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There is an urgent need to understand the characteristics of both precipitation and drought in arid regions of China. Different indexes may provide differing results in terms of the detection and estimation of the temporal and spatial extent of droughts. In this study, the temporal and spatial characteristics of rainfall and drought at 53 meteorological stations from 1960 to 2016 across the Xinjiang region of China were analyzed. Four precipitation-related indexes (precipitation concentration degree (PCD), precipitation concentration period (PCP), standardized precipitation index (SPI), and long-cycle drought–flood abrupt alternation index (LDFAI)) were used to investigate the spatial and temporal patterns of drought and flood. In addition, the Bayesian method and Pettitt test were used as detection tools to identify changing points in precipitation time series. The study indicated the following: (1) a wetting tendency was evident in recent years and was supported by the upward trend in SPI and inter-decadal variation in summer precipitation; (2) the spatial patterns and tendencies of PCD, PCP, and SPI were markedly different in southern and northern Xinjiang; (3) compared with the Pettitt test, use of the Bayesian method provided data closer to the real drought events; (4) it is suggested that multiple indices be used for detecting precipitation and drought characteristics as use of the SPI may lead to other indexes related to flood and drought risks being ignored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: After being polio free for more than 10 years, an outbreak following importation of wild poliovirus (WPV) was confirmed in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China, in 2011. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted prior to supplementary immunization activities (SIAs), immediately after the confirmation of the WPV outbreak. In selected prefectures, participants aged ≤60 years old who visited hospitals at county-level or above to have their blood drawn for reasons not related to the study, were invited to participate in our study. Antibody titers ≥8 were considered positive. Results: Among the 2,611 participants enrolled, 2,253 (86.3%), 2,283 (87.4%), and 1,989 (76.2%) were seropositive to P1, P2 and P3 respectively, and 1744 (66.8%) participants were seropositive to all the three serotypes. Lower antibody seropositivities and geometric mean titers were observed in children <1 year of age and in adults aged 15–39 years. Conclusion: Serosurveys to estimate population immunity in districts at high risk of polio importation might be useful to gauge underlying population immunity gaps to polio and possibly to guide preparedness and response planning. Consideration should be given to older children and adults during polio risk assessment planning and outbreak response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Populus euphratica is native to semi-arid regions of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, and studying its drought responses will greatly increase the understanding of how trees acclimate to drought. Water was withheld for seven weeks in four different drought stress treatments, with regime 1 being the least drought stressed and regime 4 being the most, and the poplar''s transcriptional profiles examined with Affymetrix Poplar GeneChip microarrays. The number of significantly up or down transcriptional changes increased with the severity of drought stress, with regime 1, 2, 3 and 4 showing 952, 1354, 2138 and 2360 altered transcripts, respectively. Only 277 of these were found in common across all four regimes, while 1938 transcripts were found to be unique to the individual treatments. Genes with altered transcript abundance included members of the transcription factor families AP2/EREPB, bZIP, NAC, NF-Y, WRKY, MYB and Homeobox, as well as genes for the small HSP, HSP70 and HSP90 heat shock protein families. Analysis of the transcript data from these experiments indicated that P. euphratica activates specific regulatory pathways according to the degree of drought stress it receives. These results provide important insights into the molecular mechanisms underpinning the drought stress responses of poplar, as well as providing candidates for future experimentation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]