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Abstract Paradoxically, cigarette smoking is associated with a reduced risk of Parkinson’s Disease (PD). This led us to hypothesize that carbon monoxide (CO) levels, which are constitutively but modestly elevated in smokers, might contribute to neuroprotection. Using rodent models of PD based on α-synuclein (αSyn) accumulation and oxidative stress, we show that low-dose CO mitigates neurodegeneration and reduces αSyn pathology. Oral CO administration activated signaling cascades mediated by heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), which have been implicated in limiting oxidative stress, and in promoting αSyn degradation, thereby conferring neuroprotection. Consistent with the neuroprotective effect of smoking, HO-1 levels in cerebrospinal fluid were higher in human smokers compared to nonsmokers. Moreover, in PD brain samples, HO-1 levels were higher in neurons without αSyn pathology. Thus, CO in rodent PD models reduces pathology and increases oxidative stress responses, phenocopying possible protective effects of smoking evident in PD patients. These data highlight the potential for low-dose CO-modulated pathways to slow symptom onset and limit pathology in PD patients.

Due to a high spatial angle resolution and low circuit cost of massive hybrid analog and digital (HAD) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO), it is viewed as a valuable green communication technology for future wireless networks. Integrating the massive HAD-MIMO with direction of arrival (DOA) will provide an even ultra-high performance of DOA measurement, which can the fully-digital (FD) MIMO. However, phase ambiguity is a challenge issue for a massive HAD-MIMO DOA estimation. In this paper, we consider three parts: detection, estimation, and Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB). First, a multi-layer-neural-network (MLNN) detector is proposed to infer the existence of emitters. Then, a two-layer HAD (TLHAD) MIMO structure is proposed to estimate the DOA and eliminate phase ambiguity using only one time block. Simulation results show that the proposed MLNN detector is much better than both the existing generalized likelihood ratio test (GRLT) and the ratio of maximum eigen-value (Max-EV) to minimum eigen-value (R-MaxEV-MinEV) in terms of detection probability. Additionally, the proposed TLHAD structure can achieve the corresponding CRLB.

Biochar amendment have been explored recently for improving hydro-mechanical properties of landfill cover system and enhancing the vegetation for the ecological restoration of post closure landfills. Existing studies have predominantly focused on the hydro-mechanical properties of biochar-amended rooted soils and yet few studies have comprehensively investigated their gas permeability functions in response to unsaturated conditions. The objective of this study is to experimentally and theoretically investigate the coupled effects of biochar and root intensity on CO2 gas permeability in unsaturated soil. Biochar-amended rooted soil was prepared by growing Chrysopogon zizanioides on granite residual soils with biochar at a mas ratio of 5 %. Gas permeability and unsaturated soil properties (i.e., suction and degree of saturation) were monitored simultaneously. Due to the presence of roots, the maximum gas permeability, hydraulic conductivity, and suction increased by 200 %, 600 %, and 50 %, respectively, compared with bare soil. This was attributed to preferential flow, micropore increasement and negative pressure induced by root growth. However, biochar addition decreased the maximum gas permeability and hydraulic conductivity by 21 % and 33 %, respectively. This was attributed to the pore filling function of biochar, increased capillarity due to intrapore of biochar, and presence of surface functional groups in biochar promoting CO2 adsorption. A newly developed model was proposed to predict gas permeability with respected to unsaturated soil properties. It was revealed that the gas permeability function of rooted soils showed a strong dependence on the measured root length density. This study highlights the significance of adopting biochar in mitigation of gas emissions in vegetated landfill cover system.

Exotic quantum states can be advantageous for sensing, but are very fragile, so that some form of quantum error correction is needed. Here, the authors show how approximate QEC helps overcoming decoherence due to noise when measuring the excitation population of a receiver mode in a superconducting circuit.

The results of this study showed that the single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) sites of the PRL and PRLR genes have a certain association with the milk production performance, body size and cashmere performance of Liaoning cashmere goats (LCGs). Through our designed experiment, the potential SNPs of LCG were detected by sequence alignment, and two SNPs were found on two genes. The CC genotype of the PRL gene is the dominant genotype among the three genotypes. The GG genotype of the PRLR gene is the dominant genotype among the two genotypes. At the same time, the two genotypes also have good performance in cashmere production and body size. Through the screening of haplotype combination, the milk fat rate > 7.6 %, the milk protein rate > 5.6 %, the milk somatic cell number < 1500 × 103 mL−1, the cashmere fineness < 15.75 µm, the chest girth > 105 cm, the chest depth > 33 cm, and the waist height > 67.5 cm are considered as screening indexes for comprehensive production performance of Liaoning cashmere goats. It is concluded that the GCGC type is the dominant haplotype combination. According to our research data, we found that the biological indicators of Liaoning cashmere goat milk are higher than the national standards, so we think it is very significant to study the milk production performance of our experiment. Further research can be done on goat milk production and body conformation traits around PRL gene and PRLR gene.

The amount of water vapor in the atmosphere is very small, but its content varies greatly in different humidity areas. The change in water vapor will affect the transmission of microwave link signals, and most of the water vapor is concentrated in the lower layer, so the water vapor density can be measured by the change in the near-ground microwave link transmission signal. This study collected 1-year data of the E-band millimeter wave link in Hebei, China, and used a model based on the International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) to estimate the water vapor density. An improved method of extracting the water-vapor-induced attenuation value is also introduced. It has a higher time resolution, and the estimation error is lower than the previous method. In addition, this paper conducts the seasonal analysis of water vapor inversion for the first time. The monthly and seasonal evaluation index results show a high correlation between the retrieved water vapor density and the actual water vapor density value measured by the local weather station. The correlation value for the whole year is up to 0.95, the root mean square error is as low as 0.35 g m−3, and the average relative error is as low as 5.00 %. Compared with European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) reanalysis, the correlation of the daily water vapor density estimation of the link has increased by 0.17, the root mean square error has been reduced by 3.14 g m−3, and the mean relative error has been reduced by 34.00 %. This research shows that millimeter wave backhaul link provides high-precision data for the measurement of water vapor density and has a positive effect on future weather forecast research.

Eastern China (EC), located in the downstream region of the Tibetan Plateau (TP), is a large area with frequent haze pollution. In addition to air pollutant emissions, meteorological conditions are a key inducement for air pollution episodes. Based on the study of the Great Smog of London in 1952 and haze pollution in EC over recent decades, it is found that the abnormal “warm cover” (air–temperature anomalies) in the middle troposphere, as a precursory strong signal, could be connected to severe air pollution events. The convection and vertical diffusion in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) were suppressed by a relatively stable structure of warm cover in the middle troposphere leading to ABL height decreases, which were favorable for the accumulation of air pollutants in the ambient atmosphere. The anomalous structure of the troposphere's warm cover not only exist in heavy haze pollution on the daily scale, but also provide seasonal, interannual and interdecadal strong signals for frequently occurring regional haze pollution. It is revealed that a close relationship existed between interannual variations of the TP's heat source and the warm cover strong signal in the middle troposphere over EC. The warming TP could lead to anomalous warm cover in the middle troposphere from the plateau to the downstream EC region and even the entire East Asian region, thus causing frequent winter haze pollution in EC region.

Abstract When Caribbean long-spined sea urchins, Diadema antillarum, are stable at high population densities, their grazing facilitates scleractinian coral dominance. Today, populations remain suppressed after a mass mortality in 1983–1984 caused a loss of their ecosystem functions, and led to widespread declines in ecosystem health. This study provides three lines of evidence to support the assertion that a lack of habitat complexity on Caribbean coral reefs contributes to their recovery failure. Firstly, we extracted fractal dimension (D) measurements, used as a proxy for habitat complexity, from 3D models to demonstrate that urchins preferentially inhabit areas of above average complexity at ecologically relevant spatial scales. Secondly, controlled behaviour experiments showed that an energetically expensive predator avoidance behaviour is reduced by 52% in complex habitats, potentially enabling increased resource allocation to reproduction. Thirdly, we deployed a network of simple and cost-effective artificial structures on a heavily degraded reef system in Honduras. Over a 24-month period the adult D. antillarum population around the artificial reefs increased by 320% from 0.05 ± 0.01 to 0.21 ± 0.04 m−2 and the juvenile D. antillarum population increased by 750% from 0.08 ± 0.02 to 0.68 ± 0.07 m−2. This study emphasises the important role of habitat structure in the ecology of D. antillarum and as a barrier to its widespread recovery.

Surveying and mapping plays an important role in all aspects of economic development, national infrastructure construction and national defence construction. Especially in the overall and strategic level, most of them need to apply geospatial information. Geospatial information acquired through surveying and mapping technology has become an important strategic resource. Because space photography is faster, cheaper and unrestricted by regions and borders, countries around the world are scrambling to develop their own mapping satellites.In recent years, great breakthrough has been made in the field of on-board optical stereo mapping, many countries have launched satellites with surveying and mapping as the main function, and obtained image data from 1:50000 to 1:10000 scale. This paper describes a design of a stereo surveying and mapping camera system that can achieve 1:10000 scale maps.

The increasing demand for natural products is currently transforming the meat industry, making grass-fed and finished beef a valuable option for improving profits. However, the transformation of conventional operations to grass-fed systems comprises many modifications, such as logistical, technological, and financial that could be very complex and expensive, involving economic risk. Therefore, in this study, we analyzed the growth curve, critical economic traits, and carcass quality and finished characteristics over several consecutive years in closely related grass-fed and finished Angus steers, to reduce the genetic effect on the results. We found that grass-fed steers require around 188 additional days to reach the market weight (approx. 470 kg) and had approximately 70% less average daily gain compared to the grain-fed and finished steers. Regression analysis demonstrated an interaction between feed and age (P

Reaching a quantum advantage in metrology usually requires hard-to-prepare two-mode entangled states such as NOON states. Here, instead, the authors demonstrate single-mode phase estimation using Fock states superpositions in a superconducting qubit-oscillator system.

Utilizing a recent observational dataset of particulate matter with diameters less than 2.5 µm (PM2.5) in North China, this study reveals a distinct seesaw feature of abnormally high and low PM2.5 concentrations in the adjacent two months of December 2015 and January 2016, accompanied by distinct meteorological modulations. The seesaw pattern is postulated to be linked to a super El Niño and the Arctic Oscillation (AO). During the mature phase of El Niño in December 2015, the weakened East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM) and the associated low-level southerly wind anomaly reduced planetary boundary layer (PBL) height, favoring strong haze formation. This circulation pattern was completely reversed in the following month, in part due to a sudden phase change of the AO from positive to negative and the beginning of a decay of the El Niño, which enhanced the southward shift of the upper tropospheric jet from December to January relative to climatology, leading to an enhanced EAWM and substantially lower haze formation. This sub-seasonal change in circulation is also robustly found in 1982–1983 and 1997–1998, implicative of a general physical mechanism dynamically linked to El Niño and the AO. Numerical experiments using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model were used to test the modulation of the meteorological conditions on haze formation. With the same emission, simulations for three super El Niño periods (1983, 1997 and 2015) robustly show higher PM2.5 concentrations under the mature phase of the super El Niño, but substantially lower PM2.5 concentrations during the decay phase of El Niño (and the sudden AO phase change), further verifying the modulation effect of the sub-seasonal circulation anomaly on PM2.5 concentrations in North China.

Carbon-fixing and oxygen-releasing is an important content of forest ecosystem serving in city. Analysis of forest ecosystem carbon sequestration capacity can provide scientific reference for urban forest management strategies. Taking Zengdu of Suizhou as an example, CITYGREEN model was applied to calculate the carbon sequestration benefits of urban forest ecosystem in this paper. And the carbon sequestration potential of urban forest ecosystem following the returning of farmland to forest land is also evaluated. The results show that forest area, percent tree cover, and the structure of forest land were the major factors reflecting regional carbon sequestration capacity.

A Lean Premixed Prevaporized (LPP) low-emission combustor which is applied with the combustion technology of staged lean fuel is developed. To study the cold flow dynamics and the combustion performance of the LPP combustor, both experimental tests using the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) to quantify the flow dynamics and numerical simulation using the Fluent software are conducted respectively. To investigate the emissions of the LPP combustor, four kinds of inlet conditions (viz. 7%, 30%, 85% and 100% F∞ (Thrust Force)) were conducted using numerical simulation. Numerical results are in good agreement with the experimental data. Results show that:1) a Primary recirculation zone (PRZ), a Corner recirculation zone (CRZ) and a Lip recirculation zone (LRZ) exist in the LPP combustor, and the velocity gradients between pilot swirling flow and primary swirling flow have contributed to the exchanges of mass, momentum and energy. 2) With the decrease of thrust force, NO mass fraction, CO2 mass fraction and total pressure losses at the exit of LPP combustor fall gradually. 3) Thermal NO formation rate closely relate to the zone area where gas temperature overruns 1900K and the maximum temperature in LPP combustor. 4) The combustion performance of the LPP combustor proposed in this paper is very well, and through comparative analysis with four kins of typical gas tubine combustor, the NO emission is very low and is equivalent to the CAEP6 43.87%.

Charged ferroelectric domain walls show promise for two-dimensional conduction, but their abundance within (Ca,Sr)3Ti2O7 crystals is poorly understood. Here, Huang et al. discover topology related domain structures in such materials, which reveal the rich nature of hybrid improper ferroelectricity.

This study proposed a decision tree model to screen upper urinary tract damage (UUTD) for patients with neurogenic bladder (NGB). Thirty-four NGB patients with UUTD were recruited in the case group, while 78 without UUTD were included in the control group. A decision tree method, classification and regression tree (CART), was then applied to develop the model in which UUTD was used as a dependent variable and history of urinary tract infections, bladder management, conservative treatment, and urodynamic findings were used as independent variables. The urethra function factor was found to be the primary screening information of patients and treated as the root node of the tree; Pabd max (maximum abdominal pressure, >14 cmH2O), Pves max (maximum intravesical pressure, ≤89 cmH2O), and gender (female) were also variables associated with UUTD. The accuracy of the proposed model was 84.8%, and the area under curve was 0.901 (95%CI=0.844-0.958), suggesting that the decision tree model might provide a new and convenient way to screen UUTD for NGB patients in both undeveloped and developing areas.

The study demonstrates that an incompatibility between a surface temperature climatology and a given ocean model, into which the climatology is assimilated via Haney restoration, can cause model ocean climate drift and interdecadal oscillations when the ocean is switched to a weaker restoration. This is made using an idealized Atlantic Ocean model driven by thermal and wind forcing only. Initially, the temperature climatology is forcefully assimilated into the model, and an implied heat flux field is diagnosed. During this stage any incompatibility is suppressed. The restoring boundary condition is then switched to a new forcing consisting of a part of the diagnosed flux and a part of the restoring forcing in such a way that at the moment of the switching the heat flux is identical to that prior to the switching. Under this new forcing condition, the incompatibility becomes manifest, causing changes in convection patterns, and producing drift and interdecadal oscillations. The mechanisms are described.

This study is to explore the effectiveness and mechanism of kaempferol on treatment of hepatic fibrosis induced by schistosoma egg. Thirty-six healthy male balb/c mice were randomly divided into 6 groups, including negative group, positive group, and 4 different dosages of kaempferol treatment groups. Each mouse was infected with 20 schistosoma Cercariae japonicum , except the ones in the negative group. Four weeks later, every infected mouse was administrated with 500mg/kg/day praziquantel for 2 days, and all kaempferol groups were followed by a 4-week administration of kaempferol with 5, 10, 15 and 20mg/kg/day respectively, while both control groups were administrated with normal saline. AH the mice were sacrificed on the 59th day after infection. The liver tissues were taken for Masson staining to detect collagen and real-time quantitative PCR to detect the mRNA expression of IL-13, collagen 1 and MMP-2. As a result, Masson stain showed that the optical density of the interested region in the positive group was significantly higher than that in the negative group (P

Diffuse optical imaging (DOI) for detecting and locating targets in a highly scattering turbid medium is treated as a blind source separation (BSS) problem. Three matrix decomposition methods, independent component analysis (ICA), principal component analysis (PCA), and nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) were used to study the DOI problem. The efficacy of resulting approaches was evaluated and compared using simulated and experimental data. Samples used in the experiments included Intralipid-10% or Intralipid-20% suspension in water as the medium with absorptive or scattering targets embedded.

In simple colloidal suspensions, clusters are various multimers that result from colloid self-association and exist in equilibrium with monomers. There are two types of potentials that are known to produce clusters: a) potentials that result from the competition between short-range attraction and long-range repulsion and are characterized by a global minimum and a repulsive tail and b) purely repulsive potentials which have a soft shoulder. Using computer simulations, we demonstrate in this work that potentials with a local minimum and a repulsive tail, not belonging to either of the known types, are also capable of generating clusters. A detailed comparative analysis shows that the new type of cluster-forming potential serves as a bridge between the other two. The new clusters are expanded in shape and their assembly is driven by entropy, like in the purely repulsive systems but only at low density. At high density, clusters are collapsed and stabilized by energy, in common with the systems with competing attractive and repulsive interactions.

The genetic diversity was investigated among and within natural populations of Asian common wild rice, Oryza rufipogon, from three different classes of data that are quantitative traits, allozymes, and Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphisms (RFLPs). The results reflected the occurrence of adaptive differentiation in response to habitat conditions by quantitative trait analysis and the effect of isolation by distance by allozyme and RFLP analyses.

The study of aerosols in high mountain regions is essential because particulate matter can play a role in altering the energy balance of high mountain regions, and aerosols can accelerate glacier melting in high mountain areas by darkening the ice surface, reducing its reflectivity (albedo). Studying aerosols in high mountain areas provides insights into long-range transport of pollutants, atmospheric dynamics, and climate change impacts. These regions can serve as valuable observatories for studying atmospheric processes. The main aim of this paper is to define the main sources of aerosols over an entire year of sampling at the Col Margherita Atmospheric Observatory (MRG; 46°22′0.059′′ N, 11°47′30.911′′ E; 2543 m a.s.l.), a high-altitude background site in the eastern Italian Alps. Here, we discuss the potential origins of more than 100 chemical markers (major ions, water-soluble organic compounds, trace elements, and rare earth elements) using different approaches. Some diagnostic ratios were applied, but source apportionment using positive matrix factorization (PMF) was used to define the main inputs of PM10 collected at this high-altitude site, resulting in the identification of four factors: (1) Saharan dust events, (2) long-range marine/anthropogenic influence, (3) biogenic sources, and (4) biomass-burning and anthropogenic emissions. It can be inferred that, despite the distant location of the Col Margherita site, both regional pollution and long-range anthropogenic pollution have discernible effects on this area.

A solid-state NMR (SSNMR)-based structural modeling approach is described on graphite oxide (GO), which is a prominent precursor and benchmark system to modified graphene. The results have shown that the spectral features of the GO sample are reproduced by a geometry-optimized structural model that is based on the Lerf-Klinowski model, which is composed of interconnected [sp.sup.2], 1,2-epoxide and COH carbons.

The Chinese pond turtle (Mcturemysreevesii) is one of the most important commercial and medicinal chelonians in China. In this study, 87Chinese pond turtle individuals were collected to represent five captive populations of this species in China. Twelve polymorphic microsatellite markers were used to evaluate the genetic diversity of five cultured populations, and it revealed that the level of genetic diversity was relatively high in these cultured populations. Except for Mclw03, Mclw06 and Mmul in the GZ population, all microsatellite loci of the other four populations did not deviated from Hardv-Weinberg equilibrium. The analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed that 80.7% of the genetic variation within populations and 19.3% among populations. Pair wise FST further showed that there was moderate to high degree of genetic differentiation between populations. Phylogenetic analysis separated the Chinese pond turtle samples in the present study into two clusters, with the first group included Guangzhou, Nanning and Haikou populations and the second group consist of individuals from two populations from Wuhu. Our results demonstrated that different degrees of inbreeding existed in five captive populations and it is urgent to raise a new superior breeding population with high genetic diversity using turtles from different captive populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A systematic study of the electrical transport and magnetic properties of La(sub 0.5)Ca(sub 0.5)MnO(sub y), which show an insulator-metal transition, is presented. The result reveals unusual temperature and magnetic field dependence of the magnetoresistance (MR).

Abstract Background Leprosy control achieved dramatic success in the 1980s–1990s with the implementation of short course multidrug therapy, which reduced the global prevalence of leprosy to less than 1 in 10 000 population. However, a period of relative stagnation in leprosy control followed this achievement, and only limited further declines in the global number of new cases reported have been achieved over the past decade. Main text In 2016, major stakeholders called for the development of an innovative and comprehensive leprosy strategy aimed at reducing the incidence of leprosy, lowering the burden of disability and discrimination, and interrupting transmission. This led to the establishment of the Global Partnership for Zero Leprosy (GPZL) in 2018, with partners aligned around a shared Action Framework committed to achieving the WHO targets by 2030 through national leprosy program capacity-building, resource mobilisation and an enabling research agenda. GPZL convened over 140 experts from more than 20 countries to develop a research agenda to achieve zero leprosy. The result is a detailed research agenda focusing on diagnostics, mapping, digital technology and innovation, disability, epidemiological modelling and investment case, implementation research, stigma, post exposure prophylaxis and transmission, and vaccines. This research agenda is aligned with the research priorities identified by other stakeholders. Conclusions Developing and achieving consensus on the research agenda for zero leprosy is a significant step forward for the leprosy community. In a next step, research programmes must be developed, with individual components of the research agenda requiring distinct expertise, varying in resource needs, and operating over different timescales. Moving toward zero leprosy now requires partner alignment and new investments at all stages of the research process, from discovery to implementation.

The solid solution crystals, Bi4(GexS1-x)3O12 (BGSO) with x = 0, 0.05, and 0.15, have been grown by the modified vertical Bridgman method. The as-grown crystals show 80% of transmittance with an absorption edge of 285 nm. The relative light yields of BGSO crystals are found to be 7.2%, 6.3%, and 4.2% of CsI(Tl) crystal for x = 0, 0.05, and 0.15, respectively. The energy resolutions of these crystals are 18.9%, 21.3%, and 24.7%, respectively, with PMT for 662 keV gamma rays at room temperature when exposed to 137Cs-ray. The scintillation performance of BGSO crystals clearly deteriorates with the increase of Ge content. However, the appropriate number of germanium ions doped to BSO crystal can improve its crystallization behavior and effectively restrain component segregation. It is expected that large size crystals of BGSO will be grown and applied to the dual readout calorimeter in the nearest future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report a new magnetoresistance (MR) effect observed in a nominally nonmagnetic metal (Pt) thin film in contact with either a ferromagnetic insulator or a ferromagnetic metal. The resistivities with in-plane magnetic fields parallel (ρ‖) and transverse (ρT) to a current and a perpendicular field (ρ⊥) show the behavior of ρ⊥ ≈ ρ‖ > ρT, distinctly different from all other known MR effects, including anisotropic MR with ρ‖ > ρr ≈ ρ⊥-We termed the new MR as hybrid MR, which appears in a metal in close proximity with a ferromagnet either insulating or metallic, and is associated with the induced magnetic moments at the interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have designed a power stabilizer based on a round-trip erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) structure to suppress the low-frequency relative intensity noise (RIN) for a narrow linewidth fiber laser. The noise suppressor is analyzed theoretically and its feasibility is verified experimentally. For a short-cavity single-frequency fiber laser with this device, about 20 dB low-frequency RIN improvement is achieved (down to -120 dB Hz-1 at 10 Hz). The corresponding frequency noise is also reduced by a factor of 1.6. The proposed method is an effective solution to achieve a low-frequency low RIN laser source for highly coherent detection applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract  Aerobic granules efficient at degrading methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) were successfully developed in a well-mixed sequencing batch reactor (SBR). Treatment efficiency of MTBE in the reactor during the stable operations exceeded 99.8%, and effluent MTBE was consistently below 800 μg/L. The specific MTBE degradation rate was observed to increase with increasing MTBE initial concentrations from 25 to 400 mg/L, peaked at 18.2 mg-MTBE/g-VSS h, and declined with further increases in MTBE concentration as substrate inhibition effects became significant. There was a good fit between these biodegradation data and the Haldane equation (R 2 = 0.976). Microbial community DNA profiling was carried out using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of polymerase chain reaction amplified 16S rDNA. The aerobic granule was found to contain a wide diversity of microorganisms. More than 70% similarity among the samples in the time period examined indicated a highly stable microbial community as the reactor reached the stable operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pulsed corona discharge carried out in the gas phase has been shown to be a low cost solution for wastewater treatment. In this study, the results show that the nitrogen dissociated during corona discharge in the gas phase formed nitric acid in solution, which resulted in a drop in solution pH. The phenol removal could be described in accordance with a first-order reaction in a basic buffer solution, but not in initial neutral and basic non-buffered solutions. This indicates that basic conditions facilitate phenol removal, whilst the formation of nitric acid in solution resulted in decrease in the phenol removal rate. This study also shows that most of the oxidants used for phenol removal came mainly from the dissociation of water molecules at the surface of the liquid phase and / or the gas phase very close to the liquid surface in discharging conditions, not from the gas dissociation in the bulk gas phase, and therefore, it is more effective to keep the solution basic than to change the component of gas in the reactor when removing phenol from water using corona discharge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The atmospheric deposition of mercury (Hg) occurs via several mechanisms, including dry and wet scavenging by precipitation events. In an effort to understand the atmospheric cycling and seasonal depositional characteristics of Hg, wet deposition samples were collected for approximately 5 years at 17 selected GMOS monitoring sites located in the Northern and Southern hemispheres in the framework of the Global Mercury Observation System (GMOS) project. Total mercury (THg) exhibited annual and seasonal patterns in Hg wet deposition samples. Interannual differences in total wet deposition are mostly linked with precipitation volume, with the greatest deposition flux occurring in the wettest years. This data set provides a new insight into baseline concentrations of THg concentrations in precipitation worldwide, particularly in regions such as the Southern Hemisphere and tropical areas where wet deposition as well as atmospheric Hg species were not investigated before, opening the way for future and additional simultaneous measurements across the GMOS network as well as new findings in future modeling studies.

Long-term monitoring of data of ambient mercury (Hg) on a global scale to assess its emission, transport, atmospheric chemistry, and deposition processes is vital to understanding the impact of Hg pollution on the environment. The Global Mercury Observation System (GMOS) project was funded by the European Commission (http://www.gmos.eu) and started in November 2010 with the overall goal to develop a coordinated global observing system to monitor Hg on a global scale, including a large network of ground-based monitoring stations, ad hoc periodic oceanographic cruises and measurement flights in the lower and upper troposphere as well as in the lower stratosphere. To date, more than 40 ground-based monitoring sites constitute the global network covering many regions where little to no observational data were available before GMOS. This work presents atmospheric Hg concentrations recorded worldwide in the framework of the GMOS project (2010–2015), analyzing Hg measurement results in terms of temporal trends, seasonality and comparability within the network. Major findings highlighted in this paper include a clear gradient of Hg concentrations between the Northern and Southern hemispheres, confirming that the gradient observed is mostly driven by local and regional sources, which can be anthropogenic, natural or a combination of both.

Electrophoretic analysis of six types of tissue (serum, erythrocyte, liver, kidney, muscle and eye) and seven different isoenzymes (LDHJ, MDH, Est, ADHI IDH, α-GPDH and SOD) from both healthy grass carp, Cienopharyngodon idellus Ctwicr & Valenciennes, and carp affected by haemorrhagic disease was performed. It was found that: (1) Enzymes from diseased grass carp showed the most drastic changes within each tissue. The absolute activity of LDH in serum from the diseased fish increased to approximately twice that of the healthy fish; whereas the relative activity of A4 and A3B1, the main components of A sub-base in both serum and erythrocytes. was accelerated. (2) The isoenzymic changes in the control groups, diseased fish, artificially infected fish and healthy fish from diseased ponds indicated that biochemical changes occurred in the tissues before pathological change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple martensitic transformation peaks were observed from differential scanning calorimetry curves in aged Mn50Ni25Ga25 alloys in which transformation temperature varied with aging temperature. The magnetization and coercivity were enhanced as a result of aging above magnetic transition temperature. A maximum magnetization up to 54 emu/g and a magnetization difference between two phases of 28 emu/g was achieved in the alloy aged at 873 K. However, coercivity as large as 1.2 kOe was obtained in 573 K aged alloy, with a high saturation field, which can be understood in terms of domain wall pinning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gaseous Elemental Mercury (Hg° or GEM) was investigated at Summit Station, Greenland, in the interstitial air extracted from the perennial snowpack (firn) at depths ranging from the surface to 30 m, during summer 2005 and spring 2006. Photolytic production and destruction of Hg° were observed close to the snow surface during summer 2005 and spring 2006, and we observed dark oxidation of GEM up to 270 cm depth in June 2006. Photochemical transformation of gaseous elemental mercury resulted in diel variations in the concentrations of this gas in the near-surface interstitial air, but destruction of Hg° was predominant in June, and production was the main process in July. This seasonal evolution of the chemical mechanisms involving gaseous elemental mercury produces a signal that propagates downward through the firn air, but is unobservably small below 15 m in depth. As a consequence, multi-annual averaged records of GEM concentration should be well preserved in deep firn air at depths below 15 m, and available for the reconstruction of the past atmospheric history of GEM over the last decades.

Ferromagnetic metal/oxide heterostructures with tunable perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) and large tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) are building blocks of spintronic devices. With unprecedented high performance, the perpendicularly magnetized CoFeB/MgO system has been extensively investigated. Here, we report that Mo/FeNiB/MgO and its inverted structure MgO/FeNiB/Mo show large interfacial PMA with high thermal stability, it ensures spontaneous perpendicular magnetization with effective PMA field of about 5 kOe in Mo/FeNiB(1.2 nm)/MgO and MgO/FeNiB(1.5 nm)/Mo after annealing at 400 °C, comparable to the CoFeB/MgO system. Remarkably, the coercivity of perpendicularly magnetized FeNiB layers in either continuous film or patterned structure of micrometers is smaller than that of the CoFeB counterpart by an order. We have fabricated perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions with pseudo-spin valve structure Mo/FeNiB/MgO/CoFeB/Mo, which show TMR of 113% at room temperature and 221% at 5K. These results suggest that Mo/FeNiB/MgO heterostructure can be an important PMA material candidate in exploiting next-generation spintronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discrete dislocation dynamics (DDD) simulations are being increasingly employed to investigate metal plasticity at the mesoscale. However, in spite of its ability to access beyond the length and time limits of atomistic methods, the DDD model is still limited by its high computational cost, with ranges of achievable strains too low and strain rates too high by several orders of magnitude compared with typical experimental conditions. By combining the efficiency of the recently developed subcycling time-integrator with the highly parallel architecture of graphics processing unit (GPU) devices, we developed a DDD model that provides significant acceleration compared to existing implementations. Our GPU-accelerated implementation enables large-scale DDD simulations that can reach relevant levels of strain using a moderate amount of computational resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]