Detection of stratospheric ozone intrusions by windprofiler radars

Stratospheric ozone attenuates harmful ultraviolet radiation and protects the Earth's biosphere. Ozone is also of fundamental importance for the chemistry of the lowermost part of the atmosphere, the troposphere. At ground level, ozone is an important by-product of anthropogenic pollution, damaging forests and crops, and negatively affecting human health. Ozone is critical to the chemical and thermal balance of the troposphere because, via the formation of hydroxyl radicals, it controls the capacity of tropospheric air to oxidize and remove other pollutants. Moreover, ozone is an important greenhouse gas, particularly in the upper troposphere. Although photochemistry in the lower troposphere is the major source of tropospheric ozone, the stratosphere-troposphere transport of ozone is important to the overall climatology, budget and long-term trends of tropospheric ozone. Stratospheric intrusion events, however, are still poorly understood. Here we introduce the use of modern windprofiler radars to assist in such transport investigations. By hourly monitoring the radar-derived tropopause height in combination with a series of frequent ozonesonde balloon launches, we find numerous intrusions of ozone from the stratosphere into the troposphere in southeastern Canada. On some occasions, ozone is dispersed at altitudes of two to four kilometres, but on other occasions it reaches the ground, where it can dominate the ozone density variability. We observe rapid changes in radar tropopause height immediately preceding these intrusion events. Such changes therefore serve as a valuable diagnostic for the occurrence of ozone intrusion events. Our studies emphasize the impact that stratospheric ozone can have on tropospheric ozone, and show that windprofiler data can be used to infer the possibility of ozone intrusions, as well as better represent tropopause motions in association with stratosphere-troposphere transport.     

On the glutamine and γ-aminobutyric acid contents of various regions of the cat brain

Résumé Les auteurs ont déterminé par la méthode de la chromatographie à deux dimensions, la teneur en glutamine et en acide -aminobutyrique des différentes parties du cerveau du chat. La concentration la plus élevée de l'acide -aminobutyrique a été trouvé dans l'hypothalamus, tandis que celle de la glutamine a été constatée dans le noyau caudé. Les concentrations les plus basses de ces deux protéines apparaissent dans la substance blanche du cerveau.     

"数字地球"时代的我国西部可持续发展

“数字地球”作为新世纪信息时代的新目标和制高点,必将在西部大开发战略的实施过程中起到至关重要的作用。从“数字地球”的基本概念出发,应用“数字地球”的理论和技术,阐述了“数字地球”技术对西部大开发的战略意义和应用方向,为我国西部地区的可持续发展提供了新的思路和技术方法。     

Different Performances of H2O2 to Oxidise Aldicarb and Hexazinone in the Advanced Oxidation Process of Ozone/Hydrogen Peroxide

The degradations of hexazinone and aldicarb by direct ozonation combined an advanced oxidation process（ AOP） of O3/H2O2 were investigated in this study focusing on the oxidation mechanism by identifying the hydrogen peroxide consumption during the oxidation process of the two chemicals. The results showed that H2O2 could enhance the removal rate of the triazine herbicide hexazinone,and it was consumed along with the variation of removal rate in the light of different pH levels. The addition of H2O2 contributed little to the removal of the thiocarbamate herbicide aldicarb and H2O2 content kept constantly throughout the degradation process. Tert-butyl alcohol（ TBA） effectively scavenged the ·OH radical for hexazinone,but had no effect on the removal rate of aldicarb. Aldicarb removal was mainly attributed to direct ozonation molecule in both O3（ 97.00%） and O3/H2O2（ 96.76%）systems. Moreover,sole O3 could hardly oxidize hexazinone whereas·OH radicals contribute respective 74.70% and 97.50% of removal in O3 system and O3/H2O2 AOP. All of these findings suggest that the mechanism of ·OH radical generation and the chain reaction in O3/H2O2 AOP should be further discussed.     

Rheumatoid arthritis susceptibility loci at chromosomes 10p15, 12q13 and 22q13

The WTCCC study identified 49 SNPs putatively associated with rheumatoid arthritis at P = 1 x 10(-4) - 1 x 10(-5) (tier 3). Here we show that three of these SNPs, mapping to chromosome 10p15 (rs4750316), 12q13 (rs1678542) and 22q13 (rs3218253), are also associated (trend P = 4 x 10(-5), P = 4 x 10(-4) and P = 4 x 10(-4), respectively) in a validation study of 4,106 individuals with rheumatoid arthritis and an expanded reference group of 11,238 subjects, confirming them as true susceptibility loci in individuals of European ancestry.