Quantified mass loss of the Laohugou ice core and its precipitation signal during 1961–2005 at high elevation in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau

Ice records provide a qualitative rather than a quantitative indication of the trend of climate change. Using the bulk aerodynamic method and degree day model, this study quantified ice mass loss attributable to sublimation/evaporation (S/E) and meltwater on the basis of integrated observations (1960–2006) of glacier-related and atmospheric variables in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau. During 1961–2005, the average annual mass loss in the ice core was 95.33 ± 20.56 mm w.e. (minimum: 78.97 mm w.e. in 1967, maximum: 146.67 mm w.e. in 2001), while the average ratio of the revised annual ice accumulation was 21.2 ± 7.7% (minimum: 11.0% in 1992, maximum 44.8% in 2000). A quantitative formula expressing the relationship between S/E and air temperature at the monthly scale was established, which could be extended to estimation of S/E changes of other glaciers in other regions. The elevation effect on alpine precipitation determined using revised ice accumulation and instrumental data was found remarkable. This work established a method for quantitative assessment of the temporal variation in ice core mass loss, and advanced the reconstruction of long-term precipitation at high elevations. Importantly, the formula established for reconstruction of S/E from temperature time series data could be used in other regions

GRIK3 rs490647 is a Common Genetic Variant between Personality and Subjective Well-being in Chinese Han Population

Personality and subjective well-being (SWB) have been suggested to be strongly related in previous studies. This study was intended to confirm the relationship between personality and SWB and tried to seek out the genetic variants which underlie both personality and SWB. The subjects were 890 participants from Chinese Han population. We evaluated their personality using the Big Five Inventory (BFI) and used the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) to reflect their SWB. Five single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were selected from the literature (rs1426371, rs2164273, rs322931, rs3756290, rs490647) and genotyped for genetic association study. We found negative correlations between neuroticism and SWB. On the contrary, extraversion and agreeableness were positively associated with SWB. Three SNPs (rs2164273, rs3756290, rs490647) out of the five were found to connect with personality (extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness and openness to experience) and rs490647 variants of GRIK3 was also associated with SWB. Individuals carrying G allele at this site were predisposed to have lower risk to be neuroticism and greater chance to be extraverted, open and satisfied with their life. In summary, our study revealed that rs490647 might be a good candidate genetic variant for personality and SWB in Chinese Han population

Temporal evolution of aerosols and their extreme events in polluted Asian regions during Terra's 20-year observations

Aerosol pollution is an acute environmental issue in developing countries. Asia has been experiencing rapid changes in anthropogenic aerosols during the past two decades due to fast growth in population and economy. It is still an open question how aerosol loadings, represented by aerosol optical depth (AOD), have evolved in this century, particularly during the past decade when China and India implemented a clean air act aiming to improve air quality. Based on Terra aerosol retrievals and aerosol reanalysis, a change point of AOD trend is detected at 2010 in East China versus a persistent increasing AOD trend in the Indian subcontinent with no detectable change point from 2000 to 2019. In East China, positive AOD trend (+0.11 +/- 0.022 decade- 1) is confirmed from 2000 to 2010 (hereinafter the former period) yet negative trend (-0.26 +/- 0.027 decade- 1) is identified from 2011 to 2019 (hereinafter the later period). In the Indian subcontinent, persistent positive trend (+0.04 +/- 0.001) is detected from 2000 to 2019 (hereinafter the whole period). All of these trends are attributed mainly to changes in sulfate aerosols. Further analysis of the aerosol pollution extreme events (APEE; defined as daily AOD over the long-term local 90th AOD percentile) manifest a positive trend (+0.16 +/- 0.029 decade- 1) of the APEEs' magnitude in East China during the former period yet a negative trend (-0.11 +/- 0.020 decade- 1) during the latter period; the Indian subcontinent demonstrates a positive trend (+0.02 +/- 0.004 decade- 1) during the whole period due to increasing sulfate aerosols. The APEEs have become more frequent (+3.5 +/- 0.53 day month-1 decade- 1) in East China during the former period yet less frequent (-3.6 +/- 0.39 day month-1 decade-1) during the latter period; in the Indian subcontinent, more frequent APEEs (+1.1 +/- 0.25 day month-1 decade- 1) have been detected during the whole period. Consistent with the AOD trends, clear-sky radiation in East China shows a negative trend at the surface (-3.2 +/- 0.67 W m- 2 decade- 1), a positive trend in the atmosphere (+1.4 +/- 0.68 decade- 1), and a negative trend at the top of the atmosphere (-1.8 +/- 0.43 decade- 1) during the former period, respectively; opposite trends with much larger magnitude are seen during the latter period. In the Indian subcontinent, the clear-sky radiation trends during the whole period are -1.4 +/- 0.38, +1.7 +/- 0.31, and + 0.5 +/- 0.16 W m- 2 decade- 1 at the surface, in the atmosphere, and at the top of the atmosphere, respectively. Comparison of radiation trends at clear-sky and all-sky conditions suggests that absorbing aerosols dominate the radiation budget in the atmosphere and the aerosol reanalysis of the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research ans Applications version 2 (MERRA-2) might overestimate the radiation response to clouds. This study provides an up-to-date analysis of the long-term trends in aerosols and their extreme events and radiation in two of the world's heavily polluted regions and the results have important implications for assessment of the environmental and climatic impacts of the ongoing clean air acts in Asia.Peer reviewe

Emission characteristics and exposure assessment of particulate matter and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) from waste printed circuit boards de-soldering.

Heating processes for the removal of electronic components from waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs) is an important step in the chain of electronic waste recycling, and toxic fumes are generated during the de-soldering process, causing environmental pollution and posing health risks for the workers. This study is aimed to characterize emission and deposition fluxes of respirable particulate matter (PM), and assess exposure of workers to particle-bound polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). An electrical low-pressure impactor was used to measure the real-time PM concentrations inside and outside the hood during the WPCBs de-soldering process. The results show that PM mass concentration inside the hood (204 mg/m3) was significantly higher than outside the hood (9.4 mg/m3), representing 95.4% PM removal by the hood. According to the International Commission on Radiological Protection model, the total deposition fluxes of PM in head airways region, tracheobronchial region, and alveolar region were determined as 1930, 74.0, and 123 μg/h, respectively. The deposition flux for coarse particles (2.5-10 μm) in the head airways was the largest (1830 μg/h), accounting for 86.1% of total PM deposited in respiratory system. The ∑8PBDEs concentration in PM10 inside the WPCBs de-soldering workshop was 20,300 pg/m3, and the ∑8PBDEs inhalation exposure for the worker was 1.46 ng/kg/day. This study improves understanding of PM emission mechanisms and provides fundamental data for health assessments during WPCBs de-soldering process

How Does COVID-19 Lockdown Impact Air Quality in India?

Air pollution is a severe environmental problem in the Indian subcontinent. Largely caused by the rapid growth of the population, industrialization, and urbanization, air pollution can adversely affect human health and environment. To mitigate such adverse impacts, the Indian government launched the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) in January 2019. Meanwhile, the unexpected city-lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 in India greatly reduced human activities and thus anthropogenic emissions of gaseous and aerosol pollutants. The NCAP and the lockdown could provide an ideal field experiment for quantifying the extent to which various levels of human activity reduction impact air quality in the Indian subcontinent. Here, we study the improvement in air quality due to COVID-19 and the NCAP in the India subcontinent by employing multiple satellite products and surface observations. Satellite data shows significant reductions in nitrogen dioxide (NO2) by 17% and aerosol optical depth (AOD) by 20% during the 2020 lockdown with reference to the mean levels between 2005–2019. No persistent reduction in NO2 nor AOD is detectable during the NCAP period (2019). Surface observations show consistent reductions in PM2.5 and NO2 during the 2020 lockdown in seven cities across the Indian subcontinent, except Mumbai in Central India. The increase in relative humidity and the decrease in the planetary boundary layer also play an important role in influencing air quality during the 2020 lockdown. With the decrease in aerosols during the lockdown, net radiation fluxes show positive anomalies at the surface and negative anomalies at the top of the atmosphere over most parts of the Indian subcontinent. The results of this study could provide valuable information for policymakers in South Asia to adjust the scientific measures proposed in the NCAP for efficient air pollution mitigation

Projecting regional climate and cropland changes using a linked biogeophysical‐socioeconomic modeling framework: 1. Model description and an equilibrium application over West Africa

Agricultural land use alters regional climate through modifying the surface mass, energy, and momentum fluxes; climate influences agricultural land use through their impact on crop yields. These interactions are not well understood and have not been adequately considered in climate projections. This study tackles the critical linkages within the coupled natural-human system of West Africa in a changing climate based on an equilibrium application of a modeling framework that asynchronously couples models of regional climate, crop yield, multimarket agricultural economics, and cropland expansion. Using this regional modeling framework driven with two global climate models, we assess the contributions of land use change (LUC) and greenhouse gas (GHGs) concentration changes to regional climate changes and assess the contribution of climate change and socioeconomic factors to agricultural land use changes. For future cropland expansion in West Africa, our results suggest that socioeconomic development would be the dominant driver in the east (where current cropland coverage is already high) and climate changes would be the primary driver in the west (where future yield drop is severe). For future climate, it is found that agricultural expansion would cause a dry signal in the west and a wet signal in the east downwind, with an east-west contrast similar to the GHG-induced changes. Over a substantial portion of West Africa, the strength of the LUC-induced climate signals is comparable to the GHG-induced changes. Uncertainties originating from the driving global models are small; human decision making related to land use and international trade is a major source of uncertainty

p120‐catenin suppresses proliferation and tumor growth of oral squamous cell carcinoma via inhibiting nuclear phospholipase C‐γ1 signaling

p120-catenin (p120) serves as a stabilizer of the calcium-dependent cadherin-catenin complex and loss of p120 expression has been observed in several types of human cancers. The p120-dependent E-cadherin-β-catenin complex has been shown to mediate calcium-induced keratinocyte differentiation via inducing activation of plasma membrane phospholipase C-γ1 (PLC-γ1). On the other hand, PLC-γ1 has been shown to interact with phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase enhancer in the nucleus and plays a critical role in epidermal growth factor-induced proliferation of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) cells. To determine whether p120 suppresses OSCC proliferation and tumor growth via inhibiting PLC-γ1, we examined effects of p120 knockdown or p120 and PLC-γ1 double knockdown on proliferation of cultured OSCC cells and tumor growth in xenograft OSCC in mice. The results showed that knockdown of p120 reduced levels of PLC-γ1 in the plasma membrane and increased levels of PLC-γ1 and its signaling in the nucleus in OSCC cells and OSCC cell proliferation as well as xenograft OSCC tumor growth. However, double knockdown of p120 and PLC-γ1 or knockdown of PLC-γ1 alone did not have any effect. Immunohistochemical analysis of OSCC tissue from patients showed a lower expression level of p120 and a higher expression level of PLC-γ1 compared with that of adjacent noncancerous tissue. These data indicate that p120 suppresses OSCC cell proliferation and tumor growth by inhibiting signaling mediated by nuclear PLC-γ1

A simple method to isolate structurally and chemically intact brain vascular basement membrane for neural regeneration following traumatic brain injury

Abstract Background The brain vascular basement membrane (brain-VBM) is an important component of the brain extracellular matrix, and the three-dimensional structure of the cerebrovascular network nested with many cell-adhesive proteins may provide guidance for brain tissue regeneration. However, the potential of ability of brain-VBM to promote neural tissue regeneration has not been examined due to the technical difficulty of isolating intact brain-VBM. Methods The present study developed a simple, effective method to isolate structurally and compositionally intact brain-VBM. Structural and component properties of the brain-VBM were characterized to confirm the technique. Seed cells were cocultured with brain-VBM in vitro to analyze biocompatibility and neurite extension. An experimental rat model of focal traumatic brain injury (TBI) induced by controlled cortical impact were conducted to further test the tissue regeneration ability of brain-VBM. Results Brain-VBM isolated using genipin showed significantly improved mechanical properties, was easy to handle, supported high cell viability, exhibited strong cell adhesive properties, and promoted neurite extension and outgrowth. Further testing of the isolated brain-VBM transplanted at lesion sites in an experimental rat model of focal TBI demonstrated considerable promise for reconstructing a complete blood vessel network that filled in the lesion cavity and promoting repopulation of neural progenitor cells and neurons. Conclusion The technique allows isolation of intact brain-VBM as a 3D microvascular scaffold to support brain tissue regeneration following TBI and shows considerable promise for the production of naturally-derived biomaterials for neural tissue engineering. Graphical Abstrac