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The newly developed cosmic-ray probe (CRP) method for measuring area-average soil moisture at the hectometer horizontal scale was tested in the 2012 observation campaign of the Heihe Watershed Allied Telemetry Experimental Research (HiWATER) in the irrigated cropland area of Zhangye Oasis. As compared with the traditional point observation, data analysis shows that the CRP could measure the real areal soil moisture, except when the water is frozen and during thaw. During the irrigation period, the presence of surface water can lead to an overestimation of the soil moisture. During non-irrigated periods, the CRP has a very strong correlation with the averaged soil moisture of 19 SoilNET probes in its footprint, whose R^2 is 0.73 and root-mean-square error is 0.0275 \m^3/\m^3. In comparison with the Polarimetric L-band Multi-beam Radiometer (PLMR) retrieved soil moisture, which has a pixel resolution of 700 m, the CRP provides much better results, with a coefficient of determination of 0.96 and 0.64, respectively. The results show that the CRP is a robust area-averaged soil moisture observation method, which can be used to obtain “true” values of field-scale soil moisture for remote sensing validation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This letter introduces the ecohydrological wireless sensor network (EHWSN), which we have installed in the middle reach of the Heihe River Basin. The EHWSN has two primary objectives: the first objective is to capture the multiscale spatial variations and temporal dynamics of soil moisture, soil temperature, and land surface temperature in the heterogeneous farmland; and the second objective is to provide a remote-sensing ground-truth estimate with an approximate kilometer pixel scale using spatial upscaling. This ground truth can be used for validation and evaluation of remote-sensing products. The EHWSN integrates distributed observation nodes to achieve an automated, intelligent, and remote-controllable network that provides superior integrated, standardized, and automated observation capabilities for hydrological and ecological processes research at the basin scale. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The graft-versus-leukemia effect reminds us to observe the allogeneic cell elicited anti-tumor immune responses. Here we immunized recipient B6 mice with different types of allogenic leukocytes and found that vaccination with allogenic dendritic cells (alloDC) elicited the most efficient protection against broad-spectrum tumors. The recipient lymphocytes were analyzed and the data showed that CD8 T cells increased significantly after immunization and expressed effector memory T cell marker KLRG1. Functional evaluation demonstrated that these KLRG1+CD8 T cells could kill tumor cells in vitro and in vivo in Granzyme B- and Fas/FasL-dependent manners with no tumor antigen specificity, and tend to migrate into tumor sites by high expression of heparanase. Adoptive transfer of these cells could provide antitumor protection against tumors. AlloDC could also treat mice with residual tumors and combination of anti-PD1 antibody could enhance this effects. Together, our study showed that alloDC-immunization could induce potent antitumor effect through the expansion of KLRG1+CD8 T cells, which can work as both preventive and therapeutic tumor vaccines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CD1d-dependent NKT cells have been extensively studied; however, the function of CD8+NKT-like cells, which are CD1d-independent T cells with NK markers, remains unknown. Here, we report that CD1d-independent CD8+NKT-like cells, which express both T cell markers (TCRβ and CD3) and NK cell receptors (NK1.1, CD49b and NKG2D), are activated and significantly expanded in mice immunized with GFP-expressing dendritic cells. Distinct from CD1d-dependent NKT cells, CD8+NKT-like cells possess a diverse repertoire of TCRs and secrete high levels of IFN-gamma but not IL-4. CD8+NKT-like cell development is normal in CD1d−/− mice, which suggests that CD8+NKT-like cells undergo a unique development pathway that differs from iNKT cells. Further functional analyses show that CD8+NKT-like cells suppress T-cell responses through elimination of dendritic cells in an antigen-specific manner. Adoptive transfer of antigen-specific CD8+NKT-like cells into RIP-OVA mice prevented subsequent development of diabetes in the animals induced by activated OT-I CD8 T cells. Our study suggests that CD8+NKT-like cells can function as antigen-specific suppressive cells to regulate the immune response through killing antigen-bearing DCs. Antigen-specific down regulation may provide an active and precise method for constraining an excessive immune response and avoiding bypass suppression of necessary immune responses to other antigens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The graft-versus-leukemia effect reminds us to observe the allogeneic cell elicited anti-tumor immune responses. Here we immunized recipient B6 mice with different types of allogenic leukocytes and found that vaccination with allogenic dendritic cells (alloDC) elicited the most efficient protection against broad-spectrum tumors. The recipient lymphocytes were analyzed and the data showed that CD8 T cells increased significantly after immunization and expressed effector memory T cell marker KLRG1. Functional evaluation demonstrated that these KLRG1 + CD8 T cells could kill tumor cells in vitro and in vivo in Granzyme B- and Fas/FasL-dependent manners with no tumor antigen specificity, and tend to migrate into tumor sites by high expression of heparanase. Adoptive transfer of these cells could provide antitumor protection against tumors. AlloDC could also treat mice with residual tumors and combination of anti-PD1 antibody could enhance this effects. Together, our study showed that alloDC-immunization could induce potent antitumor effect through the expansion of KLRG1 + CD8 T cells, which can work as both preventive and therapeutic tumor vaccines.