We propose instead a cultural explanation for this late deforestation: the expansion of the Ottoman Empire in Bulgaria (1396), Romanian Principalities (1417 for the Wallachia; 1498 for Moldavia; 1526 for Transylvania) and Serbia (1455). The Ottoman-ruled Bulgaria and Serbia and especially the vassal Romanian

principalities provided a significant part of the empire’s resource provisioning including “wheat, honey, timber, and above all, sheep” ( White, 2011). Tariquidar ic50 We propose that deforestation of highly erodible alpine settings that led to the five-fold increase of sediment load on the Danube ( Giosan et al., 2012) reflects this increased demand for timber and especially for sheep by the Ottoman Porte. Indeed, zooarchaeological evaluations

for medieval Moldavian towns ( Stanc and Bejenaru, 2013) shows that before the Ottoman expansion in the region, cattle and pig dominated the local diet. In a short time, by the end of the 16th century, Moldavia alone may have provided 300,000 sheep to Constantinople (Istanbul), out of an estimated 400–500,000 sent by the entire northern Balkans and Romanian principalities ( White, 2011). Such radical changes in animal husbandry suggest that the region adapted to meet the religious dietary requirements and the huge demand of the suzerain Islamic empire by deforesting alpine lands for pasture. Currently, despite BGB324 a 70% sediment deficit accrued after extensive damming in the watershed during the Communist industrialization of Romania in the late 20th century (McCarney-Castle et al., 2012), Danube delta is better positioned compared to other deltas to withstand in the short run the ongoing rise in sea level (e.g., Cazenave et al., 2002). This is due to a combination of reduced subsidence and anthropogenically-augmented sediment trapping on the delta plain (Giosan et al., 2013). That holds true in large part for the internal lobes of Chilia I and II; furthermore, ongoing and planned restoration measures such as dike removal (e.g., Schneider et al., 2008) may re-establish sediment

retention and ecological functions even for their sectors that were drained for agriculture or diked for fisheries. On the other hand, the open coast Chilia III lobe coming under increased Alanine-glyoxylate transaminase wave dominance due to the sediment deficit has become the most dynamic coast of the entire Danube delta (Fig. 4c). Besides the Old Stambul mouth that advances into a shallow lagoon, the only other stable stretch of the coast is linked to the construction of a protecting jetty at the Bastroe mouth, built as a part of a large navigation project. This led to updrift beach ridge progradation as the southward longshore drift is trapped by the jetty and downdrift spit extension under a reversed drift in the lee of the jetty (Fig. 4c).

, 1996 and Lin and Chen, 2005). In fact, the stability of carotenoids in foods is variable. This happens not only because of extrinsic factors, such as the severity of heat treatment, presence or absence of light, temperature of storage, packaging, amongst others, but also because of the characteristics of the food matrices, such as their chemical composition, the oxygen dissolved in the samples, size of the particles, and the physical state of the carotenoid in the food (Marx et al., 2003, Rodriguez-Amaya, 1999 and Vásquez-Caicedo et al., 2007a).

For example, while in crystalline form, such as in carrot juice, carotenoids tend to show high stability, whereas in dissolved SCH727965 order form, in oil drops, there is a greater potential for occurrence of isomerisation (Marx et al.,

2003). Studies regarding the physical form of carotenoids and effects of selleck inhibitor the food matrix in pumpkin purees could clarify the mechanism of the stability of the carotenoids in this product. In short, the C. moschata ‘Menina Brasileira’ pumpkins showed good concentrations of α-carotene and all-trans-β-carotene, with a lower quantity of ζ-carotene, violaxanthin and lutein, and the C. maxima ‘Exposição’ pumpkins had the all-trans-β-carotene as the major carotenoid, with good concentrations of lutein and violaxanthin. The major carotenoids, which in the case of this present study were the pro-vitamin carotenes, had relatively high retentions after the production of the pumpkin purees. A light grade of isomerisation of β-carotene was detected, with low concentrations of cis-isomers of β-carotene in both purees. After 180 days of

storage, no significant changes in the contents of these compounds were noted. Xanthophylls, as lutein and violaxanthin, were more affected than the carotenes, with significant losses (P ⩽ 0.05) during processing and storage of the pumpkin purees. Although these compounds are not precursors of vitamin A, the vitamin A-inactive RANTES carotenoids are being increasingly valued due to their action against degenerative and cardiovascular diseases, and certain types of cancers ( Azevedo-Meleiro & Rodriguez-Amaya, 2007). New studies which investigate mechanisms of the stability of carotenoids in food matrix of pumpkin puree, the use of antioxidants, or which involve alternative technologies for conventional heat treatment, such as high pressure and the pulsed electric field, are important to improve the retention of these compounds in products such as carrots or pumpkin purees, or other vegetables rich in carotenoids. We thank the CNPq (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, Brazil) for their financial support through the scholarships provided by them. “
“In the ‘Introduction’ to the above paper, the authors stated that “This study was carried out to investigate the variations in vitamins, proteins and fatty acids contents in eight Jordanian locations.

Therefore, this is an important index to evaluate the behaviour of coagulants during cheese ripening. It can be seen that there was an increase of pH 4.6-SN for both processes, which agrees with the literature (McSweeney & Fox, 1997). Increase of NS-pH 4.6/TN*100 during

ripening of Prato cheese this website was also reported by Garcia et al., 2009 and Gorostiza et al., 2004. Fig. 1B shows the evolution of NS-TCA 12%/TN*100, which is represented by the presence of peptides of low molecular mass and free amino acids that were produced by the action of peptidases from the starter and non starter bacteria on peptides with high/intermediate molecular mass (Fox, 1989 and Singh et al., 2003). It can be seen that there was an increase of TCA 12%-SN for both processes. Increase of NS-TCA 12%/TN*100 during ripening of Prato cheese was also reported by Garcia et al., 2009 and Gorostiza et al., 2004. According to the results from F-test of ANOVA, shown in Table 2, ripening period significantly

affected ripening indices (p < 0.01), which was expected since for ripening to occur these indices need to increase throughout time. It can also be seen that the treatments did not significantly affect NS-pH 4.6/TN*100 suggesting that coagulant from T. indicae-seudaticae N31 caused the same type of proteolysis as commercial coagulant. However, treatments affected NS-TCA 12%/TN*100 (p < 0.05) but when carrying out comparison of means by Tukey test, no differences were revealed between treatments. Also, the interaction between treatments and ripening period

did not significantly affect the indices, indicating that proteolysis increases throughout ripening http://www.selleckchem.com/products/BMS-777607.html in the same way for cheeses made with commercial coagulant and with coagulant from T. indicae-seudaticae N31. Residual chymosin rapidly hydrolyses αs1-casein at the bond Phe23–Phe24 during initial O-methylated flavonoid stages of ripening, resulting in the formation of a large peptide αs1-CN f24–199 (αs1-I-casein) and the small one αs1-CN f1–23. Hydrolysis of this bond causes a rapid change in the rubbery texture of Cheddar cheese into a more homogenous and smoother product (Lawrence et al., 1987 and Singh et al., 2003). Since the NS-pH 4.6/TN*100 evolution was not significantly different for cheeses produced with each coagulant, a similar αs1-casein hydrolysis profile was expected for these cheeses, however this was not observed as seen in Fig. 2B as explained earlier by the different action of the coagulants due to ripening pH and temperature. Plasmin acts on β-casein resulting on the formation of three γ-caseins [γ1-(β-CN f29–209), γ2-(β-CN f106–209) and γ3-(β-CN f108–209)], representing the C-terminal region and of five proteose–peptones, representing the N-terminal region (Singh et al., 2003). These proteose–peptones are soluble at pH 4.6 affecting pH 4.6-SN, although their contribution is small (McSweeney & Fox, 1997). According to Singh et al.

Only 16% of all experiments studied (24 from 151) had specifically looked at soil C, suggesting that eCO2 effects on below-ground C dynamics are poorly understood at the global scale. Importantly, results from a limited number of whole ecosystem studies involving total experimental areas of between 10 m2 and 3000 m2 (25) have detected gains for soil C in the most studied temperate deciduous forest biome, but for all other biomes the data are too limited to discern any reliable patterns (see Fig. 3b). Tropical forest ecosystems possess the largest biologically

active C stocks (de Deyn et al., 2008), which account for ~ 70% of the gross C uptake by the world’s forests (Pan et al., 2011). Tropical forest litter and soils are also a significant reservoir of C, accounting for ~ 34% of all litter and soil forest C globally. Selleck Selisistat As highlighted by Hickler et al. (2008), certain functional characteristics of tropical ecosystems, combined with high rates of productivity, suggest Ibrutinib that this biome has a capacity for stronger eCO2 responses than its temperate equivalent. Modeling and atmospheric sampling analyses support such a widespread biological response, repeatedly implicating tropical forests as the major global sink for anthropogenic C (Fisher et al., 2013, Hickler et al., 2008 and Stephens et al., 2007), yet the spatial

extent and characteristics that support this tropical “sink” are yet to be verified from ground-truthing surveys using limited scale measurements of tropical tree growth rates over time to investigate this (Clark et al., 2003 and Clark et al., 2010). Leguminous N-fixing species and evergreen broadleaved species are a large component of tropical forest biomass and also known to be especially physiologically responsive to eCO2 (Rogers et al., 2009 and Niinemets et al., 2010). Furthermore, Astemizole eCO2 can also lower the photosynthetic light compensation point, thereby increasing photosynthetic efficiency,

particularly in the deeply shaded tropical understory (Korner, 2009). In short, a combination of ecophysiological mechanisms such as these could potentially account for increased tropical CO2 uptake, yet none have been extensively studied under eCO2 conditions in tropical forest. Hypothetically, tropical habitats enriched with certain plant functional types (such as legumes), particular soil characteristics (e.g. differences in nutrient cycling capacity), or vegetation disturbance history (Foody et al., 1996 and Pan et al., 2011), could each modulate the tropical eCO2 sink capacity, either individually or in combination. Addressing the influence of factors such as these alongside eCO2 would address a present research shortfall and identify the specific ecosystem characteristics allowing this sink to function. If such research were developed in order to define the tropical sink it would provide invaluable information and potentially demonstrate which habitat types are most important for CO2 sequestration.

Polyphenols from plants were known to present various biological activities such as antioxidative and anti-inflammatory effects. Galunisertib purchase As

shown in Fig. 3, sequential enzyme treatment did not affect the content of polyphenols, showing a similar level to the control. Recently, carbohydrate-hydrolyzing enzymes, such as pectinase, cellulase, hemicellulase, and glucanase have been used to break the cell wall complex for the extraction of polyphenolics [32] and [33]. These enzymes were considered to disintegrate the plant cell wall matrix to facilitate polyphenol extraction [34]. However, our results did not exhibit a significant increase of polyphenols after enzymatic treatment on extract. The ginsenoside composition of red ginseng extracts is presented in Table 2. Rc was the most abundant in the control and Ultraflo L groups, but the other enzymatic treatment contained Rb1 as the highest ginsenoside. Meanwhile, ginsenoside Rh2 and compound K were not detected in all extracts. A total ginsenoside content generated by Rapidase was the highest among the enzyme treatments by showing 167.35 mg/mL. The treatment of other enzymes did not show a significant increase in total ginsenoside contents. In particular, deglycosylated ginsenoside

metabolites such as Rh1, Rg5, Rk1, Rg2, and Rg3 were detected the most in Rapidase treatment. This result is correlated Decitabine nmr with the data (Fig. 1) showing a significant elevation of total sugar in Rapidase treatment, indicating that Rapidase allows the increase of deglycosylated ginsenosides by promoting the release of sugars linked to ginsenoside glycosides. Fig. 4 shows the contents of major ginsenoside contents. Contents of panaxadiols and panaxatriols in red ginseng extracts were also highest in Rapidase treatment (128.53 mg/mL and 32.36 mg/mL, respectively). Ginsenoside Rg3, Rg5, Rg2, Rg4, Rh2, Rh3, Rh1, and Rh4 have been shown to have

special physiological activities: Rh2, Rh3, Rg3, and Rh1 have anticancer properties Methocarbamol without side effects; and Rg3 and Rg2 have antithrombus effects. However, these ginsenosides have some difficulties in availability because of low levels in ginseng [35]. Ginsenosides are usually metabolized by human intestinal bacteria to deglycosylated forms, which are more readily absorbed in the bloodstream and act as biologically active compounds [36]. Among these deglycosylated ginsenosides, Rg3 exerts many pharmacological activities such as tumor-suppressing [37], antimetastatic [38], anticarcinogenic [39], hepatoprotective [40], neuroprotective [41], and vasodilating effects [42]. However, the concentration of ginsenoside Rg3 is extremely low in normal ginseng [43]. Thus, the increase of ginsenoside Rg3 level would be very important for the development of health-oriented products. In addition, many studies have been performed, aiming at the increase of minor active ginsenosides such as Rg3 via conversions of major ginsenosides contained abundantly [16], [21] and [22].

The HPLC chromatogram of AG extract is illustrated in Fig. 2. AG include the typical ginsenosides Re, Rg1, Rb1, Rc, Rb2, and Rd (Fig. 2A). After heat processing at 120°C, the ginsenosides

Rb1 and Re were markedly decreased, whereas the peaks of less polar ginsenosides (20(S,R)-Rg3, Rk1, and Rg5) were newly detected at about 23 min and 27 min ( Fig. 2B, Table 1). Therefore, ginsenosides Rb1 and Re were more efficiently deglycosylated and transformed into less polar LGK-974 molecular weight ginsenosides during heat processing than other ginsenosides contained in AG. Fig. 3A shows the morphological changes of human gastric cancer AGS cell treated with AG or HAG. The AGS cell line has been shown to grow in athymic mice and to have the same histochemical and cytological characteristics as the specimen taken from the patient [15], and recently, this cell line has been widely used as a model system for evaluating

cancer cell apoptosis [17] and [18]. As a result, HAG was found to induce apoptotic body formation stronger than AG (Fig. 3A), and HAG significantly suppressed AGS cell proliferation from a lower concentration, whereas AG did not suppress cell proliferation at any concentration (Fig. 3B). In addition, we prepared water and methanol eluates from HAG (Fig. 3C) to assess their cell proliferation ability, as well as to find out the main active component. As a result, the methanol eluate almost completely suppressed the cell proliferation from a concentration of 50 μg/mL, although there was no suppression in the water eluate (Fig. 3D). It has been shown Acetophenone that a high concentration of the ginsenosides protopanaxidiol and protopanaxatriol learn more are eluted in methanol fraction [19], suggesting that this antiproliferating activity of the methanol eluate was due to ginsenosides. Next, we examined the antiproliferating efficacies of ginsenosides Rb1 and Re with or without heat-processing, because the amounts of these ginsenosides were decreased

markedly after heat-processing in AG than in other ginsenosides (Fig. 2A). Both ginsenosides Re and Rb1 showed no efficacy in cancer cell proliferation (Fig. 4) without heat-processing. However, heat processed-Rb1 significantly suppressed cell proliferation from a lower concentration (Fig. 4A), and this result was similarly observed in the case of methanol elute (Fig. 3D). By contrast, ginsenoside Re showed a weak efficacy even at a high concentration of 100 μg/mL (Fig. 4B). Therefore, the major active component of HAG was considered to be related to heat-processed ginsenoside Rb1. From the HPLC analysis of ginsenoside Rb1, prior to and after heat-processing, ginsenoside Rb1 was transformed into ginsenosides 20(S,R)-Rg3, Rk1, and Rg5 after heat-processing at 120°C ( Fig. 4Cand D) as shown in AG ( Fig. 2). We previously reported that ginsenoside Re gradually transformed into less polar ginsenosides Rg2, Rg6, and F4 upon heat-processing [7].

The extract was filtered through Whatman No.1 (Whatman Ltd., Cambridge, UK) filter paper and concentrated at 45–50°C. The concentrate was dissolved in 100 mL of distilled water and washed twice in a separation funnel with 100 mL diethyl ether to remove fats. The aqueous layer was extracted three times with 100 mL water-saturated n-butanol. The

n-butanol extracts were pooled and washed twice with 100 mL of distilled water to remove impurities. The resulting n-butanol layer was evaporated at 55°C using a rotary vacuum evaporator. Finally, the round flask with the evaporated residue was dried at 105°C until it reached a constant weight. The weight of the evaporated residue was measured and used as the crude saponin content. Ginsenosides were determined using ultra VE-822 purchase performance liquid chromatography (UPLC; Acquity UPLC System; Waters, Milford, MA, USA) equipped with a binary solvent delivery system, an autosampler, a tunable UV detector, and an Acquity UPLC bridge ethylene hybrid-based particles C18 column (1.7 μM, Φ2.1 × 100 mm; Waters). The samples (0.5 g) were dissolved in 10 mL of 50% methanol and were ultrasonicated for 30 minutes,

and then the mixtures were centrifuged at 1000 × g for 10 minutes. The injection volume was 2 μL and the absorbance Verteporfin solubility dmso was measured at 203 ± 0.2 nm. The two mobile phases were phase A: water; phase B: acetonitrile, and the UPLC elution conditions were as follows: 0–0.5 minutes, A-B (85:15 v/v); 0.5–14.5 minutes, A-B (70:30 v/v); 14.5–15.5

minutes, A-B (68:32 v/v); 15.5–16.5 minutes, A-B (60:40 v/v); 16.5–20.0 minutes, Florfenicol A-B (45:55 v/v); 20.0–22.0 minutes, A-B (10:90 v/v); and 22.0–27.0 minutes, A-B (85:15 v/v). The flow rate was set at 0.6 mL/minute and the column temperature was maintained at 40 ± 2°C. Acidic polysaccharide content was measured according to the carbazole-sulfuric acid method [19] using galacturonic acid as a standard. Briefly, 0.5 mL of the sample extract solution was mixed with 0.25 mL of carbazole-absolute ethanol (0.1%, v/v) and 3 mL of concentrated sulfuric acid. Then the mixed solution was reacted in 80°C water for 5 minutes and cooled. The absorbance was read in a cuvette at 525 nm. The acidic polysaccharide content after enzyme treatment was determined according to the method of Lee and Do [20] with minor modification. The ginseng powder (1 g) was dissolved with distilled water (10 mL) and 0.25% of each enzyme (α-amylase and cellulase) was added. The mixture was incubated at 40–50°C for 60 minutes (pH 4–5). The resulting solution was centrifuged at 1000 × g for 30 minutes and the acidic polysaccharide content of the supernatant was determined. The ground ginseng samples (0.5 g) were extracted twice with 10 mL of an ethanol:water (80:20 v/v) solution. The first extraction involved stirring for 2 hours at 30°C and the extracts were pooled. Then, the solid was re-extracted under the same conditions for 12 hours.

Various validated systems for testing the components of HPV E1 helicase and viral DNA replication using transient transfection of E1 and E2 expression plasmids or using purified enzymes in vitro have been reported ( Liu et al., 1995, Kuo et al., 1994 and Fradet-Turcotte et al., 2010). Further research is also needed in understanding the effects of CDV on the productive replicative cycle of low-risks HPVs and the organotypic epithelial raft cultures appear to be the ideal system to perform these investigations as they reproduce epithelial differentiation in an ex vivo system. A fully productive 3-dimensional tissue culture system

for production of high yields of infectious HPV-18 virions NLG919 concentration was first described in 2009, with multiple published applications since then (Wang et al., 2009). This system appears to be also more appropriate to analyse drug-metabolism because nucleoside metabolism in cell monolayer cultures (especially with immortalized and transformed cells)

are considerably abnormal compared to 3-dimensional tissues, where most cells are quiescent. Moreover, uptake of small molecules is substantially altered in rapidly dividing monolayer cells that do not have cell–cell junctions. Nucleotide synthetic pathways have exquisitely coordinated balancing of de novo production of the ribonucleoside and the deoxyribonucleoside CH5424802 chemical structure triphosphates, and these regulatory responses are also heavily influenced by salvage of nucleosides from broken down RNA and DNA or from the general circulation. Exogenous agents such as inhibitors of these synthetic or salvage pathways (eg. hydroxyurea, methotrexate) or from nucleoside analogues (eg. 5-FU) can substantially alter this balancing network. Whether CDV or other ANP’s

have an impact on the normal distribution of ribo- and deoxyribo-nucleosides and their phosphorylated derivatives should be investigated. How CDV and other ANPs impact ribonucleoside diphosphate reductase, the main source ZD1839 cell line of deoxynucleotide synthesis in virally infected cells should be considered, as well as the consequences of cell growth in the presence of CDV with respect to ribosomal RNA transcription and processing. One of the major findings regarding CDV-antitumor activities points to the potential use of the drug in the therapy of non-viral induced tumors such as glioblastomas. Also, further research will be necessary to elucidate the effects of CDV in several signalling pathways compared to PME derivatives and other chemotherapeutics in order to highlight (dis)similarities and understand their mechanisms of action. We are grateful to the Geconcerteerde Onderzoeksacties (GOA), Krediet no. 10/014 and to the Program Financing (PF-10/08) of the KU Leuven for funding. “
“Integrase inhibitors (INIs) are an important addition to the HIV infection treatment armamentarium. Licensed in 2007, raltegravir (RAL, Merck Laboratories) is the first INI approved for clinical use (FDA, 2007).

We found a significant linear effect of learning over the nine test blocks (F[1, 15] = 15.09, p < 0.002, η2 = 0.50), such that accuracy improved over time. This effect interacted significantly with

gamble pair (F[1, 15] = 9.05, p < 0.01, η2 = 0.38), with accuracy improving more steeply for 80/20 Epigenetics inhibitor and 80/60 pair choice, than for the two remaining pairs. There was no interaction of session × gamble pair × test block, suggesting that observers’ low choice accuracy for the 40/20 pair was not modulated by time (See Fig. 2b). The overall frequencies of choosing each stimulus over time are presented in Fig. S1. Since the 60% and 40% win options were presented to participants both in the context of a better and a worse alternative option, we additionally

examined the effect of this contextual pairing with a 2 × 2 × 2 within-subjects ANOVA with factors for session (A/O), choice (60/40) and context (whether the choice is the higher or lower value). Actors chose 60% and 40% options more frequently overall (F[1, 15] = 7.87, p < 0.02, η2 = 0.34). Generally, 60% and 40% options were selected significantly more when they were the highest value option in the pair (F[1, 15] = 105.75, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.88). Observers were significantly less likely to choose the 40% options when presented in a 40/20 pairing (mean 40% under 40/20 actor = 0.88; mean 40% under 40/20 observer = 0.58; t[15] = 2.97, p < 0.01). This effect was not significant for OTX015 datasheet the 60% option when presented in a 60/40 pairing (i.e. when 60% was the highest value

stimulus) – (mean 60% under 60/40 actor = 0.66; mean 60% under 60/40 observer = 0.74; t[15] = −0.82, ns), nor were there any significant choice frequency difference between actor and observer sessions when 60% or 40% were the lower value stimulus in the pair (mean 60% under 5-FU solubility dmso 80/60 actor = 0.17; mean 60% under 80/60 observer = 0.17; mean 40% under 60/40 actor = 0.34; mean 40% under 60/40 observer = 0.26). This was reflected in a session × choice × context interaction (F[1, 15] = 7.87, p < 0.02, η2 = 0.34). These findings are therefore in keeping with an over-valuation specific to the worst 20% win option rather than evidence for a more generic contextual effect. Participants’ explicit estimates of stimulus pwin showed a specific impairment in learning in relation to lower pwin options (Fig. 3). A repeated-measures ANOVA showed a gamble × session interaction in estimates of pwin (F[3, 45] = 7.29, p < 0.0005, η2 = 0.33), such that pwin for the 20% win option was significantly overestimated through observation compared to action (t(15) = 4.61, p < 0.005). Observers’ individual choice preference in 40/20 test choices was also strongly associated with the degree to which the 20% win gamble was overvalued when observing compared to acting (R2 = 0.29, p < 0.05).

3). In part due to flow regulation, water consumption over the watershed increased from 153.9 × 108 m3/yr in the 1950s to 422.3 × 108 m3/yr during 2000–2005 (Peng and Chen, 2009), resulting in declining water and sediment discharges to the sea (Wang et al., 2006 and Wang et al., 2007). Average suspended sediment concentration of the Huanghe water to the sea during 1950–1999 approached 25.5 kg/m3 (Wang et al., 2010). After the construction of the Xiaolangdi reservoir, however, the dam trapped substantial amounts of coarse sediment. The silt-laden

VX-809 order river has become cleaner, and average suspended sediment concentration of the Huanghe water to the sea during 2000–2012 was as low as 8.3 kg/m3, only 32.5% of the pre-2000 level. The average annual suspended sediment concentration during

2000–2012 fluctuated slightly from 4.4 to 19.2 kg/m3 (Table 4) a smaller range in comparison with 10–50 kg/m3 during 1950–1999 (Wang et al., 2010). These changes can be mainly attributed to dam entrapment of sediment. The elevated riverbed of the lower Huanghe is a result of successive sedimentation of coarse sediment carried by the river. The average grain size of surface PLX3397 mw sediment (collected in 2002) decreases from Gaocun station to the river mouth (as shown in Fig. 4A), reflecting the sedimentation process in the lower reaches. Since the beginning of WSM, however, both the suspended sediment concentration and average grain size increase from Huayuankou to Lijin, mainly due to intense riverbed scouring. Therefore, the initiation of WSM in 2002 caused a shift from sedimentation to erosion in the riverbed of the lower reaches. By 2011, up to 3.9 × 108 t sediment had been scoured during WSM, and the riverbed was lowered by ∼2 m. The scoured material provides an important source of fluvial sediment to the sea. During WSM in 2002–2010, the scoured sediments provided ∼60% of the fluvial sediments

to the sea, more than those directly released from the Xiaolangdi reservoir. Moreover, the scoured sediment is mostly sand, leading to an increase in grain-size for the suspended sediment from Xiaolangdi to Lijin (see Fig. 4A). Data at Lijin station reveals that the average grain size of sediment had increased from an average of 18 μm during 1950–1999 (Wang et al., 2010), to 24 μm during 2002–2012 (Table 4). This combined effect of sediment entrapment mafosfamide and riverbed scouring is depicted in Fig. 4B. Trapping by the Xiaolangdi dam leads to significantly-decreased suspended sediment concentration of the water entering the lower reaches, whereas average suspended sediment concentration and grain size increase in a stepwise fashion owing to scouring of the riverbed during the journey from Xiaolangdi to the sea, as shown in Fig. 4B. The transport of sediment through river channels has major consequences for public safety, management of water resources, and environmental sustainability (Frey and Church, 2009).