The high occurrence of trapped unreactive charges due to chemical defects seriously affects the performance of g‐C3N4 in photocatalytic applications. This problem can be overcome by introducing ...ultrasmall red phosphorus (red P) crystals on g‐C3N4 sheets. The elemental red P atoms reduce the number of defects in the g‐C3N4 structure by forming new chemical bonds for much more effective charge separation. The product shows significantly enhanced photocatalytic activity toward hydrogen production. To the best of our knowledge, the hydrogen evolution rate obtained on this hybrid should be the highest among all P‐containing g‐C3N4 photocatalysts reported so far. The trapping and detrapping processes in this red P/g‐C3N4 system are thoroughly revealed by using time‐resolved transient absorption spectroscopy.
Chemical bonding of elemental red phosphorus (red P) remediates the chemical defects in g‐C3N4 structure. This would effectively suppress the charges trapping and prolong the lifetime of active charges in g‐C3N4 during the photocatalytic applications. This optimized red P/g‐C3N4 composite holds the highest record toward photocatalytic hydrogen production in the reported P‐containing g‐C3N4 systems to date.
The sensitivities of Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with chemistry (WRF‐Chem) to the Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) and Shao2011 (S11) dust emission schemes, and to various land ...surface properties generated from United States Geological Survey (USGS) and Beijing Normal University (BNU) soil data over East Asia for spring 2012, are examined in this study. The results show that the dust emissions generated with the S11 scheme are 2–5 times that generated with the AFWA emission scheme, with emissions ranging from 0.2–1 Tg/d over East Asia in the relevant period. The AFWA emission scheme omits almost the entire Gobi desert and produces low dust emissions, whereas large amounts of dust emission in this region are produced with the S11 emission scheme, regardless of whether USGS or BNU soil data are used. The surface particulate matter 10 (PM10) concentrations are reasonably well reproduced by the model with different configurations. However, the S11 emission scheme has better performance in simulating the surface PM10 concentrations than the AFWA scheme, especially near the Gobi desert. Comparisons with satellite‐based observations suggest that WRF‐Chem gives better performance with S11 emission scheme in reproducing the horizontal and vertical distribution of aerosol optical properties. The discrepancy between the performances of the AFWA and S11 emission schemes is mainly due to the underestimation of the dust emission over the Gobi desert by the AFWA scheme, which scales the dust emission directly based on the erodibility factor, indicating that the erodibility factor over the Gobi desert is highly underestimated and highlighting an urgent need to improve the erodibility data set.
Key Points
WRF‐Chem is capable of reproducing dust cycles in East Asia
S11 dust emission scheme has better performance than AFWA scheme
The erodibility factor is highly underestimated over the Gobi desert
The Pearl River Delta region (PRD) is the economic growth engine of China and also one of the most urbanized regions in the world. As a two-sided sword, rapid economic development causes air ...pollution and poses adverse health effects to the citizens in this area. This work estimated the negative health effects in the PRD caused by the four major ambient pollutants (SO2, NO2, O3 and PM10) from 2010 to 2013 by using a log linear exposure–response function and the WRF-CMAQ modeling system. Economic loss due to mortality and morbidity was evaluated by the value of statistical life (VSL) and cost of illness (COI) methods. The results show that the overall possible short-term all-cause mortality due to NO2, O3 and PM10 reached the highest in 2013 with the values being 13,217–22,800. The highest total economic loss, which ranged from 14,768 to 25,305million USD, occurred in 2013 and was equivalent to 1.4%–2.3% of the local gross domestic product. The monthly profile of cases of negative health effects varied by city and the types of ambient pollutants. The ratio of mortality attributed to air pollutants to total population was higher in urban areas than in rural areas. People living in the countryside should consider the possible adverse health effects of urban areas before they plan a move to the city. The results show that the health burden caused by the ambient pollutants over this region is serious and suggest that tighter control policies should be implemented in the future to reduce the level of air pollution.
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•Mortality and morbidity due to ambient pollutants in PRD region were estimated.•Health risk exerted by ambient pollutants increased with the urbanization process.•The estimated health cost was around 1.4% to 2.3% of local GDP in 2013.•More traffic control policies are needed to guarantee the citizens’ health benefit.
The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which first emerged in Hubei province, China, has become a pandemic. However, data regarding the effects of meteorological factors on its transmission ...are limited and inconsistent. A mechanism-based parameterisation scheme was developed to investigate the association between the scaled transmission rate (STR) of COVID-19 and the meteorological parameters in 20 provinces/municipalities located on the plains in China. We obtained information on the scale of population migrated from Wuhan, the world epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak, into the study provinces/municipalities using mobile-phone positioning system and big data techniques. The highest STRs were found in densely populated metropolitan areas and in cold provinces located in north-eastern China. Population density had a non-linear relationship with disease spread (linearity index, 0.9). Among various meteorological factors, only temperature was significantly associated with the STR after controlling for the effect of population density. A negative and exponential relationship was identified between the transmission rate and the temperature (correlation coefficient, −0.56; 99% confidence level). The STR increased substantially as the temperature in north-eastern China decreased below 0 °C (the STR ranged from 3.5 to 12.3 when the temperature was between −9.41 °C and −13.87 °C), whilst the STR showed less temperature dependence in the study areas with temperate weather conditions (the STR was 1.21 ± 0.57 when the temperature was above 0 °C). Therefore, a higher population density was linearly whereas a lower temperature (<0 °C) was exponentially associated with an increased transmission rate of COVID-19. These findings suggest that the mitigation of COVID-19 spread in densely populated and/or cold regions will be a great challenge.
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•A mechanism-based parameterisation scheme was developed for transmission rate.•Scale of population migration from Wuhan was incorporated.•Population density had a non-linear (linearity index, 0.9) impact on disease spread.•Transmission rate shows a negative and exponential temperature dependence.•COVID-19 mitigation in densely populated and cold regions will be a great challenge.
In this study, the trend of PM2.5 concentrations and its adverse health effects in China from 2001 to 2017 are estimated utilizing 1-km high-resolution annual satellite-retrieved PM2.5 data. PM2.5 ...concentrations for most of the provinces/cities remained stable from 2001 to 2012; however, following the issue of the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan (APPCAP) by the central government of China, a dramatic decrease in PM2.5 concentrations from 2013 to 2017 occurred. Premature mortality caused by PM2.5 dropped from 1,078,800 in 2014 to 962,900 in 2017. The PM2.5 caused 17-year average mortality ranges from 3800 in Hainan Province to 124,800 in Henan Province. The health cost benefits gained by the reduction of PM2.5 pollution amounted to US $193,800 in 2017 (compared to the costs due to PM2.5 concentrations in 2013), amounting to 1.58% of the total national GDP. The impacts of urbanization on PM2.5 concentration and mortality are analyzed. The PM2.5 concentration and its induced mortality density in dense urban areas are much higher than those in rural areas. The aggravation of PM2.5 associated premature mortality in urban areas is mainly due to the larger amount of emissions and to urban migration, and 6500 deaths in 2014 could have been avoided were the population ratios in dense-urban/normal-urban/rural areas to be reversed to the ones in 2001. It is recommended that people with respiratory-related diseases live in rural areas, where the pollutant concentration is relatively low.
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•PM2.5 concentrations have shown a sharply decreasing trend during the period from 2013 to 2017 in China.•The premature mortality associated with PM2.5 concentrations dropped from 1,078,800 in 2014 to 962,900 in 2017.•The health cost avoided in 2017 as a result of the reduction of PM2.5 concentrations amounted to 1.58% of the national GDP.•The mortality density in dense urban areas is much higher than that in rural area.•The urban migration can increase the premature mortality caused by PM2.5 indirectly.
The Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model is widely used to generate backward trajectories in given starting locations. However, differences exist between ...trajectories generated from the model with different input datasets. In this study, backward trajectories in Hong Kong in the entire year of 2011 are derived by HYSPLIT model. Two sets of Global Data Assimilation System (GDAS) output data associated with different horizontal and vertical resolutions (GDAS1 and GDAS0P5) are used as drivers in an attempt to quantify the differences between the results and discover the underlying reasons responsible for discrepancy. The results reveal that the significant differences between back trajectories generated from the two GDAS datasets can be mainly attributed to different vertical velocity calculation methods due to the absence of vertical velocity in GDAS0P5 dataset. The HYSPLIT trajectories are also sensitive to the horizontal and vertical resolutions of the input meteorological data, but to lesser extents. Results of cluster analysis indicate that when the air mass is from the north, northeast, or west with a long-to-medium range, the HYSPLIT backward trajectories are sensitive to the vertical advection calculation method and data resolution, whereas when the air mass is from the south or southwest with a long range, the trajectories are more likely to remain unchanged with the shifting of vertical velocity or data resolution. By comparing the vertical velocities with the observations and the performance in retrieving PM contributions from different directions, we conclude that GDAS1 dataset is more plausible in backward trajectory analysis in the Pearl River Delta.
This article will review recent impact of massively parallel next-generation sequencing (NGS) in our understanding and treatment of cancer. While whole exome sequencing (WES) remains popular and ...effective as a method of genetically profiling different cancers, advances in sequencing technology has enabled an increasing number of whole-genome based studies. Clinically, NGS has been used or is being developed for genetic screening, diagnostics, and clinical assessment. Though challenges remain, clinicians are in the early stages of using genetic data to make treatment decisions for cancer patients. As the integration of NGS in the study and treatment of cancer continues to mature, we believe that the field of cancer genomics will need to move toward more complete 100% genome sequencing. Current technologies and methods are largely limited to coding regions of the genome. A number of recent studies have demonstrated that mutations in non-coding regions may have direct tumorigenic effects or lead to genetic instability. Non-coding regions represent an important frontier in cancer genomics.
Substantial regressions of metastatic lesions have been observed in up to 70% of patients with melanoma who received adoptively transferred autologous tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in phase 2 ...clinical trials. In addition, 40% of patients treated in a recent trial experienced complete regressions of all measurable lesions for at least 5 years following TIL treatment. To evaluate the potential association between the ability of TILs to mediate durable regressions and their ability to recognize potent antigens that presumably include mutated gene products, we developed a new screening approach involving mining whole-exome sequence data to identify mutated proteins expressed in patient tumors. We then synthesized and evaluated candidate mutated T cell epitopes that were identified using a major histocompatibility complex-binding algorithm for recognition by TILs. Using this approach, we identified mutated antigens expressed on autologous tumor cells that were recognized by three bulk TIL lines from three individuals with melanoma that were associated with objective tumor regressions following adoptive transfer. This simplified approach for identifying mutated antigens recognized by T cells avoids the need to generate and laboriously screen cDNA libraries from tumors and may represent a generally applicable method for identifying mutated antigens expressed in a variety of tumor types.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Tyrosine phosphorylation is important in signaling pathways underlying tumorigenesis. We performed a mutational analysis of the protein tyrosine kinase (PTK) gene family in cutaneous metastatic ...melanoma. We identified 30 somatic mutations affecting the kinase domains of 19 PTKs and subsequently evaluated the entire coding regions of the genes encoding these 19 PTKs for somatic mutations in 79 melanoma samples. We found ERBB4 mutations in 19% of individuals with melanoma and found mutations in two other kinases (FLT1 and PTK2B) in 10% of individuals with melanomas. We examined seven missense mutations in the most commonly altered PTK gene, ERBB4, and found that they resulted in increased kinase activity and transformation ability. Melanoma cells expressing mutant ERBB4 had reduced cell growth after shRNA-mediated knockdown of ERBB4 or treatment with the ERBB inhibitor lapatinib. These studies could lead to personalized therapeutics specifically targeting the kinases that are mutationally altered in individual melanomas.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The GOCART–Thompson microphysics scheme coupling the GOCART
aerosol model and the aerosol-aware Thompson–Eidhammer microphysics scheme
has been implemented in the WRF-Chem to quantify and evaluate ...the effect of
dust on the ice nucleation process in the atmosphere by serving as ice
nuclei (IN). The performance of the GOCART–Thompson microphysics scheme in
simulating the effect of dust in atmospheric ice nucleation is then evaluated
over East Asia during spring, a typical dust-intensive season, in 2012. Based
upon the dust emission reasonably reproduced by WRF-Chem, the effect of dust
on atmospheric cloud ice water content is well reproduced. With abundant dust
particles serving as IN, the simulated ice water mixing ratio and ice crystal
number concentration increases by 15 and 7 % on average over the dust
source region and downwind areas during the investigated period. The
comparison with the ice water path from satellite observations demonstrated that
the simulation of the cloud ice profile is substantially improved by considering
the indirect effect of dust particles in the simulations. Additional
sensitivity experiments are carried out to optimize the parameters in the ice
nucleation parameterization in the GOCART–Thompson microphysics scheme.
Results suggest that lowering the threshold relative humidity with respect to
ice to 100 % for the ice nucleation parameterization leads to further
improvement in cloud ice simulation.
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