Search

China plans to establish a lunar orbital VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometer) station around 2025, which will carry a space passive hydrogen maser as the time and frequency reference. Since it is the first time to use a space passive hydrogen maser for VLBI observation, its feasibility needs to be studied and verified. Therefore, we carried out VLBI observations using the space passive hydrogen maser as the frequency reference. In the experiment, the active hydrogen atomic clock and space passive hydrogen maser were used as the frequency standard, and the alternate VLBI observations of China's Mars probe TW1 (Tianwen 1) were carried out using the 25 m radio telescope at Sheshan, Shanghai, and other VLBI stations. The results of data processing and analysis show that the standard deviation of VLBI residual group delay based on both active hydrogen atomic clock and space passive hydrogen maser are within 0.5 ns, which indicates that the space passive hydrogen maser can meet the accuracy requirements of VLBI measurement for deep space exploration, and verify its feasibility as the frequency standard of lunar orbital VLBI stations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first case of avian influenza A/H7N9 infection was reported in Shanghai in mid-February, 2013; by May 1, 2013, it had infected 127 people and caused 26 deaths in 10 provinces in China. Therefore, it is important to obtain reliable epidemiological data on the spread of this new infectious agent, a need that may be best met by the development of novel molecular methods. Here, a new method was described for the detection of avian influenza A/H7N9 using real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR). Using serial dilutions of avian influenza A H7N9 cultures, the detection limit of the assay was determined to be approximately 3.2 x 10-4 HAUs (hemagglutination units) for the H7 gene and 6.4 x 10-4 HAUs for N9 gene. In tests of serial dilutions of in vitro-transcribed avian influenza A H7 and N9 gene RNA, positive results were obtained for target RNA containing at least three copies of the H7 gene and six copies of the N9 gene. Thirteen throat swabs from H7N9 patients were tested; all tested positive in the assay. Specificity was evaluated by testing 18 other subtypes of influenza viruses; all tested negative. A total of 180 throat swabs from patients infected with influenza virus, including 60 from patients infected with seasonal influenza A/H1N1 virus, 60 from patients infected with pandemic influenza A/H1N1/2009 virus, 30 from patients infected with seasonal influenza A/H3N2 virus and 30 from patients infected with influenza B virus, were also tested; all tested negative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]