Publications by authors named "Xiao-min Zeng"

Article Synopsis
  • The Vaganov-Shashkin (VS) and VS-Lite models are essential tools for understanding how tree-ring width responds to climate factors, with the VS model focusing on climate reconstruction and cambial activity, while VS-Lite is used for forecasting forest growth trends.
  • A review of literature from 2005 to 2023 highlighted the principles, settings, historical development, and various applications of these models in fields like dendroclimatology and forest ecology.
  • To improve model accuracy, future research should aim to optimize parameter adjustments, account for multiple environmental influences, and enhance comparisons with other ecological models.
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Article Synopsis
  • Jatropha curcas L., a versatile crop used for disease treatment and environmental restoration, is gaining attention for its oil, which can be used to produce biodiesel.
  • In June 2023, a leaf disease affecting around 60% of J. curcas was reported in Mazhang, Guangdong Province, displaying anthracnose symptoms.
  • The disease was studied by culturing infected tissue on potato dextrose agar, leading to the identification of Colletotrichum sp. through morphological characteristics and genetic sequencing.
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Hylocereus megalanthus (syn. Selenecereus megalanthus), commonly known as Yanwo fruit (bird's nest fruit), is an important tropical fruit, which is popular and widely planted due to its high nutritional and economic value in southern China. In September 2022, a serious stem and fruit canker was observed on Ecuadorian variety of Yanwo fruit plant in a 0.

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The application of potassium (K) in conjunction with nitrogen (N) has been shown to enhance N use efficiency. However, there is still a need for further understanding of the optimal ratios and molecular regulatory mechanisms, particularly in soil-cotton systems. Here, a field trial was conducted, involving varying rates of N and K, alongside pot and hydroponic experiments.

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Microbial residues contribute to the long-term stabilization of carbon in the entire soil profile, helping to regulate the climate of the planet; however, how sensitive these residues are to climatic seasonality remains virtually unknown, especially for deep soils across environmental gradients. Here, we investigated the changes of microbial residues along soil profiles (0-100 cm) from 44 typical ecosystems with a wide range of climates (~3100 km transects across China). Our results showed that microbial residues account for a larger portion of soil carbon in deeper (60-100 cm) vs.

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Soil contamination is one of the main threats to ecosystem health and sustainability. Yet little is known about the extent to which soil contaminants differ between urban greenspaces and natural ecosystems. Here we show that urban greenspaces and adjacent natural areas (i.

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Warming is known to reduce soil carbon (C) stocks by promoting microbial respiration, which is associated with the decomposition of microbial residue carbon (MRC). However, the relative contribution of MRC to soil organic carbon (SOC) across temperature gradients is poorly understood. Here, we investigated the contribution of MRC to SOC along two independent elevation gradients of our model system (i.

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The Yangtze River Economic Belt is one of the areas with rapid economic development in China, although the intensive industrial activities have aggravated the emissions of soil pollutants in this area. Industrial activities are important sources of soil heavy metal contamination; however, the spatial distribution and main emission sources of soil heavy metal contamination in industrial regions of the economic belt remain unclear. Here, we collected data on the concentrations of eight heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, Ni, Hg, As, and Zn) in the surface soils of 193 industrial regions covering 11 provinces and cities of the Yangtze River Economic Belt from China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Web of Science, and other public databases.

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Identifying the drivers of the response of soil microbial respiration to warming is integral to accurately forecasting the carbon-climate feedbacks in terrestrial ecosystems. Microorganisms are the fundamental drivers of soil microbial respiration and its response to warming; however, the specific microbial communities and properties involved in the process remain largely undetermined. Here, we identified the associations between microbial community and temperature sensitivity (Q) of soil microbial respiration in alpine forests along an altitudinal gradient (from 2974 to 3558 m) from the climate-sensitive Tibetan Plateau.

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Trait-based approaches provide a candidate framework for linking soil microbial community to ecosystem processes, yet how the trade-offs in different microbial traits regulate the community-level metabolic efficiency remains unknown. Herein we assessed the roles of the microbial taxa with particular trait strategies in mediating soil microbial metabolic efficiency along an altitude gradient on the Tibetan Plateau. Results showed that soil microbial metabolic efficiency declined with increasing altitude, as indicated by the increasing metabolic quotient (microbial respiration per unit biomass, qCO) and decreasing carbon use efficiency (CUE).

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The primary hydrogen (H) source for all organic compounds in the biosphere is from water, and then participates in biogeochemical cycles through photosynthesis and plant physiological metabolism. As a new proxy of paleoclimate and paleoenvironment, stable hydrogen isotope ratios in wood lignin methoxyl groups (δH) show great advantages in the studies of paleoclimatic change and have been used to reconstruct precipitation stable hydrogen isotope ratios and paleoclimate signals in many regions. Based on the lignin application mechanism and analysis method of δH, we evaluated the stability and effectiveness of δH-measurement method from lignin content and lignin monomer composition, and expounded the tree lignin methoxyl groups' stable isotope proxies of current research outcomes.

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Stable isotope ratios of tree ring can effectively record climate and environmental changes during tree growth and the physiological responses of trees to such changes. Intra-annual high resolution stable isotope ratios of tree ring can provide more detailed climatic and environmental information, reveal the physiological and ecological response mechanism of trees to seasonal climatic variation, and thus with great potential in the study of paleoclimate and global change ecology. Based on the intra-annual high resolution stable isotope ratios related literature since 1990, we reviewed the research progress of intra-annual high resolution tree ring stable isotope records in the aspects of sample stripping method, chemical extraction method of α-cellulose and application, and further proposed the potential and future development direction of intra-annual high resolution tree ring stable isotope records.

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Lichens play crucial roles in sustaining the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems; however, the diversity and ecological factors associated with lichenised soil fungi remain poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap, we used a global field survey including information on fungal sequences of topsoils from 235 terrestrial ecosystems. We identified 880 lichenised fungal phylotypes across nine biomes ranging from deserts to tropical forests.

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Phosphorus (P) is an important nutrient for plant and microbial growth. Soil P availabi-lity is poor in subtropical areas. Long-term heavy nitrogen (N) deposition might further reduce P availability.

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The subtropical zone in China is one of the regions most affected by nitrogen deposition. Soil dissolved organic matter (DOM) is considered to be an important indicator of soil organic matter. Nitrogen deposition may alter the quality and quantity of soil DOM by changing soil microbial activity.

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Soil P fraction, microbial biomass P (MBP), and activities of acid phosphomonoesterase (ACP) and phosphodiesterase (PD) were analyzed under evergreen broad-leaved forest, mixed forest and coniferous forest in Daiyun Mountains. The results showed that labile-P comprised only 1.0%-4.

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Purpose: The relationship between thymidylate synthase (TS) expression and outcomes in gastric cancer (GC) patients remains controversial, although most studies reported poor survival and reduced response to fluoropyrimidine were related to high TS in tumors. We carried out a systematic review of the literature with meta-analysis to estimate the predictive value of TS expression from published studies.

Methods: We identified 24 studies analysing the outcome data in gastric cancer stratified by TS expression.

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The aim of the present study was to evaluate the impact of the UCP2-866 G/A polymorphism on the efficacy of repaglinide in treating patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 (T2DM). 370 patients with T2DM and 166 healthy volunteers were enrolled to identify UCP2-866 G/A genotypes. 16 patients with GG genotype, 14 with GA genotype and 11 with AA genotype of UCP2-866 G/A underwent an 8-week repaglinide treatment regimen.

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Objective: To evaluate the associations between polymorphisms of LEPR Gln223Arg, LEPR Pro1019Pro and the risk on obesity.

Methods: A computerized search on literature was carried out in Wanfang, CNKI, VIP databases and CBM, PubMed, EMBASE databases to collect articles published between 1979 and 2010 concerning the associations between polymorphisms of LEPR Gln223Arg and/or LEPR Pro1019Pro and risk of obesity in the Chinese population. Odds ratios (ORs) were used to assess the strength of the association, and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) to present the precision of the estimates.

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Objective: To comprehensively evaluate the effect of interventions on obesity in Chinese pupils.

Methods: A literature research was carried out in China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Data, VIP Database for Chinese Technical Periodicals, PubMed and the Excerpts Medica Database (EMBASE) databases to collect articles published between 1979 and 2010 concerning the effect of interventions for preventing obesity in Chinese pupils. Rate difference (RD) of the rate of obesity as the evaluation indicator was selected to Meta-analyze the effect of interventions on obesity.

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Article Synopsis
  • - Previous studies linked specific HLA-B types (like HLA-B35 and HLA-B38) to increased risk of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in Chinese populations, suggesting genetic factors influence susceptibility to this cancer.
  • - The MICA gene, which is adjacent to HLA-B and plays a role in immune response, was hypothesized to be associated with NPC; researchers analyzed its variants in 218 NPC patients and 196 healthy controls.
  • - Results showed that the MICA*A9 variant was significantly more common in NPC patients, while MICA*A5.1 was less frequent, especially among males, highlighting a potential gender-specific genetic risk factor for NPC.
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