Soil pH can be affected by land use change and acid deposition and is one of the primary regulators of nutrient cycling in the soil. In this study, two soils from adjacent forest and grassland sites ...in central Alberta were subjected to different pH treatments to evaluate the short-term effects of pH on soil gross N transformations using the 15N tracing technique and calculated by the numerical model FLUAZ. For the forest soil, gross NH4+ immobilization increased faster than gross N mineralization rates with increasing soil pH, leading to a declining pattern in net N mineralization rates; however, none of those rates changed with pH in the grassland soil. In contrast, the increase in pH significantly stimulated gross and net nitrification rates while soil acidification decreased gross and net nitrification rates for both the forest and grassland soils. The ratio of gross nitrification to gross NH4+ immobilization rates (N/IA) was significantly increased by KOH addition but declined to nearly zero by HCl addition for each soil. The low and high KCl addition treatments partially or completely inhibited gross nitrification rates, respectively, but gross mineralization was less sensitive to salt additions than the nitrification process. We conclude that based on the short-term laboratory incubation experiments both pH and salt (osmotic effect) affected gross N transformations and pH had contrasting effects on gross and net nitrogen mineralization but not on nitrification in the adjacent forest and grassland soils.
► Soil pH and salt effects on gross and net N transformations rates were studied in grassland and forests. ► Soil pH affected net and gross N mineralization in the two soils in different ways. ► Increasing pH increased gross and net nitrification rates in both soils. ► Salt reduced gross nitrification but not gross mineralization rates.
Metro and railway systems are one of the most used transportation systems for people in almost all countries. Nevertheless, the access to high throughput wireless services is still very limited ...inside the wagons (cars). A deep analysis of the wireless channel inside wagons is needed to deploy new efficient and high throughput networks as the ones provided by fifth-generation (5G) systems. Although several works have analyzed the intra-wagon channel, some limitations are usually present: only certain user equipment-access point situations were considered, the number of studied propagation mechanisms was limited, and only some channel parameters were extracted. For these reasons, in this work the wireless channel in an intra-wagon environment is thoroughly analyzed using simulations performed with a ray-tracing tool calibrated and validated with wideband measurements. Thanks to the accurate ray-tracing tool the main replicas are identified in different typical user equipment-access point positions; the contribution of each propagation mechanism to the total power is extracted; and the angular spread in azimuth and elevation for the direction of arrival and departure are obtained. This analysis is performed in the frequency range from 25 to 40 GHz, where spectrum for several 5G bands has been already allocated.
The dynamics of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) transmissibility are yet to be fully understood. Better understanding of the transmission dynamics is important for the development and evaluation ...of effective control policies.
To delineate the transmission dynamics of COVID-19 and evaluate the transmission risk at different exposure window periods before and after symptom onset.
This prospective case-ascertained study in Taiwan included laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 and their contacts. The study period was from January 15 to March 18, 2020. All close contacts were quarantined at home for 14 days after their last exposure to the index case. During the quarantine period, any relevant symptoms (fever, cough, or other respiratory symptoms) of contacts triggered a COVID-19 test. The final follow-up date was April 2, 2020.
Secondary clinical attack rate (considering symptomatic cases only) for different exposure time windows of the index cases and for different exposure settings (such as household, family, and health care).
We enrolled 100 confirmed patients, with a median age of 44 years (range, 11-88 years), including 44 men and 56 women. Among their 2761 close contacts, there were 22 paired index-secondary cases. The overall secondary clinical attack rate was 0.7% (95% CI, 0.4%-1.0%). The attack rate was higher among the 1818 contacts whose exposure to index cases started within 5 days of symptom onset (1.0% 95% CI, 0.6%-1.6%) compared with those who were exposed later (0 cases from 852 contacts; 95% CI, 0%-0.4%). The 299 contacts with exclusive presymptomatic exposures were also at risk (attack rate, 0.7% 95% CI, 0.2%-2.4%). The attack rate was higher among household (4.6% 95% CI, 2.3%-9.3%) and nonhousehold (5.3% 95% CI, 2.1%-12.8%) family contacts than that in health care or other settings. The attack rates were higher among those aged 40 to 59 years (1.1% 95% CI, 0.6%-2.1%) and those aged 60 years and older (0.9% 95% CI, 0.3%-2.6%).
In this study, high transmissibility of COVID-19 before and immediately after symptom onset suggests that finding and isolating symptomatic patients alone may not suffice to contain the epidemic, and more generalized measures may be required, such as social distancing.
The authors determined the positive predictive value (PPV) for progression to tuberculosis (TB) of two interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs), QuantiFERON-TB Gold In-tube (QFT-GIT) and T-SPOT.TB, ...and the tuberculin skin test (TST) in immigrants contacts. Immigrant close contacts of sputum smear-positive TB patients were included when aged > or =16 yrs and their TST result was > or =5 mm 0 or 3 months after diagnosis of the index patient. Contacts were followed for the next 2 yrs for development of TB disease. Of 339 immigrant contacts with TST > or =5 mm, 324 and 299 had valid results of QFT-GIT and T-SPOT.TB, respectively. Nine contacts developed active TB. One patient had not been tested with TST, while another patient had not been tested with QFT-GIT and T-SPOT.TB. The PPV for progression to TB during this period was 9/288 = 3.1% (95% CI 1.3-5.0%) for TST > or =10 mm, 7/184 = 3.8% (95% CI 1.7-5.9%) for TST > or =15 mm, 5/178 = 2.8% (95% CI 1.0-4.6%) for QFT-GIT and 6/181 = 3.3% (95% CI 1.3-5.3%) for T-SPOT.TB. Sensitivity was 100%, 88%, 63% and 75%, respectively. The predictive values of QFT-GIT, T-SPOT.TB and TST for progression to TB disease among immigrant close contacts were comparable.
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•A 87Sr/86Sr multi-proxy-based baseline was developed for Cyprus.•Sr isotopes are used in archaeological, forensic and environmental investigations.•Data contribute to the debate ...regarding the best proxy for bioavailable Sr.•Comparisons between ground water, surface water, soil leachates, and plants.•Complexity of geology and proxy type influence bioavailable 87Sr/86Sr baseline.
In this study, a strontium isotope baseline for Cyprus is presented. The aim of the study was two-fold; first to provide an environmental multi-proxy-based baseline (water/plants/soil leachates) suitable for archaeological provenance and mobility studies, food source authentication, and forensic investigations; and second, to contribute to the debate around which proxy (or combination of proxies) might be most suitable to define bioavailable fractions of strontium in geologically complex areas also exposed to sea-spray and other Sr-bearing aerosols. Lowest bioavailable strontium isotope signatures range is found within terranes dominated by ophiolites, where 87Sr/86Sr ratios range from 0.7055 to 0.7081, however, results reveal a high degree of variability in bioavailable 87Sr/86Sr ratios, both spatially, along depth profiles and amongst the different proxies. A narrower range of bioavailable Sr isotope signatures is observed within the Circum Troodos Sedimentary Successions (C.T.S.S.), both in spatial distribution and between different proxies. Observed range is 87Sr/86Sr = 0.7079 to 0.7089 in areas dominated by pre-Quaternary C.T.S.S., and 87Sr/86Sr ratios = 0.7076 to 0.7086 in areas covered by Quaternary C.T.S.S., revealing the lithologies to be very homogenous with respect to bioavailable strontium ratios. Intra-site variations in three archaeological sites (multiple samples from each site from within a 500 m radius) within the pre-Quaternary and Quaternary C.T.S.S. are smaller than inter-site variations, suggesting that tracing studies inferred from baselines sampled within a limited spatial area could lead to erroneous conclusions regarding provenance. The study points to the necessity for conducting multi-proxy, spatially extensive sampling to adequately characterize complex geological areas, if these should serve as reliable reference areas in provenance studies.
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The serendipitous prodrug clopidogrel (CPG, M0) is the mainstay antiplatelet drug in clinical use. The thiophene moiety of CPG undergoes ring opening to form the active metabolite ...(M13) through two steps of cytochrome P450 (CYP)-catalyzed oxidation. The stable intermediate resulting from the first oxidation, 2-oxo-CPG (M2), is proposed to be oxidized to form an S-oxide intermediate (M11), which proceeds with a hydrolytic pathway to yield a sulfenic acid (M12) and subsequently the bioreduced active metabolite (M13). To test the long-standing pathway of M2 to M13 via M11, we have chemically synthesized M11 but found it does not undergo the proposed hydrolytic activation in various conditions including in liver microsomal incubations. To seek an alternative mechanism, 18O tracing studies were performed with both H218O and 18O2, and LC-MS studies show that the carboxylate product moiety acquires its O-atom from oxygen instead of water, which rules out M11 as the bioactivation intermediate. To explain the 18O tracing results, a one-step Baeyer-Villiger-like mechanism is proposed for the CYP-dependent thioester cleavage, which features the incorporation of the two O-atoms of O2 into the two product moieties of carboxylate and sulfenic acid. The research presented herein provides a biochemical basis for delineating the clinical pharmacology of a mainstay treatment and expands our understanding of CYP catalysis.
Contact tracing is an important control strategy for containing Ebola epidemics. From a modeling perspective, explicitly incorporating contact tracing with disease dynamics presents challenges, and ...population level effects of contact tracing are difficult to determine. In this work, we formulate and analyze a mechanistic SEIR type outbreak model which considers the key features of contact tracing, and we characterize the impact of contact tracing on the effective reproduction number, Re, of Ebola. In particular, we determine how relevant epidemiological properties such as incubation period, infectious period and case reporting, along with varying monitoring protocols, affect the efficacy of contact tracing. In the special cases of either perfect monitoring of traced cases or perfect reporting of all cases, we derive simple formulae for the critical proportion of contacts that need to be traced in order to bring the effective reproduction number Re below one. Also, in either case, we show that Re can be expressed completely in terms of observable reported case/tracing quantities, namely Re=k((1−q)/q)+km where k is the number of secondary traced infected contacts per primary untraced reported case, km is the number of secondary traced infected contacts per primary traced reported case and (1−q)/q is the odds that a reported case is not a traced contact. These formulae quantify contact tracing as both an intervention strategy that impacts disease spread and a probe into the current epidemic status at the population level. Data from the West Africa Ebola outbreak is utilized to form real-time estimates of Re, and inform our projections of the impact of contact tracing, and other control measures, on the epidemic trajectory.
•We develop a novel mechanistic SEIR-type model of contact tracing in Ebola outbreaks.•We consider effect of variable tracing protocols on effective reproduction number, Re.•We formulate Re completely in terms of tracing and reported case observables.•Tracing and case data from West Africa are utilized for weekly estimates of Re.•Analysis and simulations quantify impact of contact tracing on the epidemic.
Pyrite is a typical sulfide mineral which contains various potentially toxic metal(loid)s (PTMs). The pyrite smelting and subsequent industrial utilization activities usually release numerous amounts ...of PTMs into nearby ecosystem, which may be enriched in the nearby farmland soils and crops, leading to hidden but irreversible harm to human health via the food chain. Herein, the distribution pattern, source apportionment, and potential health risks of Pb, Zn, Cu, Cd and multiple seldom monitored PTMs (Ag, Bi, Sb, Sr, Th, U, W, and V) in the paddy soils and different organs of the rice plants from ten various sites in a typical industrial zone were investigated, where pyrite ores were used for the production of sulfuric acid and subsequent cement over several decades. The results showed that the contents of Cd, Pb and Zn in studied paddy soils generally exceeded the maximum permissible level (MPL) in China, and the contents of Sb and V were approaching the MPL. Moreover, the rice is easier to bioaccumulate Cd, Cu, and Zn than the other studied elements. The hazard quotient (HQ) calculations indicate that the rice containing such multiple elements may cause a high potential non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic health risk for residents, particularly for the senior group. The Pb isotope tracing method combined with PCA (principal component analysis) further uncovered that the pyrite industrial utilization contributed 18.58–55.41 % to the highly enriched PTMs in paddy soils. All these findings indicate that the paddy soil system has been contaminated by the pyrite industrial activities and certain distances or areas should be rigidly forbidden from rice cultivation in the proximity of the pyrite smelting and related industrial sites.
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•Substantial amounts of Cd, Cu and Zn were accumulated in the rice.•PCA and Pb isotopes indicated surface runoff and atmospheric deposition as main PTMs migration pathways.•Industrial activities contribute 18.58–55.41 % of PTMs to soils via binary mixing model.•Intake of the affected rice may pose great potential health risks to the consumers.
Ray tracing is a powerful tool to obtain deterministic and dynamic descriptions of communication channels. However, performing ray tracing simulations at each discrete time instant is computationally ...expensive. Instead, a new approach is proposed to extrapolate results obtained from a single ray tracing simulation. It relies on the geometric tracking of interaction points (i.e. reflection or diffraction points), enabling analytical or numerical predictions of the evolution of any ray identified during an initial ray tracing simulation. The performance of this new approach is studied on several canonical vehicle-to-vehicle configurations, as part of a statistical study. Focus is also given to the time horizon during which dynamic ray tracing is possible, related to the lifetime of the main rays. This time horizon can be directly estimated based on the knowledge of the geometry and its evolution. It is found to be the main parameter influencing the accuracy and the computational gain of the presented approach.
Audio Interview: Covid-19 and Contact Tracing Rubin, Eric J; Baden, Lindsey R; Morrissey, Stephen
The New England journal of medicine,
08/2020, Volume:
383, Issue:
8
Journal Article
PDF
