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ABSTRACT: Human milk oligosaccharides (HMO) affect gut microbiota during neonatal development, particularly with respect to the immune system. Bovine milk-based infant formulas have low oligosaccharide contents. Thus, efforts to fortify infant formulas with HMO are being undertaken. Two major HMO, 2′-fucosyllactose (2′-FL) and 6′-sialyllactose (6′-SL), exert anti-inflammatory effects; however, the associations between anti-inflammatory effects induced by 2′-FL and 6′-SL cotreatment and gut microbiota composition and metabolite modulation remain unclear. Therefore, in this study, we evaluated the effects of a mixture of these HMO. To determine the optimal HMO ratio for anti-inflammatory effects and elucidate its mode of action, LPS-induced inflammatory HT-29 epithelial cells and intestinal-inflamed suckling mice were treated with various mixtures of 2′-FL and 6′-SL. A 2′-FL:6′-SL ratio of 5:1 was identified as the most effective pretreatment HMO mixture in vitro; thus, this ratio was selected and used for low-, middle-, and high-dose treatments for subsequent in vivo studies. In vivo, high-dose HMO treatment restored LPS-induced inflammation symptoms, such as BW loss, colon length reduction, histological structural damage, and intestinal gene expression related to inflammatory responses. High-dose HMO was the only treatment that modulated the major phyla Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes and the genera Ihubacter, Mageeibacillus, and Saccharofermentans. These changes in microbial composition were correlated with intestinal inflammation-related gene expression and short-chain fatty acid production. To our knowledge, our study is the first to report the effects of Ihubacter, Mageeibacillus, and Saccharofermentans on short-chain fatty acid levels, which can subsequently affect inflammatory cytokine and tight junction protein levels. Conclusively, the HMO mixture exerted anti-inflammatory effects through changes in microbiota and metabolite production. These findings suggest that supplementation of infant formula with HMO may benefit formula-fed infants by forming unique microbiota contributing to neonatal development.

We propose a robust super-resolution algorithm for vital sign radar in a low signal to noise ratio (SNR) environment. Conventional approaches, such as fast Fourier transform and super-resolution based algorithms, suffered to provide reliable results due to the limited data length and high noise level. To overcome these limitations, our proposed algorithm utilizes a low-complexity least mean square (LMS) filter and relaxation (RELAX) techniques to achieve robust performance in low SNR environments. To evaluate the effectiveness of our algorithm, we conducted both simulation and experimental studies. Our results show that the proposed method significantly outperforms conventional methods, with Monte-Carlo simulations of respiration and heartbeat achieving an RMSE approximately 7 and 120 times lower than that of the conventional method, respectively. Overall, our algorithm provides a promising solution for robust vital sign detection in challenging low SNR environments.

For efficient UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) image monitoring, it is essential to mosaic multiple UAV images into one seamless image. In a mosaicked image, relief displacement of terrain is a major source of error. It is difficult to form seamlines that avoid all areas of relief displacements. A seamline determination method alone is limited in reducing the mismatch error on mosaicked image. In this study, we constructed a TIN (Triangulated Irregular Network) using tiepoints generated by rigorous bundle adjustments. We detected the regions where relief displacement occurred using the slope of TIN facets. It was found that the error of mosaicked image were mostly on TIN facets with high slopes. Our method generated a mosaicked image after elimination of error-prone region and showed that the distortions were effectively removed. This study showed that the proposed method could produce mosaicked images with stable quality using geometric clues of TIN. We expected that our method can be used for UAV image mosaicking robust to mismatching factors.

As criteria pollutants from anthropogenic emissions have declined in the US in the last 2 decades, biomass burning (BB) emissions are becoming more important for urban air quality. Tracking the transported BB emissions and their impacts is challenging, especially in areas that are also burdened by anthropogenic sources like the Texas Gulf Coast. During the Corpus Christi and San Antonio (CCSA) field campaign in spring 2021, two long-range-transport BB events (BB1 and BB2) were identified. The observed patterns of an absorption Ångström exponent (AAE), a high-resolution time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometer (HR-ToF-AMS) BB tracer (f60), equivalent black carbon (eBC), acetonitrile and carbon monoxide (CO) during BB1 and BB2 indicated differences in the mixing of transported BB plumes with local anthropogenic sources. The combined information from HYSPLIT backward-trajectory (BT) and satellite observations revealed that BB1 had mixed influence of transported smoke plumes from fires in central Mexico, the Yucatán Peninsula and the central US, whereas BB2 was influenced by fires in the central US. The estimated transport times of smoke from the Mexican fires and the central US fires to our study site were not too different (48–54 and 24–36 h, respectively), and both events appeared to have undergone similar levels of atmospheric processing, as evident in the elemental ratios of bulk organic aerosol (OA). We observed an aging trend for f44 vs. f60 and f44 vs. f43 as a function of time during BB2 but not during BB1. Positive matrix factorization (PMF) analysis of OA showed that BB1 had a mixture of organics from aged BB emissions with an anthropogenic marine signal, while the oxidized organic compounds from aged BB emissions dominated the aerosols during BB2. The size distribution of aerosol composition revealed distinct characteristics between BB1 and BB2, where BB1 was found to be externally mixed, exhibiting a combination of BB and anthropogenic marine aerosols. On the other hand, BB2 exhibited internal mixing dominated by aged BB aerosol. Our analysis from mobile and stationary measurements highlights that both CO and acetonitrile are likely impacted by local sources even during the BB events and specifically that acetonitrile cannot be used as a unique BB tracer for dilute BB plumes in an industrially influenced location. A suitable volatile organic compound (VOC) tracer would need to be emitted in high concentrations during BB, resistant to degradation during transport, unique to BB and able to be measured in the field. This study effectively demonstrates that AAE and aerosol BB tracers served as precise and effective tracers in these complex emission scenarios. Network deployment of multiwavelength photometers holds promise for enhancing our understanding of BB impacts on air quality and supporting informed decision-making for effective mitigation strategies in locations with mixed sources and influence of dilute BB plumes. To demonstrate the relevance of such an aerosol optical network, we provide evidence of the potential regional impacts of these transported BB events on urban O3 levels using measurements from the surface air quality monitoring network in Texas.

A novel technique has been developed to measure sulfur dioxide (SO2) using a modification of the existing electrochemical concentration cell (ECC) ozonesonde technology. The current sonde-based method to measure SO2 (i.e., the dual-sonde approach) involves launching two ozonesondes together, with one of the sondes having a filter to remove SO2 at the inlet. The SO2 profile is determined by taking the difference between the measurements from the two instruments. The dual-sonde method works well in typical tropospheric conditions when [O3]>[SO2] but saturates when [SO2]>[O3] and has large uncertainties in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere that would limit its effectiveness in measuring SO2 from an explosive volcanic eruption. Due to these limitations, several modifications were made to create a single-sonde system that would directly measure SO2 (i.e., the SO2 sonde). These modifications included (1) a positively biased ECC current, (2) the addition of an O3 removal filter, and (3) the addition of a sample dryer. The SO2 sonde measures SO2 as a reduction in the cell current. There was a strong correlation (r2>0.94) between the SO2 sonde and a Thermo 43c analyzer during controlled laboratory tests and pre-flight tests. Varying humidity levels affected the SO2 sonde's sensitivity (avg =84.6±31.7 ppbv µA−1, 1σ RSD =37 %) during initial field tests, which was resolved by adding a sample dryer upstream of the O3 removal filter and pump inlet. This modification significantly reduced the variability and increased the sensitivity of the SO2 measurements (avg =47±5.8 ppbv µA−1, 1σ RSD =12 %). Field tests included measurements near Kīlauea volcano (before and during the 2018 eruption of the Lower East Rift Zone), Costa Rica's Turrialba volcano, and anthropogenic plumes from the Athabasca oil sands region of Alberta, Canada. This single-SO2-sonde system is an effective, inexpensive instrument for measuring both ground-based and vertical profiles of SO2 from anthropogenic and natural sources (i.e., volcanic eruptions) over a wide range of concentrations.

UAV image mosaicking could be divided into processing in an absolute space and in a relative space. Among them, the latter technique generates a mosaicked image using only UAV’s EOP (Exterior Orientation Parameters) without additional spatial data. Since this technique uses only images, it is easy to use, but sometimes exhibits unstable quality. In this study, we adopted the mosaicking in a relative space by introducing the TIN (Triangulated Irregular Network) structure for consecutive image connectivity. This method refines a point cloud and extracts optimal images for mosaicking as a pre-processing. After that, this generates a TIN, and performs triangular unit mosaicking and image unit mosaicking to produce a mosaicked image. We evaluated the proposed method with datasets acquired by fixed wing and rotary wing UAVs. We compared this method’s results with Pix4Dmapper’s and the previously developed method’s results. Through the experimental results, we were able to verify that this method was less affected by external factors such as ground topology and UAV status. Moreover, we could confirm this method reduced over-transformation, and mismatch of the junction area between images on mosaicked images. It showed stable quality despite of using only images. Through the above results, our method also showed similar performance to Pix4Dmapper.

The ability to study cancer-immune cell communication across the whole tumor section without tissue dissociation is needed, especially for cancer immunotherapy development, which requires understanding of molecular mechanisms and discovery of more druggable targets. In this work, we assembled and evaluated an integrated experimental framework and analytical process to enable genome-wide scale discovery of ligand-receptors potentially used for cellular crosstalks, followed by targeted validation. We assessed the complementarity of four different technologies: single-cell RNA sequencing and Spatial transcriptomic (measuring over >20,000 genes), RNA In Situ Hybridization (RNAscope, measuring 4-12 genes) and Opal Polaris multiplex protein staining (4-9 proteins). To utilize the multimodal data, we implemented existing methods and also developed STRISH (Spatial TRanscriptomic In Situ Hybridization), a computational method that can automatically scan across the whole tissue section for local expression of gene (e.g. RNAscope data) and/or protein markers (e.g. Polaris data) to recapitulate an interaction landscape across the whole tissue. We evaluated the approach to discover and validate cell-cell interaction in situ through in-depth analysis of two types of cancer, basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, which account for over 70% of cancer cases. We showed that inference of cell-cell interactions using scRNA-seq data can misdetect or detect false positive interactions. Spatial transcriptomics still suffers from misdetecting lowly expressed ligand-receptor interactions, but reduces false discovery. RNAscope and Polaris are sensitive methods for defining the location of potential ligand receptor interactions, and the STRISH program can determine the probability that local gene co-expression reflects true cell-cell interaction. We expect that the approach described here will be widely applied to discover and validate ligand receptor interaction in different types of solid cancer tumors.

In this manuscript, we recognize that young children learn stories that propagate white supremacist narratives through selective traditions of early childhood curriculum. The role of early childhood teachers, therefore, is to critically examine curriculum for biases, omissions, and distortions, as well as to rewrite curriculum to tell accurate stories and disrupt what Viet Thanh Nguyen refers to as "narrative scarcity". Through a qualitative study of pre-service teachers' (PSTs) re-imaginings and revisions of early childhood structures, processes, and texts, we highlight the moves that teachers made to rectify, represent and expand narratives related to communities of Color.

The tropical Northwest Pacific (TNWP) is a receptor for pollution sources throughout Asia and is highly susceptible to climate change, making it imperative to understand long-range transport in this complex aerosol-meteorological environment. Measurements from the NASA Cloud, Aerosol, and Monsoon Processes Philippines Experiment (CAMP2Ex; 24 August to 5 October 2019) and back trajectories from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory Model (HYSPLIT) were used to examine transport into the TNWP from the Maritime Continent (MC), peninsular Southeast Asia (PSEA), East Asia (EA), and the West Pacific (WP). A mid-campaign monsoon shift on 20 September 2019 led to distinct transport patterns between the southwest monsoon (SWM; before 20 September) and monsoon transition (MT; after 20 September). During the SWM, long-range transport was a function of southwesterly winds and cyclones over the South China Sea. Low- (high-) altitude air generally came from MC (PSEA), implying distinct aerosol processing related to convection and perhaps wind shear. The MT saw transport from EA and WP, driven by Pacific northeasterly winds, continental anticyclones, and cyclones over the East China Sea. Composition of transported air differed by emission source and accumulated precipitation along trajectories (APT). MC air was characterized by biomass burning tracers while major components of EA air pointed to Asian outflow and secondary formation. Convective scavenging of PSEA air was evidenced by considerable vertical differences between aerosol species but not trace gases, as well as notably higher APT and smaller particles than other regions. Finally, we observed a possible wet scavenging mechanism acting on MC air aloft that was not strictly linked to precipitation. These results are important for understanding the transport and processing of air masses with further implications for modeling aerosol lifecycles and guiding international policymaking to public health and climate, particularly during the SWM and MT.

Summary: This study was conducted to determine the phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of multidrug-resistant (MDR) avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC). A total of 54 MDR APEC were divided into 23 serotypes, and O78 (16.6%) was the most frequently observed. The MDR APEC carried β-lactamase–encoding genes (38.9%), integrons (61.6%), plasmid-mediated quinolone–resistant genes (20.4%), tetracycline-resistant genes (79.6%), sulfonamide-resistant genes (40.7%), and chloramphenicol-resistant genes (18.5%). Phylogenetic group D (44.4%), which is associated with extraintestinal strains, was the most frequently observed, but all MDR APEC, including groups A, B1, and B2, carried one or more virulence genes. This study analyzed the phenotypic and genotypic characterization in MDR APEC isolated from broilers with colibacillosis in Korea. It is important to monitor the occurrence of resistance genes in APEC. These bacteria may pose serious therapeutic problems when treating sick broilers. The MDR strains carried by animals and birds can enter the human food chain through the consumption of meat or other animal or poultry products.

Radiometric calibration has become important pre-processing with increasing use of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) images in various applications. In order to convert the digital number (DN) to reflectance, vicarious radiometric calibration is widely used including relative radiometric calibration. Some UAV sensor systems can measure irradiance for precise relative radiometric calibration. However, most of UAV sensor systems cannot measure irradiance and therefore precise relative radiometric calibration is needed to produce reflectance map with vicarious calibration. In this study, an optimal image selection method is proposed to improve quality of relative radiometric calibration. The method, relative calibration by the optimal path (RCOP), uses filtered tie points acquired in geometric calibration based on selection optimal image by Dijkstra algorithm. About 100 multispectral images were acquired with a RedEdge-M camera and a fixed-wing UAV. The reflectance map was produced using RCOP and vicarious calibration using ground reference panels. A validation data was processed using irradiance for precise relative radiometric calibration. As a result, the RCOP method showed root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.03–0.10 reflectance to validation data. Therefore, the proposed method can be used to produce precise reflectance map by vicarious calibration.

Summary: The increase and spread of antimicrobial resistance, particularly multidrug resistance (MDR), in Salmonella isolated from food animal pose a serious public health concern worldwide. Therefore, the objective of this study was to characterize antimicrobial resistance and analyze the transferability of integrons and antimicrobial resistance genes in MDR Salmonella isolates from retail chicken meat in Korea. Among the 57 Salmonella isolates, 43 (75.4%) showed resistance to at least 1 antimicrobial agent and 29 (50.9%) exhibited MDR. The highest resistance was to nalidixic acid (73.7%), ampicillin (50.9%), tetracycline (42.1%), chloramphenicol (33.3%), and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (33.3%). β-lactamase–encoding genes were detected in 9 (31.0%) of 29 β-lactam–resistant isolates. These genes were as follows: blaCMY-2 (1 S. Albany), blaCTX-M-79 (1 S. Virchow), and blaCTX-M-15 (6 S. Virchow and 1 S. Enteritidis). Seventeen (70.8%) of the 24 tetracycline-resistant isolates harbored only tetA. Among the 19 trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole-resistant isolates, sul1 was only identified in 3 (68.4%) isolates. cmlA was detected in 4 (21.1%) of the 19 chloramphenicol-resistant isolates. Both aminoglycoside-resistant isolates were positive for ant(2″)-I. Class 1 integrons were observed in 28 (49.1%) isolates belonging to S. Albany (21 isolates), S. Virchow (6 isolate), and S. Enteritidis (1 isolate). All 29 MDR isolates carried one or more integrons and antimicrobial resistance genes. All isolates harboring the ESBL and pAmpC genes exhibited resistance to at least 4 different classes of antimicrobials, including cephalosporins and noncephalosporins. Furthermore, most (79.3%) of the MDR isolates carried 1 or 2 of conjugable plasmids, and the transfer of integrons and resistance genes via plasmids was confirmed in transconjugants, which showed resistance patterns similar to those of the donor strains.

Combined high-fusion performance and long-pulse operation is one of the key integration challenges for fusion energy development in magnetic devices. Addressing these challenges requires an integrated vision of physics and engineering aspects with the purpose of simultaneously increasing time duration and fusion performance. Significant progress has been made in tokamaks and stellarators, including very recent achievement in duration and/or performance. This progress is reviewed by analyzing the experimental data (109 plasma pulses with a total of 3200 data points, i.e. on average 29 data per pulse) provided by ten tokamaks (in alphabetical order: Axially Symmetric Divertor Experiment Upgrade, DIII-D, Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak, Joint European Torus, JT-60 Upgrade, Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research, tokamak à configuration variable, Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor, Tore Supra, W Environment in Steady-State Tokamak) and two stellarators (Large Helical Device and Wendelstein 7-X) expanding the pioneering work of Kikuchi (Kikuchi M. and Azumi M. 2015 Frontiers in Fusion Research II: Introduction to Modern Tokamak Physics (Springer)). Data have been gathered up to January 2022 and coordination has been provided by the recently created International Energy Agency-International Atomic Energy Agency international C oordination on I nternational C hallenges on L ong duration OP eration group. By exploiting the multi-machine international database, recent progress in terms of injected energies (e.g. 1730 MJ in L-mode, 425 MJ in H-mode), durations (1056 s in L-mode, 101 s in H-mode), injected powers, and sustained performance will be reviewed. Progress has been made to sustain long-pulse operation in tokamaks and stellarators with superconducting coils, actively cooled components, and/or with metallic walls. The graph of the fusion triple products as a function of duration shows a dramatic reduction of, at least two orders of magnitude when increasing the plasma duration from less than 1 s to 100 s. Indeed, long-pulse operation is usually reached in dominant electron-heating modes at reduced density (current drive optimization) but with low ion temperatures ranging from 1 to 3 keV for discharges above 100 s. Difficulties in extending the duration may arise from coupling high heating powers over long durations and the evolving plasma-wall interaction towards an unstable operational domain. Possible causes limiting the duration and critical issues to be addressed prior to ITER operation and DEMO design are reported and analyzed.

In this paper, taking the positions of pico-cell base stations (PBSs) into consideration, a scheme of cell range expansion (CRE) for maximum sum rate is addressed in heterogeneous multi-input multi-output multi-user wireless networks. The optimal CRE bias obtained numerically by the proposed CRE scheme with inter-cell interference coordination (ICIC) allows us to maximize the sum rate while successfully maintaining the load balance between the macrocell base station and PBSs. Numerical results confirm that the proposed CRE scheme with ICIC can provide higher sum rate than conventional schemes and balanced load.

In this study, multi-level joint-track readback scheme is proposed for interlaced magnetic recording (IMR) with write synchronization. IMR typically provides an areal density capability (ADC) gain by pre-fixing the recording orders as interlaced and customizing the write configurations for neighboring tracks, such that narrow and wide tracks are interlaced. On the other hand, due to the unbalanced track widths in IMR, readback waveforms by a single wide reader covering two adjacent tracks can be decomposed into four distinguishable levels, when tracks are recorded in a synchronous manner. By taking advantage of the four level (4L) detecting capability, the single reader based dual-track readback (SR-DTR) IMR has a potential to provide a doubled data rate (2X) retrieval. For the feasibility test of the SR-DTR IMR, numerical simulations are conducted for bit-error rate (BER) evaluations by the micro-pixelated magnetic recording channel model. Partial response equalizer and Viterbi detector are modified for 4L readback waveforms, and are investigated with cross-track read offsets under various track and linear densities. BER bathtub investigation results show the feasibility of 2X retrievals by the SR-DTR IMR approach.

This study analyzes nonlinear behavior links with atmospheric teleconnections between hydrologic variables and climate indices using statistical models during warm season (June to September) over the Korean Peninsula (KP). The ocean-related major climate factor, which is the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) was used to analyze the atmospheric teleconnections by principal component analysis (PCA) and a singular spectrum analysis (SSA). The nonlinear lag time correlations between climate indices and hydrologic variables are calculated by Mutual Information (MI) technique. The nonlinear correlation coefficients (CCs) by MI were higher than linear CCs, and ENSO shows a few months of lag time correlation. The warm season hydrologic variables in KP shows a significant increasing tendency during the warm pool (WP), and the cold tongue (CT) El Niño decaying years shows a significant decreasing tendency, while the La Niña year shows slightly above normal conditions, respectively. A better understanding of the relationship between climate indices and streamflow, and their local impacts can help to prepare for the river discharge management by water managers and scientists. Furthermore, these results provide useful data for policy makers and end-users to support long-range water resources prediction and water-related policy.

Young children bring rich social, cultural, and political knowledge to school, cultivated in their homes and communities. This knowledge, ranging from household skills to multilingual practices, is often marginalized in schools that value different norms. Drawing from ethnographic studies in Illinois and New York kindergarten classrooms, this article explores how children's home and community knowledge informs their school experiences. I argue against the false dichotomy between school and out-of-school learning, highlighting the importance of listening to children's perspectives to co-create meaningful curricular inquiries and broaden our social imagination.

In recent days, for efficient management and operation of existing buildings, the importance of as-built BIM is emphasized in AEC/FM domain. However, fully automated as-built BIM creation is a tough issue since newly-constructed buildings are becoming more complex. To manage this problem, our research group has developed a semi-automated approach, focusing on productive 3D as-built BIM creation for complex indoor environments. In order to test its feasibility for a variety of complex indoor environments, we applied the developed approach to model the ‘Charlotte stairs’ in Lotte World Mall, Korea. The approach includes 4 main phases: data acquisition, data pre-processing, geometric drawing, and as-built BIM creation. In the data acquisition phase, due to its complex structure, we moved the scanner location several times to obtain the entire point clouds of the test site. After which, data pre-processing phase entailing point-cloud registration, noise removal, and coordinate transformation was followed. The 3D geometric drawing was created using the RANSAC-based plane detection and boundary tracing methods. Finally, in order to create a semantically-rich BIM, the geometric drawing was imported into the commercial BIM software. The final as-built BIM confirmed that the feasibility of the proposed approach in the complex indoor environment.

Aerosol, rainwater, and sea fog water samples were collected during the cruise conducted over the subarctic western North Pacific Ocean in the summer of 2008, in order to estimate dry, wet, and sea fog deposition fluxes of atmospheric inorganic nitrogen (N). During sea fog events, mean number densities of particles with diameters larger than 0.5 μm decreased by 12–78%, suggesting that particles with diameters larger than 0.5 μm could act preferentially as condensation nuclei (CN) for sea fog droplets. Mean concentrations of nitrate (NO3−), methanesulfonic acid (MSA), and non sea-salt sulfate (nss-SO42−) in sea fog water were higher than those in rainwater, whereas those of ammonium (NH4+) in both sea fog water and rainwater were similar. These results reveal that sea fog scavenged NO3− and biogenic sulfur species more efficiently than rain. Mean dry, wet, and sea fog deposition fluxes for atmospheric total inorganic N (TIN; i.e. NH4+ + NO3−) over the subarctic western North Pacific Ocean were estimated to be 4.9 μmol m−2 d−1, 33 μmol m−2 d−1, and 7.8 μmol m−2 d−1, respectively. While NO3− was the dominant inorganic N species in dry and sea fog deposition, inorganic N supplied to surface waters by wet deposition was predominantly by NH4+. The contribution of dry, wet, and sea fog deposition to total deposition flux for TIN (46 μmol m−2 d−1) were 11%, 72%, and 17%, respectively, suggesting that ignoring sea fog deposition would lead to underestimate of the total influx of atmospheric inorganic N into the subarctic western North Pacific Ocean, especially in summer periods.

PM1.0, PM2.5, and PM10 were sampled at Gosan ABC Superstation on Jeju Island from August 2007 to September 2008. The carbonaceous aerosols were quantified with the thermal/optical reflectance (TOR) method, which produced five organic carbon (OC) fractions, OC1, OC2, OC3, OC4, and pyrolyzed organic carbon (OP), and three elemental carbon (EC) fractions, EC1, EC2, and EC3. The mean mass concentrations of PM1.0, PM2.5, and PM10 were 13.7 μg m−3, 17.2 μg m−3, and 28.4 μg m−3, respectively. The averaged mass fractions of OC and EC were 23.0% and 10.4% for PM1.0, 22.9% and 9.8% for PM2.5, and 16.4% and 6.0% for PM10. Among the OC and EC sub-components, OC2 and EC2+3 were enriched in the fine mode, but OC3 and OC4 in the coarse mode. The filter-based PM1.0 EC agreed well with black carbon (BC) measured by an Aethalometer, and PM10 EC was higher than BC, implying less light absorption by larger particles. EC was well correlated with sulfate, resulting in good relationships of sulfate with both aerosol scattering coefficient measured by Nephelometer and BC concentration. Our measurements of EC confirmed the definition of EC1 as char-EC emitted from smoldering combustion and EC2+3 as soot-EC generated from higher-temperature combustion such as motor vehicle exhaust and coal combustion (Han et al., 2010). In particular, EC1 was strongly correlated with potassium, a traditional biomass burning indicator, except during the summer, when the ratio of EC1 to EC2+3 was the lowest. We also found the ratios of major chemical species to be a useful tool to constrain the main sources of aerosols, by which the five air masses were well distinguished: Siberia, Beijing, Shanghai, Yellow Sea, and East Sea types. Except Siberian air, the continental background of the study region, Beijing plumes showed the highest EC1 (and OP) to sulfate ratio, which implies that this air mass had the highest net warming by aerosols of the four air masses. Shanghai-type air, which was heavily influenced by southern China, showed the highest sulfate enhancement. The highest EC2+3/EC1 ratio was found in aged East Sea air, demonstrating a significant influence of motor vehicle emissions from South Korea and Japan and less influence from industrial regions of China. The high ratio results from the longer residence time and less sensitivity to wet scavenging of EC2+3 compared to EC1, indicating that soot-EC could have greater consequence in regional-scale warming.

Abnormal production of interferon alpha (IFN-a) has been found in certain autoimmune diseases and can be also observed after prolonged therapy with IFN-a. IFN-a can contribute to the pathogenesis of allograft rejection in bone marrow transplants. Therefore, the development of IFN-a inhibitors as a soluble receptor protein may be valuable for the therapeutic control of these diseases. We have expressed two polypeptides encoding amino acids 93-260 (P1) and 261-410 (P2) of the extracellular domain of subunit 1 of the interferon-a receptor (IFNAR 1-EC) in E. coli. The activities of the recombinant polypeptides and of their respective antibodies were evaluated using antiproliferative and antiviral assays. Expression of P1 and P2 polypeptides was achieved by transformation of cloned plasmid pRSET A into E. coli BL21(DE3)pLysS and by IPTG induction. P1 and P2 were purified by serial sonication steps and by gel filtration chromatography with 8 M urea and refolded by dialysis. Under reducing SDS-PAGE conditions, the molecular weight of P1 and P2 was 22 and 17 kDa, respectively. Polyclonal anti-P1 and anti-P2 antibodies were produced in mice. P1 and P2 and their respective polyclonal antibodies were able to block the antiproliferative activity of 6.25 nM IFN-aB on Daudi cells, but did not block IFN-aB activity at higher concentrations (>6.25 nM). On the other hand, the polypeptides and their respective antibodies did not inhibit the antiviral activity of IFN-aB on Hep 2/c cells challenged with encephalomyocarditis virus.

The design of liquefaction cycles requires detailed investigation for heat exchange between natural gas stream and refrigerant fluid streams to minimize shaft power consumed in the compressors of refrigeration cycles. Heat Integration study is essential for evaluating the effectiveness of heat exchange in the liquefaction cycles, as this conceptual technique provides graphical indication for the constrained part of heat exchange, with which systematic design guidelines for improving the efficiency of liquefaction cycles can be obtained. Recently, great attention has been paid to the design and optimization of natural gas liquefaction cycles for FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading) applications. In this study, N2 expander cycles and SMR (Single mixed refrigerant) cycles have been studied as the compactness of the cycle is very high, which is one of key criteria for the selection of liquefaction technology in LNG (Natural Liquefied Gas) FPSO applications. Investigation has been made to minimize shaftpower required for the cycles. Optimization framework has been developed such that GA (genetic algorithm) optimizer is interacted with process simulators, which avoids considerable efforts for building process model and simulating it within the optimizer. Case study will be presented to discuss how the new optimization strategy is effectively applied in the design of liquefaction cycles.