Male Populus cathayana than female shows higher photosynthesis and less cellular injury through ABA-induced manganese transporting inhibition under high manganese condition

High Mn poisoned male and female Populus cathayana. The toxicity could be alleviated by exogenous ABA application. Intriguingly, ABA granted higher resistance to males than to females under high Mn stress because ABA could induce more blocking of Mn translocation to leaf in males than in females. Abscisic acid (ABA) is involved in plants' adaptive responses to various environmental stresses. However, little is known about the sex-related detoxification of ABA in plants under excess manganese (Mn) conditions. To reveal potentially different ABA detoxification mechanisms between Populus cathayana males and females against excess Mn exposure, photosynthesis performance, Mn2+ concentrations and morphologic changes were investigated. High Mn stress led to a more severe chloroplast destruction and, thus, greater reduction in the photosynthesis of P. cathayana females when compared to males. Under high Mn conditions, Mn reallocated mainly to leaves in females, while in males, it was distributed equally to roots and leaves. With the application of ABA, photosynthesis was restored more in males and more integrated grana in males than in females. It should be noted that Mn concentrations in males were lower in leaves and higher in roots and stems than those in females when treated with the combination of Mn and ABA. Conclusively, due to the reduction of root-shoot Mn transportation induced by ABA in P. cathayana males, males experienced less physiological injuries than do females, which suggest that males possess greater ABA-inducible resistance to Mn stress than do females.Peer reviewe

A Global Analysis of the Relationship Between Urbanization and Fatalities in Earthquake-Prone Areas

Urbanization can be a challenge and an opportunity for earthquake risk mitigation. However, little is known about the changes in exposure (for example, population and urban land) to earthquakes in the context of global urbanization, and their impacts on fatalities in earthquake-prone areas. We present a global analysis of the changes in population size and urban land area in earthquake-prone areas from 1990 to 2015, and their impacts on earthquake-related fatalities. We found that more than two thirds of population growth (or 70% of total population in 2015) and nearly three quarters of earthquake-related deaths (or 307,918 deaths) in global earthquake-prone areas occurred in developing countries with an urbanization ratio (percentage of urban population to total population) between 20 and 60%. Holding other factors constant, population size was significantly and positively associated with earthquake fatalities, while the area of urban land was negatively related. The results suggest that fatalities increase for areas where the urbanization ratio is low, but after a ratio between 40 and 50% occurs, earthquake fatalities decline. This finding suggests that the resistance of building and infrastructure is greater in countries with higher urbanization ratios and highlights the need for further investigation. Our quantitative analysis is extended into the future using Shared Socioeconomic Pathways to reveal that by 2050, more than 50% of the population increase in global earthquake-prone areas will take place in a few developing countries (Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh) that are particularly vulnerable to earthquakes. To reduce earthquake-induced fatalities, enhanced resilience of buildings and urban infrastructure generally in these few countries should be a priority

Clinical comparison of percutaneous transforaminal endoscopic discectomy and unilateral biportal endoscopic discectomy for single-level lumbar disc herniation

PurposeTo compare the clinical outcomes of percutaneous transforaminal endoscopic discectomy (PTED) and unilateral biportal endoscopic discectomy (UBE) for the treatment of single-level lumbar disc herniation (LDH).Materials and methodsFrom January 2020 to November 2021, 62 patients with single-level LDH were retrospectively reviewed. All patients underwent spinal surgeries at the Affiliated Hospital of Chengde Medical University and Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University. Among them, 30 patients were treated with UBE, and 32 were treated with PTED. The patients were followed up for at least one year. Patient demographics and perioperative outcomes were reviewed before and after surgery. The Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), visual analog scale (VAS) for back pain and leg pain, and modified MacNab criteria were used to evaluate the clinical outcomes. x-ray examinations were performed one year after surgery to assess the stability of the lumbar spine.ResultsThe mean ages in the UBE and PTED groups were 46.7 years and 48.0 years, respectively. Compared to the UBE group, the PTED group had better VAS scores for back pain at 1 and 7 days after surgery (3.06 ± 0.80 vs. 4.03 ± 0.81, P < 0.05; 2.81 ± 0.60 vs. 3.70 ± 0.79, P < 0.05). The UBE and PTED groups demonstrated significant improvements in the VAS score for leg pain and ODI score, and no significant differences were found between the groups at any time after the first month (P > 0.05). Although the good-to-excellent rate of the modified MacNab criteria in the UBE group was similar to that in the PTED group (86.7% vs. 87.5%, P > 0.05), PTED was advantageous in terms of the operation time, estimated blood loss, incision length, and length of postoperative hospital stay.ConclusionsBoth UBE and PTED have favorable outcomes in patients with single-level LDH. However, PTED is superior to UBE in terms of short-term postoperative back pain relief and perioperative quality of life

Solvothermal synthesis and thermoelectric properties of indium telluride nanostring-cluster hierarchical structures

A simple solvothermal approach has been developed to successfully synthesize n-type α-In2Te3 thermoelectric nanomaterials. The nanostring-cluster hierarchical structures were prepared using In(NO3)3 and Na2TeO3 as the reactants in a mixed solvent of ethylenediamine and ethylene glycol at 200°C for 24 h. A diffusion-limited reaction mechanism was proposed to explain the formation of the hierarchical structures. The Seebeck coefficient of the bulk pellet pressed by the obtained samples exhibits 43% enhancement over that of the corresponding thin film at room temperature. The electrical conductivity of the bulk pellet is one to four orders of magnitude higher than that of the corresponding thin film or p-type bulk sample. The synthetic route can be applied to obtain other low-dimensional semiconducting telluride nanostructures

Urban Land Extraction Using VIIRS Nighttime Light Data: An Evaluation of Three Popular Methods

Timely and accurate extraction of urban land area using the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) nighttime light data is important for urban studies. However, a comprehensive assessment of the existing methods for extracting urban land using VIIRS nighttime light data remains inadequate. Therefore, we first reviewed the relevant methods and selected three popular methods for extracting urban land area using nighttime light data. These methods included local-optimized thresholding (LOT), vegetation-adjusted nighttime light urban index (VANUI), integrated nighttime lights, normalized difference vegetation index, and land surface temperature support vector machine classification (INNL-SVM). Then, we assessed the performance of these methods for extracting urban land area based on the VIIRS nighttime light data in seven evaluation areas with various natural and socioeconomic conditions in China. We found that INNL-SVM had the best performance with an average kappa of 0.80, which was 6.67% higher than the LOT and 2.56% higher than the VANUI. The superior performance of INNL-SVM was mainly attributed to the integration of information on nighttime light, vegetation cover, and land surface temperature. This integration effectively reduced the commission and omission errors arising from the overflow effect and low light brightness of the VIIRS nighttime light data. Additionally, INNL-SVM can extract urban land area more easily. Thus, we suggest that INNL-SVM has great potential for effectively extracting urban land with VIIRS nighttime light data at large scales

How Did Urban Land Expand in China between 1992 and 2015? A Multi-Scale Landscape Analysis.

Effective and timely quantification of the spatiotemporal pattern of urban expansion in China is important for the assessment of its environmental effects. However, the dynamics of the most recent urban expansions in China since 2012 have not yet been adequately explained due to a lack of current information. In this paper, our objective was to quantify spatiotemporal patterns of urban expansion in China between 1992 and 2015. First, we extracted information on urban expansion in China between 1992 and 2015 by integrating nighttime light data, vegetation index data, and land surface temperature data. Then we analyzed the spatiotemporal patterns of urban expansion at the national and regional scales, as well as at that of urban agglomerations. We found that China experienced a rapid and large-scale process of urban expansion between 1992 and 2015, with urban land increasing from 1.22 × 104 km2 to 7.29 × 104 km2, increasing in size nearly fivefold and with an average annual growth rate of 8.10%, almost 2.5 times as rapid as the global average. We also found that urban land in China expanded mainly by occupying 3.31 × 104 km2 of cropland, which comprised 54.67% of the total area of expanded urban land. Among the three modes of growth-infilling, edge expansion, and leapfrog-edge expansion was the main cause of cropland loss. Cropland loss resulting from edge expansion of urban land totalled 2.51 × 104 km2, accounting for over 75% of total cropland loss. We suggest that effective future management with respect to edge expansion of urban land is needed to protect cropland in China

Rapid Urban Land Expansion in Earthquake-Prone Areas of China

Abstract A timely understanding of urban expansion in earthquake-prone areas is crucial for earthquake risk assessment and urban planning for earthquake mitigation. However, a comprehensive evaluation of urban expansion in earthquake-prone areas is lacking in China, especially in the context of rapid urbanization. Based on time series urban land data and seismic ground-motion parameter zonation maps, this study analyzed urban expansion in the most seismically hazardous areas (MSHAs) of China from 1992 to 2015 on the national, regional, and city scales. The results show that urban land area in the MSHAs expanded by 6767 km2 from 1992 to 2015, with a gain of 350%. Specifically, the increase in urban land area of small cities in the MSHAs of western China during this period was the fastest, 6.24 times greater than that at the national level. In terms of spatial patterns, the urban land patches in the MSHAs in 2015 were more fragmented than those in 1992 on all scales. The percentage of change in the number of patches and the landscape shape index of the urban land patches of small cities in the MSHAs of western China were the highest across all cities. Therefore, we believe that special attention should be paid to the cities in the MSHAs that exhibit the most rapid increases in both urban land area and fragmentation, especially the small cities in western China. It is imperative to integrate earthquake mitigation into the urban planning of these cities

The population in China’s earthquake-prone areas has increased by over 32 million along with rapid urbanization

Accurate assessments of the population exposed to seismic hazard are crucial in seismic risk mapping. Recent rapid urbanization in China has resulted in substantial changes in the size and structure of the population exposed to seismic hazard. Using the latest population census data and seismic maps, this work investigated spatiotemporal changes in the exposure of the population in the most seismically hazardous areas (MSHAs) in China from 1990 to 2010. In the context of rapid urbanization and massive rural-to-urban migration, nearly one-tenth of the Chinese population in 2010 lived in MSHAs. From 1990 to 2010, the MSHA population increased by 32.53 million at a significantly higher rate of change (33.6%) than the national average rate (17.7%). The elderly population in MSHAs increased by 81.4%, which is much higher than the group’s national growth rate of 58.9%. Greater attention should be paid to the demographic changes in earthquake-prone areas in China

timed modeling and verification of bpel processes using time petri nets

Software Engineering Society of Korean; Institute for Information Scientists and Engineers; IEEE Reliability Society; KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology); Korea Information Promotion Agency; Samsung SDSThe execution time, an important criterion to measure the quality of a BPEL process, can be influenced by some slow external partner services (i.e., some long-running services). Therefore, it is desirable to specify response time of services into the SLAs (service level agreements). In this way, service consumers could verify whether the candidate services satisfy the expected time requirements before they are invoked. However, existing solutions are time-consuming especially when the BPEL process is quite complex (e.g., involving parallel structures and loops) and the number of candidate services is huge. To address this problem, in this paper, we propose a time Petri nets-based verification approach that efficiently verifies time requirements for a BPEL process. This allows service consumers to quickly identify suitable partner services that satisfy the time requirements at service looking up stage. © 2009 IEEE

Evaluation of immunofluorescence cytochemical staining and laser-scanning confocal microscopy in the diagnosis of meningeal carcinomatosis

Objective To explore the value of combination of immunofluorescence cytochemical staining (ICS) and laser-scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM) in the diagnosis of meningeal carcinomatosis. Methods ICS and LSCM were used to detect the cellular distribution and quantity of epithelial membrane antigen (EMA) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cells of patients with meningeal carcinomatosis (MC group) and controls (control group). Results The EMA was expressed with red fluorescence in the cytoplasm of meningeal carcinomatosis cells. The mean fluorescent intensity of cellular EMA in meningeal carcinomatosis cells of CSF in MC group (44.84 ± 13.05) was significantly higher than the cells of CSF in control group (3.98 ± 1.58; t = 43.954, P = 0.001). The positive rate of routine cerebrospinal fluid cytologic examination (May-Grunwal-Giemsa staining) and EMA immunofluorescence examination combined LSCM was 60% (12/20) and 90% (18/20), respectively, the difference was significant ( χ 2 = 4.800, P = 0.010). Conclusion The combination of immunofluorescence cytochemical staining and LSCM for the detection of EMA expression changes in cells of CSF is useful for the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of meningeal carcinomatosis. DOI：10.3969/j.issn.1672-6731.2011.05.01