Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is an important zoonotic viral disease transmitted by ticks. In recent decades, global climate change has increased human exposure to ticks, and mortality rates have gradually risen. Effective vaccines are essential for controlling TBE as specific antiviral treatment is unavailable. Vaccine candidates based on virus-like particles (VLPs) have previously been demonstrated to be efficient in eliciting excellent immune responses against influenza virus and SARS-CoV-2. Here, we constructed TBE virus (TBEV) VLPs containing the envelope and membrane proteins derived from the Far Eastern TBEV strain (WH2012) using an insect cell-baculovirus expression system. Induction of immune responses was investigated in mice following intramuscular injection with the TBEV VLPs vaccine candidates formulated of Poly(I:C) & Montanide ISA 201VG combination adjuvants. Mice produced memory T-cells and serum-specific IgG antibodies that averaged up to 1:10^4.6 and remained at 1:10⁴ (mean) for 24 weeks after three immunizations. TBEV VLPs vaccine was able to provide long-term antibody protection against TBEV, making it a promising subunit vaccine candidate for this disease.

Drought is one of the important stress factors affecting the growth and development process of wheat in China’s arid zones, which severely limits the yield.  This study examined the impact of deficit irrigation on the flag leaf protection system and yield of drip-irrigated spring wheat during the growth stages in arid zones.  Additionally, the study aimed to explicate the optimal water supply mode for efficient production under drip irrigation conditions and to provide technical support for water-saving and high-yield cultivation of drip-irrigated wheat.  The experiment was conducted with the split plot design, utilization the water-sensitive variety Xinchun 22 (XC22) and the drought-tolerant variety Xinchun 6 (XC6) as the main plot, while the fully irrigated control (CK, 75-80% FC, FC is field water holding capacity), mild deficit (T1, 60-65% FC) and moderate deficit (T2, 45-50% FC) at tillering stage, and mild deficit (J1, 60-65% FC) and moderate deficit (J2, 45-50% FC) at jointing stage were used as the subplot.  Systematic study were conducted on the regulatory effects of deficit irrigation during tillering and jointing stages on protective substances, membrane lipid metabolism, endogenous hormones in flag leaf, and yield of spring wheat.  Compared with T2 and J2 treatments, T1 and J1 treatments was beneficial for increasing the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT), proline (Pro), indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), zeatin riboside (ZR), IAA/ABA, ZR/ABA, IAA/ZR, and (IAA+ZR)/ABA, while reducing the levels of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), superoxide anion radicals (O₂^-), malondialdehyde (MDA), phosphatidic acid (PA), free fatty acids (FFA), abscisic acid (ABA), phospholipase D (PLD), and lipoxygenase (LOX), alleviating flag leaf senescence, and increasing yield.  Under T1 treatment, the SOD, POD, CAT, and Pro levels of flag leaves in XC6 were 11.14, 8.08, 12.98, and 3.66% higher than those of CK treatment, and under J1 treatment, they were 6.43, 4.49, 7.36, and 2.50% higher than those of CK treatment.  Under T1 treatment in XC6, the IAA, ZR levels of flag leaf, spike number, grains per spike, 1,000 grain weight and yield were 10.50, 5.79, 3.10, 8.84, 3.78, and 10.52% higher than those of CK treatment, and under J1 treatment, they were 5.36, 3.94, 2.40, 3.72, 1.37, and 4.46% higher than those of CK treatment.  Compared with XC22, XC6 was more conducive to the improvement of flag leaf protective substances, IAA, ZR, dry matter weight, yield components and yield.  The correlation analysis showed significant positive correlation between IAA and ZR with SOD, POD, CAT, proline, and yield.  IAA and ZR promoted the enhancement of protective enzyme activity, thereby clearing reactive oxygen species to cope with oxidative stress caused by drought and achieve the effect of delaying senescence.  Principal component analysis showed that yield components, dry matter weight, had a direct effect on yield.  Mild deficiency during tillering stage without water stress in other stages could effectively optimize yield components, not only achieved high yield while increasing protective substances, but also reduced reactive oxygen species content.  It could be recommended as a water-saving and high-yield production mode for drip irrigation of spring wheat in Xinjiang.

The eutrophication of rivers and lakes is becoming increasingly common, primarily because of pollution from agricultural non-point sources. We investigated the effects of optimized water and fertilizer treatments on agricultural non-point source pollution in the Nansi Lake region. The water heat carbon nitrogen simulator model was used to analyze water and nitrogen transport in Nansi Lake wheat fields. Four water and fertilizer treatments were set up: conventional fertilization and irrigation (CK), reduced controlled-release fertilizer and conventional irrigation (F2W1), an equal amount of controlled-release fertilizer and reduced irrigation (F1W2), and reduced controlled-release fertilizer and reduced irrigation (F2W2). The results indicated that the replacement of conventional fertilizers with controlled-release fertilizers, combined with reduced irrigation, led to reduced nitrogen loss. Compared with those of the CK, the cumulative nitrogen leaching and ammonia volatilization of F2W1 were reduced by 8.90 and 41.67%, respectively; under F1W2, the same parameters were reduced by 12.50 and 15.99%, respectively. Compared with the other treatments, F2W2 significantly reduced nitrogen loss while producing a stable yield. Compared with those of the CK, ammonia volatilization and nitrogen loss due to leaching were reduced by 29.17 and 27.13%, respectively, water and nitrogen use efficiencies increased by 11.38 and 17.80%, respectively. F2W2 showed the best performance among the treatments, considering water and fertilizer management. Our findings highlight the effectiveness of optimizing water and fertilizer application in improving the water and nitrogen use efficiency of wheat, which is of great significance for mitigating nitrogen loss from farmland in the Nansi Lake region.

A comprehensive assessment of grain supply, demand, and ecosystem service flows is essential for identifying grain movement pathways, ensuring regional grain security, and guiding sustainable management strategies. However, current studies primarily focus on short-term grain provision services while neglecting the spatiotemporal variations in grain flows across different scales. This gap limits the identification of dynamic matching relationships and the formulation of optimization strategies for balancing grain flows. This study examined the spatiotemporal evolution of grain supply and demand in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region from 1980 to 2020. Using the Enhanced Two-Step Floating Catchment Area method, the grain provision ecosystem service flows were quantified, the changes in supply–demand matching under different flow scenarios were analyzed and the optimal distance threshold for grain flows was investigated. The results revealed that grain production follows a spatial distribution pattern characterized by high levels in the southeast and low levels in the northwest. A significant mismatch exists between supply and demand, and it shows a scale effect. Deficit areas are mainly concentrated in the northwest, while surplus areas are mainly located in the central and southern regions. As the spatial scale increases, the ecosystem service supply–demand ratio (SDR) classification becomes more clustered, while it exhibits greater spatial SDR heterogeneity at smaller scales. This study examined two distinct scenarios of grain provision ecosystem service flow dynamics based on 100 km and 200 km distance thresholds. The flow increased significantly, from 2.17 to 11.81 million tons in the first scenario and from 2.41 to 12.37 million tons in the second scenario over nearly 40 years, forming a spatial movement pattern from the central and southern regions to the surrounding areas. Large flows were mainly concentrated in the interior of urban centers, with significant outflows between cities such as Baoding, Shijiazhuang, Xingtai, and Hengshui. At the county scale, supply–demand matching patterns remained consistent between the grain flows in the two scenarios. Notably, incorporating grain flow dynamics significantly reduced the number of grain-deficit areas compared to scenarios without grain flow. In 2020, grain-deficit counties decreased by 28.79% and 37.88%, and cities by 12.50% and 25.0% under the two scenarios, respectively. Furthermore, the distance threshold for achieving optimal supply and demand matching at the county scale was longer than at the city scale in both flow scenarios. This study provides valuable insights into the dynamic relationships and heterogeneous patterns of grain matching, and expands the research perspective on grain and ecosystem service flows across various spatiotemporal scales.