Xining Research Articles

Mosquitoes and Mosquito-Borne Arboviruses in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau—Focused on the Qinghai Area, China

An investigation was conducted to identify the distribution of mosquitoes and mosquito-borne arboviruses in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China from July to August in 2007. A total of 8,147 mosquitoes representing six species from three genera (Aedes, Culex, and Anopheles) were collected in three locations (Geermu city, altitude of 2,780 m; Xining city, 2,200 m; Minhe county, 1,700 m). Six virus isolates were obtained including Tahyna virus (TAHV), Liaoning virus, and Culex pipiens pallens Densovirus. A serosurvey showed immunoglobulin G antibodies by immunofluorescence assay (IFA) against TAHV in residents of all three locations. The IFA-positive human samples were confirmed by 90% plaque-reduction neutralization tests (PRNT(90)) against TAHV with titers ranging from 1:20 to 1:10,240. In addition, TAHV seropositive cows, sheep, and swine were found in these locations. This investigation represents the first isolation of TAHV from Ae. (Och.) detritus and the first evidence of TAHV infection in residents and livestock in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Climatic suitability for tourism along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway

Qinghai-Tibet Railway,built through the high frigid plateau in western China,can considerably improve the traffic conditions of the districts along it.There are a great deal of world-class tourism resources along this railway.So,after the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is open to traffic the districts along it may become hotspots of tourism.On the occasion,tourism along the railway will spring up.However,some restricting factors such as climate condition,thin air,low atmospheric pressure and strong ultraviolet radiation may form obstacles in tourism development.It is a pity that,still now,tourism-climate research along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is nearly blank. Taking into account all the above unfavorable conditions and based on the meteorological data covering the period 1991-2000 from 10 weather stations,this paper assessed climatic suitability for tourism along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway and intended to offer some scientific basis for the tourism development.In this paper,air temperature(as well as effects of humidity,wind velocity and sunshine hours are also considered),ultraviolet radiation,atmospheric pressure and disasterous weather are respectively analyzed as the index of climatic suitability for tourism.It is found that,(1) as a whole,May to September is the most suitable season of tourism along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.There are neither hot nor cold,windy days in this season.But in the duration there are relatively frequent strong ultraviolet radiation,thunderstorm and hailstone.(2) With the rise of altitude suitable days and hours for tourism are shortened.Along the Qinghai-Tibet Railway,Lhasa and Xining,the terminals of the railway,are most suitable for tourism.However,Wudaoliang,Tuotuohe and Anduo have the shortest period with suitable climatic conditons for tourism because of cold weather(winter) and strong ultraviolet radiation(June,July).

Benefiting Remote Tibetan Communities with Solar Cooker Technology

In the remote northwestern Chinese province of Qinghai (Tibetan plateau), the Tibetan people struggle to gather yak dung, wood, straw, and other fuels for heating, boiling, and cooking—the basic necessities for survival. Over the past seven years, extreme cold (-35°C) and drought has had a significant effect on the environment, the Tibetan people, and the livestock and crops upon which these people depend. The environment has become increasingly denuded and many Tibetans, both farmers and herders, are caught in a vicious cycle of destitution. The use of solar cookers as a partial substitute for dung, wood, bushes and straw has helped alleviate this cycle. This paper reports on the accrued benefits to remote Tibetan communities following a program of solar cooker introduction to 48 such recipient communities. Work carried out in 2003 primarily by Tibetan students studying in an English Training Program, at the Qinghai Nationalities Teacher's College, Qinghai Normal University, Xining City, PRC (supported by the Canada Fund) combined with observations over three visits to the region in 2003 and 2004 are discussed.

A meteorological analysis on a low tropospheric ozone event over Xining, North Western China on 26–27 July 1996

A pronounced low tropospheric ozone (O3) event was observed over the Tibetan plateau in Xining (XN) (101.45°E, 36.43°N, 2296 m a.s.l), Northwestern China by electrochemical concentration cell ozonesonde from 25–27 July 1996. The event featured very low O3 mixing ratio (<56 ppbv) below 15 km above ground and high relative humidity (30–100%). A comparison with the vertical distribution of tropospheric O3 over Lhasa (91.03°E, 29.40°N, 3650 m a.s.l) has suggested that the low tropospheric O3 mixing ratio over XN represented a common characteristic of tropospheric O3 over the Tibetan plateau. Meteorological measurements from the regional radiosonde network in China and satellites revealed that the low O3 event was associated with an anticyclone in the upper troposphere, which was characterized by an intensive upwelling transport. The dynamical processes of the transport were investigated using latitudinal cross-section analysis on the National Centre of Environmental Prediction data set and three-dimensional backward trajectories. The results showed that the O3-depleted air originated from Southeast Asia or the marine boundary layer of the South China Sea and had travelled across the Tibetan plateau where an ‘O3 valley’ was observed at the time during the long-range transport inland over XN.

Contemporary crustal deformation of the Chinese continent and tectonic block model

We obtain the preliminary result of crustal deformation velocity field for the Chinese continent by analyzing GPS data from the Crustal Motion Observation Network of China (CMONOC), particularly the data from the regional networks of CMONOC observed in 1999 and 2001. We delineate 9 technically active blocks and 2 broadly distributed deformation zones out of a dense GPS velocity field, and derive block motion Euler poles for the blocks and their relative motion rates. Our result reveals that there are 3 categories of deformation patterns in the Chinese continent. The first category, associated with the interior of the Tibetan Plateau and the Tianshan orogenic belt, shows broadly distributed deformation within the regions. The third category, associated with the Tarim Basin and the region east of the north-south seismic belt of China, shows block-like motion, with deformation accommodated along the block boundaries only. The second category, mainly associated with the borderland of the Tibetan Plateau, such as the Qaidam, Qilian, Xining (in eastern Qinghai), and the Diamond-shaped (in western Sichuan and Yunnan) blocks, has the deformation pattern between the first and the third, i.e. these regions appear to deform block-like, but with smaller sizes and less strength for the blocks. Based on the analysis of the lithospheric structures and the deformation patterns of the regions above, we come to the inference that the deformation modes of the Chinese continental crust are mainly controlled by the crustal structure. The crust of the eastern China and the Tarim Basin is mechanically strong, and its deformation takes the form of relative motion between rigid blocks. On the other hand, the northward indentation of the Indian plate into the Asia continent has created the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau and the Tianshan Mountains, thickened their crust, and raised the temperature in the crust. The lower crust thus has become ductile, evidenced in low seismic velocity and high electric conductivity observed. The brittle part of the crust, driven by the visco-plastic flow of the lower crust, deforms extensively at all scales. The regions of the second category located at the borderland of the Tibetan Plateau are at the transition zone between the regions of the first and the third categories in terms of the crustal structure. Driven by the lateral boundary forces, their deformation style is also between the two, in the form of block motion and deformation with smaller blocks and less internal strength.

In brief

Two presentations at the recent meeting of the Biophysical Society (held in San Francisco, CA, USA) described research that could help biophysicists understand and control biomolecule migration and interaction (see bmn.com, 27 February). A team lead by Kenneth Ritchie (University of Nagoya, Nagoya, Japan) used CD44 transmembrane protein molecules labelled with gold nanoparticles, and monitored their movement within rat kidney fibroblasts. They found that the protein moved randomly around different regions of the cell surface, and postulate that the extracellular and cytoplasmic domains of CD44 bump into other cellular components during its random walk, bringing it to a halt. They also found that the cell compartments where the CD44 molecules roam are defined by actin filaments, and can be made bigger by treating cells with actin-stabilising compounds. Further work presented by Qing Tang and colleagues from Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD, USA) showed that the passage of single class I major histocompatibility proteins through a wild-type human melanoma cell membrane was defined by the size of actin compartments. MD