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Two classes of spin-orbit coupling (SOC) mechanisms have been considered as candidate sources for the spin orbit torque (SOT): the spin Hall Effect (SHE) in heavy metals with strong SOC and the Rashba effect arising from broken inversion symmetry at material surfaces and interfaces. In this work, we have investigated the SOT in perpendicularly magnetized Pt/Co/W films, which is compared with the results in Pt/Co/AlOx films. Using the harmonic measurements, we have characterized the effective fields corresponding to the damping like torque and the field like torque. Theoretically, in the case of the asymmetrical Pt/Co/W trilayers with opposite sign of spin Hall angle, both damping like torque and field like torque due to the SHE and the Rashba effect will be enhanced, but we have found the dominancy of damping like torque in the Pt/Co/W films. It is much different from the results in the Pt/Co/AlOx films, in which both the damping like torque and the field like torque are evident.

Although the carbon nanotube (CNT) based organic composites thermoelectric materials arouses considerable attentions, up to now the anisotropy in their thermoelectric performances has been overlooked. Herein, strong anisotropy in the temperature-dependent thermal and electrical transport properties have been demonstrated for organic composites thermoelectric materials, made by cold pressing the CNT powders coated by in situ polymerized polyaniline (PANI). The Seebeck coefficient, electrical and thermal conductivity are larger along the direction perpendicular to the cold pressing axis compared to the direction parallel to pressing axis. The anisotropy observed in the thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity maximizes at a CNT content of 30–40% (expressed in mass%), while the one observed for the Seebeck coefficient is small. The highest thermoelectric performances of the thermoelectric composites are achieved at a CNT mass ratio of ∼40% for both multi-walled CNT (MCNT)/PANI and single-walled CNT (SCNT)/PANI at a direction perpendicular to the cold pressing axis. These results highlight the importance of optimizing the CNT contents during the in situ polymerization with PANI to achieve a homogeneous nanostructure and reducing the agglomerate of the uncoated CNTs, in order to obtain high thermoelectric properties.

The lipopeptide iturin from Bacillus subtilis has been found to have a potential inhibitory effect on breast cancer, alveolar adenocarcinoma, renal carcinoma, and colon adenocarcinoma. In this study, the potential of B. subtilis lipopeptides (a mixture of iturin homologues, concentration of 42.75%) to inhibit chronic myelogenous leukemia was evaluated using K562 myelogenous leukemia cells. The results showed that the lipopeptides could completely inhibit the growth of K562 at 100 μM, with an IC50 value of 65.76 μM. The lipopeptides inhibited the profile of K562 via three pathways: (1) induction of paraptosis indicated by the occurrence of cytoplasmic vacuoles, and swelling of the mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) without membrane blebbing in the presence of a caspase inhibitor; (2) inhibition of autophagy progress illustrated by the upregulated expression of LCII and P62; and (3) induction of apoptosis by causing ROS burst, and induction of the intrinsic pathway indicated by the upregulated expression of cytochrome c (Cyto-c), bax, and bad, together with downregulated expression of Bcl-2. The ROS-dependent apoptosis and caspase-independent paraptosis were verified using the ROS inhibitor and caspase inhibitor, respectively. The extrinsic apoptosis pathway was not involved in the lipopeptide’s effects on K562. Overall, the B. subtilis lipopeptides (consisting of a majority of iturin) exhibited promising potential in inhibiting chronic myelogenous leukemia in vitro via simultaneously causing paraptosis, apoptosis, and inhibition of autophagy. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s13568-018-0606-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Ag/Bi2Fe4O9 nanoparticles (BFO NPs) have been synthesized using a two-step approach involving glycine combustion and visible light irradiation. Their structures were characterized in detail using X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscope, scanning electron microscopy, and scanning transmission electron microscopy techniques. Their electrocatalytic properties were studied through enzymatic glucose detection with an amperometric biosensor. The Ag deposited on selective crystal facets of BFO NPs significantly enhanced their electrocatalytic activity. To gain insights into the origin of the enhanced electrocatalytic activities, we have carried out studies of Ag+ reduction and Mn2+ oxidation reaction at the {200} and {001} facets, respectively. The results suggest effective charge separation on the BFO NP surfaces, which is likely responsible for the enhanced electrocatalytic properties. Furthermore, enhanced ferromagnetism was observed after the Ag deposition on BFO NPs, which may be related to the ...

International audience; While polarimetric measurements contain valuable information regarding aerosol microphysical properties, polarization data in the near-infrared (NIR) bands have not been widely utilized. This paper evaluates whether the aerosol property information contents from single-viewing satellite polarimetric measurements at 1,610 and 2,250 nm can be used to improve the retrieval of aerosol parameters over vegetated land, in combination with shorter-wavelength bands (490, 670, and 870 nm). The a priori information and errors for the analysis are derived by assuming that the surface reflectance at visible wavelengths can be derived from the top of atmosphere at 2,250 nm. The information content in the synthetic data set is investigated for 10 aerosol parameters characterizing the columnar aerosol volumes (V0f and V0c), particle size distributions (refff, vefff, reffc, and veffc), and refractive indices (mrf, mif, mrc, and mic) for the fine- and coarse-mode aerosol models, respectively, and one parameter C characterizing the surface polarization. The results indicate that the degrees of freedom for signal can be increased by at least 2 with the addition of NIR measurements and that one to three additional parameters could be further retrieved with significantly decreased uncertainties. In addition, the 1,610 nm band is necessary for the simultaneous retrieval of V0f, mrf, and refff for the fine mode dominated aerosols, while the 1,610 and 2,250 nm bands are both indispensable for retrieving V0f, V0c, mrc, refff, and reffc in tandem for the coarse mode dominated aerosols. The analysis also reveals that C could be further retrieved by including scalar radiance and that measurement errors have significantly larger influences on the retrieval uncertainties than model errors.

We demonstrate the spin filtering effect in Co|MgO|TiOx|graphene junctions and a large negative spin polarization in graphene at room temperature. By systematically introducing Ti (TiOx) clusters to the exfoliated few-layer graphene, we confirm that the Ti (TiOx) clusters will increase the charged impurity scattering and lead to a decreased momentum scattering time and an abnormal Gaussian broadening effect. However, the spin relaxation mechanism is not significantly affected, indicating that the spin relaxation mechanism of graphene will not be affected by the atomic-scale Ti (TiOx) clusters induced charged impurity scattering.

Small heat shock proteins (sHSPs) are heat shock proteins sized 12–43 kDa that can protect proteins from denaturation, particularly under high temperature; sHSPs thus increase the heat tolerance capability of an organisms enabling survival in adverse climates. sHSP20 is overexpressed in Oenococcus oeni in response to low temperatures. However, we found that overexpression of sHSP20 in Escherichia coli BL21 increased the microbial survival ratio at 50 °C by almost 2 h. Adding sHSP20 to the glutamate dehydrogenase solution significantly increased the stability of the enzyme at high temperature (especially at 60–70 °C), low pH values (especially below 6.0), and high concentration of metal ions of Ga2+, Zn2+, Mn2+, and Fe3+. Notably, the coexpression of sHSP20 significantly enhanced soluble expression of laccase from Phomopsis sp. XP-8 (CCTCCM209291) in E. coli without codon optimization, as well as the activity and heat stability of the expressed enzyme. In addition to the chaperone activity of sHSP20 in the gene containing host in vivo and the enzyme heat stability in vitro, our study indicated the capability of coexpression of sHSP20 to increase the efficiency of prokaryotic expression of fungal genes and the activity of expressed enzymes.

Objective: Angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is the cellular entry point for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2)-the cause of COVID-19 disease. However, the effect of RAS-inhibition on ACE2 expression in human tissues of key relevance to blood pressure regulation and COVID-19 infection has not previously been reported Design and method: We examined how hypertension, its major metabolic cophenotypes and antihypertensive medications relate to ACE2 renal expression using information from up to 436 patients whose kidney transcriptomes were characterised by RNA-sequencing. We further validated some of the key observations in other human tissues and/or a controlled experimental model Results: Our data reveal increasing expression of ACE2 with age in both human lungs and the kidney. We show no association between renal expression of ACE2 and either hypertension or common types of RAS inhibiting drugs. We demonstrate that renal abundance of ACE2 is positively associated with a biochemical index of kidney function and show a strong enrichment for genes responsible for kidney health and disease in ACE2 co-expression analysis Conclusions: Our results indicate that neither hypertension nor antihypertensive treatment are likely to alter the expression of the key entry receptor for SARSCoV-2 in the human kidney. Our data further suggest that in the absence of SARSCoV-2 infection, kidney ACE2 is most likely nephro-protective but the age-related increase in its expression within lungs and kidneys may be relevant to the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The magnetoresistance of heavy metal and magnetic insulator heterostructures is mainly controlled by changing the thickness or the composition of the heavy metals, limiting the magnetoresistance properties in a single device. In this work, we changed the interfacial magnetization of ferrimagnetic NiFe2O4 (NFO) by controlling the oxygen content of NFO film. With increasing of the oxygen partial pressure during pulsed laser deposition, the magnetization of NFO and the spin-Hall magnetoresistance of the Pt/NFO increase. The valence states of Ni and Fe also increase accordingly, which can be revealed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The magnetization strength of Pt caused by the interfacial magnetization intensity of NFO film can effectively adjust weak localization and weak antilocalization below 50 K, which in turn affects the sign and value of the magnetoresistance. Our work paves the way for the manipulation of the magnetoresistance of heavy metal and magnetic insulator heterostructure devices.

An algorithm for retrieving nighttime aerosol optical depth (AOD) from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) Day-Night Band (DNB) observations of reflected moonlight is presented for rural areas during the western U.S. fire seasons. The algorithm uses the UNified and Linearized Vector Radiative Transfer Model (UNL-VRTM) with newly developed capabilities for considering lunar illuminations. Cloud and fire pixels are screened out by utilizing the radiance from the VIIRS Moderate-resolution Bands (M-Band) and the DNB. Rural and city pixels are classified based on a pre-calculated city light database. The surface spectral reflectance for DNB ranging from 342 to 1107 nm is estimated by a random forest approach, which is trained using the surface spectral reflectance from the existing spectral libraries. For the fire seasons of 2017 and 2020, the nighttime AOD retrieval is shown to play an indispensable role in describing the nonlinear diurnal movement of smoke transport and discerning the source of smoke plumes heretofore observable only in the daytime. The retrieved AOD values show good agreement with spatiotemporally collocated Aerosol Robotic NETwork (AERONET) and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) AOD values, with linear correlation coefficient values of ~0.96/0.95 and ~86%/69% of the AOD pairs falling in an uncertainty envelope of ±(0.085 + 0.10AOD), which is superior to AOD reanalysis from Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA-2). These results affirm the significant potential of nighttime AOD to improve the analysis and forecast of regional to global biomass-burning aerosol distributions, filling a critical gap in the diurnal description of a key element of Earth's climate system.

Constraint of the vertical distribution of aerosol particles is crucial for the study of aerosol plume structure, aerosol radiative effects, and ultimately monitoring surface air pollution. We developed an algorithm to retrieve the aerosol optical central height (AOCH) of absorbing aerosols by using, for the first time, the oxygen (O2) A and B absorption band measurements from the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) over dark targets. For the retrieval, narrow band radiance at seven channels ranging from ultraviolet (UV) to shortwave infrared (SWIR) are convolved from TROPOMI hyperspectral measurements. Subsequently, cloudy pixels are screened out by using the slope of spectral reflectance, while aerosol types (dust and smoke) are classified by the wavelength dependence of aerosol path radiance in conjunction with UV aerosol index. Surface reflectance over land is derived from the MODIS surface bi-directional reflectance climatology, and over water from the GOME-2 surface Lambert-equivalent reflectivity (LER) database. The aerosol optical depth (AOD) and AOCH are retrieved through an approach of look-up-table accounting for AERONET-based dust and smoke optical properties. For multiple smoke and dust plume events around the world, our retrieved AOCH values agree with space-borne lidar CALIOP counterparts, with a mean bias of

Through the study of the latest radiation disturbance measurement standards, the difference between test volume and equipment under test volume was compared and analyzed. Different types of antennas will be used in the radiated disturbance measurement in terms of the different frequency range. Various antennas have kinds of directional characteristics. This article analyzes the influence of antenna half-power beam width on the equipment under test volume, especially on the height, from three frequency ranges. Furthermore, taking the typical horn antenna as the starting point, as well as the formula of volume with antenna half-power beamwidth, the relationship between equipment volume and frequency is calculated. Finally, the influence of antenna half-power beam width on the equipment under test volume is obtained.

The recent development of nanoprobes with multiple biomolecular detection functionalities have attracted considerable interests in various biomedical imaging applications. Herein, we have designed and prepared Fe3O4@chitosan-graphene quantum dots (Fe3O4@CS-GQDs) nanocomposites for fluorescence and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The photoluminescent spectra of Fe3O4@CS-GQDs nanocomposites exhibit an emission peak at 434 nm under the ultraviolet excitation light of 330 nm. Fe3O4@CS-GQD nanocomposites show the excellent MRI results in aqueous solution. The cytotoxicity of Fe3O4@CS-GQDs nanocomposites is observed low cytotoxicity in Hela cells. Based on the results, Fe3O4@CS-GQDs nanocomposites are confirmed as promising fluorescence and MRI imaging contrast agents for tumor detection.

The selection of aquatic plants at different growth stages and their absorption, migration, and transformation mechanisms has yet to be clarified. In this study, Eichhornia crassipes at the seedling and mature stages were selected to uptake antibiotics under hydroponic conditions. The results showed that the enrichment of ciprofloxacin (CIP) in roots at the seedling and mature stages were 7.72～2114.39 μg g−1 and 0.07～3711.33 μg g−1, respectively. The enrichment of CIP in aerial parts at the seedling and mature stages were 16.38～24.24 μg g−1 and 9.55～20.13 μg g−1, respectively. The translocation from roots to aerial parts at the seedling stage was high, as evidenced by the relatively higher transfer factor (TF). In addition, eight and ten major metabolic products were observed in the tissues of seeding and mature stage of E. crassipes, respectively. The metabolic pathway of CIP was short at the maturity stage, and CIP had a strong upward migration ability at the seedling stage, facilitating long-time photodegradation. However, E. crassipes exhibited a poor CIP tolerance at the mature stage and decayed relatively early. Therefore, the seedling stage of E. crassipes was proposed to be applied for phytoremediation, and these findings might improve the ability to phytoremediation of antibiotic-contaminated water.

Among the international toy safety standards and national toy safety standards, the types of toys which need to be tested for flammability include: toys to be worn on the head, toy disguise costumes, toys intended to be entered by children, soft filled toys, and different types of toys have different flammability test methods. Based on the different test requirements, combined with PLC control technology and the working principle of high performance step-in motor, a multi-function flammability tester of toys is designed and developed. The function design, structure design and control principle of the flammability tester are discussed. It is pointed out that the use of this tester can not only solve the difficult problems in the test work of toys, but also greatly improve the quality and efficiency of toy safety test, and improve the automation level of the test work.

Shallow lakes are considered important contributors to emissions of nitrous oxide (N2O), a powerful greenhouse gas, in aquatic ecosystems. There is a large degree of uncertainty regarding the relationship between N2O emissions and the progress of lake eutrophication, and the mechanisms underlying N2O emissions are poorly understood. Here, N2O emission fluxes and environmental variables in different lakes along a trophic state gradient in the Yangtze River basin were studied. N2O emission fluxes were –1.0–53.0 μg m–2 h–1 and 0.4–102.9 μg m–2 h–1 in summer and winter, respectively, indicating that there was marked variation in N2O emissions among lakes of different trophic state. The non-linear exponential model explained differences in N2O emission fluxes by the degree of eutrophication (p < 0.01). TN and chl-a both predicted 86% of the N2O emission fluxes in shallow lakes. The predicted N2O emission fluxes based on the IPCC EF5r overestimated the observed fluxes, particularly those in hyper-eutrophic lakes. These findings demonstrated that nutrient-rich conditions and algal accumulation are key factors determining N2O emission fluxes in shallow lakes. Furthermore, this study also revealed that temperature and algae accumulation-decomposition determine an N2O emission flux in an intricate manner. A low temperature, i.e., winter, limits algae growth and low oxygen consumption for algae decomposition. The environment leaves a high dissolved oxygen concentration, slowing down N2O consumption as the final step of denitrification. In summer, with the oxygen consumed by excess algal decomposition, the N2O production is limited by the complete denitrification as well as the limited substrate supply of nitrate by nitrification in hypoxic or anoxic conditions. Such cascading events explained the higher N2O emission fluxes from shallow lakes in winter compared with summer. This trend was amplified in hyper-eutrophic shallow lakes after algal disappearance. Collectively, algal accumulation played a dual role in stimulating and impeding N2O emissions, especially in hyper-eutrophic lakes. This study expands our knowledge of N2O emissions from shallow lakes in which eutrophication is underway.

Based on the multi-angle measurements at the top of the atmosphere including radiance and polarization in O2 A and B absorption bands simulated by forward model UNL-VRTM, the information content and posterior uncertainties about the altitude of peak aerosol extinction (Hpeak) and half-width (w) characterizing quasi-Gaussian aerosol vertical profiles are analyzed for different observation combinations. Although the information content described as degree of freedom for signal (DFS) for Hpeak and w increases with the number of angles, this increase reaches a limit when more than around six angles are used, regardless of surface type (ocean, vegetation or soil). Due to high surface reflectance of vegetation in O2 A band, the DFS of Hpeak from multi-angle measurements could be lower than 0.8, whereas the DFS > 0.9 for soil and ocean. At a single angle, polarization measurement is more sensitive to Hpeak than radiance when Hpeak is near the surface. Compared with single-angle radiance in O2 A band, adding multi-angle radiances reduces retrieval uncertainty for Hpeak by 10–20%, larger than that from only adding polarization at a single angle (

A submerged dynamic membrane bioreactor (sDMBR) was developed to test the influence of attapulgite (AT) addition on the treatment performances and the microbial community structure and function. The batch experimental results displayed the highest UV254 and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) removal efficiencies with 5% AT/mixed liquid suspended solids addition dosage. The continuous sDMBR results showed that the removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand, NH4+-N, total nitrogen and total phosphorus significantly increased in the AT added sDMBR. Excitation emission matrix analysis demonstrated that the protein-like peaks and fulvic acid-like peaks were significantly decreased in both in the mixed liquid and the effluent of the AT added reactor. The obligate anaerobes were observed in the sDMBR with AT addition, such as Bacteroidetes and Gamma proteobacterium in the dynamic membrane, which played an important role in the process of sludge granulation. Bacterial community richness significantly increased after AT addition with predominated phyla of Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes. Similarly, species abundance significantly increased in the AT added sDMBR. Further investigations with cluster proved that AT was a favorite biological carrier for the microbial ecology, which enriched microbial abundance and community diversity of the sDMBR.

In this work, the photoconductivity of chromia (Cr2O3) thin films, which were configured an in-plane electrode, was investigated under visible laser illumination. The fast and slow response components of photocurrent were originated by its exciting defect level. Surprisingly, a high photoresponsivity up to 1.94 × 103 A/W was obtained when the Cr2O3/Pt planar capacitor was applied an incident wavelength of 650 nm at room temperature. Moreover, dielectric characterization implied that the current of channel in Cr2O3 film increased with the increasing of its defects concentrations under laser illumination. Our results indicate that the Cr2O3 thin films have a potential application in the photoelectric field.

Breast milk is a source of lactic acid bacteria with remarkable functional and Technological properties; it is also a potential source of probiotics. In the present study, seven strains of Lactobacillus rhamnosus were isolated from breast milk and identified according to their 16S rDNA sequences. Furthermore, their probiotic potential was evaluated. The probiotic properties were tested for aspects of antibiotic susceptibility, antimicrobial activity, lysozyme tolerance, gut condition tolerance (low pH, bile salt tolerance, and 0.4% phenol resistance), hydrophobicity, antioxidant ability, aggregation ability, and adhesion to Caco-2. Most isolates were resistant to Streptomycin, Ampicillin, Gentamicin, Kanamycin, Penicillin, Cephalotoxin, and Ciprofloxacin. The isolate shows a strong ability to adhere to Caco-2 cells as well as DPPH radical scavenging activity in the range of 76%–85%. Isolates SHA113 and SHA117 showed a high survival rate under gastrointestinal tract conditions (>80%), indicating excellent potential for application as probiotics. The results of these tests indicate that the lactic acid bacteria isolated from human milk have excellent potential for use as probiotics in various products.

Phomopsis sp. XP-8 (an endophytic fungus) was previously found to produce pinoresinol diglucoside (PDG), a major antihypertensive compound of Tu-Chung (the bark of Eucommia ulmoides Oliv.), which is widely used in Chinese traditional medicines. In the present study, two bioconversion systems were developed for the production of PDG in Tris-HCl buffer containing glucose and Phomopsis sp. XP-8 cells (both resting and freeze-dried). When other factors remained unchanged, the bioconversion time, glucose concentration, cell ages, cell dosage, pH, temperature, and stirring speed influenced PDG production in a similar and decreasing manner after an initial increase with increasing levels for each factor. Considering the simultaneous change of various factors, the optimal conditions for PDG production were established as 70 g/l cells (8-day-old), 14 g/l glucose, 28°C, pH 7.5, and 180 rpm for systems employing resting cells, and 3.87 g/l cells, 14.67 g/l glucose, 28°C, pH 7.5, and 180 rpm for systems employing freeze-dried cells. The systems employing freeze-dried cells showed lower peak PDG production (110.28 μg/l), but at a much shorter time (12.65 h) compared with resting cells (23.62 mg/l, 91.5 h). The specific PDG production levels were 1.92 and 24 μg per gram cells per gram glucose for freeze-dried cells and resting cells, respectively. Both systems indicated a new and potentially efficient way to produce PDG independent of microbial cell growth.

The Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory (CLARREO) satellite mission observes hyperspectral Earth reflected solar (RS) and emitted infrared radiance (IR). Such measurements span an additional dimension on spectrally dependent scattering and absorption of dust, the critical signals for particle size. Through a suite of observation system simulation experiments (OSSEs), this study assesses the capability of CLARREO's measurements for recovering size-dependent dust emissions in GEOS-Chem chemistry transport model (CTM). To this end, another CTM (FIM-Chem) is used for the nature run to simulate CLARREO spectral radiances. The spectral signals are then used for analyzing the sensitivities and error characteristics of dust optical depth (DOD) under three observations scenarios (IR-only, RS-only, and combined IR and RS) using an optimal estimation technique. Next, these synthetic data are assimilated into GEOS-Chem adjoint model to constrain dust emissions of four particle sizes with radii from 0.1 μm to 6.0 μm. The OSSEs results indicate: (1) The IR spectra are most sensitive to dust of the third size bin (1.8 – 3.0 μm) and least sensitive to the smallest bin (0.1 – 1.0 μm); (2) The RS spectra are most sensitive to dust of the smallest size bin and the sensitivity decreases as dust size increases; (3) Combining IR and RS spectra can fully characterize DOD across all sizes, providing the best constraints for size-resolved dust emissions; (4) CLARREO data fail to constrain the spatial distribution of dust sources due to its narrow swath and joint observations from CLARREO-calibrated sensors with wide swath are desirable.

Symmetry breaking provides new insight into the physics of spin-orbit torque (SOT) and the switching without a magnetic field could lead to significant impact. In this work, we demonstrate the robust zero-field SOT switching of a perpendicular ferromagnet (FM) layer where the symmetry is broken by a bilayer of heavy metals (HMs) with the strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC). We observed the change of coercivity value by 31% after inserting Co 2 FeAl in the multilayer structure. These two HM layers (Ta and Pt) are used to strengthen the SOC by linear combination. With different angles between the magnetization and the current (i.e. parallel and anti-parallel), the structures show different switching behaviors such as clockwise or counterclockwise.

We presented an algorithm for inferring aerosol layer height (ALH) and optical depth (AOD) over ocean surface from radiances in oxygen A and B bands measured by the Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) on the Deep Space Climate Observatory orbiting at Lagrangian-1 point. The algorithm was applied to EPIC imagery of a two-day dust outbreak over the North Atlantic Ocean. Retrieved ALHs and AODs were evaluated against counterparts observed by Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP), Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and Aerosol Robotic Network. The comparisons showed 71.5% of EPIC-retrieved ALHs were within ±0.5 km of those determined from CALIOP and 74.4% of EPIC AOD retrievals fell within a ±(0.1+10%) envelope of MODIS retrievals. This study demonstrates the potential of EPIC measurements for retrieving global aerosol height multiple times daily, which are essential for evaluating aerosol profile simulated in climate models and for better estimating aerosol radiative effects.

Aerosols affect the radiative transfer in the absorption bands of carbon dioxide (CO2), thereby contributing to the uncertainties in the retrieval of CO2 from space. A Cloud and Aerosol Polarimetric Imager (CAPI) has been designed to fly on the Chinese Carbon Dioxide Observation Satellite (TanSat) and provide aerosol and cloud information to facilitate the measurements of CO2. This study aims to assess the information content about aerosol properties that can be obtained from CAPI's observations of radiance and polarization. We simulate synthetic CAPI observations using the UNified Linearized Vector Radiative Transfer Model (UNL-VRTM), from which the degree of freedom for signal (DFS) and a posteriori error for various aerosol parameters are calculated using optimal estimation theory. The simulation considers different combinations of fine and coarse aerosols and includes detailed treatment for both soil and vegetation surfaces. It is found that CAPI can provide 3 to 4.5 independent pieces of information about aerosol parameters, mainly related to aerosol total volume (or aerosol optical depth), fine mode fraction (fmfv) of aerosol volume, and imaginary part of refractive index for coarse mode aerosols. At directions around back-scattering, aerosol information content is smaller due in part to the large directional surface reflectance. In addition, aerosol DFS also depends on fmfv, aerosol optical depth and solar zenith angle, and such dependence is analyzed for various viewing and azimuth angles. Due to weaker scattering of coarse aerosol, the information content of large particle is relatively less. Therefore, as fmfv decreases, DFS remains large for fine aerosol and increases for coarse aerosol. With larger aerosol optical depth (AOD), more aerosol information content can be obtained, but when AOD increases to a threshold ranging from 0.5 to 1.2, aerosol DFS doesn't increase any more. At larger solar zenith angles (SZA), a longer light path affected by aerosol can slightly increase aerosol information content. Furthermore, the degree of linear polarization (DOLP) is shown to be more sensitive to aerosol properties than reflectance, hence improves CAPI's aerosol retrieval accuracy. The additional information content raised from DOLP measurements ranges from 1 to 1.8 in terms of DFS and reaches the largest in conditions of 0.2

A temporal evolution of spin accumulation of Co/MgO/Ag spin valves have been studied by using the nonlocal spin detection technique over almost a 3-month period in the ambient environment after the fabrication of the devices. Three different stages of the spin accumulation are first observed due to aging effect. The aging effect comes from two contributions–the gradual oxidation of the Ag/MgO and MgO/Co interfaces at the junctions’ areas which arises from the annealing process and the oxidation of the side surfaces of the Ag channels. The theories of S. Takahashi and A. Fert are introduced to evaluate the different evolution stages of spin accumulation.

This paper describes the second part of a series of investigation to develop algorithms for simultaneous retrieval of aerosol parameters and surface reflectance from the future hyperspectral and geostationary satellite sensors such as Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of POllution (TEMPO). The information content in these hyperspectral measurements is analyzed for 6 principal components (PCs) of surface spectra and a total of 14 aerosol parameters that describe the columnar aerosol volume V total , fine-mode aerosol volume fraction, and the size distribution and wavelength-dependent index of refraction in both coarse and fine mode aerosols. Forward simulations of atmospheric radiative transfer are conducted for 5 surface types (green vegetation, bare soil, rangeland, concrete and mixed surface case) and a wide range of aerosol mixtures. It is shown that the PCs of surface spectra in the atmospheric window channel could be derived from the top-of-the-atmosphere reflectance in the conditions of low aerosol optical depth (AOD ≤ 0.2 at 550 nm), with a relative error of 1%. With degree freedom for signal analysis and the sequential forward selection method, the common bands for different aerosol mixture types and surface types can be selected for aerosol retrieval. The first 20% of our selected bands accounts for more than 90% of information content for aerosols, and only 4 PCs are needed to reconstruct surface reflectance. However, the information content in these common bands from each TEMPO individual observation is insufficient for the simultaneous retrieval of surface’s PC weight coefficients and multiple aerosol parameters (other than V total ). In contrast, with multiple observations for the same location from TEMPO in multiple consecutive days, 1–3 additional aerosol parameters could be retrieved. Consequently, a self-adjustable aerosol retrieval algorithm to account for surface types, AOD conditions, and multiple-consecutive observations is recommended to derive aerosol parameters and surface reflectance simultaneously from TEMPO.

After large-scale outbreaks of algal blooms in eutrophic water, considerable amounts of algae residue accumulate in near-shore zones before fermenting rapidly and becoming malodorous. Taste and odor pollution caused by secondary metabolites from cyanobacterial blooms has become a serious and widespread environmental problem. Two typical odorous compounds, β-cyclocitral and β-ionone, have gained increasing attention in recent years. In this paper, the spatial distributions of β-cyclocitral and β-ionone in the sediments and overlying water off the west shore of Taihu Lake were investigated. The results showed that β-cyclocitral, β-ionone and nutrients are released during the degradation of fresh cyanobacteria, especially in the early stages. The odorous compounds and nutrients greatly decreased as the depth of sediment increased, indicating that reed roots can absorb β-cyclocitral, β-ionone and nutrients. Furthermore, removing cyanobacteria and dredging sludge might reduce the release of β-cyclocitral and β-ionone.

The emergence of multi-drug resistant (MDR) pathogens greatly challenges the development of new drugs. Probiotics with the ability to inhibit MDR pathogens offer advantages over chemical antibiotics and drugs due to increased safety and fewer side effects. This study reports that Lactobacillus rhamnosus SHA113 (isolated from breast milk) significantly inhibited MDR Escherichia coli both in vitro and in vivo. MDR E. coli caused more severe inflammatory effects. TNF-α and IL-6 levels increased, while the IL-10 content decreased in serum. MDR E. coli caused disturbance in the gut microbial balance, increased the total coliform, decreased lactic acid bacteria in feces, decreased Firmicutes, and increased both Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria. At the end of the curing treatment, ampicillin (AMP) treatment significantly reduced lactic acid bacteria compared to total coliform in feces and exacerbated the increase of Proteobacteria caused by MDR E. coli. L. rhamnosus SHA113 treatment resulted in a more significant and faster decrease of total coliform in feces and a significant decrease of Proteobacteria in the gut microbiota. The increase of total coliform in feces (caused by MDR E. coli infection) was positively correlated with IL-6 and TNF-α and negatively correlated with IL-10 in serum. However, the increase of lactic acid bacteria in feces (caused by L. rhamnosus SHA113 treatment) was negatively correlated with serum TNF-α, indicating that SHA113 exerted anti-inflammatory effects. These results suggest that L. rhamnosus SHA113 has great potential for inhibiting infections by MDR E. coli and for regulating the gut flora balance.

SO2 and NO2 observations from the Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) sensor are used for the first time in conjunction with GEOS-Chem adjoint model to optimize both SO2 and NOx emission estimates over China for October 2013. OMPS SO2 and NO2 observations are first assimilated separately to optimize emissions of SO2 and NOx, respectively. Posterior emissions, compared to the prior, yield improvements in simulating columnar SO2 and NO2, in comparison to measurements from OMI and OMPS. The posterior SO2 and NOx emissions from separate inversions are 748 Gg S and 672 Gg N, which are 36 % and 6 % smaller than prior MIX emissions, respectively. In spite of the large reduction of SO2 emissions over the North China Plain, the simulated sulfate-nitrate-ammonium Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) only decrease slightly, which can be attributed to (a) nitrate rather than sulfate as the dominant contributor to AOD and (b) replacement of ammonium sulfate with ammonium nitrate as SO2 emissions are reduced. Both data quality control and the weight given to SO2 relative to NO2 observations can affect the spatial distributions of the joint inversion results. When the latter is properly balanced, the posterior emissions from assimilating OMPS SO2 and NO2 jointly yield a difference of −3 % to 15 % with respect to the separate assimilations for total anthropogenic SO2 emissions and ± 2 % for total anthropogenic NOx emissions; but the differences can be up to 100 % for SO2 and 40 % for NO2 in some grid cells. Improvements on SO2 and NO2 simulations evaluated with OMPS and OMI measurements from the joint inversions are overall consistent with those from separate inversions. Moreover, the joint assimilations save ~ 50 % of the computational time than assimilating SO2 and NO2 separately when computational resources are limited to run one inversion at a time sequentially. The sensitivity analysis shows that a perturbation of NH3 to 50 % (20 %) of the prior emission inventory: (a) has negligible impact on the separate SO2 inversion, but can lead to decrease of posterior SO2 emissions over China by −2.4 % (−7.0 %) in total and up to −9.0 % (−27.7 %) in some grid cells in the joint inversion with NO2; (b) yield posterior NOx emissions over China decrease by −0.7 % (−2.8 %) for the separate NO2 inversion and by −2.7 % (−5.3 %) in total and up to −15.2 % (−29.4 %) in some grid cells for the joint inversion. The large reduction of SO2 between 2010 and 2013, however, only leads to ~ 10 % decrease of aerosol optical depth regionally; reducing surface aerosol concentration requires the reduction of emissions of NH3 as well.

The effects of spin-orbit coupling and symmetry breaking at the interface between a ferromagnet and heavy metal are particularly important for spin-based information storage and computation. Recent discoveries suggest they can create novel chiral spin structures (e.g., skyrmions), which have often been identified through the appearance of the bump/dip features of Hall signals, the so-called topological Hall effect (THE). In this work, however, we present an unusual anomalous Hall effect (UAHE) in $\mathrm{M}{\mathrm{n}}_{x}\mathrm{Ga}/\mathrm{Pt}$ bilayers and demonstrate that the features extremely similar to THE can be generated without involving any chiral spin structures. Low-temperature magnetic force microscopy has been used to explore the magnetic field-dependent behavior of spin structures, and the UAHE as a function of magnetic field does not peak near the maximal density of magnetic bubbles. Our results unambiguously evidence that the UAHE in $\mathrm{M}{\mathrm{n}}_{x}\mathrm{Ga}/\mathrm{Pt}$ bilayers shows no correlation with chiral spin structures but is driven by the modified interfacial properties, indicating a wealth of underlying and interesting physics.

Phytoremediation is an effective and environmentally friendly approach to treat antibiotic contaminated water, however, the mechanisms of migration and transformation of antibiotics in plant tissues are still far from clear. In this study, the floating macrophyte Eichhornia crassipes was exposed to a series of antibiotic ciprofloxacin (CIP) concentrations. The results showed that the CIP was taken up and accumulated in the roots, which were the major accumulative tissue. CIP content increased with lipid content. During cultivation, the root bioconcentration factor (RCF) gradually increased. The average CIP content detected in aerial parts was 12.80 μg g−1, an order of magnitude lower than in the roots. At low CIP concentrations, the highest leaf bioconcentration factor (LCF) and transfer factor (TF) indicated highly efficient translocation from roots to aerial parts. The soluble protein growth rate of leaves, which is associated with metabolic activity, increased following CIP exposure. Overall, eight major transformation products in E. crassipes tissues were identified, and three possible transformation pathways were proposed involving the processes of desethylation, dehydroxylation, oxidation, hydroxylation and cleavage of the piperazine and quinoline rings. These findings could prove beneficial for improving the management or amelioration methods used for treating water contaminated with antibiotics.

Colorimetric, fluorescence, and paper-based method were developed to measure the Hg

In eutrophic lacustrine ecosystems, drifting algal blooms are easily trapped by emergent macrophytes in downwind littoral zones, potentially altering carbon cycling processes; yet, knowledge remains limited about the mechanisms driving these changes. In this study, Microcystis and Phragmites, two dominant photosynthetic organisms in a hypereutrophic (Lake Taihu, China), were collected to simulate their co-decomposition processes. We demonstrate how molecular-level biomarkers could be used to elucidate the degradation dynamics of these two distinct organic forms in mixtures. Microcystis-derived carbon accelerated the decomposition rate of mixed systems (positive co-metabolism effect), rather than retarding it. The decomposition rate of TOC (total organic carbon) directly measured in the mixed treatments was 14% higher than when the two substrates were incubated alone. The use of specific fatty acid biomarkers facilitated more accurate tracking, demonstrating 1.09 times higher decomposition rates for Phragmites detritus in mixed treatments than in single Phragmites treatments. Furthermore, Microcystis showed 0.98 times higher decomposition rates in mixed treatments than in single treatments. The addition of Microcystis detritus to Phragmites detritus might meet microbial stoichiometric requirements, increasing the abundance of decomposing bacteria in Phragmites detritus, and accelerating decomposition rates, resulting in the co-metabolism of Microcystis and Phragmites carbon. Given the increasing occurrence of algal blooms in eutrophic lakes, the processes documented here might enhance greenhouse gas emissions from lakes with continued global climate warming.

© 2019 Elsevier Ltd Ecologically restoring eutrophic water bodies by using submerged macrophytes is an economical, effective and sustainable technology worldwide. However, current understanding on the nutrient absorption pathway of submerged macrophytes in freshwater ecosystems, especially under different trophic states, is still limited. In this study, two strategically designed systems were established to form isolated units for preventing nutrient exchange amongst Potamogeton crispus, water column and sediments. Results showed that, in oligotrophic state, P. crispus mainly relied on their roots to absorb nutrients from sediments for maintaining stable growth, with the maximum average height, fresh weight and relative growth rate of 12.85 cm, 4.86 g ind −1 and 0.062, respectively. However, the eutrophic conditions (TN of 4 mg L −1 and TP of 0.3 mg L −1 ) triggered the shift of the nutrient absorption pathway from the roots to the shoots to some extent, that is, the shoots of P. crispus gradually became a remarkable pathway to directly absorb nutrients from the water column. Approximately 49.85% and 18.35% of total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) from overlying water were allocated to the shoots of P. crispus, but had no effects on the growth, photosynthesis and ecological stoichiometric differences (p > 0.05). Sediments acting as a nitrogen (N) source supported nearly 11.56% of TN for shoot uptake and simultaneously received around 13.33% of TP subsidy from the overlying water. The no longer sole dependence of submerged macrophytes on their root system to absorb N and phosphorus nutrients indicated that the ability of shoots to absorb nutrients increased with the gradual increase in nutrients in water column. These findings imply that the large specific surface area of shoots is beneficial for restoring eutrophic waters.

Nephrons scar and involute during aging, increasing the risk of chronic kidney disease. Little is known, however, about genetic mechanisms of kidney aging. We sought to define the signatures of age on the renal transcriptome using 563 human kidneys. The initial discovery analysis of 260 kidney transcriptomes from the TRANScriptome of renaL humAn TissuE Study (TRANSLATE) and the Cancer Genome Atlas identified 37 age-associated genes. For 19 of those genes, the association with age was replicated in 303 kidney transcriptomes from the Nephroseq resource. Surveying 42 nonrenal tissues from the Genotype-Tissue Expression project revealed that, for approximately a fifth of the replicated genes, the association with age was kidney-specific. Seventy-three percent of the replicated genes were associated with functional or histological parameters of age-related decline in kidney health, including glomerular filtration rate, glomerulosclerosis, interstitial fibrosis, tubular atrophy, and arterial narrowing. Common genetic variants in four of the age-related genes, namely LYG1, PPP1R3C, LTF and TSPYL5, correlated with the trajectory of age-related changes in their renal expression. Integrative analysis of genomic, epigenomic, and transcriptomic information revealed that the observed age-related decline in renal TSPYL5 expression was determined both genetically and epigenetically. Thus, this study revealed robust molecular signatures of the aging kidney and new regulatory mechanisms of age-related change in the kidney transcriptome.

Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is a common nutritional disease suffered by 1 billion people. To develop a new drug which avoids the side effects of traditional oral iron supplementation for IDA treatment, we have designed Fe

Estuaries are considered hot spots for the production and emissions of nitrous oxide (N

Antibiotic residues pose a threat to the health of aquatic organisms. The effects and accumulation of antibiotic ciprofloxacin (CIP) in a floating macrophyte (Eichhornia crassipes) under hydroponic conditions were investigated. It was found that E. crassipes exposure to CIP (< 1000 μg L-1) could maintain a stable photosynthesis efficiency. In response to CIP stress, catalase and peroxidase activities of leaves were 7.24-37.51 nmol min-1 g-1 and 98.46-173.16 U g-1, respectively. The presence of CIP did not inhibit the growth of the plant. After 14 days of exposure, tender leaves became white and withered, ascribed to the decline of chlorophyll content and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters. The CIP concentrations, absorbed by E. crassipes, were highest in the roots, followed by white aerial parts and green aerial parts at CIP concentrations of 100 and 1000 μg L-1. These findings demonstrated that E. crassipes could absorb and tolerate CIP in a limited time-scale and imply an alternative solution for phytoremediation in water bodies contaminated with antibiotics.

Liquid crystal displays are the leading technology for flat panel displays. Their energy efficiency is low, however, due to the light absorption caused by polarizers and color filters and power consumption by driving circuitries. In displaying static images, their energy efficiency can be improved if a low driving frequency is used. As the driving frequency is decreased, the transmittance of the displays may change with time, a phenomenon known as image flickering. In this research we demonstrated that polymer stabilization can significantly reduce the flickering in fringe field switching (FFS) liquid crystal display. Under the polymer stabilization, the driving voltage remains low and the response time becomes shorter. Through simulation study, we find that the polymer stabilization smooths the spatial variation of the liquid crystal orientation in the display, and thus reduce the flexoelectric effect which is responsible for image flickering. The polymer stabilization can be implemented in the current main stream manufacturing to produce displays that can show static images under low power consumption.

Climate models lack accurate dust refractive index measurements for estimating radiative forcing. AIRS hyperspectral observations are used to optimize dust refractive index in infrared spectrum through integration of PCA and inverse modelling techniques.

The UNL-VRTM, short for the Unified Linearized Vector Radiative Transfer Model, was specifically designed as a testbed for remote sensing of atmospheric aerosols, with additional potential for remote sensing of clouds, trace gases, and surface. It integrates analytically linearized vector radiative transfer (VLIDORT) with particulate and molecular scatterings, HITRAN spectroscopic gaseous absorption, and reflection models of land and water surfaces. Coupled with an optimal estimation (OE) facility, these components constitute a testbed tool that can simulate atmospheric remote sensing measurements from ultraviolet to thermal infrared (0.2–40 \(\upmu \)m) and assess the capacity of any current or future observation system to provide quantitative information on atmospheric composition (aerosol, cloud, and gas) and surface properties. The UNL-VRTM package is freely available to the public through http://unl-vrtm.org. Since 2014 the model has gained dozens of user groups from eight different countries, and has been applied to a number of studies in Earth surface and atmospheric remote sensing. In this chapter, we describe the physics, structure, and capabilities of UNL-VRTM, with emphasis on how its constituent modules are coupled. Capabilities of the UNL-VRTM model are reviewed and demonstrated with several applications in the spectroscopic and polarimetric remote sensing of aerosol microphysical properties. Finally, we introduce some recent and important upcoming updates to the model.