Objective: High data quality is essential to ensure the validity of clinical and research inferences based on it. However, these data quality assessments are often missing even though these data are used in daily practice and research. Our objective was to evaluate the data quality of our high-resolution electronic database (HRDB) implemented in our pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). Design: A prospective validation study of a HRDB. Setting: A 32-bed pediatric medical, surgical and cardiac PICU in a tertiary care freestanding maternal-child health center in Canada. Population: All patients admitted to the PICU with at least one vital sign monitored using a cardiorespiratory monitor connected to the central monitoring station. Interventions: None Measurements and Main Results: Between June 2017 and August 2018, data from 295 patient days were recorded from medical devices and 4,645 data points were video recorded and compared to the corresponding data collected in the HRDB. Statistical analysis showed an excellent overall correlation (R2=1), accuracy (100%), agreement (bias=0, limits of agreement=0), completeness (2% missing data) and reliability (ICC=1) between recorded and collected data within clinically significant pre-defined limits of agreement. Divergent points could all be explained. Conclusions: This prospective validation of a representative sample showed an excellent overall data quality.

Maternal effects have been well documented for offspring morphology and life history traits in plants and terrestrial animals, yet little is known about maternal effects in corals. Further, few studies have explored maternal effects in gene expression. In a previous study, F1 interspecific hybrid and purebred larvae of the coral species Acropora tenuis and A. loripes were settled and exposed to ambient or elevated temperature and pCO2 conditions for seven months. At this stage, the hybrid coral recruits from both ocean conditions exhibited strong maternal effects in several fitness traits. We conducted RNA-sequencing on samples from the same experiment and showed that gene expression of the hybrid Acropora also showed clear maternal effects. Only 40 genes were differentially expressed between hybrids and their maternal progenitor. In contrast, ~2000 differentially expressed genes were observed between hybrids and their paternal progenitors, and between the reciprocal F1 hybrids. These results indicate that maternal effects in coral gene expression can be long-lasting. Unlike findings from most short-term stress experiments in corals, no genes were differentially expressed in the hybrid nor purebred offspring after seven months of exposure to elevated temperature and pCO2 conditions.

Phaeodactylum tricornutum is a lipid-rich marine diatom that contains a high level of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, especially eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). In an effort to reduce costs for large-scale cultivation of this microalga, we first established a modified BBM medium (0.3 x strength BBM with 90% reduced phosphate content) to replace the traditional F/2 medium. P. tricornutum could grow in extremely low phosphate concentrations (25 µM), without compromising the EPA content. In the presence of sea salts, silicate addition was not necessary for high rate growth, high EPA content or lipid accumulation in this species. Using urea as the sole nitrogen source tended to increase EPA contents (by 24.7%) while not affecting growth performance. The use of sea salts, rather than just sodium chloride led to significantly improved biomass yields (20% increase) and EPA contents (46-52% increase), most likely because it supplied sufficient essential elements such as magnesium. A salinity level of 35 ppt led to significantly higher biomass yields compared to 20 ppt, but salinity had no significant influence on EPA content that reached high average levels of 51.8% of total fatty acids during exponential growth phase at 20 ppt in modified BBM medium with sea salts.

The prediction of future land cover changes is an important step in proper planning and management of watersheds. Various methods exist for this purpose. In this study, land cover changes were investigated in the Hable-Rud River basin in Iran, an arid and semi-arid region, using remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). First, a supervised classification technique was applied to Landsat images acquired for 1986, 2000 and 2017 using the maximum likelihood method. Then, using pixel-by-pixel change detection, the land cover changes were predicted for 2017 and 2040 using a Cellular Automata (CA)-Markov model. The descriptive variables used included slope, aspect, elevation, and calculated distances from various land features such as rivers, roads, industrial areas, residential areas, saline land, and land in agricultural production. The predictions for 2017 were validated using the derived map from a Landsat image of 2017 with a resulting standard Kappa index of 0.74. According to the prediction results for 2040, the areas of rangeland and saline land will increase by approximately 6.5% and 2%, respectively, whereas the areas of bare land and agricultural land will decrease by approximately 6% and 2%, respectively. Moreover, the analysis of historical records since 1986 showed that the annual streamflow and precipitation have reduced by almost 44% and 29%, respectively. The reductions, particularly to streamflow, can be attributed largely to agriculture expansion, rapid population growth, and industrial developments. The analysis of the results indicates a need for more effective design, planning, and development of land cover policies for ecosystem protection.

Changes in the catchment scale water balance have important social implications for usable water now and in the future. Stream discharge is also directly related to radionuclides flux in the river water system. The aim of this study was to clarify the water balance in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) under current and future climate conditions. A catchment scale hydrological model was used with long-term discharge data to project the future trend of radionuclides wash-off from the contaminated catchment at the CEZ in Ukraine. The Sakhan river catchment at the CEZ (51.41°N, 30.00°E) in Ukraine is one of the Pripyat river systems, and has a total surface area of 186.9 km2. We found that under the current climate, 84% of annual input (sum of rainfall and snowmelt) was consumed as evapotranspiration, and discharge was estimated to be 16%. In future climates, annual precipitation is expected to increase. However, a projected increase in the vapor pressure deficit led the consumption of precipitation as evapotranspiration and no significant increase in discharge. The study found that warmer winter and spring temperatures will decrease the snowfall, and increase the rainfall, but it was not enough to increase evapotranspiration. As a result, the peak of discharge shifted from April to March. The increase of future average discharge during the winter and spring came from a combination of (1) increasing rainfall in the winter and spring, and (2) relatively small levels of evapotranspiration, which enhanced the catchment scale water recharge in soil moisture and gave rise to greater discharge during winter and spring. The reduction of extreme river discharge from the hydrological projections could reduce the probability of high radionuclides concentration in the river water system in the future, owing to the reduction of surface runoff water from the contaminated surface soil and/or top layer of floodplain soils in the CEZ.

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH) is developing country facing extensive land degradation. As a post-conflict society with underlying poor socio-economic conditions, the value of land and its degradation status are not perceived to be an important problem neither a priority to address. BIH currently exists as a decentralized state, where land and land resources are under exclusive jurisdiction of two entities and one district, rather than state-level legislation. Complex land related administration between entities functioning independently from each other, and thus not sinchronized, leads to frequent political conflicts about land property, and limited data exchange which may exacerbate current land degradation. This paper investigates (i) the institutional setting and policy framework related to land, discussing the effectiveness and limitations of the current policies in this post-conflict society; (ii) stakeholders’ perception of land degradation under such complex institutional and policy structures; and (iii) the current state of land degradation, with a focus on soil erosion as one of the most important indicators in BIH. Communication and cooperation are major challenges for sustainable land management in post conflict societies. The existence of a policy framework is important, but not sufficient if implementation is weak and the perception of decision makers differs. Limited data on the impact of 1992 War on soil and land status represents an additional challenge to combat land degradation. Reliable national data on land degradation are crucial for assessment and development of strategic and policy frameworks devoted to those issues and to raise awareness on how to foster their implementation.

A document by Eugeniusz Gil. Click on the document to view its contents.

The temporal and spatial distribution of water resources over China has changed and may continue changing in the future under ongoing global warming. Scientific water resources management requires reliable forecasting of the change. Meanwhile, the performance of deep learning in achieving it has not been comprehensively explored. To fill this gap, deep learning, i.e., multilayer perceptron (MLP) in this study, is used to study the change of streamflow over China under climate changes. MLP is compared with other machine learning methods for investigating its strengths, and three river basins (i.e., Xiangxi, Jinghe and Zhongzhou) in central, northwestern and southeastern China, respectively are selected to represent hydrologic regimes over China. Four regional climate models are used to drive MLP for forecasting streamflow from 2021 to 2050 under two greenhouse-gas emission scenarios (i.e., RCPs 4.5 and 8.5). Modeling results show that MLP is more accurate than the other methods, especially in terms of peak streamflow volumes. Annual average temperature in the three basins will increase, while precipitation shows different changing trends. The simulation accuracies among the regional climate models (RCMs) are slightly different. Correspondingly, streamflow will increase, and the increments decrease from Jinghe, through Xiangxi, to Zhongzhou River Basins. Due to climate changes, flooding will become more frequent in Jinghe and Xiangxi River Basins, Jinghe River Basin will experience no runoff in winter, and the timing of peak runoffs in Zhongzhou River Basin will move forward. Compared with the RCP 4.5 scenario, the above trends are more obvious under the RCP 8.5 scenario.

The Arctic is warming at an unprecedented rate. One relatively under researched process is how seasonally frozen soils and changes thereof affect the water cycle. As frozen soils thaw, flow pathways within a watershed open, allowing for enhanced hydrologic connectivity between groundwater and rivers. As the connectivity of flow paths increase, the storage-discharge relationship of a watershed changes. The objective of this study is to quantify trends and spatio-temporal differences in the degree of linearity in the storage-discharge relationships for sixteen watersheds within Northern Sweden throughout the years of 1950 and 2018. We demonstrate a clear increase in non-linearity of the storage-discharge relationship over time for all catchments with twelve out of sixteen watersheds (75%) having a statistically significant increase in non-linearity. Springs have significantly more linear storage-discharge relationships than summer for twelve watersheds (75%), which supports the idea that seasonally frozen soil with a low degree of hydrological connectivity have a linear storage-discharge relationship. For the period considered, spring showed the greater change in storage-discharge relationship trends than summer, signifying changes in recessions are occurring during the thawing period. Separate storage-discharge analyses combined with preceding winter conditions demonstrated that especially cold winters with little snow yield springs and summers with more linear storage-discharge relationships. We show that streamflow recession analysis shows ongoing hydrological change of an arctic landscape as well as offers new metrics for tracking the change across arctic and sub-arctic landscapes.

Mulberry intercropped with alfalfa is a popular agroforestry system in China, which can produce high forage yields with high protein. To investigate the advantages of intercropping as well as the responses of mulberry-alfalfa intercropping systems to nitrogen application, we studied changes in the soil microbial communities and physiochemical properties in the rhizosphere of intercropped mulberry and alfalfa under nitrogen application. Nitrogen application increased available nitrogen contents (AN) and activities of urease (SUR) in rhizosphere soil of mulberry and alfalfa, but reduced soil organic canmatter (OM), irrespective of the cropping system (monoculture or intercropping). Nitrogen application increased soil pH in the rhizosphere of mulberry and alfalfa in monoculture, but reduced soil pH in the intercropped system. Nitrogen application and intercropping enhanced the soil water content (SWC) in mulberry rhizosphere soil and decreased SWC in alfalfa rhizosphere soil. We observed significant differences in the microbial communities inhabiting mulberry and alfalfa rhizosphere soils, indicating that mulberry and alfalfa are strategically complementary in terms of carbon sources. The Shannon-Weaver (H’), Simpson index (D), and McIntosh diversity (U) values were higher in rhizosphere soil of intercropped mulberry compared with mulberry in monoculture without nitrogen supply. There were no significant differences between mulberry in monoculture with nitrogen application (MNE) and mulberry intercropped alfalfa without nitrogen (M0). The results of the principal components analysis showed that MNE and M0 clustered in the scattered plots. We found no significant differences for H’ and D between monoculture and intercropping alfalfa systems, irrespective of the nitrogen application. Nitrogen application, intercropping, and intercropping with nitrogen increased the numbers of carbon sources, and relative use rates exceeded 4%. Nitrogen application and intercropping reduced the numbers of available carbon sources in alfalfa. Redundancy discriminatory analysis results suggest that pH and SWC were positively related with mulberry treatments and negatively with the alfalfa treatments.

The complex and enormous diversity of microbiome associated with plant roots is important for plant health and is shaped by numerous factors. This study aimed to unravel the effects of a pesticide-fertilizer combination on the rhizosphere microbiome of field-grown sugarcane. A field trial on sugarcane was conducted in Zhanjian city, Guangdong Province of China, and bulk soil and rhizosphere samples were collected 3 weeks after planting. We examined the effects of clothianidin and/or organic fertilizer treatments on the composition, diversity, and function of rhizosphere microbial communities using 16S rRNA gene and ITS1 gene amplicon sequencing. Compared with the controls (no pesticide or fertilizer used), the microbial community that resulted from treating with the pesticide-fertilizer (SPF) had a higher relative bacterial diversity and abundance, as well as contributing more comprehensive functions to sugarcane. The bacterial and fungal compositions at different taxonomic levels affected by clothianidin in the SPF and SP (with pesticide addition) were different from the effects experienced in the other treatments. With organic fertilizers added to SPF, the abundance of soil beneficial bacteria Bacillus, Paenibacillus, and Brevibacillus were highly improved, as well as the microbial function. It indicated that the SPF treatment could counteract the effects caused by mixing with clothianidin when compared to the SP treatment with only pesticide addition. Moreover, four bacterial genera including Dyella, Sphingomonas, Catenulispora, Mucilaginibacter, and Tumebacillus were significantly increased in the SPF and SP groups, which was reported to degrade clothianidin and could improve the soil health. The findings of the study provide insights into the interaction between the rhizosphere soil microbiome and a pesticide-fertilizer integration that may help improve application for pesticide-fertilizer in sugarcane fields.

Referee ReportPaper by Folmsbee and Hutchison is a great example of reproducible benchmark paper and weel suited for IJQC special issue. Both codes and data are available on GitHub. This paper compares the accuracy of various computational methods to evaluate single point energies of molecular conformers. Authors used DLPNO-CCSD(T) as a reference level of theory and benchmarked small-molecule force fields, semiempirical, DFT and several emerging machine learning (ML) techniques. This paper provides computational chemists with a substantial body of high accuracy data. Overall this paper could serve a solid practical guideline for applying approximate computational methods to a problem of conformer search. However, I identified several problems to be addressed before this paper could be accepted for publication. Specific comments (not in a particular order ) are below.The beauty of the availability of the code to review allowed me to run and reproduce some of the results of this paper. As one of the developers of ANI ML potential, I naturally tested our method first. Overall I applaud authors for advocating open science and open data. 1. All ANI models were are fitted to wB97x  DFT functional data *minus* D dispersion term. This is done because dispersion is an analytical ad hoc correction. The intention that at the run time dispersion should be added back. D3 could be easily computed with ASED3 code referenced in our GitHub.2. ANI timings are simply wrong. Therefore the TOC and Figure 4 are misleading. ANI timing is at least 100 times faster. The author's script is re-loading all python dependencies and compiles the neural network model for every conformer. This takes 2.45 out of 2.5 seconds of the run. Even with sequential energy evaluation on a CPU, it should be around 0.05s for the 2x model and probably ~0.025s for 1x/ccx . Additionally, the model could be pre-compiled with JIT and embedded into applications for even faster runs. Overall our code is native GPU and also naturally batch evaluation with multidimensional tensors. Therefore the recommended use is to load all conformers and evaluate them at once. Theoretically, all conformers for the same molecule could be computed for 0.1 seconds. I am happy to share my scripts. Most of them already are in out GitHub repos anyway. 3. Authors write:  In this work, in order to expand our range of computational methods, we only consider the relative single point energies from the same set of density-functional optimized geometries, comparing multiple current methods to a high-quality coupled cluster baseline.I think there is a fundamental flow of logic here, that ultimately hurts the value of this paper. In practical research settings where conformed sampling is used, there is no access to 3D geometries obtained with high-level QM methods. Therefore, I think the meaningful comparison would be conformed energies with geometries obtained by respective approximate methods. 4. A comparison between BOB/BAT/BATTY and ANI is also one-sided. BOB models are just molecular scorers, they just give you a number. In contrast, ANI and force fields are true automatic potentials with forces and analytic hessian. We can do geometry minimization, MD, etc.5. There is also a small pesky bug in the authors' scripts. They use different conversion factors au to kcal/mole in different places, therefore some of the energies are inaccurate to ~0.2 kcal.   

Background: The optimal duration of magnesium administration postpartum for prevention of eclampsia has not yet been established. Objective: To investigate the effect of early discontinuation of postpartum magnesium on the rates of postpartum eclampsia when compared to continuation for 24-hour postpartum. Search Strategy: Searches were performed using keywords related to “preeclampsia” and “magnesium sulfate” from inception of database until March 2019. Selection Criteria: Randomized controlled trials of women with preeclampsia receiving magnesium prior to delivery randomized to early discontinuation of magnesium postpartum. The control group was 24-hours of magnesium postpartum. Data Collection and Analysis: The primary outcome was the rate of postpartum eclampsia. Main Results: Eight RCTs with 2,183 women were included with five different magnesium administration time-frames. Eclampsia rates were not different between the two groups (5/1,088 (0.5%) after early discontinuation, versus 2/1,095 (0.2%) in the 24-hour group; RR 2.25, 95% CI 0.5-9.9, I2=0%, 8 studies, 2,183 participants). A number needed to treat was calculated; 370 women would need to receive 24-hours of magnesium postpartum to prevent one episode of postpartum eclampsia. The early discontinuation group had a significant decrease in time to ambulation and breastfeeding. Conclusions: Compared to continuation of magnesium for 24 hours postpartum, early magnesium discontinuation postpartum does not significantly increase the rate of postpartum eclampsia. The largest proportion of women did not receive magnesium postpartum after receiving at least 8 grams intrapartum, thus it is reasonable to consider discontinuation of magnesium postpartum if a woman has received similar adequate dose prior to delivery.

The host-pathogen combinations - Malus domestica (apple)/´Candidatus Phytoplasma mali´, Prunus persica (peach)/‘Ca. P. prunorum´ and Pyrus communis (pear)/‘Ca. P. pyri´ show different course of diseases although the phytoplasma strains belong to the same 16SrX group. While infected apple trees can survive for decades, peach and pear trees die within some weeks to few years period. So far, in these phytoplasma-plant interactions neither morphological nor physiological differences have been studied in the hosts. Phytoplasma-induced morphological changes of the vascular system as well as physiological changes of the phloem sap and leaf phytohormones were analysed and compared with non-infected plants. Unlike peach and pear, infected apple trees showed substantial reductions in leaf and vascular morphology, causing negative effects on phloem mass flow. In contrast, in pear mass flow and physicochemical characteristics of phloem sap increased. No changes in phytohormone levels were detected in pear but in apple and peach trees, where defence- and stress-related phytohormones increased. If compared with peach and pear trees, the data from apple suggest that the long-lasting morphological adaptations in the vascular system, which likely cause reduced sap flow, triggers the ability of apple trees to survive phytoplasma infection. Some phytohormone-mediated defences might support the tolerance.

Recently, a novel type of abiotic stress caused by a prolongation of the light period - coined photoperiod stress - has been described in Arabidopsis. During the night after the prolongation of the light period, stress and cell death marker genes are induced. The next day, strongly stressed plants display a reduced photosynthetic efficiency and leaf cells eventually enter programmed cell death. The phytohormone cytokinin (CK) acts as a negative regulator of this photoperiod stress syndrome. In this study, we show that Arabidopsis wild-type plants increase the CK concentration in response to photoperiod stress. Analysis of cytokinin synthesis and transport mutants revealed that root-derived trans-zeatin (tZ)-type CKs protect against photoperiod stress. The CK signaling proteins ARABIDOPSIS HISTIDINE PHOSPHOTRANSFER PROTEIN 2 (AHP2), AHP3 and AHP5 and transcription factors ARABIDOPSIS RESPONSE REGULATOR 2 (ARR2), ARR10 and ARR12 are required for the protective activity of CK. Analysis of higher order B-type arr mutants suggested that a complex regulatory circuit exists in which the loss of ARR10 or ARR12 can rescue the arr2 phenotype. Together the results revealed the role of root-derived CK acting in the shoot through the two-component signaling system to protect from the negative consequences of strong photoperiod stress.

Sarcophaga peregrina is usually considered to be of great ecological, medical and forensic significance, and has the biological characteristics such as the ovoviviparous reproductive pattern and adaptation to feed on carrion. However, the underlying mechanisms still remain unsolved by lack of high-quality genome. Here we present de novo–assembled genome at chromosome-scale for S. peregrina. The final assembled genome was 560.31 Mb with contig N50 of 3.84 Mb. Hi-C scaffolding reliably anchored six pseudochromosomes, accounting for 97.76% of the assembled genome. Moreover, 45.70% of repeat elements were identified in the genome. A total of 14,476 protein-coding genes were functionally annotated, accounting for 92.14% of all predicted genes. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that S. peregrina and S. bullata diverged ~7.14 Mya. Comparative genomic analysis revealed expanded and positively selected genes related to biological features that aid in clarifying its ovoviviparous reproduction and necrophagous habit, such as horionic membrane formation and Dorso-ventral axis formation, lipid metabolism, and olfactory receptor activity. This study provides a valuable genomic resource of S. peregrina, and sheds insight into further revealing the underlying molecular mechanisms of adaptive evolution.

Various characteristics of soybeans play important roles in the soybean oil quality. In this study, soybean chemical traits and ten characteristic parameters of soybean oil quality were evaluated for 58 varieties to determine the relationship between soybean chemical traits and the soybean oil quality characteristics by correlation analysis. After 7 of 58 soybean oil variety products were set as outliers by the Box-plot method, an evaluation model for the overall soybean oil quality was established based on ten parameters. Cluster analysis was used to classify 51 soybean oil varieties into three quality grades based on the oil quality evaluation model. A prediction model for the quality of the soybean oil based on the chemical traits of soybeans was constructed by stepwise regression. The relative errors between the actual values and the predicted values of the validation varieties were less than 10%. This study suggested that the total oil, daidzin, total phenolic, stearic acid, linolenic acid and ɑ-tocopherol contents may be useful for predicting the quality of soybean oil. Therefore, our study provides a valuable method to evaluate the quality of soybean oil products and important information for generating soybean varieties for soybean oil processing.

Performance of bubble columns under transport processes is dependent on bubble size distribution and void fraction. These multiphase parameters are sensitive to the operation regime of a bubble column. The current work presents a systematic study of bubble size and void fraction in a batch bubble column within the homogeneous and heterogeneous regimes. Effect of liquid viscosity and gas superficial velocity on bubble size distribution, void fraction, and operation regime was investigated. Results showed that increasing the viscosity accelerates the regime transition. Bubble size distributions were statistically characterized using probability density function and probability plots. It was shown that bubble size distribution shifts from near-Gaussian in the homogenous regime to lognormal (in parts) in the heterogeneous regime. Dimensional reasoning was used to scale the bubble size and void fraction with respect to the operation regime.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of virtual reality as a distraction technique in the management of acute pain and anxiety during outpatient hysteroscopy. Methods: A parallel group, prospective randomised controlled trial was conducted at a UK University Hospital (August to October 2018) (ClinicalTrials.gov Id: NCT03699280). Forty consenting, eligible women were randomised to virtual reality intervention (immersive video content as a distraction method) or standard care during outpatient hysteroscopy. Pain and anxiety outcomes were measured as a numeric rating score (scale of 0-10). Results: Compared to standard care, women with virtual reality intervention experienced less average pain (score 6.0 vs 3.7, mean difference 2.3, 95% CI 0.61-3.99, p=0.009) and anxiety (score 5.45 vs 3.3, mean difference 2.15, 95% CI 0.38-3.92, p=0.02). Conclusion: Virtual Reality was effective in reducing pain and anxiety during outpatient hysteroscopy in a pilot trial. Its wide potential role in ambulatory gynaecologic procedures needs further evaluation.

Sacrohysteropexy procedures require advanced suturing and dissection skills and are associated with complications such as mesh exposure, dyspareunia, ileus, de novo bowel dysfunction. New technique is composed of insertion of mid-urethral sling tape into the cervix vaginally and suspend of uterus bilaterally via free arms of tape under the peritoneal tunnel formed with the aid of modified semicircular disposable grasper. This novel hysteropexy technique is an easy, feasible and minimally invasive way to correct primarily apical or multicompartment defects with the advantages of a minimal mesh load, short operation time and anatomical result that mimics the normal sacrouterine ligament.

The study reports the responses of photosynthesis to NaCl stress in two C4 species: a glycophyte Setaria viridis (SV) and a halophyte Spartina alterniflora (SA). SV was unable to survive following exposure to NaCl level higher than 100 mM, in contrast, SA could tolerate NaCl up to 550 mM. Under different O2 concentrations, SV showed an increased P700 oxidation level following NaCl treatment, while SA showed almost no change. We also observed an activation of the NDH-dependent cyclic pathway in SV by about 2.4 times upon exposure to 50 mM NaCl for 12 days; however, its activity in SA dropped by about 25%. Using PTOX inhibitor (n-PG) and inhibitor of the Qo-binding site of Cytb6/f (DBMIB) to restrict electrons flow towards PSI, at either 2% or 21% O2, we showed an enhanced plastid terminal oxidase (PTOX) activity for SA but not for SV under NaCl stress. We further showed that both the mRNA and protein levels of PTOX increased by about 3~4 times for SA under NaCl stress but not or much less for SV. All these suggest that the up-regulation of PTOX is a major mechanism used by halotype C4 species SA to cope with salt stress.

Background and Purpose: PPARα/γ play an important role in glucose homeostasis and lipid metabolism making it an attractive anti‐diabetic target. Focusing on the development of PPARα/γ dual agonists, we evaluated the activity of phosphatidylcholine (EPA-PC) and phosphatidylethanolamine (EPA-PE) on PPARα/γ. Moreover, we investigated the long‐term effects of EPA-PC and EPA-PE on insulin resistance. Experimental Approach: The activities of EPA-PC/PE with respect PPARα/γ transcription were tested using a luciferase reporter gene assay, lipid binding assay and a Protein-Lipid overlay assay. Moreover, the agonistic effects of EPA-PC/PE on PPARα/γ were evaluated in HepG2 and 3T3L1. respectively. In a 3T3L1/Raw264.7 transwell system, the effect of EPA-PC/PE on macrophages polarization and inflammation were studied. In mice, we sought to determine if insulin resistance and lipid accumulation induced by high-fat high-sucrose diet, was attenuated by EPA-PC or EPA-PE diet (0.3% of diet). Key Results: EPA-PC/PE are potent PPARα/γ dual agonists, which promoted hepatic PPARα-mediated fatty acid oxidatio, and promoted the preadipocytes differentiation and PPARγ target genes expression in adipocytes. In mice on the HFSD, EPA-PC/PE significantly suppressed body weight gain and ameliorated insulin resistance as well as abnormal glucose and lipid metabolism. EPA-PC/PE could regulate PPARγ-responsive genes and slightly inhibited the phosphorylation of PPARγ at Ser273, resulted in adipose tissue remodeling. Finally, we found that EPA-PC/PE promoted macrophages polarization and attenuated inflammation in vitro and in vivo. Conclusion and Implications: These data indicate that the exogenous natural phospholipids, EPA-PC or EPA-PE, activate PPARα/γ, may be useful for the treatment of insulin resistance.

Although numerous studies have been conducted on niche and neutral theories to learn the drivers of species richness, few of them have demonstrated how to eliminate the influences of unlimited species numbers and absolute species equivalences which are contrary to many observations, and how to link space size with those drivers posited by the two theories. Here we present the environmental gradient per unit space metric that influences niche number, positively correlates with environmental filter and dispersal limitation and negatively correlates with space size occupied by each niche. This metric is incorporated with stochastic abundance and migration and equivalently average birth, death and dispersal of species. The simulation result of a model is consistent with the observation that a unimodal algal richness-water environmental gradient per unit space relationship. Therefore, the environmental gradient per unit space connecting deterministic and stochastic processes is an importantly measurable driver of species richness.

Climate changes has been shown to be related to the changes in the distributions of migratory species, which irreparably harms biodiversity. In this study, we evaluated the habitat change and population centroid shift for 7 orders and 23 different species on the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) Red List of migratory birds from 2014-2017 in current to mid-21st (2041-2700) century by Maximum Entropy method (MaxEnt) model. We found striking spatial variation in the suitability in geography, with Yangtze River basin losing 9.74% of suitable habitat and Pearl River basin losing 13% of habitat. The area of suitable habitat decreases over 3% of total habitat area in China under the RCP2.6, and decreases about 10% of total habitat area in China under RCP8.5 scenario, with the population centroid of habitat moving about 50 km to northeast on average. Furthermore, the suitability of migratory birds will decrease over 3% in future, which will be difficult for migratory birds to survive. The direction and distance of population centroid are different for every species. Most of the individual species in the study will move over 50 km and all the species will move towards to places with higher suitability. For the whole of China, the constraint for migratory birds is t_min. The dominant variable in southeast China is NDVI, and the northern China is altitude (alt). The decline in suitable habitat area and shift in population centroid will lead to the changes in the time and distance of migration process, resulting in more adverse conditions for the survival of migratory birds. Our study proves the adverse role of climate change in species distribution which is a prerequisite for protecting species in future.