ALBERT

Description: Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, Ahead of Print. 〈br/〉

Description: Coupled air quality and climate models can predict aerosol concentrations and properties, as well as aerosol direct and indirect effects that depend on aerosol chemistry and microphysics treatments. In this study, WRF/Chem simulations are conducted over continental U.S. (CONUS) for January and July 2001 with the same gas-phase mechanism (CB05) but three aerosol modules (MADE/SORGAM, MOSAIC, and MADRID) to examine the impacts of aerosol treatments on predictions of aerosols and their effects on cloud properties and radiation. The simulations with the three aerosol modules give similar domain mean predictions of surface PM 2.5 concentrations but exhibit a strong spatial variation in magnitudes with large differences in eastern U.S. Large discrepancies are found in the predicted concentrations of sulfate and organic matter due to different treatments in secondary inorganic and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation. In particular, the nucleation calculation in MADE/SORGAM causes mass buildup of sulfate which results in much higher sulfate concentrations that those predicted by WRF/Chem with the other two aerosol modules. Different PM mass concentrations and size representations lead to differences in the predicted aerosol number concentrations. The above differences in PM concentrations lead to large differences in simulated condensation nuclei (CCN) and cloud properties in both months. The simulated ranges of domain mean are (1.9-14.3)×10 9 m -3 and (1.4-5.4)×10 9 m -3 for PM 2.5 number concentration, (1.6-3.9)×10 8 cm -2 and (1.9-3.9)×10 8 cm -2 for CCN, 102.9-208.2 cm -3 and 143.7-202.2 cm -3 for column cloud droplet number concentration (CDNC), and 4.5-6.4 and 3.6-6.7 for cloud optical depths (COT) in January and July, respectively. The sensitivity simulation for July 2001 using online biogenic emissions increases isoprene concentrations but decreases terpene concentrations, leading to a domain mean increase in O 3 (1.5 ppb) and a decrease in biogenic SOA (-0.07 µg m -3 ) and PM 2.5 (-0.2 µg m -3 ). Anthropogenic emissions contribute to O 3 , biogenic SOA (BSOA), and PM 2.5 concentrations by 38.0%, 44.2%, and 53.6% domain mean, and by up to 78.5%, 89.7%, and 96.3%, respectively, indicating that a large fraction of BSOA is controllable through controlling atmospheric oxidant levels in CONUS. Anthropogenic emissions also contribute to a decrease in downward shortwave flux at ground surface (-5.8 W m -2 ), temperature at 2-m (-0.05 °C), wind speed at 10-m (-0.02 m s -1 ), planetary boundary layer height (-6.6 m), and precipitation (-0.08 mm), as well as an increase in CCN (+5.7 × 10 -7 cm -2 ), in-cloud CDNC (+40.4 cm -3 ), and COT (+0.6). This work indicates the need for an accurate representation of several aerosol processes such as SOA formation and aerosol-cloud interactions in simulating aerosol direct and indirect effects in the online-coupled models.

Description: The regulatory T cells (Treg) play an important role in the tumor tolerance. The methods to regulate the Treg population in cancer-bearing hosts are limited currently. The effect of curcumin on inhibiting cancer has been recognized, but the mechanism remains elusive. This study tests a hypothesis that administration of curcumin down regulates Tregs in lung cancer (LC) patients. In this study, a group of LC patients was treated with curcumin. The peripheral Tregs and T helper (Th) 1 cells were analyzed by flow cytometry. The mechanism by which curcumin regulated the Tregs was observed by cell culture approaches. The results showed that the frequency of peripheral Treg was markedly higher in LC patients than that in healthy subjects, which was suppressed after treating with curcumin for 2 weeks. The peripheral Th1 cells were increased in LC patients after the curcumin therapy. The data of the in vitro experiments showed that curcumin converted the LC patient-isolated Tregs to Th1 cells via repressing the gene transcription of forkhead protein-3 and increasing the expression of interferon-γ. In conclusion, curcumin can convert LC patient-isolated Tregs to Th1 cells. The results suggest that curcumin may improve the antitumor immunity by regulating the tumor specific immune tolerance. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Description: Materials, Vol. 11, Pages 525: Ultra Uniform Pb0.865La0.09(Zr0.65Ti0.35)O3 Thin Films with Tunable Optical Properties Fabricated via Pulsed Laser Deposition Materials doi: 10.3390/ma11040525 Authors: Shenglin Jiang Chi Huang Honggang Gu Shiyuan Liu Shuai Zhu Ming-Yu Li Lingmin Yao Yunyi Wu Guangzu Zhang Ferroelectric thin films have been utilized in a wide range of electronic and optical applications, in which their morphologies and properties can be inherently tuned by a qualitative control during growth. In this work, we demonstrate the evolution of the Pb0.865La0.09(Zr0.65Ti0.35)O3 (PLZT) thin films on MgO (200) with high uniformity and optimized optical property via the controls of the deposition temperatures and oxygen pressures. The perovskite phase can only be obtained at the deposition temperature above 700 °C and oxygen pressure over 50 Pa due to the improved crystallinity. Meanwhile, the surface morphologies gradually become smooth and compact owing to spontaneously increased nucleation sites with the elevated temperatures, and the crystallization of PLZT thin films also sensitively respond to the oxygen vacancies with the variation of oxygen pressures. Correspondingly, the refractive indices gradually develop with variations of the deposition temperatures and oxygen pressures resulted from the various slight loss, and the extinction coefficient for each sample is similarly near to zero due to the relatively smooth morphology. The resulting PLZT thin films exhibit the ferroelectricity, and the dielectric constant sensitively varies as a function of electric filed, which can be potentially applied in the electronic and optical applications.

Description: ASIC1 and ASIC3 contribute to acidity-induced EMT of pancreatic cancer through activating Ca2+/RhoA pathway Cell Death and Disease 8, e2806 (May 2017). doi:10.1038/cddis.2017.189 Authors: Shuai Zhu, Hai-Yun Zhou, Shi-Chang Deng, Shi-Jiang Deng, Chi He, Xiang Li, Jing-Yuan Chen, Yan Jin, Zhuang-Li Hu, Fang Wang, Chun-You Wang & Gang Zhao

Description: In previous studies on glucose metabolism during in vitro maturation, intact cumulus-oocyte complexes (COCs) were treated with enzyme inhibitors/activators. Because inhibitors/activators may have non-specificity and/or toxicity, and culture of COCs cannot differentiate whether glucose metabolism of cumulus cells (CCs) or that of the oocyte supports oocyte maturation, results from the previous studies must be verified by silencing genes in either CCs or cumulus-denuded oocytes (DOs). In this study, RNAi was adopted to specify the effects of glucose metabolism in CCs or DOs on oocyte maturation. Although silencing either glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase ( GAPDH) or glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) genes in CCs significantly decreased competence of the cocultured DOs, silencing G6PD impaired competence to a greater extent. While silencing G6PD or GAPDH of CCs decreased glutathione and ATP contents of cocultured DOs to similar extents, silencing G6PD increased oxidative stress as well. Analysis on metabolite contents and oxidative stress index and culture of DOs in medium conditioned with gene-silenced CCs indicated that CCs supported oocyte maturation by releasing glucose metabolites. Silencing mitochondrial pyruvate carrier 1 or NADH dehydrogenase (ubiquintone) flavoprotein 1 of DOs significantly impaired their maturation. The results have unequivocally confirmed that CCs promote oocyte maturation by releasing glucose metabolites from both pentose phosphate pathway and glycolysis. Pyruvate is transferred into DOs by mitochondrial pyruvate carrier and utilized through mitochondrial electron transport to support maturation. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Description: Due to modern mining methods deployed in recent years, production of coal mines has been expanded significantly compared to thirty years ago. As a consequence, the mining depth of coal mines is becoming ever deeper. A common world-wide problem that underground coal mines are currently experiencing is the hazard caused by the underground hot environment, which also promotes a great need of reliable mitigation measures to assist mine operators controlling the heat stress for miners as well as maintaining the normal operation of the mine. In this paper, a model for underground air-route temperature prediction in ultra-deep mines based on previous findings was developed. In developing this model, the idea of heat balance was used to establish the temperature calculation equation. Various underground heat sources (air compress, wall oxidation, underground heat, machinery, etc.) are covered in the model to improve the prediction accuracy. In addition, a PC-based numerical tool was also developed to aid users using such a mathematical model. Finally, a few temperature measurements for an ultra-deep underground coal mine were performed to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed mathematical prediction model.

Description: Due to modern mining methods deployed in recent years, production of coal mines has been expanded significantly compared to thirty years ago. As a consequence, the mining depth of coal mines is becoming ever deeper. A common world-wide problem that underground coal mines are currently experiencing is the hazard caused by the underground hot environment, which also promotes a great need of reliable mitigation measures to assist mine operators controlling the heat stress for miners as well as maintaining the normal operation of the mine. In this paper, a model for underground air-route temperature prediction in ultra-deep mines based on previous findings was developed. In developing this model, the idea of heat balance was used to establish the temperature calculation equation. Various underground heat sources (air compress, wall oxidation, underground heat, machinery, etc.) are covered in the model to improve the prediction accuracy. In addition, a PC-based numerical tool was also developed to aid users using such a mathematical model. Finally, a few temperature measurements for an ultra-deep underground coal mine were performed to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed mathematical prediction model.