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Wildlife conservation in the Anthropocene requires bold conservation solutions including restoration of ecosystems and species. The recovery of large carnivore populations is a conservation goal which can generate significant benefits in terms of ecosystem services, ecological functionality, and human well-being. Tigers Panthera tigris, Asia’s most iconic species, are currently restricted to less than 10% of their historic range with recent national extinctions from a number of countries in mainland Southeast Asia. Tiger recovery through range expansion requires suitable habitat, a robust prey base, and high levels of institutional support for conservation. We explored government support for conservation to produce a ranking of the political opportunities for tiger restoration across current and former tiger range countries. We used this analysis, in combination with globally remotely sensed data-sets on human impact, to show that there is potential for significant tiger range expansion. We identified large expanses of currently unoccupied, but potentially suitable, habitat in at least 14 countries including all extant tiger range countries and four countries with extirpated tiger populations – Cambodia, Lao PDR, Viet Nam, and Kazakhstan. Thirty-two percent of expansion areas were within 50-km, and 50% within 100-km, of current tiger populations highlighting that in many landscapes range expansion could be driven by the natural dispersal of tigers provided connectivity is maintained or enhanced. The proportion of potential range within existing protected areas varied between 60% in Thailand and Cambodia. As such socially appropriate conservation approaches, in collaboration with local communities, will be necessary to support tiger recovery in many areas. We recommend that some of the areas which we have identified should be highlighted as significant for future tiger conservation by tiger range country governments. Whilst the landscapes and sites which we identify will require detailed ground-truthing, and all tiger reintroductions need extensive planning and feasibility assessments, safeguarding these areas for human-carnivore coexistence could provide significant planetary benefits and support both tiger recovery and Global Sustainable Development Goals.

Dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations is used to study the effect of Am/2BmAm/2 and H-shaped (Am/4)2Bm(Am/4)2 block copolymers on the interfacial properties of ternary blends. Our simulations show the following: (i) The capacity of block copolymers to diminish interfacial tension is closely linked to their compositions. With identical molecular weights and concentrations, H-shaped block copolymers outperform triblock copolymers in mitigating interfacial tension. (ii) The interfacial tension within the blends correlates positively with the escalation in H-shaped block copolymer molecular weight. This correlation suggests that H-shaped block copolymers featuring a low molecular weight demonstrate superior efficacy as compatibilizers when contrasted with those possessing a high molecular weight. (iii) Enhancing the concentration of H-shaped block copolymers fosters their accumulation at the interface, leading to a reduction in correlations between immiscible homopolymers and a consequent decrease in interfacial tension. (iv) As the length of the homopolymer chains increases, there is a concurrent elevation in interfacial tension, suggesting that H-shaped block copolymers perform more effectively as compatibilizers in blends characterized by shorter homopolymer chain lengths. These findings elucidate the associations between the efficacy of H-shaped block copolymer compatibilizers and their specific molecular characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulation was used to study the morphologies and structures of the paclitaxel‐loaded PLA‐b‐PEO‐b‐PLA polymeric micelle. We focused on the influences of PLA block length, PLA‐b‐PEO‐b‐PLA copolymer concentration, paclitaxel drug content on morphologies and structures of the micelle. Our simulations show that: (i) with the PLA block length increase, the self‐assemble structure of PLA‐b‐PEO‐b‐PLA copolymers with paclitaxel vary between onion‐like structure (core‐middle layer‐shell) to spherical core‐shell structure. The PEO shell thins and the size of the PLA core increases. The onionlike structures are comprised of the PEO hydrophilic core, the PLA hydrophobic middle layer, and the PEO hydrophilic shell, the distribution of the paclitaxel drug predominantly occurs within the hydrophobic intermediate layer; (ii) The system forms a spherical core‐shell structure when a small amount of the drug is added, and within a certain range, the size of the spherical structure increases as the drug amount increases. When the drug contents (volume fraction) cdrug = 10%, it can be observed that the PLA4‐b‐PEO19‐b‐PLA4 spherical structures connect to form rod‐shaped structures. With the length of PLA block NPLA = 8, as the paclitaxel drug concentrations cdrug = 4%, PEO has been insufficient to completely encapsulate the PLA and paclitaxel drug beads. To enhance drug loading capacity while maintaining stability of the system in aqueous solution, the optimal composition for loading paclitaxel is PLA4‐b‐PEO19‐b‐PLA4; the drug content is not higher than 4%; (iii) The paclitaxel‐loaded PLA4‐b‐PEO19‐b‐PLA4 micelle undergo the transition from onionlike (core‐middle layer‐shell) to spherical (core‐shell) to rod‐shaped and lamellar structure as the PLA4‐b‐PEO19‐b‐PLA4 copolymer concentration increases from ccp = 10% to 40%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, the problem of an aging population in China is severe. The integration of existing healthcare services with elderly care services is inefficient and cannot meet the needs of the elderly. As such, China urgently needs the concerted efforts of various social forces to cope with the increasingly serious problem of aging. In accordance with Andersen's behavioral model, a survey was conducted in Tangshan City among seniors 60 years of age and older. Using logistic regression models, decision tree models, and random forest models, we examined the factors impacting senior people's desire to choose the integrated medical care and nursing care model. The results of the three models displayed that the elderly's propensity to choose the combined medical care and nursing care model is significantly influenced by the amount of insurance, life care needs, and healthcare needs. Moreover, the study found that the willingness of the elderly in Tangshan to improve the combined medical and nursing care service system is low. The government should appeal to the community to participate in multiple developments to improve the integrated medical and nursing service system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to study the spread of COVID-19, establish a predictive model, and provide guidance for its prevention and control. Considering the high complexity of epidemic data, we adopted an ARIMA-LSTM combined model to describe and predict future transmission. A new method of the ARIMA-LSTM model paralleling by weight of regression coefficient was proposed. Then, we used the ARIMA-LSTM model paralleling by weight of regression coefficient, ARIMA model, and ARIMA-LSTM series model to predict the epidemic data in China, and we found that the ARIMA-LSTM model paralleling by weight of regression coefficient had the best prediction accuracy. In the ARIMA-LSTM model paralleling by weight of regression coefficient, MSE = 4049.913, RMSE = 63.639, MAPE = 0.205, R2 = 0.837, MAE = 44.320. In order to verify the effectiveness of the ARIMA-LSTM model paralleling by weight of regression coefficient, we compared the ARIMA-LSTM model paralleling by weight of regression coefficient with the SVR model and found that ARIMA-LSTM model paralleling by weight of regression coefficient has better prediction accuracy. It was further verified with the epidemic data of India and found that the prediction accuracy of the ARIMA-LSTM model paralleling by weight of regression coefficient was still higher than that of the SVR model. In the ARIMA-LSTM model paralleling by weight of regression coefficient, MSE = 744,904.6, RMSE = 863.079, MAPE = 0.107, R2 = 0.983, MAE = 580.348. Finally, we used the ARIMA-LSTM model paralleling by weight of regression coefficient to predict the future epidemic situation in China. We found that in the next 60 days, the epidemic situation in China will become a steady downward trend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effect of the concentration and chain length of the copolymer AB with sequence length τ = 8 on the interfacial properties of the ternary mixtures A10/AB/B10 are investigated by the dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulations. It is found that: i) As the copolymer concentration varies from 0.05 to 0.15, increasing the copolymer enrichment at the center of the interface enlarges the interface width ω and reduces the interfacial tension. However, as the concentration of the sequence copolymers further increases to 0.2, because the interface has formed micelles and the micellization could lower the efficiency of copolymers as a compatibilizer, the interfacial tension exhibits a slightly increase; ii) elevating the copolymer chain length, the copolymer volumes vary from a cylinder shape to a pancake shape. The blends of the copolymer with chain length Ncp = 24 exhibit a wider interfacial width w and a lower interfacial tension γ, which indicates that the sequenced copolymer Ncp = 24 exhibits a better performance as the compatibilizers. This study illustrates the correlations between the reduction in interfacial tension produced by the sequence copolymers and their molecular parameters, which guide a rational design of an efficient compatibilizer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microbial biotransformation and detoxification of biotoxic selenite into selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) has emerged as an efficient technique for the utilization of selenium. SeNPs are characterized by high bioavailability and have several therapeutic effects owing to their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective activities. However, their influence on microenvironment disturbances and neuroprotection after spinal cord injury (SCI) is yet to be elucidated. This study aimed to assess the influence of SeNPs on SCI and explore the underlying protective mechanisms. Overall, the proliferation and differentiation of neural stem cells were facilitated by SeNPs derived from Proteus mirabilis YC801 via the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. The SeNPs increased the number of neurons to a greater extent than astrocytes after differentiation and improved nerve regeneration. A therapeutic dose of SeNPs remarkably protected the integrity of the spinal cord to improve the motor function of the hind limbs after SCI and decreased the expression of several inflammatory factors such as tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-6 in vivo and enhanced the production of M2-type macrophages by regulating their polarization, indicating the suppressed inflammatory response. Besides, SeNPs reversed the SCI-mediated production of reactive oxygen species. In conclusion, SeNPs treatment holds the potential to improve the disturbed microenvironment and promote nerve regeneration, representing a promising therapeutic approach for SCI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Spatial distribution of wild boar damage risk is important and can be informative to wildlife habitat management. Hunchun is an important active area of Siberian tiger in China. The wild boar damage has brought barriers to the conservation and management of the Siberian tiger in this region. We predicted the spatial distribution of wild boar damage risk in Hunchun in terms of home range and feeding sites scales, and explored the spatial interaction between tiger habitats and the damage risk of wild boar. The results show the distance to the forest edge is an important factor affecting the wild boar damage, and 38.68% of the high-risk areas are overlapped with tiger habitats in Hunchun. Therefore, precise and differentiated management strategies should be adopted in the management of wild boar population. Hunchun, a typical area suffering wild boar (Sus scrofa) damage, is an important region for the Siberian Tiger (Panthera tigris) in China. By incorporating the maximum entropy model with 22 variables in the home range scale (12 variables) and in the feeding site scale (10 variables), we predicted wild boar damage risks in this area of China and analyzed how spatial factors influence damage risk. Damage risk was found to be high in areas close to the forest edge, areas with a higher forest cover and lower to medium deciduous forest proportion, low road density, and a medium river density and farmland proportion. The proportion of farmland which was identified as being in the high damage risk zone was 23.55%, of which 38.68% was within the habitat area of the Siberian Tiger. Finally, we propose wild boar damage prevention based on different management goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Insufficient density of red deer has affected the stability of forest ecosystems and the recovery of large carnivores (represented by Amur tiger). Conservation translocations from captivity to the wild has become an important way to restore the red deer populations. However, the difference in gut microbes between pre-release and wild red deer may affect the feeding adaptability of red deer after release. In this study, we clarified the differences in gut microbes between pre-released and wild red deer and screened the key gut microbes of the red deer involved in feeding by using metagenomic sequencing and feeding analysis. The results showed that the microbial difference between pre-released and wild red deer was mainly related to Firmicutes represented by Eubacteriales and Clostridia, and Firmicutes abundance in pre-released red deer (68.23%) was significantly lower than that of wild red deer (74.91%, p  < 0.05). The expression of microbial metabolic pathways in pre-released red deer were significantly lower than those in wild red deer ( p  < 0.05), including carbohydrate metabolism, amino acid metabolism, glycan biosynthesis and metabolism, etc. The combinations of Firmicutes were significantly positively correlated with the intake of plant fiber and carbohydrate ( p  < 0.05), and were key microbes to help red deer deal with wild plant resources. Additionally, the combinations of Firmicutes represented by Eubacteriales and Clostridia lacking in pre-released red deer contributed the most to expression of microbial metabolic pathways ( importance  > 1), showing a significant positive correlation ( p  < 0.05). This study indicates that high abundance of Firmicutes is an important guarantee for red deer to adapt to the wild feeding environment, which provides critical implications for the recovery of red deer populations and the protection of endangered ungulates., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Guo, Li, Jin, Sun, Wang, Liu, Yuan, Zhang, Zhang and Zhang.)

In this Letter, we present a robust, wide-range, and precise monitoring scheme for transmitter (Tx) impairments in coherent digital subcarrier multiplexing (DSCM) systems. The proposed scheme employs frequency-domain pilot tones (FPTs) to compensate for frequency offset (FO), polarization aliasing, and carrier phase noise, thus isolating Tx impairments from channel distortions. It then implements 4 × 4 real-valued MIMO to compensate for Tx impairments by equalizing symmetric subcarriers. Tx impairment monitoring is derived from the equalizer coefficients. By considering the phase shift caused by Tx impairments, a wide-range and precise monitoring of Tx impairments including IQ skew, IQ phase, and gain imbalances is achieved. We experimentally validated our approach using a 48-GBaud, four-subcarrier, dual-polarization coherent DSCM system. The results confirm the method's capability for a wide-range, robust, and precise Tx impairment monitoring in coherent DSCM systems, maintaining performance even in the presence of ultra-fast polarization variation.

Insufficient prey density is a major factor hindering the recovery of the Amur tiger ( Panthera tigris altaica ), and to effectively restore the Amur tiger, red deer ( Cervus elaphus ) was released into the Huangnihe National Nature Reserve of Northeast China as the main reinforcement. Differences in feeding and synergistic changes caused by the intestinal microbial communities could impact the adaptation of wildlife following reintroductions into field environments. We analyzed the foraging changes in shaping the intestinal microbial community of the red deer after being released to the Huangnihe National Nature Reserve and screened the key microbial flora of the red deer when processing complex food resources. The feeding and intestinal microbial communities of the red deer were analyzed by plant Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) barcoding sequencing and 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing, respectively. The results showed that there were significant differences in food composition between wild and released groups [released in 2019 (R2): n = 5; released in 2021 (R0): n = 6]; the wild group fed mainly on Acer (31.8%) and Abies (25.6%), R2 fed mainly on Betula (44.6%), R0 had not formed a clear preferred feeding pattern but had certain abilities to process and adapt to natural foods. Firmicutes (77.47%) and Bacteroides (14.16%) constituted the main bacterial phylum of red deer, of which, the phylum Firmicutes was the key species of the introduced red deer for processing complex food resources ( p < 0.05). The wild release process significantly changed the intestinal microbial structure of the red deer, making it integrate into the wild red deer. The period since release into the wild may be a key factor in reshaping the structure of the microbial community. This study suggested that the intestinal microbial structure of red deer was significantly different depending on how long since captive deer has been translocated. Individuals that have lived in similar environments for a long time will have similar gut microbes. This is the adaption process of the wildlife to natural environment after wild release, taking into account the gut microbes, and the feeding changes in shaping microbial communities can help introduced red deer match complex food resources and novel field environments., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Guo, Jin, Tian, Bao, Sun, Gray, Song and Zhang.)

Pectin methylesterase (PME) plays a vital role in the growth and development of plants. Their genes can be classified into two types, with Type-1 having an extra domain, PMEI. PME genes in foxtail millet (Setaria italica L.) have not been identified, and their sequence features and evolution have not been explored. Here, we identified 41 foxtail millet PME genes. Decoding the pro-region, containing the PMEI domain, revealed its more active nature than the DNA encoding PME domain, easier to be lost to produce Type-2 PME genes. We inferred that the active nature of the pro-region could be related to its harbouring more repetitive DNA sequences. Further, we revealed that though whole-genome duplication and tandem duplication contributed to producing new copies of PME genes, phylogenetic analysis provided clear evidence of ever-shrinking gene family size in foxtail millet and the other grasses in the past 100 million years. Phylogenetic analysis also supports the existence of two gene groups, Group I and Group II, with genes in Group II being more conservative. Our research contributes to understanding how DNA sequence structure affects the functional innovation and evolution of PME genes.

Low-cost underwater wireless optical communication (UOWC) systems are attractive for high-speed connections among unmanned vehicles or devices in various underwater applications. Here we demonstrate a high-speed and low-cost UOWC system using a low-resolution digital to analog converter (DAC), a single-pixel mini-sized light-emitting diode (mini-LED), and digital pre-compensation (DPC). The enabled DPC scheme comprises digital pre-distortion (DPD), digital pre-emphasis (DPE), and digital resolution enhancer (DRE), which pre-compensate for mini-LED nonlinearity, the bandwidth limitation of the mini-LED and avalanche photodiode detector, and DAC resolution limitation, respectively. The simulation results show that the in-band signal-to-quantization noise ratio can be increased by 6.8 dB using DRE based on a 4-bit DAC. To further improve the system capacity, we tune the level of DPE in order to optimize the trade-off between the residual inter-symbol interference and signal-to-noise ratio. With the combination of optimized DPE and DRE, we obtain a 21.1% higher data rate compared with full DPE only and demonstrate the transmission of 6.9 Gb/s PAM-8 signal over a 2-m distance underwater based on a single-pixel mini-LED and 4-bit DAC. This paper reports a cost-effective UOWC system first using a low-resolution DAC and DPC, which offers a promising path toward low-cost underwater optical wireless networks.

The goal of this study was to identify cancer-associated differentially expressed genes (DEGs), analyze their biological functions and investigate the mechanism(s) of cancer occurrence and development, which may provide a theoretical foundation for bladder cancer (BCa) therapy. We downloaded the mRNA expression profiling dataset GSE13507 from the Gene Expression Omnibus database; the dataset includes 165 BCa and 68 control samples. T‑tests were used to identify DEGs. To further study the biological functions of the identified DEGs, we performed a Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis. Next, we built a network of potentially interacting pathways to study the synergistic relationships among DEGs. A total of 12,105 genes were identified as DEGs, of which 5,239 were upregulated and 6,866 were downregulated in BCa. The DEGs encoding activator protein 1 (AP-1), nuclear factor of activated T-cells (NFAT) proteins, nuclear factor κ-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) and interleukin (IL)-10 were revealed to participate in the significantly enriched immune pathways that were downregulated in BCa. KEGG enrichment analysis revealed 7 significantly upregulated and 47 significantly downregulated pathways enriched among the DEGs. We found a crosstalk interaction among a total of 44 pathways in the network of BCa-affected pathways. In conclusion, our results show that BCa involves dysfunctions in multiple systems. Our study is expected to pave ways for immune and inflammatory research and provide molecular insights for cancer therapy.