High correlations between plant clonality and ecosystem service functions after management in a chronosequence of evergreen conifer plantations

IntroductionClimate change and mono-afforestation or mono-reforestation have continuously caused a decline in biodiversity and ecosystem services on forest plantations. Key plant functional traits in forests or plantations may affect ecosystem functions after forest management practices. Plant clonality, a key functional trait, frequently links to biodiversity and ecosystem functions and affects the biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationship. However, little is known about how plant clonality affects ecosystem functions and services of plantations after forest management.MethodsWe conducted a field experiment to discuss the diversity and proportion of clonal plants, plant diversity of the communities, and ecosystem service functions and their relationships under 10 years of close-to-nature (CTN) management, artificial gap management, and control (i.e., without management) in the three stages of C. Lanceolata plantations.ResultsOur results showed that CTN and gap management modes significantly facilitated diversity of clonal plants, plant diversity of the communities, and parameters of ecosystem service functions in C. lanceolata plantations. Moreover, CTN management promoted plant community diversity, soil water conservation, and carbon storage the most in the earlier stand stages. Diversity of clonal plants was significantly positively correlated with ecosystem service functions after forest management. Structural equation modeling analysis indicated that forest gap or CTN management indirectly positively affected ecosystem service functions through increasing diversity of clonal woody plants and plant diversity of the communities.ConclusionOur results indicate a highly positive effect of gap or CTN management on diversity and proportion of clonal plants and on plant diversity of the communities, which link to improvements in ecosystem service functions (i.e., water and soil conservation and carbon storage). The link between forest management, diversity, and ecosystem functions suggests that key functional traits or plant functional groups should be considered to underline the mechanism of traits–ecosystem functioning relationships and the restoration of degraded plantations

Transverse structural modulation in nematic SrAl4_4 and elucidation of its origin in the BaAl4_4 family of compounds

At ambient conditions SrAl$_4$ adopts the BaAl$_4$ structure type with space group $I4/mmm$. It undergoes a charge-density-wave (CDW) transition at $T_{CDW}$ = 243 K, followed by a structural transition at $T_{S}$ = 87 K. Temperature-dependent single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SXRD) leads to the observation of incommensurate superlattice reflections at $\mathbf{q} = \sigma\,\mathbf{c}^{*}$ with $\sigma = 0.1116$ at 200 K. The CDW has orthorhombic symmetry with the superspace group $Fmmm(0\,0\,\sigma)s00$, where $Fmmm$ is a subgroup of $I4/mmm$ of index 2. Atomic displacements represent a transverse wave, and they are mainly along one of the diagonal directions of the $I$-centered unit cell. The breaking of fourfold rotational symmetry is indicative of the presence of nematic order in the material. The orthorhombic phase realized in SrAl$_4$ is analogous to that found in EuAl$_4$, albeit with the presence of higher order satellite reflections (up to $m = 3$) and a shorter modulation wave vector. A possible non-trivial band topology has prevented the determination by density functional theory (DFT) of the mechanism of CDW formation. However, DFT reveals that Al atoms dominate the density of states near the Fermi level, thus, corroborating the SXRD measurements. SrAl$_4$ remains incommensurately modulated at the structural transition, where the symmetry lowers from orthorhombic to $\mathbf{b}$-unique monoclinic. We have identified a simple criterion, that correlates the presence of a phase transition with the interatomic distances. Only those compounds $X$Al$_{4-x}$Ga$_x$ ($X$ = Ba, Eu, Sr, Ca; $0 < x <4$) undergo phase transitions, for which the ratio $c/a$ falls within the narrow range $2.51 < c/a < 2.54$

A Preclinical Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Astragaloside IV for Myocardial Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury

Astragaloside IV (AS-IV), the major pharmacological extract from Astragalus membranaceus Bunge, possesses a variety of biological activities in the cardiovascular systems. Here, we aimed to evaluate preclinical evidence and possible mechanism of AS-IV for animal models of myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. Studies of AS-IV in animal models with myocardial I/R injury were identified from 6 databases from inception to May, 2018. The methodological quality was assessed by using CAMARADES 10-item checklist. All the data were analyzed using Rev-Man 5.3 software. As a result, 22 studies with 484 animals were identified. The quality score of studies ranged from 3 to 6 points. Meta-analyses showed AS-IV can significantly decrease the myocardial infarct size and left ventricular ejection fraction, and increase shortening fraction compared with control group (P &lt; 0.01). Significant decreasing of cardiac enzymes and cardiac troponin and increasing of decline degree in ST-segment were reported in one study each (P &lt; 0.05). Additionally, the possible mechanisms of AS-IV for myocardial I/R injury are promoting angiogenesis, improving the circulation, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptosis. Thus, AS-IV is a potential cardioprotective candidate for further clinical trials of myocardial infarction

Intravenous Injections of Human Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Modulated the Redox State in a Rat Model of Radiation Myelopathy

The main aim of the present study was to assess the antioxidative effects of human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stromal cells (UC-MSCs) in a rat model of radiation myelopathy. UC-MSCs were isolated from Wharton’s jelly (WJ) of umbilical cords. An irradiated cervical spinal cord rat model (C2-T2 segment) was generated using a 60Co irradiator to deliver 30 Gy of radiation. UC-MSCs were injected through the tail vein at 90 days, 97 days, 104 days, and 111 days after-irradiation. Histological damage was examined by cresyl violet/Nissl staining. The activities of two antioxidant enzymes catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) in the spinal cord were measured by the biomedical assay. In addition, the levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2) in the spinal cord were determined by ELISA methods. Multiple injections of UC-MSCs through the tail vein ameliorated neuronal damage in the spinal cord, increased the activities of the antioxidant enzymes CAT and GPX, and increased the levels of VEGF and Ang-2 in the spinal cord. Our results suggest that multiple injections of UC-MSCs via the tail vein in the rat model of radiation myelopathy could significantly improve the antioxidative microenvironment in vivo

Superconductivity emerged from density-wave order in a kagome bad metal

Unconventional superconductivity (USC) in a highly correlated kagome system has been theoretically proposed for years, yet the experimental realization is hard to achieve. The recently discovered vanadium-based kagome materials, which exhibit both superconductivity and charge density wave (CDW) orders, are nonmagnetic and weakly correlated, thus unlikely host USC as theories proposed. Here we report the discovery of a chromium-based kagome bad metal, CsCr$_3$Sb$_5$, which is contrastingly characterised by significant electron correlations and frustrated magnetism. Successive phase transitions at $\sim$54 K with stripe-like $4a_0$ structural modulations are observed, probably associated with CDW and antiferromagnetic spin-density-wave (SDW) orderings. Under moderately high pressures of 4-8 GPa, these density-wave orders are suppressed and, remarkably, superconductivity emerges with a maximum $T_\mathrm{c}$ of 6.4 K. A quantum critical point at $P_\mathrm{c}\approx$ 4 GPa is revealed, by which non-Fermi-liquid behaviours show up, reminiscent of USC in iron-based superconductors. The electronic structure calculations indicate that the electron filling is close to the characteristic flat bands of the kagome lattice. Our work offers an unprecedented platform for investigating the mechanism of USC in a correlated kagome system.Comment: 26 pages, 10 figure

Superconductivity and Charge-density-wave-like Transition in Th2Cu4As5

We report the synthesis, crystal structure, and physical properties of a novel ternary compound, Th$_2$Cu$_4$As$_5$. The material crystallizes in a tetragonal structure with lattice parameters $a=4.0716(1)$ {\AA} and $c=24.8131(4)$ {\AA}. Its structure can be described as an alternating stacking of fluorite-type Th$_2$As$_2$ layers with antifluorite-type double-layered Cu$_4$As$_3$ slabs. The measurement of electrical resistivity, magnetic susceptibility and specific heat reveals that Th$_2$Cu$_4$As$_5$ undergoes bulk superconducting transition at 4.2 K. Moreover, all these physical quantities exhibit anomalies at 48 K, where the Hall coefficient change the sign. These findings suggest a charge-density-wave-like (CDW) transition, making Th$_2$Cu$_4$As$_5$ a rare example for studying the interplay between CDW and superconductivity.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, and 1 tabl

Reemerging superconductivity at 48 K across quantum criticality in iron chalcogenides

Pressure plays an essential role in the induction1 and control2,3 of superconductivity in iron-based superconductors. Substitution of a smaller rare-earth ion for the bigger one to simulate the pressure effects has surprisingly raised the superconducting transition temperature Tc to the record high 55 K in these materials4,5. However, Tc always goes down after passing through a maximum at some pressure and the superconductivity eventually tends to disappear at sufficiently high pressures1-3. Here we show that the superconductivity can reemerge with a much higher Tc after its destruction upon compression from the ambient-condition value of around 31 K in newly discovered iron chalcogenide superconductors. We find that in the second superconducting phase the maximum Tc is as high as 48.7 K for K0.8Fe1.70Se2 and 48 K for (Tl0.6Rb0.4)Fe1.67Se2, setting the new Tc record in chalcogenide superconductors. The presence of the second superconducting phase is proposed to be related to pressure-induced quantum criticality. Our findings point to the potential route to the further achievement of high-Tc superconductivity in iron-based and other superconductors.Comment: 20 pages and 7 figure

A longitudinal resource for population neuroscience of school-age children and adolescents in China

During the past decade, cognitive neuroscience has been calling for population diversity to address the challenge of validity and generalizability, ushering in a new era of population neuroscience. The developing Chinese Color Nest Project (devCCNP, 2013–2022), the first ten-year stage of the lifespan CCNP (2013–2032), is a two-stages project focusing on brain-mind development. The project aims to create and share a large-scale, longitudinal and multimodal dataset of typically developing children and adolescents (ages 6.0–17.9 at enrolment) in the Chinese population. The devCCNP houses not only phenotypes measured by demographic, biophysical, psychological and behavioural, cognitive, affective, and ocular-tracking assessments but also neurotypes measured with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of brain morphometry, resting-state function, naturalistic viewing function and diffusion structure. This Data Descriptor introduces the first data release of devCCNP including a total of 864 visits from 479 participants. Herein, we provided details of the experimental design, sampling strategies, and technical validation of the devCCNP resource. We demonstrate and discuss the potential of a multicohort longitudinal design to depict normative brain growth curves from the perspective of developmental population neuroscience. The devCCNP resource is shared as part of the “Chinese Data-sharing Warehouse for In-vivo Imaging Brain” in the Chinese Color Nest Project (CCNP) – Lifespan Brain-Mind Development Data Community (https://ccnp.scidb.cn) at the Science Data Bank