Snowmelt Runoff Analysis under Generated Climate Change Scenarios for the Juntanghu River Basin, in Xinjiang, China

Assessing snowmelt runoff in catchments without conducting intensive observations for water resource management is very important. This paper presents the modeling results of meltwater runoff in the Juntanghu River basin, where the river flow is dominated by glacier and snow meltwater from above the mid-altitude of the north central Tian Shan Mountains in Northwest China. The soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) model is used to assess the effects of potential climate change on the Juntanghu River basin. The model uses meteorological data, which include precipitation, temperature, wind, and solar radiation, to depict the impact of climate change on the river discharge in the Juntanghu watershed. The SWAT model is validated and verified against the observed discharge at the Hongshan reservoir at the outlet of the watershed from 1995 to 2010. The SWAT model can well differentiate between meltwater runoff from snow and that from glaciers in the basin. The R2 and Nash–Sutcliffe simulation efficiency values computed for the daily comparisons are 0.92 and 0.85 for the calibration period and 0.83 and 0.81 for the validation period, respectively. Experiments show that the hydrological cycle in the Juntanghu River basin may be altered under changing climatic scenarios. The mean annual stream flow changes in response to climate change projections are simulated using SWAT model. A rising mean temperature (T + 1 °C) in early spring results in a 2.14 times increase in the average daily stream flow (on February 27), whereas a higher rising temperature (T + 3 °C) results in an earlier snowmelt phenomenon. However, the snowmelt runoff from the preliminary to interim stages has less influence in relation to changes in the precipitation. The average daily flow changes of 1.07 times are predicted for precipitation change scenarios of 10%. The climate change scenarios show a large degree of uncertainty in terms of current climate change forecasts for the Juntanghu basin. The simulated Juntanghu hydrological cycle is also very sensitive to current forecasted climate changes under climate change conditions

Data Processing Pipeline for Pointing Observations of Lunar-based Ultraviolet Telescope

We describe the data processing pipeline developed to reduce the pointing observation data of Lunar-based Ultraviolet Telescope (LUT), which belongs to the Chang'e-3 mission of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program. The pointing observation program of LUT is dedicated to monitor variable objects in a near-ultraviolet (245-345 nm) band. LUT works in lunar daytime for sufficient power supply, so some special data processing strategies have been developed for the pipeline. The procedures of the pipeline include stray light removing, astrometry, flat fielding employing superflat technique, source extraction and cosmic rays rejection, aperture and PSF photometry, aperture correction, and catalogues archiving, etc. It has been intensively tested and works smoothly with observation data. The photometric accuracy is typically ~0.02 mag for LUT 10 mag stars (30 s exposure), with errors come from background noises, residuals of stray light removing, and flat fielding related errors. The accuracy degrades to be ~0.2 mag for stars of 13.5 mag which is the 5{\sigma} detection limit of LUT.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, 4 tables. Minor changes and some expounding words added. Version accepted for publication in Astrophysics and Space Science (Ap&SS

Novel Polysaccharide H-1-2 from Pseudostellaria Heterophylla Alleviates Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Background/Aims: To investigate the potential therapeutic effect of novel polysaccharide H-1-2 from pseudostellaria heterophylla against type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) and elucidate the underling molecular mechanisms. Methods: Relative expression of HIF1α and Sirt1 in T2DM patients was determined via real-time PCR. The direct binding of HIF1α on Sirt1 promoter was validated by ChIP assay. The inhibitory regulation of Sirt1 by HIF1α was analyzed using luciferase reporter assay. The endogenous protein of HIF1α and Sirt1 in response to H-1-2 treatment was quantified by western blotting. The blood glucose, secreted insulin and serous lipid profiles were measured with ELISA kits. Results: We consolidated that HIF1α and Sirt1 was dysregulated in T2DM patients and subjected to H-1-2 modulation. H-1-2 significantly inhibited hypoxia and up-regulated Sirt1 expression in EndoC-βH1 cells. Accordingly, H-1-2 enhanced glucose-stimulation insulin secretion and improved blood glucose and lipid profiles in T2DM cells, and elevated the glucose and insulin tolerance simultaneously. Furthermore, we demonstrated that H-1-2 alleviated T2DM via inhibition of hypoxia and up-regulation of Sirt1 in isolated pancreatic β-cells from T2DM rats. Conclusion: Our data unambiguously demonstrated H-1-2 administration alleviated T2DM by enhancing Sirt1 expression through inhibition of hypoxia

SEC24A deficiency lowers plasma cholesterol through reduced PCSK9 secretion.

The secretory pathway of eukaryotic cells packages cargo proteins into COPII-coated vesicles for transport from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) to the Golgi. We now report that complete genetic deficiency for the COPII component SEC24A is compatible with normal survival and development in the mouse, despite the fundamental role of SEC24 in COPII vesicle formation and cargo recruitment. However, these animals exhibit markedly reduced plasma cholesterol, with mutations in Apoe and Ldlr epistatic to Sec24a, suggesting a receptor-mediated lipoprotein clearance mechanism. Consistent with these data, hepatic LDLR levels are up-regulated in SEC24A-deficient cells as a consequence of specific dependence of PCSK9, a negative regulator of LDLR, on SEC24A for efficient exit from the ER. Our findings also identify partial overlap in cargo selectivity between SEC24A and SEC24B, suggesting a previously unappreciated heterogeneity in the recruitment of secretory proteins to the COPII vesicles that extends to soluble as well as trans-membrane cargoes. DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.00444.001

Experimental test of high-dimensional quantum contextuality based on contextuality concentration

Contextuality is a distinctive feature of quantum theory and a fundamental resource for quantum computation. However, existing examples of contextuality in high-dimensional systems lack the necessary robustness required in experiments. Here we address this problem by identifying a family of noncontextuality inequalities whose maximum quantum violation grows with the dimension of the system. At first glance, this contextuality is the single-system version of an extreme form of multipartite Bell nonlocality. What is interesting is that the single-system version achieves the same degree of contextuality but using a Hilbert space of {\em lower} dimension. That is, contextualize "concentrates" as the degree of contextuality per dimension increases. We demonstrate the usefulness of this result by showing the experimental observation of contextuality in a single system of dimension seven. By simulating sequences of quantum ideal measurements in an all-optical setup using projective measurements on structured light, we report a violation of 68.7 standard deviations of the simplest of the noncontextuality inequalities identified. Our results advance the investigation of high-dimensional contextuality, its connection to the Clifford algebra, and its role in quantum computation.Comment: 7+5 pages, 4+2 figures. Comments are welcom

Guanxi and high performance work systems in China: evidence from a state-owned enterprise

Existing high performance work system (HPWS) research has rarely considered cultural influences. This study investigates the relationships between guanxi, HPWS and employee attitudes in China. A data-set consisting of 226 employees in a Chinese state-owned enterprise in the railway sector was used to test the hypotheses. Using structural equation modelling as an analytical tool, we found that guanxi was positively related to HPWS and trust. Similar to research in the Western context, HPWS was found to be positively related to trust and job satisfaction. Moreover, the results also revealed that HPWS mediated between guanxi and both trust and job satisfaction. Theoretical and practical implications are both discussed