Search

This work investigates the problem of input–output finite-time stability (IO-FTS) for one-sided Lipschitz switched systems by sliding mode control (SMC) approach. A key issue is how to ensure the IO-FTS of the switched systems during the whole finite-time interval under the unknown one-sided Lipschitz nonlinearity. To this end, a sliding mode law is constructed to ensure the state trajectories can be driven onto the sliding surface during the assigned finite time interval. By means of partitioning strategy and the multiple Lyapunov function (MLF) approach, the corresponding IO-FTS over reaching phase and sliding motion phase are guaranteed, respectively. And then, some sufficient conditions are derived by utilizing the one-sided Lipschitz and quadratically inner-bounded conditions. Finally, an illustrative example is given to illustrate the proposed method.

This study copes with the guaranteed cost problem for a class of Markovian jump Lur'e systems via sliding mode control technique, in which the scheduling of controller signals towards the actuators is regulated by the Round-Robin protocol. This means that at each transmission instant, only one actuator node can access the transmission network and the other actuators cannot obtain any new control information. In order to deal with this phenomenon, an updating rule as compensator is proposed, based on which the other actuators utilise the past control signals stored in the corresponding buffers. Then, a mode-token-dependent sliding mode controller is designed, in which the characteristic of the Lur'e non-linearities is involved. Furthermore, by introducing a new token-dependent Lur'e-type Lyapunov function, the stochastic stability of the resultant closed-loop systems is analysed, and the guaranteed cost performance is attained. Finally, a dynamic Leontief input–output model is adopted to illustrate the proposed method.

Surface water suffering from nitrate (NO3−) contamination in karst area is not only harmful to human health as drinking water but can also affect the process of carbonate rock weathering, so it is crucial to trace the sources and transformations of NO3− in karst surface water. In this study, an investigation of water chemical data and NO3− isotopes (δ15N and δ18O) was used to elucidate the transformations of NO3− and quantify a proportional apportionment of NO3− sources of individual potential sources (incl. soil organic nitrogen (SON), atmospheric precipitation (AP), manure and sewage wastes (M&S), and chemical fertilizer (CF)) in the Lijiang River (typical karst surface water), Guilin, Southwest China. δ15N-NO3− and δ18O-NO3− values of water samples from the Lijiang River range from 2.14 to 13.50‰ (mean, 6.59‰) and from − 2.44 to 6.97‰ (mean, 3.76‰), respectively. A positive correlation between Cl− and NO3− but no correlations between NO3− and δ15N-NO3− or δ18O-NO3− are found and the δ18O-NO3− values fitted the theoretical δ18O-NO3− values produced from nitrification, suggesting that the genesis of NO3− in waters of the Lijiang River is affected by nitrification processes and the mixing process has a major effect on NO3− transportation. Results of the Bayesian stable isotope mixing model show that the M&S and SON are the main NO3− source through the whole year (accounting for ~ 61% and 65% of the total NO3− in the wet and dry season, respectively), followed by CF (~ 29%). Furthermore, we find that nitrification of nitrogen in fertilizers, soil, and manure and sewage can promote the carbonate rock weathering. The estimated contribution of such nitrification to the weathering of carbonate rocks accounts for about 11% of the total carbonate rock weathering flux (calculated by HCO3−) in the Lijiang River. This finding indicates that the weathering of carbonate rock is probably affected by nitrogen nitrification processes in karst catchment.

This study aimed to isolate a novel archaeon capable of simultaneously producing methane and bioflocculants. The isolated methanogen was identified as Methanosarcina spelaei RK-23 by molecular characterization. Strain RK-23 grew with different carbon sources, but acetate was found to be the most beneficial carbon source for the production of methane and bioflocculants. Moreover, RK-23 produced methane and bioflocculants within an initial pH range of 5.0–8.0, with an optimal pH for methane production of 6.5 and flocculating activity of 7.0. In addition, strain RK-23 exhibited tolerance to high-salinity conditions and produced methane and bioflocculants within 0–1.2 M NaCl, with an optimum NaCl concentration of 0.3 M. The methane production and flocculating activity of strain RK-23 under optimal culture conditions were 17.4 mmol methane/mol acetate and 95.6%, respectively. MBF-23 mostly consisted of 83.5% carbohydrates and 14.3% proteins. Furthermore, the bridging of adsorption is believed to be the main bioflocculation mechanism in this study.

This work addresses the sliding mode control (SMC) problem for a class of cyber-physical switched systems, in which both the Round-Robin (RR) protocol scheduling and the deception attacks may happen on the controller-to-actuator (C/A) channels. Under the regulation of RR protocol, only one controller node at each instant can access the network and transmit its signal to the corresponding actuator node, that is, the other actuators cannot obtain any new control information. Especially, the transmitted signal could be contaminated by randomly injecting false data. Thus, a key problem is how to design a suitable sliding surface and a desirable sliding mode controller for guaranteeing the dynamic performance of the closed-loop switched systems. To this end, a compensation strategy is proposed for those actuator nodes that don’t receive any new control signals at certain instant, based which a token-dependent SMC law is designed. Besides, the method of input-to-state stability in probability (ISSiP) is introduced and the sufficient conditions are established for the reachability of the specified sliding surface and the ISSiP of the resultant switched systems. Finally, some numerical simulation results are provided.

This study is concerned with the event-triggered sliding mode control problem for a class of cyber-physical switched systems, in which the Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks may randomly occur according to the Bernoulli distribution. A key issue is how to design the output feedback sliding mode control (SMC) law for guaranteeing the dynamical performance of the closed-loop system under DoS attacks. To this end, an event-triggered mechanism is firstly introduced to reduce the communication load, under which the measurement signal is transmitted only when a certain triggering condition is satisfied. An usable output signal for the controller is constructed to compensate the effect of unmeasured states and DoS attacks. And then, a dynamic output feedback sliding mode controller is designed by means of the attack probability and the compensated output signals. Both the reachability and the mean-square exponential stability of sliding mode dynamics are investigated and the corresponding sufficient conditions are obtained. Finally, some numerical simulation results are provided.

Recalcitrant dissolved organic carbon (RDOC) resulting from microbial carbon (MCPs) holds promise as a relatively long-term natural carbon sink in marine environments. However, the RDOC formation mechanism remains uncertain in terrestrial aquatic systems. To determine the microbial impacts on autochthonous dissolved organic carbon (DOC), RDOC formation, and the critical influencing bacteria species, spatial changes in hydrochemistry, carbon isotopes, and microbial diversity were investigated in water samples from the karstic Lijiang River, southwest China. Samples were collected at various locations along the river system in May and July 2017. The biodegradable DOC (BDOC), RDOC, soil sourced DOC (SDOC), submerged aquatic vascular plant sourced DOC (PDOC) and microbial sourced DOC (MDOC) were calculated using the in-situ microbial incubation method, stable carbon isotopes and C/N ratio. RDOC accounted for 67% to 93% of DOC concentrations, measuring 1.3 mg/L and 1.2 mg/L in May and July, respectively. In May, BDOC concentrations increased by 0.05 mg/L from 0.18 mg/L to 0.23 mg/L, but decreased by 0.43 mg/L from 0.66 mg/L to 0.23 mg/L in July. The spatiotemporal variation of BDOC indicated photosynthesis was the main BDOC source and induced high autochthonous DOC formation, especially in May. However, RDOC was the dominant accumulation component in Lijiang River. MDOC increased by 0.86 mg/L from 0 to 0.86 mg/L in May and 0.78 mg/L from 0.10 mg/L to 0.88 mg/L in July, which was the dominant accumulated DOC and RDOC component. The abundance of Sporichthyaceae accounted for 3.4%-22.6% in May and Novosphingobium accounted for 3.5%-34.0% in July. These were the critical bacteria species induced MDOC formation, which were confirmed by their abundances in KEGG pathway modules determined by PICRUAST2. These results demonstrate that heterotrophic bacteria dominate autochthonous DOC and RDOC formation in the karst surface river, which is valuable for understanding organic carbon cycling in karstic aquatic systems.

High cost is one of the limiting factors in the industrial production of bioflocculant. Simultaneous preparation of bioflocculant from the contaminants in wastewater was considered as a potential approach to reduce the production cost. In this study, caprolactam was verified as sole feedstock for the growth of strain Alcaligenes faecalis subsp. phenolicus ZY-16 in batch experiments. Chemical analysis showed that the as-prepared MBF-16 consisted of heteropolysaccharides (88.3%) and peptides (9.4%). XPS result indicated the plentiful acylamino, hydroxyl and amino groups in MBF-16, which have an indispensable role in amoxicillin flocculation. The flocculation of amoxicillin can be well stimulated by Freundlich isotherm equation, and the Kf was up to 178.6524 for amoxicillin. The kinetic fitting results proved that the flocculation of amoxicillin by MBF-16 was chemisorbed. This contribution may develop a novel technology for the preparation of bacterial flocculants that can consume toxic substrates (caprolactam) and have potential applications in amoxicillin removal.

One of the most important questions in the science of global carbon cycle is how to balance the atmospheric CO2 budget. However, there is a large terrestrial carbon sink is missing. The locations, magnitudes, variations, and mechanisms responsible for this terrestrial missing carbon sink are uncertain and the focus of much continuing debate. In order to provide a basis for the assessment of carbonate weathering-related carbon sink, this study investigated the spatial and temporal variations of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and particulate organic carbon (POC), and used stable carbon isotopes and hydrochemical data to quantitatively estimate the proportion of DIC transformation to POC and analyze the potential influence of the transformation of DIC into OC on the carbon isotope composition in the Lijiang River (typical karst surface water), Southwest China. The results showed that DIC concentrations are high in winter and low in summer and increase from upstream to downstream. POC concentrations are high in summer and low in spring. δ13CPOC and δ13CDIC are negatively correlated in the Lijiang River. The δ13CDIC values are high in spring and low in summer, compared with the estimated δ13CDIC(cal.); the observed δ13CDIC values have a maximum positive shift in spring and similar in the summer; the δ13CPOC values decrease from upstream to downstream, and are high in summer and low in spring. These observations indicate that the isotopic compositions of both DIC and POC are significantly affected by aquatic photosynthesis that transforms DIC into OC. In-river primary production contribute 12–54% of POC, and the contributions of carbonate rock-sourced DIC to the riverine POC range from 7 to 30%, which suggests an important sink of atmospheric CO2 in river systems and should be taken into account in global carbon cycle.

This paper investigates the problem of the optimal guaranteed cost sliding mode control (SMC) for a class of uncertain switched systems, in which the sojourn probabilities staying in each subsystem are available. By introducing a set of stochastic variables, a new type of switched system model with known sojourn probabilities is constructed. And then, the SMC law is synthesized such that the reachability of the specified common sliding surface can be ensured. Moreover, some sufficient conditions are derived to ensure the mean-square stability of the closed-loop system with quadratic guaranteed cost function. The optimal solution of the guaranteed SMC scheme is established for the closed-loop systems. Finally, a numerical example is provided to illustrate the proposed method.

This paper addresses the problem of finite-time boundedness (FTB) for a class of Markovian jump systems (MJSs) via sliding mode control (SMC) technique, in which there may happen actuator faults in all of control channels and mismatched external disturbance. By means of the available boundary information of actuator faults, a suitable sliding mode controller is designed such that state trajectories are driven to sliding surface before a specified finite (possibly short) time interval. Furthermore, a partitioning strategy is introduced to derive the sufficient conditions for ensuring the FTB of the closed-loop systems over the whole specified finite-time interval including the reaching phase and the sliding motion phase. Finally, a practical example are provided from an F-404 aircraft engine system to illustrate the proposed method.

The problem of sliding mode control (SMC) is investigated for a class of uncertain switched systems subject to unmeasurable state and assigned finite (possible short) time constraint. A key issue is how to ensure the finite-time boundedness (FTB) of system state during reaching phase and sliding motion phase. To this end, a state observer is constructed to estimate the unmeasured states. And then, a state estimate-based SMC law is designed such that the state trajectories can be driven onto the specified integral sliding surface during the assigned finite time interval. By means of partitioning strategy, the corresponding FTB over reaching phase and sliding motion phase are guaranteed and the sufficient conditions are derived via average dwell time technique. Finally, an illustrative example is given to illustrate the proposed method.

In this paper, the input-to-state stability (ISS) analysis is addressed for switched nonlinear delay systems. By introducing a novel Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional with indefinite derivative and the merging switching signal techniques, some new criteria are established for switched nonlinear delay systems under asynchronous switching, which extends the existing results to the nonlinear systems with switching rules and delays. The ISS problem is also considered under synchronous switching for switched nonlinear systems by employing the similar techniques. Finally, a nonlinear delay model is provided to show the effectiveness of the proposed results.

Aquatic photosynthesis transforms inorganic carbon to organic carbon (OC), which contributes to autochthonous organic carbon (AOC) in sediment and particulate organic carbon in surface karst aquatic systems. Aquatic plant and microbes are participated in autochthonous dissolved organic carbon (ADOC) formation in surface karst aquatic systems, but the composition and formation of ADOC remains little known, which leaves problem on calculation of organic carbon flux. In this study, the Lijiang River was chosen as typical surface karst river to identify the DOC composition and its origin, and to explore the environmental influencing factors. Samples were collected seasonally from the upper to lower reaches of the river to analyze hydrochemical parameters and the excitation-emission matrix (EEM) spectrum of chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM). Three CDOM components were calculated by parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) from EEM spectra, which were allochthonous soil-sourced DOC (SDOC), autochthonous aquatic plant-sourced DOC (APDOC), and microbial-sourced DOC (MDOC). Based on the DOC component concentrations, SDOC is induced by large amounts of precipitation causing soil erosion in summer. APDOC formation is encouraged by moderate water temperatures in spring and fall restricted by high water turbidity in summer. The significant positive linear correlations between APDOC and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and MDOC indicate DIC fertilization effect in karst aquatic systems directly promotes APDOC formation and indirectly promotes MDOC. Our study develops a relatively simple way to calculate composition of karst aquatic DOC, which demonstrates the participation of aquatic plants and microbes in APDOC production and reiterate that autochthonous DOC should be considered when calculating the carbon sink in surface karst aquatic systems.

Bioflocculants are widely used in a large variety of applications, because of their wide range of flocculation. There is limited information in the literature about the ability of bioflocculants to perform beneficial functions without having adverse effects on blood components. In this study, general hemocompatibility of a bioflocculant (MBF-06) was investigated in an in vitro system, measuring flocculation of plasma proteins, red blood cell integrity, blood cell counts, platelet activation, clot formation, complement activation, cytotoxicity and inflammatory response. Effects of MBF-06 included low plasma protein flocculation, low platelet activation, low inflammatory response, no hemolysis or cytotoxicity and increased expression of coagulation markers, including prothrombin fragments 1+2. These findings suggested that the rapid hemostasis caused by MBF-06 resulted, essentially, from humoral coagulation. Overall, our observations revealed the great potential of MBF-06 as a novel hemostatic agent.

This paper is concerned with the problem of robust finite-time guaranteed cost control for a class of impulsive switched systems with time-varying delay. Firstly, the definitions of finite-time boundedness, finite-time stabilization, and robust finite-time guaranteed cost control are presented. Next, based on the average dwell-time approach, sufficient conditions on robust finite-time guaranteed cost control are obtained for the uncertain impulsive switched systems. Then, by using multiple Lyapunov-like functional method and linear matrix equality (LMI) technique, the state feedback controller is designed to guarantee that the uncertain impulsive switched system is finite-time stabilized. Furthermore, a finite-time guaranteed cost bound is given. Finally, a numerical example is shown to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed results.

A novel bioflocculant (MBF-79) prepared using formaldehyde wastewater as carbon resource was investigated in the study. The optimal conditions for bioflocculant production were determined to be an inoculum size of 7.0%, initial pH of 6.0, and formaldehyde concentration of 350 mg/L. An MBF-79 of 8.97 g/L was achieved as the maximum yield. Three main elements, namely C, H, and O, were present in MBF-79 with relative weigh percentages of 39.17%, 6.74%, and 34.55%, respectively. The Gel permeation chromatography analysis indicated that the approximate molecular weight (MW) of MBF-79 was 230 kDa. MBF-79 primarily comprised polysaccharide (71.2%) and protein (27.9%). Additionally, conditions for the removal of arsenic by MBF-79 were found to be MBF-79 at 120 mg/L, an initial pH 7.0, and a contact time 60 min. Under the optimal conditions, the removal efficiencies of arsenate (0.5 mg/L) and arsenite (0.5 mg/L) were 98.9% and 84.6%, respectively. Overall, these findings indicate bioflocculation offers an effective alternative method of decreasing arsenic during water treatment.

Background There is controversy about whether the amniotic fluid contains bacteria. With the use of sequencing-based methods, recent studies report that the amniotic fluid is colonized by microorganisms. However, background-contaminating DNA might lead to false-positive findings when such a low microbial biomass sample is examined. Objective The purpose of this study was to determine whether the midtrimester amniotic fluid of patients who subsequently had normal pregnancy outcomes contains a microbial signature. Study Design In this prospective cohort study, 42 amniotic fluid samples were collected from 37 pregnancies (5 twin and 32 singletons) during genetic amniocentesis in the midtrimester. The subsequent pregnancy outcomes of all the participants were followed. Multiple methods were used to detect the presence of microorganisms in this study, which included cultivation, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, and 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing. Multiple positive control samples (n=16) served as quality control samples and included 3 adult fecal samples, 4 vaginal swabs, and 9 artificial bacterial communities that were run in parallel with negative control samples (n=12) that included 4 samples from the hospital operating room and 8 samples from the laboratory, to account for background-contaminating DNA during each step of the experiments. Results No bacteria under anaerobic or aerobic conditions or genital mycoplasmas were cultured from any of the amniotic fluid samples. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction did not reveal greater copy numbers of 16S ribosomal RNA gene in amniotic fluid samples than in negative control samples. 16S Ribosomal RNA gene sequencing did not indicate a significant difference in the microbial richness or community structures between amniotic fluid and negative control samples. Conclusion With multiple methods of microbiologic inquiry, no microorganisms were identified in the midtrimester amniotic fluid of healthy pregnancies with a normal pregnancy outcome.

We analysed precipitation and river water samples from the Lijiang River basin with the aim of understanding the important role of acid rain components, especially NH4, in chemical weathering of karst areas. First, analysis of the hydrochemical characteristics revealed the following: In the precipitation samples, the volume-weighted mean pH was 4.91, and the acid rain rate was 65%. The major ion composition was characterized by a dominance of NH4, Ca, SO4 and NO3, accounting for 40.0%, 35.3%, 46.3% and 30.5%, respectively, of the total cation and anion concentrations. In the river water samples, the pH ranged from 6.75 to 9.16, with an average of 7.55. The major hydrogeochemical species in the river water samples were Ca–HCO3 and Mg–HCO3. Second, by employing chloride-normalized ratios of the other major ions in precipitation, we estimated that the contributions of SO4 and NO3 from the atmosphere to the river were53.6% and 35.0%, respectively. Third, combining the hydrochemical index with the value of δ13CDIC and using the hydrochemical composition method showed that the proportion of carbonate weathered (R) by NH4, H2SO4 and HNO3 from acid rain accounted for 9.3%, 9.4% and 3.1% of the total weathering rate, respectively, and the proportions in the upper reaches were significantly higher than those in the lower reaches of the river. The average values of the carbonate weathering proportion (R) and the carbonate weathering rate (CWR) due to acid rain were approximately 22.0% and 2.1 t/km2/yr, respectively. Taken together, our results revealed that carbonate weathering by acid rain can significantly increase the carbonate weathering rate, which is essential information for accurate estimation of the carbon cycle (namely, inorganic carbon sources and sinks).

This work addresses the asynchronous finite-time l 2 –l ∞ control problem for discrete-time Markovian jump linear systems (MJLSs) via static output feedback strategy. The asynchronous phenomenon between the system mode and controller mode is represented as a hidden Markov model. Compared with the existing literature, the strict assumption on the mode observation conditional probability matrix (MOCPM) of a hidden Markov model is removed in this work. By means of matrix inequality techniques, sufficient conditions are attained to ensure both of the finite-time stochastic boundedness and the finite-time l 2 –l ∞ disturbance attenuation performance of the MJLSs subject to partly accessible MOCPM. Furthermore, an algorithm is established to solve asynchronous control gains. Finally, the multiplier-accelerator macroeconomic system is provided to illustrate the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed design scheme.

This paper investigates the finite-time bounded-ness (FTB) for a class of uncertain Markovian jump systems (MJSs) via sliding mode control (SMC) technique. Firstly, a suitable sliding mode controller is constructed to drive the state trajectories onto the specified sliding surface during a specified finite (possibly short) time interval. Then, by utilizing a partitioning strategy, the corresponding FTB over reaching phase and sliding motion phase are respectively analyzed during the specified finite time interval. Finally, a simulation example is given to verify the proposed control method.

In this paper, the finite-time boundedness (FTB) problem of sliding mode control (SMC) is investigated for a class of switched delay systems subject to uncertain parameter and nonlinear perturbation. A SMC law is constructed to drive the state trajectories onto the integral sliding surface during a finite time interval. The FTB of the controlled systems on both reaching phase and siding motion phase are analyzed by means of average dwell time technique. Finally, a numerical example is given.

Summary To assess the role of bacteria in pine wilt disease (PWD), aseptic M form (with a mucronated tail) and R form (with a round tail) of Bursaphelenchus xylophilus and B. mucronatus were obtained and compared, in terms of reproduction and pathogenicity, with non-aseptic nematode. In addition, bacteria isolated from non-aseptic nematodes and pine trees inoculated with non-aseptic nematodes were identified. The results indicated that the bacteria associated with nematodes significantly lowered the reproduction of R form of B. xylophilus and B. mucronatus. Both the non-aseptic and aseptic R forms of B. xylophilus induced death in all infected 7- to 8-year-old pine trees, while the non-aseptic and aseptic M forms of B. xylophilus and B. mucronatus caused almost no plant mortality. High numbers of the non-aseptic and aseptic R forms of B. xylophilus were distributed throughout the inoculated trees, while B. mucronatus and M form of B. xylophilus nematodes were lower in number and their distribution in stems limited within the inoculation site. Bacteria isolated from non-aseptic nematodes were not recovered from the pine trees inoculated with these same kinds of nematodes. Two species of bacteria were both isolated from non-aseptic B. mucronatus and from R form of B. xylophilus. Microbacterium trichotecenolyticum was common to both the control and inoculated pine trees. These results suggest that R form of B. xylophilus is the causal agent of PWD and that bacteria cannot increase the virulence of B. xylophilus and B. mucronatus.

Bursaphelenchus xylophilus causes pine wilt disease and substantial economic losses. However, as Pinus has some limitations as a host for studies, information about the interactions between B. xylophilus and Pinus at the molecular level is limited. The use of an alternative plant would greatly facilitate a better understanding of the plant-nematode interactions. In this study, we explored the feasibility of Arabidopsis thaliana as an alternative host to investigate the relationship between plants and B. xylophilus and established a system for the efficient infection of A. thaliana by B. xylophilus (defined in this paper as the mean number of plants infested with B. xylophilus) by evaluating the artificial wounding of seedlings, ages of seedlings and nematode inoculum concentrations, and then the susceptibility of nine A. thaliana ecotypes was tested. The results showed that B. xylophilus infected all ecotypes tested. Artificially wounding the petiole of the first leaf increased the plant infection rate of B. xylophilus, reaching 90 % of the inoculated plants with inoculum concentration of 400 nematodes per plant at 15 days after germination (DAG). A typical symptom was yellowing of the entire plant and browning of older leaves 72 h after inoculation. Membrane damage of the thylakoid lamellae, collapse of chloroplasts and increase of the electron density of the cytoplasm were also observed. Our results demonstrated that B. xylophilus could invade Arabidopsis and cause similar early symptoms to that of pine trees, yet B. xylophilus could not reproduce in A. thaliana. Nonetheless, A. thaliana may be used to study the early response of plants to B. xylophilus and it provides a new opportunity for studying B. xylophilus-plant interactions.

Central core disease is a rare inherited neuromuscular disorder caused by mutations in ryanodine receptor type 1 gene. The clinical phenotype of the disease is highly variable. We report a Chinese pedigree with central core disease confirmed by the gene sequencing. All 3 patients in the family presented with mild proximal limb weakness. The serum level of creatine kinase was normal, and electromyography suggested myogenic changes. The histologic analysis of muscle biopsy showed identical central core lesions in almost all of the muscle fibers in the index case. Exon 90-106 in the C-terminal domain of the ryanodine receptor type 1 gene was amplified using polymerase chain reaction. One heterozygous missense mutation G14678A (Arg4893Gln) in exon 102 was identified in all 3 patients. This is the first report of a familial case of central core disease confirmed by molecular study in mainland China.

Monthly high-resolution land surface precipitation data from 1901 to 2006 associated with sunspot number (SSN) data is investigated for the relationship between summer precipitation in China and the decadal solar variability. Generally, on a national scale, precipitation is poorly correlated with SSN. However, in many regions, the long-period (>8 years) variability in summer precipitation is significantly (at >95% confidence level) correlated to SSN. Absolute value correlation coefficient can exceed 0.48 (at >99% confidence level) in some regions. If only the decadal (9–13 years) precipitation component is considered, the correlation becomes stronger with a maximum (minimum) correlation coefficient of 0.73 (–0.73) (at >99.9% confidence level). Considering that the decadal component is the most important factor among precipitation’s low-frequency signals in the high correlation areas (because it explains more than 50% of the precipitation’s low-frequency variance), it can be concluded that solar variability seems to dominate the long-period variation of summer precipitation in these areas. Furthermore, in these high correlation areas, temporal variation patterns in the power spectrum of summer precipitation is similar to that of SSN, strongly suggesting that there is a very likely physical link between solar variability and precipitation in these regions. More convincing and direct evidence shows the significant difference of low-level monsoon flow between high and low solar activity years, which may cause the higher precipitation rate for high, rather than low, solar activity years in central China.

Partial nitrate nutrition was testified to improve rice (Oryza sativa L.) growth. However, how partial nitrate nutrition is related to root growth in rice cultivars with different N-use efficiency is still unclear. Two rice cultivars, Nanguang (high N-use efficiency) and Elio (low N-use efficiency), were grown on six ratios of NH4+/NO3- in the solution. The response of root growth to partial nitrate nutrition was investigated and N status and auxin concentration were recorded in order to elucidate the mechanisms by which the optimal ratio of NH4+/NO3- that controls the architecture of the root system. The length of adventitious and lateral roots was stimulated only in cv. Nanguang by partial nitrate nutrition. Nitrate-stimulated root length in Nanguang resulted mainly from root initiation rather than root elongation. Root biomass was similar between two rice cultivars under NH4+ supplied, while higher root biomass was observed in cv. Nanguang than in cv. Elio under 25% nitrate supplied for 10 weeks. Significant IAA increase was recorded in cv. Nanguang under 25% nitrate presence in the nutrition compared to under sole NH4+ solution. The presence of nitrate increased root initiation in the rice with high N-use efficiency, which led to faster biomass accumulation and higher N-use efficiency at later growth stages.

Pinewood nematode (PWN) is the causal agent of the pine wilt disease. Previous studies have suggested that secretions from the esophageal glands of PWN play an important role in pathogenicity. A cluster of three venom allergen-like protein genes and one pseudogene, Bx-vap-1, Bx-vap-2, Bx-vap-3 and Bx-vap-P, were identified within a 3.7-kb region. Additionally, three putative modification, transport and regulatory protein genes were also detected in the same flanking region of the Bx-vap gene cluster. Genes vap-1, -2 and -3 are functional and encode three major allelic variants of PWN venom allergen-like proteins. But Bx-vap-P is an untranscribed pseudogene. Genes vap-1, -2 and -3 produce predicted products of 204, 206 and 203 amino acid residues, respectively, including the putative signal peptide sequence at the amino termini. In situ mRNA hybridization analysis showed that the transcripts of genes vap-1, -2 and -3 accumulated exclusively within the esophageal gland cells of Bursaphelenchus xylophilus.

In highland areas worldwide, socioeconomic globalization is progressing urbanization and environmental destruction. Urbanization is caused by socioeconomic globalization of development of transportation, movement or immigration of people, and prevailing market economy. Lifestyle-related diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension, are increasing worldwide with greater longevity and changes in lifestyles. Highland areas may also be affected by globalization and the people living there may be especially vulnerable. Our objective was to disclose the features of lifestyle-related diseases and the human aging phenomena of highland people affected by their increasingly urbanized lifestyles by undertaking a detailed geriatric assessment. Our assessment included firstly comparing the prevalence of hypertension and neurobehavioral functions in community-dwelling Tibetan elderly in Shangri-la, Yunnan, China (altitude 3,300 m) with Thai elderly in the city of Jing Hong, Yunnan, China (altitude 500 m) and Japanese in Tosa, Kochi, Japan (altitude 300 m). Secondly, differences in the prevalence of hypertension, obesity, and neurobehavioral function were analyzed between people in an urban area, Jiang Tang, and rural areas and in association with their economic status in Nish in Shangri-la. High prevalences of lifestyle-related diseases such as hypertension and obesity were shown in highlanders, especially those in an urban area. Geriatric functional ability was associated with economic status. Notwithstanding a higher prevalence of physical disorders and lowered functional abilities, a higher quantitative quality of life was found in Shangri-la than in Tosa. We concluded that highland-dwelling people were vulnerable and susceptible to lifestyle-related diseases resulting from socioeconomic globalization.

This investigation centers upon calculating the vertical electric current densities from the two transverse components of vector magnetograms. The electric current density calculated by using the differential form of Ampere's law, j(z) = 1/mu(0) (del x B)(z), on the basis of spatially sampled transverse magnetic fields varies widely over an active region. In order to investigate how errors in the vector magnetograph measurements produce errors in the vertical electric current densities, we have numerically simulated the effects of random noise on a standard photospheric magnetic configuration produced by electric currents satisfying the force-free field conditions. We have also compared the results of the densities calculated by three different methods, and analyzed the reason inducing the differences in the results. The three methods are (1) to calculate the density using the differential form of Ampere's law j(z) = 1/mu(0) (del x B)(z); (2) to calculate the density using the integral form of Ampere's law along the square with edges at (x - Delta x, y - Delta y), (x + Delta x, y - Delta y), (x + Delta x, y + Delta y), (x - Delta x, y + Delta y) (hereafter small integral path) j(z) = (1/mu(0) closed integral(C1) B(t).dl)/dS; (3) to calculate the density by using the integral form of Ampere's law along the square with edges at (x - 2 Delta x, y - 2 Delta y), (x + 2 Delta x, y - 2 Delta y), (x + 2 Delta x, y + 2 Delta y), (x - 2 Delta x, y + 2 Delta y) (hereafter big integral path), j(z) = (1/mu(0) closed integral(C2) B(t).dl)/dS. It is found that the uncertainty of the measured electric current density increases along with the decreasing of the spatial pixel size ds. When the spatial pixel size of vector magnetograms is small enough, properly expanding the integral path can help us decrease the effect of random noise and demodulate the "true" electric current density from the measured transverse magnetograms. Close attention should be paid to the fact that some true fine-structure of the electric current density will be lost when the integral path exceeds the linear size of the smallest spatially resolved structure in the studied magnetogram. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

By quantitative analysis of AR NOAA 10484 two-dimensional Stokes spectra obtained from the Solar Stokes Spectral Telescope (S(3)7) at the Yunnan Observatory, we have derived three components, the flux intensity B, the inclination gamma and the azimuth chi of the vector magnetic fields in the AR. The contours of the flux intensity B have a basic agreement to the morphological configuration of the sunspot group in white-light. Comparing the vector magnetograms obtained by (ST)-T-3 and by the NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), basic agreement on the longitudinal and transverse components between the S3T and MSFC magnetograms is found, resulting in correlation coefficients rho(B parallel to) = 0.904, rho(B1) = 0.749 and rho(az), = 0.941. There is a split of 241 m angstrom between the two sigma lines of Fe I 6302.5 angstrom which implies the field flux intensity near the center of the west umbra is 2600 G. This value is consistent with the result obtained by fitting the Stokes profiles. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A time series of H-alpha filtergrams and two-dimensional H-alpha spectral data of the well-known post-flare loop system of April 27, 1981 are obtained at the Yunnan Observatory. The two-dimensional spectral data are analyzed quantitatively by means of the 'multi-cloud model' method. The line-of-sight velocity fields of the post-flare loop system are derived for three different times. The post-flare loop system is composed of a loop and an ejection. The loop almost faces the observer and the ejection is along the line-of-sight. A 'double-loop' model is proposed in order to explain the structure and evolution of the post-flare loop system. The distributions of the line-of-sight velocity and the evolution time of the post-flare loop system derived from a free-fall model are similar to those obtained from the observations. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The method proposed by Hathaway et al. [SoPh 151 (1994) 177] was employed to predict the magnitude of sunspot activities in the declining phase of solar Cycle 23, based on the monthly averages of sunspot number and the smoothed monthly averages of sunspot number, respectively. Our results show that: (1) the application of smoothed monthly averages of sunspot number gives better and less fluctuating (or more stable) predictions of sunspot activity at the early stage of the cycle than predictions based on monthly averages of sunspot number, and (2) a starting date of October 1996 works better than a starting date of May 1996 for Cycle 23. Both the validity and advantage of Hathaway et al.'s [SoPh 151 (1994) 177] approach are discussed in detail. (C) 2002 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.