As the novel coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)and its variants continue to rage into the second year of a global pandemic,many success stories of applying Chinese herbal medicine(CHM)to treat COVID-19 patients contin...As the novel coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)and its variants continue to rage into the second year of a global pandemic,many success stories of applying Chinese herbal medicine(CHM)to treat COVID-19 patients continue to emerge from China and other part of the world.Herewith,from a systems medicine perspective,the authors analyze those experiences and categorize them into four major treatment principles:(1)focusing on eliminating toxins in the early stage of the disease,(2)tonifying deficiency of the body throughout the entire disease course,(3)treating the affected lung and intestine simultaneously based on visceral interactions,(4)cooling blood and removing blood stasis at the later stage,as well as interpret the rationale of these principles.This is helpful not only in reducing the complexity of promoting the CHM applications to enhance anti-COVID-19 efficacy,but also in ramping out the process of integrating traditional Chinese medicine with modern medical practices.展开更多
Primary central nervous system lymphoma(PCNSL) is a rare disorder that, in 95% of cases, represents diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. As such, making an accurate diagnosis is important. At present, stereotactic-guided bi...Primary central nervous system lymphoma(PCNSL) is a rare disorder that, in 95% of cases, represents diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. As such, making an accurate diagnosis is important. At present, stereotactic-guided biopsy is a recognized method of choice for tissue analysis. However, the diagnostic work-up for high-risk patients is determined by their performance status. Here,we report a case of PCNSL in a high-risk patient, for whom diagnosis was established by cerebrospinal fluid cytology and flow cytometry, which significantly shortened a diagnostic work-up period and allowed for the immediate treatment of the patient.展开更多
Precipitation is the major driver of ecosystem functions and processes in semiarid and arid regions. In such waterlimited ecosystems, pulsed water inputs directly control the belowground processes through a series of ...Precipitation is the major driver of ecosystem functions and processes in semiarid and arid regions. In such waterlimited ecosystems, pulsed water inputs directly control the belowground processes through a series of soil drying and rewetting cycles. To investigate the effects of sporadic addition of water on soil CO2 effux, an artificial precipitation event (3 mm) was applied to a desert shrub ecosystem in the Mu Us Sand Land of the Ordos Plateau in China. Soil respiration rate increased 2.8 4.1 times immediately after adding water in the field, and then it returned to background level within 48 h. During the experiment, soil CO2 production was between 2 047.0 and 7 383.0 mg m^-2. In the shrubland, soil respiration responses showed spatial variations, having stronger pulse effects beneath the shrubs than in the interplant spaces. The spatial variation of the soil respiration responses was closely related with the heterogeneity of soil substrate availability. Apart from precipitation, soil organic carbon and total nitrogen pool were also identified as determinants of soil CO2 loss in desert ecosystems.展开更多
Understanding the soil taxonomy and distribution characteristics of the permafrost region in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau(QTP) is very important. On the basis of extensive field surveys and experimental analysis, this st...Understanding the soil taxonomy and distribution characteristics of the permafrost region in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau(QTP) is very important. On the basis of extensive field surveys and experimental analysis, this study carries out soil taxonomic classification of the permafrost region in the QTP. According to Chinese Soil Taxonomy, the soil of the permafrost region in the QTP can be divided into 6 Orders(Histosols, Aridosols, Gleyosols, Isohumosols, Cambosols, Primosols), 11 Suborders, 19 Groups and 24 Subgroups. Cambosols are the dominant soil type in the permafrost region, followed by Aridosols. From the east to the west of the permafrost region in the QTP, the soil type gradually changes from Cambosols to Aridosols, showing a meridional zonality. The eastern region is dominated by Cambosols, with no obvious latitudinal zonality. From the south to the northwest of the western region, the dominance of Aridosols and Cambosols gradually transited to Aridosols, presenting a latitudinal zonality. The soil in the western region shows a poor vertical zonality, while the distribution of suborders of Cambosols in the eastern region shows a more obvious vertical zonality. The result indicates that precipitation and vegetation are the main factors that influence the zonal distribution of soil. The permafrost in the east has some effect on the vertical soil zonality, but the effect is weakened in the west.展开更多
Alpine ecosystems in permafrost region are extremely sensitive to climate changes.To determine spatial pattern variations in alpine meadow and alpine steppe biomass dynamics in the permafrost region of the Qinghai-Tib...Alpine ecosystems in permafrost region are extremely sensitive to climate changes.To determine spatial pattern variations in alpine meadow and alpine steppe biomass dynamics in the permafrost region of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau,China,calibrated with historical datasets of above-ground biomass production within the permafrost region's two main ecosystems,an ecosystem-biomass model was developed by employing empirical spatialdistribution models of the study region's precipitation,air temperature and soil temperature.This model was then successfully used to simulate the spatio-temporal variations in annual alpine ecosystem biomass production under climate change.For a 0.44°C decade-1 rise in air temperature,the model predicted that the biomasses of alpine meadow and alpine steppe remained roughly the same if annual precipitation increased by 8 mm per decade-1,but the biomasses were decreased by 2.7% and 2.4%,respectively if precipitation was constant.For a 2.2°C decade-1 rise in air temperature coupled with a 12 mm decade-1 rise in precipitation,the model predicted that the biomass of alpine meadow was unchanged or slightly increased,while that of alpine steppe was increased by 5.2%.However,in the absence of any rise in precipitation,the model predicted 6.8% and 4.6% declines in alpine meadow and alpine steppe biomasses,respectively.The response of alpine steppe biomass to the rising air temperatures and precipitation was significantly lesser and greater,respectively than that of alpine meadow biomass.A better understanding of the difference in alpine ecosystem biomass production under climate change is greatly significant with respect to the influence of climate change on the carbon and water cycles in the permafrost regions of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.展开更多
This article mainly introduced the research progress of the carbon accumulation on grassland ecological system, which is under the condition of the carbon cycle and the climate change in China. And in carbon cycle and...This article mainly introduced the research progress of the carbon accumulation on grassland ecological system, which is under the condition of the carbon cycle and the climate change in China. And in carbon cycle and the carbon storage on the terrestrial ecosystem, the author also analyzed the status and functions of the Chinese grassland ecological system. Based on the evaluation of the primary productivity, soil organic carbon and dry falling objects, herding utilization, the grass reclamation and other factors that affect carbon accumulation on grassland ecological system, the author then put forward the primal problems and the prospect of the research on China's carbon accumulation of grassland ecological system. The future of carbon stock volume in grassland ecosystem in China has great potential, the fixed carbon content is about 152 Tg/a, far more than the United States, Canada, Russia and other countries.展开更多
As human beings,people coordinate movements and interact with the environment through sensory information and motor adaptation in the daily lives.Many characteristics of these interactions can be studied using optimiz...As human beings,people coordinate movements and interact with the environment through sensory information and motor adaptation in the daily lives.Many characteristics of these interactions can be studied using optimization-based models,which assume that the precise knowledge of both the sensorimotor system and its interactive environment is available for the central nervous system(CNS).However,both static and dynamic uncertainties occur inevitably in the daily movements.When these uncertainties are taken into consideration,the previously developed models based on optimization theory may fail to explain how the CNS can still coordinate human movements which are also robust with respect to the uncertainties.In order to address this problem,this paper presents a novel computational mechanism for sensorimotor control from a perspective of robust adaptive dynamic programming(RADP).Sharing some essential features of reinforcement learning,which was originally observed from mammals,the RADP model for sensorimotor control suggests that,instead of identifying the system dynamics of both the motor system and the environment,the CNS computes iteratively a robust optimal control policy using the real-time sensory data.An online learning algorithm is provided in this paper,with rigorous convergence and stability analysis.Then,it is applied to simulate several experiments reported from the past literature.By comparing the proposed numerical results with these experimentally observed data,the authors show that the proposed model can reproduce movement trajectories which are consistent with experimental observations.In addition,the RADP theory provides a unified framework that connects optimality and robustness properties in the sensorimotor system.展开更多
Understanding the response of ecosystems to past climate is critical for evaluating the impacts of future climate changes.A large-scale abrupt shift of vegetation in response to the Holocene gradual climate changes ha...Understanding the response of ecosystems to past climate is critical for evaluating the impacts of future climate changes.A large-scale abrupt shift of vegetation in response to the Holocene gradual climate changes has been well documented for the Sahara-Sahel ecosystem. Whether such a non-linear response is of universal significance remains to be further addressed. Here,we examine the vegetation-climate relationships in central Asia based on a compilation of 38 high-quality pollen records. The results show that the Holocene vegetation experienced two major abrupt shifts, one in the early Holocene(Shift I, establishing shift) and another in the late Holocene(Shift II, collapsing shift), while the mid-Holocene vegetation remained rather stable. The timings of these shifts in different regions are asynchronous, which are not readily linkable with any known abrupt climate shifts,but are highly correlated with the local rainfalls. These new findings suggest that the observed vegetation shifts are attributable to the threshold effects of the orbital-induced gradual climate changes. During the early Holocene, the orbital-induced precipitation increase would have first reached the threshold for vegetation "establishment" for moister areas, but significantly later for drier areas. In contrast, the orbital-induced precipitation decrease during the late Holocene would have first reached the threshold, and led to the vegetation "collapse" for drier areas, but delayed for moister areas. The well-known 4.2 kyr BP drought event and human intervention would have also helped the vegetation collapses at some sites. These interpretations are strongly supported by our surface pollen-climate analyses and ecosystem simulations. These results also imply that future climate changes may cause abrupt changes in the dry ecosystem once the threshold is reached.展开更多
In the context of climate change,research on extreme climates and disaster risk management has become a crucial component of climate change adaptation.Local communities,which have been facing extreme climates for a lo...In the context of climate change,research on extreme climates and disaster risk management has become a crucial component of climate change adaptation.Local communities,which have been facing extreme climates for a long time in their production and daily life,have developed some locally applicable traditional knowledge that has played an important role in their adaptation to extreme climate and disaster risk management.Therefore,this research aims to link Local knowledge(LK)to community extreme climate disaster risk management in order to construct a conceptual model.It then takes the extreme climate adaptation strategy of traditional nomads in a temperate grassland of China as an example to analyze the role of LK in extreme climate adaptation using the proposed theoretical framework.The main research objectives of this study are:(1)To construct a conceptual model to illustrate the relations among extreme climate events,risk management,LK,and farmers’adaptation strategies;(2)To apply the theoretical framework to a field case to reveal context-specific extreme climate adaptation mechanisms with LK as a critical component;(3)To test the framework and provide suggestions for the extreme climates adaptation,and the conservation of LK related to climate change adaptation.The results show that from the perspective of disaster risk management,local communities could manage extreme climates as a disaster risk through adaptation strategies formed from LK,because as a knowledge system,LK contains relevant knowledge covering the whole process of disaster risk management.展开更多
To investigate characteristics of H isotope variation in long-chain n-alkanes (δDn-alkanes) from higher plants in surface soils under a single ecosystem, 12 samples from a basalt regolith were randomly collected fr...To investigate characteristics of H isotope variation in long-chain n-alkanes (δDn-alkanes) from higher plants in surface soils under a single ecosystem, 12 samples from a basalt regolith were randomly collected from Damaping in Wanquan County of Zhangjiakou in North China. Molecular distribution and C (δ^13Cn-alkanes) and H isotopes of long-chain n-alkanes, as well as C isotopes of TOC (δ^13CTOC), were analyzed. Both δ^13CTOC and δ^13Cn-alkanes values from four representative dominant long-chain n-alkanes (n-C27, n-C29, n-C31, n-C33) derived from terrestrial higher plants show minor variations among the 12 samples, indicating the major contributor is from local grasses with a uniform C3 photosynthetic pathway. In contrast, variations in δ^13Cn-alkanes values of the four long-chain n-alkanes are relatively large, with the more abundant homologs generally showing more negative δDn-alkanes values and less variation. However, variation of 〈30‰ among weighted averaged δDn-alkanes values of the four long-chain n-alkanes is not only less than that among δDn-alkanes values for different modern terrestrial C3 grasses from the specific locations, but also less than the literature values of δDn-alkanes of long-chain n-alkanes for single species over different seasons. Thus, because the sources of long-chain n-alkanes in surface soils and sediments are similarly from multiple individual plants, our results are significant in confirming that paleoclimatic, paleoenvironmental and paleohydrological information can be interpreted more accurately from δDn-alkanes values of long-chain n-alkanes from sediments, particularly terrestrial sediments with organic matter derived from in-situ plants.展开更多
文摘As the novel coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19)and its variants continue to rage into the second year of a global pandemic,many success stories of applying Chinese herbal medicine(CHM)to treat COVID-19 patients continue to emerge from China and other part of the world.Herewith,from a systems medicine perspective,the authors analyze those experiences and categorize them into four major treatment principles:(1)focusing on eliminating toxins in the early stage of the disease,(2)tonifying deficiency of the body throughout the entire disease course,(3)treating the affected lung and intestine simultaneously based on visceral interactions,(4)cooling blood and removing blood stasis at the later stage,as well as interpret the rationale of these principles.This is helpful not only in reducing the complexity of promoting the CHM applications to enhance anti-COVID-19 efficacy,but also in ramping out the process of integrating traditional Chinese medicine with modern medical practices.
文摘Primary central nervous system lymphoma(PCNSL) is a rare disorder that, in 95% of cases, represents diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. As such, making an accurate diagnosis is important. At present, stereotactic-guided biopsy is a recognized method of choice for tissue analysis. However, the diagnostic work-up for high-risk patients is determined by their performance status. Here,we report a case of PCNSL in a high-risk patient, for whom diagnosis was established by cerebrospinal fluid cytology and flow cytometry, which significantly shortened a diagnostic work-up period and allowed for the immediate treatment of the patient.
基金Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 40730105, 40501072 and 40673067)the National Key Basic Research Program (973 Program) of China (No. 2002CB412503)the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. KZCX2-YW-149)
文摘Precipitation is the major driver of ecosystem functions and processes in semiarid and arid regions. In such waterlimited ecosystems, pulsed water inputs directly control the belowground processes through a series of soil drying and rewetting cycles. To investigate the effects of sporadic addition of water on soil CO2 effux, an artificial precipitation event (3 mm) was applied to a desert shrub ecosystem in the Mu Us Sand Land of the Ordos Plateau in China. Soil respiration rate increased 2.8 4.1 times immediately after adding water in the field, and then it returned to background level within 48 h. During the experiment, soil CO2 production was between 2 047.0 and 7 383.0 mg m^-2. In the shrubland, soil respiration responses showed spatial variations, having stronger pulse effects beneath the shrubs than in the interplant spaces. The spatial variation of the soil respiration responses was closely related with the heterogeneity of soil substrate availability. Apart from precipitation, soil organic carbon and total nitrogen pool were also identified as determinants of soil CO2 loss in desert ecosystems.
基金financially supported by the National Major Scientific Project of China "Cryospheric Change and Impacts Research" program "Research of permafrost hydrothermal process and its response to climate change" (Grant No. 2013CBA01803)Chinese Academy of Sciences (KJZD-EW-G03-02)
文摘Understanding the soil taxonomy and distribution characteristics of the permafrost region in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau(QTP) is very important. On the basis of extensive field surveys and experimental analysis, this study carries out soil taxonomic classification of the permafrost region in the QTP. According to Chinese Soil Taxonomy, the soil of the permafrost region in the QTP can be divided into 6 Orders(Histosols, Aridosols, Gleyosols, Isohumosols, Cambosols, Primosols), 11 Suborders, 19 Groups and 24 Subgroups. Cambosols are the dominant soil type in the permafrost region, followed by Aridosols. From the east to the west of the permafrost region in the QTP, the soil type gradually changes from Cambosols to Aridosols, showing a meridional zonality. The eastern region is dominated by Cambosols, with no obvious latitudinal zonality. From the south to the northwest of the western region, the dominance of Aridosols and Cambosols gradually transited to Aridosols, presenting a latitudinal zonality. The soil in the western region shows a poor vertical zonality, while the distribution of suborders of Cambosols in the eastern region shows a more obvious vertical zonality. The result indicates that precipitation and vegetation are the main factors that influence the zonal distribution of soil. The permafrost in the east has some effect on the vertical soil zonality, but the effect is weakened in the west.
基金funded by the National Basic Research Program (also called 973 Program) (Grant No.2007CB411504)the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.40925002 and No.40730634)
文摘Alpine ecosystems in permafrost region are extremely sensitive to climate changes.To determine spatial pattern variations in alpine meadow and alpine steppe biomass dynamics in the permafrost region of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau,China,calibrated with historical datasets of above-ground biomass production within the permafrost region's two main ecosystems,an ecosystem-biomass model was developed by employing empirical spatialdistribution models of the study region's precipitation,air temperature and soil temperature.This model was then successfully used to simulate the spatio-temporal variations in annual alpine ecosystem biomass production under climate change.For a 0.44°C decade-1 rise in air temperature,the model predicted that the biomasses of alpine meadow and alpine steppe remained roughly the same if annual precipitation increased by 8 mm per decade-1,but the biomasses were decreased by 2.7% and 2.4%,respectively if precipitation was constant.For a 2.2°C decade-1 rise in air temperature coupled with a 12 mm decade-1 rise in precipitation,the model predicted that the biomass of alpine meadow was unchanged or slightly increased,while that of alpine steppe was increased by 5.2%.However,in the absence of any rise in precipitation,the model predicted 6.8% and 4.6% declines in alpine meadow and alpine steppe biomasses,respectively.The response of alpine steppe biomass to the rising air temperatures and precipitation was significantly lesser and greater,respectively than that of alpine meadow biomass.A better understanding of the difference in alpine ecosystem biomass production under climate change is greatly significant with respect to the influence of climate change on the carbon and water cycles in the permafrost regions of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
文摘This article mainly introduced the research progress of the carbon accumulation on grassland ecological system, which is under the condition of the carbon cycle and the climate change in China. And in carbon cycle and the carbon storage on the terrestrial ecosystem, the author also analyzed the status and functions of the Chinese grassland ecological system. Based on the evaluation of the primary productivity, soil organic carbon and dry falling objects, herding utilization, the grass reclamation and other factors that affect carbon accumulation on grassland ecological system, the author then put forward the primal problems and the prospect of the research on China's carbon accumulation of grassland ecological system. The future of carbon stock volume in grassland ecosystem in China has great potential, the fixed carbon content is about 152 Tg/a, far more than the United States, Canada, Russia and other countries.
基金supported in part by the US National Science Foundation Grant Nos.ECCS-1101401 and ECCS-1230040
文摘As human beings,people coordinate movements and interact with the environment through sensory information and motor adaptation in the daily lives.Many characteristics of these interactions can be studied using optimization-based models,which assume that the precise knowledge of both the sensorimotor system and its interactive environment is available for the central nervous system(CNS).However,both static and dynamic uncertainties occur inevitably in the daily movements.When these uncertainties are taken into consideration,the previously developed models based on optimization theory may fail to explain how the CNS can still coordinate human movements which are also robust with respect to the uncertainties.In order to address this problem,this paper presents a novel computational mechanism for sensorimotor control from a perspective of robust adaptive dynamic programming(RADP).Sharing some essential features of reinforcement learning,which was originally observed from mammals,the RADP model for sensorimotor control suggests that,instead of identifying the system dynamics of both the motor system and the environment,the CNS computes iteratively a robust optimal control policy using the real-time sensory data.An online learning algorithm is provided in this paper,with rigorous convergence and stability analysis.Then,it is applied to simulate several experiments reported from the past literature.By comparing the proposed numerical results with these experimentally observed data,the authors show that the proposed model can reproduce movement trajectories which are consistent with experimental observations.In addition,the RADP theory provides a unified framework that connects optimality and robustness properties in the sensorimotor system.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41330105, 41690113 and 41430531)the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFA0600501)the Chinese Academy of Sciences Strategic Priority Research Program (Grant No. XDB03030000)
文摘Understanding the response of ecosystems to past climate is critical for evaluating the impacts of future climate changes.A large-scale abrupt shift of vegetation in response to the Holocene gradual climate changes has been well documented for the Sahara-Sahel ecosystem. Whether such a non-linear response is of universal significance remains to be further addressed. Here,we examine the vegetation-climate relationships in central Asia based on a compilation of 38 high-quality pollen records. The results show that the Holocene vegetation experienced two major abrupt shifts, one in the early Holocene(Shift I, establishing shift) and another in the late Holocene(Shift II, collapsing shift), while the mid-Holocene vegetation remained rather stable. The timings of these shifts in different regions are asynchronous, which are not readily linkable with any known abrupt climate shifts,but are highly correlated with the local rainfalls. These new findings suggest that the observed vegetation shifts are attributable to the threshold effects of the orbital-induced gradual climate changes. During the early Holocene, the orbital-induced precipitation increase would have first reached the threshold for vegetation "establishment" for moister areas, but significantly later for drier areas. In contrast, the orbital-induced precipitation decrease during the late Holocene would have first reached the threshold, and led to the vegetation "collapse" for drier areas, but delayed for moister areas. The well-known 4.2 kyr BP drought event and human intervention would have also helped the vegetation collapses at some sites. These interpretations are strongly supported by our surface pollen-climate analyses and ecosystem simulations. These results also imply that future climate changes may cause abrupt changes in the dry ecosystem once the threshold is reached.
基金The National Natural Science Foundation of China (42001194)。
文摘In the context of climate change,research on extreme climates and disaster risk management has become a crucial component of climate change adaptation.Local communities,which have been facing extreme climates for a long time in their production and daily life,have developed some locally applicable traditional knowledge that has played an important role in their adaptation to extreme climate and disaster risk management.Therefore,this research aims to link Local knowledge(LK)to community extreme climate disaster risk management in order to construct a conceptual model.It then takes the extreme climate adaptation strategy of traditional nomads in a temperate grassland of China as an example to analyze the role of LK in extreme climate adaptation using the proposed theoretical framework.The main research objectives of this study are:(1)To construct a conceptual model to illustrate the relations among extreme climate events,risk management,LK,and farmers’adaptation strategies;(2)To apply the theoretical framework to a field case to reveal context-specific extreme climate adaptation mechanisms with LK as a critical component;(3)To test the framework and provide suggestions for the extreme climates adaptation,and the conservation of LK related to climate change adaptation.The results show that from the perspective of disaster risk management,local communities could manage extreme climates as a disaster risk through adaptation strategies formed from LK,because as a knowledge system,LK contains relevant knowledge covering the whole process of disaster risk management.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 40901055 and 40872111)the Key Program of Chinese Ministry of Education (Grant No. 109151)+1 种基金the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2010CB950202)the NSFC National Innovative Research Team Project (Grant No. 41021091)
文摘To investigate characteristics of H isotope variation in long-chain n-alkanes (δDn-alkanes) from higher plants in surface soils under a single ecosystem, 12 samples from a basalt regolith were randomly collected from Damaping in Wanquan County of Zhangjiakou in North China. Molecular distribution and C (δ^13Cn-alkanes) and H isotopes of long-chain n-alkanes, as well as C isotopes of TOC (δ^13CTOC), were analyzed. Both δ^13CTOC and δ^13Cn-alkanes values from four representative dominant long-chain n-alkanes (n-C27, n-C29, n-C31, n-C33) derived from terrestrial higher plants show minor variations among the 12 samples, indicating the major contributor is from local grasses with a uniform C3 photosynthetic pathway. In contrast, variations in δ^13Cn-alkanes values of the four long-chain n-alkanes are relatively large, with the more abundant homologs generally showing more negative δDn-alkanes values and less variation. However, variation of 〈30‰ among weighted averaged δDn-alkanes values of the four long-chain n-alkanes is not only less than that among δDn-alkanes values for different modern terrestrial C3 grasses from the specific locations, but also less than the literature values of δDn-alkanes of long-chain n-alkanes for single species over different seasons. Thus, because the sources of long-chain n-alkanes in surface soils and sediments are similarly from multiple individual plants, our results are significant in confirming that paleoclimatic, paleoenvironmental and paleohydrological information can be interpreted more accurately from δDn-alkanes values of long-chain n-alkanes from sediments, particularly terrestrial sediments with organic matter derived from in-situ plants.