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FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2 radio occultation (RO) measurements show promise for observing the deep troposphere and for providing critical information on the Earth's planetary boundary layer (PBL). However, refractivity retrieved in the low troposphere can have severe biases under certain thermodynamic conditions. This research examines the characteristics of the deep tropospheric biases and presents methods for estimating the region-dependent refractivity bias using statistical regression models. The results show that the biases have characteristics that vary over land and oceans. With substantial correlation between local spectral width (LSW) and bias, the LSW-based bias estimation model can explain the general pattern of the refractivity bias but with deficiencies in measuring the bias in the ducting regions and in certain areas over land. The estimation model involving the relationship with temperature and specific humidity (TQ) can capture the large biases associated with ducting. Finally, a minimum variance estimation that combines the LSW and TQ provides the most accurate estimation of the refractivity bias.

Intro: Influenza viruses are highly infectious and cause widespread respiratory diseases. Moreover, it could pose a noteworthy epidemic and pandemic threat to public health. Vaccination is the most cost-effective intervention to prevent influenza and its complications. Currently, most commercial influenza vaccines are produced using embryonic chicken eggs (ECE), which is hard to scale up efficiently and could potentially reduce vaccine efficacy due to gene mutations in HA genes. In addition, the egg-based technology is associated with some jeopardy of allergic reactions and there is a risk of disrupted egg supply when avian influenza outbreaks erupt. To overcome the dependency on ECE, developments of influenza vaccines based on efficient and robust production platforms are urgently needed. Methods: Several potential vaccine production systems already have shown potential as replacers, including a virus-like particle (VLP) platform. In the current study, using a Baculovirus Expression System (BES), we engineered HA, NA, and M1 genes of influenza A/H1N1, A/H3N2, B/Yamagata-like, and B/Victoria-like virus strains (A/Hawaii/70/2019, A/Minnesota/41/2019, B/Brisbane/09/2014 & B/Brisbane/63/2014) to produce VLP vaccine antigens H1N1-VLP, H3N2-VLP, Yamagata-VLP, Victoria-VLP, respectively. Then functional and antigenic features were determined, including hemagglutination assay, protein composition, size, and morphology of the VLP antigens. Findings: We found that these recombinants VLPs contained influenza HA, NA, and M1 with functional activity, resembled influenza virions in morphology and size, and were structurally intact. We compared the immunogenicity of in-house VLP antigens and commercial recombinant HA (rHA) vaccines in mice. Results revealed that our recombinant VLP antigens are highly immunogenic and produced higher hemagglutination inhibition and virus neutralization antibody titers than the commercial rHA vaccine. Conclusion: The insect cell-based seasonal influenza VLP vaccine antigens are more immunogenic than rHA antigens. Further animal challenge studies are worth to conduct.

Inversion of radio occultation (RO) measurements to atmospheric parameters in the neutral atmosphere utilizes the assumption of spherical symmetry by implementation of the Abel transform. The main contribution to the retrieved refractional angle and other geophysical parameters comes from gaseous properties of the atmosphere. The atmospheric refraction is expressed by a function of air pressure, air temperature, and water vapor pressure. Such commonly adopted methodology results in highly comparable RO retrievals with background models. However, in the lowermost troposphere referred to as planetary boundary layer, inversion in spherically symmetric atmosphere is an ill‐conditioned problem. The presence of superrefractions introduces negative errors in the RO‐retrieved refractivity (N‐bias). We show that significant refractivity gradients are frequently collocated with clouds over oceans in tropical and subtropical regions. Based on gridded monthly means we show that superrefractions usually occur at altitudes up to 2 km and the largest cloud fractions tend to suspend at underlying layers. The magnitude of clouds expressed in terms of refractivity units can exceed 1.5, which corresponds to 0.5% in terms of fractional differences. We use both geometrical optics and wave optics techniques to illustrate propagation mechanisms in RO retrievals. Simulation experiments suggest that RO inversions in cloudy planetary boundary layer lead to larger negative N‐biases. Low‐level clouds retrieved from numerical weather prediction model could therefore be used as an indicator of erroneous RO observations. A better agreement with RO refractivity could be achieved by incorporating cloud variables into background fields especially over the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

In this paper, a hybrid nanogenerator with concurrently harvested piezoelectric and triboelectric mechanisms, called a fully encapsulated piezoelectric–triboelectric hybrid nanogenerator (PTHG), is demonstrated. In the construction of piezoelectric nanogenerator (PENG), an in-situ poling near-field electrospinning (NFES) was utilized to direct-write piezoelectric polymeric nano/micro fibers (NMFs) polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) as the functional layer of piezoelectric nanogenerators. On the other hand, the nano-textured functional layer of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) is also concurrently combined with PENG. This hybridized nanogenerator was demonstrated to simultaneously harvest piezoelectric and triboelectric output such that the superimposed peak output voltage /current signals of ~130 V/4 µA at 2 Hz, which can be translated to the area power density of 8.34 mW/m2. Individually measured TENG under a hand-induced strain 0.2 and 2 Hz actuation, the output voltage/current peak is measured about 110 V/2.8 µA, while the PENG counterpart shows the the output voltage/current peak is about 18 V/0.6 µA. In addition, the proposed PTHG can harvest sustainable energy sources such as rain water with the output maximum voltage reaches ~20 V and area power density ~0.981 mW/m2 for dropping rate of 10 ml/s. This research shows the substantial improvement in the synergy of nano-textured triboelectric and piezoelectric functional layers. The practical application of the self-powered system can be ubiquitously implemented in the sustainable energy sources and future industry 4.0 scenarios to provide the stand alone energy sources of IoT sensors.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by memory dysfunction, Aβ plaques together with phosphorylated tau-associated neurofibrillary tangles. Unfortunately, the present existing drugs for AD only offer mild symptomatic cure and have more side effects. As such, developments of effective, nontoxic drugs are immediately required for AD therapy. Present study demonstrates a novel role of Chinese medicine prescription Yuan-Hu Zhi Tong (YZT) in treating AD, and it has substantiated the in vivo effectiveness of YZT in two different transgenic mice models of AD, namely P301S tau and 3XTg-AD mice. Oral treatment of YZT significantly ameliorates motor dysfunction as well as promotes the clearance of aggregated tau in P301S tau mice. YZT improves the cognitive function and reduces the insoluble tau aggregates in 3XTg-AD mice model. Furthermore, YZT decreases the insoluble AT8 positive neuron load in both P301S tau and 3XTg-AD mice. Using microarray and the “Connectivity Map” analysis, we determined the YZT-induced changes in expression of signaling molecules and revealed the potential mechanism of action of YZT. YZT might regulate ubiquitin proteasomal system for the degradation of tau aggregates. The research results show that YZT is a potential drug candidate for the therapy of tau pathogenesis and memory decline in AD.

This paper represents the first report of thermoplastic starch (scCO2TPS) and glutaraldehyde (GA) modified TPS resins (scCO2TPS100GAx), gelatinized and/or modified with the aid of supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2). The melt flow rate, initial and retention values of tensile strength (σf) of TPS and GA-modified TPS prepared using scCO2 fluid were considerably higher than those of TPS and TPS100GAx materials prepared in the conventional way. After conditioning at 20 °C/50% RH for 56 days, the σf of properly prepared scCO2TPS100GA0.1 still remained at 17.5 MPa, which is around 3.5 times of that of the corresponding conditioned TPS100GA0.1. The moisture contents of conditioned scCO2TPS and scCO2TPS100GAx were considerably lower than those of the corresponding TPS and TPS100GAx aged for the same amounts of time. Conditioned scCO2TPS andscCO2TPS100GAx exhibited only Vh-type crystals with melting temperatures ~20°C lower than those of corresponding conditioned TPS and TPS100GAx. In comparison to TPS and TPS100GAx, more dissociated amylopectin chains with loosely hydrogen-bonded –OH groups and significantly less retrogradation was found for conditioned scCO2TPS and scCO2TPS100GAx.

Abstract Excessive alcohol consumption is a known risk factor for stroke, but the effect of stroke on alcohol intake is unknown. The dorsomedial striatum (DMS) and midbrain areas of the nigrostriatal circuit are critically associated to stroke and alcohol addiction. Here we sought to explore the influence of stroke on alcohol consumption and to uncover the underlying nigrostriatal mechanism. Rats were trained to consume alcohol using a two-bottle choice or operant self-administration procedure. Retrograde beads were infused into the DMS or midbrain to label specific neuronal types, and ischemic stroke was induced in the dorsolateral striatum (DLS). Slice electrophysiology was employed to measure excitability and synaptic transmission in DMS and midbrain neurons. We found that ischemic stroke-induced DLS infarction produced significant increases in alcohol preference, operant self-administration, and relapse. These increases were accompanied by enhanced excitability of DMS and midbrain neurons. In addition, glutamatergic inputs onto DMS D1-neurons was potentiated, whereas GABAergic inputs onto DMS-projecting midbrain dopaminergic neurons was suppressed. Importantly, systemic inhibition of dopamine D1 receptors attenuated the stroke-induced increase in operant alcohol self-administration. Our results suggest that the stroke-induced DLS infarction evoked abnormal plasticity in nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons and DMS D1-neurons, contributing to increased post-stroke alcohol-seeking and relapse.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an infrastructure that interconnects uniquely-identifiable devices using the Internet. By interconnecting everyday appliances, various monitoring and physical mashup applications can be constructed to improve people’s daily life. However, IoT devices created by different manufacturers follow different proprietary protocols and cannot communicate with each other. This heterogeneity issue causes different products to be locked in multiple closed ecosystems that we call IoT silos. In order to address this issue, a common industrial solution is the hub approach, which implements connectors to communicate with IoT devices following different protocols. However, with the growing number of proprietary protocols proposed by device manufacturers, IoT hubs need to support and maintain a lot of customized connectors. Hence, we believe the ultimate solution to address the heterogeneity issue is to follow open and interoperable standard. Among the existing IoT standards, the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) SensorThings API standard supports comprehensive conceptual model and query functionalities. The first version of SensorThings API mainly focuses on connecting to IoT devices and sharing sensor observations online, which is the sensing capability. Besides the sensing capability, IoT devices could also be controlled via the Internet, which is the tasking capability. While the tasking capability was not included in the first version of the SensorThings API standard, this research aims on defining the tasking capability profile and integrates with the SensorThings API standard, which we call the extended-SensorThings API in this paper. In general, this research proposes a lightweight JSON-based web service description, the “Tasking Capability Description”, allowing device owners and manufacturers to describe different IoT device protocols. Through the extended- SensorThings API, users and applications can follow a coherent protocol to control IoT devices that use different communication protocols, which could consequently achieve the interoperable Internet of Things infrastructure.

Miniature Multiple Camera Array (MiniMCA-12) is a frame-based multilens/multispectral sensor composed of 12 lenses with narrow band filters. Due to its small size and light weight, it is suitable to mount on an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) for acquiring high spectral, spatial and temporal resolution imagery used in various remote sensing applications. However, due to its wavelength range is only 10 nm that results in low image resolution and signal-to-noise ratio which are not suitable for image matching and digital surface model (DSM) generation. In the meantime, the spectral correlation among all 12 bands of MiniMCA images are low, it is difficult to perform tie-point matching and aerial triangulation at the same time. In this study, we thus propose the use of a DSLR camera to assist automatic aerial triangulation of MiniMCA-12 imagery and to produce higher spatial resolution DSM for MiniMCA12 ortho-image generation. Depending on the maximum payload weight of the used UAS, these two kinds of sensors could be collected at the same time or individually. In this study, we adopt a fixed-wing UAS to carry a Canon EOS 5D Mark2 DSLR camera and a MiniMCA-12 multi-spectral camera. For the purpose to perform automatic aerial triangulation between a DSLR camera and the MiniMCA-12, we choose one master band from MiniMCA-12 whose spectral range has overlap with the DSLR camera. However, all lenses of MiniMCA-12 have different perspective centers and viewing angles, the original 12 channels have significant band misregistration effect. Thus, the first issue encountered is to reduce the band misregistration effect. Due to all 12 MiniMCA lenses being frame-based, their spatial offsets are smaller than 15 cm and all images are almost 98% overlapped, we thus propose a modified projective transformation (MPT) method together with two systematic error correction procedures to register all 12 bands of imagery on the same image space. It means that those 12 bands of images acquired at the same exposure time will have same interior orientation parameters (IOPs) and exterior orientation parameters (EOPs) after band-to-band registration (BBR). Thus, in the aerial triangulation stage, the master band of MiniMCA-12 was treated as a reference channel to link with DSLR RGB images. It means, all reference images from the master band of MiniMCA-12 and all RGB images were triangulated at the same time with same coordinate system of ground control points (GCP). Due to the spatial resolution of RGB images is higher than the MiniMCA-12, the GCP can be marked on the RGB images only even they cannot be recognized on the MiniMCA images. Furthermore, a one meter gridded digital surface model (DSM) is created by the RGB images and applied to the MiniMCA imagery for ortho-rectification. Quantitative error analyses show that the proposed BBR scheme can achieve 0.33 pixels of average misregistration residuals length and the co-registration errors among 12 MiniMCA ortho-images and between MiniMCA and Canon RGB ortho-images are all less than 0.6 pixels. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is robust, reliable and accurate for future remote sensing applications.

In this paper, we perform a systematic evaluation of the impact of Global Positioning System radio occultation (GPSRO) data on typhoon-track prediction over the northwestern Pacific. Specifically, we perform data assimilation and forecast experiments using the Typhoon Weather Research and Forecasting (TWRF) system at 45 km resolution on 11 typhoons (with a total of 327 cases) in the period of 2008–2010 over the northwestern Pacific, with or without the use of GPSRO refractivity observations. On average, about 100 GPSRO soundings are assimilated over a 12 h partially cycling assimilation period. The results indicate that the assimilation of GPSRO data reduces the 72 h track forecast errors by approximately 12 km (5 %). Although this is only a modest improvement, it is statistically significant. The assimilation of GPSRO data improves the analysis and the forecast of temperature, water vapor, and wind fields. Further analysis shows that the reduction in typhoon-track forecast errors can be attributed to the improved prediction of western Pacific subtropical high (WPSH) and its associated circulation, which leads to better forecasting of the environmental steering flow.

Abscisic acid (ABA) regulates plant responses to various environmental stresses. Oxidative cleavage of cis-epoxycarotenoids catalyzed by 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase (NCED) is the critical step in the biosynthesis of ABA in higher plants. Using a homologous cloning approach, a NCED-like gene (designated as TaNCED1) was isolated from wheat (Triticum aestivum). It contained an open reading frame of 1 848 bp and encodes a peptide of 615 amino acids. Multiple sequence alignments showed that TaNCED1 shared high identity with NCEDs from other plants. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that TaNCED1 was most closely related to a barley HvNCED1 gene. The predicted 3D structure of TaNCED1 showed high similarity with other homologues. Southern blot analysis indicated that TaNCED1 was a single copy in the genome of wheat. TaNCED1 was differentially expressed in various organs and the expression was up-regulated by low temperature, drought, NaCl, and ABA. Heterologous expression of TaNCED1 in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) significantly improved its drought tolerance. Under drought treatment, TaNCED1-overexpressing transgenic tobacco plants exhibited higher germination rate, higher relative water content, content of soluble sugars and of ABA when compared with the wild type plants.

Diana E Henderson, Collaborations with the Past: Reshaping Shakespeare across Time and Media, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2006. Pp. xi + 289. ISBN 978-0801444197. Vintage Shakespeare: New Perspectives From India and Abroad, eds. Prashant K. Sinha and Mohini Khot, Jaipur: Book Enclave, 2010. Pp. 240. ISBN 978-81-8152-271-9. The Tempest by William Shakespeare, ed. Sarbani Chaudhury, New Delhi: Pearson Longman, 2009. Pp. Liii +217. ISBN 978-81-317-0981-8. Elżbieta Stanisz, Kierunki Polskiej Szekspirologicznej Myśli Krytycznej w Dwudziestoleciu Miedzywojennym (1918-1939) [Shakespearean Criticism in Poland in the Inter-War Period], Toruń: Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek, 2011. Pp. 290. ISBN 978-83-7611-887-1. Shakespeare: The Indian Icon, ed. Vikram Chopra, New Delhi: The Readers Paradise, 2011. Pp. xxvi + 836. ISBN 978-81-920751-2-9

World-wide sensor web generates tremendous amount of sensor data stream allowing people to observe events that were previously unobservable. Sensor web has been wildly applied in many monitoring systems; some of them are extremely time-sensitive, e.g., disaster management systems. However, with the growing amount of sensor data, the traditional request/response communication model becomes inefficient as it is based on point-to-point pulling interactions between users and data providers. In order to address this issue, publish/subscribe communication model has been proposed and applied in many applications, e.g., web blogging. The publish/subscribe model utilizes an intermediary broker on matching predefined queries with the data pushed to the broker. However, we argue that the publish/subscribe model is hard to be directly applied to sensor web due to the fact that most sensor web services are based on pulling interaction model only. For instance, more and more sensor data providers are publishing their sensor data with the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Sensor Observation Service (SOS) standards, and the OGC SOS services are based on the request/response model. Therefore, in order to address this issue, we propose a hybrid pull-push system to retrieve sensor web data in a timely manner. The preliminary experimental results indicate that the proposed system is able to fetch near real time sensor streams from pull-based sensor web services.

During magnetic storms the development of equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) and distributions of thermospheric densities are strongly influenced by the histories of imposed magnetospheric electric (εM) fields. Periods of intense EPB activity driven by penetration εM fields in the main phase are followed by their worldwide absence during recovery. A new method is applied to estimate global thermospheric energy (Eth) budgets from orbit-averaged densities measured by accelerometers on polar-orbiting satellites. During the main phase of storms Eth increases as long as the stormtime εM operates, then exponentially decays toward quiet-time values during early recovery. Some fraction of the energy deposited at high magnetic latitudes during the main phase propagates into the subauroral ionosphere-thermosphere where it affects chemical and azimuthal-wind dynamics well into recovery. We suggest a scenario wherein fossils of main phase activity inhibit full restoration of quiet-time dayside dynamos and pre-reversal enhancements of upward plasma drifts near dusk denying bottomside irregularities sufficient time to grow into EPBs.

It has become de rigueur in scholarly inquiries to reconceptualize critical terms and to question commonplace ideas. However, the locality of performative translations of Shakespeare is a logical extension of the worn and hard-pressed question about the nature of Shakespeare’s text and its afterlife. There is indeed only one Mona Lisa, and its location can be precisely pin-pointed. The existence of canonical drama with an infinite range of (performative) signification is a different story. It has become de rigueur in scholarly inquiries to reconceptualize critical terms and to question commonplace ideas. However, the locality of performative translations of Shakespeare is a logical extension of the worn and hard-pressed question about the nature of Shakespeare’s text and its afterlife. There is indeed only one Mona Lisa, and its location can be precisely pin-pointed. The existence of canonical drama with an infinite range of (performative) signification is a different story.