Errors in the spectroscopic parameters used in the forward radiative transfer model can introduce spatially, temporally, and altitude-dependent biases in trace gas retrievals. For well-mixed trace ...gases such as methane, where the variability of tropospheric mixing ratios is relatively small, reducing such biases is particularly important. We use aircraft observations from all five missions of the HIAPER Pole-to-Pole Observations (HIPPO) of the Carbon Cycle and Greenhouse Gases Study to evaluate the impact of updates to spectroscopic parameters for methane (CH4), water vapor (H2O), and nitrous oxide (N2O) on thermal infrared retrievals of methane from the NASA Aura Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES). We find that updates to the spectroscopic parameters for CH4 result in a substantially smaller mean bias in the retrieved CH4 when compared with HIPPO observations. After an N2O-based correction, the bias in TES methane upper tropospheric representative values for measurements between 50° S and 50° N decreases from 56.9 to 25.7 ppbv, while the bias in the lower tropospheric representative value increases only slightly (from 27.3 to 28.4 ppbv). For retrievals with less than 1.6 degrees of freedom for signal (DOFS), the bias is reduced from 26.8 to 4.8 ppbv. We also find that updates to the spectroscopic parameters for N2O reduce the errors in the retrieved N2O profile.
The following study examines the feasibility of nanoshell-assisted photo-thermal therapy (NAPT). This technique takes advantage of the strong near infrared (NIR) absorption of nanoshells, a new class ...of gold nanoparticles with tunable optical absorptivities that can undergo passive extravasation from the abnormal tumor vasculature due to their nanoscale size. Tumors were grown in immune-competent mice by subcutaneous injection of murine colon carcinoma cells (CT26.WT). Polyethylene glycol (PEG) coated nanoshells (≈130 nm diameter) with peak optical absorption in the NIR were intravenously injected and allowed to circulate for 6 h. Tumors were then illuminated with a diode laser (808 nm, 4
W/cm
2, 3 min). All such treated tumors abated and treated mice appeared healthy and tumor free >90 days later. Control animals and additional sham-treatment animals (laser treatment without nanoshell injection) were euthanized when tumors grew to a predetermined size, which occurred 6–19 days post-treatment. This simple, non-invasive procedure shows great promise as a technique for selective photo-thermal tumor ablation.
The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been successfully established as a commercially viable system for the production of recombinant proteins. Manipulation of chaperone gene expression has been ...utilized extensively to increase recombinant protein production from S. cerevisiae, focusing predominantly on the products of the protein disulfide isomerase gene PDI1 and the hsp70 gene KAR2. Here we show that the expression of the genes SIL1, LHS1, JEM1, and SCJ1, all of which are involved in regulating the ATPase cycle of Kar2p, is increased in a proprietary yeast strain, developed by several rounds of random mutagenesis and screening for increased production of recombinant human albumin (rHA). To establish whether this expression contributes to the enhanced-production phenotype, these genes were overexpressed both individually and in combination. The resultant strains showed significantly increased shake-flask production levels of rHA, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, and recombinant human transferrin.
Abstract
Introduction:
Selectively remembering emotional information is biologically adaptive, but how this type of salience ranks in importance to other salience cues, such as a task direction to ...remember or forget specific items, remains unclear. Furthermore, sleep selectively consolidates that which is the most important to remember, but it is unknown how sleep, and what particular aspects of sleep physiology, will prioritize multiple cues of future relevance.
Methods:
Participants viewed both negative and neutral scenes, with presentation of each scene followed by a direction to either REMEMBER or FORGET that item. Half of the emotional and neutral items were to-be-remembered, the other half to-be-forgotten. Following baseline testing on half the encoded material, subjects either obtained a 90-min nap or remained awake. Memory for the remaining images was tested 7 hours later, holding constant the time of training and testing between groups.
Results:
Across groups, we found a greater preservation of memory for negative compared to neutral scenes and for the to-be-remembered items compared to the to-be-forgotten items (both p<0.001). Interestingly, the task cue to remember was valued more than emotional salience, forming a hierarchy of memory with negative-remember items best remembered, followed by neutral-remember, negative-forget, and neutral-forget. Comparing the groups, we found a trending 3-way interaction at retest (p=0.09). For neutral items, similar patterns of memory are seen between wake and nap groups, with cued to-be-remembered items better remembered than forget items and with the nap benefitting both types better than remaining awake. However, for negative items, the nap selectively benefitted the to-be-remembered items at the expense of memory for the to-be-forgotten items, with a greater decay of the negative-forget items with sleep compared to wake. Interestingly, memory for the negative-forget scenes was negatively correlated with the percentage of the time spent in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep in the nap group (p=0.02), indicating the more REM sleep they obtained, the more negative-forget items they forgot.
Conclusion:
Taken together, these findings indicate that the interaction of salience cues results in preferential consolidation of negative-remember items during sleep, particularly REM sleep, resulting in a memory tradeoff.
Support (If Any):
NIA NRSA F32AG047807.
Atmospheric rivers, or long but narrow regions of enhanced water vapor transport, are an important component of the hydrologic cycle as they are responsible for much of the poleward transport of ...water vapor and result in precipitation, sometimes extreme in intensity. Despite their importance, much uncertainty remains in the detection of atmospheric rivers in large datasets such as reanalyses and century scale climate simulations. To understand this uncertainty, the Atmospheric River Tracking Method Intercomparison Project (ARTMIP) developed tiered experiments, including the Tier 2 Reanalysis Intercomparison that is presented here. Eleven detection algorithms submitted hourly tags--binary fields indicating the presence or absence of atmospheric rivers--of detected atmospheric rivers in the Modern Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA-2) and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts' Reanalysis Version 5 (ERA5) as well as six-hourly tags in the Japanese 55-year Reanalysis (JRA-55). Due to a higher climatological mean for integrated water vapor transport in MERRA-2, atmospheric rivers were detected more frequently relative to the other two reanalyses, particularly in algorithms that use a fixed threshold for water vapor transport. The finer horizontal resolution of ERA5 resulted in narrower atmospheric rivers and an ability to detect atmospheric rivers along resolved coastlines. The fraction of hemispheric area covered by ARs varies throughout the year in all three reanalyses, with different atmospheric river detection tools having different seasonal cycles.
A recent 15 parts per million (ppm) experiment on muonic hydrogen ( ) found a major discrepancy with quantum electrodynamics (QED) and independent nuclear size determinations. Here we find a ...significant discrepancy in a different type of exotic atom: a medium-Z nucleus with two electrons. Investigation of the data collected is able to discriminate between available QED formulations and reveals a pattern of discrepancy of almost six standard errors of experimental results from the most recent theoretical predictions, with a functional dependence proportional to Zn where . In both the muonic and highly charged systems, the sign of the discrepancy is the same, with the measured transition energy higher than predicted. Some consequences are possible or probable, and some are more speculative. This may give insight into effective nuclear radii, the Rydberg, the fine-structure constant, or unexpectedly large QED terms.
We study the process $e^+e^-\to\psi(2S)\pi^{+}\pi^{-}$ with initial-state-radiation events produced at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy collider. The data were recorded with the \BaBar detector at ...center-of-mass energies at and near the $\Upsilon(\mathrm{nS})$ (n = 2, 3, 4) resonances and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 520$fb^{-}$. We investigate the $\psi(2S)\pi^{+}\pi^{-}$ mass distribution from 3.95 to 5.95 $GeV/c^{2}$, and measure the center-of-mass energy dependence of the associated $e^+e^-\to \psi(2S)\pi^{+}\pi^{-}$ cross section. The mass distribution exhibits evidence of two resonant structures. A fit to the $\psi(2S)\pi^{+}\pi^{-}$ mass distribution corresponding to the decay mode $\psi(2S)\to J/\psi \pi^{+}\pi^{-}$ yields a mass value of $4340 \pm16$ (stat) $\pm 9$ (syst) ${\mathrm {MeV/c^{2}}}and a width of $94 \pm 32$ (stat) $\pm 13$ (syst) MeV for the first resonance, and for the second a mass value of $4669 \pm 21$ (stat) $\pm 3$ (syst) ${\mathrm {MeV/c^{2}}}$ and a width of $104 \pm 48$ (stat) $\pm 10$ (syst) MeV. In addition, we show the $pi^{+}\pi^{-}$ mass distributions for these resonant regions.
PDF
