Radiative absorption enhancements due to the mixing state of atmospheric black carbon

Atmospheric black carbon (BC) warms Earth's climate, and its reduction has been targeted for near-term climate change mitigation. Models that include forcing by BC assume internal mixing with non-BC aerosol components that enhance BC absorption, often by a factor of ~2; such model estimates have yet to be clearly validated through atmospheric observations. Here, direct in situ measurements of BC absorption enhancements (E(abs)) and mixing state are reported for two California regions. The observed E(abs) is small-6% on average at 532 nm-and increases weakly with photochemical aging. The E(abs) is less than predicted from observationally constrained theoretical calculations, suggesting that many climate models may overestimate warming by BC. These ambient observations stand in contrast to laboratory measurements that show substantial E(abs) for BC are possible.     

Variation in E(rns) viral glycoprotein associated with failure of immunohistochemistry and commercial antigen capture ELISA to detect a field strain of bovine viral diarrhea virus

Bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) affects cattle populations causing clinical signs that range from subclinical immunosuppression to severe reproductive and respiratory problems. Detection and removal of persistently infected (PI) calves is the single most important factor for control and eradication of BVDV. Current testing strategies to detect PI calves rely heavily on immunohistochemistry (IHC) and a commercially available antigen capture ELISA (ACE) assay. These viral assays depend on 1 or 2 monoclonal antibodies which target the E(rns) glycoprotein of BVDV. The sensitivity and specificity of these two tests have been reported previously. The purpose of this research was to characterize a strain of BVDV (AU501) that was undetectable using IHC and ACE based on a single monoclonal antibody, but was consistently detected in samples from a Holstein steer using virus isolation and PCR testing. Sequencing of this AU501 viral isolate revealed a unique mutation in the portion of the genome coding for the E(rns) glycoprotein. This unique field strain of BVDV demonstrates the risk of relying on a single monoclonal antibody for detection of BVDV. Multiple testing strategies, including polyclonal or pooled monoclonal antibodies that detect more than one viral glycoprotein may be necessary to detect all PI calves and facilitate eradication of BVDV.     

Experimental repetitive quantum error correction

The computational potential of a quantum processor can only be unleashed if errors during a quantum computation can be controlled and corrected for. Quantum error correction works if imperfections of quantum gate operations and measurements are below a certain threshold and corrections can be applied repeatedly. We implement multiple quantum error correction cycles for phase-flip errors on qubits encoded with trapped ions. Errors are corrected by a quantum-feedback algorithm using high-fidelity gate operations and a reset technique for the auxiliary qubits. Up to three consecutive correction cycles are realized, and the behavior of the algorithm for different noise environments is analyzed.     

Automatic detection of lameness in dairy cattle—Vision-based trackway analysis in cow's locomotion

The occurrence of lameness in dairy cattle is of increasing importance in herd health management and herd productivity. Current practice, involves visual observation by human experts to score cow's locomotion in order to estimate the lameness in the herd. The trackway defined as “hind hoof compared to fore hoof position” is one of the main components to score the locomotion. However, because of the time-consuming observation method, lame cows are undiagnosed until the problem has become severe. Up till now there is no automatic (visual) method for detecting lameness in dairy cattle. The objective of our study was to make an automatic system for continuous on-farm detection and prediction of lameness in the farm by using vision techniques. The current focus was on demonstrating the possibility of capturing cow's hoof locations by vision and strong correlation between automatically calculated hoof trackway and visual locomotion scores. Fifteen selected lactating cows were scored visually by four trained observers at the Gent University Research Farm. Scoring varied from 1 (normal walking) to 5 (extremely lame). Side-view images with resolution of 1024 × 768 pixels were recorded when cows passed an experimental set-up freely. Recorded videos were split into sequences of bitmap images. After background subtraction, binary image operations, calibration and hoof separation, the trackway information containing hoof location in the real world and its related time in the video was calculated. The accuracy of automatically captured results was checked by comparing with the output from manually labeled hoof locations. The mean correlation coefficient of all measurements was 94.8%. Hence, the results suggest that the automatic method by vision analysis is feasible to present the cows’ real locomotion situations. The first result showed a positive linear relationship between cows’ trackways overlap and locomotion scores by human visualization. This research proved that vision techniques have great potential to be used for continuous quantification of lameness in cows.     

饲料中添加不同形式叶黄素对杂交鲶体色的影响

通过在饲料中添加4种不同形式叶黄素考察其对杂交鲶(Silurus meridionalisChen×Silurus asotusLinnaeus)体色的影响。实验共分5个处理组,分别为基础饲料组(对照组)、添加普通叶黄素(以黄体素为主)200 mg/kg组、转化叶黄素(以玉米黄质为主)200 mg/kg组、包被普通叶黄素100 mg/kg组、包被转化叶黄素100 mg/kg组。以上述5种饲料分别饲喂平均体重为61 g的杂交鲶20 d。结果表明,各组生长指标无显著差异;各叶黄素添加组鱼体背部皮肤、腹部皮肤黄度值及皮肤、肌肉叶黄素含量均显著高于对照组(P<0.05),普通叶黄素组背部皮肤、腹部皮肤叶黄素含量较转化叶黄素组显著提高20.3%、11.3%(P<0.05);添加100 mg/kg包被普通叶黄素对杂交鲶的着色效果与200 mg/kg普通叶黄素几乎相当;添加100 mg/kg包被转化叶黄素对杂交鲶的着色效果不及200 mg/kg转化叶黄素。上述研究表明,普通叶黄素对杂交鲶的着色效果优于转化叶黄素;普通叶黄素经包被处理后,在饲料中的添加量降低50%便能达到相同的着色效果。     

Genetic variant BDNF (Val66Met) polymorphism alters anxiety-related behavior

A common single-nucleotide polymorphism in the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene, a methionine (Met) substitution for valine (Val) at codon 66 (Val66Met), is associated with alterations in brain anatomy and memory, but its relevance to clinical disorders is unclear. We generated a variant BDNF mouse (BDNF(Met/Met)) that reproduces the phenotypic hallmarks in humans with the variant allele. BDNF(Met) was expressed in brain at normal levels, but its secretion from neurons was defective. When placed in stressful settings, BDNF(Met/Met) mice exhibited increased anxiety-related behaviors that were not normalized by the antidepressant, fluoxetine. A variant BDNF may thus play a key role in genetic predispositions to anxiety and depressive disorders.     

Common sequence variants in the LOXL1 gene confer susceptibility to exfoliation glaucoma

Glaucoma is a leading cause of irreversible blindness. A genome-wide search yielded multiple single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the 15q24.1 region associated with glaucoma. Further investigation revealed that the association is confined to exfoliation glaucoma (XFG). Two nonsynonymous SNPs in exon 1 of the gene LOXL1 explain the association, and the data suggest that they confer risk of XFG mainly through exfoliation syndrome (XFS). About 25% of the general population is homozygous for the highest-risk haplotype, and their risk of suffering from XFG is more than 100 times that of individuals carrying only low-risk haplotypes. The population-attributable risk is more than 99%. The product of LOXL1 catalyzes the formation of elastin fibers found to be a major component of the lesions in XFG.     

Phonon dispersions of fcc delta-plutonium-gallium by inelastic x-ray scattering

We report an experimental determination of the phonon dispersion curves in a face-centered cubic (fcc) delta-plutonium-0.6 weight % gallium alloy. Several unusual features, including a large elastic anisotropy, a small-shear elastic modulus C', a Kohn-like anomaly in the T1[011] branch, and a pronounced softening of the [111] transverse modes, are found. These features can be related to the phase transitions of plutonium and to strong coupling between the lattice structure and the 5f valence instabilities. Our results also provide a critical test for theoretical treatments of highly correlated 5f electron systems as exemplified by recent dynamical mean field theory calculations for delta-plutonium.     

20th-century industrial black carbon emissions altered Arctic climate forcing

Black carbon (BC) from biomass and fossil fuel combustion alters chemical and physical properties of the atmosphere and snow albedo, yet little is known about its emission or deposition histories. Measurements of BC, vanillic acid, and non-sea-salt sulfur in ice cores indicate that sources and concentrations of BC in Greenland precipitation varied greatly since 1788 as a result of boreal forest fires and industrial activities. Beginning about 1850, industrial emissions resulted in a sevenfold increase in ice-core BC concentrations, with most change occurring in winter. BC concentrations after about 1951 were lower but increasing. At its maximum from 1906 to 1910, estimated surface climate forcing in early summer from BC in Arctic snow was about 3 watts per square meter, which is eight times the typical preindustrial forcing value.