Magnifier or refractor? Exploring the impact of geographical indication on people’s perception of the value of cultural ecosystem services based on the SolVES model

Purpose/SignificanceTo a certain extent, geographical indication (GI) protects the ecosystem of product origin, but there is still a lack of quantitative evidence on its cultural spillover effect. The mechanism of the impact of geo-certified landscapes on people’s perceived value of cultural ecosystem services (CESs) should be explored.Methods/ProceduresIn this study, two urban forest parks, Changqing and Zhongshan, which differ mainly in terms of geo-certified landscapes, were selected in Beihai, Guangxi. Basically, homogeneous volunteers were recruited, and photos of value labels were collected from their independent visits to two parks. The SolVES model was used to explore the effect of the presence or absence of geo-certified landscapes in urban park ecosystems on people’s CESs needs and the relation to the spatial context of the landscape.Results/ConclusionsThe results show that GI significantly enhance people’s perception of human CESs value of landscape elements, and clarifies the correspondence perception relationship between CESs value types and each landscape element. In addition to the spillover effect on humanistic value perception, GI also attracts and transfers people’s esthetic attention to the natural landscape itself to a certain extent. And these two effects will also spread to the ecosystem that the landscape belongs to

Combined transcriptome and widely targeted metabolome analysis reveals the potential mechanism of HupA biosynthesis and antioxidant activity in Huperzia serrata

IntroductionHuperzia serrata is a traditional Chinese herb that has gained much attention for its production of Huperzine A (HupA). HupA has shown promise on treating Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the biosynthetic pathway and molecular mechanism of HupA in H. serrata are still not well understood.MethodsIntegrated transcriptome and metabolome analysis was performed to reveal the molecular mechanisms related to HupA biosynthesis and antioxidant activity in Huperzia serrata.ResultsHT (in vitro H. serrata thallus) exhibits higher antioxidant activity and lower cytotoxicity than WH (wild H. serrata). Through hierarchical clustering analysis and qRT-PCR verification, 7 important enzyme genes and 13 transcription factors (TFs) related to HupA biosynthesis were detected. Among them, the average |log2FC| value of CYP (Cytochrome P450) and CAO (Copper amine oxidase) was the largest. Metabolomic analysis identified 12 metabolites involved in the HupA biosynthesis and 29 metabolites related to antioxidant activity. KEGG co-enrichment analysis revealed that tropane, piperidine and pyridine alkaloid biosynthesis were involved in the HupA biosynthesis pathway. Furthermore, the phenylpropanoid, phenylalanine, and flavonoid biosynthesis pathway were found to regulate the antioxidant activity of H. serrata. The study also identified seven important genes related to the regulation of antioxidant activity, including PrAO (primary-amine oxidase). Based on the above joint analysis, the biosynthetic pathway of HupA and potential mechanisms of antioxidant in H. serrata was constructed.DiscussionThrough differential transcriptome and metabolome analysis, DEGs and DAMs involved in HupA biosynthesis and antioxidant-related were identified, and the potential metabolic pathway related to HupA biosynthesis and antioxidant in Huperzia serrata were constructed. This study would provide valuable insights into the HupA biosynthesis mechanism and the H. serrata thallus medicinal value

Characterization of multi-wavelength polarized light transmission in the real sea spray environment

Sea spray particles are a type of non-uniform, non-spherical, non-isotropic, and complex medium, and the study of the transmission characteristics of polarized light in a real sea spray environment can provide reference values in many fields, such as polarization imaging, marine target detection, and LiDAR, which can make up for the vacancy of polarized light transmission in a complex sea spray environment. In this paper, a real sea fog test is carried out in the Qingdao Sea area of China in the horizontal/oblique direction, and a platform for generating and detecting polarized light with multiple tilt angles is constructed by using the active test method, which realizes the test scheme for the characteristics of energy change and polarization state change in the linearly polarized light and circularly polarized light at different visibility levels in sea fog environments. The results show that it is more difficult to deflect the circularly polarized light than linearly polarized light at the same sea spray visibility level. With the increase in the tilt angle, a decrease in the polarization is observed. The polarization of the near-infrared light is always larger than that of the visible light, which indicates that the circularly polarized light has better polarization preservation than the linearly polarized light and the polarization preservation of the near-infrared light is better than that of the visible light

Plasmonically enhanced photoluminescence of monolayer MoS2 via nanosphere lithography-templated gold metasurfaces

We demonstrate a simple, cost-effective method to enhance the photoluminescence intensity of monolayer MoS2. A hexagonal symmetric Au metasurface, made by polystyrene nanosphere lithography and metal coating, is developed to enhance the photoluminescence intensity of monolayer MoS2. By using nanospheres of different sizes, the localized surface plasmon resonances of the Au metasurfaces can be effectively tuned. By transferring monolayer MoS2 onto the Au metasurface, the photoluminescence signal of the monolayer MoS2 can be significantly enhanced up to 12-fold over a square-centimeter area. The simple, large-area, cost-effective fabrication technique could pave a new way for plasmon-enhanced light-mater interactions of atomically thin two-dimensional materials.This work was supported in part by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 62075093 and 61805113), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2020M672697), Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (Grant No. 2018A030310224 and 2019A1515110864), Guangdong Innovative and Entrepreneurial Research Team Program (Grant No. 2017ZT07C071), and Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Commission (Grant No. GJHZ201809281552 07206, JCYJ20170817111349280, and JCYJ2018030518063 5082). Meng Zhao acknowledges the support from the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) (Grant No. 152700014 and H19H6a0025)

Crystal Structure of the Caenorhabditis elegans Apoptosome Reveals an Octameric Assembly of CED-4

SummaryThe CED-4 homo-oligomer or apoptosome is required for initiation of programmed cell death in Caenorhabditis elegans by facilitating autocatalytic activation of the CED-3 caspase zymogen. How the CED-4 apoptosome assembles and activates CED-3 remains enigmatic. Here we report the crystal structure of the complete CED-4 apoptosome and show that it consists of eight CED-4 molecules, organized as a tetramer of an asymmetric dimer via a previously unreported interface among AAA+ ATPases. These eight CED-4 molecules form a funnel-shaped structure. The mature CED-3 protease is monomeric in solution and forms an active holoenzyme with the CED-4 apoptosome, within which the protease activity of CED-3 is markedly stimulated. Unexpectedly, the octameric CED-4 apoptosome appears to bind only two, not eight, molecules of mature CED-3. The structure of the CED-4 apoptosome reveals shared principles for the NB-ARC family of AAA+ ATPases and suggests a mechanism for the activation of CED-3

The design and protocol of acupuncture for migraine prophylaxis: A multicenter randomized controlled trial

Background: Many studies have already reported encouraging results in the prophylactic therapy of migraine by acupuncture, but there seems to be a lack of high quality randomized controlled trials from China. We design and perform a randomized controlled clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture compared with flunarizine in the prophylactic therapy of patients with migraine without aura in China. Methods: This trial is a multicenter, prospective, randomized controlled clinical trial. The 140 migraine patients are randomly allocated to two different groups. The acupuncture groups (n = 70) is treated with acupuncture and placebo medicine; while the control group (n = 70) is treated with sham acupuncture and medicine (Flunarizine). Both Flunarizine and placebo are taken 10 mg once per night for the first 2 weeks and then 5 mg once per night for the next 2 weeks. Patients in both groups receive 12 sessions of verum/sham acupuncture in 4 weeks. Discussion: The study design and the long term clinical practice of acupuncturists guarantee a high external validity for the results. The results of our trial will be helpful to supply the evidence on the efficacy of acupuncture for migraine prophylaxis in China. Trial Registration: The trial is registered at Controlled Clinical Trials: ISRCTN49839714.Medicine, Research & ExperimentalSCI(E)0ARTICLEnull1

The large area detector onboard the eXTP mission

The Large Area Detector (LAD) is the high-throughput, spectral-timing instrument onboard the eXTP mission, a flagship mission of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the China National Space Administration, with a large European participation coordinated by Italy and Spain. The eXTP mission is currently performing its phase B study, with a target launch at the end-2027. The eXTP scientific payload includes four instruments (SFA, PFA, LAD and WFM) offering unprecedented simultaneous wide-band X-ray timing and polarimetry sensitivity. The LAD instrument is based on the design originally proposed for the LOFT mission. It envisages a deployed 3.2 m2 effective area in the 2-30 keV energy range, achieved through the technology of the large-area Silicon Drift Detectors - offering a spectral resolution of up to 200 eV FWHM at 6 keV - and of capillary plate collimators - limiting the field of view to about 1 degree. In this paper we will provide an overview of the LAD instrument design, its current status of development and anticipated performance

Measurement of t(t)over-bar normalised multi-differential cross sections in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV, and simultaneous determination of the strong coupling strength, top quark pole mass, and parton distribution functions

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