Elevated CO2 moderates the impact of climate change on future bamboo distribution in Madagascar.

The distribution of bamboo is sensitive to climate change and is also potentially affected by increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations due to its C3 photosynthetic pathway. Yet the effect of CO2 in climate impact assessments of potential changes in bamboo distribution has to date been overlooked. In this study, we proposed a simple and quantitative method to incorporate the impact of atmospheric CO2 concentration into a species distribution modeling framework. To do so, we implemented 10 niche modeling algorithms with regionally downscaled climatic variables and combined field campaign observations. We assessed future climate impacts on the distribution of an economically and ecologically important and widely distributed bamboo species in Madagascar, and examined the effect of increasing CO2 on future projections. Our results suggested that future climatic changes negatively impact potential bamboo distribution in Madagascar, leading to a decline of 34.8% of climatic suitability and a decline of 63.6 ± 3.2% in suitable areas towards 2100 under RCP 8.5. However, increasing atmosphere CO2 offsets the climate impact for bamboo, and led to a smaller reduction of 19.8% in suitability and a potential distribution expansion of +111.6 ± 9.8% in newly suitable areas. We also found that the decline in climatic suitability for bamboo was related to increasing monthly potential evapotranspiration of the warmest quarter and minimum temperature of the warmest month. Conversely, the decreasing isothermality and increasing precipitation of the warmest quarter contributed to projected increase in bamboo-suitable areas. Our study suggested that elevated CO2 may mitigate the decrease in climatic suitability and increase bamboo-suitable areas, through enhancing water use efficiency and decreasing potential evapotranspiration. Our results highlight the importance of accounting for the CO2 effect on future plant species distributions, and provide a mechanistic approach to do so for ecosystems constrained by water.

Effectiveness and Safety of Botulinum Toxin Type A in the Treatment of Androgenetic Alopecia.

BACKGROUND: Androgenetic alopecia (AGA) represents the most frequent clinical complaint encountered by dermatologists and is characterized by a progressive miniaturization of the hair follicle. However, the efficacy and safety of current medical treatment remain limited, and more personalized therapeutic approaches for AGA are needed. Therefore, the present study is aimed at investigating the efficacy and safety of botulinum toxin type A (BTA) in patients with AGA. METHODS: 63 patients with AGA meeting the inclusion criteria were included in this study and treated with BTA injection or BTA injection combined with oral finasteride (FNS). In the scalp, 30 sites were injected with 100 U of BTA in each site and patients received BTA after every 3 months for a total of 4 times. Hair counts, head photographs, evaluation scores, and self-assessment were assessed in patients with AGA. RESULTS: Hair counts in both groups at all time points were significantly higher as compared with those before treatment. After 4 times of treatment, hair counts in the BTA+FNS group were higher than those in the BTA group. Hair growth and density were significantly augmented, and the area of hair loss was attenuated after each treatment as revealed by head photographs. The effective rates of BTA and BTA+FNS groups were 73.3% and 84.8%, respectively, following 4 times treatment. CONCLUSION: BTA is a safe and effective therapeutic strategy for the treatment of AGA without adverse effects, and BTA combined with FNS exhibited a superior therapeutic effect than BTA alone.

Kuntai capsules improve glucolipid metabolism in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to observe the effect and safety of Heyan Kuntai Capsule (HYKT) on glucose and lipid metabolism in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). METHODS: Hundred patients with PCOS were randomly divided into HYKT group (n = 50) and placebo groups (n = 50) in which the individuals were treated with HYKT and its placebo continuously for 6 months. Meanwhile, all participants received health education (such as exercise and diet). The primary outcomes were serum sex hormone levels, a series of blood lipid, fasting and postprandial 2 hours blood glucose. Body mass index (BMI), waist-hip ratio (WHR), insulin, homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), and insulin-sensitive index (ISI) were also observed. In addition, adverse events were recorded to evaluate the drug safety. RESULTS: After treatment, the BMI and WHR of all the patients were decreased. The fasting and postprandial 2 hours blood glucose levels were significantly declined when treated with HYKT, which were not observed in the placebo group. Similarly, serum sex hormones including luteinizing hormone (LH), LH/follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), and testosterone were lowered after treated with HYKT instead of the placebo. Besides, blood lipids outcomes such as total cholesterol, triglyceride, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, as well as insulin and HOMA-IR were decreased with significance in HYKT group when compared with those in the placebo group, whereas high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and ISI increased obviously. CONCLUSION: HYKT showed the effect on ameliorating the glucose and lipid metabolism disorder and improving insulin resistance and increase insulin sensitivity of PCOS patients, which is similar to insulin sensitizing agent.

Rhamnolipid-aided biodegradation of carbendazim by Rhodococcus sp. D-1: Characteristics, products, and phytotoxicity.

We successfully isolated Rhodococcus sp. D-1, an efficient carbendazim-degrading bacterium that degraded 98.20% carbendazim (200ppm) within 5days. Carbendazim was first processed into 2-aminobenzimidazole, converted to 2-hydroxybenzimidazole, and then further mineralized by subsequent processing. After genomic analysis, we hypothesized that D-1 may express a new kind of enzyme capable of hydrolyzing carbendazim. In addition, the effect of the biodegradable biosurfactant rhamnolipid on the rate and extent of carbendazim degradation was assessed in batch analyses. Notably, rhamnolipid affected carbendazim biodegradation in a concentration-dependent manner with maximum biodegradation efficiency at 50ppm (at the critical micelle concentration, CMC) (97.33% degradation within 2days), whereas 150ppm (3 CMC) rhamnolipid inhibited initial degradation (0.01%, 99.26% degradation within 2 and 5days, respectively). Both carbendazim emulsification and favorable changes in cell surface characteristics likely facilitated its direct uptake and subsequent biodegradation. Moreover, rhamnolipid facilitated carbendazim detoxification. Collectively, these results offer preliminary guidelines for the biological removal of carbendazim from the environment.

The first all-season sample set for mapping global land cover with Landsat-8 data.

We report the world's first all-season training and validation sample sets for global land cover classification with Landsat-8 data. Prior to this, such samples were only available at a single date primarily from the growing season. It is unknown how much limitation such a single-date sample has to mapping global land cover in other seasons of the year. To answer this question, we selected available Landsat-8 images from four seasons and collected training and validation samples from them. We compared the performances of training samples in different seasons using Random Forest algorithm. We found that the use of training samples from any individual season would result in the best overall classification accuracy when validated by samples in the same season. The global overall accuracy from combined best seasonal results was 67.2% when classifying the 11 Level-1 classes in the Finer Resolution Observation and Monitoring of Global Land Cover (FROM-GLC) classification system. The use of training samples from all seasons (named all-season training sample set hereafter) produced an overall accuracy of 67.0%. We also tested classification within 10° latitude 60° longitude zones using all-season training subsample within each zone and obtained an overall accuracy of 70.2%. This indicates that properly grouped subsamples in space can help improve classification accuracies. All the results in this study seem to suggest that it is possible to use an all-season training sample set to reach global optimality with universal applicability in classifying images acquired at any time of a year for global land cover mapping.

Construction, properties, and application of the pCB5 plasmid, a novel conjugative shuttle vector with a Cupriavidus basilensis origin of replication.

Cupriavidus basilensis is a species with diverse metabolic capabilities, including degradation of xenobiotics and heavy metal resistance. Although the genomes of several strains of this species have been sequenced, no plasmid has yet been constructed for genetic engineering in this species. In this study, we identified a novel plasmid, designated pWS, from C. basilensis WS with a copy number of 1-3 per cell and a length of 2150 bp. pWS contained three protein-coding genes, among which only rep was required for plasmid replication. Rep showed no homology with known plasmid replication initiators. Unlike most plasmids, pWS did not have a cis-acting replication origin outside the region of rep. The minimal replicon of pWS was stable in C. basilensis WS without selection. A conjugative C. basilensis/Escherichia coli shuttle vector, pCB5, was constructed using the minimal replicon of pWS. Interestingly, the copy number of pCB5 was flexible and could be manipulated. Enhancing the expression level of Rep in pCB5 by either doubling the promoter or coding region of rep resulted in doubling of the plasmid copy number. Moreover, replacing the native promoter of rep with the lac promoter increased the copy number by over fivefold. Finally, using two different ß-galactosidase reporting systems constructed with pCB5, we successfully demonstrated the different regulatory patterns of bph and dmp operons during diphenyl ether (DE) degradation in C. basilensis WS. Thus, this shuttle vector provided an efficient tool for DNA cloning and metabolic engineering in C. basilensis.

Nonylphenol biodegradation characterizations and bacterial composition analysis of an effective consortium NP-M2.

Nonylphenol (NP), ubiquitously detected as the degradation product of nonionic surfactants nonylphenol polyethoxylates, has been reported as an endocrine disrupter. However, most pure microorganisms can degrade only limited species of NP with low degradation efficiencies. To establish a microbial consortium that can effectively degrade different forms of NP, in this study, we isolated a facultative microbial consortium NP-M2 and characterized the biodegradation of NP by it. NP-M2 could degrade 75.61% and 89.75% of 1000 mg/L NP within 48 h and 8 days, respectively; an efficiency higher than that of any other consortium or pure microorganism reported so far. The addition of yeast extract promoted the biodegradation more significantly than that of glucose. Moreover, surface-active compounds secreted into the extracellular environment were hypothesized to promote high-efficiency metabolism of NP. The detoxification of NP by this consortium was determined. The degradation pathway was hypothesized to be initiated by oxidization of the benzene ring, followed by step-wise side-chain biodegradation. The bacterial composition of NP-M2 was determined using 16S rDNA library, and the consortium was found to mainly comprise members of the Sphingomonas, Pseudomonas, Alicycliphilus, and Acidovorax genera, with the former two accounting for 86.86% of the consortium. The high degradation efficiency of NP-M2 indicated that it could be a promising candidate for NP bioremediation in situ.