Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Hydropower Development on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

The Qinghai–Tibet Plateau is rich in hydropower resources for China, and the development of these has an important impact on the sustainable development of the plateau. However, the research on the pattern and processes of hydropower development on the plateau is still lacking. Using both field investigation and collected data, we evaluated the density and intensity of hydropower development on the Tibetan Plateau over the past 40 years. The spatial and temporal patterns of hydropower development were analyzed by applying exploratory spatial data analysis methods to study the spatial aggregation of hydropower development on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau since 1980. The results show that: (1) Hydropower development on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau can be divided into four stages—(i) pre-1980, at the beginning of development, with a small number of power stations and a small installed capacity; (ii) the period from 1980 to 2005, which was dominated by small hydropower developments, and the number of hydropower stations increased seven-fold; (iii) the 2005–2014 period, which saw large-scale cascade development; and (iv) post-2014, when hydropower development mode changed from quantity-led to scale-led. (2) Significant differences in hydropower development areas on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau regarding the density and intensity of development from east to west are constantly decreasing. (3) The increase in hydropower development density in the past 40 years is mainly due to the increasing aggregation effect of hydropower development absorption in the eastern region (the aggregation effect of western counties has not been shown). (4) While low hydropower development intensity is found in most areas of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, attention must be given to river protection problems in the eastern high-intensity areas; failure to do so will increase the aggregation effect of hydropower development aggregation and, ultimately, affect the sustainable development of the regional development of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau

A comparison of traditional plant knowledge between Daman people and Tibetans in Gyirong River Valley, Tibet, China

Abstract Background By comparing the differences in plant use between various cultures or regions, we can gain a better understanding of traditional knowledge of plant use among different groups, which may lead to a more objective understanding. Even though the Tibetan and Daman people live in the same ecosystem in Gyirong town, China, their cultural backgrounds and livelihoods differ. Therefore, the objective of this study is to document the traditional knowledge of plant use among the Daman people and compare it with the local Tibetan knowledge of plant use. By doing so, we aim to explore the relationship between plant selection and use and the cultural backgrounds of different groups. Methods During fieldwork, ethnobotanical data were collected using various methods including free listings, key informant interviews, and semi-structured interviews. To quantify the importance of plant species in the Daman people’s culture, the culture importance index, informant consensus factor index, and The Index of Agreement on Species consensus (IASc) were used. In addition, we cited previous ethnobotanical survey data from the Tibetan in Gyirong. To more comprehensively compare the differences in plant use between the Daman and Tibetan, this study constructed a knowledge network to compare the knowledge differences between the two groups. Results In this study, traditional knowledge was collected from 32 Daman informants, resulting in a total of 68 species belonging to 39 families mentioned by Daman people and 111 species mentioned by Tibetans. Of these, 58 plants were used by both populations. The plants were classified into 3 categories and 28 subcategories, with 22 identical classes in both groups. The majority of use categories showed a high degree of sharing in both groups, and the Tibetan people had more plant use categories than the Daman people. Five plants with IASc value > 0.5 were identified in both groups: Rhododendron anthopogon D. Don, Artemisia japonica Thunb., Juniperus indica Bertol., Gastrodia elata Blume, and Rheum australe D. Don. The analysis of the knowledge network revealed a 66% overlap between the knowledge of the Daman and the knowledge of the Tibetans. Additionally, the plant knowledge of Tibetan people was found to be richer and more complex than that of the Daman people. However, the Daman people possess 30 unique knowledge items. Conclusions From the perspective of plant use, the history of the Daman people's discrete migration on the border between China and Nepal allows them to retain their own knowledge of plant use. The status quo of joining Chinese nationality and settling in Gyirong town allows them to gradually integrate into the local Tibetan society. In summary, despite living in the same ecosystem and biodiversity background, the plant utilization of the Daman people and Tibetans still shows significant differences, which are due to their different cultural backgrounds and social status

Remote sensing of land surface parameters in the middle reaches of Yarlung Zangbo River and its two tributaries from AVHRR and MODIS data

The middle reaches of Yarlung Zangbo River (YR) and its two tributaries is a region in central Tibet Autonomous Region where the industrial and agricultural economy is most concentrative and developed. Remote sensing of land surface parameters has significant meaning for crop growth monitoring, crop yield assessment and disaster monitoring. It also has great theoretical importance for understanding energy and water cycle in local area and even for surrounding regions. In this paper, four scenes data in 2003 under nearly clear weather conditions are selected as the spring, summer, autumn and winter cases. Different algorithms for AVHRR and MODIS data will be applied to retrieve land surface temperature (LST), albedo, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), vegetation coverage, emissivity, and water vapour content, respectively. The derived LST, albedo are validated with field measurements and MODIS products. The estimations are in good agreement with in-situ measurements, with MODIS retrievals being slightly better than those of AVHRR. This means that the adopted remote sensing retrieval algorithms are not only applicable but also simple for the study area. As called the "water vapour inflow corridor", the valleys of YR and its two tributaries are proved to have higher LST and larger atmospheric water vapour content. Spatiotemporal variations of land surface parameters in the middle reaches of YR and its two tributaries can also be clearly identified

Expression of H3K27me3 in Tibetan Patients with Gastric Cancer and Its Significance

Objective  To investigate the expression and its significance of H3K27me3 in Tibetan patients with gastric cancer.  Methods  Clinical and pathological data were retrospectively collected from Tibetan patients with gastric cancer in the Tibet Autonomous Region People's Hospital from August 2019 to August 2021 and Tibetan non-gastric cancer patients during the same period. The expression of H3K27me3 in gastric cancer tissues, corresponding adjacent normal gastric mucosa and normal gastric mucosa of Tibetan patients with non-gastric cancer tissues was detected by immunohistochemical method, and the differences of H3K27me3 expression between gastric cancer patients with different clinical and pathological characteristics was compared.  Results  A total of 54 Tibetan gastric cancer patients and 55 Tibetan non-gastric cancer patients who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were enrolled. H3K27me3 was localized in the nucleus, and the nucleus showed brownish-yellow granular staining when positively expressed. The high expression rate of H3K27me3 in gastric cancer tissues was significantly higher than that in adjacent normal gastric mucosa tissue[64.8%(35/54) vs. 29.6%(16/54), P < 0.001]and normal gastric mucosal tissue of Tibetan patients with non-gastric cancer[64.8%(35/54) vs. 34.5%(19/55), P=0.002], and the high expression rate of H3K27me3 in the adjacent normal gastric mucosa tissue was not significantly different from that in normal gastric mucosal tissue of Tibetan patients with non-gastric cancer(P=0.683). H3K27me3 expression in gastric cancer tissues was not related to gender, age, degree of differentiation, depth of invasion, maximum tumor size, Lauren's classification, lymph node metastasis, vascular and nerve invasion and TNM stage.  Conclusions  H3K27me3 is highly expressed in gastric cancer tissues of Tibetan people in Tibet. There is no significant difference in H3K27me3 positive expression cells in adjacent tissues and normal gastric mucosa. The significance of H3K27me3 in Tibetan patients with gastric cancer is uncertain and requires further investigations