Image1_A simulation study on the climatic responses to short-lived climate pollutants changes from the pre-industrial era to the present.TIF

Short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) including methane, tropospheric ozone, and black carbon in this work, is a set of compounds with shorter lifetimes than carbon dioxide (CO2) and can cause warming effect on climate. Here, the effective radiative forcing (ERF) is estimated by using an online aerosol–climate model (BCC_AGCM2.0_CUACE/Aero); then the climate responses to SLCPs concentration changes from the pre-industrial era to the present (1850–2010) are estimated. The global annual mean ERF of SLCPs was estimated to be 0.99 [0.79–1.20] W m−2, and led to warming effects over most parts of the globe, with the warming center (about 1.0 K increase) being located in the mid-high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere (NH) and the ocean around Antarctica. The changes in annual mean surface air temperature (SAT) caused by SLCPs changes were more prominent in the NH [0.78 (0.62–0.94) K] than in the Southern Hemisphere [0.62 (0.45–0.74) K], and the global annual mean value is 0.70 K. By looking at other variable responses, we found that precipitation had been increased by about 0.10 mm d−1 in mid- and high-latitudes and decreased by about 0.20 mm d−1 in subtropical regions, with the global annual mean value of 0.02 mm d−1. Changes in SLCPs also influenced atmospheric circulation change, a northward shift in the Intertropical Convergence Zone was induced due to the interhemispheric asymmetry in SAT. However, it is found in this work that SLCPs changes had little effect on global average cloud cover, whereas the local cloud cover changes could not be ignored, low cloud cover increase by about 2.5% over high latitudes in the NH and the ribbon area near 60°S, and high cloud cover increased by more than 2.0% over northern Africa and the Indian Ocean. Finally, we compared the ERFs and global and regional warming effects of SLCPs with those induced by CO2 changes. From 1850 to the present, the ERF of SLCPs was equivalent to 66%, 83%, and 50% of that of CO2 in global, NH, and SH mean, respectively. The increases in SAT caused by SLCPs were 43% and 55% of those by CO2 over the globe and China, respectively.</p

Synthesis of Monodisperse Emulsion-Templated Polymer Beads by Oil-in-Water-in-Oil (O/W/O) Sedimentation Polymerization

Synthesis of Monodisperse Emulsion-Templated Polymer Beads by Oil-in-Water-in-Oil (O/W/O) Sedimentation Polymerizatio

Loss-induced transparency in optomechanics

We study optomechanically induced transparency (OMIT) in a compound system consisting of coupled optical resonators and a mechanical mode, focusing on the unconventional role of loss. We find that optical transparency can emerge at the otherwise strongly absorptive regime in the OMIT spectrum, by using an external nanotip to enhance the optical loss. In particular, loss-induced revival of optical transparency and the associated slow-to-fast light switch can be identified in the vicinity of an exceptional point. These results open up a counterintuitive way to engineer micro-mechanical devices with tunable losses for e.g., coherent optical switch and communications

N-acetyl-L-cysteine improves the performance of chronic cyclic heat-stressed finisher broilers but has no effect on tissue glutathione levels

1. It was hypothesised that dietary N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) in feed, as a source of cysteine, could improve the performance of heat-stressed finisher broilers by fostering glutathione (GSH) synthesis. GSH is the most abundant intracellular antioxidant for which the sulphur amino acid cysteine is rate limiting for its synthesis. 2. In the first experiment, four levels of NAC: 0, 500, 1000 and 2000 mg/kg were added to a diet with a suboptimal level of sulphur amino acids in the finisher phase. In the second experiment, NAC was compared to other sulphur amino acid sources at equal molar amounts of digestible sulphur amino acids. Birds were allocated to four groups: control, 2000 mg/kg NAC, 1479 mg/kg L-cystine, and 2168 mg/kg Ca-salt of 2-hydroxy-4-(methylthio)butanoic acid. A chronic cyclic heat stress model (temperature was increased to 34°C for 7 h daily) was initiated at 28 d of age. 3. In the first experiment, growth performance and feed efficiency in the finisher phase were significantly improved by graded NAC. ADG was 88.9, 92.2, 93.7 and 97.7 g/d, and the feed-to-gain ratio was 2.18, 1.91, 1.85 and 1.81 for the 0, 500, 1000 and 2000 mg/kg NAC treatments, respectively. However, liver and heart GSH levels were not affected by NAC. On d 29, liver gene transcript of cystathionine-beta-synthase like was reduced by NAC, which suggested reduced trans-sulphuration activity. The second experiment showed that L-cystine and Ca-salt of 2-hydroxy-4-(methylthio) butanoic acid were more effective in improving performance than NAC. 4. In conclusion, N-acetyl-L-cysteine improved dose-dependently growth and feed efficiency in heat-stressed finishing broilers. However, this was not associated with changes in tissue GSH levels, but more likely worked by sparing methionine and/or NAC’s and cysteine’s direct antioxidant properties.</p

Media 5: Dissipative soliton trapping in normal dispersion-fiber lasers

Originally published in Optics Letters on 01 June 2010 (ol-35-11-1902

Media 3: Dissipative soliton trapping in normal dispersion-fiber lasers

Originally published in Optics Letters on 01 June 2010 (ol-35-11-1902

Media 1: Dissipative soliton trapping in normal dispersion-fiber lasers

Originally published in Optics Letters on 01 June 2010 (ol-35-11-1902

Media 2: Dissipative soliton trapping in normal dispersion-fiber lasers

Originally published in Optics Letters on 01 June 2010 (ol-35-11-1902

Media 1: Bunch of restless vector solitons in a fiber laser with SESAM

Originally published in Optics Express on 11 May 2009 (oe-17-10-8103

Media 4: Dissipative soliton trapping in normal dispersion-fiber lasers

Originally published in Optics Letters on 01 June 2010 (ol-35-11-1902