[Spatio-temporal variations of vegetation cover in semi-arid regions and its response to climate change: A case study of Xilin Gol, Inner Mongolia, China].

The quantitative analysis of spatio-temporal variations of vegetation cover and its correlation with climate are of great significance for understanding of ecological environment, ecological civilization construction, and sustainable development in semi-arid areas. We investigated the spatio-temporal variations of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and its response to climate change during 2000-2020 in Xilin Gol, Inner Mongolia, by using trend analysis, regression analysis and partial correlation analysis based on the data of MODIS-NDVI, tempe-rature, precipitation, digital elevation model. The results showed that vegetation cover in Xilin Gol had been increased from 2000 to 2020, which generally included three phases, , stable fluctuation, rapid growth, and steady growth.

Virtual ecological technology: Concepts, systems, and application perspectives.

Virtual ecological technology is a new technology that builds the foundation of a digital ecological system, simulates the process of ecological evolution, and establishes a global knowledge analysis system based on a unified spatio-temporal benchmark. It is a new direction for the interdisciplinary integration and development of eco-logy, geographic information science, computer science and other subjects towards modernization, informatization, and intelligence. Research, development, and application of virtual ecological technology is of great significance for the development of ecology as a discipline, ecosystem management, and regional sustainable development.

Smart deworming collar: A novel tool for reducing Echinococcus infection in dogs.

Echinococcosis is a serious zoonotic parasitic disease transmitted from canines to humans and livestock. Periodic deworming is recommended by the WHO/OIE as a highly effective measure against echinococcosis. However, manual deworming involves significant challenges, particularly in remote areas with scarce resources.

A remote management system for control and surveillance of echinococcosis: design and implementation based on internet of things.

Background: As a neglected cross-species parasitic disease transmitted between canines and livestock, echinococcosis remains a global public health concern with a heavy disease burden. In China, especially in the epidemic pastoral communities on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the harsh climate, low socio-economic status, poor overall hygiene, and remote and insufficient access to all owned dogs exacerbate the difficulty in implementing the ambitious control programme for echinococcosis. We aimed to design and implement a remote management system (RMS) based on internet of things (IoT) for control and surveillance of echinococcosis by combining deworming devices to realise long-distance smart deworming control, smooth statistical analysis and result display.

One-step generation of composite soybean plants with transgenic roots by Agrobacterium rhizogenes-mediated transformation.

Background: Agrobacterium rhizogenes-mediated (ARM) transformation is a highly efficient technique for generating composite plants composed of transgenic roots and wild-type shoot, providing a powerful tool for studying root biology. The ARM transformation has been established in many plant species, including soybean. However, traditional transformation of soybean, transformation efficiency is low.

[Spatial heterogeneity of soil fungal diversity in area with presence of Stellera chamaejasme on the degraded alpine meadow].

Stellera chamaejasme is one of the most serious weeds in Qinhai-Tibetan Plateau, the rapid expansion of which exerts an increasing effect on the alpine meadow ecosystem. With high-throughput sequencing technology, geostatistics and GIS method, the spatial heterogeneity of soil fungal diversity in Stellera occurrence area and the spatial correlation between Stellera coverage and soil fungal diversity were investigated in a typical degraded alpine meadow of the Qilian Mountain. Compared to no-Stellera area, the fungi richness in Stellera area decreased, the dominance increased, and the α-diversity reduced.

High expression of HLA-DQA1 predicts poor outcome in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in Northern China.

Background: Our previous studies demonstrate that the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is associated with the progression of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). HLA-DQA1, which belongs to the MHC Class II family, may be a potential biomarker in ESCC progression. However, the association between HLA-DQA1 and ESCC in high-incidence area of northern China has not been well characterized.

[Spatial-temporal process and characteristics of vegetation recovery after Wenchuan earthquake: A case study in Longxi River basin of Dujiangyan, China.].

Quantitative evaluation on the vegetation recovery after the earthquake is of great scienti-fic significance for local ecological system rebuilding and regional social-economic sustainable deve-lopment. By taking the Longxi River Basin in Dujiangyan of Sichuan Province as an example, and employing the MODIS-NDVI time-series data, this paper illustrated the dynamic changes of the ve-getation cover rates in Longxi River basin before and after the 5.12 Wenchuan Earthquake by using Landsat data, and then time-space characters of the recovery rates of the damaged vegetation was quantified structurally by referring the factors of river-system and terrain.

[Remote Sensing Estimation of Plant Litter Cover Based on the Spectra of Plant Litter-Soil Mixed Scenes].

Quantifying plant litter cover is important to evaluate the effectiveness of vegetation to protect soil against soil erosion. Field campaign was carried out in the Loess Hilly-gully Region of Northern Shaanxi to acquire the spectral reflectance data of plant-soil mixed scenes for two broadleaf forests and rehabilitated grassland. Spectral behavior of plant-soil mixed scenes was analyzed and the effectiveness of hyperspectral indexes NDLI (normalized difference lignin index) and CAI (cellulose absorption index) for quantifying plant litter cover was evaluated based on lab and field experiments.

[Extraction of spectral difference characteristics of Stellera chamaejasme in Qilian County of Qinghai Province, Northwest China].

Stellera chamaejasme is one of the main poisonous weeds distributed in alpine meadow of Qinghai Province. Rapid spreading of S. chamaejasme has done serious harm to local animal husbandry and caused continuous grassland ecosystem degradation.

Maintaining the predictive abilities of multivariate calibration models by spectral space transformation.

In quantitative on-line/in-line monitoring of chemical and bio-chemical processes using spectroscopic instruments, multivariate calibration models are indispensable for the extraction of chemical information from complex spectroscopic measurements. The development of reliable multivariate calibration models is generally time-consuming and costly. Therefore, once a reliable multivariate calibration model is established, it is expected to be used for an extended period.

Calibration of multiplexed fiber-optic spectroscopy.

Large-scale commercial bioprocesses that manufacture biopharmaceutical products such as monoclonal antibodies generally involve multiple bioreactors operated in parallel. Spectra recorded during in situ monitoring of multiple bioreactors by multiplexed fiber-optic spectroscopies contain not only spectral information of the chemical constituents but also contributions resulting from differences in the optical properties of the probes. Spectra with variations induced by probe differences cannot be efficiently modeled by the commonly used multivariate linear calibration models or effectively removed by popular empirical preprocessing methods.

Receptor-mediated gene delivery using polyethylenimine (PEI) coupled with polypeptides targeting FGF receptors on cells surface.

Objective: To construct a novel kind of nonviral gene delivery vector based on polyethylenimine (PEI) conjugated with polypeptides derived from ligand FGF with high transfection efficiency and according to tumor targeting ability.

Methods: The synthetic polypeptides CR16 for binding FGF receptors was conjugated to PEI and the characters of the polypeptides including DNA condensing and particle size were determined. Enhanced efficiency and the targeting specificity of the synthesized vector were investigated in vitro and in vivo.

[Preparation of mB7.1-GPI and SEA-TM dual-anchored tumor cell vaccine and its antitumor effect].

Objective: To prepare the SEA-TM and mB7.1-GPI dual-anchored EL-4 cell vaccine and to investigate its antitumor effects.

Methods: mB7.

[Gene transfer by novel non-viral vector polyethylenimine].

Objective: To investigate the influencing factors of polyethylenimine (PEI) in gene transfer in vitro.

Methods: Cytotoxic effects of PEI on in vitro cultured NIH 3T3 cells were quantified by MTT assay. The interaction between PEI and DNA at different charge ratios was analyzed by agarose gel electrophoresis retardation assay.