Pulling cylindrical particles using a soft-nonparaxial tractor beam

In order to pull objects towards the light source a single tractor beam inevitably needs to be strongly nonparaxial. This stringent requirement makes such a tractor beam somewhat hypothetical. Here we reveal that the cylindrical shape of dielectric particles can effectively mitigate the nonparaxiality requirements, reducing the incidence angle of the partial plane waves of the light beam down to 45° and even to 30° for respectively dipole and dipole-quadrupole objects. The optical pulling force attributed to the interaction of magnetic dipole and magnetic quadrupole moments of dielectric cylinders occurs due to the TE rather than TM polarization. Therefore, the polarization state of the incident beam can be utilized as an external control for switching between the pushing and pulling forces. The results have application values towards optical micromanipulation, transportation and sorting of targeted particles

Investigation of PMSE echoes characteristics using the discontinuous EISCAT UHF observation and its relation with space environment

The observations of Polar Mesosphere Summer Echoes (PMSE) were carried out using the sporadic data of EISCAT UHF radar during the summer season from 2004 to 2015. There were 25 h of PMSE echoes with EISCAT UHF radar. PMSE echoes were mostly observed only during the early morning and fore-noon time. Moreover, the PMSE echoes are positively correlated with Lyman α radiation, but the correlation is non-significant. The occurrence of PMSE echoes in the early morning and fore-noon time and there positive correlation with Lyman α radiation suggests that solar radiations might be one important factor for PMSE echoes in this study. Very weak positive, but statistically non-significant correlation is found between PMSE occurrence rate and the local geomagnetic K-indices. It is found that there is a matching between the variation in the occurrence rate of PMSE and noctilucent clouds (NLC) up to some extent and they are positively correlated. This positive correlation might support the earlier proposed idea about the role of ice particle size in producing PMSE echoes at higher frequencies

Active surveillance and clinical analysis of anaphylaxis based on the China Hospital Pharmacovigilance System

Objective: This study aimed to develop active surveillance programs (ASPs) for anaphylaxis using the China Hospital Pharmacovigilance System (CHPS) and analyze the characteristics, allergens, and management strategies for anaphylaxis within a tertiary hospital setting in China.Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the anaphylaxis cases reported to the National Adverse Drug Reaction Monitoring System in our hospital from 2014 to 2021. Characteristic medical orders, progress notes, and diagnoses in these cases were recorded to identify initial anaphylaxis trigger entries. Based on these initial entries, the questionnaire was developed, and the Delphi method was used to establish consensus entries for anaphylaxis triggers. The CHPS was used to program these trigger entries and construct ASPs, which were then tested on the 238,194 discharged patients to evaluate their performance and analyze the related clinical data.Results: Ten anaphylaxis triggers and three ASPs were ultimately identified. The ASPs captured 309 cases, out of which 94 cases were confirmed as anaphylaxis following manual screening. After removing duplicates, we noted 76 patients who experienced anaphylaxis 79 times. The positive rate of triggers and the positive predictive value of the programs were 0.13% and 30.42%, respectively. The incidence of anaphylaxis in our study was 0.03%, and the number of anaphylaxis cases detected by the ASPs was 5.64 times higher than those detected by the spontaneous reporting system. Anaphylaxis was more common among female patients. Antibacterial drugs, antineoplastic drugs, and contrast media were the most prevalent allergens in clinical practice. Anaphylaxis to antineoplastic drugs had the highest incidence (0.6%) when compared with patients admitted during the same period. Our study revealed a significant underuse of epinephrine and overuse of second-line therapy (glucocorticoids and antihistamines) in the management of anaphylaxis. Furthermore, we found the use and dosage of epinephrine to be inappropriate.Conclusion: The CHPS can effectively utilize both structured and unstructured data to construct anaphylaxis ASPs, and this could counteract the under-reporting by the spontaneous reporting system, the primary adverse reaction monitoring method in China. The treatment and management of anaphylaxis are currently inadequate and require improvement to reduce mortality risk

Chapter 33 Neoproterozoic glaciogenic diamictites of the Tarim Block, NW China

<p>Neoproterozoic glaciogenic outcrops are mostly limited to the southwestern and northwestern margins of the Tarim basin and the Tianshan Mountains. Only two glaciogenic diamictites are recorded in the Neoproterozoic successions from the Tielikeli and Aksu-Wusi areas of the Tarim basin. The lower diamictite from the Polong Formation in the Tielikeli area is <em>c.</em> 800 m thick. The upper diamictite in the area is very thin (Yutang diamictite, 10 m; Yulmeinak diamictite, 51 m). In contrast to the Tarim basin, the Neoproterozoic successions along the northern margin of the Tarim Block in the Tianshan Mountains record three or four glaciogenic diamictites, which are well developed and crop out in the Qurugtagh area. Although the glaciogenic nature of the oldest Beiyixi diamictite remains questionable, all other diamictites (Altungol, Tereeken and Hankalchough) exhibit distinct glaciogenic sedimentary features. SHRIMP zircon U–Pb dating demonstrate that the Bayisi diamictite was deposited between 740±7 Ma and 725±10 Ma, the Altungol and Tereeken diamictites between 725±10 Ma and 615±6 Ma, respectively, and the Hankalchough diamictite between 615±6 Ma and <em>c.</em> 542 Ma. Carbonates atop the Altungol, Tereeken and Hankalchough diamictites show distinct C-isotopic values that are typical for those recorded in ‘cap carbonates’ on other continents. The striking similarity between the cap carbonate of the Tereeken and Marinoan-age Nantuo diamictites further support a 635 Ma ‘Marinoan’ age for the Tereeken glaciation. Unlike the 582 Ma Gaskiers glaciations of Newfoundland, the Hankalchough diamictite is possibly <551 Ma, as suggested by C-isotope chemostratigraphy and biostratigraphy, indicating that post-Marinoan glaciations on different continents may be diachronous. </p

The Development Law of the Freezing Temperature Field of a Calcareous Clay Layer

The problem of “difficult” freezing of the calcareous clay layer fractures in freezing pipes has been investigated. Based on the engineering background of the deep calcareous clay in the Yangcun Mine, model tests were carried out in order to conduct in-depth research on the development law of the freezing temperature field of this clay layer. The test results have shown that the calcareous clay has a freezing point of −1.3°C under the action of both the water and the soil’s chemistry and the supercooling temperature can be as low as −3.8°C because of its complex mineral composition causing poor thermal conductivity. This means that the calcareous clay will freeze slowly than the other layers of the soil. The time taking for the temperature fields to intersect is 2.5 h, which is equivalent to 127.6 days in the actual engineering. In the three sections, each temperature measurement point in the temperature field had an irregular saddle shape in the temperature space at the same time, and the ratio of the time between the formation and total melting of the frozen wall was 1 : 1.91. The development speed of the thickness of the frozen wall from 5 h to 16 h was 17.9 mm/h, and the development speed from 16 h to 70 h was 1.96 mm/h; corresponding to the actual development speed of the thickness of the frozen wall which were 0.0123 m/d and 0.0014 m/d, respectively. These speeds were significantly slower than the development speed of the thickness of the freezing wall of the general sandy clay layer, which were 0.0515 m/d in the early stage and 0.02 m/d in the later stage. The thin thickness and low strength of the frozen wall of the calcareous clay layer cause the fracture of the frozen pipes, which should be paid attention to in actual engineering construction

Statistical study about the influence of particle precipitation on mesosphere summer echoes in polar latitudes during July 2013

Abstract Based on experimental observations with EISCAT VHF radar during the summer period, July 8–12, 2013, the observations of polar mesosphere summer echoes (PMSE) in the absence of particle precipitation indicate that particle precipitation is not a necessary condition for PMSE to exist. But, particle precipitation still affects PMSE when they both occur simultaneously. So in this paper, the relationship between PMSE and particle precipitation both represented by average electron density, occurring simultaneously for time interval of various lengths (t ≥ 2.56 min), is statistically analyzed using the Spearman rank and Pearson linear correlation coefficients. The new method by comparing the average electron density at altitude of 90 km (proxy of particle precipitation) and PMSE region at altitude of 80–90 km (proxy of PMSE) may compare the two phenomena directly and give some relationship between them. The percentage of events having positive values is dominant, which shows that the electron density variations due to the ionization produced by energetic particle precipitations might have some relationship with PMSE intensity. Moreover, the small percentage of negative correlation coefficient observed might be caused by the very strong precipitation at that time

Euler Representation-Based Structural Balance Discriminant Projection for Machinery Fault Diagnosis

Fault diagnosis methods are usually sensitive to outliers and it is difficult to obtain and balance global and local discriminant information, which leads to poor separation between classes of low-dimensional discriminant features. For this problem, we propose an Euler representation-based structural balance discriminant projection (ESBDP) algorithm for rotating machine fault diagnosis. First, the method maps the high-dimensional fault features into the Euler representation space through the cosine metric to expand the differences between heterogeneous fault samples while reducing the impact on outliers. Then, four objective functions with different structure and class information are constructed in this space. On the basis of fully mining the geometric structure information of fault data, the local intra-class aggregation and global inter-class separability of the low-dimensional discriminative features are further improved. Finally, we provide an adaptive balance strategy for constructing a unified optimization model of ESBDP, which achieves the elastic balance between global and local features in the projection subspace. The diagnosis performance of the ESBDP algorithm is explored by two machinery fault cases of bearing and gearbox. Encouraging experimental results show that the algorithm can capture effective fault discriminative features and can improve the accuracy of fault diagnosis

Constitutive expression of an A-5 subgroup member in the DREB transcription factor subfamily from Ammopiptanthus mongolicus enhanced abiotic stress tolerance and anthocyanin accumulation in transgenic Arabidopsis.

Dehydration-responsive element-binding (DREB) transcription factors (TFs) are key regulators of stress-inducible gene expression in plants. Anthocyanins, an important class of flavonoids, protect plants from reactive oxygen species produced under abiotic stresses. However, regulation of DREBs on anthocyanin accumulation is largely unknown. Here, an A-5 subgroup DREB gene (AmDREB3) isolated from Ammopiptanthus mongolicus, a desert broadleaf shrub with very high tolerance to harsh environments, was characterized in terms of both abiotic stress tolerance and anthocyanin accumulation. AmDREB3 does not contain the transcriptional repression motif EAR, and the protein was located in the nucleus and has transcriptional activation capacity. The transcription of AmDREB3 was differentially induced in the shoots and roots of A. mongolicus seedlings under drought, salt, heat, cold, ultraviolet B, and abscisic acid treatments. Moreover, the transcript levels in twigs, young leaves, and roots were higher than in other organs of A. mongolicus shrubs. Constitutively expressing AmDREB3 improved the tolerance of transgenic Arabidopsis to drought, high salinity and heat, likely by inducing the expression of certain stress-inducible genes. The transgenic Arabidopsis seedlings also exhibited an obvious purple coloration and significant increases in anthocyanin accumulation and/or oxidative stress tolerance under drought, salt, and heat stresses. These results suggest that the AmDREB3 TF may be an important positive regulator of both stress tolerance and anthocyanin accumulation

Correction: Constitutive expression of an A-5 subgroup member in the DREB transcription factor subfamily from Ammopiptanthus mongolicus enhanced abiotic stress tolerance and anthocyanin accumulation in transgenic Arabidopsis.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0224296.]