Abstract.A new approach is developed to derive dynamic information near the peak of the ionospheric F-layer from ionosonde measurements. This approach avoids deducing equivalent winds from the displacement of the observed peak height from a no-wind equilibrium height, so it need not determine the no-wind equilibrium height which may limit the accuracy of the deduced winds, as did the traditional servo theory. This approach is preliminarily validated with comparisons of deduced equivalent winds with the measurements from the Fabry-Perot interferometer, the Millstone Hill incoherent scatter radar and with previous works.Examples of vertical components of equivalent winds (VEWs), over Wuhan (114.4 • E, 30.6 • N, 45.2 • dip), China in December 2000 are derived from Wuhan DGS-256 Digisonde data. The deduced VEWs show large day-to-day variations during the winter, even in low magnetic activity conditions. The diurnal pattern of average VEWs is more complicated than that predicted by the empirical Horizontal Wind Model (HWM). Using an empirical electric field model based on the observations from Jicamarca radar and satellites, we investigate the contributions to VEWs from neutral winds and from electric fields at the F-layer peak. If the electric field model is reasonable for Wuhan during this period, the neutral winds contribute mostly to the VEWs, and the contribution from the E × B drifts is insignificant.

AC alternating current AFM atomic force microscopy ANL Argonne National Laboratory ASI area-specific impedance (ohm-cm 2) ATD Advanced Technology Development ATR attenuated total reflection BNL Brookhaven National Laboratory BSF battery scaling factor CSAFM current-sensing atomic force microscopy CE capillary electrophoresis CF capacity fade DEC diethyl carbonate DEDOHC diethyl-2,5-dioxahexane carboxylate DMC dimethyl carbonate DMDOHC dimethyl-2,5-dioxahexane carboxylate DME dimethoxy ethane DMF dimethyl formamide DOE U.S. Department of Energy EC ethylene carbonate EDX energy dispersive X-ray analysis EELS electron energy loss spectroscopy EMC ethyl methyl carbonate EMDOHC ethyl methyl-2,5-dioxahexane carboxylate EOC end of charge EOL end of life EXAFS extended X-ray absorption fine structure EY electron yield FFT fast Fourier transform FID flame ionization detector FTIR Fourier transform infrared FY fluorescence yield GC gas chromatography GC-MS gas chromatography mass spectrometry GPC gel permeation chromatography Gen 1 (+) LiNi 0.8 Co 0.2 O 2 cathode Gen 1 (-) MCMB:SFG-6 (82:18) Gen 1 electrolyte 1.2 M LiPF 6 EC:DEC (1:1 by wt) Gen 2 cells ATD Generation 2 baseline cells Gen 2 (+) LiNi 0.8 Co 0.15 Al 0.05 O 2 cathode Gen 2 (-) MAG-10 synthetic graphite anode Gen 2 electrolyte 1.2 M LiPF 6 EC:EMC (3:7 by wt) HEV hybrid electric vehicle HF hydrogen fluoride (hydrofluoric acid) DIAGNOSTIC EXAMINATION OF GENERATION 2 LITHIUM-ION CELLS AND ASSESSMENT OF PERFORMANCE DEGRADATION MECHANISMS

Introduction: Free radicals and oxidative stress play a central role in the generation and development of acute gastric mucosal lesions (AGML). Traditional Chinese medicine has its unique effect in removing oxygen free radicals and reducing gastric mucosa injury. Polygonum hydropiper L is extensively used as a traditional Chinese herbal medicine for treating gastrointestinal diseases in China, the reports shows that it possess various pharmacological activities, especially antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Objective: This study was to investigate the protective effect of extracts from Polygonum hydropiper on experimentally-induced AGML in mice. Methods: The AGML mice model was induced by ethanol, Glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), malondialdehyde (MDA) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) were used to measure the antioxidant activity. The nitric monoxide (NO) and PGE2 contents were tested. Results: The findings demonstrated that the extracts enhanced the activities of antioxidative enzymes SOD and GSH-Px and decreased the level of MDA in the serum and gastric tissues. The higher-concentration extract (1.78 g kg-1) had higher antioxidative activities than the lower-concentration extract (0.89 g kg-1).Both extracts increased the production of PGE2and decreased the NO level in gastric tissues. In addition, oral administration of absolute ethanol to mice significantly produced extensive hemorrhagic lesions of gastric mucosa, whereas animals pretreated with extract or ranitidine significantly reduced the formation of gastric lesions compared to control group. The extract could decrease distinctly the acute gastric mucosal damage index compared to the model group. The high-dose extract treatment obviously reduced injuries in the gland region after administration of ethanol compared to the model group. Conclusion: The results obtained from this study showed that extracts from Polygonum hydropiper L exhibited significant protective effects against ethanol-induced AGML, and these are closely associated with antioxidant effect.

Based on a precipitation time series from 49 meteorological stations in Sichuan Province during the period from 1961 to 2011, the multi-scale characteristics of precipitation variability are analyzed using the extreme-point symmetric mode decomposition method (ESMD). Regional differences in variation trends and change-points were also preliminarily discussed. The results indicated that in the last 50+ years, the overall precipitation in Sichuan Province has exhibited a significant non-linear downward trend, and its changes have clearly exhibited an inter-annual scale (quasi-3 and quasi-8-year) and interdecadal scale (quasi-13-year). The variance contribution rates of each component demonstrated that the inter-annual change had a strong influence on the overall precipitation change in Sichuan Province, and the reconstructed inter-annual variation trend could describe the fluctuation state of the original precipitation during the study period. The reconstructed interdecadal variability revealed that the climate mode in Sichuan Province had divided into three distinct variation periods with 1973 and 1998 as the boundaries. Furthermore, there were regional differences in the non-linear changes and change-points of precipitation. In addition, in order to study the relations between the changing more or less of rising or decrease and meteorological station’s geographical position (latitude, longitude and elevation) i.e., the Cokriging interpolation technique is applied directly to precipitation variation trend components through ESMD decomposition. At the same time, the results also suggested that the ESMD method can effectively reveal variations in long-term precipitation sequences at different time scales and can be used for the complex diagnosis of non-linear and non-stationary signal changes.