No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Earth's free wobble is often referred to as the Euler wobble (for the rigid case) or the Chandler wobble for the real case. In this study, we investigate the theory of the free wobble of the triaxial Earth and demonstrate that: (1) the Euler period should actually be expressed by the complete elliptic integral of first kind, and (2) the trace of the free polar motion is elliptic, with the orientations of its semi-minor and major axes being approximately parallel to the Earth's principal axes A and B, respectively. Numerical calculations show that, due to the triaxiality of the Earth, the spin rate x 3 fluctuates with the semi-Euler/ Chandler period, although its amplitude (about 10 -19 rad/s) is rather small and beyond the present measurement accuracy; the tilt of the instantaneous spin axis (or the amplitude of the free wobble), h, has a fluctuation whose amplitude is around 0.34 milli-arcsecond (mas), which could be detected by present observations. Thus, we conclude that the Earth's triaxial nature has little impact on x 3 , but has an influence on the polar motion which should not be ignored. On the other hand, our study shows that there is a mechanism of frequency-amplitude modulation in the Chandler wobble which might be a candidate to explain the correlation between the amplitude and period of the Chandler wobble. We compare the theoretical polar parameters (m 1 , m 2 ) with the observed values for the Chandler components obtained from the data EOP (IERS) C 04, and find that they coincide with each other quite well, especially for recent years. In addition, a polar wander towards 76.7°W, which is in agreement with previous results given by other scientists, is also obtained.

BackgroundHepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common cancers in China and frequently occurs with chronic hepatitis B virus infection. To investigate whether cell-based cancer immunotherapy induces tumor specific immune responses in patients with HCC and provides clinical benefits, as well as to elucidate the most immunogenic tumor associated antigens (TAAs), multiple antigen stimulating cellular therapy (MASCT) was applied in addition to standard of care.MethodsMature dendritic cells (DCs) and activated T cells prepared for MASCT were generated from autologous peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). DCs were loaded with a peptide pool of multiple HCC-related tumor antigens, and T cells were stimulated by these DCs.ResultsThirteen patients with HCC received repeated MASCT after tumor resection during which their immune responses were examined. After three courses of MASCT, the frequency of regulatory T cells in the patients’ PBMCs significantly decreased (p < 0.001), while the antigen peptide pool-triggered T cell proliferation (p < 0.001) and IFNγ production (p = 0.001) were significantly enhanced. The specific T cell responses against each antigen in the pool were detected in 11 patients, but with individualized distinct patterns. The most immunogenic TAAs for HCC are survivin, CCND1, and RGS5. Moreover, the antigen-specific immune responses observed in tumor-free patients’ PBMCs were significantly stronger than that in the patients with recurrence (p = 0.037).ConclusionsOur study demonstrates that MASCT is well-tolerated by patients with HCC and elicits strong and dynamic immune responses specifically against multiple tumor associated antigens, which may correlate with clinical outcomes.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12967-017-1165-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

No abstract

We demonstrate that the coseismic gravitational changes due to the 2011 M w = 9.0 Tohoku-Oki earthquake are detectable by GRACE with only 1-month data after the earthquake, which is also supported by a simulation test using the seismic-signal-contained observations synthesized with the signals of a dislocation model prediction. The commonly used destriping to filter correlated errors in GRACE coefficients tends to distort the true coseismic signals in both amplitude and spatial pattern. In order to better retrieve coseismic gravitational signals, we apply a northern gravity gradient approach with the filter of spatial averaging and without destriping. The coseismic northern gravity gradient changes of Tohoku-Oki earthquake are extracted from the monthly data of April 2011, which reveal a positive-negative-positive spatial pattern and agree with the model prediction. The northern gradient approach provides an efficient means to detect coseismic signals and potentially constrain fault slip models with large-scale gravitational changes using limited time span of monthly GRACE solutions.

The field hydrology model-DRAINMOD has several options for evapotranspiration (ET) calculation. The choice of each calculation method may affect modeling results because ET is one of the most important hydrologic components in field hydrology. ET calculation method may also have significant impact on crop yield predictions. As variable ET estimation methods are available nowadays, this paper presents a study of different ET inputs on simulated crop yields and drainage volume based on weather and soil data from a subhumid climate zone in China. The study results show that the effect of ET estimate on drainage and crop yield prediction is affected by crop species and growing period; more accurate ET estimate is also critical in simulating the effect of controlled drainage on field hydrology and crop production. The results of this study indicate that the effort contributed to better ET estimate is very important in model applications.