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In this paper, a long-term large-scale Saharan dust transport event which occurred between 14 and 27 June 2020 is tracked with the spaceborne lidars ALADIN (Atmospheric Laser Doppler Instrument) and CALIOP (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization) together with ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Forecasts) and HYSPLIT (Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory model) analysis. We evaluate the performance of ALADIN and CALIOP on the observations of dust optical properties and wind fields and explore the possibility of tracking the dust events and calculating the dust mass advection with the combination of satellite and model data. The dust plumes are identified with the AIRS/Aqua Dust Score Index and with the vertical feature mask product from CALIOP. The emission, dispersion, transport and deposition of the dust event are monitored using the data from AIRS/Aqua, CALIOP and HYSPLIT. With the quasi-synchronized observations by ALADIN and CALIOP, combined with the wind field and relative humidity, the dust advection values are calculated. From this study, it is found that the dust event generated on 14 and 15 June 2020 from the Sahara in North Africa dispersed and moved westward over the Atlantic Ocean, finally being deposited in the western Atlantic Ocean, the Americas and the Caribbean Sea. During the transport and deposition processes, the dust plumes are trapped in the northeasterly trade-wind zone between latitudes of 5∘ and 30∘ N and altitudes of 0 and 6 km. Aeolus provided the observations of the dynamics of this dust transport event in the Saharan Air Layer (SAL). From the measurement results on 19 June 2020, the dust plumes are captured quasi-simultaneously over the emission region (Western Sahara), the transport region (middle Atlantic) and the deposition region (western Atlantic) individually, which indicates that the dust plume area over the Atlantic on the morning of this day is quite enormous and that this dust transport event is massive and extensive. The quasi-synchronization observation results of 15, 16, 19, 24 and 27 June by ALADIN and CALIOP during the entire transport process show good agreement with the Dust Score Index data and the HYSPLIT trajectories, which indicates that the transport process of the same dust event is tracked by ALADIN and CALIOP, verifies that the dust transport spent around 2 weeks from the emission to the deposition and achieved the respective observations of this dust event's emission phase, development phase, transport phase, descent phase and deposition phase. Finally, the advection values for different dust parts and heights on 19 June and on the entire transport routine during transportation are computed. On 19 June, the mean dust advection values are about 1.91±1.21 mg m−2 s−1 over the emission region, 1.38±1.28 mg m−2 s−1 over the transport region and 0.75±0.68mgm-2s-1 over the deposition region. In the whole lifetime of the dust event, the mean dust advection values were about 1.51±1.03mgm-2s-1 on 15 June 2020, 2.19±1.72mgm-2s-1 on 16 June 2020, 1.38±1.28mgm-2s-1 on 19 June 2020, 1.60±1.08mgm-2s-1 on 24 June 2020 and 1.03±0.60mgm-2s-1 on 27 June 2020. During the dust development stage, the mean advection values gradually increased and reached their maximum on 16 June with the enhancement of the dust event. Then, the mean advection values decreased during the transport and the deposition of the dust over the Atlantic Ocean, the Americas and the Caribbean Sea.

By utilizing Level 2A products (particle optical properties and numerical weather prediction data) and Level 2C products (numerical weather prediction wind vector assimilated with observed wind component) provided by the Atmospheric Laser Doppler Instrument (ALADIN) onboard the Aeolus mission, and Level 2 vertical feature mask (VFM) products provided by Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) onboard Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) mission, three remote ocean areas are selected and the optical properties at 355 nm of marine aerosol are derived. The combined analysis of marine aerosol optical properties at 355 nm and instantaneous co-located wind speeds above the remote ocean areas are conducted. Eventually their relationships are explored and discussed at two sperate vertical atmospheric layers (0–1 km and 1–2 km, correspond to the heights within and above marine atmospheric boundary layer (MABL)), revealing the marine aerosol related atmospheric background states. Pure marine aerosol optical properties at 355 nm are obtained after quality control, cloud screening and backscatter coefficient correction from the ALADIN observations. The spatial distributions of marine aerosol optical properties and wind speed above the study areas are presented and analysed, respectively, at two vertical layers. The statistical results of the marine aerosol optical properties along with the wind speed grids at two vertical layers together with the corresponding regression curves fitted by power law functions are acquired and analysed, for each remote ocean area. The optical properties present increasing trends with wind speed in all cases, implying that the atmosphere of the two vertical layers will both receive the marine aerosol input produced and transported by the wind and the turbulence. The marine aerosol enhancement caused by the wind speed at the lower layer is more intensive than at the higher layer. As derived data from ALADIN, the averaged marine aerosol optical depth (AODmar) and the averaged marine aerosol lidar ratio (LRmar) at 355 nm are acquired and discussed along the wind speed range. The marine aerosol optical properties distributions, wind speed bins, and the marine aerosol variation tendencies along wind speed above the individual study areas are not totally similar, implying that the development and evolution of the marine aerosol above the ocean might not only be dominated by the drive of the wind, but also be impacted by other meteorological and environmental factors, e.g., atmospheric stability, sea and air temperature, or relative humidity. Combined analysis on the aerosol optical properties and wind with additional atmospheric parameters above the ocean might be capable to provide more detailed information of marine aerosol production, entrainment, transport and removal.

Pilonidal sinus is a common disease in the sacrococcygeal region. Although many treatments have been described in recent years, the recurrence of each method remains high. Surgeons did not reach a consensus on the preferred approach for pilonidal sinus. We carried out a meta-analysis of controlled clinical trials comparing the outcomes of endoscopic treatment versus conventional treatment for pilonidal sinus disease in this study.We performed a systematic literature search, and we used electronic databases such as PubMed/Medline, Embase, and the Cochrane library to search for the relevant literature comparing endoscopic management to other conventional treatments for pilonidal sinus disease. The primary outcome parameters were operative time, recurrence, postoperative complications and pain, and total healing time.Six studies were included in the review. Endoscopic pilonidal sinus treatment had a lower overall complication rate than the conventional surgery group (risk ratio = 0.33 [0.19-0.58], P = .0001) and lower pain score with a weighted mean difference of -2.44 (95% confidence interval: (-3.96) to (-0.92), I2 = 99%, P = .002). There was no significant difference in recurrence (risk ratio = 0.75, 95% confidence interval [0.30-1.90],P = .55). Compared to the excision followed by the primary closure technique, the operation time, time to complete wound healing, and satisfaction were similar.Endoscopic pilonidal sinus treatment is a unique and potential method of sacrococcygeal pilonidal disease treatment. The foremost benefits of this technique are mild postoperative pain, lower complications rate, and return to routine for a shorter time. However, due to the limited number of articles, we need to conduct more rigorous large-sample prospective randomized controlled trials to clarify the efficiency of endoscopic treatment for pilonidal cysts.

In this study, a 1550 nm coherent high-spectral-resolution lidar (CHSRL) is developed to measure the optical properties of aerosols and atmospheric wind profiles in the atmospheric boundary layer. To determine the optical properties, a coherent frequency discriminator based on the fast Fourier transform is designed in the CHSRL to separate the Mie and the Rayleigh–Brillouin backscatter spectra to fulfill the needs of high-spectral measurements. The atmospheric wind velocity is retrieved using the simultaneously measured Doppler shift. This non-optical frequency discriminator is a feasible and low-cost solution compared to a narrow-bandwidth optical filter, such as a Fabry–Perot interferometer or an atomic filter. However, shot, amplifier spontaneous emission, and detector noise interfere with the Rayleigh–Brillouin spectrum. Therefore, a spectrum correction algorithm is proposed to recover the interfered Rayleigh–Brillouin spectrum, and the measurement results of the spectral line agree well with those modeled with Tenti S6 at different central frequencies. Finally, field observations for comparison are conducted with the co-located CHSRL, Raman lidar, and coherent Doppler wind lidar. The comparison results indicate that the correlation coefficient of the aerosol backscatter coefficient is 0.84. The correlation coefficient and standard deviation of wind velocity are 0.98 and 0.13 m · s−1, respectively.

A practical method for instrumental calibration and aerosol optical properties retrieval based on coherent Doppler lidar (CDL) and sun photometer is presented in this paper. To verify its feasibility and accuracy, this method is applied into three field experiments in 2019 and 2020. In this method, multiwavelength (440, 670, 870, and 1020 nm) aerosol optical depth (AOD) from sun-photometer measurements are used to estimate AOD at 1550 nm and calibrate integrated CDL backscatter signal. Then it is validated by comparing the retrieved calibrated AOD at 1550 nm from CDL signal and that from sun-photometer measurements. Good agreement between them with the correlation of 0.96, the RMSE of 0.0085, and the mean relative error of 22% is found. From the comparison results of these three experiments, sun photometer is verified to be an effective reference instrument for the calibration of CDL return signal and the aerosol optical properties measurement with CDL is feasible. It is expected to promote the study on the aerosol flux and transport mechanism in the planetary boundary layer with the widely deployed CDLs.

An in-situ laser Doppler current probe (LDCP) for the simultaneous measurements of the micro-scale subsurface current speed and the characterizations of micron particles is dedicated in this paper. The LDCP performs as an extension sensor for the state-of-the-art laser Doppler anemometry (LDA). The all-fiber LDCP utilized a compact dual wavelength (491 nm and 532 nm) diode pumped solid state laser as the light source to achieve the simultaneous measurements of the two components of the current speed. Besides its ability for the measurements of the current speed, the LDCP is also capable of obtaining the equivalent spherical size distribution of the suspended particles within small size range. The micro-scale measurement volume formed by two intersecting coherent laser beams makes it possible to accurately estimate the size distribution of the micron suspended particles with high temporal and spatial resolution. With its deployment during the field campaign at Yellow Sea, the LDCP has been experimentally demonstrated as an effective instrument to capture the micro-scale subsurface ocean current speed. The algorithm for retrieving the size distribution of the small suspended particles (2∼7.5µm) has been developed and validated. The combined LDCP system could be applied to the continuous long-term observations of plankton community structure, ocean water optical parameter over a wide range, and useful to elucidate the processes and interactions of the carbon cycles in the upper ocean.

For the requirement of high-precision vertical profile of the polarization and optical properties of natural seawater, a ship-borne variable-FOV, dual-wavelength, polarized ocean lidar system is designed to obtain the volume linear depolarization ratio (VDR), color ratio and optical parameter profiles of seawater. With the high signal-to-noise ratio, which benefits from the high power (355 nm with 120 mJ, 532 nm with 200 mJ) solid-state laser and a photon counting recorder with a sampling rate of 1 GHz, the attenuated backscattered signal of seawater in the western Pacific campaign reaches to the depth of 50 m, where a plankton layer presents. The receiver of lidar is capable of switching to wide and narrow field of view (FOV), respectively, to obtain the lidar attenuation coefficient Klidar, which is in good agreement with the beam attenuation coefficient of seawater c with a narrow FOV and diffuse attenuation coefficient Kd with a wide FOV. Besides, the Klidar, and the VDR, at two wavelengths of 355 nm and 532 nm are compared to explore the possibility of multi-wavelength of laser application in the ocean lidar. The VDR and the color ratio profiles have a desirable correlation with the in-situ measurement of chlorophyll a (Chla) and chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) profiles, respectively. With the combination of the Klidar, the VDR and the color ratio profiles, measured in different regions and time periods during the campaign, the multi-wavelength and polarization lidar shows its potential to explore various ocean compositions, such as the ocean particles size shape, the species and vertical migration characteristics of planktons, and the profile distribution of the ocean compositions.

In this paper, a long-term large-scale Sahara dust transport event occurred during 14 June and 27 June 2020 is tracked with the spaceborne lidars ALADIN and CALIOP observations and the models ECMWF and HYSPLIT analysis. We evaluate the performance of the ALADIN and CALIOP on the observations of dust optical properties and wind fields and explore the capability in tracking the dust events and in calculating the dust mass advection with the combination of measurement data from ALADIN and CALIOP coupled with the products from ECMWF and HYSPLIT. The dust plumes are identified with AIRS/Aqua “Dust Score Index” and with the “Vertical Feature Mask” products from CALIOP. The emission, dispersion, transport and deposition of the dust event are monitored using the data from AIRS/Aqua, CALIOP and HYSPLIT. With the quasi-synchronization observations by ALADIN and CALIOP, combining the wind field and relative humidity, the dust advection values are calculated. From this study, it is found that the dust event generated on 14 and 15 June 2020 from Sahara Desert in North Africa, and then dispersed and transported westward over the Atlantic Ocean, and finally deposited in the Atlantic Ocean, the Americas and the Caribbean Sea. During the transport and deposition processes, the dust plumes are trapped in the Northeasterly Trade-wind zone between the latitudes of 5 °N and 30 °N , altitudes of 0 km and 6 km (in this paper we name this space area as “Saharan dust westward transport tunnel”). From the measurement results on 19 June 2020, influenced by the hygroscopic effect and mixing with other types aerosols, the backscatter coefficients of dust plumes are increasing along the transport routes, with 3.88 × 10−6 ± 2.59 × 10−6 m−1sr−1 in “dust portion during emission phase”, 7.09 × 10−6 ± 3.34 × 10−6 m−1sr−1 in “dust portion during development phase” and 7.76 × 10−6 ± 3.74 × 10−6 m−1sr−1 in “dust portion during deposition phase”. Finally, the advection value at different dust parts and heights on 19 June and on entire transport routine during transportation are computed. On 19 June, the mean dust advection values are about 2.06 mg · m−2 ·s−1 in dust portion during emission phase, 1.47 mg · m−2 ·s−1 in dust portion during development phase and 0.95 mg · m−2 ·s−1 in dust portion during deposition phase. In the whole life-time of the dust event, the mean dust advection values are about 1.50 mg · m−2 ·s−1 on 15 June 2020, 2.41 mg · m−2 ·s−1 on 16 June 2020, 1.47 mg · m−2 ·s−1 on 19 June 2020, 2.01 mg · m−2 ·s−1 on 24 June 2020 and 1.15 mg · m−2 ·s−1 on 27 June 2020. During the dust development stage, the mean advection values gradually increase and reach to the maximum value on 16 June with the enhancement of the dust event. Then, the mean advection values decrease during the transport and the deposition of the dust over the Atlantic Ocean, the Americas and the Caribbean Sea.

After the successful launch of Aeolus which is the first spaceborne wind lidar developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) on 22 August 2018, we deployed several ground-based coherent Doppler wind lidars (CDLs) to verify the wind observations from Aeolus. By the simultaneous wind measurements with CDLs at 17 stations over China, the Rayleigh-clear and Mie-cloudy horizontal-line-of-sight (HLOS) wind velocities from Aeolus in the atmospheric boundary layer are compared with that from CDLs. To ensure the quality of the measurement data from CDL and Aeolus, strict quality controls are applied in this study. Overall, 52 simultaneous Mie-cloudy comparison pairs and 387 Rayleigh-clear comparison pairs from this campaign are acquired. All of the Aeolus-produced L2B Mie-cloudy HLOS, Rayleigh-clear HLOS and CDL-produced HLOS are compared individually. For the inter-comparison result of Mie-cloudy HLOS wind and CDL-produced HLOS wind, the correlation coefficient, the standard deviation, the scaled MAD and the bias are 0.83, 3.15 m/s, 2.64 m/s and −0.25 m/s respectively, while the "y = ax" slope, the "y = ax + b" slope and the "y = ax + b" intercept are 0.93, 0.92 and −0.33 m/s. For the Rayleigh-clear HLOS wind, the correlation coefficient, the standard deviation, the scaled MAD and the bias are 0.62, 7.07 m/s, 5.77 m/s and −1.15 m/s respectively, while the "y = ax" slope, the "y = ax + b" slope and the "y = ax + b" intercept are 1.00, 0.96 and −1.2 m/s. It is found that the standard deviation, the scaled MAD and the bias on ascending tracks are slightly better than that on descending tracks. Moreover, to evaluate the accuracy of Aeolus HLOS wind measurements under different product baselines, the Aeolus L2B Mie-cloudy HLOS wind data and L2B Rayleigh-clear HLOS wind data under Baselines 07/08, Baselines 09/10, and Baseline 11 are compared against the CDL-retrieved HLOS wind data separately. From the comparison results, marked misfits between the wind data from Aeolus Baselines 07/08 and wind data from CDL in planetary boundary layer are found. With the continuous calibration and validation and product processor updates, the performances of Aeolus wind measurements under Baselines 09/10 and Baseline 11 are improved significantly. Considering the influence of turbulence and convection in the planetary boundary layers, higher values for the vertical velocity are common in this region. Hence, as a special note, the vertical velocity could impact the HLOS wind velocity retrieval from Aeolus.

In this paper, we present a novel fuzzy rule extraction approach by employing the Gaussian kernels and fuzzy concept lattices. First we introduce the Gaussian kernel to interval type-2 fuzzy rough sets to model fuzzy similarity relations and introduce a few concepts and theorems to improve the classification performance with fewer attributes accordingly. Based on this idea, we propose a novel attribute reduction algorithm, which can achieve better classification performance of deducing reduction subset of fewer attributes, and this will be used in the subsequent decision rule extraction. Then we justify the necessary and sufficient conditions of our fuzzy rule extraction approach through three implicit rule theorems and present a novel fuzzy decision rule extraction algorithm using fuzzy concept lattices and introduce the concepts of frequent nodes and candidate 2-tuples to our pruning strategy. Also, comparative performance experiments are carried out on the UCI datasets, and the results of both reduction subset size and classification ability show the advantages of our algorithm.

In this paper, a long-term large-scale Sahara dust transport event occurred during 14 June and 27 June 2020 is tracked with the spaceborne lidars ALADIN and CALIOP observations and the models ECMWF and HYSPLIT analysis. We evaluate the performance of the ALADIN and CALIOP on the observations of dust optical properties and wind fields and explore the capability in tracking the dust events and in calculating the dust horizontal mass fluxes with the combination of measurement data from ALADIN and CALIOP coupled with the products from ECMWF and HYSPLIT. Compared with the traditional assessments based on the data from CALIOP and models, the complement of Aeolus-produced aerosol optical properties and wind data will significantly improve the accuracy of dust horizontal flux estimations. The dust plumes are identified with AIRS/Aqua Dust Score Index and with the Vertical Feature Mask products from CALIPSO. The emission, dispersion, transport and deposition of the dust event are monitored using the data from HYSPLIT, CALIPSO and AIRS/Aqua. With the quasi-synchronization observations by ALADIN and CALIOP, combining the wind vectors and relative humidity, the dust horizontal fluxes are calculated. From this study, it is found that the dust event generated on 14 and 15 June 2020 from Sahara Desert in North Africa, and then dispersed and transported westward over the Atlantic Ocean, and finally deposited in the Atlantic Ocean, the Americas and the Caribbean Sea. During the transport and deposition processes, the dust plumes are trapped in the Northeasterly Trade-wind zone between the latitudes of 5° N and 30° N and altitudes of 0 km and 6 km (in this paper we name this space area as “Saharan dust eastward transport tunnel”). From the measurement results on 19 June 2020, influenced by the hygroscopic effect and mixing with other types aerosols, the backscatter coefficients of dust plumes are increasing along the transport routes, with 3.88 × 10−6 ± 2.59 × 10−6 m−1 sr−1 in “dust portion during emission phase”, 7.09 × 10−6 ± 3.34 × 10−6 m−1 sr−1 in “dust portion during development phase” and 7.76 × 10−6 ± 3.74 × 10−6 m−1 sr−1 in “dust portion during deposition phase”. Finally, the horizontal fluxes at different dust parts and heights on 19 June and on entire transport routine during transportation are computed. On 19 June, the dust horizontal fluxes are about 2.17 ± 1.83 mg m−2 s−1 in dust portion during emission phase, 2.72 ± 1.89 mg m−2 s−1 in dust portion during development phase and 3.01 ± 2.77 mg m−2 s−1 in dust portion during deposition phase. In the whole life-time of the dust event, the dust horizontal fluxes are about 1.30 ± 1.07 mg m−2 s−1 on 15 June 2020, 2.62 ± 1.88 mg m−2 s−1 on 16 June 2020, 2.72 ± 1.89 mg m−2 s−1 on 19 June 2020, 1.98 ± 1.41 mg m−2 s−1 on 24 June 2020 and 2.11 ± 1.74 mg m−2 s−1 on 27 June 2020. From this study, it is found that the minimum of the fluxes appears when the dust event is initially generated on 15 June. During the dust development stage, the horizontal fluxes gradually increase and reach to the maximum value on 19 June with the enhancement of the dust event. Then, the horizontal fluxes gradually decrease since most of the dust deposited in the Atlantic Ocean, the Americas and the Caribbean Sea. Combining the Chlorophyll concentrations data provided by MODIS-Aqua, the Saharan Dust is found transported across the oligotrophic regions Atlantic Ocean towards the Americas and Caribbean Sea, which are also oligotrophic regions. The mineral dust delivers micronutrients including soluble Fe and P to the deposition zones and has the potential to fertilizing the ocean and increase the primary productivity in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea.

Summary Background Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) contribute to the proliferation of colorectal cancer(CRC) cells. However, the mechanism by which CAFs develop in the tumor microenvironment remains unknown. Exosomes may be involved in activating CAFs. Methods Using a miRNA expression profiling array, we determined the miRNA expression profile of secretory exosomes in CRC cells and then identified potential miRNAs with significant differential expression compared to normal cells via enrichment analysis. Predicted targets of candidate miRNAs were then assessed via bioinformatics analysis. Realtime qPCR, western blot, and cell cycle analyses were performed to evaluate the role of candidate exosomal miRNAs. Luciferase reporter assays were applied to confirm whether candidate exosomal miRNAs control target pathway expression. A CRC xenograft mouse model was constructed to evaluate tumor growth in vivo. Results Exosomes from CRC cells contained significantly higher levels of miR-10b than did exosomes from normal colorectal epithelial cells. Moreover, exosomes containing miR-10b were transferred to fibroblasts. Bioinformatics analysis identified PIK3CA, as a potential target of miR-10b. Luciferase reporter assays confirmed that miR-10b directly inhibited PIK3CA expression. Co-culturing fibroblasts with exosomes containing miR-10b significantly suppressed PIK3CA expression and decreased PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway activity. Finally, exosomes containing miR-10b reduced fibroblast proliferation but promoted expression of TGF-β and SM α-actin, suggesting that exosomal miR-10b may activate fibroblasts to become CAFs that express myofibroblast markers. These activated fibroblasts were able to promote CRC growth in vitro and in vivo. Conclusion CRC-derived exosomes actively promote disease progression by modulating surrounding stromal cells, which subsequently acquire features of CAFs.

The direct and indirect radiation forcing of aerosol particles deeply affect the energy budget and the atmospheric chemical and physical processes. To retrieve the vertical aerosol mass fluxes and to investigate the vertical transport process of aerosol by a coherent Doppler lidar (CDL), a practical method for instrumental calibration and aerosol optical properties retrieval based on CDL and sun photometer synchronization observations has been developed. A conversion of aerosol optical properties to aerosol microphysical properties is achieved by applying a well-developed algorithm. Furthermore, combining the vertical velocity measured simultaneously with a CDL, we use the eddy covariance (EC) method to retrieve the vertical turbulent aerosol mass fluxes by a CDL and sun photometer with a spatial resolution of 15 m and a temporal resolution of 1 s throughout the planetary boundary layer (PBL). In this paper, we present a measurement case of 24-h continuous fluxes observations and analyze the diurnal variation of the vertical velocity, the aerosol backscatter coefficient at 1550 nm, the mean aerosol mass concentration, and the vertical aerosol mass fluxes on 13 April 2020. Finally, the main relative errors in aerosol mass flux retrieval, including sample error σF,S, aerosol optical properties retrieval error σF,R, and error introduced from aerosol microphysical properties retrieval algorithm σF,I, are evaluated. The sample error σF,S is the dominating error which increases with height except during 12:00–13:12 LST. The aerosol optical properties retrieval error σF,R is 21% and the error introduced from the aerosol microphysical properties retrieval algorithm σF,I is less than 50%.

Revealing brain functional connection pathways is of great significance in understanding the cognitive mechanism of the brain. In this paper, we present a novel rough set based dynamic multi-reduction algorithm (DMRA) to analyze brain functional connection pathways. First, a binary discernibility matrix is introduced to obtain a reduction, and a reduction equivalence theorem is proposed and proved to verify the feasibility of reduction algorithm. Based on this idea, we propose a dynamic single-reduction algorithm (DSRA) to obtain a seed reduction, in which two dynamical acceleration mechanisms are presented to reduce the size of the binary discernibility matrix dynamically. Then, the dynamic multi-reduction algorithm is proposed, and multi-reductions can be obtained by replacing the non-core attributes in seed reduction. Comparative performance experiments were carried out on the UCI datasets to illustrate the superiority of DMRA in execution time and classification accuracy. A memory cognitive experiment was designed and three brain functional connection pathways were successfully obtained from brain functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) by employing the proposed DMRA. The theoretical and empirical results both illustrate the potentials of DMRA for brain functional connection pathways analysis.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of hepatocyte growth factor receptor (c-MET) inhibition on the viability of colon cancer cells and xenografts exposed to irradiation using short hairpin (sh)RNA or the c-MET inhibitor PHA665752. The underlying mechanisms were also investigated. Human colorectal adenocarcinoma HT-29 cells were infected with a lentivirus expressing shRNAs against c-MET and were irradiated at 0, 2, 4, 6 and 8 Gy. The viability of the cells was assessed by alamarBlue® assays. Mice bearing human colon carcinoma SW620 xenografts were randomly selected to receive 2.5% dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), 25 mg/kg PHA665752 intraperitoneally once every 2 days for 3 weeks, irradiation at 10 Gy, or 25 mg/kg PHA665752 intraperitoneally once every 2 days for 3 weeks followed 24 h later by irradiation at 10 Gy. The mean tumor volume (MTV) was measured. The apoptotic rate of cells was detected by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) assays, and double stranded break marker antibody γ-H2AX and hypoxia inducible factor (HIF)-1α expression was examined by immunohistochemistry. alamarBlue assays revealed that c-MET downregulation by shRNA markedly accentuated the irradiation-induced reduction in the viability of HT-29 cells compared with HT-29 cells irradiated at the same doses (P

How to extract more knowledge from a complex information system is a hot issue in the big data era. Attribute reduction, as an effective method in rough set theory, is widely used for knowledge acquirement. In this paper, a novel positive region based parallel multi-reduction algorithm (POSMR) is proposed. Two strategies that for simplifying decision tables and computing the attribute importance are introduced based on MapReduce mechanism at first. And a non-core attribute replacement strategy based on positive region is employed to obtain multi-reduction. The experimental results conducted on UCI Datasets show the algorithm proposed in this paper can obtain multi-reduction correctly, and it is superior to the the binary discernibility matrix based parallel multi-reduction algorithm (BDMR) and traditional single-reduction algorithm.

As a part of the third Tibetan Plateau Experiment of Atmospheric Sciences (TIPEX III) in China, a Raman water vapor, cloud and aerosol lidar and a coherent wind lidar were operated in Naqu (31.48° N, 92.06° E) with a mean elevation of more than 4500 m a.m.s.l. in summer of 2014. During the field campaign, the water vapor mixing ratio profiles were obtained and validated by radiosonde observations. The mean water vapor mixing ratio in Naqu in July and August was about 9.4 g kg−1 and the values vary from 6.0 to 11.7 g kg−1 near the ground according to the lidar measurements, from which a diurnal variation of water vapor mixing ratio in the planetary boundary layer was also illustrated in this high-elevation area. Furthermore, using concurrent measurements of vertical wind speed profiles from the coherent wind lidar, we calculated the vertical flux of water vapor that indicates the water vapor transport through updraft and downdraft. The fluxes were for a case at night with large-scale non-turbulent upward transport of moisture. It is the first application, to our knowledge, to operate continuously atmospheric observations by utilizing multi-disciplinary lidars at the altitude higher than 4000 m, which is significant for research on the hydrologic cycle in the atmospheric boundary layer and lower troposphere in the Tibetan Plateau.

Cirrus clouds affect the energy budget and hydrological cycle of the earth’s atmosphere. The Tibetan Plateau (TP) plays a significant role in the global and regional climate. Optical and geometrical properties of cirrus clouds in the TP were measured in July-August 2014 by lidar and radiosonde. The statistics and temperature dependences of the corresponding properties are analyzed. The cirrus cloud formations are discussed with respect to temperature deviation and dynamic processes.

Optical and geometrical characteristics of cirrus clouds over Naqu (31.48° N,92.06° E), the Tibetan Plateau were determined from lidar and radiosonde measurements performed during the third TIbetan Plateau EXperiment of atmospheric sciences (TIPEX III) campaign from July to August 2014. For the analysis of the temperature dependence, the simultaneous observations by lidar and radiosonde were conducted. Cirrus clouds were generally observed ranging from 9.7 to 16.5 km above sea level (a.s.l.), with the cirrus middle temperatures in the range from −79.7 to −26.0 °C. The cloud thickness generally differed from 0.12 to 2.55 km with a mean thickness of 1.22 ± 0.70 km and 85.7 % of the case studies had thickness smaller than 1.5 km. The retrievals of linear particle depolarization ratio, extinction coefficient and optical depth of cirrus clouds were performed. Moreover, the multiple scattering effect inside of cirrus cloud was corrected. The linear particle depolarization ratio of the cirrus clouds varied from 0.36 to 0.52, with a mean value of 0.44 ± 0.037. The optical depth of all the cirrus clouds was between 0.01 and 3 following the scheme of Fernald-Klett method. Sub-visual, thin and opaque cirrus clouds were observed at 9.52 %, 57.14 % and 33.34 % of the measured cases, respectively. The temperature and thickness dependencies on optical properties were studied in detail. A maximum cirrus thickness of around 2 km was found at temperatures between −60 and −50 °C. This study shows that the cirrus mean extinction coefficient of the cirrus clouds increase with the increase of temperature. However, our measurements indicate that the linear particle depolarization ratio has the opposite change tendency along with temperature. The relationships between the presence of cirrus clouds and the temperature anomaly and deep convective activity are also discussed. The formation of cirrus clouds is also investigated and it has apparent relationship with the dynamic processes of Rossby wave and deep convective activity over the Tibetan Plateau. The cloud radiative forcing is calculated by Fu-Liou model and increases monotonously with the increase of optical depth.

Intensive field experiment is an important approach to obtain microphysical information about clouds and precipitation. From 1 July to 31 August 2014, the third Tibetan Plateau Atmospheric Science Experiment was carried out and comprehensive measurements of water vapor, clouds, and precipitation were conducted at Naqu. The most advanced radars in China, such as Ka-band millimeter-wave cloud radar, Ku-band micro-rain radar, C-band continuous-wave radar and lidar, and microwave radiometer and disdrometer were deployed to observe high spatial-temporal vertical structures of clouds and precipitation. The C-band duallinear polarization radar was coordinated with the China new generation weather radar to constitute a dual- Doppler radar system for the measurements of three-dimensional wind fields within convective precipitations and the structure and evolution of hydrometeors related to precipitation process. Based on the radar measurements in this experiment, the diurnal variations of several important cloud properties were analyzed, including cloud top and base, cloud depth, cloud cover, number of cloud layers, and their vertical structures during summertime over Naqu. The features of reflectivity, velocity, and depolarization ratio for different types of clouds observed by cloud radar are discussed. The results indicate that the cloud properties were successfully measured by using various radars in this field experiment. During the summertime over Naqu, most of the clouds were located above 6 km and below 4 km above ground level. Statistical analysis shows that total amounts of clouds, the top of high-level clouds, and cloud depth, all demonstrated a distinct diurnal variation. Few clouds formed at 1000 LST (local standard time), whereas large amounts of clouds formed at 2000 LST. Newly formed cumulus and stratus clouds were often found at 3-km height, where there existed significant updrafts. Deep convection reached up to 16.5 km (21 km above the mean sea level), and updrafts and downdrafts coexisted in the convective system. Supercooled water might exist in such kinds of deep convective system. The above measurements and preliminary analysis provide a basis for further study of cloud physics and precipitation process over the Tibetan Plateau. These observations are also valuable for modeling studies of cloud and precipitation physics as well as in the development of parameterization schemes in numerical prediction models.

In many resource allocation problems, economy efficiency must be taken into consideration together with social equality, and price rigidities are often made according to some economic and social needs. We investigate the computational issues of dynamic mechanisms for selling multiple indivisible objects under price rigidities. We propose a multiple agents protocol and algorithm with polynomial time complexity that can achieve the over-demanded sets of items, and then introduce a dynamic mechanism with rationing to discover constrainedWalrasian equilibria under price rigidities in polynomial time. We also address the computation of buyers' expected profits and items' expected prices, and discuss strategical issues in the sense of expected profits.

The Compact High-Power Shipborne Doppler Wind Lidar (CHiPSDWiL) based on high-spectral-resolution technique has been developed for the measurement of the wind field and the properties of the aerosol and clouds in the troposphere.

Optical and geometrical characteristics of the cirrus clouds over Naqu (4508 m a.s.l., 31.48° N, 92.06° E), in the Tibetan Plateau were determined from LiDAR and radiosonde measurements performed during the third TIbetan Plateau EXperiment of atmospheric sciences (TIPEX III) campaign from July to August 2014. For the analysis of the temperature dependence, the simultaneous observations with LiDAR and radiosonde were conducted. Cirrus clouds were generally observed ranging from 5.2 km to 12 km above ground level (AGL) (i.e., 9.7 km to 16.5 km a.s.l.), with the midcloud temperatures ranging from −79.7 to −26.0 °C. The cloud thickness generally differed from 0.12 to 2.55 km with a mean thickness of 1.22 ± 0.70 km, and 85.7% of the measurement cases had thickness smaller than 1.5 km. The retrievals of linear particle depolarization ratio, extinction coefficient, and optical depth of cirrus clouds were provided. Moreover, the multiple scattering effect inside of cirrus clouds was corrected. The linear particle depolarization ratio of the cirrus clouds varied from 0.36 to 0.52, with a mean value of 0.44 ± 0.04. The optical depth of the cirrus clouds was between 0.01 and 3 following the scheme of Fernald-Klett method. Sub-visual, thin, and opaque cirrus clouds were observed at 4.76%, 61.90% and 33.34% of the measured cases, respectively. The temperature and thickness dependencies of the optical properties were studied in detail. A maximum cirrus thickness of around 2 km was found at temperatures between −60 and −50 °C. This study shows that the mean extinction coefficient of the cirrus clouds increases with the increase of temperature. Conversely, the measurements indicate that the linear particle depolarization ratio decreases with the increasing temperature. The relationships between the existence of cirrus clouds and the temperature anomaly (temperature difference from the mean value of the temperature during July and August 2014 over Naqu) and deep convective activity are also discussed. The formation of cirrus clouds is investigated and also its apparent relationship with the South Asia High Pressure, the dynamic processes of Rossby wave, and deep convective activity over the Tibetan Plateau. The outgoing longwave radiation of cirrus clouds is calculated with the Fu-Liou model and is shown to increases monotonously with the increase of optical depth.

The 3 rd Tibetan Plateau atmospheric expedition experiment campaign were operated in the Tibetan Plateau during July and August 2014 by utilizing the Water vapor, Cloud and Aerosol Lidar (WVCAL), Coherent Doppler Wind Lidar and ceilometer VAISALA CL31. The observation was carried out in Nagqu area (31.5°N, 92.05°E), which is 4508 meters above the mean sea level. Water vapor mixing ratio, cloud height, vertical wind speed and vertical water vapor flux was measured by these lidars. The inversion methods of data products of lidars are described in details in this paper. Furthermore, the clouds heights measured by lidar and ceilometer were compared to verify the performance of the lidar. Finally, the case studies of water vapor mixing ratio, water vapor flux and cloud height and statistics were provided.

Vertical profiles of the depolarization ratio and the extinction coefficient of atmospheric particles in Tibetan Plateau were measured with the OUC Water Vapor, Cloud and Aerosol Lidar during the 3 rd Tibetan Plateau Atmospheric Expedition Experiment Campaign in 2013 and 2014. The cloud types and phases, the spatial temporal distribution of the aerosols and the boundary layer height in the Tibetan Plateau were obtained using polarization lidar technique. In this paper, the depolarization ratio was validated with CALIOP polarization simultaneous data, and the extinction coefficient was retrieved by the Fernald method. The result implied that the atmosphere in the Tibetan Plateau was quite clean with low aerosol load and serious pollution. The ice-water mixed cumulus, water cumulus or stratus clouds in Litang and Nagqu were occurred and classified, respectively. The boundary layer height in Nagqu at average altitude over 4600 m was obtained at around 200 m-300 m, which was commonly lower than that in other observed sites.

Aiming at the detection of water vapor mixing ratio, particle linear depolarization ratio, extinction coefficient and cloud information, the Water vapor, Cloud and Aerosol Lidar (WVCAL) was developed by the lidar group at Ocean University of China. The Lidar consists of transmitting subsystem, receiving subsystem, data acquisition and controlling subsystem and auxiliary subsystem. These parts were presented and described in this paper. For the measurement of various physical properties, three channels including Raman channel, polarization channel and infrared channel are integrated in this Lidar system. In this paper, the integration and working principle of these channels is introduced in details. Finally, a measurement example which was operated in coastal area-Qingdao, Shandong province, during 2014 is provided.

A Raman lidar was deployed successively for the measurements of water vapor mixing ratio (WVMR) at Qingdao and the Tibetan Plateau. From these observations, the corresponding developments of WVMR at Qingdao and Naqu were analysed.

Multi-granularity analysis is an important manifestation of human cognitive ability which can obtain more reasonable and satisfactory solutions from multiple perspectives and multiple levels. In this paper, we present a multi-knowledge rapid reduction strategy combined with particle swarm algorithm based on optimistic multi-granularity rough sets. We evaluated the performance of our approach using the Statlog (Heart) Data Set and the corresponding computational experiments were completed. The empirical results indicate that our approach is effective at identifying multiple factors and usually produces multiple candidate reducts.

A brief description of the Water vapor, Cloud and Aerosol Lidar (WACAL) system is provided. To calibrate the volume linear depolarization ratio, the concept of “ Δ 90 ° -calibration” is applied in this study. This effective and accurate calibration method is adjusted according to the design of WACAL. Error calculations and analysis of the gain ratio, calibrated volume linear depolarization ratio and particle linear depolarization ratio are provided as well. In this method, the influences of the gain ratio, the rotation angle of the plane of polarization and the polarizing beam splitter are discussed in depth. Two groups of measurements with half wave plate (HWP) at angles of (0 ° , 45 ° ) and (22.5 ° , −22.5 ° ) are operated to calibrate the volume linear depolarization ratio. Then, the particle linear depolarization ratios measured by WACAL and CALIOP (the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization) during the simultaneous observations were compared. Good agreements are found. The calibration method was applied in the third Tibetan Plateau Experiment of Atmospheric Sciences (TIPEX III) in 2013 and 2014 in China. Vertical profiles of the particle depolarization ratio of clouds and aerosol in the Tibetan Plateau were measured with WACAL in Litang (30.03° N, 100.28° E, 3949 m above sea level (a.s.l.)) in 2013 and Naqu (31.48° N, 92.06° E, 4508 m a.s.l.) in 2014. Then an analysis on the polarizing properties of the aerosol, clouds and cirrus over the Tibetan Plateau is provided. The particle depolarization ratio of cirrus clouds varies from 0.36 to 0.52, with a mean value of 0.44 ± 0.04. Cirrus clouds occurred between 5.2 and 12 km above ground level (a.g.l.). The cloud thickness ranges from 0.12 to 2.55 km with a mean thickness of 1.22 ± 0.70 km. It is found that the particle depolarization ratio of cirrus clouds become larger as the height increases. However, the increase rate of the particle depolarization ratio becomes smaller as the height increases.

The Compact High-Power Shipborne Doppler Wind Lidar (CHiPSDWiL) based on highspectral-resolution technique has been built up at the Ocean University of China for the measurement of the wind field and the properties of the aerosol and clouds in the troposphere. The design of the CHiPSDWiL including the transceiver, the injection seeding, the locking and the frequency measurement will be presented. Preliminary results measured by the CHiPSDWiL are provided.

The water vapor expedition experiment campaign was operated in the Tibetan Plateau during July and August 2014, by utilizing the Water vapor, Cloud and Aerosol Lidar (WACAL). The observation was carried out in Nagqu area (31.5° N, 92.05° E), which is 4508 m above the mean sea level. During the observation, the water vapor mixing ratio at high elevation was obtained. In this paper, the methodology of the WACAL and the retrieval method are presented in particular. The validation of water vapor mixing ratio measured during the field campaigns is completed by comparing the Lidar measurements to the radiosonde data. WACAL observations from July to August illustrate the diurnal variation of water vapor mixing ratio in the planetary boundary layer in this high elevation area. The mean water vapor mixing ratio in Nagqu in July and August is about 9.4 g kg−1 and the values vary from 6.0 to 11.7 g kg−1 near ground. The SNRs and relative errors of the data are analyzed and discussed as well in this paper. Finally, combining the vertical wind speed profiles measured by the coherent wind lidar, the vertical flux of water vapor is calculated and the upwelling and deposition of the water vapor are monitored. It is the first application, to our knowledge, to operate continuously atmospheric observation by utilizing multi-disciplinary lidar at altitude higher than 4000 m which is significant for research on the boundary dynamics and meteorology of Tibetan Plateau.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of hepatocyte growth factor receptor (c-MET) inhibition on the viability of colon cancer cells and xenografts exposed to irradiation using short hairpin (sh)RNA or the c-MET inhibitor PHA665752. The underlying mechanisms were also investigated. Human colorectal adenocarcinoma HT-29 cells were infected with a lentivirus expressing shRNAs against c-MET and were irradiated at 0, 2, 4, 6 and 8 Gy. The viability of the cells was assessed by alamarBlue® assays. Mice bearing human colon carcinoma SW620 xenografts were randomly selected to receive 2.5% dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), 25 mg/kg PHA665752 intraperitoneally once every 2 days for 3 weeks, irradiation at 10 Gy, or 25 mg/kg PHA665752 intraperitoneally once every 2 days for 3 weeks followed 24 h later by irradiation at 10 Gy. The mean tumor volume (MTV) was measured. The apoptotic rate of cells was detected by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) assays, and double stranded break marker antibody γ-H2AX and hypoxia inducible factor (HIF)-1α expression was examined by immunohistochemistry. alamarBlue assays revealed that c-MET downregulation by shRNA markedly accentuated the irradiation-induced reduction in the viability of HT-29 cells compared with HT-29 cells irradiated at the same doses (P

of cloud and aerosol in the Tibet Plateau were m easureddu ring the Tibetan Plateau atmospheric expedition experiment campaign with water vapor, cloud and aerosol lidar system ,which is capable of depolarization ratio measurement. The atmospheric comprehensive observations were performed during July of 2013 at Litang (30.03°N,100.28°E), which is 3949 meters above the mean sea level, Sichuan province, China. It was the first time to detect and obtain the Tibeta n Plateau cloud and aerosol lidar depolarization profiles to ou rknowledge. After com pleting the plateau experiment campaign, the lidar system measured the atmosphere above coasta larea in Qingdao (36.165°N,120.4956°E). In this year, we con tinued to participate in the pl ateau experiment camp aign inNagc hu (31.5°N,92.05°E), which is 4600 meters above the mean sea level, The Tibet Autonomous Region from 1

Rough set theory provides an effective method to reduce attributes and extract knowledge. This paper represents a rough set multi-knowledge extraction algorithm and its formal concept analysis. The proposed algorithm can obtain multi-reducts by using rough set in decision table. The formal concept analysis is used to obtain rules from the main values of the attributes influencing the decision making and these rules build a multi-knowledge. Experimental results show that the proposed multi-knowledge extraction algorithm is efficient.

Aiming at the detection of atmospheric water vapor mixing ratio, depolarization ratio, backscatter coefficient, extinction coefficient and cloud information, the Water vapor, Cloud and Aerosol Lidar (WACAL) is developed by the lidar group at Ocean University of China. The lidar consists of transmitter, receiver, data acquisition and auxiliary system. For the measurement of various atmospheric physical properties, three channels including Raman channel, polarization channel and infrared channel are integrated in WACAL. The integration and working principle of these channels are introduced in details. The optical setup, the housekeeping of the system and the data retrieval routines are also presented. After the completion of the construction of the lidar, the WACAL system was installed in Ocean University of China (36.165°N, 120.5°E), Qingdao for the measurement of atmosphere during 2013 and 2014. The measurement principles and some case studies corresponding to various atmospheric physical properties are provided. Finally, the result of one continuous measurement example operated on 13 June 2014 is presented. The WACAL can measure the aerosol and cloud optical properties as well as the water vapor mixing ratio. It is useful for studying the direct and indirect effects of the aerosol on the climate change.

We present a practical method to continuously calibrate Raman lidar observations of water vapor mixing ratio profiles. The water vapor profile measured with the multiwavelength polarization Raman lidar PollyXT is calibrated by means of co-located AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) sun photometer observations and Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS) temperature and pressure profiles. This method is applied to lidar observations conducted during the Cyprus Cloud Aerosol and Rain Experiment (CyCARE) in Limassol, Cyprus. We use the GDAS temperature and pressure profiles to retrieve the water vapor density. In the next step, the precipitable water vapor from the lidar observations is used for the calibration of the lidar measurements with the sun photometer measurements. The retrieved calibrated water vapor mixing ratio from the lidar measurements has a relative uncertainty of 11 % in which the error is mainly caused by the error of the sun photometer measurements. During CyCARE, nine measurement cases with cloud-free and stable meteorological conditions are selected to calculate the precipitable water vapor from the lidar and the sun photometer observations. The ratio of these two precipitable water vapor values yields the water vapor calibration constant. The calibration constant for the PollyXT Raman lidar is 6.56 g kg−1 ± 0.72 g kg−1 (with a statistical uncertainty of 0.08 g kg−1 and an instrumental uncertainty of 0.72 g kg−1). To check the quality of the water vapor calibration, the water vapor mixing ratio profiles from the simultaneous nighttime observations with Raman lidar and Vaisala radiosonde sounding are compared. The correlation of the water vapor mixing ratios from these two instruments is determined by using all of the 19 simultaneous nighttime measurements during CyCARE. Excellent agreement with the slope of 1.01 and the R2 of 0.99 is found. One example is presented to demonstrate the full potential of a well-calibrated Raman lidar. The relative humidity profiles from lidar, GDAS (simulation) and radiosonde are compared, too. It is found that the combination of water vapor mixing ratio and GDAS temperature profiles allow us to derive relative humidity profiles with the relative uncertainty of 10–20 %.