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An international workshop on "Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change and Air Pollution" took place at Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, China, during 23-27 October, 2023. Experts working in various multi-disciplinary areas of agroecosystem and environmental research gathered for academic communication and discussions. Two discussion groups focused on "agriculture under air pollution and climate change: current challenges and priorities for the future" and "adapting agriculture to air pollution and climate change: current status and next steps." Insights derived from the discussions are summarized in this article and include opinions about current issues, knowledge gaps' identification, and potential priorities and actions that could be taken. The first discussion mainly addresses ozone impact estimates; ozone metrics for impact and risk assessments; ozone monitoring; air pollution impacts and policy; and the pivotal role of agriculture and consumer choices. The second discussion covers adaptation and mitigation; greenhouse gases and energy efficiency; concerns about the link between adaptation and mitigation; local food, planetary-health diets and carbon footprint; irrigation and climate change adaptation; scientific evidence and policy-making; air pollution and crop adaptation; machine learning and crop modeling; and challenges faced by smallholder farmers and large-scale enterprises. Hence, this report could be useful for research, educational, and policy purposes, collating opinions of experts working in diverse research areas., Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethics approval: Not applicable. Consent to participate: Not applicable. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Based on Resource-based theory and Internal Control (IC) theory, this study elucidates the impacts of corporate digital transformation on total factor productivity, and IC effectiveness, as well as the mechanism among digital transformation, IC and total factor productivity. The results show that digital transformation promotes total factor productivity and IC effectiveness. And effective IC has a significant mediating effect for the impact of digital transformation on total factor productivity. Heterogeneity discussion shows that compared with high-tech enterprises, in non-high-tech ones, digital transformation increases total factor productivity, and more significantly enhances IC effectiveness, presenting a mechanism that digital transformation facilitates IC, and increases total factor productivity. For non-high-tech enterprises, with higher heterogeneity of executive education backgrounds, digital transformation promotes IC effectiveness and total factor productivity, showing the transmission effect among digital transformation, IC and total factor productivity. Finally, it is suggested that the regulatory authorities advance digital infrastructure construction, to reinforce IC and risk prevention, thereby increase total factor productivity. And enterprises grasp the opportunity of digital economy development, promote the mechanism that digital transformation facilitates IC effectiveness, and increases total factor productivity. Non-high-tech ones motivate digital elements' governance efficacy, optimize executive structure, coordinately promote digital strategy, and help the national economy acquire high-quality development. The study provides enlightenments to achieve high-quality development., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Li et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Historical environmental evidence has been characterized by time accuracy, high spatial resolution and rich information, which may be widely used in the reconstruction of historical data series. Taking the upper reaches of the Weihe River as an example in Western China, the grades and index sequences of the drought and flood disasters from 1800 to 2016 were reconstructed based on various historical environmental information and standardized precipitation indicator (SPI). Moreover, the characteristics of droughts and floods were analyzed using statistical diagnostic methods, and the mechanisms affecting centennial-scale droughts and floods were discussed. The validity of reconstruction sequence of droughts/floods was verified, which showed that the reconstruction sequence may reasonably indicate the status of drought and flood. The reconstruction indicated the following periods of drought/flood: a period of extreme and big droughts in 1835s-1893s, 1924s-1943s and 1984s-2008s, a period of extreme and big floods in 1903s-1923s, and a period of extreme and big droughts/floods in 1944s-1983s. Moreover, the droughts were more serious in the western part of this region and the floods were relatively severe in the east of this region, while the droughts and floods have long-term period of about 100 years and mutation. The influence mechanism of external environmental forcing factors driving floods/droughts were revealed. The results showed that the cycle of El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and sunspot activities were closely related to the variations of drought/flood, meanwhile, ENSO has a significant lag time scale cumulative influence on droughts and floods, especially the 15-year sliding effect was the most obvious. In the peak year of sunspots, the probability of heavy drought/extreme floods was large, and the 102-year sunspot cycle has a more significant effect on drought and flood disasters. The mutation of droughts and floods occurred in the context of the drastic changes in the ground environment, and transformation of precipitation and land use structure. These results will enhance the understandings of historical environmental climate characteristics and mechanisms over the hundred years, and be useful for the future regional water resources and assessment, and ecological environment management.

Objective: To estimate the proportion of presymptomatic transmission of SARS-CoV-2 infection that can occur, and the timing of transmission relative to symptom onset., Setting/design: Secondary analysis of international published data., Data Sources: Meta-analysis of COVID-19 incubation period and a rapid review of serial interval and generation time, which are published separately., Participants: Data from China, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Italy, Republic of Korea, Singapore and Vietnam from December 2019 to May 2020., Methods: Simulations were generated of incubation period and of serial interval or generation time. From these, transmission times relative to symptom onset, and the proportion of presymptomatic transmission, were estimated., Outcome Measures: Transmission time of SARS-CoV-2 relative to symptom onset and proportion of presymptomatic transmission., Results: Based on 18 serial interval/generation time estimates from 15 papers, mean transmission time relative to symptom onset ranged from -2.6 (95% CI -3.0 to -2.1) days before infector symptom onset to 1.4 (95% CI 1.0 to 1.8) days after symptom onset. The proportion of presymptomatic transmission ranged from 45.9% (95% CI 42.9% to 49.0%) to 69.1% (95% CI 66.2% to 71.9%)., Conclusions: There is substantial potential for presymptomatic transmission of SARS-CoV-2 across a range of different contexts. This highlights the need for rapid case detection, contact tracing and quarantine. The transmission patterns that we report reflect the combination of biological infectiousness and transmission opportunities which vary according to context., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Objectives: This study aimed to characterize the genomic features of a Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium ST34 isolate, CFSA629, which carried a novel mcr-1 variant, designated as mcr-1.19, mapped to an ESBL-encoding IncHI2 plasmid., Methods: Antimicrobial susceptibility assays as well as WGS were carried out on isolate CFSA629. The complete closed genome was obtained and then explored to obtain genomic features. Plasmid sequence comparison was performed for pCFSA629 with similar plasmids and the mcr-1 genetic environment was analysed., Results: S. Typhimurium ST34 CFSA629 expressed an MDR phenotype to six classes of compound and consisted of a single circular chromosome and one plasmid. It possessed 11 resistance genes including 2 ESBL genes that mapped to the chromosome and the plasmid; an IS26-flanked composite-like transposon was identified. A novel mcr-1 variant (mcr-1.19) was identified, which had a unique SNP (G1534A) that gave rise to a novel MCR-1 protein containing a Val512Ile amino acid substitution. Plasmid pCFSA629 possessed a conjugative plasmid transfer gene cluster as well as an antimicrobial resistance-encoding gene cluster-containing region that contained two IS26 composite-like transposonal modules, but was devoid of any plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance genes. The background of mcr-1.19 consisted of an ISApl1-mcr-1-PAP2-ter module., Conclusions: We report on an MDR S. Typhimurium ST34 CFSA629 isolate cultured from egg in China, harbouring an mcr-1.19 variant mapped to an IncHI2 plasmid. This highlights the importance of surveillance to mitigate dissemination of mcr-encoding genes among foodborne Salmonella. Improved surveillance is important for tackling the dissemination of mcr genes among foodborne Salmonella around the world., (© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a biological hazard that must be controlled and is a recognized etiological agent in viral hepatitis. This is a zoonotic virus and can be transmitted through the fecal-oral route. The pig is an important reservoir host of HEV, and is a source of contamination for the consumer after the consumption of raw or undercooked pork products. When detected, the most prevalent genotype of HEV in China is genotype 4 (denoted as HEV-4). To ensure the safety of this food of animal origin, we undertook a survey of HEV contamination in pig livers and pork samples available for sale, in retail outlets in selected cities in China. Viral RNA was purified from samples collected by lysing in Trizol followed by purification using trichloromethane and virus RNA extract kit. An additional step was applied to improve the recovery rate by adding RNase OUT when extracting virus RNA from pig livers, and the RNA productions were washed in 75% (v/v) ethanol to remove inhibitors. In total, 158 pig livers and 80 pork samples were procured and analyzed by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). After purification of total RNA from all samples taken and analyzed by RT-qPCR, a single pig liver was positive by this method for HEV. The positive rate was calculated as 0.63%. In this study, a single positive sample was detected. Considering the dietary habits of Chinese people, pork is a popular food that on occasion may be contaminated with HEV, thereby posing a threat to consumer health. Ongoing surveillance is required to assess the risk to human health arising from HEV-contaminated pork being offered for sale, at retail outlets, especially in the areas of China where pig production is practiced.

Background: Ethnic Chinese mothers in Malaysia adhere to 30 days of traditional postpartum practices (the "confinement period") aimed at recuperation after delivery. Recently there has been an emergence of confinement centres (CCs) where mothers stay and receive traditional confinement care. Ethnic Chinese mothers have low breastfeeding rates. There are concerns that practices in CCs could contribute to this but no data exists. We described mothers' breastfeeding experiences at CCs and identified areas for potential improvement in breastfeeding support., Methods: Ethnic Chinese mothers intending to breastfeed their healthy infants were recruited post-delivery between August and October 2017 then, at 1 and 6 months, they were telephone interviewed about their experience. For every participant going to a CC after the birth, another mother going home ("home") for her confinement was recruited. Chi-square test was used to compare groups and multiple logistic regression was used to assess the effect of confinement place on exclusive breastfeeding., Results: Of 187 mothers, 88 (47%) went to CCs. Significantly more were primipara and fewer had previous breastfeeding experience. Response rates for the 1- and 6- month interviews were 88% (CC) versus 97% (home); and 77% (CC) versus 87% (home) respectively. Exclusive breastfeeding rates were similar between the groups: 62% (CC) versus 56% (home) at 1 month (p = 0.4); and 37% (CC) versus 42% (home) at 6 months (p = 0.5). Multiple logistic regression did not show that CCs were a factor affecting exclusive breastfeeding rates at 1 month, (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.7, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.9, 3.3), or 6 months (aOR 0.9, 95% CI 0.4, 1.7). However, significantly more CC participants only fed expressed breast milk. Despite 66% of CC participants reporting that their centre supported breastfeeding, only 6 (8%) CC participants compared to 66 (69%) of home participants roomed-in with their baby (p < 0.001). The proportion encountering breastfeeding difficulties were similar between groups. CC participants sought help for breastfeeding problems mainly from CC staff and support groups while home participants obtained help from friends and healthcare professionals., Conclusions: Breastfeeding rates appeared to be similar at CCs and at home during the confinement period, but there were gaps in how CCs supported breastfeeding. Targeted training to CC staff to support breastfeeding may result in better outcomes for mothers staying in CCs.

Background: Primary plasma cell leukemia (PPCL) is a rare and aggressive plasma cell disorder. The use of novel agents, together with autologous stem cell transplantation, has improved survival outcome in PPCL. However, the prognosis is still very poor, and the optimal treatment remains an unmet clinical need., Patients and Methods: We studied the efficacy and prognostic impact of novel agents in 46 patients with PPCL patients at the Blood Diseases Hospital in China. We examined the impact of clinical and laboratory features, as well as therapies (bortezomib- and/or immunomodulatory drug-based therapies, chemotherapy) on survival and extent of clinical response, including progression-free survival and overall survival (OS). Progression-free survival and OS were assessed by the Kaplan-Meier method, and survival distributions were compared by log-rank test., Results: In our cohort of 46 PPCL patients, the median age at the time of diagnosis was 54 years. Overall response rate was 54% (25/46). The median (95% confidence interval) progression-free survival time was 6 (0-12.5) months, and OS time was 14 (4.6-23.4) months. The OS time was significantly longer in patients treated with bortezomib-based versus non-bortezomib-based therapies (median [95% confidence interval], 19 [9-28.9] vs. 5 [4-24] months; P = .019)., Conclusion: This large single-center study of PPCL supports the use of bortezomib-based therapies as frontline treatment in PPCL patients., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

A total of 2,283 Salmonella isolates were recovered from 18,334 samples, including samples from patients with diarrhea, food of animal origin, and pets, across 5 provinces of China. The highest prevalence of Salmonella spp. was detected in chicken meats (39.3%, 486/1,237). Fifteen serogroups and 66 serovars were identified, with Salmonella enterica serovars Typhimurium and Enteritidis being the most dominant. Most (85.5%, 1,952/2,283) isolates exhibited resistance to ≥1 antimicrobial, and 56.4% were multidrug resistant (MDR). A total of 222 isolates harbored extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBLs), and 200 of these were of the CTX-M type and were mostly detected in isolates from chicken meat and turtle fecal samples. Overall, eight bla CTX-M genes were identified, with bla CTX-M-65 , bla CTX-M-123 , bla CTX-M-14 , bla CTX-M-79 , and bla CTX-M-130 being the most prevalent. In total, 166 of the 222 ESBL-producing isolates had amino acid substitutions in GyrA (S83Y, S83F, D87G, D87N, and D87Y) and ParC (S80I), while the plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance (PMQR)-encoding genes oqxA , oqxB , qepA , qnrB , and qnrS were detected in almost all isolates. Of the 15 sequence types (STs) identified in the 222 ESBLs, ST17, ST11, ST34, and ST26 ranked among the top 5 in number of isolates. Our study revealed considerable serovar diversity and a high prevalence of the co-occurrence of MDR determinants, including CTX-M-type ESBLs, quinolone resistance-determining region (QRDR) mutations, and PMQR genes. This is the first report of CTX-M-130 Salmonella spp. from patients with diarrhea and QRDR mutations from turtle fecal samples. Our study emphasizes the importance of actions, both in health care settings and in the veterinary medicine sector, to control the dissemination of MDR, especially the CTX-M-type ESBL-harboring Salmonella isolates., (Copyright © 2020 American Society for Microbiology.)

The Mongolian horse represents one of the most ancient extant horse populations. In this study we determined the male-specific region of the Y chromosome (MSY) haplotype distribution in 60 Chinese Mongolian horses representing five distinct populations. Cosmopolitan male lineages were predominant in horses from one improved (Sanhe), one Chinese Mongolian subtype (Baicha Iron Hoof) and one indigenous (Abaga Black) population. In contrast, autochthonous Y chromosome diversity was evident among the two landrace populations (Wushen and Wuzhumuqin), as the majority of their MSY haplotypes were situated at root nodes in a network. Our results also suggest gene flow between Chinese Mongolian and Arabian horses, as an appreciable number of Wuzhumuqin horses carried haplotypes that are typically observed in Arabian horses. Although most horses carried modern haplotypes as a direct result of recent breed improvement, authentic Chinese Mongolian horses retain an ancient signature of paternal lineages that has not previously been described in extant horse populations. Therefore, further characterization of MSY variation in these populations will be important for the discovery of lost diversity in modern domestic horses and also for understanding the evolutionary history of equine paternal lineages., (© 2019 Stichting International Foundation for Animal Genetics.)

Objectives: Our aim was to determine the antimicrobial susceptibilities of 2862 Listeria monocytogenes cultured from various foods in China and to use WGS to characterize the antimicrobial resistance and virulence genotypes of those expressing a resistance phenotype., Methods: The susceptibilities of 2862 L. monocytogenes were determined by broth microdilution. Twenty-eight L. monocytogenes were found to be resistant to one to four antibiotics. All 28 resistant isolates were subsequently sequenced using short-read high accuracy protocols. The corresponding genomes were assembled and further analysis was carried out using appropriate bioinformatics pipelines., Results: All 28 resistant L. monocytogenes were classified into five STs (ST3, ST8, ST9, ST155 and ST515). Both ST9 and ST155 were dominant and their genotypes correlated with their resistance phenotypes. All ST9 isolates were MDR and could be phylogenetically classified into two clusters. One was relatively close to clinical origins and one to food. Downstream analysis of the genetic contexts in which these resistance genotypes were found suggested that these may have been acquired from other bacteria by horizontal transfer or insertion into the chromosome. All isolates harboured Listeria pathogenicity island (LIPI)-1 and LIPI-2, and only two harboured LIPI-3., Conclusions: This study reported on the antimicrobial susceptibilities of 2862 foodborne L. monocytogenes along with the genomic characterization of 28 resistant isolates, 11 of which expressed an MDR phenotype. These data showed that this bacterium can acquire resistance by horizontal gene transfer in and between species. This study may necessitate a re-evaluation of risk to public health, associated with this bacterial species., (© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

The plasmid-mediated high-level tigecycline resistance gene, tet (X4), was detected in seven Escherichia coli isolates from pork in two Chinese provinces. Two isolates belonged to the epidemic spreading sequence type ST101. Tet (X4) was adjacent to IS Vsa3 and concurrent with floR in all seven isolates. In addition to IncFIB, the replicon IncFII was found to be linked to tet (X4). This report follows a recent detection of tet (X3)/(X4) in E. coli from animals and humans in China.

Understanding the metal and metalloid contamination and microbiota composition of pig feces is an important step required to support the design and implementation of effective pollution control and prevention strategies. A survey was implemented in 12 locations across China to investigate the content of metals and metalloids, and the main composition of the microbial communities of commercially reared pigs during two growth periods, defined as the early (Q group) and the later fattening growth phases (H group). These data showed widespread Al, Mn, Cu, Zn, and Fe pollution in pig feces. The concentration of Zn in the Q group feces was nearly two times higher than the levels measured in the H group. The microbial composition of the Q group exhibited greater richness of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and fewer bacteria associated with zoonotic diseases compared with the microbial composition of the H group. Spearman rank correlation analysis showed that Cu and northern latitudes had a significant positive effect on the richness of bacterial communities in pig feces. Zn and Cd exhibited the biggest impact on microbial community composition based on canonical correspondence analysis. Functional metagenomic prediction indicated that about 0.8% genes present in the pig feces bacteria community are related to human diseases, and significantly more predicted pathogenic genes were detected in the H group than in the Q group. These results support the need to monitor heavy metal contamination and to control for zoonotic pathogens disseminated from pig feces in Chinese pig farms., (Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

The greater white-toothed shrew (Crocidura russula) is an invasive mammalian species that was first recorded in Ireland in 2007. It currently occupies an area of approximately 7,600 km2 on the island. C. russula is normally distributed in Northern Africa and Western Europe, and was previously absent from the British Isles. Whilst invasive species can have dramatic and rapid impacts on faunal and floral communities, they may also be carriers of pathogens facilitating disease transmission in potentially naive populations. Pathogenic leptospires are endemic in Ireland and a significant cause of human and animal disease. From 18 trapped C. russula, 3 isolates of Leptospira were cultured. However, typing of these isolates by standard serological reference methods was negative, and suggested an, as yet, unidentified serovar. Sequence analysis of 16S ribosomal RNA and secY indicated that these novel isolates belong to Leptospira alstonii, a unique pathogenic species of which only 7 isolates have been described to date. Earlier isolations were limited geographically to China, Japan and Malaysia, and this leptospiral species had not previously been cultured from mammals. Restriction enzyme analysis (REA) further confirms the novelty of these strains since no similar patterns were observed with a reference database of leptospires. As with other pathogenic Leptospira species, these isolates contain lipL32 and do not grow in the presence of 8-azagunaine; however no evidence of disease was apparent after experimental infection of hamsters. These isolates are genetically related to L. alstonii but have a novel REA pattern; they represent a new serovar which we designate as serovar Room22. This study demonstrates that invasive mammalian species act as bridge vectors of novel zoonotic pathogens such as Leptospira., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Hybrid constructed wetland (HCW) systems have been used to treat various wastewaters across the world. However, large-scale applications of HCWs are scarce, particularly for on-site improvement of the water quality of highly polluted urban rivers in semi-arid regions. In this study, a large pilot-scale HCW system was constructed to improve the water quality of the Zaohe River in Xi'an, China. With a total area of about 8000 m(2), the pilot HCW system, composed of different configurations of surface and subsurface flow wetlands, was operated for 2 years at an average inflow volume rate of 362 m(3)/day. Local Phragmites australis and Typha orientalis from the riverbank were planted in the HCW system. Findings indicate a higher treatment efficiency for organics and suspended solids than nutrients. The inflow concentrations of 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), chemical oxygen demand (COD), suspended solids (SS), total nitrogen (TN), NH3-N, and total phosphorus (TP) were 125.6, 350.9, 334.2, 38.5, 27.2, and 3.9 mg/L, respectively. Average removal efficiencies of 94.4, 74.5, 92.0, 56.3, 57.5, and 69.2%, respectively, were recorded. However, the pollutant removal rates were highly seasonal especially for nitrogen. Higher removals were recorded for all pollutants in the autumn while significantly lower removals were recorded in the winter. Plant uptake and assimilation accounted for circa 19-29 and 16-23% of the TN and TP removal, respectively. Moreover, P. australis demonstrated a higher nutrient uptake ability and competitive potential. Overall, the high efficiency of the pilot HCW for improving the water quality of such a highly polluted urban river provided practical evidence of the applicability of the HCW technology for protecting urban water environments.