Four extreme haze episodes occurred in October 2014 in the North China Plain (NCP). To clarify the formation mechanism of hazes in autumn, strengthened observations were conducted in Beijing from 5 ...October to 2 November. The meteorological parameters, satellite data, chemical compositions and optical properties of aerosols were obtained. The hazes originated from the NCP, developing in the southwest and northeast directions, with the highest concentration of PM2.5 of 469 mu g m-3 in Beijing. The NCP was dominated by a weak high pressure system during the haze episode, which resulted in low surface wind speed and relatively stagnant weather. Moreover, the wind slowed down around Beijing city. The secondary aerosols NO3- was always higher than that of SO42-, which indicated the motor vehicles played a more important part in the hazes in October 2014, even though the oxidation rate from SO2 to SO42- was faster than that of NOx to NO3-. Sudden increases of the concentrations of organic matter, Cl- and BC (black carbon) before each haze episode implied that regional transport of pollutants by biomass burning was important for haze formation during autumn. A satellite map of fire points and the backward trajectories of the air masses also indicated this pollution source. The distinct decrease in the PBL (planetary boundary layer) height during four haze episodes restrained the vertical dispersion of the air pollutants. Water vapor also played a vital role in the formation of hazes by accelerating the chemical transformation of secondary pollutants, leading to hygroscopic growth of aerosols and altering the thermal balance of the atmosphere.
The fundamental features of one kind of rarely known stratocumulus, which was termed as “Millipede Cloud,” occurred over the Eastern Pacific Ocean in 2017 were first documented by using Moderate ...Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite imagery. These clouds had long and meandering “central axes” extending from several hundreds to thousands kilometers, and a number of “radical cloud arms” extending several tens of kilometers in its two sides. Total 59 “Millipede Clouds,” 4 and 55 of them, were formed over the Northern and the Southern Hemispheres, respectively. Their environmental backgrounds were analyzed by using ERA5 reanalysis data and MODIS sensor Level‐2 data. The cloud top pressures of these “Millipede Clouds” were between 850 and 800 hPa, and their top heights were about 1–2 km. There existed “inversion layer” of air temperature near the cloud tops at 800 hPa, which strongly suggested that these clouds were lower stratocumulus in essence.
Plain Language Summary
“Millipede Cloud,” one kind of rarely known stratocumulus which looks like “Millipede” shape, is termed for the first time in this paper. It has an obvious “central axis” and a number of well‐organized “radial cloud arms” in two sides of the “central axis” extending in several tens of kilometers length. This paper introduces the fundamental features of “Millipede Clouds” occurred over the Eastern Pacific Ocean in 2017 from the perspective of satellite image. Totally, 59 “Millipede Clouds” were found to occur over the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Their geographic distribution, cloud top features and vertical structure of one typical case on 16 July 2017 were documented.
Key Points
The fundamental features of “Millipede Clouds” over the Eastern Pacific Ocean in 2017 were documented by using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite imagery
The environmental backgrounds of these “Millipede Clouds” were analyzed by using ERA5 reanalysis data and MODIS data
The cloud top pressures of these “Millipede Clouds” are between 850 and 800 hPa, and their top heights are about 1–2 km
The evolutionarily conserved MAP65 family proteins bundle anti-parallel microtubules (MTs). In Arabidopsis thaliana, mutations in the MAP65-3 gene lead to serious defects in MT organization in the ...phragmoplast and cause failures in cytokinesis. However, the functions of other Arabidopsis MAP65 isoforms are largely unknown.
MAP65 functions were analyzed based on genetic interactions among different map65 mutations. Live-cell imaging and immunolocalization experiments revealed dynamic activities of two closely related MAP65 proteins in dividing cells.
The map65-4 mutation caused synthetic lethality with map65-3 although map65-4 alone did not cause a noticeable phenotype. Furthermore, the introduction of an extra copy of the MAP65-4 gene significantly suppressed defects in cytokinesis and seedling growth caused by map65-3 because of restoring MT engagement in the spindle midzone. During mitosis, MAP65-4 first appeared at the preprophase band and persisted at the cortical division site afterwards. It was also concentrated on MTs in the spindle midzone and the phragmoplast. In the absence of MAP65-3, MAP65-4 exhibited greatly enhanced localization in the midzone of developing phragmoplast.
Therefore, we have uncovered redundant but differential contributions of MAP65-3 and MAP65-4 to engaging and bundling anti-parallel MTs in the phragmoplast and disclosed a novel action of MAP65-4 at the cortical cell division site.
Phenotypic plasticity, which encompasses the diversification of both irreversible and reversible traits, has long been considered an adaptive response by animals to varying environmental conditions. ...However, the process by which irreversible and reversible traits are coordinated to form an adaptive response to the changing environment has yet to be clarified. Here, we investigated the variation in body size of two urban insect species in the context of habitat fragmentation. These species were the Chinese cricket Gryllus chinensis and the stove grasshopper Diestrammena japonica, which are sympatric in urban housing estates. Results indicated that both species changed in body size in patches of urban environment. However, their body size shifts showed opposite tendencies and were influenced by distinct selective forces: Chinese crickets increased their body size with the patch history and predation risk, whereas stove grasshoppers decreased their body size with the degree of fragmentation of the patches. Territorial and competitive Chinese crickets rarely experience resource scarcity during urban environment fragmentation. Thus, a larger body size was preferred in response to intraspecific competition among Chinese crickets. By contrast, stove grasshoppers are group‐living and scramble for resources as competitors, requiring a large territory to secure adequate food for supporting a group of individuals. Consequently, stove grasshoppers frequently experienced resource scarcity in the patchy habitat, favoring small body size to reduce individual requirements throughout the life cycle. Our findings indicate that the body size shift of sympatric insects may be subjected to distinct selective forces in fragmented habitats, depending primarily on their reversible traits.
Fragmented habitats of the urban insects caused by streets and footpaths.
Precision spectroscopy of the hydrogen molecule is a test ground of quantum electrodynamics (QED), and it may serve for the determination of fundamental constants. Using a comb-locked cavity ...ring-down spectrometer, for the first time, we observed the Lamb-dip spectrum of the R(1) line in the overtone of hydrogen deuteride (HD). The line position was determined to be 217 105 182.79±0.03_{stat}±0.08_{syst} MHz (δν/ν=4×10^{-10}), which is the most accurate rovibrational transition ever measured in the ground electronic state of molecular hydrogen. Moreover, from calculations including QED effects up to the order m_{e}α^{6}, we obtained predictions for this R(1) line as well as for the HD dissociation energy, which are less accurate but signaling the importance of the complete treatment of nonadiabatic effects. Provided that the theoretical calculation reaches the same accuracy, the present measurement will lead to a determination of the proton-to-electron mass ratio with a precision of 1.3 parts per billion.
The Oriental Fruit Moth Grapholita molesta (Busck) causes substantial damage to stone and pome fruit crops worldwide. Light-based traps offer a potential means for pest monitoring and management. In ...this study, we tested the preference of G. molesta for the following light sources: monochromatic light produced from light-emitting diodes (LEDs) (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, and white), specific wavelengths of light produced from filters (405, 450, 480, 512, 540, 576, and 610 nm), and polychromatic light produced by different numbers (0, 12, 24, and 36) of green, blue, and violet LEDs. The arrangement of polychromatic lights was based on an orthogonal design matrix of L16 (43). Based on the results of former studies, we further determined the optimal number of green and violet LEDs. The results showed that: 1) G. molesta strongly preferred the green, violet, and blue LEDs; 2) G. molesta significantly preferred light at 405 nm, followed by 540 nm, and showed no phototaxis to 480 nm; 3) for the polychromatic light configuration, violet and green were the factors that determined the preference of G. molesta, and the lamp with 12 violet LEDs captured the most moths; and 4) for the lamps with different light intensities, 36 violet LEDs or 12 green LEDs attracted the most moths, with the former performing better.
Abstract
We present a spectral study of the black hole candidate MAXI J1348−630 during its 2019 outburst, based on monitoring observations with Insight-HXMT and Swift. Throughout the outburst, the ...spectra are well fitted with power-law plus disk-blackbody components. In the soft-intermediate and soft states, we observed the canonical relation
L
∝
T
in
4
between disk luminosity
L
and peak color temperature
T
in
, with a constant inner radius
R
in
(traditionally identified with the innermost stable circular orbit). At other stages of the outburst cycle, the behavior is more unusual, inconsistent with the canonical outburst evolution of black hole transients. In particular, during the hard rise, the apparent inner radius is smaller than in the soft state (and increasing), and the peak color temperature is higher (and decreasing). This anomalous behavior is found even when we model the spectra with self-consistent Comptonization models, which take into account the upscattering of photons from the disk component into the power-law component. To explain both anomalous trends at the same time, we suggest that the hardening factor for the inner-disk emission was larger than the canonical value of ≈1.7 at the beginning of the outburst. A more physical trend of radii and temperature evolution requires a hardening factor evolving from ≈3.5 at the beginning of the hard state to ≈1.7 in the hard-intermediate state. This could be evidence that the inner disk was in the process of condensing from the hot, optically thin medium and had not yet reached a sufficiently high optical depth for its emission spectrum to be described by the standard optically thick disk solution.
Aims
Accumulating studies have suggested that base excision repair (BER) is the major repair pathway of oxidative DNA damage in neurons, and neurons are deficient in other DNA repair pathways, ...including nucleotide excision repair and homologous recombination repair. However, some studies have demonstrated that neurons could efficiently repair glutamate‐ and menadione‐induced double‐strand breaks (DSBs), suggesting that the DSB repair mechanisms might be implicated in neuronal health. In this study, we hypothesized that BER and nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ) work together to repair oxidative DNA damage in neurons.
Methods
Immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopy were employed to examine the colocalization of apyrimidinic endonuclease 1 (APE1), histone variant 2AX (γH2AX) and phosphorylated p53‐binding protein (53BP1). APE1 inhibitor and shRNA were respectively applied to suppress APE1 activity and protein expression to determine the correlation of APE1 and DSB formation. The neutral comet assay was used to determine and quantitate the formation of DSB.
Results
Both γH2AX and 53BP1 were upregulated and colocalized with APE1 in the nuclei of rat cortical neurons subjected to menadione‐induced oxidative insults. Phospho53BP1 foci were efficiently abolished, but γH2AX foci persisted following the suppression of APE1 activity. Comet assays demonstrated that the inhibition of APE1 decreased the DSB formation.
Conclusions
Our results indicate that APE1 can engage the NHEJ mechanism in the repair of oxidative DNA damage in neurons. These findings provide insights into the mechanisms underlying the efficient repair of oxidative DNA damage in neurons despite the high oxidative burden.
The epidemiology of candidaemia varies between hospitals and geographic regions. Although there are many studies from Asia, a large-scale cross-sectional study across Asia has not been performed. We ...conducted a 12-month, laboratory-based surveillance of candidaemia at 25 hospitals from China, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. The incidence and species distribution of candidaemia were determined. There were 1601 episodes of candidaemia among 1.2 million discharges. The overall incidence was 1.22 episodes per 1000 discharges and varied among the hospitals (range 0.16–4.53 per 1000 discharges) and countries (range 0.25–2.93 per 1000 discharges). The number of Candida blood isolates and the total number of fungal isolates were highly correlated among the six countries (R² = 0.87) and 25 hospitals (R² = 0.77). There was a moderate correlation between incidence of candidaemia and the intensive care unit (ICU)/total bed ratio (R² = 0.47), although ICUs contributed to only 23% of candidaemia cases. Of 1910 blood isolates evaluated, Candida albicans was most frequently isolated (41.3%), followed by Candida tropicalis (25.4%), Candida glabrata (13.9%) and Candida parapsilosis (12.1%). The proportion of C. tropicalis among blood isolates was higher in haemato-oncology wards than others wards (33.7% versus 24.5%, p 0.0058) and was more likely to be isolated from tropical countries than other Asian countries (46.2% versus 18.9%, p 0.04). In conclusion, the ICU settings contribute, at least in part, to the incidence variation among hospitals. The species distribution is different from Western countries. Both geographic and healthcare factors contribute to the variation of species distribution.
In this paper, a total of 26 pestalotioid isolates associated with different medicinal plants from southwest China and Thailand were studied. Based on morphological examinations and multigene ...analyses of three gene loci (
,
, and
), these 26 isolates represent 17 species distributed in three genera, including seven new species and eight new records. The concatenated three loci tree was used to infer the occurrence of sexual recombination within each pestalotioid genus through the pairwise homoplasy index (PHI) test implemented in SplitsTree. Further, simplifying the description of pestalotioid species is discussed, and a checklist for pestalotioid species associated with medicinal plants worldwide is provided.
Pestalotioid species are an important fungal group, occurring commonly as plant pathogens, endophytes, and saprophytes. The study of pestalotioid species associated with medicinal plants is significant for agriculture, industry, and pharmaceutical industry but remains poorly studied. In this study, we report 17 pestalotioid species related to medicinal plants based on morphology and molecular analyses. Our study significantly enriches the species richness of pestalotioids and provides a basis for follow-up studies.
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