Involvement and therapeutic implications of airway epithelial barrier dysfunction in type 2 inflammation of asthma

Type 2 inflammation is a complex immune response and primary mechanism for several common allergic diseases including allergic rhinitis, allergic asthma, atopic dermatitis, and chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps. It is the predominant type of immune response against helminths to prevent their tissue infiltration and induce their expulsion. Recent studies suggest that epithelial barrier dysfunction contributes to the development of type 2 inflammation in asthma, which may partly explain the increasing prevalence of asthma in China and around the globe. The epithelial barrier hypothesis has recently been proposed and has received great interest from the scientific community. The development of leaky epithelial barriers leads to microbial dysbiosis and the translocation of bacteria to inter- and sub-epithelial areas and the development of epithelial tissue inflammation. Accordingly, preventing the impairment and promoting the restoration of a deteriorated airway epithelial barrier represents a promising strategy for the treatment of asthma. This review introduces the interaction between type 2 inflammation and the airway epithelial barrier in asthma, the structure and molecular composition of the airway epithelial barrier, and the assessment of epithelial barrier integrity. The role of airway epithelial barrier disruption in the pathogenesis of asthma will be discussed. In addition, the possible mechanisms underlying the airway epithelial barrier dysfunction induced by allergens and environmental pollutants, and current treatments to restore the airway epithelial barrier are reviewed

Enhancement on migration and biodegradation of Diaphorobacter sp. LW2 mediated by Pythium ultimum in soil with different particle sizes

IntroductionThe composition and structure of natural soil are very complex, leading to the difficult contact between hydrophobic organic compounds and degrading-bacteria in contaminated soil, making pollutants hard to be removed from the soil. Several researches have reported the bacterial migration in unsaturated soil mediated by fungal hyphae, but bacterial movement in soil of different particle sizes or in heterogeneous soil was unclear. The remediation of contaminated soil enhanced by hyphae still needs further research.MethodsIn this case, the migration and biodegradation of Diaphorobacter sp. LW2 in soil was investigated in presence of Pythium ultimum.ResultsHyphae could promote the growth and migration of LW2 in culture medium. It was also confirmed that LW2 was able to migrate in the growth direction and against the growth direction along hyphae. Mediated by hyphae, motile strain LW2 translocated over 3 cm in soil with different particle size (CS1, 1.0–2.0 mm; CS2, 0.5–1.0mm; MS, 0.25–0.5 mm and FS, <0.25 mm), and it need shorter time in bigger particle soils. In inhomogeneous soil, hyphae participated in the distribution of introduced bacteria, and the total number of bacteria increased. Pythium ultimum enhanced the migration and survival of LW2 in soil, improving the bioremediation of polluted soil.DiscussionThe results of this study indicate that the mobilization of degrading bacteria mediated by Pythium ultimum in soil has great potential for application in bioremediation of contaminated soil

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

Real-time Monitoring for the Next Core-Collapse Supernova in JUNO

Core-collapse supernova (CCSN) is one of the most energetic astrophysical events in the Universe. The early and prompt detection of neutrinos before (pre-SN) and during the SN burst is a unique opportunity to realize the multi-messenger observation of the CCSN events. In this work, we describe the monitoring concept and present the sensitivity of the system to the pre-SN and SN neutrinos at the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), which is a 20 kton liquid scintillator detector under construction in South China. The real-time monitoring system is designed with both the prompt monitors on the electronic board and online monitors at the data acquisition stage, in order to ensure both the alert speed and alert coverage of progenitor stars. By assuming a false alert rate of 1 per year, this monitoring system can be sensitive to the pre-SN neutrinos up to the distance of about 1.6 (0.9) kpc and SN neutrinos up to about 370 (360) kpc for a progenitor mass of 30$M_{\odot}$ for the case of normal (inverted) mass ordering. The pointing ability of the CCSN is evaluated by using the accumulated event anisotropy of the inverse beta decay interactions from pre-SN or SN neutrinos, which, along with the early alert, can play important roles for the followup multi-messenger observations of the next Galactic or nearby extragalactic CCSN.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure

Ecological Network Analysis of a Virtual Water System in Tibet, China

With the development of the economy and urbanization, the contradiction between water use and supply is growing, and it is necessary to explore the relationship and evolutionary process of water flow in the water system from a systematic perspective. Although previous studies have analyzed the water system from a holistic point of view, a comprehensive system that considers virtual water flows is currently lacking. The present study establishes a seven-compartment virtual water system in Tibet in 2012 by combining ecological network analysis (ENA) with the input–output model. Socio-economic sectors and virtual water flows are expressed as network compartments and pathways. The information-based ENA is used to evaluate the characteristics of the virtual water system in Tibet, including its robustness and trade-offs between network efficiency and redundancy. Network control analysis is introduced to characterize the control and dependence intensities over the system, while ecological relationships between pairwise compartments are calculated using network utility analysis. The results indicate that Tibet’s virtual water system has close to optimal robustness, with higher redundancy and limited efficiency. The agriculture compartment is the main controller, while the energy supply compartment is the most dependent on the virtual water system. The overall systematic relationship that the system has is generally mutualistic and synergistic, the majority of which have a positive relationship, although the control and exploitation relationships are dominant. These results can be used to improve network robustness and are of great significance to the sustainable development of the virtual water system in Tibet

Riverine Health Assessment Using Coordinated Development Degree Model Based on Natural and Social Functions in the Lhasa River, China

Rivers provide a variety of ecosystem services to humans. However, human interference significantly impairs the rivers’ functions and poses a threat to river health. To increase the understanding of riverine health in Tibet, China from 2011 to 2014, this study used the Lhasa River as a case study and established a multiple indicator system incorporating both natural and social functions of the river. Weights of riverine health indicators were calculated using the entropy method. Moreover, to evaluate the coordination and development of natural and social functions, a coordinated development degree model was developed. The results showed that the entropy weights of natural and social functions in the target layer were 0.67 and 0.33, respectively. Natural functions, social functions, and riverine state index all decreased from upstream to downstream, and marked as “good” during the entire study period. In 2012, the coordinated development degree improved from previously “moderately coordinated” to “highly coordinated”. Furthermore, the development of natural and social functions was synchronized throughout the study period. Further analysis revealed that the construction of hydraulic projects had a significant effect on the hydrological regime, resulting in an increase in social functions of the river. Therefore, the coordinated development degree model is shown to provide new insight into assessing riverine health in terms of both natural and social functions

A New Fluctuation Index: Characteristics and Application to Hydro-Wind Systems

Hydro-wind system output fluctuations are the primary factors used to assess the effects of hydropower on power companies compensating for wind power intermittency. Considering that most fluctuation indices can only characterize one aspect of fluctuations, namely, the quantitative or contour variations, we present a new index that uses the standard deviation (SD) and rotation angle to detect the quantitative variations and contour changes, respectively. Herein, the new index is compared with commonly used indices, specifically, the first-order difference, SD, and Richards-Baker flashiness indices. The results of tests performed using various processes and disposals show that: (1) when dealing with the process by moving average, repeating or overlay disposal, the new index performs comparably to the other indices, while when dealing with the process by zooming disposal, it more fully describes the fluctuation characteristics by taking both quantitative and contour variations into consideration; (2) when the new index is used to characterize the hydro-wind output fluctuations with different resources and capacities, the outcomes coincide with the mechanisms of hydro-wind systems. This study presents a new way to characterize the fluctuation of hydro-wind output