Saltmarshes are a crucial component of the coastal carbon (C) system and provide a natural climate regulation service through the accumulation and long-term storage of organic carbon (OC) in their ...soils. These coastal ecosystems are under growing pressure from a changing climate and increasing anthropogenic disturbance. To manage and protect these ecosystems for C and to allow their inclusion in emissions and natural-capital accounting, as well as carbon markets, accurate and reliable estimates of OC accumulation are required. However, globally, such data are rare or of varying quality. Here, we quantify sedimentation rates and OC densities for 21 saltmarshes in Great Britain (GB). We estimate that, on average, saltmarshes accumulate OC at a rate of 110.88 ± 43.12 g C m−2 yr−1. This is considerably less than widely applied global saltmarsh averages. It is therefore highly likely that the contribution of northern European saltmarshes to global saltmarsh OC accumulation has been significantly overestimated. Taking account of the climatic, geomorphological, oceanographic, and ecological characteristics of all GB saltmarshes and the areal extent of different saltmarsh zones, we estimate that the 451.65 km2 of GB saltmarsh accumulates 46,563 ± 4353 t of OC annually. These low OC accumulation rates underline the importance of the 5.20 ± 0.65 million tonnes of OC already stored in these vulnerable coastal ecosystems. Going forward the protection and preservation of the existing stores of OC in GB saltmarshes must be a priority for the UK as this will provide climate benefits through avoided emissions several times more significant than the annual accumulation of OC in these ecosystems.
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•We conducted the first national saltmarsh OC accumulation assessment for Great Britian.•On average Great Britain saltmarshes accumulate 110.88 ± 43.12 g C m−2 yr−1.•Annually, 46,563 ± 4353 t of OC accumulate in Great Britian's saltmarshes.•The rate at which these saltmarshes accumulate OC is lower than previous estimates.•The low accumulation rates highlight the need to protect the OC locked in the soil.
A novel downy mildew resistance gene, Pl(18), was introgressed from wild Helianthus argophyllus into cultivated sunflower and genetically mapped to linkage group 2 of the sunflower genome. The new ...germplasm, HA-DM1, carrying Pl(18) has been released to the public. Sunflower downy mildew (DM) is considered to be the most destructive foliar disease that has spread to every major sunflower-growing country of the world, except Australia. A new dominant downy mildew resistance gene (Pl 18) transferred from wild Helianthus argophyllus (PI 494573) into cultivated sunflower was mapped to linkage group (LG) 2 of the sunflower genome using bulked segregant analysis with 869 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. Phenotyping 142 BC1F2:3 families derived from the cross of HA 89 and H. argophyllus confirmed the single gene inheritance of resistance. Since no other Pl gene has been mapped to LG2, this gene was novel and designated as Pl (18). SSR markers CRT214 and ORS203 flanked Pl(18) at a genetic distance of 1.1 and 0.4 cM, respectively. Forty-six single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers that cover the Pl(18) region were surveyed for saturation mapping of the region. Six co-segregating SNP markers were 1.2 cM distal to Pl(18), and another four co-segregating SNP markers were 0.9 cM proximal to Pl(18). The new BC2F4-derived germplasm, HA-DM1, carrying Pl(18) has been released to the public. This new line is highly resistant to all Plasmopara halstedii races identified in the USA providing breeders with an effective new source of resistance against downy mildew in sunflower. The molecular markers that were developed will be especially useful in marker-assisted selection and pyramiding of Pl resistance genes because of their close proximity to the gene and the availability of high-throughput SNP detection assays.
Non-intrusive measurement techniques are required to gain a comprehensive understanding about the processes of soot formation, growth and oxidation. Time-resolved laser-induced incandescence ...(TiRe-LII), commonly performed 0D or 2D within a flame, has proven to be a very suitable tool for the in situ sizing of soot primary particles. In this work, the technique is expanded to the third dimension by employing volumetric illumination and coupling it with a tomographic approach, which allows to computationally gain 3D information from 2D images taken at various angles. To minimize experimental cost, an approach using nine fiber bundles arranged in a semicircle around the flame and imaging the light onto a single camera is used. The technique is demonstrated on an ethene diffusion flame on a standard burner, providing spatially resolved 3D particle sizes. One focus of this work is to reveal the influence of input parameters such as the local bath gas temperature, which we measured by two-color pyrometry, and local laser fluence, which are both required for an accurate evaluation of the local particle size. It is shown that the assumption of an average temperature may result in a wrong picture even of qualitative soot size evaluation. In the end, a concept is proposed for a simultaneous determination of the 3D distribution of particle sizes through TiRe-LII and the required bath gas temperature via two-color pyrometry using a tomographic approach with only three cameras.
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•Linusorb A, B, C, E, F, G, L, M, N, N*, O and P were purified via preparative HPLC.•Linusorbs can be efficiently separated via a phenyl-hexyl preparative column.•Methanol as sample ...solvent can achieve both high sample load and resolution.
Linusorbs, known as cyclolinopeptides, are a group of cyclic hydrophobic peptides derived from flaxseed oil with various health benefits. However, the current research efforts on both the biological activities and antioxidant capacities of linusorbs are limited because of existing issues with their purification and characterization. A practical method based on preparative HPLC for isolating 12 linusorbs simultaneously was developed and factors such as the solvent selection, gradient elution program, flow rate, loaded mass, and loading concentration, were optimized. The optimum conditions were an initial acetonitrile (ACN) to water ratio of 40%, final ACN ratio of 80%, eluting time of 21 min, a flow rate of 16 mL/min, sample load of 12.5 mg, and concentration of 80 mg/mL (in methanol). The 12 linusorbs obtained were verified using off-line MS/MS, recording purities of above 95.5%. The method could serve as a practical and fast isolation method enabling further investigation of minor linusorbs.
Our previous study reported that Epstein-Barr virus(EBV)-encoded latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1) could induce development of CD44(+/High) stem-like cells in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). However, ...the molecular mechanisms that underlie modulation of cancer stem cells (CSCs) in NPC remain unclear. Here, we show that LMP1 induced CSC-like properties through promotion of the expression of epithelial-mesenchymal transition-like cellular markers and through alterations in differentiation markers. Furthermore, LMP1 activated and triggered phosphoinositide 3-kinase/protein kinase B (PI3K/AKT) pathway, which subsequently stimulated expression of CSC markers, development of side population and tumor sphere formation. This suggests that PI3K/AKT pathway has an important role in the induction and maintenance of CSC properties in NPC. Similarly, PI3K/AKT pathway was also activated by phosphorylase in LMP1-induced CD44(+/High) cells. In addition, LMP1 greatly increased expression of miR-21 and downregulated expression of the miR-21 target, PTEN. Overexpression of miR-21 by transfection of miR-21 mimics into LMP1-transformed cells led to phosphorylase-mediated activation of the PI3K/AKT pathway and induction of CSCs. On the contrary, phosphorylation of the PI3K/AKT pathway and the expression of CSC were reversed by an miR-21 inhibitor. The specific inhibitor (Ly294002) of PI3K/AKT pathway significantly decreased expression of miR-21 and CSC markers and upregulated the expression of PTEN, which indicates that miR-21 and PTEN are the downstream effectors of PI3K/AKT and that expression of these two effectors are related to the development of NPC CSCs. Taken together, our novel findings indicate that LMP1, PI3K/AKT, miR-21 and PTEN constitute a positive feedback loop and have a key role in LMP1-induced CSCs in NPC.
Indentation is a well-established technique for measuring mechanical properties, such as hardness and creep, in solid materials at a continuum level. In this study, we performed indentation of a ...semi-solid granular alloy with an equiaxed dendritic microstructure. The resulting microstructural effects were quantified using a novel thermo-mechanical setup combined with 4D (three spatial dimensions plus time) synchrotron tomography and digital volume correlation. The experiments not only revealed the multitude of deformation mechanisms occurring at a microstructural level, (e.g. dilatancy, liquid flow, macrosegregation, shrinkage voids, and intra-granular deformation), but also allowed quantification of the evolution of the strain fields within the material. The resulting methodology is a powerful tool for assessing the evolution of localized deformation and hence material properties.
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Abstract
Variability is one of the main observational characteristics of blazars. Studying variability is an efficient method to reveal the nature of active galactic nuclei. In the present work, we ...report optical
R
-band photometry observations of a TeV blazar, 1ES 2344 + 514, carried out with a 70 cm telescope in the period of 1998 July–2017 November at Abastumani Observatory, Georgia. Based on the optical
R
-band observations, the optical variation behaviors on both short timescales and long timescales are investigated. Three methods (Jurkevich, discrete correlation function, and power spectrum analysis) are used to investigate periodicity in the light curve. In addition, combined with multiwavelength data, the jet physical properties are discussed. The following conclusions are drawn: (1) A variability of Δ
R
= 0.155 mag (15.356 − 15.201 mag) over a timescale of Δ
T
= 12.99 minutes is detected during our 628 days of monitoring. (2) According to the Kelvin–Helmholtz thermal instability, if the magnetic field intensity (
B
) for the source is greater than a critical value (
B
c
), it will reduce the incidence of intraday variations in the light curves. (3) The physical parameters of the dissipation region are obtained by fitting the spectral energy distribution with a one-zone synchrotron self-Compton model for the average and flare states. (4) The three methods show that there are periods of
P
= 2.72 ± 0.47 yr,
P
= 1.61 ± 0.18 yr,
P
= 1.31 ± 0.17 yr, and
P
= 1.05 ± 0.07 yr. When a binary black hole system is adopted with a period of
P
= 2.72 ± 0.41 yr, we obtain the orbital parameters for the binary black hole system as follows:
M
= 8.08 × 10
9
M
⊙
, the sum of the semiaxes is
r
= 7.18 × 10
16
cm, and the lifetime of the binary black hole is
τ
merge
= 6.24 × 10
2
yr.
Asthma is characterized by episodic, reversible airflow obstruction associated with variable levels of inflammation. Over the past several decades, there has been an increasing appreciation that the ...clinical presentation of asthma comprises a diverse set of underlying pathologies. Rather than being viewed as a single disease entity, asthma is now thought of as a clinical syndrome with the involvement of multiple pathological mechanisms. While it is appreciated that eosinophilia is present in only a subset of patients, it remains a key feature of asthma and other eosinophilic disorders such as atopic dermatitis, eosinophilic esophagitis, and chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps. Eosinophils are bone marrow-derived leukocytes present in low numbers in health; however, during disease the type 2 cytokines interleukins (IL)-4, -5, and -13 can induce rapid eosinophilopoiesis, prolonged eosinophil survival, and trafficking to the site of injury. In diseases such as allergic asthma there is an aberrant inflammatory response leading to eosinophilia, tissue damage, and airway pathology. IL-13 is a pleiotropic type 2 cytokine that has been shown to be integral in the pathogenesis of asthma and other eosinophilic disorders. IL-13 levels are elevated in animal models of eosinophilic inflammation and in the blood and tissue of patients diagnosed with eosinophilic disorders. IL-13 signaling elicits many pathogenic mechanisms including the promotion of eosinophil survival, activation, and trafficking. Data from preclinical models and clinical trials of IL-13 inhibitors in patients have revealed mechanistic insights into the role of this cytokine in driving eosinophilia. Promising results from clinical trials further support a key mechanistic role of IL-13 in asthma and other eosinophilic disorders. Here, we provide a perspective on the role of IL-13 in asthma and other eosinophilic disorders and describe ongoing clinical trials targeting this pathway in patients with significant unmet medical needs.
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