Quartz enhanced photoacoustic H2S gas sensor based on a fiber-amplifier source and a custom tuning fork with large prong spacing

A quartz enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) sensor, employing an erbium-doped fiber amplified laser source and a custom quartz tuning fork (QTF) with its two prongs spaced ∼800 μm apart, is reported. The sensor employs an acoustic micro-resonator (AmR) which is assembled in an “on-beam” QEPAS configuration. Both length and vertical position of the AmR are optimized in terms of signal-to-noise ratio, significantly improving the QEPAS detection sensitivity by a factor of ∼40, compared to the case of a sensor using a bare custom QTF. The fiber-amplifier-enhanced QEPAS sensor is applied to H2S trace gas detection, reaching a sensitivity of ∼890 ppb at 1 s integration time, similar to those obtained with a power-enhanced QEPAS sensor equipped with a standard QTF, but with the advantages of easy optical alignment, simple installation, and long-term stability

Dawning public health services dogma:An indigenous Southwest Chinese perspective in managing hypertension-with or without the “BPHS”?

BACKGROUND: To alleviate the rising mortality burden due to hypertension and other non-communicable diseases, a new public health policy initiative in 2009 called the Basic Public Health Services (BPHS). Program was introduced by the Chinese government. The goal of the study is to assess the feasibility and impact of a nationwide health care service—the “BPHS”. METHODS: From January to December 2021, a stratified multistage random sampling method in the survey was conducted to select 6,456 people from 8 cities/districts in Yunnan Province, China, who were above the age of 35 years. 1,521 hypertensive patients were previously aware of their high blood pressure status were matched to the BPHS program database based on ID number and then further divided into BPHS group and non-BPHS (control) group. The results of the current study are based on their responses to a short structured questionnaire, a physical examination, and laboratory tests. The association between BPHS management and its effect on the control of hypertension was estimated using multivariable logistic regression models. We evaluated the accessibility and efficacy of BPHS health care services by analyzing various variables such as blood pressure, BMI, lifestyle modification, anti-hypertensive drugs taken, and cardiovascular risk factors. RESULTS: Among the 1,521 hypertensive patients included in this study, 1,011 (66.5%) were managed by BPHS programme. The multivariable logistic regression model demonstrated that the BPHS facilitated hypertension control (OR = 1.640, 95% CI: 1.237–2.175). A higher proportion of participants receiving lifestyle guidance from the BPHS management showed lowering of total cholesterol. In comparison to the non-BPHS group, those under BPHS management adhered better to antihypertensive medications either single drug (54.3%) or in combination (17.3%) of drugs. Additionally, we also noticed that urban areas with centralized and well-established digital information management system had better hypertension treatment and control. CONCLUSIONS: Nearly two-thirds of the hypertensive patients in Yunnan Province were included in BPHS management. The impact of the national BPHS program was evident in lowering risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, promoting healthy lifestyles, lowering blood pressure, increasing medication adherence, and the better control rate of hypertension

Imperfective and perfective aspect comprehension in bilingual Mandarin-English children

textAs bilingual populations continue to grow throughout the world, there is a greater need to better understand how language is acquired in bilinguals and find common patterns of language development for clinical purposes. The goal of this study is to better understand the acquisition of aspect markers in bilingual Mandarin-English children who are growing up in an English-dominant environment. 14 typically developing bilingual children from ages 3 to 5 participated in the study. Children were asked to interpret a spoken sentence that contained either a perfective or imperfect aspect by selecting the correct picture on a computer screen. Results revealed significant correlations between performance on --ed and --le, the perfective aspect markers in English and Mandarin, and provided evidence of morphosyntactic transfer with respect to aspect marking. No significant correlation was found for --ing and zai, the imperfective aspect markers for English and Mandarin. Also, children performed significantly better when comprehending sentences with imperfective aspects. In addition, significant correlations were found between age and aspect proficiency, but not between amount of current language use and aspect proficiency. Finally, clinical implications and future directions are discussed.Communication Sciences and Disorder

Rs-198 Liquid Biofertilizers Affect Microbial Community Diversity and Enzyme Activities and Promote Vitis vinifera L. Growth

Chemical fertilizers were applied on perennial tree vines to obtain high yields, which have resulted in considerable deterioration of soil quality, and it is likely to have negative impacts on the development of the grape industry. In this study, P. putida Rs-198 liquid biofertilizer (Rs198LBF) was inoculated into grape rhizosphere soils to assess its influence on grape growth and microbial community. Field experiment results showed that grape growth and quality increased depending on the concentrations of Rs198LBF applications. The berry weight, length, and width in addition with 60 ml Rs198LBF (1.44×1013 cfu ml−1 Rs-198) per grapevine treatment (BFP3) were 17.2%, 6.2%, and 4.4% higher than those of CK (control, non-inoculation) treatment, respectively. The available phosphorus contents in addition with 40 ml Rs198LBF per grapevine (BFP2) and BFP3 treatments were 12.6% and 55.3% higher than those of CK treatment (P<0.05). The activities of invertase and alkaline phosphatase were improved in BFP2 and BFP3 treatment compared with those in CK. The relative abundance of potentially beneficial bacteria significantly increased compared with that in CK treatment (P<0.05). The clusters of orthologous groups (COG) annotation illustrated that the application of 60 ml Rs198LBF increased the relative abundance of metabolic genes in rhizosphere soil. The results of this study show that biofertilizer is very effective in enhancing plant growth and affects soil community diversity

Quartz-enhanced conductance spectroscopy for nanomechanical analysis of polymer wire

Quartz-enhanced conductance spectroscopy is developed as an analytical tool to investigate dynamic nanomechanical behaviors of polymer wires, in order to determine the glass transition temperature (Tg). A polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) microwire with a diameter of 10 μm was bridged across the prongs of a quartz tuning fork (QTF). With the advantage of QTF self-sensing as compared with micro-cantilevers or other resonators, the resonance frequency and Q factor can be directly determined by means of its electrical conductance spectra with respect to the frequency of the external excitation source (dI/dV vs f), and therefore, no optical beam is required. The Tg of the PMMA microwire was determined by the maximum loss modulus of the QTF, calculated from the resonance frequency and the Q factor as a function of temperature. The measured Tg of the PMMA is 103 °C with an error of ±2 °C. Both heating/cooling and physical aging experiments were carried out, demonstrating that the technique is both reversible and reproducible

Effect of Chronic Administration of Low Dose Rapamycin on Development and Immunity in Young Rats.

Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) regulates cell growth, cell differentiation and protein synthesis. Rapamycin, an inhibitor of mTOR, has been widely used as an immunosuppressant and anti-cancer drug. Recently, mTOR inhibitors have also been reported to be a potential anti-epileptic drug, which may be effective when used in young patients with genetic epilepsy. Thus, a suitable dose of rapamycin which can maintain the normal function of mTOR and has fewer side effects ideally should be identified. In the present study, we first detected changes in marker proteins of mTOR signaling pathway during development. Then we determined the dose of rapamycin by treating rats of 2 weeks of age with different doses of rapamycin for 3 days and detected its effect on mTOR pathway. Young rats were then treated with a suitable dose of rapamycin for 4 weeks and the effect of rapamycin on mTOR, development and immunity were investigated. We found that the expression of the marker proteins of mTOR pathway was changed during development in brain hippocampus and neocortex. After 3 days of treanent, 0.03 mg/kg rapamycin had no effect on phospho-S6, whereas 0.1, 0.3, 1.0 and 3.0 mg/kg rapamycin inhibited phospho-S6 in a dose-dependent manner. However, only 1.0 mg/kg and 3.0 mg/kg rapamycin inhibited phospho-S6 after 4 weeks treatment of rapamycin. Parallel to this result, rats treated with 0.1 and 0.3 mg/kg rapamycin had no obvious adverse effects, whereas rats treated with 1.0 and 3.0 mg/kg rapamycin showed significant decreases in body, spleen and thymus weight. Additionally, rats treated with 1.0 and 3.0 mg/kg rapamycin exhibited cognitive impairment and anxiety as evident by maze and open field experiments. Furthermore, the content of IL-1β, IL-2, IFN-γ, TNF-α in serum and cerebral cortex were significantly decreased in 1.0 and 3.0 mg/kg rapamycin-treated rats. The expression of DCX was also significantly decreased in 1.0 and 3.0 mg/kg rapamycin-treated rats. However, rats treated with 1.0 mg/kg rapamycin exhibited fewer and milder side effects than those treated with 3.0 mg/kg. In summary, all these data suggest that there is not a rapamycin dose that can inhibit mTOR for epilepsy without causing any side effects, but 1 mg/kg may be the optimal dose for young rats for suppressing mTOR with relatively few side effects

A Landslide Susceptibility Evaluation of Highway Disasters Based on the Frequency Ratio Coupling Model

A landslide disaster, especially a highway landslide, may greatly impact the transport capacity of nearby roads. Keeping highways open, in particular, is crucial for supporting the functioning of the economy, society and people. Therefore, evaluating the highway landslide susceptibility is particularly important. In this paper, the city of Laibin, in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China, was taken as the study zone. According to data on 641 highway landslide disaster points measured in the field and a basic evaluation of the study area, nine evaluation factors&mdash;the elevation, slope, aspect, height difference, plan curve, profile curve, precipitation, Topographic Wetness Index (TWI) and vegetation coverage&mdash;were selected. We coupled a Frequency Ratio (FR) model, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Logistic Regression (LR), Back Propagation Neural Network (BPNN) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) to evaluate the susceptibility to highway landslides, with a Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve used to analyze the precision of these models. The ROC curve showed that the accuracy of the five models was greater than 0.700 and thus had a certain reliability. Among them, the FR-LR model had the highest accuracy, at 0.804. The study protocol presented here can therefore provide a reference for evaluation studies on landslide susceptibility in other areas