Monitoring activity at the Daguangbao mega-landslide (China) using Sentinel-1 TOPS time series interferometry

The Daguangbao mega-landslide (China), induced by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake (Mw = 7.9), with an area of approximately 8 km2, is one of the largest landslides in the world. Experts predicted that the potential risk and instability of the landslide might remain for many decades, or even longer. Monitoring the activity of such a large landslide is hence critical. Terrain Observation by Progressive Scans (TOPS) mode from the Sentinel-1 satellite provides us with up-to-date high-quality Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images over a wide ground coverage (250 × 250 km), enabling full exploitation of various InSAR applications. However, the TOPS mode introduces azimuth-dependent Doppler variations to radar signals, which requires an additional processing step especially for SAR interferometry. Sentinel-1 TOPS data have been widely applied to earthquakes, but the performance of TOPS data-based time series analysis requires further exploitation. In this study, Sentinel-1 TOPS data were employed to investigate landslide post-seismic activities for the first time. To deal with the azimuth-dependent Doppler variations, a processing chain of TOPS time series interferometry approach was developed. Since the Daguangbao landslide is as a result of the collapse of a whole mountain caused by the 2008 Mw 7.9 Wenchuan earthquake, the existing Digital Elevation Models (DEMs, e.g. SRTM and ASTER) exhibit height differences of up to approximately 500 m. Tandem-X images acquired after the earthquake were used to generate a high resolution post-seismic DEM. The high gradient topographic errors of the SRTM DEM (i.e. the differences between the pre-seismic SRTM and the actual post-seismic elevation), together with low coherence in mountainous areas make it difficult to derive a precise DEM using the traditional InSAR processing procedure. A re-flattening iterative method was hence developed to generate a precise TanDEM-X DEM in this study. The volume of the coseismic Daguangbao landslide was estimated to be of 1.189 ± 0.110 × 109 m3 by comparing the postseismic Tandem-X DEM with the preseismic SRTM DEM, which is consistent with the engineering geological survey result. The time-series results from Sentinel-1 show that some sectors of the Daguangbao landslide are still active (and displaying four sliding zones) and exhibiting a maximum displacement rate of 8 cm/year, even eight years after the Wenchuan earthquake. The good performance of TOPS in this time series analysis indicates that up-to-date high-quality TOPS data with spatiotemporal baselines offer significant potential in terms of future InSAR applications.This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 41474003. The research stay of Dr. Tomás at Newcastle University was funded by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport within the framework of Project PRX14/00100. Additional funding was obtained from the Spanish Government under projects TIN2014-55413-C2-2-P and ESP2013-47780-C2-2-R. Part of this work is also supported by the UK Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC) through the Centre for the Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tectonics (COMET, ref.: come30001) and the LICS and CEDRRiC projects (ref. NE/K010794/1 and NE/N012151/1, respectively), the ESA-MOST DRAGON-3 projects (ref. 10607 and 10665), the ESA-MOST DRAGON-4 project (ref. 32244) and the Open Fund from the Key Laboratory of Earth Fissures Geological Disaster, Ministry of Land and Resources (ref.: gla2013001)

Inhibition of Stimulator of Interferon Genes Protects Against Myocardial Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury in Diabetic Mice

Background: Although the past decade has witnessed substantial scientific progress with the advent of cardioprotective pharmacological agents, most have failed to protect against myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in diabetic hearts. This study was aimed at investigating the role of stimulator of interferon genes (STING) in I/R injury in diabetic mice and further exploring the underlying mechanisms. Methods: Type 2 diabetic mice were subjected to I/R or sham operation to investigate the role of STING. STING knockout mice were subjected to 30 minutes of ischemia followed by reperfusion for 24 hours. Finally, myocardial injury, cardiac function, and inflammation levels were assessed. Results: STING pathway activation was observed in diabetic I/R hearts, as evidenced by increased p-TBK and p-IRF3 expression. STING knockout significantly decreased the ischemic area and improved cardiac function after I/R in diabetic mice. STING knockout also elicited cardio-protective effects by decreasing serum cardiac troponin T and lactate dehydrogenase levels, thus diminishing the inflammatory response in the heart after I/R in diabetic mice. In vitro , STING inhibition decreased the expression of hypoxia-re-oxygenation-induced inflammatory cytokines. Conclusions: Targeting STING inhibits inflammation and prevents I/R injury in diabetic mice. Thus, STING may be a potential novel therapeutic target against myocardial I/R injury in diabetes

Association Between Cancer Prevalence and Different Socioeconomic Strata in the US: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1999–2018

BackgroundInequality in health outcomes in relation to Americans' socioeconomic status (SES) is rising. American Cancer Society depicts that the most common cancers are diagnosed in men and women in 2021. We aim to study socioeconomic inequalities in related cancers to investigate whether the cancer prevalence differs within the family income to poverty ratio (PIR).MethodsThe study investigated data from adults aged 20–85 years participated in the 1999–2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) who had complete data available on PIR and cancer or malignancy information (n = 49,720). Participants were stratified into 3 categories of PIR: high income (PIR ≥ 4), middle income (>1 and <4), or at or below the federal poverty level (≤1).ResultsThe prevalence of prostate cancer was higher in the middle-income (3.61% [n = 464]) and high-income groups (3.36% [n = 227]) than in the low-income group (1.83% [n = 84], all p < 0.001). The prevalence of breast cancer was higher in middle-income (2.86% [n = 390]) and high-income participants (3.48% [n = 218]) than in low-income participants (2.00% [n = 117], all p < 0.001). Compared with the low-income group in men (0.48% [n = 22]), a higher prevalence of colon and rectum cancer occurs in the middle-income (0.87% [n = 112], p = 0.012) and high-income groups (0.89% [n = 58], p = 0.018). The prevalence of lung cancer in women was lower in high-income participants than middle-income participants (0.10% [n = 6] vs. 0.29% [n = 39], p = 0.014).ConclusionsIncreasing disparities in cancer prevalence were identified across all socioeconomic categories analyzed in this study. To ensure the sustainable development goals, it is a global health priority to understand inequalities in health and to target interventions accordingly

An Investigation of an Acute Gastroenteritis Outbreak: Cronobacter sakazakii, a Potential Cause of Food-Borne Illness

Whole genome sequencing (WGS) has been widely used in traceability of food-borne outbreaks nowadays. Here, an interesting connection between Cronobacter sakazakii and food-borne acute gastroenteritis (AGE) was noticed. In October 2016, an AGE outbreak affecting 156 cases occurred in a local senior high school. Case-control study including 70 case-patients and 295 controls indicated a strong association between eating supper at school canteen of the outbreak onset and AGE, as revealed by the Odds Ratio (OR: 95.32). Six recovered Cronobacter strains were evaluated and compared using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and WGS. A phylogenetic tree of whole genomic single nucleotide polymorphisms (wgSNPs) were generated to traceback the potential contamination source in this outbreak. C. sakazakii isolates S2 from a patient’s rectal swab and S4 from leftover food sample shared identical PFGE pattern and sequence type (ST73), and clustered tightly together in the SNP phylogenetic tree. C. sakazakii isolates S5 and S6 from food delivery containers were both ST4 but with different PFGE patterns. Cronobacter isolates S1 and S3 from two patients’ rectal swab were sequenced to be C. malonaticus and shared another PFGE pattern (ST567). The interesting feature of this study was the implication of C. sakazakii as a causative agent in food-borne AGE occurring in healthy adults, although C. sakazakii is considered as an opportunistic pathogen and generally affects neonates, infants and immunocompromised adults

Simultaneous evaluation of treatment efficacy and toxicity for bispecific T-cell engager therapeutics in a humanized mouse model.

Immuno-oncology (IO)-based therapies such as checkpoint inhibitors, bi-specific antibodies, and CAR-T-cell therapies have shown significant success in the treat- ment of several cancer indications. However, these therapies can result in the de- velopment of severe adverse events, including cytokine release syndrome (CRS). Currently, there is a paucity of in vivo models that can evaluate dose-response relationships for both tumor control and CRS-related safety issues. We tested an in vivo PBMC humanized mouse model to assess both treatment efficacy against specific tumors and the concurrent cytokine release profiles for individual human donors after treatment with a CD19xCD3 bispecific T-cell engager (BiTE). Using this model, we evaluated tumor burden, T-cell activation, and cytokine release in response to bispecific T-cell-engaging antibody in humanized mice generated with different PBMC donors. The results show that PBMC engrafted NOD-scid Il2rgnull mice lacking expression of mouse MHC class I and II (NSG-MHC-DKO mice) and implanted with a tumor xenograft predict both efficacy for tumor control by CD19xCD3 BiTE and stimulated cytokine release. Moreover, our find- ings indicate that this PBMC-engrafted model captures variability among donors for tumor control and cytokine release following treatment. Tumor control and cytokine release were reproducible for the same PBMC donor in separate experi- ments. The PBMC humanized mouse model described here is a sensitive and re- producible platform that identifies specific patient/cancer/therapy combinations for treatment efficacy and development of complications

Biorefining Waste Sludge From Water and Sewage Treatment Plants Into Eco-Construction Material

This study aims to investigate the feasibility of using different waste sludge and coal combustion residuals in eco-concrete block production. The compressive strength of the eco-concrete blocks produced by waterworks sludge, bottom and fly ashes were 36 MPa, which comply with the standard specifications for paving blocks in Hong Kong. The optimal mixing proportion (by weight) of different materials in the blocks, such as aggregates, cementitious materials, water, and fly ash was 1.1:1.0:0.5:0.22, respectively. The environmental and toxicological impacts of the final products were then evaluated according to the toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP). While several heavy metals (i.e., Hg, Cu, and Pb) have been identified in the specimens, the levels of these contaminants complied with Standards (US 40 CFR 268.48). Waste materials generated from water and sewage treatment processes and power plants are feasible to be used as ingredients for paving concrete block production. These products are environmentally acceptable and mechanically suitable for resource recovery of waste materials

Linear algorithms for worst case identification in H\u3csup\u3e∞\u3c/sup\u3e with applications to flexible structures

This paper is concerned with linear algorithms for identification in H∞ which have been studied in [9]. It is shown that the two different linear algorithms in [9] can be unified into a single one which can be further extended to nonuniformly spaced frequency response samples with exponential convergence for the noise free case. Improved upper bounds for the corresponding identification errors are derived. Applications to the identification of lightly damped systems such as flexible structures are also considered

From frequency response data to state-space models

This paper considers system identification in frequency domain where the experimental data is a finite set of noisy frequency response measurement samples. The proposed algorithm consists of a combination of identification in H∞ and a modification of Ho/Kung\u27s algorithm to produce state-space models. The associated modeling error in H∞ norm is analyzed based on the a priori information on the unknown true system as well as the level of noise. Upper bounds are derived for the worst-case identification errors. The proposed algorithm is applied to a typical lightly damped system as studied in [8] that yields impressive simulation results

Molecularly-Imprinted Calcium Phosphate/Calcium Alginate Composite Microspheres by Surface Imprinting via Silane Crosslinking

This paper describes the development of a new type of molecularly-imprinted composite microspheres. Composite microspheres of calcium phosphate/calcium alginate (CP/CA CMs) were prepared from calcium phosphate and sodium alginate through the use of calcium chloride (CaCl 2 ) as a gelling agent in an inverse suspension. Molecularly-imprinted calcium phosphate/calcium alginate composite microspheres (CP/CA MICMs) were then prepared by surface imprinting using CP/CA CMs as the supporting matrix, ethylene tri(β-methoxy)ethoxysilane (A-172) and γ-amidopropyltriethoxysilane (KH-550) as the functional monomers and crosslinking agents, respectively, and Methyl Orange as the template in aqueous solution. The CP/CA MICMs and non-imprinted composite microspheres (NICMs) were characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and optical microscopy. The adsorption behaviour of the CP/CA MICMs and NICMs were determined by ultraviolet spectrophotometry. The results indicated that molecular imprinting occurs via the crosslinking of silanes on the surface of the CP/CA CMs, and that CP/CA MICMs possess an adsorption capacity which exhibits greater selectivity. A schematic representation of the imprinting and recognition process of CA/CP MICMs by surface imprinting via silane crosslinking was presented

Adsorption and Regeneration Properties of Tyrosine-Imprinted Polymeric Beads

Tyrosine-imprinted polymeric beads with diameters in the range 120–140 mm were prepared in an aqueous system by seed swelling and suspension polymerization using trimethylolpropane trimethacrylate (TRIM) as the crosslinking agent and acrylamide (AM), 2-vinylpyridine (VP) and/or 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulphonic acid (AMPS), respectively, as functional monomers (FMs). The molecular recognition properties, dynamic adsorption behaviours and regeneration capabilities of the molecularly imprinted beads (MIBs) were investigated via a solid-phase extraction method. The functional monomers were found to be indispensable for preparing MIBs with highly specific molecular recognition properties. Irrespective of the choice of FM, when the FM/TRIM molar ratio was 4:15 the MIBs prepared exhibited the most desirable properties for the purposes of this study. When only one FM was used, it was found that AMPS provided the best solution as far as all the adsorption, recognition and regeneration capabilities of the MIBs were concerned. However, MIBs with the best molecular recognition and adsorption properties, and with only a slight sacrifice in their regeneration properties, were prepared using AMPS and VP as bifunctional monomers. For such MIBs, the initial separation factor, α, and static distribution coefficient, K D , were 2.01 and 2.15 ml/g, respectively