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Hydroxylated fullerene (fullerenol) has gained increasing attention in the field of water environment remediation based on its intrinsic properties of photosensitivity and high water solubility. In this work, C60 fullerenol was added to the Fe(III)/PMS process to enhance diethyl phthalate (DEP) degradation both with and without visible light. The DEP removal ratio was increased from 2.2% to 58.8% with the addition of fullerenol at 60 min in dark condition, and the removal of DEP was completely achieved within 50 min under visible light irradiation. Mechanism investigation shows that carboxyl and carbonyl were formed via keto-enol isomerization at acid condition, resulting in the formation of open-cage fullerenol. The open-cage fullerenol can act as complex agent and electron donor to enhance oxidizing capability of the Fe(III)/PMS process by promoting Fe(III)/Fe(II) cycles. Competitive radical capture tests by electron spin resonance (ESR) and radical quenching analysis demonstrate that hydroxyl radical and sulfate radical were primarily responsible for DEP removal, but not superoxide radical and singlet oxygen. The DEP removal in the F/Fe(III)/PMS process is more efficiency at initial pH ranging from 2.1 to 4.9. Moreover, the DEP degradation route was proposed involving the generation of various intermediary products. This study provides a novel method for the application of fullerene derivatives on environment remediation by combining with metal catalyzed advanced oxidation processes.

Ridge-furrow cultivation (RF) is a popular dryland agricultural technique in China, but its effects on maize yield, total water consumption during crop growing stage (ET), and water use efficiency (WUE) have not been systematically analyzed. Here we conducted a meta-analysis of the RF effects on maize yield, ET and WUE based on the data collected from peer-reviewed literature. Yield, ET and WUE varied with climate, soil and mulching management. Averaged across all the geographic locations, RF increased the yield and WUE of maize by 47 % and 39 %, respectively, but no effects on ET. An increase in the yield and WUE occurred under RF in regions regardless of the mean growing season air temperature (MT) or a mean precipitation during the growing season (MP), although there was a trend that RF is more beneficial under low MP. RF also decreased ET in regions with MT>12 °C. RF increased the yield and WUE in regions with medium or fine soil texture. RF increased the yield, ET, and WUE in regions with low soil bulk density (BD) (≤1.3 g cm−3). But in areas where BD is larger than 1.3 g cm−3, RF only increased the yield and WUE. RF increased the yield and WUE with or without mulching, but decreased ET when no mulching was used. Together, optimizing RF effects on the yield, ET and WUE in maize was largely dependent on environmental conditions and management practices.

This work presented a new strategy to activate peroxymonosulfate (PMS) by the addition of nano-zero-valent tungsten (nZVT) via accelerating the redox cycles of Cu(II)/Cu(I), which induce the consecutive generation of highly reactive oxygen species ultimately. The oxidation capacity of the nZVT/Cu(II)/PMS process and the detailed mechanisms of PMS activation were investigated with tetracycline (TC) as the targeted pollutant. Our results indicated that about 70% TC removal was obtained in the nZVT/Cu(II)/PMS system in 15 min with an initial pH of 4.6. In addition, hydroxyl radicals ( OH), sulfate radicals (SO4 −), and superoxide radicals ( O2−) were identified as the reactive oxygen species (ROSs) attributed to rapid TC decomposition according to the quenching studies and EPR technology. The effective component that was responsible for PMS activation and ROSs generation was ascertained to be the resulting Cu(I), which derived from the direct reduction pathway driven by epigenetic low valence tungsten species and the indirect reduction pathway driven by active hydrogen atoms. Further, the presence of Cu(II) significantly accelerated the corrosion of the nZVT powders, leading to the accumulation of low valence tungsten species and the decrease in the mean diameter of the ZVT nanoparticles. There was no obvious change of the composition and structure between the original and residual nZVT powders, as evidenced by XPS and XRD analysis. The degradation process of TC included the cleavage of specific functional groups, the ring-opening reactions and the hydroxylation process. This study provided theoretical significance in applying zero-valent metals to activate PMS through a cupric/cuprous redox cycling mechanism.

Fe Ⅻ line (19.5 nm) is one of important targets of imaging detection in solar spectrum, and 19.5 nm multilayer mirrors were employed to reflect 19.5 nm line and suppress sidelobe. 19.5 nm multilayer mirrors with a bandwidth of 1.0 nm are in demand in Solar X-EUV imager installed in FengYun Ⅲ satellite. Thickness ratios of Mo layer of 0.15 and 0.11, respectively, are utilized in multilayer mirrors at normal and 45° incidence. The influence of roughness/diffusion on reflectance is discussed, and profile changes of substrate after deposition are also analyzed.

Climate change and various human activities have resulted in noticeable changes in watershed hydrological and soil erosion regimes. In this study, a comprehensive investigation was conducted to distinguish between the effects of climate variables and those of land use and land cover change (LUCC) variables on runoff and sediment discharge in the Zhenjiangguan watershed, which is located at the headstream basin of the Minjiang River in southwest China. Statistical analysis results revealed significant and slight decreasing trends in runoff and sediment discharge, respectively. Abrupt changes occurred in 1974 and 1995, which divided the entire time series into a decrease-increase-decrease tendency pattern; this pattern was the response to climate changes and the Reforestation and Returning Farmland to Forest project in China. In addition, redundancy analysis was used for partition statistical analyses, and the contributions of climate change and LUCC to runoff and sediment discharge were at the ratio of 4:1. Since 1990, the effect of LUCC has increased notably and its relationship with hydrological variables changed from positive to negative in approximately 1995. Finally, simulations performed using the distributed Basic Pollution Calculation Center (BPCC) model confirmed that climate and LUCC variables reduced the runoff depth and sediment load between 1980 and 2003. The contributions of climate fluctuation and LUCC to runoff depth were at the ratio of 5:1, and those to sediment load were at the ratio of 3:1, which exhibited the dominant role of climate change and the high sensitivity of sediment load to human interference. Overall, the results of distributed hydrological modeling were consistent with those of statistical analyses. The results provided detailed information and explained the mechanics underlying hydrological processes and soil erosion.

The reported effects of nitrogen (N) fertilizer on wheat yield and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) vary greatly, due to differences in climate, soil factors, and N management practices in different regions of China. We collected literature published during 1950&ndash, 2017 that reported the yield and NUE for wheat in China, under N application and control treatments, and analyzed the data therein. A significant increase in yield was observed with N application, and varied with climate, soil factors, and N management practices in different regions. A larger increase in yield was observed under an average annual temperature of 13&ndash, 15 &deg, C, an average annual precipitation of &gt, 800 mm, respectively. Greater yield-increasing effects were observed in soil with a coarse soil texture, lower soil total N, available N, and a soil pH of &le, 7 and &gt, 8, respectively. In Northwest China, the yield increase was greater under multiple coated urea applications after anthesis, while the higher NUE was observed under single coated urea application before anthesis. In North China, the yield and NUE were greater under multiple coated urea applications before anthesis. In South China, the yield and NUE were greater under multiple N applications. Consequently, to improve wheat yield and NUE, site-specific N management practices should be adopted.

As one of the three payloads for the Advanced Space-based Solar Observatory (ASO-S) mission, the Lyman-alpha (Lyα) Solar Telescope (LST) is composed of three instruments: a Solar Corona Imager (SCI), a Lyα Solar Disk Imager (SDI) and a full-disk White-light Solar Telescope (WST). When working in-orbit, LST will simultaneously perform high-resolution imaging observations of all regions from the solar disk to the inner corona up to 2.5 R⊙ (R⊙ stands for the mean solar radius) with a spatial resolution of 4.8″ and 1.2″ for coronal and disk observations, respectively, and a temporal resolution of 30 – 120 s and 1 – 120 s for coronal and disk observations, respectively. The maximum exposure time can be up to 20 s due to precise pointing and image stabilization function. Among the three telescopes of LST, SCI is a dual-waveband coronagraph simultaneously and independently observing the inner corona in the HI Lyα (121.6±10 nm) line and white light (WL) (700±40 nm) wavebands by using a narrowband Lyα beam splitter and has a field of view (FOV) from 1.1 to 2.5 R⊙. The stray-light suppression level can attain −6 B⊙ (B⊙ is the mean brightness of the solar disk) at 1.1 R⊙ and ≤5×10−8 B⊙ at 2.5 R⊙. SDI and WST are solar disk imagers working in the Lyα line and 360.0 nm wavebands, respectively, which adopt an off-axis two-mirror reflective structure with an FOV up to 1.2 R⊙, covering the inner coronal edge area and relating to coronal imaging. We present the up-to-date design for the LST payload.

New challenges are presented for reliable operation of the power system due to increasing penetration of distributed generations (DGs). The low inertia of the generator and their power electronics interface decoupled from the grid makes it much more difficult to maintain system stability, especially for islanded micro-grids. To ensure the power quality and system reliability, the accurate and effective detection of transient signals is required. This paper utilizes wavelet transformation to detect and classify the transient signals in islanded micro-grids. The results show that the disturbances are successfully identified by applying wavelet transform in both simulation and experimental conditions. The classification of disturbances was also investigated. Coefficient spectrums and histograms are plotted to identify different disturbances in the micro-grid.

Fine particulate matter (PM

Water use efficiency (WUE) and nitrogen fertilizer use efficiency (NUE) of winter wheat are urgently needed to further improve in the North China Plain (NCP). In this study, a 3-year field experiment was conducted during the 2014–2017 growing seasons to clarify the effect of traditional flood irrigation (TI), surface drip irrigation (DI), and micro-sprinkling irrigation (MSI) on grain yield, WUE, and NUE of winter wheat. Across the 3 years, grain yield of DI and MSI improved by 9.79% and 14.1%, WUE of DI and MSI increased by 12.3% and 17.7%, and NUE of DI and MSI increased by 9.77% and 14.0%, respectively compared with those of TI. Wheat subjected to the micro-irrigation treatments (DI and MSI) had higher chlorophyll content in flag leaves 10 days post-anthesis; this postponed senescence of the flag leaves, which increased dry matter accumulation post-anthesis, and increased 1000-grain weight and grain yield. The micro-irrigation treatments reduced pre-anthesis water consumption but increased post-anthesis water consumption and ensured the water supply in the top soil layer at the critical stage, thus increasing WUE. Root length density (RLD) of TI in the 0–80-cm soil layer was significantly higher than that of micro-irrigation, whereas micro-irrigation had higher RLD than TI below the 80-cm soil layer, which promoted the absorption and utilization of water and nitrogen in deep soil. The micro-irrigation treatments increased total nitrogen accumulation of the plants, reduced soil nitrate nitrogen (NO3−-N) content at maturity, ensured the nitrogen supply in the top soil layer, thus increasing NUE. Overall, micro-irrigation with water and fertilizer as an integrated pattern significantly improved grain yield, WUE, and NUE of winter wheat in the NCP by co-locating the root, water, and N-fertilizer distribution and reducing NO3−-N accumulation in deep soil. The best treatment was micro-sprinkling irrigation.

No-tillage (NT) is a popular agricultural technique worldwide, but it remains unclear how NT affects the yield, evapotranspiration (ET), and water use efficiency (WUE) of maize and wheat. We performed a meta-analysis of the NT effects on the yield, ET and WUE for wheat and maize based on the literatures published during 1950-2018. Yield, ET, and WUE varied by species, region, and agronomic and environmental factors. Averaged across all the geographic locations NT had no effect on the yield, ET, or WUE of wheat in northwestern and northern China, and no effect on the yield or ET of maize, but significantly increased the maize WUE by 5.9%. NT increased the WUE and yield of wheat in regions with ≤400 mm of mean annual precipitation, increased the yield in regions with 400-600 mm of precipitation, and decreased the yield and ET in regions with ≥600 mm, but had no effects on maize. In the first 1-3 years of NT implementation, the wheat ET was reduced. However, a significant decrease in maize yield and ET occurred in 3-6 years of NT implementation. Meanwhile, yield and WUE in both wheat and maize were improved after >6 years. In general, NT effect on yield, ET, or WUE was not related to soil texture. However, NT increased maize WUE in a medium soil texture. Without crop rotation, NT increased wheat yield and ET but decreased maize yield. No NT effects were observed when crop residues retained and under crop rotation. Consequently, optimizing NT effects on yield, ET and WUE for wheat and maize in China was largely dependent on environmental conditions and management practices.

Negative effect of precipitation on plant photosynthesis was investigated in this work. Stomatal conductance, transpiration rate and net photosynthetic rate were measured before and after each precipitation event, respectively, and the corresponding precipitation was recorded as well. Moreover, plant dry matter accumulation was counted at the end of our entire experiment. The results show that precipitation fully demonstrates its negative effect on plant photosynthesis under the condition of without water shortage. Although it has not been proved, leaf shape seems to be associated with this effect. Broad-leaved species are less influenced than coniferous and lanceleaf species no matter on the length of variation time or changes in variation values. The different situation among three broad-leaved species seems to illustrate that the effect is also related to the size of single leaf area. The correlation between precipitation and photosynthetic rate variation is analogous to the relationship between precipitation and splash erosion, and in the view of the relationship between plant photosynthetic characteristics and dry mass accumulation, it can be thought that it can reflect the negative impact of precipitation on plant growth by making use of splash erosion. Therefore, a section was added in the traditional plant biomass estimation algorithms by using eco-physiological models, and this was proved to enhance the accuracy of traditional estimation from preliminary verifications.

Whether cytokines can influence the adaptive immune response by antigen-specific γδ T cells during infections or vaccinations remains unknown. We previously demonstrated that, during BCG/Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infections, Th17-related cytokines markedly upregulated when phosphoantigen-specific Vγ2Vδ2 T cells expanded. In this study, we examined the involvement of Th17-related cytokines in the recall-like responses of Vγ2Vδ2 T cells following Mtb infection or vaccination against TB. Treatment with IL-17A/IL-17F or IL-22 expanded phosphoantigen 4-hydroxy-3-methyl-but-enyl pyrophosphate (HMBPP)-stimulated Vγ2Vδ2 T cells from BCG-vaccinated macaques but not from naive animals, and IL-23 induced greater expansion than the other Th17-related cytokines. Consistently, Mtb infection of macaques also enhanced the ability of IL-17/IL-22 or IL-23 to expand HMBPP-stimulated Vγ2Vδ2 T cells. When evaluating IL-23 signaling as a prototype, we found that HMBPP/IL-23-expanded Vγ2Vδ2 T cells from macaques infected with Mtb or vaccinated with BCG or Listeria ΔactA prfA*-ESAT6/Ag85B produced IL-17, IL-22, IL-2, and IFN-γ. Interestingly, HMBPP/IL-23-induced production of IFN-γ in turn facilitated IL-23-induced expansion of HMBPP-activated Vγ2Vδ2 T cells. Furthermore, HMBPP/IL-23-induced proliferation of Vγ2Vδ2 T cells appeared to require APC contact and involve the conventional and novel protein kinase C signaling pathways. These findings suggest that Th17-related cytokines can contribute to recall-like expansion and effector function of Ag-specific γδ T cells after infection or vaccination.

3D printing is a versatile fabrication method that offers the potential to realize complex 3D devices with metamaterial characteristics in a single process directly from a computer aided design. However, the range of functional devices that might be realized by 3D printing is limited by the current range of materials that are compatible with a given 3D printing process: fused deposition modelling (FDM), which is a widely used 3D printing method, typically employs only common thermoplastics. Here we describe the development of a magnetic feedstock based on polymer-ferrite composite that is compatible with FDM. The feasibility of the technique is demonstrated by the permittivity and permeability measurement of direct printed blocks and the fabrication of a complex 3D diamond-like lattice structure. The development of printable magnetic composites provides increased design freedom for direct realization of devices with graded electromagnetic properties operating at microwave frequencies.

Comprehensive bioinformatics analyses were performed to explore the key biomarkers in response to HIV infection of CD4

Neuroimaging has undergone enormous progress during the last two and a half decades. The combination of neuroscientific methods and educational practice has become a focus of interdisciplinary research in order to answer more applied questions. In this realm, conditions that hamper learning success and have deleterious effects in the population – such as learning disorders (LD) – could especially profit from neuroimaging findings. At the moment, however, there is an ongoing debate about how far neuroscientific research can go to inform the practical work in educational settings. Here, we put forward a theoretical translational framework as a method of conducting neuroimaging and bridging it to education, with a main focus on dyscalculia and dyslexia. Our work seeks to represent a theoretical but mainly empirical guide on the benefits of neuroimaging, which can help people working with different aspects of LD, who need to act collaboratively to reach the full potential of neuroimaging. We provide possible ideas regarding how neuroimaging can inform LD at different levels within our multidirectional framework, i.e., mechanisms, diagnosis/prognosis, training/intervention, and community/education. In addition, we discuss methodological, conceptual, and structural limitations that need to be addressed by future research.

Background Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) is one of the most important legume forage species in China and many other countries of the world. It provides a quality source of proteins and minerals to animals. Genetic underpinnings for these important traits, however, are elusive. An alfalfa (M. sativa) association mapping study for six traits, namely crude protein (CP), rumen undegraded protein (RUP), and four mineral elements (Ca, K, Mg and P), was conducted in three consecutive years using a large collection encompassing 336 genotypes genotyped with 85 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. Results All the traits were significantly influenced by genotype, environment, and genotype × environment interaction. Eight-five significant associations (P

Currently, although prevalent location privacy methods based on k-anonymizing spatial regions (K-ASRs) can achieve privacy protection by sacrificing the quality of service (QoS), users cannot obtain accurate query results. To address this problem, it proposes a new location privacy-preserving k-anonymity method based on the credible chain with two major features. First, the optimal k value for the current user is determined according to the user’s environment and social attributes. Second, rather than forming an anonymizing spatial region (ASR), the trusted third party (TTP) generates a fake trajectory that contains k location nodes based on properties of the credible chain. In addition, location-based services (LBS) queries are conducted based on the trajectory, and privacy level is evaluated by instancing θ privacy. Simulation results and experimental analysis demonstrate the effectiveness and availability of the proposed method. Compared with methods based on ASR, the proposed method guarantees 100% QoS.

One of the main challenges in EEG-based biometric systems is to extract reliable signatures of individuality from recorded EEG data that are also invariant against time. In this paper, we investigate the invariability of features that are extracted based on the spatial distribution of the spectral power of EEG data corresponding to 2-second eyes-closed resting-state (ECRS) recording, in different scenarios. Eyes-closed resting-state EEG signals in 4 healthy adults are recorded in two different sessions with an interval of at least one week between sessions. The performance in terms of correct recognition rate (CRR) is examined when the training and testing datasets are chosen from the same recording session, and when the training and testing datasets are chosen from different sessions. It is shown that an CRR of 92% can be achieved based on the proposed features when the training and testing datasets are taken from different sessions. To reduce the number of recording channels, principal component analysis (PCA) is also employed to identify channels that carry the most discriminatory information across individuals. High CRR is obtained based on the data from channels mostly covering the occipital region. The results suggest that features based on the spatial distribution of the spectral power of the short-time (e.g. 2 seconds) ECRS recordings can have great potentials in EEG-based biometric identification systems.

Bioactive gibberellins (GAs) are essential phytohormones involved in the regulation of many aspects of plant development. GA receptors are crucial in GA signal transduction in plants. The GA receptor GoGID1 promotes plant elongation and improves biomass production when ectopically expressed in tobacco. Here, we discovered that GoGID1 can interact with the DELLA proteins of Arabidopsis in the presence of gibberellic acid. GoGID1 partially or completely functionally rescued the phenotypes of the Arabidopsis double-mutants atgid1a/atgid1c and atgid1a/atgid1b. The overexpression of GoGID1 led to increases in plant height and biomass production in transgenic Arabidopsis plants. The GoGID1 gene enhanced GA sensitivity of the transgenic plants. More importantly, transgenic alfalfa plants overexpressing GoGID1 exhibited increased growth rates, heights and biomass and produced larger leaves when compared with the control plants. Thus, GoGID1 functions as a GA receptor, playing multiple roles in plant growth and development. The GoGID1 gene has the potential to be used in the genetic engineering of forage crops for biomass improvement.

Green travel can ease urban traffic problems and has aroused Chinese government interest regarding their extensive concerns. Although the Chinese government has formulated some policies to encourage residents to perform green travel behavior, non-green travel behavior is still popular. Using the Q method, this study explores the characteristics of Chinese urban residents from the perspective of green travel behavior. The results show that according to values and travel attitudes, urban residents can be divided into three groups; green, light green, and brown travelers. Green travelers care about the environment, have positive environmental attitudes, and implement green travel in their daily lives. Light green travelers require incentives and good conditions to carry out green travel. Brown travelers, however, hold egoistic values and their travel behavior, with little consideration of environment, is mainly affected by individual travel habits. Such results can help governments make suitable and effective policies and initiatives to promote behavior transformation from brown and light green into green travelers.

Data privacy-protection is of great importance during data aggregation in Wireless Sensor Networks. A distinctive data aggregation scheme based on data link is proposed in this paper. To be specifically, the data link is formed according to energy consumption and distance. For each round of the data aggregation, nodes within a certain cluster perform data aggregation together by subtracting the base value(given by cluster head) from its real value, and then add the random number (generated by itself) for privacy protection. The cluster head will form the information matrix according to the data from the link, and then perform homomorphic transformation. Finally, the data reach the base station which will feed back the aggregation results effectively. Compared with previous work, our scheme can effectively protect data privacy and cause low computation overhead and energy consumption. Meanwhile, the base station can acquire the correlation between nodes in certain clusters.

The production of cereals, including rice, wheat, and maize has increased in China over the past 20 years. However, variations in the production and cultivated area of cereals remains unclear. In this study, we collected and analyzed the cereal production and cultivated area in China from 1998 to 2016. An 85% increase in cereal production was recorded from 1998 to 2016, due to an increase in the maize production along with the increase in the cultivated area. Meanwhile, rice and wheat production have been stable since 2000. No change occurred in the rice cultivated area through 2016, and a 19% decrease in the wheat cultivated area was observed in 2016 relative to 1998. In addition, a significant positive relationship was observed among cereal production, maize production, and cultivated area (p &lt, 0.0001). Together, the increase in cereal production in China over the past two decades has resulted from the increase in maize cultivated area and the consequent increase in maize production.

The changes in the depth of groundwater were studied from the period before water conveyance through 2010, and the TDS of groundwater was analyzed in the lower reaches of the Tarim River during the period 2001–2010. Besides, the numbers of juvenile P. euphratica were investigated in the lower reaches of the Tarim River during the period 2001–2010. The findings indicate that: (1) the hydrological environment of the lower reaches has slowly deteriorated again; and (2) few juvenile P. euphratica were observed along the channel. These results show that the positive influence of the ecological water conveyance project on the ecosystem of the lower Tarim River should be beneficial in the long term; however, the long-term stability of the ecosystem cannot be achieved by the current water diversion scheme.

Recent years have seen a boom in research on the magnitude representations of common fractions and decimal fractions. However, previous studies generally only explored the magnitude representations of these two types of fractions in isolation. The present study, using a pretest-training-posttest design, examined and compared the magnitude representations of both types of fractions, and more importantly examined their relations to fraction translation and overall mathematical competence. The results showed that (1) accurate magnitude representations developed more often for decimal fractions than for common fractions; (2) individual differences in fraction magnitude representations predicted individual differences in fraction translation performance above and beyond initial knowledge of fraction translation; (3) mere exposure to visual representations of fractions on number lines improved children’s mental representations of fraction magnitudes more than exposure to visual representations of fractions on circles or reading a textbook section on fractions. The present findings suggest that, like whole numbers, both types of fractions are organized on a mental number line, which appears to provide a central conceptual structure for organizing a wide range of numerical knowledge. Educational implications of the findings are discussed.

Water supply constraints are recognized as major factors affecting regional dryland wheat production, but the details of these constraints have yet to be fully explored. We performed an analysis of field experiments conducted in northern Chinese areas during 1950&ndash, 2017. Dryland wheat yields increased from the 1950s through to the 2010s at a rate of 110 kg ha&ndash, 1 year&ndash, 1. Yields increased most in regions with relatively high precipitation during wheat growth stage. Mean yields were 128% higher in regions with &gt, 300 mm precipitation than in regions with &lt, 100 mm. Yields were the highest when mean temperatures during wheat growth stage were in the range 4&ndash, 8 &deg, C. Mean yields were 1756 kg ha&ndash, 1 in regions with &lt, 200 mm evapotranspiration (ET), and 5544 kg ha&ndash, 1 in regions with &gt, 600 mm ET. Water limitation on yields decreased from the 1950s to the 2010s as precipitation during wheat growth stage increased through the regions. Yield increased significantly and linearly over time during the study period, with increasing precipitation during wheat growth stage, and with increasing ET. Overall, yield loss resulting from water deficit decreased from the 1950s through to the 2010s as precipitation during wheat growth stage increased through the drylands of northern Chinese areas.

GATA-3 controls T helper type 2 (TH2) differentiation. However, whether GATA-3 regulates the function of mature T cells beyond TH2 determination remains poorly understood. We found that signaling via the T cell antigen receptor (TCR) and cytokine stimulation promoted GATA-3 expression in CD8(+) T cells, which controlled cell proliferation. Although GATA-3-deficient CD8(+) T cells were generated, their peripheral maintenance was impaired, with lower expression of the receptor for interleukin 7 (IL-7R). GATA-3-deficient T cells had defective responses to viral infection and alloantigen. The proto-oncoprotein c-Myc was a critical target of GATA-3 in promoting T cell proliferation. Our study thus demonstrates an essential role for GATA-3 in controlling the maintenance and proliferation of T cells and provides insight into immunoregulation.

Experienced mental abacus (MA) users are able to perform mental arithmetic calculations with unusual speed and accuracy. However, it remains unclear whether their extraordinary gains in mental arithmetic ability are accompanied by an improvement in numerical processing efficiency. To address this question, the present study, using a numerical Stroop paradigm, examined the numerical processing efficiency of experienced MA children, MA beginners and their respective peers. The results showed that experienced MA children were less influenced than their peers by physical size information when intentionally processing numerical magnitude information, but they were more influenced than their peers by numerical magnitude information when intentionally processing physical size information. By contrast, MA beginners and peers showed no differences in the reciprocal influences between the two conflicting dimensions. These findings indicate that substantial gains in numerical processing efficiency could be achieved through long-term intensive MA training. Implications for numerical magnitude representations and for training students with mathematical learning disabilities are discussed.

Vegetation invasions may result from the growth or spread of exotic species introduced during an ecological restoration process when these species are well adapted to local conditions, thereby damaging local ecosystems. To understand the potential damage caused by these unanticipated effects, we have illustrated the potential links between artificial vegetation restoration and the consequences for environmental sustainability using examples from China's recent ecological restoration programs. Traditionally, Chinese restoration managers have chosen fast-growing pioneer tree species and forage crops to restore infertile and degraded land. However, there is a significant risk that these species will outcompete and exclude local plants, thereby decreasing biodiversity and possibly leading to the disappearance of native species. Unfortunately, studies to test the adaptability of a species to a given site typically last for a short period (e.g., typically only 3–5 years in China). This may not be sufficient time to fully understand the effects of introducing a promising species, leading to unpleasant surprises when promising early results encourage restoration managers to adopt these species uncritically. A safer approach is to adopt a long-term vision that recognizes how natural restoration in the absence of disturbance takes a long time. Emphasizing the use of native species, even if they initially provide less dramatic results than seemingly more promising exotic species, is likely to be more successful in the long term, and without the risk of vegetation invasions.

Bromodomain PHD finger transcription factor (BPTF), a ubiquitously expressed ATP-dependent chromatin-remodeling factor, is critical for epigenetically regulating DNA accessibility and gene expression. Although BPTF is important for the development of thymocytes, its function in mature T cells remains largely unknown. By specifically deleting BPTF from late double-negative 3/double-negative 4 stage of developing T cells, we found that BPTF was critical for the homeostasis of T cells via a cell-intrinsic manner. In addition, BPTF was essential for the maintenance and function of regulatory T (Treg) cells. Treg cell–specific BPTF deletion led to reduced Foxp3 expression, increased lymphocyte infiltration in the nonlymphoid organs, and a systemic autoimmune syndrome. These findings therefore reveal a vital role for BPTF in T and Treg cell function and immune homeostasis.

Micro-grids are envisaged as single plug-and-play electrical systems that can operate either in grid-connected or islanded modes. Their main sources of power are renewable and are usually integrated through power electronic devices. These present new challenges to reliable operation of the system due to their inherent incapability to regulate the system. Transients in the micro-grid make it further vulnerable. The transient signals only occur for a few cycles and cannot be easily detected directly in the time domain. This paper utilizes wavelet transformation method to detect and analyze the transient signals in the micro-grid. The results show that the disturbances are successfully identified in both grid-connected and islanded modes, by applying wavelet transform. The variation of coefficients is found to be much smaller in grid-connected mode.

Hybrid ferromagnetic composites composed of Ni0.4Zn0.6Fe2O4 ferrite powder and Fe particles in an epoxy matrix with various composition ratios were prepared by a simple mould casting route. Planetary ball milling was then introduced to pre-grind Fe and NiZn ferrite filler mixtures before casting, which resulted in fragmentation of the NiZn ferrites and modification of the Fe morphology from spherical particles to sub-micron flakes. Composites containing the ball-milled fillers exhibited a remarkable improvement in electromagnetic properties over the as-supplied materials, especially in the suppression of dielectric and magnetic loss. By combining the characteristics of high resonant frequency of the Fe and low energy losses of the ferrite, an optimum mixture of ball-milled 15 vol% NiZn ferrite and 38 vol% Fe in a hybrid epoxy-based composite gave an approximately one order of magnitude higher extended operating bandwidth over a ferrite-only containing composite, suppressing dielectric and magnetic loss tangents to approximately 10-2 up to 150 MHz without significant deterioration of permeability. This approach of manipulating multi-phase ferromagnetic material fractions and their structure provide for flexibility in the development of bespoke electromagnetic materials for applications in electrically small antenna and metamaterials. © 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

An architecture for low-noise spatial cancellation of co-channel interferer (CCI) at RF in a digital beamforming (DBF)/MIMO receiver (RX) array is presented. The proposed RF cancellation can attenuate CCI prior to the ADC in a DBF/MIMO RX array while preserving a field-of-view (FoV) in each array element, enabling subsequent DSP for multi-beamforming. A novel hybrid-coupler/polyphase-filter based input coupling scheme that simplifies spatial selection of CCI and enables low-noise cancellation is described. A 4-element 10GHz prototype is implemented in 65nm CMOS that achieves >20dB spatial cancellation of CCI while adding

Forest soil represents an important resource for mitigating the climate change. Besides, plant composition and diversity and their roles in ecosystem functioning are becoming a central issue in forest soil organic carbon (SOC) research. The primary objective of this research is to investigate the effects of tree species diversity and composition on potential of C sequestration of forest soil in Three Gorges area and provide basic information to future research on climate change. Two dominant forest ecosystems were selected: mixed conifer-broadleaf forest (Fm) and evergreen broadleaf forest (Fb). Then study transects were established and investigated. Soil samples were collected and determined for bulk density, SOC concentration and stock, nitrogen (N) concentration and C:N ratio. The results showed that the statistical differences of SOC concentrations and stocks between Fm and Fb were caused by tree species composition rather than the tree species diversity. And the most significant differences were found in the first two soil horizons (0–15 cm and 15–30 cm). The average C:N values of four different horizons in Fm were decreased with increasing soil depth as well as Fb. Not only SOC concentrations but also stocks of the two studied forests were decreased with increasing soil depth. However, Fm showed a larger capacity to store SOC with an average stock of 183.50 t/ha than that of Fb (100.44 t/ha) in study area. Thus, forest which is composed of conifer and evergreen broadleaf tree species may be the best choice for local afforestation and reforestation aimed at alleviating climate change in Three Gorges region. Nature Conservation 14: 7–24 (2016) doi: 10.3897/natureconservation.14.6486 http://natureconservation.pensoft.net Copyright Nan Liu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. RESEARCH ARTICLE Launched to accelerate biodiversity conservation A peer-reviewed open-access journal Nan Liu et al. / Nature Conservation 14: 7–24 (2016) 8

The accuracy of signals recorded from different electrode/optode arrangements in EEG-fNIRS experiments are examined. Results are particularly important for studies investigating spatiotemporal relation between neuronal activity and vascular response.

The effects of cultivar mixture cropping on yield, biomass, and water use efficiency (WUE) in winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) were investigated under non-irrigation (W0, no irrigation during growth stage), one time irrigation (W1, irrigation applied at stem elongation) and two times irrigation (W2, irrigation applied at stem elongation and anthesis) conditions. Nearly 90% of cultivar mixture cropping treatments experienced an increase in grain yield as compared with the mean of the pure stands under W0, those for W1 and W2 were 80% and 85%, respectively. Over 75% of cultivar mixture cropping treatments got greater biomass than the mean of the pure stands under the three irrigation conditions. Cultivar mixture cropping cost more water than pure stands under W0 and W1, whereas the water consumption under W2 decreased by 5.9%–6.8% as compared with pure stands. Approximately 90% of cultivar mixtures showed an increase of 5.4%–34.5% in WUE as compared with the mean of the pure stands, and about 75% of cultivar mixtures had 0.8%–28.5% higher WUE than the better pure stands under W0. Similarly, there were a majority of mixture cropping treatments with higher WUE than the mean and the better one of the pure stands under W1 and W2. On the whole, proper cultivar mixture cropping could increase yield and WUE, and a higher increase in WUE occurred under limited irrigation condition.

All-digital PLLs promise flexible and precise FMCW radar signal generation for 77GHz radar applications. Such PLLs require digitally-controlled oscillators (DCO) with wide frequency tuning range (FTR) and high resolution to address a range of applications and low phase noise requirements. In this work, novel resonator structures with fine capacitance/inductance switching are embedded in a wide FTR common-source Colpitts DCO to achieve

A technique for measuring the high frequency broadband complex permittivity and permeability of thin films from 50 MHz up to 18 GHz without the need for a reference sample for calibration is presented. A thin film for measurement is wound into a torus and inserted into a coaxial line. As a consequence, this method is suitable for measuring flexible selfsupported films and coatings fabricated on flexible substrates. With the torus axis of symmetry along the coaxial direction, the electromagnetic properties of the wound torus can be deduced from the perturbed reflection and transmission coefficients of an incident wave. However, when permittivity and permeability are then obtained, there is a contribution from the effect of air gaps that cannot be avoided between layers of the wound film, which results in an underestimation of the measured permittivity and permeability. An analytical air gap correction model has been developed to account for this air gap effect that is then validated by experiments and shown also to be consistent with finite element simulations. The relative effects of film thickness and air gap on a range of measured permittivity and permeability have been also elucidated.

This study aimed to examine the relationship of two types of behavioral inhibition, social inhibition and nonsocial inhibition, to effortful control and attention in 7–9-year olds. Social and nonsocial inhibition and effortful control were assessed by questionnaires. The child version of the Attention Network Task was used to measure attention including alerting, orienting and executive attention. Results indicated that in girls, social inhibition was negatively related to effortful control and alerting, while nonsocial inhibition was positively related to orienting; there was an interaction between social and nonsocial inhibition in predicting executive attention in boys. Thus, it is of great significance to differentiate social and nonsocial inhibition when examining the association between behavioral inhibition and effortful control and attention in school-age children.

The geomagnetic field is as fundamental a constituent of passive navigation as Earth&rsquo, s gravity. In cases where no other external attitude reference is available, for the direct heading angle estimation by a typical magnetic compass, a two-step optimized correction algorithm is proposed to correct the model coefficients caused by hard and soft iron nearby. Specifically, in Step 1, a Levenberg-Marquardt (L-M) fitting estimator with an ellipsoid constraint is applied to solve the hard magnetic coefficients. In Step 2, a Lagrange multiplier estimator is used to deal with the soft magnetic iron circumstance. The essential attribute of &ldquo, the two-step&rdquo, lies in its eliminating the coupling effects of hard and soft magnetic fields, and their mutual interferences on the pure geomagnetic field. Under the conditions of non-deterministic magnetic interference sources with noise, the numerical simulation by referring to International Geomagnetic Reference Field (IGRF), and the laboratory tests based upon the turntable experiments with Honeywell HMR3000 compass (Honeywell, Morristown, NJ, USA) conducted, the experimental results indicate that, in the presence of the variation of multi-magnetic interferences, the RMSE (Root Mean Square Error) value of the estimated total magnetic flux density by the proposed two-step estimator falls to 0.125 &mu, T from its initial 2.503 &mu, T, and the mean values of the heading angle error estimates are less than 1&deg, The proposed solution therefore, exhibits ideal convergent properties, fairly meeting the accuracy requirements of non-tactical level navigation applications.

When customers enjoy the benefits from pervasive electronic applications such as mobile payment and online transaction, what we cannot ignore is that the adversaries may infringe privacy by cracking the authentication information. As an effective countermeasure, considerable smart-card-based ID authentication schemes have been proposed. However, these methods are found actually more or less vulnerable to certain attacks. Therefore, we propose a scheme based on smart card's mutual authentication mechanism, which can completely hide all the information concerned with the user's ID and defeat most known attacks launched by the adversaries. When the user uses the same identity and password to register different accounts, the attacker cannot obtain the user's password even if he or she knows the user's corresponding identity and cannot achieve a password-guessing attack. Compared with several prevalent schemes, without sacrificing the computational efficiency, our solution can achieve higher security.

The effects of plant roots on the increase in soil shear strength involve a complex interaction of mechanical and hydrological processes operating over a scale of very diverse root architecture. Understanding the effects of mechanical mechanisms on soil shear strength is challenged by this inherent complexity. A high level of inaccuracy in field measurements of soil reinforcement makes field measurements much more challenging than that of indoor observations. This paper presents a simple experimental study where the shear strength of undisturbed soil is measured at different soil depths and at different distances from the main stems of 7 tree species, a bamboo, a herbaceous perennial, perennial grass and a fern by measuring their root area ratio, diameter class, and tensile strength. The result confirms that root distribution varies widely within root diameter classes and root area ratio between species and soil layers. Root architecture characteristics were the dominant factors influencing shear strength in the 0.2–0.4 m soil layer. In the process of vegetation restoration, O. compositus and H. fulva were used as colonizing vegetation. Later, S. lucida and L. kwangtungensis were recommended to stabilize the shallow soil in the Three Gorges reservoir region.

The PRMS_Storm model was built as a storm event, distributed hydrological model for studying the hydrological effects of forest composition and spatial distribution on storm-flow volume and peakflow rates in the Xiangshuixi Watershed in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, in the Yangtze River Basin in southwestern China. We developed three simulation scenarios based on forest composition and their spatial arrangements across the watershed, including all mixed conifer-evergreen broadleaf forests (Scenario 1), all mixed evergreen broadleaf forests (Scenario 2), and mixed conifer + evergreen broadleaf + shrub forests (Scenario 3). We examined 11 storm events observed during 2002-2005. Compared with the existing forest covers, modeling results suggested that the amount of overland flow was reduced by 21, 23, and 22%, and the interflow increased by 16, 88, and 30%, for Scenarios 1, 2, and 3, respectively. During the same time, peakflow rates were reduced by 20.8, 9.6, and 18.9%, respectively. The reduction of peakflow rates was most significant when rainfall intensity exceeded 0.8 mm/min and events with a short duration and effect was minor when rainfall intensity was below 0.5 mm/min. In general, we found that Scenarios 1 and 3 were preferred for reducing storm-flow volume and peakflow rates due to their higher interception rates, large soil water holding capacity, and higher soil infiltration capacity. The modeled results suggested soil properties are important in affecting the flow processes and thus forest composition and forest spatial distributions will affect storm-flow volume and peakflow rates at the watershed scale. To maximize flood reduction functions of a watershed, high priority should be given to those forest types (Scenarios 1 and 3) in reforestation practices in the study region. This study suggests both forest composition and spatial pattern are important reforestation designs for flood reduction in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area.

Mechanical cross-section polishing has traditionally been the method of choice for preparing samples to be examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Although mechanical polishing, allied to selective chemical etching can reveal the most important characteristics of solder joint microstructure, subtle details may be lost. A relatively new cross section polishing method has been developed using an argon ion beam to prepare a flat surface with potentially less sample damage. In this study we compare these two methods of cross section polishing for solder-substrate couples, and for delicate MEMS type structures. Four solder samples were prepared, consisting of SAC (Sn-Ag-Cu) solder, SAC solder on copper substrate, SAC solder on nickel substrate and In-Sn solder on niobium substrate. SEM was used to examine the polished samples and it was found that features such as the internal structure of intermetallic compounds (IMCs) was more readily identified using the new technique. The ion beam milling technique was also found to be more suitable for simultaneous observation of multiple aspects of microstructure (e.g., identification of IMCs in relation to grain boundaries, substrate crystal structure or the eutectic solder structure). The MEMS device cross-sections could only be prepared by the ion beam method as mechanical polishing caused too much damage.

Although Foxp3(+) T regulatory cells (Tregs) are well documented for their ability to suppress various immune cells, T-cell subsets capable of counteracting Tregs have not been demonstrated. Here, we assessed phosphoantigen-activated Vgamma2Vdelta2 T cells for the ability to interplay with Tregs in the context of mycobacterial infection. A short-term IL-2 treatment regimen induced marked expansion of CD4(+)CD25(+)Foxp3(+) T cells and subsequent suppression of mycobacterium-driven increases in numbers of Vgamma2Vdelta2 T cells. Surprisingly, activation of Vgamma2Vdelta2 T cells by adding phosphoantigen Picostim to the IL-2 treatment regimen down-regulated IL-2-induced expansion of CD4(+)CD25(+)Foxp3(+) T cells. Consistently, in vitro activation of Vgamma2Vdelta2 T cells by phosphoantigen plus IL-2 down-regulated IL-2-induced expansion of CD4(+)CD25(+)Foxp3(+) T cells. Interestingly, anti-IFN-gamma-neutralizing antibody, not anti-TGF-beta or anti-IL-4, reduced the ability of activated Vgamma2Vdelta2 T cells to down-regulate Tregs, suggesting that autocrine IFN-gamma and its network contributed to Vgamma2Vdelta2 T cells' antagonizing effects. Furthermore, activation of Vgamma2Vdelta2 T cells by Picostim plus IL-2 treatment appeared to reverse Treg-driven suppression of immune responses of phosphoantigen-specific IFNgamma(+) or perforin(+) Vgamma2Vdelta2 T cells and PPD-specific IFNgamma(+)alphabeta T cells. Thus, phos-phoantigen activation of Vgamma2Vdelta2 T cells antagonizes IL-2-induced expansion of Tregs and subsequent suppression of Ag-specific antimicrobial T-cell responses in mycobacterial infection.