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In recent years, the number of human rabies cases in China has decreased annually. However, some western provinces with no human cases for more than 10 years have begun to report rabies cases, and all of the rabies lineages that circulated in western China were found in Inner Mongolia as well. In this study, we generated a phylogenetic tree with all the Inner Mongolia rabies strains available in GenBank and our laboratory, as well as strains from western China and representative viruses from neighboring countries, based on the N gene sequence. Furthermore, the possible relationships underlying the spread of the virus within Inner Mongolia and neighboring regions were analyzed. Three of six rabies lineages of China (China I-VI) were shown to exist in Inner Mongolia, and a spatial cluster analysis supported that the China I lineage, the dominant cluster of China, likely spread to Ningxia from Inner Mongolia. Wild raccoon dog rabies (China IV/Arctic-like-2) may have spread to Inner Mongolia from Russia and likely continued to spread to Qinghai and Tibet. The red fox lineage (China III/Cosmopolitan), which likely spread from Russia and Mongolia, has been shown to circulate in Inner Mongolia and was a serious threat to Xinjiang, which is adjacent to Inner Mongolia. Thus, Inner Mongolia likely became a location where national and international rabies viruses collected and developed into a potential portal for the spread of rabies to western China. To effectively control the spread of rabies in China, both prevention and control of dog and wild animal rabies in Inner Mongolia should be a top priority.

Coordinated surveillance, vaccination and public information efforts have brought the Chinese rabies epizootic under control, but significant numbers of fatalities are still reported annually with some cases occurring in previously rabies free regions. Tibet has remained virtually rabies free for 16 years, but since 2015 one human rabies case has been reported each year. To better understand the origins of these cases, we sequenced three human samples and an additional sample isolated from a dog in 2012. Three genomes were sequenced from brain samples: human case 1 (reported in 2015), human case 3 (2017), and the 2012 dog case. For human case 2 (2016), the rabies N gene was sequenced from a limited saliva sample. Phylogenetic analysis shows that Case 1 (CXZ1501H) and the dog case (CXZ1201D) belong to China IV lineage (equivalent to Arctic-like-2 in global rabies), suggesting an association with a wildlife spillover event. However, Case 2 (CXZ1601H) is placed within the dominant lineage China I, and was most similar with recent strains from neighboring Yunnan province, indicating the current epizootic has finally reached Tibet. Most surprisingly however, was the finding that Case 3 (CXZ1704H) is distinct from other Chinese isolates. This isolate is placed in the Indian Subcontinent clade, similar to recent Nepal strains, indicating that cross-border transmission is a new source for rabies infections. Thus, the complex mixture of the rabies epizootic in Tibet represents a major new challenge for Tibet and national rabies control., Author summary Until recently, Tibet, “the third pole” of the earth, has been relatively isolated from the outside world, and has stayed rabies free for almost two decades. However, from 2015 to 2017, one human case has been reported each year. Investigation of the origins of these cases revealed each of the three human cases has distinct origins. Case 1 (2015) seems to be a result of a wildlife spillover event, and is consistent with rabies virus strains found in Russia, and Qinghai, Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang in China. Case 2 (2016) is associated with the current Chinese epizootic and appears to have originated from the neighboring province of Yunnan. Lastly, Case 3 (2017) is most closely related to a few recent Nepalese strains and originates from the Indian subcontinent clade, also found in India and Sri Lanka. Thus, Tibet is facing a major rabies threat on three fronts.

Observation of the oviposition behavior of cotton bollworm demonstrated the existence of substances that can act as oviposition deterrents. The scales, abdomens and tarsi of the moths, the most likely carrier, were extracted for the substances. An acetone extract exhibiting an oviposition deterrent effect was analyzed using gas chromatography and combined gas chromatography–mass spectroscopy. Three components, 4-methyl-4-hydroxyl-pentanone-2, hexadecanoic acid and (Z)-9-octadecenoic acid, were identified, being present in the ratio 1:2:2. Experiments with synthetic mixtures indicated that a mixture of equal amounts of the two organic acids exhibited similar repellent and deterrent activity to a synthetic mixture of all three components. It is concluded that the natural oviposition-deterring pheromone is a mixture of hexadecanoic acid and (Z)-9-octadecenoic acid.

The determination of the varying position and shape of magnetopause is one of the important Gordian knots in geophysics and space physics. According to the solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling global magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation, and with the maximum electric current criterion, we study the position and shape of the magnetopause under several solar wind dynamic pressure (Dp) and interplanetary magnetic field conditions. The simulation results show that the subsolar position (r0) of the magnetopause is controlled mainly by Dp with the significant decrease of r0 as Dp increases. At a certain Dp, when southword Bz (Bz0) decreases to zero, then shifts to northward (Bz0) and increases, the subsolar position r0 keeps increasing. For all cases studie here, the flare angle () of the magnetopause experiences small changes. This provide an evidence for the structural self-similarity of magnetopause in equatorial plane. Compared with the empirical low-latitude magnetopause model of Shue98, MHD simulation can reproduce the dependence of the subsolar point r0 on Dp, while the saturation effect of r0 varying with Bz in empirical model is represented only with slow solar wind. As to the flare angle , although the difference between MHD simulation and empirical model is less than 2.5, the variation of with Bz in MHD simulations is nonlinear and different from the linear trend in empirical model.