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Aims Cattle and poultry manure composting are often applied on agricultural lands but the fungal community composition before and after application in soils is still unclear. This study describes soil fungal diversity after manure applications contribute to the correct resource use of livestock and poultry manures. Methods and Results Fresh manure samples were obtained from 10 beef cow farms and 12 egg-laying poultry farms at five distinct phases of rearing. Surface soil samples were collected from vegetable plots within the farms after manure application at 15, 30 and 45 t hm−2. Using high-throughput sequencing techniques, the ITS region was used to describe soil fungus populations. The fungal OTUs, Chao1 and ACE of cattle manure were relatively higher in the fattening stage (>12 months), the OTUs and ACE of chicken manure were the highest in the initial laying stage (16–24 weeks). The fungal diversity indices of vegetable soils had no linear change after cow or chicken manure application compared with the control. Ascomycota (84.7% of total sequences), Neocallimastigomycota (9.69%) and Basidiomycota (4.6%) were the dominant phyla in cattle manure. Ascomycota (88.9%) also predominated in chicken manure followed by Basidiomycota (8.9%). Following both cattle and chicken manure applications, the abundance of Ascomycota decreased, whereas Basidiomycota and Chytridiomycota increased in the soils. None of the dominant genus increased or decreased linearly with the increase of cattle and chicken composting application rate. The fungal-dominant genera of the soils with and without manure composting application were mostly affected by soil pH and EC than manure. Pearson’s correlation analysis revealed that organic matter, Cu and Hg contents were strongly linked to the fungal diversity and the abundance of specific taxa in cattle manure. In chicken manure, OM, TN and Zn were major factors controlling the fungal diversity and community composition. Soil pH, EC and Cu, Zn, Cd, Hg and As content had pronounced effects on the beneficial and pathogenic genus in soil with and without manure composting. Beneficial fungal genus such as Aspergillus, Plectosphaerella, Acremonium, Meyerozyma and fungal pathogenic such as Fusarium, Cladosporium, Verticillium were sensitive to properties (EC, pH, OM) and heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Hg) contents of the environment relatively. This study can serve as an applicable contribution helping in farms management (especially to cattle and poultry breeding) and improving their resource use of livestock and poultry manures. Conclusions Soil heterogeneity rather than manure determines fungal communities in the vegetable fields, but we can encourage the sensible use of cattle and chicken manures in agroecosystems. Significance and Impact of the study This study will help farmers regulate the dosage of feed components which can increase the number of beneficial fungal genus or reduce the number of pathogenic fungal genus, improve their resource use of livestock and poultry manures and encourage the sensible use of cattle and chicken manures in agroecosystems.

We present an analysis of the relativistic reflection spectra of GX 339–4 during the hard-to-soft transition of its 2021 outburst observed by Insight–HXMT. The strong relativistic reflection signatures in the data suggest a high black hole spin (a * > 0.86) and an intermediate disk inclination angle (i ≈ 35°–43°) of the system. The transition is accompanied by an increasing temperature of the disk and a softening of the corona emission, while the inner disk radius remains stable. Assuming a lamppost geometry, the corona height is also found to stay close to the black hole across the state transition. If we include the Comptonization of the reflection spectrum, the scattering fraction parameter is found to decrease during the state transition. We also perform an analysis with a reflection model designed for hot accretion disks of stellar mass black holes where the surface of the innermost accretion disk is illuminated by emission from the corona and the thermal disk below. Our results support the scenario in which the state transition is associated with variations in the corona properties.

We explore how dialectical thinking is related to one's meaning making tendencies.

COVID-19 is rapidly spreading across the globe, resulting in millions of infections and hundreds of thousands of deaths to date. Fear and anxiety are especially prevalent emotions during an epidemic like this, and can have long-lasting negative consequences on psychological health. It is critical to identify strategies to help people better cope with the current epidemic. The aim is to provide insights and strategies to combat fear and anxiety, and to improve people’s psychological well-being, both during current epidemic and in similar future situations. Research has shown that psychological distance--temporally distancing the self from stressful events--promotes adaptive coping, mitigate emotional distress and reactivity, and improves adaptive emotional control. By eliciting a distant future perspective, the current research aims to reduce negative affect (e.g., anxiety/fear), and facilitate coping with current COVID-19 epidemic, through the mechanism of impermanent focus (i.e. focusing on transitory aspects of the stressor). Eventually, we plan to mitigate negative psychological consequences through online interventions because a timely online intervention is most desirable when opportunities to deliver in-person interventions are limited by widespread quarantine measures. Moreover, it guarantees easy access to the masses and allow interventions to be disseminated at a low cost.

The aim of the current study was to understand how people from different cultures react to accidents collectively. Findings showed that South Koreans reported stronger emotions, greater self-blame, higher perceived control, and higher perceived responsibility than Canadians. Furthermore, stronger emotional response and perceived control might have led Koreans to perceive stronger responsibility (than Canadians) for the accidents. Traditionally, it has been believed that East Asians have a diminished sense of control over life events compared to Westerners. The present findings are therefore intriguing. This aids our understanding of cross-cultural differences in experiences of loss and trauma.

We respond to the comments by Voigt and Konigsberger regarding our study on phase equilibrium of the K+, Mg2+//Cl–, SO42––H2O quaternary system and its ternary subsystems.

The stable phase equilibrium data of the K+, Mg2+//Cl–, SO42– + H2O quaternary interaction system and its four ternary subsystems KCl–K2SO4–H2O, KCl–MgCl2–H2O, K2SO4–MgSO4–H2O, and MgCl2–MgSO4–H2O ...

PurposeBlood from infarct-related arteries obtained by thrombus aspiration is good material for studying the local microenvironment of blood vessels in myocardial infarction. Here, we aimed to observe the effects of intracoronary microparticles (MPs) on cardiac fibrosis and to find associated microRNAs in MPs.MethodsBlood samples were collected from patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction who underwent emergency percutaneous coronary intervention, and sub-supersonic centrifugation was used to separate the MPs.ResultsWe found that rats treated with intracoronary MPs showed better cardiac function after myocardial infarction compared with rats treated with PBS control or peripheral MPs. RNA microarray analysis indicated that microRNAs, especially miR-625-5p, may play a role in the process. Supplementation with miR-625-5p inhibited proliferation of cardiac fibroblasts and myocardial fibrosis in a mouse myocardial infarction model. ConclusionOur findings indicate that plasma MPs in infarct-related arteries in patients with acute myocardial infarction can inhibit myocardial fibrosis and improve cardiac function, with a process mediated by miR-625-5p and HMGA1 (high mobility group AT-hook 1). The current study may provide a possible reference for thrombus aspiration standard.

Aim: To identify the gene mutation and complete prenatal counseling in a Chinese family with spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenital (SEDC). Materials and Methods: A Chinese family with SEDC was enrolled. Their detailed clinical features, skeletal radiographic features, and laboratory results were obtained. The peripheral blood samples of the family members were used for the targeted next-generation sequencing (NGS), and Sanger sequencing confirmation. Bioinformatics analysis and genotype-phenotype correlation analysis were used to identify the gene mutation. Amniocentesis, fetal chromosome analysis and Sanger sequencing were completed for prenatal diagnosis. Results: A missense mutation c.3392G>T (p. Gly1131Val) of COL2A1 was found in the proband and the fetus. The mutation was confirmed to be likely pathogenic and would damage the structure of stable triple-helical type II collagen. Conclusion: A novel pathogenic c.3392G>T (p. Gly1131Val) mutation in COL2A1 leading to SEDC was identified, which expanded the genotypic spectrum and phenotypic spectrum of SEDC. In addition, we wish to emphasize that prenatal diagnosis and genetic counseling should be carried out in a family with SEDC for better procreative management.

Background: Fatty acid metabolism plays an important role in the survival and pathogenesis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. During dormancy, lipids are considered to be the main source of energy. The previous studies find that Rv0494 is a starvation-inducible, lipid-responsive transcriptional regulator. However, the role of Rv0494 in bacterial persister survival has not been studied.Methods: We constructed Rv0494 deletion mutant and assessed the susceptibility of the mutant to various antibiotics conditions in persister assays.Results: We found that mutations in Rv0494 caused a defect in persister survival as shown by their increased susceptibility to Isoniazid.Conclusions: We conclude that Rv0494 is important for persister survival and may serve as a good target for developing new antibiotics that kill persister bacteria for improved treatment of persistent bacterial infections.

BACKGROUND: Type 2 diabetes mellitus is the leading cause of kidney failure worldwide, but few effective long-term treatments are available. In cardiovascular trials of inhibitors of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2), exploratory results have suggested that such drugs may improve renal outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS: In this double-blind, randomized trial, we assigned patients with type 2 diabetes and albuminuric chronic kidney disease to receive canagliflozin, an oral SGLT2 inhibitor, at a dose of 100 mg daily or placebo. All the patients had an estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR) of 30 to 300 to 5000) and were treated with renin-angiotensin system blockade. The primary outcome was a composite of end-stage kidney disease (dialysis, transplantation, or a sustained estimated GFR of

One month after launching Gravitational wave high-energy Electromagnetic Counterpart All-sky Monitor (GECAM), a bright thermonuclear X-ray burst from 4U~0614+09, was observed on January 24, 2021. We report the time-resolved spectroscopy of the burst and a burst oscillation detection at 413 Hz with a fractional amplitude 3.4\% (rms). This coincides with the burst oscillation previously discovered with \textit{Swift}/BAT \citep{Strohmayer2008}, and therefore confirms the spin frequency of this source. This burst is the brightest one in the normal bursts (except the superburst) ever detected from 4U~0614+09, which leads to an upper limit of distance estimation as 3.1 kpc. The folded light curve during the burst oscillation shows a multi-peak structure, which is the first case observed during a single burst oscillation in nonpulsating sources. The multi-peak profile could be due to additional harmonics of the burst oscillation, which is corresponding to several brighter/fainter spots at the stellar surface.

Background : Metabolic inflammation has been considered as an essential event in obesity-induced diabetes and insulin resistance. In obesity, an increasing number of macrophages recruited into visceral adipose tissues undergo significant M 1 -like polarization, secreting variable amounts of pro-inflammatory cytokines and causing insulin resistance. Piperine has been proven to have excellent anti-inflammatory activity and has therapeutic effects on a variety of inflammatory diseases. Therefore, we investigated the effect of piperine on adipose tissue inflammation and insulin resistance in obese mice. Methods: In this study, the monosodium glutamate (MSG) obese mice model was used. The 6-month-old MSG mice were divided into three groups, which were treated with piperine (40 mg/kg/day), metformin (150 mg/kg/day) and vehicle for successive 10 weeks, respectively. Meanwhile, the 6-month-old normal mice without MSG treatment were selected as normal controls. Results: When the obesity model was successfully established, obesity degree, insulin resistance, fasting blood glucose(FBG) and serum lipid profiles were significantly increased. Our results showed that the 10-week administration of piperine (40 mg/kg/d) not only significantly decreased the elevated FBG, serum TC and TG levels, but also enhanced infusion rate in hyperglycemic clamp experiment and improved the oral glucose intolerance as well as abnormal insulin tolerance in adult MSG obese mice. Additionally, piperine significantly decreased the total and differential white blood cell (WBC) count and the serum level of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), pro-inflammatory cytokines such as galectin-3 (Gal-3), interleukin-1β (IL-1β). Furthermore, piperine clearly down-regulated the mRNA levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and the protein levels of M 1 -like polarization marker CD11c and Gal-3 in adipose tissues. In addition, the in vitro study showed that piperine inhibited LPS- stimulated polarization of RAW 264.7 cells toward the M 1 phenotype. Conclusions: In summary, these findings demonstrated that piperine could significantly inhibit body weight gain, reduce fat accumulation, rectify glycolipid metabolism disorders, improve severe insulin resistance and ameliorates systemic metabolic inflammation in MSG obesity mice. Our study indicates that piperine, as a potential natural alkaloid, can be used in the treatment of obesity-associated diabetes by delaying the progression of obesity-induced insulin resistance.

We summarize the results of a dedicated effort between 2012 and 2019 to follow the evolution of the cyclotron line in Her~X-1 through repeated NuSTAR observations. The previously observed nearly 20-year long decay of the cyclotron line energy has ended around 2012: from there onward the pulse phase averaged flux corrected cyclotron line energy has remained stable and constant at an average value of Ecyc= (37.44+/-0.07) keV (normalized to a flux level of 6.8 RXTE/ASM-cts/s). The flux dependence of Ecyc discovered in 2007 is now measured with high precision, giving a slope of (0.675+/-0.075) keV/(ASM-cts/s), corresponding to an increase of 6.5% of Ecyc for an increase in flux by a factor of two. We also find that all line parameters as well as the continuum parameters show a correlation with X-ray flux. While a correlation between Ecyc and X-ray flux (both positive and negative) is now known for several accreting binaries with various suggestions for the underlying physics, the phenomenon of a long-term decay has so far only been seen in Her~X-1 and Vela~X-1, with far less convincing explanations., Comment: 13 pages, 17 figures, Astronomy and Astrophysics (in press)

The evidences for the influence of thermonuclear (type-I) X-ray bursts upon the surrounding environments in neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXB) were detected previously via spectral and timing analyses. Benefitting from a broad energy coverage of Insight-HXMT, we analyze one photospheric radius expansion (PRE) burst, and find an emission excess at soft X-rays. Our spectral analysis shows that, such an excess is not likely relevant to the disk reflection induced by the burst emission and can be attributed to an enhanced pre-burst/persistent emission. We find that the burst and enhanced persistent emissions sum up to exceed Eddington luminosity by $\sim$ 40 percentages. We speculate that the enhanced emission is from a region beyond the PRE radius, or through the Comptonization of the corona., Comment: accepted by JHEA(Journal of High Energy Astrophysics)

A consistent description of the radiative polarization for relativistic electrons in intense laser fields is derived by generalizing the Sokolov-Ternov effect in general field structure. The new form together with the spin-dependent radiation-reaction force provides a complete set of dynamical equations for electron momentum and spin in strong fields. When applied to varying intense fields, e.g. the laser fields, the generalized Sokolov-Ternov effect allows electrons to gain or lose polarization in any directions other than along the magnetic field in the rest frame of the electron. The generalized theory is applied to the collision process between initially polarized/unpolarized high energy electrons with linearly polarized ultra-intense laser pulse, showing results that eliminate the dependence on specific choices of a quantization axis and spin initialization existing in spin-projection models., Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures

The gut microbiota plays an essential role in the health of bees. Scientific evidence suggests that diet and infection can affect the gut microbiota and modulate the health of the gut; however, the interplay between those two factors and the bee gut microbiota is not well known. In this study, we used a high-throughput sequencing method to monitor the changes of gut microbiota associated with both feeding types and Nosema ceranae infection. Our results showed that the gut microbiota composition and diversity of Asian honey bee were significantly associated with both feeding types and the N. ceranae infection. More interestingly, bees fed with beebread showed higher microbiota stability and lower mortality rates than those fed with sugar water when infected by N. ceranae. Those data suggest that beebread has the potential not only to provide better nutrition but also help to establish a more stable gut microbiota to protect bees against N. ceranae infection., The gut microbiota plays an essential role in the health of bees. To elucidate the effect of feed and Nosema ceranae infection on the gut microbiota of honey bee (Apis cerana), we used 16S rRNA sequencing to survey the gut microbiota of honey bee workers fed with sugar water or beebread and inoculated with or without N. ceranae. The gut microbiota of A. cerana is dominated by Serratia, Snodgrassella, and Lactobacillus genera. The overall gut microbiota diversity was show to be significantly differential by feeding type. N. ceranae infection significantly affects the gut microbiota only in bees fed with sugar water. Higher abundances of Lactobacillus, Gluconacetobacter, and Snodgrassella and lower abundances of Serratia were found in bees fed with beebread than in those fed with sugar water. N. ceranae infection led to a higher abundance of Snodgrassella and a lower abundance of Serratia in sugar-fed bees. Imputed bacterial Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways showed the significant metagenomics functional differences by feeding and N. ceranae infections. Furthermore, A. cerana workers fed with sugar water showed lower N. ceranae spore loads but higher mortality than those fed with beebread. The cumulative mortality was strongly positive correlated (rho = 0.61) with the changes of overall microbiota dissimilarities by N. ceranae infection. Both feeding types and N. ceranae infection significantly affect the gut microbiota in A. cerana workers. Beebread not only provides better nutrition but also helps establish a more stable gut microbiota and therefore protects bees in response to N. ceranae infection. IMPORTANCE The gut microbiota plays an essential role in the health of bees. Scientific evidence suggests that diet and infection can affect the gut microbiota and modulate the health of the gut; however, the interplay between those two factors and the bee gut microbiota is not well known. In this study, we used a high-throughput sequencing method to monitor the changes of gut microbiota associated with both feeding types and Nosema ceranae infection. Our results showed that the gut microbiota composition and diversity of Asian honey bee were significantly associated with both feeding types and the N. ceranae infection. More interestingly, bees fed with beebread showed higher microbiota stability and lower mortality rates than those fed with sugar water when infected by N. ceranae. Those data suggest that beebread has the potential not only to provide better nutrition but also help to establish a more stable gut microbiota to protect bees against N. ceranae infection.

Dentate gyrus (DG) development requires specification of granule cell (GC) progenitors in the hippocampal neuroepithelium, as well as their proliferation and migration into the primordial DG. We identify the Plexin family members Plxna2 and Plxna4 as important regulators of DG development. Distribution of immature GCs is regulated by Sema5A signaling through PlxnA2 and requires a functional PlxnA2 GTPase-activating protein (GAP) domain and Rap1 small GTPases. In adult Plxna2−/− but not Plxna2-GAP-deficient mice, the dentate GC layer is severely malformed, neurogenesis is compromised, and mossy fibers form aberrant synaptic boutons within CA3. Behavioral studies with Plxna2−/− mice revealed deficits in associative learning, sociability, and sensorimotor gating—traits commonly observed in neuropsychiatric disorder. Remarkably, while morphological defects are minimal in Plxna2-GAP-deficient brains, defects in fear memory and sensorimotor gating persist. Since allelic variants of human PLXNA2 and RAP1 associate with schizophrenia, our studies identify a biochemical pathway important for brain development and mental health. Zhao et al. find that Sema5A-PlexinA2 forward signaling through Rap1 GTPases is required for progenitor distribution in the developing mouse dentate gyrus. Adult Plxna2−/−, but not Plxna2-GAP-deficient, mice show defects in dentate morphology, neurogenesis, and mossy fiber connectivity. Plxna2−/− and Plxna2-GAP mice exhibit behavioral defects suggestive of neuropsychiatric illness.

The colliding between an ultra-intense laser pulse with a high energy electron beam is not only an important source for high-brightness gamma-rays but also a powerful approach to exploit new physics in the exotic strong-field QED regime. In the cross-colliding geometry, when radiation-reaction (RR) force is interpreted by the classical Landau-Lifshitz equation, we found that there is a distinctive barrier that allows penetration of electrons at energies beyond the barrier and blocks those of lower energies. While in the QED perspective, electrons can be well reflected (transmit) in the regime where complete transmission (reflection) is allowed classically. The reflection (transmission) is guaranteed by the quantum nature of radiation but forbidden by classical description. This effect is accompanied by the blurring of the angular distribution for scattered electrons and becomes significant for laser intensities at $2\times10^{23}\ \mathrm{W/cm^2}$ and electron energies of $\sim 10^2\ \mathrm{MeV}$; thus could be measured in the up-coming 10-100PW laser facilities. By detecting the reflection rate of the energetic electron beam after colliding and resolve the angular distribution, the results are capable of identifying the boundaries between classical and QED approaches in the strong field regime and testifying the various models describing the fundamental process., Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures

Blonder et al. (2014, Global Ecology and Biogeography, 23, 595–609) introduced a new multivariate kernel density estimation (KDE) method to infer Hutchinsonian hypervolumes in the modelling of ecological niches. The authors argued that their KDE method matches or outperforms several methods for estimating hypervolume geometries and for conducting species distribution modelling. Further clarification, however, is appropriate with respect to the assumptions and limitations of KDE as a method for species distribution modelling. Using virtual species and controlled environmental scenarios, we show that KDE both under- and overestimates niche volumes depending on the dimensionality of the dataset and the number of occurrence records considered.We suggest that KDE may be a viable approach when dealing with large sample sizes, limited sampling bias and only a few environmental dimensions.

© 2015 The Institute of Electronics, Information and Comm. A newly designed pattern reconfigurable Fabry-Perot cavity antenna is presented in this paper. The reconfigurability is achieved by employing a phased array with a reconfigurable feed network as the source of the FPC antenna. The design can switch its main beam direction between ™10° and 10° with respect to the broadside direction from 5.36 GHz to 5.76 GHz. The realized gain of the proposed antenna is over 11.6 dBi. Good agreement between the simulated and measured results is achieved.

Background: High-dose chemotherapy with autologous hematopoietic cell rescue (AuHCR) is a potentially curative approach used in the management young children with medulloblastoma), with the additional benefit of avoiding the late-effects of craniospinal irradiation (CSI). Nodular desmoplastic medulloblastoma (NDMB) patients have been shown to have a favorable outcome in most contemporary infant clinical trials. We report the outcome of young children with NDMB treated on “Head Start” III, a ­prospective, multi-national clinical trial. Methods: Between April 2003 and December 2009, 92 children with newly-diagnosed medulloblastoma were enrolled amongst 29 participating institutions, of whom 27 patients had NDMB. All children were to receive 5 induction cycles (vincristine, cisplatin, cyclophosphamide, etoposide, high dose methotrexate - cycles 1, 3, 5), and vincristine, cyclophosphamide, oral VP-16 and temozolomide (cycles 2, 4), followed by 1 consolidation cycle of myeloablative chemotherapy (thiotepa, carboplatin, etoposide) and AuHCR. Only children between 6 -10 years old or with residual tumor pre-consolidation, were to receive irradiation after consolidation. Results: The 2-year event-free (EFS) and overall survival (OS) rates (+/- SE) for patients with ND medulloblastoma enrolled on HS III (primary objective of the study) were 89 ± 6% and 93 ± 5%, respectively. The 5-year EFS and OS rates were 89 ± 6% and 89 ± 6%, respectively. For 15 patients with localized NDMB (M0), the 5-year EFS and OS rates were 93 ± 6% and 93 ± 6%, respectively. Only one patient died, from CNS hemorrhage related to an accidental fall while undergoing induction. The remaining 14 patients are surviving without having received any irradiation. For 11 patients with disseminated NDMB (M+), the 5-year EFS and OS rates were 82 ± 12% and 81 ± 12%, respectively. One patient died from progressive disease post-transplant and one patient died of toxicity (6 months of age at diagnosis) from veno-occlussive disease and multi-organ failure post-transplant. Only 3 of remaining 9 surviving patients with M+ disease received CSI (2340cGy, 2160cGy, and 2700cGy, respectively, along with posterior fossa boost to a total dose of 5400cGy) according to protocol guidelines. One patient did not have staging work-up performed. Multi-variate Cox regression analyses of the entire cohort revealed ND medulloblastoma histology to be the only significant independent predictor of EFS after adjusting for metastatic status, initial extent of resection of the primary tumor, regimen, age and sex (p

© 2015 EurAAP. A novel reconfigurable partially reflective surface (PRS) antenna is presented in this paper. The beam scanning ability is realized by employing a reconfigurable PRS structure and a phased array as the source. The design achieves a beam switching between -15°, 0°, to 15° with respect to the broadside direction from 5.5 GHz to 5.7 GHz with the realized gains over 12 dBi. Good agreement between the simulated and measured results is achieved.

Efficient coupling of intense laser pulses to solid-density matter is critical to many applications including ion acceleration for cancer therapy. At relativistic intensities, the focus has been mainly on investigating various laser beams irradiating initially flat interfaces with little or no control over the interaction. Here, we propose a novel approach that leverages recent advancements in 3D direct laser writing (DLW) of materials and high contrast lasers to manipulate the laser-matter interactions on the micro-scales. We demonstrate, via simulations, that usable intensities >10^23Wcm^(-2) could be achieved with current tabletop lasers coupled to 3D printed plasma lenses. We show that these plasma optical elements act not only as a lens to focus laser light, but also as an electromagnetic guide for secondary particle beams. These results open new paths to engineering light-matter interactions at ultra-relativistic intensities., 16 pages, 3 figures

© 2014 IEEE. A novel phase shift unit for analogue beamforming is proposed. It is based on a defected microstrip structure (DMS). The DMS unit has a phase shift of 15° with insertion losses below 0.5 dB at 5.2 GHz. It is etched on a 50 Ohm conventional microstrip line and the length of which is only 0.07 wavelengths long. Due to the low insertion loss and compact size, the DMS units can be easily cascaded to realize a higher phase shift. As an example, a 1-bit phase shifter made by cascading 3 DMS units is designed. It has a phase shift of 45°±1.8° with the insertion losses still below 0.5 dB across the 5.2 GHz band (5.15 GHz to 5.35 GHz). The phase shifter design based on DMS is compact, low cost, and easy to be fabricated and integrated in microstrip systems. Therefore, it provides a low cost solution for analogue beamforming which usually employs a large number of phase shifters.

CO2 laser-driven electron acceleration is demonstrated with particle-in-cell simulation in low-density plasma. An intense CO2 laser pulse with long wavelength excites wakefield. The bubble behind it has a broad space to sustain a large amount of electrons before reaching its charge saturation limit. A transversely propagating inject pulse is used to induce and control the ambient electron injection. The accelerated electron bunch with total charge up to 10 nC and the average charge per energy interval of more than 0.6 nC/MeV are obtained. Plasma-based electron acceleration driven by intense CO2 laser provides a new potential way to generate high-charge electron bunch with low energy spread, which has broad applications, especially for X-ray generation by table-top FEL and bremsstrahlung., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures

Study of Once-daily LeVEmir(®) (SOLVE(TM)) was a 24-week international observational study to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of initiating once-daily insulin detemir (Levemir) as add-on therapy in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) who failed treatment of oral anti-diabetic drugs (OAD).The present study was derived from the data of Chinese cohort. A total of 3272 patients with T2DM failing OAD were enrolled in the study. Determir were prescribed to the patients by the decision of the physician. Clinical data were collected at baseline, week 12 and week 24 to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of detemir.The age of the patients was (56.2 ± 10.8) years with a diabetes duration of (7.1 ± 5.2) years. Their BMI was (25.3 ± 3.3) kg/m(2). No patient experienced any major or nocturnal hypoglycaemic event during the study. After 24 weeks of treatment, the glycosylated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) decreased from (8.33 ± 1.69)% to (7.16 ± 1.18)% with a mean change of -1.17%, the fasting plasma glucose decreased from (9.52 ± 2.59) mmol/L to (6.84 ± 1.42) mmol/L with a mean change of -2.7 mmol/L, and the 7-point blood glucose profile improved overall. Totally 49.1% of patients achieved HbA1c7%. The mean body weight decreased by 0.15 kg.Insulin detemir administered once daily as add-on therapy in patients with T2DM failing OAD regimen significantly reduces the risk of major hypoglycemia, improves glycemic control, increases the percentage of patients achieving treatment target with neutral effect on body weight.

We present the analysis of a deep Chandra observation of a ~2L_* late-type galaxy, ESO 137-002, in the closest rich cluster A3627. The Chandra data reveal a long (>40 kpc) and narrow tail with a nearly constant width (~3 kpc) to the southeast of the galaxy, and a leading edge ~1.5 kpc from the galaxy center on the upstream side of the tail. The tail is most likely caused by the nearly edge-on stripping of ESO 137-002's ISM by ram pressure, compared to the nearly face-on stripping of ESO 137-001 discussed in our previous work. Spectral analysis of individual regions along the tail shows that the gas throughout it has a rather constant temperature, ~1 keV, very close to the temperature of the tails of ESO 137-001, if the same atomic database is used. The derived gas abundance is low (~0.2 solar with the single-kT model), an indication of the multiphase nature of the gas in the tail. The mass of the X-ray tail is only a small fraction (, 15 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

The simple structure of HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4+��}$ (Hg1201) is ideal among cuprates for study of the pseudogap phase as a broken symmetry state. We have performed $^{17}$O nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) on an underdoped Hg1201 crystal with transition temperature of 74 K to look for circulating orbital currents proposed theoretically and inferred from neutron scattering. The narrow spectra preclude static local fields in the pseudogap phase at the apical site, suggesting that the moments observed with neutrons are fluctuating. The NMR frequency shifts are consistent with a dipolar field from the Cu$^{+2}$ site., 6 pages, 5 figures

A process Xt= θt+et is investigated in the paper where {θt} is a Markov chain with real states s1,…,sm and {et} is a strict white noise. It is assumed that the off-diagonal elements of the matrix of transition probabilities of the chain {θt} are small. Formulas for forecasting the process {Xt} are given. Two models are investigated in detail: (1)a chain with equal off-diagonal transition probabilities , and (2)a chain with three states. The parameters are estimated by the moment method. Theoretical results are applied to time series describing minimum and maximum Nile's water level in the years 622-1284 A. D. and 622-1433 A. D., respectively

We present the science case for a broadband X-ray imager with high-resolution spectroscopy, including simulations of X-ray spectral diagnostics of both active regions and solar flares. This is part of a trilogy of white papers discussing science, instrument (Bandler et al. 2010), and missions (Bookbinder et al. 2010) to exploit major advances recently made in transition-edge sensor (TES) detector technology that enable resolution better than 2 eV in an array that can handle high count rates. Combined with a modest X-ray mirror, this instrument would combine arcsecondscale imaging with high-resolution spectra over a field of view sufficiently large for the study of active regions and flares, enabling a wide range of studies such as the detection of microheating in active regions, ion-resolved velocity flows, and the presence of non-thermal electrons in hot plasmas. It would also enable more direct comparisons between solar and stellar soft X-ray spectra, a waveband in which (unusually) we currently have much better stellar data than we do of the Sun., Comment: 7 pages, white paper submitted the Solar and Heliophsyics Decadal Survey

We present the science case for a broadband X-ray imager with high-resolution spectroscopy, including simulations of X-ray spectral diagnostics of both active regions and solar flares. This is part of a trilogy of white papers discussing science, instrument (Bandler et al. 2010), and missions (Bookbinder et al. 2010) to exploit major advances recently made in transition-edge sensor (TES) detector technology that enable resolution better than 2 eV in an array that can handle high count rates. Combined with a modest X-ray mirror, this instrument would combine arcsecondscale imaging with high-resolution spectra over a field of view sufficiently large for the study of active regions and flares, enabling a wide range of studies such as the detection of microheating in active regions, ion-resolved velocity flows, and the presence of non-thermal electrons in hot plasmas. It would also enable more direct comparisons between solar and stellar soft X-ray spectra, a waveband in which (unusually) we currently have much better stellar data than we do of the Sun.

Grass pea seedlings were grown in an irrigated field. Roots of 15-day-old seedlings were treated with PEG, and leaves were studied. With the duration of PEG treatment, changes in the lipid peroxidation and activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase, peroxidase, and glutathione reductase as well as contents of hydrogen peroxide and beta-N-oxalyl-L-alpha,beta-diaminopropionic acid (ODAP) were assayed. The results indicate that with the duration of PEG treatment, activities of superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, and catalase decreased, whereas contents of hydrogen peroxide and ODAP, extent of lipid peroxidation, and activity of glutathione reductase increased. Both diethyldithiocarbamate and aminotriazole strongly inhibit activities of superoxide dismutase and catalase, respectively. At same time, the extent of lipid peroxidation was obviously increased. However, mannitol decreased the extent of lipid peroxidation. Diethyldithiocarbamate, aminotriazole, and mannitol do not affect the accumulation of ODAP. The observations suggest that there is no direct relationship between the accumulation of ODAP and the metabolism of free radicals. In addition, the relationship between water stress and ODAP accumulation in grass pea is discussed.

We find that a preliminary classification of LINERs' energetics may be made in terms of the FIR-radio correlation of Wolf-Rayet galaxies. The AGN- or starburst-supported LINERs can be distinguished by their FIR-to-radio ratio, $Q\equiv L(1.4{\rm GHz})/$ $L(60��{\rm m})>$ or $, 9 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Astronomy & Astrophysics

In this paper, we report our preliminary results on enhanced star formation activity in Seyfert 2 galaxies. By re-analysing the Tully-Fisher relation for Whittle(1992)'s sample and for a Seyfert 2s' sample selecting from Veron-Cetty & Veron (1996), we find that (1) almost all Seyfert 2 galaxies with circumnuclear star formation have a ratio of far infrared (FIR) to blue luminosities ($L_{FIR}/L_{B}$) to be larger than 1/3; (2) for Seyfert 2 galaxies with $L_{FIR}/L_{B} < 1/3$, the Tully-Fisher relation is similar to that of the normal spiral galaxies; while for those with $\rm L_{FIR}/L_{B} \geq 1/3 $, they are significantly different from the normal ones, which confirms Whittle's suggestion of enhanced star formation activities in the circumnuclear regions of these Seyfert 2 galaxies., 9 pages, Latex, with two figures, and accepted for publication in ApSS