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ABSTRACT The study aimed to investigate the effect of methionine deficiency on conventional nutrient composition, NO and NOS activity in the liver and kidney, and expression of genes related to the NF-κB signal pathway. One hundred 1-day-old broilers were divided into control and methionine deficiency group, and provided with a standard diet. The methionine-deficient group was fed with a methionine-deficient diet for 42 days. Moisture content, protein content, and crude lipid content were determined by freeze drying, the Kjeldahl method, and the ether extraction method. The concentration of NO was measured using the nitrate reductase method, and the activity of NOS was measured using colorimetry. mRNA expression of related genes in the NF-κB signal pathway was detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The results showed the contents of crude protein and crude lipid in the liver and kidney of the methionine-deficient group were significantly higher than those in the control group (p0.05). Methionine deficiency resulted in significantly increased NO concentration and total nitric oxide synthase (TNOS) activities in the liver and kidney (p

The most common complication in older surgical patients is postoperative delirium (POD). POD is associated with preoperative cognitive impairment and longer durations of intraoperative burst suppression (BSup) – electroencephalography (EEG) with repeated periods of suppression (very low-voltage brain activity). However, BSup has modest sensitivity for predicting POD. We hypothesized that a brain state of lowered EEG power immediately precedes BSup, which we have termed “pre-burst suppression” (preBSup). Further, we hypothesized that even patients without BSup experience these preBSup transient reductions in EEG power, and that preBSup (like BSup) would be associated with preoperative cognitive function and delirium risk. Data included 83 32-channel intraoperative EEG recordings of the first hour of surgery from 2 prospective cohort studies of patients ≥age 60 scheduled for ≥2-h non-cardiac, non-neurologic surgery under general anesthesia (maintained with a potent inhaled anesthetic or a propofol infusion). Among patients with BSup, we defined preBSup as the difference in 3–35 Hz power (dB) during the 1-s preceding BSup relative to the average 3–35 Hz power of their intraoperative EEG recording. We then recorded the percentage of time that each patient spent in preBSup, including those without BSup. Next, we characterized the association between percentage of time in preBSup and (1) percentage of time in BSup, (2) preoperative cognitive function, and (3) POD incidence. The percentage of time in preBSup and BSup were correlated (Spearman’s ρ [95% CI]: 0.52 [0.34, 0.66], p < 0.001). The percentage of time in BSup, preBSup, or their combination were each inversely associated with preoperative cognitive function (β [95% CI]: −0.10 [−0.19, −0.01], p = 0.024; −0.04 [−0.06, −0.01], p = 0.009; −0.04 [−0.06, −0.01], p = 0.003, respectively). Consistent with prior literature, BSup was significantly associated with POD (odds ratio [95% CI]: 1.34 [1.01, 1.78], p = 0.043), though this association did not hold for preBSup (odds ratio [95% CI]: 1.04 [0.95, 1.14], p = 0.421). While all patients had ≥1 preBSup instance, only 20.5% of patients had ≥1 BSup instance. These exploratory findings suggest that future studies are warranted to further study the extent to which preBSup, even in the absence of BSup, can identify patients with impaired preoperative cognition and/or POD risk.

ABSTRACT This study explores the differences of appearance and the digestive systems of two birds (Lonchura striata and Copsychus saularis), which have the same eating pattern in staple ingredients. Each bird was caught naturally and euthanized in appropriate manner, followed by morphology survey on bill, duodenum, jejunum, ileum and appearance of the body parts such as Culmen, Claw, Wing, Tarsus, Toe and Tail. The results showed that the appearance feature between them presented significant differences in the beak length, wing length and tail length, which were correlated to their staple feeding habits. In addition, in the digestive system, the length of duodenum and duodenal indexes showed significant differences (p

ABSTRACT Photoperiod and nutrition are major factors that affect the reproductive efficiency particularly in female animals. In this study we examined the interaction of photoperiod and food restriction on growth, sexual maturation and receptor mRNA expressions of leptin, melatonin, and estrogen in abdominal fat and the ovary of pullets. There were no interaction effects between photoperiod and feeding level on body weight, abdominal fat weight, ovary weight at both 14 wk and 18 wk. Abdominal fat weight of feed restriction group was significantly lower compared with the control group at the age of 14 wk, 18 wk, and age of the first egg (AFE) (p

The tropical western Pacific (TWP) is a preferential area of air uplifting from the surface to the upper troposphere. A significantly intensified upward motion through the troposphere over the TWP in the boreal wintertime (November to March of the following year, NDJFM) has been detected using multiple reanalysis datasets. The upward motion over the TWP is intensified at rates of 8.0 ± 3.1 % per decade and 3.6 ± 3.3 % per decade in NDJFM at 150 hPa from 1958 to 2017, using JRA55 and ERA5 reanalysis datasets, while the MERRA-2 reanalysis data show a 7.5 ± 7.1 % per decade intensified upward motion for the period 1980–2017. Model simulations using the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model, version 4 (WACCM4), suggest that warming global sea surface temperatures (SSTs), particularly SSTs over the eastern maritime continent and tropical western Pacific, play a dominant role in the intensification of the upward motion by strengthening the Pacific Walker circulation and enhancing the deep convection over the TWP. Using CO as a tropospheric tracer, the WACCM4 simulations show that an increase in CO at a rate of 0.4 ppbv (parts per billion by volume) per decade at the layer 150–70 hPa in the tropics is mainly resulted from the global SST warming and the subsequent enhanced upward motion over the TWP in the troposphere and strengthened tropical upwelling of Brewer–Dobson (BD) circulation in the lower stratosphere. This implies that more tropospheric trace gases and aerosols from both natural maritime sources and outflow from polluted air from South Asia may enter the stratosphere through the TWP region and affect the stratospheric chemistry and climate.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the leading causes of mortality worldwide, and frequently leads to massive heart injury and the loss of billions of cardiac muscle cells and associated vasculature. Critical work in the last 2 decades demonstrated that these lost cells can be partially regenerated by the epicardium, the outermost mesothelial layer of the heart, in a process that highly recapitulates its role in heart development. Upon cardiac injury, mature epicardial cells activate and undergo an epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) to form epicardium-derived progenitor cells (EpiPCs), multipotent progenitors that can differentiate into several important cardiac lineages, including cardiomyocytes and vascular cells. In mammals, this process alone is insufficient for significant regeneration, but it might be possible to prime it by administering specific reprogramming factors, leading to enhanced EpiPC function. Here, we show that oxytocin (OXT), a hypothalamic neuroendocrine peptide, induces epicardial cell proliferation, EMT, and transcriptional activity in a model of human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived epicardial cells. In addition, we demonstrate that OXT is produced after cardiac cryoinjury in zebrafish, and that it elicits significant epicardial activation promoting heart regeneration. Oxytocin signaling is also critical for proper epicardium development in zebrafish embryos. The above processes are significantly impaired when OXT signaling is inhibited chemically or genetically through RNA interference. RNA sequencing data suggests that the transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) pathway is the primary mediator of OXT-induced epicardial activation. Our research reveals for the first time an evolutionary conserved brain-controlled mechanism inducing cellular reprogramming and regeneration of the injured mammalian and zebrafish heart, a finding that could contribute to translational advances for the treatment of cardiac injuries.

Registration of multiple point clouds acquired via terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) is usually compulsory to obtain the scanned data covering a whole urban scene. However, the automated processing of aligning multiple scans is still a concern because of the complex urban environment. To this end, we propose a fast and sturdy estimation of 3D shifts between point clouds by an automated markerfree process using global features, converting translation measurement between two point clouds in the space domain to the frequency domain and estimating the phase difference. By using the low-frequency components from the normalized cross-power spectrum, accurate 3D shifts are calculated by solving parameters in the linear equation representing phase difference angles, with the help of a robust estimator. The results of experiments using TLS datasets of different scenes show that the proposed approach is both practical and efficient. In particular, the proposed approach can achieve results with a translation error of less than about 1.0 m on test datasets.

Registration of point clouds is a fundamental problem in the community of photogrammetry and 3D computer vision. Generally, point cloud registration consists of two steps: the search of correspondences and the estimation of transformation parameters. However, to find correspondences from point clouds, generating robust and discriminative features is of necessity. In this paper, we address the problem of extracting robust rotation-invariant features for fast coarse registration of point clouds under the assumption that the pairwise point clouds are transformed with rigid transformation. With a Fourier-based descriptor, point clouds represented by volumetric images can be mapped from the image to feature space. It is achieved by considering a gradient histogram as a continuous angular signal which can be well represented by the spherical harmonics. The rotation-invariance is established based on the Fourier-based analysis, in which high-frequency signals can be filtered out. This makes the extracted features robust to noises and outliers. Then, with the extracted features, pairwise correspondence can be found by the fast search. Finally, the transformation parameters can be estimated by fitting the rigid transformation model using the corresponding points and RANSAC algorithm. Experiments are conducted to prove the effectiveness of our proposed method in the task of point cloud registration. Regarding the experimental results of the point cloud registration using two TLS benchmark point cloud datasets, featuring with limited overlaps and uneven point densities and covering different urban scenes, our proposed method can achieve a fast coarse registration with rotation errors of less than 1 degree and translation errors of less than 1m.

Abstract We report the measurement of the two-neutrino double-beta ($$2\nu \beta \beta $$ 2νββ ) decay of $$^{100}$$ 100 Mo to the ground state of $$^{100}$$ 100 Ru using lithium molybdate ($$\hbox {Li}_2^{\;\;100}\hbox {MoO}_4$$ Li2100MoO4 ) scintillating bolometers. The detectors were developed for the CUPID-Mo program and operated at the EDELWEISS-III low background facility in the Modane underground laboratory (France). From a total exposure of 42.235 kg$$\times $$ × day, the half-life of $$^{100}$$ 100 Mo is determined to be $$T_{1/2}^{2\nu }=[7.12^{+0.18}_{-0.14}\,\mathrm {(stat.)}\pm 0.10\,\mathrm {(syst.)}]\times 10^{18}$$ T1/22ν=[7.12-0.14+0.18(stat.)±0.10(syst.)]×1018 years. This is the most accurate determination of the $$2\nu \beta \beta $$ 2νββ half-life of $$^{100}$$ 100 Mo to date.

Individual, large thrusting earthquakes can cause hundreds to thousands of years of exhumation in a geologically instantaneous moment through landslide generation. The bedrock landslides generated are important weathering agents through the conversion of bedrock into mobile regolith. Despite this, orogen-scale records of surface uplift and exhumation, whether sedimentary or geochemical, contain little to no evidence of individual large earthquakes. We examine how earthquakes and landslides influence exhumation and surface uplift rates with a zero-dimensional numerical model, supported by observations from the 2008 Mw 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake. We also simulate the concentration of cosmogenic radionuclides within the model domain, so we can examine the timescales over which earthquake-driven changes in exhumation can be measured. Our model uses empirically constrained relationships between seismic energy release, weathering, and landsliding volumes to show that large earthquakes generate the most surface uplift, despite causing lowering of the bedrock surface. Our model suggests that when earthquakes are the dominant rock uplift process in an orogen, rapid surface uplift can occur when regolith, which limits bedrock weathering, is preserved on the mountain range. After a large earthquake, there is a lowering in concentrations of 10Be in regolith leaving the orogen, but the concentrations return to the long-term average within 103 years. The timescale of the seismically induced cosmogenic nuclide concentration signal is shorter than the averaging time of most thermochronometers (>103 years). However, our model suggests that the short-term stochastic feedbacks between weathering and exhumation produce measurable increases in cosmogenically measured exhumation rates which can be linked to earthquakes.

In this paper, we propose a framework for obtaining semantic labels of LiDAR point clouds and refining the classification results by combining a deep neural network with a graph-structured smoothing technique. In general, the goal of the semantic scene analysis is to assign a semantic label to each point in the point cloud. Although various related researches have been reported, due to the complexity of urban areas, the semantic labeling of point clouds in urban areas is still a challenging task. In this paper, we address the issues of how to effectively extract features from each point and its local surrounding and how to refine the initial soft labels by considering contextual information in the spatial domain. Specifically, we improve the effectiveness of classification of point cloud in two aspects. Firstly, instead of utilizing handcrafted features as input for classification and refinement, the local context of a point is embedded into deep dimensional space and classified via a deep neural network (PointNet++), and simultaneously soft labels are obtained as initial results for next refinement. Secondly, the initial label probability set is improved by taking the context both in the spatial domain into consideration by constructing a graph structure, and the final labels are optimized by a graph cuts algorithm. To evaluate the performance of our proposed framework, experiments are conducted on a mobile laser scanning (MLS) point cloud dataset. We demonstrate that our approach can achieve higher accuracy in comparison to several commonly-used state-of-the-art baselines. The overall accuracy of our proposed method on TUM dataset can reach 85.38% for labeling eight semantic classes.

GPRs (Ground Penetrating Radar) are widely adopted in underground space survey and mapping, because of their advantages of fast data acquisition, convenience, high imaging resolution and NDT (Non Destructive Testing) inspection. However, at present, the automation of the GPR data post-processing is low and the identification of underground objects needs expert interpretation. The heavy manual interpretation labor limits the GPR applications in large-scale urban scenarios. According to the latest research, it is still an unsolved problem to detect targets or defects in GPR data automatically and needs further exploration. In this paper, we propose a deep learning method for real-time detection of underground targets from GPR data. Seven typical targets in urban underground space are identified and labelled to construct the training dataset. The constructed dataset is consist of 489 labelled samples including rainwater wells, cables, metal/nonmetal pipes, sparse/dense steel reinforcement, voids. The training dataset is further augmented to produce more samples. DarkNet53 convolutional neural network (CNN) is trained using the constructed training dataset including realistic data and augmented data to extract features of the buried objects. And then the end-to-end YOLO detection framework is used to classify and locate the seven specific categories buried targets in the GPR data in real time. Experiments show that the automatic real-time detection method proposed in this paper can effectively detect the buried objects in the ground penetrating radar image in real time at Shenzhen test site (typical urban road scene).

The morphology and effective density of externally mixed black carbon (extBC) aerosols, important factors affecting the radiative forcing of black carbon, were studied using a tandem technique coupling a differential mobility analyzer (DMA) with a single-particle soot photometer (SP2). The study extended the mass–mobility relationship to large extBC particles with a mobility diameter (dmob) larger than 350 nm, a size range seldom included in previous tandem measurements of BC aggregates in the atmosphere. The experiment was conducted at an urban site in Beijing during a 19 d winter period from 23 January to 10 February 2018. Ambient dry particles were selected by the DMA, and the size-resolved extBC particles were distinguished from particles with a thick coating (internally mixed) according to the time delay between the incandescence signal peak and the scattering peak detected by the SP2. The masses of the extBC particles were then quantified. The time differences between the DMA size selection and the SP2 measurement were processed previously. The normalized number size distributions were investigated at the prescribed dmob sizes in the range of 140–750 nm to provide the typical mass of extBC at each dmob. On this basis, the mass–mobility relationship of the ambient extBC was established, inferring a mass–mobility scaling exponent (Dfm) (an important quantity for characterizing the morphology of fractal-like BC aggregates) with a value of 2.34±0.03 in the mobility range investigated in this study. This value is comparable with those of diesel exhaust particles, implying a predominant contribution of vehicle emissions to the ambient extBC in urban Beijing. Compared to the clean period, a higher Dfm value was observed in the polluted episode, indicating a more compact BC aggregate structure than that in the clean period. The effective densities (ρeff) of the extBC in the same dmob range were also derived, with values gradually decreasing from 0.46 g cm−3 at 140 nm mobility to 0.14 g cm−3 at 750 nm mobility. The ρeff values were slightly lower than those measured using the DMA–aerosol particle mass analyzer (APM) system. The difference in ρeff values was likely due to the lower BC masses determined by the SP2 compared to those measured by the APM at the same mobility, since the SP2 measured the refractory BC (rBC) mass instead of the total mass of the BC aggregate, which consists of both rBC and a possible fraction of nonrefractory components measured by the APM. The ρeff values in the 280–350 nm dmob range were much closer to the values for soot aggregates reported in the literature. It might be related to the more compact structure of BC aggregates in this range, resulting from the reconstruction effect by volatile and/or semivolatile components in the atmosphere. The reconstruction effect might also result in a hiatus in the increased dynamic shape factor in the range of 200–350 nm, which presented an overall increase from 2.16 to 2.93 in the 140–750 nm dmob range.

For conducting change detection using 3D scans of a construction site, the registration between point clouds at different acquisition times is normally necessary. However, due to the complexity of constructing areas, the automatic registration of temporal scans is a challenging problem. In this work, we propose a fast and maker-free method for coarse registration between point clouds by converting the 3D matching problem into a 2D correlation problem, taking the special properties of building structures into consideration. Our proposed method consists of two major steps: the conversion from 3D points to 2D image data and the estimation of transformation parameters between 2D images in the frequency domain. In the conversion step, the point cloud of each scan is projected into a 2D grey image, by which the ground footprint of the point cloud is obtained. In the following step, we represent the 2D image in frequency-domain and estimate the horizontal transformation parameters by using Fourier-Mellin transformation. A real application is performed to validate the feasibility and effectiveness of our workflow using photogrammetric point clouds of a construction site in two different acquisition time. Regarding the real application of coarse registration of point clouds, our proposed method can achieve a registration error of less than 1 degree and more efficient than the classical baseline methods for the fast orientation between scans.

Organic aerosol (OA) concentrations are simulated over the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region from 9 to 26 January 2014 using the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with chemistry (WRF-CHEM), with the goal of examining the impact of heterogeneous HONO sources on SOA formation and SOA formation from different pathways during wintertime haze days. The model generally shows good performance with respect to simulating air pollutants and organic aerosols against measurements in BTH. Model results show that heterogeneous HONO sources substantially enhance near-surface SOA formation, increasing the regional average near-surface SOA concentration by about 46.3 % during the episode. Oxidation and partitioning of primary organic aerosols treated as semi-volatile dominate SOA formation, contributing 58.9 % of the near-surface SOA mass in BTH. Irreversible uptake of glyoxal and methylglyoxal on aerosol surfaces constitutes the second most important SOA formation pathway during the episode, with the SOA contribution increasing from 8.5 % under non-haze conditions to 30.2 % under haze conditions. Additionally, direct emissions of glyoxal and methylglyoxal from residential sources contribute about 25.5 % of the total SOA mass on average in BTH. Our study highlights the importance of heterogeneous HONO sources and primary residential emissions of glyoxal and methylglyoxal to SOA formation over the BTH region in winter.

We release two datasets that track the enhanced landsliding induced by the 2008 Mw 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake over a portion of the Longmen Mountains, at the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau (Sichuan, China). The first dataset is a geo-referenced multi-temporal polygon-based inventory of pre- and coseismic landslides, post-seismic remobilisations of coseismic landslide debris and post-seismic landslides (new failures). It covers 471 km2 in the earthquake's epicentral area, from 2005 to 2018. The second dataset records the debris flows that occurred from 2008 to 2017 in a larger area (∼17 000 km2), together with information on their triggering rainfall as recorded by a network of rain gauges. For some well-monitored events, we provide more detailed data on rainfall, discharge, flow depth and density. The datasets can be used to analyse, on various scales, the patterns of landsliding caused by the earthquake. They can be compared to inventories of landslides triggered by past or new earthquakes or by other triggers to reveal common or distinctive controlling factors. To our knowledge, no other inventories that track the temporal evolution of earthquake-induced mass wasting have been made freely available thus far. Our datasets can be accessed from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1405489. We also encourage other researchers to share their datasets to facilitate research on post-seismic geological hazards.

In the present study, the WRF-Chem model is used to assess contributions of residential coal combustion (RCC) emissions to the air quality in Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) during a persistent air pollution episode from 9 to 25 January 2014. In general, the predicted temporal variations and spatial distributions of the mass concentrations of air pollutants are in good agreement with observations at monitoring sites in BTH. The WRF-Chem model also reasonably reproduces the temporal variations in aerosol species when compared with the aerosol mass spectrometer measurements in Beijing. The RCC emissions play an important role in the haze formation in BTH, contributing about 23.1 % of PM2.5 (fine particulate matter) and 42.6 % of SO2 during the simulation period on average. Organic aerosols dominate the PM2.5 from the RCC emissions in BTH, with a contribution of 42.8 %, followed by sulfate (17.1 %). The air quality in Beijing is remarkably improved when the RCC emissions in BTH and the surrounding areas are excluded in model simulations, with a 30 % decrease in PM2.5 mass concentrations. However, if only the RCC emissions in Beijing are excluded, the local PM2.5 mass concentration is decreased by 18.0 % on average. Our results suggest that the implementation of the residential coal replacement by clean energy sources in Beijing is beneficial to the local air quality. Should residential coal replacement be carried out in BTH and its surrounding areas, the air quality in Beijing would be improved remarkably. Further studies would need to consider uncertainties in the emission inventory and meteorological fields.

The hydro-stochastic interpolation method based on traditional block Kriging has often been used to predict mean annual runoff in river basins. A caveat in such a method is that the statistic technique provides little physical insight into relationships between the runoff and its external forcing, such as the climate and land cover. In this study, the spatial runoff is decomposed into a deterministic trend and deviations from it caused by stochastic fluctuations. The former is described by the Budyko method (Fu's equation) and the latter by stochastic interpolation. This coupled method is applied to spatially interpolate runoff in the Huaihe River basin of China. Results show that the coupled method significantly improves the prediction accuracy of the mean annual runoff. The error of the predicted runoff by the coupled method is much smaller than that from the Budyko method and the hydro-stochastic interpolation method alone. The determination coefficient for cross-validation, Rcv2, from the coupled method is 0.87, larger than 0.81 from the Budyko method and 0.71 from the hydro-stochastic interpolation. Further comparisons indicate that the coupled method has also reduced the error in overestimating low runoff and underestimating high runoff suffered by the other two methods. These results confirm that the coupled method offers an effective and more accurate way to predict the mean annual runoff in river basins.

Abstract Background Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is an immune mediated inflammatory disease of medium and large arteries which afflicts older people. The classical presentation features include: headache, visual disturbances, and jaw claudication. Patients diagnosed with GCA have also been observed to be at higher risk for the subsequent development of strokes. Case presentation We describe a case of an 84-year old right-handed man who presented to hospital with dysarthria, dysphagia, right-sided facial drop, a history of generalized weakness and multiple falls. He was admitted to geriatric medicine with the working diagnosis of a posterior circulation stroke syndrome. He was also started on antibiotic treatment for a possible community-acquired pneumonia because of the presence of a low-grade fever and a chest radiograph showing ill-defined left lower lobe airspace disease. Initial lab results were remarkable for an erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) of 112 mm/h and a C-reactive protein (CRP) level of 110 mg/L consistent with an active inflammatory state. Neurovascular imaging showed mild atherosclerotic changes of the aortic arch and proximal great vessels without significant stenosis. The patient was started on daily high-dose prednisone because of the possibility of a cerebral vasculitis. Bilateral biopsy of temporal arteries showed giant cell arteritis. The patient’s neurologic status and inflammatory markers significantly improved (ESR 52 mm/h, CRP 7.0 mg/L) and he was eventually discharged to a seniors home with services. Conclusion The initial presentation of giant cell arteritis as a stroke syndrome, especially in the posterior circulation territory, is exceedingly rare. Other atypical presenting symptoms may include chronic cough and fever of unknown origin. The elevated ESR and CRP levels were clues to the diagnosis and clinical decision-making should be driven by a high index of suspicion since no single test (ESR, CRP, temporal artery biopsy) has perfect sensitivity. Elevated CRP may have a role in increasing stroke risk. This case report illustrates that in older people clinicians must consider atypical presentations of disease more often since timely diagnosis and initiation of treatment can result in optimal outcomes.

A novel reduced order model (ROM) for unsteady hypersonic aerodynamics is developed, which is applicable for the variations of multi-parameters. The key to the developed ROM lies in the CFD-based model reduction of the steady aerodynamic component, which stems from the quasi-steady nature of aerodynamic forces in the hypersonic regime. Concretely, the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) method, combined with Kriging interpolation, is used to construct the ROM for the steady aerodynamic component; meanwhile the unsteady part is directly obtained from Donov’s third-order piston theory. The new procedure is applied to a three-dimensional low aspect ratio wing (Lockheed F-104 Starfighter wing). It is shown that the developed ROM is able to accurately predict the unsteady hypersonic aerodynamic loads over a wide range of different flight conditions compared with the direct CFD computation.

There is increasing concern about the effects of ocean acidification on marine biogeochemical and ecological processes and the organisms that drive them, including marine bacteria. Here, we examine the effects of elevated CO2 on the bacterioplankton community during a mesocosm experiment using an artificial phytoplankton community in subtropical, eutrophic coastal waters of Xiamen, southern China. Through sequencing the bacterial 16S rRNA gene V3-V4 region, we found that the bacterioplankton community in this high-nutrient coastal environment was relatively resilient to changes in seawater carbonate chemistry. Based on comparative ecological network analysis, we found that elevated CO2 hardly altered the network structure of high-abundance bacterioplankton taxa but appeared to reassemble the community network of low abundance taxa. This led to relatively high resilience of the whole bacterioplankton community to the elevated CO2 level and associated chemical changes. We also observed that the Flavobacteria group, which plays an important role in the microbial carbon pump, showed higher relative abundance under the elevated CO2 condition during the early stage of the phytoplankton bloom in the mesocosms. Our results provide new insights into how elevated CO2 may influence bacterioplankton community structure.

In the present study, a persistent heavy haze episode from 13 to 20 January 2014 in Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) is simulated using the WRF-CHEM model through ensemble simulations to investigate impacts of meteorological uncertainties on the haze formation. Model results show that uncertainties in meteorological conditions substantially influence the aerosol constituent simulations at an observation site in Beijing, and the ratio of the ensemble spread to the ensemble mean (RESM) exceeds 50 %. The ensemble mean generally preforms well in reproducing the fine particles' (PM2.5) temporal variations and spatial distributions against measurements in BTH. The meteorological uncertainties do not alter the PM2.5 distribution pattern in BTH principally or dominate the haze formation and development, but remarkably affect the simulated PM2.5 level, and the RESM for the simulated PM2.5 concentrations can be up to 30 % at the regional scale. In addition, the rather large RESM in PM2.5 simulations at the city scale also causes difficulties in evaluation of the control strategies. Therefore, our results suggest that the ensemble simulation is imperative to take into account the impact of the meteorological uncertainties on the haze prediction.

Rock avalanches are extremely rapid, massive flow-like movements of fragmented rock. The travel path of the rock avalanches may be confined by channels in some cases, which are referred to as channelized rock avalanches. Channelized rock avalanches are potentially dangerous due to their difficult-to-predict travel distance. In this study, we constructed a dataset with detailed characteristic parameters of 38 channelized rock avalanches triggered by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake using the visual interpretation of remote sensing imagery, field investigation and literature review. Based on this dataset, we assessed the influence of different factors on the runout distance and developed prediction models of the channelized rock avalanches using the multivariate regression method. The results suggested that the movement of channelized rock avalanche was dominated by the landslide volume, total relief and channel gradient. The performance of both models was then tested with an independent validation dataset of eight rock avalanches that were induced by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, the Ms 7.0 Lushan earthquake and heavy rainfall in 2013, showing acceptable good prediction results. Therefore, the travel-distance prediction models for channelized rock avalanches constructed in this study are applicable and reliable for predicting the runout of similar rock avalanches in other regions.

Black carbon (BC) has important impact on climate and environment due to its light absorption ability, which greatly depends on its physicochemical properties including morphology, size and mixing state. The size distribution of the refractory BC (rBC) was investigated in urban Beijing in the late winter of 2014, during which there were frequent haze events, through analysis of measurements obtained using a single-particle soot photometer (SP2). By assuming void-free rBC with a density of 1.8 g cm−3, the mass of the rBC showed an approximately lognormal distribution as a function of the volume-equivalent diameter (VED), with a peak diameter of 213 nm. Larger VED values of the rBC were observed during polluted periods than on clean days, implying an alteration in the rBC sources, as the size distribution of the rBC from a certain source was relative stable, and VED of an individual rBC varied little once it was emitted into the atmosphere. The potential source contribution function analysis showed that air masses from the south to east of the observation site brought higher rBC loadings with more thick coatings and larger core sizes. The mean VED of the rBC presented a significant linear correlation with the number fraction of thickly coated rBC, extrapolating to be ∼ 150 nm for the completely non-coated or thinly coated rBC. It was considered as the typical mean VED of the rBC from local traffic sources in this study. Local traffic was estimated to contribute 35 to 100 % of the hourly rBC mass concentration with a mean of 59 % during the campaign. Lower local traffic contributions were observed during polluted periods, suggesting increasing contributions from other sources (e.g., coal combustion and biomass burning) to the rBC. Thus, the heavy pollution in Beijing was greatly influenced by other sources in addition to the local traffic.

Rapid industrialization and urbanization have caused frequent occurrence of haze in China during wintertime in recent years. The sulfate aerosol is one of the most important components of fine particles (PM2. 5) in the atmosphere, contributing significantly to the haze formation. However, the heterogeneous formation mechanism of sulfate remains poorly characterized. The relationships of the observed sulfate with PM2. 5, iron, and relative humidity in Xi'an, China have been employed to evaluate the mechanism and to develop a parameterization of the sulfate heterogeneous formation involving aerosol water for incorporation into atmospheric chemical transport models. Model simulations with the proposed parameterization can successfully reproduce the observed sulfate rapid growth and diurnal variations in Xi'an and Beijing, China. Reasonable representation of sulfate heterogeneous formation in chemical transport models considerably improves the PM2. 5 simulations, providing the underlying basis for better understanding the haze formation and supporting the design and implementation of emission control strategies.

In the present study, the WRF-CHEM model is used to evaluate the contributions of trans-boundary transport to the air quality in Beijing during a persistent air pollution episode from 5 to 14 July 2015 in Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH), China. Generally, the predicted temporal variations and spatial distributions of PM2.5 (fine particulate matter), O3 (ozone), and NO2 are in good agreement with observations in BTH. The WRF-CHEM model also reproduces reasonably well the temporal variations of aerosol species compared to measurements in Beijing. The factor separation approach is employed to evaluate the contributions of trans-boundary transport of non-Beijing emissions to the PM2.5 and O3 levels in Beijing. On average, in the afternoon during the simulation episode, the local emissions contribute 22.4 % to the O3 level in Beijing, less than 36.6 % from non-Beijing emissions. The O3 concentrations in Beijing are decreased by 5.1 % in the afternoon due to interactions between local and non-Beijing emissions. The non-Beijing emissions play a dominant role in the PM2.5 level in Beijing, with a contribution of 61.5 %, much higher than 13.7 %, from Beijing local emissions. The emission interactions between local and non-Beijing emissions enhance the PM2.5 concentrations in Beijing, with a contribution of 5.9 %. Therefore, the air quality in Beijing is generally determined by the trans-boundary transport of non-Beijing emissions during summertime, showing that the cooperation with neighboring provinces to mitigate pollutant emissions is key for Beijing to improve air quality.

About 18 years ago, a large-scale discontinuous layer in properties and colour was found in the new Fengjie town at the shore of the Three Gorges Reservoir area in China. There are many resettled residents and buildings on the sloping area, the safety of which is potentially affected by this layer, so it has become the focus of attention. Before this study started there were two viewpoints regarding the origin of this layer. One was that is was from a huge ancient slide and the other was that is was from a fault graben. In order to find out how it was formed and to be able to carry out a stability analysis of the slope the authors have carried out a research program, including geological field investigations and mapping, a deep drilling hole, a geotechnical centrifuge model test, and a simulation analysis. The results of the research led to the conclusion that the layer is the sliding plane of a huge deep-seated ancient rock slide, which we called the Sanmashan landslide. An important argument for the conclusion is the recognition of a regional compressive tectonic stress field in this area, which cannot lead to the formation of a fault graben because it needs a tensional tectonic stress field. Moreover, numerous unique geological features, sliding marks, and other relics of the ancient slide have been discovered in the field. The formation process of the ancient slide could be repeated in a large geotechnical centrifuge model test. The test shows that a deformation and failure process of "creep–crack–cut" has occurred. The type of the ancient slide can be classified as a "successive rotational rock slide". Finally, the role of seepage in the stability of the Sanmashan landslide has been analysed. Our final conclusions are that, during rainfall and filling–drawdown cycles in the Three Gorges Reservoir, the Sanmashan landslide as a whole is dormant and stable and the secondary landslides in the toe area of the slope are presently stable but can be reactivated. This research provides an important basis for the remedial measures and land use planning in the new Fengjie town, and a well-documented case history for researchers worldwide.

With the provincial statistical data and crop field burning (CFB) activities captured by Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), we extracted a detailed CFB emission inventory in the North China Plain (NCP). The WRF-CHEM model was applied to investigate the impact of CFB on air pollution during the period from 6 to 12 October 2014, corresponding to a heavy haze incident with high concentrations of PM2.5 (particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 µm). The WRF-CHEM model generally performed well in simulating the surface species concentrations of PM2.5, O3 and NO2 compared to the observations; in addition, it reasonably reproduced the observed temporal variations of wind speed, wind direction and planetary boundary layer height (PBLH). It was found that the CFB that occurred in southern NCP (SNCP) had a significant effect on PM2.5 concentrations locally, causing a maximum of 34 % PM2.5 increase. Under continuous southerly wind conditions, the CFB pollution plume went through a long-range transport to northern NCP (NNCP; with several mega cities, including Beijing, the capital city of China), where few CFBs occurred, resulting in a maximum of 32 % PM2.5 increase. As a result, the heavy haze in Beijing was enhanced by the CFB, which occurred in SNCP. Mountains also play significant roles in enhancing the PM2.5 pollution in NNCP through the blocking effect. The mountains blocked and redirected the airflows, causing the pollutant accumulations along the foothills of mountains. This study suggests that the prohibition of CFB should be strict not only in or around Beijing, but also on the ulterior crop growth areas of SNCP. PM2.5 emissions in SNCP should be significantly limited in order to reduce the occurrences of heavy haze events in the NNCP region.

Vehicle emissions containing air pollutants created substantial environmental impacts on air quality for many traffic-populated cities in eastern Asia. A high-resolution emission inventory is a useful tool compared with traditional tools (e.g. registration data-based approach) to accurately evaluate real-world traffic dynamics and their environmental burden. In this study, Macau, one of the most populated cities in the world, is selected to demonstrate a high-resolution simulation of vehicular emissions and their contribution to air pollutant concentrations by coupling multimodels. First, traffic volumes by vehicle category on 47 typical roads were investigated during weekdays in 2010 and further applied in a networking demand simulation with the TransCAD model to establish hourly profiles of link-level vehicle counts. Local vehicle driving speed and vehicle age distribution data were also collected in Macau. Second, based on a localized vehicle emission model (e.g. the emission factor model for the Beijing vehicle fleet – Macau, EMBEV–Macau), this study established a link-based vehicle emission inventory in Macau with high resolution meshed in a temporal and spatial framework. Furthermore, we employed the AERMOD (AMS/EPA Regulatory Model) model to map concentrations of CO and primary PM2.5 contributed by local vehicle emissions during weekdays in November 2010. This study has discerned the strong impact of traffic flow dynamics on the temporal and spatial patterns of vehicle emissions, such as a geographic discrepancy of spatial allocation up to 26 % between THC and PM2.5 emissions owing to spatially heterogeneous vehicle-use intensity between motorcycles and diesel fleets. We also identified that the estimated CO2 emissions from gasoline vehicles agreed well with the statistical fuel consumption in Macau. Therefore, this paper provides a case study and a solid framework for developing high-resolution environment assessment tools for other vehicle-populated cities in eastern Asia.

The aim of this study is to investigate the seasonal variations in the physicochemical properties of atmospheric ultra-fine particles (UFPs, d ≤ 100 nm) and submicron particles (PM1, d ≤ 1 µm) in an east Asian urban area, which are hypothesized to be affected by the interchange of summer and winter monsoons. An observation experiment was conducted at TARO (Taipei Aerosol and Radiation Observatory), an urban aerosol station in Taipei, Taiwan, from October 2012 to August 2013. The measurements included the mass concentration and chemical composition of UFPs and PM1, as well as the particle number concentration (PNC) and the particle number size distribution (PSD) with size range of 4–736 nm. The results indicated that the mass concentration of PM1 was elevated during cold seasons with a peak level of 18.5 µg m−3 in spring, whereas the highest concentration of UFPs was measured in summertime with a mean of 1.64 µg m−3. Moreover, chemical analysis revealed that the UFPs and PM1 were characterized by distinct composition; UFPs were composed mostly of organics, whereas ammonium and sulfate were the major constituents of PM1. The seasonal median of total PNCs ranged from 13.9 × 103 cm−3 in autumn to 19.4 × 103 cm−3 in spring. Median concentrations for respective size distribution modes peaked in different seasons. The nucleation-mode PNC (N4 − 25) peaked at 11.6 × 103 cm−3 in winter, whereas the Aitken-mode (N25 − 100) and accumulation-mode (N100 − 736) PNC exhibited summer maxima at 6.0 × 103 and 3.1 × 103 cm−3, respectively. The change in PSD during summertime was attributed to the enhancement in the photochemical production of condensable organic matter that, in turn, contributed to the growth of aerosol particles in the atmosphere. In addition, clear photochemical production of particles was observed, mostly in the summer season, which was characterized by average particle growth and formation rates of 4.0 ± 1.1 nm h−1 and 1.4 ± 0.8 cm−3 s−1, respectively. The prevalence of new particle formation (NPF) in summer was suggested as a result of seasonally enhanced photochemical oxidation of SO2 that contributed to the production of H2SO4, and a low level of PM10 (d ≤ 10 µm) that served as the condensation sink. Regarding the sources of aerosol particles, correlation analysis of the PNCs against NOx revealed that the local vehicular exhaust was the dominant contributor of the UFPs throughout the year. Conversely, the Asian pollution outbreaks had significant influence in the PNC of accumulation-mode particles during the seasons of winter monsoons. The results of this study implied the significance of secondary organic aerosols in the seasonal variations of UFPs and the influences of continental pollution outbreaks in the downwind areas of Asian outflows.

Resistive switching of W/amorphous (a)-SiOxCy:H/Cu resistive memories incorporating solely native back-end-of-line (BEOL) materials were studied. A-SiC1.1:H, a-SiO0.9C0.7:H, and a-SiO1.5C0.2:H were exploited as switching layers for resistive memories which all show resistive-switching characteristics with ultrahigh ON/OFF ratios in the range of 106 to 1010. Ohmic conduction in the low resistance state is attributed to the formation of Cu conductive filament inside the a-SiOxCy:H switching layer. Rupture of the conductive filament leads to current conduction dominated by Schottky emission through a-SiOxCy:H Schottky contacts. Comparison of the switching characteristics suggests composition of the a-SiOxCy:H has influences on VFORM and VSET, and current conduction mechanisms. These results demonstrate the capability to achieve functional W/a-SiOxCy:H/Cu using entirely BEOL native materials for future embedded resistive memories.

The occurrence of climate warming is unequivocal, and is expected to be experienced through increases in the magnitude and frequency of extreme events, including flooding. This paper presents an analysis of the implications of climate change on the future flood hazard in the Beijiang River basin in South China, using a variable infiltration capacity (VIC) model. Uncertainty is considered by employing five global climate models (GCMs), three emission scenarios (representative concentration pathway (RCP) 2.6, RCP4.5, and RCP8.5), 10 downscaling simulations for each emission scenario, and two stages of future periods (2020–2050, 2050–2080). Credibility of the projected changes in floods is described using an uncertainty expression approach, as recommended by the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The results suggest that the VIC model shows a good performance in simulating extreme floods, with a daily runoff Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient (NSE) of 0.91. The GCMs and emission scenarios are a large source of uncertainty in predictions of future floods over the study region, although the overall uncertainty range for changes in historical extreme precipitation and flood magnitudes are well represented by the five GCMs. During the periods 2020–2050 and 2050–2080, annual maximum 1-day discharges (AMX1d) and annual maximum 7-day flood volumes (AMX7fv) are expected to show very similar trends, with the largest possibility of increasing trends occurring under the RCP2.6 scenario, and the smallest possibility of increasing trends under the RCP4.5 scenario. The projected ranges of AMX1d and AMX7fv show relatively large variability under different future scenarios in the five GCMs, but most project an increase during the two future periods (relative to the baseline period 1970–2000).

Pure culture studies have demonstrated that methanotrophs and ammonia oxidizers can both carry out the oxidation of methane and ammonia. However, the expected interactions resulting from these similarities are poorly understood, especially in complex, natural environments. Using DNA-based stable isotope probing and pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA and functional genes, we report on biogeochemical and molecular evidence for growth stimulation of methanotrophic communities by ammonium fertilization, and that methane modulates nitrogen cycling by competitive inhibition of nitrifying communities in a rice paddy soil. Pairwise comparison between microcosms amended with CH4, CH4+Urea, and Urea indicated that urea fertilization stimulated methane oxidation activity 6-fold during a 19-day incubation period, while ammonia oxidation activity was significantly suppressed in the presence of CH4. Pyrosequencing of the total 16S rRNA genes revealed that urea amendment resulted in rapid growth of Methylosarcina-like MOB, and nitrifying communities appeared to be partially inhibited by methane. High-throughput sequencing of the 13C-labeled DNA further revealed that methane amendment resulted in clear growth of Methylosarcina-related MOB while methane plus urea led to an equal increase in Methylosarcina and Methylobacter-related type Ia MOB, indicating the differential growth requirements of representatives of these genera. An increase in 13C assimilation by microorganisms related to methanol oxidizers clearly indicated carbon transfer from methane oxidation to other soil microbes, which was enhanced by urea addition. The active growth of type Ia methanotrops was significantly stimulated by urea amendment, and the pronounced growth of methanol-oxidizing bacteria occurred in CH4-treated microcosms only upon urea amendment. Methane addition partially inhibited the growth of Nitrosospira and Nitrosomonas in urea-amended microcosms, as well as growth of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria. These results suggest that type I methanotrophs can outcompete type II methane oxidizers in nitrogen-rich environments, rendering the interactions among methane and ammonia oxidizers more complicated than previously appreciated.

An intensive aerosol characterization experiment was performed at the Taipei Aerosol and Radiation Observatory (TARO, 25.02° N, 121.53° E) in the urban area of Taipei, Taiwan, during July 2012. Number concentration and size distribution of aerosol particles were measured continuously, which were accompanied by concurrent measurements of mass concentration of submicron particles, PM1 (d ≤ 1 μm), and photolysis rate of ozone, J(O1D). The averaged number concentrations of total (Ntotal), accumulation mode (Nacu), Aitken mode (NAitken), and nucleation mode (Nnuc) particles were 13.9 × 103 cm−3, 1.2 × 103 cm−3, 6.1 × 103 cm−3, and 6.6 × 103 cm−3, respectively. Accordingly, the ultrafine particles (UFPs, d ≤ 100 nm) accounted for 91% of the total number concentration of particles measured in this study (10 ≤ d ≤ 429 nm), indicating the importance of UFPs to the air quality and radiation budget in Taipei and its surrounding areas. An averaged Nnuc / NOx ratio of 192.4 cm−3 ppbv−1 was derived from nighttime measurements, which was suggested to be the characteristic of vehicle emissions that contributed to the "urban background" of nucleation mode particles throughout a day. On the contrary, it was found that the number concentration of nucleation mode particles was independent of NOx and could be elevated up to 10 times of the "urban background" levels during daytime, suggesting a substantial amount of nucleation mode particles produced from photochemical processes. Averages (± 1σ) of the diameter growth rate (GR) and formation rate of nucleation mode particles, J10, were 11.9 ± 10.6 nm h−1 and 6.9 ± 3.0 cm−3 s−1, respectively. Consistency in the time series of the nucleation mode particle concentration and the proxy of H2SO4 production, UVB · SO2/CS, for new particle formation (NPF) events suggested that photooxidation of SO2 was likely one of the major mechanisms for the formation of new particles in our study area. Moreover, it was revealed that the particle growth rate correlated exponentially with the photolysis of ozone, implying that the condensable vapors were produced mostly from photooxidation reactions. In addition, this study also revealed that Nnuc exhibited a quadratic relationship with J10. The quadratic relationship was inferred as a result of aerosol dynamics and featured NPF processes in urban areas.

Abrupt drought–flood change events caused by atmospheric circulation anomalies have occurred frequently and widely in recent years, which has caused great losses and casualties in China. In this paper, we focus on investigating whether there will be a rainfall occurrence with higher intensity after a drought period in the Huang–Huai–Hai River basin. Combined with the Chinese climate divisions and the basin's DEM (digital elevation model), the basin is divided into seven sub-regions by means of cluster analysis of the basin meteorological stations using the self-organizing map (SOM) neural network method. Based on the daily precipitation data of 171 stations for the years 1961–2011, the changes of drought times with different magnitudes are analyzed, and the number of consecutive days without precipitation is used to identify the drought magnitudes. The first precipitation intensity after a drought period is analyzed with the Pearson-III frequency curve, then the relationship between rainfall intensity and different drought magnitudes is observed, as are the changes of drought times for different years. The results of the study indicated that the occurrence times of different drought levels show an overall increasing trend; there is no clear interdecadal change shown, but the spatial difference is significant. (2) As the drought level increases, the probability of extraordinary rainstorm becomes lower, and the frequency of occurrence of spatial changes in different precipitation intensities vary. In the areas I and II, as the drought level increases, the occurrence frequency of different precipitation intensities first shows a decreasing trend, which becomes an increasing trend when extraordinary drought occurs. In the area III, IV and V, the probability of the different precipitation intensities shows an overall decreasing trend. The areas VI and VII are located at the mountains with high altitudes where the variation of different precipitation intensities with the increase in drought level is relatively complex. (3) As the drought times increase, areas I, II and V, which are located on the coastal and in the valley or basin, are vulnerable to extreme precipitation processes; areas III, IV, VI and VII are located in the inland area, where heavier precipitation is not likely to occur. (4) The local rainfall affected by multiple factors is closely related with drought occurrence. The characteristics between the first rainfall intensity after a drought period and different drought magnitudes (or drought occurrence times) are preliminarily examined in this paper, but its formation mechanism still requires further research.

The length–weight relations (LWR) were estimated for 20 fish species from the Pearl River, South China. A total of 3610 specimens representing 10 families were used to estimate the relation parameters. The b values in the LWR (W = aLb) ranged from 2.068 for Odontamblyopus lacepedii (Temminck et Schlegel, 1845) to 3.423 for Pseudogobius javanicus (Bleeker, 1856). The LWR with high coefficient of determination (r2) is significant for all the species. The r2 value ranged from 0.919 to 0.993. This study presents the first reference on length–weight relations for 7 species and new records of maximum total length for 6 species. The results may be helpful in future fisheries studies in this area.

This study is focused on the modification of a typhoon rainfall climatological model, by using the dataset up to 2006 and including data collected from rain gauge stations established after the 921 earthquake (1999). Subsequently, the climatology rainfall models for westward- and northward-moving typhoons are established by using the typhoon track classification from the Central Weather Bureau. These models are also evaluated and examined using dependent cases collected between 1989 and 2006 and independent cases collected from 2007 to 2011. For the dependent cases, the average total rainfall at all rain gauge stations forecasted using the climatology rainfall models for westward- (W-TRCM12) and northward-moving (N-TRCM12) typhoons is superior to that obtained using the original climatological model (TRCM06). Model W-TRCM12 significantly improves the precipitation underestimation of model TRCM06. The independent cases show that model W-TRCM12 provides better accumulated rainfall forecasts and distributions than model TRCM06. A climatological model for accompanied northeastern monsoons (A-TRCM12) for special typhoon types has also been established. The current A-TRCM12 model only contains five historical cases and various typhoon combinations can cause precipitation in different regions. Therefore, precipitation is likely to be significantly overestimated and high false alarm ratios are likely to occur in specific regions. For example, model A-TRCM12 significantly overestimates the rainfall forecast for Typhoon Mitag, an independent case from 2007. However, it has a higher probability of detection than model TRCM06. From a disaster prevention perspective, a high probability of detection is much more important than a high false alarm ratio. The modified models can contribute significantly to operational forecast.

Aberration corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy is used to directly observe atom columns in an epitaxial BaTiO3 thin film deposited on a 3.6 nm-thick SrRuO3 electrode layer above an SrTiO3 (001) substrate. Compositional gradients across the heterointerfaces were examined using electron energy-loss spectroscopy techniques. It was found that a small amount of Ba and Ti had diffused into the SrRuO3 layer, and that this layer contained a non-negligible concentration of oxygen vacancies. Such point defects are expected to degrade the electrode’s electronic conductivity drastically, resulting in a much longer screening length. This may explain the discrepancy between experimental measurements and theoretical estimates of the ferroelectric critical thickness of a BaTiO3 ferroelectric barrier sandwiched between metallic SrRuO3 electrodes, since theoretical calculations generally assume ideal (stoichiometric) perovskite SrRuO3.

Three-dimensional measurement and reconstruction during conservation and restoration of cultural relics have become an essential part of a modem museum regular work. Although many kinds of methods including laser scanning, computer vision and close-range photogrammetry have been put forward, but problems still exist, such as contradiction between cost and good result, time and fine effect. Aimed at these problems, this paper proposed a structure-light based method for 3D measurement and reconstruction of cultural relics in museums. Firstly, based on structure-light principle, digitalization hardware has been built and with its help, dense point cloud of cultural relics' surface can be easily acquired. To produce accurate 3D geometry model from point cloud data, multi processing algorithms have been developed and corresponding software has been implemented whose functions include blunder detection and removal, point cloud alignment and merge, 3D mesh construction and simplification. Finally, high-resolution images are captured and the alignment of these images and 3D geometry model is conducted and realistic, accurate 3D model is constructed. Based on such method, a complete system including hardware and software are built. Multi-kinds of cultural relics have been used to test this method and results prove its own feature such as high efficiency, high accuracy, easy operation and so on.

Due to the Central Mountain Range with an elevation up to about 4 km, the amount and distribution of rainfall in Taiwan associated with typhoons or tropical cyclones (TCs) depends not only on the distribution of convection within the TCs (internal structure) and influences from monsoon-scale environmental flow, but also on the orographic effect. This study analyzes the spatial and temporal characteristics of rainfall associated with 62 TC cases that affected Taiwan by using observations from the 371 automatic rain stations available in the period 1989–2002. It is found from the climatology maps that highly different rainfall distributions occurred for TCs that approached the Taiwan area from different directions. By performing objective clustering analysis of the rainfall time series of all the rain gauges, several characteristic temporal rainfall profiles are obtained. The geographic distribution of rain gauges that possess a particular temporal profile is also consistent with the possible TC track types that bring maximum rain to the Taiwan area at different times. Based on data in the 1989–2002 period, the development of a TC rainfall climatology-persistence (CLIPER) model is described. CLIPER is an optimized combination of climatology and persistence with different relative weighting for different forecast periods. Independent cases (other than the model development database) during 2003–2004 are used to validate the model. Objective measures like equitable threat score and bias score show that CLIPER's skill is acceptable for practical applications for 24-h rain threshold below 100 mm. However, the underestimation bias for more heavy rainfall is serious and CLIPER seems to have better performance for the northwestern Taiwan than for the other locations. Future directions for improvement of the CLIPER model are discussed.