Termite coprolites (Blattodea: Isoptera) from the Early Cretaceous of eastern Inner Mongolia, Northeast China

Well-preserved coprolites (fossil faecal pellets) were found from lignite seams of the Lower Cretaceous Huolinhe Formation at the Huolinhe Basin in eastern Inner Mongolia, Northeast China. These coprolites provide a combination of following features: oval to cylindrical shaped with six longitudinal ridges, hexagonal to elliptical cross-sections, and one blunt end and the other pointed end. According to these distinct features and their size range, the producers of these coprolites are attributed to termites. Termites were estimated to have originated in the earliest Cretaceous with an evolutionary radiation in the Early Cretaceous. The presence of wood debris in the coprolites indicate that the Early Cretaceous termites from the Huolinhe Basin had wood-feeding habits; and anatomical features displaying on the wood debris further suggest their feeding preference was coniferous wood. Besides, the results of a k-means clustering analysis performed for these coprolites indicate that three clusters with different proportion were present, suggesting the division of labor in termites’ sociality existed as early as the Early Cretaceous.

Will the arid and semi-arid regions of Northwest China become warmer and wetter based on CMIP6 models?

Whether there is a transition underway, from a warm-dry climate to a warm-wet climate in Northwest China remains a controversial and scientifically significant issue. Will this trend continue in the future? Another hot issue is whether the climate in Northwest China will continue to be warm and humid over the next few decades. In this paper, eight CMIP6 models were employed to investigate temperature and precipitation changes under five principal Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) scenarios (from 2015 to 2099) to project the future warming and humidification in Northwest China using the SPEI (standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index) method. The results revealed that (1) the simulated temperature and precipitation of eight CMIP6 models were consistent with that of observed data during 1961–2014, which showed an increase of approximately 28.2 mm, while simulated data revealed an increase of approximately 9.4 mm. The annual precipitation gradually decreased from Eastern Inner Mongolia and the Southern Northwest Mongolia region (>700 mm) to the Central Northwest Mongolia region (<100 mm) from 1961 to 2014; (2) the MME significantly overestimated the temperature and slightly underestimated the precipitation in Northwest Mongolia. The temperature difference between the simulated and observed data was approximately 0.4 °C. The observed data showed an increase of approximately 0.9 °C from 1961 to 2014, whereas the simulated data revealed an increase of approximately 0.7 °C; (3) in the SSP5-8.5 scenario, the percentage of precipitation anomalies at 1.5, 2, 3, and 4 °C were 166.64, 190.58, 226.44, and 274.56%, respectively; thus, alleviating the drought situation while facilitating the warm-dry to warm-wet climate transition; (4) the water balance between rising temperatures and increased evapotranspiration resulting from increased precipitation suggested that not all sites will be wet in the future. There was still a drying trend in some areas, where drought was more severe under the high emissions scenario than the low emissions scenario.

Community Intervention System: COVID-19 Control in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China

The COVID-19 epidemic has caused giant influences on people’s life, and China’s communities play an important role in dealing with these major public health events (MPHEs). Community as the grassroots autonomous organization has various significant functions in intervening in MPHEs. The community intervention follows a system which directly influences the anti-epidemic effectiveness. To explore the mechanism, we devise a theoretical system for community intervention, mainly consisting of “organizational structure”, “functional performance” and “internal and external connections”. Questionnaire surveys, the chi-square test, the independent sample T-test, and principal component analysis are used to identify the characteristics of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region’s (Inner Mongolia) community intervention. Through the empirical research, it is verified that the community intervention in MPHEs is the combination of “the structural response of the organization”, “the performance of the community’s own function”, and “the establishment of internal and external connections”. The central Inner Mongolia delivers the best performance in community intervention compared to eastern Inner Mongolia and western Inner Mongolia. The urban communities commonly perform better than that in the agricultural and pastoral areas. The built system and findings could provide a guidance for future community to improve its intervention capability.

Electric Heating Load Forecasting Method Based on Improved Thermal Comfort Model and LSTM

The accuracy of the electric heating load forecast in a new load has a close relationship with the safety and stability of distribution network in normal operation. It also has enormous implications on the architecture of a distribution network. Firstly, the thermal comfort model of the human body was established to analyze the comfortable body temperature of a main crowd under different temperatures and levels of humidity. Secondly, it analyzed the influence factors of electric heating load, and from the perspective of meteorological factors, it selected the difference between human thermal comfort temperature and actual temperature and humidity by gray correlation analysis. Finally, the attention mechanism was utilized to promote the precision of combined adjunction model, and then the data results of the predicted electric heating load were obtained. In the verification, the measured data of electric heating load in a certain area of eastern Inner Mongolia were used. The results showed that after considering the input vector with most relative factors such as temperature and human thermal comfort, the LSTM network can realize the accurate prediction of the electric heating load.

Taxonomy of the clam shrimp Halysestheriidae (Diplostraca: Spinicaudata) from the Upper Cretaceous Nenjiang Formation in central Dayangshu Basin of eastern Inner Mongolia, northeastern China

A re-examination of the holotype of the type species Halysestheria biformis Zhang & Chen in Zhang et al., 1976 has revealed new characters that were overlooked in the original description. And a taxonomic research was carried out on the clam shrimp collected from the Upper Cretaceous Nenjiang Formation in the central Dayangshu Basin in Ganhe, Oroqen Autonomous Banner, eastern Inner Mongolia. The discovery of Halysestheria biformis indicates the fossil bearing horizon belongs to the upper Santonian First Member of the Nenjiang Formation.

Changes in Genetic Diversity and Demographic History of Jankowski’s Bunting (Emberiza Jankowskii), as Revealed by Mitochondrial DNA and Microsatellite Markers

The genetic variation and distribution of a population depend largely on the demographic history. For instance, populations that have recently experienced shrinkage usually have a lower genetic diversity. However, some endangered species with a narrow distribution have a high genetic diversity resulting from large historical population sizes and long generation times. In addition, very recent population bottlenecks may not be reflected in the population’s genetic information. In this study, we used a mitochondrial DNA marker and 15 microsatellite markers to reveal the genetic diversity, recent changes, inbreeding, and demographic history of a Jankowski’s bunting (Emberiza jankowskii) population in eastern Inner Mongolia. The results show that the genetic diversity of the population remained at a relatively stable and high level until recently. Severe population shrinkage did not result in a considerable lack of genetic variation because of the large historical population size and relatively short periods of human disturbance. In addition, introgression and gene flow among populations compensate for the loss of genetic variation to some extent. Considering the current small effective population size and the existence of inbreeding, we recommend that habitat protection be continued to maximize the genetic diversity of the Jankowski’s bunting population.