Precision Measurement of the Proton Flux in Primary Cosmic Rays from Rigidity 1 GV to 1.8 TV with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on the International Space Station

A precise measurement of the proton flux in primary cosmic rays with rigidity (momentum/charge) from 1 GV to 1.8 TV is presented based on 300 million events. Knowledge of the rigidity dependence of the proton flux is important in understanding the origin, acceleration, and propagation of cosmic rays. We present the detailed variation with rigidity of the flux spectral index for the first time. The spectral index progressively hardens at high rigidities.</p

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

Background: Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. Methods: The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model—a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates—with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality—which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. Findings: The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2–100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1–290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1–211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4–48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3–37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7–9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. Interpretation: Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. Funding: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Metal complexes of meso-tetra-(p-chlorophenyl)porphyrin and meso-tetra-(p-bromophenyl)porphyrin: Tl (p-Cl)(4)tpp (OAc) and In (p-X)(4)tpp (OAc) X=Cl, Br, tpp=5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphyrinate

The crystal structures of acetato-[meso-tetra(p-chlorophenyl)porphyrinato]thallium(III) Tl[(p-Cl)(4)tpp](OAc) (1), acetato-[mesotetra(p-chlorophenyl)porphyrinato]indium(III) In[(p-Cl)(4)tpp](OAc) (2) and acetato-[meso-tetra(p-bromophenyl)porphyrinato]indium(III) In[(p-Br)(4)tpp](OAc) (3) were determined. The coordination sphere around the Tl3+ ion in I is described as six-coordinate distorted square-based pyramid in which the apical site is occupied by a chelating bidentate OAc- group, whereas for the In3+ ion in 2 and 3, it is a five-coordinate regular square-based pyramid in which the unidentate OAc- ligand occupies the axial site. The plane of the four pyrrole nitrogen atoms [i.e. N(l)-N(4)] strongly bonded to Tl3+ (or In3+) is adopted as a reference plane 4N. The Tl3+ is moderately out of the 4N plane; its displacement of 0.69 Angstrom is in the same direction as that of the acetate oxygen for 1. The In3+ are located at 0.57 Angstrom from its 4N plane for 2 and 3. The free energy of activation at the coalescence temperature T-c for the intermolecular acetate exchange for I in CD2Cl2 is found to be DeltaG(200)(not equal) = 42.54 kJ mol(-1) whereas the intermolecular OAc- exchange for acetato-[meso-tetra(p-bromophenyl)porphyrinato]thallium(III) Tl[(p-Br)(4)tpp](OAc) (4) in CD2Cl2 is determined to be DeltaG(200)(not equal) = 42.46 U mol(-1) through H-1 NMR temperature-dependent measurements. Moreover, the two oxygen atoms of the acetato group for 2 and 3 are asymmetrically and chelating bidentately bound to the indium atom in CD2Cl2 (or CDCl3) solvent. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

Photoelectrocatalytic Degradation of Sodium Oxalate by TiO2/Ti Thin Film Electrode

The photocatalytically active TiO2 thin film was deposited on the titanium substrate plate by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method, and the photoelectrocatalytic degradation of sodium oxalate was investigated by TiO2 thin film reactor prepared in this study with additional electric potential at 365nm irradiation. The batch system was chosen in this experiment, and the controlled parameters were pH, different supporting electrolytes, applied additional potential, and different electrolyte solutions that were examined and discussed. The experimental results revealed that the additional applied potential in photocatalytic reaction could prohibit recombination of electron/hole pairs, but the photoelectrocatalytic effect was decreased when the applied electric potential was over 0.25 V. Among the electrolyte solutions added, sodium sulfate improved the photoelectrocatalytic effect most significantly. At last, the better photoelectrocatalytic degradation of sodium oxalate occurred at pH3 when comparing the pH influence

Maternal age-specific risk of down syndrome in an Asian population: A report of the Taiwan Down syndrome screening group

This study is a novel approach in establishing the maternal age-specific risk for Down syndrome screening in an Asian population. The relative frequency by one-year maternal age interval in women who had live births in the Taiwan area between 1975 and 1995 was used as the age-specific distribution of women who had unaffected pregnancies. Data about Down syndrome live births were obtained from the Taiwan Down Syndrome Association to establish the age distribution of women who had Down syndrome live births. The relative frequencies and the likelihood ratio by one-year maternal age interval was calculated and smoothed by running median and moving average smoothing methods. The age-specific risk was established by multiplying the total population risk by thee likelihood ratio of the specific maternal age. The total live births in the Taiwan area between 1975 and 1995 were 7 232 689. A total of 527 cases of Down syndrome live births were registered in the Taiwan Down Syndrome Association. PI total of 466 cases (88.43 per cent) of Down syndrome live births occurred before age 35, which was higher than occidental reports. This study established the first sizeable database of maternal age-specific risk for Down syndrome in an Asian population. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Observation and Simulation of Meteorology and Surface Energy Components over the South China Sea in Summers of 2004 and 2006

Measurements of meteorological variables and surface energy components over the South China Sea (SCS) are compared with the NCEP-DOE AMIP-II reanalysis (NCEP2). The observations were conducted on a research vessel in the summers of 2004 and 2006. In addition, a one-column ocean model is used to simulate surface energy components and upper-level water temperatures (at 4 and 10 m depths). The simulated upper-level water temperatures agree well with the observations during the two cruises (OR1-728, OR1-802) with a root-mean-square difference (RMSD) smaller than 0.4 K. The observations and the simulations show that the solar radiation (with a mean of similar to 200 W m(-2)) is stronger than the latent heat flux (similar to 160 W m(-2)), and the latent heat flux is stronger than the sensible heat flux (similar to 10 W m(-2)) during both periods. Nonetheless, the magnitude of variability in heat flux caused by the sporadic wind is not seen in the reanalysis, it appears in the turbulent heat flux simulated by the model. The major differences between the model estimate and the NCEP2 reanalysis are the value of emissivity and the inclusion of diurnal cycles in key variables, with the value of NCEP2 for emissivity as 1. The emissivity of this part of ocean is observed to be 0.96 with albedo at 0.07

A Modified Block Copolymer Nano-Patterning Method for High Density Sub-30 nm Polystyrene Nanosphere and Gold Nanomesh Formation

The use of self-assembled block copolymer structures to direct producing mesoscopic (1-100 nm) features requires potentially lower cost and can also be applied for large scale method as compared to conventional lithographic techniques, which may attracts many research interests. Here we demonstrate a simple, uniform, ease to control and efficient single step process to prepare polystyrene nanospheres based on the modified block copolymer nanopatterning with a diameter of 30 nm. The density of closely packed PS nanosphere was as high as 10(11)/cm(2). The formation of PS nanospheres was insensitive to the immersion temperature and time. The interiors of the resulting mask technique features have been developed to prepare large scale arrays of Au nanomesh on substrate at room temperature with lesser processing cost. Our result shows that the transmission rate of gold nanomesh was very similar to that of ITO. This technique provides an effective way to fabricate, control and reproduce plasmonic metal nanostructures with tunable surface plasmon resonances

Characterization of insertions of IS476 and two newly identified insertion sequences, IS1478 and IS1479, in Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris

Thirty-two plasmid insertion mutants were independently isolated from two strains of Xanthomonas campestris pv, campestris in Taiwan, Of the 32 mutants, 14 (44%), 8 (25%), and 4 (12%) mutants resulted from separate insertions of an IS3 family member, IS476, and two new insertion sequences (IS), IS1478 and IS1479. While PS1478 does not have significant sequence homology with any IS elements in the EMBL/GenBank/DDBJ database, IS1479 demonstrated 73% sequence homology with IS1051 in X. campestris pv, dieffenbachiae, 62% homology with IS52 in Pseudomonas syringae pv, glycinea, and 60% homology with IS5 in Escherichia coli. Based on the predicted transposase sequences as well as the terminal nucleotide sequences, IS1478 by itself constitutes a new subfamily of the widespread IS5 family, whereas IS1479, along with IS1051, IS52, and IS5, belongs to the IS5 subfamily of the IS5 family. All but one of the IS476 insertions had duplications of 4 bp at the target sites without sequence preference and were randomly distributed. An IS476 insertion carried a duplication of 952 bp at the target site. A model for generating these long direct repeats is proposed, Insertions of IS1478 and IS1479, on the other hand, were not random, and IS1478 and IS1479 each showed conservation of PyPuNTTA and PyTAPu sequences (Py is a pyrimidine, Pu is a purine, and N is any nucleotide) for duplications at the target sites. The results of Southern blot hybridization analysis indicated that multiple copies of IS476, IS1478, and IS1479 are present in the genomes of all seven X: campestris pv, campestris strains tested and several X. campestris pathovars