A technique for the synthesis of shaped beam radiation patterns is proposed. The new synthesis method is based on superposition principle and Taylor method. The method may control the sidelobe level ...of the shaped beam. The approach includes four steps: 1) get the distribution of pencil beam array with low sidelobe by Taylor method; 2) let the beams scan as a phased array to the specific angles according to the requirement of the shaped beam, The sum pattern is close to the shaping beam; 3) determine the value of angles and weights; and 4) count the distribution of the shaped beam array according to the new array factor function. Numerical results are provided to assess the capabilities of the proposed design method. The method develops an effective approach for the synthesis of shaped beams via uniform linear arrays. Both the ripple and sidelobe level of shaped beam may be controlled by the new synthesis method.
The process e+e- → Λ Λ ¯ is studied using data samples at √s = 2.2324, 2.400, 2.800 and 3.080 GeV collected with the BESIII detector operating at the BEPCII collider. The Born cross section is ...measured at √s=2.2324 GeV, which is 1.0 MeV above the Λ Λ ¯ mass threshold, to be 305±$45_{-36}^{+66}$ pb, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The substantial cross section near threshold is significantly larger than that expected from theory, which predicts the cross section to vanish at threshold. The Born cross sections at √s=2.400, 2.800 and 3.080 GeV are measured and found to be consistent with previous experimental results, but with improved precision. Finally, the corresponding effective electromagnetic form factors of Λ are deduced.
Aim: This study was to determine the roles of inflammatory cytokines in paraventricular nucleus (PVN) in modulating sympathetic activity, blood pressure and cardiac sympathetic afferent reflex ...(CSAR).
Methods: Renal sympathetic nerve activity (RSNA) and mean arterial pressure (MAP) were recorded in anaesthetized rats with bilateral sinoaortic denervation and vagotomy. The CSAR was evaluated by the RSNA response to epicardial application of bradykinin (BK). The levels of inflammatory cytokines were measured with ELISA.
Results: The PVN microinjection of pro‐inflammatory cytokines (PIC), tumour necrosis factor (TNF)‐α or interleukin (IL)‐1β, increased the baseline MAP and RSNA, and enhanced the CSAR. Anti‐inflammatory cytokines (AIC), IL‐4 or IL‐13, in the PVN only increased the baseline MAP. In the rats pretreated with TNF‐α or IL‐1β but not in the rats pretreated with IL‐4 or IL‐13, sub‐response dose of angiotensin II caused significant increases in the MAP and RSNA and enhancement in the CSAR. AT1 receptor antagonist losartan in the PVN attenuated the effects of angiotensin II, TNF‐α and IL‐1β, but not the effects of IL‐4 and IL‐13. Stimulation of cardiac sympathetic afferents with epicardial application of BK increased the levels of TNF‐α, IL‐1β but not IL‐4 in the PVN.
Conclusion: TNF‐α or IL‐1β in the PVN increases blood pressure and sympathetic outflow and enhances the CSAR, which is partially dependent on the AT1 receptors, while IL‐4 or IL‐13 in the PVN only increases blood pressure. There is a synergetic effect of Ang II with TNF‐α or IL‐1β on blood pressure, sympathetic activity and CSAR.
Cell-free DNA (cf-DNA)-based liquid biopsy is emerging as a revolutionary new method in individualized cancer treatment and prognosis monitoring, although detecting early-stage cancers using cf-DNA ...remains challenging, partially because of the undefined biological background of cf-DNA.
We investigated somatic mutations in the cf-DNA of 259 cancer-free individuals with a median age of 47 years using an endogenous barcoding duplex method with an ultralow base error rate (2 × 10−7) and compared the variant allele frequencies (VAFs) of these mutations between the cf-DNA and the corresponding blood cell DNA.
Sixty percent (155/259) of the samples showed at least one nonsynonymous mutation on either of two similar target panels covering 508 and 559 cancer-related genes. For individuals older than 50 years of age, the positive rate increased to 76%. Most cf-DNA mutations were also present at similar VAFs in the paired blood cell DNA. The most frequently mutated genes were driver genes of hematologic malignancies, including DNMT3A, TET2, AXSL1, and JAK2. However, the other 58.4% (192/329) of the mutations were likely ‘passenger mutations’ of clonal hematopoiesis, including mutations in NOTCH2, FAT3, EXT2, ERBB4, and ARID2, which are driver genes of solid tumors.
Hematopoietic clone-derived mutations, including ‘driver mutations’ and ‘passenger mutations’, are prevalent in the cf-DNA of both healthy individuals and cancer patients and may be a potential source of false positives in the liquid biopsy. Our results also suggest the ineffectiveness for distinguishing clonal hematopoietic mutations of low VAF (≤0.1%) from tumor-derived mutations using conventional next-generation sequencing of blood cell DNA. However, an error correction model with an ultralow error rate and high coverage depth is required for blood cell DNA sequencing, which is difficult and costly to achieve with current technologies.
We present a measurement of the azimuthal asymmetries of two charged pions in the inclusive process e+ e- arrow right pipiX, based on a data set of 62 pb super(-1) at the center-of-mass energy of ...3.65 GeV collected with the BESIII detector. These asymmetries can be attributed to the Collins fragmentation function. We observe a nonzero asymmetry, which increases with increasing pion momentum. As our energy scale is close to that of the existing semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering experimental data, the measured asymmetries are important inputs for the global analysis of extracting the quark transversity distribution inside the nucleon and are valuable to explore the energy evolution of the spin-dependent fragmentation function.
Although genetic diversity is very important for alien species, which have to cope with new environments, little is known about the role that genetic diversity plays in their invasive success. In ...this study, we set up a manipulation experiment including three levels of genotypic diversity to test whether genotypic diversity can enhance the invasive ability of alien species, in our case the invasive Spartina alterniflora in China, and to infer the underlying mechanisms. There was no significant relationship between genotypic diversity and parameters of performance in the first year; however, from the summer of the second year onwards, genotypic diversity enhanced four of the six parameters of performance. After two growing seasons, there were significant positive relationships between genotypic diversity and maximum spread distance, patch size, shoot number per patch, and aboveground biomass. Moreover, abundance of the native dominant species Scirpus mariqueter was marginally significantly decreased with genotypic diversity of S. alterniflora, suggesting that enhanced invasive ability of S. alterniflora may have depressed the growth of the native species. There was no significant difference in most measures of performance among six genotypes, but we observed a transgressive over performance in four measures in multiple‐genotype patches. At the end of the experiment, there were significant nonadditive effects of genotypic diversity according to Monte Carlo permutations, in six‐genotype, but not three‐genotype plots. Our results indicated that both additive and nonadditive effects played roles in the positive relationship between genetic diversity and invasion success, and nonadditive effects were stronger as duration increased.