Computed Tomography Imaging Features of Pulmonary Sequestration

Background: Pulmonary sequestration (PS), generally diagnosed using computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA), is a rare congenital developmental malformation of the lung that is characterized by nonfunctional lung tissue, independent of the normal lung tissue. This paper summarizes the imaging features of the supplying arteries and draining vessels in patients with PS with an aim to assist in timely clinical diagnosis and operation guidance. Materials and Methods: A total of 55 patients with PS diagnosed using CTPA from multiple clinical centers were retrospectively analyzed. Data included demographic characteristics, imaging features, disease location, isolation type, and the features of supplying and draining vessels, as shown on CTPA images. Results: Of the 55 patients reviewed, 3 (5.45%) were children, 3 (5.45%) were adolescents, and 49 (89.09%) were adults; the mean age was 44 years. Fifty-four (98.18%) patients had intralobar sequestration and one (1.82%) had extralobar sequestration. PS was noted 3.5 times more frequently in the left lower lobe than in the right lower lobe. For the supplying arteries, 47 (85.45%) were derived from the descending thoracic aorta, 1 (1.82%) from the abdominal aorta, 7 (12.73%) from the celiac axis, and 1 (1.82%) from the bronchial artery. The draining vessels were the pulmonary veins in 49 patients (89.09%), the umbilical vein in 1 (1.82%), the venae intercostal in 1 (1.82%), the pulmonary arteries in 11 (20.00%), and the vessels were not shown on the images in 2 patients (3.64%). Conclusion: Clinical presentations of PS are non-specific and can be easily missed or misdiagnosed. However, CTPA can help to improve the diagnostic accuracy and identify the supplying arteries and draining vessels, which significantly contribute to surgical planning

Atlas of Mineral Deposits Distribution in China (2020)

This open access book includes instruction of national mineral database 2020 and atlas of national mineral deposits distribution derived from national mineral database 2020. National mineral database 2020 is based on data from National Geological Archives China(NGAC). Moreover, it introduces the construction method and updates maintenance mechanism of the mineral deposits database and proposes the concept of updating data based on collected archives. The construction guideline on national mineral deposits database provides guiding framework for the future development on geological database

The Distribution Pattern of Sediment Archaea Community of the Poyang Lake, the Largest Freshwater Lake in China

Archaea plays an important role in the global geobiochemical circulation of various environments. However, much less is known about the ecological role of archaea in freshwater lake sediments. Thus, investigating the structure and diversity of archaea community is vital to understand the metabolic processes in freshwater lake ecosystems. In this study, sediment physicochemical properties were combined with the results from 16S rRNA clone library-sequencing to examine the sediment archaea diversity and the environmental factors driving the sediment archaea community structures. Seven sites were chosen from Poyang Lake, including two sites from the main lake body and five sites from the inflow river estuaries. Our results revealed high diverse archaea community in the sediment of Poyang Lake, including Bathyarchaeota (45.5%), Euryarchaeota (43.1%), Woesearchaeota (3.6%), Pacearchaeota (1.7%), Thaumarchaeota (1.4%), suspended Lokiarchaeota (0.7%), Aigarchaeota (0.2%), and Unclassified Archaea (3.8%). The archaea community compositions differed among sites, and sediment property had considerable influence on archaea community structures and distribution, especially total organic carbon (TOC) and metal lead (Pb) (p<0.05). This study provides primary profile of sediment archaea distribution in freshwater lakes and helps to deepen our understanding of lake sediment microbes

Flat-Spectrum Radio Quasars from SDSS DR3 Quasar Catalogue

We constructed a sample of 185 Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars (FSRQs) by cross-correlating the Shen et al.'s SDSS DR3 X-ray quasar sample with FIRST and GB6 radio catalogues. From the spectrum energy distribution (SED) constructed using multi-band (radio, UV, optical, Infrared and X-ray) data, we derived the synchrotron peak frequency and peak luminosity. The black hole mass and the broad line region (BLR) luminosity (then the bolometric luminosity) were obtained by measuring the line-width and strength of broad emission lines from SDSS spectra. We define a subsample of 118 FSRQs, of which the nonthermal jet emission is thought to be dominated over the thermal emission from accretion disk and host galaxy. For this subsample, we found 25 FSRQs having synchrotron peak frequency > 10^{15} Hz, which is higher than the typical value for FSRQs. While only a weak anti-correlation is found between the synchrotron peak frequency and peak luminosity, it becomes significant when combining with the Wu et al.'s sample of 170 BL Lac objects. At similar peak frequency, the peak luminosity of FSRQs with \nupeak > 10^{15} Hz is systematically higher than that of BL Lac objects, with some FSRQs out of the range covered by BL Lac objects. Although high \nupeak are found in some FSRQs, they do not reach the extreme value of BL Lacs. For the subsample of 118 FSRQs, we found significant correlations between the peak luminosity and black hole mass, the Eddington ratio, and the BLR luminosity, indicating that the jet physics may be tightly related with the accretion process.Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures, 2 tables, accepted to MNRA

M_BH - sigma relation in SDSS flat-spectrum radio quasars

The relationship between the black hole mass and velocity dispersion indicated with [O III] line width is investigated for a sample of 87 flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) selected from SDSS DR3 quasar catalogue. We found the M_bh - sigma_[O III] relation is deviated from Tremaine et al. relation for nearby inactive galaxies, with a larger black hole mass at given velocity dispersion. There is no strong evidence of cosmology evolution in M_bh - sigma_[O III] relation up to z~0.8. A significant correlation between the [O III] luminosity and Broad Line Region (BLR) luminosity is found. When transferring the [O III] luminosity to Narrow Line Region (NLR) luminosity, the BLR luminosity is, on average, larger than NLR one by about one order of magnitude. We found a strong correlation between the synchrotron peak luminosity and NLR luminosity, which implies a tight relation between the jet physics and accretion process.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, accepted to MNRA

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals &lt;1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

16 novembre 1994 - 15 janvier 1995

Zhengming, Zhaoyu Kong. 16 novembre 1994 - 15 janvier 1995. In: Perspectives chinoises, n°27, 1995. pp. 68-71

16 novembre 1994 - 15 janvier 1995

Zhengming, Zhaoyu Kong. 16 novembre 1994 - 15 janvier 1995. In: Perspectives chinoises, n°27, 1995. pp. 68-71