This study first described the composition and characteristics of culturable endophytic bacteria isolated from wild alpine-subnival plant species growing under extreme environmental conditions (i.e., on the border of a glacier with frequently fluctuating and freezing temperatures, strong wind, and high ultraviolet radiation). Using a cultivation-dependent approach and 16S rRNA gene amplification techniques, 93 bacterial isolates showing different phenotypic properties were obtained from 20 different subnival plant species, of which gram-positive bacteria (61.5%), psychrotolerant bacteria (67.3%), and pigmented isolates (70.9%) accounted for a large proportion. All these characteristics of endophytes were closely related to the survival environment of their host plants and were in good agreement with microbes occurring in other cold environments. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the endophytic isolates consisted of five phylogenetic groups comprising α-proteobacteria, γ-proteobacteria, the high G+C content gram-positive bacteria, the low G+C content gram-positive bacteria, and Flavobacterium-Bacteroides-Cytophaga. The largest generic diversity was found in the HGC group, while Clavibacter, Agreia, Rhodococcus, Sphingomonas, and Pseudomonas were the most prevalent genera. Of all isolates, 46.4% showed a high sequence similarity (98-100%) to strains discovered from other cold environments such as glaciers, tundra, and polar seas. Furthermore, 36.4% of the isolates produced Indole-3-acetic acid and 76.3% were able to solubilize mineral phosphate, which revealed that endophytic bacteria with multiple physiological functions were abundant and widespread in subnival plants. These results are essential for understanding the ecological roles of endophytes and as a foundation for further studying the interactions with plants and environment.

The ancient wall paintings and earthen architecture ruins are the most important part of cultural heritage. Inhabitation and locomotion of animals are major factors that lead to biodegradation and biodeterioration at the cultural heritage sites. In this miniview, based on our team work of cultural relics conservation in recent years, the latest findings domestic and overseas in fields of ethology and bionics were summarized, focusing on the correlated methods and techniques that can be used into cross-over study of cultural relics conservation. Animal's biting, nesting, cocooning, crawling, and scratching are all behavioral process that easily bring damage to cultural heritage, such as ancient murals, architectures, earth ruins and so on. Both modern video record techniques and animal motion trajectory analysis may be taken use to improve the analytic accuracy of gait information for animals that crawling on the surface of cultural relics, which promoted the related study of motor pattern, behavior process, and damage pattern of animals to cultural relics. The three dimensional tiny force sensor with high resolution can be used for measuring normal adhesive force and tangential friction force of animals that contacted the surface of fragile cultural relics, which make animal adhesion modeling and historical relics mechanical model constructing possible, and provide newly evidence for biomechanics process illumination of animals locomotion. Totally, the application of the bionic techniques to the study of animals behavioral characteristics will provide new opportunity to better clarify the biological damaging mechanisms of cultural relics and control animal bioderioration, which will drive the development of cultural relics conservation technology in the near future.

Background Over the past 20 years, excessive antibiotic use has led to serious antimicrobial resistance (AMR) worldwide, and the phenomenon is particularly serious in China. To this end, the Chinese health sector took a series of measures to promote rational antibiotic use. In this study, to reveal the impact of policies on antibiotic use, we explored the long-term trend and patterns of antibiotic use at public health care institutions from 2012 to 2020 in northwest China, taking Gansu Province as an example. Methods Antibiotic procurement data were obtained from the provincial centralized bidding procurement (CBP) platform between 2012 and 2020. Antibiotic use was quantified using the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC)/defined daily doses (DDD) methodology and standardized using the DDD per 1000 inhabitants per day (DID). Twelve relevant quality indicators were calculated for comparison with the European Surveillance of Antimicrobial Consumption (ESAC) project monitoring results. Results Total antibiotic use increased from 18.75 DID to 57.07 DID and then decreased to 19.11 DID, a turning point in 2014. The top three antibiotics used were J01C (beta-lactam antibacterials, penicillins), J01F (macrolides, lincosamides and streptogramins), and J01D (other beta-lactam antibacterials, cephalosporins), accounting for 45.15%, 31.40%, and 11.99% respectively. The oral antibiotics used were approximately 2.5 times the parenteral antibiotics, accounting for 71.81% and 28.19%, respectively. Different use preferences were shown in public hospitals and primary health care centres (PHCs), and the latter accounted for more than half of total use. The absolute use of all classes of antibiotics in Gansu is almost higher than any of the 31 European countries included in the ESAC, but the relative use of some focused antibiotics is lower than theirs. Conclusions The intervention policies of the health department reduced antibiotic use in Gansu Province, but the proportion of broad-spectrum and parenteral antibiotics was still high. It is necessary to further improve the quality of antibiotic prescriptions and pay more attention to the rationality of antibiotic use in PHCs.