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Abstract Background Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) results from the rupture of blood vessels causing bleeding within the brain and is one of the major causes of death and long-term disability globally, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Despite having a lower incidence than ischemic stroke, ICH imposes a greater social and economic burden. To our knowledge, since the release of the 2021 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) report, there has been no comprehensive update on the epidemiology and trends of ICH. This study aims to analyze the impact of gender, age, and the Sociodemographic Index (SDI) on the burden of ICH at global, regional, and national levels. Methods Data on the incidence, deaths, and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) of ICH and its related risk factors from 1990 to 2021 were extracted from the GBD 2021 project, encompassing 203 countries and regions. Furthermore, temporal trends of the global intracerebral hemorrhage burden were assessed through Joinpoint analysis. Results In 2021, there were 3.444 million new cases of ICH worldwide, with an age-standardized prevalence rate of 40.8 per 100,000 people, representing a 31.4% decrease compared to 1990. In 2021, ICH caused 3.308 million deaths, with an age-standardized mortality rate of 39.1 per 100,000 people, a reduction of 36.6% since 1990. Globally, ICH accounted for 79.457 million DALYs, with an age-standardized DALY rate of 92.4 per 100,000 people, representing a 39.1% decrease since 1990. Regionally, Central Asia, Oceania, and Southeast Asia had the highest age-standardized prevalence rates of ICH, whereas Australasia, high-income North America, and Western Europe had the lowest rates. Nationally, the Solomon Islands, Mongolia, and Kiribati had the highest age-standardized prevalence rates, whereas Switzerland, New Zealand, and Australia had the lowest. Hypertension, smoking, and environmental pollution were identified as the primary risk factors for ICH. This study also validated the significant association between SDI and the burden of ICH, with the age-standardized DALY rate of ICH decreasing significantly as SDI increased. Conclusion Despite the decreasing burden of intracerebral hemorrhage, it remains a significant public health issue in countries with a lower SDI. Prevention strategies should prioritize hypertension management, air quality improvement, and smoking control to further mitigate the impact of intracerebral hemorrhage.

Plant-based meat could contribute substantially to nutritional security and environmental sustainability. Nevertheless, its diffusion is highly dependent on consumers’ perception and acceptance. Plant-based meat products have various attributes through which nutritional, environmental, and ingredient information are delivered to consumers. To elucidate consumers’ preferences for these attributes, we conducted a large-scale consumer survey in five major cities of the largest national meat consumption market, China, with a total of about 2500 respondents. Best-worst count analysis indicated that “zero cholesterol” is the most preferred and “vegan formula” is the least preferred attribute. Mixed logit model analysis showed that “rich in dietary fiber”, “zero hormones”, and “zero cholesterol” are the three most preferred attributes. Latent class model analysis revealed that respondents with better socioeconomic conditions tended to focus more on the positive nutritional aspects of plant-based meat, whereas respondents with worse conditions tended to place a higher value on avoiding negative health impacts of traditional meat when choosing plant-based meat. This study suggests that Chinese consumers pay more attention to nutritional attributes as compared to other attributes. In addition, apparent market segments exist among different consumers. The findings of this study could contribute to the transformation of sustainable food system.

Summary: ARHGAP35, which encodes p190A RhoGAP (p190A), is a major cancer gene. p190A is a tumor suppressor that activates the Hippo pathway. p190A was originally cloned via direct binding to p120 RasGAP (RasGAP). Here, we determine that interaction of p190A with the tight-junction-associated protein ZO-2 is dependent on RasGAP. We establish that both RasGAP and ZO-2 are necessary for p190A to activate large tumor-suppressor (LATS) kinases, elicit mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition, promote contact inhibition of cell proliferation, and suppress tumorigenesis. Moreover, RasGAP and ZO-2 are required for transcriptional modulation by p190A. Finally, we demonstrate that low ARHGAP35 expression is associated with shorter survival in patients with high, but not low, transcript levels of TJP2 encoding ZO-2. Hence, we define a tumor-suppressor interactome of p190A that includes ZO-2, an established constituent of the Hippo pathway, and RasGAP, which, despite strong association with Ras signaling, is essential for p190A to activate LATS kinases.

Cardiac fibrosis is characterized by the excessive deposition of extracellular matrix in the myocardium with cardiac fibroblast activation, leading to chronic cardiac remodeling and dysfunction. However, little is known about metabolic alterations in fibroblasts during cardiac fibrosis, and there is a lack of pharmaceutical treatments that target metabolic dysregulation. Here, we provided evidence that fatty acid β-oxidation (FAO) dysregulation contributes to fibroblast activation and cardiac fibrosis. With transcriptome, metabolome, and functional assays, we demonstrated that FAO was downregulated during fibroblast activation and cardiac fibrosis, and that perturbation of FAO reversely affected the fibroblast-to-myofibroblast transition. The decrease in FAO may be attributed to reduced long-chain fatty acid (LCFA) uptake. Voltage-dependent anion channel 1 (VDAC1), the main gatekeeper of the outer mitochondrial membrane (OMM), serves as the transporter of LCFA into the mitochondria for further utilization and has been shown to be decreased in myofibroblasts. In vitro, the addition of exogenous VDAC1 was shown to ameliorate cardiac fibroblast activation initiated by transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-β1) stimuli, and silencing of VDAC1 displayed the opposite effect. A mechanistic study revealed that VDAC1 exerts a protective effect by regulating LCFA uptake into the mitochondria, which is impaired by an inhibitor of carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1A. In vivo, AAV9-mediated overexpression of VDAC1 in myofibroblasts significantly alleviated transverse aortic constriction (TAC)-induced cardiac fibrosis and rescued cardiac function in mice. Finally, we treated mice with the VDAC1-derived R-Tf-D-LP4 peptide, and the results showed that R-Tf-D-LP4 prevented TAC-induced cardiac fibrosis and dysfunction in mice. In conclusion, this study provides evidence that VDAC1 maintains FAO metabolism in cardiac fibroblasts to repress fibroblast activation and cardiac fibrosis and suggests that the VDAC1 peptide is a promising drug for rescuing fibroblast metabolism and repressing cardiac fibrosis.

Urbanization and industrialization in developing countries has contributed to great changes in rural settlements, which presents an increasing threat to rural sustainability. Spatiotemporal changes in rural settlements at the county level are significant to land use planning and are not clear in the highly urbanized regions. This study considered Jiangsu, one of the most urbanized provinces of China, as an example and investigated the spatial variation in rural settlements and their socioeconomic driving factors during the period of 2000–2020 using mixed geographic weighted regression. The results showed that the area of rural settlements in the highly urbanized province expanded from 2000 to 2015 following a decrease in the rural population, but then began to decrease from 2015. There were obvious spatial differences in the rural settlements in the counties of Jiangsu Province. The area of rural settlements in the different counties maintained a positive association with the rural population and cropland but had a negative correlation with the rural production value in 2000. By 2020, the area of rural settlements was only positively associated with the rural population. The correlation between the area of rural settlements and rural population continually decreased from 2000 to 2020. The area of rural settlements had no significant association with the area of urban settlements. The expansion of rural settlements mainly occurred at the expense of cropland. The decrease in the rural settlements was accompanied by an increase in the urban settlements and an expansion of cropland. The policy implications arising from this study are presented to provide guidance for rural development at the county level and ensure rural sustainability.

Cardiac fibrosis is associated with an adverse prognosis in cardiovascular disease that results in a decreased cardiac compliance and, ultimately, heart failure. Recent studies have identified the role of long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) in cardiac fibrosis. However, the functions of many lncRNAs in cardiac fibrosis remain to be characterized. Through a whole-transcriptome sequencing and bioinformatics analysis on a mouse model of pressure overload–induced cardiac fibrosis, we screened a key lncRNA termed thrombospondin 1 antisense 1 (THBS1-AS1), which was positively associated with cardiac fibrosis. In vitro functional studies demonstrated that the silencing of THBS1-AS1 ameliorated TGF-β1 effects on cardiac fibroblast (CF) activation, and the overexpression of THBS1-AS1 displayed the opposite effect. A mechanistic study revealed that THBS1-AS1 could sponge miR-221/222 to regulate the expression of TGFBR1. Moreover, under TGF-β1 stimulation, the forced expression of miR-221/222 or the knockdown TGFBR1 significantly reversed the THBS1-AS1 overexpression induced by further CF activation. In vivo, specific knockdown of THBS1-AS1 in activated CFs significantly alleviated transverse aorta constriction–induced (TAC-induced) cardiac fibrosis in mice. Finally, we demonstrated that the human THBS1-AS1 can also affect the activation of CFs by regulating TGFBR1. In conclusion, this study reveals that lncRNA THBS1-AS1 is a potentially novel regulator of cardiac fibrosis and may serve as a target for the treatment of cardiac fibrosis.

In new large-scale computing environment, the attributes of entities were massive and they had complex sources and uneven quality, which were great obstacles to the application of ABAC (attribute-based access control).The attributes were also hard to be corrected manually, making it difficult to be applied in access control system straightly.To solve the optimization problem of nominal attributes, a novel algorithm of attribute value optimization based on permission clustering was designed, in which entities were presented by the privilege set related to them.So that the entities were tagged by density-based clustering method with distances of their privilege set presentations.Then the attribute values were reduced and corrected based on rough set theory.Finally, the algorithm was verified on UCI data sets, which proved that after applying it, ABAC policy mining was improved in the evaluation criteria, such as the true positive rate and F1-score.

Cardiac hypertrophy initially serves as an adaptive response to physiological and pathological stimuli. Sustained hypertrophy progress to pathological cardiac hypertrophy, cardiac fibrosis and ultimately lead to heart failure, one of the leading medical causes of mortality worldwide. Intervention of pathological cardiac hypertrophy can effectively reduce the occurrence of heart failure. Abundant factors, such as adrenergic, angiotensin, and endothelin (ET-1) receptors, have been shown to participate in the regulation of pathological cardiac hypertrophy. Recently, an increasing number of studies have indicated that circRNA and circRNA-miRNA–mRNA network regulation is indispensable for the posttranscriptional regulation of mRNA in cardiac hypertrophy. In our study, the morphological, cardiac function and pathological changes during cardiac hypertrophy were investigated. RNA sequencing identified 93 circRNAs that were differentially expressed in the TAC_2w group, and 55 circRNAs in the TAC_4w group compared with the sham group. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analyses identified several significant pathways, including hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, extracellular matrix (ECM)-receptor interaction and focal adhesion. Coexpression analyses were performed for differentially expressed circRNAs and differentially expressed mRNAs. Based on gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA), 8 circRNAs (mmu-Nfkb1_0001, mmu-Smad4_0007, mmu-Hecw2_0009, mmu-Itgbl1_0002, mmu-Lrrc2_0005, mmu-Cpeb3_0007, mmu-Ryr2_0040, and mmu-Rtn4_0001) involved in cardiac hypertrophy and cardiac fibrosis were identified. We validated some key circRNAs by qPCR. The crucial coexpression of circRNA–mRNA and its interaction with miRNA showed the possible mechanism of circRNAs in the process of cardiac dysfunction. Our results may provide promising targets for the treatment of pathological cardiac hypertrophy and fibrosis.

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: To examine the prevalence of new indications for existing drugs conducted by non-originator companies from 2015 to 2021 and determine how many could qualify for 505(b)(2) under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: A search within Clinicaltrials.gov was conducted to identify phase 3 drug interventional studies completed from 2015 to 2021. Results were categorized by funding source and industry sponsored studies were further separated into originator- and non-originator companies using dailymed.com. An in-depth review of 2018 was conducted to understand the nature of the studies including indication, dosage form, and route of administration. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: According to clinicaltrials.gov, a total of 7148 phase 3 studies were conducted between 2015 and 2021. Most of these studies were funded by industry (4447, 66.21%), followed by other (2428, 33.97%), NIH (266, 3.72%), and government (62, 0.87%). In-depth examination of the studies completed in 2018 (n=1077) revealed similar pattern in that most were funded by industry (674, 62.58%) followed by other (356, 33.05%), NIH (43, 3.99%), and government (10, 0.93%). Some studies were funded by more than one type. Of the industry-sponsored studies, 623 were funded by originator companies and 51 by non-originator companies. A total of 49/674 of the industry sponsored studies were for new indications, with 42 studies conducted by originator companies and 7 conducted by non-originator companies. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: The 505(b)(2) is a way for manufacturers to add new indications to drugs by non-originator companies. In 2018, 49/674 studies were conducted to pursue new indications with few, 7/49, conducted by non-originator companies. The product development landscape reveals few opportunities for entities pursuing the 505(b)(2) pathway for new indications.

Abstract Background Specific targeting ability and good cell penetration are two critical requirements of tumor-targeted delivery systems. In the present work, we developed a novel matrix metalloprotein-triggered, cell-penetrating, peptide-modified, star-shaped nanoparticle (NP) based on a functionalized copolymer (MePEG-Peptide-Tri-CL), with the peptide composed of GPLGIAG (matrix metalloprotein-triggered peptide for targeted delivery) and r9 (cell-penetrating peptide for penetration improvement) to enhance its biological specificity and therapeutic effect. Results Based on the in vitro release study, a sustained release profile was achieved for curcumin (Cur) release from the Cur-P-NPs at pH 7.4. Furthermore, the release rate of Cur was accelerated in the enzymatic reaction. MTT assay results indicated that the biocompatibility of polymer NPs (P-NPs) was inversely related to the NP concentration, while the efficiency toward tumor cell inhibition was positively related to the Cur-P-NP concentration. In addition, Cur-P-NPs showed higher fluorescence intensity than Cur-NPs in tumor cells, indicating improved penetration of tumor cells. An in vivo biodistribution study further demonstrated that Cur-P-NPs exhibited stronger targeting to A549 xenografts than to normal tissue. Furthermore, the strongest tumor growth inhibition (76.95%) was observed in Cur-P-NP-treated A549 tumor xenograft nude mice, with slight pulmonary toxicity. Conclusion All results demonstrated that Cur-P-NP is a promising drug delivery system that possesses specific enzyme responsiveness for use in anti-tumor therapy.

The glycocalyx is a complex polysaccharide-protein layer lining the lumen of vascular endothelial cells. Changes in the structure and function of the glycocalyx promote an inflammatory response in blood vessels and play an important role in the pathogenesis of many vascular diseases (e.g., diabetes, atherosclerosis, and sepsis). Vascular endothelial dysfunction is a hallmark of inflammation-related diseases. Endothelial dysfunction can lead to tissue swelling, chronic inflammation, and thrombosis. Therefore, elimination of endothelial inflammation could be a potential target for the treatment of vascular diseases. This review summarizes the key role of the glycocalyx in the inflammatory process and the possible mechanism by which it alleviates this process by interrupting the cycle of endothelial dysfunction and inflammation. Especially, we highlight the roles of different components of the glycocalyx in modulating the inflammatory process, including components that regulate leukocyte rolling, L-selectin binding, inflammasome activation and the signaling interactions between the glycocalyx components and the vascular cells. We discuss how the glycocalyx interferes with the development of inflammation and the importance of preventing glycocalyx impairment. Finally, drawing on current understanding of the role of the glycocalyx in inflammation, we consider a potential strategy for the treatment of vascular diseases.

Abstract Bioenergy plays an important role in low greenhouse gas stabilization scenarios. Among various possible sources of bioenergy, dedicated bio‐crops could contribute to most of the potential. However, large scale bio‐crop deployment raises sustainability concerns. Policies to alleviate the pressure of bio‐crops on the terrestrial environment can affect bioenergy potential and production costs. Here, we estimated the maximum bioenergy potential under environmental protection policies (biodiversity and soil protection) and societal transformation measures from demand and supply side (demand‐side policy includes sustainable diet; supply‐side policy includes advanced technology and trade openness for food) by using an integrated assessment modelling framework, which consists of a general equilibrium model (Asian‐Pacific Integrated Model/Computable General Equilibrium) and a spatial land use allocation model (Asian‐Pacific Integrated Model/Platform for Land‐Use and Environmental Model). We found that the global advanced bioenergy potential under no policy was 245 EJ/year and that 192 EJ/year could be produced under US$5/GJ. These figures were 149 EJ/year and 110 EJ/year, respectively, under a full environmental policy. Biodiversity protection has a greater impact than soil protection due to its larger coverage and stronger implementation. Societal transformation measures effectively increase them to 186 EJ/year and 143 EJ/year, respectively, even under full environmental policies. These results imply that the large‐scale bioenergy deployment possibly needed for the climate target to limit the global mean temperature increase well below 2°C compared to the preindustrial level might face a trade‐off with environmental protection targets and that possible mitigation pathways in harmony with other environmental issues need to be explored.

Cell proliferation is an important cellular process for physiological tissue homeostasis and remodeling. The mechanisms of cell proliferation in response to pathological stresses are not fully understood. Mitochondria are highly dynamic organelles whose shape, number, and biological functions are modulated by mitochondrial dynamics, including fusion and fission. Mitofusin-2 (Mfn-2) is an essential GTPase-related mitochondrial dynamics protein for maintaining mitochondrial network and bioenergetics. A growing body of evidence indicates that Mfn-2 has a potential role in regulating cell proliferation in various cell types. Here we review these new functions of Mfn-2, highlighting its crucial role in several signaling pathways during the process of pathological cell proliferation. We conclude that Mfn-2 could be a new mediator of pathological cell proliferation and a potential therapeutic target.

Cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) activation is a hallmark feature of cardiac fibrosis caused by cardiac remodeling. The purinergic signaling molecules have been proven to participate in the activation of CFs. In this study, we explored the expression pattern of P2Y receptor family in the cardiac fibrosis mice model induced by the transverse aortic constriction (TAC) operation and in the activation of CFs triggered by transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) stimulation. We then investigated the role of P2Y1receptor (P2Y1R) in activated CFs. The results showed that among P2Y family members, only P2Y1R was downregulated in the heart tissues of TAC mice. Consistent with our in vivo results, the level of P2Y1R was decreased in the activated CFs, when CFs were treated with TGF-β1. Silencing P2Y1R expression with siP2Y1R accelerated the effects of TGF-β1 on CFs activation. Moreover, the P2Y1R selective antagonist BPTU increased the levels of mRNA and protein of profibrogenic markers, such as connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), periostin (POSTN). periostin (POSTN), and α-smooth muscle actin(α-SMA). Further, MRS2365, the agonist of P2Y1R, ameliorated the activation of CFs and activated the p38 MAPK and ERK signaling pathways. In conclusion , our findings revealed that upregulating of P2Y1R may attenuate the abnormal activation of CFs via the p38 MAPK and ERK signaling pathway.

The poor physical property and strong heterogeneity of Triassic Yanchang formation in Huanjiang oilfield of Ordos Basin are the main reasons for uneven water absorption, partial injection wells underinjection at high pressure, and decline of production. Previously, large numbers of conventional acidifications were used for plugging removal in the reservoir, but the effect was not so good and effective period was short. Aiming at the geological characteristics of Huanjiang oilfield, an online shunt acidification and augmented injection technology which does not stop water injection, pull original production strings out, and continuously inject acid and diverting agent has been proposed. A chelating acid COA-1S with low corrosion rate (0.3675 g/(m2·h)), good retardation capacity (hydrolysis constant = 1.2 × 10−6), and effective chelating ability (precipitation inhibition rate >95%) has been developed, as well as a diverting agent COA-1P with good dispersion in acid solution, diversion effect, and particle size (10–100 μm), which behaves well in COA-1S acid. It has been proved that the online acid system has a good diversion acidizing ability and plugging removal performance in a deep area in the laboratory core physical simulation test. The field test results show that the online shunt acidizing and augmented injection technology could reduce the injection pressure significantly (4.2 MPa) and increase water injection by 10 m3/d for the measured well (H5) and improve the water injection profile prominently. The online shunting acidification and augmented injection technology have the following advantages: simple procedures, fewer equipment needed, high efficiency of depressurization, and increasing water injection, which could effectively improve the profile of water wells, and there is a bright future of the technology.

The study aims to fully explicate the bending behavior of tea stalks under the condition of large deflection, which is crucial to improve the working performance of mechanized harvesting equipment. The mechanical model of the stalk was assumed to be a non-prismatic beam with virtual internodes that could differ from actual internodes. With the model, the stalk can be freely divided into multiple virtual internodes, whose flexural rigidities can be determined by solving an optimization problem, and deflection curves can be predicted after determining the positions of virtual nodes under given loads. Moreover, a novel method was proposed to obtain the deflection curve of the stalk based on the techniques of binocular vision and non-uniform rational B-spline (NURBS) curve fitting. The results show that R-squared values of fitted 2nd-degree NURBS curves of bending shape of tea stalks range from 0.9576 to 0.9964, with an average of 0.9797. The results indicate that flexural rigidity decreases from the bottom to the top of the tea stalk, and the deflection curve could be predicted more precisely with the model of piecewise flexural rigidities than that of average flexural rigidity. The study could be applied to the optimization design of the cutter and adaptive adjustment techniques of operational parameters for tea picking machines.

In order to study the influence of pitting on meshing stiffness, the normal distribution function is used to simulate the pitting location of pitting gear, and the potential energy method is used to analyze the influence of pitting on meshing stiffness. At the same time, the meshing stiffness of pitting gears with different degrees is analyzed by finite element method, and the validity of the calculation results with potential energy method is verified. On the basis of meshing stiffness, the dynamic model of gear system is established, and the vibration response of pitting gear system with different degrees is analyzed. The results show that with the increase of pitting area, the meshing stiffness decreases; the closer the meshing area of the driving wheel is to the pitting line, the more the meshing stiffness decreases, resulting in the intensification of vibration response and periodic impact; and in the time history diagram, there is a small spurious frequencies near the meshing frequency; in the phase diagrams and the Poincare diagram, trajectory and discrete point aggregation area is gradually increased.

Abstract Background Matrix-metalloproteinases, which are overexpressed in many types of cancer, can be applied to improve the bioavailability of chemotherapeutic drugs and guide therapeutic targeting. Thus, we aimed to develop enzyme-responsive nanoparticles based on a functionalized copolymer (mPEG-Peptide-PCL), which was sensitive to matrix metalloproteinase, as smart drug vesicles for enhanced biological specificity and reduced side effects. Results The rate of in vitro curcumin (Cur) release from Cur-P-NPs was not markedly accelerated in weakly acidic tumor microenvironment, indicating a stable intracellular concentration and a consistent therapeutic effect. Meanwhile, P-NPs and Cur-P-NPs displayed prominent biocompatibility, biostability, and inhibition efficiency in tumor cells. In addition, Cur-P-NPs showed higher fluorescence intensity than Cur-NPs in tumor cells, implying enhanced cell permeability and targeting ability. Moreover, the internalization and intracellular transport of Cur-P-NPs were mainly via macropinocytosis. Studies of pharmacodynamics and cellular uptake in vitro and biodistribution in vivo demonstrated that Cur-P-NPs had stronger target efficiency and therapeutic effect than Cur-DMSO and Cur-NPs in tumor tissue. Conclusion Results indicate that Cur-P-NPs can be employed for active targeted drug delivery in cancer treatment and other biomedical applications.

Abstract Krüppel-like Factor 4 (KLF4), a target gene of miR-145, can negatively regulate lung fibrosis. However, the potential role of KLF4 and miR-145 in hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) activation or in hepatic fibrosis keeps unclear. This study aims to characterize miR-145 and KLF4 in activated HSCs and liver cirrhotic, and the underlying molecular basis. miR-145 was significantly up-regulated, while KLF4 was dramatically down-regulated during the activation of rat primary HSCs and TGF-βtreated HSCs. Furthermore, miR-145 mimics induced and inhibition of miR-145 reduced α-SMA and COL-I expression in primary HSCs. Additionally, the mRNA and protein levels of KLF4 in the liver of cirrhotic patients and rats were significantly down-regulated. α-SMA and COL-I were increased after inhibition of KLF4 by specific shRNA in primary HSCs. Forced KLF4 expression led to a reduction of α-SMA and COL-I expression in HSCs. miR-145 promotes HSC activation and liver fibrosis by targeting KLF4.

Nitrogen (N) partitioning between plant and soil pools is closely related to biomass accumulation and allocation, and is of great importance for quantifying the biomass dynamics and N fluxes of ecosystems, especially in low N-availability desert ecosystems. However, partitioning can differ among species even when growing in the same habitat. To better understand the variation of plant biomass allocation and N retention within ephemeral and annual species we studied the responses of MalcolmiaAfricana (an ephemeral) and Salsola affinis (an annual) to N addition, including plant growth, N retention by the plant and soil, and N lost to the environment using 15N (double-labeled 15NH415NO3 (5.16% abundance) added at 0, 0.8, 1.6, 3.2, and 6.4 g pot-1, equivalent to 0, 15, 30, 60, and 120 kg N ha-1) in a pot experiment. Higher N addition (N120) inhibited plant growth and biomass accumulation of the ephemeral but not the annual. In addition, the aboveground:belowground partitioning of N (the R:S ratio) of the ephemeral decreased with increasing N addition, but that of the annual increased. The N input corresponding to maximum biomass and 15N retention of the ephemeral was significantly less than that of the annual. The aboveground and belowground retention of N in the ephemeral were significantly less than those of the annual, except at low N rates. The average plant–soil system recovery of added 15N by the ephemeral was 70%, significantly higher than that of the annual with an average of 50%. Although the whole plant–soil 15N recovery of this desert ecosystem decreased with increasing N deposition, our results suggested that it may vary with species composition and community change under future climate and elevated N deposition.

Plant leaf 3D architecture changes during growth and shows sensitive response to environmental stresses. In recent years, acquisition and segmentation methods of leaf point cloud developed rapidly, but 3D modelling leaf point clouds has not gained much attention. In this study, a parametric surface modelling method was proposed for accurately fitting tea leaf point cloud. Firstly, principal component analysis was utilized to adjust posture and position of the point cloud. Then, the point cloud was sliced into multiple sections, and some sections were selected to generate a point set to be fitted (PSF). Finally, the PSF was fitted into non-uniform rational B-spline (NURBS) surface. Two methods were developed to generate the ordered PSF and the unordered PSF, respectively. The PSF was firstly fitted as B-spline surface and then was transformed to NURBS form by minimizing fitting error, which was solved by particle swarm optimization (PSO). The fitting error was specified as weighted sum of the root-mean-square error (RMSE) and the maximum value (MV) of Euclidean distances between fitted surface and a subset of the point cloud. The results showed that the proposed modelling method could be used even if the point cloud is largely simplified (RMSE < 1 mm, MV < 2 mm, without performing PSO). Future studies will model wider range of leaves as well as incomplete point cloud.

Actions tackling with climate change can cause co-benefits and trade-offs with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) concerned with air pollution, water scarcity, food security, land use, and sustainable energy. Such interactions can be greatly influenced by socioeconomic conditions. The impacts of socioeconomic conditions on multiple SDGs have not been evaluated separately from climate policies. This paper employs a Representative Concentration Pathways–Shared Socio-economic Pathways (RCP-SSP) framework and the Asia-Pacific Integrated Model/computable general equilibrium (AIM/CGE) integrated assessment model to identify the global multi-sectoral consequences of socioeconomic conditions through 2050 under future SSP scenarios. Results show that changes of socioeconomic conditions consistent with the SSP1 pathway could always improve SDG indicators, with or without climate policies. In many respects, socioeconomic conditions are more important than climate policies in achieving SDGs, particularly SDGs concerned with food security and energy affordability, as well as in simultaneously achieving multiple SDGs. We conclude that the advantages of a joint effort to implement climate policies and promulgate socioeconomic changes should be recognized by policy makers.

The Paris Agreement set long-term global climate goals to pursue stabilization of the global mean temperature increase at below 2 °C (the so-called 2 °C goal). Individual countries submitted their own short-term targets, mostly for the year 2030. Meanwhile, the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) were designed to help set multiple societal goals with respect to socioeconomic development, the environment, and other issues. Climate policies can lead to intended or unintended consequences in various sectors, but these types of side effects rarely have been studied in China, where climate policies will play an important role in global greenhouse gas emissions and sustainable development is a major goal. This study identified the extent to which climate policies in line with the 2 °C goal could have multi-sectoral consequences in China. Carbon constraints in China in the 2Deg scenario are set to align with the global 2 °C target based on the emissions per capita convergence principle. Carbon policies for NDC pledges as well as policies in China regarding renewables, air pollution control, and land management were also simulated. The results show that energy security and air quality have co-benefits related to climate policies, whereas food security and land resources experienced negative side effects (trade-offs). Near-term climate actions were shown to help reduce these trade-offs in the mid-term. A policy package that included food and land subsidies also helped achieve climate targets while avoiding the adverse side effects caused by the mitigation policies. The findings should help policymakers in China develop win–win policies that do not negatively affect some sectors, which could potentially enhance their ability to take climate actions to realize the global 2 °C goal within the context of sustainable development.