An exploratory model study of sediment transport sources and deposits in the Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, and East China Sea

A regional ocean circulation model (ROMS) is used to simulate the Chinese land-derived sediment transport in the Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, and East China Sea (BYECS). The model includes the effect of currents, tides, and waves on the sediment transport and is used to study the pathway and dynamic mechanisms of the fine-grain sediment transport from the Huanghe River (Yellow River), the Old Huanghe Delta, and the Changjiang River (Yangtze River) in the BYECS. The seasonal variability of the sediment transport in the BYECS and the sources of the Yellow Sea Trough mud patch, the mud patch southwest of Cheju Island, the mud patch offshore from the Zhejiang and Fujian provinces and the Okinawa Trough mud patch are discussed. The results show that the Huanghe River sediment can be transported to the Yellow Sea Trough, but little makes it to the outer shelf while the Old Huanghe Delta sediment is mainly transported to the Yellow Sea Trough. Most of the sediment from the Changjiang River mouth is carried to the mud patch off the coast of the Zhejiang and Fujian provinces but with part of this sediment also transported to the Yellow Sea Trough. The model shows that it is difficult to transport land-derived sediment to the Okinawa Trough mud patch under normal conditions. The model also has difficulty accounting for the deposition of sediment in the region to the southwest of Cheju Island and offshore from the Zhejiang and Fujian provinces, an issue requiring further study

Ascl2 Knockdown Results in Tumor Growth Arrest by miRNA-302b-Related Inhibition of Colon Cancer Progenitor Cells

Background: Achaete scute-like 2 (Ascl2), a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor, controls the fate of intestinal stem cells. However, the role of Ascl2 in colon cancer progenitor cells remains unknown. The cell line HT-29 (47.5–95 % of CD133 + population) and LS174T (0.45 % of CD133 + population) were chosen for functional evaluation of Ascl2 in colon cancer progenitor cells after gene knockdown by RNA interference. Methodology/Principal Findings: Immunohistochemistry demonstrated that Ascl2 was significantly increased in colorectal adenocarcinomas. Downregulation of Ascl2 using RNA interference in cultured colonic adenocarcinoma HT-29 and LS174T cells reduced cellular proliferation, colony-forming ability, invasion and migration in vitro, and resulted in the growth arrest of tumor xenografts in vivo. The Ascl2 protein level in CD133 + HT-29 cells was significantly higher than in CD133 2 HT-29 cells. Ascl2 blockade via shRNA interference in HT-29 cells (shRNA-Ascl2/HT-29 cells) resulted in 26.2 % of cells staining CD133 + compared with 54.7 % in control shRNA-Ctr/HT-29 cells. The levels of ‘stemness ’ associated genes, such as CD133, Sox2, Oct4, Lgr5, Bmi1, and C-myc, were significantly decreased in shRNA-Ascl2/HT-29 and shRNA-Ascl2/LS174T cells in vitro as well as in the corresponding tumor xenograft (CD133 was not performed in shRNA-Ascl2/LS174T cells). The shRNA-Ascl2/ HT-29 cells had inhibited abilities to form tumorspheres compared with control. The microRNA (miRNAs) microarrays, identified 26 up-regulated miRNAs and 58 down-regulated miRNAs in shRNA-Ascl2/HT-29 cells. Expression levels of let-7b

Investigation of the structures and electronic spectra for coumarin-6 through TD-DFT calculations including PCM solvation

Coumarins are well-known laser dyes in the blue-green region and studies on their electronic spectroscopy are important for understanding of their solvatochromic properties. A theoretical research of the various properties of the ground (SO) and first excited states (SI) of coumarin 6 in different solvents, including absorption and emission spectra, is presented here. Four isomers of coumarin 6 are investigated and compared. The excited-state geometries were optimized at the CIS level of theory whereas for the ground state, the HF and B3LYP levels of theory were applied. The geometric relaxation between the S-0 and S-1 states was examined and explained in terms of the nodal patterns of the highest occupied and lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals. The absorption and emission spectra in various solvents were calculated using the time-dependent density functional theory in combination with the polarized continuum model, and the results are in very good agreement with experimental measurements. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Full-dimensional quantum dynamics study of vinylidene-acetylene isomerization: a scheme using the normal mode Hamiltonian

Full-dimensional quantum dynamics calculations of vinylidene-acetylene isomerization are performed and the state-specific resonance decay lifetimes of vinylidene(-d(2)) are computed. The theoretical scheme is a combination of several methods: normal coordinates are chosen to describe the nuclear motion of vinylidene, with both the parity and permutation symmetry exploited; phase space optimization in combination with physical considerations is used to generate an efficient discrete variable representation; the reaction coordinate is defined by us according to the three most relevant normal coordinates, along which a kind of optimal complex absorbing potential is imposed; the preconditioned inexact spectral transform method combined with an efficient preconditioner is employed to extract the energies and lifetimes of vinylidene. The overall computation is efficient. The computed energy levels generally agree with experiment well, and several state-specific lifetimes are reported for the first time

Mode-Specific Tunneling Splittings for a Sequential Double-Hydrogen Transfer Case: An Accurate Quantum Mechanical Scheme

We present the first accurate quantum dynamics calculations of mode-specific tunneling splittings in a sequential double-hydrogen transfer process. This is achieved in the vinylidene–acetylene system, the simplest molecular system of this kind, and by large-scale parallel computations with an efficient theoretical scheme developed by us. In our scheme, basis functions are customized for the hydrogen transfer process; a 4-dimensional basis contraction strategy is combined with the preconditioned inexact spectral transform method; efficient parallel implementation is achieved. Mode-specific permutation tunneling splittings of vinylidene states are reported and tremendous mode-specific promotion effects are revealed; in particular, the CH₂ rock mode enhances the ground-state splitting by a factor of 10³. We find that the ground-state vinylidene has a reversible-isomerization time of 622 ps, much longer than all previous estimates. Our calculations also shed light on the importance of the deep intermediate well and vibrational excitation in the double-hydrogen transfer processes

The suspended sediment concentration distribution in the Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea and East China Sea

The distribution of the suspended sediment concentration (SSC) in the Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea and East China Sea (BYECS) is studied based on the observed turbidity data and model simulation results. The observed turbidity results show that (i) the highest SSC is found in the coastal areas while in the outer shelf sea areas turbid water is much more difficult to observe, (ii) the surface layer SSC is much lower than the bottom layer SSC and (iii) the winter SSC is higher than the summer SSC. The Regional Ocean Modeling System (ROMS) is used to simulate the SSC distribution in the BYECS. A comparison between the modeled SSC and the observed SSC in the BYECS shows that the modeled SSC can reproduce the principal features of the SSC distribution in the BYECS. The dynamic mechanisms of the sediment erosion and transport processes are studied based on the modeled results. The horizontal distribution of the SSC in the BYECS is mainly determined by the current-wave induced bottom stress and the fine-grain sediment distribution. The current-induced bottom stress is much higher than the wave-induced bottom stress, which means the tidal currents play a more significant role in the sediment resuspension than the wind waves. The vertical mixing strength is studied based on the mixed layer depth and the turbulent kinetic energy distribution in the BYECS. The strong winter time vertical mixing, which is mainly caused by the strong wind stress and surface cooling, leads to high surface layer SSC in winter. High surface layer SSC in summer is restricted in the coastal areas