Future changes in the vertical structure of severe convective storm environments over the U.S. central Great Plains

The effect of warming on severe convective storm potential is commonly explained in terms of changes in vertically-integrated ("bulk") environmental parameters, such as CAPE and 0--6 km shear. However, such events are known to depend on details of the vertical structure of the thermodynamic and kinematic environment that can change independently of these bulk parameters. This work examines how warming may affect the complete vertical structure of these environments for fixed ranges of values of high CAPE and bulk shear, using data over the central Great Plains from two high-performing climate models. Temperature profiles warm relatively uniformly with height, with a slight decrease in free tropospheric lapse rate, and the tropopause shifts upwards at constant temperature. The boundary layer becomes slightly drier (-2--4\% relative humidity) while the free troposphere becomes slightly moister (+2--3\%). Moist static energy (MSE) increases relatively uniformly with height with slightly larger increase within the boundary layer. Moist static energy deficit increases slightly above 4 km altitude. Wind shear and storm-relative helicity increase within the lowest 1.5 km associated with stronger hodograph curvature. Changes are broadly consistent between the two models despite differing biases relative to ERA5. The increased low-level shear and SRH suggests an increased potential for severe thunderstorms and tornadoes, while the slight increase in free tropospheric MSE deficit (enhanced entrainment) and decrease in boundary layer relative humidity (higher LCL) may oppose these effects. Evaluation of the net response of severe convective storm outcomes cannot be ascertained here but could be explored in simulation experiments

Adaptive Spatio-Temporal Convolutional Network for Traffic Prediction

Traffic prediction is a crucial task in many real-world applications. The task is challenging due to the implicit and dynamic spatio-temporal dependencies among traffic data. On the one hand, the spatial dependencies among traffic flows are latent and fluctuate with environmental conditions. On the other hand, the temporal dependencies among traffic flows also vary significantly over time and locations. In this paper, we propose Adaptive Spatio-Temporal Convolutional Network (ASTCN) to tackle these challenges. First, we propose a spatial graph learning module that learns the dynamic spatial relations among traffic data based on multiple influential factors. Furthermore, we design an adaptive temporal convolution module that captures complex temporal traffic dependencies with environment-aware dynamic filters. We conduct extensive experiments on three real-world traffic datasets. The results demonstrate that the proposed ASTCN consistently outperforms state-of-the-arts.Peer reviewe

Crop insurance and agrochemical use in the Manasi Watershed, Xinjiang, China

This study investigates the environmental impact of a government subsidy program for crop insurance in China. It looks at how crop insurance scheme in Xinjiang province affects the way cotton farmers use fertilizers, pesticides and plastic agro-film. These three inputs cause significant environmental problems in the region and there is a need to ensure that their over-use is not encouraged. The study finds that crop insurance helps protect farmers from the economic impact of crop failures, with a minimal negative impact on the environment. The only significant impact is a potential slight increase in agro-film use. In fact, crop insurance helps reduce the amount of pesticides cotton growers use. In light of these findings, the study concludes that a government-subsidized crop insurance program is an acceptable policy and proposes a number of ideas for minimizing any residual environmental impact it might have

Neurospheres from rat adipose-derived stem cells could be induced into functional Schwann cell-like cells in vitro

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Schwann cells (SC) which are myelin-forming cells in peripheral nervous system are very useful for the treatment of diseases of peripheral nervous system and central nervous system. However, it is difficult to obtain sufficient large number of SC for clinical use, so alternative cell systems are desired.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using a procedure similar to the one used for propagation of neural stem cells, we could induce rat adipose-derived stem cells (ADSC) into floating neurospheres. In addition to being able to differentiate into neuronal- and glial-like cells, neurospheres could be induced to differentiate into SC-like cells. SC-like cells were bi- or tri-polar in shape and immunopositive for nestin and SC markers p75, GFAP and S-100, identical to genuine SC. We also found that SC-like cells could induce the differentiation of SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells efficiently, perhaps through secretion of soluble substances. We showed further that SC-like cells could form myelin structures with PC12 cell neurites in vitro.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These findings indicated that ADSC could differentiate into SC-like cells in terms of morphology, phenotype and functional capacities. SC-like cells induced from ADSC may be useful for the treatment of neurological diseases.</p

Enhanced effect of microdystrophin gene transfection by HSV-VP22 mediated intercellular protein transport

Background: Duchenne musclar dystrophy (DMD) is an X-linked recessive disease caused by mutations of dystrophin gene, there is no effective treatment for this disorder at present. Plasmidmediated gene therapy is a promising therapeutical approach for the treatment of DMD. One of the major issues with plasmid-mediated gene therapy for DMD is poor transfection efficiency and distribution. The herpes simplex virus protein VP22 has the capacity to spread from a primary transduced cell to surrounding cells and improve the outcome of gene transfer. To improve the efficiency of plasmid-mediated gene therapy and investigate the utility of the intercellular trafficking properties of VP22-linked protein for the treatment for DMD, expression vectors for C-terminal versions of VP22-microdystrophin fusion protein was constructed and the VP22-mediated shuttle effect was evaluated both in vitro and in vivo. Results: Our results clearly demonstrate that the VP22-microdystrophin fusion protein could transport into C2C12 cells from 3T3 cells, moreover, the VP22-microdystrophin fusion protein enhanced greatly the amount of microdystrophin that accumulated following microdystrophin gene transfer in both transfected 3T3 cells and in the muscles of dystrophin-deficient (mdx) mice. Conclusion: These results highlight the efficiency of the VP22-mediated intercellular protein delivery for potential therapy of DMD and suggested that protein transduction may be a potential and versatile tool to enhance the effects of gene delivery for somatic gene therapy of DMD.National Natural Science Foundation of China (30370510, 30170337); CMB Fund (4209347); the Key Project of the State Ministry of Public Health (2001321); and National Nature Science Foundation of China (30400322)

On the Production of Severe Convective Storm Environments in North and South America

This work centers on a fundamental question related to the geography of severe weather on Earth – why the United States has the most tornadoes in the world? We mainly use global climate model (GCM) experiments, combined with observations and theories, to test several hypotheses toward understanding this question. Ultimately, our results emphasize the role of large-scale surface roughness in modulating continental severe thunderstorm and tornadic environments and low-level circulation, which adds a critical missing ingredient in the conventional conceptual understanding of the geographic controls of severe weather hotspots on Earth.We first provide a comprehensive climatological analysis and evaluation of severe thunderstorm environments over North America as well as the associated synoptic-scale features that frequently generate them, in a new high-resolution global reanalysis dataset (ERA5) and a GCM (CESM CAM6) historical simulation. Overall, they both reasonably reproduce severe thunderstorm environments and the relevant synoptic-scale features.We then combine theory and the MERRA-2 reanalysis data to provide foundations to a scaling CAPE (convective available potential energy) framework. We demonstrate that the scaling CAPE formula, which uses environmental data alone without lifting a hypothetical air parcel, can easily estimate true CAPE given several assumptions. Using the scaling CAPE framework, we further evaluate the performance of 13 CMIP6 models in simulating the historical climatology of severe thunderstorm environments in the United States. Overall, model errors in severe thunderstorm environments arise primarily due to errors in the average temperature and moisture of near-surface air, though a few models (MPI and CNRM) quantitatively well reproduce the magnitude and spatial pattern of severe thunderstorm environments.The frequent and intense severe thunderstorm environments over the eastern half of North America have been ascribed to the existence of elevated terrain to the west and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. Yet, to what extent each of them is necessary for producing severe thunderstorm environments in North America has not been examined. We conduct GCM experiments using CAM6, with North American topography removed and the Gulf of Mexico converted to land, respectively, to show that these severe thunderstorm environments depend strongly on upstream elevated terrain but more weakly on the Gulf of Mexico, though the Gulf of Mexico affects their spatial footprint.A similar geographic setup is also found in South America, where the Andes Mountains stretch from north to south similar to the Rockies, and the Amazon basin is as warm and moist as tropical oceans. However, quite fewer tornadoes occur in South America than North America though both have frequent severe thunderstorm. We further show, by conducting GCM and idealized GCM experiments, that the upstream surface roughness drives the contrast in tornado potential between North and South America. A smoother upstream surface permits stronger easterly trade winds that feed the poleward low-level winds flowing downstream into the continental interiorLastly, we show a tug-of-way between elevated terrain and large-scale surface roughness in modulating continental low-level atmospheric circulation. With GCM experiments conducted in North America, we demonstrate that the uplift of elevated terrain intensifies low-level winds along the foothills by strengthening synoptic-scale processes including lee cyclogenesis, whereas the strong large-scale surface roughness slows down low-level winds by increasing surface friction that deepens boundary layer. These results provide valuable insights into understanding the climatology of the poleward low-level winds including lowlevel jet in central North and South America, whose variance strongly modulates moisture transport and hence the continental-scale weather and climate

Automatic identification and quantification of safety risks embedded in design stage: a BIM-enhanced approach

Design stage plays a decisive role in safety risk management of the whole life cycle for construction projects. However, existing research mostly pay attention to post-accident management and lack pre-management consciousness. Based on the concept of design for safety (DFS), this paper explains how design optimization can enhance the safety performance for construction projects. Firstly, use accident causality theory and trajectory crossing theory to clarify the logical relationship between safety accidents and design process. Then, identify risk sources of safety accidents in deep foundation pit of subway projects and form a safety management knowledge base. Thirdly, based on design and review rules in the knowledge base and improved FEC risk quantification method, quantify the design oriented subway construction safety risks. Finally, use BIM secondary development technology to realize automatic examination and visualization of safety risks. A case study was conducted to verify this research framework. This paper can be a supplement to the existing risk management theoretical research

Landscape Pattern Changes Affect Runoff and Sediment Yield in the Nandong Underground River System in Southwest China

Since 2008, soil and water treatment and ecological restoration have been applied in the karst areas of Southwest China, but the effect of the treatments in karst fault basins is not clear. As a typical watershed of a faulted basin, studying the influence of landscape pattern changes on runoff and sediment yields in the Nandong underground river system (NURS) helps to establish the relationship between watershed and runoff and sediment changes. It provides a theoretical basis and effective method for water and soil management assessment, and soil and water treatment in karst fault basins. The vegetation topographic factor (VTF) was constructed using the normalized vegetation index (NDVI), digital elevation model (DEM) and water-system map from 2000 to 2018. On the basis of VTF classification, the vegetation topographic landscape index (VTLI) was calculated using the FRAGSTATS software, and the effects of VTLI changes on NURS runoff and sediment yield were analyzed. The study found the following: (1) PD, IJI, LSI and SHDI were positively correlated with runoff and sediment yield (p p p < 0.05), and the correlation coefficients were −0.179 and 0.271, respectively. (2) The interpretation of VTLI for runoff increased from 0.639 to 0.778, and the interpretation of sediment transport decreased from 0.809 to 0.613. (3) In urban areas, VTF decreased and was persistent. VTF increased in the basin mountain edge area. In mountainous areas, VTF was unchanged, but has an antipersistence trend. The NURS ecological restoration project had achieved obvious results, and the change in the watershed increased runoff production and reduced sediment production. The capacity of soil and water conservation in the high slope area of the mountain edge of the basin recovered and showed a trend of sustainable development. Due to the urban expansion brought about by economic development, the capacity of soil and water conservation around the city has declined, and it showed a sustainable development trend. Policymakers should strengthen the ecological environment of urban areas and coordinate development within mountainous areas