Patterns and drivers of seasonal water sources for artificial sand-fixing plants in the northeastern Mu Us sandy land,Northwest China

Understanding plant water-use patterns is important for improving water-use efficiency and for sustainable vegetation restoration in arid and semi-arid regions. However, seasonal variations in water sources and their control by different sand-fixing plants in water-limited desert ecosystems remain poorly understood. In this study, stable isotopic ratios of hydrogen(δ^(2)H) and oxygen(δ^(18)O) in precipitation, soil water, groundwater, and xylem water were determined to document seasonal changes in water uptake by three representative plant species(Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica Litv., Amygdalus pedunculata Pall., and Salix psammophila) in the northeastern Mu Us sandy land, Northwest China. Based on the depth distribution and temporal variation of measured gravimetric soil water content(SWC), the soil water profile of the three species stands was divided into active(0.01 g g^(-1)< SWC < 0.08 g g^(-1), 20%< coefficient of variation(CV) < 45%), stable(0.02 g g^(-1)< SWC < 0.05 g g^(-1), CV < 20%), and moist(0.08 g g^(-1)< SWC < 0.20 g g^(-1), CV >45%) layers. Annually, P. sylvestris, A. pedunculata, and S. psammophila obtained most water from deep(59.2%±9.7%, moist layer and groundwater),intermediate(57.4%±9.8%, stable and moist layers), and shallow(54.4%±10.5%, active and stable layers) sources, respectively. Seasonally, the three plant species absorbed more than 60% of their total water uptake from the moist layer and groundwater in the early(June) dry season;then, they switched to the active and stable layers in the rainy season(July–September) for water resources(50.1%–62.5%). In the late(October–November) dry season, P. sylvestris(54.5%–66.2%) and A. pedunculata(52.9%–63.6%) mainly used water from stable and moist layers, whereas S. psammophila(52.6%–70.7%) still extracted water predominantly from active and stable layers. Variations in the soil water profile induced by seasonal fluctuations in precipitation and groundwater levels and discrepancies in plant phenology, root distribution, and water demand are the main factors affecting the seasonal water-use patterns of artificial sand-fixing plants. Our study addresses the issue of plant water uptake with knowledge of proportional source-water use and reveals important implications for future vegetation restoration and water management in the Mu Us sandy land and similar desert regions around the world.

Accuracy estimation of link-based similarity measures and its application

Link-based similarity measures play a significant role in many graph based applications. Consequently, mea- suring node similarity in a graph is a fundamental problem of graph data mining. Personalized PageRank （PPR） and Sim- Rank （SR） have emerged as the most popular and influen- tial link-based similarity measures. Recently, a novel link- based similarity measure, penetrating rank （P-Rank）, which enriches SR, was proposed. In practice, PPR, SR and P-Rank scores are calculated by iterative methods. As the number of iterations increases so does the overhead of the calcula- tion. The ideal solution is that computing similarity within the minimum number of iterations is sufficient to guaran- tee a desired accuracy. However, the existing upper bounds are too coarse to be useful in general. Therefore, we focus on designing an accurate and tight upper bounds for PPR, SR, and P-Rank in the paper. Our upper bounds are designed based on the following intuition： the smaller the difference between the two consecutive iteration steps is, the smaller the difference between the theoretical and iterative similar- ity scores becomes. Furthermore, we demonstrate the effec- tiveness of our upper bounds in the scenario of top-k similar nodes queries, where our upper bounds helps accelerate the speed of the query. We also run a comprehensive set of exper- iments on real world data sets to verify the effectiveness and efficiency of our upper bounds.

Effect of Antibacterial Enoxacin on the Properties of Injectable Nano-hydroxyapatite/Polyurethane Cement for Bone Repairing

Biomaterial-associated infection(BAI)is a kind of serious post-operative complication in orthopaedic surgery.Antibiotic-loaded bone cement shines a light on BAI prevention for convenient manipulation and complex filling.To this aim,we designed an antibacterial bone cement based on Nano-hydroxyapatite/Polyurethane(PUHA)loading with antibiotic Enoxacin(EN).The distinct shear-thinning behavior of the prepolymers was observed,indicating a good injectability.The PUHA bone cement possessed a suitable curing speed,and the addition of EN might slightly expedite the curing process and enhance the mechanical properties.The EN release profile indicated that the EN-loaded bone cement could reach the minimum inhibitory concentration in 2 h,and sustainedly released EN for almost 8 days,exhibiting an antibacterial delivery potential.Antibacterial test further confirmed the antibacterial ability of EN-loaded bone cement is in a dose-dependent manner.However,the osteogenic performance of drug-loaded bone cement with high dosage is not as good as antibacterial activity.When the EN concentration of antibacterial cement was lower than 32μg·mL^(-1),the proliferation and osteogenic differentiation of rat mesenchymal stem cells could be significantly promoted.Overall,this study verified the potential of the EN-loaded PUHA bone cement in anti-infection and osteogenesis for bone repairing.