Fractional phase transitions of RN-AdS black hole at Davies points

We perform a study of phase transitions of RN-AdS black hole at its Davies points according to a generalized Ehrenfest classification of phase transition established on the basis of fractional derivatives. Davies points label the positions where heat capacity diverges. According to the usual Ehrenfest classification, second-order phase transitions occur there. For RN-AdS black hole, the Davies points can be classified into two types. The first type corresponds to the extreme values of temperature and the second type corresponds to the infection point(namely the critical point) of temperature. Employing the generalized Ehrenfest classification, we find that the orders of phase transition at the two types of Davies points are different. It is $3/2$-order for the first type and $4/3$-order for the second type. Thus this finer-grained classification can discriminate phase transitions that are supposed to be in the same category, which may provide some new insights toward a better understanding of black hole thermodynamics.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Chinese Physics

Reduced glutamine synthetase activity alters the fecundity of female Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel)

Glutamine synthetase (GS) is a key enzyme in glutamine synthesis and is associated with multiple physiological processes in insects, such as embryonic development, heat shock response, and fecundity regulation. However, little is known about the influence of GS on female fecundity in the oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis. Based on the cloning of BdGSs, mitochondrial BdGSm and cytoplasmic BdGSc, we determined their expressions in the tissues of adult B. dorsalis. BdGSm was highly expressed in the fat body, while BdGSc was highly expressed in the head and midgut. Gene silencing by RNA interference against two BdGSs isoforms suppressed target gene expression at the transcriptional level, leading to a reduced ovarian size and lower egg production. The specific inhibitor L-methionine S-sulfoximine suppressed enzyme activity, but only the gene expression of BdGSm was suppressed. A similar phenotype of delayed ovarian development occurred in the inhibitor bioassay. Significantly lower expression of vitellogenin and vitellogenin receptor was observed when GS enzyme activity was suppressed. These data illustrate the effects of two GS genes on adult fecundity by regulating vitellogenin synthesis in different ways

Deep brain imaging of three participants across 1 year: The Bergen breakfast scanning club project

Our understanding of the cognitive functions of the human brain has tremendously benefited from the population functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) studies in the last three decades. The reliability and replicability of the fMRI results, however, have been recently questioned, which has been named the replication crisis. Sufficient statistical power is fundamental to alleviate the crisis, by either “going big,” leveraging big datasets, or by “going small,” densely scanning several participants. Here we reported a “going small” project implemented in our department, the Bergen breakfast scanning club (BBSC) project, in which three participants were intensively scanned across a year. It is expected this kind of new data collection method can provide novel insights into the variability of brain networks, facilitate research designs and inference, and ultimately lead to the improvement of the reliability of the fMRI results

Impact Of Urbanization On Spatial And Temporal Variation Of Rainfall In Beijing Over The Last 50 Years

Rainfall is one of the key terms involved in many hydrological processes, and it is particularly important in the field of urban hydrology. It is well known that urbanization can have potential impact on precipitation process due to the changes it causes to the ground roughness, thermal-dynamics and many other factors. In this study, the focus is set on the impact on the precipitation patterns in Beijing in term of spatial and temporal variation, from the urbanization over last 50 years in which time the fast and continuous expansion of the city at dramatic scales, the rapid growth of residents population as well as human activities especially building of ground constructions, collectively and inevitably bring changes to the local climatic characteristics of the urbanized areas. This study looks at the two periods according to the speed of urbanization, namely the slow urbanization period of 1957-1980 and the fast urbanization period of 1981-2010. Rainfall data collected from the representative rain gauges across the region is used to analyze the spatial and temporal variation over these two periods. The results show that precipitation in urban areas exhibits the characteristics of higher intensity, shorter duration, with the rainfall mainly concentrated in 60 min or so. Local short-duration rainstorms tend to occur more frequently. Compared with suburban areas, urbanization has significant effect, especially on short-duration precipitation events evidenced by remarkable difference between the coefficients of variation of urban rainfall and those of the suburbs. In addition, for the fast urbanization period, the spatially localized, highly intensive rainfall events are found to be more frequent. Therefore, urbanization of the city has caused increase of the strong convective weather and pressure of flood control drainage, which should be paid more attentions to in city planning

Insight into the liquid state of organo-lead halide perovskites and their new roles in dye-sensitized solar cells

Here we report that organo-lead halide perovskite CH3NH 3PbI(3-x)Clx solution can be used as a new liquid electrolyte in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). We find that the presence of inorganic octahedra of [PbX6]4- (X = I or Cl, or a combination of them) in this perovskite solution can not only remarkably improve the device stability but also enhance the photo-response of DSCs