gypsum outsalting” occurred in the mid to late Holocene period (~ 6.6 to 0.6 ka), and were mainly intensive at the latest stages of regional aridity cycles when lake level was still low and the Dead Sea salinity was at its highest. The ages of formation of the gypsum structures coincide with times of North Atlantic cooling events and grand solar minima suggesting a direct impact of the latter on the Dead Sea hydrology and high sensitivity of the regional hydrology (controlling lake level) to global solar-related events. The frequency of appearance of the gypsum structures seems to follow the Hallstat Cycle that approached minimum at ~3000 2000 years ago.

Lifestyle dietary interventions are an essential practice in treating obesity, hence neural factors that may assist in predicting individual treatment success are of great significance. Here, in a prospective, open-label, three arms study, we examined the correlation between brain resting-state functional connectivity measured at baseline and weight loss following 6 months of lifestyle intervention in 92 overweight participants. We report a robust subnetwork composed mainly of sensory and motor cortical regions, whose edges correlated with future weight loss. This effect was found regardless of intervention group. Importantly, this main finding was further corroborated using a stringent connectivity-based prediction model assessed with cross-validation thus attesting to its robustness. The engagement of senso-motor regions in this subnetwork is consistent with the over-sensitivity to food cues theory of weight regulation. Finally, we tested an additional hypothesis regarding the role of brain-gastric interaction in this subnetwork, considering recent findings of a cortical network synchronized with gastric activity. Accordingly, we found a significant spatial overlap with the subnetwork reported in the present study. Moreover, power in the gastric basal electric frequency within our reported subnetwork negatively correlated with future weight loss. This finding was specific to the weight loss related subnetwork and to the gastric basal frequency. These findings should be further corroborated by combining direct recordings of gastric activity in future studies. Taken together, these intriguing results may have important implications for our understanding of the etiology of obesity and the mechanism of response to dietary intervention as well as to interoceptive perception.
Zoom link to join:
https://weizmann.zoom.us/j/96608033618?pwd=SEdJUkR2ZzRBZ3laUUdGbWR1VFJTdz09

Meeting ID: 966 0803 3618
Password: 564068

Host: Dr. Rita Schmidt rita.schmidt@weizmann.ac.il tel: 9070

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is a circulation pattern of great climatic importance. Its northward heat flux at the upper water column moderates European winter climate, and its descending branch captures atmospheric CO2 into the deep ocean, hence buffering the anthropogenically induced rise in global temperature.
The Deep Western Boundary Current (DWBC) has classically been considered to be the main AMOC conduit southward at depth. However, tracer data have shown in recent decades that the DWBC "leaks" most of its material to the ocean interior in a small region of the North Atlantic, and that this leaked material continues southward in different, complex routes. These pathways and their causes are still little-explored and not well understood.
In this talk I will present analysis of the DWBC leakiness properties and dynamics, based on existing datasets of passively drifting floats, a new high resolution regional numerical model, and theoretical analysis. Several alternative mechanisms of leakiness are considered, and a novel finding is that a leading cause for the leakiness is inertial separation of the current from the seafloor, near underwater capes. The role of eddies and their interaction with the separation process is investigated as well. Implications for the robustness of the deep AMOC pathways are discussed.

The presentation will discuss recent evidence supporting a role for the gut-brain axis in controlling brain circuits involved in reward. It will be argued that sensory neurons of vagus nerve function as reward neurons. Via defined brainstem targets, vagal signals dopaminergic brain reward circuits in midbrain. The mapping of these circuits opens a window into how signals generated by internal body organs give rise to motivated and emotional behaviors.

Zoom link to join-
https://weizmann.zoom.us/j/96608033618?pwd=SEdJUkR2ZzRBZ3laUUdGbWR1VFJTdz09

Meeting ID: 966 0803 3618
Password: 564068

Host: Dr. Rita Schmidt rita.schmidt@weizmann.ac.il tel: 9070

Zoom Lecture: https://weizmann.zoom.us/j/98819686427?pwd=algvMEJUNHdvaFppNS9xVzlTUkhYQT09
Passcode: 551107

Many functions of RNA depend on rearrangements in secondary structure that are triggered by external factors, such as protein or small molecule binding. These transitions can feature on one hand localized structural changes in base-pairs or can be presented by a change in chemical identity of e.g. a nucleo-base tautomer. We use and develop R1ρ-relaxation-dispersion NMR methods for characterizing transient structures of RNA that exist in low abundance (populations

mRNA based vaccines prevent COVID-19 infections, putting them at the forefront of the current global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The scientific and clinical development of mRNA medicines, which began in ernest only ~10 years ago, has the potential to not only change the landscape of infectious disease vaccines but to also impact the treatment of cancer, genetic metabolic, autoimmune, and cardiovascular diseases. This talk will review the translational medicine approach to the research and development of both infectious disease vaccines, as exemplified by COVID-19 vaccine Moderna, as well as other applications of mRNA medicines currently in clinical development.
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