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Weather radar echo is one of the fundamental data for meteorological workers to weather systems identification and classification. Through the technique of weather radar echo extrapolation, the future short-term weather conditions can be predicted and severe convection storms can be warned. However, traditional extrapolation methods cannot offer accurate enough extrapolation results since their modeling capacity is limited, the recent deep learning based methods make some progress but still remains a problem of blurry prediction when making deeper extrapolation, which may due to they choose the mean square error as their loss function and that will lead to losing echo details. To address this problem and make a more realistic and accurate extrapolation, we propose a deep learning model called Adversarial Extrapolation Neural Network (AENN), which is a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) structure and consist of a conditional generator and two discriminators, echo-frame discriminator and echo-sequence discriminator. The generator and discriminators are trained alternately in an adversarial way to make the final extrapolation results be realistic and accurate. To evaluate the model, we conduct experiments on extrapolating 0.5h, 1h, and 1.5h imminent future echoes, the results show that our proposed AENN can achieve the expected effect and outperforms other models significantly, which has a powerful potential application value for short-term weather forecasting.

The ryanodine receptor (RyR), the largest calcium channel protein, has been studied because of its key roles in calcium signaling in cells. Insect RyRs are molecular targets for novel diamide insecticides. The target has been focused widely because of the diamides with high activity against lepidopterous pests and safety for nontarget organisms. To study our understanding of effects of diamides on RyR, we cloned the RyR gene from the oriental fruit moth, Grapholita molesta, which is the most serious pest of stone and pome tree fruits throughout the world, to investigate the modulation of diamide insecticides on RyR mRNA expression in G. molesta (GmRyR). The full-length cDNAs of GmRyR contain a unique 3′-UTR with 625 bp and an open reading frame of 15,402 bp with a predicted protein consisting of 5,133 amino acids. GmRyR possessed a high level of overall amino acid homology with insect and vertebrate isoforms, with 77–92% and 45–47% identity, respectively. Furthermore, five alternative splice sites were identified in GmRyR. Diagnostic PCR showed that the inclusion frequency of one optional exon (f) differed between developmental stages, a finding only found in GmRyR. The lowest expression level of GmRyR mRNA was in larvae, the highest was in male pupae, and the relative expression level in male pupae was 25.67 times higher than that of in larvae. The expression level of GmRyR in the male pupae was 8.70 times higher than in female pupae, and that in male adults was 5.70 times higher than female adults.

Recovery of new-energy critical metals including scandium, nickel and cobalt as well as copper and zinc from a neutralization residue produced in laterite hydrometallurgical process has been studied. Effect of leaching parameters such as acid consumption, solution pH and temperature has been investigated. It was found that scandium, nickel, cobalt and copper could be recovered at high efficiencies from the residues by selective leaching using sulphuric acid solutions under ambient conditions, while the co-leaching of impurities including iron, aluminium and silicon was low under the optimal conditions. The nickel, cobalt, copper and zinc in the leaching solution could be further concentrated into mixed sulphides and separated from impurities by sulphide precipitation.

Based on the Chinese historical sunspots drawings, a data set consisting of the scanned images and all their digitized parameters from 1925 to 2015 have been constructed. In this paper, we briefly describe the developmental history of sunspots drawings in China. This paper describes the preliminary handling processes that start from the initial scanning to the extraction of parameters, and finally summarizes the general features of this data set. It is the first systematic project in the Chinese solar-physics community to digitize the historical series of sunspot drawings. Our data set fills in an almost 90-year historical gap, which originates from an area spanning 60 degrees from east to west and 50 degrees from north to south and has no continuous and detailed digital sunspot observation information. Being complementary to other sunspot observations in the world, our data set provides abundant information to the long-term solar activity cycles research.

To efficiently produce bioactive compounds of Echinacea via adventitious root (AR) culture, we established an AR co-culture system of Echinacea species. ARs of different combination of Echinacea species [E. pallida (Epa), E. purpurea (Epu), and E. angustifolia (Ean)] were inoculated into 5 L balloon-type airlift bioreactors to select a suitable combination group. The biomass of ARs increased in the Epa+Epu group but decreased in co-culture groups of Epa+Ean and Epa+Epu+Ean. In the Epa+Epu group, the content and productivity of total phenolics, flavonoids, and caffeic acid derivatives increased, a monomer of caffeic acid derivatives (caffeic acid) that is absent in single-species cultures (Epa or Epu) were synthesized; moreover, Epa+Epu also showed the highest antioxidant activity. The inoculum proportions in Epa+Epu significantly influenced the co-culture effect; among the proportion groups (Epa:Epu = 1:6, 2:5, 3:4, 1:1, 4:4, 5:2, and 6:1), the Epa:Epu proportion of 4:3 was the most favorable for AR biomass and bioactive compound accumulation, and the antioxidant activity also peaked at 4:3 proportion. In addition, the co-culture system is suitable for large bioreactors (10 and 20 L), wherein the AR biomass increased without a decrease in the amount of bioactive compounds. A co-culture system was thus successfully established in this study, and AR cultures are expected to be used as an alternative raw material for the production of Echinacea-derived products.

Phytoextraction has been considered as an innovative method to remove toxic metals from soil; higher biomass plants such as castor bean (Ricinus communis L.) have already been considered as a hyperaccumulating candidate. In the present study, castor bean was used to accumulate the cadmium and lead in hydroponic culture, and the root exudates and biomass changes were analyzed. Results demonstrated that ratios of aerial biomass/ root biomass (AW/RW) in treatments declined with concentrations of Cd or Pb. Optical density (OD) at 190 nm and 280 nm of root exudates observed in Cd and Pb treatments were lower than the control. In single Cd or Pb treatments, bioconcentration factors (BCF) of Cd or Pb increased with time and decreased with concentrations, the highest BCFs appeared in Cd5 (14.36) and Pb50 (6.48), respectively. Cd-BCF or Pb-BCF showed positive correlations with AW/RW ratios and OD values, and they were negative correlated with Cd and Pb concentration. Results in this study may supply useful information for phytoremediation of soil contaminated with cadmium and lead in situ.

To investigate how the changes of definition in assessment of Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) stratification 2017 lead to changes of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patient clinical characteristics across categories in China. COPD patients from 11 medical centers in China were stratified into old and new groups A-D twice according to the GOLD 2011 and 2017 comprehensive assessment. Demography and clinical characteristics were compared between old and new groups A-D. In 1,532 COPD patients, the distribution from group A to D was 330 (21.5%), 132 (8.6%), 411 (26.8%), 659 (43.0%) and 557 (36.4%), 405 (26.4%), 184 (12.0%), 386 (25.2%), respectively according to GOLD 2011 and 2017. 46.7% (500/1,070) patients in high-risk groups were regrouped to low-risk groups. Compared to the old groups A and B, the new groups A and B had a higher proportion of males, lower body mass index, higher modified Medical Research Council (mMRC) grade, poor pulmonary function, more patients with chronic bronchitis, and fewer patients with coronary heart disease and hypertension disease. Compared to the old groups C and D, the new groups C and D had older patients, fewer men, better pulmonary functions, frequent acute exacerbations in the previous year, and more patients with chronic bronchitis, coronary heart disease, or diabetes mellitus. The new group D had more patients with stroke than the old group D. In China, GOLD 2017 shifted the overall COPD comprehensive assessments distribution to more low-risk groups. The new high-risk groups had more characteristics associated with high risk of acute exacerbation and mortality. Some of the changes in demography and clinical characteristics of the new low-risk groups were associated with high risk of acute exacerbation and/or mortality.

The bioavailability and environmental risk of heavy metals in soil depends greatly on their speciation, not total amounts. Different speciation analysis techniques of heavy metals in soil are reviewed and the speciation schemes are considered and discussed in some detail. The present problems remained in the field of environmental science and future trends of speciation analysis of heavy metals in soil are also briefly dealt with.

To evaluate the tolerability, safety, pharmacokinetics and drug interaction of cefotaxime sodium-tazobactam sodium injection (6:1) in Chinese healthy subjects. The results of the safety and pharmacokinetic studies supported further clinical trials. A randomized, single-blind, ascending dose, placebo-controlled, single-center study was conducted. Sixty healthy subjects (38 males, 22 females) participated in this study. For the single-dose part, 0.47, 1.17, 2.34, 3.51, and 4.68 g of cefotaxime sodium-tazobactam sodium injection (6:1) was administered. For the multiple-dose part, the subjects were administered 2.34 and 3.51 g cefotaxime sodium-tazobactam sodium injection (6:1) three times a day for 7 consecutive days. For the drug interaction part, the subjects received 2.0 g cefotaxime sodium and 0.34 g tazobactam sodium alone and in combination. Most adverse events and adverse drug reactions were mild. Moderate rash was considered a serious adverse event because of prolongation of hospitalization. The main pharmacokinetic parameters of cefotaxime and tazobactam had no significance difference between the 1.17, 2.34, and 3.51 g dose cohorts and between genders. There was no difference in trough concentrations on days 6, 7, and 8. The R and R were (0.921 ± 0.070) and (0.877 ± 0.057) for cefotaxime, and (0.913 ± 0.046) and (0.853 ± 0.060) for tazobactam, respectively. Following the administration of cefotaxime and tazobactam alone and in combination, the 90% confidence intervals of the geometric mean ratios for and were within the predetermined range of 80-125%. In the single-dose part, the renal cumulative excretion ratios were (51.7 ± 6.2)% for cefotaxime, and (84.3 ± 8.1)% for tazobactam. There was no significant difference in the maximum excretion rates and cumulative excretion ratios for cefotaxime and tazobactam, alone or in combination. Cefotaxime sodium-tazobactam sodium injection (6:1) was well-tolerated at doses of 0.47 to 4.68 g. The pharmacokinetics of cefotaxime and tazobactam were reported as linear over a dose range of 1.17-3.51 g. Cefotaxime was partially excreted urine, whereas tazobactam was mainly excreted urine. There was no significant accumulation after administration over 7 consecutive days. The pharmacokinetics and excretion of cefotaxime and tazobactam were not affected by the co-administration of cefotaxime-tazobactam.

In 3-axis NC machining, most algorithms of the sculptured surface tool-path generation are valid for ball-cutter, and the axes are designed to realize pure translation. A tool-path generation algorithm using taper-cuter is proposed in this article. And one axis of the 3-axis NC tool machine is designed to realize swing motion. The Stereo Lithography (STL) model is the most popular triangular mesh approximation of the 3D surface model. Considering the special swing mechanical and taper-cutter, arc-zigzag tool-path planning and deform Z-map grid methods are proposed, which incorporate triangular vertexes method and the Z-map method. Finally, some simulation and experiment results are provided.