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BACKGROUND: At present, the incidence of obesity is increasing. Several studies have shown that obesity can reduce male fertility by affecting spermatogenesis and semen quality. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has fewer side effects and stable efficacy in the treatment of related diseases. This study aimed to investigate the effect of Huaji Jianpi Decoction on the semen quality of high-fat diet-induced obese mice. METHODS: The obese male mice model was constructed by using high-fat diet and the Huaji Jianpi Decoction was processed into an aqueous extract. Mice were allocated in the normal group (n=30) and five different treatment groups (n=50). Huaji Jianpi Decoction was applied in low-, medium- and high-dose [17.52 g/(kg·d), 35.04 g/(kg·d) and 70.07 g/(kg·d), respectively]. The body weight, body fat, testis wet weight, testis coefficient, and routine sperm parameters were detected and analyzed. Meanwhile, transmission electron microscope (TEM) was used to observe testis ultrastructure. reverse-transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) was used to measure the expression of tumour necrosis factor α (TNF-α) and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1). RESULTS: Compared with normal mice (ND), the testis wet weight and testis coefficient of mice in the blank group were significantly decreased, while the number of mitochondria was observed to be decreased on testis ultrastructure examination, and apoptotic cells and germ cells in the spermatogenic tubules were shed. After Huaji Jianpi Decoction administration, the body fat and blood lipid levels of obese mice were decreased, the testis wet weight and testis coefficient were increased, and semen parameters were increased. Different doses of Huaji Jianpi Decoction could improve testicular weight, sperm density, sperm motility, forward motility, and total sperm motility. Huaji Jianpi Decoction could also downregulate TNF-α and MCP-1 expression and inhibit germ cell apoptosis to improve semen quality. CONCLUSIONS: Huaji Jianpi Decoction can improve the semen quality of high-fat diet-induced obese mice by reducing weight and lipid levels.

Rapid urbanization has led to the sharp decline of some rural villages. Idle rural residential land (IRRL) is symbolic of rural decline, and the academic community is in urgent need of quantitative studies on the spatial pattern of IRRL from the perspective of geography. Taking Pinggu as a case area, we explored the spatial pattern and layout mode of IRRL and evaluated its utilizability and reuse under different spatial layout modes. Our findings show that the idle rate of rural residential land (RRL) in Pinggu, which is in a suburb of a metropolis, is more serious than that of urban land. The patches of IRRL are generally small and fragmented, showing the characteristics of overall dispersion and local agglomeration of the whole area. The agglomerative point type and scattered point type are the main spatial layout modes of IRRL. In villages, the spatial distribution of IRRL is characterized by a small and scattered point distribution, and large-area polygon agglomeration and belt agglomeration are relatively less common. The utilizability of IRRL in Pinggu decreases from the urban fringe to the surrounding rural area. The utilizability of the agglomerative polygon type, agglomerative belt type, and agglomerative point type in the urban suburbs and agricultural plains areas is higher, while the utilizability of the scattered strip type and scattered point type in the northern and eastern suburban mountainous areas is lower. Our research contributes to filling the gap in the geographical quantitative research on IRRL by exploring the interactions between humans and land under rural decline and providing a theoretical basis for the revitalization of declining rural areas and the coordinated development of urban and rural areas.

The function of rural housing land is an important manifestation of the living needs of farmers. Multifunctional research on rural housing land can provide a scientific basis for the formulation of practical and effective systems of rural housing land. Based on the survey data of 613 typical farmers, this paper identifies each function, analyzes functional spatial distribution features of rural housing land by using the kernel density estimation method, and constructs a multinomial logistic regression model to quantitatively measure the influencing factors and to reveal the mechanism of functional spatial distribution under the combined effect of the “farmers--rural housing land--village” system. This research shows the following: 1) Rural housing land has mainly a social security function(SSF), while a profit function(PF) and a retaining function(RF) have also appeared, with the proportions being 71.78%, 10.60% and 17.62%, respectively in the Pinggu District of Beijing. 2) SSF is strongest in the economically depressed mountainous areas, whereas PF and RF are strongest in the economically developed plain areas and the economically secondary semimountainous area, with the proportions being 77.31%, 15.91% and 22.10%, respectively. Various functions present a spatial gradient change. 3) Agglomeration analysis shows that SSF presents two strong cores: the hilly and mountainous areas in the far north and the plain areas in the suburbs with a better economy, with the “point-surface” distribution. PF concentrated in the tourist spots in the hilly and mountainous areas, the urban belt vicinity with a good economy and the MF industrial park, with the “point-and-belt” pattern. RF focused in the economically secondary semimountainous area and the industrial zone in the southwestern part of the city, showing a “multiband” shape. 4) The function of rural housing land arises from the farmers' needs according to conditions of their own family and rural housing land under the positioning of certain villages. The village characteristics, such as economy, are external factors that present a continuous adjustment effect on the function of rural housing land with the form of long-term action; the characteristics of rural housing land, such as location, are restrictive factors that show two-way feedback effects on the function of rural housing land with the form of foundational action. Both the family characteristics, such as non-agricultural income ratio, and the householder characteristics, such as age, are internal factors that present stage stimulating effects on the function of rural housing land with the form of direct action. 5) Trying to divide the right of use and qualification of RF housing, the right of use of PF housing, through innovating acquisition system of rural housing land and constructing mechanism of rural housing land replaces town security room, which aim to improve the functional efficiency of rural housing land.

With the onset of industrialization over the past several decades, the rural areas are undergoing considerable changes in China. Optimal rural industrial land use distribution provides a spatial foundation for sustainable development in rural areas. Moreover, the importance of appropriate rural industrial land use adjustment is evident in rural spatial restructuring. This paper investigates rural industrial land use patterns and its impact on rural areas in Pinggu District of Beijing based on a combined method of “landscape indices” and the “geospatial analysis.” Subsequently, this paper proposes a rural industrial land use adjustment. The results show that according to the relevance of township and village enterprises (TVEs) to rural development, rural industrial land can be classified as rural industry land (RI-land) and non-rural industry land (NI-land). “Small scale, spontaneous dispersion” is the overall rural industrial land use pattern in China, and the spatial patterns between the two types of rural industrial land are quite different: the pattern “dispersion inside rural settlements” is usually observed in RI-land, while “agglomeration around regional central towns” and “linear sprawl” are common on NI-land. Considering the peculiarity of TVEs, the dispersion for RI-land is designed to absorb the surplus labor and raw materials nearby in the countryside to enhance their output-efficiency, whereas the agglomeration for NI-land is to pursue the efficiency of agglomeration economies. This paper also revealed that current disperse rural industrial land use pattern has generated polluting effects on the environment. Therefore, following the “classification principle,” rural industrial land use adjustment should not merely pursue economic efficiency and agglomeration efficiency but should also engage in labor absorptivity and environmental benefits. The formation and development of rural industrial land in China is quite different from traditional industrial land; these differences are largely attributed to their unique driving mechanisms and historical backgrounds. In particular, the traditional Theories of the Location of Industries directed by “agglomeration,” are unsuitable for rural industrial land in China. Therefore, the results in this paper can help form a basis for sustainable planning of rural industrial land and contribute to rural transformation development in China.

As expected, applications of organic fertilizer and controlled-release fertilizer are gradually varying traditional fertilization, being considered as important channels for substitution of conventional chemical-fertilizer. However, information regarding their effects on rice (Oryza sativa L.) grain quality remains limited. A field experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of combined application of bio-organic fertilizer and conventional fertilizer (BOF+CF), combined application of organic fertilizer and conventional fertilizer (OF+CF), and application of controlled-release fertilizer (CRF) on rice processing quality, eating quality and nutritional quality with conventional fertilizer (CF) and no fertilizer (NF) as controls. The protein content of OF+CF treatment was increased by 4.67%, 3.29%, 2.61% and 22.66% when compared to BOF+CF, CRF, CF and NF. These results imply that, among all treatments, NF produced the highest rice eating quality followed by CRF and BOF+CF, and OF+CF made the highest nutritional quality followed by CF and CRF. When compared to CF, BOF+CF and NF treatments decreased protein content by 1.96% and 16.34%. Compared to CF, BOF+CF treatment markedly reduced aspartic acid, serine, glutamic acid, glycine, alanine, histidine, arginine, and proline contents in milled rice by 17.31, 14.71%, 16.39%, 16.67%, 20.69%, 11.77%, 18.42%, and 18.75%, respectively. The nutritional quality under NF and BOF+CF was significantly decreased when compared with CF, due to the reductions in protein content of milled rice and most amino acids contents of brown and milled rice. These results suggest that a kind of suitable fertilizer could be chosen from them as alternatives according to desired goal in high-quality rice production.

A thresholding wavelet multiresolution wavefront reconstruction algorithm is proposed in view of low calculating efficiency and large stable state error of conventional wavefront reconstructors. The wavefront phase distortion is projected to wavelet basis, which makes the pseudo-inverse matrix become sparse matrix and reduces the calculation. Meanwhile, threshold is chosen to remove the high resolution wavelet-based coefficients which have little effect on calculation precision, improving operation efficiency. The algorithm is compared with least square, Zernike modal and iterative methods, and the simulation results show that this algorithm is superior in computing speed and convergence precision.