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Gas-phase oxidation pathways and products of anthropogenic volatile organic compounds (VOCs), mainly aromatics, are the subject of intensive research, with attention paid to their contributions to secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation and potentially new particle formation (NPF) in the urban atmosphere. In this study, a series of OH-initiated oxidation experiments of trimethylbenzene (TMB, C9H12) including 1,2,4-TMB, 1,3,5-TMB, 1,2,3-TMB, and 1,2,4-(methyl-D3)-TMBs (C9H9D3) were investigated in an oxidation flow reactor (OFR) in the absence and presence of NOx. Products were measured using a suite of state-of-the-art instruments, i.e. a nitrate-based chemical ionization–atmospheric pressure interface time-of-flight mass spectrometer (nitrate CI-APi-TOF), an iodide-adduct chemical ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer (iodide CI-TOF) equipped with a Filter Inlet for Gases and AEROsols (FIGAERO), and a Vocus proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometer (Vocus PTR). A large number of C9 products with 1–11 oxygen atoms and C18 products presumably formed from dimerization of C9 peroxy radicals were observed, hinting at the extensive existence of autoxidation and accretion reaction pathways in the OH-initiated oxidation reactions of TMBs. Oxidation products of 1,2,4-(methyl-D3)-TMBs with deuterium atoms in different methyl substituents were then used as a molecular basis to propose potential autoxidation reaction pathways. Accretion of C9 peroxy radicals is the most significant for aromatics with meta-substituents and the least for aromatics with ortho-substituents if the number and size of substituted groups are identical. The presence of NOx would suppress the formation of highly oxygenated molecules (HOMs) of C18 and enhance the formation of organonitrates and even dinitrate organic compounds. Our results show that the oxidation products of TMB are much more diverse and could be more oxygenated than the current mechanisms predict.

Abstract The existence of sterile neutrino is an open question in neutrino physics up to now. The method of neutrino oscillometry provides a powerful tool to test the common 3 + 1 sterile neutrino hypothesis, i.e. three active flavors and one sterile flavor. There are several antineutrino sources which can be used for this method. One of them is the well known isotope chain of $$^{144}\mathrm{Ce}$$ 144Ce –$$^{144}{\mathrm{Pr}}$$ 144Pr with initial activity around 50–100 kCi. It has compact size and might be installed either outside or inside the detector. Another one is the short-lived isotope $$^8{\mathrm{Li}}$$ 8Li , which can be produced in nuclear reaction of a proton beam hitting a beryllium target. The lithium source has only the out-of-detector option due to its large size. The proposed Jinping water-based liquid scintillator detector will be used as a detection volume. Above experimental setups will allow us to cover the current best fit values of oscillation parameters with 90% C.L. At the same time, it is sensitive to the region of the Neutrino-4 result.

Background. With numerous extraction protocols for total RNA and RNA fractions, like microRNA (miRNA) and long non-coding RNA (lncRNA), available for various cell and tissue types, obtaining a high quantitative and qualitative yield from some special material, such as the nucleus pulposus, remains challenging. Nucleus pulposus is troublesome to manage in common RNA isolation protocols due to low cell content and high biopolymer concentrations, including proteoglycans and glycoproteins, which impair overall purity and yield. A major lack of reproducible methods for total and fraction RNA isolation directly from the nucleus pulposus impedes effective real-time PCR applications for downstream miRNA and lncRNA expression profiling in the course of intervertebral disc degeneration. In this study, we exploit the collagenase type II lytic properties to facilitate extraction of total and fraction RNA from the nucleus pulposus and compare results with the standard RNA isolation method.Materials and methods. Nucleus pulposus samples (n = 8) were obtained from September 2017 to December 2018 from patients with herniated discs in the lumbosacral spine diagnosed during surgery. Equal portions of samples were processed with the standard and original RNA isolation protocols.Results and discussion. Th e enzymatic lysis method for total and fraction RNA isolation from the nucleus pulposus of intervertebral discs demonstrated excellent integrity and high purity. No protein, polysaccharide or collagen contamination was detected.Conclusion. Th e method reported allows an improved quantitative and qualitative total and fraction RNA yield from the nucleus pulposus of intervertebral discs. Th e method can be used in future research on miRNA and lncRNA expression profiling with real-time PCR by improving the average cycle threshold value.

Abstract New developments in liquid scintillators, high-efficiency, fast photon detectors, and chromatic photon sorting have opened up the possibility for building a large-scale detector that can discriminate between Cherenkov and scintillation signals. Such a detector could reconstruct particle direction and species using Cherenkov light while also having the excellent energy resolution and low threshold of a scintillator detector. Situated deep underground, and utilizing new techniques in computing and reconstruction, this detector could achieve unprecedented levels of background rejection, enabling a rich physics program spanning topics in nuclear, high-energy, and astrophysics, and across a dynamic range from hundreds of keV to many GeV. The scientific program would include observations of low- and high-energy solar neutrinos, determination of neutrino mass ordering and measurement of the neutrino CP-violating phase $$\delta $$ δ , observations of diffuse supernova neutrinos and neutrinos from a supernova burst, sensitive searches for nucleon decay and, ultimately, a search for neutrinoless double beta decay, with sensitivity reaching the normal ordering regime of neutrino mass phase space. This paper describes Theia, a detector design that incorporates these new technologies in a practical and affordable way to accomplish the science goals described above.

Drought is one of the frequent natural disasters in Shandong province, which is characterized by high frequency and wide range. In response to frequent droughts that are not monitored in time, monitoring the changes of drought is of great significance to agricultural production and social development. This study used the Temperature-Vegetation-soil Moisture Dryness Index (TVMDI) model, combined with the optical MODIS land surface temperature, vegetation index, surface albedo data and microwave FY-3B soil moisture data, to monitor the drought of Shandong province in 2016. The precipitation and temperature data of weather station were used to validate the monitoring results. The results show that, in 2016, the drought in Shandong province mainly occurred in winter and spring, and the drought in summer was alleviated. From the perspective of space, the northern Shandong and the Shandong peninsula areas are relatively humid with less drought time, while the local areas in the central and southern Shandong province suffer from severe drought with longer drought time. From the perspective of correlation with meteorological factors, the average correlation coefficient between TVMDI and precipitation can reach 0.45, and the average correlation coefficient between TVMDI and temperature can reach 0.63.

Nowadays, 3D navigation systems and intelligent services are costly to use, and the accuracy of intelligent navigation does not meet the needs of tourists, and the practicality is not strong. Based on the current situation of the construction of the smart scenic navigation system and the actual needs of tourists, this study determines the main principles and methods of the tour guide system and intelligent services. Taking a certain scenic spot as the specific research object, the A* algorithm is used to solve the path. By optimizing the online gracing service of the arc gis server network, the appropriate data interpolation method is used to improve the accuracy of the elevation data of the scenic spot, and the characteristics of the three-dimensional symbol system are combined. The 3D symbol design system is optimized, and a high-precision 3D navigation map model is established. Finally, the corresponding 3D tour guide system and scenic area intelligent service are designed based on this, and the principle and application flow of the intelligent scenic area navigation system construction are summarized. The three-dimensional map model and its navigation system designed by this research institute reduce the risk of tourists during the tour, improve the quality and efficiency of the tour, and provide a practical service optimization solution for the smart scenic three-dimensional navigation system. The construction and use cost of the high-precision three-dimensional navigation system in the scenic spot is reduced.

In the livestock industry, subcutaneous and visceral fat pads are considered as wastes, while intramuscular fat or marbling fat is essential for improving flavor and palatability of meat. Thus, strategies for optimizing fat deposition are needed. Intramuscular adipocytes provide sites for lipid deposition and marbling formation. In the present article, we addressed the origin and markers of intramuscular adipocyte progenitors – fibro-adipogenic progenitors (FAPs), as well as the latest progresses in mechanisms regulating the proliferation and differentiation of intramuscular FAPs. Finally, by targeting intramuscular FAPs, possible nutritional manipulations to improve marbling fat deposition are discussed. Despite recent progresses, the properties and regulation of intramuscular FAPs in livestock remain poorly understood and deserve further investigation.

Rapidly evolving computational techniques are making a large gap between scientific aspiration and code implementation in climate modeling. In this work, we design a simple computing library to bridge the gap and decouple the work of ocean modeling from parallel computing. This library provides 12 basic operators that feature user-friendly interfaces, effective programming, and implicit parallelism. Several state-of-the-art computing techniques, including computing graph and just-in-time compiling, are employed to parallelize the seemingly serial code and speed up the ocean models. These operator interfaces are designed using native Fortran programming language to smooth the learning curve. We further implement a highly readable and efficient ocean model that contains only 1860 lines of code but achieves a 91 % parallel efficiency in strong scaling and 99 % parallel efficiency in weak scaling with 4096 Intel CPU cores. This ocean model also exhibits excellent scalability on the heterogeneous Sunway TaihuLight supercomputer. This work presents a promising alternative tool for the development of ocean models.

Introduction. Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and aggressive form of primary malignant brain tumour in adults associated with a poor prognosis. Exosomes have been shown to be useful non-invasive biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of tumours, GBM included. Exosomes play a role of biological carriers which can perform various tasks through various signalling pathways of carcinogenesis, such as PI3K/AKT, SOX2, PTEN, ERK and STAT3.Materials and methods. Exosomes were isolated from blood plasma taken from patients diagnosed with GBM prior to surgical resection.Results and discussion. Plasma exosomes from patients with GBM had spherical shape and varied in size from 40 to 100 nm matching the exosomes’ morphological characteristics. The combination of ultrafiltration and double ultracentrifugation makes it possible to extract exosome examples from plasma without the presence of contaminating particles over 100 nm in size; the shape and size of these vesicles match the characteristics of exosomes isolated from other biological fluids.Conclusion. The experimental protocol for the extraction of exosomes from GBM patients’ plasma described here proves effective as a method used to ensure the purity of exosomes. Applying this method offers further opportunities for research into the role of exosomes in GBM pathogenesis. Equally this method can be used in research involving other human pathologies.

Three degrees of freedom (3-DoF) parallel mechanism (PM) with limbs of embedding structures is a kind of PM with a coupling relationship between limbs. In order to obtain a more desirable motion, the analysis of its actuated pairs shall be conducted. However, the fact that the existence of limbs coupling results in non-unique limb group, this mechanism has multiple limb groups. In this regard, the traditional input selection theory is not suitable for direct application in the input rationality analysis. Aiming to avoid this, a general extended input selection theory and limb group selection rule are proposed. The former tackles the traditional input selection theory which is not suitable for analyzing the input of PM with limbs of embedding structures since it does not take the influence of group into consideration, whereas the latter makes the calculation of the former easier. Based on the extended input selection theory and the limb group selection rule, the input and configuration of the 3-DoF PM with limbs of embedding structures are improved.

Abstract We review the physics opportunities of the Future Circular Collider, covering its e+e-, pp, ep and heavy ion programmes. We describe the measurement capabilities of each FCC component, addressing the study of electroweak, Higgs and strong interactions, the top quark and flavour, as well as phenomena beyond the Standard Model. We highlight the synergy and complementarity of the different colliders, which will contribute to a uniquely coherent and ambitious research programme, providing an unmatchable combination of precision and sensitivity to new physics.

Black carbon (BC), which is formed from the incomplete combustion of fuel sources (mainly fossil fuel, biofuel and open biomass burning), is a chemically inert optical absorber in the atmosphere. It has significant impacts on global climate, regional air quality and human health. During transportation, its physical and chemical characteristics as well as its sources change dramatically. To investigate the properties of BC (i.e., mass concentration, sources and optical properties) during intra-regional transport between the southern edge of the North China Plain (SE-NCP) and central China (CC), simultaneous BC observations were conducted in a megacity (Wuhan – WH) in CC, in three borderline cities (Xiangyang – XY, Suixian – SX and Hong'an – HA; from west to east) between the SE-NCP and CC, and in a city (Luohe – LH) in the SE-NCP during typical winter haze episodes. Using an Aethalometer, the highest equivalent BC (eBC) mass concentrations and the highest aerosol absorption coefficients (σabs) were found in LH in the SE-NCP, followed by the borderline cities (XY, SX and HA) and WH. The levels, sources, optical properties (i.e., σabs and absorption Ångström exponent, AAE) and geographic origins of eBC were different between clean and polluted periods. Compared with clean days, higher eBC levels (26.4 %–163 % higher) and σabs (18.2 %–236 % higher) were found during pollution episodes due to the increased combustion of fossil fuels (increased by 51.1 %–277 %), which was supported by the decreased AAE values (decreased by 7.40 %–12.7 %). The conditional bivariate probability function (CBPF) and concentration-weighted trajectory (CWT) results showed that the geographic origins of biomass burning (BCbb) and fossil fuel (BCff) combustion-derived BC were different. Air parcels from the south dominated for border sites during clean days, with contributions of 46.0 %–58.2 %, whereas trajectories from the northeast showed higher contributions (37.5 %–51.2 %) during pollution episodes. At the SE-NCP site (LH), transboundary influences from the south (CC) exhibited a more frequent impact (with air parcels from this direction comprising 47.8 % of all parcels) on the ambient eBC levels during pollution episodes. At WH, eBC was mainly from the northeast transport route throughout the observation period. Two transportation cases showed that the mass concentrations of eBC, BCff and σabs all increased, from upwind to downwind, whereas AAE decreased. This study highlights that intra-regional prevention and control for dominant sources at each specific site should be considered in order to improve the regional air quality.

Elements within the γ-hemoglobin promoters (HBG1 and HBG2) function to bind transcription complexes that mediate repression of fetal hemoglobin expression. Sickle cell disease (SCD) subjects with a 13-bp deletion in the HBG1 promoter exhibit a clinically favorable hereditary persistence of fetal hemoglobin (HPFH) phenotype. We developed TALENs targeting the homologous HBG promoters to de-repress fetal hemoglobin. Transfection of human CD34+ cells with TALEN mRNA resulted in indel generation in HBG1 (43%) and HBG2 (74%) including the 13-bp HPFH deletion (∼6%). Erythroid differentiation of edited cells revealed a 4.6-fold increase in γ-hemoglobin expression as detected by HPLC. Assessment of TALEN-edited CD34+ cells in vivo in a humanized mouse model demonstrated sustained presence of indels in hematopoietic cells up to 24 weeks. Indel rates remained unchanged following secondary transplantation consistent with editing of long-term repopulating stem cells (LT-HSCs). Human γ-hemoglobin expressing F cells were detected by flow cytometry approximately 50% more frequently in edited animals compared to mock. Together, these findings demonstrate that TALEN-mediated indel generation in the γ-hemoglobin promoter leads to high levels of fetal hemoglobin expression in vitro and in vivo, suggesting that this approach can provide therapeutic benefit in patients with SCD or β-thalassemia. Keywords: TALEN, hemoglobinopathy, HBG, hemoglobin, HPFH, SCD, sickle cell disease, thalassemia, gene editing, HSC

The rapid advancement of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) occultation technology in recent years has made it one of the most advanced space-based remote sensing technologies of the 21st century. GNSS radio occultation has many advantages, including all-weather operation, global coverage, high vertical resolution, high precision, long-term stability, and self-calibration. Data products from GNSS occultation sounding can greatly enhance ionospheric observations and contribute to space weather monitoring, forecasting, modeling, and research. In this study, GNSS occultation sounder (GNOS) results from a radio occultation sounding payload aboard the Fengyun 3 C (FY3-C) satellite were compared with ground-based ionosonde observations. Correlation coefficients for peak electron density (NmF2) derived from GNOS Global Position System (GPS) and Beidou navigation system (BDS) products with ionosonde data were higher than 0.9, and standard deviations were less than 20 %. Global ionospheric effects of the strong magnetic storm event in March 2015 were analyzed using GNOS results supported by ionosonde observations. The magnetic storm caused a significant disturbance in NmF2 level. Suppressed daytime and nighttime NmF2 levels indicated mainly negative storm conditions. In two longitude section zones of geomagnetic inclination between 40 and 80∘, the results of average NmF2 observed by GNOS and ground-based ionosondes showed the same basic trends during the geomagnetic storm and confirmed the negative effect of this storm event on the ionosphere. The analysis demonstrates the reliability of the GNSS radio occultation sounding instrument GNOS aboard the FY3-C satellite and confirms the utility of ionosphere products from GNOS for statistical and event-specific ionospheric physical analyses. Future FY3 series satellites and increasing numbers of Beidou navigation satellites will provide increasing GNOS occultation data on the ionosphere, which will contribute to ionosphere research and forecasting applications.

Abstract Background Cross protection is a promising alternative to control plant viral diseases. One critical factor limiting the application of cross protection is the availability of attenuated mutants or mild strains. Potato virus X (PVX) infects many crops and induces huge economic losses to agricultural production. However, researches on the variability and mechanism of PVX virulence are scarce. Methods The mutants were obtained by introducing mutations into the RNA dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) gene of PVX via site-directed mutagenesis. Attenuated mutants were screen according to their symptoms in Nicotiana benthamiana plants. The protection efficacy against severe infection were evaluated with interval of 5, 10 and 15 days. Results Among the 40 mutants obtained, four mutants carrying substitutions of either Glu46, Asn863, Asn968 or Glu1001 to Ala in PVX RdRp showed drastically attenuated symptom, accompanying with reduced accumulation levels of coat protein, plus- and minus-sense RNAs. When the interval between protective and challenging inoculations was 15 days, mutant E1001A (with substitution of Glu1001 to Ala in RdRp) provided complete protection against severe infection in both Nicotiana benthamiana and tomato, while E46A (Glu46 mutated to Ala) provided incomplete protection. To reduce the risk of reverse mutation, we constructed mutant dM which carries double mutations of both Glu46 and Glu1001 to Ala in RdRp. The mutant dM could provide effective protection against severe PVX infection. Conclusion Mutations of Glu46, Asn863, Asn968 or Glu1001 to Ala in PVX RdRp significantly reduced the viral symptoms. Mutants E1001A and E46A could provide effective protection against wild type PVX in both Nicotiana benthamiana and tomato. These results provide theoretical and practical bases for the control of PVX via cross protection.

Gaseous sulfuric acid (H2SO4) is known as one of the key precursors for atmospheric new particle formation (NPF) processes, but its measurement remains challenging. Therefore, a proxy method that is able to derive gaseous sulfuric acid concentrations from parameters that can be measured relatively easily and accurately is highly desirable for the atmospheric chemistry community. Although such methods are available for clean atmospheric environments, a proxy that works well in a polluted atmosphere, such as that found in Chinese megacities, is yet to be developed. In this study, the gaseous sulfuric acid concentration was measured in February–March 2018, in urban Beijing using a nitrate based – long time-of-flight chemical ionization mass spectrometer (LToF-CIMS). A number of atmospheric parameters were recorded concurrently including the ultraviolet radiation B (UVB) intensity, the concentrations of O3, NOx (sum of NO and NO2), SO2, and HONO, and aerosol particle number size distributions. A proxy for atmospheric daytime gaseous sulfuric acid concentration was derived via a statistical analysis method using the UVB intensity, [SO2], the condensation sink (CS), [O3], and [HONO] (or [NOx]) as the predictor variables, where square brackets denote the concentrations of the corresponding species. In this proxy method, we considered the formation of gaseous sulfuric acid from reactions of SO2 and OH radicals during the daytime, and the loss of gaseous sulfuric acid due to its condensation onto the preexisting particles. In addition, we explored the formation of OH radicals from the conventional gas-phase photochemistry using O3 as a proxy and from the photolysis of HONO using HONO (and subsequently NOx) as a proxy. Our results showed that the UVB intensity and [SO2] are dominant factors in the production of gaseous sulfuric acid, and that the simplest proxy could be constructed with the UVB intensity and [SO2] alone. When the OH radical production from both homogenously and heterogeneously formed precursors were considered, the relative errors were reduced by up to 20 %.

The conventional robust optimization methods usually focus on problems with unimodal random variables. In real applications, input random variables may follow multimodal distributions with multiple peaks in their probability density. When multimodal random variables are involved, the conventional methods, such as the mean-variance-based methods, will be not accurate. This paper presents an efficient robust optimization method, which provides a potential computational tool for engineering problems involving multimodal random variables. A robustness metric is formulated by introducing the concept of accepting/rejecting the limit to calculate the failure probability of the performance response, which can directly capture the multimodal characteristics of the performance. A second-order higher moment method is presented to efficiently conduct the probability calculation in the inner loop of design optimization. The proposed decoupling strategy drives the probability calculation and the design optimization sequentially and alternately. This method is applied to the three micromachine design problems, including a sweat-rate sensor, a piezoelectric sensor, and an image sensing module. The numerical results show that the method has excellent engineering practicality due to the comprehensive performance in terms of efficiency, accuracy, and convergence.

Urban regions are responsible for emitting significant amounts of fossil fuel carbon dioxide (FFCO2), and emissions at the finer, city scales are more uncertain than those aggregated at the global scale. Carbon-observing satellites may provide independent top-down emission evaluations and compensate for the sparseness of surface CO2 observing networks in urban areas. Although some previous studies have attempted to derive urban CO2 signals from satellite column-averaged CO2 data (XCO2) using simple statistical measures, less work has been carried out to link upwind emission sources to downwind atmospheric columns using atmospheric models. In addition to Eulerian atmospheric models that have been customized for emission estimates over specific cities, the Lagrangian modeling approach – in particular, the Lagrangian particle dispersion model (LPDM) approach – has the potential to efficiently determine the sensitivity of downwind concentration changes to upwind sources. However, when applying LPDMs to interpret satellite XCO2, several issues have yet to be addressed, including quantifying uncertainties in urban XCO2 signals due to receptor configurations and errors in atmospheric transport and background XCO2.In this study, we present a modified version of the Stochastic Time-Inverted Lagrangian Transport (STILT) model, X-STILT, for extracting urban XCO2 signals from NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2) XCO2 data. X-STILT incorporates satellite profiles and provides comprehensive uncertainty estimates of urban XCO2 enhancements on a per sounding basis. Several methods to initialize receptor/particle setups and determine background XCO2 are presented and discussed via sensitivity analyses and comparisons. To illustrate X-STILT's utilities and applications, we examined five OCO-2 overpasses over Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, during a 2-year time period and performed a simple scaling factor-based inverse analysis. As a result, the model is able to reproduce most observed XCO2 enhancements. Error estimates show that the 68 % confidence limit of XCO2 uncertainties due to transport (horizontal wind plus vertical mixing) and emission uncertainties contribute to ∼ 33 % and ∼ 20 % of the mean latitudinally integrated urban signals, respectively, over the five overpasses, using meteorological fields from the Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS). In addition, a sizeable mean difference of −0.55 ppm in background derived from a previous study employing simple statistics (regional daily median) leads to a ∼ 39 % higher mean observed urban signal and a larger posterior scaling factor. Based on our signal estimates and associated error impacts, we foresee X-STILT serving as a tool for interpreting column measurements, estimating urban enhancement signals, and carrying out inverse modeling to improve quantification of urban emissions.

Angular distributions of quasielastic scattering and breakup of the neutron-rich halo nucleus 11Be on a 208Pb target at an incident energy of 140 MeV (about 3.5 times the Coulomb barrier) were measured at HIRFL-RIBLL. A strong suppression of the Coulomb nuclear interference peak is observed in the measured quasielastic scattering angular distribution. The result demonstrates for the first time the persistence of the strong breakup coupling effect reported so far for reaction systems involving neutron-halo nuclei at this relatively high incident energy. The measured quasielastic scattering cross sections are satisfactorily reproduced by continuum discretized coupled channel (CDCC) calculations as well as by the XCDCC calculations where the deformation of the 10Be core is taken into account. The angular and energy distributions of the 10Be fragments could also be well reproduced considering elastic breakup (CDCC and XCDCC) plus nonelastic breakup contributions, with the latter evaluated with the model by Ichimura, Austern and Vincent [1]. The comparison of the 10Be energy distributions with simple kinematical estimates evidence the presence of a significant post-acceleration effect which, in the (X)CDCC frameworks, is accounted for by continuum-continuum couplings.

Disseminated disease from non-typhoidal Salmonella enterica strains results in >20% mortality globally. Barriers to effective treatment include emerging multidrug resistance, antibiotic treatment failure, and risk factors such as malnutrition and related micronutrient deficiencies. Individuals in sub-Saharan Africa are disproportionately affected by non-typhoidal S. enterica bloodstream infections. To inform a clinical trial in people, we investigated vitamin A as a treatment in the context of antibiotic treatment failure in a mouse model of vitamin A deficiency. Vitamin A-deficient (VAD) mice exhibited higher systemic bacterial levels with a multidrug-resistant clinical isolate in comparison to mice on a control diet. Sex-specific differences in vitamin A deficiency and disseminated infection with S. enterica serotype Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) were observed. VAD male mice had decreased weight gain compared to control male mice. Further, infected VAD male mice had significant weight loss and decreased survival during the course of infection. These differences were not apparent in female mice. In a model of disseminated S. Typhimurium infection and antibiotic treatment failure, we assessed the potential of two consecutive doses of vitamin A in alleviating infection in male and female mice on a VAD or control diet. We found that subtherapeutic antibiotic treatment synergized with vitamin A treatment in infected VAD male mice, significantly decreasing systemic bacterial levels, mitigating weight loss and improving survival. These results suggest that assessing vitamin A as a therapy during bacteremia in malnourished patients may lead to improved health outcomes in a subset of patients, especially in the context of antibiotic treatment failure.

Abstract The yields and production rates of the radioisotopes 9Li and 8He created by cosmic muon spallation on 12C, have been measured by the two detectors of the Double Chooz experiment. The identical detectors are located at separate sites and depths, which means that they are subject to different muon spectra. The near (far) detector has an overburden of ∼120 m.w.e. (∼300 m.w.e.) corresponding to a mean muon energy of 32.1 ± 2.0 GeV (63.7 ± 5.5 GeV). Comparing the data to a detailed simulation of the 9Li and 8He decays, the contribution of the 8He radioisotope at both detectors is found to be compatible with zero. The observed 9Li yields in the near and far detectors are 5.51 ± 0.51 and 7.90 ± 0.51, respectively, in units of 10−8 μ −1g−1cm2. The shallow overburdens of the near and far detectors give a unique insight when combined with measurements by KamLAND and Borexino to give the first multi-experiment, data driven relationship between the 9Li yield and the mean muon energy according to the power law Y = Y 0 E μ / 1 GeV α ¯ $$ Y = {Y}_0{\left(\left\langle {E}_{\mu}\right\rangle /1\ GeV\right)}^{\overline{\alpha}} $$ , giving α ¯ = 0.72 ± 0.06 $$ \overline{\alpha} = 0.72 \pm 0.06 $$ and Y 0 = (0.43 ± 0.11) × 10−8 μ −1g−1cm2. This relationship gives future liquid scintillator based experiments the ability to predict their cosmogenic 9Li background rates.

The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Occultation Sounder (GNOS) is one of the new-generation payloads on board the Chinese FengYun 3 (FY-3) series of operational meteorological satellites for sounding the Earth's neutral atmosphere and ionosphere. FY-3C GNOS, on board the FY-3 series C satellite launched in September 2013, was designed to acquire setting and rising radio occultation (RO) data by using GNSS signals from both the Chinese BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) and the US Global Positioning System (GPS). So far, the GNOS measurements and atmospheric and ionospheric data products have been validated and evaluated and then been used for atmosphere- and ionosphere-related scientific applications.This paper reviews the FY-3C GNOS instrument, RO data processing, data quality evaluation, and preliminary research applications according to the state-of-the-art status of the FY-3C GNOS mission and related publications. The reviewed data validation and application results demonstrate that the FY-3C GNOS mission can provide accurate and precise atmospheric and ionospheric GNSS (i.e., GPS and BDS) RO profiles for numerical weather prediction (NWP), global climate monitoring (GCM), and space weather research (SWR). The performance of the FY-3C GNOS product quality evaluation and scientific applications establishes confidence that the GNOS data from the series of FY-3 satellites will provide important contributions to NWP, GCM, and SWR scientific communities.

Accurate measurements of temperature and water vapor in the upper-air are of great interest in relation to weather prediction and climate change. Those measurements are mostly conducted using radiosondes equipped with a variety of sensors that are flown by a balloon up to lower stratosphere. Reference Upper Air Network (GRUAN) has identified water vapor pressure as one of the most important measurands and has set an accuracy requirement of 2 % in terms of the mixing ratio. In order to achieve the requirement, many errors in the humidity measurement such as a temperature dependency in sensing characteristics including measurement values and response time need to be corrected because humidity sensors of radiosondes pass through low-pressure (1 kPa) and low-temperature (−80 °C) environments in the upper-air. In this paper, the humidity sensing characteristics of Jinyang radiosonde sensors in relation to temperature dependencies were evaluated at low temperature using a newly developed ultralow-temperature humidity chamber. The sensitivity characteristic curve of the radiosonde sensors was evaluated down to −80 °C, and the calibration curves of the humidity sensor and the temperature sensor were obtained. The response time of humidity sensor slowly increased from 52 to 116 s at the temperature from 20 to −40 °C, respectively, and then rapidly increased to almost one hour at −80 °C. Those results will help to improve the reliability of the upper-air observation data.

The Chinese C-Coupler (Community Coupler) family aims primarily to develop coupled models for weather forecasting and climate simulation and prediction. It is targeted to serve various coupled models with flexibility, user-friendliness, and extensive coupling functions. C-Coupler2, the latest version, includes a series of new features in addition to those of C-Coupler1 – including a common, flexible, and user-friendly coupling configuration interface that combines a set of application programming interfaces and a set of XML-formatted configuration files; the capability of coupling within one executable or the same subset of MPI (message passing interface) processes; flexible and automatic coupling procedure generation for any subset of component models; dynamic 3-D coupling that enables convenient coupling of fields on 3-D grids with time-evolving vertical coordinate values; non-blocking data transfer; facilitation for model nesting; facilitation for increment coupling; adaptive restart capability; and finally a debugging capability. C-Coupler2 is ready for use to develop various coupled or nested models. It has passed a number of test cases involving model coupling and nesting, and with various MPI process layouts between component models, and has already been used in several real coupled models.

Open biomass burning (OBB) has significant impacts on air pollution, climate change and potential human health. OBB has gathered wide attention but with little focus on the annual variation of pollutant emission. Central and eastern China (CEC) is one of the most polluted regions in China. This study aims to provide a state-of-the-art estimation of the pollutant emissions from OBB in CEC from 2003 to 2015, by adopting the satellite observation dataset – the burned area product (MCD64Al) and the active fire product (MCD14 ML) – along with local biomass data (updated biomass loading data and high-resolution vegetation data) and local emission factors. The successful adoption of the double satellite dataset for long-term estimation of pollutants from OBB with a high spatial resolution can support the assessing of OBB on regional air quality, especially for harvest periods or dry seasons. It is also useful to evaluate the effects of annual OBB management policies in different regions. Here, monthly emissions of pollutants were estimated and allocated into a 1×1 km spatial grid for four types of OBB including grassland, shrubland, forest and cropland. From 2003 to 2015, the emissions from forest, shrubland and grassland fire burning had an annual fluctuation, whereas the emissions from crop straw burning steadily increased. The cumulative emissions of organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC), methane (CH4), nitric oxide (NOx), non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs), sulfur dioxide (SO2), ammonia (NH3), carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2) and fine particles (PM2.5) were 3.64×103, 2.87×102, 3.05×103, 1.82×103, 6.4×103, 2.12×102, 4.67×102, 4.59×104, 9.39×105 and 4.13×103 Gg in these years, respectively. Crop straw burning was the largest contributor for all pollutant emissions, by 84 %–96 %. For the forest, shrubland and grassland fire burning, forest fire burning emissions contributed the most, and emissions from grassland fire were negligible due to little grass coverage in this region. High pollutant emissions concentrated in the connection area of Shandong, Henan, Jiangsu and Anhui, with emission intensity higher than 100 tons per square kilometer, which was related to the frequent agricultural activities in these regions. Peak emission of pollutants occurred during summer and autumn harvest periods including May, June, September and October, during which ∼ 50 % of the total pollutant emissions were emitted in these months. This study highlights the importance of controlling the crop straw burning emissions. From December to March, the crop residue burning emissions decreased, while the emissions from forest, shrubland and grassland exhibited their highest values, leading to another small peak in emissions of pollutants. Obvious regional differences in seasonal variations of OBB were observed due to different local biomass types and environmental conditions. Rural population, agricultural output, economic levels, local burning habits, social customs and management policies were all influencing factors for OBB emissions.

In the project of China's First National Geographic Conditions Census, millions of sample data have been collected all over the country for interpreting land cover based on remote sensing images, the quantity of data files reaches more than 12,000,000 and has grown in the following project of National Geographic Conditions Monitoring. By now, using database such as Oracle for storing the big data is the most effective method. However, applicable method is more significant for sample data’s management and application. This paper studies a database construction method which is based on relational database with distributed file system. The vector data and file data are saved in different physical location. The key issues and solution method are discussed. Based on this, it studies the application method of sample data and analyzes some kinds of using cases, which could lay the foundation for sample data’s application. Particularly, sample data locating in Shaanxi province are selected for verifying the method. At the same time, it takes 10 first-level classes which defined in the land cover classification system for example, and analyzes the spatial distribution and density characteristics of all kinds of sample data. The results verify that the method of database construction which is based on relational database with distributed file system is very useful and applicative for sample data’s searching, analyzing and promoted application. Furthermore, sample data collected in the project of China's First National Geographic Conditions Census could be useful in the earth observation and land cover’s quality assessment.

Abstract Light, MeV-scale dark matter (DM) is an exciting DM candidate that is undetectable by current experiments. A germanium (Ge) detector utilizing internal charge amplification for the charge carriers created by the ionization of impurities is a promising new technology with experimental sensitivity for detecting MeV-scale DM. We analyze the physics mechanisms of the signal formation, charge creation, charge internal amplification, and the projected sensitivity for directly detecting MeV-scale DM particles. We present a design for a novel Ge detector at helium temperature ($$\sim $$ ∼ 4 K) enabling ionization of impurities from DM impacts. With large localized E-fields, the ionized excitations can be accelerated to kinetic energies larger than the Ge bandgap at which point they can create additional electron–hole pairs, producing intrinsic amplification to achieve an ultra-low energy threshold of $$\sim $$ ∼ 0.1 eV for detecting low-mass DM particles in the MeV scale. Correspondingly, such a Ge detector with 1 kg-year exposure will have high sensitivity to a DM-nucleon cross section of $$\sim $$ ∼ 5 $$\times $$ × 10$$^{-45}$$ -45 cm$$^{2}$$ 2 at a DM mass of $$\sim $$ ∼ 10 MeV/c$$^{2}$$ 2 and a DM-electron cross section of $$\sim $$ ∼ 5 $$\times $$ × 10$$^{-46}$$ -46 cm$$^{2}$$ 2 at a DM mass of $$\sim $$ ∼ 1 MeV/c$$^2$$ 2 .

The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Occultation Sounder (GNOS) is one of the new-generation payloads onboard the Chinese FengYun 3 (FY-3) series of operational meteorological satellites for sounding the Earth's neutral atmosphere and ionosphere. The GNOS was designed for acquiring setting and rising radio occultation (RO) data by using GNSS signals from both the Chinese BeiDou System (BDS) and the US Global Positioning System (GPS). An ultra-stable oscillator with 1 s stability (Allan deviation) at the level of 10−12 was installed on the FY-3C GNOS, and thus both zero-difference and single-difference excess phase processing methods should be feasible for FY-3C GNOS observations. In this study we focus on evaluating zero-difference processing of BDS RO data vs. single-difference processing, in order to investigate the zero-difference feasibility for this new instrument, which after its launch in September 2013 started to use BDS signals from five geostationary orbit (GEO) satellites, five inclined geosynchronous orbit (IGSO) satellites and four medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellites. We used a 3-month set of GNOS BDS RO data (October to December 2013) for the evaluation and compared atmospheric bending angle and refractivity profiles, derived from single- and zero-difference excess phase data, against co-located profiles from European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) analyses. We also compared against co-located refractivity profiles from radiosondes. The statistical evaluation against these reference data shows that the results from single- and zero-difference processing are reasonably consistent in both bias and standard deviation, clearly demonstrating the feasibility of zero differencing for GNOS BDS RO observations. The average bias (and standard deviation) of the bending angle and refractivity profiles were found to be about 0.05 to 0.2 % (and 0.7 to 1.6 %) over the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. Zero differencing was found to perform slightly better, as may be expected from its lower vulnerability to noise. The validation results indicate that GNOS can provide, on top of GPS RO profiles, accurate and precise BDS RO profiles both from single- and zero-difference processing. The GNOS observations by the series of FY-3 satellites are thus expected to provide important contributions to numerical weather prediction and global climate change analysis.

The understanding of the reemergence of pressure induced superconductivity in alkali-metal intercalated FeSe is hampered by sample complexities. Here, Sun et al. report the electronic properties of (Li1–xFe x )OHFe1–ySe single crystal not only in the reemerged superconducting state but also in the normal state.

The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) is an international, world-class experiment aimed at exploring fundamental questions about the universe that are at the forefront of astrophysics and particle physics research. DUNE will study questions pertaining to the preponderance of matter over antimatter in the early universe, the dynamics of supernovae, the subtleties of neutrino interaction physics, and a number of beyond the Standard Model topics accessible in a powerful neutrino beam. A critical component of the DUNE physics program involves the study of changes in a powerful beam of neutrinos, i.e., neutrino oscillations, as the neutrinos propagate a long distance. The experiment consists of a near detector, sited close to the source of the beam, and a far detector, sited along the beam at a large distance. This document, the DUNE Near Detector Conceptual Design Report (CDR), describes the design of the DUNE near detector and the science program that drives the design and technology choices. The goals and requirements underlying the design, along with projected performance are given. It serves as a starting point for a more detailed design that will be described in future documents.

Binary blends composed of 1,3-bis (3,4-dicyanophenoxy) benzene (3BOCN) and ionic liquids (ILs) with different molecular structures were prepared. The curing behavior of these 3BOCN/ILs blends were studied by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and rheological analysis. The study suggested that the blends possessed a wide processing window and the structures of ILs (anion, cation and alkyl chain length at cation) had an effect on curing behavior. The 3BOCN/[EPy]BF4 resins were prepared at elevated temperature. IR spectra of the resins showed that there were triazine and isoindoline formed in curing process. The TGA and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) revealed that the resins have excellent thermal stability together with high storage modulus and high glass transition temperature (Tg). Dielectric properties, long term oxidative aging and water uptake measurements of the resins suggested the IL brought some unique properties to the resins.

The well understanding of interface structure of liquid jet is the basis of the research of primary breakup. In this paper, the interface structure of liquid jet is captured by using a high-speed photography. The key parameters of interface structure, streamwise wavelength, spanwise wavelength and generation position, are measured based on a power spectral method. The results show that jet interface is featured by a group of periodic structures in the region near the nozzle exit. The position where periodic structure generated fluctuates in a certain region with the variation of time and spanwise position. The spanwise wavelength of these periodic structures is the function of nozzle diameter and the wavelength increase ratio of transition region. Along the streamwise direction, the streamwise wavelengths of these structures increase with a small ratio. With the Weber number increase, the streamwise wavelength is significantly decreased while the spanwise wavelength has no remarkable change. A Reynolds number that defined with streamwise distance, jet velocity and viscosity is proposed to estimate the onset of interface structure, and Reynolds number is equal to 42000 in this paper.