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The Early Cretaceous geology of Northwestern (NW) Peru was characterized by emplacement of voluminous felsic volcanic rocks (e.g. the Oyotún Fm.), which have important implications for the understanding of Early Cretaceous crust-mantle interactions in the Central Andes. We present U-Pb-Hf isotopic compositions and whole-rock and trace elemental compositions of a series of Early Cretaceous volcanic rocks from the Western Cordillera and the Eastern Cordillera of the Central Andes. The volcanic rocks outcrop sporadically with limited thickness and uniform volcanic lithofacies in the western region, while the eastern region has distributions of larger scale volcanic rocks with more complex volcanic lithofacies. LA-ICP-MS zircon U-Pb dating defines the age of the Oyotún Fm. range from 138.8 Ma to 131.0 Ma in the Western Cordillera, and from 139.7 Ma to 132.3 Ma in the Eastern Cordillera. In situ Hf isotope analysis on dated zircon yield an εHf(t) range of +3.37 to +8.42 and a TDM2(Hf) range from 983 Ma to 650 Ma with a peak at ca. 840 Ma. The Early Cretaceous felsic magmas are predominantly dacites and rhyolites with minor components of basalt and andesite, and show relatively homogeneous Hf isotopic compositions of zircon in single samples. Both the εHf(t) of zircons and the magma temperature increase from the bottom to the top of the Early Cretaceous volcanic rocks in each studied area. All these facts imply an increasing contribution of contemporaneous underplated hot and dry mantle-derived magmas with time, both as a heat source inducing crustal melting and a source of material (melt) that variably mixed with the ancient continental crustal materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lakes in the arid or semi-arid regions of western China are more sensitive to climate changes, and lake levels are considered as a direct indicator of regional climate variability. In this study, we combined satellite altimetry data from ICESat-1 with a smaller footprint and higher accuracy (compared to radar altimetry) and CryoSat-2 with a higher resolution in the along-track direction to monitor lake levels in western China and their trends over a long time period from 2003 to 2021. Our satellite altimetry derived lake levels were well-validated by comparing them against in situ measurements for a lake and independent altimetry-derived product from the DAHITI database for the common lakes. Furthermore, the commonly used linear model was applied to our derived lake level time-series to estimate the overall change trends in 67 typical lake levels over western China. Our results showed that 55 (82%) of these lakes displayed an increasing tendency in water levels, and the remaining 12 (18%) lakes showed a decreasing trend. Overall, the mean water level changing rate in western China was +0.15 m/yr (−1.40 to +0.58 m/yr) during the studied time period. The spatial patterns of the lake level variations can be grouped into three subregions: lake level changes between 2003 and 2021 showed general rising lake levels for the central–northern TP (Tibetan Plateau) endorheic region and Xinjiang, but declining levels for the southern TP exorheic region. The seasonal characteristic of lake level changes showed a significant increase during the summer monsoon season, followed by decreases during the non-monsoon season. The precipitation variations play a leading role in the lake level changes in the context of warm and humid climate states. There were good correspondences between the monthly variations in the lake level and monthly mean precipitation. Additionally, the lake levels also showed a relationship with the air temperature change, in particular, the lake level increase showed a small degree of hysteresis behavior compared with the rising temperatures. Geographically, the precipitation increase in the westerlies regions led to widespread lake expansion in the central–northern TP and Xinjiang. Conversely, precipitation decrease in the Indian monsoon regions caused lake shrinkage in the exorheic region of the southern TP. This study helps us achieve a better understanding of the spatial-temporal patterns of lake level changes in the arid or semi-arid region of western China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microporous organic polymers with high surface area are widely used in many applications. Among them, hypercrosslinked polymers have been extensively concerned because of their simple processes and low-cost reagents. However, due to most state-of-the-art strategies for HCPs based on condensation reactions, the release of small molecules such as hydrochloric acid and methanol involved in such strategies brings about new hazards to environment. Herein, we propose a method of fabrication of hypercrosslinked polymers via self-addition polymerization of divinyl benzene and its crosslinking with polar aromatic molecules. The hypercrosslinked polyDVB-based products are demonstrated by Friedel-Crafts addition reaction of double bonds on DVB that can connect adjacent phenyl rings of aromatic molecules to form the crosslinked networks. The HCPDVB-CB obtained in 1-chlorobutane as solvent has a high micropore content and displays high surface area up to 931 m2/g. Following this finding, DVB is used as a novel external crosslinker for knitting polar aromatic molecules. When L-phenylalanine and bisphenol A are used as the aromatic units, the obtained HCP(Phe-DVB) and HCP(BPA-DVB) could reach surface area of 612 and 471 m2/g, and have hydrogen uptake of 0.62 wt% and 0.58 wt% at 77 K and 1.13 bar by comparison with HCPDVB-CB having hydrogen uptake of 0.30 wt%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluating the accuracy of precipitation products is essential for many applications. The traditional method for evaluation is to calculate error metrics of products with gauge measurements that are considered as ground truth. The multiplicative triple collocation (MTC) method has been demonstrated powerful in error quantification of precipitation products when ground truth is not known. This study applied MTC to evaluate five precipitation products in Germany: two raw satellite-based products (CMORPH and PERSIANN), one reanalysis product (ERA-Interim), one soil moisture–based product (SM2RAIN-ASCAT), and one gauge-based product (REGNIE). Evaluation was performed at the 0.5° daily spatial–temporal scales. MTC involves a log transformation of data, necessitating dealing with zero values in daily precipitation. Effects of 12 different strategies for dealing with zero values on MTC results were investigated. Seven different triplet combinations were tested to evaluate the stability of MTC. Results showed that different strategies for replacing zero values had considerable effects on MTC-derived error metrics, particularly for root-mean-square error (RMSE). MTC with different triplet combinations generated different error metrics for individual products. The MTC-derived correlation coefficient (CC) was more reliable than RMSE. It is more appropriate to use MTC to compare the relative accuracy of different precipitation products. Based on CC with unknown truth, MTC with different triplet combinations produced the same ranking of products as the traditional method. A comparison of results from MTC and the classic TC with additive error model showed the potential limitation of MTC in arid areas or dry time periods with a large ratio of zero daily precipitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluating the accuracy of precipitation products is essential for many applications. The traditional method for evaluation is to calculate error metrics of products with gauge measurements that are considered as ground truth. The multiplicative triple collocation (MTC) method has been demonstrated powerful in error quantification of precipitation products when ground truth is not known. This study applied MTC to evaluate five precipitation products in Germany: two raw satellite-based products (CMORPH and PERSIANN), one reanalysis product (ERA-Interim), one soil moisture–based product (SM2RAIN-ASCAT), and one gauge-based product (REGNIE). Evaluation was performed at the 0.5° daily spatial–temporal scales. MTC involves a log transformation of data, necessitating dealing with zero values in daily precipitation. Effects of 12 different strategies for dealing with zero values on MTC results were investigated. Seven different triplet combinations were tested to evaluate the stability of MTC. Results showed that different strategies for replacing zero values had considerable effects on MTC-derived error metrics, particularly for root-mean-square error (RMSE). MTC with different triplet combinations generated different error metrics for individual products. The MTC-derived correlation coefficient (CC) was more reliable than RMSE. It is more appropriate to use MTC to compare the relative accuracy of different precipitation products. Based on CC with unknown truth, MTC with different triplet combinations produced the same ranking of products as the traditional method. A comparison of results from MTC and the classic TC with additive error model showed the potential limitation of MTC in arid areas or dry time periods with a large ratio of zero daily precipitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Secondary fracture healing is a complex multi‐stage process in which the mechanical environment plays a key role. The use of an appropriate mechanical stimulation such as strain is conducive to tissue formation between fracture ends, thus aiding the healing process. However, if the strain is too large or too small, the biological behavior of the cells involved in bone healing will be affected, resulting in non‐union or delayed healing. In this review, we summarize the current state of knowledge regarding the effect of strain on cells that play a role in the fracture‐healing process. Overall, the related literature suggests that selection of an adequate strain promotes fracture healing through the stimulation of angiogenesis and osteogenesis, along with inhibition of osteoclast differentiation and bone resorption. However, standardized methods for the application of mechanical stimulation are lacking, and a unified consensus on the mechanism by which strain promotes cell differentiation has not yet been reached. These issues, therefore, deserve further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is concerned with the robust model predictive control (MPC) based on recurrent multi‐dimensional Taylor network (RMTN) for the discrete‐time non‐linear time‐delay systems. Regarding the MPC algorithm for the discrete‐time time‐delay systems, the existing literature only considers the linear case. In this study, by designing the suitable terminal cost and terminal region, the MPC scheme is firstly investigated for the non‐linear case. Meanwhile, to reduce the computational burden of MPC using the existing model types (e.g. recurrent neural network) as the identified model, an RMTN possessing the concise structure and high computational efficiency is constructed to approximate the state‐space model of the system. After trained by the backpropagation through time algorithm, the RMTN obtaining the high accuracy of prediction over a long‐range horizon is capable of serving as the prediction model in the MPC scheme. Furthermore, aiming at alleviating the adverse effect of the inevitable identification error, the tube‐based MPC is proposed via leveraging dual‐mode MPC to guarantee that actual trajectory is contained within a robust tube. The stability of the considered system is proved theoretically, and numerical simulation is employed to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iridium‐on‐phosphorus‐doped porous organic polymers (POP−Ir) were developed by anchoring simple iridium onto the skeleton of porous organic polymers through coordination bonds. This POP−Ir catalyst, which was thoroughly characterized by means of EDS, SEM, TEM, XRD, XPS, and FT‐IR, revealed excellent catalytic activity for the reaction of diphenyl phosphinamide with benzyl alcohols through borrowing hydrogen strategy and acceptorless dehydrogenation with wide functional group tolerance. Moreover, this POP−Ir catalyst could be simply recovered and reused for at least five times without a significant loss of activity, and revealed considerable application prospects. The mechanism was investigated to further understand this POP−Ir catalytic system and transformations. Overall, the POP−Ir catalytic system has shown high activity and reusability in the borrowing hydrogen reaction between diphenyl phosphinamides and benzyl alcohols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to increasing global energy demands, environmental pollution, and the rapid development of self-powered devices, converting ubiquitous environmental energy to usable energy, e.g., electricity is attracting increasing interests worldwide. Herein, a type of porous graphene oxide (GO) sponges is fabricated using the freeze-drying method. Then an annealing treatment and UV + O 3 oxidation are carried out to achieve partially reduced GO (rGO) sponges. We find that these rGO sponges can convert environmental energy to electricity via the natural evaporation of water. The generated open-circuit voltages are measured to be as high as about 0.63 V over a single piece of rGO sponges. The maximum output power and output power density are calculated to be approximately 17.30 μW and 1.74 μW cm−2, respectively. We suggest that streaming potentials, which arise from water molecule-graphene interactions, should be the underlying mechanism of water-evaporation-induced electricity generation. Furthermore, we demonstrate that ambient temperatures, airflow velocities, and evaporation-areas all can seriously influence the electricity generation. Moreover, the water-evaporation-induced voltage can be easily scaled up to as high as about 2.34 V by connecting multiple samples in series. Therefore, our work supplies a potential method of converting ubiquitous environmental energy to electricity. Image 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial and temporal patterns of trends in annual and seasonal precipitation over Germany during 1951–2013 were analysed using the ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) method. Three widely used and recognized high‐resolution observation‐based gridded precipitation products, the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) time‐series data, Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) Full Data Reanalysis data and the EU‐FP6 project ENSEMBLES derived data set (EOBS), were used and compared. Comparison among different products showed that the CRU used a considerably lower number of gauge stations (maximum 36) in the construction of gridded product over Germany and should be used with great caution for other applications, and overall CRU presented less precipitation and smaller inter‐annual variability; GPCC and EOBS agreed well in the spatial and temporal distribution of seasonal and annual precipitation, as well as the identified trends. The spatiotemporal analysis of trends showed that trends in precipitation during 1951–2013 were, in most cases, highly nonlinear and varying over time. In particular, the spring, summer and autumn precipitation showed large variations in trends. Therefore, the assumption of linear trends on which previous studies were based is invalid. Annual precipitation showed increasing trends in over 66% of Germany (particularly northern and eastern Germany), and the magnitude of increasing trends were generally enhanced over time, e.g. GPCC showed that the average magnitude of increasing trends rose from 6.3% for the 1951–1980 period to 12% for the 1951–2013 period. There were considerable spatial and temporal variabilities in trends in seasonal precipitation totals over Germany. This study is among one of the first studies applying the EEMD method to a comprehensive analysis of time‐varying trends in precipitation over Germany, which is expected to improve our understanding of the complex and nonlinear regional climate system. Spatial and temporal patterns of the EEMD‐derived trend of the four seasonal precipitation totals (DJF, MAM, JJA, SON; the trend is presented as the percentage of the climatology mean during the whole period 1951–2013 for easy interpretation and comparison) from EOBS for five different periods, with ending years of 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2013. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Modified SWAT with MODIS LAI greatly improved the model adaptability in subtropics. • Downscaled MODIS LAI substantially increased spatial detail of vegetation cover. • Downscaled MODIS LAI presents well subtropical double-cropping pattern in time series. • High quality LAI made the accurate estimation of streamflow yields in subtropics. • Reasonable C values led to the accurate estimation of sediment yields in subtropics. Abstract Vegetation growth in Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) is a crucial process for quantifying ecohydrological modelling, as it influences evapotranspiration, interception, soil erosion and biomass production. The simplified version of Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) in SWAT was originally designed for temperate regions and naturally based on temperature to simulate growth cycles of vegetation. However, tropical or subtropical vegetation growth is mainly controlled by rainfall. Due to this limitation, current SWAT simulations in tropics and subtropics have been facing a series of problems on vegetation dormancy, water balance and sediment yield. Therefore, we proposed an approach to enhance the modelling of SWAT vegetation dynamics with remotely sensed leaf area index (LAI), to finally increase the applicability of SWAT in tropical or subtropical areas. Spatially and temporally continuous LAI products (1 day, 500 m) from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) observations were integrated into SWAT to replace the LAI simulated by built-in EPIC module. Two advanced filter algorithms were employed to derive a downscaled LAI (30 m) to keep a consistent spatial scale with the size of Hydrological Response Units (HRU) and open data (i.e. SRTM, 30 m), and the source code of the plant growth module were correspondingly modified to incorporate the downscaled LAI into SWAT. To examine the performance of our proposed approach, a case study was conducted in a representative middle-scale (6384 km2) subtropical watershed of Meichuan basin, China, and detailed analysis was performed to investigate its ecohydrological effects, such as streamflow, sediment yield and LAI dynamics from 2001 to 2014. Model performances were compared among three scenarios: (1) original SWAT, (2) SWAT with a corrected plant dormancy function, and (3) modified SWAT after integration of MODIS LAI (our proposed method). Results showed that the modified SWAT took advantage of downscaled MODIS LAI and produced more reasonable seasonal curves of vegetation cover factor (C) of plants than the original model. Correspondingly, the modified SWAT substantially improved streamflow and sediment simulations. The findings demonstrated that SWAT model can be a useful tool for simulating ecohydrological process for subtropical ecosystems when integrated with our proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Open-access climate datasets were evaluated by hydrological simulation in Ethiopia. • CFSR air temperature data yielded almost identical performance to measured data. • Among three open-access precipitation data, CHIRPS had the best performance. Abstract Precipitation and air temperature are key drivers of watershed models. Currently there are many open-access gridded precipitation and air temperature datasets at different spatial and temporal resolutions over global or quasi-global scale. Motivated by the scarcity and substantial temporal and spatial gaps in ground measurements in Africa, this study evaluated the performance of three open-access precipitation datasets (i.e. CHIRPS (Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data), TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) and CFSR (Climate Forecast System Reanalysis)) and one air temperature dataset (CFSR) in driving Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model in simulation of daily and monthly streamflow in the upper Gilgel Abay Basin, Ethiopia. The "best" available measurements of precipitation and air temperature from sparse gauge stations were also used to drive SWAT model and the results were compared with those using open-access datasets. After a comprehensive comparison of a total of eight model scenarios with different combinations of precipitation and air temperature inputs, we draw the following conclusions: (1) using measured precipitation from even sparse available stations consistently yielded better performance in streamflow simulation than using all three open-access precipitation datasets; (2) using CFSR air temperature yielded almost identical performance in streamflow simulation to using measured air temperature from gauge stations; (3) among the three open-access precipitation, overall CHIRPS yielded best performance. These results suggested that the CHIRPS precipitation available at high spatial resolution (0.05°) together with CFSR air temperature can be a promising alternative open-access data source for streamflow simulation in this data-scarce area in the case of limited access to desirable gauge data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Fentanyl inhibits the invasion and migration of U87 and U251 cell in vitro. • Fentanyl alleviates the invasive character of glioma cells through mediating P65 activation rather than Mu Opioid Receptors. • The inhibitory effect of fentanyl on glioma was verified by subcutaneous tumor in nude mice. Fentanyl is widely used for anesthesia and analgesia in cancer patients. Recent studies have revealed its anti-growth effect in several categories of cancer. Gliomas are the most common primary tumors in the central nervous system with poor prognosis. To investigate the effects of fentanyl on gliomas, glioma cells were treated with different concentrations of fentanyl both in vitro and in vivo. Consequences of proliferation and invasive phenotypes, and related protein expression were evaluated in two human glioma cell lines (U251 and U87). Naloxone, Mu Opioid Receptor (MOR) antagonist, was introduced into culture media to assess the involvement of MOR in Fentanyl-mediated changes. When compared with control group, it could be found that Fentanyl inhibited function of glioma cells only at high concentrations. Western blot and immunofluorescence results revealed that Fentanyl exerted its action via modulating NF-κB (P65) activation which is likely independent of MOR. Moreover, overexpression of P65 by transfection P65-expressing vector restored the invasion and migration of glioma cells, which were inhibited by Fentanyl. In summary, this study showed that opioid pain medication Fentanyl was capable of decreasing invasiveness of glioma cells at a high concentration both in vitro and in vivo , likely via modulating P65 activation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the early-age behaviour of continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP) on the semi-rigid base, including structural behaviour during transverse crack propagation and curling behaviour both in the longitudinal and transverse direction. Field experiments are operated on a CRCP section in Wuhan, China. Vibrating wire strain gauges were installed at mid-slab and slab edge in the longitudinal and transverse direction for concrete strain and temperature measurement. Testing results showed the complexity of early-age behaviour of CRCP on semi-rigid base and curing with wet burlap sheets. An early-age transverse crack may originate from the bottom of the concrete slab due to the water absorption of the dry semi-rigid base. The development of a transverse crack took several cooling cycles. Curling behaviour in the longitudinal direction did not correspond to the temperature gradient after transverse crack occurrence. Typical curling motion in the transverse direction was found in the mid-slab rather than the slab edge. The findings of this study would lead to a better understanding of the early-age structure behaviour of CRCP on semi-rigid base and its impact on later road performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Controlling of the wettability of micro-nano scale surfaces not only plays important roles in basic science but also presents some significant applications in interference shielding materials, microfluidics and phase-change heat transfer enhancement, etc . Here, the superhydrophobic super-aligned carbon nanotube (SACNT) films are firstly obtained by the chemical vapor deposition method and the annealing process. Then their wettabilities are in-situ switched by the electrowetting strategy. Specifically, the fascinating transformation of superhydrophobicity to the superhydrophilicity is achieved by exerting external DC voltages across the CNT-liquid interfaces, and the transitions of Cassie-to-Wenzel states are observed on the multilayer SACNT films. In addition, the electrowetting induced salt absorption of the porous SACNT is also reported here. Finally, the threshold voltages of the electrowetting behaviors for different liquids on the SACNT films and unit capacitances across the CNT-liquid interfaces are obtained, which reveal that the SACNT films have much more outstanding electrowetting properties than the previously reported works. Our approach reported here demonstrates that the wettability of SACNT films could be simply, effectively and in-situ controlled by the electrowetting method, which will have many profound implications in numerous applications such as phase-change heat transfer enhancement, optical lens with variable focal length and microfluidics, etc . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silent information regulator 1 (SIRT1), a class III histone deacetylase, plays a major role in combating cellular oxidative stress injury. However, the role of SIRT1 in oxidative stress induced by particulate matter remains unclear. A total of 32 healthy male Sprague–Dawley rats were divided into PM 2.5 , PM 2.5 + NAC, filtered air (control), and filtered air + NAC (NAC control) groups. The expressions of MnSOD, SIRT1, and FOXO3a were examined at both transcriptional and protein levels. The expression levels of MnSOD, SIRT1, and FOXO3a reduced significantly (P < 0.05) in the PM 2.5 group as compared to the control group. However, their expression levels were increased after NAC intervention. These results suggested that SIRT1 exerted a protective effect against PM 2.5 -induced respiratory oxidative damage by regulating the expression of FOXO3a. NAC can activate SIRT1 and exert an anti-oxidative role in PM 2.5 -induced oxidative injury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a combined spheropolyhedral discrete element (DE)-finite element (FE) computational approach to simulating vertical plate loading on cohesionless soils such as gravels. The gravel particles are modeled as discrete elements, and the plate is modeled as a deformable FE continuum. The simulations provide a meaningful step toward better understanding how deformable bodies transmit loads to granular materials. The DE-FE contact algorithm is verified through comparison with an analytical solution for impact between two symmetric bars. A parametric study is conducted to ensure boundary effects are not significantly influencing the simulations. Numerical simulations are compared to experimental test results of lightweight deflectometer loading on a gravel base course with satisfactory agreement. Future developments of the approach intend to simulate wheel loading of military aircraft on unsurfaced airfields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• First study to estimate Dissolved Organic Carbon in inland waters at a large scale. • The largest open source sample dataset AquaSat is used firstly for DOC estimation. • Satellite remote sensing and four different machine learning methods are used. • Including environmental data considerably improves the DOC estimation. • Gaussian Process Regression is the most promising method with its unique advantage. Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC) in inland waters plays an essential role in the global carbon cycle and has significant public health effects. Machine learning (ML) together with remote sensing has emerged as a powerful and promising combination to quantify water quality parameters from space. However, inland water sample data for DOC is limited. Hence, little is known about the potential to quantify DOC content in inland waters, especially over large-scale areas. This study presents the first attempt to estimate DOC in inland waters over a large-scale area using satellite data and ML methods with the newly published open-source dataset AquaSat. Four ML approaches, namely Random Forest Regression (RFR), Support Vector Regression (SVR), Gaussian Process Regression (GPR), and a Multilayer Backpropagation Neural Network (MBPNN) were trained using more than 16 thousand samples across the continental United States matched with satellite data from Landsat 5, 7 and 8 missions. Satellite data from the Landsat missions were further extended with environmental data from the ERA5-Land product and used as input to train the ML algorithms. Our results show that including environmental data as inputs considerably improved the prediction of DOC for all ML algorithms, with GPR showing the most promising performance results with moderate estimation errors (RMSE: 4.08 mg/L). Permutation feature importance analysis showed that the wavelength range in the visible Green band (from Landsat) and the monthly average air temperature (from ERA5-Land) were the most important variables for the ML approaches. The results demonstrate the predictive strength of GPR and its useful feature to derive per pixel standard deviations for detailed analysis. Our results further highlight the important role of considering environmental processes to explain DOC variations over large scales. The application and performance of the GPR in mapping spatiotemporal variations of DOC in an entire water body were discussed by taking Lake Okeechobee (the 8th largest freshwater lake in the U.S.) as an illustrative example. While performance evaluation showed that DOC concentrations can be retrieved with adequate accuracy, algorithm development was challenged by the heterogenous nature of large-scale open source in situ data, issues related to atmospheric correction, and the low spatial and temporal resolution of the environmental predictors. This research demonstrates how open source, large-scale datasets like AquaSat in combination with ML and satellite remote sensing can make research toward large-scale estimation of inland water DOC more realistic while highlighting its remaining limitations and challenges. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides a comprehensive evaluation of eight high spatial resolution gridded precipitation products in Adige Basin located in Italy within 45–47.1°N. The Adige Basin is characterized by a complex topography, and independent ground data are available from a network of 101 rain gauges during 2000–2010. The eight products include the Version 7 TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis 3B42 product, three products from CMORPH (the Climate Prediction Center MORPHing technique), i.e., CMORPH_RAW, CMORPH_CRT and CMORPH_BLD, PCDR (Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information using Artificial Neural Networks-Climate Data Record), PGF (Global Meteorological Forcing Dataset for land surface modelling developed by Princeton University), CHIRPS (Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data) and GSMaP_MVK (Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation project Moving Vector with Kalman-filter product). All eight products are evaluated against interpolated rain gauge data at the common 0.25° spatial resolution, and additional evaluations at native finer spatial resolution are conducted for CHIRPS (0.05°) and GSMaP_MVK (0.10°). Evaluation is performed at multiple temporal (daily, monthly and annual) and spatial scales (grid and watershed). Evaluation results show that in terms of overall statistical metrics the CHIRPS, TRMM and CMORPH_BLD comparably rank as the top three best performing products, while the PGF performs worst. All eight products underestimate and overestimate the occurrence frequency of daily precipitation for some intensity ranges. All products tend to show higher error in the winter months (December–February) when precipitation is low. Very slight difference can be observed in the evaluation metrics and aspects between at the aggregated 0.25° spatial resolution and at the native finer resolutions (0.05°) for CHIRPS and (0.10°) for GSMaP_MVK products. This study has implications for precipitation product development and the global view of the performance of various precipitation products, and provides valuable guidance when choosing alternative precipitation data for local community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precipitation is often the most important input data in hydrological models when simulating streamflow. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), a widely used hydrological model, only makes use of data from one precipitation gauge station that is nearest to the centroid of each subbasin, which is eventually corrected using the elevation band method. This leads in general to inaccurate representation of subbasin precipitation input data, particularly in catchments with complex topography. To investigate the impact of different precipitation inputs on the SWAT model simulations in Alpine catchments, 13 years (1998–2010) of daily precipitation data from four datasets including OP (Observed precipitation), IDW (Inverse Distance Weighting data), CHIRPS (Climate Hazards Group InfraRed Precipitation with Station data) and TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) has been considered. Both model performances (comparing simulated and measured streamflow data at the catchment outlet) as well as parameter and prediction uncertainties have been quantified. For all three subbasins, the use of elevation bands is fundamental to match the water budget. Streamflow predictions obtained using IDW inputs are better than those obtained using the other datasets in terms of both model performance and prediction uncertainty. Models using the CHIRPS product as input provide satisfactory streamflow estimation, suggesting that this satellite product can be applied to this data-scarce Alpine region. Comparing the performance of SWAT models using different precipitation datasets is therefore important in data-scarce regions. This study has shown that, precipitation is the main source of uncertainty, and different precipitation datasets in SWAT models lead to different best estimate ranges for the calibrated parameters. This has important implications for the interpretation of the simulated hydrological processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The available data on the activation of A–H sigma bonds by electrophilic terminal phosphinidene complexes are reviewed. Theoretical computations allow us to rationalize the experimental results. It appears that a successful insertion needs an initial interaction between the phosphinidene and the A–H bond, such as a donor–acceptor complex with a lone pair, a Coulombic interaction due to a negative charge on A or H, or a proximity effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a concurrent multiscale computational method for granular materials in the quasi-static loading regime. Design/methodology/approach – Overlapped-coupling between a micropolar linear elastic one-dimensional (1D) mixed finite element (FE) model and a 1D chain of Hertzian nonlinear elastic, glued, discrete element (DE) spheres is presented. The 1D micropolar FEs and 1D chain of DEs are coupled using a bridging-scale decomposition for static analysis. Findings – It was found that an open-window DE domain may be coupled to a micropolar continuum FE domain via an overlapping region within the bridging-scale decomposition formulation for statics. Allowing the micropolar continuum FE energy in the overlapping region to contribute to the DE energy has a smoothing effect on the DE response, especially for the rotational degrees of freedom (dofs). Research limitations/implications – The paper focusses on 1D examples, with elastic, glued, DE spheres, and a linear elastic micropolar continuum implemented in 1D. Practical implications – A concurrent computational multiscale method for granular materials with open-window DE resolution of the large shearing region such as at the interface with a penetrometer skin, will allow more efficient computations by reducing the more costly DE domain calculations, but not at the expense of generating artificial boundary effects between the DE and FE domains. Originality/value – Open-window DE overlapped-coupling to FE continuum domain, accounting for rotational dofs in both DE and FE methods. Contribution of energy from micropolar FE in overlap region to underlying DE particle energy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study conducted a comprehensive evaluation of three satellite precipitation products (TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) 3B42, CMORPH (the Climate Prediction Center (CPC) Morphing algorithm), and PERSIANN (Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information using Artificial Neural Networks)) using data from 52 rain gauge stations over the Meichuan watershed, which is a representative watershed of the Poyang Lake Basin in China. All the three products were compared and evaluated during a 9-year period at different spatial (grid and watershed) and temporal (daily, monthly, and annual) scales. The results showed that at daily scale, CMORPH had the best performance with coefficients of determination (R2) of 0.61 at grid scale and 0.74 at watershed scale. For precipitation intensities larger than or equal to 25 mm, RMSE% of CMORPH and TRMM 3B42 were less than 50%, indicating CMORPH and TRMM 3B42 might be useful for hydrological applications at daily scale. At monthly and annual temporal scales, TRMM 3B42 had the best performances, with high R2 ranging from 0.93 to 0.99, and thus was deemed to be reliable and had good potential for hydrological applications at monthly and annual scales. PERSIANN had the worst performance among the three products at all cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaporation is an important component of the water and energy balance of lakes and reservoirs. The energy balance combination method for estimating evaporation requires the heat storage changes (Q t ) to be known. The lack of data on water temperature profiles and water depth fluctuations hinders routine computations of Q t . Following successful estimation of the soil heat flux density of land surfaces (G) and heat storage change of urban areas and wetlands from net all wave radiation (Rn), we investigated in this paper whether a similar generic Q t (Rn) empirical relationship can be developed for lakes and reservoirs. A comprehensive literature survey was conducted and experimental datasets for 22 lakes with different characteristics were collected. A linear Q t (Rn) model with a hysteresis function to describe seasonal warming and cooling effects was developed (Q t = a ∗ Rn + b + c ∗ dRn/dt) that fits the 22 independently gathered datasets satisfactory (R 2 of 0.83 and RMSE of 22 W m − 2 ) for bi-weekly and monthly time scales. Predictive models for the coefficients a , b and c were also developed, using Rn and water surface temperature measurements that can be retrieved from routine earth observation measurements. The average R 2 between measured and modeled Q t was 0.84 and the RMSE was 37 W m − 2 if predictive models were used for the assessment of lake specific Q t (Rn) functions. Two independent satellite-derived products were explored: the ARC-Lake (ATSR Reprocessing for Climate) product for water surface temperature using the ATSR (Along Track Scanning Radiometer) series data, and the CM SAF (Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring) product for solar radiation Rs based on the AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) data. The proposed procedure using purely satellite-derived data as inputs resulted in comparably good Q t estimates as those using in-situ measurements. The new Q t hysteresis model can thus be applied together with satellite measurements for supporting the computation of evaporation from open water bodies based on energy balance equations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modeling inland water quality by remote sensing has already demonstrated its capacity to make accurate predictions. However, limitations still exist for applicability in diverse regions, as well as to retrieve non-optically active parameters (nOAC). Models are usually trained only with water samples from individual or local groups of waterbodies, which limits their capacity and accuracy in predicting parameters across diverse regions. This study aims to increase data availability to understand the performance of models trained with heterogeneous databases from both remote sensing and field measurement sources to improve machine learning training. This paper seeks to build a dataset with worldwide lake characteristics using data from water monitoring programs around the world paired with harmonized data of Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2. Additional feature engineering is also examined. The dataset is then used for model training and prediction of water quality at the global scale, time series analysis and water quality maps for lakes in different continents. Additionally, the modeling performance of nOACs are also investigated. The results show that trained models achieve moderately high correlations for SDD, TURB and BOD (R2 = 0.68) but lower performances for TSM and NO3-N (R2 = 0.43). The extreme learning machine (ELM) and the random forest regression (RFR) demonstrate better performance. The results indicate that ML algorithms can process remote sensing data and additional features to model water quality at the global scale and contribute to address the limitations of transferring and retrieving nOAC. However, significant limitations need to be considered, such as calibrated harmonization of water data and atmospheric correction procedures. Moreover, further understanding of the mechanisms that facilitate nOAC prediction is necessary. We highlight the need for international contributions to global water quality datasets capable of providing extensive water data for the improvement of global water monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Wet method is a promising method to fabricate VIP core materials. [•] A multiphase medium model was established in this paper. [•] We analyzed the moisture and heat transfer characteristics during convection drying. [•] We compared the distinctions among different drying conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Remotely sensed ET data greatly reduced equifinality in hydrological modeling. • Principle of repeated measure design in multi-variable calibration schemes. • Concept of model stability or robustness at multiple spatial scales and aspects. • Highly substantial results of sub-processes outputs and parameterization in space. • Tested significance of multi-variable calibration schemes by Manning Whitney U test. Hydrological processes in a watershed consist of multiple sub-processes (such as plant growth, evapotranspiration, water yield, and soil–water balance) that have complex interactions. The common practice of calibrating hydrological models against only a single variable (e.g., streamflow) can lead to parameter uncertainty (also known as equifinality), resulting in significant uncertainties in the representation and simulation of sub-processes. As multi-variable calibration can be a potential solution to this issue, we tested the integration of spatially and temporally gridded remotely sensed evapotranspiration (RS-ET) data with the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) hydrological model. This approach was intended to reduce equifinality by enhancing related hydrological sub-processes in both space and time rather than improving the evaluation metrics at the streamflow outlet. We further introduced the principle of repeated measure design in the calibration process, where the SWAT was calibrated under two different schemes: Scheme1 (using only streamflow data) and Scheme2 (using both RS-ET and streamflow data). The model's performance was evaluated using the concept of stability at multiple spatial scales (basin outlet, sub-basins, and hydrological response units) and aspects (different model outputs and most sensitive calibrated parameters). The significance of the difference between the stabilities produced by the two schemes was estimated using the Mann–Whitney U test. Testing this approach in Meichuan Basin (China) showed that Scheme2 substantially reduced equifinality for calibrated parameters and model outputs compared to Scheme1. In addition, the model solutions and outputs for Scheme2 were significantly different from Scheme1. Our results demonstrate the added value of using increasingly available open-access RS-ET data for improving hydrological model calibration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Qushandao Granite, mainly composed of alkali‐feldspar granite, is situated in the eastern Zhejiang province of coastal southeast China. In this paper, we present whole‐rock geochemistry, zircon U–Pb geochronology, and Hf isotopes to constrain the age, magma sources, and geodynamic setting of the Qushandao Granite. LA‐ICP‐MS zircon U–Pb dating results revealed that the Qushandao Granite was emplaced in the Late Cretaceous (101–98 Ma). Geochemically, the Qushandao Granite exhibits relatively high silica and alkali contents, metaluminous to weakly peraluminous (A/CNK = 0.98–1.02), and low abundances of phosphorus, titanium, magnesium, and calcium. It is also characterized by enrichment in Rb, K, Th, and depletion in Nb, Ta, P, Ti, and Sr with moderately to weakly negative europium anomalies (Eu/Eu* = 0.71–0.87). Furthermore, the Qushandao Granite displays lower FeOT/MgO, 104 × Ga/Al, and Zr + Nb + Ce + Y values relative to typical A‐type granites. Therefore, we classify the Qushandao Granite as calc‐alkaline I‐type granite based on a synthesis of geological and geochemical characteristics. The Qushandao Granite shows variable zircon Hf isotopic compositions (εHf(t) = −7.6 to +2.3) and TDM2 model ages of 1.40–0.83 Ga with a mean value of 1.17 Ga. We argue that the Qushandao Granite was most likely generated by mixing of mantle‐derived mafic magma and crust‐derived felsic magma in the lower crust, and that it was formed during post‐collisional extension in the Late Cretaceous, related to the gradually increasing subduction angle of the Paleo‐Pacific plate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Water levels in lakes and reservoirs can currently be obtained from four different satellite altimetry databases: (i) Global Reservoir and Lake Monitoring (GRLM), (ii) River Lake Hydrology (RLH), (iii) Hydroweb and (iv) ICESat-GLAS level 2 Global Land Surface Altimetry data (ICESat-GLAS). This paper proposes a new method for estimating water volume changes in lakes and reservoirs from these four databases in combination with satellite imagery data, without any in-situ measurements and bathymetry maps. Three lakes/reservoirs with different characteristics were studied, i.e. Lake Mead (U.S.A.), Lake Tana (Ethiopia) and Lake IJssel (The Netherlands). Compared to in-situ water levels, satellite altimetry products provided accurate water level variations for Lake Mead and Lake Tana but not for Lake IJssel. The long-term lowest water level in each satellite altimetry database was used as the reference level for water volume estimation. All water levels were converted to the Water Level Above the Lowest Level (WLALL), and the series of Landsat TM/ETM+imagery data were selected to extract corresponding surface areas for establishing area–WLALL relationships. Subsequently, the relationships of the Water Volume Above the Lowest water Level (WVALL) and WLALL were obtained through the analytical integration of area–WLALL relationships. The WVALL–WLALL relationships are site-specific and database-specific and can be used to convert water levels from the four databases directly into water volumes above the identified minimum levels for the same lake. Validation showed that estimated water volumes agreed well with in-situ measurements (R2 from 0.95 to 0.99) and the root mean square error (RMSE) was within 4.6 to 13.1% of the mean volumes of in-situ measurements. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Accurate precipitation data at high spatial and temporal resolution is deemed necessary for many hydrological and water management applications, and especially in data scarce river basins and regions where strong competition for water resources prevails. In this study we used a new downscaling–calibration procedure of the freely accessible Version 7 of TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) 3B43 product, in conjunction with limited rain gauge data sets, to generate improved monthly pixel-based precipitation data at higher spatial resolution (1km). The spatial downscaling from 0.25° to 1km grids was achieved by using site-specific non-linear relationships between annual precipitation and annually averaged NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index). The calibration was based on Geograhical Difference Analysis (GDA) and Geographical Ratio Analysis (GRA). The new integrated procedure was tested for Lake Tana Basin (LTB) in Ethiopia with a humid climate (rainfall 1395 mm/yr during 1998–2004) and for the Caspian Sea Region (CSR) in Iran with a semi-arid climate (rainfall 442 mm/yr during 1999–2003). The best 1km annual precipitation data were achieved through downscaling followed by GDA calibration for most cases. The monthly fractions derived from the un-calibrated TRMM 3B43 product can be used to disaggregate 1km annual precipitation to 1km monthly precipitation. The disaggregated 1km monthly precipitation has not only significant improvement in the spatial resolution, but also good agreements with rain gauge data were achieved for both LTB (R2 =0.87, RMSE=56mm, MAE=32mm and Bias=0.01) and the CSR (R2 =0.79, RMSE=23mm, MAE=16mm and Bias=0.14). A similar calibration procedure using rain gauges at monthly time scale did not improve the level of performance. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Silacycles play a very important role in modern organic chemistry and materials science. Construction of silacyclic skeletons via metal-mediated or catalyzed Si-C bond cleavage has attracted much recent attention. Several interesting and useful synthetic strategies have been reported in the literature. In this review, we have summarized recent developments on metal-mediated or catalyzed Si-C bond cleavage, which lead to the synthesis of silacycles, including silacyclobutenes, silacyclopentanes, silacyclopentadienes (siloles), 6-membered silacycles, and their derivatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A gel, an aggregate of polymers with solvents, has dual attributes of solid and liquid as solvent migrates in and out of the polymer network. Indentation has recently been used to characterize the mechanical properties of gels. This paper evaluates the effects of large deformation and material nonlinearity on gel indentation through theoretical modeling and finite element analysis. It is found that large deformation significantly affects the interpretation of the experimental observations and the classical relation between indentation force and depth has limitations for large deformation. The material nonlinearity does not play a very important role on indentation experiment so that the poroelasticity is a good approximation. Based on these observations, this paper proposes an alternative approach to measure the mechanical properties of gels, namely, uniaxial compression experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Rh-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of β-substituted α,β-unsaturated phosphonates using (Sc ,Sp )-WalPhos as the chiral ligand is reported, in which a wide range of optically active β-substituted alkylphosphonates were obtained in good yields and with good to excellent enantioselectivities (86–98% ee). In contrast to the Rh/(Rc ,Sa )-FAPhos system previously reported by us, the present catalytic system shows a wider substrate scope, and can perform the hydrogenation under milder reaction conditions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

By using the subsidiary ordinary differential equation method, many explicit Jacobian elliptic periodic solutions of the cubic-quintic nonlinear optical transmission equation with higher-order dispersion nonlinear terms and self-steepening term are obtained. The results are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The title compound, 5-(4-fluorophenyl)-N,N-dimethyl-7-(trifluoromethyl)pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine-3-carboxamide, has been synthesised by condensation of dimethylamine with 5-(4-fluorophenyl)-7-(trifluoromethyl)pyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine-3-carboxylic acid. This intermediate was prepared from ethyl 5-amino-1H-pyrazole-4-carboxylate by cyclisation with 4,4,4-trifluoro-1-(4-fluorophenyl)butane-1,3-dione and then saponification with sodium hydroxide. The crystal structure of the title compound was determined. The compound possesses distinct effective inhibition on the proliferation of some cancer cell lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the stationary and propagating solutions for a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) in a periodic optical potential with an additional confining optical or magnetic potential. Using an effective mass approximation we express the condensate wave function in terms of slowly-varying envelopes modulating the Bloch modes of the optical lattice. In the limit of a weak nonlinearity, we derive a nonlinear Schrödinger equation for propagation of the envelope function which does not contain the rapid oscillation of the lattice. We then consider the ground state solutions in detail in the regime of weak, moderate and strong nonlinear interactions. We describe the form of solution which is appropriate in each regime, and place careful limits on the validity of each type of solution. Finally we extend the study to the propagating dynamics of a spinor atomic BEC in an optical lattice and some interesting phenomena are revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The first Rh-catalyzed enantioselective hydrogenation of dimethyl 2-methyleneglutarate and its derivatives has been reported. For the hydrogenation of dimethyl 2-methyleneglutarate with a chiral ferrocene-based monodentate phosphoramidite ligand (FAPhos), good enantioselectivity (over 90% ee) with full conversions was achieved. In contrast, the hydrogenation of substrates bearing an aryl substituent at a methylene moiety proved to be more difficult, in which the best enantioselectivity of up to 81% ee was obtained by the use of a P-stereogenic BoPhoz-type ligand. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A new family of chiral bis(1-ferrocenylethyl)amine-derived monodentate phosphoramidite ligands has been prepared and successfully applied in the Cu-catalyzed asymmetric 1,4-conjugate addition of diethylzinc to a variety of α,β-unsaturated compounds, in which up to 99% ee was obtained for nitroalkenes at −78°C and >98% ee for cyclohexenone at −30°C, comparable to or higher than those obtained with the most efficient monophosphoramidite ligands reported so far. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Under ‘open-flask’ and mild conditions, arenes condense smoothly with aromatic aldehydes in the presence of catalytic amount of FeCl3. The reaction tolerated a variety of substitutions and functional groups. This method provides a facile and direct access to symmetrical and unsymmetrical triarylmethane derivatives. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A novel catalytic system of PdCl2(CH3CN)2 with N,N′-dicyclohexyl-1,4-diazabutadiene (DAB-Cy) ligand was successfully used in reductive coupling of aryl halides. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Cerium(IV) ammonium nitrate (CAN) catalyzed facile and efficient aza-Michael addition of aromatic and aliphatic amines with α,β-unsaturated electrophiles in the absence of solvent under ultrasound irradiation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis (XIAP) is the most potent member of the inhibitor of apoptosis protein (IAP) gene family in terms of its ability to inhibit caspases and suppress apoptosis. Recent evidence has suggested that XIAP is a key determinant in chemoresistance of cancer cells. To explore a novel approach for ameliorating chemotherapy of gastric cancer, the antisense expression vector for the XIAP gene was constructed and transferred into gastric cancer cell lines, MKN-45 (wild-type p53) and MKN-28 (mutant-type p53). This transfer resulted in significant downregulation of XIAP expression, decreased in vitro cell viabilities, and induced apoptosis. In transferred cells, inactive caspase-3 precursors were cleaved into the active subunits (p20 and p17) during apoptosis induced by downregulation of XIAP. The inhibitory effects of cisplatin and mitomycin C on the growth of XIAP downregulated cancer cells were significantly enhanced. In addition, this process occurred only in wild-type p53 (MKN-45), but not in mutant-type p53 (MKN-28) gastric cancer cells. The data presented suggest that downregulation of XIAP via antisense RNA can lead to apoptosis of gastric cancer cells in vitro, correlating with cellular p53 status and activation of caspase-3. This finding could lead to a potential strategy for improving the efficiency of therapies for gastric cancer.Cancer Gene Therapy (2005) 12, 509-514. doi:10.1038/sj.cgt.7700813 Published online 11 February 2005 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: BAK (Bcl-2 homologous antagonist/killer) is a novel pro-apoptotic gene of the Bcl-2 family. It has been reported that gastric tumors have reduced BAK levels when compared with the normal mucosa. Moreover, mutations of the BAK gene have been identified in human gastrointestinal cancers, suggesting that a perturbation of BAK-mediated apoptosis may contribute to the pathogenesis of gastric cancer. In this study, we explored the therapeutic effects of gene transfer mediated elevations in BAK expression on human gastric cancer cells in vitro. Methods: Eukaryotic expression vector for the BAK gene was constructed and transferred into gastric cancer cell lines, MKN-45 (wild-type p53) and MKN-28 (mutant-type p53). RT-PCR and Western Blotting detected cellular BAK gene expression. Cell growth activities were detected by MTT colorimetry and flow cytometry, while apoptosis was assayed by electronic microscopy and TUNEL. Western Blotting and colorimetry investigated cellular caspase-3 activities. Results: BAK gene transfer could result in significant BAK overexpression, decreased in vitro growth, cell cycle G0/G1 arrest, and induced apoptosis in gastric cancer cells. In transferred cells, inactive caspase-3 precursor was cleaved into the active subunits p20 and p17, during BAK overexpression-induced apoptosis. In addition, this process occurred equally well in p53 wild-type (MKN-45), or in p53 mutant-type (MKN-28) gastric cancer cells. Conclusions: The data presented suggests that overexpression of the BAK gene can lead to apoptosis of gastric cancer cells in vitro, which does not appear to be dependent on p53 status. The action mechanism of BAK mediated apoptosis correlates with activation of caspase-3. This could be served as a potential strategy for further development of gastric cancer therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remote Sensing, as a driver for water management decisions, needs further integration with monitoring water quality programs, especially in developing countries. Moreover, usage of remote sensing approaches has not been broadly applied in monitoring routines. Therefore, it is necessary to assess the efficacy of available sensors to complement the often limited field measurements from such programs and build models that support monitoring tasks. Here, we integrate field measurements (2013–2019) from the Mexican national water quality monitoring system (RNMCA) with data from Landsat-8 OLI, Sentinel-3 OLCI, and Sentinel-2 MSI to train an extreme learning machine (ELM), a support vector regression (SVR) and a linear regression (LR) for estimating Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a), Turbidity, Total Suspended Matter (TSM) and Secchi Disk Depth (SDD). Additionally, OLCI Level-2 Products for Chl-a and TSM are compared against the RNMCA data. We observed that OLCI Level-2 Products are poorly correlated with the RNMCA data and it is not feasible to rely only on them to support monitoring operations. However, OLCI atmospherically corrected data is useful to develop accurate models using an ELM, particularly for Turbidity (R2 = 0.7). We conclude that remote sensing is useful to support monitoring systems tasks, and its progressive integration will improve the quality of water quality monitoring programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phosphaphenalenes, extended π conjugates with the incorporation of phosphorus, are attractive avenues towards molecular materials for the applications in organic electronics, but their electron accepting ability have not been investigated. Herein we present systematic studies on the reductive behavior of a representative phosphaphenalene and its oxide by chemical and electrochemical methods. The chemical reduction of the phosphaphenalene by alkali metals reveals the facile P−C bond cleavage to form phosphaphenalenide anion, which functions as a transfer block for structure modification on the phosphorus atom. In contrast, the pentavalent P‐oxide reacts with one or two equivalents of elemental sodium to form stable radical anion and dianion salts, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]