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Introduction: Inguinal hernia is the most common disease in pediatric surgery and is induced by congenital processus vaginalis patency. Almost all inguinal hernias are inguinal indirect hernias, and herniorrhaphy has accounted for about 15% of all pediatric operations. In the past 20 years, with the development of minimally invasive technology, laparoscopic inguinal herniorrhaphy has been emerging in China and in other countries. Aim: To introduce a new technique for treating inguinal hernia in children, and evaluate the feasibility and surgical efficacy of a transumbilical single-port laparoscopic water-injection hernia crochet needle in treating pediatric inguinal hernia. Material and methods: Clinical data of 136 inguinal hernial children treated using a transumbilical single-port laparoscopic water-injection hernia crochet needle in our hospital from June 2017 to December 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. Results: All procedures were successfully accomplished, and no case was converted to a different procedure; the average operation time was 16 min for one side and 35 min for both sides. Patients were followed for an average of 10 months after surgery. One patient had a line-knot reaction at the inguinal puncture point 3 months after surgery and recovered after conservative treatment, and no recurrent case was observed after surgery. Conclusions: It is feasible to treat pediatric inguinal hernia through a transumbilical single-port laparoscopic water- injection hernia crochet needle, which is associated with safety, less trauma, rapid recovery, no obvious scar, and satisfactory efficacy. Therefore, it is worthy of being promoted and applied in clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The outputs of four Global Climate Models (GFDL-ESM2M, HadGEM2-ES, IPSL-CM5A-LR and MIROC5), which were statistically downscaled and bias corrected, were used to drive four hydrological models (HBV, SWAT, SWIM and VIC) to simulate the daily discharge at the Cuntan hydrological station in the upper Yangtze River from 1861 to 2299. As the performances of hydrological models in various climate conditions could be different, the models were first calibrated in the period from 1979 to 1990. Then, the models were validated in the wet period, 1967–1978, and in the dry period, 1991–2002. A multi-objective automatic calibration programme using a univariate search technique was applied to find the optimal parameter sets for each of the four hydrological models. The Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) of daily discharge and the weighted least squares function (WLS) of extreme discharge events, represented by high flow (Q10) and low flow (Q90), were included in the objective functions of the parameterization process. In addition, the simulated evapotranspiration results were compared with evapotranspiration data from the GLEAM project for the upper Yangtze basin. For evaluating the performances of the hydrological models, the NSE, modified Kling-Gupta efficiency (KGE), ratio of the root mean square error to the standard deviation of the measured data (RSR) and Pearson's correlation coefficient (r) were used. The four hydrological models showed good performance in the calibration and validation periods. In this study, the daily runoff was simulated for the upper Yangtze River under the preindustrial control (piControl) scenario without anthropogenic climate change, from 1861–2299, for the historical period 1861–2005, and under the RCP2.6, RCP4.5, RCP6.0 and RCP8.5 scenarios in the period from 2006 to 2299. The long-term daily discharge datasets for the upper Yangtze River provide streamflow trends in the future and clues regarding to what extent human-induced climate change could impact streamflow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We project drought losses in China under global temperature increase of 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C, based on the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) and the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI), a cluster analysis method, and "intensity-loss rate" function. In contrast to earlier studies, to project the drought losses, we predict the regional gross domestic product under shared socioeconomic pathways instead of using a static socioeconomic scenario. We identify increasing precipitation and evapotranspiration pattern for the 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C global warming above the preindustrial at 2020-2039 and 2040-2059, respectively. With increasing drought intensity and areal coverage across China, drought losses will soar. The estimated loss in a sustainable development pathway at the 1.5 °C warming level increases 10-fold in comparison with the reference period 1986-2005 and nearly threefold relative to the interval 2006-2015. However, limiting the temperature increase to 1.5 °C can reduce the annual drought losses in China by several tens of billions of US dollars, compared with the 2.0 °C warming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of future climate change and the corresponding adaptation activities on grain production and its regional distribution in China. Design/methodology/approach - This paper applied the Chinese Agricultural Policy Analysis model, in combination with the findings from agronomic literature with highly detailed agricultural census data, to conduct equilibrium analysis under alternative impact (seasonal drought and climate warming) scenarios and adaptation scenarios (promoting water-saving irrigation, introducing new varieties, and the integrated) associated with climate change. Findings - Simulation results indicate that climate change-induced seasonal drought and the resulting yield reduction will incur substantial losses to China's grain production (by ~8 percent at a national scale). The application of water saving techniques can be an effective solution to seasonal drought. Introducing new varieties will increase the combination of promoting water-saving irrigation and new variety adoption will increase combination of promoting water-saving irrigation and new variety adoption constitute an effective approach to offsetting the negative effects of climate change on grain production. Research limitations/implications - Simulation results indicate that climate change-induced seasonal drought and the resulting sown area reduction will incur substantial losses to China's grain production by approximately 8 percent, despite farmers' adaptation activities of switching from water use-intensive crops to drought-tolerant crops to mitigate this negative effect. The application of water saving techniques is an effective solution to seasonal drought; it can lead to a nationwide increase in the sown area by 3.48 percent and in the grain production by 4.15 percent. Introducing new varieties will increase grain outputs and change the spatial distribution of crop production across the country. The combination of promoting water-saving irrigation and new variety adoption will increase the national grain production by 19.6 percent, and thus constitute an effective approach to offsetting the negative effects of climate change on grain production. Originality/value - Results from this study provide practical implications formulate strategies in response to climate change. Central government should reinforce the policies such as new varieties promotion and improve the subsidy method to guide the introduction of new varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Strawberry vein banding virus (SVBV) is a double-stranded DNA plant virus, which has been found in North America, Australia, Brazil, Japan, Europe and several provinces of China. Infected strawberry plants exhibit mild vein-banding symptoms and chlorosis along the veins. It is one of the most economically important diseases in Asiatic, European and North American strawberry-growing areas. Findings: The complete genome of an SVBV Chinese isolate (SVBV-CN) was isolated and cloned from a naturally infected strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa cv. Sachinoka) sample found in Shenyang city of Liaoning province. Sequence analysis revealed a complete genome of 7864 nucleotides (nts) that indicated SVBV-CN was most closely related to SVBV from the United States (SVBV-US) with a sequence similarity of 85.8 %. Two major clades were identified based on phylogenetic analysis of the complete genome sequences of caulimoviruses. SVBV-CN clustered together with SVBV-US, whereas other caulimoviruses formed a separate branch. Agrobacterium-mediated inoculation of Fragaria vesca with an infectious clone of SVBV-CN results in systemic infection with distinct symptoms of yellowing bands along the main leaf veins. This suggests that the SVBV-CN infectious clone can recapitulate the symptoms observed in naturally infected strawberries, and therefore is likely the causal agent of the original disease observed in strawberries. Furthermore, strawberry plants inoculated with the infectious clone using vacuum infiltration developed symptoms with a very high infection rate of 86–100 % in 4-5 weeks post-inoculation. This compares to an infection rate of 20–40 % in 8–9 weeks post-inoculation using syringe-inoculation. Conclusions: The complete nucleotide sequence of SVBV from a naturally infected strawberry was determined. Agroinfiltration of strawberry plants using an infectious clone of SVBV-CN resulted in symptoms typically found in infected strawberries from Shenyang city of Liaoning province in China. This is the first report describing an infectious clone of SVBV-CN, and that vacuum infiltration can be potentially used as a new and highly efficient means for inoculation of strawberry plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Background: A retrospective study was performed to assess the causes, diagnostic methods for, and clinical features of, jejunoileal hemorrhage in Shandong province, China and to derive recommendations for management of this condition from these data. Methods: We performed a retrospective systematic collection of data from between January 1999 and December 2008 in seven cities in Shandong province, China, identified 72 patients with jejunoileal hemorrhage and analyzed the relevant clinical data. Results: Overall, tumors were the most common cause of jejunoileal hemorrhage (42 patients, 58.3%). The causes of this condition were significantly different (P < 0.05) in male and female patients. In male patients, the commonest factors were tumor (52.2%), enteritis (17.4%) and angiopathy (15.2%). However, in female patients, tumors accounted for a greater proportion of cases (18/26, 69.2%). In 38 cases (52.8%) the diagnosis was made by ntraoperative enteroscopy or laparotomy, in 14 by capsule endoscopy and in the remainder by radiological methods. The most frequent presentation was melena (62.7%), followed by maroon stools (26.9%) and hematochezia (9.0%). Of the 72 patients,laparotomy is the main treatment method. Conclusion: Tumor, enteritis and angiopathy and diverticular disease are the most common causes of jejunoileal hemorrhage in Shandong province, China. The main clinical manifestations are bloody stools, most commonly in the form of melena, with or without abdominal pain. We recommend that female patients over the age of 40 with jejunoileal hemorrhage accompanied by abdominal pain should undergo urgent further assessment because of the strong probability of jejunoileal tumor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial and temporal characteristics of precipitation trends in the Zhujiang River basin, South China, are analyzed. Nonparametric trend tests are applied to daily precipitation data from 192 weather stations between 1961 and 2007 for the following indices: annual, monthly, and daily precipitation; annual and monthly number of rain days and precipitation intensity; annual and monthly maximum precipitation; 5-day maximum precipitation, number of rainstorms with >50 mm day−−1, and peaks over thresholds (90th, 95th, and 99th percentile). The results show that few stations experienced trends in the precipitation indices on an annual basis. On a monthly basis, significant positive and negative trends above the 90%% confidence level appear in all months except December. Trends in the indices of monthly precipitation, rain intensity, rain days, and monthly maximum precipitation show very similar characteristics. They experience the most distinct negative (positive) trends in October (January). A change of the mean wind direction by 50°° from east-southeast to east-northeast explains the downward trend in precipitation in October. Dry October months (months with low precipitation indices) can be observed when the mean wind direction is east-northeast (arid) instead of the prevailing mean wind direction, east-southeast (moist). The former is typical for the East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM). Nearly 90%% of the driest October months can be explained by wind directions typical for the EAWM. The upward trend in precipitation indices in January cannot be explained by changes in large-scale circulation. The analysis of the precipitation indices delivers more detailed information on observed changes than other studies in the same area. This can be attributed to the higher station density, the quality of daily data, and the focus on monthly trends in the current study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explored the trends of the atmospheric moisture budget, precipitation, and streamflow in summer during 1961 to 2005 and possible correlations between them by using the linear regression method in the Yangtze River basin, China. The results indicate that: (1) increasing tendencies can be detected in the atmospheric moisture budget, precipitation and streamflow in the Yangtze River basin; however, the significant increasing trends occur only in the atmospheric moisture budget and precipitation in the middle and lower Yangtze River basin; (2) both the ratio of summer moisture budget to annual moisture budget and the ratio of summer precipitation to annual precipitation exhibit a significant increasing trend in the Yangtze River basin. The ratio of summer streamflow to annual streamflow is in a significant increasing trend in Hankou station. Significant increasing summer precipitation can be taken as the major controlling factor responsible for the higher probability of flood hazard occurrences in the Yangtze River basin. The consecutively increasing summer precipitation is largely due to the consistently increasing moisture budget; (3) the zonal geopotential height anomaly between 1991 and 2005 and 1961 and 1990 is higher from the south to the north, which to a large degree, limits the northward propagation of the summer monsoon to north China. As a result, the summer moisture budget increases in the middle and lower Yangtze River basin, which leads to more summer precipitation. This paper sheds light on the changing properties of precipitation and streamflow and possible underlying causes, which will be greatly helpful for better understanding of the changes of precipitation and streamflow in the Yangtze River basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study on the hydrological and meteorological change in the Yangtze River Basin in China. Significant changes were found in many monthly precipitation datasets that were collected between 1961 and 2000. It states that the strongest relative increase was detected when the monthly precipitation is low in absolute terms. Some of the changes in the monthly precipitation in spring and summer from April to August, tends to aggravate the flood hazard. It also detected significant upward trends in the discharge of the River Yangtze Basin in the middle and lower regions on summer months.

The article discusses a study of the power law correlation properties of sign and magnitude series based on a series of observation records of flow of the River Yangtze in China. The results gave insights on the linear and nonlinear processes of the water cycle. The documented linkage between the sign series and the linear process can be verified with the delayed vector variance method and the surrogate test. The spectra estimated by detrended fluctuation analysis method show different properties of correlations in both sign and magnitude series.

Previous studies have found that the diversity of begomovirus-associated DNAβ satellites is related to host and geographical origin. In this study, we have cloned and sequenced 20 different isolates of DNAβ molecules associated with Malvastrum yellow vein virus (MYVV) isolated from Malvastrum coromandelianum plants in different geographical locations of Yunnan Province, China. Analyses of their molecular variation indicate that the satellites are clustered together according to their geographical location but that they have only limited sequence diversity. Infectivity tests using infectious clones of MYVV and its associated DNAβ molecule indicate that MYVV DNAβ is indispensable for symptom induction in Nicotiana benthamiana, N. glutinosa, Petunia hybrida, and M. coromandelianum plants. Furthermore, we showed that MYVV interacts functionally with heterologous DNAβ molecules in N. benthamiana plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Climatic indicators based on proxy historical flood/drought index series (1470–2003) in the Yangtze river (China) and ENSO (El Niño/La Niña) index series (1868–2003) are statistically analyzed to detect a long-term variability of the floods/droughts and ENSO events and to identify the teleconnections between ENSO and flood/drought series in the upper, middle and lower Yangtze River valley. In the lower and middle Yangtze catchments, El Niño shows a close relation with flood events and La Niña correlates with drought events. However, the relationships are reversed for the upper Yangtze catchment. These relations are significant at >90% confidence level based on test. Spectral analysis shows that main flood/drought variation cycle is longer than that of ENSO events. The latter shows periods of 3–4 year, 5.67 years, ∼10–12 years while the flood/drought cycle has periods of 16.69, 5.09 and 10.47 years (confidence level of 99%). Cross-spectral analysis results indicate the ENSO changes and flood/drought variation are significantly correlated at 5.04 year and ∼10–12 years periods. Therefore, from the viewpoint of periodicity, ENSO episodes (El Niño and La Niña) are in good teleconnection with floods/droughts in the Yangtze catchment. Eastern Asian summer and winter monsoons are influenced by ENSO through the strength of the subtropical high in the western Pacific region, which can possibly serve as the physical mechanism of the phenomenon mentioned above. The results tentatively suggest that the Chinese climatic index based on documentary records can be helpful for investigating the reconstruction of long-term ENSO activities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract A virus isolate Y160 was obtained from Malvastrum coromandelianum showing yellow vein symptoms in Baoshan, Yunnan province of China. The complete nucleotide sequence of DNA-A was determined, it contains 2747 nucleotides and has typical genomic organization of a begomovirus. Comparisons show that the total DNA-A of Y160 has the highest sequence identity (82.2%) with that of Malvastrum yellow vein virus-[Y47] (AJ457824), while less than 77.6% identities are found when compared with the other begomoviruses. The molecular data show that Y160 is a distinct begomovirus species, for which the name Malvastrum yellow vein Yunnan virus (MYVYNV) is proposed. Satellite DNA molecule (Y160) was found to be associated with Y160 using the abutting primers beta0l and beta02 specific for DNA. Y160 consists of 1350 nucleotides, with a functional ORF (C1) in complementary-sense DNA. Y160 has the highest sequence identity (73.5%) with DNA molecule associated with Malvastrum yellow vein virus-[Y47] (AJ421482). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Preparation conditions, physicochemical properties and in vitro digestibility of enzyme-resistant dextrin from Chinese yam starches, which are native, easily accessible and cheap raw materials in China, were investigated in the current study. The results showed that the enzyme-resistant fraction content in enzyme-resistant dextrin increased and the whiteness of the enzyme-resistant dextrin decreased with the increasing concentrations of hydrochloric and citric acids and the rising heating temperatures, and the prolonged heating times. Considering the manufacturing cost and the beneficial usage, the enzyme-resistant dextrin produced by heating of Chinese yam starch in the presence of hydrochloric (0.11% dsb) and citric (0.2% dsb) acids at 150°C for 60min was selected. Enzyme-resistant dextrin had a low molecular weight of about 6800 Da and rich "non-digestible" α-1,2 glycosidic bond and was well-soluble in water, stable at pH 3.0-7.0 or after heating at 85°C for 0.5 h showed, high thermal stability and high resistant to the artificial gastric juice and small intestinal fluids. These characteristics make the selected enzyme-resistant dextrin suitable for use in the soft drink industry as the soluble dietary fibres and prebiotics in the beverages. This would provide an excellent opportunity to reduce the caloric value of the beverages and exert a beneficial effect on the intestinal microflora of people consuming beverages enriched with enzyme-resistant dextrins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The magnitude of the impact of altitude gradient on microbial community and diversity has been studied in recent decades. Whereas bacteria have been the focus of most studies, fungi have been given relatively less attention. As a vital part of the macro- and microscopic ecosystem, rhizosphere fungi play a key role in organic matter decomposition and relative abundance of plant species and have an impact on plant growth and development. Using Duchesnea indica as the host plant, we examined the rhizosphere soil fungal community patterns across the altitude gradient in 15 sites of Yunnan province by sequencing the fungal ITS2 region with the Illumina MiSeq platform. We determined the fungal community composition and structure. We found that, surprisingly, rhizosphere soil fungal diversity of D. indica increased with altitudinal gradient. There was a slight difference in diversity between samples from high- and medium-altitude sites, with medium-altitude sites having the greater diversity. Furthermore, the rhizosphere soil fungal community composition and structure kept changing along the altitudinal gradient. Taxonomic results showed that the extent of phylum diversity was greatest at high-altitude sites, with Ascomycota , Basidiomycota , Zygomycota , and Glomeromycota as the most dominant fungal phyla.