The characteristics of environmental particulate matter in the urban area of Beijing, China, during the 2008 Olympic Games

Atmospheric particulate matter (PM) and street dust samples from the Chaoyang District of eastern Beijing were studied over a period encompassing the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. PM10 concentration data are combined with trajectory clustering and potential source contribution function (PSCF) methods to identify the principal transport pathways. Sources for high-concentration aerosol events and airflow from the surrounding Hebei Province and Shandong Province to the southeast are found to exert the most significant external influence on Beijing's air quality. China undertook a number of initiatives to improve air quality for the Olympic Games and we show that PM10 concentrations and magnetic susceptibility were significantly lower during the Olympic period compared to the pre-Olympic period confirming that controlling local sources in Beijing and shutting factories in surrounding provinces substantially improved air quality. On short timescales PM10 shows an inverse correlation to relative humidity and hence precipitation which acts to improve air quality. Atmospheric PM and street dust remained high through the Olympic period probably due in part to redistribution of historical sources and implying that the aim of zero pollution is not achievable in the short term. Analysis of the heavy metal content in both PM and street dust identifies consistently high values of Zn, with Pb relatively higher in the PM; a primary source in vehicular emissions therefore seems likely. Copyright (C) 2016 Turkish National Committee for Air Pollution Research and Control. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.West Light Foundation of CAS [XBBS201302]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [40525013]SCI(E)ARTICLE1141-148

Characterization, crystallization and preliminary X-ray investigation of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Sulfolobus solfataricus.

Comparative StudyJournal ArticleResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tRecombinant Sulfolobus solfataricus glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase has been purified and found to be a tetramer of 148 kDa. The enzyme shows dual cofactor specificity and uses NADP+ in preference to NAD+. The sequence has been compared with other GAPDH proteins including those from other archaeal sources. The purified protein has been crystallized from ammonium sulfate to produce crystals that diffract to 2.4 A with a space group of P43212 or P41212. A native data set has been collected to 2.4 A using synchrotron radiation and cryocooling.European UnionBBSR

Direct Observation of Electrostatically Driven Band Gap Renormalization in a Degenerate Perovskite Transparent Conducting Oxide

We have directly measured the band gap renormalization associated with the Moss-Burstein shift in the perovskite transparent conducting oxide (TCO), La-doped BaSnO_{3}, using hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. We determine that the band gap renormalization is almost entirely associated with the evolution of the conduction band. Our experimental results are supported by hybrid density functional theory supercell calculations. We determine that unlike conventional TCOs where interactions with the dopant orbitals are important, the band gap renormalization in La-BaSnO_{3} is driven purely by electrostatic interactions

Nature of the band gap of In2O3 revealed by first-principles calculations and x-ray spectroscopy

Bulk and surface sensitive x-ray spectroscopic techniques are applied in tandem to show that the valence band edge for In2O3 is found significantly closer to the bottom of the conduction band than expected on the basis of the widely quoted bulk band gap of 3.75 eV. First-principles theory shows that the upper valence bands of In2O3 exhibit a small dispersion and the conduction band minimum is positioned at Gamma. However, direct optical transitions give a minimal dipole intensity until 0.8 eV below the valence band maximum. The results set an upper limit on the fundamental band gap of 2.9 eV

Severe zinc depletion of escherichia coli: roles for high affinity zinc binding by ZinT, zinc transport and zinc-independent proteins

Zinc ions play indispensable roles in biological chemistry. However, bacteria have an impressive ability to acquire Zn2+ from the environment, making it exceptionally difficult to achieve Zn2+ deficiency, and so a comprehensive understanding of the importance of Zn2+ has not been attained. Reduction of the Zn2+ content of Escherichia coli growth medium to 60 nM or less is reported here for the first time, without recourse to chelators of poor specificity. Cells grown in Zn2+-deficient medium had a reduced growth rate and contained up to five times less cellular Zn2+. To understand global responses to Zn2+ deficiency, microarray analysis was conducted of cells grown under Zn2+-replete and Zn2+-depleted conditions in chemostat cultures. Nine genes were up-regulated more than 2-fold (p<0.05) in cells from Zn2+-deficient chemostats, including zinT (yodA). zinT is shown to be regulated by Zur ( zinc uptake regulator). A mutant lacking zinT displayed a growth defect and a 3-fold lowered cellular Zn2+ level under Zn2+ limitation. The purified ZinT protein possessed a single, high affinity metal-binding site that can accommodate Zn2+ or Cd2+. A further up-regulated gene, ykgM, is believed to encode a non-Zn2+ finger-containing paralogue of the Zn2+ finger ribosomal protein L31. The gene encoding the periplasmic Zn2+- binding protein znuA showed increased expression. During both batch and chemostat growth, cells "found" more Zn2+ than was originally added to the culture, presumably because of leaching from the culture vessel. Zn2+ elimination is shown to be a more precise method of depleting Zn2+ than by using the chelator N,N,N',N'-tetrakis(2-pyridylmethyl)ethylenediamine

Effect of Dietary Components on Larval Life History Characteristics in the Medfly (Ceratitis capitata: Diptera, Tephritidae)

Background: The ability to respond to heterogenous nutritional resources is an important factor in the adaptive radiation of insects such as the highly polyphagous Medfly. Here we examined the breadth of the Medfly’s capacity to respond to different developmental conditions, by experimentally altering diet components as a proxy for host quality and novelty. Methodology/Principal Findings: We tested responses of larval life history to diets containing protein and carbohydrate components found in and outside the natural host range of this species. A 40% reduction in the quantity of protein caused a significant increase in egg to adult mortality by 26.5%±6% in comparison to the standard baseline diet. Proteins and carbohydrates had differential effects on larval versus pupal development and survival. Addition of a novel protein source, casein (i.e. milk protein), to the diet increased larval mortality by 19.4%±3% and also lengthened the duration of larval development by 1.93±0.5 days in comparison to the standard diet. Alteration of dietary carbohydrate, by replacing the baseline starch with simple sugars, increased mortality specifically within the pupal stage (by 28.2%±8% and 26.2%±9% for glucose and maltose diets, respectively). Development in the presence of the novel carbohydrate lactose (milk sugar) was successful, though on this diet there was a decrease of 29.8±1.6 µg in mean pupal weight in comparison to pupae reared on the baseline diet. Conclusions: The results confirm that laboratory reared Medfly retain the ability to survive development through a wide range of fluctuations in the nutritional environment. We highlight new facets of the responses of different stages of holometabolous life histories to key dietary components. The results are relevant to colonisation scenarios and key to the biology of this highly invasive species

Does hypoglycemia following a glucose challenge test identify a high risk pregnancy?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Objective</p> <p>An association between maternal hypoglycemia during pregnancy with fetal growth restriction and overall perinatal mortality has been reported. In a retrospective pilot study we found that hypoglycemia was linked with a greater number of special care/neonatal intensive care unit admissions and approached significance in the number of women who developed preeclampsia. That study was limited by its retrospective design, a narrow patient population and the inability to perform multivariate analysis because of the limitations in the data points collected. This study was undertaken to compare the perinatal outcome in pregnancies with hyoglycemia following a glucose challenge test (GCT) to pregnancies with a normal GCT.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Obstetric patients (not pre-gestational diabetics or gestational diabetes before 24 weeks were eligible. Women with a 1 hour glucose ≤ 88 mg/dL (4.8 m/mol) following a 50-gram oral GCT were matched with the next patient with a 1 hour glucose of 89–139 mg/dL. Pregnancy outcomes were evaluated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Over 22 months, 436 hypoglycemic patients and 434 normal subjects were identified. Hypoglycemia was increased in women < 25 (p = 0.003) and with pre-existing medical conditions (p < 0.001). Hypoglycemia was decreased if pre-pregnancy BMI ≥ 30 (p = 0.008).</p> <p>Preeclampsia/eclampsia was more common in hypoglycemic women. (OR = 3.13, 95% CI 1.51 – 6.51, p = 0.002) but not other intrapartum and perinatal outcomes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Hypoglycemic patients are younger, have reduced pre-pregnancy weight, lower BMIs, and are more likely to develop preeclampsia than normoglycemic women.</p

TEAD and YAP regulate the enhancer network of human embryonic pancreatic progenitors.

The genomic regulatory programmes that underlie human organogenesis are poorly understood. Pancreas development, in particular, has pivotal implications for pancreatic regeneration, cancer and diabetes. We have now characterized the regulatory landscape of embryonic multipotent progenitor cells that give rise to all pancreatic epithelial lineages. Using human embryonic pancreas and embryonic-stem-cell-derived progenitors we identify stage-specific transcripts and associated enhancers, many of which are co-occupied by transcription factors that are essential for pancreas development. We further show that TEAD1, a Hippo signalling effector, is an integral component of the transcription factor combinatorial code of pancreatic progenitor enhancers. TEAD and its coactivator YAP activate key pancreatic signalling mediators and transcription factors, and regulate the expansion of pancreatic progenitors. This work therefore uncovers a central role for TEAD and YAP as signal-responsive regulators of multipotent pancreatic progenitors, and provides a resource for the study of embryonic development of the human pancreas

C2 prosthesis: anterior upper cervical fixation device to reconstruct the second cervical vertebra

Destruction of the second cervical vertebra leads to a highly unstable situation. Reconstruction is difficult because the axis plays a central role in rotatory movements and has a unique function in redistributing axial loads. The axis transfers the axial load of the two lateral masses of the atlas to three surfaces on the third cervical vertebra: the two articular facets and the vertebral body. As reconstruction is difficult and the instability in this region is life threatening, pathological processes are often treated less radically compared to other areas of the cervical spine. However, this more moderate approach may result in worse outcomes and prognoses. This paper presents the development of a new implant (C2 prosthesis) and two illustrative cases describing the implementation of this new implant. The C2 prosthesis provides anterior support and therefore allows a more radical surgical approach