Guest Editors' Introduction: The New Frontier of Human-Level Artificial Intelligence

Within the field of human-level intelligence, researchers are combining a variety of approaches toward the goals of human-like breadth, flexibility, and resilience for artificial intelligence systems.     

Summertime ambient formaldehyde in five U.S. metropolitan areas: Nashville, Atlanta, Houston, Philadelphia, and Tampa

First, we briefly review the atmospheric chemistry and previous intercomparison measurements for HCHO, with special reference to the diffusion scrubber Hantzsch reaction based fluorescence instrument used in the field studies reported herein. Then we discuss summertime HCHO levels in five major U.S. cities measured over 1999-2002, primarily from ground-based measurements. Land-sea breeze circulations play a major role in observed concentrations in coastal cities. Very high HCHO peak mixing ratios were observed in Houston (>47 ppb) where the overall median mixing ratio was 3.3 ppb; the corresponding values in Atlanta were approximately >18 and 7.9 ppb, respectively. The peak and median mixing ratios (9.3 and 2.3 ppb) were the lowest for Tampa, where the land-sea breeze also played an important role. In several cities, replicate HCHO measurements were made by direct spectroscopic instruments; the instruments were located kilometers from each other and addressed very different heights (e.g., 106 vs 10 m). Even under these conditions, there was remarkable qualitative and often quantitative agreement between the different instruments, when they were all sampling the same air mass within a short period of each other. Local chemistry dominates how HCHO is formed and dissipated. The high concentrations in Houston resulted from emissions near the ship channel; the same formaldehyde plume was measured at two sites and clearly ranged over tens of kilometers. Local micrometeorology is another factor. HCHO patterns measured at a high-rise site in downtown Nashville were very much in synchrony with other ground sites 12 km away until July 4 celebrations whence HCHO concentrations at the downtown site remained elevated for several days and nights. The formation and dissipation of HCHO in the different cities are discussed in terms of other concurrently measured species and meteorological vectors. The vertical profiles of HCHO in and around Tampa under several different atmospheric conditions are presented. The extensive data set represented in this paper underscores that urban HCHO measurements can now be made easily; the agreement between disparate instruments (that are independently calibrated or rely on the absolute absorption cross section) further indicates that such measurements can be done reliably and accurately for this very important atmospheric species. The data set presented here can be used as a benchmark for future measurements if the use of formaldehyde precursors such as methanol or methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) as oxygenated fuel additives increases in the future.     

Phase Separation-Mediated Chromatin Organization and Dynamics: From Imaging-Based Quantitative Characterizations to Functional Implications

As an effective and versatile strategy to compartmentalize cellular components without the need for lipid membranes, phase separation has been found to underpin a wide range of intranuclear processes, particularly those involving chromatin. Many of the unique physico-chemical properties of chromatin-based phase condensates are harnessed by the cell to accomplish complex regulatory functions in a spatially and temporally controlled manner. Here, we survey key recent findings on the mechanistic roles of phase separation in regulating the organization and dynamics of chromatin-based molecular processes across length scales, packing states and intranuclear functions, with a particular emphasis on quantitative characterizations of these condensates enabled by advanced imaging-based approaches. By illuminating the complex interplay between chromatin and various chromatin-interacting molecular species mediated by phase separation, this review sheds light on an emerging multi-scale, multi-modal and multi-faceted landscape that hierarchically regulates the genome within the highly crowded and dynamic nuclear space. Moreover, deficiencies in existing studies also highlight the need for mechanism-specific criteria and multi-parametric approaches for the characterization of chromatin-based phase separation using complementary techniques and call for greater efforts to correlate the quantitative features of these condensates with their functional consequences in close-to-native cellular contexts.     

Lactoferrin protects against chemical-induced rat liver fibrosis by inhibiting stellate cell activation

Liver diseases, which can be caused by alcohol abuse, chemical intoxication, viral hepatitis infection, and autoimmune disorders, are a significant health issue because they can develop into liver fibrosis and cirrhosis. Lactoferrin (LF), a siderophilic protein with 2 iron-binding sites, has been demonstrated to possess a multitude of biological functions, including antiinflammation, anticancer, and antimicrobial effects, as well as immunomodulatory-enhancing functions. In the current study, we induced hepatotoxicity in rats with dimethylnitrosamine (DMN) to establish a situation that would enable us to evaluate the hepatoprotective effects of LF against hepatic injury. Our results showed that DMN-induced hepatic pathological damage significantly decreased the body weight and liver index, increased the mRNA and protein levels of collagen α-1(I) (ColIα-1) and α-smooth muscle actin, and increased the hydroxyproline content. However, treatment with LF significantly increased body weight and liver index, decreased the mRNA and protein levels of ColIα-1 and α-smooth muscle actin, and suppressed the hydroxyproline content when compared with the DMN-treated group. Liver histopathology also showed that low-dose LF (100 mg/kg of body weight) or high-dose LF (300 mg/kg of body weight) could significantly reduce the incidences of liver lesions induced by DMN. These results suggest that the LF exhibits potent hepatoprotection against DMN-induced liver damage in rats and that the hepatoprotective effects of LF may be due to the inhibition of collagen production and to stellate cell activation.     

Investigation of lateral parameter variations of Al-doped zinc oxide films prepared on glass substrates by rf magnetron sputtering

Sputter-deposited Al-doped zinc oxide (ZnO : Al) is an interesting transparent conductive oxide (TCO) material for application in electronic devices and thin-film solar cells. A phenomenon in the planar magnetron sputtering of the ZnO : Al films that is not well investigated as yet are the laterally non-uniform film properties resulting from the laterally inhomogeneous erosion of the target material, whereby the lateral distribution of the film properties depends strongly on the sputtering parameters. In this work, the lateral distributions of the electrical, optical, and surface structure properties of the ZnO : Al films prepared by the rf magnetron sputtering on glass substrates are investigated across a distance of 64 mm using the four-point probe technique, optical transmission and reflection measurements, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy. We find that the lateral variations of the parameters of the ZnO : Al films prepared by the rf magnetron sputtering can be reduced to acceptable levels by optimising the deposition parameters. Hence, it seems that the sputter-deposited ZnO : Al is a promising TCO material for large-area thin-film solar cells.     

40—BLENDING WOOL FOR YIELD-TESTING PART II: EXAMINATION OF A BLENDER FOR SCOURED SUB-SAMPLES

An investigation is reported in which a small ‘spherical’ blender was examined to ascertain if its use reduced the within-sub-sample component of total alkali-insolubles. Although this proved to be the case, the blender modified the alkali solubility of the vegetable matter, so that the recovered mass of alkali-insolubles was decreased.

Use of the spherical blender for scoured sub-samples that are to be tested for vegetable-matter content by the standard method (IWTO–19–76(E)) is not therefore recommended.     

Year around distilled water production,energy, and economic analysis of solar stills—A comparative study

In this paper, a year around energy efficiency (EnE) and economic analysis of single slope solar still (SSSS), the single slope solar still with glass cooling (SSSSGC), the single slope solar still with basin heating (SSSSBH), and the single slope solar still with glass cooling and basin heating (SSSSGCBH) was carried out based on the distilled water production. The annual yield production from the SSSS, SSSSGC, SSSSBH, and SSSSGCBH were 476.16, 637.44, 970.24, and 1167.36 kg, respectively. The yearly yield produced from the SSSSBH and SSSSGCBH was increased by 50.92% and 59.21%, respectively, as compared with the SSSS. Moreover, the annual EnE of the SSSSGCBH was 28.75%. However, the EnE of the SSSS was 11.73%. Also, freshwater making cost is found to be 18.9, 24.9, 37.9, and 45.6 Rs/day for the SSSS, SSSSGC, SSSSBH, and SSSSGCBH, respectively, if the buying cost of freshwater is Rs 10.     

Applications of ultra-high solar flux

Nonimaging optics provides a means of concentrating light to intensities approaching the theoretical limit. In experiments at the University of Chicago, we measured a concentration of 84,000 using a sapphire concentrator. We are currently scaling up our experiments at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. Our goals include a) measuring 50,000 suns using a borosilicate concentrator with total power collected approaching one kW, b) producing fullerenes by vaporizing carbon, and c) pumping solid state lasers using a side-pumping arrangement. Preliminary results indicate that we have delivered 50,000 suns through an aperture using a concentrator of unique design. In this paper, we report on this measurement and current designs for fullerene production and laser pumping.