Polygonatum odoratum polysaccharide attenuates lipopolysaccharide-induced lung injury in mice by regulating gut microbiota.

Polygonatum odoratum is appreciated for its edible and medicinal benefits especially for lung protection. However, the contained active components have been understudied, and further research is required to fully exploit its potential application. We aimed to probe into the beneficial effects of Polygonatum odoratum polysaccharide (POP) in lipopolysaccharide-induced lung inflammatory injury mice. POP treatment could ameliorate the survival rate, pulmonary function, lung pathological lesions, and immune inflammatory response. POP treatment could repair intestinal barrier, and modulate the composition of gut microbiota, especially reducing the abundance of Klebsiella, which were closely associated with the therapeutic effects of POP. Investigation of the underlying anti-inflammatory mechanism showed that POP suppressed the generation of pro-inflammatory molecules in lung by inhibiting iNOS+ M1 macrophages. Collectively, POP is a promising multi-target microecological regulator to prevent and treat the immuno-inflammation and lung injury by modulating gut microbiota.

Impacts of climate change on climatic division for double cropping rice in Guangdong Pro-vince, China.

Based on the dataset of air temperature from 86 stations during 1961 to 2016, and DEM data derived from 1:250000 topographic maps, we analyzed the spatial-temporal changes of key climatic factors (safe period for double cropping rice, ≥10 ℃ active accumulated temperature) using the methods of linear regression, accumulative anomaly, and inverse distance weighted interpolation. The impacts of climate change on climatic division for double cropping rice was studied by combining with the changes of key climate factors for the periods of 1961-1990, 1971-2000, 1981-2010, before (1961-1997) and after (1998-2016) climatic mutation. The results showed that spatial distributions of safe period for double cropping rice and ≥10 ℃ active accumulated temperature were different from place to place in Guangdong. Generally, they were more or higher in south than in north part, in plain than in mountain regions. Under the background of global warming, the safe period for double cropping rice and ≥10 ℃ active accumulated tempera-ture showed a significantly increasing trend with the rate of 1.7 d and 43 ℃·d per decade, respectively. All climatic factor had mutation in the year of 1997. According to the climatic conditions of various maturing rice growth and development, climatic zoning for double cropping rice in Guangdong could be divided into three regions: early maturity with early maturity, early maturity with late maturity, late maturity with late maturity. Those regions were distributed in middle-subtropics of northern Guangdong, south-subtropics of middle Guangdong, and north-tropics of southern Guangdong, respectively. Due to the climate change, the area of late maturity with late maturity significantly increased, the area of early maturity with late maturity significantly decreased, and the area of early maturity with early maturity showed no significant change. Relative to that in 1961-1990, the areas of late maturity with late maturity in 1971-2000 and 1981-2010 increased 1.22×106 hm2 and 2.56×106 hm2, respectively, but the area of early maturity with late maturity decreased 1.13×106 hm2 and 2.56×106 hm2, respectively. The area of late maturity with late maturity was more than doubled, but that of early maturity with late maturity decreased about a half after 1997 than that before in Guangdong.

The effects of dust-haze on mortality are modified by seasons and individual characteristics in Guangzhou, China.

This study aimed to investigate the effects of dust-haze on mortality and to estimate the seasonal and individual-specific modification effects in Guangzhou, China. Mortality, air pollution and meteorological data were collected for 2006-2011. A dust-haze day was defined as daily visibility <10 km with relative humidity <90%. This definition was further divided into light (8-10 km), medium (5-8 km) and heavy dust-haze (<5 km). A distributed lag linear model (DLM) was employed. Light, medium and heavy dust-haze days were associated with increased mortality of 3.4%, 6.8% and 10.4% respectively, at a lag of 0-6 days. This effect was more pronounced during the cold season, for cardiovascular mortality (CVD), respiratory mortality (RESP), in males and people ≥60years. These effects became insignificant after adjustment for PM10. We concluded that dust-haze significantly increased mortality risk in Guangzhou, China, and this effect appears to be dominated by particulate mass and modified by season and individual-specific factors.

[Climatic suitability of citrus in subtropical China].

By applying the theories of ecological suitability and the methods of fuzzy mathematics, this paper established a climatic suitability model for citrus, calculated and evaluated the climatic suitability and its spatiotemporal differences for citrus production in subtropical China, and analyzed the climatic suitability of citrus at its different growth stages and the mean climatic suitability of citrus in different regions of subtropical China. The results showed that the citrus in subtropical China had a lower climatic suitability and a higher risk at its flower bud differentiation stage, budding stage, and fruit maturity stage, but a higher climatic suitability and a lower risk at other growth stages. Cold damage and summer drought were the key issues affecting the citrus production in subtropical China. The citrus temperature suitability represented a latitudinal zonal pattern, i. e., decreased with increasing latitude; its precipitation suitability was high in the line of "Sheyang-Napo", medium in the southeast of the line, low in the northwest of the line, and non in high mountainous area; while the sunlight suitability was in line with the actual duration of sunshine, namely, higher in high-latitude areas than in low-latitude areas, and higher in high-altitude areas than in plain areas. Limited by temperature factor, the climatic suitability was in accordance with temperature suitability, i. e., south parts had a higher suitability than north parts, basically representing latitudinal zonal pattern. From the analysis of the inter-annual changes of citrus climatic suitability, it could be seen that the citrus climatic suitability in subtropical China was decreasing, and had obvious regional differences, suggesting that climate change could bring about the changes in the regions suitable for citrus production and in the key stages of citrus growth.