Study of PBLH and Its Correlation with Particulate Matter from One-Year Observation over Nanjing, Southeast China

The Planetary Boundary Layer Height (PBLH) plays an important role in the formation and development of air pollution events. Particulate Matter is one of major pollutants in China. Here, we present the characteristics of PBLH through three-methods of Lidar data inversion and show the correlation between the PBLH and the PM2.5 (PM2.5 with the diameter 75 μg/m3 and the PM2.5 \u3c 35 μg/m3 in daytime, respectively. The low PBLH often occurs with condition of the low wind speed and high relative humidity, which will lead to high PM2.5 concentration and the low visibility. On the other hand, the stability of PBL is enhanced by high PM concentration and low visibility

Reconfigurable Fabry-Pérot Cavity Antenna Basing on Phase Controllable Metasurfaces

Fabry-Pérot cavity (FPC) antenna is a kind of high-gain antenna. Compared with other high-gain antennas, such as array antenna and reflector antenna, the FPC antenna enjoys the advantages of simple structure and high efficiency. So it has attracts many attention since proposed. However, it also suffers the disadvantages of narrow band and fixed radiation patterns, due to its resonance structure. In order to overcome these disadvantages, we proposed novel strategies to realize reconfigurable FPC antennas using the phase controllable metasurfaces (MSs). Through adding PIN diodes into every unit cell of the MS, the reflection phase of the MS can be controlled by tuning the states of the diodes. Then the designed phase controllable MSs are used as the partially reflection surfaces (PRS) to realize frequency or radiation pattern reconfigurable FPC antennas. In this chapter, we analyze the basic theory of the FPC antenna and describe its radiation principle firstly. Then, reflection phase controllable MSs are designed and applied to the FPC antennas. Thus frequency and radiation pattern reconfigurable FPC antennas are formed. The design processes are described in details, and the proposed antennas are fabricated and measured. The measured results verify the correctness of the designs. Through this chapter, the readers can form a comprehensive understanding of reconfigurable FPC antenna design

Modality- and task-specific brain regions involved in Chinese lexical processing

fMRI was used to examine lexical processing in native adult Chinese speakers. A 2 task (semantics and phonology) x 2 modality (visual and auditory) within-subject design was adopted. The semantic task involved a meaning association judgment and the phonological task involved a rhyming judgment to two sequentially presented words. The overall effect across tasks and modalities was used to identify seven ROIs, including the left fusiform gyrus (FG), the left superior temporal gyrus (STG), the left ventral inferior frontal gyrus (VIFG), the left middle temporal gyrus (MTG), the left dorsal inferior frontal gyrus (DIFG), the left inferior parietal lobule (IPL), and the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG). ROI analyses revealed two modality-specific areas, FG for visual and STG for auditory, and three task-specific areas, IPL and DIFG for phonology and VIFG for semantics. Greater DIFG activation was associated with conflicting tonal information between words for the auditory rhyming task, suggesting this region's role in strategic phonological processing, and greater VIFG activation was correlated with lower association between words for both the auditory and the visual meaning task, suggesting this region's role in retrieval and selection of semantic representations. The modality- and task-specific effects in Chinese revealed by this study are similar to those found in alphabetical languages. Unlike English, we found that MFG was both modality- and task-specific, suggesting that MFG may be responsible for the visuospatial analysis of Chinese characters and orthography-to-phonology integration at a syllabic level

Low temperature and temperature decline increase acute aortic dissection risk and burden: A nationwide case crossover analysis at hourly level among 40,270 patients.

Background: Acute aortic dissection (AAD) is a life-threatening cardiovascular emergency with high mortality, so identifying modifiable risk factors of AAD is of great public health significance. The associations of non-optimal temperature and temperature variability with AAD onset and the disease burden have not been fully understood. Methods: We conducted a time-stratified case-crossover study using a nationwide registry dataset from 1,868 hospitals in 313 Chinese cities. Conditional logistic regression and distributed lag models were used to investigate associations of temperature and temperature changes between neighboring days (TCN) with the hourly AAD onset and calculate the attributable fractions. We also evaluated the heterogeneity of the associations. Findings: A total of 40,270 eligible AAD cases were included. The exposure-response curves for temperature and TCN with AAD onset risk were both inverse and approximately linear. The risks were present on the concurrent hour (for temperature) or day (for TCN) and lasted for almost 1 day. The cumulative relative risks of AAD were 1.027 and 1.026 per 1°C lower temperature and temperature decline between neighboring days, respectively. The associations were significant during the non-heating period, but were not present during the heating period in cities with central heating. 23.13% of AAD cases nationwide were attributable to low temperature and 1.58% were attributable to temperature decline from the previous day. Interpretation: This is the largest nationwide study demonstrating robust associations of low temperature and temperature decline with AAD onset. We, for the first time, calculated the corresponding disease burden and further showed that central heating may be a modifier for temperature-related AAD risk and burden. Funding: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (92043301 and 92143301), Shanghai International Science and Technology Partnership Project (No. 21230780200), the Medical Research Council-UK (MR/R013349/1), and the Natural Environment Research Council UK (NE/R009384/1)

Boosting with an aerosolized Ad5-nCoV elicited robust immune responses in inactivated COVID-19 vaccines recipients

IntroductionThe SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant has become the dominant SARS-CoV-2 variant and exhibits immune escape to current COVID-19 vaccines, the further boosting strategies are required.MethodsWe have conducted a non-randomized, open-label and parallel-controlled phase 4 trial to evaluate the magnitude and longevity of immune responses to booster vaccination with intramuscular adenovirus vectored vaccine (Ad5-nCoV), aerosolized Ad5-nCoV, a recombinant protein subunit vaccine (ZF2001) or homologous inactivated vaccine (CoronaVac) in those who received two doses of inactivated COVID-19 vaccines. ResultsThe aerosolized Ad5-nCoV induced the most robust and long-lasting neutralizing activity against Omicron variant and IFNg T-cell response among all the boosters, with a distinct mucosal immune response. SARS-CoV-2-specific mucosal IgA response was substantially generated in subjects boosted with the aerosolized Ad5-nCoV at day 14 post-vaccination. At month 6, participants boosted with the aerosolized Ad5-nCoV had remarkably higher median titer and seroconversion of the Omicron BA.4/5-specific neutralizing antibody than those who received other boosters. DiscussionOur findings suggest that aerosolized Ad5-nCoV may provide an efficient alternative in response to the spread of the Omicron BA.4/5 variant.Clinical trial registrationhttps://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.html?proj=152729, identifier ChiCTR2200057278

Precision measurements of A1N in the deep inelastic regime

We have performed precision measurements of the double-spin virtual-photon asymmetry A1A1 on the neutron in the deep inelastic scattering regime, using an open-geometry, large-acceptance spectrometer and a longitudinally and transversely polarized 3He target. Our data cover a wide kinematic range 0.277≤x≤0.5480.277≤x≤0.548 at an average Q2Q2 value of 3.078 (GeV/c)2, doubling the available high-precision neutron data in this x range. We have combined our results with world data on proton targets to make a leading-order extraction of the ratio of polarized-to-unpolarized parton distribution functions for up quarks and for down quarks in the same kinematic range. Our data are consistent with a previous observation of anA1n zero crossing near x=0.5x=0.5. We find no evidence of a transition to a positive slope in(Δd+Δd¯)/(d+d¯) up to x=0.548x=0.548

A preliminary study: saltiness and sodium content of aqueous extracts from plants and marine animal shells

To develop a salt substitute with low sodium content, the water-soluble components of seaweed, kelp, clamshell, oyster shell, semen cassiae, cuttlefish bone, inula flower, Arabia cowry shell, and sanna leaf were extracted with water. The aqueous extracts of nine species of plants and marine animal shells were obtained after drying the plants and shells at 105 °C until achieving a constant weight. The hedonic scale test revealed that the clamshell and cuttlefish bone aqueous extracts tasted distinctly salty. The result of the degree of difference test showed that the 1 % clamshell extract solution (m/v) and 0.6 % cuttlefish bone extract solution (m/v) both had equivalent saltiness of 0.6 % NaCl (m/v). In contrast, the sodium content in the cuttlefish bone extract solution was 27 % less than that in a NaCl solution of the same degree of saltiness. Therefore, a novel salt substitute will be developed in future studies in accordance with the principles of bionics and a deep understanding of the salty taste interactions among key salty components in the cuttlefish bone extract