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Demyelination and failure of remyelination in the central nervous system (CNS) characterize a number of neurological disorders. Spontaneous remyelination in demyelinating diseases is limited, as oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs), which are often present in demyelinated lesions in abundance, mostly fail to differentiate into oligodendrocytes, the myelinating cells in the CNS. In addition to OPCs, the lesions are assembled numbers of activated resident microglia/infiltrated macrophages; however, the mechanisms and potential role of interactions between the microglia/macrophages and OPCs are poorly understood. Here, we generated a transcriptional profile of exosomes from activated microglia, and found that miR-615-5p was elevated. miR-615-5p bound to 3'UTR of myelin regulator factor (MYRF), a crucial myelination transcription factor expressed in oligodendrocyte lineage cells. Mechanistically, exosomes from activated microglia transferred miR-615-5p to OPCs, which directly bound to MYRF and inhibited OPC maturation. Furthermore, an effect of AAV expressing miR-615-5p sponge in microglia was tested in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) and cuprizone (CPZ)-induced demyelination model, the classical mouse models of multiple sclerosis. miR-615-5p sponge effectively alleviated disease progression and promoted remyelination. This study identifies miR-615-5p/MYRF as a new target for the therapy of demyelinating diseases.

Stiffness variable materials have been applied in a variety of engineering fields that require adaptation, automatic modulation, and morphing because of their unique property to switch between a rigid, load-bearing state and a soft, compliant state. Stiffness variable polymers comprising phase-changing side-chains (s-SVPs) have densely grafted, highly crystallizable long alkyl side-chains in a crosslinked network. Such a bottlebrush network-like structure gives rise to rigidity modulation as a result of the reversible crystallization and melting of the side chains. The corresponding modulus changes can be more than 1000-fold within a narrow temperature span, from ≈102  MPa to ≈102  kPa or lower. Other important properties of the s-SVP, such as stretchability, optical transmittance, and adhesion, can also be altered. This work reviews the underlying molecular mechanisms in the s-SVP's, discusses the material's structure-property relationship, and summarizes important applications explored so far, including reversible shape transformation, bistable electromechanical transduction, optical modulation, and reversible adhesion.

Stiffness variable materials have been applied in a variety of engineering fields that require adaptation, automatic modulation, and morphing because of their unique property to switch between a rigid, load-bearing state and a soft, compliant state. Stiffness variable polymers comprising phase-changing side-chains (s-SVPs) have densely grafted, highly crystallizable long alkyl side-chains in a crosslinked network. Such a bottlebrush network-like structure gives rise to rigidity modulation as a result of the reversible crystallization and melting of the side chains. The corresponding modulus changes can be more than 1000-fold within a narrow temperature span, from ≈102  MPa to ≈102  kPa or lower. Other important properties of the s-SVP, such as stretchability, optical transmittance, and adhesion, can also be altered. This work reviews the underlying molecular mechanisms in the s-SVP's, discusses the material's structure-property relationship, and summarizes important applications explored so far, including reversible shape transformation, bistable electromechanical transduction, optical modulation, and reversible adhesion.

Light has profoundly impacted modern medicine and healthcare, with numerous luminescent agents and imaging techniques currently being used to assess health and treat diseases. As an emerging concept in luminescence, aggregation-induced emission (AIE) has shown great potential in biological applications due to its advantages in terms of brightness, biocompatibility, photostability, and positive correlation with concentration. This review provides a comprehensive summary of AIE luminogens applied in imaging of biological structure and dynamic physiological processes, disease diagnosis and treatment, and detection and monitoring of specific analytes, followed by representative works. Discussions on critical issues and perspectives on future directions are also included. This review aims to stimulate the interest of researchers from different fields, including chemistry, biology, materials science, medicine, etc., thus promoting the development of AIE in the fields of life and health.

Pit thermal energy storage (PTES) is an efficient renewable energy storage technology widely used in large-scale solar district heating systems. Accurate modeling of mixing in a PTES due to inlet flow is key in calculating heat storage performance. However, the commonly used one-dimensional PTES models fail to consider inlet mixing due to the three-dimensional nature of the mixing flow. This research adopts a three-dimensional model to analyze the dynamic behavior of inlet mixing inside the PTES. The model is validated against measurements of the Dronninglund PTES. To quantify the inlet mixing impact, two performance indicators (i.e., the penetration height (Z) and the energy distribution ratio (nj)) are proposed. The parametric analysis revealed that is more dependent on the Reynold (Re) number than the Froude (Fr) number, while both the Re and Fr numbers influence nj. According to the dimensional theory, the penetration height shows a power-law relation with time. For the energy distribution ratio , a power-law relation with time is seen, although an asymptotic formula is needed in the region of a negative buoyancy jet. Finally, the inflow mixing inside the PTES is characterized under various operating conditions by empirical correlations. The results of this study could be used to improve the current one-dimensional heat storage models in terms of inlet mixing.

Studying complex relaxation behaviors is of critical importance for understanding the nature of glasses. Here we report a Kovacs-like memory effect in glasses, manifested by non-monotonic stress relaxation during two-step high-to-low strains stimulations. During the stress relaxation process, if the strain jumps from a higher state to a lower state, the stress does not continue to decrease, but increases first and then decreases. The memory effect becomes stronger when the atomic motions become highly collective with a large activation energy, e.g. the strain in the first stage is larger, the temperature is higher, and the stimulation is longer. The physical origin of the stress memory effect is studied based on the relaxation kinetics and the in-situ synchrotron X-ray experiments. The stress memory effect is probably a universal phenomenon in different types of glasses., Objectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::9 - Indústria, Innovació i Infraestructura, Postprint (published version)

Under global warming and rapid urbanization, heat extremes, ozone pollution, and their co-occurrences are emerging and posing severe risks to human health. However, possibly different characteristics of independent heat days (IHD), independent ozone pollution (IOP) and compound heat-ozone pollution (CHOP) events are unclear. In this study, we present an investigation of the spatial distribution and mechanisms associated with IHD, IOP and CHOP events during May-October in 2014-2022 by taking the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) of China as an example. The results show that central GBA faces higher compound risk than northwestern and southeastern regions. IHD events are primarily driven by extremely high temperatures and accompanied by anomalous anticyclone and high pressure at both lower and upper troposphere levels, under the joint effects of the South Asian high and western North Pacific subtropical high. IOP events are predominantly accompanied by decreased cloud cover, air humidity and enhanced downward solar radiation. CHOP events are influenced by increases in both temperature and downward solar radiation. The circulation patterns of CHOP events are somewhat similar to IOP but with much stronger magnitude and faster developing process, and both are likely related to tropical cyclone activities. Our findings can strengthen the early forecasting of these extreme events and mitigate their negative impacts.

Light has profoundly impacted modern medicine and healthcare, with numerous luminescent agents and imaging techniques currently being used to assess health and treat diseases. As an emerging concept in luminescence, aggregation-induced emission (AIE) has shown great potential in biological applications due to its advantages in terms of brightness, biocompatibility, photostability, and positive correlation with concentration. This review provides a comprehensive summary of AIE luminogens applied in imaging of biological structure and dynamic physiological processes, disease diagnosis and treatment, and detection and monitoring of specific analytes, followed by representative works. Discussions on critical issues and perspectives on future directions are also included. This review aims to stimulate the interest of researchers from different fields, including chemistry, biology, materials science, medicine, etc., thus promoting the development of AIE in the fields of life and health. © 2023 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.

Jinling Ma, Suyan Bian, Meng Gao Department of Geriatric Cardiology, the Second Medical Center and National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Diseases, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, 100853, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Jinling Ma, Department of Geriatric Cardiology, the Second Medical Center and National Clinical Research Center for Geriatric Diseases, Chinese PLA General Hospital, No. 28, Fuxing Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100853, People’s Republic of China, Email majinling1@163.comBackground: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) and coronary artery disease (CAD) are strongly associated. Cystatin C (Cys C) is a more sensitive marker of early renal insufficiency. This study aimed to evaluate the prognostic implications of combined of Cys C and cardiac troponin I (cTnI) on 90-day outcomes in elderly patients with type 2 myocardial infarction (MI).Methods: The data of consecutive type 2 MI patients aged 80 years and older who received Cys C and cTnI measurements within 24 h of admission were retrospectively reviewed. The endpoint was a 90-day all-cause and cardiac mortality.Results: A total of 4326 patients were included. During the 90-day follow-up period, a higher all-cause and cardiac mortality was observed in patients with Cys C ≥ 1.49mg/L than in patients with Cys C < 1.49 mg/L (P < 0.001). After the multivariate logistic regression adjustments, the higher CysC and cTnI levels remained independent predictors of the 90-day all-cause mortality and cardiac mortality. Moreover, the Kaplan–Meier all-cause and cardiac mortality event-free survival curves showed that the patients with the presence of elevated levels of both Cys C and cTnI had a significantly increased risk than those with Cys C or cTnI alone.Conclusion: Elevated Cys C level is an independent risk factor for all-cause and cardiac mortality in the elderly type 2 MI population. The predictive ability of the combined use of Cys C and cTnI in elderly type 2 MI patients i

The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (MOC) and heat transport (MHT) have been observed (Fig. 3.21) at several trans-basin and western boundary moored arrays (e.g., Frajka-Williams et al. 2019; Berx et al. 2021; Hummels et al. 2022), as well as by synthesizing in situ and satellite altimetry measurements at several latitudes (Hobbs and Willis 2012; Sanchez-Franks et al. 2021; Dong et al. 2021; Kersalé et al. 2021). Here we provide updates on the MOC and MHT estimates from the Rapid Climate Change/MOC and Heatflux Array/Western Boundary Time Series (RAPID-MOCHA-WBTS) moored array at 26.5°N and from the synthetic approach at 41°N and at several latitudes in the South Atlantic. While updates for the Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program and the South Atlantic MOC Basin-wide Array at 34.5°S are pending, we report on recent advances in observing the variability of flows comprising the lower limb of the North Atlantic MOC, including the Meridional Overturning Variability Experiment (MOVE, 16°N).

Hang Dong, Meng Gao, Lu Lu, Rong Gui, Yunfeng Fu Department of Blood Transfusion, the Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Yunfeng Fu, Department of Blood Transfusion, the Third Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Tongzipo Road 138, Changsha, Hunan, 410013, People’s Republic of China, Email fuyunfeng@csu.edu.cnIntroduction: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a highly aggressive subtype with a poor prognosis. Current single-agent checkpoint therapy has limited effectiveness in TNBC patients. In this study, we developed doxorubicin-loaded platelet decoys (PD@Dox) for chemotherapy and induction of tumor immunogenic cell death (ICD). By combining PD-1 antibody, PD@Dox has the potential to enhance tumor therapy through chemoimmunotherapy in vivo.Methods: Platelet decoys were prepared using 0.1% Triton X-100 and co-incubated with doxorubicin to obtain PD@Dox. Characterization of PDs and PD@Dox was performed using electron microscopy and flow cytometry. We evaluated the properties of PD@Dox to retain platelets through sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, flow cytometry, and thromboelastometry. In vitro experiments assessed drug-loading capacity, release kinetics, and the enhanced antitumor activity of PD@Dox. The mechanism of PD@Dox was investigated through cell viability assays, apoptosis assays, Western blot analysis, and immunofluorescence staining. In vivo studies were performed using a TNBC tumor-bearing mouse model to assess the anticancer effects.Results: Electron microscopic observations confirmed that platelet decoys and PD@Dox exhibited a round shape similar to normal platelets. Platelet decoys demonstrated superior drug uptake and loading capacity compared to platelets. Importantly, PD@Dox retained the ability to recognize and bind tumor cells. The released doxorubicin induced ICD, resulting in the release of tumor antigens and damage-related molecular

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the biggest threats to the environment and health. AMR rapidly invalidates conventional antibiotics, and antimicrobial nanomaterials have been increasingly explored as alternatives. Interestingly, several antimicrobial nanomaterials show AMR-independent antimicrobial effects without detectable new resistance and have therefore been suggested to prevent AMR evolution. In contrast, some are found to trigger the evolution of AMR. Given these seemingly conflicting findings, a timely discussion of the two faces of antimicrobial nanomaterials is urgently needed. This review systematically compares the killing mechanisms and structure-activity relationships of antibiotics and antimicrobial nanomaterials. We then focus on nano-microbe interactions to elucidate the impacts of molecular initiating events on AMR evolution. Finally, we provide an outlook on future antimicrobial nanomaterials and propose design principles for the prevention of AMR evolution.

Stagnant weather condition is one of the major contributors to air pollution as it is favorable for the formation and accumulation of pollutants. To measure the atmosphere's ability to dilute air pollutants, Air Stagnation Index (ASI) has been introduced as an important meteorological index. Therefore, making long-lead ASI forecasts is vital to make plans in advance for air quality management. In this study, we found that autumn Ni\~no indices derived from sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies show a negative correlation with wintertime ASI in southern China, offering prospects for a prewinter forecast. We developed an LSTM-based model to predict the future wintertime ASI. Results demonstrated that multivariate inputs (past ASI and Ni\~no indices) achieve better forecast performance than univariate input (only past ASI). The model achieves a correlation coefficient of 0.778 between the actual and predicted ASI, exhibiting a high degree of consistency., Comment: ICLR 2023 Tackling Climate Change with Machine Learning Workshop

Crocosphaera and Cyanothece are both unicellular, nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria that prefer different environments. Whereas Crocosphaera mainly lives in nutrient-deplete, open oceans, Cyanothece is more common in coastal, nutrient-rich regions. Despite their physiological similarities, the factors separating their niches remain elusive. Here we performed physiological experiments on clone cultures and expand upon a simple ecological model to show that their different niches can be sufficiently explained by the observed differences in their photosynthetic capacities and rates of carbon (C) consumption. Our experiments revealed that Cyanothece has overall higher photosynthesis and respiration rates than Crocosphaera. A simple growth model of these microorganisms suggests that C storage and consumption are previously under-appreciated factors when evaluating the occupation of niches by different marine nitrogen fixers.

Air Pollution, Climate and Health integrates the current understanding of the issues of air pollution, climate change and human health. The book provides a comprehensive overview of these issues to help readers gain a better understanding of how they interact and impact air quality and public health. Regional examples from across the globe include issues related to PM 2.5, haze, winter pollution, heat related mortality and aerosols. These issues are addressed utilizing current research and laboratory-based, observation-based, and modeling-based analysis. This is an essential resource for all professionals investigating the impacts of climate change or air pollution on human health. Provides a comprehensive understanding of the interactions between climate change, air quality and human health Includes evidence-based findings to help clarify the mechanisms on how air pollution impacts climate and how a changing climate is impacting those pollutants Covers a number of pollution sources and products impacting climate change, including energy, haze, particulate matter, aerosols, PM 2.5 and transport

Air Pollution, Climate and Health integrates the current understanding of the issues of air pollution, climate change and human health. The book provides a comprehensive overview of these issues to help readers gain a better understanding of how they interact and impact air quality and public health. Regional examples from across the globe include issues related to PM 2.5, haze, winter pollution, heat related mortality and aerosols. These issues are addressed utilizing current research and laboratory-based, observation-based, and modeling-based analysis. This is an essential resource for all professionals investigating the impacts of climate change or air pollution on human health. Provides a comprehensive understanding of the interactions between climate change, air quality and human health Includes evidence-based findings to help clarify the mechanisms on how air pollution impacts climate and how a changing climate is impacting those pollutants Covers a number of pollution sources and products impacting climate change, including energy, haze, particulate matter, aerosols, PM 2.5 and transport

Air Pollution, Climate and Health integrates the current understanding of the issues of air pollution, climate change and human health. The book provides a comprehensive overview of these issues to help readers gain a better understanding of how they interact and impact air quality and public health. Regional examples from across the globe include issues related to PM 2.5, haze, winter pollution, heat related mortality and aerosols. These issues are addressed utilizing current research and laboratory-based, observation-based, and modeling-based analysis. This is an essential resource for all professionals investigating the impacts of climate change or air pollution on human health. Provides a comprehensive understanding of the interactions between climate change, air quality and human health Includes evidence-based findings to help clarify the mechanisms on how air pollution impacts climate and how a changing climate is impacting those pollutants Covers a number of pollution sources and products impacting climate change, including energy, haze, particulate matter, aerosols, PM 2.5 and transport

Air Pollution, Climate and Health integrates the current understanding of the issues of air pollution, climate change and human health. The book provides a comprehensive overview of these issues to help readers gain a better understanding of how they interact and impact air quality and public health. Regional examples from across the globe include issues related to PM 2.5, haze, winter pollution, heat related mortality and aerosols. These issues are addressed utilizing current research and laboratory-based, observation-based, and modeling-based analysis. This is an essential resource for all professionals investigating the impacts of climate change or air pollution on human health. Provides a comprehensive understanding of the interactions between climate change, air quality and human health Includes evidence-based findings to help clarify the mechanisms on how air pollution impacts climate and how a changing climate is impacting those pollutants Covers a number of pollution sources and products impacting climate change, including energy, haze, particulate matter, aerosols, PM 2.5 and transport

Air Pollution, Climate and Health integrates the current understanding of the issues of air pollution, climate change and human health. The book provides a comprehensive overview of these issues to help readers gain a better understanding of how they interact and impact air quality and public health. Regional examples from across the globe include issues related to PM 2.5, haze, winter pollution, heat related mortality and aerosols. These issues are addressed utilizing current research and laboratory-based, observation-based, and modeling-based analysis. This is an essential resource for all professionals investigating the impacts of climate change or air pollution on human health. Provides a comprehensive understanding of the interactions between climate change, air quality and human health Includes evidence-based findings to help clarify the mechanisms on how air pollution impacts climate and how a changing climate is impacting those pollutants Covers a number of pollution sources and products impacting climate change, including energy, haze, particulate matter, aerosols, PM 2.5 and transport

Air Pollution, Climate and Health integrates the current understanding of the issues of air pollution, climate change and human health. The book provides a comprehensive overview of these issues to help readers gain a better understanding of how they interact and impact air quality and public health. Regional examples from across the globe include issues related to PM 2.5, haze, winter pollution, heat related mortality and aerosols. These issues are addressed utilizing current research and laboratory-based, observation-based, and modeling-based analysis. This is an essential resource for all professionals investigating the impacts of climate change or air pollution on human health. Provides a comprehensive understanding of the interactions between climate change, air quality and human health Includes evidence-based findings to help clarify the mechanisms on how air pollution impacts climate and how a changing climate is impacting those pollutants Covers a number of pollution sources and products impacting climate change, including energy, haze, particulate matter, aerosols, PM 2.5 and transport

Como una subdisciplina de la lexicología, la importancia de la fraseología es generalmente reconocida, sobre todo para los estudiantes de lenguas extranjeras. Los recursos fraseológicos forman parte relevante no solo del ámbito lingüístico, sino también de la riqueza cultural de una nación. Para los aprendientes, un buen dominio de las unidades fraseológicas significa un nivel más avanzado de la lengua y un conocimiento más cercano a la cultura. Por lo tanto, en el presente trabajo, basándose en los logros precedentes del campo fraseológico, se han sumado los diferentes tipos de este concepto de manera detallada y completa y luego se ha hecho un breve recorrido por los estudios realizados sobre este fenómeno lingüístico en China, a través de los cuales hemos notado que la mayoría de las investigaciones relacionadas consisten en la comparación lingüística entre español y chino mientras que la fraseodidáctica carece mucho de atención, puesto que solo se pueden encontrar escasos estudios relacionados con la enseñanza de la fraseología en China. De este modo tratamos de analizar de manera detenida Español moderno, la colección de manuales más utilizada en China, con el objetivo de hacer una revisión minuciosa del tratamiento de las colocaciones, locuciones y enunciados fraseológicos. Descubrimos que en dicho manual no se percibe un criterio unificado y determinado a la hora de catalogar las unidades fraseológicas, lo cual iría en detrimento de la comprensión y aplicación de las unidades fraseológicas para los aprendices chinos. Además, en los diccionarios bilingües publicados sobre las unidades fraseológicas de español y chino, apenas se encuentra una explicación explícita de la definición y la clasificación de esta disciplina tanto en la parte introductoria como en el cuerpo. Por consiguiente, esperamos que los resultados logrados en este trabajo puedan ser de gran ayuda tanto para la mejora de esta serie como para la enseñanza de la fraseología para sinohablantes., As a branch of lexicology, phraseology has been widely recognized to be particularly important for foreign language learners. Phraseological resources are not only a key component of the linguistic field, but also an important part of a nation’s cultural wealth. For learners, mastering phraseological units means a higher level of language and closer knowledge to the culture. In this paper, basing on the previous achievements in this field, we investigated all types of the concept and briefly reviewed the domestic studies on such linguistic phenomenon. Through these studies, we noticed that most of the relevant studies focused on the linguistic comparison between Spanish and Chinese, however the didactics on phraseology were lack of consensus due to few studies on the teaching of phraseology in China. Therefore, we try to carefully analyze Modern Spanish, the most widely used manual in China, for the purpose of making a thorough review of the processing of collocations, idioms and phraseologisms in the discourse respectively. We found that the manual does not provide a unified criterion for cataloging the phraseological units, which would be detrimental to the understanding and application of phraseological units for Chinese learners. In addition, for the bilingual dictionaries published on the phraseological units of Spanish and Chinese, there is hardly an explicit explanation for the definition and classification of the discipline either in the introductory part or the body text. Therefore, we hope that the results of this paper can be helpful to the improvement of manuals and teaching of phraseology for Chinese students.

Background: Beneficial effects of greenness on birth outcomes have been reported, but few studies have investigated the associations in both urban and non-urban settings. We aimed to evaluate and compare linear and nonlinear associations between greenness and birth outcomes in urban and non-urban settings. Methods: From October 2015 to December 2018, participants were recruited into the Maoming Birth Cohort Study. A total of 11 258 live birth records were obtained. Greenness exposure was assessed using the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and enhanced vegetation index (EVI). Linear regression and nonlinear restricted cubic spline models were implemented to investigate the associations between greenness and birthweight, birth length, gestational age, preterm birth, low birthweight, small for gestational age and the potential for effect variation under urban or non-urban settings, after adjusting for covariates. Results: A 0.1-unit increase in NDVI-500m was significantly associated with an increase of 35.4 g in birthweight [95% confidence interval (CI): 13.2, 57.7], 0.15 cm in birth length (95% CI: 0.03, 0.26), 0.88 days in gestational age (95% CI: 0.05, 1.71) and lower odds of low birthweight [odds ratio (OR) = 0.69, 95% CI: 0.56, 0.85] and preterm birth (OR = 0.70, 95% CI: 0.58, 0.85). No association with head circumference was observed. For all outcomes, no significant linear associations were observed among non-urban dwellers. Inversed 'U-shaped' associations between greenness exposure and birth outcomes were observed in the total study population. Conclusions: Greenness exposure was associated with increased gestational age, birthweight and birth length in urban dwellers. Nonlinear associations assessed by restricted cubic splines suggested that health benefits could be larger when increasing greenness levels from low to medium compared with increasing greenness from medium to high levels. Further studies adopting nonlinear methods are warranted t

Patterns of variability in ocean properties are often closely related to large-scale climate pattern indices, and 2021 is no exception. The year 2021 started and ended with La Niña conditions, charmingly dubbed a “double-dip” La Niña. Hence, stronger-than-normal easterly trade winds in the tropical south Pacific drove westward surface current anomalies in the equatorial Pacific; reduced sea surface temperature (SST) and upper ocean heat content in the eastern tropical Pacific; increased sea level, upper ocean heat content, and salinity in the western tropical Pacific; resulted in a rim of anomalously high chlorophyll-a (Chla) on the poleward and westward edges of the anomalously cold SST wedge in the eastern equatorial Pacific; and increased precipitation over the Maritime Continent. The Pacific decadal oscillation remained strongly in a negative phase in 2021, with negative SST and upper ocean heat content anomalies around the eastern and equatorial edges of the North Pacific and positive anomalies in the center associated with low Chla anomalies. The South Pacific exhibited similar patterns. Fresh anomalies in the northeastern Pacific shifted towards the west coast of North America. The Indian Ocean dipole (IOD) was weakly negative in 2021, with small positive SST anomalies in the east and nearly-average anomalies in the west. Nonetheless, upper ocean heat content was anomalously high in the west and lower in the east, with anomalously high freshwater flux and low sea surface salinities (SSS) in the east, and the opposite pattern in the west, as might be expected during a negative phase of that climate index. In the Atlantic, the only substantial cold anomaly in SST and upper ocean heat content persisted east of Greenland in 2021, where SSS was also low, all despite the weak winds and strong surface heat flux anomalies into the ocean expected during a negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation. These anomalies held throughout much of 2021. An Atlantic and Be

A model of PTES from TRNSYS containing 1D water pit and 2D soil is used as a research object. The measured data of 60,000 m3 of PTES in Dronninglund, Denmark, in 2017 are utilized as input parameters and validation data. The stratification coefficient and Mix number are taken as an indicator to evaluate the stratification effect during the energy charging and discharging period. The coupling effects of layer number and time step on the computational accuracy are investigated.

Pit thermal energy storage (PTES) is one of the most promising and affordable thermal storage, which is considered essential for large-scale applications of renewable energies. However, as PTES volume increases to satisfy the seasonal storage objectives, PTES design and application are challenged. These difficulties trigged an interest in PTES investigations. This paper aims to identify the success factors and research gaps of PTES by an up-to-date evaluation of 160 recent publications. Existing technical elements that affect PTES thermal properties inclusive geometry design, inlet/outlet design, cover design, and materials, are outlined in depth. Numerical studies are categorized in terms of their mathematical theory and research purposes for a systematic discussion. The current application status of PTES systems worldwide is summarized from four aspects: storage material, geological design, operation strategy, and storage duration. For projects in operation, special attention is given to gathering and comparing operational data on solar fraction, storage efficiency, storage cycle, and PTES temperature. This review outlines the progress and potential directions for PTES design and numerical studies by identifying the research gaps that require further effort.

Large-scale water pit thermal energy storage (PTES) promotes solar district heating (SDH) system as one of the most potential renewable applications for carbon neutrality. PTES needs vast investment and operates in a complicated system with numerous components, highlighting the need for a suitable simulation tool for techeconomic and feasibility investigations. This paper experimentally and theoretically investigated the longterm thermal performance of a 60,000 m3 PTES in Dronninglund, Denmark. Five years measurements were analyzed to investigate the development of temperatures, heat flows, and thermal stratification in heat storage. A modified 2D model was proposed to calculate the thermal performance of the large-scale PTES based on the XST model in TRNSYS. The results showed that the developed model predicts well the storage temperatures and the heat flows. For one-year validation, the deviations of annual charged/discharged energy, internal energy content, and annual thermal loss between the model and the measurements were 2.0%/1.8%, 2.8% and 1.3%, respectively. The Dronninglund PTES showed 90.1% storage efficiency in the five-year investigation due to its high storage utilization cycle of 2.16. Even without any insulation on the sidewall and the bottom of the PTES, the average thermal loss from the two parts only accounted for 32.3% of total heat loss. Meanwhile, the soil region needed four years to stabilize. Approx. 24.4% of the heat loss in summer from the sidewall and the bottom is regained by the PTES in winter, when there is a low temperature in the heat storage. The findings of the paper serve as a good reference for designers and practitioners of water pit heat storage.

The solar preheating wall provides an effective solution to the conflict between the requirement for fresh air and the need for heat conservation in winter by preheating fresh ventilation air. In this paper, a study of the glazed solar preheating collector wall is carried out by numerical simulation with the aim of improving heat collection efficiency through structural optimization. The influence of the environment as well as its range of applications are investigated. The characteristics of the internal flow and temperature distribution are obtained to facilitate the structural analysis. The influence of air volume and structural parameters on thermal efficiency is investigated, providing a good reference for structural design optimization. In addition, it is observed that the exergy efficiency of the optimized design is 1.3 times higher than that of the conventional solar wall, while the thermal efficiency is 15% higher than traditional ones. The heat loss rate is reduced by 40% in high wind and extremely cold regions compared to that of the unglazed one. The maximum supply percentage can reach 69.4% and the temperature rise is approximately 20 °C. Finally, a parametric investigation is carried out on different functional buildings, and an optimal structure in Xi'an is given as a reference. The energy collection and transfer efficiency increase with the increase of air volume, but the energy saving rate decreases. The results indicate that this solar wall is ideal for buildings with low fresh air demand, such as single residences and small offices. It also has a considerable preheating effect on high fresh air demand ones.

Como una subdisciplina de la lexicología, la importancia de la fraseología es generalmente reconocida, sobre todo para los estudiantes de lenguas extranjeras. Los recursos fraseológicos forman parte relevante no solo del ámbito lingüístico, sino también de la riqueza cultural de una nación. Para los aprendientes, un buen dominio de las unidades fraseológicas significa un nivel más avanzado de la lengua y un conocimiento más cercano a la cultura. Por lo tanto, en el presente trabajo, basándose en los logros precedentes del campo fraseológico, se han sumado los diferentes tipos de este concepto de manera detallada y completa y luego se ha hecho un breve recorrido por los estudios realizados sobre este fenómeno lingüístico en China, a través de los cuales hemos notado que la mayoría de las investigaciones relacionadas consisten en la comparación lingüística entre español y chino mientras que la fraseodidáctica carece mucho de atención, puesto que solo se pueden encontrar escasos estudios relacionados con la enseñanza de la fraseología en China. De este modo tratamos de analizar de manera detenida Español moderno, la colección de manuales más utilizada en China, con el objetivo de hacer una revisión minuciosa del tratamiento de las colocaciones, locuciones y enunciados fraseológicos. Descubrimos que en dicho manual no se percibe un criterio unificado y determinado a la hora de catalogar las unidades fraseológicas, lo cual iría en detrimento de la comprensión y aplicación de las unidades fraseológicas para los aprendices chinos. Además, en los diccionarios bilingües publicados sobre las unidades fraseológicas de español y chino, apenas se encuentra una explicación explícita de la definición y la clasificación de esta disciplina tanto en la parte introductoria como en el cuerpo. Por consiguiente, esperamos que los resultados logrados en este trabajo puedan ser de gran ayuda tanto para la mejora de esta serie como para la enseñanza de la fraseología para sinohablantes., As a branch of lexicology, phraseology has been widely recognized to be particularly important for foreign language learners. Phraseological resources are not only a key component of the linguistic field, but also an important part of a nation’s cultural wealth. For learners, mastering phraseological units means a higher level of language and closer knowledge to the culture. In this paper, basing on the previous achievements in this field, we investigated all types of the concept and briefly reviewed the domestic studies on such linguistic phenomenon. Through these studies, we noticed that most of the relevant studies focused on the linguistic comparison between Spanish and Chinese, however the didactics on phraseology were lack of consensus due to few studies on the teaching of phraseology in China. Therefore, we try to carefully analyze Modern Spanish, the most widely used manual in China, for the purpose of making a thorough review of the processing of collocations, idioms and phraseologisms in the discourse respectively. We found that the manual does not provide a unified criterion for cataloging the phraseological units, which would be detrimental to the understanding and application of phraseological units for Chinese learners. In addition, for the bilingual dictionaries published on the phraseological units of Spanish and Chinese, there is hardly an explicit explanation for the definition and classification of the discipline either in the introductory part or the body text. Therefore, we hope that the results of this paper can be helpful to the improvement of manuals and teaching of phraseology for Chinese students.

Patterns of variability in ocean properties are often closely related to large-scale climate pattern indices, and 2021 is no exception. The year 2021 started and ended with La Niña conditions, charmingly dubbed a “double-dip” La Niña. Hence, stronger-than-normal easterly trade winds in the tropical south Pacific drove westward surface current anomalies in the equatorial Pacific; reduced sea surface temperature (SST) and upper ocean heat content in the eastern tropical Pacific; increased sea level, upper ocean heat content, and salinity in the western tropical Pacific; resulted in a rim of anomalously high chlorophyll-a (Chla) on the poleward and westward edges of the anomalously cold SST wedge in the eastern equatorial Pacific; and increased precipitation over the Maritime Continent. The Pacific decadal oscillation remained strongly in a negative phase in 2021, with negative SST and upper ocean heat content anomalies around the eastern and equatorial edges of the North Pacific and positive anomalies in the center associated with low Chla anomalies. The South Pacific exhibited similar patterns. Fresh anomalies in the northeastern Pacific shifted towards the west coast of North America. The Indian Ocean dipole (IOD) was weakly negative in 2021, with small positive SST anomalies in the east and nearly-average anomalies in the west. Nonetheless, upper ocean heat content was anomalously high in the west and lower in the east, with anomalously high freshwater flux and low sea surface salinities (SSS) in the east, and the opposite pattern in the west, as might be expected during a negative phase of that climate index. In the Atlantic, the only substantial cold anomaly in SST and upper ocean heat content persisted east of Greenland in 2021, where SSS was also low, all despite the weak winds and strong surface heat flux anomalies into the ocean expected during a negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation. These anomalies held throughout much of 2021. An Atlantic and Be

Climate change and air pollution are two intimately interlinked global concerns. The frequency, intensity, and duration of heat waves are projected to increase globally under future climate change. A growing body of evidence indicates that health risks associated with the joint exposure to heat waves and air pollution can be greater than that due to individual factors. However, the cooccurrences of heat and air pollution extremes in China remain less explored in the observational records. Here we investigate the spatial pattern and temporal trend of frequency, intensity, and duration of cooccurrences of heat and air pollution extremes using China's nationwide observations of hourly PM2.5 and O3, and the ERA5 reanalysis dataset over 2013-20. We identify a significant increase in the frequency of cooccurrence of wet-bulb temperature (Tw) and O3 exceedances (beyond a certain predefined threshold), mainly in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region (up by 4.7 days decade-1) and the Yangtze River delta (YRD). In addition, we find that the increasing rate (compared to the average levels during the study period) of joint exceedance is larger than the rate of Tw and O3 itself. For example, Tw and O3 coextremes increased by 7.0% in BTH, higher than the percentage increase of each at 0.9% and 5.5%, respectively. We identify same amplification for YRD. This ongoing upward trend in the joint occurrence of heat and O3 extremes should be recognized as an emerging environmental issue in China, given the potentially larger compounding impact to public health. © 2022 American Meteorological Society.

Mobile and pervasive sampling of urban air pollution has been increasingly valued as a sustainable method, in terms of economic and operational factors, for surveying atmospheric environment with high space-time resolution. Specifically, fine-granular air quality (AQ) inference provides fundamental progress toward data-driven urban management, as it estimates grid-level pollutant concentrations constantly using pollutant measurement data collected from fixed and mobile sensors. In this paper, we propose a tree-based multicascade space-time learning model (MCST-Tree) for AQ inference to recover pollution maps by exploiting multisource AQ samples (fixed and mobile) and heterogeneous urban feature sets (land-use, meteorology, population, traffic, etc.). This is implemented and evaluated in a study case of Chengdu (4900 km2, 14 June to 14 July 2018), which achieves map-recovery of PM2.5 distribution based upon the sparse measurements (ca. 16.2% space-time coverage) with high-performance (symmetric mean average percentage error (SMAPE) (%) = 14.13%; R2 = 0.94). Detailed evaluations are presented through the analysis of model performance, space-time coverage of mobile sampling, and AQ inference. We conduct a series of sensitivity analyses of mobile sampling coverage, and the experimental results show that it is a critical issue to enhance the model trust, which contributes to improve the R-square from 0.81 (fixed data + 10% mobile data) to 0.94 (fixed data + 100% mobile data). The results show that the mobile sampling significantly improves the space-time modeling capability, and our proposed model has great potential to achieve map-recovery for air pollution at high spatial-temporal resolution with high performance. © 2022 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.

A myriad of studies have attempted to use ground-level observations to obtain gap-free spatiotemporal variations of PM2.5, in support of air quality management and impact studies. Statistical methods (machine learning, etc.) or numerical methods by combining chemical transport modeling and observations with data assimilation techniques have been typically applied, yet the significance of site placement has not been well recognized. In this study, we apply five proper orthogonal decomposition (POD)-based sensor placement algorithms to identify optimal site locations and systematically evaluate their reconstruction ability. We demonstrate that the QR pivot is relatively more reliable in deciding optimal monitoring site locations. When the number of planned sites (sensors) is limited, using a lower number of modes would yield lower estimation errors. However, the dimension of POD modes has little impact on reconstruction quality when sufficient sensors are available. The locations of sites guided by the QR pivot algorithm are mainly located in regions where PM2.5pollution is severe. We compare reconstructed PM2.5pollution based on QR pivot-guided sites and existing China National Environmental Monitoring Center (CNEMC) sites and find that the QR pivot-guided sites are superior to existing sites with respect to reconstruction accuracy. The current planning of monitoring stations is likely to miss sources of pollution in less-populated regions, while our QR pivot-guided sites are planned based on the severity of PM2.5pollution. This planning methodology has additional potentials in chemical data assimilation studies as duplicate information from current CNEMC-concentrated stations is not likely to boost performance. © 2022 American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.

Immunogenic cell death (ICD) can activate the anticancer immune response and is highly attractive to improve cancer treatment efficacy. ICD is closely related to endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, and a series of ICD inducers has recently been reported based on ER-targeted photodynamic/photothermal agents or metal complexes. However, these ER-targeted ICD inducers suffer from complicated synthesis and heavy-metal cytotoxicity. Inspired by the promising clinical potential of small organic molecules, herein, an ER-targeted fluorescent self-reporting ICD inducer, SA-Cbl, is developed by simple conjugation of the chemotherapeutic drug chlorambucil (Cbl) with salicylaldehyde (SA). SA-Cbl can selectively accumulate in the ER to induce rapid ROS generation and an unfolded protein response process, which leads to a fast release of damage-associated molecular patterns and efficient dendritic cells maturation. Meanwhile, the ER-targeted accumulation and ER-stress-inducing process can be in situ monitored based on the turn-on fluorescence of SA-Cbl, which is highly pH- and polarity-sensitive and can selectively interact with ER proteins. Compared with the traditional chemotherapy drug doxorubicin, the superior anticancer immunity effect of SA-Cbl is verified via an in vivo tumor model. This study thus provides a new strategy for developing fluorescent self-reporting ICD inducers by decoration of chemotherapeutic drugs with pH and polarity-sensitive organic fluorophores. © 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.

Diatom–diazotroph associations (DDAs) are one of the most important symbiotic dinitrogen (N2) fixing groups in the oligotrophic ocean. Despite their capability to fix N2, ammonium (NH4+) remains a key nitrogen (N) source for DDAs, and the effect of NH4+ on their metabolism remains elusive. Here, we developed a coarse-grained, cellular model of the DDA with NH4+ uptake and quantified how the level of extracellular NH4+ influences metabolism and nutrient exchange within the symbiosis. The model shows that, under a fixed growth rate, an increased NH4+ concentration may lower the required level of N2 fixation and photosynthesis, and decrease carbon (C) and N exchange. A low-NH4+ environment leads to more C and N in nutrient exchange and more fixed N2 to support a higher growth rate. With higher growth rates, nutrient exchange and metabolism increased. Our study shows a strong effect of NH4+ on metabolic processes within DDAs, and thus highlights the importance of in situ measurement of NH4+ concentrations.

Background: Evidence of maternal exposure to ambient air pollution on congenital heart defects (CHD) has been mixed and are still relatively limited in developing countries. We aimed to investigate the association between maternal exposure to air pollution and CHD in China. Method: This longitudinal, population-based, case-control study consecutively recruited fetuses with CHD and healthy volunteers from 21 cities, Southern China, between January 2006 and December 2016. Residential address at delivery was linked to random forests models to estimate maternal exposure to particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of ≤1 µm (PM1), ≤2.5 µm, and ≤10 µm as well as nitrogen dioxides, in three trimesters. The CHD cases were evaluated by obstetrician, pediatrician, or cardiologist, and confirmed by cardia ultrasound. The CHD subtypes were coded using the International Classification Diseases. Adjusted logistic regression models were used to assess the associations between air pollutants and CHD and its subtypes. Results: A total of 7055 isolated CHD and 6423 controls were included in the current analysis. Maternal air pollution exposures were consistently higher among cases than those among controls. Logistic regression analyses showed that maternal exposure to all air pollutants during the first trimester was associated with an increased odds of CHD (e.g., an interquartile range [13.3 µg/m3] increase in PM1 was associated with 1.09-fold ([95% confidence interval, 1.01-1.18]) greater odds of CHD). No significant associations were observed for maternal air pollution exposures during the second trimester and the third trimester. The pattern of the associations between air pollutants and different CHD subtypes was mixed. Conclusions: Maternal exposure to greater levels of air pollutants during the pregnancy, especially the first trimester, is associated with higher odds of CHD in offspring. Further longitudinal well-designed studies are warranted to confirm our

Potato is the third most important staple food crop. To address challenges associated with global food security, a hybrid potato breeding system, aimed at converting potato from a tuber-propagated tetraploid crop into a seed-propagated diploid crop through crossing inbred lines, is under development. However, given that most diploid potatoes are self-incompatible, this represents a major obstacle which needs to be addressed in order to develop inbred lines. Here, we report on a self-compatible diploid potato, RH89-039-16 (RH), which can efficiently induce a mating transition from self-incompatibility to self-compatibility, when crossed to self-incompatible lines. We identify the S-locusinhibitor (Sli) gene in RH, capable of interacting with multiple allelic variants of the pistil-specific S-ribonucleases (S-RNases). Further, Sli gene functions like a general S-RNase inhibitor, to impart SC to RH and other self-incompatible potatoes. Discovery of Sli now offers a path forward for the diploid hybrid breeding program.

Hydroxymethanesulfonate (HMS) has recently been identified as an abundant organosulfur compound in aerosols during winter haze episodes in northern China. It has also been detected in other regions although the concentrations are low. Because of the sparse field measurements, the global significance of HMS and its spatial and seasonal patterns remain unclear. Here, we modify and add to the implementation of HMS chemistry in the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model and conduct multiple global simulations. The model accounts for cloud entrainment and gas-aqueous mass transfer within the rate expressions for heterogeneous sulfur chemistry. Our simulations can generally reproduce quantitative HMS observations from Beijing and show that East Asia has the highest HMS concentration, followed by Europe and North America. The simulated HMS shows a seasonal pattern with higher values in the colder period. Photochemical oxidizing capacity affects the competition of formaldehyde with oxidants (such as ozone and hydrogen peroxide) for sulfur dioxide and is a key factor influencing the seasonality of HMS. The highest average HMS concentration (1-3 m-3) and HMS sulfate molar ratio (0.1-0.2) are found in northern China in winter. The simulations suggest that aqueous clouds act as the major medium for HMS chemistry while aerosol liquid water may play a role if its rate constant for HMS formation is greatly enhanced compared to cloud water. © Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

COVID-19 is spreading rapidly worldwide, posing great threats to public health and economy. This study aims to examine how the transmission of COVID-19 is modulated by climate conditions, which is of great importance for better understanding of the seasonal feature of COVID-19. Constrained by the accurate observations we can make, the basic reproduction numbers (R0) for each country were inferred and linked to temperature and relative humidity (RH) with statistical analysis. Using R0 as the measure of COVID-19 transmission potential, we find stronger transmission of COVID-19 under mildly warm (0°C < T < 20°C) and humid (RH > 60%) climate conditions, while extremely low (T < −2°C) and high (T > 20°C) temperature or a dry climate (RH < 60%) weakens transmission. The established nonlinear relationships between COVID-19 transmission and climate conditions suggest that seasonal climate variability may affect the spread and severity of COVID-19 infection, and temperate coastal regions with mildly warm and humid climate would be susceptible to large-scale outbreaks. © 2021 The Authors. Meteorological Applications published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of the Royal Meteorological Society.

Pavement pothole repair, as one of the commonest methods used in routine road maintenance works, is effective to extend the pavement service life and increase its transport capacity. However, there are significant color differences between the old and new pavements after pothole repair, and there are few studies about the impact of color differences on driving safety. Thus, using multiple typical pavements with the pothole repair, we aim to reveal the impact of the color differences between the old and new materials on the driving safety, and to improve the safety and comfort of drivers. Tobii eye tracker and the ErgoLAB physiological recorder were used to test the driver's visual parameters when the vehicles run under the pothole repair environment, including drivers' gaze frequency, gaze duration, saccade range and heart rate variability. Results show that the color differences of the road after pothole repair have a significant influence on the drivers' vision and psychology, resulting in reduced driving safety and stability. Compared with the unrepaired road section, the gaze frequency and duration of drivers on pothole sections are significantly increased. The speed of saccade is also increased, and the saccade range is reduced. Meanwhile, the average heart rate of drivers on the pothole sections is increased by 10-20%, indicating that drivers' attention and heart rate fluctuate greatly when passing through potholes, which can easily cause emotional tension and misjudgment, and thereby reduce the safety of driving. The obtained conclusions provide a significant reference for subsequent research.

Recently, image captioning has aroused great interest in both academic and industrial worlds. Most existing systems are built upon large-scale datasets consisting of image-sentence pairs, which, however, are time-consuming to construct. In addition, even for the most advanced image captioning systems, it is still difficult to realize deep image understanding. In this work, we achieve unpaired image captioning by bridging the vision and the language domains with high-level semantic information. The motivation stems from the fact that the semantic concepts with the same modality can be extracted from both images and descriptions. To further improve the quality of captions generated by the model, we propose the Semantic Relationship Explorer, which explores the relationships between semantic concepts for better understanding of the image. Extensive experiments on MSCOCO dataset show that we can generate desirable captions without paired datasets. Furthermore, the proposed approach boosts five strong baselines under the paired setting, where the most significant improvement in CIDEr score reaches 8%, demonstrating that it is effective and generalizes well to a wide range of models.

Objective. The strongest locus which associated with type 2 diabetes (T2D) by the common variant rs7903146 is the transcription factor 7-like 2 gene (TCF7L2). We aimed to quantify the interaction of diet/lifestyle interventions and the genetic effect of TCF7L2 rs7903146 on glycemic traits, body weight, or waist circumference in overweight or obese adults in several randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Methods. From October 2016 to May 2018, a large collaborative analysis was performed by pooling individual-participant data from 7 RCTs. These RCTs reported changes in glycemic control and adiposity of the variant rs7903146 after dietary/lifestyle-related interventions in overweight or obese adults. Gene treatment interaction models which used the genetic effect encoded by the allele dose and common covariates were applicable to individual participant data in all studies. Results. In the joint analysis, a total of 7 eligible RCTs were included (n=4,114). Importantly, we observed a significant effect modification of diet/lifestyle-related interventions on the TCF7L2 variant rs7903146 and changes in fasting glucose. Compared with the control group, diet/lifestyle interventions were related to lower fasting glucose by -3.06 (95% CI, -5.77 to -0.36) mg/dL (test for heterogeneity and overall effect: I2=45.1%, p<0.05; z=2.20, p=0.028) per one copy of the TCF7L2 T risk allele. Furthermore, regardless of genetic risk, diet/lifestyle interventions were associated with lower waist circumference. However, there was no significant change for diet/lifestyle interventions in other glycemic control and adiposity traits per one copy of TCF7L2 risk allele. Conclusions. Our findings suggest that carrying the TCF7L2 T risk allele may have a modestly greater benefit for specific diet/lifestyl

The stimuli-responsive polymers with upper critical solution temperatures (UCST) are highly attractive for drug delivery applications. However, the phase transition process of UCST polymer is usually characterized by turbidity measurement and electron microscopy, which are significantly restricted by low sensitivity and static observation. In contrary, the fluorescence technique has significant advantages in terms of high sensitivity, easy operation, and dynamic observation. However, the conventional fluorophores suffer from the drawbacks of aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) after being encapsulated by UCST polymers, which are not suitable for direct visualization of the phase transition process. To tackle this challenge, we herein developed a series of UCST polymers based on polyacrylamides decorated with bile acid and aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-active tetraphenylethene (TPE) groups, which can be used for direct fluorescence monitoring of the phase transition process. Moreover, the AIE-active UCST polymers can serve as drug carriers, which can not only monitor the drug release process under thermal stimuli, but also verify the drug release by fluorescence recovery after thermal stimuli. It is expected that the AIE-active UCST polymers with self-monitoring ability are promising for biomedical applications. © 2020, Science China Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

Increasing ozone concentrations are becoming a severe problem for air pollution in China and have an adverse impact on human health. Here we evaluate premature deaths attributable to long-term exposure to ambient ozone in China between 2013 and 2017 with an air quality model at 5 km resolution and the latest estimates of the relative risk to health. We use a modified inverse distance weighting method to bias-correct the key model-simulated ozone metrics. We find that on a 5-year average basis there are 186,000 (95% Confidence Interval: 129,000–237,000) respiratory deaths and 125,000 (42,000–204,000) cardiovascular deaths attributable to ozone exposure. Sichuan exhibits the largest per capita respiratory mortality (0.31‰) among all provinces. We find that there are 73,000 (51,000–93,000) premature respiratory deaths in urban areas, accounting for 39% of total deaths. Between 2013 and 2017 the population-weighted annual average maximum daily 8-h average ozone (AMDA8) and premature respiratory deaths increased by 14% and 31%, respectively, at a national level. Changes in precursor emissions explain most of these increases, with differences in meteorology accounting for 21% and 16% respectively. Interannual variations in population-weighted ozone and premature respiratory deaths at a provincial level are much larger than those at a national level, particularly in northern, central and eastern China. These findings emphasize that ozone should be an important focus of future air quality policies in China, and tighter controls of precursor emissions are urgently needed.

High concentrations of PM2.5 in China have an adverse impact on human health and present a major problem for air quality control. Here we evaluate premature deaths attributable to chronic and acute exposure to ambient PM2.5 at different scales in China over 2013-2017 with an air quality model at 5 km resolution and integrated exposure-response methods. We estimate that 1,210,000 (95% Confidence Interval: 720,000-1,750,000) premature deaths annually are attributable to chronic exposure to PM2.5 pollution. Chongqing exhibits the largest chronic per capita mortality (1.4‰) among all provinces. A total of 116,000 (64,000-170,000) deaths annually are attributable to acute exposure during pollution episodes over the period, with Hubei province showing the highest acute per capita mortality (0.15‰). We also find that in urban areas premature deaths are 520,000 (320,000-760,000) due to chronic and 55,000 (3,000-81,000) due to acute exposure, respectively. At a provincial level, the annual mean PM2.5 concentration varies by ±20% due to interannual variability in meteorology, and PM2.5-attributable chronic mortality varies by ±8%, and by >±5% and ±1% at a national level. Meteorological variability shows larger impacts on interannual variations in acute risks than that in chronic exposure at both provincial (>±20%) and national (±4%) levels. These findings emphasize that tighter controls of PM2.5 and precursor emissions are urgently needed, particularly under unfavorable meteorological conditions in China.

Cancer initiation and progression is closely related to bacterial infection, which usually requires the simultaneous use of anticancer drugs and antibiotics in the clinic. However, the multiple use of chemodrugs significantly increases potential adverse effects. To tackle this challenge, theranostic agents with image-guided dual therapy functions are highly desirable to treat both cancer and bacterial infection. Here, it is found that the aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-Mito-triphenylphosphonium (TPP) probe with AIE characteristics quickly kills Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus and Gram-negative E. coli by increasing bacterial membrane permeability, and it subsequently kills cancer cells by disrupting mitochondrial functions. The sequential killing of bacteria and cancer cells can be monitored in situ using the turn-on fluorescence of the AIE-Mito-TPP probe with a high signal-to-noise ratio. Therefore, the AIE-Mito-TPP probe is promising for imaging-guided precise treatment of bacterial infection and related cancers. © 2020 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

The stimuli-responsive polymers with upper critical solution temperatures (UCST) are highly attractive for drug delivery applications. However, the phase transition process of UCST polymer is usually characterized by turbidity measurement and electron microscopy, which are significantly restricted by low sensitivity and static observation. In contrary, the fluorescence technique has significant advantages in terms of high sensitivity, easy operation, and dynamic observation. However, the conventional fluorophores suffer from the drawbacks of aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) after being encapsulated by UCST polymers, which are not suitable for direct visualization of the phase transition process. To tackle this challenge, we herein developed a series of UCST polymers based on polyacrylamides decorated with bile acid and aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-active tetraphenylethene (TPE) groups, which can be used for direct fluorescence monitoring of the phase transition process. Moreover, the AIE-active UCST polymers can serve as drug carriers, which can not only monitor the drug release process under thermal stimuli, but also verify the drug release by fluorescence recovery after thermal stimuli. It is expected that the AIE-active UCST polymers with self-monitoring ability are promising for biomedical applications. © 2020, Science China Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

Cancer initiation and progression is closely related to bacterial infection, which usually requires the simultaneous use of anticancer drugs and antibiotics in the clinic. However, the multiple use of chemodrugs significantly increases potential adverse effects. To tackle this challenge, theranostic agents with image-guided dual therapy functions are highly desirable to treat both cancer and bacterial infection. Here, it is found that the aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-Mito-triphenylphosphonium (TPP) probe with AIE characteristics quickly kills Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus and Gram-negative E. coli by increasing bacterial membrane permeability, and it subsequently kills cancer cells by disrupting mitochondrial functions. The sequential killing of bacteria and cancer cells can be monitored in situ using the turn-on fluorescence of the AIE-Mito-TPP probe with a high signal-to-noise ratio. Therefore, the AIE-Mito-TPP probe is promising for imaging-guided precise treatment of bacterial infection and related cancers. © 2020 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

Theranostics with simultaneous diagnosis and therapy functions are potential to greatly improve the therapeutic efficacy and reduce side effects. Fluorescence imaging has significant advantages in terms of high sensitivity, easy operation, and good biocompatibility. However, traditional fluorophores usually suffer from serious self-quenching after local accumulation at a high concentration. In contrary, the aggregation-induced emission fluorogens (AIEgens) are ideal for construction of cancer theranostics with advantages of high emission efficiency in the aggregate state. Therefore, the combination of AIEgens and different therapy modules provides a great opportunity for image-guided precise cancer treatment, which can efficiently ablate cancer cells both in vitro and in vivo. In this review, we will discuss the most recent progress of AIE-based cancer theranostics with representative examples. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.