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The Antarctic Peninsula (AP) experienced a new extreme warm event and record high surface melt in February 2022, rivaling the recent temperature records from 2015 and 2020, and contributing to an alarming series of extreme warm events there. The northern/northwestern AP was directly impacted by an intense atmospheric river (AR) bringing anomalous heat and rainfall, while AR-enhanced foehn effect further warmed its northeastern side. The event was triggered by multiple large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns linking the AR formation to tropical convection anomalies and stationary Rossby waves, with anomalous Amundsen Sea low and record-breaking blocking high. The cascade of impacts culminated in widespread and intensive surface melt across the AP. The event was statistically attributed to global warming. Increasing frequency of such events can undermine the stability of the AP ice shelves, with multiple local to global impacts, including acceleration of the AP ice mass loss and changes in sensitive ecosystems.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is becoming increasingly prevalent worldwide. Fluoropyrimidine drugs are the primary chemotherapy regimens in routine clinical practice of CRC. However, the survival rate of patients on fluoropyrimidine-based chemotherapy varies significantly among individuals. Biomarkers of fluoropyrimidine drugs’' efficacy are needed to implement personalized medicine. This review summarized fluoropyrimidine drug-related microRNA (miRNA) by affecting metabolic enzymes or showing the relevance of drug efficacy. We first outlined 42 miRNAs that may affect the metabolism of fluoropyrimidine drugs. Subsequently, we filtered another 41 miRNAs related to the efficacy of fluoropyrimidine drugs based on clinical trials. Bioinformatics analysis showed that most well-established miRNA biomarkers were significantly enriched in the cancer pathways instead of the fluoropyrimidine drug metabolism pathways. The result also suggests that the miRNAs screened from metastasis patients have a more critical role in cancer development than those from non-metastasis patients. There are five miRNAs shared between these two lists. The miR-21, miR-215, and miR-218 can suppress fluoropyrimidine drugs’' catabolism. The miR-326 and miR-328 can reduce the efflux of fluoropyrimidine drugs. These five miRNAs could jointly act by increasing intracellular levels of fluoropyrimidine drugs’' cytotoxic metabolites, leading to better chemotherapy responses. In conclusion, we demonstrated that the dynamic changes in the transcriptional regulation via miRNAs might play significant roles in the efficacy and toxicity of the fluoropyrimidine drug. The reported miRNA biomarkers would help evaluate the efficacy of fluoropyrimidine drug-based chemotherapy and improve the prognosis of colorectal cancer patients.

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In this report, a novel electrochemical and colorimetric dual-mode sensing system was developed for the sensitive and selective detection of DA. The large surface area of CoOOH and the excellent conductivity of CB endow the electrochemical sensing system with high sensitivity. CoOOH with oxidase-like activity will convert the colorless TMB into the blue oxidation product OXTMB, appearing an absorption peak at 652 nm correspondingly. And the addition of DA will inhibit the activity of oxidase followed by a reducing in the absorption. Our device provided a wider detection range for DA from 1 to 30 μM and 1 to 950 μM through colorimetric and electrochemical methods, respectively. Furthermore, this biosensor with good biocompatibility has been successfully used for in-vitro tracking of DA efflux from live PC12 cell after being stimulated, which has important scientific and practical value for clinical diagnosis and monitoring.

Polar amplification has been pronounced in the Arctic with near-surface air temperatures increasing at more than twice the global warming rate during the last several decades. At the same time, over Antarctica temperature trends have exhibited a large regional variability. In particular, the Antarctic Peninsula (AP) stands out as having a warming rate much higher than the rest of the Antarctic ice sheet and other land areas in the Southern Hemisphere (SH). Future projections indicate that warming and ice loss will intensify in both polar regions with important impacts globally. In addition to the warming amplification, there has been also an enhancement of the polar water cycle with increases in poleward moisture transport and precipitation in both polar regions. An important process linking warming and precipitation enhancement is a shift towards more frequent rainfall compared to snowfall. Future projections show that the rain fraction will significantly increase in coastal Antarctica, especially in the AP. Atmospheric rivers (ARs), long corridors of intense moisture transport from subtropical and mid-latitude regions poleward, are known for their prominent role in both heat and moisture transport with impacts ranging from intense precipitation to temperature records and major melt events in Antarctica. Limited observations have hampered process understanding and correct representation of these extreme events in models. This presentation will give an overview of the enhanced observations targeting ARs in the AP (including surface meteorology, radiosonde, cloud and precipitation remote sensing, and radiative fluxes) as part of the Year of Polar Prediction (YOPP)-SH international collaborative effort. In-depth analysis of transport of heat and moisture, atmospheric vertical structure, cloud properties and precipitation phase transition from snowfall to rainfall during selected AR cases will be presented and compared with ERA5 reanalysis and high-resolution Polar-WRF model simulations. We will highlight three different local regimes around the AP: large-scale precipitation over the Southern Ocean north of the AP, orographic enhancement of precipitation in the western AP and the role of foehn, cloud/precipitation clearing and temperature increase in the northeastern AP.

In this work, we thoroughly analyze the rate-region provided by the asynchronous transmission in multiple access channels (MACs). We derive the corresponding capacity-regions, applicable to a wide range of pulse shaping methods. We analytically prove that asynchronous transmission enlarges the capacity-region of MACs. Although successive interference cancellation (SIC) can achieve the optimal sum-rate for the conventional uplink non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) methods, it is unable to achieve the boundary of the capacity-region for the asynchronous transmission. We demonstrate that for the asynchronous transmission, the optimal SIC decoding order to achieve the maximum sum-rate is based on the users’ channel strengths. This optimal ordering is in contrast to the conventional uplink NOMA, where various decoding orders can result in the maximum sum-rate. Furthermore, we provide practical transceiver designs to approach the capacity-region. The memory induced by asynchronous transmission enables the use of the trellis-based detection methods which improves the performance. In addition, we propose a transceiver design, based on channel diagonalization to exploit the frequency-selectivity introduced by timing offsets. The proposed transceiver design, joint with the turbo principle, enables us to achieve a rate pair that is not achievable by the synchronous transmission.

The high-temperature pyrolysis characteristics for biomass were investigated by the experiment and simulation methods. The experiment was conducted on the self-designed high-temperature thermogravi...

Temperature trends across Antarctica over the last few decades reveal strong and statistically significant warming in West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula (AP) contrasting with no significant change overall in East Antarctica. However, recent studies have documented cooling in the AP since the late 1990s. This study aims to place temperature changes in the AP and West Antarctica into a larger spatial and temporal perspective by analyzing monthly station-based surface temperature observations since 1957 across the extratropical Southern Hemisphere, along with sea surface temperature (SST) data and mean sea level pressure reanalysis data. The results confirm statistically significant cooling in station observations and SST trends throughout the AP region since 1999. However, the full 60-yr period shows statistically significant, widespread warming across most of the Southern Hemisphere middle and high latitudes. Positive SST trends broadly reflect these warming trends, especially in the midlatitudes. After confirming the importance of the southern annular mode (SAM) on southern high-latitude climate variability, the influence is removed from the station temperature records, revealing statistically significant background warming across all of the extratropical Southern Hemisphere. Antarctic temperature trends in a suite of climate models from phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) are then investigated. Consistent with previous work the CMIP5 models warm Antarctica at the background temperature rate that is 2 times faster than that observed. However, removing the SAM influence from both CMIP5 and observed temperatures results in Antarctic trends that differ only modestly, perhaps due to natural multidecadal variability remaining in the observations.

Recent studies have numerically demonstrated the possible advantages of the asynchronous non-orthogonal multiple access (ANOMA) over the conventional synchronous non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA). The ANOMA makes use of the oversampling technique by intentionally introducing a timing mismatch between symbols of different users. Focusing on a two-user uplink system, for the first time, we analytically prove that the ANOMA with a sufficiently large frame length can always outperform the NOMA in terms of the sum throughput. To this end, we derive the expression for the sum throughput of the ANOMA as a function of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), frame length, and normalized timing mismatch. Based on the derived expression, we find that users should transmit at full powers to maximize the sum throughput. In addition, we obtain the optimal timing mismatch as the frame length goes to infinity. Moreover, we comprehensively study the impact of timing error on the ANOMA throughput performance. Two types of timing error, i.e., the synchronization timing error and the coordination timing error, are considered. We derive the throughput loss incurred by both types of timing error and find that the synchronization timing error has a greater impact on the throughput performance compared to the coordination timing error.

A single particle fusion combustion model considering the effect of ash fusion is established. The comparison of the predicted data with experimental data reported in the literature validates the model. The accuracy of the prediction results is improved with the model. The fusion combustion characteristics of the single particle are investigated. Results show that the char could not convert to ash completely due to the pore space is taken up by the fused ash, thereby resisting the further diffusion of oxygen at 1673–1873 K. The burnout rate decreases linearly with the particle density and the attenuation slope increases with the temperature. The burnout rate decreases from nearly 100% to about 88% as the particle size increases from 1 mm to 10 mm. The fused ash decreases the char combustion rate. The effect increases with particle density, particle size as well as temperature. The total combustion time decreases from nearly 19 s to about 3 s as the surface-area-to-volume ratio increases from 0.6 to 6 mm−1.

The sensitive detection of dopamine (DA), especially the accurate monitoring of cell secreted DA, is necessary to the study on pathogenesis of central nervous system disease. In this paper, the cobalt-modified nitrogen doping carbon aerogels (Co-NCA) with three dimensional pores were successfully synthesized through the hydrothermal and freeze-drying method of the biomass. As a natural substance, starch is the carbon source of Co-NCA, which is environmentally friendly. The electrochemically active area of electrode modified by Co-NCA was about 1.53 times that of carbon aerogels. Benefiting from the Co and N element, the Co-NCA modified electrode (Co-NCA/GCE) showed that Co-NCA had a wider linear range (0.2–200 μM and 200–1000 μM) and a lower detection limit (55.6 nM) towards DA. The reproducibility and repeatability of Co-NCA/GCE for detecting 500 μM DA was 2.21% and 0.797%, respectively. After stored at 4 °C for 7 days, the current response of Co-NCA/GCE still maintained 96.5% of the initial current value. Finally, the Co-NCA/GCE was successfully applied to the monitoring of DA, which was released from PC12 cells after stimulated by 50 mM K+.

Forecasting Antarctic atmospheric, oceanic, and sea ice conditions on subseasonal to seasonal scales remains a major challenge. During both the freezing and melting seasons current operational ensemble forecasting systems show a systematic overestimation of the Antarctic sea-ice edge location. The skill of sea ice cover prediction is closely related to the accuracy of cloud representation in models, as the two are strongly coupled by cloud radiative forcing. In particular, surface downward longwave radiation (DLW) deficits appear to be a common shortcoming in atmospheric models over the Southern Ocean. For example, a recent comparison of ECMWF reanalysis 5th generation (ERA5) global reanalysis with the observations from McMurdo Station revealed a year-round deficit in DLW of approximately 50 Wm−2 in marine air masses due to model shortages in supercooled cloud liquid water. A comparison with the surface DLW radiation observations from the Ocean Observatories Initiative mooring in the South Pacific at 54.08° S, 89.67° W, for the time period January 2016–November 2018, confirms approximately 20 Wm−2 deficit in DLW in ERA5 well north of the sea-ice edge. Using a regional ocean model, we show that when DLW is artificially increased by 50 Wm−2 in the simulation driven by ERA5 atmospheric forcing, the predicted sea ice growth agrees much better with the observations. A wide variety of sensitivity tests show that the anomalously large, predicted sea-ice extent is not due to limitations in the ocean model and that by implication the cause resides with the atmospheric forcing.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains a major concern with high morbidity and mortality worldwide. Despite the positive influence of chemotherapy on the decline in CRC mortality, the negative influence of chemotherapy-related adverse effects (CRAEs) caused by capecitabine (Cap) remains a challenging problem. DNA methylation alteration plays a pivotal role in gene expression regulation. Here, we aimed to screen reliable and novel biomarkers for CRC diagnosis and CRAE prediction using the advanced Illumina Infinium MethylationEPIC (850 K) BeadChip. Paired tumor and normal tissues from 21 Chinese CRC patients who received Cap-based adjuvant chemotherapy were analyzed. CRC-related methylation was characterized by hypermethylated promoter islands and hypomethylated intragenic openseas; CRAE-related methylation was characterized by hyper- (or hypo-) methylated intragenic (or intergenic) regions. Based on three types of methylation profiles (differentially methylated probes, differentially methylated regions, and gene-function-differentially methylated regions), pathway enrichment analyses revealed that CRC-related genes were significantly enriched in the neuronal system, metabolism of RNA, and extracellular matrix organization; CRAE-related genes were abundantly enriched in pathways controlling regeneration functions and immune response. Finally, based on genes within the mostly related pathways and LASSO logistic regression selection, the integrated-methylation-marker systems developed here demonstrated high discriminative accuracy in both CRC diagnosis (AUROC = 1) and CRAE prediction (AUROC = 0.817–1). In conclusion, we conducted a comprehensive DNA methylation analysis of CRC patients with chemotherapy, which provided new insights into the formation of CRC and CRAEs. Most importantly, our findings identified potentially CRAE-related metabolic pathways and markers, providing a valuable reference for personalized medicine promising better safety. Trail registration: ClinicalTrials.gov , NCT03030508 , Registered 25 January 2017, https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03030508?term=NCT03030508&draw=2&rank=1 .

West Antarctica (WA), especially the Ross Ice Shelf (RIS), has experienced more frequent surface melting during austral summer over the past three decades. Surface melting will jeopardize the stability of ice shelves and cause potential ice loss in the future. We investigate four major melt cases over the RIS via Polar WRF simulations driven by ERA5 reanalysis data and MODIS observed albedo. Direct warm air advection, recurring foehn effect, and cloud/upper warm air introduced radiative warming are the three major regional causes of surface melting over WA. Warm marine air can warm the ice surface directly. With significant moisture transport occurring over more than 40% of the time during the melting period, the impact from net radiation can be amplified via the formation of low-level liquid water clouds. Consequently, extensive downward longwave radiation favors the melting expansion over the middle and coastal RIS. Also, for 3 of 4 melt cases, more than 50% of the melting period experiences foehn warming, which can cause a 2 – 4 ºC increase in surface temperature. Isentropic drawdown is usually the dominant foehn mechanism and contributes a 14 ºC temperature increase, especially when strong low-level blocking occurs on the upwind side. Foehn clearance and decreasing surface albedo respectively increase the downward shortwave radiation and decrease the upward shortwave radiation, significantly contributing to surface melting in areas like western Marie Byrd Land. Moreover, frequent foehn cases can enhance the turbulent mixing on the leeside and benefit sensible heat transfer when Froude number is around 1. With better understanding of the regional factors for the surface melting, the prediction of the future stability of West Antarctic Ice Shelves will be improved.

The development of biosimi lar products or follow on biologics has been flourishing in recent years because of lower price than originators. In th is study, a multivariate data analysis method based on JMP software was proposed to assess the glycosylation pattern similarity of antibo dy candidates from different conditions in optimization experiment with reference. A specific distance was generated by t specific distance was generated by this method and indicated the glycoform similarity his method and indicated the glycoform similarity between biosimilar and reference. This method can be applied to analyze the similaritbetween biosimilar and reference. This method can be applied to analyze the similarity of y of other physicochemical and function characters between followother physicochemical and function characters between follow--on biologics and originators. on biologics and originators. Then the design of experiThen the design of experiments method can be realized to optimize culture conditions of cellments method can be realized to optimize culture conditions of cell culture to attain similar antibody candidatesculture to attain similar antibody candidates..

Antibiotics have made great contributions to the improvement of human health and life quality. However, the current abuse of antibiotics not only has a serious impact on the environment, but also endangers people's health. For this reason, the simultaneous identification and accurate determination of as many antibiotics in the environment, food and organisms as possible is critical. Herein, a ratiometric fluorescent sensor array based on Eu3+ and Tb3+ co-doped metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) was fabricated. Benefiting from the sensitization of the organic ligands to Eu3+ and Tb3+, the reaction of MOFs with various antibiotics resulted in different responses to the ratio of fluorescent intensity at 545 nm and 616 nm (F545/F616). After these responses were differentiated by principal component analysis (PCA), totally eight kinds of 25 antibiotics were well distinguished with the existence of interfering substances. The proposed sensor array exhibited high accuracy (98%) for the identification of 48 unknown samples in water and outstanding quantitative ability for the mixture of antibiotics. Finally, the practicability of the sensor array for the analysis of real samples was proved. In this strategy, we have not only provided an efficient way for the comprehensive identification and determination of antibiotics, but also promised new opportunities for the development of ratiometric signal based sensor array.

In this letter, we study a two-user downlink asynchronous non-orthogonal multiple access (ANOMA) with limited feedback. We employ the max-min criterion for the power allocation and derive the closed-form expressions for the upper and lower bounds of the max-min rate. It is demonstrated that ANOMA can achieve the same or even higher average max-min rate with a lower feedback rate compared with non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA). Moreover, we propose a quantizer optimization algorithm which applies to both NOMA and ANOMA. Simulation results show that the optimized quantizer significantly improves the average max-min rate compared with the conventional uniform quantizer, especially in the scenario with a low feedback rate.

This letter considers the capacity computations of faster-than-Nyquist (FTN) signaling. It calculates the theoretical capacity of FTN signaling which is obtained by a correlated input. The capacity-achieving power spectral density (PSD) is derived and its superiority over the independent input is shown. The practical issue imposed by the capacity-achieving PSD, i.e., out-of-band (OOB) emission, is shown. To solve this issue, an upper-bound is introduced for the input PSD to limit the OOB emission. The new optimization problem is solved and the constrained PSD is obtained. The introduced PSD captures the trade-off between the obtained capacity and the OOB emission.

In this paper, we analyze the benefits of intentionally adding timing mismatch in the downlink transmit beamforming for wireless transmission. Transmit beamforming enables the so-called space-division multiple access (SDMA), where multiple spatially separated users are served simultaneously. The optimal beamforming vectors can be found to minimize the average transmit power under each user’s Quality-of-Service (QoS) constraint. We show that intentionally adding timing offsets between the transmitted signals can significantly reduce the average transmission power compared with the conventional optimal beamforming method while providing the same QoSs for users. The frequency-selectivity in communication channels provides the opportunity to exploit intelligent design for performance improvement. The frequency-selectivity is limited in environments with line-of-sight links or little scattering. In such environments, we propose the use of intentional time delays to induce frequency-selectivity that can be exploited. We provide three different methods exploiting the artificially induced frequency-selectivity which improve the performance with a computational complexity similar to that of the optimal synchronous beamforming. We derive the expressions for the achievable rates using the proposed methods and then provide efficient algorithms to solve the minimum power optimization. We show analytically and numerically that our proposed methods can provide the same QoS while serving more users, utilizing a fewer number of transmit antennas and using reduced power compared with the conventional beamforming methods.

A luminescent metal organic framework was prepared by encapsulating Zn–Ag–In–S quantum dots into “French fries”-like MIL-68(In) metal organic frameworks (ZAISQDs@MIL-68(In)). The ZAISQDs@MIL-68(In) had a maximum excitation wavelength at 370 nm and maximum emission wavelength at 620 nm. It was found that the ZAISQDs@MIL-68(In) was efficiently quenched by cytochrome c (Cyt c), which is an important biomarker of early cell apoptosis. The quenching mechanism was ascribed to be an inner filter effect and dynamic quenching of Cyt c towards the ZAISQDs@MIL-68(In), and the enrichment effect of MIL-68(In). Benefiting from the multiple advantages, ZAISQDs@MIL-68(In) was developed as an assay strategy of Cyt c with logarithmic relation between signal quenching and concentration in the range 0.02 to 3.5 μM. The linear equation was (F0–F)/F0 = 0.5043 + 0.2678 × logcCyt c with a detection limit of 8 nM. Cyt c released by drug induced apoptotic cells was determined by ZAISQDs@MIL-68(In), and this strategy has been utilized for the screening of anticancer drug activity.

Recent studies have demonstrated the superiority of non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) over orthogonal multiple access (OMA) in cooperative communication networks. In this paper, we propose a novel half-duplex cooperative asynchronous NOMA (C-ANOMA) framework with user relaying, where a timing mismatch is intentionally added in the broadcast signal. We derive the expressions for the individual throughputs of the strong user (acts as relay) which employs the block-wise successive interference cancellation (SIC) and the weak user which combines the symbol-asynchronous signal with the interference-free signal. We analytically prove that in the C-ANOMA systems with a sufficiently large frame length, the strong user attains the same throughput to decode its own message while both users can achieve a higher throughput to decode the weak user's message compared with those in the cooperative NOMA (C-NOMA) systems. Besides, we obtain the optimal timing mismatch when the frame length goes to infinity. Furthermore, to exploit the trade-off between the power consumption of base station and that of the relay user, we solve a weighted sum power minimization problem under quality of services (QoS) constraints. Numerical results show that the C-ANOMA system can consume less power compared with the C-NOMA system to satisfy the same QoS requirements.

In this letter, we propose a trellis-coded non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) scheme. The signals for different users are produced by trellis coded modulation (TCM) and then superimposed on different power levels. By interpreting the encoding process via the tensor product of trellises, we introduce a joint detection method based on the Viterbi algorithm. Then, we determine the optimal power allocation between the two users by maximizing the free distance of the tensor product trellis. Finally, we manifest that the trellis-coded NOMA outperforms the uncoded NOMA at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).

In this work, we investigate the characteristics of spectrally efficient frequency division multiplexing (SEFDM). We prove that as the number of sub-carriers goes to infinity, the system model becomes rank-deficient and the number of zero eigenvalues is proportional to the frequency compression factor. We propose to transmit the superimposed symbols through the non-zero eigenvalues using proper power allocation. At the receiver side, we apply the block-wise zero forcing with successive interference cancellation (ZF-SIC) detection method and an approximation of the symbol error rate performance is provided. We compare the performance of the proposed method with that of the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) method in additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and frequency selective channels.

Recent studies have demonstrated that asynchronous non- orthogonal multiple access (ANOMA) outperforms conventional (synchronous) NOMA under the condition of perfect channel state information (CSI). In this paper, we investigate a downlink ANOMA system with imperfect CSI. It is analytically proved that the ANOMA system with a relatively large frame length outperforms the NOMA system in terms of the outage probability. To this end, we derive the analytical expressions for the individual throughput of each user and simplify them in the asymptotic case of infinite frame length. Besides, we show that with channel estimation error, the optimal timing mismatch converges to half of a single symbol length as the frame length goes to infinity.

Debugging transactions and understanding their execution are of immense importance for developing OLAP applications, to trace causes of errors in production systems, and to audit the operations of a database. However, debugging transactions is hard for several reasons: 1) after the execution of a transaction, its input is no longer available for debugging, 2) internal states of a transaction are typically not accessible, and 3) the execution of a transaction may be affected by concurrently running transactions. We present a debugger for transactions that enables non-invasive, post-mortem debugging of transactions with provenance tracking and supports what-if scenarios (changes to transaction code or data). Using reenactment, a declarative replay technique we have developed, a transaction is replayed over the state of the DB seen by its original execution including all its interactions with concurrently executed transactions from the history. Importantly, our approach uses the temporal database and audit logging capabilities available in many DBMS and does not require any modifications to the underlying database system nor transactional workload., Comment: to appear as "Debugging Transactions and Tracking their Provenance with Reenactment" in PVDLB 2017, vol 10., nr. 12

In computational neural network models, neurons are usually allowed to excite some and inhibit other neurons, depending on the weight of their synaptic connections. The traditional way to transform such networks into networks that obey Dale's law (i.e., a neuron can either excite or inhibit) is to accompany each excitatory neuron with an inhibitory one through which inhibitory signals are mediated. However, this requires an equal number of excitatory and inhibitory neurons, whereas a realistic number of inhibitory neurons is much smaller. In this letter, we propose a model of nonlinear interaction of inhibitory synapses on dendritic compartments of excitatory neurons that allows the excitatory neurons to mediate inhibitory signals through a subset of the inhibitory population. With this construction, the number of required inhibitory neurons can be reduced tremendously.

Background X-linked agammaglobulinemia (XLA) is a primary immunodeficiency disorder caused by germline mutations in the Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) gene on X chromosome. These mutations disturb B-cell development, decrease immunoglobulin levels, increase susceptibility to infection or neoplasms, and increase the risk of developing colorectal cancer (CRC). For occasional cases of CRC have been reported in XLA patients, low levels of B lymphocytes and immunoglobulins induced by congenital immune disorder make them more susceptible to drug-related toxicities (DRT). Therefore, gene sequencing, therapeutic drug monitoring and any possible measurement to predict DRT should be considered before determining the course of chemotherapy for XLA patients with CRC. Case presentation In this study, we reported a 21-year-old male who developed metastatic CRC in the context of XLA. Since the whole exome sequencing and therapeutic drug monitoring did not reveal any predictive markers of DRT, we applied standard first-line chemotherapy to the patient. However, progressive disease occurred after the fifth treatment cycle. Therefore, the administration of oxaliplatin was changed to irinotecan as second-line therapy. After that, the patient firstly suffered from severe hypocalcemia and eventually died due to metastatic CRC after the eighth treatment cycle. The overall survival time was 7.5 months. Conclusions This study reported the first written record of a Chinese XLA patient with metastatic CRC and severe hypocalcemia. Whole exome sequencing and bioinformatic analysis indicated the somatic mutations in ABCA6, C6 and PAX3 genes might contribute to the early-onset and metastasis CRC. Besides, a number of germline mutations in genes related to calcium metabolism (CACNA2D4, CD36, etc.) and the administration of irinotecan were speculated to be the causes of severe hypocalcemia. We therefore suggested that in order to avoid severe DRT, clinicians should take genetic background and therapeutic drug monitoring into consideration while planning chemotherapy treatment for XLA patients with CRC.

In this paper, the N and P co-doped reduce graphene oxide (N, P-rGO) was prepared with one-pot solution method and characterized by using SEM and electrochemical technology. It was found that the N, P-rGO has an outstanding conductivity, large surface area and excellent electrocatalytic activity to hydroquinone (HQ) and catechol (CC), which usually coexist in aqueous environment. Under the optimal conditions, compared with bare glassy carbon electrode (GCE) and N doped reduce graphene oxide (N-rGO) modified GCE (N-rGO/GCE), the N, P-rGO/GCE displayed an excellent simultaneous determination towards HQ and CC. And the oxidation peak potential difference of HQ and CC obtained from N, P-rGO/GCE was 106 mV, indicating N, P-rGO/GCE has excellent resolution. The obtained detection limit was 62.1 nM and 99.7 nM for HQ and CC in a concentration range of 1 μM to 100 μM, respectively. At the same time, N, P-rGO/GCE also displayed satisfied selectivity, decent stability and desirable reproducibility. Furthermore, the fabricated sensor was successfully applied to detect two isomers in tap water and the recoveries of 99.52% to 106.36% and 95.5% to 103.97% for HQ and CC were obtained, which verified the practical application potential of N, P-rGO/GCE.

This study illustrated the importance of smoothed vertical layers and orthogonal grids in an orthogonal terrain-following coordinate (an OTF-coordinate) in reducing advection errors over steep terrain. Three coordinates, namely, classic terrain-following coordinate, hybrid terrain-following coordinate (HTF-coordinate) and OTF-coordinate, were employed in Schar-type advection experiments for various terrains. The results demonstrated that the OTF-coordinate could diminish the grids with high skewness in the HTF-coordinate over steep terrain; the orthogonal grids share the same importance in reducing advection errors with smoothed vertical layers. Therefore, the advection errors in the OTF-coordinate are considerably reduced than those in the corresponding HTF-coordinate over steep terrain.

In this study, the high temperature visual test system (HTVTS) and high temperature thermogravimetric test system (HTTTS) were set up to observe the formation process of ash, thereby analyzing the mechanism of biomass melt combustion. Then, the effect of the molten ash on the combustion process was investigated. Results show that during the combustion, once the local temperature of the biomass particle is higher than the ash melting temperature, the generated ash could be melted and contracted into a spherical shape by the surface tension. The molten ash located in the interior of the biomass particle adhere to the char surface, thereby preventing the contact between char and oxygen. The molten ash located on the surface of biomass particle could drop down from the surface of biomass particle. When the conversion rate is higher than 45%, the effect of molten ash on the reaction rate becomes more obvious.

Short-term load forecasts are important tools for electrical utilities to balance electricity supply and demand. The exponential increase in behind-the-meter solar panel installation in California has made it more difficult to accurately predict electrical load. This study developed three forecast models based on multiple linear regression, random forest, and gradient boosting that incorporated solar capacity to predict hourly load in southern California 24-h in advance. Air temperature was the most important meteorological variable and holiday, month, solar capacity and the load from the previous week were the most important non-meteorological variables. All three models were more accurate when load was lower, such as early morning, late at night and during the winter. In contrast, all models had larger errors during the middle of the day and in summer when load was higher. The mean error, based on the forecasts for each hour of the day, was 3.5% for the random forest, 3.4% for the multiple linear regression, and 3.1% for the gradient boosting. Overall, the gradient boosting model performed the best and had errors

The samples in the surroundings of three representative petrochemical industries in Northwest China were collected by summa canister/adsorption using activated carbon/glass fiber filter, and then they were analyzed for 13 hazardous air pollutants by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry/gas chromatograph/high performance liquid chromatography. The pollution characteristics and human health risk of hazardous air pollutants were discussed. The results showed that 8 hazardous air pollutants existed in the surroundings of all petrochemical industries. The detection frequency for 8 hazardous air pollutants exceeded 80%. The ranges of the average concentrations of benzene series(BTEX), 1,3-butadiene, 1,4-dichlorobenzene, benzo[a]pyrene were 48.01-182.75 μg·m