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Compressed materials of fossil foliage described here as Itea polyneura sp. nov. (Iteaceae) were collected from the Oligocene of Wenshan, Yunnan Province, southwestern China. The identification is based on the following characters: eucamptodromous secondary veins, strict scalariform tertiary veins, irregular tooth with setaceous apex. The leaf morphology of all modern and fossil species was compared with the new species from Wenshan and show that I. polyneura is most similar to the extant East Asian species Itea omeiensis, which inhabits subtropical forests of southern China. This discovery represents the first unambiguous leaf fossil record of Itea in East Asia. Together with other species in the Wenshan flora and evidence from several other flora in southern China, these findings demonstrate that Itea from East Asia arose with the Paleogene modernization. Copyright (C) 2020 Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.

In this study, various wavelet analysis methods are used to investigate possible influences of large-scale climate patterns, such as El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), on precipitation extremes over Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in China at different time scales. Firstly, the temporal patterns of precipitation extremes are detected by wavelet transform. Significant annual or inter-annual oscillations for the precipitation extremes during 1958–2017, with periodicities of around 0.5–1 year, 1–2 years, and 2–5 years were being found for monthly, seasonal, and annual time series, respectively. Subsequently, wavelet coherence method is used to identify the dominant driving factors of precipitation extremes, with ENSO, IOD, and NAO showing stronger correlations with monthly, seasonal, and annual precipitation extremes, respectively. Meanwhile, partial wavelet coherence analyses indicate that the standalone influences of climate factors may be weak, and the influences seem to be stronger because of their interdependences on other climate indices. Finally, multiple wavelet coherences reveal that variations of precipitation extremes could be better explained by combinations of two or more factors, although the additional explanatory variable may have not a significant increase in percent number of significant coherence.

The long-term overexploitation of groundwater has caused sharp decreases in groundwater table depth and water storage in the agricultural areas of the North China Plain, which has led to obvious changes in the runoff process of the hydrological cycle, affecting the mechanism of runoff generation. Evaluating the impact of groundwater overdraft on runoff generation using hydrological models is the focus of the current work. Herein, a hydrological modeling framework is proposed based on the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) model. The optimal parameters of the VIC model were determined by the synergetic calibration method, combining runoff, evaporation, and water storage levels. Meanwhile, a sliding calibration scheme was employed to explore the implied relationships among runoff coefficient, groundwater exploitation, and model parameters, particularly for the thickness of the second soil layer (i.e., parameter d2), both for the whole period and the sliding window periods. Overall, the VIC model showed good applicability in the southern Haihe river plain, as demonstrated by the low absolute value of the relative error (RE) between the simulated and observed data for runoff and evaporation, with all REs < 8%, as well as large correlation coefficients (CC, all > 0.8). In addition, the CCs between the simulated and the observed data for water storage were all above 0.7. The calibrated optimal parameter d2 increased as the sliding window period increased, and the average d2 gradually increased from 0.372 m to 0.415 m, for which we also found high correlations with both the groundwater table and water storage levels. Additionally, increases in the parameter d2 led to decreases in the runoff coefficient. From 2003 to 2016, the parameter d2 increased from 0.36 m to 0.42 m, and the runoff coefficient decreased by about 0.02.

Reduction in the expression of sarcolipin (SLN), an inhibitor of sarco(endo)plasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+-ATPase (SERCA), ameliorates severe muscular dystrophy in mice. However, the mechanism by which SLN inhibition improves muscle structure remains unclear. Here, we describe the previously unknown function of SLN in muscle differentiation in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Overexpression of SLN in C2C12 resulted in decreased SERCA pump activity, reduced SR Ca2+ load, and increased intracellular Ca2+ ([Formula: see text]) concentration. In addition, SLN overexpression resulted in altered expression of myogenic markers and poor myogenic differentiation. In dystrophin-deficient dog myoblasts and myotubes, SLN expression was significantly high and associated with defective [Formula: see text] cycling. The dystrophic dog myotubes were less branched and associated with decreased autophagy and increased expression of mitochondrial fusion and fission proteins. Reduction in SLN expression restored these changes and enhanced dystrophic dog myoblast fusion during differentiation. In summary, our data suggest that SLN upregulation is an intrinsic secondary change in dystrophin-deficient myoblasts and could account for the [Formula: see text] mishandling, which subsequently contributes to poor myogenic differentiation. Accordingly, reducing SLN expression can improve the [Formula: see text] cycling and differentiation of dystrophic myoblasts. These findings provide cellular-level supports for targeting SLN expression as a therapeutic strategy for DMD.

Mechanisms driving the tectonic evolution of the southeast (SE) margin of Tibet include the Paleogene extrusion of the coherent Indochina lithospheric block, and the continuous deformation caused by lower crustal flow since the middle Miocene. The timing and style of regional deformations are key to determining the role of each mechanism. Fault-bounded and -controlled Cenozoic basins within the SE margin of Tibet record regional deformation, surface uplift and variations in paleoclimate, but often are poorly dated. New magnetostratigraphy and 40Ar/39Ar dating of volcanic ashes constrain precisely the timing of sedimentation within the Lühe Basin to between ~35 and 26.5 Ma. The basin is located in the Chuandian terrane along the Chuxiong fault, which lies ~70 km north of, and parallel to, the Ailao Shan-Red River fault. The asymmetric syncline of the Lühe Basin suggests syn-contractional sedimentation and the basal age of the basin represents the initiation of the Chuxiong fault and crustal shortening at ~35 Ma. This is coincident with the onset of the Ailao Shan-Red River fault, and supports a kinematic link between them. Our study suggests that, like the Ailao Shan-Red River fault, the Chuxiong fault is a Paleogene transpressional structure that developed during the extrusion and clockwise rotation of Indochina around the Eastern Himalayan Syntaxis, which caused the late Paleogene deformation and surface uplift of the Chuandian terrane and Indochina. Our revised chronostratigraphy of the Lühe Basin provides further evidence that many of the “Neogene” sedimentary basins in the SE margin of Tibet may be much older than previously thought.

paleomagnetic directions for the Luhe magnetostratigraphy

The sedimentary basins of Yunnan, Southwest China, record detailed histories of Cenozoic paleoenvironmental change. They track regional tectonic and palaeobiological evolution, both of which are critically important for the development of modern floral diversity in southwestern China and throughout Asia more generally. However, to be useful, the sedimentary archives within the basins have to be placed within a well-constrained timeframe independent of biostratigraphy. Using high resolution U-Pb dating, we redefine the age of fossil-bearing strata in the Wenshan Basin. Regarded as Miocene for the last half century, these basin sediments encompass 30 ± 2 and 32 ± 1 Ma early Oligocene tuffaceous horizons, thus indicating a significantly greater antiquity than previously recognized. Together with other regional age revisions our result points to widespread Yunnan basin and orographic development as largely having taken place by the end Paleogene. This age revision provides an important new perspective on the preserved biotas and their evolution in Yunnan, and especially our understanding of the origin of Asian biodiversity which, regionally, had a near-modern composition by the early Oligocene. Crucially, this revised age evidences late Eocene-early Oligocene regional tectonism, pointing to the rise of eastern Tibet and the Hengduan Mountains before the growth of the Himalaya, and that Asia's high plant diversity has a Paleogene origin.

This paper investigates the nonstationarity of precipitation extremes by incorporating time-varying and physical-based explanatory covariates, using daily precipitation data across the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region, China. We perform the stationary and nonstationary generalized extreme value (GEV) models based on the Bayesian framework to estimate the expected return levels of precipitation extremes with the 90% credible intervals. Results reveal that the nonstationarity of precipitation extremes is not prominently visible for the majority of sites in BTH. However, the nonstationary GEV models exhibit better performance to capture the variations of precipitation extremes by comparison to the stationary models based on four evaluation criteria. Further, this work attempts to determine the best covariate to illustrate the possible effects of environmental changes on the frequency analysis. Results indicate that the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is the top of the best covariates, followed by the East Asian summer monsoon, North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and local temperature anomaly. Moreover, the best covariates are dominated by the physical-based covariates, and the best models with nonlinear functions of covariates are found in the majority of sites. Finally, the best-fitted models are used to estimate the design values of return levels in precipitation extremes. Results illustrate that the differences between the stationary modeling and nonstationary modeling in the median condition of covariates are not significant for most of the sites. But the discrepancies will be enhanced if the covariates locate in a high (95-percentile) or low (5-percentile) value. Our findings suggest that the nonstationary modeling of precipitation extremes might prove more useful and reliable, especially in the uncommon conditions of physical-based covariates.

Background: Proper dynamics of RNA polymerase II, such as promoter recruitment and elongation, are essential for transcription. PGC-1α (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor [PPAR]-γ coactivator-1α), also termed PPARGC1a, is a transcriptional coactivator that stimulates energy metabolism, and PGC-1α target genes are downregulated in the failing heart. However, whether the dysregulation of polymerase II dynamics occurs in PGC-1α target genes in heart failure has not been defined. Methods and Results: Chromatin immunoprecipitation-sequencing revealed that reduced promoter occupancy was a major form of polymerase II dysregulation on PGC-1α target metabolic gene promoters in the pressure-overload–induced heart failure model. PGC-1α-cKO (cardiac-specific PGC-1α knockout) mice showed phenotypic similarity to the pressure-overload–induced heart failure model in wild-type mice, such as contractile dysfunction and downregulation of PGC-1α target genes, even under basal conditions. However, the protein levels of PGC-1α were neither changed in the pressure-overload model nor in human failing hearts. Chromatin immunoprecipitation assays revealed that the promoter occupancy of polymerase II and PGC-1α was consistently reduced both in the pressure-overload model and PGC-1α-cKO mice. In vitro DNA binding assays using an endogenous PGC-1α target gene promoter sequence confirmed that PGC-1α recruits polymerase II to the promoter. Conclusions: These results suggest that PGC-1α promotes the recruitment of polymerase II to the PGC-1α target gene promoters. Downregulation of PGC-1α target genes in the failing heart is attributed, in part, to a reduction of the PGC-1α occupancy and the polymerase II recruitment to the promoters, which might be a novel mechanism of metabolic perturbations in the failing heart.

A numeric experiment of dispersion equation by absolutely stable scheme in this article. We can solve the problem with arbitrary step in time direction theoretically and the computation will be an easy and simple by then, and so we can solve the problem that the additional boundary values must be given first for present difference schemes when we try to realize the calculation by then.

We tested the possibility that proteasome inhibition may reverse preexisting cardiac hypertrophy and improve remodeling upon pressure overload. Mice were submitted to aortic banding and followed up for 3 wk. The proteasome inhibitor epoxomicin (0.5 mg/kg) or the vehicle was injected daily, starting 2 wk after banding. At the end of the third week, vehicle-treated banded animals showed significant ( P < 0.05) increase in proteasome activity (PA), left ventricle-to-tibial length ratio (LV/TL), myocyte cross-sectional area (MCA), and myocyte apoptosis compared with sham-operated animals and developed signs of heart failure, including increased lung weight-to-TL ratio and decreased ejection fraction. When compared with that group, banded mice treated with epoxomicin showed no increase in PA, a lower LV/TL and MCA, reduced apoptosis, stabilized ejection fraction, and no signs of heart failure. Because overload-mediated cardiac remodeling largely depends on the activation of the proteasome-regulated transcription factor NF-κB, we tested whether epoxomicin would prevent this activation. NF-κB activity increased significantly upon overload, which was suppressed by epoxomicin. The expression of NF-κB-dependent transcripts, encoding collagen types I and III and the matrix metalloprotease-2, increased ( P < 0.05) after banding, which was abolished by epoxomicin. The accumulation of collagen after overload, as measured by histology, was 75% lower ( P < 0.05) with epoxomicin compared with vehicle. Myocyte apoptosis increased by fourfold in hearts submitted to aortic banding compared with sham-operated hearts, which was reduced by half upon epoxomicin treatment. Therefore, we propose that proteasome inhibition after the onset of pressure overload rescues ventricular remodeling by stabilizing cardiac function, suppressing further progression of hypertrophy, repressing collagen accumulation, and reducing myocyte apoptosis.

This thesis aims to analyse the deposit characteristics about Da Hong Mountains Iron ore in Yunnan province. The texture and structure, especially the chemical composition, is different in every section of deposit after comparing. Moreover, the content of SiO 2 is much higher than general iron ore. However, the content of other noble metals cannot reach the lowest industrial grade. Da Hong Mountains Iron ore has unique features because of metallogenic periods.

We studied gender-specific changes in aging cardiomyopathy in a primate model, Macaca fascicularis, free of the major human diseases, complicating the interpretation of data specific to aging in humans. Left ventricular (LV) weight/body weight decreased, p

Calorie restriction (CR) is the most widely studied intervention protecting from the adverse effects of aging. Almost all prior studies have examined the effects of CR initiated in young animals. Studies examining the effects of CR on development of aging cardiomyopathy found only partial prevention. The major goal of this study was to determine whether CR initiated after aging cardiomyopathy developed could reverse the cardiomyopathy. Aging cardiomyopathy in 2-year-old mice was characterized by reduced left ventricular (LV) function, cardiac hypertrophy, and increased cardiac apoptosis and fibrosis. When short-term (2 months) CR was initiated after aging cardiomyopathy developed in 20-month-old mice, the decrease in cardiac function, and increases in LV weight, myocardial fibrosis and apoptosis were reversed, such that the aging hearts in these mice were indistinguishable from those of young mice or mice where CR was initiated in young mice. If apoptosis was the mechanism for protecting against aging cardiomyopathy, then total myocyte numbers should have reverted to normal with CR, but did not. However, the alterations in cytoskeletal proteins, which contribute to aging cardiomyopathy, were no longer observed with CR. This is the first study to demonstrate complete prevention of aging cardiomyopathy by CR and, more importantly, that instituting this intervention even later in life can rapidly correct aging cardiomyopathy, which could have important therapeutic implications.

For a Bose-Einstein Condensate placed in a rotating trap and confined in the z axis, symplectic difference schemes and multisymplectic was used to investigate the evolution of vortices of BEC in this paper. The case of the evolution of vortices in BEC was imitated by numerical experiment.

For a Bose-Einstein Condensate placed in a rotating trap and confined in the z axis, a kind of symplectic difference schemes was used to investigate the evolution of vortices of BEC in this paper. The case of the evolution of three vortices in BEC was imitated by numerical experiment.

For the propagation acoustic wave in inhomogeneous, we need to study Helmholtz equation, one of the difficulty is to cope with the big angular problem in the research of the propagation acoustic wave, so it is necessary to study the numerical method of isospectral problem. An numerical experiment of Newton iteration on Lie group of isospectral is introduced in this paper.

The initial value of the vortices in BEC was used to study the cases of vortices in BEC by numerical method, while different parameters corresponding cases of vortices. The stationary solution of G-P equation we get from the image time equation, while they converges to the solution of G-P equation very quickly as t → ∞.

We proposes a kind of explicit - implicit difference scheme to solve the initial and boundary value questions of the third order term of KDV equation here, and so we can solve the problem that the additional boundary values must be given first for present difference schemes when we try to realize the calculation by then.

For a Bose-Einstein Condensate placed in a rotating trap and confined in the z axis, a multisymplectic difference scheme was constructed to investigate the evolution of vortices in this paper. First, we look for a steady state solution of the imaginary time G-P equation. Then, we numerically study the vortices's development in real time, starting with the solution in imaginary time as initial value.