Gross ecosystem product (GEP): Quantifying nature for environmental and economic policy innovation.

The large-scale loss of ecosystem assets around the world, and the resultant reduction in the provision of nature's benefits to people, underscores the urgent need for better metrics of ecological performance as well as their integration into decision-making. Gross ecosystem product (GEP) is a measure of the aggregate monetary value of final ecosystem-related goods and services in a specific area and for a given accounting period. GEP accounting captures the use of many ecosystem services in production processes across the economy, which are then valued in terms of their benefits to society. GEP has five key elements that make it transparent, trackable, and readily understandable: (1) a focus on nature's contributions to people; (2) the measurement of ecosystem assets as stocks and ecosystem services as flows; (3) the quantification of ecosystem service use; (4) an understanding of ecosystem service supply chains through value realization; and (5) the disaggregation of benefits across groups. Correspondingly, a series of innovative policies based on GEP have been designed and implemented in China. The theoretical and practical lessons provided by these experiences can support continued policy innovation for green and inclusive development around the world.

Using Ecosystem Service Flows to Inform Ecological Compensation: Theory & Application.

Ecological compensation is a crucial policy instrument that realigns the benefits of stakeholders to the ecosystem service provision. However, the spatial disconnections between locations where ecosystem services produced and used are common. The supply and demand for ecosystem services are calculated to reflect the status of the districts or counties based on ecosystem service flows. The replacement cost methods provide necessary technical supports for the calculation of compensation funds. The realigning of compensation funds between service-benefiting areas and service-providing areas not only identifies the beneficiaries and suppliers but also realizes the connection between them, which may be a feasible methodology. Fuzhou City is the study area, and two ecosystem services of water conservation and soil retention were taken into consideration. The prioritized development zone, Linchuan, and the key agricultural production zones paid ecological compensation funds. Linchuan paid the highest, 5.76 billion yuan. The key ecological function zones and the key agricultural production zones received the ecological compensation funds, of which Yihuang obtained the highest, 1.66 billion yuan. The realigning of compensation funds between the service benefiting and providing areas addresses the trade-offs between ecosystem services, social development, and ecosystem protection. Embedding the ecosystem service flows into the ecological compensation mechanism can most truly realize the value of ecosystem services, achieve the "beneficiary pays" principle, and be conducive to regional sustainable development.

A cost-effective quasi-distributed liquid leakage sensor based on the polymer optical fiber and flexible lamp belt with LEDs.

A quasi-distributed liquid leakage (QDLL) sensor in local area is proposed and experimentally demonstrated, providing a real-time yet low-cost method than the existing local QDLL sensor. The sensor mainly consists of a flexible lamp belt (FLB) with light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and a polymer optical fiber (POF) processed with side-coupling structures. The side-coupling structures are illuminated by the LEDs one by one, forming a series of sensing probes. The lights are side-coupled into the POF through the side-coupling structure and pulse sequences are obtained from the power meters connected to the both ends of the POF. Each pulse represents a sensing probe, and the intensity of them increase when the coupling medium changes from air to liquid. The location of the leakage incident can be got by the position of each pulse in its output sequence. The influence of different side-coupling structures on side-coupling ratio are investigated. The experiment results validate the detection and localization abilities of the QDLL sensor along a 1 m-long POF with a spatial resolution of 0.1 m, which can be improved by adjusting the side-coupling structure. Furthermore, the temperature dependence is studied and can be compensated.

1H-MRS assessment of the therapeutic effect of bilateral intraventricular BDNF infusion into APP/PS1 double transgenic mice.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by extracellular accumulation of amyloid deposits. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a neurotrophic factor whose levels have been shown to be decreased in AD brains. BDNF supplementation can offer improvement in the course of AD. However, the means of assessment are still relatively limited. In the present study, 1H-MRS was used to evaluate the therapeutic effects of bilateral intraventricular BDNF infusion into Alzheimer's disease APP/PS1 double transgenic mice. For comparison to the 1H-MRS observations, Fluoro-Jade B staining and immunofluorescence for beta amyloid peptides (Aß), glial fibrillary acidic protein, and tropomyosin-related kinase B (TrkB) were also performed. Our results showed that N-acetylaspartate (NAA) levels increased and myoinositol levels decreased in the BDNF group compared with the PBS group. However, the BDNF group NAA level was still lower than the control group at 6 weeks after infusion. These changes correlated with increased immunoreactivity for TrkB, decreased compact Aß peptide containing plaques, and decreased Fluoro-Jade B-positive cells in the BDNF-infused mice compared to vehicle controls. These findings demonstrate that 1H-MRS may be a promising means of evaluating the therapeutic effects of BDNF on AD.