Differences In Temporal Variability Research Articles

Spatiotemporal distribution of ecological risk of antibiotics in seven major river basins of China: An optimized multilevel assessment approach.

Antibiotics have been recognized as emerging pollutants due to their ecological and human health risks. This paper aims to enhance the ecological risk assessment (ERA) framework for antibiotics, to illustrate the distribution of these risks across different locations and seasons, and to identify the antibiotics that pose high ecological risk. This paper focuses on 52 antibiotics in seven major basins of China. Relying on the optimized approach of ERA and antibiotic monitoring data published from 2017 to 2021, the results of ERA are presented in multilevel. Across the study area, there are marked variations in the spatial distribution of antibiotics' ecological risks. The Huaihe River Basin, the Haihe River Basin, and the Liaohe River Basin are the top three in the ranking of present ecological risks. The research results also reveal significant differences in temporal variation, underscoring the need for increased attention during certain seasons. Ten antibiotics with high contribution rates to ecological risk are identified, which is an important reference to formulate an antibiotic control list. The multilevel results provided both risk values and their ubiquities across a broad study region, which is a powerful support for developing ecological risk management of antibiotics.

Spatiotemporal lower-limb asymmetries during stair descent in athletes following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction

PurposeThis study evaluated motor control recovery at different times following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) by investigating lower-limb spatiotemporal symmetry during stair descent performances. MethodsWe used a cross-sectional design to compare asymptomatic athletes (Controls, n = 18) with a group of people with ACLR (n = 49) divided into three time-from-ACLR subgroups (Early: <6 months, n = 17; Mid: 6–18 months, n = 16; Late: ≥18 months, n = 16). We evaluated: “temporal symmetry” during the stance subphases (single-support, first and second double-support) and “spatial symmetry” for hip-knee-ankle intra-joint angular displacements during the stance phase using a dissimilarity index applied on superimposed 3D phase plots. ResultsWe found significant between-group differences in temporal variables (p ≤ 0.001). Compared to Controls, both Early and Mid (p ≤ 0.05) showed asymmetry in the first double-support time (longer for their injured vs. non-injured leg), while Early generally also showed longer durations in all other phases, regardless of stepping leg. No statistically significant differences were found for spatial intra-joint symmetry between groups. ConclusionTemporal but not spatial asymmetry in stair descent is often present early after ACLR; it may remain for up to 18 months and may underlie subtle intra- and inter-joint compensations. Spatial asymmetry may need further exploration.

Functional Connectivity Dynamics show Resting-State Instability and Rightward Parietal Dysfunction in ADHD.

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders in children and is characterised by inattention, impulsiveness and hyperactivity. While several studies have analysed the static functional connectivity in the resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) of ADHD patients, detailed investigations are required to characterize the connectivity dynamics in the brain. In an attempt to establish a link between attention instability and the dynamic properties of Functional Connectivity (FC), we investigated the differences in temporal variability of FC between 40 children with ADHD and 40 Typically Developing (TD) children. Using a sliding-window method to segment the rs-fMRI scans in time, we employed seed-to-voxel correlation analysis for each window to obtain time-evolving seed connectivity maps for seeds placed in the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). For each subject, the standard deviation of the voxel connectivity time series was used as a measure of the temporal variability of FC. Results showed that ADHD patients exhibited significantly higher variability in dFC than TD children in the cingulo-temporal, cingulo-parietal, fronto-temporal, and fronto-parietal networks ( pFW E < 0.05). Atypical temporal variability was observed in the left and right temporal gyri, the anterior cingulate cortex, and lateral regions of the right parietal cortex. The observations are consistent with visual attention issues, executive control deficit, and rightward parietal dysfunction reported in ADHD, respectively. These results help in understanding the disorder with a fresh perspective linking behavioural inattention with instability in FC in the brain.

Contrasting dynamics of seed banks and standing vegetation of annuals and perennials along a rainfall gradient

The soil seed bank is a major component of plant communities. However, long-term analyses of the dynamics of the seed bank and the ensuing vegetation are rare. Here, we studied the dynamics in plant communities with high dominance of annuals in Mediterranean, semiarid, and arid ecosystems for nine consecutive years. For annuals, we hypothesized that the density of the seed bank would be more stable than the density of the standing herbaceous vegetation. Moreover, we predicted that differences in temporal variability between the seed bank and the vegetation would increase with aridity, where year-to-year rainfall variability is higher. We found that the temporal variability at the population level (assessed as the standard deviation of the loge-transformed density) of the nine dominant annuals in each site did not differ between the seed bank and the ensuing vegetation in any of the sites. For the total density of annuals, patterns depended on aridity. In the Mediterranean site, the temporal variability was similar in the seed bank and the vegetation (0.40 vs. 0.40). Still, in the semiarid and arid sites, variability in the seed bank was lower than in the vegetation (0.49 vs. 1.01 and 0.63 vs. 1.38, respectively). This difference between the population-level patterns and the total density of annuals can be related to the lower population synchrony in their seed bank. In contrast, for the herbaceous perennials (all species combined), the seed bank variability was higher than in the vegetation. Overall, our results highlight the role of the seed bank in buffering the annual vegetation density with increasing climatic uncertainty typical in aridity gradients. This role is crucial under the increasing uncertainty imposed by climatic change in the region.

Temporal variation and influencing factors of albedo in a deciduous broad-leaved forest

In situ measurement of albedo is important for estimating ecosystem energy budget and its remote sensing application. However, the measurement method of albedo on sloping land is limited and the difference in temporal variation in albedo between visible and near-infrared bands remains unclear. Taking a deciduous broad-leaved forest at the Maoershan Forest Ecological Station in Northeast China as an example, we explored the temporal variation and influencing factors of albedo for three bands: incident and reflected solar radiation (SR, 300-2800 nm), photosynthetically active radiation (PAR, 400-700 nm), and near infrared radiation (NIR, 700-2800 nm). The temporal difference in albedo measurements between the two installation methods of radiometers was analyzed. The results showed that, in sunny days, the diurnal variation in SR and NIR albedo had an asymmetric U-shaped curve around the local noon, while PAR increased from sunrise to sunset. In cloudy days, the albedo decreased sharply and then tended to be stable. The measurement with parallel sensors to the slope increased the daily mean value of albedo, but reduced the daily asymmetry of SR and NIR. For the whole growing season, the maximum albedos of SR, NIR and PAR in horizontal measurement were 0.16, 0.27 and 0.11, respectively, and the minimums were 0.07, 0.11 and 0.03, respectively. Albedo in the SR and NIR wavebands increased first and then decreased (the peak value was in July), while PAR showed a contrasting pattern. SR albedo was mainly controlled by NIR rather than PAR. The contribution of the influencing factors was ranked in the order of normalized difference vegetation index (61.7%-78.5%, representing leaf area index) > solar altitude angle (15.4%-36.9%) > clearness index (0.4%-36.9%).

Spatial and temporal variations of rainfall erosivity in the middle Yellow River Basin based on hourly rainfall data

Understanding spatial and temporal variations in rainfall erosivity is essential for estimating the variability in soil erosion. However, rainfall erosivity in the middle Yellow River Basin is usually calculated based on daily rainfall data, which fails to consider the impact of the changing rainfall intensity at the subdaily scale. In this study, we collected hourly rainfall data from 355 meteorological stations within and around the region to calculate rainfall erosivity during 1960–2017. We found that the rainfall erosivity calculated based on hourly data had much larger variability than that calculated based on daily data, and the calculated spatial and temporal variability were substantially different in periods when the rainfall intensity was highly variable. Based on our new estimation, we found that the spatial distribution of rainfall erosivity was highly heterogeneous, with high erosivity values in the Loess Regions and Rocky Mountain Regions with high soil erodibility and low erosivity values in the Aeolian Regions and Soft Sandstone Regions with low soil erodibility. This heterogeneity was mainly due to the distinct spatial distribution patterns of rainfall amount and rainfall intensity. Although the long-term increasing trend of rainfall erosivity was statistically insignificant from 1960 to 2017, its rate of increase was higher than that of the annual rainfall amount. Decadal changes showed a slight decrease from the 1960 s to the 1980 s and an increase since the 1990 s, which was substantially different from the decadal changes in the annual rainfall amount. These differences in temporal variability were mainly caused by the contribution of changing rainfall intensity, which was greater in the Aeolian Regions and Soft Sandstone Regions than in the other subregions. Our study highlighted the importance of considering the changing rainfall intensity at a subdaily scale in semiarid and semihumid climate zones and provided the first estimation of the long-term variability in rainfall erosivity based on hourly rainfall data in this region.

Characteristics of summer hourly precipitation under different urbanization background in central China

The relationship between sub-daily precipitation and urbanization is widely concerned because short-term precipitation is sensitive to urbanization and difficult to predict. Using the data of summer hourly precipitation and urban development during 2007–2019 at four urban stations and an atmospheric background monitoring station in central China, this study investigates the characteristics of hourly precipitation and hourly extreme precipitation (HEP) under different urbanization background. It is found that high urbanization level may benefit precipitation intensity but not for accumulated precipitation amount and precipitation frequency, and it is also conducive to the occurrence of hourly precipitation within [20, 50) mm. Precipitation amount and frequency for hourly precipitation within [5, 50) mm have similar diurnal variation at fixed station, yet the diurnal variation of precipitation intensity is insignificant. The differences in temporal variation of precipitation are related to urbanization and terrain. Both high urbanization level and speed are conducive to summer HEP; especially summer HEP intensity may increase gradually under sustainable urbanization development. Although growth-type HEP occurs frequently with main contribution to total HEP precipitation amount in central China regardless of urbanization level, the frequency and contribution of continuous-type HEP tends to increase under high urbanization level and speed.

Fish community structure along altitudinal gradients with relation to environmental variables in Ratuwa River of Eastern, Nepal

Studies on fish community structure along altitudinal gradients of rivers are lacking in Nepal. This study was carried out to gauge the fish diversity and composition along elevational gradient in Ratuwa River. The altitudinal gradient varies between 70 m to 1300 m. Fish samples were collected based on habitat representativeness from April (spring) 10-18, July (summer) 10-18, October (autumn) 10-18, 2020 and January (winter) 10-18, 2021. A total of 3447 specimens representing 4 orders, 14 families and 36 species were identified. Both fish diversity and abundance of studied ichthyofauna vary with altitudinal gradient. The present study affirmed that fish species of Opsarius bendelisis, Schistura multifasciatus, Garra annandalei, Brachydanio rerio, Aspidoparia morar, and Schistura scaturigina are the major contributory species (&gt;1%) for both space and time spectrums. Fish community structure testing for both to space and time showed significant difference in spatial spectrum (R=0.72, P&lt;0.01) but no significant difference in temporal variation (R=-0.034, P&gt;0.05). The present results hinted that fish assemblage structure varied significantly from low to high elevations, altitude, water temperature, water velocity, dissolved oxygen and pH was found as major influential factors (P&lt;0.05) for species distribution.

CRYPTOCHROMES promote daily protein homeostasis.

The daily organisation of most mammalian cellular functions is attributed to circadian regulation of clock‐controlled protein expression, driven by daily cycles of CRYPTOCHROME‐dependent transcriptional feedback repression. To test this, we used quantitative mass spectrometry to compare wild‐type and CRY‐deficient fibroblasts under constant conditions. In CRY‐deficient cells, we found that temporal variation in protein, phosphopeptide, and K+ abundance was at least as great as wild‐type controls. Most strikingly, the extent of temporal variation within either genotype was much smaller than overall differences in proteome composition between WT and CRY‐deficient cells. This proteome imbalance in CRY‐deficient cells and tissues was associated with increased susceptibility to proteotoxic stress, which impairs circadian robustness, and may contribute to the wide‐ranging phenotypes of CRY‐deficient mice. Rather than generating large‐scale daily variation in proteome composition, we suggest it is plausible that the various transcriptional and post‐translational functions of CRY proteins ultimately act to maintain protein and osmotic homeostasis against daily perturbation.

Sensitivity analysis of O3 formation to its precursors-Multifractal approach

As a secondary pollutant with strong oxidation, surface O3 is harmful to human health and ecosystem. Accurate identification in the response of ozone formation to its precursors (O3-NOx-NMHCsensitivity) is significant for policy-making of O3 pollution control. Great progress has been made in O3-NOx-NMHC sensitivity analysis based on model-based methods in previous studies. However, large uncertainties from meteorological factors, emission inventory and photochemical mechanism may lead to the deviation between the simulation results and the observations. Properties of nonlinear coupling detrended fluctuation analysis (CDFA) is the ability to reveal the coupling correlations between O3 and its precursors at different time scales, helping us to quantity the contribution degree of NOx and NMHC to O3 formation in our previous work. Here, we further set up a new index to determine directly the O3-NOx-NMHC sensitivity based on CDFA method, and its availability is test by the comparative analysis of classic Empirical Kinetic Modeling Approach (EKMA). Based on this new evaluation index, seasonal change, time dependence and diurnal variation of O3-NOx-NMHC sensitivity for two traffic sites and two general sites located in the north and south of Taiwan respectively are analyzed. The results confirmed that the new index is able to identify the regional difference in temporal variation of O3-NOx-NMHC sensitivity. Thus, the features of quantification, time-saving and easy-operation make it possible for multifractal methods to become an important potential supplement to the methodology of O3-NOx-NMHC sensitivity analysis in the future.

碳储存变化背景下东营市海岸带生态系统保护修复

生态修复是指在不同人为干预程度下，协助已遭受退化、损伤或破坏的生态系统恢复的过程。我国海岸带地区资源丰富、位置优越，但过度的开发建设活动严重破坏了当地的生态环境，急需对受损的海岸带生态系统进行保护和修复。以东营市海岸带地区为例，运用InVEST模型对其2005、2010、2015和2018年4个时间段的碳储存功能进行评估并分析碳储存及"碳源碳汇"的动态变化，以间接反映出区域生态系统的稳定性和健康程度。结果表明，2005-2018年东营市海岸带碳储存功能持续减弱，13年间碳储存总量减少了1.341×10⁶ t，生态系统碳储存功能受到严重破坏，其中有8.68×10⁴ hm²生态系统碳储存功能评价等级为差和极差，空间上受损最为严重的区域主要分布在岸线附近的北部、东北部和东南部。按照东营市海岸带碳损失空间差异和生态系统演替规律，从3个方面提出相应的修复方案，包括加强恢复区保护力度、稳定碳储存能力，整顿辅助区粗放模式、塑造碳储存廊道和退还重建区滨海湿地、扭转碳损失趋势，以期通过改善和恢复研究区海岸带生态系统碳储存功能，实现对受损生态系统的有效保护和修复。;According to the concept developed by the Society for Ecological Restoration, ecological restoration is the process of assisting in the recovery of the degraded, damaged or destroyed ecosystems with varying degrees of human intervention. Coastal zone is an extremely important carbon pool in the world. High-intensity development leads to serious degradation of coastal ecosystem and weakening of carbon sequestration capacity of ecosystem. It is urgent to protect and repair the damaged coastal ecosystem. The change of carbon storage function can indirectly reflect the stability and health of the ecosystem. Studying the spatial and temporal variation differences and laws of carbon storage in coastal zones can scientifically guide the protection and restoration of coastal ecosystems. In this paper, the carbon storage function of Dongying coastal zone in 2005,2010,2015 and 2018 was evaluated by InVEST model, and the dynamic changes of carbon storage and ‘carbon source carbon sink’ in the study area were analyzed. According to the spatial difference of carbon loss in coastal zone and the law of ecosystem succession, the restoration scheme was proposed. The results showed that during 2005-2018, a large number of coastal wetlands in the coastal zone were artificially developed, the primary ecological landscape was destroyed, and the carbon storage function continued to weaken. The total amount of carbon storage decreased by 1.34×10⁶ t in 13 years, among which the evaluation level of carbon storage function of regional ecosystem in 868 km² was poor and extremely poor. Spatially, the most severely damaged areas are mainly located in the northern, northeastern and southeastern parts of the coastline, with significant ecosystem destruction and degradation. According to the degree of carbon loss, Dongying coastal zone is divided into natural recovery area, artificial auxiliary area and ecological reconstruction area. By Adjusting and changing land use development methods to mitigate damage to the coastal zone ecosystem from human activities and restoring the native vegetation landscape of the area. In the natural recovery area, it is suggested to strengthen the protection of the recovery area and stabilize the carbon storage capacity. In the artificial auxiliary area, it is suggested to rectify the extensive mode of auxiliary area and shape the carbon storage corridor; In the ecological reconstruction area, it is suggested to return the coastal wetland in the reconstruction area to reverse the trend of carbon loss. By improving and restoring the carbon storage function of coastal ecosystem, the protection and restoration of the overall ecosystem in the study area can be realized.

Fish Community Structure and Environmental Correlates in Nepal’s Andhi Khola, Province No. 4, Syangja

The study of correlations between fish diversity, environmental variables and fish habitat aspects at different space and time scales of Nepal’s rivers and streams is scanty. This study investigated spatial and temporal patterns of fish assemblage structure in Nepal’s Andhi Khola. The field survey was conducted from September 2018 to May 2019 and the fishes were sampled from three sites using a medium size cast net of mesh size ranging from 1.5 to 2.5 cm and gill net having 2-3 cm mesh size, 30-35 feet length and 3-4 feet width, with the help of local fisher man. A total of 907 individuals representing 15 species belonged to four orders, six families and 11 genera were recorded during the study time. To detect the feasible relationships between fish community structure and environmental variables, we executed a Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA). Based on similarity percentage (SIMPER) analysis, the major contributing species are Barilius barila (26.15%), Barilius vagra (20.48%), Mastacembelus armatus (8.04%), Puntius terio (6.64%), and Barilius bendelisis (5.94%). One-way analysis similarity (ANOSIM) tried out for both time and space variations in fish community structure suggested that there was a significant difference in temporal variation (R = 0.794, P = 0.0037) but no significant difference in spatial variation (R = -0.18, P = 0.923). Results from the Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) vindicated that dissolved oxygen, free carbon-dioxide and total hardness were the principle physio-chemical correlates of fish assemblage structure. One-way analysis of similarity (ANOSIM) on the Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling (NMDS) showed significant difference between spring, autumn and winter season but no significant difference was found in spatial variation. The extraction and transportation of boulders, cobbles, pebbles, sand mining, haphazard ongoing road development and dam construction for the irrigation without fish ladders were found to be existing threats to the fish diversity of Andhi Khola.&#x0D; &#x0D; Keywords: Fish assemblage, multivariate analysis, rivers, spatio-temporal, streams

Effects of nonnative species on the stability of riverine fish communities

Despite the increasing ubiquity of biological invasions worldwide, little is known about the scale‐dependent effects of nonnative species on real‐world ecological dynamics. Here, using an extensive time series dataset of riverine fish communities across different biogeographic regions of the world, we assessed the effects of nonnative species on the temporal variability and synchrony in abundance at different organizational levels (population, metapopulation, community and metacommunity) and spatial scales (stream reach and river basin). At the reach scale, we found that populations of nonnative species were more variable over time than native species, and that this effect scaled up to the community level – significantly destabilizing the dynamics of riverine fish communities. Nonnative species not only contributed to reduced community stability, but also increased variability of native populations. By contrast, we found no effect of nonnative species dominance on local interspecific synchrony among native species. At the basin scale, nonnative metapopulations were again more variable than the native ones. However, neither native metapopulations nor metacommunities showed differences in temporal variability or synchrony as nonnative species dominance increased basin‐wide. This suggests a ‘dilution effect’ where the contribution to regional stability of local native populations from sites displaying low levels of invasion reduced the destabilizing effects of nonnative species. Overall, our results indicate that accounting for the destabilizing effect of nonnative species is critical to understanding native species persistence and community stability.

Air Quality Forecasting using LSTM RNN and Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract In the past few decades, many urban areas around the world have suffered from severe air pollution and the health hazards that come with it, making gathering real-time air quality and air quality forecasting very important to take preventive and corrective measures. This paper proposes a scalable architecture to monitor and gather real-time air pollutant concentration data from various places and to use this data to forecast future air pollutant concentrations. Two sources are used to collect air quality data. The first being a wireless sensor network that gathers and sends pollutant concentrations to a server, with its sensor nodes deployed in various locations in Bengaluru city in South India. The second source is the real-time air quality data gathered and made available by the Government of India as a part of its Open Data initiative. Both sources provide average concentrations of various air pollutants on an hourly basis. Due to its proven track record of success with time-series data, a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) model was chosen to perform the task of air quality forecasting. This paper critically analyses the performance of the model in two regions that exhibit a significant difference in temporal variations in air quality. As these variations increase, the model suffers performance degradation necessitating adaptive modelling.

The influence of natural flow and temperature and introduced brown trout on the temporal variation in native fish abundance in a “reference” stream

Understanding what drives variation in fish abundance at reference sites provides perspective for assessing the effects of human alterations to river flow and land use. We examined temporal variation in fish community abundance in a headwater tributary of a large river in the upper South Island (New Zealand) over 10 years. We were interested in the influence of natural flow variation and temperature on native fish abundance within the context of potential competition/predation pressure from juvenile introduced trout. Results from biannual sampling highlighted the dominating influence of floods on fish population dynamics, overriding biotic effects. We found no evidence for adverse effects of trout on native fish, and flow-related habitat performed more poorly in explaining variation in fish abundance than low- and median-flow statistics. Differences in temporal variation in abundance between species were largely consistent with life histories that provide resistance and (or) resilience to flood flows and relative insensitivity to low flows. Long-term data (≥10 years) are needed for detecting meaningful trends and quantifying the effects of human activities on fish community abundance.

Difference in temporal variation of temperature-related mortality risk in seven major South Korean cities spanning 1998–2013

Temporal variation of temperature-related mortality risk is an important issue in climate change era. However, difference in this temporal variation across cities in South Korea remains unclear. The aim of this study was to explore whether temporal variation might differ spatially across seven metropolitan cities of Korea during the period of 1998–2013. We estimated cumulative associations between temperature (up to previous 14 days of exposure) and all-cause mortality, and compared cumulative associations between the first eight years (1998–2005) and the last eight years (2006–2013). Multivariate meta-regression analysis was performed to investigate what factors might be associated with spatial and temporal variation in cumulative associations. We found that Busan, Daegu, and Gwangju experienced decrease in heat effect from 1998–2005 to 2006–2013, while Incheon experienced increase in heat effect. By comparing mortality risk at 99th percentile of temperature to mortality risk at minimum mortality temperature, percentage increase of mortality risk changed from 4.8% (95% CI: −1.3, 11.3) to 0.4% (95% CI: −6.0, 7.4) in Busan, from 17.2% (95% CI: 10.2, 24.7) to 4.0% (95% CI: −1.4, 9.8) in Daegu, from 20.3% (95% CI: 11.5, 29.7) to 2.2% (95% CI: −3.5, 8.3) in Gwangju, and from 3.5% (95% CI: 0.2, 6.8) to 7.9% (95% CI: 5.0, 10.9) in Incheon, respectively. Change in average temperature from 1998–2005 to 2006–2013 was negatively associated with change in heat effect even though average temperature in most of the cities fluctuated over time. We also found that all seven cities had decrease in effect of moderate cold temperature from 1998–2005 to 2006–2013. Such decrease was associated with improvement in medical resources. Results of this study suggest that plans for adaptation to temperature-related risks should differ across populations because adaptation to temperature varies across populations and within the same population over different time.

Investigating impact of emission inventories on PM2.5 simulations over North China Plain by WRF-Chem

Anthropogenic air pollutant emissions have been increasing rapidly in China, leading to severe heavy haze events. In order to predict PM2.5 concentrations accurately, the emissions of precursor gases and primary particles are quite critical but remains large uncertainty. In this study we firstly compared the emissions of precursor gases and primary particles such as sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), ammonia (NH3), carbon monoxide (CO), black carbon (BC), organic compounds (OC), non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs), PM2.5 and PM10, in three emission inventories (EIs) including INTEX-B (representing the year 2006), MEIC10 and MEIC12 (representing the year 2010 and 2012) over North China Plain (NCP), one of the most polluted regions in China. It is found that annual total emissions of SO2 decreased 34% (26%) from INTEX-B to MEIC10 (MEIC12), possibly due to effective control and improvement of fuel combustion efficiency conducted in recent years. The NOx emissions increased 53% (58%) from INTEX-B to MEIC10 (MEIC12), and the major contributor to NOx was replaced from power in INTEX-B by industry in MEIC10/12. The VOCs emissions in MEIC10/12 are 21.1% lower than in INTEX-B possibly due to tightened emission standards and operating conditions. The simulations with three EIs, based on WRF-Chem, generally reproduced the observed seasonal variation of PM2.5 concentrations, i.e. high in winter and autumn but low in spring and summer. The spatial distribution from the simulations are overall in good agreement with each other, and the differences less than 20 μg m−3 in most regions. The maximums by the simulations with three EIs occur in autumn due to very low wind speed despite the highest emissions in winter. Comparisons in four representative cities indicate that the simulations are quite close to observations in April and July, but overestimate in October and December in all cities exception in Baoding, especially with INTEX-B. Large bias with INTEX-B is possibly because the simulations are compared with observations in 2014 while INTEX-B represents the emission of 2006 year which is more far away from 2014. A quantitative assessment by conducting statistical analysis gave evidence that the simulations with three EIs do not exhibit significant difference in temporal variations, in terms of correlation coefficients, standard deviation, and root-mean-square difference. Therefore, MEIC inventories are suitable for simulations of PM2.5 concentrations for recent years, while INTEX-B might be better for a climate study to simulate the condition decade ago. Temporal variations can be basically well reproduced by either INTEX-B or MEIC10/12 inventories.

Quantitative observations on cytoskeleton changes of osteocytes at different cell parts using digital holographic microscopy.

Cytoskeletons such as F-actin have different distributions in different cell parts and they are the cause of different degrees of cell collapse when the F-actin is disrupted. It is challenging to use conventional methods such as fluorescence microscopy and atomic force microscopy to conduct real-time and three-dimensional observations on the dynamic processes at different cell parts due to the slow measuring speed and the need for live-cell staining. In this study, the morphological variations of different bone cell parts caused by F-actin disruption are dynamically measured by using digital holographic microscopy (DHM). We separately analyze local parameters (cell height and cell width) and global parameters (cell projected area and cell volume) of cells to address variations of specific cell areas and quantify the changing process of the whole cell. We found significant differences in temporal variations of both local and global cell parameters between the cell body and cell process, which is consistent with the qualitative observation by fluorescence staining. Our study not only validates the unique ability of DHM to simultaneously investigate the dynamic process at different cell parts, but also provides sufficient experimental bases for exploring the mechanism for F-actin disruption.

Evaluation of multiple forcing data sets for precipitation and shortwave radiation over major land areas of China

Abstract. Precipitation and shortwave radiation play important roles in climatic, hydrological and biogeochemical cycles. Several global and regional forcing data sets currently provide historical estimates of these two variables over China, including the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS), the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) Land Data Assimilation System (CLDAS) and the China Meteorological Forcing Dataset (CMFD). The CN05.1 precipitation data set, a gridded analysis based on CMA gauge observations, also provides high-resolution historical precipitation data for China. In this study, we present an intercomparison of precipitation and shortwave radiation data from CN05.1, CMFD, CLDAS and GLDAS during 2008–2014. We also validate all four data sets against independent ground station observations. All four forcing data sets capture the spatial distribution of precipitation over major land areas of China, although CLDAS indicates smaller annual-mean precipitation amounts than CN05.1, CMFD or GLDAS. Time series of precipitation anomalies are largely consistent among the data sets, except for a sudden decrease in CMFD after August 2014. All forcing data indicate greater temporal variations relative to the mean in dry regions than in wet regions. Validation against independent precipitation observations provided by the Ministry of Water Resources (MWR) in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River indicates that CLDAS provides the most realistic estimates of spatiotemporal variability in precipitation in this region. CMFD also performs well with respect to annual mean precipitation, while GLDAS fails to accurately capture much of the spatiotemporal variability and CN05.1 contains significant high biases relative to the MWR observations. Estimates of shortwave radiation from CMFD are largely consistent with station observations, while CLDAS and GLDAS greatly overestimate shortwave radiation. All three forcing data sets capture the key features of the spatial distribution, but estimates from CLDAS and GLDAS are systematically higher than those from CMFD over most of mainland China. Based on our evaluation metrics, CLDAS slightly outperforms GLDAS. CLDAS is also closer than GLDAS to CMFD with respect to temporal variations in shortwave radiation anomalies, with substantial differences among the time series. Differences in temporal variations are especially pronounced south of 34° N. Our findings provide valuable guidance for a variety of stakeholders, including land-surface modelers and data providers.

Intercountry inequality on greenhouse gas emissions and world levels: An integrated analysis through general distributive sustainability indexes

Up until now, analyses of the inter-country distribution of pollutant emissions have not paid sufficient attention to the implications that, in terms of global sustainability, the combined evolution of the global world average entails. In this context, this paper proposes the use of general distributive sustainability indexes in order to make a comprehensive examination of the international equity factor and also the mean (world) factor in this field. The proposed methodology, which is adapted from the welfare and inequality economics literature, is implemented empirically in order to explore the evolution of the greenhouse gases and its main components: CO2, CH4 and N2O during the period 1990–2012. The main results found are as follows: firstly, typically, the general distributive sustainability associated with the overall greenhouse gases in per capita terms increased over the global period but, contrarily, it seems to decrease since 2000; secondly, typically this last reduction is basically explained by the increase in world mean average, given the clear reduction on cross-country inequalities; thirdly, the analysis of different gases also points out some differences in temporal variations and depending on the index used. These results would seem to be relevant in policy and academic terms.