A two-step sensitivity analysis for hydrological signatures in Jinhua River Basin, East China

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via the DOI in this record.Parameter calibration and sensitivity analysis are usually not straightforward tasks for distributed hydrological models, owing to the complexity of model and large number of parameters. A two-step sensitivity analysis approach is proposed for analyzing the hydrological signatures based on the Distributed Hydrology-Soil-Vegetation Model in Jinhua River Basin, East China. A preliminary sensitivity analysis is conducted to obtain influential parameters via Analysis of Variance. These parameters are further analyzed through a variance-based global sensitivity analysis method to achieve robust rankings and parameter contributions. Parallel computing is designed to reduce computational burden. The results reveal that only a few parameters are significantly sensitive and the interactions between parameters could not be ignored. When analyzing hydrological signatures, it is found that water yield was simulated very well for most samples. Small and medium floods are simulated very well while slight underestimations happen to large floods.This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (91547106 and 51379183), Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (LR14E090001), and National Key Research and Development Plan "Inter-governmental Cooperation in International Scientific and Technological Innovation"(2016YFE0122100)

Effects of annealing temperature on the characteristics of Ga-doped ZnO film metal-semiconductor-metal ultraviolet photodetectors

published_or_final_versio

The effect of Ga-doped nanocrystalline ZnO electrode on deep-ultraviolet enhanced GaN photodetector

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A Fuzzy Social Network Analysis Method and a Case Study on Tianya

Social networking service (SNS) has become online service platforms that focus on facilitating the building of social networks among people who share interests, activities, backgrounds, or real-life connections and has had a rapid development in China in the past few years. This paper aims to develop a fuzzy social network service analysis method, which combines graph theory with related fuzzy approach, to analyze the social network structural features and the distribution characteristics of interpersonal nodes in SNS community. A case study on a very famous Chinese tourism BBS-Tianya-is conducted to illustrate and validate the proposed approach. The research findings are as follows: (1) The attraction degrees of various areas in the forum are significantly different; (2) interpersonal nodes in the forum are concentrated relatively; (3) the fuzzy out-degrees and the fuzzy in-degrees of interpersonal nodes in the forum conflict each other; and (4) the distribution of interpersonal nodes is influenced by geographical relations. These findings can directly support social network service management and particularly tourism online service developments. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

Epidemiology and Trends of Infective Meningitis in Neonates and Infants Less than 3 Months Old in Hong Kong

Objectives: Meningitis in neonates and young infants leads to significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. This study aimed to investigate pathogens, antibiotic resistance and secular change of incidence in Hong Kong. Methods: A retrospective search was performed on meningitis in neonates and infants aged <3 months in three Hong Kong public hospitals from 2004 to 2019. Medical charts were reviewed, with focus on the identification and antibiotic resistance of the pathogens. Results: A total of 200 cases of meningitis were identified (67% were bacterial). Group B Streptococcus (GBS) and Escherichia coli (E. coli) were the commonest bacterial pathogens. The annual rates of early-onset GBS meningitis decreased after the implementation of universal GBS screening and intrapartum antibiotic prophylaxis (IAP) in 2012, while that of late-onset GBS meningitis remained similar. A significant portion of E. coli isolates were resistant to ampicillin and/or gentamicin. Conclusion: GBS and E. coli were the most common bacteria for meningitis in this age group. The annual rate of bacterial meningitis in Hong Kong has declined in recent years, which has been attributed to the decline in early-onset GBS meningitis due to universal GBS screening and IAP. Antimicrobial-resistant bacterial strains that cause meningitis require further clinical and public health attention

Responses of marine benthic microalgae to elevated CO<inf>2</inf>

Increasing anthropogenic CO2 emissions to the atmosphere are causing a rise in pCO2 concentrations in the ocean surface and lowering pH. To predict the effects of these changes, we need to improve our understanding of the responses of marine primary producers since these drive biogeochemical cycles and profoundly affect the structure and function of benthic habitats. The effects of increasing CO2 levels on the colonisation of artificial substrata by microalgal assemblages (periphyton) were examined across a CO2 gradient off the volcanic island of Vulcano (NE Sicily). We show that periphyton communities altered significantly as CO2 concentrations increased. CO2 enrichment caused significant increases in chlorophyll a concentrations and in diatom abundance although we did not detect any changes in cyanobacteria. SEM analysis revealed major shifts in diatom assemblage composition as CO2 levels increased. The responses of benthic microalgae to rising anthropogenic CO2 emissions are likely to have significant ecological ramifications for coastal systems. © 2011 Springer-Verlag

Ionic Transport Properties in Nanocrystalline Ce0.8A0.2O2-δ (with A = Eu, Gd, Dy, and Ho) Materials

The ionic transport properties of nanocrystalline 20 mol% Eu, Gd, Dy, and Ho doped cerias, with average grain size of around 14 nm were studied by correlating electrical, dielectric properties, and various dynamic parameters. Gd-doped nanocrystalline ceria shows higher value of conductivity (i.e., 1.8 × 10−4 S cm−1 at 550°C) and a lower value of association energy of oxygen vacancies with trivalent dopants Gd3+ (i.e., 0.1 eV), compared to others. Mainly the lattice parameters and dielectric constants (ε∞) are found to control the association energy of oxygen vacancies in these nanomaterials, which in turn resulted in the presence of grain and grain boundary conductivity in Gd- and Eu-doped cerias and only significant grain interior conductivity in Dy- and Ho-doped cerias

Cryptococcus neoformans-infected macrophages release proinflammatory extracellular vesicles: Insight into their components by multi-omics

This is the final version. Available on open access from the American Society for Microbiology via the DOI in this recordCryptococcus neoformans causes deadly mycosis in immunocompromised individuals. Macrophages are key cells fighting against microbes. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are cell-to-cell communication mediators. The roles of EVs from infected host cells in the interaction with Cryptococcus remain uninvestigated. Here, EVs from viable C. neo-formans-infected macrophages reduced fungal burdens but led to shorter survival of infected mice. In vitro, EVs induced naive macrophages to an inflammatory phenotype. Transcriptome analysis showed that EVs from viable C. neoformans-infected macro-phages activated immune-related pathways, including p53 in naive human and murine macrophages. Conserved analysis demonstrated that basic cell biological processes, including cell cycle and division, were activated by infection-derived EVs from both murine and human infected macrophages. Combined proteomics, lipidomics, and metabo-lomics of EVs from infected macrophages showed regulation of pathways such as extracellular matrix (ECM) receptors and phosphatidylcholine. This form of intermacro-phage communication could serve to prepare cells at more distant sites of infection to resist C. neoformans infection. IMPORTANCE Cryptococcus neoformans causes cryptococcal meningitis, which is frequent in patients with HIV/AIDS, especially in less-developed countries. The incidence of cryp-tococcal meningitis is close to 1 million each year globally. Macrophages are key cells that protect the body against microbes, including C. neoformans. Extracellular vesicles are a group of membrane structures that are released from cells such as macrophages that modulate cell activities via the transfer of materials such as proteins, lipids, and RNAs. In this study, we found that Cryptococcus neoformans-infected macrophages pro-duce extracellular vesicles that enhance the inflammatory response in Cryptococcus-infected mice. These Cryptococcus neoformans-infected macrophage vesicles also showed higher fungicidal biological effects on inactivated macrophages. Using omics technology, unique protein and lipid signatures were identified in these extracellular vesicles. Transcriptome analysis showed that these vesicles activated immune-related pathways like p53 in naive macrophages. The understanding of this intermacrophage communication could provide potential targets for the design of therapeutic agents to fight this deadly mycosis.Major National R&D Projects of the National Health DepartmentNational Natural Science Foundation of ChinaShanghai Science and Technology CommitteeChinese Academy of EngineeringShanghai Municipal Commission of Health and Family PlanningShanghai Sailing ProgramNI

Slip-Flow and Heat Transfer of a Non-Newtonian Nanofluid in a Microtube

The slip-flow and heat transfer of a non-Newtonian nanofluid in a microtube is theoretically studied. The power-law rheology is adopted to describe the non-Newtonian characteristics of the flow, in which the fluid consistency coefficient and the flow behavior index depend on the nanoparticle volume fraction. The velocity profile, volumetric flow rate and local Nusselt number are calculated for different values of nanoparticle volume fraction and slip length. The results show that the influence of nanoparticle volume fraction on the flow of the nanofluid depends on the pressure gradient, which is quite different from that of the Newtonian nanofluid. Increase of the nanoparticle volume fraction has the effect to impede the flow at a small pressure gradient, but it changes to facilitate the flow when the pressure gradient is large enough. This remarkable phenomenon is observed when the tube radius shrinks to micrometer scale. On the other hand, we find that increase of the slip length always results in larger flow rate of the nanofluid. Furthermore, the heat transfer rate of the nanofluid in the microtube can be enhanced due to the non-Newtonian rheology and slip boundary effects. The thermally fully developed heat transfer rate under constant wall temperature and constant heat flux boundary conditions is also compared

Observation of a ppb mass threshoud enhancement in \psi^\prime\to\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi(J/\psi\to\gamma p\bar{p}) decay

The decay channel $\psi^\prime\to\pi^+\pi^-J/\psi(J/\psi\to\gamma p\bar{p})$ is studied using a sample of $1.06\times 10^8$ $\psi^\prime$ events collected by the BESIII experiment at BEPCII. A strong enhancement at threshold is observed in the $p\bar{p}$ invariant mass spectrum. The enhancement can be fit with an $S$-wave Breit-Wigner resonance function with a resulting peak mass of $M=1861^{+6}_{-13} {\rm (stat)}^{+7}_{-26} {\rm (syst)} {\rm MeV/}c^2$ and a narrow width that is $\Gamma<38 {\rm MeV/}c^2$ at the 90% confidence level. These results are consistent with published BESII results. These mass and width values do not match with those of any known meson resonance.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Chinese Physics