Efficient electronic structure calculation for molecular ionization dynamics at high x-ray intensity

We present the implementation of an electronic-structure approach dedicated to ionization dynamics of molecules interacting with x-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) pulses. In our scheme, molecular orbitals for molecular core-hole states are represented by linear combination of numerical atomic orbitals that are solutions of corresponding atomic core-hole states. We demonstrate that our scheme efficiently calculates all possible multiple-hole configurations of molecules formed during XFEL pulses. The present method is suitable to investigate x-ray multiphoton multiple ionization dynamics and accompanying nuclear dynamics, providing essential information on the chemical dynamics relevant for high-intensity x-ray imaging.Comment: 28 pages, 6 figure

Tauopathy

Tauopathy is a category of neurodegenerative diseases that are caused or associated with pathological tau protein. Some of the diseases are relatively common, which include Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and various Parkinsonism (PD). Tau protein is a type of microtubule-associated protein (MAP), encoded by the gene MAPT (microtubule-associated protein tau). Normally, tau binds to microtubule, supporting the assembling and structure of cytoskeletons. However, in tauopathy, normal tau protein undergoes abnormal posttranslational modifications and detaches from microtubule; furthermore, they may aggregate forming paired helical filaments (PHF) or straight filaments (SF). Abundant PHF could be observed under microscope as fibrillary tangles. In this chapter, we will introduce the pathogenesis process of tauopathy with regard to the posttranslational modifications of the protein, the animal models, and the developing treatments against tauopathy from a clinical prospective

Crowd Research at School: Crossing Flows

It has become widely known that when two flows of pedestrians cross stripes emerge spontaneously by which the pedestrians of the two walking directions manage to pass each other in an orderly manner. In this work, we report about the results of an experiment on crossing flows which has been carried out at a German school. These results include that previously reported high flow volumes on the crossing area can be confirmed. The empirical results are furthermore compared to the results of a simulation model which succesfully could be calibrated to catch the specific properties of the population of participants.Comment: contribution to proceedings of Traffic and Granular Flow 2013 held in J\"ulich, German

Pedological Characteristics and Heavy Metals Contamination of the Paddy Soils in Taiwan

Extensive rice production on numerous alluviums and terraces in Taiwan has been done by the complete irrigation systems since the early and mid stages of the 20th century. Irrigation water and the fluctuation of groundwater play important roles in controlling the soil hydrology and redoximorphology. Redoximorphic features are consequently formed by the alternative wet and dry cycles, such as Fe soft masses, Fe and clay depletions and Fe-Mn nodules through the profiles of paddy soils. The saturated and reducing durations were specified associated with the definite redoximorphic features in the soils under a landscape unit. In the case studies of rice-growing Ultisols on red earth terrace in northwestern Taiwan, the optimum durations of saturation and reduction were about 50% of the year in the formation of redoxi-morphic features. This anthraquic condition could promote the formation of diverse redoximorphic features associated with plinthites. In the paddy soils of Taiwan, Entisols, Inceptisols, Alfisols, Ultisols, Mollisols and Oxisols are main Soil Orders based on Soil Taxonomy. On one hand considering by soil quality and food security of rice, heavy metal contamination is the main issue in rice production of Taiwan. On the other hand by rice market liberalization, changing the land use from paddy soils into non-waterlogged cropping has some problems in initial soil properties such as poor drainage and impeded root growth by the subsurface compacted layers for upland crops. Irrigation water for rice production in Taiwan has been contaminated by illegal discharges of industrial and livestock wastewater affecting the paddy soil qualities by heavy metals. According to the regulation for pollutants in Soil and Groundwater Pollution Remediation Act of Taiwan, the total seriously contaminated area by heavy metals is more than 300ha, especially by Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni and Pb contamination of rice in Taiwan. Due to the special profile morphology and hydrology of paddy soils, dilution by deep plowing and mixing, acid washing, chemical stabilization, and phytoremediation are major remediation technologies applied on the contaminated sites with pilot or field scales. However, the recovery of soil fertilities and ecological functions is needed to be evaluated after remediation.Special Revie

Testing mechanisms of compensatory fitness of dioecy in a cosexual world

Questions: All else being equal, populations of dioecious species with a 50:50 sex ratio have only half the effective reproductive population size of bisexual species of equal abundance. Consequently, there is a need to explain how dioecious and bisexual species coexist. Increased mean individual seed mass, fecundity, and population density have all been proposed as attributes of unisexual individuals or populations that may contribute to the persistence or resilience of dioecious species. To date, no studies have compared sympatric dioecious and cosexual species with respect to all three components of fitness. In this study, we sought evidence for these compensatory advantages (higher seed mass, greater seed production per unit basal area, and higher population density) in dioecious species. Location: Five 20–25 ha forest dynamic plots spanning a latitudinal gradient in China, including two temperate, two subtropical, and one tropical forest. Methods: We used a phylogenetically corrected generalized linear modelling approach to assess the phylogenetic dependence and joint evolution of sexual system, seed mass and production, and ecological abundances among 48–333 species and 32,568–136,237 individuals per forest. Results: Across all five forests, we detected no consistent advantage for dioecious relative to sympatric cosexual species with respect to mean individual seed mass, seed production or the density of stems in any size class. Conclusions: Our study suggests that seed traits may provide compensatory mechanisms in some forests, but most often the coexistence of sexual systems cannot be explained by advantages of dioecy related to seed quality and demographic parameters. Future investigations of the factors that promote coexistence may increase our understanding by expanding the search to include attributes such as lifespan and tolerance or resistance to herbivores

An Improved Image Contrast Assessment Method

Contrast is an important factor affecting the image quality. In order to overcome the problems of local band-limited contrast, a novel image contrast assessment method based on the property of HVS is proposed. Firstly, the image by low-pass filter is performed fast wavelet decomposition. Secondly, all levels of band-pass filtered image and its corresponding low-pass filtered image are obtained by processing wavelet coefficients. Thirdly, local band-limited contrast is calculated, and the local band-limited contrast entropy is calculated according to the definition of entropy. Finally, the contrast entropy of image is obtained by averaging the local band-limited contrast entropy weighed using CSF coefficient. The experiment results show that the best contrast image can be accurately identified in the sequence images obtained by adjusting the exposure time and stretching gray respectively, the assessment results accord with human visual characteristics and make up the lack of local band-limited contrast