Rapid Invasion of Spartina Alterniflora in the Coastal Zone of Mainland China: Spatiotemporal Patterns and Human Prevention

Given the extensive spread and ecological consequences of exotic Spartina alterniflora (S. alterniflora) over the coast of mainland China, monitoring its spatiotemporal invasion patterns is important for the sake of coastal ecosystem management and ecological security. In this study, Landsat series images from 1990 to 2015 were used to establish multi-temporal datasets for documenting the temporal dynamics of S. alterniflora invasion. Our observations revealed that S. alterniflora had a continuous expansion with the area increasing by 50,204 ha during the considered 25 years. The largest expansion was identified in Jiangsu Province during the period of 1990-2000, and in Zhejiang Province during the periods 2000-2010 and 2010-2015. Three noticeable hotspots for S. alterniflora invasion were Yancheng of Jiangsu, Chongming of Shanghai, and Ningbo of Zhejiang, and each had a net area increase larger than 5000 ha. Moreover, an obvious shrinkage of S. alterniflora was identified in three coastal cities including the city of Cangzhou of Hebei, Dongguan, and Jiangmen of Guangdong. S. alterniflora invaded mostly into mudflats (>93%) and shrank primarily due to aquaculture (55.5%). This study sheds light on the historical spatial patterns in S. alterniflora distribution and thus is helpful for understanding its invasion mechanism and invasive species management

Assessing Junior Faculty Research Productivity in the IS Field: Recommendations for Promotion and Tenure Standards for Asian Schools

We gathered information about junior faculty research productivity in the information systems (IS) field in North America and in a set of top Asian schools. Our work complements prior studies on IS faculty research productivity in several ways. First, we focused on junior faculty research productivity, which refers to publication records of current tenure-track assistant professors. To provide statistics with a greater coverage of IS researchers, we also collected information about the pre-tenure publication records of associate professors. Second, we covered IS researchers who obtained their doctoral degrees in or after the year 2000 and counted their publications until 2013 to provide the most up-to-date information about junior faculty research productivity. Third, we collected information about IS researchers’ publications in leading IS journals (based on the AIS Senior Scholar basket of journals) and in elite broader business journals (based on the Financial Times list and UT Dallas list). Finally, examining junior faculty research productivity in the IS field in Asian schools and in North America enabled us to provide recommendations for promotion and tenure standards for Asian schools in light of the research productivity and tenure standards in North America

Cryopreservation in Ophthalmology

Amniotic membranes (AMs) and corneas are critical materials in ocular surface reconstruction. AM has specific structures (e.g., basement and two types of cells with stemness characteristics: amniotic epithelial cells and amniotic mesenchymal cells), which contribute to its attractive physical and biological properties that make it fundamental to clinical application. The corneal endothelial cell is a vital part of the cornea, which can influence postoperative vision directly. However, widespread use of fresh AM and cornea has been limited due to their short use span and safety concerns. To overcome these concerns, different preservation methods have been introduced. Cryopreservation is distinguished from many preservation methods for its attractive advantages of prolonged use span, optimally retained tissue structure, and minimized infection risk. This review will focus on recent advances of cryopreserved AM and cornea, including different cryopreservation methods and their indications in ophthalmology

Monitoring the Invasion of Spartina alterniflora Using Multi-source High-resolution Imagery in the Zhangjiang Estuary, China

Spartina alterniflora (S. alterniflora) is one of the most harmful invasive plants in China. Google Earth (GE), as a free software, hosts high-resolution imagery for many areas of the world. To explore the use of GE imagery for monitoring S. alterniflora invasion and developing an understanding of the invasion process of S. alterniflora in the Zhangjiang Estuary, the object-oriented method and visual interpretation were applied to GE, SPOT-5, and Gaofen-1 (GF-1) images. In addition, landscape metrics of S. alterniflora patches adjacent to mangrove forests were calculated and mangrove gaps were recorded by checking whether S. alterniflora exists. The results showed that from 2003–2015, the areal extent of S. alterniflora in the Zhangjiang Estuary increased from 57.94 ha to 116.11 ha, which was mainly converted from mudflats and moved seaward significantly. Analyses of the S. alterniflora expansion patterns in the six subzones indicated that the expansion trends varied with different environmental circumstances and human activities. Land reclamation, mangrove replantation, and mudflat aquaculture caused significant losses of S. alterniflora. The number of invaded gaps increased and S. alterniflora patches adjacent to mangrove forests became much larger and more aggregated during 2003–2015 (the class area increased from 12.13 ha to 49.76 ha and the aggregation index increased from 91.15 to 94.65). We thus concluded that S. alterniflora invasion in the Zhangjiang Estuary had seriously increased and that measures should be taken considering the characteristics shown in different subzones. This study provides an example of applying GE imagery to monitor invasive plants and illustrates that this approach can aid in the development of governmental policies employed to control S. alterniflora invasion. View Full-Tex

Optical biopsy identification and grading of gliomas using label-free visible resonance Raman spectroscopy.

Glioma is one of the most refractory types of brain tumor. Accurate tumor boundary identification and complete resection of the tumor are essential for glioma removal during brain surgery. We present a method based on visible resonance Raman (VRR) spectroscopy to identify glioma margins and grades. A set of diagnostic spectral biomarkers features are presented based on tissue composition changes revealed by VRR. The Raman spectra include molecular vibrational fingerprints of carotenoids, tryptophan, amide I/II/III, proteins, and lipids. These basic in situ spectral biomarkers are used to identify the tissue from the interface between brain cancer and normal tissue and to evaluate glioma grades. The VRR spectra are also analyzed using principal component analysis for dimension reduction and feature detection and support vector machine for classification. The cross-validated sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy are found to be 100%, 96.3%, and 99.6% to distinguish glioma tissues from normal brain tissues, respectively. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for the classification is about 1.0. The accuracies to distinguish normal, low grade (grades I and II), and high grade (grades III and IV) gliomas are found to be 96.3%, 53.7%, and 84.1% for the three groups, respectively, along with a total accuracy of 75.1%. A set of criteria for differentiating normal human brain tissues from normal control tissues is proposed and used to identify brain cancer margins, yielding a diagnostic sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 71%. Our study demonstrates the potential of VRR as a label-free optical molecular histopathology method used for in situ boundary line judgment for brain surgery in the margins

Rapid Invasion of Spartina alterniflora in the Coastal Zone of Mainland China: New Observations from Landsat OLI Images

Plant invasion imposes significant threats to biodiversity and ecosystem function. Thus, monitoring the spatial pattern of invasive plants is vital for effective ecosystem management. Spartina alterniflora (S. alterniflora) has been one of the most prevalent invasive plants along the China coast, and its spread has had severe ecological consequences. Here, we provide new observation from Landsat operational land imager (OLI) images. Specifically, 43 Landsat-8 OLI images from 2014 to 2016, a combination of object-based image analysis (OBIA) and support vector machine (SVM) methods, and field surveys covering the whole coast were used to construct an up-to-date dataset for 2015 and investigate the spatial variability of S. alterniflora in the coastal zone of mainland China. The classification results achieved good estimation, with a kappa coefficient of 0.86 and 96% overall accuracy. Our results revealed that there was approximately 545.80 km2 of S. alterniflora distributed in the coastal zone of mainland China in 2015, from Hebei to Guangxi provinces. Nearly 92% of the total area of S. alterniflora was distributed within four provinces: Jiangsu, Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Fujian. Seven national nature reserves invaded by S. alterniflora encompassed approximately one-third (174.35 km2) of the total area of S. alterniflora over mainland China. The Yancheng National Nature Reserve exhibited the largest area of S. alterniflora (115.62 km2) among the reserves. Given the rapid and extensive expansion of S. alterniflora in the 40 years since its introduction and its various ecological effects, geospatially varied responding decisions are needed to promote sustainable coastal ecosystems

Glucose metabolism reprogramming promotes immune escape of hepatocellular carcinoma cells

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a complex process that plays an important role in its progression. Abnormal glucose metabolism in HCC cells can meet the nutrients required for the occurrence and development of liver cancer, better adapt to changes in the surrounding microenvironment, and escape the attack of the immune system on the tumor. There is a close relationship between reprogramming of glucose metabolism and immune escape. This article reviews the current status and progress of glucose metabolism reprogramming in promoting immune escape in liver cancer, aiming to provide new strategies for clinical immunotherapy of liver cancer

Nitrate nitrogen enhances the efficiency of photoprotection in Leymus chinensis under drought stress

IntroductionGlobal climate change exerts a significant impact on the nitrogen supply and photosynthesis ability in land-based plants. The photosynthetic capacity of dominant grassland species is important if we are to understand carbon cycling under climate change. Drought stress is one of the major factors limiting plant photosynthesis, and nitrogen (N) is an essential nutrient involved in the photosynthetic activity of leaves. The regulatory mechanisms responsible for the effects of ammonium (NH4+) and nitrate (NO3-) on the drought-induced photoinhibition of photosystem II (PSII) in plants have yet to be fully elucidated. Therefore, there is a significant need to gain a better understanding of the role of electron transport in the photoinhibition of PSII.MethodsIn the present study, we conducted experiments with normal watering (LD), severe drought (MD), and extreme drought (HD) treatments, along with no nitrogen (N0), ammonium (NH4), nitrate (NO3), and mixed nitrogen (NH4NO3) treatments. We analyzed pigment accumulation, reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation, photosynthetic enzyme activity, photosystem activity, electron transport, and O-J-I-P kinetics.ResultsAnalysis showed that increased nitrate application significantly increased the leaf chlorophyll content per unit area (Chlarea) and nitrogen content per unit area (Narea) (p< 0.05). Under HD treatment, ROS levels were lower in NO3-treated plants than in N0 plants, and there was no significant difference in photosynthetic enzyme activity between plants treated with NO3 and NH4NO3. Under drought stress, the maximum photochemical efficiency of PSII (Fv/Fm), PSII electron transport rate (ETR), and effective quantum yield of PSII (φPSII) were significant higher in NO3-treated plants (p< 0.05). Importantly, the K-band and G-band were higher in NO3-treated plants.DiscussionThese results suggest that drought stress hindered the formation of NADPH and ATP in N0 and NH4-treated L. chinensis plants, thus damaging the donor side of the PSII oxygen-evolving complex (OEC). After applying nitrate, higher photosynthetic enzyme and antioxidant enzyme activity not only protected PSII from photodamage under drought stress but also reduced the rate of damage in PSII during the growth of L. chinensis growth under drought stress

Clinical characteristics of 4,520 paediatric patients infected with the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant, in Xi'an, China

Background and objectiveSevere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has broad tissue tropism and high transmission, which are likely to perpetuate the pandemic. The study aim to analyze the clinicopathogenic characteristics in paediatric patients.MethodsIn this single-centre study, we retrospectively included all confirmed cases infected by SARS-CoV-2 infection at Xi’an Children's Hospital, China, from 1 December to 31 December 2022. The demographic, clinical, laboratory, and radiological features of the patients were analysed.ResultsA total of 4,520 paediatric patients with SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant infections were included. Of these, 3,861 (85.36%) were outpatients, 659 (14.64%) were hospitalised patients, and nine patients (0.20%) died. Of the nine patients who died, five were diagnosed with acute necrotising encephalopathy (ANE). The most common symptoms were fever in 4,275 (94.59%) patients, cough in 1,320 (29.20%) patients, convulsions in 610 (13.50%) patients, vomiting in 410 (9.07%) patients, runny nose/coryza in 277 (6.13%) patients, hoarseness of voice in 273 (6.04%) patients. A blood cell analysis showed a slight elevation of monocytes (mean: 11.14 ± 0.07%). The main diagnoses for both outpatients and inpatients were respiratory infection with multisystem manifestations.ConclusionsA high incidence of convulsions is a typical characteristic of children infected with SARS-CoV-2. Five of the nine COVID-19 fatalities were associated with ANE. This indicates that nervous system damage in children with SARS-CoV-2 infection is more significant

A novel method of weakness imbalance fault identification and application in aero-hydraulic pump

A method of combining auto-correlation and Hilbert envelope analysis is proposed and used to identify weakness imbalance fault of aero-hydraulic pump, the central part of hydraulic system of aircraft. Firstly, the integral and polynomial least square fitting is applied to convert acceleration signal to velocity one; secondly, the Hilbert envelope spectrum of auto-correlation function of velocity signal is obtained and used to identify the weakness imbalance fault of aero-hydraulic pump; finally, the energy ratio of velocity signal is calculated according to Hilbert envelope spectrum for identifying imbalance fault of aero-hydraulic pump by means of easier and more visual method. Meanwhile, the comparing analysis is carried out between traditional research method and proposed new one. The result shows that the weakness imbalance fault of aero-hydraulic pump can be identified and diagnosed effectively and correctly according to the velocity signal whether Hilbert envelope spectrum or calculation energy ratio while direct acceleration signal cannot