Geochemistry and Inorganic Carbon Transport of a Glacial Till Drumlin at a Road Salt Facility

Investigations were conducted at a salt/premix storage facility lying on top of a glacial drumlin near the coastline in eastern Massachusetts, to characterize salt contaminated groundwater. Groundwater hydrogeochemical variations at different depths were determined based on ten years of monthly or quarterly water quality data from 54 monitoring wells. Groundwater was grouped in three water categories – shallow, middle and deep. Hydrogeochemical characterization indicates that the dominant water types are Na-Cl, Na-Ca-Cl and Ca-HCO3 from the shallow to deep water group. Rock weathering is the dominant hydrogeochemical process for deep water group, whereas salt water percolation and cation exchange control chemical compositions of the shallow and middle water groups. Groundwater is classified as post-cation exchange, under-cation exchange and non-cation exchange groups. Gaseous CO2 and total dissolved inorganic carbon (TDIC) transport in unsaturated and saturated zones of the glacial drumlin was also investigated. A measurement system with non-dispersive infrared gas sensors was used to monitor the recovery of CO2 concentration in the headspace of purged monitoring wells. The transient, radial diffusion of CO2 from surrounding soil to the monitoring well is analogous to an existing slug test theory when the headspace is fully mixed. A nested Fibonacci search was performed to calibrate equilibrium soil CO2 concentration and soil gas porosity near the water table. The results demonstrate that water table wells with partially submerged screens can facilitate the equilibrium between the gaseous and dissolved phase of CO2. In the saturated zone, a new model was developed to describe the vertical transport of TDIC in the groundwater. The vertical transport was considered to be a balance of uniform vertical advection and vertical dispersion, subject to a first order source term with two boundary conditions at depth and at the water table. Fifteen years of monthly or quarterly data from 28 monitoring wells in the southern part of the site were used to calibrate a vertical dispersivity α of 5.9 cm and a first order source constant λ of 8.2 x10-9 s-1. These values suggest minimal degassing of groundwater CO2 across the water table and till deposition during Late Wisconsinan deglaciation of the region

Impacts of climate change and fruit tree expansion on key hydrological components at different spatial scales

Assessing how fruit tree expansion and climate variability affect hydrological components (e.g., water yield, surface runoff, underground runoff, soil water, evapotranspiration, and infiltration) at different spatial scales is crucial for the management and protection of watersheds, ecosystems, and engineering design. The Jiujushui watershed (259.32 km2), which experienced drastic forest changes over the past decades, was selected to explore the response mechanisms of hydrological components to fruit tree expansion and climate variability at different spatial scales (whole basin and subbasin scale). Specifically, we set up two change scenarios (average temperature increase of 0.5°C and fruit tree area expansion of 18.97%) in the SWAT model by analyzing historical data (1961∼2011). Results showed that climate change reduced water yield, surface runoff, and underground runoff by 6.75, 0.37, and 5.91 mm, respectively. By contrast, the expansion of fruit trees increased surface runoff and water yield by 2.81 and 4.10 mm, respectively, but decreased underground runoff by 1 mm. Interestingly, the sub-basins showed different intensities and directions of response under climate change and fruit tree expansion scenarios. However, the downstream response was overall more robust than the upstream response. These results suggest that there may be significant differences in the hydrological effects of climate change and fruit tree expansion at different spatial scales, thus any land disturbance measures should be carefully considered

Insight of novel biomarkers for papillary thyroid carcinoma through multiomics

IntroductionThe overdiagnosing of papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) in China necessitates the development of an evidence-based diagnosis and prognosis strategy in line with precision medicine. A landscape of PTC in Chinese cohorts is needed to provide comprehensiveness.Methods6 paired PTC samples were employed for whole-exome sequencing, RNA sequencing, and data-dependent acquisition mass spectrum analysis. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis and protein-protein interactions networks were used to screen for hub genes. Moreover, we verified the hub genes' diagnostic and prognostic potential using online databases. Logistic regression was employed to construct a diagnostic model, and we evaluated its efficacy and specificity based on TCGA-THCA and GEO datasets.ResultsThe basic multiomics landscape of PTC among local patients were drawn. The similarities and differences were compared between the Chinese cohort and TCGA-THCA cohorts, including the identification of PNPLA5 as a driver gene in addition to BRAF mutation. Besides, we found 572 differentially expressed genes and 79 differentially expressed proteins. Through integrative analysis, we identified 17 hub genes for prognosis and diagnosis of PTC. Four of these genes, ABR, AHNAK2, GPX1, and TPO, were used to construct a diagnostic model with high accuracy, explicitly targeting PTC (AUC=0.969/0.959 in training/test sets).DiscussionMultiomics analysis of the Chinese cohort demonstrated significant distinctions compared to TCGA-THCA cohorts, highlighting the unique genetic characteristics of Chinese individuals with PTC. The novel biomarkers, holding potential for diagnosis and prognosis of PTC, were identified. Furthermore, these biomarkers provide a valuable tool for precise medicine, especially for immunotherapeutic or nanomedicine based cancer therapy

Stability analysis of a k-out-of-N:G reparable system

A k-out-of-N:G reparable system with an arbitrarily distributed repair time is studied in this paper. We translate the system into an Abstract Cauchy Problem (ACP). Analysing the spectrum of the system operator helps us to prove the well-posedness and the asymptotic stability of the system

Computational Scheme for the First-Order Linear Integro-Differential Equations Based on the Shifted Legendre Spectral Collocation Method

First-order linear Integro-Differential Equations (IDEs) has a major importance in modeling of some phenomena in sciences and engineering. The numerical solution for the first-order linear IDEs is usually obtained by the finite-differences methods. However, the convergence rate of the finite-differences method is limited by the order of the differences in L1 space. Therefore, how to design a computational scheme for the first-order linear IDEs with computational efficiency becomes an urgent problem to be solved. To this end, a polynomial approximation scheme based on the shifted Legendre spectral collocation method is proposed in this paper. First, we transform the first-order linear IDEs into an Cauchy problem for consideration. Second, by decomposing the system operator, we rewrite the Cauchy problem into a more general form for approximating. Then, by using the shifted Legendre spectral collocation method, we construct a computational scheme and write it into an abstract version. The convergence of the scheme is proven in the sense of L1-norm by employing Trotter-Kato theorem. At the end of this paper, we summarize the usage of the scheme into an algorithm and present some numerical examples to show the applications of the algorithm

Dynamic Analysis of Software Systems with Aperiodic Impulse Rejuvenation

This paper aims to obtain the dynamical solution and instantaneous availability of software systems with aperiodic impulse rejuvenation. Firstly, we formulate the generic system with a group of coupled impulsive differential equations and transform it into an abstract Cauchy problem. Then we adopt a difference scheme and establish the convergence of this scheme by applying the Trotter–Kato theorem to obtain the system’s dynamical solution. Moreover, the instantaneous availability as an important evaluation index for software systems is derived, and its range is also estimated. At last, numerical examples are shown to illustrate the validity of theoretical results