Patterns and structures of land use change in the three rivers headwaters region of China

10.1371/journal.pone.0119121PLoS ONE103e011912

DIFFERENCES OF POSTURE ON PUSH-OFF PHASE BETWEEN ACTUAL SPEED SKATING AND SLIDE-BOARD TRAINING

The slide-board training is a feasible technology to exercise skating during the off-season. While slide-board is much different from ice surface of the actual skating situation, it may distort actual skating posture. The purpose of this study was to analyze the differences in posture during push-off phase between an actual speed skating condition and on slideboard. The result showed that on the slide-board distance between two feet were shorter, so were the rotation angles of both feet, the hip angle was lower during the whole phase, while knee and ankle angles were higher. In conclusion, the restriction of the space on slide-board affected the position and rotation of both stable and push-off feet as well as the joint extension of the stable leg. Hence, the structural design of slide-board needs to be improved to facilitate the extension of knee and ankle in the medial-lateral direction

Dickeya fangzhongdai was prevalent and caused taro soft rot when coexisting with the Pectobacterium complex, with a preference for Araceae plants

Bacterial soft rot caused by coinfection with Dickeya spp. and Pectobacterium spp. in hosts can cause successive changes in fields, and it is difficult to prevent the spread of and control the infection. Pectobacterium spp. are prevalent in the growing areas of tuberous crops, including taro and potato. Recently, Dickeya fangzhongdai has emerged as a virulent pathogen in taro. To determine the prevalence status of the causal agents and evaluate the potential spreading risks of D. fangzhongdai, screening and taxonomic classification were performed on phytopathogenic bacteria collected from different taro-growing areas in Guangdong Province, China, and biological and genomic characteristics were further compared among typical strains from all defined species. The causative agents were verified to be phytobacterial strains of D. fangzhongdai, Pectobacterium aroidearum and Pectobacterium colocasium. P. aroidearum and P. colocasium were found to form a complex preferring Araceae plants and show intensive genomic differentiation, indicating their ancestor had adapted to taro a long time prior. Compared with Pectobacterium spp., D. fangzhongdai was more virulent to taro corms under conditions of exogenous infection and more adaptable at elevated temperatures. D. fangzhongdai strains isolated from taro possessed genomic components of additional T4SSs, which were accompanied by additional copies of the hcp-vgrG genes of the T6SS, and these contributed to the expansion of their genomes. More gene clusters encoding secondary metabolites were found within the D. fangzhongdai strains than within the Pectobacterium complex; interestingly, distinct gene clusters encoding zeamine and arylpolyene were both most similar to those in D. solani that caused potato soft rot. These comparisons provided genomic evidences for that the newly emerging pathogen was potentially equipped to compete with other pathogens. Diagnostic qPCR verified that D. fangzhongdai was prevalent in most of the taro-growing areas and coexisted with the Pectobacterium complex, while the plants enriching D. fangzhongdai were frequently symptomatic at developing corms and adjacent pseudostems and caused severe symptoms. Thus, the emerging need for intensive monitoring on D. fangzhongdai to prevent it from spreading to other taro-growing areas and to other tuberous crops like potato; the adjustment of control strategies based on different pathopoiesis characteristics is recommended

EFFECTS OF GRAVITY ON MULTI-DIGIT TORQUE PRODUCTION TASK IN HUMANS

In this study we investigated the effect of gravity on multi-digit prehension to know how the digits' force and moment are organized in the imposed static constraints according to the gravity. Specfically, we tested if decoupling of grasping and rotational equilibrium control is even valid during grasping in the microgravity condition. There were two experimental conditions: gravity-induced (GI), and microgravity conditions (MG). For the MG condition, the handle was attached to the end of the robot-arm, which produced a count-balanced force for the weight of the handle and hand. The results showed that the selected experimental variables were separated into two sub-sets in both GI and MG conditions. Thus, we can conclude that the grasping stability is independent from the rotational equilibrium control regardless of the gravity acting on the hand-held object

The study area of the Three River Headwaters Region.

<p>(A) Distributions of the Yangtze River, Lantsang River, and Yellow River headwater regions. (B) Locations of Hainan Prefecture, Huangnan Prefecture, Guoluo Prefecture, Yushu Prefecture, and Geermu City.</p

Number of human settlements found with land use change in Guoluo and Yushu.

<p>The buffer zones of 4 km of the human settlements in Guoluo Prefecture and Yushu Prefecture are analyzed. Settlements are categorized based on whether their locations are close to main roads, temples, or water bodies of lakes or rivers.</p><p>Number of human settlements found with land use change in Guoluo and Yushu.</p

Comparison of landscape structure change of the Three Rivers Headwaters Region by watersheds.

<p>Comparison of landscape structure change of the Three Rivers Headwaters Region by watersheds.</p

Comparison of landscape structure change of the Three Rivers Headwater Regions by prefectures.

<p>Comparison of landscape structure change of the Three Rivers Headwater Regions by prefectures.</p

Genomic divergence between Dickeya zeae strain EC2 isolated from rice and previously identified strains, suggests a different rice foot rot strain.

Rice foot rot caused by Dickeya zeae is an important bacterial disease of rice worldwide. In this study, we identified a new strain EC2 from rice in Guangdong province, China. This strain differed from the previously identified strain from rice in its biochemical characteristics, pathogenicity, and genomic constituents. To explore genomic discrepancies between EC2 and previously identified strains from rice, a complete genome sequence of EC2 was obtained and used for comparative genomic analyses. The complete genome sequence of EC2 is 4,575,125 bp in length. EC2 was phylogenetically closest to previously identified Dickeya strains from rice, but not within their subgroup. In terms of secretion systems, genomic comparisons revealed that EC2 harbored only type I (T1SS), typeⅡ (T2SS), and type VI (T6SS) secretion systems. The flagella cluster of this strain possessed specific genomic characteristics like other D. zeae strains from Guangdong and from rice; within this locus, the genetic diversity among strains from rice was much lower than that of within strains from non-rice hosts. Unlike other strains from rice, EC2 lost the zeamine cluster, but retained the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-1 (CRISPR-1) array. Compared to the other D. zeae strains containing both exopolysaccharide (EPS) and capsular polysaccharide (CPS) clusters, EC2 harbored only the CPS cluster, while the other strains from rice carried only the EPS cluster. Furthermore, we found strain MS1 from banana, carrying both EPS and CPS clusters, produced significantly more EPS than the strains from rice, and exhibited different biofilm-associated phenotypes. Comparative genomics analyses suggest EC2 likely evolved through a pathway different from the other D. zeae strains from rice, producing a new type of rice foot rot pathogen. These findings emphasize the emergence of a new type of D. zeae strain causing rice foot rot, an essential step in the early prevention of this rice bacterial disease