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Sauropterygia is the largest, most successful group of Mesozoic marine diapsids, spanning from the late Early Triassic to the Late Cretaceous. Plesiomorphic for sauropterygians, pachypleurosauroids are important for our understanding on the early evolution of this group. Here, we present a new pachypleurosaurid, Luopingosaurus imparilis gen. et sp. nov., based on an exceptionally preserved skeleton from the early Middle Triassic Luoping Lagerstätte in Yunnan, China. The discovery documents the first long-snouted pachypleurosaurid with an unexpected hyperphalangy in the manus, providing new insights into the morphological diversification, ecological adaption and biogeographic evolution of this clade. The discovery further indicates that there is a morphological divergence between short-snouted (brevirostrine) keichousaurids and relatively long-snouted (longirostrine) pachypleurosaurids, which was probably driven by ecological specializations related to feeding and foraging. Additionally, an evolutionary trend towards the reduction of the ratio of the hyoid length to mandibular length (HM ratio) is recognized in pachypleurosauroids. This reduction of HM ratio, associated with the increase of the snout length, might implicate a gradual recession of suction feeding in pachypleurosauroid evolution. Phylogenetic studies incorporating Luopingosaurus recover European pachypleurosaurids as successive sister groups to Chinese derived pachypleurosaurids, supporting a western Tethyan origin for this family.

To understand the morphological and structural characteristics of root nodules in Podocarpus macrophyllus and their development, this study prepared P. macrophyllus root nodule samples at the young, mature, and senescent stages. Optical microscopy and transmission electron microscopy (SEM) revealed that new nodules can be formed on roots and senescent nodules; new nodules formed on the roots are nearly spherical and have an internal structure similar to finite nodules; new nodules on senescent nodules are formed by extension and differentiation of the vascular cylinder of the original nodules; and these new nodules are nested at the base of the original nodules, which create growth space for new nodules by dissociating the cortical tissue; clusters of nodules are formed after extensive accumulation, and the growth pattern is similar to that of infinite nodules; the symbiotic bacteria of P. macrophyllus root nodules mainly invade from the epidermal intercellular space of the roots and migrate along the intercellular space of the nodule cortex; infected nodule cortex cells have a well-developed inner membrane system and enlarged and loose nuclei; and unique Frankia vesicles, and rhizobia cysts, and bacteriophages can all develop. Compared with common leguminous and nonleguminous plant nodules, P. macrophyllus root nodules are more complex in morphology, structure and composition. From the perspective of plant system evolution, the rhizobium nodules in leguminous angiosperms and Frankia nodules in nonleguminous angiosperms are most likely two branches derived from the nodules in gymnosperms, such as P. macrophyllus. The conclusions of this study can provide a theoretical basis for the developmental biology of P. macrophyllus root nodules and the evolutionary pattern of plant symbionts.HighlightsWe discuss from the perspective of cell developmental biology, the rhizobium nodules in leguminous angiosperms and Frankia nodules in nonleguminous angiosperms are most likely two branches derived from the nodules in gymnosperms, such as Podocarpus macrophyllus.

Coherence, discord and geometric measure of entanglement are important tools for measuring physical resources. We compute them at every steps of the Grover's algorithm. We summarize these resources's patterns of change. These resources are getting smaller at the step oracle and are getting bigger or invariant at the step diffuser. This result is similar to the entanglement's pattern of change in Grover's algorithm. Furthermore, we compute GM at every steps of the Harrow-Hassidim-Lloyd algorithm.

Background: This study aimed to explore the relationship between zinc finger protein 488 (ZNF488) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), as well as the function and mechanism of ZNF488 involved in the invasion and metastasis. Method：TCGA and HPA databases were used to analyze NSCLC data. Quantitative Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to detect the expression level of ZNF488 in tissues. 100 cases of NSCLC tissues were subjected to immunohistochemical staining (IHC) to evaluate the endogenous expression of ZNF488, and than analyze its correlation with clinical characteristics. After constructing ZNF488 stably overexpressing cell lines, wound healing test and transwell invasion assays were used to explore the invasion and migration ability of lung cancer cells in both ZNF488 over-expressing and the vector control cell lines. In vivo, we used ZNF488 over-expressing and the vector control cell lines to construct animal models of lung metastasis by tail vein injection. The gene chip technology was used to explore the differential genes between vector and ZNF488 over-expressing group. The DAVID database was used to analyze the differential genes by KEGG pathway MEK inhibitor AZD6244 was used to verify the potential signaling pathway. Western blot was used to detect the protein expression levels. Results：The expression of ZNF488 in NSCLC tissues was generally higher than that in normal lung tissues, and its expression level was significantly related to TNM stage, overall survival (OS), local recurrence-free survival (LRFS), distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS), and progression-free survival (PFS) (p Conclusion: As an independent prognostic indicator, ZNF488 can promote the invasion and metastasis by activating the MAPK/ERK signaling pathway in NSCLC .

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common aggressive brain tumor and is associated with an extremely poor prognosis, as the current standard of care treatments have limited efficacy. Natural compounds have attracted increasing attention as potential anticancer drugs. Alantolactone (ATL) is a natural small molecule inhibitor, that has antitumor properties. In the present study, U87MG and U251 cells were treated ATL and changes in actin/G‑actin/F‑actin/cofilin pathway were detected in whole cells, in the cytoplasm and mitochondria by western blot analysis. Immunofluorescence and immunoprecipitation analysis identified changes in the expression levels of target proteins and interactions, respectively. A LIMK enzyme inhibitor was also applied to assess the effects of ATL on the migration and invasion of GBM cells. Flow cytometry was used to detect the levels of apoptosis of GBM cells. The expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)‑2/MMP‑9, caspase‑3/caspase‑9/poly(ADP‑ribose) polymerase (PARP)/cytochrome c, were determined by western blot analysis to assess the effects of targeting LIMK. The in vitro findings were verified in vivo by characterizing changes in the expression of cofilin/LIMK in xenograft tumors in immunodeficient mice. It was found that ATL activated cofilin through the targeted inhibition of LIMK enzyme activity and it thus upregulated the ratio of G/F actin, and inhibited GBM cell migration and invasion. Conversely, the activation of cofilin and G‑actin could be co‑transferred to the mitochondria to initiate the mitochondrial‑cytochrome c pathway to induce apoptosis. On the whole, the findings of the present study further illustrate the molecular mechanisms through which ATL inhibits the metastatic phenotype of GBM cells and induces apoptosis. Given previous findings, it can be deduced that ATL can function through multiple pathways and has multiple targets in GBM models, highlighting its potential for use in clinical applications.

The complete chloroplast genome of Catalpa ‘Bairihua’ a hybrid variety with multi season flowering obtained from hybrid progeny of C. bungei ‘Luoqiu Sihao’ (C. bungei ‘01’ × C. bungei ‘Changguo Qiu’) and C. fargesii f. duclouxii was first sequenced with the Illumina HiSeq 2000 platform. Which was 158,210 bp in length with a typical quadruple structure and contained a large single copy (LSC: 84,928 bp) region and a small single copy (SSC: 12,664 bp) region that were separated by a pair of inverted repeats (IRa, b: 30,309 bp) region. The GC content of the whole chloroplast genome is 38.1%. A total of 130 genes was annotated in the complete chloroplast genome, including 85 protein-coding genes, 37 tRNA genes and 8rRNA genes. ML phylogenetic analysis by comparing with 39 chloroplast genomes of the Bignoniaceae indicated that Catalpa ‘Bairihua’ was close to Tecomaria capensis.

Quantum catalytic transformations play important roles in the transformation of quantum entangled states under local operations and classical communications (LOCC). The key problems in catalytic transformations are the existence and the bounds on the catalytic states. We present the necessary conditions of catalytic states based on a set of points given by the Schmidt coefficients of the entangled source and target states. The lower bounds on the dimensions of the catalytic states are also investigated. Moreover, we give a detailed protocol of quantum mixed state transformation under entanglement-assisted LOCC.

To evaluate real dynamic assessment of tear film optical quality for monitoring and prevention of dry eye. Right eyes of 62 normal and 39 dry eye subjects were included. Dynamic measurement of objective scatter index (OSI) was performed by using the Optical Quality Analysis System II (OQAS II), correlation coefficient between OSI and time (CCOT) was calculated. According to whether the CCOT was significantly ascending, normal and dry eye groups were further subdivided for comparison. By using Scheimpflug-Placido topographer, non-invasive tear break-up time (NITBUT) was recorded, and a 2-dimensional precorneal tear film map was reconstructed and divided into central, middle, and peripheral corneal zones, distribution of tear break-up spots in the 3 corneal zones were analyzed. The numbers of tear break-up spots were higher in all the 3 corneal zones of the dry eye subjects (P

The determination of genuine entanglement is a central problem in quantum information processing. We investigate the tripartite state as the tensor product of two bipartite entangled states by merging two systems. We show that the tripartite state is a genuinely entangled (GE) state when the range of both bipartite states are entanglement-breaking (EB) subspaces. We further investigate the tripartite state when one of the two bipartite states has rank two. Our results provide the latest progress on a conjecture proposed in the paper [Yi Shen et al 2020 J. Phys. A 53 125302]. We apply our results to construct multipartite states whose bipartite reduced density operators have additive entanglement of formation (EOF). Further, such states are distillable across every bipartition under local operations and classical communications.

Previous studies have indicated that gut-derived endotoxin played a pivotal role for aggravating systemic inflammatory response to multi-organ dysfunction under heatstroke. Dexmedetomidine (DEX) could protect against inflammation and multi-organ injury in various scenarios. The aim of this study was to explore the protective effect of DEX on heatstroke and the mechanism involved. Male C57BL/6 mice were placed in a controlled climate chamber (40 ± 1°C) until the maximum core temperature (Tc, Max) of 42.7°C, the received criterion of heatstroke, was attained, DEX (25 μg/kg) or 0.9% saline was injected intraperitoneally immediately. The results showed that DEX could significantly attenuate multi-organ injury induced by heatstroke, simultaneously decrease levels of serum inflammatory cytokines through inhibiting the intestinal nuclear factor-κB activation. Furthermore, to assess the effects of DEX on intestine mucosal barrier under heatstroke, the levels of plasma endotoxin, FD4, and D-lactate were detected and the expression of tight junction proteins occludin and ZO-1 was analyzed by western blot and immunohistochemistry. Meanwhile, transmission electron microscopy was employed to confirm the ultrastructure of intestine. Interestingly, we found that DEX decreased the intestinal permeability and sustained the integrity of intestinal barrier. Finally, to evaluate the anti-apoptosis effect of DEX, the pro-apoptotic protein Bax and anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 were analyzed by western blot, and terminal deoxynucleotidyl-transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) staining was conducted. The results showed that DEX decreased TUNEL-positive cells induced by heatstroke in a Bax/Bcl-2-related manner. Taken together, our results indicate that DEX could protect against inflammation and multi-organ injury induced by heatstroke via sustaining the intestinal integrity.

The Middle and early Late Triassic of southern China is well known for a remarkable diversity of marine vertebrates, particularly reptiles, including an abundance of intriguing new forms (e.g., Jiang et al., 2005; Hu et al., 2011; Li et al., 2016). Here we describe a new diapsid from Yunnan Province. It possesses an elongate neck that exhibits a remarkable similarity to that of many Protorosauria, yet in other respects the skull and postcranium are much less derived.The new taxon is part of the so-called Panxian-Luoping Fauna and the deposits correspond to the Upper Member of the Guanling Formation, comprising thin to medium bedded, gray to dark-gray laminated marly limestone and limestone, with several layers of bentonite intercalated in the fossil level at Panxian (Wan, 2002; Motani et al., 2008; Jiang et al., 2009). Their age is Pelsonian (middle Anisian, Middle Triassic) as is indicated by the conodont Nicoraella kockeli Zone (Sun et al., 2006; Zhang et al., 2009). A recent U-Pb study indicates the absolute age of these middle Anisian beds to be close to 244 Ma (Wang et al., 2014).

Transient Receptor Potential Melastatin 4 (TRPM4) is a nonselective channel conducting monovalent ions and indirectly regulates intracellular Ca(2+). Aberrant expression has been reported in a number of cancers. However, the biological function of TRPM4 in endometrial carcinoma (EC) is still unknown. We find that decreased TRPM4 expression is significantly correlated with a poor prognosis, overall survival (OS, P

We show that there are six inequivalent $$4\times 4$$ unextendible product bases (UPBs) of size eight, when we consider only 4-qubit product vectors. We apply our results to construct positive-partial-transpose entangled states of rank nine. They are at the same time 4-qubit, $$2\times 2\times 4$$ and $$4\times 4$$ states, and their ranges have product vectors. One of the six UPBs turns out to be orthogonal to an incompletely genuinely entangled space, in the sense that the latter does not contain $$4\times 4$$ product vector in any bipartition of 4-qubit systems. We also show that the multipartite UPB orthogonal to a genuinely entangled space exists if and only if the $$n\times n\times n$$ UPB orthogonal to a genuinely entangled space exists for some n. These results help understand an open problem in Demianowicz and Augusiak (Phys Rev A 98:012313, 2018).

Detection of biomarkers is extremely important for the early diagnosis of diseases. Here, we developed an easy and highly sensitive fluorescence detection system for the determination of biomarkers by combining the rapid separation of magnetic beads and silver nanoparticles labeled antibodies. An ultrasensitive silver ions fluorescence probe 3', 6'-bis (diethylamino)-2-(2-iodoethyl) spiro[isoindoline-1, 9'-xanthen]-3-one (Ag+-FP) was applied to immunoassay. A significant signal amplification was achieved as the AgNPs can be dissolved by H2O2 and generate numerous Ag+, which would turn "on" the fluorescence of Ag+-FP. Using α-fetoprotein (AFP) and C-reactive protein (CRP) as target analytes, good linear responses were obtained from 0.1 to 10 ng mL-1 and the limits of detection (LOD) were as low as 70 pg·mL-1 and 30 pg·mL-1, respectively. In addition, the developed system was further evaluated for the detection of real samples including 30 positive serum specimens obtained from hepatocarcinoma patients and 20 negative serum samples, and performs as well as the commercial electrochemiluminescence immunoassay (ECLI) method with less cost and more convenience. Thus, the designed detection system can be used as a promising platform for the detection of a variety of biomarkers and served as a powerful tool in clinical diagnosis.

Hygroscopicity is capable of significantly affecting atmospheric visibility, radiative forcing, and cloud condensation nuclei process. Herein, a physisorption analyzer was adopted to determine the hygroscopicity of inorganic salt particles in atmospheric aerosols (e.g., NaNO3, NaClO4, MgSO4, K3PO4, K2HPO4, and KH2PO4) at 298 K. By regulating the ambient relative humidity (RH), qualitative and quantitative information of the mentioned particles in humidifying and dehumidifying cycles was acquired. The deliquescence relative humidity (DRH) and efflorescence relative humidity (ERH) were measured, and supersaturation was observed and recorded during the dehumidification process. The water-to-salt molar ratios (WSR) of the mentioned inorganic salts depending on RH were determined, and the hygroscopic results of NaNO3 and NaClO4 particles were well consistent with the results achieved with other methods or by theoretical prediction. This study fitted WSR-to-RH equations suitable for NaNO3, NaClO4, MgSO4, K3PO4, and K2HPO4 particles. The adsorption heats for monolayer water molecules in the mentioned inorganic salt particles are calculated. The present study lays a solid foundation for gaining insights into the effects of RH on atmospheric aerosols.

Entanglement witnesses (EWs) are a fundamental tool for the detection of entanglement. We study the inertias of EWs, i.e., the triplet of the numbers of negative, zero, and positive eigenvalues respectively. We focus on the EWs constructed by the partial transposition of states with non-positive partial transposes. We provide a method to generate more inertias from a given inertia by the relevance between inertias. Based on that we exhaust all the inertias for EWs in each qubit-qudit system. We apply our results to propose a separability criterion in terms of the rank of the partial transpose of state. We also connect our results to tripartite genuinely entangled states and the classification of states with non-positive partial transposes. Additionally, the inertias of EWs constructed by X-states are clarified., Comment: similar to the accepted version, to appear in the journal of physics a

We study the entanglement-breaking (EB) space, such that the entanglement of formation (EOF) of a bipartite quantum state is additive when its range is an EB subspace. We systematically construct the EB spaces in the Hilbert space ${\mathbb{C}}^{m}\ensuremath{\bigotimes}{\mathbb{C}}^{3}$, and the two-dimensional EB space in ${\mathbb{C}}^{2}\ensuremath{\bigotimes}{\mathbb{C}}^{n}$. We characterize the expression of two-qubit states of rank two with nonadditive EOF, if they exist. We further apply our results to construct EB spaces of arbitrarily given dimensions. We show that the example in Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 027901 (2002) is a special case of our results. We further work out the entanglement cost of a qubit-qutrit state in terms of the two-atom system of the Tavis-Cummings model.

We study the trade-off relations satisfied by the genuine tripartite nonlocality in multipartite quantum systems. From the reduced three-qubit density matrices of the four-qubit generalized Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) states and W states (4-qubit entangled state), we find that there exists a trade-off relation among the mean values of the Svetlichny operators associated with these reduced states. Namely, the genuine three-qubit nonlocalities are not independent. For four-qubit generalized GHZ states and W states, the summation of all their three-qubit maximal (squared) mean values of the Svetlichny operator has an upper bound. This bound is better than the one derived from the upper bounds of individual three-qubit mean values of the Svetlichny operator. Detailed examples are presented to illustrate the trade-off relation among the three-qubit nonlocalities., Comment: 9 pages,4 figures

Previous systemic models of commxinity attachment have not included individual participation in local community groups and attitudes toward the community as intervening variables to predict community attachment through individual sociodemographic characteristics. Social Identity Theory provides a perspective to justify their inclusion when community attachment is perceived as an outcome of individuals" social identification with their own communities. Based on social identity theory, a systemic model is proposed to test the notion that community attachment indicated by its psychological dimension is affected significantly by individual participation in local community groups and attitudes toward the community which are predicted by individual differences in age, length of residence, education, and income. Path analysis and Hierarchical Linear Modeling were used to examine the specified relationships among the variables both at the individual-level and at the community-level. The results confirm that individual participation in local communities and attitudes toward the

The haematopoietic cell-specific protein 1-associated protein X-1 (HAX-1), as a mitochondrial membrane protein, induces cancer progression and metastasis. The present study aimed to investigate the role of HAX-1-induced survival, migration and proliferation of human cervical squamous carcinoma cells and to elucidate its potential molecular mechanisms. The level of HAX-1 was examined by quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blot analyses. The survival, migration and proliferation of the human cervical squamous carcinoma SiHa cell line were measured by the water-soluble tetrazolium salt (WST-1) assay, Transwell assay and 3H-thymidine incorporation into DNA (3H-TdR) assay, respectively. The intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) was estimated by the fluorescence of H2DCFDA, and the mitochondrial membrane potential was tested using a JC-1 probe. The expression of the HAX-1 gene was significantly increased in human cervical carcinoma tissues relative to non-cancerous cervix tissues. Overexpression of HAX-1 increased the survival, migration and proliferation ability of SiHa cells, decreased the production of ROS, and maintained the integrity of the mitochondrial membrane and morphology. The effect brought on these cells could be abrogated by the addition of wild-type tumour protein P53 (p53) or carbonyl cyanide-p-trifluoro methoxyphenylhydrazone-induced mitochondrial dysfunction. In summary, these data support the notion that HAX-1 induced the survival, migration and proliferation of human cervical squamous carcinoma cells by inhibiting its downstream regulatory factor p53 in SiHa cells.

Multispectral LiDAR (light detection and ranging) data have been initially used for land cover classification. However, there are still high classification uncertainties, especially in urban areas, where objects are often mixed and confounded. This study investigated the efficiency of combining advanced statistical methods and LiDAR metrics derived from multispectral LiDAR data for improving land cover classification accuracy in urban areas. The study area is located in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. Multispectral Optech Titan LiDAR data over the study area were acquired on 3 September 2014 in a single strip of 3 km2. Using the channels at 1,550 nm (C1), 1,064 nm (C2) and 532 nm (C3), LiDAR intensity data, normalized digital surface model (nDSM), pseudo normalized difference vegetation index (PseudoNDVI), morphological profiles (MP), and a novel hierarchical morphological profiles (HMP) were derived and used as features for the classification. A support vector machine classifier with a radial basis function (RBF) kernel was applied in the classification stage, where the optimal parameters for the classifier were selected by a grid search procedure. The combination of intensity, pseudoNDVI, nDSM and HMP resulted in the best land cover classification, with an overall accuracy of 93.28%.

Following the end-Permian extinction, terrestrial vertebrate diversity recovered by the Middle Triassic, and that diversity was now dominated by reptiles. However, those reptilian clades, including archosaurs and their closest relatives, are not commonly found until ~30 million years post-extinction in Late Triassic deposits despite time-calibrated phylogenetic analyses predicting an Early Triassic divergence for those clades. One of these groups from the Late Triassic, Phytosauria, is well known from a near-Pangean distribution, and this easily recognized clade bears an elongated rostrum with posteriorly retracted nares and numerous postcranial synapomorphies that are unique compared with all other contemporary reptiles. Here, we recognize the exquisitely preserved, nearly complete skeleton of Diandongosuchus fuyuanensis from the Middle Triassic of China as the oldest and basalmost phytosaur. The Middle Triassic age and lack of the characteristically-elongated rostrum fill a critical morphological and temporal gap in phytosaur evolution, indicating that the characteristic elongated rostrum of phytosaurs appeared subsequent to cranial and postcranial modifications associated with enhanced prey capture, predating that general trend of morphological evolution observed within Crocodyliformes. Additionally, Diandongosuchus supports that the clade was present across Pangea, suggesting early ecosystem exploration for Archosauriformes through nearshore environments and leading to ease of dispersal across the Tethys.

Increasing glucose transporter-1 (GLUT-1) activity is one of the most important ways to increase the cellular influx of glucose. We previously demonstrated that increased GLUT-1 expression was an independent predictor of survival in patients with laryngeal carcinoma. Thus, GLUT-1 may present a novel therapeutic target in laryngeal carcinoma. In this study, the expression of GLUT-1, P-glycoprotein (P-gp), multidrug resistance-associated protein 1 (MRP1) and glutathione S-transferase-π (GST-π) in laryngeal carcinomas was investigated by immunohistochemistry. Additionally, possible correlations between GLUT-1 and P-gp, MRP1 and GST-π and various clinicopathological parameters were analyzed. In this study, 52.9% (18/34), 58.8% (20/34), 20.6% (7/34) and 58.8% (20/34) of the laryngeal carcinomas were positive for GLUT-1, P-gp, MRP1 and GST-π, respectively. The expression of GLUT-1, P-gp, MRP1 and GST-π was higher in laryngeal carcinoma specimens when compared with laryngeal precancerous lesions (P

Background Liver cirrhotic patients with hepatic encephalopathy have poor prognosis. Probiotics alter the intestinal microbiota and reduce the production of ammonia. We conducted a meta-analysis about the role of probiotics on liver cirrhotic patients with hepatic encephalopathy. Data Sources We collected the relevant literatures up to February 21, 2014 from databases of PubMed, EMBASE and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. A statistical analysis was conducted by RevMan 5.2 and STATA 12.0 software. Results Six randomized controlled trials involving 496 liver cirrhotic patients were included. The results showed that probiotic therapy significantly reduced the development of overt hepatic encephalopathy (OR [95% CI]: 0.42 [0.26, 0.70], P =0.0007). However, probiotics did not affect mortality, levels of serum ammonia and constipation (mortality: OR [95% CI]: 0.73 [0.38, 1.41], P =0.35; serum ammonia: WMD [95% CI]: −3.67 [−15.71, 8.37], P =0.55; constipation: OR [95% CI]: 0.67 [0.29, 1.56], P =0.35). Conclusion Probiotics decrease overt hepatic encephalopathy in patients with liver cirrhosis.

Natural gas is an extremely important bridge fuel to a low-carbon energy economy for improving local air quality. Coal to synthetic natural gas (SNG) is an effective way to convert the high-carbon energy (coal) into the low-carbon energy with rich hydrogen (natural gas). For the modern coal to SNG industry, the high-temperature methanation (HTM) catalyst plays an important role, and the advanced evaluation process should necessitate the elimination of mass transfer effect. Some simple but effective model catalysts, such as slab and sphere, can be very helpful in defining the reaction conditions, and thus facilitating the evaluation process for real HTM catalysts. In this work, slab and sphere model catalysts were adopted to derive mass transfer and reaction-coupled equations, the numerical methods were used to solve the coupled equations for the concentration profiles in catalysts, and the effectiveness factors were accordingly calculated. By taking advantage of the Thiele module φ and the Weisz–Prater module Φ, the criteria for the elimination of mass transfer effect in the HTM catalyst evaluation process were successfully defined. This work also complements the Weisz–Prater criterion by incorporating ‘negative reaction orders’.

Epidemiologic studies have demonstrated that long-term exposure to relatively low levels of particulate air pollution is associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes in Europe and North America. However, few studies have assessed the association with high level air pollutants. We aimed to assess the cardiovascular effects of long-term exposure to high level concentrations of inhalable particulate and to identify the characteristics of the Chinese population that are susceptible to the health effects. A retrospective cohort, containing 39,054 subjects from four cities in northern China, was followed for mortality of all cause and specific cardiovascular diseases from 1998 to 2009. Information on concentrations of PM10 (particulate matter