Garnierite mineralization from a serpentinite-derived lateritic regolith, Sulawesi Island, Indonesia: Mineralogy, geochemistry and link to hydrologic flow regime

Garnierite represents a significant nickel ore in many lateritic Ni deposits worldwide. To gain a better understanding of its nature and origin, a well-developed garnierite-hosting transect from the Kolonodale area of East Sulawesi, Indonesia, has been investigated using field geology, mineralogy and geochemical data. Garnierite occurs mainly in veins in the lower saprolite of a serpentinite-derived regolith. Mineralogically, it can be determined as an intimate mixture of Ni-rich serpentine-like (lizardite-Nepouite) and talc-like (kerolite-pimelite) phases. Results of EMP analyses indicate that Ni is preferentially enriched in the talc-like phases rather than the serpentine-like phases. A sequential precipitation of mineral phases progressively enriched in Ni and Si to form garnierite during weathering is suggested. The Ni-lizardite (2.63-8.49 wt% Ni) with elevated Fe (4.02-6.44 wt %) may have been inherited from saprolite in a first instance and enriched in Ni by cation exchange processes. Newly precipitated minerals are kerolite-pimelite (7.84-23.54 wt% Ni) and then followed by Ni-free quartz. Minor amount of Nepouite (23.47-28.51 wt% Ni) occur in laths along shrinkage cracks of previously formed minerals, indicating a late stage paragenetic sequence. With emphasis on a hydrologic consideration, indicators of a preferential flow regime are identified in the garnierite-hosting regolith, including: (i) non-uniform pattern of the garnierite field occurrence, (ii) syn-weathering active nature of the garnierite-hosting structures, (iii) close relationship between the garnierite occurrence and vertical FeeMn oxides pipes as well as FeeMn oxides patched areas, and (iv) specific physico-chemical property of the garnierite location with higher organic matter concentrations but lower pH values compared to surroundings. It is proposed that the origin of garnierite is closely linked to a preferential flow of oversaturated solutions through accessible conduits in the regolith. Garnierite features as colloidal nature, high organic matter and low pH are key-parameters in metal transport and deposition

Three-dimensional polarization ray-tracing Mueller algorithm for an optical system with arbitrary surface type

In order to investigate the relationship between the interface parameters of an optical interface/system and its polarization characteristics, a three-dimensional (3D) polarization ray-tracing Mueller algorithm is proposed in this paper. Firstly, using the optical design simulation software CODE V or ZEMAX, the vector modeling of the optical system and the pupil sampling or field of view sampling of the incident light are carried out. Secondly, according to the surface type of each optical interface in the optical system and whether the optical coating is plated, the 3D polarization ray-tracing of each optical interface is carried out, and the 3D Mueller matrix Ml (9×9 order) of each optical interface under the respective local coordinate system is calculated. Then, a 3×3 order rotation transformation matrix R is introduced by using the rotation transformation of the global coordinate system, and the 3D Mueller matrix Mg (9×9 order) of each optical interface under the global coordinate system is obtained. Based on the 3D polarization algorithm proposed in our published paper, the 3D Mueller matrix M of each sampled ray through whole optical system is calculated. Finally, if the polarization state of the incident light of the optical system is known, the polarization state of the emitted light can be accurately calculated. Especially, the 3D polarization ray-tracing Mueller algorithm is not only suitable for handle the totally, partial and unpolarized light through the optical system, but also suitable for quantitative calculation of the polarization properties of an arbitrary surface, including spherical/aspherical/free-form surface

Chitooligosaccharide enhanced the efficacy of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens CAS02 for the control of tobacco black shank

IntroductionTobacco black shank is a devastating soil-borne disease caused by the oomycete Phytophthora nicotianae, severely hamper tobacco production worldwide. However, the synergistic effect of biocontrol bacteria and marine polysaccharides/oligosaccharides on tobacco black shank control was few documented.MethodsIn this study, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens CAS02 (CAS02) and chitooligosaccharide (COS) were screened firstly, and their synergistic antagonistic effect against P. nicotianae and the underlying mechanism were investigated in vitro and in vivo.ResultsIn vitro experiments showed that, compared with the application of CAS02 or COS alone, co-application of CAS02 and COS significantly increased the inhibition rate against P. nicotianae by 11.67% and 63.31%, respectively. Furthermore, co-application of CAS02 and COS disrupted the structure of mycelia to a greater extent. The co-application of CAS02 and COS showed synergistic effect, with the relative control effect maintained above 60% during the 60-day pot experiment, significantly higher than that of application CAS02 or COS alone. The combined application of CAS02 and COS reduced the relative abundance of P. nicotianae in the rhizosphere soil and increased the relative abundance of bacterial taxa potentially involved in disease suppression, such as Nocardioides, Devosia and Bradyrhizobium. Meanwhile, CAS02 and COS synergistically activated salicylic acid (SA), ethylene (ET), and hypersensitive response (HR) defense signaling pathways in tobacco plants.DiscussionOur findings demonstrate that co-application of CAS02 and COS remarkably improve the relative control effect against tobacco black shank through multiple pathways and provide a promising strategy for the efficient green control of tobacco black shank

Potential of Core-Collapse Supernova Neutrino Detection at JUNO

JUNO is an underground neutrino observatory under construction in Jiangmen, China. It uses 20kton liquid scintillator as target, which enables it to detect supernova burst neutrinos of a large statistics for the next galactic core-collapse supernova (CCSN) and also pre-supernova neutrinos from the nearby CCSN progenitors. All flavors of supernova burst neutrinos can be detected by JUNO via several interaction channels, including inverse beta decay, elastic scattering on electron and proton, interactions on C12 nuclei, etc. This retains the possibility for JUNO to reconstruct the energy spectra of supernova burst neutrinos of all flavors. The real time monitoring systems based on FPGA and DAQ are under development in JUNO, which allow prompt alert and trigger-less data acquisition of CCSN events. The alert performances of both monitoring systems have been thoroughly studied using simulations. Moreover, once a CCSN is tagged, the system can give fast characterizations, such as directionality and light curve

Detection of the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background with JUNO

As an underground multi-purpose neutrino detector with 20 kton liquid scintillator, Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is competitive with and complementary to the water-Cherenkov detectors on the search for the diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB). Typical supernova models predict 2-4 events per year within the optimal observation window in the JUNO detector. The dominant background is from the neutral-current (NC) interaction of atmospheric neutrinos with 12C nuclei, which surpasses the DSNB by more than one order of magnitude. We evaluated the systematic uncertainty of NC background from the spread of a variety of data-driven models and further developed a method to determine NC background within 15\% with {\it{in}} {\it{situ}} measurements after ten years of running. Besides, the NC-like backgrounds can be effectively suppressed by the intrinsic pulse-shape discrimination (PSD) capabilities of liquid scintillators. In this talk, I will present in detail the improvements on NC background uncertainty evaluation, PSD discriminator development, and finally, the potential of DSNB sensitivity in JUNO

Detection and molecular characterization of J subgroup avian leukosis virus in wild ducks in China.

To assess the status of avian leukosis virus subgroup J (ALV-J) in wild ducks in China, we examined samples from 528 wild ducks, representing 17 species, which were collected in China over the past 3 years. Virus isolation and PCR showed that 7 ALV-J strains were isolated from wild ducks. The env genes and the 3'UTRs from these isolates were cloned and sequenced. The env genes of all 7 wild duck isolates were significantly different from those in the prototype strain HPRS-103, American strains, broiler ALV-J isolates and Chinese local chicken isolates, but showed close homology with those found in some layer chicken ALV-J isolates and belonged to the same group. The 3'UTRs of 7 ALV-J wild ducks isolates showed close homology with the prototype strain HPRS-103 and no obvious deletion was found in the 3'UTR except for a 1 bp deletion in the E element that introduced a binding site for c-Ets-1. Our study demonstrated the presence of ALV-J in wild ducks and investigated the molecular characterization of ALV-J in wild ducks isolates

Vulnerable Road User Skeletal Pose Estimation Using mmWave Radars

A skeletal pose estimation method, named RVRU-Pose, is proposed to estimate the skeletal pose of vulnerable road users based on distributed non-coherent mmWave radar. In view of the limitation that existing methods for skeletal pose estimation are only applicable to small scenes, this paper proposes a strategy that combines radar intensity heatmaps and coordinate heatmaps as input to a deep learning network. In addition, we design a multi-resolution data augmentation and training method suitable for radar to achieve target pose estimation for remote and multi-target application scenarios. Experimental results show that RVRU-Pose can achieve better than 2 cm average localization accuracy for different subjects in different scenarios, which is superior in terms of accuracy and time compared to existing state-of-the-art methods for human skeletal pose estimation with radar. As an essential performance parameter of radar, the impact of angular resolution on the estimation accuracy of a skeletal pose is quantitatively analyzed and evaluated in this paper. Finally, RVRU-Pose has also been extended to the task of estimating the skeletal pose of a cyclist, reflecting the strong scalability of the proposed method

Comparison of linear and circular polarization in foggy environments at UV-NIR wavelengths

This paper investigates the polarization persistence of linear polarization and circular polarization in foggy environments from ultraviolet (UV) to near-infrared (NIR). Using polarization tracking Monte Carlo simulation for varying particle size, wavelength, refractive index, and detection distance, it is shown that linear polarization and circular polarization exhibit different persistence performance. For wet haze of 0.6 μm mean diameter particles, right-handed circular polarization shows better persistence than parallel polarization at wavelengths of 0.36, 0.543 and 1.0 μm. But parallel polarization shows better persistence at wavelengths of 1.55, 2.1 and 2.4 μm. For wet haze of 1.0 μm mean diameter particles, right-handed circular polarization shows better persistence at wavelengths of 0.36, 0.543, 1.0 and 1.55 μm. But parallel polarization shows better persistence at wavelengths of 2.1 and 2.4 μm. For wet haze of 2.0 μm particles and radiation fog and advection fog, right-handed circular polarization shows better persistence at all simulated wavelengths. In short, right-handed circular polarization persists better than parallel polarization in most scenarios, however, with increasing wavelength and decreasing particle size, parallel polarization gradually persists better than right-handed circular polarization. Finally, anisotropy factor for various particle models is used to map the propagation law of right-handed circular polarization and parallel polarization

Geometric Visualization of the 3D Polarimetric Information of an Arbitrary Electromagnetic Field

The geometric visualization in this study concerns the three−dimensional (3D) polarimetric information of an arbitrary electromagnetic field. Based on previous research, a 3 × 3 coherency matrix Φ can be decomposed into an incoherent superposition of a totally 3D−polarized component Φ3D_p, a specific partially 3D−polarized component Φ3D_pp with a 3D degree of polarization (DoP) of 1/2, and a totally 3D−unpolarized component Φ3D_up. Combining the physical meaning of this decomposition, we mathematically construct three polarization purities, namely, P3D_p, P3D_pp, and P3D_up, for an arbitrary electromagnetic field to quantify the weight of the three 3D−polarized components. In order to show the proportion of the three polarized components of an electromagnetic field intuitively, we propose a geometric representation of a spatially quadric surface. Finally, two examples are cited to demonstrate the applicability of intuitively displaying the 3D polarimetric information of an arbitrary electromagnetic field