A culture of conservation: How an ancient forest plantation turned into an old-growth forest reserve – The story of the Wamulin forest

The global expansion of forest plantations at the expense of natural forests, especially old-growth forests, raises concerns about habitat loss and a decline in ecosystem services. Natural regeneration of second-growth forests with minimal human assistance has been suggested as a cost-effective way to restore forests and increase forest ecosystem service potential. However, it is unclear whether natural regeneration will lead to the development of second-growth forests similar to natural forests because most naturally regenerated second-growth forests are still young. We present a case study of a very old second-growth forest in southeastern China in which a forest plantation established approximately six centuries ago has now developed into an old forest with extraordinary high biodiversity levels, an immense carbon pool, and a rich culture. The forest was established in the 14th century because of a charitable contribution, became protected under the Chinese cultural norm of ‘unity between humans and the nature’, and was conserved because of the belief that the prosperity of people is closely linked to the prosperity of trees. The recent designation of the forest as a nature reserve further protects it from development despite competing land-use demands related to recent economic growth. This case illustrates that, although human activity is the main cause for the disappearance and degradation of many forests, when human interests and cultural values align second-growth restoration and subsequent forest conservation can lead to the successional development of old-growth forests. Because this development takes multiple centuries, the protection of current second-growth forests within conservation easements (e.g. nature reserves) and the reformation of culture values for the linkage of forests to human well-being are key aspects of the continued conservation-aided succession of second-growth forests. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article

Region- or state-related differences in expression and activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERKs) in naïve and pain-experiencing rats

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), one member of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) family, has been suggested to regulate a diverse array of cellular functions, including cell growth, differentiation, survival, as well as neuronal plasticity. Recent evidence indicates a role for ERKs in nociceptive processing in both dorsal root ganglion and spinal cord. However, little literature has been reported to examine the differential distribution and activation of ERK isoforms, ERK1 and ERK2, at different levels of pain-related pathways under both normal and pain states. In the present study, quantitative blot immunolabeling technique was used to determine the spatial and temporal expression of ERK1 and ERK2, as well as their activated forms, in the spinal cord, primary somatosensory cortex (SI area of cortex), and hippocampus under normal, transient pain and persistent pain states.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In naïve rats, we detected regional differences in total expression of ERK1 and ERK2 across different areas. In the spinal cord, ERK1 was expressed more abundantly than ERK2, while in the SI area of cortex and hippocampus, there was a larger amount of ERK2 than ERK1. Moreover, phosphorylated ERK2 (pERK2), not phosphorylated ERK1 (pERK1), was normally expressed with a high level in the SI area and hippocampus, but both pERK1 and pERK2 were barely detectable in normal spinal cord. Intraplantar saline or bee venom injection, mimicking transient or persistent pain respectively, can equally initiate an intense and long-lasting activation of ERKs in all three areas examined. However, isoform-dependent differences existed among these areas, that is, pERK2 exhibited stronger response than pERK1 in the spinal cord, whereas ERK1 was more remarkably activated than ERK2 in the S1 area and hippocampus.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Taken these results together, we conclude that: (1) under normal state, while ERK immunoreactivity is broadly distributed in the rat central nervous system in general, the relative abundance of ERK1 and ERK2 differs greatly among specific regions; (2) under pain state, either ERK1 or ERK2 can be effectively phosphorylated with a long-term duration by both transient and persistent pain, but their response patterns differ from each other across distinct regions; (3) The long-lasting ERKs activation induced by bee venom injection is highly correlated with our previous behavioral, electrophysiological, morphological and pharmacological observations, lending further support to the functional importance of ERKs-mediated signaling pathways in the processing of negative consequences of pain associated with sensory, emotional and cognitive dimensions.</p

Clinical Characteristics Related to Central Lymph Node Metastasis in cN0 Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma: A Retrospective Study of 916 Patients

Background. Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is a form of thyroid cancer with high risk of cervical lymph node metastasis. Aim. The aim of this study was to investigate the incidence and the predictive factors for occult ipsilateral central lymph node (CLN) metastasis in the patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma. Methods. A total of 916 PTC patients (1017 lesions) undergoing central lymph node dissection in our hospital from 2005 to 2011 were enrolled. The relationship between CLN metastasis and clinical factors such as gender, age, tumor size, tumor number, capsule invasion, and tumor location was analyzed. Results. Occult CLN metastasis was observed in 52.41% (533/1017) of PTC lesions, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that age ≤ 35 years, tumor size > 1.5 cm, present capsule invasion/extracapsular invasion, and tumor located in upper/middle pole/whole lobe were risk factors of CLN metastasis. Conclusions. Tumor located in upper/middle pole/whole lobe, less than 35 years old, tumor size > 1.5 cm, and present capsule invasion/extracapsular invasion were risk factors of CLN metastasis. We recommend performing ipsilateral prophylactic CLN dissection in cN0 PTC patients

Clinical Efficacy of Weight Loss Herbal Intervention Therapy and Lifestyle Modifications on Obesity and Its Association With Distinct Gut Microbiome: A Randomized Double-Blind Phase 2 Study

GOALS: To assess the efficacy and safety of Chinese Medicine Prescription W-LHIT in subjects with simple obesity, and to explore its potential mechanism of action. METHODS: Thirty-seven patients aged 18 to 60 from Wei-En hospital (Weifang City, Shandong, China), participated in a double blinded, placebo-controlled study. Subjects were randomly divided into 2 groups, 18 in treatment and 19 in placebo group. The treatment group took the W-LHIT capsules for two months, while the control group received placebo capsules. Both groups accepted healthy lifestyle education materials. After a 2-month treatment, the placebo group transferred to open-label treatment after unblinding. RESULTS: 72.22% participants in the treatment group lost more than 5% of their body weight, compared with 36.84% in the placebo group ( \u3c 0.001). Body weight loss and body mass index reduction of the treatment group were also significantly higher than those of the placebo group ( \u3c 0.05). These changes were accompanied by increased abundance of and , and decreased abundance of in gut microbiota. Furthermore, the treatment group also showed improvement in obesity-related comorbidities such as hypertension and elevation of liver enzymes. No serious adverse reactions were found during the study period. Weight did not rebound at a follow-up visit 2 months after treatment. CONCLUSION: W-LHIT significantly improved body weight and comorbid conditions without obvious adverse reaction or rebound weight gain. These effects were associated with increased abundance of probiotics in gut microbiota. W-LHIT may have a potential for treating obesity in conjunction with healthy lifestyle modifications

Highly oriented and polyoxometalate-incorporating surface-attached metal-organic frameworks for efficient dye adsorption and water oxidation

We present a facile protocol for the controlled growth of highly oriented and polyoxometalate-incorporating HKUST-1 SURMOFs. Combining the spin-coating technique with alcohol-vapour induced growth, film thickness, crystallite orientation and crystal size can be precisely tuned. The SURMOFs exhibit excellent abilities in selective adsorption of cationic dyes and water oxidation.11Nsciescopu

DataSheet_1_Clinical efficacy of weight loss herbal intervention therapy and lifestyle modifications on obesity and its association with distinct gut microbiome: A randomized double-blind phase 2 study.docx

GoalsTo assess the efficacy and safety of Chinese Medicine Prescription “W-LHIT” in subjects with simple obesity, and to explore its potential mechanism of action.MethodsThirty-seven patients aged 18 to 60 from Wei-En hospital (Weifang City, Shandong, China), participated in a double blinded, placebo-controlled study. Subjects were randomly divided into 2 groups, 18 in treatment and 19 in placebo group. The treatment group took the “W-LHIT” capsules for two months, while the control group received placebo capsules. Both groups accepted healthy lifestyle education materials. After a 2-month treatment, the placebo group transferred to open-label treatment after unblinding.Results72.22% participants in the treatment group lost more than 5% of their body weight, compared with 36.84% in the placebo group (p ConclusionW-LHIT significantly improved body weight and comorbid conditions without obvious adverse reaction or rebound weight gain. These effects were associated with increased abundance of probiotics in gut microbiota. W-LHIT may have a potential for treating obesity in conjunction with healthy lifestyle modifications.</p

Mitochondrial Genome Variation after Hybridization and Differences in the First and Second Generation Hybrids of Bream Fishes.

Hybridization plays an important role in fish breeding. Bream fishes contribute a lot to aquaculture in China due to their economically valuable characteristics and the present study included five bream species, Megalobrama amblycephala, Megalobrama skolkovii, Megalobrama pellegrini, Megalobrama terminalis and Parabramis pekinensis. As maternal inheritance of mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) involves species specific regulation, we aimed to investigate in which way the inheritance of mitogenome is affected by hybridization in these fish species. With complete mitogenomes of 7 hybrid groups of bream species being firstly reported in the present study, a comparative analysis of 17 mitogenomes was conducted, including representatives of these 5 bream species, 6 first generation hybrids and 6 second generation hybrids. The results showed that these 17 mitogenomes shared the same gene arrangement, and had similar gene size and base composition. According to the phylogenetic analyses, all mitogenomes of the hybrids were consistent with a maternal inheritance. However, a certain number of variable sites were detected in all F1 hybrid groups compared to their female parents, especially in the group of M. terminalis (♀) × M. amblycephala (♂) (MT×MA), with a total of 86 variable sites between MT×MA and its female parent. Among the mitogenomes genes, the protein-coding gene nd5 displayed the highest variability. The number of variation sites was found to be related to phylogenetic relationship of the parents: the closer they are, the lower amount of variation sites their hybrids have. The second generation hybrids showed less mitogenome variation than that of first generation hybrids. The non-synonymous and synonymous substitution rates (dN/dS) were calculated between all the hybrids with their own female parents and the results indicated that most PCGs were under negative selection

Base composition of 17 mitogenome sequences.

<p>Base composition of 17 mitogenome sequences.</p