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Rapid economic development and accelerated urbanization have seriously affected the development of traditional ethnic villages in China. We used the minimum cumulative resistance (MCR) model based on land use, landscape pattern, and ecosystem service value (ESV) to evaluate the spatio-temporal dynamics of sustainable development in Hani traditional ethnic villages from 1995 to 2020. By analyzing changes in sustainability indicators in the Hani area and different buffer zones, this paper aims to assess the impact of ethnic villages in the Hani Area on sustainable development and provide recommendations for the sustainable development of traditional ethnic Hani villages. The results indicated that: (1) The area of construction land and landscape fragmentation in the Hani area significantly increased and the value of ecosystem services and levels of sustainable development decreased each year during the study period; (2) The area of cropland in the 2 km buffer zone of the traditional ethnic villages increased, the degree of landscape fragmentation, the value of ecosystem services, and the level of sustainable development were lower than in the 4 km buffer zone during the study period. This is due to population increases in traditional ethnic Hani villages, as well as the intensive reclamation of cropland, increased construction land, and landscape fragmentation. We suggest that the Hani should implement scientific land planning and management policies to protect the local ecosystem and realize the sustainable development of traditional ethnic Hani villages.

Located in Qinghai Province of China, the Three Rivers Headwaters Region is the source region of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lantsang Rivers, and plays an important role in biodiversity conservation and regulating water supply. Despite many efforts on land use change in Qinghai, knowledge of the spatial variation of land use change is still lacking. This study examines the patterns of land use change across various watersheds, prefectures and the temple surroundings. Remote sensing images of 1987, 1997 and 2007 were analyzed to derive land use distributions; patterns and structures of the landscape were then quantified with landscape metrics. The results illustrated that the Yangtze River headwater region had more diverse and more evenly distributed landscape, while the Lantsang and the Yellow headwater regions showed a decline in landscape diversity. Comparison of the land use patterns of four prefectures revealed that Yushu Prefecture experienced an increase in landscape diversity from 1987 to 2007 while the land use patches in Guoluo Prefecture exhibited more aggregated patterns than other prefectures. Analysis of the spatial variations of land use change in the temple surroundings illustrated that 19.7% and 35.9% of the temples in Guoluo and Yushu Prefectures, respectively, encountered land use change for their immediate areas within 2 km. Comparison of the surroundings of temples and human settlements found that land use change was not evenly distributed, and that greater land use change had occurred for the surroundings of human settlements. Such findings provided insights into the spatial variation of land use change in the Three Rivers Headwaters Region.

Autoimmune polyendocrine syndrome type 1 (APS-1) is a rare autosomal recessive disease defined by the presence of two of the three conditions: mucocutaneous candidiasis, hypoparathyroidism, and Addison's disease. Loss-of-function mutations of the autoimmune regulator (AIRE) gene have been linked to APS-1. Here we report mutational analysis and functional characterization of an AIRE mutation in a consanguineous Chinese family with APS-1. All exons of the AIRE gene and adjacent exon-intron sequences were amplified by PCR and subsequently sequenced. We identified a homozygous missense AIRE mutation c.463G>A (p.Gly155Ser) in two siblings with different clinical features of APS-1. In silico splice-site prediction and minigene analysis were carried out to study the potential pathological consequence. Minigene splicing analysis and subsequent cDNA sequencing revealed that the AIRE mutation potentially compromised the recognition of the splice donor of intron 3, causing alternative pre-mRNA splicing by intron 3 retention. Furthermore, the aberrant AIRE transcript was identified in a heterozygous carrier of the c.463G>A mutation. The aberrant intron 3-retaining transcript generated a truncated protein (p.G155fsX203) containing the first 154 AIRE amino acids and followed by 48 aberrant amino acids. Therefore, our study represents the first functional characterization of the alternatively spliced AIRE mutation that may explain the pathogenetic role in APS-1.

Flos Lonicerae Japonicae (FLJ) is an important cash crop in eastern Asia, and it is an anti-inflammatory Traditional Chinese Medicine. There are large variations in the quality of the marketed FLJ products. To find marker ingredients useful for quality control, a tandem technology integrating ultra-performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q/TOF), principal component analysis (PCA), heat map analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis coupled with a NF-κB luciferase reporter gene assay were used to identify the different ingredients from the green bud, white bud, flowering stage and leaf stages, as well as to screen the anti-inflammatory activity of FLJ compositions. As flowering progressed, the anti-inflammatory effects of FLJ gradually decreased; however, chlorogenic acid, swertiamarin and sweroside should be used to evaluate the quality of FLJ products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flos Lonicerae Japonicae (FLJ) is an important cash crop in eastern Asia, and it is an anti-inflammatory Traditional Chinese Medicine. There are large variations in the quality of the marketed FLJ products. To find marker ingredients useful for quality control, a tandem technology integrating ultra-performance liquid chromatography/quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q/TOF), principal component analysis (PCA), heat map analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis coupled with a NF-κB luciferase reporter gene assay were used to identify the different ingredients from the green bud, white bud, flowering stage and leaf stages, as well as to screen the anti-inflammatory activity of FLJ compositions. As flowering progressed, the anti-inflammatory effects of FLJ gradually decreased; however, chlorogenic acid, swertiamarin and sweroside should be used to evaluate the quality of FLJ products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]