Ciliated protists (ciliates) represent a morphologically and genetically diverse group of single-celled eukaryotes, the phylogeny of which is critical for understanding eukaryotic evolution. Through international collaborations, the Laboratory of Protozoology at Ocean University of China (OUC-group) has conducted detailed research on ciliate phylogeny based on expanded taxonomic sampling, employing single gene as well as multi...

The tectonically driven uplift of the Qinling Mountains during the Cenozoic may have resulted in significant climatic and environmental effects, but this remains poorly understood. This study investigates the influence of the Qinling Mountains' uplift on summer precipitation patterns in central China using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to design topographic sensitivity experiments. The results show that the...

Resting state correlations between blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) MRI signals from voxels in white matter (WM) are demonstrably anisotropic, so that functional correlation tensors (FCT) may be used to quantify the underlying microstructure of BOLD effects in WM tracts. However, the overall spatial distribution of FCTs and their metrics in specific populations has not yet been established, and the factors that affect...