23 research outputs found
Identification of the Ilex macrocarpa anthracnose pathogen and the antifungal potential of the cell-free supernatant of Bacillus velezensis against Colletotrichum fioriniae
IntroductionAnthracnose is a significant fungal disease that affects tree growth and development, with Colletotrichum spp. exhibiting host non-specificity and targeting various organs, making disease control challenging.MethodsThis study aimed to identify the pathogenic species causing anthracnose in Ilex macrocarpa in Nanchong, Sichuan Province, and screen effective fungicides, particularly biological ones. The pathogen was identified as Colletotrichum fioriniae through morphological observation, pathogenicity assays, and molecular biological methods. Three biological and five chemical fungicides were evaluated for their effects on the mycelial growth and spore germination rate of the pathogen.ResultsThe results indicated that prochloraz was the most effective chemical fungicide, while the cell-free supernatant (CFS) of Bacillus velezensis had the most significant inhibitory effect among the biological fungicides. Transcriptome analysis revealed that the CFS of B. velezensis significantly reduced the expression of genes associated with ribosomes, genetic information processing, membrane lipid metabolism, and sphingolipid biosynthesis in C. fioriniae. Additionally, the glutathione pathway’s expression of various genes, including key genes such as GST, GFA, Grx, TRR, and POD, was induced. Furthermore, the expression of 17 MFS transporters and 9 ABC transporters was increased. Autophagy-related ATGs were also affected by the B. velezensis CFS.DiscussionThese findings suggest that the B. velezensis CFS may inhibit C. fioriniae through interference with ribosomes, genetic information processing, cell membrane metabolism, and energy metabolism. These results provide potential target genes for the B. velezensis CFS and insights into the antifungal mechanism by which B. velezensis inhibits C. fioriniae
Impact of lockdown on the growth of children in China aged 3-6 years during the COVID-19 pandemic
BackgroundLockdowns in COVID-19 pandemic led to less physical activity and more intake of unhealthy food in children. The aim of this study was to investigate the negative impact of major lockdowns on the growth of children aged 3-6 years during COVID-19 pandemic period.MethodsPhysical examination results in 2019 to 2022 from 5834 eligible children (2972 males and 2862 females) from Southwestern China who were 3 years old in 2019 were retrospectively collected. Height and weight data points were extracted from the results, and percentiles of height (height%), weight (weight%), and BMI (BMI%), and rates of overweight and obesity were calculated and compared between different years during the pandemic.ResultsAfter analyzing the 15404 growth data points from 5834 children, a slowly increasing trend of height% from 2019 to 2022 was observed. Weight%, BMI%, overweight rate, obesity rate, and combined overweight and obesity rate had two peaks in 2020 and 2022 when major lockdowns were adopted and a drop in between (year 2021), except for obesity rate which did not drop in 2021. Similar results were shown after stratification by gender.ConclusionThe lockdowns in COVID-19 pandemic promoted obesity of kindergarten children, but did not show any negative impact on their height growth possibly due to over-nutrition of children during lockdowns. More efforts need to be made to limit the increase of obesity rate in kindergarten children during possible future lockdowns
Pivot or periphery? Xinjiang\u27s regional development and Chinese-Central Asian relations at the century\u27s end
Xinjiang, once described by Owen Lattimore as the pivot of Asia , has played a strategically important role in China\u27s national defense and security. Historically linked on the famous Silk Road with Central Asia, Xinjiang was crucial to East-West economic and cultural exchanges. During the period of Russian/Soviet expansion into Central Asia and Sino-Soviet rivalry, China\u27s need for Xinjiang\u27s defense and territorial integrity became paramount, and consequently Xinjiang\u27s economy was relegated to the periphery. The demise of the Soviet Union--which resulted in the independence of five Central Asian states--and China\u27s reform suggest dramatic new possibilities for Xinjiang\u27s regional development as well as interregional cooperation. As China has begun to shift regional emphasis to the interior, Xinjiang\u27s economic development will be accelerated. With the growth of Sino/Xinjiang-Central Asian relations, Xinjiang\u27s importance will not only be borne out in terms of defense and security, but more significantly in terms of trade and economics. At the century\u27s end and the beginning of the 21st century, Xinjiang will likely move away from the periphery and play an increasingly pivotal role in the economy
Xinjiang and Central Asia: Ethno-religious, political, and economic interactions
The neighboring regions of Xinjiang and Central Asia, linked historically on the famous Silk Road, later developed separately as a result of the incorporation of the former into China and the latter into the Russian Empire and Soviet Union. Thus, interaction between Xinjiang and Central Asia has been constrained by the nature of the Sino-Russian or Sino-Soviet relationship. However, the demise of the Soviet Union--which resulted in the independence of five Central Asian states--and the recent economic reforms in the People\u27s Republic of China suggest dramatic new possibilities for interregional cooperation. In this thesis, an historical and comparative approach is employed to study Chinese policies in Xinjiang and Soviet policies in Central Asia, and concludes that despite several decades of separate development, the common ethnic and religious origins of the indigenous peoples and their former ties will facilitate greater interaction between the two regions
Deformation prediction analysis of vertical displacement of deep foundation pit based on LIBSVM
The reliable prediction of the surface vertical displacement deformation of deep foundation pits is of great significance to the excavation of large foundation pits. The support vector machine model (LIBSVM) has become a hot spot in the prediction of deep foundation pit deformation and provides a new prediction for the deformation of deep foundation pits. In this paper, taking the deep foundation pit of Daoxianghu Road Station in xx as an example, a prediction model of vertical displacement on the ground is established based on LIBSVM and analysis shows that the prediction results based on the model are in good agreement with the measured data, and the MSE reaches 0.0323. The model is effective and has an effective prospective skill
Detection of groundwater storage variability based on GRACE and CABLE model in the Murray-Darling Basin
Monitoring groundwater storage is in great importance for economic and social development. In this paper, the monthly GRACE data from 2003 to 2015 is combined with the Community Atmosphere Biosphere Land Exchange (CABLE) model to estimate the variations of groundwater storage (GWS) in the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB). The results show that (1) the simulations of TWS from CABLE are more accurate than GLDAS over the MDB, and there is a higher correlation coefficient of 0.94 and a lower RMSE of 15.74 between CABLE and GRACE. (3) The spatial pattern of GWS trends shows decline trends in the southwest, east and south, and increasing trends in the north and south central (3) For the whole MDB, the average GWS has strong seasonality and shows an increasing trend with a rate of 1.19 0.41 mmyyear between 2003 and 2015
Hybrid A*-Based Valley Path Planning Algorithm for Aircraft
This paper presents a valley path planning algorithm based on the Hybrid A* algorithm. This algorithm is aimed at finding the valley path for aircraft considering dynamics constraints and terrain limitations. The preliminaries involve the establishment of a 3D workspace based on digital elevation map (DEM) data and addressing methods of valley detection. Following this comprehensive groundwork, the Hybrid A*-based algorithm, employed to determine the valley path within the 3D workspace while accommodating dynamic constraints and terrain limitations, is then introduced. In the experimental test, to validate the effectiveness of the algorithm proposed in this paper, we tested the performance of the proposed algorithm and other three baseline algorithms based on four optimization objectives in three workspaces. The simulated results indicate that the algorithm proposed in this paper can effectively find the valley path while considering dynamic constraints and terrain limitations
Do Community Home-Based Elderly Care Services Improve Life Satisfaction of Chinese Older Adults? An Empirical Analysis Based on the 2018 CLHLS Dataset
Population aging has become a major challenge for the Chinese government. Based on the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) in 2018, this study adopts the propensity score matching (PSM) method to assess the effect of community home-based elderly care services (CHECS) on the life satisfaction of the elderly in China. The results demonstrate that CHECS can improve their life satisfaction. Compared with life care services (LCS) and medical care services (MCS), the positive effect of spiritual and cultural services (SCS) and reconciliation and legal services (RLS) is more obvious. Moreover, the heterogeneity test demonstrates that the effect is more significant for the elderly who live with their families, whose activities of daily living are unrestricted, and whose depression levels are lower. The results obtained indicate that CHECS need precise policies for different elderly groups, attention to the positive impact of SCS and RLS on the life satisfaction of the elderly, and the substantive effectiveness of LCS and MCS
Investigating the Influence of Age-Friendly Community Infrastructure Facilities on the Health of the Elderly in China
Global population aging has become a continuous and irreversible trend. Most of the elderly in China prefer “aging in place” owing to the influence of traditional concepts and social welfare, but many communities, as a basic place for the elderly to live, generally lack age-friendly infrastructure facilities. Based on the 2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study database, this study applies the propensity score matching method to empirically investigate the influence of the infrastructure facilities on the health of the elderly in China. The results show that adding elevators, installing bathing facilities, supplying gas or natural gas, and changing squatting toilets into sitting toilets, positively influence the health of the elderly, but there are some differences. The order of the degree of impact on self-rated health (SRH) was elevator > toilet type > kitchen gas supply > bathing facility, while that of activities of daily living (ADL) was bathing facility > toilet type > elevator > kitchen gas supply. Elderly people with different personal characteristics and family status have different degrees of ownership for the infrastructure facilities. It is suggested that age-friendly regeneration schemes be developed according to the different impacts and demands of the facilities
Exploring and comparing the anti‐obesity mechanisms of defatted rice bran total dietary fiber, insoluble dietary fiber, and soluble dietary fiber based on multi‐omics technologies
Abstract This study aimed to investigate the anti‐obesity mechanisms of rice bran total dietary fiber (RDF), rice bran insoluble DF (RIDF), and rice bran soluble DF (RSDF) from defatted rice bran. RDF, RIDF, and RSDF exhibited excellent anti‐obesity effects, mainly reflected in lipid adsorption in vitro, reduction of body weight, inhibition of adipose tissue accumulation, improvement of dyslipidemia, and repair of histopathological damage. More importantly, the analysis of multi‐omics results revealed that the regulation of intestinal microbiota, amino acid metabolism, and lipid metabolism were the critical pathways for the anti‐obesity effects of RDF, RIDF, and RSDF. However, RIDF was involved in lipid metabolism through alanine, aspartate, and glutamate metabolism and exhibited a more favorable regulatory effect on gut microbiota. In contrast, RSDF impacted metabolic pathways dominated by tryptophan and cholesterol metabolism and excelled in immune and inflammatory amelioration. RIDF and RSDF together constitute RDF, with the latter integrating the tendencies of RIDF and RSDF in terms of intestinal microbiota and hepatic gene expression. However, RDF exhibited significant differences in metabolic regulation compared to RIDF and RSDF, particularly concerning tryptophan metabolism. These findings demonstrated that RIDF and RSDF have distinct mechanisms in obesity management, and that both contributed differently to the anti‐obesity effect of RDF. This study provides experimental evidence for the development of different types of DF from defatted rice bran as personalized anti‐obesity dietary supplements. It also offers new insights for future precision nutrition interventions involving DF