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The susceptibility of air quality, weather, terrestrial ecosystems, and climate to human activities was investigated in a tropical environment.

The occurrence of nonliquid and liquid physical states of submicron atmospheric particulate matter (PM) downwind of an urban region in central Amazonia was investigated. Measurements were conducted during two intensive operating periods (IOP1 and IOP2) that took place during the wet and dry seasons of the GoAmazon2014/5 campaign. Air masses representing variable influences of background conditions, urban pollution, and regional-and continental-scale biomass burning passed over the research site. As the air masses varied, particle rebound fraction, an indicator of physical state, was measured in real time at ground level using an impactor apparatus. Micrographs collected by transmission electron microscopy confirmed that liquid particles adhered, while nonliquid particles rebounded. Relative humidity (RH) was scanned to collect rebound curves. When the apparatus RH matched ambient RH, 95ĝ€% of the particles adhered as a campaign average. Secondary organic material, produced for the most part by the oxidation of volatile organic compounds emitted from the forest, produces liquid PM over this tropical forest. During periods of anthropogenic influence, by comparison, the rebound fraction dropped to as low as 60ĝ€% at 95ĝ€% RH. Analyses of the mass spectra of the atmospheric PM by positive-matrix factorization (PMF) and of concentrations of carbon monoxide, total particle number, and oxides of nitrogen were used to identify time periods affected by anthropogenic influences, including both urban pollution and biomass burning. The occurrence of nonliquid PM at high RH correlated with these indicators of anthropogenic influence. A linear model having as output the rebound fraction and as input the PMF factor loadings explained up to 70ĝ€% of the variance in the observed rebound fractions. Anthropogenic influences can contribute to the presence of nonliquid PM in the atmospheric particle population through the combined effects of molecular species that increase viscosity when internally mixed with background PM and increased concentrations of nonliquid anthropogenic particles in external mixtures of anthropogenic and biogenic PM.

Yukihiko Suzuki, Toshio Tando, Kobu Adachi, Takashi Kudo, Mitsuru Nakazawa Department of Ophthalmology, Hirosaki University Graduate School of Medicine, Hirosaki 036-8562, JapanCorrespondence: Yukihiko Suzuki Tel +81-172-39-5095Fax +81-172-37-5735Email yukihiko@hirosaki-u.ac.jpIntroduction: We developed a new technique that uses two of the vitrectomy ports as intraocular lens (IOL) haptic fixation sites and compared that with a conventional T-fixation method.Methods: A total of 33 eyes were retrospectively divided into the port-fixation (n=21) and conventional (n=12) groups. For the port-fixation group, supranasal and inferotemporal trocars (25-gauge) were placed in the center of a T-shaped lamellar scleral incision 2 mm from the corneal limbus and a supratemporal trocar at 3.5 mm. Following a vitrectomy, along with lens or IOL extraction as needed, the infusion cannula was changed from an inferotemporal to supratemporal trocar. The first IOL haptic and trocar were then simultaneously withdrawn from the eye by grasping with vitreoretinal forceps, with the same performed for the second IOL haptic and trocar, after which the infusion cannula was removed. In the conventional group, 2 T-shaped scleral incisions and three trocars were separately placed.Results: Postoperatively, transient ocular hypotension and hypertension were observed in a few eyes in both groups. At 6 months after surgery, astigmatism was 1.71± 1.13 D in the port-fixation group and 2.21± 1.78 D in the conventional group (p=0.40, t-test).Conclusion: This new technique may be effective because of the lower number of scleral wounds.Keywords: intraocular lens, intrascleral fixation, cataract surgery, lens subluxation, vitrectomy

Yukihiko Suzuki, Kobu Adachi, Yoshihiro Jinnai, Kaori Suzuki, Mitsuru Nakazawa Department of Ophthalmology, Hirosaki University Graduate School of Medicine, Hirosaki, Aomori, Japan Abstract: We developed intraocular lens (IOL) fixation procedure that only uses one suture during Zinn’s zonule dialysis portion of the combined surgery for IOL intracapsular fixation and unilateral loop suture for preserving the lens capsule. We treated 15 eyes in 15 patients which were confirmed to have almost 180° zonular dialysis during cataract surgery. After removing the lens, a scleral flap was created on the dialysis side. A straight needle for suturing was then inserted into the anterior chamber from the opposite side of the dialysis. The needle was used to attach the equatorial segment of the capsule on the dialysis side from the inside to the outside and then pull the suture thread under the scleral flap. After the thread was bound to a preceding loop of IOL, the IOL was inserted into the bag. Our procedure was found to be simple and less invasive, as our technique required no vitrectomy to be performed. Keywords: intraocular lens, zonular dialysis, IOL scleral suturing, cataract surgery

We use K -band multi-object near-infrared spectroscopy with Keck/MOSFIRE to search for environmental imprints on the gas properties of 27 narrow-band selected H α emitters (HAEs) across the three major clumps of the assembling USS1558−003 protocluster at z  = 2.53. We target the H α and [N  ii ]λ6584 emission lines to obtain star formation rates (SFR) and gas-phase oxygen abundances for our sources, confirming the membership of 23 objects. HAEs belonging to this protocluster display enhanced SFRs with respect to the main sequence of star formation at the same cosmic epoch. This effect is more prominent for low-mass galaxies (⁠|$\mathrm{\log \mathit{ M}_*/M_\odot \lt 10.0}$|⁠), which may be experiencing a vigorous phase of mass assembly shortly after they were formed. We compute the individual and stacked gas-phase metallicities for our sources finding a metallicity deficit for low-mass objects when compared against the field mass–metallicity relation and the massive Spiderweb protocluster at z  = 2.16. These results suggest that HAEs within USS1558−003 may be less evolved than those in the Spiderweb protocluster. Finally, we explore the gas metallicity–gas fraction relation for a small sample of five galaxies with CO(3–2) molecular gas information. Assuming our objects are in equilibrium, we obtain a relatively wide range of mass loading factors (λ = 0.5–2) matching field samples at the cosmic noon but in contrast with our previous results in the Spiderweb protocluster. We speculate that these discrepancies between protoclusters may be (partly) driven by differences in their current dynamical and mass assembly stages, hinting at the co-evolution of protoclusters and their galaxy populations at 2 < z < 3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During radiotherapy, inflammatory changes in the intestine are an undesirable biological response. The intestine is also known to be more sensitive to radiation than several other organs. Tissue oxidative stress associated with the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) has been shown to play an important role in radiation-induced intestinal inflammation. There is no method to determine the effects of oxidative stress by CT or MRI, and it is difficult to predict early inflammatory effect on the intestine. We have developed non-invasive redox imaging methods using dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) MRI and carbamoyl PROXYL (CmP) as a redox sensitive bioprobe. The purpose of this study is to develop the redox imaging for monitoring redox status of intestine and to detect the radiation-induced inflammatory damage for early monitoring using in vivo DNP-MRI. Mice were divided into two groups that receiving 10 Gy whole body irradiation and unirradiated groups. The redox reaction of intestinal homogenate solution from irradiated (1hr, 1, 3, 7 days) and unirradiated mice was analyzed by electron spin resonance (ESR). In vivo redox imaging of the lower abdomen including the intestinal area was performed using in vivo DNP MRI after injection of CmP probe solution. After imaging, pathological observations were performed to confirm tissue damage after radiation treatment. The ESR study showed that intestinal tissue has a redox reactivity with CmP. In addition, the redox reaction was enhanced by the addition of NADH which is a substrate of the mitochondrial electron transfer chain. Interestingly, the redox reaction was significantly suppressed by KCN (mitochondrial inhibitor). In vivo DNP MRI clearly visualized the distribution of redox probe (CmP) in the intestinal area and the decay of image intensity was increased even at 1hr after irradiation treatment compared with that of the control. In ESR, mitochondria were involved in the metabolism of CmP, suggesting that changes in CmP metabolism were due to radiation tissue damage. Then, the radiation-induced intestinal inflammatory response was successfully imaged as redox response imaging by in vivo DNP MRI. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the redox images showed the early change of the intestinal inflammatory response and it is a good biomarker for early monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper determines all the 13 elastic constants Cij of monoclinic β-Ga2O3, which has never been achieved since the discovery of this crystal about 100 years ago. We used resonant ultrasound spectroscopy with laser-Doppler interferometry, where the resonant-mode identification was unambiguously made by comparing measured and calculated displacement distributions on the vibrating specimen surface. Using more than 110 resonance frequencies, we inversely determined the Cij: C11 = 242.8 ± 2.9, C22 = 343.8 ± 3.8, C33 = 347.4 ± 2.5, C44 = 47.8 ± 0.2, C55 = 88.6 ± 0.5, C66 = 104.0 ± 0.5, C12 = 128 ± 0.1, C13 = 160 ± 1.5, C23 = 70.9 ± 2.1, C15 = –1.62 ± 0.05, C25 = 0.36 ± 0.01, C35 = 0.97 ± 0.03, and C46 = 5.59 ± 0.69 GPa. We also performed a density-functional-theory calculation and found that the local density approximation yields both the lattice parameters and Cij closer to the measurements than the generalized gradient approximation. Strong elastic-stiffness anisotropy is found in the diagonal elastic constants: C11 is smaller than C22 and C33 by ∼30%, and the difference between C44 and C66 exceeds 50%. Our measurements also reveal anomalous Poisson's ratios: ν21 and ν31 exceed 0.5, and ν23 and ν32 are almost zero. We explain these unusual elastic properties with the truss-like deformation of the tetrahedra-octahedra network and confirm this view with the ab- initio calculation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]