Context The Amur tiger and leopard, once roaming over the Eurasian continent, are now endangered and confined to the Sikhote-Alin Mountains, Russia-a landscape that has been increasingly fragmented due to human activities. The ultimate fate of these big cats depends on whether they can resettle in their previous main historical range in NE China. Recent sightings of these animals along the China-Russia border have aroused new hope, but direct evidence is lacking.Objectives The main objectives of our study were (1) to determine the abundance and spatiotemporal patterns of tigers, leopards, and primary prey; (2) to investigate factors influencing the resettlement of the two big cats; and (3) to propose a landscape-scale conservation plan to secure the long-term sustainability of the Amur tiger and leopard. Methods We monitored the two felids, their prey, and human activities, with 380 camera-trap stations, for a total of 175,127 trap days and over an area of 6000 km 2 in NE China. We used the constraint line method to characterize cattle grazing and human influences on tigers, leopards, and their prey species.Tianming Wang and Limin Feng contributed equally to this work.

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The complicated synthesis procedure and limited preparation size of hydrogel inhibit its clinical application. Therefore, a facile preparation method for large-size hydrogel is required. In this study, a series of curcumin (Cur)/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) hydrogel in a large size with different Cur concentrations is prepared by a facile physical-chemical crosslinking. The physicochemical properties, antibacterial performance and accelerating wound healing ability are evaluated with the aim of attaining a novel and effective wound dressing. The results show that the as-prepared hydrogel with the optimal Cur to PVA volume ratio of 1:5 (20% Cur/PVA) exhibits the best antibacterial abilities to E. coli (85.6%) and S. aureus (97%) than other hydrogels. When the volume ratio of Cur to PVA is 1:10 (10% Cur/PVA), the hydrogel can significantly accelerate the wound healing in rats, and successfully reconstruct intact and thickened epidermis during 14 day of healing of impaired wounds after histological examination. In one word, the present approach can shed new light on designing new type of hydrogels with promising applications in wound dressing.

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