Typical ELMy H-mode discharges have been achieved on the HL-2A tokamak with combined auxiliary heating of NBI and ECRH. The minimum power required is about 1.1 MW at a density of 1.6 X 1019 m-3 and ...increases with a decrease in density, almost independent of the launching order of the ECRH and NBI heating. The energy loss by each edge localized mode (ELM) burst is estimated to be lower than 3% of the total stored energy. At a frequency of typically 400 Hz, the energy confinement time is only marginally reduced by the ELMs. The supersonic molecular beam injection fuelling is found to be beneficial for triggering an L--H transition due to less induced recycling and higher fuelling efficiency. The dwell time of the L--H transition is 20--200 ms, and tends to decrease as the power increases. The delay time of the H--L transition is 10--30 ms for most discharges and is comparable to the energy confinement time. The ELMs with a period of 1--3 ms are sustained for more than ten times the energy confinement time with enhanced confinement factor H89 > 1.5, which tends to decrease with the total heating power. The confinement time in the H-mode discharges increases with plasma current approximately linearly.
Effects of precipitation and strain-induced martensitic transformation of Fe-C phases on the mechanical properties of Cu-Fe-C alloy were systematically studied. The results reveal that, the hardness ...and strengths of Cu-Fe-C alloy can be increased after cold rolling, and forming shear bands in the alloy matrix. However, compared with directly cold rolling, the hardness, strengths and elongation can be all increased much more after using the processing of cold rolling 80%+heat treatment at 400°C for 60min+cold rolling 75%, which results from the contribution of both work hardening and precipitation strengthening of nano-sized α-Fe particles formed by strain-induced martensitic transformation. The formed α-Fe particles satisfy the K-S orientation relationship with Cu matrix, i.e. (011)α-Fe//(−111)Cu,−11-1 α-Fe//110Cu. These findings provide inspiring using the martensitic transformation of Fe-C phases to improve mechanical properties of Cu-Fe-C alloys.
Curcumin (diferuloylmethane), a polyphenol natural product of the plant Curcuma longa, is undergoing early clinical trials as a novel anticancer agent. However, the anticancer mechanism of curcumin ...remains to be elucidated. Recently, we have shown that curcumin inhibits phosphorylation of p70 S6 kinase 1 (S6K1) and eukaryotic initiation factor 4E (eIF4E) binding protein 1 (4E-BP1), two downstream effector molecules of the mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) in numerous cancer cell lines. This study was designed to elucidate the underlying mechanism. We observed that curcumin inhibited mTORC1 signaling not by inhibition of the upstream kinases, such as insulin-like growth factor 1 receptor (IGF-IR) and phosphoinositide-dependent kinase 1 (PDK1). Further, we found that curcumin inhibited mTORC1 signaling independently of protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) or AMP-activated protein kinase AMPK-tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC). This is evidenced by the findings that curcumin was able to inhibit phosphorylation of S6K1 and 4E-BP1 in the cells pretreated with PP2A inhibitor (okadaic acid) or AMPK inhibitor (compound C), or in the cells expressing dominant-negative (dn) PP2A, shRNA to PP2A-A subunit, or dn-AMPKalpha. Curcumin did not alter the TSC1/2 interaction. Knockout of TSC2 did not affect curcumin inhibition of mTOR signaling. Finally, we identified that curcumin was able to dissociate raptor from mTOR, leading to inhibition of mTORC1 activity. Therefore, our data indicate that curcumin may represent a new class of mTOR inhibitor.
•Effect of clean soil capping on internal loading was studied via a field experiment.•Ca-poor soil capping can effectively inhibit the release of N and P for one year.•Ca-poor soil showed excellent P ...adsorption and retention capacity.•Waterbody supply of Ca to the Ca-poor soil captured P in the porewater to form Ca-P.
Clean soil is a potential capping material for controlling internal nutrient loading and helping the recovery of macrophytes in eutrophic lakes, but the long-term effects and underlying mechanisms of clean soil capping under in-situ conditions remain poorly understood. In this study, a three-year field capping enclosure experiment combining intact sediment core incubation, in-situ porewater sampling, isotherm adsorption experiments and analysis of sediment nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) fractions was conducted to assess the long-term performance of clean soil capping on internal loading in Lake Taihu. Our results indicate that clean soil has excellent P adsorption and retention capacity as an ecologically safe capping material and can effectively mitigate NH4+-N and SRP (soluble reactive P) fluxes at the sediment-water interface (SWI) and porewater SRP concentration for one year after capping. The mean NH4+-N and SRP fluxes of capping sediment were 34.86 mg m−2 h−1 and -1.58 mg m−2 h−1, compared 82.99 mg m−2 h−1 and 6.29 mg m−2 h−1 for control sediment. Clean soil controls internal NH4+-N release through cation (mainly Al3+) exchange mechanisms, while for SRP, clean soil can not only react with SRP due to its high Al and Fe content, but also stimulate the migration of active Ca2+ to the capping layer, thus precipitating as Ca-bound P (Ca-P). Clean soil capping also contributed to the restoration of macrophytes during the growing season. However, the effect of controlling internal nutrient loading only lasted for one year under in-situ conditions, after which the sediment properties returned to pre-capping conditions. Our results highlight that clean Ca-poor soil is a promising capping material and further research is needed to extend the longevity of this geoengineering technology.
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Abstract
The emergent phenomena such as superconductivity and topological phase transitions can be observed in strict two-dimensional (2D) crystalline matters. Artificial interfaces and one atomic ...thickness layers are typical 2D materials of this kind. Although having 2D characters, most bulky layered compounds, however, do not possess these striking properties. Here, we report quasi-2D superconductivity in bulky AuTe
2
Se
4/3
, where the reduction in dimensionality is achieved through inducing the elongated covalent Te–Te bonds. The atomic-resolution images reveal that the Au, Te, and Se are atomically ordered in a cube, among which are Te–Te bonds of 3.18 and 3.28 Å. The superconductivity at 2.85 K is discovered, which is unraveled to be the quasi-2D nature owing to the Berezinsky–Kosterlitz–Thouless topological transition. The nesting of nearly parallel Fermi sheets could give rise to strong electron–phonon coupling. It is proposed that further depleting the thickness could result in more topologically-related phenomena.
Tiller number per plant (TN) and plant height (PH) are important agronomic traits related to grain yield (GY) in rice (
Oryza sativa
L.). A total of 30 additive quantitative trait loci (A-QTL) and 9 ...significant additive × environment interaction QTLs (AE-QTL) were detected, while the phenotypic and QTL correlations confirmed the intrinsic relationship of the three traits. These QTLs were integrated with 986 QTLs from previous studies by metaanalysis. Consensus maps contained 7156 markers for a total map length of 1112.71 cM, onto which 863 QTLs were projected; 78 meta-QTLs (MQTLs) covering 11 of the 30 QTLs were detected from the cross between Dongnong422 and Kongyu131 in this study. A total of 705 predicted genes were distributed over the 21 MQTL intervals with physical length <0.3 Mb; 13 of the 21 MQTLs, and 34 candidate genes related to grain yield and plant development, were screened. Five major QTLs, viz.
qGY6
-
2
,
qPH7
-
2
,
qPH6
-
3
,
qTN6
-
1
, and
qTN7
-
1
, were not detected in the MQTL intervals and could be used as newly discovered QTLs. Candidate genes within these QTL intervals will play a meaningful role in molecular marker-assisted selection and map-based cloning of rice TN, PH, and GY.
We describe a sensitive mRNA profiling technology, PMAGE (for "polony multiplex analysis of gene expression"), which detects messenger RNAs (mRNAs) as rare as one transcript per three cells. PMAGE ...incorporates an improved ligation-based method to sequence 14-nucleotide tags derived from individual mRNA molecules. One sequence tag from each mRNA molecule is amplified onto a separate 1-micrometer bead, denoted as a polymerase colony or polony, and about 5 million polonies are arrayed in a flow cell for parallel sequencing. Using PMAGE, we identified early transcriptional changes that preceded pathological manifestations of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy in mice carrying a disease-causing mutation. PMAGE provided a comprehensive profile of cardiac mRNAs, including low-abundance mRNAs encoding signaling molecules and transcription factors that are likely to participate in disease pathogenesis.
England has experienced a heavy burden of COVID-19, with multiple waves of SARS-CoV-2 transmission since early 2020 and high infection levels following the emergence and spread of Omicron variants ...since late 2021. In response to rising Omicron cases, booster vaccinations were accelerated and offered to all adults in England. Using a model fitted to more than 2 years of epidemiological data, we project potential dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 infections, hospital admissions and deaths in England to December 2022. We consider key uncertainties including future behavioural change and waning immunity and assess the effectiveness of booster vaccinations in mitigating SARS-CoV-2 disease burden between October 2021 and December 2022. If no new variants emerge, SARS-CoV-2 transmission is expected to decline, with low levels remaining in the coming months. The extent to which projected SARS-CoV-2 transmission resurges later in 2022 depends largely on assumptions around waning immunity and to some extent, behaviour, and seasonality.
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