Identifying important ecosystem service areas based on distributions of ecosystem services in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, China.

Water conservation, soil conservation, biodiversity importance, and sandstorm prevention are important ecosystem services (ES) and the core challenges to sustainable economic and societal development in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region. Using the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model and observation data, we identified high-value ES areas in the BTH region. The high-value ES areas were mainly found in the northern and southwestern parts of the region, like the Yanshan Mountain Range and the Taihang Mountain Range. The ecosystem in the northern mountains is dominated by forest and grassland, and generally provides more valuable ES than does the eastern agricultural plain. Greater species richness was mainly found in the northern mountains with low human activity intensity. Due to its proximity, the Yanshan Mountain Range is critical to the health of the local ecosystem of Beijing. High biodiversity was present in the vicinity of the national nature reserves. Compared with other regions of China, changes in the BTH region are highly intense. Reinforcement of biodiversity conservation and ecosystem restoration in areas with a high degree of ES in the BTH region are capable of effectively improving habitat quality and regional ES.

Decreased PERP expression on peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patient with rheumatoid arthritis negatively correlates with disease activity.

BACKGROUND: PERP, p53 apoptosis effector related to PMP-22, is a p53-dependent apoptosis in diverse cell types and has cell type-specific roles in p53-mediated apoptosis. However, its role in PBMCs of RA patients has remained largely unclear. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to detect the expression levels of PERP on PBMCs of RA patients and healthy controls and analyze the role of PERP in the pathogenesis of RA. Methods. The mRNA expression levels of PERP and IL-17 were detected by real-time PCR in PBMCs from patients with RA (n = 40) and healthy controls (n = 40). The correlations of PERP expression levels to IL-17 transcripts and disease activity parameters were analyzed. RESULTS: The PERP and IL-17 expression levels in the PBMCs were significantly decreased and increased in comparison of which in healthy controls. The mRNA expression levels of PERP in PBMCs from patients with RA were negatively correlated with IL-17 and disease activity parameters DAS28, RF, CRP, and ESR rather than Anti-CCP and ANA. CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrated that PERP might be involved in the pathogenesis and a potential therapeutic target of RA by regulating the expression of IL-17.

Magnetic-field-induced deposition to fabricate multifunctional nanostructured Co, Ni, and CoNi alloy films as catalysts, ferromagnetic and superhydrophobic materials.

A novel and facile magnetic-field-induced deposition process was put forward to fabricate nanostructured Co, Ni and CoNi alloy films supported on Cu foil, which are multifunctional nanomaterials with wide applications in different areas due to their ferromagnetic and superhydrophobic properties, as well as their excellent catalytic performance.

[Eco-efficiency of Jiaozuo industry sectors].

Jiaozuo city was taken as a representative industry city and its industry energy consumption and industry emissions such as wastewater,solid waste, SO2, dust and so on were selected as corresponding environmental loads. The contribution rate to the environmental loads and eco-efficiencies of Jiaozuo industry sectors were analyzed quantitatively. The results show that, the industry sector with the highest energy eco-efficiency is Mining and Processing of Ferrous Metal Ores (FMM), 43.19 x 10(4) yuan x tce(-1), and its contribution rate is 0.003%; the one with the highest wastewater-related eco-efficiency is Manufacture of Transport Equipment (TRM), 3.58 x 10(4) yuan x t(-1), and its contribution rate is 0.0001%; the one with the highest solid waste-related eco-efficiency is Manufacture of Special Purpose Machinery( SMM), 323.22 x 10(4) yuan x t(-1), and its contribution rate is 0.005%; the one with the highest SO2 emission-related eco-efficiency is Manufacture of Special Purpose Machinery (SMM), 19.74 x 10(4) yuan x kg(-1), and its contribution rate is 0.0001%; the one with the highest dust emission-related eco-efficiency is Manufacture of Rubber (RUM), 6.75 x 10(4) yuan x kg(-1), and its contribution rate is 0.001%. It can be seen that the industry sector with high value of eco-efficiency always contributes less to its environmental load, which results that the industry sectors with high eco-efficiencies only play a weak role in leading the overall industry eco-efficiency. A succinct distance index (SDI) was proposed to estimate the differences between Jiaozuo and China average for their eco-efficiency of every industrial sector. The values of SDI range from -1 to 63.45, and the absolute value of SDI with positive value is much greater than that with negative value, which indicates that the values of eco-efficiencies for the advanced industry sectors of Jiaozuo city are much higher than those for China's industry sectors average.

[Eco-efficiency of industry sectors for China].

Industry is the main source of resource consumption and environmental emissions of China, and the analyzing of eco-efficiencies for industrial sectors may provide essential information for the restructure of industrial system and the improvement of environmental quality of China. The industry composition was analyzed and the relationship between the industry and its environment was established. The energy consumption and the main environmental emissions such as wastewater, solid waste, industry SO2, smog, dust were chosen as the environmental impact categories, the corresponding eco-efficiencies of industry were defined and estimated for China in 2007. The results are as follows: the energy efficiency is 615.5 x 10(4) yuan x ktce(-1), the wastewater and solid waste related eco-efficiencies are 54.3 x 10(4) yuan x kt(-1) and 1.9 x 10(4) yuan x t(-1), respectively; industry SO2, smog, dust related eco-efficiencies are 59.6 x 10(4), 169.2 x 10(4) and 184.6 x 10(4) yuan x t(-1), respectively. The eco-efficiencies of 39 industry sectors were analyzed extensively and the results showed that, the distribution of industrial sectors in above eco-efficiencies is uneven, and the order of industrial sector in industry will vary with industry sector and eco-efficiency category. Meanwhile, for the same category of eco-efficiency, the values for different industry sectors may change from centuplicate to several thousand folds, therefore a great possibility for the improvement of industry eco-efficiency is exist in the restructure of industry system.