Presented is a review of the radiative properties of ice clouds from three perspectives： light scattering simulations, remote sensing applications, and broadband radiation parameterizations ...appropriate for numerical models. On the subject of light scattering simulations, several classical computational approaches are reviewed, including the conventional geometric-optics method and its improved forms, the finite-difference time domain technique, the pseudo-spectral time domain technique, the discrete dipole approximation method, and the T-matrix method, with specific applications to the computation of the singlescattering properties of individual ice crystals. The strengths and weaknesses associated with each approach are discussed.With reference to remote sensing, operational retrieval algorithms are reviewed for retrieving cloud optical depth and effective particle size based on solar or thermal infrared（IR） bands. To illustrate the performance of the current solar- and IR-based retrievals, two case studies are presented based on spaceborne observations. The need for a more realistic ice cloud optical model to obtain spectrally consistent retrievals is demonstrated. Furthermore, to complement ice cloud property studies based on passive radiometric measurements, the advantage of incorporating lidar and/or polarimetric measurements is discussed.The performance of ice cloud models based on the use of different ice habits to represent ice particles is illustrated by comparing model results with satellite observations. A summary is provided of a number of parameterization schemes for ice cloud radiative properties that were developed for application to broadband radiative transfer submodels within general circulation models（GCMs）. The availability of the single-scattering properties of complex ice habits has led to more accurate radiation parameterizations. In conclusion, the importance of using nonspherical ice particle models in GCM simulations for climate studies is proven.
The global plant‐based product market is growing rapidly, and plant‐based milks show promising potential in the coffee beverage sector. This study aimed to identify sensory drivers of liking of ...plant‐based milk coffees for guiding the development of plant‐based products with competitive advantages over dairy milk coffees. Twelve coffee samples were prepared with plant‐based (oat, soy, almond, and coconut) and dairy (cow) milk. Quantitative descriptive analysis was used to generate sensory attribute terms for the 12 samples. Check‐all‐that‐apply (CATA) questions were given to consumers to evaluate the sensory profiles and consumer acceptance of the 12 samples. Correspondence analysis and cluster analysis of the CATA results from 80 consumers showed that the oat and soy milk coffee samples were closer to what the consumers perceived as “typical” milk products, while the coconut and almond milk coffee samples were closer to the “flavored” milk products. Partial least squares regression results revealed that the attributes smooth, milky, and thick were important drivers of liking for the milk coffee samples. On the contrary, rancid oil, greasy, astringent, and rice bran were the major sensory attributes lowering the panelists’ acceptance of the milk coffee samples. The majority of consumers (53.5%) were “dairy milk lovers,” who specifically liked the dairy milk coffee sample and had low acceptance for the plant‐based milk coffee samples. There was also a group of consumers (46.2%) classified as “plant‐based milk coffee lovers.” They enjoyed coffees prepared with a wide range of milks (both dairy and nondairy milks) and represent high‐potential consumers for plant‐based milk coffee products.
Practical Application
The positive and negative drivers of liking for plant‐based milk coffee samples were identified. A competitive landscape analysis method for assessing the acceptability and sensory attributes of 12 milk coffee samples (11 commercial plant‐based milks and 1 dairy milk product) in the current Asian market was established. The sensory terms developed in this study can also be applied to evaluate sensory profiles of other plant‐based and dairy milk coffee samples.
Dyslipidemia is characterized by increasing plasma levels of low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), triglycerides (TGs) and TG-rich lipoproteins (TGRLs) and is a major risk factor for the ...development of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disorders (ASCVDs). It is important to understand the metabolic mechanisms underlying dyslipidemia to develop effective strategies against ASCVDs. Angiopoietin-like 3 (ANGPTL3), a member of the angiopoietin-like protein family exclusively synthesized in the liver, has been demonstrated to be a critical regulator of lipoprotein metabolism to inhibit lipoprotein lipase (LPL) activity. Genetic, biochemical, and clinical studies in animals and humans have shown that loss of function, inactivation, or downregulated expression of ANGPTL3 is associated with an obvious reduction in plasma levels of TGs, LDL-C, and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), atherosclerotic lesions, and the risk of cardiovascular events. Therefore, ANGPTL3 is considered an alternative target for lipid-lowering therapy. Emerging studies have focused on ANGPTL3 inhibition via antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) and monoclonal antibody-based therapies, which have been carried out in mouse or monkey models and in human clinical studies for the management of dyslipidemia and ASCVDs. This review will summarize the current literature on the important role of ANGPTL3 in controlling lipoprotein metabolism and dyslipidemia, with an emphasis on anti-ANGPTL3 therapies as a potential strategy for the treatment of dyslipidemia and ASCVDs.
Leaders’ self-efficacy has recently been identified as a critical component in the success of educational reform. In educational policy and leadership, little attention has been paid to leaders’ ...self-efficacy beliefs as they go about the implementation of Common Core State Standards (CCSS). This study seeks to understand leaders’ CCSS self-efficacy by examining the level of CCSS-focused engagement and the degree of leaders’ network connectedness from a social learning perspective. Findings suggest leaders who report higher levels of CCSS-focused engagement tend to be more efficacious about implementing CCSS. Such a relationship is mediated by leaders’ social network position in providing CCSS advice and work effort recognition to their fellow administrators.
Background
We aimed to assess the latest prevalence and secular trend of Helicobacter pylori infection and its association with the incidence and mortality of gastric cancer in Taiwan.
Materials and ...Methods
Adults naive to H. pylori eradication received 13C‐urea breath test (13C‐UBT), H. pylori stool antigen test, and serology test during 2019–2020 in this prospective screening program. Children and adolescent aged between 7 and 19 years received 13C‐UBT for H. pylori screening. We also conducted a systematic review and meta‐analysis to assess the secular trend of prevalence of H. pylori from 1990 to 2020 in Taiwan. The secular trends of age‐standardized incidence and mortality of gastric cancer were obtained from the Taiwan Cancer Registry.
Results
A total of 1494 participants were enrolled, including 294 children or adolescents and 1200 adults. The overall prevalence of active H. pylori infection by 13C‐UBT was 26.6% (397/1494), which was 30.8% in adults and 9.5% in adolescents/children. The age‐standardized prevalence of active H. pylori infection was 32.3% in adults after adjustment of the population structure in Taiwan. Of the 29 studies including 38,597 subjects eligible for the meta‐analysis, the pooled prevalence of H. pylori infection decreased from 63.8% (95% CI: 55.9%–71%) in 1990–2000 to 28.2% (95% CI:21.8%–35.6%) in 2016–2020. The age‐standardized incidence and mortality of gastric cancer have also declined from 15.2 to 10.75 per 100,000, respectively, in 1999 to 9.29 and 5.4 per 100,000, respectively, in 2019.
Conclusions
The prevalence of H. pylori infection has declined in Taiwan, which correlates with the declining trends of age‐standardized incidence and mortality of gastric cancer in Taiwan.
•Use Stacked Autoencoder (SAE) to reduce the dimension of regional inundation data.•Use PCA to adjust the network structure and initialize network weights of the SAE.•SAE-RNN nowcasts multistep-ahead ...regional inundation maps of typhoon events.•Offer 2D-visualization of spatio-temporal distribution of regional inundation depths.
Reliable and accurate regional multistep-ahead flood forecasts during extreme events are crucial and beneficial to flood disaster management and preparedness. Hydrologic uncertainty associated with the nonlinear dependence structure of flood inundation dynamics makes flood inundation forecasting fundamentally challenging. This study proposes a novel machine learning-based model (SAE-RNN) that hybrids the stacked autoencoder (SAE) with a recurrent neural network (RNN) for providing accurate and timely information to support emergency management in areas impacted by flood hazards. The proposed SAE-RNN model uses SAE to compress (encode) the high-dimensional flood inundation depths in a wide region into a low-dimensional latent space representation (flood features), uses RNN to forecast multistep-ahead flood features based on regional rainfall patterns, and finally uses SAE to reconstruct (decode) the multistep-ahead forecasts of flood features into regional flood inundation depths. A large number of hourly datasets of flood inundation depths collected in Yilan County of Taiwan formed the case study, where each dataset contains 169,797 grids of inundation depth. The datasets were divided into three independent datasets for use in training, validating and testing stages. The models’ results showed that RMSE values were very small (<0.09 m) and R2 values were high (>0.95) in all the cases (1- up to 3-hour-ahead forecasts in three stages). We conclude that the reason why the proposed SAE-RNN models are capable of attaining favorable regional multistep-ahead flood inundation forecasts could be owing to two core strategies: the effective continual extraction of the nonlinear dependence structure from flood inundation dynamics for lessening hydrologic uncertainty by virtue of SAE; and the nonlinear conversion of rainfall sequences into future flood features by virtue of RNN.
The Ultra-wideband (UWB) system for indoor positioning and tracking with the characteristics of arbitrary target orientation, optimal anchor location, and adaptive non-line-of-sight (NLOS) mitigation ...characteristics is proposed and implemented by introducing the circularly polarized antenna, the genetic algorithm (GA), and the machine learning method. The time-domain characteristic of the UWB system using the proposed circularly polarized antennas with wide bandwidth and omnidirectional radiation is investigated by transient response. Contrary to UWB system using the conventional linearly polarized antenna, the pulse distortion is insignificant and is verified by the measured antenna performance with high signal fidelity (>0.98) and low standard deviation (STD) of time delay (<0.05 ns). By considering the NLOS electromagnetic wave propagation models, the locations of the anchors in the UWB system are effectively optimized by using the proposed GA to minimize the average root-mean-square error (RMSE) of each tag location in the dense multipath area. By optimizing the three anchor locations, the average RMSE of tag location is minimized to 36.72 cm for a 45 m 2 area with concrete walls and pillars. The adaptive NLOS mitigation is investigated by using and optimizing machine learning models, including deep neural network (DNN), convolutional neural network (CNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM). The three-anchor UWB system for a 45 m 2 area is established to track an autonomous vehicle in severe NLOS environment by using the proposed circularly polarized antenna combined with the optimized LSTM model, achieving the measured positioning error of 26.1 cm. Moreover, the measured result of 20-30 cm positioning error with concrete walls, pillars and walking humans is demonstrated and analyzed.
A novel organic/graphene/inorganic heterostructure, consisting of a graphene layer encapsulated by n‐ and p‐type photoactive materials with complementary absorptions, enables the control of dual n‐ ...and p‐typed transport behaviors of a graphene transistor under selective UV or visible light illumination. A graphene‐based p‐n junction created by spatially patterned wavelength‐selective illumination using the organic/graphene/inorganic heterostructure is also demonstrated.
To characterize a five gene cluster, macRS-macABCsm, in Stenotrophomonas maltophilia.
The presence of macABCsm operon was verified by RT-PCR. The substrate spectrum of the MacABCsm efflux pump was ...investigated by mutant construction and susceptibility testing. The physiological role of MacABCsm was assessed by comparing the growth of wild-type and macABCsm mutant under different stresses. To examine the regulatory role of the two-component regulatory system (TCS) macRS in the expression of macABCsm operon, mutant construction, quantitative RT-PCR and susceptibility testing were employed.
macAsm, macBsm and macCsm genes formed a three-membered operon. The MacABCsm efflux pump extruded macrolides, aminoglycosides and polymyxins and contributed to oxidative and envelope stress tolerances and biofilm formation. Inactivation of macRS TCS hardly influenced the expression of macABCsm operon and the antimicrobial susceptibility.
The MacABCsm pump has physiological roles in protecting S. maltophilia from the attack of oxidative and envelope stresses and in biofilm formation, which may be the reason why it can be constitutively expressed in the absence of antibiotics and is highly conserved in S. maltophilia isolates isolated from different environmental niches. However, the constitutive expression of macABCsm contributes to the intrinsic resistance of S. maltophilia to macrolides, aminoglycosides and polymyxins.
To perform a meta-analysis to compare the efficacy and safety of diode laser transscleral cyclophotocoagulation (TSCPC) and cyclocryotherapy (CCT) in the treatment of intractable glaucoma. Systemic ...searches of the Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases yielded experimental and observational comparative studies. TSCPC and CCT efficacy and safety outcomes were compared. Subgroup analyses of participant ethnicity, preoperative intraocular pressure (IOP) level, and underlying causes of glaucoma were conducted. The pooled effects were computed using the random-effects model. The meta-analysis included nine studies totalling 668 eyes. There was no statistically significant difference between the TSCPC and CCT groups in the IOP reduction (IOPR%), decrease in antiglaucoma medications, the operative success rate with or without medications, or retreatment rate in the efficacy analysis. In the subgroup analysis, CCT had a better IOP-lowering effect among non-Asian participants and a non-inferior IOPR% to TSCPC among Asian participants. TSCPC and CCT were associated with similar rates of deterioration in visual acuity, postoperative visual analog scale, and other analysed postoperative complications in the safety analysis. In both groups, severe complications were uncommon. Diode laser TSCPC and CCT had nearly equivalent clinical efficacy in treating intractable glaucoma, while CCT demonstrated a better IOP-lowering effect in non-Asian. Both cyclodestructive procedures have a comparable safety profile.
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