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•Leachate concentration of As and Pb is controlled by recalcitrant pool while other metals by readily leachable pool.•Both batch and column experiments exhibit the initial flush ...export followed by lower steady-state export.•Steady-state leaching is perturbed by initial seepage and more likely by repeated drying–wetting cycle.•The nonequilibrium leaching is likely due to conversion between recalcitrant and leachable forms.
Leaching of metallic elements (Cu, Zn, As, Cd, and Pb) from two mine-impacted soils (DY and BS) was evaluated by batch decant-refill and seepage flow experiments. During eight consecutive leaching steps, aqueous As concentrations remained relatively constant (approx. 1.6 and 0.1mgL−1 for DY and BS, respectively), while Cu (0.01–3.2mgL−1), Zn (0.2–42mgL−1), and Cd (0.004–0.3mgL−1) were quickly reduced. The reduction of Pb concentration (0.007–0.02mgL−1 and 0.2–0.9mgL−1 for DY and BS, respectively) was much lesser. This pattern was well-explained by the biphasic leaching model by allocating a large fast leaching fraction (ffast>0.2) for Cu, Zn, and Cd while a negligible ffast for As and Pb (<0.001). For all elements in column effluents, mass export through first-flush and steady-state concentration were elevated under slow seepage, with the greatest impact observed for As. Element export was enhanced after flow interruption, especially under fast seepage. A transient drop in As export in slow seepage was likely due to sorption back to soil phase during the quiescent period. The ratio of Fe2+/Fe3+ and SO42- concentration, related to the dissolution of sulfide minerals, were also seepage rate-dependent. The results of batch and column studies imply that the leachate concentration will be enhanced by initial seepage and will be perturbed after quiescent wetting period. The conversion from kinetically leachable pool to readily leachable pool is likely responsible for nonequilibrium metal leaching from the long-term abandoned mine soils.
The fresh-market tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is bred for direct consumption and is selected for a high yield of large fruits. To understand the genetic variations (distinct types of DNA sequence ...polymorphism) that influence the yield, we collected the phenotypic variations in the yields of total fruit, extra-large-sized fruit, small-sized fruit, or red-colored fruit from 68 core inbred contemporary U.S. fresh-market tomatoes for three consecutive years and the genomic information in 8,289,741 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) positions from the whole-genome resequencing of these tomatoes.
Genome-wide association (GWA) mapping using the SNP data with or without SNP filtering steps using the regularization methods, validated with quantitative trait loci (QTL) linkage mapping, identified 18 significant association signals for traits evaluated. Among them, 10 of which were not located within genomic regions previously identified as being associated with fruit size/shape. When mapping-driven association signals 558 SNPs associated with 28 yield (component) traits were used to calculate genomic estimated breeding values (GEBVs) of evaluated traits, the prediction accuracies of the extra-large-sized fruit and small-sized fruit yields were higher than those of the total and red-colored fruit yields, as we tested the generated breeding values in inbred tomatoes and F
populations. Improved accuracy in GEBV calculation of evaluated traits was achieved by using 364 SNPs identified using the regularization methods.
Together, these results provide an understanding of the genetic variations underlying the heritable phenotypic variability in yield in contemporary tomato breeding and the information necessary for improving such economically important and complex quantitative trait through breeding.
Enhancing thermopower is a key goal in organic and molecular thermoelectrics. Herein, it is shown that introducing noncovalent contact with a single‐layer graphene (SLG) electrode improves the ...thermopower of saturated molecules as compared to the traditional gold–thiolate covalent contact. Thermoelectric junction measurements with a liquid‐metal technique reveal that the value of Seebeck coefficient in large‐area junctions based on n‐alkylamine self‐assembled monolayers (SAMs) on SLG is increased up to fivefold compared to the analogous junction based on n‐alkanethiolate SAMs on gold. Experiments with Raman spectroscopy and field‐effect transistor analysis indicate that such enhancements benefit from the creation of new in‐gap states and electron doping through noncovalent interaction between the amine anchor and the SLG electrode, which leads to a reduced energy offset between the Fermi level and the transport channel. This work demonstrates that control of interfacial bonding nature in molecular junctions improves the Seebeck effect in saturated molecules.
Saturated molecules are not preferred in the research of organic thermoelectrics because of intrinsically wide bandgaps and poor thermopower. Graphene electrodes are demonstrated to be able to enhance thermopower of monolayers of saturated compounds. A noncovalent amine anchor induces the creation of in‐gap states and n‐type doping of graphene, thereby leading to an increased Seebeck coefficient relative to analogous covalent gold–thiolate monolayers.
Student leadership development is often associated with participation in activities and the extent of student engagement. This study identifies the relationship between extracurricular activities and ...students’ leadership development outcomes, focusing on the group values component of the Social Change Model (SCM) of leadership development. Data were collected from college students in the United States of America and analyzed using a quantitative methodology. In addition, the correlation and contribution to college students’ community leadership were analyzed using the Socially Responsible Leadership Scale (SRLS-R2). Results revealed that students with experiences participating in extracurricular organizations/clubs or leadership training while in college exhibited higher group values of leadership development than students without these experiences. Specifically, collaboration and common purpose showed significant differences between groups (p < .05). Student type, self-perception of leadership skills, and highest participation level were significant predictors for group value of leadership development outcomes. This study highlights the need for higher education institutions to provide students with opportunities to participate in extracurricular activities involving groups to help develop and empower students’ leadership that advances positive social change.
Obesity causes various complications such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, fatty liver, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. In a pilot GWAS study, we screened the
gene which is significantly ...related to the resting metabolic rate (RMR) in childhood obesity. With
-overexpressed 3T3-L1 cells (Tg
), we investigated the new obesity mechanism caused by an energy imbalance. After differentiation, lipid droplets (Oil red O staining) were not formed in Tg
cells compared to the control. Tg
preadipocyte fibroblast morphology was also not clearly observed in the cell morphology assay (DAPI/BODIPY). In Tg
cells, the expression of PPARγ, C/EBPα, and aP2 (adipogenesis-related biomarkers) decreased 3-, 39-, and 200-fold, respectively. The expression of the adipokines leptin and adiponectin from adipose tissues also decreased 2.4- and 840-fold, respectively. In addition, the levels of pHSL(Ser563) and free glycerol, which are involved in lipolysis, were significantly lower in Tg
cells than in the control. The reduction in insulin receptor expression in Tg
cells suppressed insulin signaling systems such as AKT phosphorylation, and GLUT4 expression. Degradation of IRS-1 in 3T3-L1 adipocytes was caused by chronic exposure to insulin, but not Tg
. Mitochondrial functions such as oxygen consumption and ATP production, as well as proton leak and UCP1 protein expression, decreased in Tg
cells compared to the control. Moreover, autophagy was observed by increasing autophagosomal proteins, LC3, on Day 8 of differentiation in Tg
cells. Through our first report on the
gene related to RMR
we found a new mechanism related to energy metabolism in obesity.
expression positively suppressed adipogenesis, leading to the subsequent resistance of lipolysis, adipokine expression, insulin signaling, and mitochondrial functions.
Although stromal fibroblasts play a critical role in cancer progression, their identities remain unclear as they exhibit high heterogeneity and plasticity. Here, a master transcription factor (mTF) ...constructing core-regulatory circuitry, PRRX1, which determines the fibroblast lineage with a myofibroblastic phenotype, is identified for the fibroblast subgroup. PRRX1 orchestrates the functional drift of fibroblasts into myofibroblastic phenotype via TGF-β signaling by remodeling a super-enhancer landscape. Such reprogrammed fibroblasts have myofibroblastic functions resulting in markedly enhanced tumorigenicity and aggressiveness of cancer. PRRX1 expression in cancer-associated fibroblast (CAF) has an unfavorable prognosis in multiple cancer types. Fibroblast-specific PRRX1 depletion induces long-term and sustained complete remission of chemotherapy-resistant cancer in genetically engineered mice models. This study reveals CAF subpopulations based on super-enhancer profiles including PRRX1. Therefore, mTFs, including PRRX1, provide another opportunity for establishing a hierarchical classification system of fibroblasts and cancer treatment by targeting fibroblasts.
In this paper, we focus on enhancing the energy efficiency in open-access femtocell networks where many femto base stations (BSs) are deployed in a large public area such as airports, shopping malls, ...etc. In those areas, the femtocells are overlapped and underutilized during most of the operation time because femto BSs are densely deployed to support the peak traffic load. Therefore, if we properly coordinate the user association (UA) with BSs and put the femto BSs having no associated users to sleep, the energy consumption can be saved remarkably. In this paper, we propose a scheme that jointly decides the operation modes (e.g., active or sleep) of femto BSs and the association between users and the active BSs to minimize the energy consumption in the network. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme can significantly reduce the total energy consumption in the open-access femtocell networks.
Triarylboron Lewis acid compounds (CzmBoT (1c) and DPAmBoT (2c)), in which carbazole (Cz) or diphenylamine (DPA) donors are linked with a triazine acceptor in the ortho position of the phenylene ring ...are prepared and characterized. The treatment of 1c and 2c with the fluoride anion produces the corresponding fluoride adducts 1cF− and 2cF− as a tetraethylammonium salt. An X-ray diffraction study of 1cF− reveals a twisted conformation between the Cz and phenylene rings. The Cz-containing 1c shows a ratiometric fluorescence change upon fluoride binding, while the DPA-containing 2c exhibits a turn-on fluorescence response in tetrahydrofuran. In particular, both fluoride adducts exhibit thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) properties with microsecond-range lifetimes. Electrochemical and theoretical analysis suggests that the intramolecular charge-transfer transition from the donor to a conjugated acceptor fragment is switched to the donor to a triazine transition after fluoride binding. Theoretical analysis further demonstrates the twisted structure, effective highest occupied molecular orbital–lowest unoccupied molecular orbital separation, and the small energy splitting between the excited singlet and triplet states for the fluoride adducts, with all supporting the observed TADF. The time-resolved fluorescence measurements of 2c in the presence of both fluoride and a competitive fluorescent dye (Coumarin 6) effectively eliminate the short-lived fluorescence of a dye, retaining long-lived fluorescence signals originating only from 2cF−.
Formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue specimens are routinely used in pathological diagnosis, but their large number of artifactual mutations complicate the evaluation of companion ...diagnostics and analysis of next-generation sequencing data. Identification of variants with low allele frequencies is challenging because existing FFPE filtering tools label all low-frequency variants as artifacts. To address this problem, we aimed to develop DEEPOMICS FFPE, an AI model that can classify a true variant from an artifact. Paired whole exome sequencing data from fresh frozen and FFPE samples from 24 tumors were obtained from public sources and used as training and validation sets at a ratio of 7:3. A deep neural network model with three hidden layers was trained with input features using outputs of the MuTect2 caller. Contributing features were identified using the SHapley Additive exPlanations algorithm and optimized based on training results. The performance of the final model (DEEPOMICS FFPE) was compared with those of existing models (MuTect filter, FFPolish, and SOBDetector) by using well-defined test datasets. We found 41 discriminating properties for FFPE artifacts. Optimization of property quantification improved the model performance. DEEPOMICS FFPE removed 99.6% of artifacts while maintaining 87.1% of true variants, with an F1-score of 88.3 in the entire dataset not used for training, which is significantly higher than those of existing tools. Its performance was maintained even for low-allele-fraction variants with a specificity of 0.995, suggesting that it can be used to identify subclonal variants. Different from existing methods, DEEPOMICS FFPE identified most of the sequencing artifacts in the FFPE samples while retaining more of true variants, including those of low allele frequencies. The newly developed tool DEEPOMICS FFPE may be useful in designing capture panels for personalized circulating tumor DNA assay and identifying candidate neoepitopes for personalized vaccine design. DEEPOMICS FFPE is freely available on the web ( http://deepomics.co.kr/ffpe ) for research.
Femtocell and fractional frequency reuse (FFR) techniques have received wide attention as the solutions to the data surge problem in mobile networks. With FFR, the frequency band of a macrocell is ...divided into several frequency partitions (FPs), and the transmission power levels assigned to FPs differ from each other. In this paper, we propose a downlink resource partitioning scheme for two-tier networks, where macrocells adopting FFR are overlaid with the femtocells. With the proposed scheme, every FP is divided into the macro-dedicated, the shared, and the femto-dedicated portions. The ratio of these three portions is different for each FP. We suggest a method to determine a proper ratio of portions in each FP by using an optimization approach. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme maximizes the whole system capacity while satisfying the constraints on the minimum capacity requirement for both macrocell and femtocell.
