Rapidly urbanizing megaregions are pivotal for achieving land-based climate-mitigation targets, yet the mechanisms governing their ecosystem carbon dynamics remain poorly understood. In this study, we quantify the spatiotemporal evolution of carbon storage in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), a globally recognized example of rapid coastal urbanization, and diagnose the drivers behind an emerging regional "carbon deficit". We couple a patch-generating land-use simulation (PLUS) model, a process-based carbon accounting model (InVEST-C), and interpretable machine learning (SHapley Additive exPlanations) to (i) reconstruct land-use and carbon changes from 2000 to 2020 and (ii) project carbon trajectories under three contrasting development pathways to 2030. Total ecosystem carbon storage decreased from 5.45 & times; 108 Mg in 2000 to 5.11 & times; 108 Mg in 2020, with the loss rate during 2010-2020 being 18 times higher than during 2000-2010, coinciding with the phase of megaregional integration. Scenario analysis shows that a business-as-usual "natural development" pathway, which extends 2010-2020 land-use trends without additional policy constraints, would lead to a further loss of 2.79 & times; 107Mg by 2030. In contrast, a policy-driven sustainable development pathway, which constrains construction-land expansion through urban growth boundaries and ecological conservation redlines and actively promotes ecological restoration, could avoid more than 83% of this potential decline. SHAP-based interpretation reveals that topography provides the essential natural capital for carbon storage, whereas population pressure is the decisive driver of loss. We further identify a strong non-linear interaction in which the ecological cost of urban expansion is greatly amplified on steep, ecologically fragile slopes. Our findings provide a transferable framework for diagnosing carbon deficits in rapidly urbanizing megaregions and deliver spatially explicit evidence to support strict ecological conservation redlines (ECRs) and urban growth boundaries (UGBs) that reconcile urban development with climate and ecological resilience.

The Fuxin flora represents one of the most significant Early Cretaceous floras in China and provides important insights into regional palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironment. Cycadophytes, a major group of gymnosperms, were especially abundant and diverse during the Mesozoic and serve as important index fossils. In this study, we reinvestigate cycadophytes from the Fuxin flora based on 62 fossil leaf specimens collected from the Tiefa and Fuxin basins, Liaoning Province, China. These specimens are preserved as compressions, with some retaining cuticular details. Eight species were identified: Nilssoniopteris prynadae Samylina, Nilssoniopteris cf. didaoensis (Zheng et Zhang) Meng, Nilssoniopteris beyrichii (Schenk) Nathorst, Pterophyllum fuxinense Zheng et Zhang, Pterophyllum concinnum Heer, Nilssonia cf. grossinervis Prynada, Nilssonia sinensis Yabe et Oishi, and Nilssonia serotina Heer. A Jaccard similarity analysis was conducted to assess floristic similarities among nine Early Cretaceous floras. The results indicate that the Fuxin flora shares close similarities in cycadophyte composition with floras from northeastern China, including the Huolinhe, Shansong, and Hailar floras, but differs from coeval floras such as the Jiande flora in southern China, the Wealden flora in Europe, the Tetori flora in Japan, and the Potomac flora in North America. Based on combined macro- and micro-floral evidence, the Fuxin flora suggests that Liaoning Province experienced a humid, warm temperate climate with seasonal variations during the late Early Cretaceous.

Drought stress is a major environmental stress that impairs plant growth and development. The At14a‐like1 ( AFL1 ) gene encodes a stress‐induced membrane protein involved in endocytosis, signal transduction, and proline accumulation. The objective of the present study was to investigate biological functions and underlying mechanisms of AFL1 regulation of drought tolerance in a perennial grass species, creeping bentgrass ( Agrostis stolonifera ). AsAFL1 was cloned from creeping bentgrass, and its expression was induced by drought stress. Motif analysis showed that AsAFL1 has five epidermal growth factor structural domains and one β1‐integrin structural domain. Transient expression in tobacco epidermal cells indicated that AsAFL1 was localized at the plasma membrane. Overexpression of AsAFL1 in creeping bentgrass significantly enhanced drought tolerance, as manifested by significantly increased leaf relative water content, chlorophyll and proline contents but lower electrolyte leakage and malondialdehyde content. Comparative transcriptomic and weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA) revealed that AsAFL1 ‐mediated drought tolerance was related to transcriptional regulation of genes involved in phytohormone (abscisic acid, auxin, and strigolactone) biosynthesis and signaling, redox homeostasis, and biosynthesis of second metabolites (lignin, cutin, suberin and wax), as well as nutrient transport and mobilization.

The gut microbiota and its metabolites have been implicated in calcium oxalate (CaOx) nephrolithiasis, while the precise mechanism remains unclear. We report that the gut microbiota dysbiosis in patients with CaOx nephrolithiasis results in an elevated level of deoxycholic acid (DCA) and diminished presence of Faecalibacterium prausnitzii. DCA correlates positively with urinary oxalate excretion and stone burden and inversely with F. prausnitzii abundance. Administration of F. prausnitzii to high-oxalate-diet mice alleviates renal CaOx crystal deposition by reducing DCA and secondary bile acid production. DCA impairs intestinal oxalate catabolism, enhances CaOx crystal adhesion to renal tubular epithelial cells via Hsp90α upregulation, activates the Hsp90α/Nrf2/HO-1 pathway, and induces Gpx4 degradation by Hsp90α interaction and ubiquitination, resulting in ferrous ion accumulation, lipid peroxidation, and ferroptosis to facilitate renal injury and CaOx crystal deposition. These data highlight the important role of gut microbiota-bile acid crosstalk in the pathogenesis of CaOx nephrolithiasis.

Tsuga (hemlock) is a small genus of 10 extant species in the Pinaceae, with a disjunct distribution in East Asia and eastern and western North America. Reliable species-level identification of Tsuga fossils depends on the discovery of seed cones with intact bracts, but such cones are rare in the fossil record. Here we describe a new fossil species of hemlock as T. weichangensis sp. nov. based on exquisitely preserved seed cones with nearly complete bracts from the Lower Miocene of Weichang, Hebei Province, North China. This fossil species displays a mosaic of characters between Tsuga and Nothotsuga. The well-developed and slightly exserted bract scales of T. weichangensis are reminiscent of Nothotsuga, but other characters, such as nonleaved peduncles and tongue-shaped bract scales, in addition to monosaccate pollen found at the same fossil locality, suggest an affinity closer to Tsuga. Cladistic analysis based on 15 morphological characters and a molecular backbone constraint supports the assignment of these fossil cones to Tsuga rather than Nothotsuga, and places the fossil species of T. weichangensis in an unresolved polytomy within the genus Tsuga. The occurrence of Tsuga seed cone fossils indicate the paleoclimate in the Miocene of Weichang was warmer and more humid than today's climate, which is consistent with the paleoclimate reconstructed by paleopalynology.

Yunnan province, known as a hot spot of plant diversity, is located in Southwest China and on the southeastern margin of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Today, there are four families, 21 genera and 56 species of conifers found in Yunnan. Three families, 15 genera and 44 species of fossil conifers have been reported from the Cenozoic in Yunnan. In this study, we investigated the fossil conifers from the Cenozoic in Yunnan and their corresponding living species and evaluated the distribution and climatic conditions of the extant genera. Based on this analysis, paleoclimates of the fossils were reconstructed to determine the migration patterns of these conifers in response to climatic changes caused by the uplift of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Our analyses show that the cooling trend led to a southward expansion and migration of conifers to warm and humid climate areas since the early Oligocene. In addition, the drought tendency led to the disappearance of certain conifer species from Yunnan, and the strengthening monsoon climate resulted in the migration of conifers eastward to eastern China or coastal areas, westward to western Yunnan, southeast Tibet and northern Myanmar and northward to dry and cold North China and North Korea. Likely adaptive morphological changes also occurred among the conifer species. The study also revealed that the diversity and composition of conifers in Yunnan have changed significantly since the early Oligocene with the uplift of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and climatic changes and that the extant lineages of Yunnan conifers appeared in the late Miocene.

Antibiotic resistance is a global threat. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are highly desirable to treat multidrug-resistant pathogen infection. However, few AMPs are clinically available, due to high cost, instability, and poor selectivity. Here, ultrashort AMPs (2-3 residues with an N-terminal cysteine) are designed and assembled as gold nanoparticles. Au-S conjugation and ultrashort size restrict nonspecific reactions and peptide orientation, thus concentrating positively charged residues on the surface. The nanostructured assemblies enormously enhance antimicrobial abilities by 1000-6000-fold and stability. One representative (Au-Cys-Arg-NH2, Au_CR) shows selective antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus with 10 nM minimal inhibitory concentration. Au_CR has comparable or better in vivo antimicrobial potency than vancomycin and methicillin, with low propensity to induce resistance, little side effects, and high stability (17.5 h plasma half-life). Au_CR acts by inducing collapse of membrane potential and rupture of the bacterial membrane. The report provides insights for developing AMP-metal nanohybrids, particularly tethering nonspecific reactions and AMP orientation on the metal surface.

Nowadays, increasing Android applications attempt to obtain a large number of sensitive user information such as Contacts, SMS, Call logs, IMEI, IMSI without rational necessity, which has seriously threatened the privacy of users. However, the existing Android cannot effectively prevent the above risks. To solve this problem, this paper proposes a novel, user-driven sensitive information management model-UIDroid. UIDroid redefines the subject, object, definition of security level, legitimacy of operations, and system security status. With UIDroid, users could authorize the sub-functions of an application to access sensitive information with rational security levels based on essential requirements on the accuracy of the sensitive data. The prototype of UIDroid is developed to verify the feasibility of the UIDroid and compatibility with existing applications. Extensive experiments show that UIDroid can effectively prevent malicious applications from getting unnecessary sensitive user information with unnecessary accuracy. Meanwhile, the overall performance overhead introduced by UIDroid is less than 4.8%.

Increasing malicious applications abuse sensitive personal information beyond the expectations of users. Given strong concerns on private information leakage, it is urgent to prevent applications from abusing permissions that violate users' expectations. This paper proposes a novel dynamic authorization management framework based on users' expectations on the Android system-ExpectDroid. It automatically captures the contexts that cause applications to request sensitive permissions during the execution of the applications and presents the contexts to users in an easy well-understood manner. Users determine whether to grant permissions based on the contexts. ExpectDroid manages sensitive permissions dynamically according to users' expectations. The prototype is developed to verify the feasibility of the framework and the compatibility with existing applications. Extensive experiment results reveal that it can effectively prevent various applications from abusing sensitive permissions. Meanwhile, compared with the unmodified Android, the overhead introduced by ExpectDroid is less than 5.5%.

Abstract Background: Xiaoaiping injection, extracted from the Chinese herb Marsdenia tenacissima (Roxb.) Wight et Arn., is a broad-spectrum anti-tumor drug and has been widely used for the treatment of breast cancer in China. The aim of this study is to systematically investigate the efficacy and safety of Xiaoaiping injection for the treatment of breast cancer. Methods: We will perform the comprehensive literature search in the following databases from their inceptions to August 2020 for data extraction: PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Embase, the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Database, Chinese Science and Technology Periodical Database, and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database. Cochrane Risk of Bias tool will be used to assess the risk of bias of included studies. The RevMan 5.4 and Stata 16.0 software will be applied for statistical analyses. Statistical heterogeneity will be computed by I2 tests. Sensitivity analysis will be conducted to evaluate the stability of the results. The publication bias will be evaluated by funnel plots and Egger's test. The quality of evidence will be assessed by the GRADE system. Results: The results of our research will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. Conclusion: The conclusion of this study will provide evidence to show whether Xiaoaiping injection is an effective intervention for patient with breast cancer. OSF registration number: 10.17605/OSF.IO/4ZUXC

Background: Xiaoaiping injection, extracted from the Chinese herb Marsdenia tenacissima (Roxb.) Wight et Arn., is a broad-spectrum anti-tumor drug and has been widely used for the treatment of breast cancer in China. The aim of this study is to systematically investigate the efficacy and safety of Xiaoaiping injection for the treatment of breast cancer. Methods: We will perform the comprehensive literature search in the following databases from their inceptions to August 2020 for data extraction: PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Embase, the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Database, Chinese Science and Technology Periodical Database, and Chinese Biomedical Literature Database. Cochrane Risk of Bias tool will be used to assess the risk of bias of included studies. The RevMan 5.4 and Stata 16.0 software will be applied for statistical analyses. Statistical heterogeneity will be computed by I2 tests. Sensitivity analysis will be conducted to evaluate the stability of the results. The publication bias will be evaluated by funnel plots and Egger's test. The quality of evidence will be assessed by the GRADE system. Results: The results of our research will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. Conclusion: The conclusion of this study will provide evidence to show whether Xiaoaiping injection is an effective intervention for patient with breast cancer. OSF registration number: 10.17605/OSF.IO/4ZUXC

Adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) are widespread among vertebrates. AAVs isolated from bats display low capsid protein sequence identities (< 60%) to AAV2, AAV5, and other primate AAVs. Here we report the first capsid structure of a non-primate AAV which was isolated from bats. The capsid structure of BtAAV-10HB (10HB) was determined by cryo-electron microscopy and three-dimensional image reconstruction to 3.03 angstrom resolution. Comparison of empty and genome-containing capsids showed that the capsid structures are almost identical except for an ordered nucleotide in a previously described nucleotide-binding pocket, the density in the 5-fold channel, and several amino acids with altered side chain conformations. Compared to other dependoparvo-viruses, for example AAV2 and AAV5, 10HB displays unique structural features including insertions and deletions in capsid surface loops. Overall, the 10HB capsid structure superposes with an RMSD of 1.7 angstrom and 1.8 angstrom to AAV2 and AAV5, respectively. Currently all approved AAV human gene therapy biologics and vectors in clinical trials are based on primate isolates. However, pre-existing neutralizing antibodies in the human population represents a hurdle to their use. 10HB capsids are capable of packaging AAV2 vector genomes and thus have potential as gene delivery vectors. Significantly, a screen with human sera showed lack of recognition by the 10HB capsid. Thus, the different capsid surface of 10HB vectors likely renders it "invisible" to potential preexisting neutralizing human anti-AAV antibodies especially because this virus or similar variants do not exist in primate populations.

The prevalence of adeno-associated virus (AAV) has been investigated in bat populations, but little is known about the biological properties of this virus. In this study, four full-length bat AAV capsid genes were isolated in China, with their amino acid sequences sharing 61% identity with those of AAV2 on average. These capsid genes could package AAV particles in combination with AAV2 rep and ITRs, albeit at a lower efficiency. Bat AAVs could only slightly infect mouse liver but could transduce mouse muscle to some extent after systemic administration with a higher muscle/liver ratio than that of primate AAVs. Bat AAV 10HB showed moderate muscle transduction, similar to that of AAV2, during direct intramuscular injection and, compared with other AAV serotypes, was also relatively efficient in resisting human antibody neutralization after intramuscular injection. Evolutionary analysis revealed a number of codons in bat AAV capsid genes subject to positive selection, with sites corresponding to V259 and N691 in 10HB capsids being localized on the surface of the AAV2 capsid. Mutagenesis studies indicated that the positive selection in bat AAV capsids is driven by their tropism evolution in host species. Taken together, the results of this study indicate that bat AAV 10HB vector has the possible applications for muscular gene therapy, especially in the presence of human AAV neutralizing antibodies.

The estimation of wetland plant biomass is key to understanding the dynamic changes of the structure and functions of wetland ecosystems. Relatively few studies on the spatiotemporal dynamics of wetland plant biomass have been conducted because of the difficulties in obtaining detailed and accurate data. Carex cinerascens meadows are important patches in Poyang Lake in eastern China and provide significant food resources and habitats for wintering waterbirds, particularly geese. We proposed a method to estimate the biomass of C. cinerascens in a subsection of Poyang Lake, i.e. Baisha Lake, employing the digital elevation model and water level gradient of the lake combined with the logistic regression model based on data from field measurements in different elevations. We obtained four C. cinerascens biomass estimation models based on four elevations divided. The maximum biomass decreased with decreasing elevation. Meanwhile, the maximum growth rate initially increased and subsequently decreased. The biomass of C. cinerascens per unit area ranged from 0.10 to 0.58 kg/m2 in the autumn and winter. Significant differences in the growth process of C. cinerascens were observed in different water level gradients. The total biomass of C. cinerascens in Baisha Lake changed following an S-shaped curve and reached 221, 503, and 615 t in the middle of October, November, and December, respectively. The research results can be used to forecast the biomass of C. cinerascens under different hydrological conditions in Poyang Lake, and to provide wetland plant biomass estimation methods for other similar regions.

The problem of traditional 3D ECT (electrical capacitance tomography) system is serious, the inadaptability and the uneven distribution of the sensitivity field result in poor quality of image reconstruction. In order to improve these problems, on the basis of analyzing the single electrode excitation mode, a novel mode is presented, which is two-electrode excitation mode for non-same layer electrodes. The results of simulation show that the two-electrode excitation mode can increase the charge of detection electrode, facilitate the measurement of small signal, improve the uniformity of sensitive field distribution, reduce the artifacts of reconstructed image, and obtain better quality of reconstructed image.

From November 2016 to April 2017, the decomposition of Carex. cinerascens Kükenth litter along the natural gradients of groundwater level at Poyang Lake wetland beach were simulated using litterbag technique. The depth of the underground water table of the G-L was −25 to −50 cm, while those of G-ML, G-MH and G-H ranged from −15 to −25 cm, −5 to −15 cm, and −5 to 5, respectively. Additionally, the dry weight loss rate increased gradually with increasing days, with that of G-H being highest, followed by G-MH, G-ML and G-L. The decomposition rate of the four gradients increased rapidly to day 30, then decreased slowly until stabilizing. Additionally, the decomposition rate was highest in G-H, followed by G-MH, G-ML and G-L. The Olson negative exponential model could simulate the decomposition good and predicted the time required for 50% decomposition of the G-H, G-MH, G-ML and G-L gradients was about 166, 197, 205 and 247 days, respectively, while required for 95% was about 1.97, 2.23, 2.43 and 2.92 years, respectively. The overall trend in the relative return index of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus increased with increasing decomposition days, and the order was G-H > G-MH > G-ML > G-L. Differences in soil pH, bulk density, soil total nitrogen, soil organic matter, microbial biomass carbon and soil sand content in the decomposed environment due to groundwater had a significant impact on decomposition and nutrient release. The relative return index of carbon was significantly positively correlated with soil pH, but significantly negatively correlated with soil bulk density, soil nitrogen content, microbial biomass nitrogen and soil organic matter. The above results show that groundwater is the key factor influencing litter decomposition in Poyang Lake wetland during the dry season, with higher groundwater levels promoting the decomposition.

Head pose is an important indicator of driving attention detection. During driving, head pose, including head position and head movement, can infer the driver's attention. This paper presents a novel method for collecting driver's head pose information using a built-in accelerometer and gyroscope head-mounted inertial sensor. In our experimental study, we designed 10 scenes that are easy to distract from driving. And five subjects were asked to wear a head-mounted inertial sensor to drive the driving simulator. This driving simulator is equipped with real driving conditions such as brakes, steering wheels, accelerators and so on. While driving, subjects need to complete the designed driving scene in order. Subsequently,We perform pre-processing such as Savitzky-Golay filtering and windowing on data collected by inertial sensors with built-in accelerometers and gyroscopes. The time domain and frequency domain features of the data are then extracted in the corresponding window. Finally, we designed a random forest model to detect driving attention. Our simulation experiments show that our proposed method of collecting data using the built-in accelerometer and gyroscope's head-mounted sensor can achieve higher precision, recall and F1(score).

Revegetation is an effective measure for preventing land degradation and for mitigating climate change by reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. However, vegetation cover is also generally considered to be a cause of a dried soil layer in drylands. The trade-off between soil water storage and soil carbon sequestration along a precipitation gradient in dryland ecosystems is well known, but the contributions of revegetation measures on the variations in the trade-off between carbon sequestration and soil water resource maintenance in soil profiles are often ignored. In this study, the trade-off and synergy between soil moisture content (SMC) maintenance and soil organic carbon (SOC) improvement in soil profiles on a semiarid hillslope are investigated in the context of revegetation choices. Three revegetation choices were selected for the comparative analysis: (a) afforestation using single tree species (Robinia pseudoacacia); (b) mixed tree species (R. pseudoacacia and Hippophae rhamnoides Linn); and (c) a mosaic of single tree bands (R. pseudoacacia, Armeniaca vulgaris, and H. rhamnoides Linn). Our results reveal a shift of synergy to trade-off at a depth of around 10–30 cm and a weakened trade-off between the middle (30–40 cm) and deep soil layers. For afforestation using a single tree species, there is a trade-off between SOC improvement and SMC promotion, as indicated by a negative correlation between the relative benefit of SOC and the relative benefit of SMC. For revegetation using mixed tree species and a mosaic of tree bands, positive correlations appeared. We draw two conclusions from these results: first, a shift in the trade-off and synergy between SMC maintenance and SOC improvement exists in soil profiles after revegetation on this semiarid hillslope; second, revegetation choices matter when reconciling the trade-off between SMC maintenance and SOC improvement. Revegetation with a single tree species (R. pseudoacacia) is not a good choice. When discussing the trade-off between carbon sequestration and soil water resource conservation in water-limited regions, more attention should be paid to site-level mechanisms and revegetation choices.

于2017年1月-2017年6月采用分解袋技术和鸟粪添加试验研究了鄱阳湖湿地植食性越冬水鸟粪便和典型洲滩湿地植物薹草枯落物分解过程中碳、氮、磷释放动态的差异性以及植食性越冬水鸟粪便的加入对鄱阳湖湿地薹草分解过程的影响.结果表明,不同分解时间内薹草枯落物、薹草+鸟粪中薹草枯落物和鸟粪3种样品的干物质损失率和分解速率的差异性都十分显著,其数值都表现为薹草+鸟粪中薹草样品＞薹草枯落物样品＞鸟粪样品.鸟粪的加入显著加速了薹草分解进程,使其平均分解速率提升了约21.23%. Olson负指数模型模拟预测显示,薹草+鸟粪中薹草、薹草枯落物和鸟粪样品分解完成50%所需的时间依次为259、314和355天,分解完成95%所需的时间大约依次约为3.1、3.7和4.2年. 3种样品碳、氮、磷都表现为净释放模式,其相对回归指数之间差异性也显著.碳相对归还指数都表现为薹草+鸟粪中薹草＞薹草枯落物＞鸟粪,氮相对归还指数和磷相对归还指数值都表现为鸟粪＞薹草+鸟粪中薹草＞薹草枯落物.本研究推测鸟粪添加给分解环境带来额外的营养物质,使分解者微生物的数量、种类、活性增加以及鸟粪刺激产生了一系列降解酶,如木质素酶、纤维素酶、蔗糖酶等,胞外酶数量和活性增加,是鸟粪促进薹草分解的关键因素,而样品中初始养分含量以及分解过程碳、氮、磷化学计量比的变化是造成其分解速率和养分释放差异显著的主要原因.

Fire causes disturbance of wetland ecosystems and has a major influence on soil microbial communities, plant growth and ecosystem function. However, the impact of fire disturbance on soil microbial metabolism and its relationship with plant growth remains poorly understood. Burned zones, unburned zones and transition zones with low intensity fire were surveyed in an area dominated by Carex brevicuspis communities. Results show a significant difference in soil properties, microbial biomasses, microbial carbon utilization pattern and plant growth in different zones. The lowest average value of soil carbon content, nitrogen content and moisture occurred in burned zones, while the highest occurred in unburned zones. Furthermore, soil microbes under burned zones had the highest biomasses, average well color development value and richness index. Plant growth decreased in the following order: burned > transition > unburned zones. Redundancy analysis indicated that this variation can be explained mostly by the difference of carbon utilization patterns of soil microbes. Correlation and regression analyses show that soil microbial metabolism had a significant correlation with the plant growth variables tested in this study. Overall, our results suggest that fire changes the soil microenvironment and further changes the soil microbial metabolic patterns and plant growth in the Lake Poyang wetland.