Promoting the inclusion of blue carbon in market trading is crucial for recognizing its value and protecting the marine ecological environment. However, China currently does not have an internationally influential blue carbon market trading platform, which hampers the transmission of supply and demand in the blue carbon market and prevents the realization of blue carbon value. In this study, we analyze the feasibility and necessity of establishing a trading mode for the blue carbon market in China. The introduction of futures trading in the blue carbon market’s trading mode allows for the use of futures pricing methods and multiple financial instruments to address the challenges of income cost mismatch in blue carbon project development. The paper also discusses key strategies for the development of China’s blue carbon market, including the creation of a blue carbon trading methodology, the improvement of preservation and appreciation mechanisms, and the establishment of a unified trading platform. These strategies aim to provide intellectual support and decision-making reference for the construction of the market.
18 December 2023 in Science China Information Sciences
Cage aquaculture makes it easier to produce high-quality aquatic products and allows full use of water resources. 3Therefore, cage aquaculture development is highly valued globally. However, the current digitalization level of cage aquaculture is low, and the farming risks are high. Research and development of digital management of the fish population in cages are greatly desired. Real-time monitoring of the activity status of the fish population and changes in the fish population size in cages is a pressing issue that needs to be addressed. This paper proposes an improved network called CC-YOLOv5 by embedding CoordConv modules to replace the original ConV convolution modules in the network, which improves the model’s generalization capability. By using two-stage detection logic, the target detection accuracy is enhanced to realize prediction of the number of fish populations. OpenCV is then used to measure fish tail lengths to establish growth curves of the fish and to predict the output of the fish population in the cages. Experimental results demonstrate that the mean average precision (mAP) of the improved algorithm increases by 14.9% compared to the original YOLOv5, reaching 95.4%. This research provides an effective solution to promote the intelligentization of cage aquaculture processes. It also lays the foundation for AI (Artificial Intelligence) applications in other aquaculture scenarios.
To discover bioactive natural products from mangrove sediment-derived microbes, a chemical investigation of the two Beibu Gulf-derived fungi strains, Talaromyces sp. SCSIO 41050 and Penicillium sp. SCSIO 41411, led to the isolation of 23 natural products. Five of them were identified as new ones, including two polyketide derivatives with unusual acid anhydride moieties named cordyanhydride A ethyl ester (1) and maleicanhydridane (4), and three hydroxyphenylacetic acid derivatives named stachylines H–J (10–12). Their structures were determined by detailed nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectroscopic (MS) analyses, while the absolute configurations were established by theoretical electronic circular dichroism (ECD) calculation. A variety of bioactive screens revealed three polyketide derivatives (1–3) with obvious antifungal activities, and 4 displayed moderate cytotoxicity against cell lines A549 and WPMY-1. Compounds 1 and 6 at 10 μM exhibited obvious inhibition against phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) with inhibitory ratios of 49.7% and 39.6%, respectively, while 5, 10, and 11 showed the potential of inhibiting acetylcholinesterase (AChE) by an enzyme activity test, as well as in silico docking analysis.
Recent studies have found that many marine microbial polysaccharides exhibit distinct immune activity. However, there is a relative scarcity of research on the immunomodulatory activity of marine fungal exopolysaccharides. A novel water-soluble fungal exopolysaccharide ASP-1 was isolated from the fermentation broths of marine coral-associated fungus Aspergillus pseudoglaucus SCAU265, and purified by Diethylaminoethyl-Sepharose-52 (DEAE-52) Fast Flow and Sephadex G-75. Structural analysis revealed that ASP-1 had an average molecular weight of 36.07 kDa and was mainly composed of (1→4)-linked α-D-glucopyranosyl residues, along with highly branched heteropolysaccharide regions containing 1,4,6-glucopyranosyl, 1,3,4-glucopyranosyl, 1,4,6-galactopyranosyl, T(terminal)-glucopyranosyl, T-mannopyranosyl, and T-galactopyranosyl residues. ASP-1 demonstrated significant effects on the proliferation, nitric oxide levels, and the secretion of cytokines TNF-α and IL-6 in macrophage RAW264.7 cells. Metabolomic analysis provided insights into the potential mechanisms of the immune regulation of ASP-1, suggesting its involvement in regulating immune function by modulating amino acid anabolism, particularly arginine synthesis and metabolism. These findings provide fundamental scientific data for further research on its accurate molecular mechanism of immunomodulatory activity.