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Neuronal intranuclear inclusion disease (NIID) is a neurodegenerative disorder caused by the expansion of GGC trinucleotide repeats in NOTCH2NLC gene. Despite identifying uN2CpolyG, a toxic polyglycine (polyG) protein translated by expanded GGC repeats, the exact pathogenic mechanisms of NIID remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the role of polyG by expressing various forms of NOTCH2NLC in mice: the wild-type, the expanded form with 100 GGC repeats (either translating or not translating into uN2CpolyG), and the mutated form that encodes a pure polyG without GGC-repeat RNA and the C-terminal stretch (uN2CpolyG-dCT). Both uN2CpolyG and uN2CpolyG-dCT induced the formation of inclusions composed by filamentous materials and resulted in neurodegenerative phenotypes in mice, including impaired motor and cognitive performance, shortened lifespan, and pathologic lesions such as white-matter lesions, microgliosis, and astrogliosis. In contrast, expressing GGC-repeat RNA alone was non-pathogenic. Through bulk and single-nuclei RNA sequencing, we identified common molecular signatures linked to the expression of uN2CpolyG and uN2CpolyG-dCT, particularly the upregulation of inflammation and microglia markers, and the downregulation of immediate early genes and splicing factors. Importantly, microglia-mediated inflammation was visualized in NIID patients using positron emission tomography, correlating with levels of white-matter atrophy. Furthermore, microglia ablation ameliorated neurodegenerative phenotypes and transcriptional alterations in uN2CpolyG-expressing mice but did not affect polyG inclusions. Together, these results demonstrate that polyG is crucial for the pathogenesis of NIID and highlight the significant role of microglia in polyG-induced neurodegeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Progression of non-target lesions (NTLs) after stenting has been reported and is associated with the triggering of an inflammatory response. The perivascular fat attenuation index (FAI) may be used as a novel imaging biomarker for the direct quantification of coronary inflammation. Objectives: To investigate whether FAI values can help identify changes in inflammation status in patients undergoing stent implantation, especially in NTLs. Methods: Patients who underwent pre- and post-stenting coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) examination between January 2015 and February 2021 were consecutively enrolled. The pre- and post-stenting FAIs of the full coronary arteries were compared in both the non- and stent-implanted coronary arteries. Moreover, local FAI values were measured and compared between the NTLs and target lesions in the stent implantations. We also compared changes in plaque type and volume in NTLs before and after stenting. Results: A total of 89 patients (mean age 61 years; male 59) were enrolled. The perivascular FAI values in the full coronary arteries decreased after stenting in both the non- and stent-implanted coronary arteries, similar to those in the target lesions. Conversely, the perivascular FAI values in the NTLs increased after stenting (p < 0.05). In addition, the plaque volumes significantly increased in the NTLs after stenting, regardless of whether they were non-calcified, mixed, or calcified (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Perivascular FAI values and plaque volumes increased in the NTLs after stenting. Perivascular FAI can be a promising imaging biomarker for monitoring coronary inflammation after stenting and facilitate long-term monitoring in clinical settings. Clinical relevance statement: Perivascular fat attenuation index, a non-invasive imaging biomarker, may help identify coronary arteries with high inflammation in non-target lesions and facilitate long-term monitoring, potentially providing an opportunity for more targeted treatment. Key Points: • Perivascular fat attenuation index (FAI) values and plaque volumes increased in the non-target lesions (NTLs) after stenting, suggesting potential focal inflammation progression after stenting. However, stenting along with anti-inflammatory treatment ameliorated inflammation in the full coronary arteries. • Perivascular FAI, a non-invasive imaging biomarker, may help identify coronary arteries with high inflammation in NTLs and facilitate long-term monitoring, potentially providing an opportunity for more targeted treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of plastic bags in the long-term contact with food may cause certain harm to human health due to the production process of plastic bags and the use of plasticizers such as BPA. Therefore, the analysis and research methods of BPA and other harmful substances are receiving extensive attention. Molecularly imprinted polymers have attracted much attention for their high selectivity, while magnetic metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have been widely used for their excellent adsorption potential. However, the current methods of synthesizing these polymers typically require many steps and are time-consuming. Additionally, these methods involve the use of large amounts of solvents, which are not environmentally friendly and sustainable. This study proposed an easy, convenient, quick, and green method for synthesizing magnetic copper MOF molecularly imprinted polymers (MCMMIPs) using a one-pot technique to overcome these challenges. The resulting MCMMIPs exhibited excellent magnetic separation ability (20 emu/g), a large specific surface area (289.4 m2/g), and a well-defined imprinted cavity. MCMMIPs have been successfully applied to the extraction of BPA in plastic bags with a detection limit of 1.01 µg/kg and recoveries ranging from 72.1% to 102.85%. More importantly, the detection method proposed based on the material has been successfully applied to the detection of BPA in plastic bags, with a good detection effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the long-term effects of dietary zinc oxide nanoparticle (Nano-ZnO, 20–40 nm) on the relative organ weight, liver function, deposition, and absorption of trace minerals in intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) pigs, piglets were allocated to NBW (6 normal birth weight piglets fed basal diets), IUGR (6 IUGR piglets fed basal diets) and IUGR+NZ (6 IUGR piglets fed basal diets + 600 mg Zn/kg from Nano-ZnO) groups at weaning (21 days of age), which were sampled at 163 days of age. There were no noteworthy changes in the relative weight of organs, hepatic histomorphology, serum alkaline phosphatase, glutamic pyruvic transaminase and glutamic oxalacetic transaminase activities, and Mn, Cu, and Fe concentrations in leg muscle, the liver, the tibia, and feces among the IUGR, NBW, and IUGR+NZ groups (P>0.05), and no intact Nano-ZnO in the jejunum, liver, and muscle was observed, while dietary Nano-ZnO increased the Zn concentrations in the tibia, the liver, serum, and feces (P<0.05) and mRNA expression of metallothionein (MT) 1A, MT2A, solute carrier family 39 member (ZIP) 4, ZIP14, ZIP8, divalent metal transporter 1, solute carrier family 30 member (ZnT) 1, ZnT4 and metal regulatory transcription factor 1, and ZIP8 protein expression in jejunal mucosa (P<0.05). Immunohistochemistry showed that dietary Nano-ZnO increased the relative optical density of ZIP8 (mainly expressed in cells of brush border) and MT2A (mainly expressed in villus lamina propria and gland/crypt) (P<0.05). In conclusion, long-term dietary Nano-ZnO showed no obvious side effects on the development of the major organs, liver function, and metabolism of Cu, Fe, and Mn in IUGR pigs, while it increased the Zn absorption and deposition via enhancing the expression of transporters (MT, ZIP, and ZnT families) in the jejunum, rather than via endocytosis as the form of intact nanoparticles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crime analysis is important for social security management. With the advance of crowd sensing techniques, abundant multisource crowd sensed data could be used for crime analysis. The occurrence of crimes usually has some patterns in terms of temporal and spatial aspects. Investigating the spatio-temporal correlation of crimes could provide more useful cues for crime analysis and help discover underlying crime patterns. In this paper, we conduct a spatio-temporal study to understand urban crimes leveraging multisource crowd sensed data, including crime data, meteorological data, POI distribution, and taxi trips. Specifically, we first present monthly temporal trends and spatial distribution of crimes. We then investigate the spatio-temporal correlation using meteorological data (e.g., weather conditions and air temperature) and POI distribution and taxi trips. It is found that taxi trips and air temperature have a strong correlation with the crime, and some POI categories have a valuable correlation with the crime, e.g., College & University. We also find that Overcast days would witness more crime than other weather conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new type of magnetic zinc metal–organic framework molecularly imprinted polymer (MZMMIP) was created by a crystal growth method, combined with molecular imprinting technology. The material was designed to solve the problems associated with metal–organic frameworks, which have the disadvantages of small pore size and low selectivity in the detection field. MZMMIPs were characterized by SEM, XRD, FTIR, TGA, BET, etc. The results showed that MZMMIPs achieved good crystalline form, excellent magnetic separation ability, rich pore structure, and large specific surface area (602.4 m2/g). Furthermore, the results of the adsorption experiment show that the crystal growth method with molecular imprint technology not only improved the MZMMIP adsorption capacity (64 mg/g) and microporous aperture, but also accelerated its adsorption (3 min) and elution rate (10 min) on the target product. With the introduction of molecular imprinting technology, MZMMIPs show a suitable adsorption selective performance (selection factor is 1.6) in the adsorption performance test of structural and nonstructural analogs of pyrene. MZMMIPs display good stability and reusability (the adsorption capacity of MZMMIPs decreased by only 21.8% after 10 elution times). The detection method in the study was successfully implemented for the determination of pyrene in vegetable oil, and achieved an excellent detection effect. The detection limit of MZMMIPs to pyrene is 0.11 µg/kg. The recovery ranged from 93.34 to 95.92%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitrofurazone (NF) is a kind of synthetic antibiotic with teratogenic and carcinogenic properties, which is often residual in animal food, so it is of great significance to detect it with high selectivity and rapid. In this study, a molecularly imprinted electrochemical sensor was constructed by electropolymerization for the high-specificity, high sensitivity,and rapid detection of NF in milk. By sequentially modifying reduced graphene oxide (RGO) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) on the glassy carbon electrode, the effective surface area and electron transfer ability of the electrode are improved, the double amplification of the electrical signal is realized, and the sensitivity and stability of the sensor are improved. A molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) is polymerized on the surface of the modified electrode by using NF as a target molecule and o-phenylenediamine (o–PD) as a functional monomer to improve the specific detection ability of the sensor for NF. The experimental conditions (the number of turns of depositing RGO, the thickness of the MIP, the elution time, and the adsorption time) were optimized to attain the best detection performance of the sensor. Differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) was used to detect NF by redox probe ([Fe(CN)6]3−/4−). The constructed sensor exhibited an admirable linear relationship between 5 and 1000 nmol L−1 (R2 = 0.9968) and the detection limit was 0.18 nmol L−1 (S/N = 3). Compared to the non-imprinted sensor, the imprinting factor was found to be 3.09. In addition, the sensor also showed excellent repeatability (RSD = 1.17%) and stability, and also showed a good recovery rate in actual sample detection (99.06–101.46%), which is expected to be applied to the detection of other harmful substances in food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate long-term runoff forecasting is crucial for managing and allocating water resources. Due to the complexity and variability of natural runoff, the most difficult problems currently faced by long-term runoff forecasting are the difficulty of model construction, poor prediction accuracy, and time intensive forecasting processes. Therefore, this study proposes a hybrid long-term runoff forecasting framework that uses the antecedent inflow and specific meteorological factors as the inputs, is modeled by ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) coupled with an artificial neural network (ANN), and computed by a parallel algorithm. First, the framework can transform monthly inflow and meteorological series into stationary signals via EEMD to more comprehensively explore the relationships of the input factors through the ANN. Second, the selected meteorological factors that are closely related to inflow formation can be filtered out by the single correlation coefficient method, which contributes to reducing coupling between input factors, and increases the accuracy of the prediction models. Finally, a multicore parallel algorithm that is easily accessed everywhere and that fully utilizes multiple calculation resources while flexibly contending with various optimization requirements will improve forecasting efficiency. The Xiaowan Hydropower Station (XW) is selected as the study area, and the final results of the study show that (1) the addition of targeted meteorological factors does indeed greatly enhance the performance of the prediction models; (2) the five criteria for evaluating the prediction accuracy show that the EEMD-ANN model is far superior to the prediction performance from the ordinary ANN model when run under the same input conditions; and (3) the optimization time of the 32-core model can be reduced by as much as 25 times, which significantly saves time during the forecast process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a devastating neurodegenerative disease characterized by dysfunction of the upper and lower motor neurons resulting in muscle weakness and wasting. Recently, several studies on ALS patients and ALS animal models indicated that intramuscular toxicity played a role in ALS disease progression; however, the mechanisms driving this are unknown. In this study, we explored the possible dysfunction of lipid metabolism in myocytes associated with ALS. Initially, skeletal muscle from 41 ALS patients, as well as 53 non-ALS control subjects, was investigated, and we identified that lipid droplet accumulation in the muscle fibers of ALS patients was significantly increased, especially in patients with FUS mutations. A myoblast (C2C12) cell line expressing mutant FUS (FUS-K510Q) was able to induce lipid droplet accumulation and mitochondrial dysfunction. Consistently, transgenic flies expressing FUS-K510Q under a muscle-specific driver showed elevated triglyceride levels in the flight muscles, as well as locomotor defects. Biochemical analysis of C2C12 cells and fly muscle tissues showed upregulation of PLIN2, and downregulation of ATGL and CPT1A, indicating inhibition of lipolysis and fatty acid β-oxidation in muscle cells with FUS mutations. Our study provided a potential explanation for the pathogenesis associated with lipid droplets accumulating in skeletal muscle in ALS. Our data also suggested that disordered lipid metabolism and mitochondrial dysfunction play a crucial role in intramuscular toxicity in ALS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces an efficient and flexible 3D FFT framework for state-of-the-art multi-GPU distributed-memory systems. In contrast to the traditional pure MPI implementation, the multi-GPU distributed-memory systems can be exploited by employing a hybrid multi-GPU programming model that combines MPI with OpenMP to achieve effective communication. An asynchronous strategy that creates multiple streams and threads to reduce blocking time is adopted to accelerate intra-node communication. Furthermore, we combine our scheme with the GPU-Aware MPI implementation to perform GPU-GPU data transfers without CPU involvement. We also optimize the local FFT and transpose by creating fast parallel kernels to accelerate the total transform. Results show that our framework outperforms the state-of-the-art distributed 3D FFT library, being up to achieve 2× faster in a single node and 1.65× faster using two nodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Familial episodic pain syndrome type 3 (FEPS3) is an inherited disorder characterized by the early-childhood onset of severe episodic pain that primarily affects the distal extremities. As skin biopsy has revealed a reduction in intraepidermal nerve fiber density and degeneration of the unmyelinated axons, it remains unclear whether FEPS3 patients have pathological changes in the peripheral nerve. Methods: The clinical features of patients with FEPS3 were summarized in a large autosomal dominant family. Sural nerve biopsies were conducted in two patients. Whole exome sequencing (WES) was performed in the index patient. Sanger sequencing was used to analyze family co-segregation. Results: Fourteen members exhibited typical and uniform clinical phenotypes characterized by length-dependent and age-dependent severe episodic pain affecting the distal extremities, which can be relieved with anti-inflammatory medicine. The WES revealed a heterozygous mutation c.665G > A (p.R222H) in the SCN11A gene, which was co-segregated with the clinical phenotype in this family. A sural biopsy in patient V:1, who was experiencing episodic pain at 16 years old, showed normal structure, while the sural nerve in patient IV:1, whose pain attack had completely diminished at 42 years old, displayed a decrease of the density of unmyelinated axons with the axonal degeneration. Conclusions: The clinical phenotype of FEPS3 showed distinctive characteristics that likely arise from dysfunctional nociceptive neurons that lack detectable pathological alterations in the nerve fibers. Nevertheless, long-term dysfunction of the Nav1.9 channel may cause degeneration of the unmyelinated fibers in FEPS3 patient with pain remission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Benzbromarone and febuxostat use different mechanisms to reduce serum urate. However, the effectiveness of benzbromarone versus febuxostat in reducing serum urate in gouty patients classified with different types of hyperuricaemia remains unclear. Method: In this retrospective study from January 1, 2018, to September 30, 2020, subjects were identified if they were newly treated with benzbromarone 25 mg daily or febuxostat 20 mg daily. The subjects were classified into four types according to their 24-h urinary uric acid and fractional excretion of uric acid. The baseline data and follow-up information after 28 ± 3 days of treatment were collected. Results: Seventy-three subjects with gout were finally enrolled. Among them, 50 were treated with benzbromarone. The percent changes in serum urate from the baseline were − 33.71 ± 13.59% and − 29.45 ± 10.62% in the benzbromarone and febuxostat group, respectively, without a significant difference between the groups (P = 0.188). No differences were found between the groups in subjects classified as the renal underexcretion type, combined type, or "normal" type. In patients with eGFR ≥ 70 mL/min/1.73 m2, the rate of serum urate lowering was higher in those treated with benzbromarone than in those treated with febuxostat. Febuxostat treatment significantly lowered serum creatinine from the baseline (P = 0.001). Conclusions: Benzbromarone 25 mg daily and febuxostat 20 mg daily may have comparable effectiveness in lowering the serum urate among different types of hyperuricaemia. Benzbromarone was more effective than febuxostat in lowering serum urate in subjects with eGFR ≥ 70 mL/min/1.73 m2, while febuxostat had a renal protective effect. Key Points • Benzbromarone 25 mg daily and febuxostat 20 mg daily may have comparable effectiveness in lowering the serum urate in patients with different types of hyperuricaemia. • Benzbromarone 25 mg daily was more effective than febuxostat 20 mg daily in lowering serum urate in subjects with eGFR ≥ 70 mL/min/1.73 m2. • Febuxostat had a renal protective effect after about 1 month treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mineral hydrogels have caught a lot of attention for their strong competency as artificial skin-like materials. Nonetheless, it remains a great difficulty in fulfilling in one hydrogel system a range of key functionalities that are needed for practical artificial skin applications, i.e., to be biocompatible, strain-sensitive, ion-conductive, elastic and robust, anti-swelling, and anti-freezing. Here we present a such type of versatile hydrogel that is not only capable to deliver all the above-mentioned key functionalities but also highly stable. This novel hydrogel is constructed by introducing a gelatinous and amorphous multi-ionic biomineral (denoted as Mg-ACCP, containing Mg2+, Ca2+, CO32−, and PO43−) into the network of biocompatible polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and sodium alginate (SA). The presence of Mg2+ and PO43− in this hydrogel helps prohibit the crystallization of the biominerals, leading to significantly improved stability. The hydrogel thus obtained delivers excellent mechanical performance due to the chelation between the mineral ions and the organic matrix, and high sensitivity even to subtle pressure and strain applied, such as slight finger bending and gentle tapping. Furthermore, the novel hydrogel features high ionic conductivity, high resistance to swelling, and extraordinary anti-freezing property, holding great promise for applications in different practical scenarios, particularly in aqueous or cold environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fabrication of single-crystalline metal-organic framework (MOF) hollow nanostructures with two-dimensional (2D) morphologies is a challenging task. Herein, twin-like MOF nanobricks, a quasi-hollow 2D architecture, with multi-metal nodes and replaceable organic ligands, are uniformly and firmly grown on conductive Ni foam through a generic one-pot approach. The formation process of twin-like MOF nanobricks mainly includes selective epitaxial growth of Fe-rich MOF layer and simultaneously dissolution of the pre-formed Ni-rich metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), all of which can be ascribed to a special self-templated mechanism. The fantastic structural merits of twin-like MOF nanobrick arrays, featuring highly exposed active sites, remarkable electrical conductivity, and hierarchical porosities, enable this material for efficient electrocatalysis. Using bimetallic NiFe-MOFs grown on Ni foam as an example, the resultant twin-like nanobrick arrays can be directly utilized as three-dimensional (3D) integrated electrode for high-performance water oxidation in 1 M KOH with a low overpotential, fast reaction kinetics (28.5 mV·dec−1), and superb stability. Interestingly, the unstable NiFe-MOFs were served as an oxygen evolution reaction (OER) pre-catalyst and the single-crystalline NiFe-MOF precursor can be in-situ topochemically regulated into porous and low-crystalline NiFeOx nanosheets during the OER process. This work extends the hollowing strategy to fabricate hollow MOFs with 2D architectures and highlights their direct utilization for advanced electrocatalysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crime risk prediction is helpful for urban safety and citizens’ life quality. However, existing crime studies focused on coarse-grained prediction, and usually failed to capture the dynamics of urban crimes. The key challenge is data sparsity, since that 1) not all crimes have been recorded, and 2) crimes usually occur with low frequency. In this paper, we propose an effective framework to predict fine-grained and dynamic crime risks in each road using heterogeneous urban data. First, to address the issue of unreported crimes, we propose a cross-aggregation soft-impute (CASI) method to deal with possible unreported crimes. Then, we use a novel crime risk measurement to capture the crime dynamics from the perspective of influence propagation, taking into consideration of both time-varying and location-varying risk propagation. Based on the dynamically calculated crime risks, we design contextual features (i.e., POI distributions, taxi mobility, demographic features) from various urban data sources, and propose a zero-inflated negative binomial regression (ZINBR) model to predict future crime risks in roads. The experiments using the real-world data from New York City show that our framework can accurately predict road crime risks, and outperform other baseline methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Gemcitabine (Gem) is one of the most commonly used chemotherapeutic drugs in treating patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Acquired drug resistance against Gem presents a major clinical challenge in the chemotherapy of PDAC. It has been shown that miRNA-3662 is lowly expressed and implicated with quantities of biological processes in cancer. However, whether miRNA-3662 regulates chemoresistance in PDAC remains largely unknown. Materials and methods: The level of miRNA-3662 in PDAC tissues was determined by real-time qPCR (RT-qPCR). Functional experiments were used to investigate the biological role of miRNA-3662 on Gem resistance of PDAC in vitro and in vivo. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), RT-qPCR, western blotting, bioinformatics analysis and luciferase reporter assay were employed to determine the precise regulation mechanisms. Results: In this study, it was investigated that miRNA-3662 was down-regulated in PDAC clinical samples as well as cell lines. Functional assays revealed that miRNA-3662 was sufficient to inhibit Gem resistance in PDAC cells both in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistically, hypoxia-inducible factor 1ɑ (HIF-1ɑ) was one of the transcriptional target of miRNA-3662 and was up-regulated in PDAC samples. Importantly, genetic promoting of HIF-1ɑ largely compromised miR-3662-mediated chemosensitive effects. In addition, miR-3662 could impair the aerobic glycolysis in PDAC cells. Conclusions: This study sheds light on miRNA-3662 inhibits PDAC cell chemoresistance and aerobic glycolysis through a negative feedback loop with HIF-1ɑ. Therefore, the co-delivery of miR-3662 and Gem could be served as a promising therapeutic regimen for PDAC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attenuation of ultrashort THz pulses poses a significant technological challenge due to the broadband nature of such light pulses. Several methods exist for this purpose, including crossed wire grid polarizers, high refractive index, high resistivity silicon wafers, and ultrathin metal films. In this review, we discuss the operational principles of these methods, and highlight some of the advantages and potential pitfalls of the methods. We describe the limits of high-frequency operation of wire grid polarizers, relevant for contemporary ultra-broadband THz sources in air photonics. We discuss the effects of multiple reflections and interference in sequences of silicon wafers for attenuation, and finally discuss the potential of using ultrathin metallic films for broadband attenuation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review paper summarizes current knowledge available for aviation operations related to meteorology and provides suggestions for necessary improvements in the measurement and prediction of weather-related parameters, new physical methods for numerical weather predictions (NWP), and next-generation integrated systems. Severe weather can disrupt aviation operations on the ground or in-flight. The most important parameters related to aviation meteorology are wind and turbulence, fog visibility, aerosol/ash loading, ceiling, rain and snow amount and rates, icing, ice microphysical parameters, convection and precipitation intensity, microbursts, hail, and lightning. Measurements of these parameters are functions of sensor response times and measurement thresholds in extreme weather conditions. In addition to these, airport environments can also play an important role leading to intensification of extreme weather conditions or high impact weather events, e.g., anthropogenic ice fog. To observe meteorological parameters, new remote sensing platforms, namely wind LIDAR, sodars, radars, and geostationary satellites, and in situ instruments at the surface and in the atmosphere, as well as aircraft and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles mounted sensors, are becoming more common. At smaller time and space scales (e.g., < 1 km), meteorological forecasts from NWP models need to be continuously improved for accurate physical parameterizations. Aviation weather forecasts also need to be developed to provide detailed information that represents both deterministic and statistical approaches. In this review, we present available resources and issues for aviation meteorology and evaluate them for required improvements related to measurements, nowcasting, forecasting, and climate change, and emphasize future challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) started distributing global operational gridded in flight icing, turbulence and convective cloud products as part of World Area Forecast System (WAFS) products in 2007. Simple algorithms were used to derive these products during early stage based on NCEP Global Forecast System (GFS) forecast. These products quickly became essential flight planning tool for international aviation community and are especially important to developing countries that do not have resource to run numerical models themselves. To further improve these products, Environmental Modeling Center (EMC) started collaborating with National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) to transition their aviation research algorithms into NCEP's operations (R2O), particularly Forecast Icing Potential (FIP) and Graphical Turbulence Guidance (GTG) algorithms. The initial attempt is to apply FIP to GFS forecast to potentially replace WAFS icing product. Extensive evaluation demonstrated FIP outperformed original WAFS icing product and, with support from Aviation Weather Center (AWC) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), EMC replaced US WAFS icing product with FIP in 2015. EMC recently also implemented GTG with 2017 GFS upgrade but GTG will not replace WAFS turbulence until 2019. This paper will describe the methodology which EMC used to transition NCAR's aviation research algorithms into NCEP's operations. It will also describe how EMC generates icing analysis data to be used as truth for performing objective verification. Several case studies will be presented and the methodology and results for objective validation will be discussed. Finally, future collaboration plan with NCAR and implementation plans to continue to improve WAFS products will be stated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This manuscript presents the experimental investigations on the seismic behavior of precast grouted sleeve column-to-foundation connections. Six full-scale specimens were constructed with varying longitudinal reinforcement ratios and stirrup ratios. Four specimens were precast with grouted sleeve connections. Two cast-in-place reference specimens were equivalent in design with the precast ones, but only without the grouted sleeve connections. Vertical compression ratio of approximately 0.41 was applied for use in high seismic regions. Damage states, load-carrying capacity, ductility, energy dissipation and strain distributions of the specimens are investigated and are compared with the cast-in-place reference specimens. The test results demonstrate that the sleeve connection exhibited comparable lateral deformation capacity and ductility but lower strength capacity compared to the cast-in-place reference specimens. Among the precast specimens, the increase in stirrup ratio slightly increased both the yield and the ultimate strength. The increase in longitudinal reinforcement ratio showed greater effects by considerably raising the ultimate strength, while increasing the yield strength marginally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tall fescue ( Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) is an important grass widely used in North Carolina and other transition zone states in the US for turf and as forage. Brown patch caused by subgroup AG1-AI of Rhizoctonia solani is the most severe and frequently occurring fungal disease for tall fescue plants. The objective of this research was to genetically engineer tall fescue to improve its resistance to the pathogen. The gene ( Pen4- 1) of a novel antimicrobial peptide-Penaeidin 4-1 from a shrimp species was introduced into tall fescue var. 'Coronado' through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Among the five transgenic plants containing the Pen4- 1 transgene, four of them displayed significantly higher level of resistance against R. solani subgroup AG1-IA, with two being highly resistant ( p < 0.001). Up to 75 % reduction of the lesion size was achieved. The results indicate that Pen4- 1 confers resistance to various subgroups of R. solani and is a promising candidate for engineered resistance to a wide-spectrum pathogens in tall fescue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key message: Transgenic tall fescue plants expressing RNAi constructs of essential genes of Rhizoctonia solani were resistant to R. solani. Abstract: Tall fescue ( Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) is an important turf and forage grass species widely used for home lawns and on golf courses in North Carolina and other transition zone states in the US. The most serious and frequently occurring disease of tall fescue is brown patch, caused by a basidiomycete fungus, Rhizoctonia solani. This research demonstrates resistance to brown patch disease achieved by the application of host induced gene silencing. We transformed tall fescue with RNAi constructs of four experimentally determined 'essential' genes from R. solani (including genes encoding RNA polymerase, importin beta-1 subunit, Cohesin complex subunit Psm1, and a ubiquitin E3 ligase) to suppress expression of those genes inside the fungus and thus inhibit fungal infection. Four gene constructs were tested, and 19 transgenic plants were obtained, among which 12 plants had detectable accumulation of siRNAs of the target genes. In inoculation tests, six plants displayed significantly improved resistance against R. solani. Lesion size was reduced by as much as 90 %. Plants without RNAi accumulation did not show resistance. To our knowledge, this is the first case that RNAi constructs of pathogen genes introduced into a host plant can confer resistance against a necrotrophic fungus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mid-infrared spectral region is of great technical and scientific interest because most molecules display fundamental vibrational absorptions in this region, leaving distinctive spectral fingerprints. To date, the limitations of mid-infrared light sources such as thermal emitters, low-power laser diodes, quantum cascade lasers and synchrotron radiation have precluded mid-infrared applications where the spatial coherence, broad bandwidth, high brightness and portability of a supercontinuum laser are all required. Here, we demonstrate experimentally that launching intense ultra-short pulses with a central wavelength of either 4.5??m or 6.3??m into short pieces of ultra-high numerical-aperture step-index chalcogenide glass optical fibre generates a mid-infrared supercontinuum spanning 1.5??m to 11.7??m and 1.4??m to 13.3??m, respectively. This is the first experimental demonstration to truly reveal the potential of fibres to emit across the mid-infrared molecular 'fingerprint region', which is of key importance for applications such as early cancer diagnostics, gas sensing and food quality control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the visibility analysis data during November 2009 through April 2010 over North America from the Aviation Digital Database Service (ADDS), the performance of low visibility/fog predictions from the current operational 12 km-NAM, 13 km-RUC and 32 km-WRF-NMM models at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) was evaluated. The evaluation shows that the performance of the low visibility/fog forecasts from these models is still poor in comparison to those of precipitation forecasts from the same models. In order to improve the skill of the low visibility/fog prediction, three efforts have been made at NCEP, including application of a rule-based fog detection scheme, extension of the NCEP Short Range Ensemble Forecast System (SREF) to fog ensemble probabilistic forecasts, and a combination of these two applications. How to apply these techniques in fog prediction is described and evaluated with the same visibility analysis data over the same period of time. The evaluation results demonstrate that using the multi-rule-based fog detection scheme significantly improves the fog forecast skill for all three models relative to visibility-diagnosed fog prediction, and with a combination of both rule-based fog detection and the ensemble technique, the performance skill of fog forecasting can be further raised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A femtosecond optical parametric oscillator synchronously pumped by a Ti:Sapphire oscillator is reported. By the cavity length tuning, the signal wavelength is continuously tuned from 1000 to 1200 nm. The average output power of 32 mW is obtained at 1053 nm. The pulse width is measured to be 342 fs by intensity autocorrelation method. In addition, we observed bichromatic emission during the cavity length tuning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple linear regression method is developed to retrieve daily averaged soil water content from diurnal variations of soil temperature measured at three or more depths. The method is applied to Oklahoma Mesonet soil temperature data collected at the depths of 5, 10, and 30 cm during 11–20 June 1995. The retrieved bulk soil water contents are compared with direct measurements for one pair of nearly collocated Mesonet and ARM stations and also compared with the retrievals of a previous method at 14 enhanced Oklahoma Mesonet stations. The results show that the current method gives more persistent retrievals than the previous method. The method is also applied to Oklahoma Mesonet soil temperature data collected at the depths of 5, 25, 60, and 75 cm from the Norman site during 20–30 July 1998 and 1–31 July 2000. The retrieved soil water contents are verified by collocated soil water content measurements with rms differences smaller than the soil water observation error (0.05 m3 m−3). The retrievals are found to be moderately sensitive to random errors (±0.1 K) in the soil temperature observations and errors in the soil type specifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stabilization issue of anomalous refraction and reflection in V-shaped antenna metasurfaces are investigated. Specifically, when a V-shaped metasurface is artificially tilted, the induced refraction and reflection are theoretically analyzed. Detailed numerical and experimental study is then performed for the upward and downward bending metasurfaces. Our results show that although the anomalous reflection is sensitive to the deformation of metasurface geometry; the anomalous refraction is, surprisingly, barely affected by relatively small-angle tilting and able to support perfect beam orienting. Since in real-world applications, the optical objects are often affected by multiple uncertain factors, such as deformation, vibration, non-standard surface, non-perfect planar, etc., the stabilization of optical functionality has therefore been a long-standing design challenge for optical engineering. We believe our findings can shed new light on this stability issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supercontinuum (SC) generation based on ultrashort pulse compression constitutes one of the most promising technologies towards ultra-wide bandwidth, high-brightness, and spatially coherent light sources for applications such as spectroscopy and microscopy. Here, multi-octave SC generation in a gas-filled hollow-core antiresonant fiber (HC-ARF) is reported spanning from 200 nm in the deep ultraviolet (DUV) to 4000 nm in the mid-infrared (mid-IR) having an output energy of 5 μJ. This was obtained by pumping at the center wavelength of the first anti-resonant transmission window (2460 nm) with ~100 fs pulses and an injected pulse energy of ~8 μJ. The mechanism behind the extreme spectral broadening relies upon intense soliton-plasma nonlinear dynamics which leads to efficient soliton self-compression and phase-matched dispersive wave (DW) emission in the DUV region. The strongest DW is observed at 275 nm which corresponds to the calculated phase-matching wavelength of the pump. Furthermore, the effect of changing the pump pulse energy and gas pressure on the nonlinear dynamics and their direct impact on SC generation was investigated. This work represents another step towards gas-filled fiber-based coherent sources, which is set to have a major impact on applications spanning from DUV to mid-IR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]