COVID-19 poses a severe threat worldwide. This study analyzes its propagation and evaluates statistically the effect of mobility restriction policies on the spread of the disease.
We apply a ...variation of the stochastic Susceptible-Infectious-Recovered model to describe the temporal-spatial evolution of the disease across 33 provincial regions in China, where the disease was first identified. We employ Bayesian Markov Chain Monte-Carlo methods to estimate the model and to characterize a dynamic transmission network, which enables us to evaluate the effectiveness of various local and national policies.
The spread of the disease in China was predominantly driven by community transmission within regions, which dropped substantially after local governments imposed various lockdown policies. Further, Hubei was only the epicenter of the early epidemic stage. Secondary epicenters, such as Beijing and Guangdong, had already become established by late January 2020. The transmission from these epicenters substantially declined following the introduction of mobility restrictions across regions.
The spatial transmission network is able to differentiate the effect of the local lockdown policies and the cross-region mobility restrictions. We conclude that both are important policy tools for curbing the disease transmission. The coordination between central and local governments is important in suppressing the spread of infectious diseases.
Abstract
China has long supported the establishment of a permanent international criminal court, but it cast a negative vote at the end of the Rome Conference in 1998 due to certain outstanding ...concerns about the Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), including those relating to the definition of crimes against humanity. As the major objection of China towards crimes against humanity was raised in the context of customary international law, this article examines whether the rapid developments within this field of customary law have softened the Chinese proposition, and whether China could effectively claim to be a persistent objector in the formation of these customary norms. Since there has been a human rights dimension to Chinese thinking in relation to crimes against humanity, this article also discusses whether it is appropriate for the Chinese authorities to consider the ICC as a human rights court of the traditional kind and categorize it within a ‘human rights box’. It concludes by arguing that crimes against humanity should not be regarded as an insurmountable barrier preventing China’s accession to the ICC in the years to come.
This article explores the Chinese policies towards the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the context of global governance. Despite China's fast-growing foreign policy competence, the level of ...confidence held by China in engaging with global governance systems has not yet fully transmitted to the legal institutions governing human rights issues, and the ICC is such an example. This article examines specific policy concerns of China regarding the ICC in light of China's engagement with global governance, and some of the traditional concerns that have had an impact on that engagement. It discusses the extent to which these concerns should still be regarded as policy barriers preventing China's full accession to the ICC in years to come.
Independent origins of carnivory in multiple angiosperm families are fabulous examples of convergent evolution using a diverse array of life forms and habitats. Previous studies have indicated that ...carnivorous plants have distinct evolutionary trajectories of plastid genome (plastome) compared to their non-carnivorous relatives, yet the extent and general characteristics remain elusive.
We compared plastomes from 9 out of 13 carnivorous families and their non-carnivorous relatives to assess carnivory-associated evolutionary patterns. We identified inversions in all sampled Droseraceae species and four species of Utricularia, Pinguicula, Darlingtonia and Triphyophyllum. A few carnivores showed distinct shifts in inverted repeat boundaries and the overall repeat contents. Many ndh genes, along with some other genes, were independently lost in several carnivorous lineages. We detected significant substitution rate variations in most sampled carnivorous lineages. A significant overall substitution rate acceleration characterizes the two largest carnivorous lineages of Droseraceae and Lentibulariaceae. We also observe moderate substitution rates acceleration in many genes of Cephalotus follicularis, Roridula gorgonias, and Drosophyllum lusitanicum. However, only a few genes exhibit significant relaxed selection.
Our results indicate that the carnivory of plants have different effects on plastome evolution across carnivorous lineages. The complex mechanism under carnivorous habitats may have resulted in distinctive plastome evolution with conserved plastome in the Brocchinia hechtioides to strongly reconfigured plastomes structures in Droseraceae. Organic carbon obtained from prey and the efficiency of utilizing prey-derived nutrients might constitute possible explanation.
The pathology of sepsis‐associated encephalopathy (SAE) is related to astrocyte‐inflammation associated with aquaporin‐4 (AQP4). The aim here is to investigate the effects of AQP4 associated with SAE ...and reveal its underlying mechanism causing cognitive impairment. The in vivo experimental results reveal that AQP4 in peripheral blood of patients with SAE is up‐regulated, also the cortical and hippocampal tissue of cecal ligation and perforation (CLP) mouse brain has significant rise in AQP4. Furthermore, the data suggest that AQP4 deletion could attenuate learning and memory impairment, attributing to activation of astrocytic autophagy, inactivation of astrocyte and downregulate the expression of proinflammatory cytokines induced by CLP or lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Furthermore, the activation effect of AQP4 knockout on CLP or LPS‐induced PPAR‐γ inhibiting in astrocyte is related to intracellular Ca2+ level and sodium channel activity. Learning and memory impairment in SAE mouse model are attenuated by AQP4 knockout through activating autophagy, inhibiting neuroinflammation leading to neuroprotection via down‐regulation of Nav1.6 channels in the astrocytes. This results in the reduction of Ca2+ accumulation in the cell cytosol furthermore activating the inhibition of PPAR‐γ signal transduction pathway in astrocytes.
SAE mouse model is constructed by cecal ligation and perforation for in vivo experiments and consequent electrophysiology, behavior, and molecular analysis. Primary astrocytes are cultured and stimulated by using lipopolysaccharide (LPS) for in vitro analysis. The pictographic flowchart theorizes that AQP4 aggravates sepsis‐induced neuronal injury and cognitive dysfunction by inhibiting autophagy and activating an inflammatory response in astrocytes.
Xylem resistance to drought‐induced embolism is an important trait determining plant distribution. In the karst hills of Southwest China, with a relatively small variation in altitude, soil depth and ...water availability strongly decrease from the foot towards the top, and woody plant species display distinct spatial distribution.
For testing the hypothesis that embolism resistance of leaf and stem xylem reflects the spatial distribution across species along a topographical gradient of the karst hills, we measured the xylem water potential in the dry season, vulnerability to drought‐induced embolism in stems and leaves, and relevant anatomical traits in 17 evergreen species with a different topographical distribution.
We found that from the foot towards the hill top, plant water potential sharply decreased, and both stem and leaf xylem showed increasing resistance to hydraulic dysfunction and drought‐resistant anatomical characteristics, but non‐significant variation in specific hydraulic conductivity. Also, hydraulic safety margins increased with relative altitude and thus increasing hydraulic safety. Hydraulic safety underlies the local distribution of the species, but does not come at the cost of hydraulic efficiency.
Our results demonstrate that plant hydraulic safety largely shape the niche differentiation and hence community assembly in highly heterogeneous and water‐limited landscapes.
A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.
A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.
Advanced optical methods combined with various probes pave the way toward molecular imaging within living cells. However, major challenges are associated with the need to enhance the imaging ...resolution even further to the subcellular level for the imaging of larger tissues, as well as for in vivo studies. High scattering and absorption of opaque tissues limit the penetration of light into deep tissues and thus the optical imaging depth. Tissue optical clearing technique provides an innovative way to perform deep-tissue imaging. Recently, various optical clearing methods have been developed, which provide tissue clearing based on similar physical principles via different chemical approaches. Here, we introduce the mechanisms of the current clearing methods from fundamental physical and chemical perspectives, including the main physical principle, refractive index matching via various chemical approaches, such as dissociation of collagen, delipidation, decalcification, dehydration, and hyperhydration, to reduce scattering, as well as decolorization to reduce absorption.
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Subject areas: Optical Imaging; Biological Sciences; Research Methodologies; Biological Sciences Tools
There is a renewed interest in K isotope geochemistry driven by the advances in analytical precision and it is emerging as a useful tracer in a variety of disciplines ranging from Earth sciences to ...biology. However, high-quality K isotopic data for reference materials are still limited but highly needed. Here, we report high-precision stable K isotopic compositions (δ41K) for 23 commercially available international reference materials, including igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks, as well as an in-house seawater standard. Potassium in digested samples was separated by cation-exchange chromatography with Bio-Rad AG50W-X8 (200–400 mesh) resin in 0.5 N HNO3 media. Potassium isotopes were measured on a Nu Plasma II high-resolution MC-ICPMS. The reproducibility of K isotopic analysis, based on over one year of measurements of pure K solutions and rock standards, was ≤0.06‰ (95% confidence interval). Synthetic solutions made by mixing single element standards to represent various rock matrices confirmed the accuracy of our methods. The 23 reference materials have δ41K values ranging from −0.562‰ to −0.253‰ and the seawater standard has a much higher δ41K value of 0.143‰. The comprehensive dataset presented here provides a reference for quality control and inter-laboratory comparison of high-precision K isotopic analyses for future studies.
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