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VELOX-CI was launched on December 16, 2015 into the near-equatorial orbit. It is the second micro-satellite of Satellite Research Center (SaRC) in Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. VELOX-CI is designed to explore the potential of using the commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) GPS receivers for RO mission for the first time. Three GPS antennas are located at the zenith, forward-velocity, and after-velocity directions. In total, VELOX-CI collected 240 radio occultation (RO) missions (570 h) from 2015 to 2018 with mission durations ranging from 0.5 to 16.7 h. The lowest penetration altitude from the COTS receivers reaches 6 km. In this paper, the RO performance of the VELOX-CI is evaluated and validated with both ground-based and space-based measurements. Tropospheric and ionospheric profiles obtained from VELOX-CI are also compared with assimilative atmospheric models and empirical ionospheric models, respectively. Results show that with proper sampling frequencies (5–20 Hz), the refractivity error estimated by VELOX-CI RO is below 5% at altitudes below 25 km compared to reanalysis model estimations and radiosonde measurements. The observed ionospheric peak density and height show reasonable ranges for both daytime and nighttime. This study demonstrates the capability of COTS receiver in observing atmospheric and ionospheric parameters. In the future, utilizing COTS receivers with lower-cost low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite missions can largely increase the data volume of RO and enhance our capability in monitoring the Earth's atmosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acute poisoning is a public health threat that leads to morbidity and mortality worldwide. In this retrospective study, we evaluated autopsies from deaths caused by acute poisoning from 2008 to 2017 at the School of Forensic Medicine, China Medical University (SFMCMU) in the Liaoning Province, northeast China. A total of 140 poisoning deaths were investigated and the demographic characteristics, causes and manner of death, toxics category were analyzed. The number of poisoning deaths gradually increased during the study period. The majority of poisoning deaths were accidents (66.43%), followed by suicides (27.86%), and homicides (3.57%). Of the 140 cases, 47 (33.57%) were caused by drugs, 38 (27.14%) by agrochemicals (mainly organophosphate pesticides, n = 16), 37 (26.43%) by respiratory dysfunction toxics (mainly carbon monoxide, n = 21), and 9 (6.43%) by poisonous plants and animals. Alcohol/methanol (5, 3.57%) and other chemicals (4, 2.86%) accounted for the remaining cases. The present study provides poisoning distribution in the Liaoning province and highlights implications for public health policy and prevention efforts in northeast China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]