Increasing but Variable Trend of Surface Ozone in the Yangtze River Delta Region of China

Surface ozone (O-3) increased by similar to 20% in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region of China during 2014-2020, but the aggravating trend is highly variable on interannual time and city-level space scales. Here, we employed multiple air quality observations and numerical simulation to describe the increasing but variable trend of O-3 and to reveal the main driving factors behind it. In 2014-2017, the governmental air pollution control action plan was mostly against PM2.5 (mainly to control the emissions of SO2, NOx, and primary PM2.5) and effectively reduced the PM2.5 concentration by 18%-45%. However, O-3 pollution worsened in the same period with an increasing rate of 4.9 mu g m(-3) yr(-1), especially in the Anhui province, where the growth rate even reached 14.7 mu g m(-3) yr(-1). After 2018, owing to the coordinated prevention and control of both PM2.5 and O-3, volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions in the YRD region has also been controlled with a great concern, and the O-3 aggravating trend in the same period has been obviously alleviated (1.1 mu g m(-3) yr(-1)). We further combined the precursor concentration and the corresponding O-3 formation regime to explain the observed trend of O-3 in 2014-2020. The leading O-3 formation regime in 2014-2017 is diagnosed as VOC-limited (21%) or mix-limited (58%), with the help of a simulated indicator HCHO/NOy. Under such condition, the decreasing NO2 (2.8% yr(-1)) and increasing VOCs (3.6% yr(-1)) in 2014-2017 led to a rapid increment of O-3. With the continuous reduction in NOx emission and further in ambient NOx/VOCs, the O-3 production regime along the Yangtze River has been shifting from VOC-limited to mix-limited, and after 2018, the mix-limited regime has become the dominant O-3 formation regime for 55% of the YRD cities. Consequently, the decreases of both NOx (3.3% yr(-1)) and VOCs (7.7% yr(-1)) in 2018-2020 obviously slowed down the aggravating trend of O-3. Our study argues that with the implementation of coordinated regional reduction of NOx and VOCs, an effective O-3 control is emerging in the YRD region.Peer reviewe

Complete characterization of generalized bent and 2^k-bent Boolean functions

In this paper we investigate properties of generalized bent Boolean functions and 2k-bent (i.e., negabent, octabent, hex- adecabent, et al.) Boolean functions in a uniform framework. We generalize the work of Stˇ anicˇ a et al., present necessary and sufficient conditions for generalized bent Boolean functions and 2k-bent Boolean functions in terms of classical bent functions, and completely characterize these functions in a combinatorial form. The result of this paper further shows that all generalized bent Boolean functions are regular

Wireless Sensor Network MCDS Construction Algorithms With Energy Consideration for Extreme Environments Healthcare

With the enhancement of people's health awareness, more and more users are willing to wear portable micro-health monitoring equipment and communicate with remote medicine center for real-time diagnosis. Although, under normal circumstances, users' health status can be detected at any time, in extreme circumstances, such as earthquakes, how to make the medical center monitor user data for a long time for rescue will be of great significance. In this paper, we will study the networking of portable wearable devices based on wireless sensor networks. We mainly use minimal connected dominating sets (MCDSs) to organize nodes in extreme environments effectively, form virtual backbone networks, send data to the rescue or medical personnel, and maximize network lifetime. Specifically, we propose an adverse dominator selection procedure (ADSP), where the dominators are selected by their children-independent nodes. The ADSP has two versions, which are Independent node degree-based Adverse Dominator Selection Procedure (IADSP) and residual Energy-based Adverse Dominator Selection Procedure (EADSP). Based on IADSP and EADSP, two approximation MCDS construction algorithms named Independent node degree based MCDS (IMCDS) and Energy-efficient Independent neighbor-based MCDS (EIMCDS) are proposed, respectively. Both of them have the message complexity as O($N\Delta$ ). The performance ratio of IMCDS has an upper bound as O($\sqrt {N}$ ). The simulation results show that IMCDS and EIMCDS perform well in terms of CDS size, and the routing algorithm based on EIMCDS has better energy efficiency performance than that of IMCDS and classical routing protocol

Roles of Post-translational Modifications in Spinocerebellar Ataxias

Post-translational modifications (PTMs), including phosphorylation, acetylation, ubiquitination, SUMOylation, etc., of proteins can modulate protein properties such as intracellular distribution, activity, stability, aggregation, and interactions. Therefore, PTMs are vital regulatory mechanisms for multiple cellular processes. Spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs) are hereditary, heterogeneous, neurodegenerative diseases for which the primary manifestation involves ataxia. Because the pathogenesis of most SCAs is correlated with mutant proteins directly or indirectly, the PTMs of disease-related proteins might functionally affect SCA development and represent potential therapeutic interventions. Here, we review multiple PTMs related to disease-causing proteins in SCAs pathogenesis and their effects. Furthermore, we discuss these PTMs as potential targets for treating SCAs and describe translational therapies targeting PTMs that have been published