A Dark Target Algorithm for the GOSAT TANSO-CAI Sensor in Aerosol Optical Depth Retrieval over Land

Cloud and Aerosol Imager (CAI) onboard the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) is a multi-band sensor designed to observe and acquire information on clouds and aerosols. In order to retrieve aerosol optical depth (AOD) over land from the CAI sensor, a Dark Target (DT) algorithm for GOSAT CAI was developed based on the strategy of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) DT algorithm. When retrieving AOD from satellite platforms, determining surface contributions is a major challenge. In the MODIS DT algorithm, surface signals in the visible wavelengths are estimated based on the relationships between visible channels and shortwave infrared (SWIR) near the 2.1 µm channel. However, the CAI only has a 1.6 µm band to cover the SWIR wavelengths. To resolve the difficulties in determining surface reflectance caused by the lack of 2.1 μm band data, we attempted to analyze the relationship between reflectance at 1.6 µm and at 2.1 µm. We did this using the MODIS surface reflectance product and then connecting the reflectances at 1.6 µm and the visible bands based on the empirical relationship between reflectances at 2.1 µm and the visible bands. We found that the reflectance relationship between 1.6 µm and 2.1 µm is typically dependent on the vegetation conditions, and that reflectances at 2.1 µm can be parameterized as a function of 1.6 µm reflectance and the Vegetation Index (VI). Based on our experimental results, an Aerosol Free Vegetation Index (AFRI2.1)-based regression function connecting the 1.6 µm and 2.1 µm bands was summarized. Under light aerosol loading (AOD at 0.55 µm < 0.1), the 2.1 µm reflectance derived by our method has an extremely high correlation with the true 2.1 µm reflectance (r-value = 0.928). Similar to the MODIS DT algorithms (Collection 5 and Collection 6), a CAI-applicable approach that uses AFRI2.1 and the scattering angle to account for the visible surface signals was proposed. It was then applied to the CAI sensor for AOD retrieval; the retrievals were validated by comparisons with ground-level measurements from Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) sites. Validations show that retrievals from the CAI have high agreement with the AERONET measurements, with an r-value of 0.922, and 69.2% of the AOD retrieved data falling within the expected error envelope of ± (0.1 + 15% AODAERONET)

Vascular endothelial growth factor-B gene transfer exacerbates retinal and choroidal neovascularization and vasopermeability without promoting inflammation

The role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-B in the eye is poorly understood. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of overexpression of VEGF-B via adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene transfer on ocular angiogenesis, inflammation, and the blood-retinal barrier (BRB).Three recombinant AAV vectors were prepared, expressing the 167 (AAV-VEGF-B167) or 186 amino acid isoform (AAV-VEGF-B186) of VEGF-B or the green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter gene (AAV-GFP). Approximately 1 x 10\u2079 viral genome copies of AAV-VEGF-B167, AAV-VEGF-B186, or AAV-GFP were intraocularly injected. The efficacy of the gene transfer was assessed by directly observing GFP, by immunohistochemistry, or by real-time PCR. A leukostasis assay using fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated Concanavalin A was used to evaluate inflammation. The BRB was assessed using a quantitative assay with \ub3H-mannitol as a tracer. Retinal neovascularization (NV) was assessed at postnatal day 17 in oxygen-induced ischemic retinopathy after intravitreal injection of AAV-VEGF-B in left eyes and AAV-GFP in right eyes at postnatal day 7. Two weeks after injection of AAV vectors, choroidal NV was generated by laser photocoagulation and assessed 2 weeks later.GFP expression was clearly demonstrated, primarily in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and outer retina, 1-6 weeks after delivery. mRNA expression levels of VEGF-B167 and VEGF-B186 were 5.8 and 12 fold higher in the AAV-VEGF-B167- and AAV-VEGF-B186-treated groups, respectively. There was no evidence of an inflammatory response or vessel abnormality following injection of the vectors in normal mice; however, VEGF-B increased retinal and choroidal neovascularization. AAV-VEGF-B186, but not AAV-VEGF-B167, enhanced retinal vascular permeability.VEGF-B overexpression promoted pathological retinal and choroidal NV and BRB breakdown without causing inflammation, which is associated with the progression of diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration, showing that these complications are not dependent on inflammation. VEGF-B targeting could benefit antiangiogenic therapy

MODIFIED YUPINGFENG FORMULA FOR THE TREATMENT OF STABLE CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY DISEASE: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIALS

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), is a very common disease of respiratory system. An increasing number of clinical trials on Yupingfeng formula in the management of stable COPD have been performed. However, the evidence base for it remains unknown. This review aims at assessing the efficacy, and safety of modified Yupingfeng formula in the treatment of stable COPD through a systematic review of all available randomized controlled trials. Materials and Methods: Literature retrieval was conducted using four English databases (CENTRAL, PubMed, EMBASE, and ISI Web of Science), and four Chinese databases (CBM, CNKI, VIP, and WANFANG), from respective inception to January 2013, and supplemented with a manual search. Review authors independently extracted the trial data, and assessed the quality of each trial. Methodological quality was assessed by Cochrane risk of bias and Jadad’s scale. The following outcomes were evaluated: (1) lung function; (2) 6-minute walk distance (6MWD); (3) effective rate; (4) serum levels of IgA, IgG and IgE; and (5) adverse events. Data were analyzed using STATA 12.0 software. Results: A total of nine studies involving 660, stable COPD patients were identified. Patients from all studies included in this review were randomized to receive Yupingfeng formula combined with Western medications in comparison with Western medications. In general, the methodological quality of the included trials was poor. The results of this systematic review indicates that, compared with Western medications alone, the use of Yupingfeng formula, if combined with Western medications could significantly improve FEV1 (WMD = 0.30L; 95%CI: 0.19, 0.42), FEV1/FVC ratio (SMD = 0.69; 95%CI: 0.48, 0.91), 6MWD (WMD = 31.73m; 95% CI: 19.29, 44.17), and effective rate (RR = 1.24; 95% CI: 1.10, 1.41), and increase the serum levels of IgA (WMD = 0.25; 95%CI: 0.16, 0.34) and IgG (WMD = 1.10; 95%CI: 0.53, 1.68), but no difference was found in the serum IgE levels (WMD = 0.47; 95%CI: -0.32, 1.27) between the two groups. No serious adverse events were reported. Conclusions: Within the limitations of this systematic review, we may conclude that compared with Western medications alone, Yupingfeng formula, when combined with Western medications can provide more benefits for patients with stable COPD, without any serious adverse reactions being identified. However, these benefits need to be further confirmed through high-quality prospective placebo-controlled trials that should be strictly conducted in accordance with methodological principles and procedures

Generation of three dimensional retinal tissue with functional photoreceptors from human iPSCs

Many forms of blindness result from the dysfunction or loss of retinal photoreceptors. Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) hold great potential for the modeling of these diseases or as potential therapeutic agents. However, to fulfill this promise, a remaining challenge is to induce human iPSC to recreate in vitro key structural and functional features of the native retina, in particular the presence of photoreceptors with outer-segment discs and light-sensitivity. Here we report that hiPSC can, in a highly autonomous manner, recapitulate spatiotemporally each of the main steps of retinal development observed in vivo and form 3-dimensional retinal cups that contain all major retinal cell types arranged in their proper layers. Moreover, the photoreceptors in our hiPSC-derived retinal tissue achieve advanced maturation, showing the beginning of outer-segment-disc formation and photosensitivity. This success brings us one step closer to the anticipated use of hiPSC for disease modeling and open possibilities for future therapies

Room temperature 2D ferromagnetism in few-layered 1TT-CrTe2_{2}

Spin-related electronics using two dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) materials as a platform are believed to hold great promise for revolutionizing the next generation spintronics. Although many emerging new phenomena have been unravelled in 2D electronic systems with spin long-range orderings, the scarcely reported room temperature magnetic vdW material has thus far hindered the related applications. Here, we show that intrinsic ferromagnetically aligned spin polarization can hold up to 316 K in a metallic phase of 1$T$-CrTe$_{2}$ in the few-layer limit. This room temperature 2D long range spin interaction may be beneficial from an itinerant enhancement. Spin transport measurements indicate an in-plane room temperature negative anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) in few-layered CrTe$_{2}$, but a sign change in the AMR at lower temperature, with -0.6$\%$ at 300 K and +5$\%$ at 10 K, respectively. This behavior may originate from the specific spin polarized band structure of CrTe$_{2}$. Our findings provide insights into magnetism in few-layered CrTe$_{2}$, suggesting potential for future room temperature spintronic applications of such 2D vdW magnets.Comment: 9 Pages, 4 Figure

Long-Term Satellite Detection of Post-Fire Vegetation Trends in Boreal Forests of China

This paper describes the long-term effects on vegetation following the catastrophic fire in 1987 on the northern Great Xing'an Mountain by analyzing the AVHRR GIMMS 15-day composite normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) dataset. Both temporal and spatial characteristics were analyzed for natural regeneration and tree planting scenarios from 1984 to 2006. Regressing post-fire NDVI values on the pre-fire values helped identify the NDVI for burnt pixels in vegetation stands. Stand differences in fire damage were classified into five levels: Very High (VH), High (H), Moderate (M), Low (L) and Slight (S). Furthermore, intra-annual and inter-annual post-fire vegetation recovery trajectories were analyzed by deriving a time series of NDVI and relative regrowth index (RRI) values for the entire burned area. Finally, spatial pattern and trend analyses were conducted using the pixel-based post-fire annual stands regrowth index (SRI) with a nonparametric Mann-Kendall (MK) statistics method. The results show that October was a better period compared to other months for distinguishing the post-and pre-fire vegetation conditions using the NDVI signals in boreal forests of China because colored leaves on grasses and shrubs fall down, while the leaves on healthy trees remain green in October. The MK statistics method is robustly capable of detecting vegetation trends in a relatively long time series. Because tree planting primarily occurred in the severely burned area (approximately equal to the Medium, High and Very High fire damage areas) following the Daxing'anling fire in 1987, the severely burned area exhibited a better recovery trend than the lightly burned regions. Reasonable tree planting can substantially quicken the recovery and shorten the restoration time of the target species. More detailed satellite analyses and field data will be required in the future for a more convincing validation of the results

Study on spatial distribution of crop residue burning and PM2.5 change in China

With China as the study area, MODIS MOD14A1 and MCD12Q1 products were used to derive daily crop residue burning spots from 2014 to 2015. After vectorization of crop residue burning pixels and with the use of fishnet, burning density distribution maps were eventually completed. Meanwhile, the daily air quality data from 150 cities in 2014 and 285 cities in 2015 were used to obtain daily and monthly PM2.5 distribution maps with the Kriging interpolation. The results indicate that crop residue burning occurs in a seasonal pattern, and its spatial distribution is closely related to farming activities. The annual PM2.5 in China decreased 11.81% from 2014 to 2015, and the distribution of PM2.5 in China's east and north is always higher than in China's west and south. Furthermore, the changes in PM2.5 exhibit a hysteresis after crop residue burning in summer and autumn-winter. Regarding summer crop residue burning in China's middle east, the r between crop residue burning spots and PM2.5 is 0.6921 (P < 0.01) in 2014 and 0.5620 (P < 0.01) in 2015, while the correlation coefficient of autumn-winter crop residue burning in China's northeast is slightly lower with an r of 0.5670 (P < 0.01) in 2014 and 0.6213 (P < 0.01) in 2015. In autumn-winter, crop residue burning can induce evident PM2.5 increase in China's northeast, and that is more obvious than summer crop residue burning in China's middle east. Furthermore, when data of summer and autumn-winter crop residue burning from 2014 to 2015 are compared, we can see that the change in number of crop residue burning spots significant changes PM2.5 in these regions. Both the summer and autumn-winter crop residue burning areas presented spatial consistency with high PM2.5. By contrast, the results from many aspects indicated that the crop residue burning in spring did not cause a notable change of PM2.5

Spatial pattern of GPP variations in terrestrial ecosystems and its drivers : Climatic factors, CO2 concentration and land-cover change, 1982-2015

Quantitative estimation of spatial pattern of gross primary production (GPP) trends and its drivers plays a crucial role in global change research. This study applied C-Fix model to estimate the net effect of each factor on GPP trends of 1982-2015, used an unsupervised classifier to group similar GPP trend behaviors, and analyzed the responses of GPP to changes in climatic, atmospheric and environmental drivers. According to the features of monthly GPP trends and the patterns of growing season, we presented nine categories as aids in interpreting large-scale behavior. Land-cover change (LCC), rising CO2, temperature and water conditions changes have the positive overall effect on GPP over the entire world, contrary to radiation change effects. The global average contributions of LCC, CO2, temperature, radiation and water on GPP trend are 4.57%, 65.73%, 13.07%, -7.24 and 11.74%, respectively. LCC and climatic factors changes have had a greater impact on GPP in terms of a specific location or regional rather than globally, and the interactions between factors are positive on GPP. The effects of climatic factors trends on GPP in different locations can be opposite, in general: regionally, GPP changes at middle and high latitudes are likely dominated by rises in radiation and temperature; at lower latitudes, GPP changes are likely to be driven by shifts in water conditions; at high altitudes, GPP changes are probably caused by changes in temperature and water conditions. These results will increase the understanding of the variations of carbon flux under future CO2, LCC and climate conditions