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Background: Hyperlipidemia is a major risk factor for many diseases. Previous studies have shown that diet is closely associated with hyperlipidemia. However, the relationship between cooking methods and hyperlipidemia remains unclear. The objective of this study was to identify the major cooking patterns existing in the Eastern Chinese population and evaluate their association with the prevalence of hyperlipidemia. Methods: We interviewed 4,710 residents in Eastern China regarding the consumption frequency of each cooking method when they prepare food at home or when eating out and regarding the prevalence of hyperlipidemia. Factor analysis, Chi-square tests, analysis of variance, and binary logistic regression analysis were used to identify the cooking patterns and analyze the characteristics of participants' categories of cooking patterns and the relationship between different cooking patterns and prevalence of hyperlipidemia. Results: Three major cooking patterns were identified: Traditional Chinese, Bland (little or no oil is used to process the food), and High-temperature cooking patterns. After controlling for potential confounders, participants in the highest quartile of the Bland cooking pattern had lower odds of hyperlipidemia than those in the lowest quartile. Nevertheless, no significant associations were observed between the Traditional Chinese and High-temperature cooking patterns and the prevalence of hyperlipidemia. Conclusions: This study confirms the association between cooking patterns and the prevalence of hyperlipidemia and indicates that the Bland cooking pattern is associated with a reduced prevalence of hyperlipidemia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cooking methods can change the composition of foods and have important effects on human health. The Chinese people have developed many distinct and unique cooking methods. However, the daily cooking patterns of Chinese people and the characteristics and evolution of trends in cooking patterns commonly used by Chinese consumers remain unclear. The objective of this study was to identify the major cooking patterns and discuss their effects on human health, as well as to identify the cooking pattern consumer clusters and the evolution of trends in Chinese consumer cooking patterns. From March to June 2021, this study interviewed 4,710 residents in Eastern China regarding the consumption frequency of each cooking method when food is prepared at home or when eating out. Exploratory factor analysis, K-Means cluster analysis, Chi-square test, pairwise comparisons of multiple sample rates, and multivariate linear regression were used to identify the cooking patterns and cooking pattern consumer clusters, to assess differences in consumption preferences between consumer clusters, and to examine the relationship between demographic characteristic variables and different cooking patterns. Results revealed three major cooking patterns, namely traditional Chinese (cooking methods with native Chinese characteristics), bland, and high-temperature cooking patterns, as well as seven cooking pattern consumer clusters and their demographic characteristics in the Eastern Chinese population. With increases in age, education level, and income, consumers tended to choose the healthy "Bland" cooking pattern. Further, there was a higher proportion of people aged 36–65 years in the C3 cluster, which is characterized by the "Bland" cooking pattern. However, participants who were male and younger made fewer healthy choices in their cooking patterns. Specifically, a higher proportion of participants aged 21–35 years were found in the C5 cluster, which is characterized by the unhealthy "High-temperature" cooking pattern. Therefore, culinary health education should focus on individuals who are male and young. Specifically, the shift in cooking patterns among people aged 21–35 years should receive special attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Phosphorus (P), like nitrogen (N), commonly impacts the structures and functions of terrestrial ecosystems. Global changes (N deposition) and land-use intensification (mowing) may influence the components of P cycling in grassland ecosystems, especially soil organic P mineralization, which provides P for plants and microbes. It remains unclear how soil annual organic P mineralization rate responds to mowing and N addition and its potential mechanisms in the semi-natural grasslands. Methods: We conducted a five-year field experiment that included mowing (mown and unmown) and N additions (0, 2.5, 5, 10, 20, and 40 g N m−2 yr−1) to explore the responses of and main factors controlling soil organic P mineralization to these treatments in a semi-natural grassland—Songnen Meadow Steppe. Results: We found that N additions enhanced the rate of soil organic P mineralization in semi-natural grassland. The magnitude of positive effects of N additions was larger in mown plots than unmown plots. Compared with no N addition, the rates of soil annual organic P mineralization increased 39.04, 46.88, 90.57, 58.82, and 67.97% under mown as the N input increased, and 23.89, 24.13, 25.46, 33.42 and 34.81% under unmown. The alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity was the main driver which controlled soil annual organic P mineralization rates under N additions in unmown plots, and the plant aboveground biomass, soil microbial community composition, and ALP activities were the main drivers under N additions in mown plots. Our results indicate that mowing modulated the effects of N additions on the annual organic P mineralization rate in soil. Conclusions: The soil annual organic P mineralization rate had stronger dependence on the shifts in plant-soil–microbe variables with N additions in the mown conditions than in the unmown conditions, which highlighted that P cycling may be more susceptible to future environmental changes induced by N deposition under mowing in semi-natural ecosystems. Our study provided the new insight of that plant and soil interactions have an important role in maintaining the supply of P, and they may drive soil organic P mineralization in P-deficient ecosystems as N deposition increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) are two major limiting factors in terrestrial ecosystems. Excessive N applications alter ecosystem functions by causing nutrient imbalances with P. Yet, little is known about why and how the balance between N and P regulates soil multifunctionality –the simultaneous provision of multiple soil functions–. Methods: We explored how P additions regulated the responses of soil multifunctionality to different levels of N fertilization (10, 20, 40 g N m−2 yr−1) using a mesocosm experiment in a temperate grassland in China. Results: Nitrogen alone and P addition increased multifunctionality at rate of ≤10 and 20 g N m−2 yr−1, respectively. However, the magnitude of positive effects decreased with N additions over this level. P additions increased multifunctionality resistance to N at low rate of ≤10 g m−2 yr−1 compared to higher N levels. Soil N:P stoichiometry and plant diversity played dominant roles in regulating soil multifunctionality. Conclusions: We found that a balanced combination of N and P additions (20:10) can help maintain the highest multifunctionality in this temperate grassland. The results provide new insights that through P addition, we could better manage soil multifunctionality and increase its resistance to expected fertilization scenarios (≤ 10 g m−2 yr−1). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is limited understanding of the combined effects of discrete climate extremes and chronic environmental changes on ecosystem processes and functioning. We assessed the interactions of extreme drought timing (45 days, in spring or summer) and nitrogen (N) addition in a full factorial field experiment in a Leymus chinensis-dominated meadow steppe in northeast China. We evaluated the resistance and recovery of the grassland (calculated in terms of aboveground biomass) to these two drought events. The spring drought reduced aboveground biomass by 28% in the unfertilized plots and by 33% in the fertilized plots, and the effects persisted during the subsequent post-drought period within the same growing season; however, the summer drought had no significant influence on aboveground biomass. Although there were no significant interactive effects between drought timing and N addition, we observed a potential trend of N addition increasing the proportion of aboveground biomass suppressed by spring drought but not summer drought. Moreover, the drought resistance of the aboveground biomass was positively correlated with the response of the belowground biomass to drought. One year after the extreme drought events, the spring drought effects on aboveground and belowground biomass were negligible. Our results indicate that the drought sensitivity of productivity likely depends on the phenological and morphological traits of the single highly dominant species (Leymus chinensis) in this meadow steppe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global change factors, such as variation in precipitation regimes and nitrogen (N) deposition, are likely to occur simultaneously and may have profound impacts on the relative abundance of grasses differing in functional traits, such as C3 and C4 species. We conducted an extreme drought and re-watering experiment to understand differences in the resistance and recovery abilities of C3 and C4 grasses under different N deposition scenarios. A C3 perennial grass (Leymus chinensis) and two C4 grasses (annual species Chloris virgata and perennial species Hemarthria altissima) that co-occur in Northeast China were selected as experimental plants. For both C3 and C4 grasses, N addition caused a strong increase in biomass and resulted in more severe drought stress, leading to a change in the dominant photosynthetic limitation during the drought periods. Although N addition increased antioxidant enzyme activities and protective solute concentrations, the carbon fixing capacity did not fully recover to pre-drought levels by the end of the re-watering period. N addition resulted in lower resilience under the drought conditions and lower resistance at the end of the re-watering. However, N addition led to faster recovery of photosynthesis, especially in the C3 grass, which indicate that the effect of N addition on photosynthesis during drought was asymmetric, especially in the plants with different photosynthetic nitrogen use efficiency (PNUE). These findings demonstrated that nitrogen deposition may significant alter the susceptibility of C3 and C4 grass species to drought stress and re-watering, highlighting the asymmetry between resistance and resilience and to improve our understanding about plant responses to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Backgrounds: Periprocedural myocardial injury (PMI) after elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) significantly influences the prognosis of coronary artery disease (CAD). However, it was unclear whether the occurrence of PMI was associated with a series of controllable factors, such as PCI strategy or severity of CAD.Methods: A total of 544 consecutive stable CAD patients underwent elective PCI were enrolled. The main outcome is PMI, defined as troponin T after PCI was at least one value above the 99th percentile upper reference limit. Major adverse cardiac events (MACE), including all-cause death, repeat myocardial infarction and target vessel revascularization were record in the period of follow-up. Univariate and multivariate analysis was applied to assess predictors for the occurrence of PMI.Results: The incidence of PMI was 38.8% in the study. Compared with non-PMI patients (n = 333), PMI patients (n = 211) had more diseased vessels, higher Gensini and Syntax score. Meanwhile, there were higher incidence of MACE in PMI groups (9.5% vs. 3.2%, P < 0.01). We found that PMI patients underwent higher proportion of multi-vessel PCI simultaneously (32.2% vs. 10.5%, P < 0.01) and had more stents implanted (1.8 ± 0.8 vs. 1.4 ± 0.6, P < 0.01). Importantly, after simultaneously adjusted by other factors (such as age, diabetes, total cholesterol, number of diseased vessels, Gensini score and stent length), the risk of PMI was still increased 84% by multi-vessel PCI independently (OR = 1.654, 95% CI = 1.004-2.720, P < 0.05).Conclusions: The phenomenon of PMI occurred more commonly in stable CAD patients underwent multi-vessel PCI. Multi-vessel international therapy could increase the risk of PMI in elective PCI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Desert plants have unique strategies for survival and growth to cope with the limited water availability in arid regions. The stable carbon isotope ( δC) provides an integrated measurement of internal plant physiological and external environmental properties affecting photosynthetic gas exchange and water use efficiency. The δC values of 84 species in the Junggar Basin were categorized into two groups (ranged from −30.1 to −23.3‰ for C and −14.9 to −9.9‰ for C species, respectively). No life form differences in δC values were detected in C ( p = 0.78) and C plants ( p = 0.63). Small differences among life forms were observed in δC values in C species with shrubs slightly depleted (−13.3‰) relative to perennials (−13.1‰) and annuals (−12.5‰). These differences suggested that δC value could not represent a plant functional group classification based on life forms in C plants in extremely arid regions. Ephemerals are all using C photosynthetic pathway and no significant differences ( p = 0.92) in δC values were observed between annuals (−26.5‰) and perennials (−26.4‰). The δC values of Tulipa iliensis (an important ephemeral species distributed widely in the Junggar Basin) among nine natural populations were positively correlated with leaf ( r = 0.46, p = 0.046) and soil ( r = 0.67, p = 0.007) total nitrogen content, and negatively correlated with leaf ( r = 0.48, p = 0.039) and soil ( r = 0.79, p = 0.001) water content. This indicated that the variation in δC values of T. iliensis was probably caused by both water availability associated stomatal openness and nitrogen availability associated photosynthetic capacity. T. iliensis is very sensitive to water and nitrogen availability in soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to illustrate rotate-tilt slope zone structures, sedimentary evolution and it's controls on lithological reservoir, a case study in Banqiao Slope of Qikou Sag was presented, based on the seismic data, well-log information, core and core slice, analyzed the evolution characteristics of Banqiao Slope tectonic, sedimentary characteristics of different construction phase and its relationship with lithological reservoir. Banqiao Slope experienced two stages, average settlement and rotate-tilt. Effected by tectonic evolution, palaeogeomorphology was featured by early gentle slope and later steep slope, tectonics of E3s3-E3s1x episode showed whole settlement, with gentle palaeogeomorphology, provenances from Cangxian Lift were deposited in large areas, developed braided-river delta sedimentation.Slope rotate-tilted at the episode of E3s1z- E3d , the main structure of slope reversed, developing dustpan-shaped tectonics, with the characteristics of rotate-tilted slope controlling sandbodies, faults in source rocks and lithologic traps controlling reservoir, advantageous phase accumulation and high productivity. Sand bodies developed by sub-water channel of delta front were overlapped and distributed widely in middle and low slopes at the time of E3S1x, with good reservoir properties.Matched with faults in source rocks,they are the favorable exploration area of lithological reservoirs. According to those, some lithologic traps were found in gentle slope areas, 12 wells have been drilled,and attained high yield flow of oil and gas, drilling success rates can reach 85%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The diversity and structure of plant and soil microbial communities are influenced by temporal variability in environmental conditions (e.g., precipitation); however, it is unclear whether the responses of these biotic communities to land use practices (e.g., N fertilization and mowing) also vary over time. Here we investigated how harvesting hay by mowing and applications of N fertilization at different rates (0, 2.5, 5, 10, 20, and 40 g N m−2 yr−1) affected plant, bacterial, and fungal communities by exploring data collected from a field experiment in a semiarid grassland in northern China over two consecutive years of 2017 and 2018. The cumulative precipitation during the growing season differed between the two studied years. The sampling year had more effect on the structure of the plant and soil microbial community than N fertilization and mowing, suggesting that the effects of land use practices varied by year, and were difficult to predict over time. The diversity of bacteria and fungi showed a different response to N fertilization and mowing between the two years. For example, in the wet year, the fungal diversity was up to 11% lower in soil that had been treated using the highest N fertilizer application than in untreated soil, but showed little variation in the dry year. The bacterial diversity was higher for all N application rates in the mown than the unmown land during the wet year, but no difference was observed during the dry year. There were more opportunistic and sensitive taxa for the two years (over 36.9% of top 10% relative abundance of bacterial and fungal taxa) than for N fertilization and mowing (below 33.0% of top 10% relative abundance of bacterial and fungal taxa). The relationships between plant and soil microbial communities differed between the two years, and were much stronger in the dry year than the wet year. We conclude that N fertilization and mowing had varying effects on plant and soil microbial communities in the study area over the two-year period. Our results also suggest that precipitation is the main control on land use-related changes in plant and soil microbial communities in semiarid ecosystems. • Bacteria and fungi responded differently to land use drivers in two years. • N fertilization only reduced the diversity of bacteria and fungi in the wet year. • Individual microbial taxa were more responsive to year than to land use drivers. • Rainfall changes might explain the inconsistent biotic responses to land use drivers. • The linkage between plant and soil microbes was tighter in the dry than wet year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge of adequate diets can improve an individual's health status. Although previous studies have identified the main resources from which Chinese people acquire dietary knowledge, it is still unclear whether information sources regarding diets (ISRDs) can increase individuals' knowledge of adequate diets (KAD) and which ISRDs are most effective in conveying KAD to the Chinese population. In this study, we interviewed 4,710 residents in Eastern China regarding their ISRDs and KAD. Descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and multivariate linear regression were used to analyze the effectiveness of different ISRDs in transmitting KAD to Chinese individuals and to determine the relationship between ISRDs and KAD. Results showed that the KAD scores of the respondents were low overall in Eastern China. Providing dietary information through expert lectures, books, newspapers, magazines, and social media could significantly improve the average KAD score of Chinese individuals. Respondents with a greater number of ISRDs were more likely to have higher KAD scores. These findings suggest that the number of ISRDs should be increased. In particular, emphasis should be placed on the role of expert lectures, books, newspapers, magazines, and social media., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Cui, Wang, Wang, Peng, Ma, Chen, Xu, Ke and Tian.)

The growth and reproduction of shelterbelt plants in arid regions is mainly limited by water availability, which can be alleviated by drip irrigation. We measured water use efficiency (WUE), leaf gas exchange and carbon isotope composition of Tamarix ramosissima in shelterbelt and natural communities in south fringe of Takelamakan Desert to investigate water use efficiency and photosynthetic properties of T. ramosissima differed in water sources. Compared to natural community, T. ramosissima in the drip irrigation community had low water potential due to irrigation and soil salinity. For natural community, T. ramosissima had lower predawn and midday water potential than other plants, indicating that T. ramosissima suffered serious water stress. The net photosynthe-tic rate (P n ), stomatal conductance (g s ), intercellular carbon dioxide concentration (C i ) and maximum photosynthesis rate (P n max ) of T. ramosissima in the drip irrigation community were significantly lower than that in the natural community, indicating the photosynthesis of T. ramosissima in the drip irrigation community was weaker. Compared to the natural community, T. ramosissima in the drip irrigation community had higher long-term water use efficiency, which was related to salt stress caused by irrigation. We concluded that the current irrigation model could meet the water needs of shelterbelt plants. However, the technical defects and soil salt accumulation might affect long-term stability of the shelterbelt community.

Variations in the carbon isotope signature of leaf dark-respired CO2 (δ13CR) within a single night is a widely observed phenomenon. However, it is unclear whether there are plant functional type differences with regard to the amplitude of the nighttime variation in δ13CR. These differences, if present, would be important for interpreting the short-term variations in the stable carbon signature of ecosystem respiration and the partitioning of carbon fluxes. To assess the plant functional type differences relating to the magnitude of the nighttime variation in δ13CR and the respiratory apparent fractionation, we measured the δ13CR, the leaf gas exchange, and the δ13C of the respiratory substrates of 22 species present in the agricultural-pastoral zone of the Songnen Plain, northeast China. The species studied were grouped into C3 and C4 plants, trees, grasses, and herbs. A significant nocturnal shift in δ13CR was detected in 20 of the studied species, with the magnitude of the shift ranging from 1‰ to 5.8‰. The magnitude of the nighttime variation in δ13CR was strongly correlated with the daytime cumulative carbon assimilation, which suggests that variation in δ13CR were influenced, to some extent, by changes in the contribution of malate decarboxylation to total respiratory CO2 flux. There were no differences in the magnitude of the nighttime variation in δ13CR between the C3 and C4 plants, as well as among the woody plants, herbs and graminoids. Leaf respired CO2 was enriched in 13C compared to biomass, soluble carbohydrates and lipids; however the magnitude of enrichment differed between 8 pm and 4 am, which were mainly caused by the changes in δ13CR. We also detected the plant functional type differences in respiratory apparent fractionation relative to biomass at 4 am, which suggests that caution should be exercised when using the δ13C of bulk leaf material as a proxy for the δ13C of leaf-respired CO2.

Reaumuria soongorica is a dominant species in the desert shrubbery vegetation in arid regions of northwestern China, playing an important role in the maintenance of the stability and continuity of desert ecosystem. In this paper, a total of 407 individuals in 21 natural populations of R. soongorica were selected from its main distribution areas to measure the leaf stable carbon isotope composition (delta13C) and nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, water, proline and chlorophyll contents, with the correlations between the delta13C value and the test physiological parameters analyzed. The results showed that leaf delta13C value was significantly correlated with the contents of leaf potassium, water, and proline (P <0.001), and the correlation with leaf potassium content was most profound (r = 0.793), followed by that with leaf water content (r = -0.786), indicating that the variation of leaf delta13C value could reflect the nutritional status of the plants, and also, their water-deficient degree. The different distribution trends in leaf delta13C value of R. soongorica were likely caused by stomatal conductance, rather than by nutrient-related changes in photosynthetic efficiency under extremely low available water conditions.

Lanzhou has been one of the most seriously polluted cities in the world due to its special geographical location and weather conditions, which make it an ideal place for urban pollution studies. A set of environmental magnetic parameters (chi lf, chi fd%, chi ARM, chi HIRM, SOFT and back field IRM) of the street dust sampled in Lanzhou during spring and summer 2005 were analyzed. These samples were collected along a main street across the urban area and a mountain route from foot to the top. Results demonstrate that the main magnetic minerals in the street dust are magnetite, maghaemite and haematite with some paramagnetic minerals. Plots of Mrs/Ms vs. Bcr/Bc and chi fd% vs. chi ARM/SIRM indicate that the main grain size of magnetic minerals in the street dust are pseudo single domain (PSD). The results reveal that the Lanzhou city is more polluted in spring than in summer. The main pollution sources are anthropogenic activities (81.9%) and natural dust (18.1%), especially the former. The spatial distribution of pollution is controlled by the topography and weather conditions.

Objective: To investigate alpha- and beta-thalassemia (alpha- and beta-thal) gene frequencies and gene mutation spectrum in the population of Sihui City., Methods: The umbilical cord blood samples from 1 007 neonates and peripheral blood samples from 1 524 apparently healthy adults for pre-marriage health check in Sihui city were collected for molecular epidemiologic study of alpha- and beta-thal respectively. The diagnostic standard for alpha-thal was the presence of Hb Bart's, and that for beta-thal was both the decrease of mean corpuscular volume (MCV<80 fl) and the increase of Hb A(2) level (> or = 3.5%). The samples of identified subjects with positive thal genotypes were further examined with PCR-based DNA analysis for determining the alpha- or beta-globin gene genotype, while those from subjects with positive genotypes but without mutations known to Chinese subjects were subjected to DNA sequence analysis of beta-globin gene. In addition, the alpha-thal alleles, -alpha(3.7) and -alpha(4.2) were examined in all umbilical cord blood samples., Results and Conclusion: Of all the 1 007 umbilical cord blood samples, 110 were identified as from alpha-thal gene carriers, 3 from patients Hb H disease and 1 from patients with hydrops fetalis, which meant an alpha-thal gene frequency of 11.72% (118/1 007). Three types of alpha-gene deletion were identified in this cohort, with the frequency of 53.4% (--SEA)), 34.7% (-alpha(3.7)) and 11.9% (-alpha(4.2)) respectively. By examining the peripheral venous blood samples from the 1,524 healthy adult subjects, 59 subjects were found to be beta-thal gene carriers with a rate of 3.87% (59/1,524), whose genotypes were determined and from whom 7 beta-thal mutations were identified. Of these 59 beta-thal gene carriers, 11 were diagnosed as having heterozygotes compound for beta- and alpha-thal genes with the deletion of the --(SEA) in 7 cases and -alpha(3.7) in 4 cases respectively, showing an incidence of 0.72% (11/1,524). The three commonest point mutations, beta CD41-42 (-CTTT) frameshift mutation, beta IVS2-654(C-->T) aberrant splicing mutation and beta-28 (A-->G) transcription mutation occurred with a total frequency of 84.75% among subjects with beta-thal allele mutations. In addition, a novel mutation, beta-globin gene promoter -90 (C-->T) allele was detected for the first time in Chinese subjects.