Field study of plant survival as affected by amendments to bentonite spoil

Efforts to reclaim amended and raw bentonite spoils with six plant species (two forbs, three shrubs, and one tree) were evaluated over a 4-year period. Plant species included fourwing saltbush ( Atriplex canescens [Pursh] Nutt.), big sagebrush ( Artemisia tridentata tridentata Nutt.), Rocky Mountain Juniper ( Juniperus scopulorum Sarg.), Russian olive ( Elaeagnus angustifolia L.) common yarrow ( Achillea millifolium L.) and scarlet globemallow ( Sphaeralcea coccinea [Pursh] Rydb.). Spoil treatments included addition of gypsum, sawdust, perlite, straw, and vermiculite; the control treatment was amended. Fourwing saltbush had 52% survival across all spoil treatments, with greatest survival occurring on perlite-treated spoil (80%), followed by gypsum (70%) and vermiculite amendments (70%). Survival of other plant species ranged from 0 to 2% averaged across all treatments after 4 years. No differences in plant survival occurred among amendments when all species were considered.     

Radiative forcing due to dust aerosol over east Asia-north Pacific region during spring, 2001

Atmosphericaerosolsinfluencetheradiationbudgetoftheatmosphere-terrestrialsystem,andthereforeinflu-encetheclimate.Dustaerosolisconsideredtobeacriticalfactortoclimateforcingamongotherkindsofaerosols,whichaccountsfor30percentofaerosolloadingandop-ticaldepth[1].Therearelargeuncertaintiesinthequantita-tiveassessmentsoftheradiativeeffectofdustatthepre-sentday,involvingvariousfactors:refractiveindices,par-ticlesizedistribution,atmosphericaerosolloading,parti-cleshape,etc.[2].Dustaerosolgenerallyorigi…     

Volatility forecasts using stochastic volatility models with nonlinear leverage effects

The leverage effect—the correlation between an asset's return and its volatility—has played a key role in forecasting and understanding volatility and risk. While it is a long standing consensus that leverage effects exist and improve forecasts, empirical evidence puzzlingly does not show that this effect exists for many individual stocks, mischaracterizing risk, and therefore leading to poor predictive performance. We examine this puzzle, with the goal to improve density forecasts, by relaxing the assumption of linearity of the leverage effect. Nonlinear generalizations of the leverage effect are proposed within the Bayesian stochastic volatility framework in order to capture flexible leverage structures. Efficient Bayesian sequential computation is developed and implemented to estimate this effect in a practical, on-line manner. Examining 615 stocks that comprise the S&P500 and Nikkei 225, we find that our proposed nonlinear leverage effect model improves predictive performances for 89% of all stocks compared to the conventional stochastic volatility model.     

酸性染料/三乙胺盐的蒸汽压在尼纶热熔染色中的应用

在纤维染色中很重要的一个方法是利用染料的升华作用,热熔染色和转移印花都是典型的例子,常用的非离子型染料,主要因为非离子染料的蒸汽压比较大,离子型的染料,例如酸性染料就不能进行热熔染色,本文中,成功地将酸性染料用三乙胺处理,形成的盐具有较大的蒸汽压,可以通过气相色谱测定出蒸汽压值,并利用这种盐的升华性,使尼纶织物可以用酸性染料热熔染色。     

Effects of dissolved organic matter on the growth and pigments synthesis of Spirulina platensis (Arthrospira)

Excessive accumulation of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the culture ponds of Spirulina platensis is usually considered to be one of the potential factors affecting the production of S. platensis, however, we are not quite aware of effects of DOM on the growth and pigments synthesis of S. platensis. In the present study, S. platensis was grown in batch or semi?continuous cultures using the filtrate in the culture ponds that had not been renewed for years. It was found that disssolved organic carbon up to 60 mg/L did not bring about an inhibitory effect on the growth of S. platensis, but increased the contents of chlorophyll a and phycocyanin instead. However, further accumulation of dissolved organic matter could decrease the content of chlorophyll a.     

Effects of solar ultraviolet radiation on the photochemical efficiency, photosynthetic pigments and biomass production of Spirulina platensis

Effects of solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) on Spirulina platensis were studied by investigating its photochemical efficiency, photosynthetic pigments and biomass production while exposed to full spectrum solar radiation or depleted of UVR for understanding how and to what extent UVR influences its photosynthe tic physiology and production. It was found that UVR brought about an extra inhibition of photochemical efficiency by 26%—30%. The greatest inhibition of pho tochemical efficiency in S. platensis was observed at noontime, and then recovered to some extent in late afternoon no matter which treatment they were exposed to. The contents of chlorophyll a, phycocyanin and carotenoids increased during initial stage of the exposure, but decreased with elongated exposure. UVR decre ased the biomass yield by about 6%. It indicated that filtering out UVR of solar radiation would raise the productivity of S. platensis, which is an important factor that should be considered in the production.     

Regenerative medicine of cornea by cell sheet engineering using temperature-responsive culture surfaces

Recently, regenerative medicine has been focused on as next-generation definitive therapies for several diseases or injuries for which there are currently no effective treatments. These therapies have been rapidly developed through the effective fusion be- tween different fields such as stem cell biology and biomaterials. So far, we have proposed ＂cell sheet engineering＂ through our core technology that simply applies alterations of the temperature which allows regulation of the attachment or detachment of living cells on the culture surfaces grafted with the temperature-responsive polymer ＂poly（N-isoproplyacrylamide）＂. This tech- nology enables us to construct bioengineered sheet-like tissues, termed ＂cell sheets＂, without the need of using biodegradable scaffolds and protease treatments that are traditionally used. Therefore, our carrier-free cell sheets not only are independent of the issues observed in conventional methods, but also showed further advantages in the reconstruction of the corneal epithelium or endothelium （e.g. improvement of optical transparency and cell-cell interactions to host stroma in reconstructed tissues）. Moreo- ver, our approach does not have issues such as immune rejection or limited number of donors, due to the use of cell sheets derived from autologous limbal （in patients with unilateral disease） or oral mucosal epithelial cells （in patients with bilateral disorders）. Indeed, we have successfully performed the clinical application for the reconstruction of ocular surfaces through the transplanta- tion of our carrier-free corneal epithelial cell sheets, as evidenced by improved visual acuity as well as long-term maintenance of postoperative health conditions on ocular surfaces in all patients. We have also proposed a novel approach for the reconstruction of the corneal endothelium using corneal endothelial cell sheets by demonstrating its successful application. Thus, our cell sheet engineering technique provides a breakthrough in the field of regenerative medicine applied to the cornea.     

Plasmodium cynomolgi genome sequences provide insight into Plasmodium vivax and the monkey malaria clade

P. cynomolgi, a malaria-causing parasite of Asian Old World monkeys, is the sister taxon of P. vivax, the most prevalent malaria-causing species in humans outside of Africa. Because P. cynomolgi shares many phenotypic, biological and genetic characteristics with P. vivax, we generated draft genome sequences for three P. cynomolgi strains and performed genomic analysis comparing them with the P. vivax genome, as well as with the genome of a third previously sequenced simian parasite, Plasmodium knowlesi. Here, we show that genomes of the monkey malaria clade can be characterized by copy-number variants (CNVs) in multigene families involved in evasion of the human immune system and invasion of host erythrocytes. We identify genome-wide SNPs, microsatellites and CNVs in the P. cynomolgi genome, providing a map of genetic variation that can be used to map parasite traits and study parasite populations. The sequencing of the P. cynomolgi genome is a critical step in developing a model system for P. vivax research and in counteracting the neglect of P. vivax.