This paper attempts to provide some new understanding of the mechanical as well as thermal effects of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) on the circulation and climate in Asia through diagnosis and numerical experiments. The air column over the TP descends in winter and ascends in summer and regulates the surface Asian monsoon flow. Sensible heating on the sloping lateral surfaces appears from the authors’ experiments to be the major driving source. The retarding and deflecting effects of the TP in winter generate an asymmetric dipole zonal-deviation circulation, with a large anticyclone gyre to the north and a cyclonic gyre to the south. Such a dipole deviation circulation enhances the cold outbreaks from the north over East Asia, results in a dry climate in south Asia and a moist climate over the Indochina peninsula and south China, and forms the persistent rainfall in early spring (PRES) in south China. In summer the TP heating generates a cyclonic spiral zonal-deviation circulation in the lower troposphere, which converges toward and rises over the TP. It is shown that because the TP is located east of the Eurasian continent, in summertime the meridional winds and vertical motions forced by the Eurasian continental-scale heating and the TP local heating are in phase over the eastern and central parts of the continent. The monsoon in East Asia and the dry climate in middle Asia are therefore intensified.

Canonical correlation analysis (CCA) is applied to analyze the frequency components of steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEP) in electroencephalogram (EEG). The essence of this method is to extract a narrowband frequency component of SSVEP in EEG. A recognition approach is proposed based on the extracted frequency features for an SSVEP-based brain computer interface (BCI). Recognition Results of the approach were higher than those using a widely used fast Fourier transform (FFT)-based spectrum estimation method.

Background: Gold nanoparticle toxicity research is currently leading towards the in vivo experiment. Most toxicology data show that the surface chemistry and physical dimensions of gold nanoparticles play an important role in toxicity. Here, we present the in vivo toxicity of 5, 10, 30, and 60 nm PEG-coated gold nanoparticles in mice. Methods: Animal survival, weight, hematology, morphology, organ index, and biochemistry were characterized at a concentration of 4000 µg/kg over 28 days. Results:The PEG-coated gold particles did not cause an obvious decrease in body weight or appreciable toxicity even after their breakdown in vivo. Biodistribution results show that 5 nm and 10 nm particles accumulated in the liver and that 30 nm particles accumulated in the spleen, while the 60 nm particles did not accumulate to an appreciable extent in either organ. Transmission electron microscopic observations showed that the 5, 10, 30, and 60 nm particles located in the blood and bone marrow cells, and that the 5 and 60 nm particles aggregated preferentially in the blood cells. The increase in spleen index and thymus index shows that the immune system can be affected by these small nanoparticles. The 10 nm gold particles induced an increase in white blood cells, while the 5 nm and 30 nm particles induced a decrease in white blood cells and red blood cells. The biochemistry results show that the 10 nm and 60 nm PEG-coated gold nanoparticles caused a significant increase in alanine transaminase and aspartate transaminase levels, indicating slight damage to the liver. Conclusion: The toxicity of PEG-coated gold particles is complex, and it cannot be concluded that the smaller particles have greater toxicity. The toxicity of the 10 nm and 60 nm particles was obviously higher than that of the 5 nm and 30 nm particles. The metabolism of these particles and protection of the liver will be more important issues for medical applications of gold-based nanomaterials in future.

The value of an integrated approach for understanding the neocortex by combining functional characterization of single neuron activity with the underlying circuit architecture has been understood since the dawn of modern neuroscience. However, in practice, anatomical connectivity and physiology have been studied mostly separately. Following in the footsteps of previous studies that have combined physiology and anatomy in the same tissue, here we present a unique functional connectomics dataset that contains calcium imaging of an estimated 75,000 neurons from primary visual cortex (VISp) and three higher visual areas (VISrl, VISal and VISlm), that were recorded while a mouse viewed natural movies and parametric stimuli. The functional data were co-registered with electron microscopy (EM) data of the same volume which were automatically segmented, reconstructing more than 200,000 cells (neuronal and non-neuronal) and 524 million synapses. Subsequent proofreading of some neurons in this volume yielded reconstructions that include complete dendritic trees as well the local and inter-areal axonal projections. The largest proofread excitatory axon reached a length of 19 mm and formed 1,893 synapses, while the largest inhibitory axon formed 10,081 synapses. Here we release this dataset as an open access resource to the scientific community including a set of analysis tools that allows easy data access, both programmatically and through a web user interface.