Recovery of woody plant species richness in secondary forests in China: A meta-analysis

There is considerable uncertainty concerning changes in plant diversity of Chinese secondary forests, particularly with respect to diversity recovery following anthropogenic disturbance. Here we present a meta-analysis of the recovery of woody plant species richness in secondary forests in China, with nearby primary forests as a reference. A total of 125 pairs of secondary-primary forest data reported in 55 publications were identified across China. We analyzed the data by region and logging history to examine their influences on secondary forest recovery. Our results indicated that the woody plant richness of secondary forests in China was close to fully recovered when compared to the primary forest, with the recovery ratio being 85–103%. Higher recovery ratios were observed in central, northeast and southwest China, with lower recovery ratios seen in east, south and northwest China, and the recovery in central China significantly reached the primary forests (reference) level. Concerning logging histories, the recovery ratios showed two peak values, with one at 21–40 years after clear cutting and the other at 61–80 years. We reveal the fundamental recovery patterns of woody plant species richness in secondary forests in China. These patterns provide information for the sustainable management of secondary forest resources

Effect of herbal formula Xiao Pi-II on functional dyspepsia

AbstractObjectiveTo investigate the therapeutic effect of the herbal medication Xiao Pi-II on the symptoms and gastric motility of patients with functional dysepsia (FD).MethodsA total of 180 FD patients were divided randomly and equally into Xiao Pi-II and mosapride groups. The two groups were treated with Xiao Pi-II (100 mL, t.d.s., ante cibum) and mosapride (5 mg, t. d.s., ante cibum) for 2 weeks. Before treatment and 3 days after all medication was stopped, patients responded to a questionnaire evaluating gastrointestinal symptoms and were assessed with abdominal three dimensional ultrasonography (3D-US) for gastric motility.ResultsGastrointestinal symptoms (especially bloating, post-prandial fullness and eructation) were improved significantly in FD patients treated with Xiao Pi-II (P<0.05, P<0.05, and P<0.05), but no significant difference was found in the mosapride group (P>0.05). The effective rates in the Xiao Pi-II and mosapride group were 86.7% and 60.0%, respectively (P<0.05). The gastric liquid emptying rate (GLER) in the Xiao Pi-II group showed a significant increase (P<0.01) after 2 weeks of treatment but there was no significant change (P>0.05) of GLER in the mosapride group.ConclusionCompared with mosapride, Xiao Pi-II improved symptoms and GLER significantly in FD patients with delayed gastric emptying

Kinetic study of goethite dehydration and the effect of aluminium substitution on the dehydrate

Goethite and Al-substituted goethite were synthesized and were characterized using XRD and XRF. The kinetic study of goethite dehydrate was investigated by TG and DTG at different heating rates (2, 5, 10, 15, 20 ◦C/min) and the effect of Al substitution for Fe on dehydrate was studied. The results showed that two types of absorbed water with the same Ed values of 3.4, 6.2 kJ/mol were confirmed on goethite and Alsubstituted goethite. Three types of hydroxyl units were proved, one being on the surface and the other two being in the structure of goethite. The substitution of Al for Fe in the structure of goethite decreases the desorption rate of hydroxyl, increases the dehydroxylation temperature, broadens the desorption peaks in DTG curves, and improves the Ed values from 19.4, 20.4, 26.1 kJ/mol to 21.6, 30, 33.6 kJ/mol when Al substitution comes to 9.1%

Effect of preparation method of palygorskite-supported Fe and Ni catalysts on catalytic cracking of biomass tar

In this study, the effect of catalyst preparation and additive precursors on the catalytic decomposition of biomass using palygorskite-supported Fe and Ni catalysts was investigated. The catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). It is concluded that the most active additive precursor was Fe(NO3)3·9H2O. As for the catalyst preparation method, co-precipitation had superiority over incipient wetness impregnation at low Fe loadings

Main ecological drivers of woody plant species richness recovery in secondary forests in China

Identifying drivers behind biodiversity recovery is critical to promote efficient ecological restoration. Yet to date, for secondary forests in China there is a considerable uncertainty concerning the ecological drivers that affect plant diversity recovery. Following up on a previous published meta-analysis on the patterns of species recovery across the country, here we further incorporate data on the logging history, climate, forest landscape and forest attribute to conduct a nationwide analysis of the main drivers influencing the recovery of woody plant species richness in secondary forests. Results showed that regional species pool exerted a positive effect on the recovery ratio of species richness and this effect was stronger in selective cutting forests than that in clear cutting forests. We also found that temperature had a negative effect, and the shape complexity of forest patches as well as the percentage of forest cover in the landscape had positive effects on the recovery ratio of species richness. Our study provides basic information on recovery and resilience analyses of secondary forests in China

Zeolite structure determination using genetic algorithms and geometry optimisation

[EN] The recently presented software zeoGAsolver is discussed, which is based on genetic algorithms, with domain-dependent crossover and selection operators that maintain the size of the population in successive iterations while improving the average fitness. Using the density, cell parameters, and symmetry (or candidate symmetries) of a zeolite sample whose resolution can not be achieved by analysis of the XRD (X-ray diffraction) data, the software attempts to locate the coordinates of the T-atoms of the zeolite unit cell employing a function of fitness' (F), which is defined through the different contributions to the penalties' (P) as F = 1/(1 + P). While testing the software to find known zeolites such as LTA (zeolite A), AEI (SSZ-39), ITW (ITQ-12) and others, the algorithm has found not only most of the target zeolites but also seven new hypothetical zeolites whose feasibility is confirmed by energetic and structural criteria.G. 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Formation and dissolution of microbubbles on highly-ordered plasmonic nanopillar arrays

Bubble formation from plasmonic heating of nanostructures is of great interest in many applications. In this work, we study experimentally the intrinsic effects of the number of three-dimensional plasmonic nanostructures on the dynamics of microbubbles, largely decoupled from the effects of dissolved air. The formation and dissolution of microbubbles is observed on exciting groups of 1, 4, and 9 nanopillars. Our results show that the power threshold for the bubble formation depends on the number density of the nanopillars in highly-ordered arrays. In the degassed water, both the growth rate and the maximal radius of the plasmonic microbubbles increase with an increase of the illuminated pillar number, due to the heat balance between the heat loss across the bubble and the collective heating generated from the nanopillars. Interestingly, our results show that the bubble dissolution is affected by the spatial arrangement of the underlying nanopillars, due to the pinning effect on the bubble boundary. The bubbles on nanopillar arrays dissolve in a jumping mode with step-wise features on the dissolution curves, prior to a smooth dissolution phase for the bubble pinned by a single pillar. The insight from this work may facilitate the design of nanostructures for efficient energy conversion