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31. Methane Emissions from Natural Gas Vehicles in China

Author(s):
Pan, Da; Tao, Lei; Golston, Levi; Miller, David; Zhu, Tong; Qin, Yue; Zhang, Yan; Mauzerall, Denise
Abstract:
Natural gas vehicles (NGVs) have been promoted in China to mitigate air pollution, yet our measurements and analyses show that NGV growth in China may have significant negative impacts on climate change. We conducted real-world vehicle emission measurements in China and found high methane emissions from heavy-duty NGVs (90% higher than current emission limits). These emissions have been ignored in previous emission estimates, leading to biased results. Applying our observations to life-cycle analyses, we found that switching to NGVs from conventional vehicles in China has led to a net increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions since 2000. With scenario analyses, we also show that the next decade will be critical for China to reverse the trend with the upcoming China VI standard for heavy-duty vehicles. Implementing and enforcing the China VI standard is challenging, and the method demonstrated here can provide critical information regarding the fleet-level CH4 emissions from NGVs.
Type:
Dataset
Issue Date:
2020

32. Distinct cytoskeletal proteins define zones of enhanced cell wall synthesis in Helicobacter pylori

Author(s):
Taylor, Jenny A.; Bratton, Benjamin P.; Sichel, Sophie R.; Blair, Kris M.; Jacobs, Holly M.; DeMeester, Kristen E.; Kuru, Erkin; Gray, Joe; Biboy, Jacob; VanNieuwenhze, Michael S.; Vollmer, Waldemar; Grimes, Catherine L.; Shaevitz, Joshua W.; Salama, Nina R.
Abstract:
Helical cell shape is necessary for efficient stomach colonization by Helicobacter pylori, but the molecular mechanisms for generating helical shape remain unclear. We show that the helical centerline pitch and radius of wild-type H. pylori cells dictate surface curvatures of considerably higher positive and negative Gaussian curvatures than those present in straight- or curved-rod bacteria. Quantitative 3D microscopy analysis of short pulses with either N-acetylmuramic acid or D-alanine metabolic probes showed that cell wall growth is enhanced at both sidewall curvature extremes. Immunofluorescence revealed MreB is most abundant at negative Gaussian curvature, while the bactofilin CcmA is most abundant at positive Gaussian curvature. Strains expressing CcmA variants with altered polymerization properties lose helical shape and associated positive Gaussian curvatures. We thus propose a model where CcmA and MreB promote PG synthesis at positive and negative Gaussian curvatures, respectively, and that this patterning is one mechanism necessary for maintaining helical shape.
Type:
Dataset and Image
Issue Date:
April 2019

33. 2-km resolution oversampled NH3 data

Author(s):
Wang, Rui; Guo, Xuehui; Pan, Da; Kelly, James; Bash, Jesse; Sun, Kang; Paulot, Fabien; Clarisse, Lieven; Van Damme, Martin; Whitburn, Simon; Coheur, Pierre-François; Clerbaux, Cathy; Zondlo, Mark
Abstract:
Monthly, high resolution (~2 km) ammonia (NH3) column maps from the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) were developed across the contiguous United States and adjacent areas. Ammonia hotspots (95th percentile of the column distribution) were highly localized with a characteristic length scale of 12 km and median area of 152 km2. Five seasonality classes were identified with k-means++ clustering. The Midwest and eastern United States had a broad, spring maximum of NH3 (67% of hotspots in this cluster). The western United States, in contrast, showed a narrower mid-summer peak (32% of hotspots). IASI spatiotemporal clustering was consistent with those from the Ammonia Monitoring Network. CMAQ and GFDL-AM3 modeled NH3 columns have some success replicating the seasonal patterns but did not capture the regional differences. The high spatial-resolution monthly NH3 maps serve as a constraint for model simulations and as a guide for the placement of future, ground-based network sites.
Type:
Dataset
Issue Date:
December 2020

35. Visual Analogy Extrapolation Challenge (VAEC)

Author(s):
Webb, Taylor; Dulberg, Zachary; Frankland, Steven; Petrov, Alexander; O'Reilly, Randall; Cohen, Jonathan
Abstract:
Extrapolation -- the ability to make inferences that go beyond the scope of one's experiences -- is a hallmark of human intelligence. By contrast, the generalization exhibited by contemporary neural network algorithms is largely limited to interpolation between data points in their training corpora. In this paper, we consider the challenge of learning representations that support extrapolation. We introduce a novel visual analogy benchmark that allows the graded evaluation of extrapolation as a function of distance from the convex domain defined by the training data. We also introduce a simple technique, context normalization, that encourages representations that emphasize the relations between objects. We find that this technique enables a significant improvement in the ability to extrapolate, considerably outperforming a number of competitive techniques.
Type:
Dataset and Image
Issue Date:
2020

37. Lower Hybrid Drift Waves During Guide Field Reconnection

Author(s):
Yoo, Jongsoo; Ji, Jeong-Young; Ambat, M.V.; Wang, Shan; Ji, Hantao; Lo, Jenson; Li, Bowen; Ren, Yang; Jara-Almonte, J.; Fox, William; Yamada, Masaaki; Alt, Andrew; Goodman, Aaron
Type:
Dataset
Issue Date:
2020