Additional HONO and OH Generation from Photoexcited Phenyl Organic Nitrates in the Photoreaction of Aromatics and NOx.

HONO acts as a major OH source, playing a vital role in secondary pollutant formation to deteriorate regional air quality. Strong unknown sources of daytime HONO have been widely reported, which significantly limit our understanding of radical cycling and atmospheric oxidation capacity. Here, we identify a potential daytime HONO and OH source originating from photoexcited phenyl organic nitrates formed during the photoreaction of aromatics and NOx. Significant HONO (1.56-4.52 ppb) and OH production is observed during the photoreaction of different kinds of aromatics with NOx (18.1-242.3 ppb). We propose an additional mechanism involving photoexcited phenyl organic nitrates (RONO2) reacting with water vapor to account for the higher levels of measured HONO and OH than the model prediction. The proposed HONO formation mechanism was evidenced directly by photolysis experiments using typical RONO2 under UV irradiation conditions, during which HONO formation was enhanced by relative humidity. The 0-D box model incorporated in this mechanism accurately reproduced the evolution of HONO and aromatic. The proposed mechanism contributes 5.9-36.6% of HONO formation as the NOx concentration increased in the photoreaction of aromatics and NOx. Our study implies that photoexcited phenyl organic nitrates are an important source of atmospheric HONO and OH that contributes significantly to atmospheric oxidation capacity.

Reducing Soil-Emitted Nitrous Acid as a Feasible Strategy for Tackling Ozone Pollution.

Severe ozone (O3) pollution has been a major air quality issue and affects environmental sustainability in China. Conventional mitigation strategies focusing on reducing volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides (NOx) remain complex and challenging. Here, through field flux measurements and laboratory simulations, we observe substantial nitrous acid (HONO) emissions (FHONO) enhanced by nitrogen fertilizer application at an agricultural site. The observed FHONO significantly improves model performance in predicting atmospheric HONO and leads to regional O3 increases by 37%. We also demonstrate the significant potential of nitrification inhibitors in reducing emissions of reactive nitrogen, including HONO and NOx, by as much as 90%, as well as greenhouse gases like nitrous oxide by up to 60%. Our findings introduce a feasible concept for mitigating O3 pollution: reducing soil HONO emissions. Hence, this study has important implications for policy decisions related to the control of O3 pollution and climate change.

Berry curvature generation detected by Nernst responses in ferroelectric Weyl semimetal.

The quest for nonmagnetic Weyl semimetals with high tunability of phase has remained a demanding challenge. As the symmetry-breaking control parameter, the ferroelectric order can be steered to turn on/off the Weyl semimetals phase, adjust the band structures around the Fermi level, and enlarge/shrink the momentum separation of Weyl nodes which generate the Berry curvature as the emergent magnetic field. Here, we report the realization of a ferroelectric nonmagnetic Weyl semimetal based on indium-doped Pb1- x Sn x Te alloy in which the underlying inversion symmetry as well as mirror symmetry are broken with the strength of ferroelectricity adjustable via tuning the indium doping level and Sn/Pb ratio. The transverse thermoelectric effect (i.e., Nernst effect), both for out-of-plane and in-plane magnetic field geometry, is exploited as a Berry curvature-sensitive experimental probe to manifest the generation of Berry curvature via the redistribution of Weyl nodes under magnetic fields. The results demonstrate a clean, nonmagnetic Weyl semimetal coupled with highly tunable ferroelectric order, providing an ideal platform for manipulating the Weyl fermions in nonmagnetic systems.

Genome-wide selection reveals candidate genes associated with multiple teats in Hu sheep.

Increasing the number of teats in sheep helps to improve the survival rate of sheep lambs after birth. In order to analyze the candidate genes related to the formation of multiple teats in Hu sheep, the present study was conducted to investigate the genetic pattern of multiple teats in Hu sheep. In this study, based on genome-wide data from 157 Hu sheep, Fst, xp-EHH, Pi and iHS signaling were performed, and the top 5% signal regions of each analyzed result were annotated based on the Oar_v4.0 for sheep. The results show that a total of 142 SNP loci were selected. We found that PTPRG, TMEM117 and LRP1B genes were closely associated with polypodium formation in Hu sheep, in addition, among the candidate genes related to polypodium we found genes such as TMEM117, SLC25A21 and NCKAP5 related to milk traits. The present study screened out candidate genes for the formation of multiple teats at the genomic level in Hu sheep.

Characteristics and sources of peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) in the rural North China Plain: Results from 1-year continuous observations.

Peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) is an important photochemical pollutant in the troposphere, whereas long-term measurements are scarce in rural areas in North China Plain (NCP), resulting in unclear seasonal variations and sources of PAN in rural NCP. In this study, we conducted a 1-year observation of PAN during 2021-2022 at the rural NCP site. The average concentrations of PAN were 1.10, 0.75, 0.65, and 0.88 ppbv in spring, summer, autumn, and winter, respectively, with a 1-year average of 0.81 ± 0.60 ppbv. Calculations indicate that the loss of PAN through thermal decomposition in summer accounts for 43.2% of the total formed PAN, which is an important reason for the low concentration of PAN in summer. We speculate that since the correlation between PAN and O3 in winter is significantly lower than that in other seasons, the observed regional transport of PAN cannot be ignored in winter. Through budget analysis, regional transport accounted for 12.8% and 55.9% of the observed PAN on the spring and winter pollution days, respectively, which showed that regional transport played key roles during the photochemical pollution of the rural NCP in winter. The potential source contribution function revealed that the transported PAN mainly comes from southern Hebei in spring. In winter, the transported PAN was mainly from Langfang, Hengshui, and southern Beijing. Our findings may aid in understanding PAN variations in different seasons in rural areas and highlight the impact of regional transport on the PAN budget.

A high-throughput big-data orchestration and processing system for the High Energy Photon Source.

High-data-throughput and multimodal-acquisition experiments will prevail in next-generation synchrotron beamlines. Orchestrating dataflow pipelines connecting the data acquisition, processing, visualization and storage ends are becoming increasingly complex and essential for enhancing beamline performance. Mamba Data Worker (MDW) has been developed to address the data challenges for the forthcoming High Energy Photon Source (HEPS). It is an important component of the Mamba experimental control and data acquisition software ecosystem, which enables fast data acquisition and transmission, dynamic configuration of data processing pipelines, data multiplex in streaming, and customized data and metadata assembly. This paper presents the architecture and development plan of MDW, outlines the essential technologies involved, and illustrates its current application at the Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility (BSRF).

Automatic synchrotron tomographic alignment schemes based on genetic algorithms and human-in-the-loop software.

Tomography imaging methods at synchrotron light sources keep evolving, pushing multi-modal characterization capabilities at high spatial and temporal resolutions. To achieve this goal, small probe size and multi-dimensional scanning schemes are utilized more often in the beamlines, leading to rising complexities and challenges in the experimental setup process. To avoid spending a significant amount of human effort and beam time on aligning the X-ray probe, sample and detector for data acquisition, most attention has been drawn to realigning the systems at the data processing stages. However, post-processing cannot correct everything, and is not time efficient. Here we present automatic alignment schemes of the rotational axis and sample pre- and during the data acquisition process using a software approach which combines the advantages of genetic algorithms and human intelligence. Our approach shows excellent sub-pixel alignment efficiency for both tasks in a short time, and therefore holds great potential for application in the data acquisition systems of future scanning tomography experiments.

Transport Pathways of Nitrate Formed from Nocturnal N2O5 Hydrolysis Aloft to the Ground Level in Winter North China Plain.

Particulate nitrate (NO3-) has currently become the major component of fine particles in the North China Plain (NCP) during winter haze episodes. However, the contributions of formation pathways to ground NO3- in the NCP are not fully understood. Herein, the NO3- formation pathways were comprehensively investigated based on model simulations combined with two-month field measurements at a rural site in the winter NCP. The results indicated that the nocturnal chemistry of N2O5 hydrolysis aloft could contribute evidently to ground NO3- at the rural site during the pollution episodes with high aerosol water contents, achieving the contribution percentages of 25.2-30.4% of the total. In addition to the commonly proposed vertical mixing of breaking nocturnal boundary layer in the early morning, two additional transport pathways (frontal downdrafts and downslope mountain breezes) in the nighttime were found to make higher contributions to ground NO3-. Considering the dominant role (69.6-74.8%) of diurnal chemistry in NO3- formation, reduction of NOx emissions in the daytime may be an effective control measure for reducing regional NO3- in the NCP.

Prognostic implication of lactic dehydrogenase-to-albumin ratio in critically ill patients with acute kidney injury.

BACKGROUND: No studies have been published on the correlation between lactic dehydrogenase-to-albumin ratio (LAR) and poor prognosis of acute kidney injury (AKI) patients, warranting further research. This analysis sought to investigate the prognostic implication of LAR in critically ill patients with AKI. METHODS: The present study enrolled 11,046 and 5180 adults with AKI from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care III (MIMIC III) and MIMIC IV, respectively. Data from MIMIC IV were identified as the training cohort, and those from MIMIC III were identified as the validation cohort. We applied multivariate regression analysis to identify the link between LAR and all-cause mortality. Restricted cubic spline (RCS) was conducted to figure out the correlation between LAR and in-hospital mortality. Furthermore, we carried out stratification analyses to examine if the effects of LAR on in-hospital mortality were consistent across various subclasses. RESULTS: The level of LAR was remarkably higher in the in-hospital non-survivor group (p < 0.001). Furthermore, the increased LAR group presented a remarkably higher rate of in-hospital mortality at AKI stages 1, 2, and 3 compared with the decreased LAR group (all p < 0.001). Multivariate regression analyses exhibited the independent prognostic significance of LAR for all-cause mortality (all p < 0.001). MIMIC III observed concordant results. RCS indicated a non-linear correlation between LAR and in-hospital death (P for non-linearity < 0.001). The relationship between LAR and in-hospital mortality was still significant in patients with various subclasses. CONCLUSIONS: Elevated LAR at admission is a prognostic risk factor for critically ill patients with AKI.

Prediction of orthognathic surgery plan from 3D cephalometric analysis via deep learning.

BACKGROUND: Preoperative planning of orthognathic surgery is indispensable for achieving ideal surgical outcome regarding the occlusion and jaws' position. However, orthognathic surgery planning is sophisticated and highly experience-dependent, which requires comprehensive consideration of facial morphology and occlusal function. This study aimed to investigate a robust and automatic method based on deep learning to predict reposition vectors of jawbones in orthognathic surgery plan. METHODS: A regression neural network named VSP transformer was developed based on Transformer architecture. Firstly, 3D cephalometric analysis was employed to quantify skeletal-facial morphology as input features. Next, input features were weighted using pretrained results to minimize bias resulted from multicollinearity. Through encoder-decoder blocks, ten landmark-based reposition vectors of jawbones were predicted. Permutation importance (PI) method was used to calculate contributions of each feature to final prediction to reveal interpretability of the proposed model. RESULTS: VSP transformer model was developed with 383 samples and clinically tested with 49 prospectively collected samples. Our proposed model outperformed other four classic regression models in prediction accuracy. Mean absolute errors (MAE) of prediction were 1.41 mm in validation set and 1.34 mm in clinical test set. The interpretability results of the model were highly consistent with clinical knowledge and experience. CONCLUSIONS: The developed model can predict reposition vectors of orthognathic surgery plan with high accuracy and good clinically practical-effectiveness. Moreover, the model was proved reliable because of its good interpretability.

Effect of Different Combustion Processes on Atmospheric Nitrous Acid Formation Mechanisms: A Winter Comparative Observation in Urban, Suburban and Rural Areas of the North China Plain.

Atmospheric nitrous acid (HONO) is a dominant precursor of hydroxyl (OH) radicals, and its formation mechanisms are still controversial. Few studies have simultaneously explored effects of different combustion processes on HONO sources. Hereby, synchronous HONO measurement in urban (BJ), suburban (XH) and rural (DBT) areas with different combustion processes is performed in the North China Plain in winter. A box model is utilized to analyze HONO formation mechanisms. HONO concentration is the highest at the DBT site (2.51 ± 1.90 ppb), followed by the XH (2.18 ± 1.95 ppb) and BJ (1.17 ± 1.20 ppb) sites. Vehicle exhaust and coal combustion significantly contribute to nocturnal HONO at urban and rural sites, respectively. During a stagnant pollution period, the NO+OH reaction and combustion emissions are more crucial to HONO in urban and rural areas; meanwhile, the heterogeneous reaction of NO2 is more significant in suburban areas. Moreover, the production rate of OH from HONO photolysis is about 2 orders of magnitude higher than that from ozone photolysis. Consequently, vehicle exhaust and coal combustion can effectively emit HONO, further causing environmental pollution and health risks. It is necessary to expand the implementation of the clean energy transition policy in China, especially in areas with substantial coal combustion.

Seed priming with protein hydrolysate promotes seed germination via reserve mobilization, osmolyte accumulation and antioxidant systems under PEG-induced drought stress.

KEY MESSAGE: Seed priming with pig blood protein hydrolysate improves tomato seed germination and seedling growth via regulation of reserve mobilization, osmotic adjustment, and antioxidant mechanism under drought conditions. Protein hydrolysates obtained from agro-industrial byproducts are widely recognized because of their positive roles in regulating plant responses to environmental stresses. However, little is known regarding the roles of animal protein hydrolysates in mediating seed drought tolerance and its underlying mechanisms. This study investigated the potential effects of seed priming on tomato seed germination and seedling growth under PEG-induced drought stress using protein hydrolysates derived from pig blood (PP). PP priming effectively alleviated the drought-induced reduction in seed germination traits, resulting in improved tomato seedling growth. PP priming enhanced the gene expressions and activities of amylase and sucrose synthase and soluble sugar, soluble protein, and free amino acid levels, thereby promoting reserve mobilization in seeds. PP priming also reduced osmotic toxicity through increased accumulations of proline, soluble protein, and soluble sugar. Drought stress substantially enhanced reactive oxygen species production and the subsequent increases in malondialdehyde levels and Evans blue solution uptake, which were substantially alleviated after PP priming via the improved activities of enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants. Moreover, the increased DPPH free radical scavenging capacity and ferric reducing antioxidant power indicated that PP-treated tomato seedings had high antioxidant activities under drought stress. Therefore, PP priming is a novel, promising, and practicable method for improving tomato seed germination and seedling growth under drought stress.

A Novel Distributed Vibration Sensor Based on Fading Noise Reduction in Multi-Mode Fiber.

Multi-mode fiber (MMF) is used in a polarization-sensitive optical time domain reflectometer (OTDR) for vibration event location and spectrum analysis. The vibration events acting on MMF are considered to be the optical polarization state and phase diversifying process for fading noise reduction. In addition, data averaging with continuous positions and the fast Fourier transform (FFT) method is proposed to extract the spectrum of the vibration events. In the experiment, the vibration events are loaded at the positions of 5.167 and 10.145 km, respectively, along MMF. The experimental results demonstrate that the vibration event can effectively diversify the optical polarization state and phase of the Rayleigh scattering light to make the averaged OTDR trace behind the vibration position converge rapidly, which helps to locate corresponding vibration events and extract the vibration spectrum. It is inferred that the new distributed vibration sensor shall have a lower false alarm rate, as it can greatly reduce the errors caused by randomness of the sensing light signals. Additionally, it also saves time in comparison with the method that analyzes the vibration spectra for all the positions along the fiber under test.

DPSSD: Dual-Path Single-Shot Detector.

Object detection is one of the most important and challenging branches of computer vision. It has been widely used in people's lives, such as for surveillance security and autonomous driving. We propose a novel dual-path multi-scale object detection paradigm in order to extract more abundant feature information for the object detection task and optimize the multi-scale object detection problem, and based on this, we design a single-stage general object detection algorithm called Dual-Path Single-Shot Detector (DPSSD). The dual path ensures that shallow features, i.e., residual path and concatenation path, can be more easily utilized to improve detection accuracy. Our improved dual-path network is more adaptable to multi-scale object detection tasks, and we combine it with the feature fusion module to generate a multi-scale feature learning paradigm called the "Dual-Path Feature Pyramid". We trained the models on PASCAL VOC datasets and COCO datasets with 320 pixels and 512 pixels input, respectively, and performed inference experiments to validate the structures in the neural network. The experimental results show that our algorithm has an advantage over anchor-based single-stage object detection algorithms and achieves an advanced level in average accuracy. Researchers can replicate the reported results of this paper.

Self-Calibration Method and Pose Domain Determination of a Light-Pen in a 3D Vision Coordinate Measurement System.

Light pens for 3D vision coordinate measurement systems are increasingly widely used due to their advantages, such as their small size, convenience of being carried, and widespread applicability. The posture of the light pen is an important factor that affects accuracy. The pose domain of the pen needs to be given so that the measurement system has a suitable measurement range to obtain more qualified parameters. The advantage of the self-calibration method is that the entire self-calibration process can be completed at the measurement site with no auxiliary equipment. After the system camera calibration was completed, we took several pictures of the same measurement point with different poses to obtain the conversion matrix of the picture and subsequently used spherical fitting, the generalized inverse method of least squares, and the principle of position invariance in the pose domain range. The combined stylus tip center self-calibration method calculates the actual position of the light pen probe. The experimental results verify the effectiveness of the method; the measurement accuracy of the system can satisfy basic industrial measurement requirements.

Osteoclast-Driven Osteogenesis, Bone Remodeling and Biomaterial Resorption: A New Profile of BMP2-CPC-Induced Alveolar Bone Regeneration.

This bedside-to-bench study aimed to systematically investigate the value of applying BMP2-loaded calcium phosphate cement (BMP2-CPC) in the restoration of large-scale alveolar bone defects. Compared to deproteinized bovine bone (DBB), BMP2-CPC was shown to be capable of inducing a favorable pattern of bone regeneration and bone remodeling accompanied by active osteoclastogenesis and optimized biomaterial resorption when applied in reconstructive periodontally accelerated osteogenic orthodontics (PAOO) surgery. To verify the regulatory role of osteoclasts in the BMP2-CPC-induced pattern of bone regeneration, in vitro and in vivo studies were designed to elucidate the underlying mechanism. Our results revealed that osteoclasts played a multifaceted role (facilitating osteogenesis, bone remodeling and biomaterial resorption) in the BMP2-CPC-induced bone regeneration. Osteoclasts contributed to the osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) by secreting calcium ions, CTHRC1 and PDGF-B. Moreover, the increased osteoclasts promoted the remodeling of new bone and BMP2-CPC resorption, leading to a harmonized replacement of biomaterials with mature bone. In conclusion, the in vitro and in vivo experimental results corresponded with the clinical results and showed the optimized properties of BMP2-CPC in activating osteoclast-driven bone regeneration and remodeling, thus indicating the highly promising prospects of BMP2-CPC as an ideal therapeutic for alveolar bone defects.

Co-pyrolysis of sewage sludge and Ca(H2PO4)2: heavy metal stabilization, mechanism, and toxic leaching.

The presence of unstable heavy metals in sewage sludge (SS) restricts its resource utilization. In this study, Ca(H2PO4)2 and SS were co-pyrolyzed to produce biochar, which contained relatively stable heavy metals. X-ray diffraction spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission techniques were used to analyze the physical and chemical properties and heavy metal content of the biochar. The results indicated that co-pyrolysis of SS with Ca(H2PO4)2 resulted in the production of more stable heavy metals in the SS. The optimal co-pyrolysis conditions were a blended ratio of 15% Ca(H2PO4)2, 650 °C final temperature, 15 °C min-1, and 60 min retention time. The potential stabilization mechanisms of heavy metals were as follows: (1) organic decomposition and moisture (sourced from Ca(H2PO4)2 decomposition) evaporation resulted in greater biochar surface porosity; (2) phosphorous substances were complexed with heavy metals to form metal phosphates; and (3) the mixture reactions among inorganic substances, pyrolysis products of organics, and heavy metals resulted in the formation of highly aromatic metallic compounds. Additionally, the potential environmental risks posed by the heavy metals decreased from 65.73 (in SS) to 4.39 (in biochar derived from co-pyrolysis of SS and 15% of Ca(H2PO4)2). This study reports on a good approach for the disposal of SS and the reduction of its environmental risk.

Significant emission reductions of carbonaceous aerosols from residential coal burning by a novel stove.

Carbonaceous aerosols (CA) are crucial components in the atmospheric PM2.5 and derived from diverse sources. One of the major sources for CA is from the incomplete combustion of bituminous coal that has been prevailingly used by household stoves in rural areas for heating during winter. To efficiently eliminate the CA emission, a new household stove (NHS) was developed based on a novel combustion technology and CA emissions from the NHS and a traditional household stove (THS) were comparably investigated under the actual stove operation conditions in a farmer's house. Compared with the THS, the emission factors of organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC), and water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) from the NHS were reduced by 96%±1%, 98%±1%, and 91%±1% under the flaming process and 95%±1%, 96%±2%, and 83%±4% under the smoldering process, respectively. Additionally, the mass absorption efficiency of WSOC from the NHS reduced by 3 folds and the radiative forcing by WSOC relative to EC shrank remarkably by a factor of 3-8. Based on the reduction of emissions and light absorption of WSOC, the promotion of the NHS offers a possible solution to achieve the clean combustion of residential solid fuel.

Rural vehicle emission as an important driver for the variations of summertime tropospheric ozone in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region during 2014-2019.

Tropospheric ozone (O3) pollution is increasing in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region despite a significant decline in atmospheric fine aerosol particles (PM2.5) in recent years. However, the intrinsic reason for the elevation of the regional O3 is still unclear. In this study, we analyzed the spatio-temporal variations of tropospheric O3 and relevant pollutants (PM2.5, NO2, and CO) in the BTH region based on monitoring data from the China Ministry of Ecology and Environment during the period of 2014-2019. The results showed that summertime O3 concentrations were constant in Beijing (BJ, 0.06 µg/(m3•year)) but increased significantly in Tianjin (TJ, 9.09 µg/(m3•year)) and Hebei (HB, 6.06 µg/(m3•year)). Distinct O3 trends between Beijing and other cities in BTH could not be attributed to the significant decrease in PM2.5 (from -5.08 to -6.32 µg/(m3•year)) and CO (from -0.053 to -0.090 mg/(m3•year)) because their decreasing rates were approximately the same in all the cities. The relatively stable O3 concentrations during the investigating period in BJ may be attributed to a faster decreasing rate of NO2 (BJ: -2.55 µg/(m3•year); TJ: -1.16 µg/(m3•year); HB: -1.34 µg/(m3•year)), indicating that the continued reduction of NOx will be an effective mitigation strategy for reducing regional O3 pollution. Significant positive correlations were found between daily maximum 8 hr average (MDA8) O3 concentrations and vehicle population and highway freight transportation in HB. Therefore, we speculate that the increase in rural NOx emissions due to the increase in vehicle emissions in the vast rural areas around HB greatly accelerates regional O3 formation, accounting for the significant increasing trends of O3 in HB.

Evaluation of offline sampling for atmospheric C3-C11 non-methane hydrocarbons.

The concentration variation of C3-C11 non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) collected in several types of commercial flexible bags and adsorption tubes was systematically investigated using a gas chromatography-flame ionization detector (GC-FID) system. The percentage loss of each NMHC in the polyvinyl fluoride (PVF) bags was less than 5% during a 7-hr storage period; significant NMHCs loss was detected in aluminum foil composite film and fluorinated ethylene propylene bags. The thermal desorption efficiency of NMHCs for adsorption tubes filled Carbopack B and Carboxen1000 sorbents was greater than 95% at 300℃, and the loss of NMHCs in the adsorption tubes during 20-days storage at 4℃ was less than 8%. The thermal desorption efficiency for C11 NMHCs in the adsorption tube filled with Carbograph 1 and Carbosieve SⅢ absorbents was less than 40% at 300℃, and pyrolysis of the absorbents at 330℃ interfered significantly with the measurements of some alkenes. The loss of alkenes was significant when NMHCs were sampled by cryo-enrichment at -90℃ in the presence of O3 for the online NMHC measurements, and negligible for enrichment using adsorption tubes at 25℃. Although O3 scrubbers have been widely used to eliminate the influence of O3 on NMHC measurements, the loss of NMHCs with carbon numbers greater than 8 was more than 10%. Therefore, PVF bags and adsorption tubes filled Carbopack B and Carboxen1000 sorbents were recommended for the sampling of atmospheric NMHCs.