ALBERT

Description: An ultrasonic enhanced salt-containing hydrodistillation (UESHD) method for separating essential oil from lavender ( Lavandula angustifolia ) flowers was investigated using response surface methodology (RSM). The experimental data obtained from a 27-run experiment were fitted to a second-order polynomial equation. The optimal conditions were determined by the 3D response surface and the contour plots derived from the models. The efficiency of UESHD and conventional hydrodistillation (HD) was compared. The extraction yield of UESHD was two-fold higher than that of HD. In addition, GC-MS results indicated some differences in composition and content between the two essential oils from UESHD and HD. An ultrasonic enhanced salt-containing hydro-distillation (UESHD) method was developed to separate lavender essential oil. The extraction yield of the oil was optimized by statistical software, the separation conditions by the Box-Behnken design. UESHD enabled a more than two-fold yield of essential oil than conventional hydrodistillation.

Description: SUMMARY The propagation delay when radar signals travel from the troposphere has been one of the major limitations for the applications of high precision repeat-pass Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR). In this paper, we first present an elevation-dependent atmospheric correction model for Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR—the instrument aboard the ENVISAT satellite) interferograms with Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) integrated water vapour (IWV) data. Then, using four ASAR interferometric pairs over Southern California as examples, we conduct the atmospheric correction experiments with cloud-free MERIS IWV data. The results show that after the correction the rms differences between InSAR and GPS have reduced by 69.6 per cent, 29 per cent, 31.8 per cent and 23.3 per cent, respectively for the four selected interferograms, with an average improvement of 38.4 per cent. Most importantly, after the correction, six distinct deformation areas have been identified, that is, Long Beach–Santa Ana Basin, Pomona–Ontario, San Bernardino and Elsinore basin, with the deformation velocities along the radar line-of-sight (LOS) direction ranging from −20 mm yr −1 to −30 mm yr −1 and on average around −25 mm yr −1 , and Santa Fe Springs and Wilmington, with a slightly low deformation rate of about −10 mm yr −1 along LOS. Finally, through the method of stacking, we generate a mean deformation velocity map of Los Angeles over a period of 5 yr. The deformation is quite consistent with the historical deformation of the area. Thus, using the cloud-free MERIS IWV data correcting synchronized ASAR interferograms can significantly reduce the atmospheric effects in the interferograms and further better capture the ground deformation and other geophysical signals.

Description: A series of short and steep unidirectionally migrating deep-water channels, which are typically without levees and migrate progressively northeastward, are identified in the Baiyun depression, Pearl River Mouth Basin. Using three-dimensional seismic and well data, the current study documents their morphology, internal architecture, and depositional history, and discusses the distribution and depositional controls on the bottom current–reworked sands within these channels. Unidirectionally migrating deep-water channels consist of different channel-complex sets (CCSs) that are, overall, short and steep, and their northeastern walls are, overall, steeper than their southwestern counterparts. Within each CCS, bottom current–reworked sands in the lower part grade upward into muddy slumps and debris-flow deposits and, finally, into shale drapes. Three stages of CCSs development are recognized: (1) the early lowstand incision stage, during which intense gravity and/or turbidity flows versus relatively weak along-slope bottom currents of the North Pacific intermediate water (NPIW-BCs) resulted in basal erosional bounding surfaces and limited bottom current–reworked sands; (2) the late lowstand lateral-migration and active-fill stage, with gradual CCS widening and progressively northeastward migration, characterized by reworking of gravity- and/or turbidity-flow deposits by vigorous NPIW-BCs and the CCSs being mainly filled by bottom current–reworked sands and limited slumps and debris-flow deposits; and (3) the transgression abandonment stage, characterized by the termination of the gravity and/or turbidity flows and the CCSs being widely draped by marine shales. These three stages repeated through time, leading to the generation of unidirectionally migrating deep-water channels. The distribution of the bottom current–reworked sands varies both spatially and temporally. Spatially, these sands mainly accumulate along the axis of the unidirectionally migrating deep-water channels and are preferentially deposited to the side toward which the channels migrated. Temporally, these sands mainly accumulated during the late lowstand lateral-migration and active-fill stage. The bottom current–reworked sands developed under the combined action of gravity and/or turbidity flows and along-slope bottom currents of NPIW-BCs. Other factors, including relative sea level fluctuations, sediment supply, and slope configurations, also affected the formation and distribution of these sands. The proposed distribution pattern of the bottom current–reworked sands has practical implications for predicting reservoir occurrence and distribution in bottom current–related channels.

Description: Co-fermentation of lignocellulose-based carbohydrates is a potential approach to improve the economics of microbial lipid production. To obtain an industrial strain that metabolizes glucose and xylose with a higher microbial lipid production, the strain Mortierella alpina was mutated by low-energy ion beam implantation. After nitrogen ion beam implantation, a mutant strain, M. alpina I502-8 ( MA I502-8), was obtained. MA I502-8 was an efficient producer of microbial lipid from glucose and xylose (5:3 wt/wt). Moreover, the co-fermentation conditions were also optimized. Under optimal conditions, the maximum yield of biomass and microbial lipid reached 27.4 and 10.05 g L –1 , respectively, which were 2.38-fold and 1.84-fold those in the initial media. Of the mixed sugar, 84.33 % was used up during co-fermentation. To obtain an industrial strain that metabolizes glucose and xylose with a higher microbial lipid production, the strain Mortierella alpina was mutated by low-energy ion beam implantation. The experimental results show that ion implantation can be an efficient mutagenic means for microorganism breeding in many commercial applications.

Description: Src42A modulates tumor invasion and cell death via Ben/dUev1a-mediated JNK activation in Drosophila Cell Death and Disease 4, e864 (October 2013). doi:10.1038/cddis.2013.392 Authors: X Ma, Y Shao, H Zheng, M Li, W Li & L Xue

Description: Author(s): Y. M. Zhang, X. W. Li, W. Yang, and G. R. Jin We investigate the performance of entangled coherent states for quantum-enhanced phase estimation. An exact analytical expression of quantum Fisher information is derived to show the role of photon losses on the ultimate phase sensitivity. We find a transition of the sensitivity from the Heisenberg ... [Phys. Rev. A 88, 043832] Published Thu Oct 17, 2013

Description: Mutations in the tumor suppressor BRCA1 predispose women to breast and ovarian cancers. The mechanism underlying the tissue-specific nature of BRCA1’s tumor suppression is obscure. We previously showed that the antioxidant pathway regulated by the transcription factor NRF2 is defective in BRCA1-deficient cells. Reactivation of NRF2 through silencing of its...

Description: SUMMARY The propagation delay when radar signals travel from the troposphere has been one of the major limitations for the applications of high precision repeat-pass Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR). In this paper, we first present an elevation-dependent atmospheric correction model for Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR—the instrument aboard the ENVISAT satellite) interferograms with Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) integrated water vapour (IWV) data. Then, using four ASAR interferometric pairs over Southern California as examples, we conduct the atmospheric correction experiments with cloud-free MERIS IWV data. The results show that after the correction the rms differences between InSAR and GPS have reduced by 69.6 per cent, 29 per cent, 31.8 per cent and 23.3 per cent, respectively for the four selected interferograms, with an average improvement of 38.4 per cent. Most importantly, after the correction, six distinct deformation areas have been identified, that is, Long Beach–Santa Ana Basin, Pomona–Ontario, San Bernardino and Elsinore basin, with the deformation velocities along the radar line-of-sight (LOS) direction ranging from −20 mm yr −1 to −30 mm yr −1 and on average around −25 mm yr −1 , and Santa Fe Springs and Wilmington, with a slightly low deformation rate of about −10 mm yr −1 along LOS. Finally, through the method of stacking, we generate a mean deformation velocity map of Los Angeles over a period of 5 yr. The deformation is quite consistent with the historical deformation of the area. Thus, using the cloud-free MERIS IWV data correcting synchronized ASAR interferograms can significantly reduce the atmospheric effects in the interferograms and further better capture the ground deformation and other geophysical signals.

Description: The global insight into the relationships between miRNAs and their regulatory influences remains poorly understood. And most of complex diseases may be attributed to certain local areas of pathway (subpathway) instead of the entire pathway. Here, we reviewed the studies on miRNA regulations to pathways and constructed a bipartite miRNAs and subpathways network for systematic analyzing the miRNA regulatory influences to subpathways. We found that a small fraction of miRNAs were global regulators, environmental information processing pathways were preferentially regulated by miRNAs, and miRNAs had synergistic effect on regulating group of subpathways with similar function. Integrating the disease states of miRNAs, we also found that disease miRNAs regulated more subpathways than nondisease miRNAs, and for all miRNAs, the number of regulated subpathways was not in proportion to the number of the related diseases. Therefore, the study not only provided a global view on the relationships among disease, miRNA and subpathway, but also uncovered the function aspects of miRNA regulations and potential pathogenesis of complex diseases. A web server to query, visualize and download for all the data can be freely accessed at http://bioinfo.hrbmu.edu.cn/miR2Subpath .

Description: Latexin sensitizes leukemogenic cells to gamma-irradiation-induced cell-cycle arrest and cell death through Rps3 pathway Cell Death and Disease 5, e1493 (October 2014). doi:10.1038/cddis.2014.443 Authors: Y You, R Wen, R Pathak, A Li, W Li, D St Clair, M Hauer-Jensen, D Zhou & Y Liang