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A new intertidal dwarf bug, Corallocoris xishaensis Luo, Wang & Chen sp. nov., from Xisha Islands of South China Sea is described, and is the first record of the family Omaniidae Cobben, 1970 from China. The new species can be distinguished from its allied Austro-Oriental species C. marksae (Woodward, 1958) by the colour of its body and legs, and the genitalic structures of both sexes. Photographs of the habitus, head, thorax, abdomen, appendages and genitalic structures are provided, additional scanning electron micrographs of the body surface are presented as well. A key to all the species of Omaniidae and distributional maps based on the known records for all species of this family are provided.

More than 95% of phytophagous true bug (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) species belong to four superfamilies: Miroidea (Cimicomorpha), Pentatomoidea, Coreoidea, and Lygaeoidea (all Pentatomomorpha). These iconic groups of highly diverse, overwhelmingly phytophagous insects include several economically prominent agricultural and silvicultural pest species, though their evolutionary history has not yet been well resolved. In particular, superfamily- and family-level phylogenetic relationships of these four lineages have remained controversial, and the divergence times of some crucial nodes for phytophagous true bugs have hitherto been little known, which hampers a better understanding of the evolutionary processes and patterns of phytophagous insects. In the present study, we used 150 species and concatenated nuclear and mitochondrial protein-coding genes and rRNA genes to infer the phylogenetic relationships within the Terheteroptera (Cimicomorpha + Pentatomomorpha) and estimated their divergence times. Our results support the monophyly of Cimicomorpha, Pentatomomorpha, Miroidea, Pentatomoidea, Pyrrhocoroidea, Coreoidea, and Lygaeoidea. The phylogenetic relationships across phytophagous lineages are largely congruent at deep nodes across the analyses based on different datasets and tree-reconstructing methods with just a few exceptions. Estimated divergence times and ancestral state reconstructions for feeding habit indicate that phytophagous true bugs explosively radiated in the Early Cretaceous-shortly after the angiosperm radiation-with the subsequent diversification of the most speciose clades (Mirinae, Pentatomidae, Coreinae, and Rhyparochromidae) in the Late Cretaceous.

Bacterial symbionts of insects have been shown to play important roles in host fitness. However, little is known about the bacterial community of Tessaratoma papillosa which is one of the most destructive pests of the well-known fruits Litchi chinensis Sonn and Dimocarpus longan Lour in Oriental Region, especially in South-east Asia and adjacent areas. In this study, we surveyed the bacterial community diversity and dynamics of T. papillosa in all developmental stages with both culture-dependent and culture-independent methods by the third-generation sequencing technology. Five bacterial phyla were identified in seven developmental stages of T. papillosa. Proteobacteria was the dominant phylum and Pantoea was the dominant genus of T. papillosa. The results of alpha and beta diversity analyses showed that egg stage had the most complex bacterial community. Some of different developmental stages showed similarities, which were clustered into three phases: (1) egg stage, (2) early nymph stages (instars 1-3), and (3) late nymph stages (instars 4-5) and adult stage. Functional prediction indicated that the bacterial community played different roles in these three phases. Furthermore, 109 different bacterial strains were isolated and identified from various developmental stages. This study revealed the relationship between the symbiotic bacteria and the development of T. papillosa, and may thus contribute to the biological control techniques of T. papillosa in the future.

Herbicide-driven selective pressures on weeds promote genetic changes in various physiological traits, including flowering time and fructification, allowing weeds to evade control techniques. Previously, we showed that early flowering was associated with resistance to acetyl coenzyme A carboxylase (ACCase) inhibitor herbicides in a population of Polypogon fugax. Here, we isolated the type I–like MADS-box gene PfAGL28 from ACCase inhibitor-resistant P. fugax, and showed that this gene was strongly upregulated in the resistant compared to susceptible populations at the flowering stage. Overexpression of PfAGL28 in Arabidopsis thaliana resulted in the early-flowering phenotype and early seed formation likely due to the upregulation of FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT), and AGMOUS-LIKE 23 (AGL23), AGMOUS-LIKE 61 (AGL61), and AGMOUS-LIKE 80 (AGL80). These results indicate that PfAGL28 gene is likely involved in the regulation of early flowering and pod formation in P. fugax. Our study thus provides a reference for future explorations of the flowering mechanisms of herbicide-resistant weeds.

It remains extremely challenging to build three-dimensional photonic crystals with complete photonic bandgaps by simple and experimentally realizable colloidal building blocks. Here, we demonstrate that particle softness can enhance both the self-assembly of pyrochlore- and perovskite-like lattice structures from simple deformable triblock Janus colloids and their photonic bandgap performances. Dynamics simulation results show that the region of stability of pyrochlore lattices can be greatly expanded by appropriately increasing softness, and the perovskite lattices are unexpectedly obtained at enough high softness. Photonic calculations show that the direct pyrochlore lattices formed from overlapping soft triblock Janus particles exhibit even larger photonic bandgaps than the ideal nonoverlapping pyrochlore lattice, and proper overlap arising from softness can also dramatically improve the photonic properties of the inverse pyrochlore and perovskite lattices. Our study offers a new and feasible self-assembly path toward three-dimensional photonic crystals with large and robust photonic bandgaps.

The microbial communities associated with insects play critical roles in many physiological functions such as digestion, nutrition, and defense. Meanwhile, with the development of sequencing technology, more and more studies begin to focus on broader biodiversity of insects and the corresponding mechanisms of insect microbial symbiosis, which need longer time collecting in the field. However, few studies have evaluated the effect of insect microbiome sample preservation approaches especially in different time durations or have assessed whether these approaches are appropriate for both next-generation sequencing (NGS) and third-generation sequencing (TGS) technologies. Here, we used Tessaratoma papillosa (Hemiptera: Tessaratomidae), an important litchi pest, as the model insect and adopted two sequencing technologies to evaluate the effect of four different preservation approaches (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), ethanol, air dried, and RNAlater). We found the samples treated by air dried method, which entomologists adopted for morphological observation and classical taxonomy, would get worse soon. RNAlater as the most expensive approaches for insect microbiome sample preservation did not suit for field works longer than 1 month. We recommended CTAB and ethanol as better preservatives in longer time field work for their effectiveness and low cost. Comparing with the full-length 16S rRNA gene sequenced by TGS, the V4 region of 16S rRNA gene sequenced by NGS has a lower resolution trait and may misestimate the composition of microbial communities. Our results provided recommendations for suitable preservation approaches applied to insect microbiome studies based on two sequencing technologies, which can help researchers properly preserve samples in field works.

To elucidate the underlying mechanism of Panax notoginseng saponin (PNS) on gastric epithelial cell injury and barrier dysfunction induced by dual antiplatelet (DA). Human gastric mucosal epithelial cell (GES-1) was cultured and divided into 4 groups: a control, a DA, a PNS+DA and a LY294002+PNS+DA group. GES-1 apoptosis was detected by flow cytometry, cell permeability were detected using Transwell, level of prostaglandins E2 (PGE2), 6-keto-prostaglandin F1α (6-keto-PGF1α) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in supernatant were measured by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), expression of phosphatidylinositide 3-kinase (PI3K), phosphorylated-PI3K (p-PI3K), Akt, phosphorylated-Akt (p-Akt), cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) and Ras homolog gene family member A (RhoA) were measured by Western-blot. DA induced apoptosis and hyper-permeability in GES-1, reduced supernatant level of PGE2, 6-keto-PGF1α and VEGF (P

Key innovations enable access to new adaptive zones and are often linked to increased species diversification. As such, they have attracted much attention, yet their concrete consequences on the subsequent evolutionary trajectory and diversification of the bearing lineages remain unclear. The monophyletic group of water striders and relatives (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Gerromorpha) represent a group of insects that transited to live on the water-air interface and diversified to occupy ponds, puddles, streams, mangroves and even oceans. This lineage offers an excellent model to study the patterns and processes underlying species diversification following the conquest of new adaptive zones. However, such studies require a reliable and comprehensive phylogeny of the infraorder. Based on whole transcriptomic datasets of 97 species and fossil records, we reconstructed a new phylogeny of the Gerromorpha that resolved inconsistencies and uncovered strong support for previously unknown relationships between some important taxa. We then used this phylogeny to reconstruct the ancestral state of a set of adaptations associated with water surface invasion (fluid locomotion, dispersal and transition to saline waters) and sexual dimorphism. Our results uncovered important patterns and dynamics of phenotypic evolution revealing how the initial event of water surface invasion enabled multiple subsequent transitions to new adaptive zones, representing distinct niches of water surfaces, and further diversification of the group. This phylogeny and the associated transcriptomic datasets constitute highly valuable resources, making Gerromorpha an attractive model lineage to study phenotypic evolution.

AIM: To analyse the association of sleep quality with myopia under different genetic risk (GR) levels. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey of students aged 9-14y in Wenzhou, China, was conducted. Refraction without cycloplegia and ocular parameters were measured. Sleep quality was assessed with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Seventeen single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were replicated by association analysis and used to compute the GR score (GRS). Possible confounders were assessed by a questionnaire that collected information about the children and their parents. Generalized linear models were used to analyse the sleep quality, the GR, and their interaction effects on the risk of myopia. RESULTS: Out of 1354 children included in this study, 353 (26.07%) had sleep disturbances. The GRS ranged from 4.49 to 12.89 with a mean of 7.74±1.23, and the participants were divided into a low GR group, a moderate GR group and a high GR group according to the GRS quartile. In the generalized linear model, the children with sleep disturbances and high GR had a higher risk of myopia than those without sleep disturbances and with low GR (OR=1.59, 95%CI: 1.12-2.25; OR=1.88, 95%CI: 1.23-2.88, respectively). Compared to those with low GR and SDs, children with high GR with or without SDs had a higher risk of myopia (OR=4.88, 95%CI: 2.03-11.71; OR=1.70, 95%CI: 1.06-2.72, respectively). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of sleep disturbances in elementary school students in Wenzhou was 26.07%. There is a significant interaction between sleep disturbances and a high GR of myopia, suggesting that a high GR of myopia may increase children's sensitivity to sleep disturbances. This study indicates that children with a high GR of myopia need to achieve adequate sleep duration and excellent sleep quality.

Accurately quantifying the impacts of environmental factors and canopy structure on stem sap flow is of great significance for deeply understanding water use strategies of trees in changing environment. The stem sap flow of准确量化环境和冠层结构变化对树干液流的影响,对于深入理解变化环境下的树木水分利用机制具有重要意义。在六盘山香水河小流域于2019年6—9月利用热扩散式探针监测了华北落叶松林的树干液流,同步观测林外气象、林内根系层土壤含水量和冠层结构动态,分析树干液流速率与潜在蒸散(PET)、土壤相对可利用水分(REW)和林冠层叶面积指数(LAI)的关系,并量化各因素对树干液流速率的相对贡献。结果表明: 树干液流速率对PET的响应符合二项式函数,对LAI的响应符合线性增长函数,对REW的响应符合趋于饱和的指数增长函数。将树干液流速率与PET、REW和LAI的单因子响应关系以连乘形式耦合得到多因素影响的树干液流模型,具有较好的模拟精度。基于该模型得到,PET是导致不同天气下树干液流速率差异的主导因素,其平均贡献率在晴天(40.3%)、多云(4.3%)和雨天(-26.3%)下有较大不同;PET和LAI是影响树干液流速率月份变化的主导因素,其在各月贡献率范围分别为-23.1%~16.8%和-12.3%~11.0%。本研究构建的多因素影响的树干液流模型可用于评估和预测树干液流速率,亦可用于量化各主导因素影响,将有潜力成为分析变化环境下树木水分利用的有效工具。.

To investigate the possible correlation between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO). Thirty consecutive patients with a recent (

High purity metal vanadium powder was milled by high energy ball milling, and the grain size and morphology of vanadium powder was observed by electron probe, and the stress-strain curve was measured by CMT5305 universal testing machine for research of the mechanical property. In order to investigate the effect of sintering process on the property of product, the vanadium powder was sintered by the hot pressing sintering process and the cold isostatic pressing with vacuum sintering process respectively. The experimental results show that for the cold isostatic pressing with vacuum sintering process, the density of raw compact increases with the increase of pressing pressure. When the pressure increases to 280 MPa, the density and relative density of raw compact are 3.99 g·cm-3 and 66.94% respectively, the density and relative density of product after sintering are 5.28 g·cm-3 and 88.59% respectively. With the pressure increasing from 80 MPa to 200 MPa, the compressive strength increases significantly from 0.4 MPa to 6.0 MPa, the pressure increases to 280 MPa, the compressive strength slowly increases to 7.4 MPa. For the hot pressing sintering process, the relative density of product is higher than that of cold isostatic pressing with vacuum sintering process, and the density and relative density reach to 5.51 g·cm-3 and 92.91% respectively under 280 MPa pressure.

In this paper, a Leslie-Gower predator-prey model with ratio-dependence and state pulse feedback control is established to investigate the effect of spraying chemical pesticides and supplement amount of beneficial insects at the same time. Firstly, the existence, uniqueness and asymptotic stability of the periodic solution are proved by using successor function method and the analogue of the Poincare criterion when the equilibria E∗ and E0 are stable, and the existence of limit cycles without impulse system is verified when the equilibrium E∗ is unstable. Furthermore, to obtain the minimum cost per period of controlling pests, we propose the optimization problem and calculate the optimal threshold. Finally, the feasibility of our model is proved by numerical simulation of a concrete example.

The microbial communities associated with insects play critical roles in many physiological functions such as digestion, nutrition, and defense. Meanwhile, with the development of sequencing technology, more and more studies begin to focus on broader biodiversity of insects and the corresponding mechanisms of insect microbial symbiosis, which need longer time collecting in the field. However, few studies have evaluated the effect of insect microbiome sample preservation approaches especially in different time durations or have assessed whether these approaches are appropriate for both next-generation sequencing (NGS) and third-generation sequencing (TGS) technologies. Here, we used Tessaratoma papillosa (Hemiptera: Tessaratomidae), an important litchi pest, as the model insect and adopted two sequencing technologies to evaluate the effect of four different preservation approaches (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), ethanol, air dried, and RNAlater). We found the samples treated by air dried method, which entomologists adopted for morphological observation and classical taxonomy, would get worse soon. RNAlater as the most expensive approaches for insect microbiome sample preservation did not suit for field works longer than 1 month. We recommended CTAB and ethanol as better preservatives in longer time field work for their effectiveness and low cost. Comparing with the full-length 16S rRNA gene sequenced by TGS, the V4 region of 16S rRNA gene sequenced by NGS has a lower resolution trait and may misestimate the composition of microbial communities. Our results provided recommendations for suitable preservation approaches applied to insect microbiome studies based on two sequencing technologies, which can help researchers properly preserve samples in field works.

Quantifying the response of tree transpiration (量化林分蒸腾对大气蒸发需求和土壤供水变化的响应能更好预测林分水分利用和水分循环特征并深化对林水关系的认识。本研究以六盘山南侧的香水河小流域的华北落叶松人工林为研究对象,采用热扩散探针法监测树干液流,同步测定环境因子,分析林分蒸腾对潜在蒸散和土壤体积含水率变化的响应关系。结果表明: 林分蒸腾对土壤体积含水率变化响应的曲线在不同潜在蒸散水平下基本相似,即随土壤体积含水率增大,林分蒸腾先快速后缓慢增大,达到阈值后趋于平稳,该过程可用饱和指数增长函数得到较好的拟合;但土壤水分阈值存在差异,且阈值随潜在蒸散的升高而增大。林分日蒸腾量随潜在蒸散增加的变化遵循抛物线曲线,也存在阈值效应。采用连乘方式耦合了生长季中期林分蒸腾响应土壤体积含水率和潜在蒸散的关系,形成了同时考虑土壤供水能力和大气蒸发潜力影响的林分蒸腾模型,该模型能很好地估测蒸腾的日变化,可为人工林水分调控管理提供指导。.

The design and discovery of new two-dimensional materials with desired structures and properties are always one of the most fundamental goals in materials science. Here we present an atom-mimicking design concept to achieve direct self-assembly of two-dimensional low-coordinated open lattices using three-dimensional patchy particle systems. Besides honeycomb lattices, a new type of two-dimensional square-octagon lattice is obtained through rational design of the patch configuration of soft three-patch particles. However, unexpectedly the building blocks with thermodynamically favoured patch configuration cannot form square-octagon lattices in our simulations. We further reveal the kinetic mechanisms controlling the formation of the honeycomb and square-octagon lattices. The results indicate that the kinetically favoured intermediates play a critical role in determining the structure of obtained open lattices. This kinetics-controlled design principle provides a particularly effective and extendable framework to construct other novel open lattice structures.

In view of the structure and action behavior of mechatronic systems, a method of searching fault propagation paths called maximum-probability path search (MPPS) is proposed, aiming to determine all possible failure propagation paths with their lengths if faults occur. First, the physical structure system, function behavior, and complex network theory are integrated to define a system structural-action network (SSAN). Second, based on the concept of SSAN, two properties of nodes and edges, i.e., the topological property and reliability property, are combined to define the failure propagation property. Third, the proposed MPPS model provides all fault propagation paths and possible failure rates of nodes on these paths. Finally, numerical experiments have been implemented to show the accuracy and advancement compared with the methods of Function Space Iteration (FSI) and the algorithm of Ant Colony Optimization (ACO).

Examining the interaction mechanism between ecological environment and regional poverty at fine scale is an important prerequisite and guarantee for sustainable development of resources, environment and social economy from the combined perspectives of precise poverty alleviation and rural revitalization. We established the evaluation models of ecological vulnerability, multidimensional poverty, and the coupling coordination degree model, beased on which we systematically and comprehensively revealed the interaction between ecological environment and multidimensional poverty. The test results from 1586 administrative villages showed that the higher-vulnerability area of ecological environment was mainly distributed in the southeast region. Multidimensional poverty was increasing from northwest to southeast, with a spatial distribution pattern of "overall dispersion, local aggregation". In the coordinated development zone, ecological environment vulnerability and multidimensional poverty was positively correlated. In the disordered declining zone, the degree of coupling between ecological environment vulnerability and multidimensional poverty was lower, wth significantly negative correlation, indicating that the improvement of ecological environment quality and the development of multidimensional poverty reduction were asynchronous. There was a close and complex relationship between eco-environmental vulnerability and multidimensional poverty. Therefore, during poverty alleviation and development, we should pay more attention to environmental protection to prevent the poverty-stricken areas falling into the trap of ecological poverty.探索精细尺度上生态环境与区域综合贫困之间的关联性以及两者互动机理,是实现精准脱贫和乡村振兴背景下资源环境与社会经济绿色可持续发展的重要前提和保障.本文通过分别建立生态脆弱性和多维贫困评价模型体系,并结合耦合协调度模型,系统全面地揭示了生态环境脆弱性与多维贫困之间的协调发展关系.对研究区1586个行政村的测试结果表明:研究区生态环境高脆弱区主要分布在东南部;多维贫困状况从西北向东南呈现递增趋势,空间分布上均呈现“整体分散、局部聚集”的格局.在协调发展区,生态环境脆弱度与多维贫困程度的耦合度较高,两者呈显著正相关关系;在衰退失调区,生态环境脆弱度与多维贫困程度的耦合度较低,两者呈显著的负相关关系,说明生态环境质量改善和多维减贫发展不同步.生态环境脆弱性与多维贫困之间存在密切的复杂关系,扶贫开发的同时应重视生态环境保护,防止陷入生态贫困陷阱.

The family Hermatobatidae Poisson, 1965 is recorded for the first time from China and Hermatobates lingyangjiaoensis sp. n. is described. Photographs of the male and female habitus, legs, metasternum, and male genitalic structures, and scanning electron micrographs of the male metasternum and propleuron are provided. A key to all the species currently recognized in the H. weddi species group is presented. Distribution maps for the species of Hermatobates in China and Southeast Asia are also provided. Further, a photograph documenting the feeding of Hermatobates on Halovelia is presented for the first time to serve as direct evidence of the feeding habits of Hermatobates.

Poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) was controllably grafted from styrene-b-(ethylene-co-propylene)-b-styrene (SEPS) backbones by combining lithiation of styrenic units and living monomer-activated anionic ring-opening polymerization of ethylene oxide (EO) monomers with the aid of co-initiators triisobutyl aluminum. The as-synthesized SEPS-g-PEO copolymers were characterized by SEC, 1H-NMR, FTIR, SAXS, AFM and DSC. When the branch length is relatively small, increase of PEO fraction leads to the increase of the correlation length between neighboring hard domains, but the degree of correlation reduces. When the branch length is relatively large, the phase-separated structures become random both in terms of size and spatial correlation, and macro-phase separated structures appear. The crystallization behavior of the PEO branches can be effectively inhibited in SEPS-g-PEO, so no significant crystallization takes place until the fraction of PEO branches is 20.1 wt%, which greatly promotes the rapid delivery of hydrophilic drugs in the hot-melting pressuresensitive adhesives (HMPSAs) based on SEPS-g-PEO. Their cumulative release amount of a model drug could achieve 80%, more than twice the value in the HMPSAs based on linear PEO-containing styrenic block copolymers.

Studies have shown that satins and herbal products have potential to treat non-alcohol fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in clinic. However, no study has compared their effects, and their mechanisms remain unresolved. Here, we choose lovastatin and two herbal products including berberine and curcumin to compare their effects in treating NAFLD. NAFLD model was established by high fat food, and rats were administrated with lovastatin, berberine, curcumin, berberine + curcumin at the dosage of 100, 100, 100, 50 + 50 mg/kg bw, respectively. The body weight, visceral fat gain, histological inspection and serum parameters were studied to exam the curative effects. In addition, mediators including SREBP-1c, caveolin-1, pERK, NF-κB, TNF-α, and pJNK were studied. Results showed that berberine + curcumin group exhibited lower body and fat weigh compared with lovastatin group. Biochemical assays showed that LDL-c, ALT, AST, ALP, MDA, LSP level were lower in berberine + curcumin group compared with lovastatin group. Lower expression of SREBP-1c, pERK, TNF-α, and pJNK were also observed in berberine + curcumin group. We conclude that combination of curcumin and berberine exhibited better ameliorative effects in treating NAFLD than lovastatin, and this enhanced effect is associated with oxidative stress, hepatic inflammation and lipid metabolism.