Evolution of meanders with hyperconcentrated flow in the loess areas

依据中国黄土分布区多沙曲流的水沙资料、河床平面形态和河床大断面测量资料分析认为: 多沙河流来水变率影响河床断面形态和曲流发育; 由于窄深的河槽是高含沙水流输沙的必要条件和结果, 因此随着含沙量的增加, 多沙河流河床断面形态首先出现变窄深的趋势, 随着含沙量的进一步增加, 水流造床能力增大, 河槽会向宽浅方向调整; 一定的河床冲淤强度有利于曲流的发育, 随着含沙量的增加, 多沙河流河床曲率存在先增加后减小的规律。In the loess areas, especially on the Loess Plateau in China, most of the rivers discharging hyperconcentrated flows have developed a typical meandering pattern. Based on the data of thirteen meandering rivers on the Loess Plateau and the Yangchangzi River, the properties of water flow and sediment load of these rivers, the effects of variations of flow and sediment load on channel cross sectional geometry and sinuosity, are analyzed in the paper. The data include the daily flow and sediment load and the geometry of channel cross sections recorded from 1976 to 1980 as well as the plan of channel measured on the landscape maps with a scale of 1 : 50 000 or 1 : 100 000. From these data we extrast parameters reflecting the characteristics of flow and sediment load, channel geometry, and sedimentation in channel and channel adjustment thereupon. Follows are the results of analyses. 1) As the rivers with low sediment concentration, the hyperconcentrated flow dominated rivers have a narrower and more sinuous channel if the fluctuation in water discharge is low. 2) With the increase of sediment concentration, the channel cross sectional geometry is usually widened in the case of the rivers with low sediment concentration. Since a narrow channel is one of the requisite conditions as well as the result of sediment transport of hyperconcentrated flows, the channels become narrow initially as the sediment concentration of hyperconcentrated flow increases. However, if the sediment concentration is larger than a certain value, the energy consumption of sediment transport is lowered down thenceforth with the increase of sediment concentration, and the flow becomes unsaturated and has a higher channel making capacity, so the channel is widened. Revealed by the instantaneous hydrological records, the transition takes place at the sediment concentration of about 400 kg/m3. 3) Both excessive and low intensity of sedimentation in the channel is unfavorable to development of meanders. In the case of the rivers with a low sediment concentration, the energy consumption per unit distance increases with the enlargement of slope and discharge and so the capacity of channel making of the flows; therefore, the channel sinuosity increases initially and decreases later. Regarding the hyperconcentrated flow dominated rivers, the energy consumption of sediment transport is lowered and the channel making capacity as well as magnitude of sedimentation are enlarged accompanying with the increase of sediment concentration, so an initial increase of channel sinuosity is followed by a decrease also. Due to the difference of the mechanism of channel sinuosity adjustment from that of cross section changes, the existence of the asychronism in the adjustment of the two factors is reasonable.published_or_final_versio

A study of chemical properties of rains on the Tibetan Plateau

Natural rains are generally considered as weakly acidic. Measurements in Lhasa and other three small cities on the Tibetan Plateau reveal that the rainwater on the Plateau is alkaline with bicarbonate as the dominant anion and contains few pollutants. On the basis of the measurements on the Tibetan Plateau, the experiments and calculation, the authors believe that the original pH of natural rainwater in arid and semiarid areas on this planet should be weakly alkaline because of the influence of alkaline dusts. 一般認為天然降雨呈弱酸性,但是觀測顯示青藏高原上拉薩及其它3個城市降水呈堿性,以重碳酸鹽陽離子為主,污染物很少.通過對實測資料和試驗結果的分析計算,認為地球上干旱和半干旱地區天然降水的應呈弱堿性,原因是大氣中漂浮著堿性粉塵

Evidence for an extended critical fluctuation region above the polar ordering transition in LiOsO₃

Metallic Li Os O 3 undergoes a continuous ferroelectric-like structural phase transition below T c = 140 K to realize a polar metal. To understand the microscopic interactions that drive this transition, we study its critical behavior above T c via electromechanical coupling—distortions of the lattice induced by short-range dipole-dipole correlations arising from Li off-center displacements. By mapping the full angular distribution of second harmonic electric-quadrupole radiation from Li Os O 3 and performing a simplified hyper-polarizable bond model analysis, we uncover subtle symmetry-preserving lattice distortions over a broad temperature range extending from T c up to around 230 K, characterized by nonuniform changes in the short and long Li-O bond lengths. Such an extended region of critical fluctuations may explain anomalous features reported in specific heat and Raman scattering data and suggests the presence of competing interactions that are not accounted for in existing theoretical treatments. More broadly, our results showcase how electromechanical effects serve as a probe of critical behavior near inversion symmetry-breaking transitions in metals

Exciton properties in zincblende InGaN-GaN quantum wells under the effects of intense laser fields

ABSTRACT: In this work, we study the exciton states in a zincblende InGaN/GaN quantum well using a variational technique. The system is considered under the action of intense laser fields with the incorporation of a direct current electric field as an additional external probe. The effects of these external influences as well as of the changes in the geometry of the heterostructure on the exciton binding energy are discussed in detail

Disparities and risks of sexually transmissible infections among men who have sex with men in China: a meta-analysis and data synthesis.

BACKGROUND: Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including Hepatitis B and C virus, are emerging public health risks in China, especially among men who have sex with men (MSM). This study aims to assess the magnitude and risks of STIs among Chinese MSM. METHODS: Chinese and English peer-reviewed articles were searched in five electronic databases from January 2000 to February 2013. Pooled prevalence estimates for each STI infection were calculated using meta-analysis. Infection risks of STIs in MSM, HIV-positive MSM and male sex workers (MSW) were obtained. This review followed the PRISMA guidelines and was registered in PROSPERO. RESULTS: Eighty-eight articles (11 in English and 77 in Chinese) investigating 35,203 MSM in 28 provinces were included in this review. The prevalence levels of STIs among MSM were 6.3% (95% CI: 3.5-11.0%) for chlamydia, 1.5% (0.7-2.9%) for genital wart, 1.9% (1.3-2.7%) for gonorrhoea, 8.9% (7.8-10.2%) for hepatitis B (HBV), 1.2% (1.0-1.6%) for hepatitis C (HCV), 66.3% (57.4-74.1%) for human papillomavirus (HPV), 10.6% (6.2-17.6%) for herpes simplex virus (HSV-2) and 4.3% (3.2-5.8%) for Ureaplasma urealyticum. HIV-positive MSM have consistently higher odds of all these infections than the broader MSM population. As a subgroup of MSM, MSW were 2.5 (1.4-4.7), 5.7 (2.7-12.3), and 2.2 (1.4-3.7) times more likely to be infected with chlamydia, gonorrhoea and HCV than the broader MSM population, respectively. CONCLUSION: Prevalence levels of STIs among MSW were significantly higher than the broader MSM population. Co-infection of HIV and STIs were prevalent among Chinese MSM. Integration of HIV and STIs healthcare and surveillance systems is essential in providing effective HIV/STIs preventive measures and treatments. TRIAL REGISTRATION: PROSPERO NO: CRD42013003721

The use of microbubbles to target drug delivery

Ultrasound-mediated microbubbles destruction has been proposed as an innovative method for noninvasive delivering of drugs and genes to different tissues. Microbubbles are used to carry a drug or gene until a specific area of interest is reached, and then ultrasound is used to burst the microbubbles, causing site-specific delivery of the bioactive materials. Furthermore, the ability of albumin-coated microbubbles to adhere to vascular regions with glycocalix damage or endothelial dysfunction is another possible mechanism to deliver drugs even in the absence of ultrasound. This review focuses on the characteristics of microbubbles that give them therapeutic properties and some important aspects of ultrasound parameters that are known to influence microbubble-mediated drug delivery. In addition, current studies involving this novel therapeutical application of microbubbles will be discussed

Allele Polymorphism and Haplotype Diversity of HLA-A, -B and -DRB1 Loci in Sequence-Based Typing for Chinese Uyghur Ethnic Group

Previous studies indicate that the frequency distributions of HLA alleles and haplotypes vary from one ethnic group to another or between the members of the same ethnic group living in different geographic areas. It is necessary and meaningful to study the high-resolution allelic and haplotypic distributions of HLA loci in different groups.High-resolution HLA typing for the Uyghur ethnic minority group using polymerase chain reaction-sequence-based-typing method was first reported. HLA-A, -B and -DRB1 allelic distributions were determined in 104 unrelated healthy Uyghur individuals and haplotypic frequencies and linkage disequilibrium parameters for HLA loci were estimated using the maximum-likelihood method. A total of 35 HLA-A, 51 HLA-B and 33 HLA-DRB1 alleles were identified at the four-digit level in the population. High frequency alleles were HLA-A*1101 (13.46%), A*0201 (12.50%), A*0301 (10.10%); HLA-B*5101(8.17%), B*3501(6.73%), B*5001 (6.25%); HLA-DRB1*0701 (16.35%), DRB1*1501 (8.65%) and DRB1*0301 (7.69%). The two-locus haplotypes at the highest frequency were HLA-A*3001-B*1302 (2.88%), A*2402-B*5101 (2.86%); HLA-B*5001-DRB1*0701 (4.14%) and B*0702-DRB1*1501 (3.37%). The three-locus haplotype at the highest frequency was HLA-A*3001-B*1302-DRB1*0701(2.40%). Significantly high linkage disequilibrium was observed in six two-locus haplotypes, with their corresponding relative linkage disequilibrium parameters equal to 1. Neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree between the Uyghur group and other previously reported populations was constructed on the basis of standard genetic distances among the populations calculated using the four-digit sequence-level allelic frequencies at HLA-A, HLA-B and HLA-DRB1 loci. The phylogenetic analyses reveal that the Uyghur group belongs to the northwestern Chinese populations and is most closely related to the Xibe group, and then to Kirgiz, Hui, Mongolian and Northern Han.The present findings could be useful to elucidate the genetic background of the population and to provide valuable data for HLA matching in clinical bone marrow transplantation, HLA-linked disease-association studies, population genetics, human identification and paternity tests in forensic sciences

Multi-locus genome-wide association analysis supports the role of glutamatergic synaptic transmission in the etiology of major depressive disorder

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a common psychiatric illness characterized by low mood and loss of interest in pleasurable activities. Despite years of effort, recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified few susceptibility variants or genes that are robustly associated with MDD. Standard single-SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism)-based GWAS analysis typically has limited power to deal with the extensive heterogeneity and substantial polygenic contribution of individually weak genetic effects underlying the pathogenesis of MDD. Here, we report an alternative, gene-set-based association analysis of MDD in an effort to identify groups of biologically related genetic variants that are involved in the same molecular function or cellular processes and exhibit a significant level of aggregated association with MDD. In particular, we used a text-mining-based data analysis to prioritize candidate gene sets implicated in MDD and conducted a multi-locus association analysis to look for enriched signals of nominally associated MDD susceptibility loci within each of the gene sets. Our primary analysis is based on the meta-analysis of three large MDD GWAS data sets (total N = 4346 cases and 4430 controls). After correction for multiple testing, we found that genes involved in glutamatergic synaptic neurotransmission were significantly associated with MDD (set-based association P = 6.9 X 10(-4)). This result is consistent with previous studies that support a role of the glutamatergic system in synaptic plasticity and MDD and support the potential utility of targeting glutamatergic neurotransmission in the treatment of MDD