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Multiple new variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have constantly emerged, as the delta and omicron variants, which have developed resistance to currently gained neutralizing antibodies. This highlights a critical need to discover new therapeutic agents to overcome the variants mutations. Despite the availability of vaccines against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the use of broadly neutralizing antibodies has been considered as an alternative way for the prevention or treatment of SARS-CoV-2 variants infection. Here, we show that the nasal delivery of two previously characterized broadly neutralizing antibodies (F61 and H121) protected K18-hACE2 mice against lethal challenge with SARS-CoV-2 variants. The broadly protective efficacy of the F61 or F61/F121 cocktail antibodies was evaluated by lethal challenge with the wild strain (WIV04) and multiple variants, including beta (B.1.351), delta (B.1.617.2), and omicron (B.1.1.529) at 200 or 1000 TCID

The heating capacity of air source heat pump increases with the increase of ambient temperature, coupled with the heating demand decreases, resulting in a prolonged partial load operation. The partial load operation of low ambient temperature air source heat pumps applied in cold region is particularly serious. With that also comes an efficiency degradation, taking into consideration that the characterization method of current product standards is not uniform in different countries. In this paper, the mechanism of partial load efficiency degradation was analyzed firstly, the explicit relationship between cycling losses and cyclic time was derived, and a partial load factor characterization method of air source heat pump by coupling start-up loss and stand-by loss was proposed. Secondly, the cycling losses of 3 sets of low ambient temperature ASHPs with different configurations were tested under different ambient conditions by using the intermittent ON-OFF cycles tests method. The magnitude of start-up loss is 2.0%∼17.3% for test ASHPs, and the stand-by loss rises sharply from 4.2% to 8.9% for the test ASHPs as the PLR drops from 0.2 to 0.1. The accuracy of the PLF characterization method was verified, and especially that of the load rate below 0.2 was improved.

In this paper, three types of wire-plate electrostatic precipitators with expanded-shrunk spoilers (ESP-ESSs) were proposed. The influences of different geometric characteristics and arrangements of the expanded-shrunk spoilers (ESSs) on the electric field intensity, airflow field, particle trajectory, and collection efficiency were investigated by experiment and numerical simulation. The ESP-ESSs was compared with ESP with parallel plates (ESP-PP). The numerical results were relatively in agreement with the experimental data. The maximum error was 6.5%. The results showed that with the increase of the ESS height, the electric field intensity increased. The ESSs could generate low-velocity vortices contributing to extend the retention time of particles, which was conducive to particle collection. In general, the collection efficiency of the ESP-ESS was superior to the ESP-PP, but there was no advantage for fine particles at high inlet gas velocity and low applied voltage.

SFTS virus (SFTSV) is a novel bunyavirus, which was discovered as the etiological agent of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) in China in 2009, and was now prevalent in at least 25 provinces in China. SFTS was subsequently identified in South Korea and Japan in 2012. To explore the molecular evolution and genetic characteristics of this newly identified pathogen, we reported 72 whole genome sequences of SFTSV, and built a dataset of SFTSV genome sequences containing 292 L-segment, 302 M-segment and 502 S-segment. We clearly divided SFTSV into six genotypes, Genotype A-F. It was found that genotype F was the dominant epidemic genotype of Japan, South Korea, and Zhejiang province of China. The coalescent analysis supported that SFTSV originated in the early 18th century from Zhejiang province, and Genotype F was the most primitive one. Henan, Hubei, and Anhui provinces which are located in Dabie Mountain area were mainly epidemic of Genotype A, which emerged relatively late but distributed widely. A total of 37 recombination events were identified, making SFTSV with a high recombination frequency (L segment 5.1%, M segment 3.6%, S segment 0.8%) among negative-strand segmented RNA viruses. It was identified that 19 reassortant strains belonged to 12 reassortment forms of SFTSV genome containing 6 newly identified forms. The reassortment virus and recombination in tick were both found for the first time. We also found many of genotype-specific mutation sites, 7 of which could be considered as potential molecular marker for genotype classification. This study promoted a more comprehensive understanding of the phylogeny and origin, and the genetic diversity of SFTSV, and it could help the studies of other newly discovered tick-borne bunyavirus as reference data and research ideas.

Over one million people are living with cystic echinococcosis (CE) and alveolar echinococcosis (AE). For CE, long-term albendazole treatment is often needed, which requires regular follow-up. Follow-up is mainly through imaging which is insensitive to subtle changes and subjective to experience. We investigated the changes of Echinococcus granulosus (Eg) cell-free DNA (cfDNA) in plasma of CE patients before and after albendazole treatment to evaluate its potential as an objective marker for treatment follow-up. Plasma samples of nine CE patients were collected before and after treatment. We identified Eg cfDNA from every sample through high-throughput sequencing. Eg cfDNA concentration and fragment length increased significantly after the treatment period. Ultrasound examination before and after the treatment initiation reflected the drug effects to a certain extent, as the cyst size of four patients reduced. Our findings indicated that Eg cfDNA from plasma could be a potential marker in the monitoring of CE treatment.

A method of the scattering Phase Function Scaling (PFS) for determination of the direct normal irradiance (DNI) involving the circumsolar normal irradiance (CSNI) is developed. A fraction of the normalized phase function integrated over the field of view for a pyrheliometer is introduced in the radiative transfer equation so the scaled optical depth using this phase function is derived. The PFS method is tested in a radiative transfer scheme and a simple fast parametric scheme SUNFLUX using the observational datasets at 14 Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) stations. The evaluation results show that the modelled DNI in terms of the PFS method in the radiative transfer scheme is significantly improved compared with that using the original delta-Eddington scaling method and compared well with that determined using other two radiative transfer models of DISORT and SMARTS. The modelled DNI with the PFS method in the SUNFLUX scheme is also improved compared with that without using the PFS method and compared well with that from the SMARTS model. The CSNI is also evaluated against the results from the other three models. The results are generally poor in all cases. The poor results are mainly due to the small magnitude of CSNI and uncertainties in the input data. Uncertainty in the aerosol scattering phase function could be the main reason responsible for the poor comparisons.

A real-time interleaved photoacoustic and ultrasound (PAUS) dual-modality imaging system with a handheld probe was developed, which integrated signal scanning, image reconstruction and display. The imaging scheme is one photoacoustic (PA) frame followed by one ultrasound (US) B-mode frame, and the frame rate can reach up to 20 Hz, which was limited by the repetition rate of the laser. The axial and lateral resolutions of PA imaging are measured to be ∼231 µm and ∼308 µm, respectively. As for US imaging, the axial and lateral resolutions are ∼400 µm and ∼600 µm. The real-time imaging capability of the dual-modality system was confirmed by imaging the cross section of a tube that formed three parallel segments and was injected with a moving ink solution. Furthermore, the PAUS guidance of interventional procedures in tumor animal model was carried out. The blood vessels of tumor and solid/liquid medicines were clearly visible, as well as the needle tip and shaft. Experimental results suggest that the PAUS system is able to give in-time feedback about the distribution of the applied medicines and track the needle during interventional procedures. Overall, the dual PAUS imaging can provide complementary information of tumor vasculature and tumor morphology at the same time and same location, which will be helpful for the clinical applications of needle guidance, image-guided therapy and tumor detection.

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) is a highly pathogenic tick-borne bunyavirus that causes lethal infectious disease and severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) in humans. The molecular mechanisms and host cellular factors required for SFTSV infection remain uncharacterized. Using a genome-wide CRISPR-based screening strategy, we identified a host cellular protein, sorting nexin 11 (SNX11) which is involved in the intracellular endosomal trafficking pathway, as an essential cell factor for SFTSV infection. An SNX11-KO HeLa cell line was established, and SFTSV replication was significantly reduced. The glycoproteins of SFTSV were detected and remained in later endosomal compartments but were not detectable in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) or Golgi apparatus. pH values in the endosomal compartments of the SNX11-KO cells increased compared with the pH of normal HeLa cells, and lysosomal-associated membrane protein 1 (LAMP1) expression was significantly elevated in the SNX11-KO cells. Overall, these results indicated that penetration of SFTSV from the endolysosomes into the cytoplasm of host cells was blocked in the cells lacking SNX11. Our study for the first time provides insight into the important role of the SNX11 as an essential host factor in the intracellular trafficking and penetrating process of SFTSV infection via potential regulation of viral protein sorting, membrane fusion, and other endocytic machinery. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s12250-019-00141-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

There are open debates on whether the amount of emission reduction could fulfil the anthropogenic PM2.5 (particulate matter smaller than 2.5 μm) mitigation in China. This study evaluated the long-term historical aerosol simulations for 1970–2010 in eastern China from three models (CACTUS, WRF-CMAQ, and GISS-E2-R). We introduced 95% Confidence Interval of n-year Moving Difference (n-year CIMD, n = 1…10) in the long-term simulated PM2.5 concentrations to determine how long PM2.5 change in history is significant and how many increases in historical emissions raised the amount of PM2.5 that we want to reduce today. The results show that the annual trends for the simulated PM2. 5 ranged from 0.42 to 0.72 μg m−3 year−1 lying within the 95% confidence intervals for the trend in the satellite-derived PM2.5. There was a reasonable change in PM2.5 chemical compositions with increasing nitrate and declining OA mass fractions from 1970 to 2010. Particulates were more neutralized as the quick increases in ammonia and the control on SO2 emissions. The significant analysis of changes indicates that at least a 5-year CIMD for PM2.5 could be distinguished from the PM2.5 fluctuations due to emission uncertainties and meteorological interannual variations. At least a 10-year CIMD for PM2.5 could be distinguished from the multi-model uncertainties. The historical relationship between PM2.5 and emissions suggests that the minimum PM2.5 reduction targeted in the China's 12th Five-Year Plan (FYP; 2011–2015) would require the emission changes compared with 2010 in SO2, NOx, and NH3 by 41%, 29%, and 42%, respectively. The amounts were larger than the emission reduction planned for the 12th FYP. This suggests that the past emission policies and PM2.5 control pledges were incompatible and a stricter emission reduction is needed to attain the 13th FYP (2016–2020).

This study aimed to investigate the serological characteristics of Ebola virus (EBOV) infection during the late phase of the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone. In total, 877 blood samples from 694 suspected Ebola virus disease (EVD) cases assessed from March to December 2015, were analyzed via real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for viral RNA and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and Luminex to detect antibodies against EBOV. Viral load and EBOV-specific IgM/IgG titers displayed a declining trend during March to December 2015. Viral RNA load decreased rapidly at earlier stages after disease onset, while EBOV-specific IgM and IgG still persisted in 58.1% (18/31) and 93.5% (29/31) of the confirmed EVD patients and in 3.8% (25/663) and 17.8% (118/663) of the RNA-negative suspected patients in the later phase, respectively. Dynamic analysis of longitudinally collected samples from eight EVD patients revealed typically reversed trends of declining viral load and increasing IgM and/or IgG titers in response to the EBOV infection. The present results indicate that certain populations of Sierra Leone developed immunity to an EBOV infection in the late phase of the outbreak, providing novel insights into the risk assessment of EBOV infections among human populations.

The health impact of changes in particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter, Graphical abstract Image 1

Nanofiltration (NF) has become an emerging technology in organic solvent systems and the preparation of organic solvent resistant nanofiltration (SRNF) membranes is the most important aspect of the technology. In this study, integrally skinned polyetherimide (PEI) asymmetric nanofiltration (NF) membranes were prepared by phase inversion in which dimethylacetamide (DMAc) and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP-K30) were employed as solvents and additives in casting solutions. The prepared PEI membranes were characterized by scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) and evaluated in terms of solvent compatibility, solute rejection and solvent flux. The solvents employed were ethanol, isopropyl alcohol, n-hexane and carbon tetrachloride and the solute molecules were rose bengal (molecular weight 1017 Da) and methylene blue (molecular weight 374 Da). The prepared PEI NF membrane was compared with four commercial SRNF composite membranes (MPF-34, MPF-44, STARMEM 122 and Solsep 010706). The results demonstrated that the PEI membranes were stable in all of the four solvents studied and showed better performance than the four commercial SRNF membranes with regard to solvent compatibility and rejection from ethanol solutions. The PEI membrane had ethanol fluxes of 4–8 L m −2 h −1 at 100 psi and 95% rejection for methylene blue in ethanol.

Objectives We aimed to evaluate the association of genes of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPARγ), adiponectin (APM1) and apolipoprotein E (APOC1) polymorphisms with metabolic syndrome (MS) in children. Methods A matched case-control study was conducted with 114 MS cases and 114 controls. Anthropometric measurements and a questionnaire survey were conducted in all subjects. The polymerase chain reaction method and DNA sequencing were used for genotyping of single nucleotide polymorphism for PPARγ (rs1801282), APM1 (rs266729) and APOC1 (rs4420638). Results After adjustments for sex, age, educational level of parents, physical activity, dietary patterns, pubertal development and household income, there were significant associations between rs266729 (OR = 1.91, 95% CI: 1.01–3.62), rs4420638 (OR = 2.21, 95%CI: 1.19–4.10) polymorphisms and the risk of MS in children. However, no association was found between rs1801282 polymorphism and MS. Conclusion The results showed that the genetic variants of the APM1 and the APOC1 were associated with MS in children.

Infections of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) trigger host immune responses, but the virus can destroy the immune system and cause acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) can suppress viral replication and restore the impaired immune function. To understand HIV interactions with host immune cells during HAART, the transcriptomes of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from HIV patients and HIV negative volunteers before and two weeks after HAART initiation were analyzed using RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) technology. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in response to HAART were firstly identified for each individual, then common features were extracted by comparing DEGs among individuals and finally HIV-related DEGs were obtained by comparing DEGs between the HIV patients and HIV negative volunteers. To demonstrate the power of this approach, minimum numbers of patients (one HIV alone; one HIV + tuberculosis, TB; one HIV + TB with immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome during HAART) and two HIV negative volunteers were used. More than 15,000 gene transcripts were detected in each individual sample. Fourteen HAART up-regulated and eleven down-regulated DEGs were specifically identified in the HIV patients. Among them, nine up-regulated (CXCL1, S100P, AQP9, BASP1, MMP9, SOD2, LIMK2, IL1R2 and BCL2A1) and nine down-regulated DEGs (CD160, CD244, CX3CR1, IFIT1, IFI27, IFI44, IFI44L, MX1 and SIGLEC1) have already been reported as relevant to HIV infections in the literature, which demonstrates the credibility of the method. The newly identified HIV-related genes (up-regulated: ACSL1, GPR84, GPR97, ADM, LRG1; down-regulated: RASSF1, PATL2) were empirically validated using qRT-PCR. The Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) was also used to determine pathways significantly affected by HAART. GSEA further confirmed the HAART relevance of five genes (ADM, AQP9, BASP1, IL1R2 and MMP9). The newly identified HIV-related genes, ADM (which encodes Adrenomedullin), a peptide hormone in circulation control, may contribute to HIV-associated hypertensions, providing new insights into HIV pathology and novel strategies for developing anti-HIV target. More importantly, we demonstrated that comparative transcriptome analysis is a very powerful tool to identify infection related DEGs using a very small number of samples. This approach could be easily applied to improve the understanding of pathogen-host interactions in many infections and anti-infection treatments.

Here, laboratory detection, virus isolation, whole genome sequencing and phylogenetic analysis were performed to characterize the first imported case of Rift Valley fever virus infection returning from Angola.

Delay-tolerant networks (DTNs) (e.g., Internet, satellite networks, sensor networks, ad hoc networks) have attracted considerable attentions in both academia and industry. As a fundamental problem, the maximum flow is of vital importance for routing and service scheduling in networks. For solving the maximum flow problem of the DTN, an appropriate model should be built first. Compared to the conventional snapshot approach to model the DTN topology, the time aggregated graph (TAG) is capable of accurately characterizing the intermittent connectivity and time-varying capacity for each edge, and thus has been acted as a suitable model for modeling DTNs. However, existing TAG-related works only focus on solving the shortest path problem, and neither the correlation between time intervals nor nodes storage of a DTN are described in TAG, resulting in a non-trivial maximum flow problem in TAG. In this paper, we study the maximum flow problem through our proposed storage time aggregated graph (STAG) for DTNs. First, an intermediate quantity named bidirectional storage transfer series is introduced to each node in STAG, and the corresponding transfer rule is also designed for this series to model the correlation between time intervals. Next, on the basis of the storage transfer series, a STAG-based algorithm is proposed and described in detail to maximize the network flow. In addition, we analyze the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm by giving an illustrative example.

The lack of long-term observations and satellite retrievals of health-damaging fine particulate matter in China has demanded the estimates of historical PM2.5 (particulate matter less than 2.5 μm in diameter) concentrations. This study constructs a gridded near-surface PM2.5 concentration dataset across China covering 1980–2019 using the space-time random forest model with atmospheric visibility observations and other auxiliary data. The modeled daily PM2.5 concentrations are in excellent agreement with ground measurements, with a coefficient of determination of 0.95 and mean relative error of 12%. Besides the atmospheric visibility which explains 30% of total importance of variables in the model, emissions and meteorological conditions are also key factors affecting PM2.5 predictions. From 1980 to 2014, the model-predicted PM2.5 concentrations increased constantly with the maximum growth rate of 5–10 μg/m3/decade over eastern China. Due to the clean air actions, PM2.5 concentrations have decreased effectively at a rate over 50 μg/m3/decade in the North China Plain and 20–50 μg/m3/decade over many regions of China during 2014–2019. The newly generated dataset of 1-degree gridded PM2.5 concentrations for the past 40 years across China provides a useful means for investigating interannual and decadal environmental and climate impacts related to aerosols.

We examined the spatial-temporal variations of surface-layer ozone (O3) and PM2.5 (particulate matter with an aerodynamic equivalent diameter of 2.5 μm or less) observed from April 2013 to December 2019 in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region to identify the O3-PM2.5 relationship and to focus on the co-polluted days by O3 and PM2.5. Averaged over the YRD, the observed annual mean concentration of maximum daily 8 h average ozone (MDA8 O3) increased by 36.8 μg m−3 (49.5%) whereas that of PM2.5 decreased by 13.3 μg m−3 (22.1%) over 2014–2019. During warm months of April-October of 2013–2019, the observed regional mean daily concentrations of MDA8 O3 and PM2.5 had a small positive correlation of 0.23, and this correlation coefficient became 0.44 when the long term trends were removed from the concentrations. The days with co-pollution of MDA8 O3 and PM2.5 (MDA8 O3 > 160 μg m−3 and PM2.5 > 75 μg m−3) were observed frequently, which reached 54 days in Shanghai and 71 days in Jiangsu province during 2013–2019. Such co-polluted days in the YRD were found to occur mainly in the months of April, May, June, and October. The occurrence of co-pollution in the YRD is found to be mainly dependent on relative humidity, surface air temperature, and wind speed. The mean anomalous values of these three variables were, respectively, −7.3%, 0.46 °C, −0.17 m s−1 for days with O3 pollution alone while −6.2%, 1.84 °C, and −0.40 m s−1 for days with co-pollution. Four typical weather patterns were identified to be associated with the co-polluted days. Our results provide better understanding of the complex air pollution and have implications for the control of such co-polluted events.

Aqueous rechargeable batteries represent one promising candidate for new energy storage and conversion systems because of their good safety, low cost, high energy density based on Faradic reactions, and high power density originated from the high ionic conductivity of aqueous electrolyte. Herein, a novel aqueous rechargeable nickel-bismuth battery was developed with highly porous Bi2MoO6 microspheres as anode active materials and delicately designed binder-free Co0.5Ni0.5MoO4@NiCo-layered double hydroxide heterostructure nanoarrays as the cathode for the first time. The Bi2MoO6 anode active materials exhibit outstanding electrochemical performances (such as high capacity of 163.2 mAh/g at 1 A/g and superior rate capability of 79.6% at 15 A/g) owing to their porous structure. To obtain the improved cathode, substitution of Co for Ni species of CoXNi1-XMoO4 as ‘core’ materials and growing time of NiCo-layered double hydroxide onto the ‘core’ materials were optimized systematically. The optimal cathode (Co0.5Ni0.5MoO4@NCLDH-12) affords appreciably enhanced electrochemical performances with the high capacity of 386.7 mAh/g at 1 A/g and good rate capability of 64.9% at 15 A/g owing to its advantages in composition and architecture. Desirably, the nickel-bismuth battery can deliver the acceptable maximum energy density of 41.5 W h/kg and power density of 3896.2 W/kg, respectively. The excellent electrochemical performances can be put down to the elaborate architectures of electrodes and synergistic effect between active materials. This current research would enrich the chemistry systems of present aqueous rechargeable batteries and also pave the way to effectively construct promising electrode active materials for aqueous rechargeable nickel-bismuth batteries.

In-situ measurement of black carbon (BC) concentration from September 2003 to August 2007 in the Xi'an City at the Guanzhong Basin located in the mid-western China (the Guanzhong Basin) was analyzed. A regional dynamics and aerosol model (WRF-Chem) was used to quantify the impacts of local emission, meteorological conditions, and regional atmospheric transport on seasonal variation of BC concentration at the Guanzhong Basin. The results show that the regional prevailing winds at the Guanzhong Basin were unfavorable for the horizontal transport. The mean wind speeds ranged from 1.0 m/s to 1.9 m/s. During winter, the wind at the Guanzhong Basin was very weak (∼1.0 m/s). During spring and autumn, there was a wind convergent zone at the Guanzhong Basin, constraining the BC concentrations inside the Guanzhong Basin. As a result, the BC concentrations were persistently high at the Guanzhong Basin. In addition to the high background concentrations, there was a strong seasonal variation, with a maximum in winter (winter maximum) and a minimum in summer (summer minimum), with the maximum of the mean concentration of 30 μg m−3 in 2003–2004 winter, and the minimum of 5 μg m−3 in 2004 summer. The model sensitivity study shows that the seasonal variation of BC concentration was largely due to the seasonal variation of BC emission, especially during winter with the maximum of BC emission. A strong annual decrease trend of the BC concentration was found from 2004 to 2007. It is interesting to note that the decrease of the BC concentration only occurred in winter. For example, the winter maximum was 20 μg m−3 in 2003, and reduced to 11 μg m−3 in 2006, with about 50% decrease. In contrast, the summer minimum was 10 μg m−3 in 2004 and 9 μg m−3 in 2007, with only 10% decrease. This study suggests that the rapid decrease in the winter maximum was mainly due to the reduction of the BC emission in winter, implying the effective winter emission control at the Guanzhong Basin.

The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region in China has been frequently suffering from severe haze events (observed daily mean surface fine particulate matter PM2.5 concentrations larger than 150 μg m−3) partially caused by certain types of large-scale synoptic patterns. Black carbon (BC), as an important PM2.5 component and a primarily emitted species, is a good tracer for investigating sources and formation mechanisms leading to severe haze pollutions. We apply GEOS-Chem model and its adjoint to quantify the source contributions to BC concentrations at the surface and at the top of the planetary boundary layer (PBL) during typical types of severe haze events for April 2013–2017 in BTH. Four types of severe haze events, mainly occurred in December–January-February (DJF, 62.3%) and in September–October-November (SON, 26.3%), are classified based on the associated synoptic weather patterns using principal component analysis. Model results reasonably capture the daily variations of BC measurements at three ground sites in BTH. The adjoint method attributes BC concentrations to emissions from different source sectors and from local versus regional transport at the model spatial and temporal resolutions. By source sectors, the adjoint method attributes the daily BC concentrations during typical severe haze events (in winter heating season) in Beijing largely to residential emissions (48.1–62.0%), followed by transportation (16.8–25.9%) and industry (19.1–29.5%) sectors. In terms of regionally aggregated source influences, local emissions in Beijing (59.6–79.5%) predominate the daily surface BC concentrations, while contributions of emissions from Beijing, Hebei, and outside BTH regions are comparable to the daily BC concentrations at the top of PBL (~200–400 m). Our adjoint analyses would provide a scientific support for joint regional and targeted control policies on effectively mitigating the particulate pollutions when the dominant synoptic weather patterns are predicted.

This article starts with definitions of value and profit and constructs a new interpretation of the economic crisis. Exchange of goods stems from different people's different judgments on the value of goods, and twice exchanges of goods lead to commercial profits. Production profit is essentially the same as commercial profit. It also requires twice exchanges. The capitalists buy labors from the workers and sell the products to the workers. The difference in the prices of the labors and products constitutes the profit. The capitalists get the profit but the workers do not share the profit. Such profit distribution leads to the fact that the new products sale cannot be sustained within a closed economy, resulting in an economic crisis, manifested as a relative surplus of product. This article focuses on the field of circulation and exposes the exploitation of workers by the two exchanges, providing a theoretical approach to understand the rich-poor divergence.

The persistent circulation of influenza A(H7N9) virus within poultry markets and human society leads to sporadic epidemics of influenza infections. Severe pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) caused by the virus lead to high morbidity and mortality rates in patients. Hyper induction of pro-inflammatory cytokines, which is known as "cytokine storm", is closely related to the process of viral infection. However, systemic analyses of H7N9 induced cytokine storm and its relationship with disease progress need further illuminated. In our study we collected 75 samples from 24 clinically confirmed H7N9-infected patients at different time points after hospitalization. Those samples were divided into three groups, which were mild, severe and fatal groups, according to disease severity and final outcome. Human cytokine antibody array was performed to demonstrate the dynamic profile of 80 cytokines and chemokines. By comparison with different groups and time series, we provide a more comprehensive insight into the hypercytokinemia caused by H7N9 influenza viral infection. Different dynamic changes of cytokines/chemokines were observed in H7N9 infected patients with different severity. Further, 33 cytokines or chemokines were found to be correlated with disease development and 11 of them were identified as potential therapeutic targets. Immuno-modulate the cytokine levels of IL-8, IL-10, BLC, MIP-3a, MCP-1, HGF, OPG, OPN, ENA-78, MDC and TGF-s 3 are supposed to be beneficial in curing H7N9 infected patients. Apart from the identification of 35 independent predictors for H7N9 prognosis, we further established a real-time prediction model with multi-cytokine factors for the first time based on minimal redundancy maximal relevance method, and this model was proved to be powerful in predicting whether the H7N9 infection was severe or fatal. It exhibited promising application in prognosing the outcome of a H7N9 infected patients and thus help doctors take effective treatment strategies accordingly. Funding Statement: This study was supported by the Shenzhen Science and Technology Research and Development projects (JCYJ20150402111430617 and JCYJ20160427151920801). Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest whatsoever. Ethics Approval Statement: All procedures performed in the studies involving human participants were approved in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Hearing impairment contributes to cognitive dysfunction. Previous studies have found changes of functional connectivity in the default mode network (DMN) associated with cognitive processing in individuals with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). Whereas the changes in the DMN in patients with long-term unilateral SNHL (USNHL) is still not entirely clear. In this work, we analyzed resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data and neuropsychological test scores from normal hearing subjects (n = 11) and patients (n = 21) with long-term USNHL. Functional connectivity and nodal topological properties were computed for every brain region in the DMN. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and post hoc analyses were conducted to identify differences between normal controls and patients for each measure. Results indicated that the left USNHL presented enhanced connectivity (p < 0.05, false discovery rate (FDR) corrected), and significant changes (p < 0.05, Bonferroni corrected) of the nodal topological properties in the DMN compared with the control. More changes in the DMN have been found in the left than right long-term USNHL (RUSNHL). However, the neuropsychological tests did not show significant differences between the USNHL and the control. These findings suggest that long-term USNHL contributes to changes in the DMN, and these changes might affect cognitive abilities in patients with long-term USNHL. Left hearing loss affects the DMN more than the right hearing loss does. The fMRI measures might be more sensitive for observing cognitive changes in patients with hearing loss than clinical neuropsychological tests. This study provides some insights into the mechanisms of the association between hearing loss and cognitive function.

This paper conduct a comprehensive research on time varying pitching, plunging (flapping) motion and Periodic alternating oncoming flow for NACA0012 airfoil in order to accurately capture the real aerodynamic characteristics and airfoil responses of the rotor blades in complex unsteady flow field. When simulating the pitch motions, the excitation of the second and third harmonic were got into consideration. The result shows that: (1) the aerodynamic coefficient generated for the steady stall and pitching motion are compared well with the experimental data; (2) when the second and third harmonic were got into consideration for the pitching motion, the aerodynamic loads and response show significant difference which would be used for active control of helicopter.

In the smart grid Wide Area Control Systems (WACS), controller sends command & control message (C & C) messages to remote devices. The reliability and stability of WACS heavily depends on whether the remote devices react promptly. In other words, the end-to-end transmission delay of the C & C messages plays a significant role in ensuring the performance of WACS. Multihop wireless mesh networks are considered as suitable networking infrastructure for providing data communication in smart grid. Nevertheless, due to the interference nature of wireless networks, identifying paths with minimum end-to-end delay is not trivial. This paper deals with the issue of identifying the multicast tree with minimum end-to-end transmission delay for multicasting a C & C message from the controller to a set of remote devices. Our proposal particularly considers the specific communication requirement from smart grid. The contributions of this paper are: (1) we formulate the problem of calculating multicast tree delay as an integer linear programming; (2) we propose a delay estimation method; (3) we propose a new routing algorithm to identify a multicast tree with the minimum delay. Through extensive numerical experiments, we demonstrate that the proposed routing algorithm outperforms the existing multicast tree routing algorithm.

article Giant(e.g.,QulongandJiama)andlarge (e.g.,Chongjiang,Tinggong,andDabu) porphyry Cu±Mo± Audeposits in the eastern part of the Gangdese belt, southern Tibet have high Cu concentrations (120-7116 ppm), while large Zhunuo porphyry Cu deposit in the western part of the belt have low Cu concentrations (b40 ppm) in the small-scale (about 1 sample per 16 km 2 ) stream sediment geochemical data. Many statistical methods including (mean ± 2 standard deviation (Std)), (median ± 2 median absolute deviation (MAD)), boxplot and factor analysis were applied to delineate the anomaly, showing that there is marked Au and no Cu concentration anomaly in the Zhunuo area. Composite analysis indicates that this strong Au concentration anomaly in the Zhunuo area relates to Cu mineralization which was demonstrated by the large-scale (about 1 sample per 1k m 2 ) stream sediment data. The absence of Cu concentration anomaly in the Zhunuo area is due to the low sampling density.Our recentanalysisof these small-scale streamsediment data using the local singularity meth- od indicates that there is one weak Cu singularity anomaly in the Zhunuo area. However, the local singularity method seems to beunsuitableto the small-scale stream sediment data and not good for targeting further inves- tigation since values of α-Cu b 2 almost occupy 70% of the total data. We hope that our results will not only raise awareness of reanalyzing those anomalieswithout characteristics of high element concentrations, large size, and marked coincidence of element assemblages (HLCAs)but also beuseful for evaluation of prospecting potential in areas where only small-scale steam sediment survey was conducted.

Viral hemorrhagic fevers (VHFs) are worldwide diseases caused by several kinds of viruses. With the emergence of new viruses, advanced diagnostic methods are urgently needed for identification of VHFs. Based on Luminex xMAP technology, a rapid, sensitive, multi-pathogen and high-throughput method which could simultaneously detect hemorrhagic fever viruses (HFVs) specific IgG antibodies was developed. Recombinant antigens of nine HFVs including Hantaan virus (HTNV), Seoul virus (SEOV), Puumala virus (PUUV), Andes virus (ANDV), Sin Nombre virus (SNV), Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV), Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV), Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome bunyavirus (SFTSV) and dengue virus (DENV) were produced and purified from a prokaryotic expression system and the influence of the coupling amount was investigated. Cross-reactions among antigens and their rabbit immune sera were evaluated. Serum samples collected from 51 laboratory confirmed hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) patients, 43 confirmed SFTS patients and 88 healthy donors were analyzed. Results showed that recombinant nucleocapsid protein of the five viruses belonging to the genus Hantavirus, had serological cross-reactivity with their corresponding rabbit immune sera, but not apparent with immune sera of other four viruses. Evaluation of this new method with clinical serum samples showed 98.04% diagnostic sensitivity for HFRS, 90.70% for SFTS detection and the specificity was ranging from 66.67% to 100.00%. The multiplexed Luminex-based immunoassay has firstly been established in our study, which provides a potentially reliable diagnostic tool for IgG antibody detection of VHFs.

Network coding is considered as a promising technique to increase the bandwidth available in a wireless network. Many studies show that network coding can improve flow throughput only if an appropriate routing algorithm is used to identify paths with coding opportunities. Nevertheless, a good routing mechanism is very difficult to develop. Existing solutions either do not estimate the path bandwidth precisely enough or cannot identify the best path in some situations. In this paper, we describe our coding-aware routing protocol that provides a better path bandwidth estimate and is able to identify high throughput paths. Extensive NS2 simulations show that our protocol outperforms existing mechanisms.

Adoptive cell therapy provides an attractive treatment of cancer, and our expanding capacity to target tumor antigens is driven by genetically engineered human T lymphocytes that express genes encoding tumor-specific T cell receptors (TCRs). The intrinsic properties of cultured T cells used for therapy were reported to have tremendous influences on their persistence and antitumor efficacy in vivo. In this study, we isolated CD8(+) central memory T cells from peripheral blood lymphocytes of healthy donors, and then transferred with the gene encoding TCR specific for tumor antigen using recombinant adenovirus vector Ad5F35-TRAV-TRBV. We found effector T cells derived from central memory T cells improved cell viability, maintained certain level of CD62L expression, and reacquired the CD62L(+)CD44(high) phenotype of central memory T cells after effector T cells differentiation. We then compared the antitumor reactivity of central memory T cells and CD8(+)T cells after TCR gene transferred. The results indicated that tumor-specific TCR gene being transferred to central memory T cells effectively increased the specific killing of antigen positive tumor cells and the expression of cytolytic granule protein. Furthermore, TCR gene transferred central memory T cells were more effective than TCR gene transferred CD8(+)T cells in CTL activity and effector cytokine secretion. These results implicated that isolating central memory T cells rather than CD8(+)T cells for insertion of gene encoding tumor-specific TCR may provide a superior tumor-reactive T cell population for adoptive transfer.

Pulmonary alveolar macrophages (PAMs) are the major target cells of porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2). This study examined cellular immunity and expression of molecules associated with endogenous antigen processing and presentation in porcine PAMs for 28 days following infection with PCV2. The numbers of total T cells and T lymphocyte subpopulations were measured by flow cytometry (FCM). The expression of mRNA of large multifunctional peptidase 7 (LMP7), ubiquitin-specific protease (UBP), heat shock proteins 70 and 90 (HSP70 and HSP90), major histocompatibility class I (MHC-I), β(2)-microglobulin, glucose-regulated protein 94 (GRP94), calnexin and calreticulin of PAMs from PCV2 infected and control pigs were determined by real-time reverse transcriptase PCR. The absolute numbers of total T cells, T helper (Th) cells, cytotoxic T cells and γδ T cells, but not memory/activated Th cells, decreased following PCV2 infection. There was decreased expression of LMP7 mRNA at 3days postinfection (DPI), whereas expression of UBP and calreticulin mRNA was increased at 3 DPI, expression of HSP90 and β(2)-microglobulin mRNA was increased at 3 and 7 DPI and expression of GRP94 mRNA was increased at 14 DPI. PAMs from PCV2-infected piglets had lower surface expression of CD80/CD86 at 7 and 14 DPI and MHC-II at 7 DPI. These findings suggest that there are alterations in cellular immune function and in the endogenous antigen presentation capacity of PAMs in PCV2-infected piglets.

Background Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging infectious disease recently identified to be caused by a novel bunyavirus (SFTSV). The clinical diagnosis is urgently needed to differentiate the disease from other infections. Objective To develop a sensitive quantitative real-time RT-PCR assay for rapid detection of SFTSV viral RNA and evaluate potential use for clinical diagnosis of SFTS. Study design Primers and probes were designed to target the L, M, and S segments of SFTSV, and standard curves were established based on serial dilutions of in vitro transcribed viral RNA or viral RNA extracts. The serum samples collected from 70 laboratory confirmed SFTS patients, 114 non-SFTS patients, and 400 healthy donors were analyzed. Results Based on three optimized primer–probe sets to detect L, M, S genes of SFTSV, the quantitative real-time RT-PCR assay could discriminate SFTSV infection from other vector-borne viral diseases in human with potential detection limit of 10 viral RNA copies/μl or 10 TCID 50 /ml virus load. Strong linear correlations ( r 2 >0.99) between the C t values and viral RNA standards over a liner range were obtained. The assay specificity was determined by sequence alignment and experimentally tested on various related viruses. Evaluation of the study method with clinical serum samples showed 98.6% clinical diagnostic sensitivity and over 99% specificity. Conclusion The quantitative real-time RT-PCR assay established in this study can be used as a reliable method for early diagnosis of SFTSV infection.

In this paper, a novel technique to realize frequency quadrupling in the radio over fiber system is proposed. The frequency quadrupling is achieved by using an integrated Mach–Zehnder modulator (MZM) consisting of a 1 × 4 multimode interference (MMI) coupler and four optical phase modulator arms. Due to the inherent optical splitting ratio and phase relations between the outputs of the MMI coupler, the optical harmonics at + 1 order and − 3 order are generated corresponding to four times frequency of the microwave drive signal, only by setting the DC bias voltage of the main MZM at the minimum transmission point. That leads to the integrated MZM with reduced complexity compared with the conventional dual-parallel MZM. The effect of the nonideal integrated MZM, including the splitting imbalance and the bias drift, on all the sidebands is also analyzed theoretically. The following simulation results show that the slight deviation of the ideal values would not cause great degradation of the generated optical millimeter-wave signal.

This paper studies the steady-state availability and the mean up-time of a series–parallel repairable system consisting of one master control unit, two slave units and a single repairman who operates single vacation. Under the assumption that each unit has a constant failure rate and arbitrary repair time distribution, by using the supplementary variable method and the vector Markov process theory, we obtain the explicit expressions for the steady-state probabilities of the system, the steady-state availability and the mean up-time. A special case without vacation is given. Numerical results are provided to investigate the effects of various system parameters on the steady-state availability and the mean up-time.

In this paper, we have proposed a novel approach to generate optical carrier suppression (OCS) mm-wave with signal only carried by one first-order sideband using a dual-parallel MZM in radio-over-fiber (RoF) system, and the transmission performance was also investigated. As the optical mm-wave signal is transmitted along the fiber, there is no time shift of the data symbols resulting from the group velocity dispersion in the fiber because the signal is only modulated on one sideband. The simulation results showed that the eye diagram keeps open and clear even when the optical mm-wave signals are transmitted over 96-km and the power penalty is about 1-dB after fiber transmission distance of 60-km, which is quite consistent with our theoretical analysis. Furthermore, the proposed OCS optical mm-wave generation approach is also used in a full-duplex RoF link based on wavelength reuse at the base station for the uplink due to another pure sideband without carrying data. The bidirectional 2.5-Gbit/s data is successfully transmitted over 40-km standard single mode fiber with less than 0.5-dB power penalty in the simulation. Both the unidirectional RoF downlink and the full-duplex RoF system have good performance.

A safe and effective hantavirus vaccine is highly desirable since hantaviruses are distributed worldwide and cause an acute and often fatal disease (hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, HFRS). Virus-like particles (VLPs) displaying functional viral proteins could provide effective vaccines against a few viruses, but their ability to induce hantavirus-specific immune response has not been adequately investigated. To measure the immunogenicity of Hantaan virus-like particles (HTN-VLPs) vaccine, we generated recombinant HTN-VLPs by co-expressing Hantaan virus nucleocapsid (N) protein and glycoproteins (Gn and Gc) in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. We compared intramuscular versus subcutaneous administration of HTN-VLPs for the ability to induce specific immune response against Hantaan virus infection. Mice that received both intramuscular and subcutaneous immunizations of HTN-VLPs were sufficiently stimulated specific antibody response against Hantaan virus N protein and glycoproteins, which was comparable to Chinese commercial inactivated bivalent hantaviruses vaccine. Moreover, vaccination with HTN-VLPs also resulted in the induction of higher levels of specific cellular response to N protein than that of inactivated vaccine. Our results provide an important insight towards the development of hantaviruses-like particles as a potential candidate vaccine for the control and prevention of hantaviruses infection.

This study examines the herding behavior of investors in Chinese stock markets. Using a least squares method, we find evidence of herding within both the Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share markets and no evidence of herding within both B-share markets. A-share investors display herding formation in both up and down markets. However, we cannot find herding activity for B-share investors in the up market. By applying quantile regression analysis to estimate the herding equation, we find supporting evidence of herding behavior in both A-share and B-share investors conditional on the dispersions of returns in the lower quantile region.

Monoclonal antibodies (Mab) are the fastest growing group of biopharmaceuticals in development. For production in mammalian cells, the four polypeptide chains of the immunoglobulin diheterotetramer must be assembled prior to exit from the endoplasmic reticulum. Various recombinant Mab expression vectors have been developed utilizing mono-and bicistronic expression cassettes encoded on one or two plasmids. However, there are only few studies providing information on the type of vector design optimal for stable or transient production of recombinant IgG. Consequently, in this study, we have constructed a series of mammalian expression vectors for the production of recombinant human or chimeric IgG antibodies with different expression cassette designs. Versions for monocistronic and bicistronic expression with different promoters and cistron arrangements were generated. Antibody production levels were evaluated in transiently transfected 293T and CHO-K1 cells. Furthermore, stable CHO cell lines were generated and analyzed for antibody production levels and stability. Our results indicate that compared to monocistronic expression, EMCV IRES-mediated bicistronic expression constructs yield similar antibody expression levels and show long-term stability in CHO cell lines. Addition of a third cistron encoding YFP was shown to facilitate screening and isolation of clones using a FACS sorter.

In this paper, an optimal topology-transparent reservation time division multiple access (OTTR-TDMA) protocol is proposed for multihop ad hoc networks. Our MAC protocol is based on a slotted TDMA architecture in which every slot is divided into reservation phase and data transmission phase. Every node not only transmits data in its assigned slots that are computed by Chlamtac’s algorithm, but it also utilizes free slots among its non-assigned slots through reservation. Through theoretical analysis, we derive the proper parameter for the best performance. We compare our protocol with other TDMA protocols and find that it gives better performance. Simulation results show that they are consistent with our analytical results.