The elemental (EC) and organic carbon (OC) fractions of ambient aerosols were determined by thermo‐chemical analysis of 24‐h samples collected during 2006 at 18 stations in China located at various ...rural, urban and remote locations. The annual mean concentration levels are found to be 0.35 ± 0.01 μg EC m−3 and 3.0 ± 0.21 μg OC m−3 for the remote background sites; 3.6 ± 0.93 μg EC m−3 and 16.1 ± 5.2 μg OC m−3 for the regional sites; and 11.2 ± 2.0 μg EC m−3 and 33.1 ± 9.6 μg OC m−3 for the urban sites, respectively. At rural sites representing regionally dispersed aerosols, levels are comparable to other locations in Asia. At all sites, both EC and OC show a consistent seasonal variation with a peak in winter, dropping in spring, reaching a minimum in summer and then increasing in autumn. The ratio of OC to EC is on the order of 3 for the urban locations, but can reach as high as 6 at the rural sites. This may partly be due to the open biomass burning in field of rural area, but may also indicate the presence of a regional background of secondary organic carbon (SOC) in China. These high ratios of OC/EC complicate the assessment of the climatic impacts of carbonaceous aerosols in China, as optical scattering from the high OC concentrations may lead to a cooling effect that counteracts the possible warming caused by EC optical absorption.
Speech processing requires extracting meaning from acoustic patterns using a set of intermediate representations based on a dynamic segmentation of the speech stream. Using whole brain mapping ...obtained in fMRI, we investigate the locus of cortical phonemic processing not only for single phonemes but also for short combinations made of diphones and triphones. We find that phonemic processing areas are much larger than previously described: they include not only the classical areas in the dorsal superior temporal gyrus but also a larger region in the lateral temporal cortex where diphone features are best represented. These identified phonemic regions overlap with the lexical retrieval region, but we show that short word retrieval is not sufficient to explain the observed responses to diphones. Behavioral studies have shown that phonemic processing and lexical retrieval are intertwined. Here, we also have identified candidate regions within the speech cortical network where this joint processing occurs.
The Canadian Aerosol Module coupled with the Canadian third generation Global Climate Model was used to simulate the global distributions of size‐segregated sea salt and sulphate aerosols of both ...anthropogenic and natural origins in the atmosphere. A sectional model of 12 size bins was used to treat the size distribution of sea salt and sulphate, which is assumed to be internally mixed in each size bin. The spatial and temporal distributions predicted by the model compare reasonably well with observations. The mixed aerosol simulations yield number and volume size distributions in the marine boundary layer (MBL) comparable with observations. Sea salt particles redistribute the mass and number distributions of sulphate aerosols by serving as a quenching agent to nucleation and as an additional surface area for condensation and by changing the cloud properties in the MBL. By differential simulations of global sea salt and sulphate it is found that the presence of sea salt increases the mass mean diameter of sulphate aerosols by up to a factor of 2 over the MBL with high sea salt concentrations and reduces the global sulphate aerosol mass in the surface MBL layer from 5 to 75% depending on the sea salt distributions. The high impacts are in the midlatitudes of both Northern and Southern Hemispheres with a minimum in the equatorial regions. In the polluted anthropogenic regions of North Pacific and Atlantic, sea salt reduces the sulphate concentration from 10 to 30%. The peak reductions of 50–75% occur in the roaring 40s of the Southern Hemisphere in spring and fall. The impact of sea salt on the annual global mass and number loading is estimated to be 9.13 and 0.76%, respectively. A reduction of 20–60% in the marine cloud droplet number concentrations (CDNC) was predicted because of the presence of sea salt, with greatest reductions in the roaring 40s south (40–70%) and in the midlatitude north (20–40%) where the sea salt concentrations were high. Along the equatorial regions some enhancement of total CDNC was simulated because of the presence of sea salt aerosols.
Limited studies have directly compared health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in different countries during the COVID-19 global pandemic. The objective of this study was to evaluate the HRQoL ...outcomes in the US, Sweden, and Norway during the first year under the pandemic.
In April 2020, during early phase of the pandemic, separately in the US, Sweden, and Norway, we surveyed 2,734, 1,003 and 1,020 respondents, then again in January 2021, we collected 2,252, 1,013 and 1,011 respondents. The survey was first developed in English and translated into Swedish and Norwegian. Selected variables were used for the current study. We collected respondents' HRQoL using the EQ-5D-5L. Respondents' background information included their sociodemographic data, medical history, and COVID-19 status. We reported the EQ-5D-5L utility, EQ-VAS, and the proportion of problems with each of the EQ-5D-5L health subdomains. Population quality-adjusted life year (QALY) changes based on EQ-5D-5L utility scores were also calculated. Outcomes were stratified by age. One-way ANOVA test was used to detect significant differences between countries and Student's t-tests were used to assess the differences between waves.
Respectively for the US, Sweden, and Norway, mean EQ-5D-5L utilities were 0.822, 0.768, and 0.808 in April 2020 (p < 0.001); 0.823, 0.783, and 0.777 in January 2021 (p < 0.001); mean EQ-VAS scores were 0.746, 0.687, and 0.692 in April 2020 (p < 0.001), 0.764, 0.682, and 0.678 in January 2021 (p < 0.001). For both waves, EQ-5D-5L utilities and EQ-VAS scores in the US remained higher than both Sweden and Norway (p < 0.001). Norwegians reported considerably lowered HRQoL over time (p < 0.01). Self-reported problems with anxiety/depression were highest for the US and Sweden, while Norwegians reported most problems with pain/discomfort, followed by anxiety/depression. The population QALYs increased in the US and Sweden, but decreased in Norway.
In the first year of the pandemic, a rebound in HRQoL was observed in the US, but not in Sweden or Norway. Mental health issues during the pandemic warrant a major public health concern across all 3 countries.
The protein serine/threonine phosphatases-1 and -2A are major cellular phosphatases, playing a fundamental role in organisms from prokaryotes to eukaryotes. They contribute to 90% dephosphorylation ...in eukaryote proteins. In the eye, both phosphatases are highly expressed and display important functions in regulating normal eye development. Moreover, they are implicated in pathogenesis through modulation of stress-induced apoptosis. Here we review the recent progresses on these aspects.
Li D, Gong L. Drug Des Devel Ther. 2016;10:2815-2821. The Editor and Publisher of Drug Design, Development and Therapy wish to retract the published article. Concerns were raised regarding the ...alleged duplication of images from Figures 1 and 4 with those from other unrelated articles. Specifically, Figure 1B appears to have been duplicated with the same image from Figure 1B from Guo & Cang, 2016 (https://doi.org/10.2147/DDDT.S103169). Figure 4Aa appears to have been duplicated with the same image from Figure 5A from Guo & Cang, 2016 (https://doi.org/10.2147/DDDT.S103169). Figure 4Ac appears to have been duplicated with the same image from Figure 5B, Lung from Zhou et al, 2017 (https://doi.org/10.2147/DDDT.S146925). Figure 4Bc appears to have been duplicated with the same image from Figure 7A, Liver from Li & Wang, 2017 (https://doi.org/10.2147/IJN.S136378). Figure 4Ba appears to have been duplicated with the same image from Figure 5A, Liver from Chen et al, 2015 (https://doi.org/10.2147/DDDT.S81722). Figure 4Cc appears to have been duplicated with the same image from Figure 7A, Kidney from Li & Wang, 2017 (https://doi.org/10.2147/IJN.S136378). The authors did not respond to our queries and no explanation for the alleged image duplication was provided. The Editor requested to retract the article and the authors were notified of this. We have been informed in our decision-making by our policy on publishing ethics and integrity and the COPE guidelines on retractions. The retracted article will remain online to maintain the scholarly record, but it will be digitally watermarked on each page as "Retracted".
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