Ground-Level NO2 Concentrations over China Inferred from the Satellite OMI and CMAQ Model Simulations

In the past decades, continuous efforts have been made at a national level to reduce Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) emissions in the atmosphere over China. However, public concern and related research mostly deal with tropospheric NO2 columns rather than ground-level NO2 concentrations, but actually ground-level NO2 concentrations are more closely related to anthropogenic emissions, and directly affect human health. This paper presents one method to derive the ground-level NO2 concentrations using the total column of NO2 observed from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and the simulations from the Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) model in China. One year’s worth of data from 2014 was processed and the results compared with ground-based NO2 measurements from a network of China’s National Environmental Monitoring Centre (CNEMC). The standard deviation between ground-level NO2 concentrations over China, the CMAQ simulated measurements and in-situ measurements by CNEMC for January was 21.79 μg/m3, which was improved to a standard deviation of 18.90 μg/m3 between our method and CNEMC data. Correlation coefficients between the CMAQ simulation and in-situ measurements were 0.75 for January and July, and they were improved to 0.80 and 0.78, respectively. Our results revealed that the method presented in this paper can be used to better measure ground-level NO2 concentrations over China

Regulation of HIF-1α and p53 in stress responses in the subterranean rodents Lasiopodomys mandarinus and Lasiopodomys brandtii (Rodentia: Cricetidae)

The response mechanism and interaction patterns of HIF-1α and p53 in animals in an hypoxic environment are crucial for their hypoxic tolerance and adaptation. Many studies have shown that underground rodents have better hypoxic adaptation characteristics. However, the mechanism by which HIF-1α and p53 in underground rodents respond to hypoxic environments compared with in ground rodents remains unclear. Further, whether a synergy between HIF-1α and p53 enables animals tolerate extremely hypoxic environments is unclear. We studied HIF-1α and p53 expression in the brain tissue and cell apoptosis in the hippocampal CA1 region during 6 hours of acute hypoxia (5% oxygen) in Lasiopodomys mandarinus (Milne-Edwards, 1871) and Lasiopodomys brandtii (Radde, 1861), two closely related small rodents with different life characteristics (underground and aboveground, respectively), using a comparative biology method to determine the mechanisms underlying their adaptation to this environment. Our results indicate that HIF-1α and p53 expression is more rapid in L. mandarinus than in L. brandtii under acute hypoxic environments, resulting in a significant synergistic effect in L. mandarinus. Correlation analysis revealed that HIF-1α expression and the apoptotic index of the hippocampal CA1 regions of the brain tissues of L. mandarinus and L. brandtii, both under hypoxia, were significantly negatively and positively correlated, respectively. Long-term existence in underground burrow systems could enable better adaptation to hypoxia in L. mandarinus than in L. brandtii. We speculate that L. mandarinus can quickly eliminate resulting damage via the synergistic effect of p53 and HIF-1α in response to acute hypoxic environments, helping the organism quickly return to a normal state after the stress

Sensing of autoinducer-2 by functionally distinct receptors in prokaryotes

The small molecule AI-2 acts as a quorum sensing signal, mediating communication within and between many bacterial species. Here, the authors identify a new type of AI-2 receptor, consisting of a dCACHE domain that is present in many bacterial and archaeal proteins

The Diffusion Approximation of Stochastic Evolutionary Game Dynamics: Mean Effective Fixation Time and the Significance of the One-Third Law

One-third law, Average fitness, Mean effective fixation time, Fixation probability,

Relative risk and attributable risk proportion for anti-TB treatment between ATLI and non-ATLI anti-TB treatment cases.^a

a<p>Abbreviation used in table: TB, tuberculosis; ATLI, Anti-tuberculosis Drug Induced Liver Injury; RR, relative risk; AR%: attributable risk proportion.</p>b<p>Intensive treatment phase: the number of patients was 4292, because 12 patients missed data.</p>c<p>Smear result at 2 months: the number of patients was 4259, because 45 patients missed smear examination.</p>d<p>AR%: it is the percent of the incidence of an outcome in the exposed that is due to the exposure.</p>e<p>Unsuccessful outcomes: A sum of treatment failure, died, default and transfer out.</p>f<p>Successful outcomes: A sum of cure and treatment completed.</p

Elevation of ALT/AST and TBil after starting anti-TB treatment in TB patients by grade.^a

a<p>Abbreviation used in table: ALT, alanine aminotransferase; AST, aspartate aminotransferase; TBil, total bilirubin; ULN, upper limit of normal.</p

Baseline characteristics of 4304 patients with tuberculosis smear positive.^a

a<p>Abbreviation used in table: IQR, inter quartile range.</p>b<p>Including hepatitis B/C, alcohol liver disease, hepatapostema, hepatic cyst, hepatocirrhosis and schistosomiasis.</p>c<p>Including cholecystitis and cholelithiasis.</p

The frequency of symptoms in 106 ATLI cases.^a

a<p>Abbreviation used in table: ATLI, Anti-tuberculosis Drug Induced Liver Injury.</p