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During periods of predation risk, prey adopt antipredator behaviours to maximise chances of survival, such as increased vigilance, reduced foraging time, shifting to safe habitat, and group formation. To effectively balance resource acquisition and antipredator behavior, prey animals make use of cues within their environment that provide them accurate information about the realistic threat of predation. Using camera traps, we tested vigilance and feeding behavioural responses of two naturally occurring ungulate species roe deer and moose to cues from naturally occurring brown bear and novel Amur tiger predators. We found that roe deer and moose vigilance and feeding behaviours were not affected by either visual or olfactory cues from predators, suggesting that ungulates in this system do not respond differently to novel predator cues. There are a number of potential explanations for this surprising lack of response to any predator cues: a) habituation to uninformative cues is important; b) ungulates might have relied more heavily on other cue types, such as auditory cues, or cues in combination; and, c) constraints on dispersal and/or resources may result in prey being forced to remain in high risk food patches, and continued prioritization of feeding over vigilance. We therefore, recommend that in the future studies regarding cues should involve a combination of cues at a similar location to increase predation risk to the animals to maximise prey response. To our knowledge, this is the first study to lay out the foundation of the ecological influences of captive Amur tiger on prey behaviors in the wild environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To detect changes in vegetation is desirable for modeling and predicting interactions between land surface and atmosphere. Multitemporal series of SPOT VEGETATION NDVI dataset and meteorological data were integrated to interpret vegetation dynamics and the linkage with climate variations in the upper and middle reaches of the Nenjiang River Basin (NRB) from 1999 to 2010 using the correlation analysis and the rescaled range (R/S) analysis. The results demonstrate that annual NDVI increased slightly and 26.02% vegetation coverage of the study area significantly improved. The area of significantly decreased in vegetation cover took up 13.33% of the total land in spring. In autumn, 26.2% of the study area showed a significant vegetation increase. The improved activity of vegetation might reinforce in summer and autumn, while the decreasing tendency in spring might be persistent in the future. The yearly NDVI had significant positive linkages with precipitation and relative humidity. NDVI related significantly and negatively with temperature, sunshine hours and wind velocity, because they may have effects of increasing evapotranspiration and risk of drought and cold damage of vegetation. The variations of annual NDVI were much affected by summer temperature, relative humidity and sunshine duration in autumn and spring wind velocity. Seasonal NDVI decreased in parallel with elevated temperature, but there was no correlation between NDVI and precipitation. Spring temperature, relative humidity in summer and autumn contributed markedly to NDVI variations in the same season. The vegetation improving trend may induce by the warm-wetting climate in recent twelve years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Self-regulated learning (SRL) is a pivotal skill in the digital era, closely correlating to academic performance and professional development, particularly within medicine, where rapid advancements in knowledge and technology demand continuous learning. The Self-Regulated Learning Perception Scale (SRLPS), validated for reliability and validity, is a critical tool for assessing SRL among medical students. However, its application in Chinese medical education remains largely unexplored. This study aims to adapt the SRLPS for Chinese medical students and to develop a concise version to reduce participant burden and enhance the scale's practicality and generalizability., Methods: Two stages of surveys were conducted. In Stage 1, SRLPS was translated into Chinese through forward translation, back translation, and review and then was administered to 339 medical students. To assess the internal reliability and construct validity of the Chinese version of SRLPS, we calculated Cronbach's α values and conducted Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), respectively. According to psychometric performance, some items were removed to create a short version of SRLPS (SRLPS-S). In Stage 2, the SRLPS-S was administered to 736 medical students to verify its reliability and construct validity using Cronbach's α and CFA. Wilcoxon rank-sum tests were used to examine the associations between self-regulated learning perceptions and personal and household characteristics, including gender, maternal education level, and annual household income., Results: The Chinese SRLPS demonstrated acceptable internal consistency reliability and construct validity, although the elevated Cronbach's α indicated possible item redundancy. The SRLPS-S exhibited satisfactory internal consistency reliability and construct validity, confirming the four-domain structure of the original SRLPS. Wilcoxon Rank-sum test showed students' self-regulated learning positively linked to higher maternal education levels, higher annual household income, and male gender., Conclusion: The Chinese SRLPS and its short version are reliable and valid for assessing self-regulated learning. These scales can assist educators in identifying students who might require additional support in their learning strategies and can also be used for personal development. The short version is recommended for its enhanced psychometric properties and greater cost-efficiency., Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: The study protocol was approved by the China Medical University Ethics Committee (2017075). Participants were given sufficient explanations of the study’s purpose and signed an informed consent form. Methods were carried out following relevant guidelines and regulations. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Preeclampsia is a complex disorder with genetic and environmental interactions. In this study, we analyzed the associations of KCNQ1gene polymorphisms with preeclampsia in Chinese pregnant women. The 3 candidate single-nucleotide polymorphisms rs231840, rs2237892, and rs2237895 were genotyped in this case-control study; clinical and biochemical data were included and SNPs were gathered from 248 individuals with preeclampsia and 237 controls. The TT genotype rs231840 increased the risk of preeclampsia (OR: 1.633; 95% CI: 1.027-2.597) and was associated with higher blood glucose levels. The haplotype TCA containing the allele of rs231840 (T), rs2237892 (C), and rs2237895 (A) was highly protective against preeclampsia and associated with the levels of blood glucose in preeclamptic patients. A novel function was found for the haplotype CCA in SNPs rs231840 (C), rs2237892 (C), and rs2237895 (A); it might be a protective combination against preeclampsia. The KCNQ1 (TT) genotype seems to be associated with preeclampsia and might affect the regulation of blood glucose in Chinese pregnant women., Competing Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2024 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

Objectives: Residents inevitably witness or participate in a diverse range of professionalism dilemmas. However, few studies have focused on residents' moral distress from professionalism dilemmas and its relationship with residents' professionalism. This study aimed to understand the moral distress that Chinese residents may face after exposure to professionalism dilemmas and to examine the associations between moral distress and residents' perceived fulfillment of professionalism behaviors., Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of residents from four standardized residency training bases in Liaoning Province, China, using stratified cluster sampling. A checklist of professionalism dilemmas, the Moral Distress Scale, and the Behavior-based Medical Professionalism Inventory were used to assess residents' moral distress from professionalism dilemmas and their perceived fulfillment of professionalism behaviors. Descriptive statistics, non-parametric tests, multiple linear regressions, and binary logistic regressions were used to analyze the data., Results: A total of 647 (81.1%) residents effectively completed the survey. The proportion of residents suffering from moral distress ranged from 58.4 to 90.6% for different professionalism dilemmas. As the number of professionalism dilemmas associated with moral distress increased, residents reported lower fulfillment of professionalism behaviors ( β  < 0, p <  0.05). Compared with residents with no distress, residents suffering from distress reported lower fulfillment of professionalism behaviors (OR < 1, p <  0.05). Among residents suffering from distress, as the distress intensity increased, residents reported higher fulfillment of professionalism behaviors (OR > 1, p <  0.05)., Conclusions: Residents suffered a wide range of moral distress from professionalism dilemmas, and residents with moral distress reported lower fulfillment of professional behaviors. A responsive reporting system for residents and reflection on role modeling may help residents cope with the negative effects of moral distress and professionalism dilemmas.

Objective: To investigate the trimester-specific associations between maternal total physical activity level vs moderate-to-vigorous exercise and fetal growth disorders., Methods: We analyzed 2062 mother-neonate pairs participating in the longitudinal China Medical University Birth Cohort Study. The Pregnancy Physical Activity Questionnaire was used to assess the physical activity level of women during the three trimesters. A higher level of total physical activity was defined as meeting or exceeding the cohort-specific 75 th percentile, and a higher level of exercise was defined according to the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. Fetal growth disorder was defined as small-for-gestational age (SGA) or large-for-gestational age (LGA) at birth., Results: Of the neonates included in this study, 7.1% were SGA and 15.5% were LGA. A higher level of total physical activity during the first trimester (adjusted relative risk (aRR), 0.62 (95% CI, 0.42-0.91)) and second trimester (aRR, 0.62 (95% CI, 0.41-0.95)) was associated with a lower risk of SGA, and a higher level of total physical activity during the third trimester was associated with a lower risk of LGA (aRR, 0.73 (95% CI, 0.54-0.97)). When analyzing physical activity by subtype, a higher level of occupational physical activity during the first and second trimesters was associated negatively with SGA risk, and higher levels of occupational and low-intensity physical activity during the first trimester were associated negatively with LGA risk. No significant association was found between maternal adherence to the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans and risk of fetal growth disorders., Conclusions: A higher total physical activity level during the first and second trimesters was associated with a decreased risk of SGA, whereas a higher total physical activity level in the third trimester was associated with a decreased risk of LGA. Pregnant women should be advised to increase their total physical activity levels instead of focusing on engaging in only moderate-to-vigorous exercise. © 2024 International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology., (© 2024 International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology.)

Purpose: To examine residents' first-aid kit preparation and its influencing factors., Design: Cross-sectional survey., Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted among 449 permanent residents in Sichuan Province using convenience sampling. We examined participants' demographic characteristics, self-efficacy, health literacy, and personality., Findings: Of the participants, 111 (24.7%) stocked a home first-aid kit. The most frequent supplies were disinfection supplies (91.9%), common medicines (86.5%), and dressing supplies (76.6%). Family per capita monthly income, medical expenses payment method, chronic diseases, general self-efficacy, and health literacy were influencing factors of family first-aid kit preparedness., Conclusion: A multilevel and interactive emergency literacy education system should be established to improve residents' abilities to prevent emergencies., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Medical professionalism is a core competency for medical students during clerkships for further professional development. Given that the behavior-based framework could provide clear insight and is easy to assess, the study aimed to create a self-administered scale to measure the professional behaviors of medical students during their clerkships., Methods: A comprehensive literature review on medical professional behaviors in English or Chinese and Delphi interviews were used to develop the initial version of the Self-Administered Scale for Professional Behavior of Medical Students During Clerkships. The reliability and validity analysis based on a survey of medical students from China, Cronbach's α calculations, and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) specifically were conducted to finalize the scale. The associations of professional behaviors with gender, medical programs, and clerkship duration were examined using Wilcoxon rank-sum tests., Results: We included 121 studies and extracted 57 medical professionalism assessment tools, initially forming a pool of 48 items. To refine these items, eighteen experts participated in two rounds of Delphi interviews, ultimately narrowing down the item pool to 24 items. A total of 492 participants effectively completed the questionnaire. One item was removed due to its correlated item-total correlation (CITC) value, resulting in a final scale containing 23 items with six domains: Respect, Altruism, Communication and Collaboration, Integrity, Duty, and Excellence. The overall Cronbach's alpha value was 0.98, ranging from 0.88 to 0.95 for each domain. The fit indices (χ 2 /df = 4.07, CFI = 0.96, TLI = 0.95, RMSEA = 0.08, and SRMR = 0.02) signified a good fit for the six-domain model. Medical students' professional behavior was significantly associated with gender (p = 0.03) and clerkship duration (p = 0.001)., Conclusion: The scale was demonstrated to be reliable and valid in assessing the professional behaviors of Chinese medical students during clerkships., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Some patients with viral encephalitis in China seek treatment with Chinese patent medicine (CPM) to improve their symptoms, but few studies have focused on the impact of CPM on the prognosis of viral encephalitis (VE). The aim of this multicenter retrospective study was to assess the benefit of adjunctive CPM therapy on the outcome of children with VE in China., Methods: This study retrospectively included 834 children with viral encephalitis who were hospitalized at five medical institutions from 2018 to 2021. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression was used to assess the effect of CPM on sequelae in patients with VE. 1:1 propensity score matching was used to exclude the effect of confounding factors. Forest plots were used to observe the effect of CPM on the prognosis of VE in different subgroups., Results: There were fewer patients with sequelae in the group of patients using CPM regardless of whether they were matched or not. The results of multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the use of CPM was an independent protective factor for the development of sequelae in VE patients (OR = 0.063, 95 % CI: 0.011-0.350, p = 0.002). Subgroup analyses showed that CPM was a protective factor for the development of sequelae regardless of the presence or absence of coma and comorbidities. In addition, we evaluated other outcome indicators and found shorter duration of illness, fever and headache in children with EV in the CPM group., Conclusion: Adjunctive CPM therapy may significantly reduce sequelae in children with VE, as well as effectively alleviate patients' clinical symptoms. However, more prospective studies and clinical trials are needed to further evaluate its efficacy and safety., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier GmbH.)

Fragile karst ecosystems are characterized by complex topographic landscapes associated with high variations in vegetation restoration. Identifying the characteristics and driving factors of nitrogen (N) availability across the topographic gradient is essential to guide vegetation restoration in karst regions. In this study, we collected soil samples and plant leaves along the topographic gradient (ridge, upper slope, middle slope, and foot slope) of convex slopes in the karst fault basin of southwest China, and determined the indicators reflecting soil N availability, N transformation rates, and their controlling factors. Our results showed that foliar N content and δ 15 N value, soil inorganic N content and δ 15 N value, and foliar N:P ratio were substantially lower on the steep hillslopes than on the flat top ridge. Steep slope soils also had a lower enzyme C:N ratio but a higher enzyme N:P ratio than the flat ridge soils. Furthermore, the vector angles calculated by soil extracellular enzyme analysis were below 45 o in all studied soils and decreased significantly with increasing slope, indicating that microbial growth was generally limited by N. These results jointly suggest the declines in soil N availability across the topographic gradient, which are further explained by the changes in soil inherent N transformation processes. As the slope became steeper, soil mineralization and autotrophic nitrification (O NH4 ) rates decreased significantly, while ratio of microbial NH 4 + immobilization to O NH4 and NH 4 + adsorption rate increased significantly, indicating the decrease in soil inorganic N supply capacity. We further found that deteriorated soil structure, decreased soil organic matter and calcium content, altered microbial abundance, and increased ratios of fungi to bacteria and gram-positive bacteria to gram-negative bacteria were the primary drivers of reduced N transformation rates and N availability across the topographic gradient. Overall, this study highlights the critical role of the topography in controlling soil N availability by regulating N transformation processes in karst regions. The topography should be considered an important factor affecting the functions and services of karst ecosystems., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) effluent often contains a significant amount of residual organic pollutants and nutrients, causing disturbance to the coastal effluent receiving areas (ERA). Microbial communities in coastal ERA sediments may benefit from the coexistence of organic pollutants and nutrients, promoting the emergence of versatile taxa that are capable of eliminating these substances simultaneously. However, the identification and exploration of versatile taxa in natural environments under anthropogenic disturbances remain largely uncharted territory. In this study, we specifically focused on the versatile taxa coupled by the degradation of aromatic compounds (ACs) and denitrification, using Hangzhou Bay in China as our study area. We explored how WWTPs effluent disturbance would affect the versatile taxa, and particularly examined the role of disturbance intensity in shaping their composition. Intriguingly, we found that versatile taxa were mainly derived from denitrifiers like Pseudomonas, suggesting the fulfilled potential of denitrifiers regarding ACs degradation. We also discovered that moderate disturbance stimulated the diversity of versatile taxa, resulting in strengthened functional redundancy. Through correlation network analysis, we further demonstrated that moderate disturbance enhanced the community-level cooperation. Thus, moderate disturbance serves as a catalyst for versatile taxa to maintain community function, making them more resilient to effluent disturbances. Additionally, we identified COD and NO 3 - -N concentrations as significant environmental factors influencing the versatile taxa. Overall, our findings reveal the role of effluent disturbances in the promotion of versatile taxa, and highlight moderate disturbance can foster more robust versatile taxa that are better equipped to handle effluent disturbances., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Some disinfection by-products (DBPs) in drinking water present a potential safety concern. This study focuses on the elements influencing DBPs formation. A total of 120 water samples were collected from 10 different drinking water facilities spanning 5 counties within Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. Concentrations of trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs) were observed to be 14.5 and 27.4 μg/L, respectively, constituting 34 and 64% of the total DBPs. Seasonal fluctuations demonstrated that HAAs, THMs, halonitromethanes (HNMs), and haloacetonitriles (HANs) followed a similar pattern with higher levels in summer or autumn compared to spring. Importantly, the concentrations of HAAs and THMs were markedly higher in Taihu-sourced water compared to other sources. Geographically, Nanxun exhibited the highest levels of total DBPs, HAAs, and THMs, while Deqing and Changxing demonstrated significantly lower levels. Correlation studies between water quality parameters and DBPs revealed that factors such as chloride content, temperature, and residual chlorine positively influenced DBPs formation, whereas turbidity negatively affected it. Principal component analysis suggested similar formation processes for HANs, haloketones (HKs), HNMs, and THMs. Factors such as temperature, chemical oxygen demand (COD), and residual chlorine were identified as significant contributors to the prevalence of HAAs.

The North China Plain (NCP) has experienced increasingly severe groundwater nitrogen (TN) pollution. However, the factors influencing TN distribution are still poorly understood. Previous studies have identified surface soil nitrogen (TSN) loading and intrinsic groundwater vulnerability (Inv) as the main factors controlling groundwater TN pollution. However, in this study, based on 3245 shallow groundwater samples in the NCP, the multiple regression analysis results(R 2 =0.105, p<0.001) revealed that the TN was not mainly controlled by TSN and Inv. The lower prediction accuracy indicated the large data dispersion of TN, which might be affected by nitrogen attenuation or accumulation. Thus, the NCP was divided into balance, attenuation, and accumulation zones according to the regression equation. The attenuation zone was mainly distributed in the inter-fan and fan edge parts of the pre-mountain alluvial floodplain, as well as the west and south of the runoff area, while the accumulation zone was mainly distributed in the top part of the pre-mountain alluvial floodplain and the east of discharge area. Multi-indicators comparative analysis showed that compared to the balance (Eh= 76.2 mV) and accumulation (Eh=126.7 mV) zones, the attenuation zone has a stronger reducing environment (Eh=30.8 mV) favorable to denitrification, which can reduce the TN pollution (0.49 mg/L) caused by surface nitrogen input and consume more electron donors. Conversely, the stronger oxidizing environment in the accumulation zone limited denitrification, resulting in higher TN concentrations (19.14 mg/L) in the aquifers under the same TSN and Inv conditions as the other two zones. The standardized effects and significance on each path of the structural equation model (SEMs) fully confirmed the reliability of the above zonal analysis. Importantly, the feature importance (23.6%) of random forest and standardized effects (0.455, p<0.001) of SEMs showed that the Eh had the strongest influence on TN. Thus, the redox conditions of the aquifer, in addition to TSN and Inv, played a crucial role in controlling the TN pollution in the groundwater of a large region. The zoning work and the analysis of influencing factors are important to guide scientific prevention and control of groundwater nitrogen pollution., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: This study investigated the frequency of child restraint system (CRS) use in cars and assessed parental knowledge and attitudes toward such restraint systems in western China., Study Design: Cross-sectional survey., Methods: This cross-sectional survey was conducted between December 2021 and January 2022. Hospitals and kindergartens were convenience sampling selected, and parents with cars were asked whether they owned and used CRS. Parents' knowledge and attitudes toward such systems were also determined. Factors associated with CRS were explored using binary logistic regression., Results: A total of 4764 questionnaires were distributed to parents with children 0-6 years old. Among the 4455 responses received, 50.8% of the respondents owned CRS, and most of which were front-facing child seats (42.0%). Less than half (44.4%) reported using a CRS sometimes, but only 19.6% used it all the time. The possession and use of a CRS varied significantly with the parental education level, age of the child, place of residence, number of children, family income, travel frequency, and travel distance. Logistic regression analysis showed that the frequency of car travel with a child and monthly family income significantly affected CRS use. Most parents (85.2%) perceived that adult seat belt in cars are effective at protecting their children in the event of a crash. The most frequent reason for not using a CRS was the tendency for children to travel in the car less often., Conclusions: Although approximately half of the respondents owned a CRS, most of them used it rarely, if at all. Educating parents about safe ways for children to ride in a car and use of safety belts may promote CRS use., (© 2023 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Antibiotics are emerging pollutants that have detrimental effects on both target and non-target organisms in the environment. However, current methods for environmental risk assessment primarily focus on the risk to non-target organisms in ecosystems, overlooking a crucial risk of antibiotics - the induction of resistance in targeted bacteria. To address this oversight, we have incorporated resistance (R) risk with persistence, bioaccumulation and toxicity (PBT) to establish a more comprehensive PBTR (persistence, bioaccumulation, toxicity, and resistance) framework for antibiotic-specific risk assessment. Using the PBTR framework, we evaluated 74 antibiotics detected in Chinese seawater from 2000 to 2021, and identified priority antibiotics. Our analysis revealed that the priority antibiotics with R risk accounted for the largest proportion (50% to 70%), followed by P risk (40% to 58%), T risk (16% to 35%) and B risk (0 to 13%). To further categorize these priority antibiotics, we assigned them a risk level according to their fulfillment of criteria related to P, B, T, and R. Antibiotics meeting all four indicators were classified as Grade I, representing the highest risk level. Grade II and Grade III were assigned to antibiotics meeting three or two indicators, respectively. Antibiotics meeting only one indicator were classified as Grade IV, representing the lowest risk level. The majority of priority antibiotics fell into Grade IV, indicating low risk (55% to 79%), followed by Grade III (16% to 45%). The highest risk antibiotic identified in this study was clindamycin (CLIN), categorized as Grade II, in the East China Sea. Our findings aligned with previous studies for 25 antibiotics, affirming the validity of the PBTR framework. Moreover, we identified 13 new priority antibiotics, highlighting the advancement of this approach. This study provides a feasible screening strategy and monitoring recommendations for priority antibiotics in Chinese seawater., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

The trimester-specific associations of maternal dietary patterns with preterm birth (PTB) are unclear. In a prospective prebirth cohort study, we aimed to examine the critical time window of maternal prenatal dietary patterns and the risk of PTB. We assessed prenatal dietary intake among 1500 pregnant women with validated food frequency questionnaires during the 1 st , 2 nd and 3 rd trimester, respectively. We used logistic regression models and generalized estimating equation models to examine the trimester-specific associations and longitudinal associations between maternal dietary patterns in relation to risk of PTB and PTB subtypes. The incidence rate of PTB was 11.9% (179 out of 1500 pregnant women) in the present study. We observed that maternal adherence to a fish-seafood pattern in the 1 st trimester was associated with higher risk of PTB [tertile 3 (T3) vs. tertile 1 (T1): OR = 2.29, 95% CI: 1.32-3.96] and iatrogenic preterm birth (IPTB) (T3 vs. T1: OR = 2.26, 95% CI: 1.21-4.20), while a fish-seafood pattern in the 2 nd trimester was associated with lower risk of PTB (T3 vs. T1: OR = 0.49, 95% CI: 0.25-0.93). Maternal adherence to a dairy-egg pattern in the 2 nd or 3 rd trimester was associated with higher risks of PTB and IPTB. No dietary patterns were associated with spontaneous preterm birth. Our findings provide new evidence that specific dietary patterns during different trimesters may have different and even inverse health effects on pregnant women. This supports the necessity of guiding the maternal diet according to different periods of pregnancy to prevent PTB.

Afforestation and reforestation (A&R) are nature-based and cost-effective solutions for enhancing terrestrial carbon sinks and facilitating faster carbon neutrality. However, the lack of hierarchical spatial-temporal maps for the carbon sequestration rate (CSR) from A&R at the national scale impedes the scientific implementation of forest management planning to a large extent. Here, we assessed the spatial-temporal CSR per area for A&R at the provincial, prefectural, and county levels in China using a forest carbon sequestration model under three climate scenarios. Results showed that the CSR of vegetation (CSR Veg ), soil (CSR Soil ), and the ecosystem (CSR Eco ) significantly varied across space and time. In China, the CSR Veg , CSR Soil , and CSR Eco were primarily regulated by the spatial variations in temperature and precipitation. Additionally, CSR Veg was found to be positively influenced by precipitation and temperature, whereas temperature had a negative influence on CSR Soil . Therefore, the differences between the CSR Veg and CSR Soil should be emphasized in the future. These information on the spatiotemporal variation of CSR of A&R (vegetation, soil, and ecosystem) on unit area basis and at levels of province, prefecture, and county in China, can be used as a comparable protocol to estimate the carbon sinks of A&R at different scales. Overall, these hierarchical spatiotemporal maps for CSR on A&R may help to identify priority areas of forest management planning and carbon trade policy to achieve faster carbon neutrality for China in the future., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: The global prevalence of insufficient physical activity (PA) was reported to be 27.5% in 2016, and there were stable levels of insufficient PA worldwide between 2001 and 2016. The global target of a 10% reduction in insufficient PA by 2025 will not be met if the trends remain. The relevant data for trends in China were still scarce. This study aimed to determine nationwide temporal trends in insufficient PA among adults in China from 2010 to 2018., Methods: 645 903 adults aged 18 years or older were randomly selected from four nationally representative cross-sectional surveys of the China Chronic Disease and Risk Factor Surveillance conducted in 2010, 2013, 2015, and 2018. PA was measured using the Global Physical Activity Questionnaire. Temporal changes in insufficient PA prevalence and participation of domain-specific moderate- to vigorous-intensity PA (MVPA) were analyzed using logistic regression., Results: From 2010 to 2018, the age-adjusted prevalence of insufficient PA in China increased from 17.9% (95% confidence interval 16.3% to 19.5%) in 2010 to 22.3% (20.9% to 23.8%) in 2018 (P for trend < 0.001). By age group, with a significant increase in insufficient PA in adults aged 18-34 years (P for trend < 0.001), which rose more rapidly than in adults aged ≥ 35 years (P for interaction < 0.001). Insufficient PA has increased significantly among adults engaged in agriculture-related work, non-manual work, and other manual work (all P for trend < 0.05). And among the occupational groups, those engaged in agriculture-related work had the fastest increase (P for interaction = 0.01). The percentage of adults participating in work-related MVPA decreased from 79.6% (77.8% to 81.5%) to 66.8% (64.9% to 68.7%) along with a decrease in time spent on work-related MVPA, while percentages of adults participating in recreation-related MVPA increased from 14.2% (12.5% to 15.9%) to 17.2% (16.0% to 18.4%) (all P for trend < 0.05)., Conclusions: Among Chinese adults, an increasing trend was found in insufficient PA from 2010 to 2018, with more than one-fifth of adults failing to achieve the recommendation of adequate PA. More targeted PA promotion strategies should be developed to improve population health., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

The age determination of individuals, especially minors, is critical in forensic research. In forensic practice, dental age estimation is one of the most commonly used methods for determining age as teeth are easy to preserve and relatively resistant to environmental factors. Tooth development is affected and regulated by genetic factors; however, these are not incorporated into current commonly used tooth age inference methods, leading to unreliable results. Here, we established a Demirjian and a Cameriere tooth age estimation-based methods suitable for use in children in southern China. By using the difference between the inferred age and the actual age (MD) as the phenotype, we identified 65 and 49 SNPs related to tooth age estimation from 743,722 loci among 171 children in southern China through a genome-wide association analysis (p<0.0001). We also conducted a genome-wide association study on dental development stage (DD) using the Demirjian tooth age estimation method and screened two sets of SNP sites (52 and 26) based on whether age difference was considered. The gene function enrichment analysis of these SNPs found that they were related to bone development and mineralization. Although SNP sites screened based on MD seem to improve the accuracy of tooth age estimation, there is little correlation between these SNPs and an individual's Demirjian morphological stage. In conclusion, we found that individual genotypes can affect tooth age estimation, and based on different phenotypic analysis models, we have identified some novel SNP sites related to tooth age inference and Demirjian's tooth development stage. These studies provide a reference for subsequent phenotypic selection based on tooth age inference analysis, and the results could possibly be used in the future to make forensic age estimation more accurate., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: Although life satisfaction is a predictor of depressive and anxiety symptoms, the mechanisms underlying this association are poorly understood. This study examined how psychological capital (PsyCap), a positive psychological state, mediated the association between life satisfaction and depressive and anxiety symptoms among Chinese medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic., Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted at three medical universities in China. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 583 students. Depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, life satisfaction, and PsyCap were measured anonymously. A hierarchical linear regression analysis was performed to explore the effects of life satisfaction on depressive and anxiety symptoms. Asymptotic and resampling strategies were used to examine how PsyCap mediates the association between life satisfaction and depressive and anxiety symptoms., Results: Life satisfaction was positively associated with PsyCap and its four components. There were significant negative associations between life satisfaction, psychological capital, resilience, optimism, and depressive and anxiety symptoms among medical students. Self-efficacy was negatively associated with depressive and anxiety symptoms. Psychological capital (a×b = -0.3201, BCa 95% CI: -0.3899, -0.2446; a×b = -0.2749, BCa 95% CI: -0.3817, -0.1996), resilience (a×b = -0.2103, BCa 95% CI: -0.2727, -0.1580; a×b = -0.1871, BCa 95% CI: -0.2520, -0.1414), optimism (a×b = -0.2100, BCa 95% CI: -0.3388, -0.1150; a×b = -0.1998, BCa 95% CI: -0.3307, -0.0980), and self-efficacy (a×b = -0.0916, BCa 95% CI: 0.0048, 0.11629; a×b = 0.1352, BCa 95% CI: 0.0336, 0.2117) significantly mediated the association between life satisfaction and depressive and anxiety symptoms., Limitations: This was a cross-sectional study, and causal relationships between the variables could not be ascertained. Self-reported questionnaire instruments were used for data collection, which may have recall bias., Conclusions: Life satisfaction and PsyCap can be used as positive resources to reduce depressive and anxiety symptoms among third-year Chinese medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Psychological capital and its components (self-efficacy, resilience, and optimism) partially mediated the relationship between life satisfaction and depressive symptoms, and completely mediated the relationship between life satisfaction and anxiety symptoms. Therefore, improving life satisfaction and investing in psychological capital (especially self-efficacy, resilience, and optimism) should be included in the prevention and treatment of depressive and anxiety symptoms among third-year Chinese medical students. Additional attention is needed to pay for self-efficacy in such disadvantageous contexts., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Introduction: Poor literacy is associated with hepatitis morbidity and mortality. Adolescents are especially at risk of hepatitis C. This study investigated viral hepatitis literacy, risk, and influencing factors among Chinese middle and high school students., Methodology: A supervised self-administered survey was conducted with school children from six schools in Shantou, China. Data on demographics, health literacy, and risk of viral hepatitis were analyzed., Results: A total of 1732 students (from three middle and three high schools) participated in the study. Their major information resources were the internet (39.5%, 685/1732), television (28.8%, 498/1732), family (27.7%, 479/1732), and school (21.2%, 368/1732). The mean literacy score on the manifestations and risk factors of hepatitis was 3.4 ± 2.2 and 4.0 ± 2.3 (out of 8), respectively. Multiple linear regression models showed being female and in high school, having parents with higher education levels, and school or clinicians as an information resource were independent positive predictors, whereas poor awareness of risk factors was a negative predictor for health literacy., Conclusions: We report the risk of hepatitis among Chinese middle and high school students due to limited literacy and poor attitudes towards health-risk behaviors. Health education in school is recommended for preventable health risks among Chinese adolescents., Competing Interests: No Conflict of Interest is declared, (Copyright (c) 2023 Dangui Zhang, Darong Wen, Ganyuan He, Zhenyu Chen, Wenrui Zeng, Lichun Lu, Chuangfeng Huang, William Ba-Thein.)

Environmental lead exposure poses risks to children' health, thus exposure sources and pathways identification remain important concern and research scope. Due to sharing the same environment, domestic animals, especially dogs, have been used as useful sentinels to identify human lead exposure. However, more evidence is needed on whether domestic dogs could be used to identify the lead exposure pathways and sources of children. Thus, this study investigated the dietary habits, behaviors, and household environment of children and dogs in a typical coal-fired area in China. The lead levels and lead isotope ratios (Acronym: LIRs, expressed as 208 Pb/ 206 Pb and 207 Pb/ 206 Pb) in dogs' and children's blood, as well as in environmental media (food, PM 2.5 , indoor/outdoor dust, drinking water and soil) were measured to explore the predominant lead pollution sources and exposure pathways of children. The results showed that the LIRs of children's blood ( 208 Pb/ 206 Pb = 2.0703 ± 0.0076, 207 Pb/ 206 Pb = 0.8501 ± 0.0052) were similar to those of dogs' blood ( 208 Pb/ 206 Pb = 2.0696 ± 0.0085, 207 Pb/ 206 Pb = 0.8499 ± 0.0052), as well as similar to the LIRs of environmental media, i.e. children's food ( 208 Pb/ 206 Pb = 2.0731 ± 0.0057, 207 Pb/ 206 Pb = 0.8491 ± 0.0036) and coal ( 208 Pb/ 206 Pb = 2.0683 ± 0.017, 207 Pb/ 206 Pb = 0.8515 ± 0.01). Children and dogs had similar lead exposure pathways, but the contributions of each exposure pathway were different, i.e., 83.1% vs. 76.9% for children and dogs via food ingestion, 1.4% vs. 5.6% via particulate matter exposure, and 15.5% vs. 17.5% via household dust exposure, respectively. The contribution of food via ingestion to lead exposure remains dominant, and coal combustion is a main lead exposure source for children and domestic dogs., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Tourism-related carbon emission efficiency is an important indicator that reflects the sustainable development of tourism and can better balance the relationship between negative environmental impact and economic value. According to panel data of 30 provincial regions, "the tourism value added coefficient" (not including the Tibet Autonomous Region) in mainland China from 2000 to 2019, we estimate the tourism of each provincial administrative unit carbon emissions, measure the tourism carbon efficiency value, and analyze the measurement results of the change trend, spatial differentiation characteristics, and influencing factors. The results show that (1) the carbon emission efficiency of regional tourism in China increased significantly from 2000 to 2019, but there was a significant difference in the carbon emission efficiency of tourism among regions, and the sustainable development level of regional tourism was still unbalanced. (2) The spatial pattern of provincial administrative units in China has the adjacent characteristics of High-High agglomeration and Low-Low agglomeration, the difference in the tourism eco-efficiency development level among regions gradually decreases with time, and there is a dynamic convergence characteristic. (3) The q value represents the intensity of the impact factor on tourism carbon emission efficiency. According to the q value, the factors affecting tourism carbon emission efficiency were divided into dominant factors (0.5 ≤ q ≤ 1), inducing factors (0.2 ≤ q < 0.5) and driving factors (0 ≤ q < 0.2), among which the level of technological development was the dominant factor. The level of opening-up to the outside world is the inducing factor; environmental regulation intensity, urbanization level, regional economic development level, tourism industry environment, and tourism infrastructure are the driving factors. (4) The influence degree of influencing factors on the spatial differentiation of tourism carbon emission efficiency is significantly different in different periods. The degree of influence of the urbanization level and tourism industry environment shows an upward trend over time, and the influence degree of other factors shows a "V-shaped" trend. (5) The two-factor interaction will significantly enhance the spatial differentiation of regional tourism carbon emission efficiency, and the interaction between the level of scientific and technological innovation and other influencing factors has a deeper impact on tourism carbon emission efficiency.

Rivers are important environmental sources of human exposure to antibiotic resistance. Many factors can change antibiotic resistance in rivers, including bacterial communities, human activities, and environmental factors. However, the systematic comparison of the differences in antibiotics resistance and risks between urban rivers (URs) and rural rivers (RRs) in a pharmaceutical industry dominated city is still rare. In this study, Shijiazhuang City (China) was selected as an example to compare the differences in antibiotics resistance and risks between URs and RRs. The results showed higher concentrations of total quinolones (QNs) antibiotics in both water and sediment samples collected from URs than those from RRs. The subtypes and abundances of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in URs were significantly higher than those in RRs, and most emerging ARGs (including OXA-type, GES-type, MCR-type, and tet(X)) were only detected in URs. The ARGs were mainly influenced by QNs in URs and social-economic factors (SEs) in RRs. The composition of the bacterial community was significantly different between URs and RRs. The abundance of antibiotic-resistant pathogenic bacteria (ARPBs) and virulence factors (VFs) were higher in URs than those in RRs. Therein, 371 and 326 pathogen types were detected in URs and RRs, respectively. Most emerging ARGs showed a significantly positive correlation with priority ARPBs. Variance partitioning analysis revealed that SEs were the main driving factors of ARGs (80 %) and microbial communities (92 %) both in URs and RRs. Structural equation models indicated that antibiotics (QNs) and microbial communities were the most direct influence of ARGs in URs and RRs, respectively. The cumulative resistance risk of QNs was high in URs, but relatively low in RRs. Enrofloxacin and flumequine posed the highest risk in water and sediment, respectively. This study could help us to better manage and control the risk of antibiotic resistance in different rivers., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None declared., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Smartphone addiction bodes adverse consequences, affecting different populations, including medical students. Parental bonding in childhood had been associated with addiction and recovery in later life. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the associations between parental bonding and smartphone addiction among Chinese medical students., Method: Binary logistic regressions were used to investigate the associations between parental bonding with mothers and fathers, respectively, and smartphone addiction. Interaction terms of care and protection were included in the models., Results: A total of 517 medical students were included in the study. The prevalence of smartphone addiction was 48.16% (n = 249). The estimated effects of maternal and paternal parenting on smartphone addiction differed. Maternal protection was positively associated with smartphone addiction (OR, 1.046;95% CI, 1.005-1.087), and maternal care enhanced the estimated effect of protection on smartphone addiction. Paternal care was negatively associated with smartphone addiction (OR, 0.954;95% CI, 0.919-0.989)., Conclusions: Chinese medical students with overprotective mothers or with indifferent fathers tended to exhibit traits of smartphone addiction. Further studies on factors influencing the associations between parental bonding and smartphone addiction may pave the way for potential family-oriented interventions for smartphone addiction., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Antenatal depression is associated with adverse birth and long-term outcomes for mothers and children. Pregnant women spend 90% of time indoors; however, the association between indoor air quality and risk of antenatal depression has not been established. In this study, we aim to determine the total and trimester-specific association of perceived indoor air quality (PIAQ) with antenatal depression. A total of 2166 pregnant women were enrolled during the first trimester and evaluated during the second and third trimesters in the China Medical University Birth Cohort Study, a prospective pre-birth cohort study in northeastern China. PIAQ scores were obtained during each of three trimesters, which a higher score indicated a worse indoor air quality. Antenatal depression was screened using an Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and defined as an EPDS score ≥ 9. Prevalence of antenatal depression was 26.7%, 20.6%, and 20.9% during the first, second, and third trimesters, respectively. A higher PIAQ score was positively associated with a depression score throughout pregnancy (β = 0.27, 95% CI = 0.15-0.39). Trimester-specific adverse PIAQ exposure was associated with a higher depression score in the same trimester, but not with a higher score in a subsequent trimester. A dose-response pattern and incremental increases in risk of depression were observed with calculated adverse PIAQ exposures across all three trimesters, with the highest risk (OR = 3.24; 95% CI = 2.28-4.78) among women with adverse PIAQ across all three trimesters. The hazardous association between adverse PIAQ exposure and risk of depression were less pronounced among women with higher physical activity levels (P for interaction < 0.001). The results of present study provided important evidence that pregnant women's mental health was linked to indoor air quality during pregnancy. These findings could be helpful in the development of guidelines to prevent antenatal depression by improving indoor air quality., (© 2022 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore whether team-based learning (TBL) was more effective than traditional didactic lectures (TDLs) in improving medical students' problem-solving and study skills in the clinical course of ophthalmology. In addition, we were also concerned about Chinese students' satisfaction with TBL., Methods: Our study program involved 275 students of the 5-year clinical medicine program from Central South China University, of which 140 were enrolled in a modified TBL course. A questionnaire that included closed-ended and open-ended items was distributed to students immediately following the completion of the TBL session, and 108 valid questionnaires were collected. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze quantitative data. The effects of the TBL module on students' performance were measured between the groups using a one-way between-group analysis of variance (ANOVA) test by the individual readiness assurance test (IRAT), the group readiness assurance test (GRAT), and final examination scores (FESs), compared with a class without the TBL session., Results: With our modified TBL strategy, 140 students achieved a mean test score of 72.65 on test questions that assessed their knowledge of ophthalmology compared to 135 students who achieved a mean score of 70.8 using the TDL method ( p = 0.3434). The performance in a pre-class quiz was significantly better in the GRAT compared to the IRAT. In comparison to the TDL session, the modified TBL was preferred and acceptable by most medical students., Conclusions: By applying the modified TBL to ophthalmology, students improved their performance, self-study, and teamwork, and their class engagement and satisfaction were enhanced. However, TBL should be further optimized and developed to enhance educational outcomes., 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 Wu, Pu, Zhang, Xiong, Zhou, Xia and Wen.)

In some criminal cases, the identity of suspect is unknown and there is no matching DNA profile in the DNA database. Forensic DNA Phenotyping can provide useful investigative information for these cases. Most forensic studies focus on visible characteristics rather than behavioral characteristics. However, smoking is prevalent in the Chinese population, and DNA methylation is the most promising biomarker for smoking. We collected 204 whole blood samples from the Chinese population and measured methylation levels of 9 smoking-related CpG loci using the methylation-sensitive single-nucleotide primer extension method (Ms-SnuPE). But the single-base extension primers of loci cg12803068 and cg21566642 contained other CpG sites, which may introduce bias, and only the other 7 CpG loci were included in subsequent statistical analysis. The methylation level of locus cg05575921 near the aromatic hydrocarbon receptor repressor (AHRR) gene was much lower in the current smoker group than in the never smoker group. To evaluate the ability of each of 7 CpG loci to predict smoking status, the logistic regression (LR) models were established separately, and locus cg05575921 had the best ability to predict smoking status compared with the other 6 loci. Then, combined (including loci cg19572487, cg05575921, cg23480021, cg23576855, cg21161138, cg01940273, and cg09935388) and stepwise (including loci cg05575921 and cg01940273) multinomial logistic regression (MLR) models were also established. Both combined and stepwise MLR models had good efficiencies in predicting smoking status, and outperformed the above 7 LR models. However, the accuracy, specificity and area under the curve (AUC) of stepwise MLR model in the testing dataset were slightly higher than those of combined MLR model, and the stepwise MLR model required less loci information. Therefore, the stepwise MLR model based on 2 significant CpG loci was more recommended model for predicting smoking status in the Chinese population, and the formula was as follow: P = 1/(1 +e -(10.621-10.005*cg05575921-8.770*cg01940273) ). Mainly 2 CpG loci (cg05575921 and cg01940273) played a major role in the prediction of smoking status, and the other 5 CpG loci contributed less. Moreover, for evaluating the ability of each of 7 CpG loci to predict cigarette consumption, the polynomial regression formulas were established separately. As the adjusted R 2 was between 0.00 and 0.20, the methylation levels of these 7 loci were not closely associated with the cigarette consumption. Our methylation assay is simple, economical, and available in conventional forensic laboratories, and may be useful in assessing the smoking status of unknown suspects., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest statement The authors have no conflict of interest to declare., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Foliar stable nitrogen (N) isotopes (δ 15 N) generally reflect N availability to plants and have been used to infer about changes thereof. However, previous studies of temporal trends in foliar δ 15 N have ignored the influence of confounding factors, leading to uncertainties on its indication to N availability. In this study, we measured foliar δ 15 N of 1811 herbarium specimens from 12 plant species collected in southern China forests from 1920 to 2010. We explored how changes in atmospheric CO 2 , N deposition and global warming have affected foliar δ 15 N and N concentrations ([N]) and identified whether N availability decreased in southern China. Across all species, foliar δ 15 N significantly decreased by 0.82‰ over the study period. However, foliar [N] did not decrease significantly, implying N homeostasis in forest trees in the region. The spatiotemporal patterns of foliar δ 15 N were explained by mean annual temperature (MAT), atmospheric CO 2 ( P CO 2 ), atmospheric N deposition, and foliar [N]. The spatiotemporal trends of foliar [N] were explained by MAT, temperature seasonality, P CO 2 , and N deposition. N deposition within the rates from 5.3 to 12.6 kg N ha -1  year -1 substantially contributed to the temporal decline in foliar δ 15 N. The decline in foliar δ 15 N was not accompanied by changes in foliar [N] and therefore does not necessarily reflect a decline in N availability. This is important to understand changes in N availability, which is essential to validate and parameterize biogeochemical cycles of N., (© 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Low molybdenum (Mo) bioavailability in acidic soil obstructs vegetable nitrogen assimilation and thus increases the health risk of vegetable ingestion due to nitrate accumulation. Constantly providing available Mo in acidic soil is a challenge for decreasing nitrate accumulation in vegetables. In this study, three Mo application methods, including biochar-based Mo slow-release fertilizer (Mo-biochar), seed dressing, and basal application, were investigated to enhance Mo bioavailability in acidic soil and nitrogen assimilation in Chinese flowering cabbage (Brassica parachinensis). The results showed that Mo-biochar constantly and sufficiently supplied Mo nutrients throughout the growing period of Brassica parachinensis, as evidenced by the soil available Mo, plant Mo uptake, and Mo values. The improved Mo supply was attributed to the alleviation of acidic soil (pH from 5.10 to 6.99) and the slow release of Mo adsorbed on biochar. Mo-biochar increased the nitrate reductase (NR) activity by 238.6% and glutamate dehydrogenase activity by 27.5%, indicating an enhancement of the rate-limiting steps of nitrogen assimilation, especially for nitrate reduction and amino acid synthesis. The increase in Mo-containing NR could be directly ascribed to the high level of Mo in Brassica parachinensis. Compared with the control, the nitrate content of Brassica parachinensis decreased by 42.9% due to the nitrate reduction induced by increased NR. Additionally, Mo-biochar was beneficial to vegetable growth and quality. In contrast, the transformation from NO 3 - to NH 4 + was blocked with Mo seed dressing and basal application because of low Mo bioavailability in the soil, resulting in a high nitrate content in Brassica parachinensis. Conclusively, Mo-biochar can slowly release Mo and improve the neutral environment for Mo bioavailability, which is an effective strategy to mitigate the high nitrate accumulation of vegetables planted in acidic soil., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Assessment of ecosystem service supply and demand, as well as the budgets of ecosystem service supply and demand, is the basis of scientific urban planning. In the 20 years between the proposal and formation of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), the natural ecosystem has been degraded and the ecological balance has been destroyed. In this paper, in order to assess the changes in ecosystem services in the GBA, a deep learning method composed of deep change vector analysis and the ResUnet model is proposed to achieve land use/land cover (LULC) mapping for 2000 and 2020. An index-based non-monetary evaluation method is then employed to quantify the value of the ecosystem services, and the spatial and temporal characteristics of the ecosystem service changes are analyzed. The results reveal that: (1) the proposed deep learning approach that combines deep change vector analysis (CVA) and model fine-tuning is able to achieve rapid and efficient LULC mapping in a large-scale area with multi-temporal image sequences. The overall accuracy of LULC mapping is 86.06% for 2000 and 86.67% for 2020. (2) The impervious surface area of all the cities in the GBA has increased significantly between 2000 and 2020, with an overall increase of 11.95%. (3) The mismatch between supply and demand for ecosystem services in the GBA has intensified, especially for provisioning, regulation, and cultural services. (4) The spatial distribution of the ecosystem service budget changes in the GBA shows aggregation characteristics and spatially positive correlation. These findings will provide important insights for promoting the coordinated development of the regional ecosystems and social economy in the GBA., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In order to obtain in-depth insight of the behavioral fate and ecological risks of antibiotics in coastal environment, this study investigated the distribution, partitioning and primary influencing factors of antibiotics in water and sediment in the East China Sea. After quantification of 77 target antibiotics in 6 categories, ten antibiotics were detected simultaneously with a detection frequency >50.0% in water and sediment; the concentrations of these ten antibiotics were 0.1-1508.0 ng L -1 and 0.01-9.4 ng g -1 in water and dry sediment, respectively. Sulfadiazine and Azithromycin (Pseudo partitioning coefficient were 28-3814 L kg -1 and 21-2405 L kg -1 , respectively.) had the largest partitioning coefficient between sediment and water. In addition, pseudo partitioning coefficient of Sulfadiazine and Clindamycin were higher than the values of corresponding equilibrium partitioning constant (K d ), which would likely cause them to re-release from sediment to water. Compared to the physiochemical properties of the sediment, water quality has a greater impact on antibiotic partitioning. We found that the partitioning of antibiotics was significantly positively correlated with salinity, suspended solids, pH, NH 4 + -N and Zn; and negatively correlated with temperature, dissolved oxygen, PO 4 3- , chemical oxygen demand, NO 3 - -N, oil, Cu and Cd. The ecological risks of antibiotics in water and sediment were also evaluated for revealing their relationship with the concentration partitioning of antibiotics. Results showed that the target antibiotics mainly pose ecological risks to Daphnia with low and median chronic toxicity risk rather than fish and green algae. The antibiotics in sediment were more chronically toxic to Daphnia than that in water. The risk quotient ratio of sediment and water (RQ s /RQ w ) ranged from 0 to 1154.0, which were exactly opposite of the values of organic carbon normalized partition coefficient (K oc ), suggesting that the physical properties of antibiotics drove the ecological risk allocation of antibiotics in sediment and water., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Dust is regarded as an important pathway of heavy metal(loid)s to the human body. Health risks posed by metal(loid)s from household dust are of particular concern. However, the contamination and sources of heavy metal(loid)s in household dust environments, as well as source identification of health risks related to heavy metal(loid)s from household dust for vulnerable populations such as children, have not been thoroughly studied in China, particularly for the areas involved with industrial activities such as ore mining. Thus, a cross-sectional study was conducted in a rural area famous for Pb/Zn ore mining, to assess the pollution sources and health risks of heavy metal(loid)s from household indoor and outdoor dust and to identify the contribution of household dust to the health risks for children. The results indicated that household environment was heavily contaminated by metal(loid)s, which were mainly attributed to mining activity. Meanwhile, the indoor/outdoor ratio and the redundancy analysis indicated that there were other pollution sources in indoor environments such as coal combustion, materials for interior building and decoration. Vapor inhalation was the main exposure pathway for Hg, while ingestion was the predominant pathway for other metal(loid)s. Although the cancer risks were relatively low, the HIt from household indoor and outdoor dust (2.19) was about twice the acceptable limit (1) and was primarily from Pb (64.52%) and As (23.42%). Outdoor dust was a larger contributor to the HI of Sb, As, Cr, Cd, Zn and Pb, which accounted for 51.37%, 58.63%, 52.14%, 59.66%, 52.87% and 64.47%, respectively, and the HIt was mainly from outdoor dust (60.76%). These results indicated that non-cancer health risks were largely from outdoor dust exposure, and strengthened the notion that concern should be given to the potential health risks from metal(loid)s in household dust both originating from mining activity and indoor environmental sources., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Shotgun metagenomics has been used clinically for diagnosing infectious diseases. However, most technical assessments have been limited to individual sets of reference standards, experimental workflows, and laboratories., Methods: A reference panel and performance metrics were designed and used to examine the performance of shotgun metagenomics at 17 laboratories in a coordinated collaborative study. We comprehensively assessed the reliability, key performance determinants, reproducibility, and quantitative potential., Findings: Assay performance varied significantly across sites and microbial classes, with a read depth of 20 millions as a generally cost-efficient assay setting. Results of mapped reads by shotgun metagenomics could indicate relative and intra-site (but not absolute or inter-site) microbial abundance., Interpretation: Assay performance was significantly impacted by the microbial type, the host context, and read depth, which emphasizes the importance of these factors when designing reference reagents and benchmarking studies. Across sites, workflows and platforms, false positive reporting and considerable site/library effects were common challenges to the assay's accuracy and quantifiability. Our study also suggested that laboratory-developed shotgun metagenomics tests for pathogen detection should aim to detect microbes at 500 CFU/mL (or copies/mL) in a clinically relevant host context (10^5 human cells/mL) within a 24h turn-around time, and with an efficient read depth of 20M., Funding: This work was supported by National Science and Technology Major Project of China (2018ZX10102001)., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest SM Xie, WJ Chen, JY Zhao, YL Wu, XF Meng, C Ouyang, Z Jiang, ZK Liang, HQ Tan, Y Fang, N Qin, YL Guan, and W Gai were employed by Vision Medicals Center for Infectious Diseases, BGI PathoGenesis Pharmaceutical Technology, Dalian GenTalker Clinical Laboratory, Guangzhou Sagene Biotech Co., Ltd., Guangzhou Kingmed Diagnostics, Hangzhou MatriDx Biotechnology Co., Ltd, Genskey Medical Technology, Co., Ltd., Guangzhou Darui Biotechnology, Co., Ltd., Hangzhou IngeniGen XunMinKang Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Dinfectome Inc, Realbio Genomics Institute, Hugobiotech Co., Ltd., WillingMed Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd., respectively, outside the submitted work. WL Xing was employed by School of Medicine Tsinghua University and CapitalBio Technology Co., Ltd., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Galectin-3-binding protein (GAL-3BP) is a ubiquitous and multifunctional secreted glycoprotein, which functions in innate immunity and has been highlighted as a potential mediator of adipose inflammation in obesity. In this study, we aimed to identify whether GAL-3BP is a novel biological marker for metabolic syndrome (MetS)., Methods: The biochemical and anthropometric variables of the 570 participants in this study were evaluated using standard procedures. Their serum GAL-3BP levels were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), while the association between the glycoprotein and MetS was analyzed using multiple logistic regression analyses. Moreover, an experimental MetS model was established. The expression of GAL-3BP in serum and adipose tissue was measured using ELISA and western blotting. Lipid accumulation was determined with the use of immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescent staining., Results: The serum GAL-3BP level was found to be positively associated with MetS. The logistic regression analyses demonstrated that participants expressing the upper levels of GAL-3BP were more likely to develop MetS than those expressing less of the glycoprotein (OR = 2.39, 95%CI: 1.49, 3.83). The association between the serum GAL-3BP level and MetS was found preferentially in postmenopausal women (OR = 2.30, 95%CI: 1.31, 4.05). In addition, GAL-3BP was increased in the serum and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) of high fat diet (HFD) mice. Moreover, GAL-3BP was highly expressed in VAT macrophages., Conclusions: This study confirmed serum GAL-3BP to be positively associated with MetS, highlighting it as a useful biological marker of MetS in Chinese participants., 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 © 2021 Zhen, Cai, Yang, Ma and Wen.)

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has a significant negative impact on bone health. However, the mechanisms of cortical bone deterioration and cortical porosity enlargement caused by CKD have not been fully described. We therefore examined the association of CKD stages with cortical porosity index (PI), and explored potential mediators of this association. Double-echo ultrashort echo-time magnetic resonance imaging (UTE MRI) provides the possibility of quantifying cortical porosity in vivo . A total of 95 patients with CKD stages 2-5 underwent 3D double-echo UTE-Cones MRI (3.0T) of the midshaft tibia to obtain the PI. PI was defined as the ratio of the image signal intensity of a sufficiently long echo time (TE) to the shortest achievable TE. Parathyroid hormone (PTH), β-CrossLaps (β-CTX), total procollagen type I amino-terminal propeptide (T-P1NP), osteocalcin (OC), 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD), and lumbar bone mineral density (BMD) were measured within one week of the MRI. Partial correlation analysis was performed to address associations between PI, eGFR and potential mediators (PTH, β-CTX, T-P1NP, OC, 25OHD, BMD, and T-score). Multiple linear regression models were used to assess the association between CKD stages and PI value. Then, a separate exploratory mediation analysis was carried out to explore the impact of CKD stages and mediators on the PI value. The increasing CKD stages were associated with a higher PI value (P trend < 0.001). The association of CKD stages and PI mediated 34.4% and 30.8% of the total effect by increased PTH and β-CTX, respectively. Our study provides a new idea to monitor bone health in patients with CKD, and reveals the internal mechanism of bone deterioration caused by CKD to some extent., 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 © 2021 Xiong, He, Wang, Liu, Hu, Zhang, Wen, Hou, Li, Zhang, Liu, He and Li.)

Drug poisoning has a high incidence and serious consequences in medical institutions; its epidemiological characteristics also directly affect the changes in national laws and policies and the implementation of local management policies. Chinese statistics on drug-related abnormal death cases generally come from judicial appraisal centers and medical units. However, due to differences in work content and professional restrictions, there are differences in information management forms, which makes it difficult for appraisers to conduct a professional and systematic analysis of drug-related cases. This article focuses on the analysis of epidemiological characteristics of sedative-hypnotics and opioid painkillers and their exposure patterns in cases of poisoning death by analyzing the annual report of the American Association of Poison Control Center, combined with the characteristics of drug exposure in China.

This investigation was aimed at determining the concentration levels of five toxic heavy metals (lead, cadmium, chromium, arsenic, and mercury) in dried Porphyra and Laminaria samples from coastal city of China. Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used for determination of lead, cadmium and total arsenic. Atomic fluorescence spectrometry was used for mercury, and liquid chromatography coupled with ICP-MS was used for arsenic speciation. The mean concentrations of lead, cadmium, chromium, total arsenic, and mercury were 0.96 ± 0.03 mg/kg, 2.62 ± 0.07 mg/kg, 1.64 ± 0.08 mg/kg, 36.67 ± 0.53 mg/kg, and 7.56 ± 0.42 μg/kg for Porphyra samples and 0.61 ± 0.03 mg/kg, 0.48 ± 0.02 mg/kg, 3.78 ± 0.56 mg/kg, 43.85 ± 1.42 mg/kg, and 46.61 ± 2.02 μg/kg for Laminaria samples. The results were comparable with previous similar research. The potential health risk assessment was conducted by comparing the calculated weekly intakes of toxic metals from Porphyra and Laminaria with provisional tolerable weekly intake. Consumption of these seaweeds does not seem to pose a risk for the consumers' health regarding their content of heavy metals. However, the potential health risk of cadmium should not be overlooked for consumers with high intake of Porphyra., (© 2021. Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Background: Most countries set regulatory values for the total trace element (TE) concentrations in soil, although there is growing interest in using a risk-based approach to evaluate the bioavailable TE using dilute salt extractants or other soil parameters, including pH and organic carbon . The present study compares the current regulatory system (based on total TEs and pH) and a risk-based approach using 0.01 mol L -1 CaCl 2 to estimate the bioavailable fraction., Results: In total, 150 paired samples of Chinese flowering cabbages (Brassica parachinensis) and their growth soils were collected, and the total and extractable concentrations of chromium (Cr), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), arsenic (As) and mercury (Hg), as well as soil pH and organic matter content, were measured. No more than 3.33% of the edible parts exceeded Chinese food safety standards, even when growing in soils exceeding the current regulatory thresholds by over 50%. The total soil Cd (1.5 mg kg -1 ), as well as the extractable concentrations of Cd (0.1 mg kg -1 ), Ni (0.03 mg kg -1 ) and Zn (0.1 mg kg -1 ), are the key factors affecting the TE concentrations in B. parachinensis., Conclusion: Our findings suggest that the current soil regulatory guidelines for safe production of B. parachinensis are overly strict and conservative. A risk-based approach based on the extractable TE concentrations would provide a better indication for plant uptake of soil TEs and avoid the waste of farmlands that can still produce safe vegetables. Future research should focus on providing crop-specific available TE concentration guidelines to promote effective utilization of farmlands. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry., (© 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.)

Microbial densities, functional genes, and their responses to environment factors have been studied for years, but still a lot remains unknown about their interactions with each other. In this study, the abundances of 7 nitrogen cycling genes in the sediments from Hangzhou Bay were analyzed along with bacterial and archaeal 16S rRNA abundances as the biomarkers of their densities. The amount of organic matter (OM) and total nitrogen (TN) strongly positively correlated with each other and microbial densities, while total phosphate (TP) and ammonia-nitrogen (NH 3 -N) did not. Most studied genes were density suppressed, while nirS was density stable, and nosZ and hzo were density irrelevant. This suggests eutrophication could limit inorganic nitrogen cycle pathways and the removal of nitrogen in the sediment and emit more greenhouse gases. This study provides a new insight of microbial community structures, functions and their interactions in the sediments of eutrophic bays., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

(1) Background: The present study aimed to investigate the association between home-related factors, community environmental factors, and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) intake among Northeastern Chinese children. (2) Methods: Cross-sectional. Children with complete data were included in the analysis ( n = 901). A questionnaire modified according to BEVQ-15 measured the intake of SSBs. Logistic regression was applied to determine the factors associated with the consumption of SSBs. IBM SPSS Statistics 23.0 was applied to perform all statistical analyses. (3) Results: The mean total amount of SSBs consumed on a weekly basis was 2214.04 ± 2188.62 mL. Children's weekly pocket money, frequency of SSBs purchase, SSBs availability at home, the number of accessible supermarkets, and frequency of weekly visits to convenience stores were all found to be associated with a high intake of SSBs among all children. Among children of normal weight, the findings indicated that weekly pocket money, SSBs availability at home, and number of accessible supermarkets were associated with a high SSBs intake. At the same time, frequency of SSBs purchase, mother's SSBs intake, and frequency of weekly visits to convenience stores were associated with a high SSBs intake among children with obesity. (4) Conclusions: Given the potential negative health effects of high SSBs intake, it is crucial to pay attention to home-related factors and community environment.

Literature on maternal dietary patterns during pregnancy and offspring weight status have been largely equivocal. We aimed to investigate the association of maternal dietary patterns with infant weight status among 937 mother-infant dyads in a Chinese birth cohort. We assessed maternal diet during pregnancy using food frequency questionnaires (FFQ) and three-day food diaries (TFD) and examined infants' body weight and length at birth, 1, 3, 6, 8 and 12 months. Maternal adherence to the "protein-rich pattern (FFQ)" was associated with lower infant body mass index z-scores (BMIZ) at birth, 3 and 6 months and lower odds of overweight and obesity (OwOb) across infancy (quartile 3 (Q3) vs. quartile 1 (Q1): odds ratio (OR): 0.50, (95% confidence interval: 0.27, 0.93)). Maternal adherence to the "vegetable-fruit-rice pattern (FFQ)" was associated with higher BMIZ at birth, 3 and 6 months and higher odds of OwOb across infancy (Q3 vs. Q1: OR: 1.79, (1.03, 3.12)). Maternal adherence to the "fried food-bean-dairy pattern (TFD)" was associated with lower BMIZ at 3, 6, 8 and 12 months and lower odds of OwOb (Q3 vs. Q1: OR: 0.54, (0.31, 0.95)). The study results may help to develop interventions and to better define target populations for childhood obesity prevention.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is spreading all over the world and has caused millions of deaths. Several sample-to-answer platforms, including Cepheid Xpert Xpress SARS-CoV-2 (Xpert Xpress), have received emergency use authorization for SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid detection as a point of care test in the United States. However, their application niche is unclear when compared with real-time RT-PCR assays cleared by the National Medical Products Administration in China. In this study, the clinical performance, sensitivity, and workflow of Xpert Xpress and two real-time RT-PCR kits (BioGerm kit and Sansure kit) were evaluated by the specimens from 86 symptomatic patients. The positive percent agreement of Xpert Xpress was 100% compared with 96.15% for the BioGerm kit and 90% for the Sansure kit. The negative percent agreement was 100% for all three assays. The limit of detection is 100 copies/mL for Xpert Xpress and 500 copies/mL for the BioGerm kit and Sansure kit. By serially diluting five positive specimens, the Xpert Xpress had better detection capability. In the workflow and throughput analysis, the turnaround time was 51 minutes for Xpert Xpress, 150 minutes for the BioGerm kit, and 210 minutes for the Sansure kit. This study provides some indication for diagnosis methods selection., (Copyright © 2021 Association for Molecular Pathology and American Society for Investigative Pathology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The occurrence of man-made antibiotics in natural environment has aroused attentions from both scientists and publics. However, few studies tracked antibiotics from their production site to the end of disposal environment. Taking the coastal region of Hangzhou Bay as the study area, the fate of 77 antibiotics from 6 categories in two-step wastewater treatment plants (WTPs, i.e. pharmaceutical WTP and integrated WTP) was focused; and the antibiotics in both dissolved and adsorbed phases were investigated simultaneously in this study. The ubiquitous occurrence of antibiotics was observed in the two-step WTPs, with antibiotic concentrations following the order of PWTP (LOQ - 1.0 × 10 5  ng·L -1 ) > IWTP i (for industrial wastewater treatment, LOQ - 3.7 × 10 3  ng·L -1 ) > IWTP d (for domestic sewage treatment, LOQ - 1.3 × 10 3  ng·L -1 ). And the types of antibiotics detected in excess sludge and suspended particles were in accordance with those in wastewater. Quinolones were invariably dominant in both dissolved and adsorbed fractions. High removal efficiencies (median values >50.0%) were acquired for the dissolved quinolones (except for DFX), tetracyclines, β-lactams, and lincosamides. Anaerobic/anoxic/oxic achieved the highest aqueous removal of antibiotics among the investigated treatment technologies in the three WTPs. PWTP and IWTP removed 9797 and 487 g·d -1 of antibiotics, respectively; and a final effluent with 126.4 g·d -1 of antibiotics was discharged into the effluent-receiving area (ERA) of Hangzhou Bay. Source apportionment analysis demonstrated that the effluents of IWTP d and IWTP d contributed respectively 39.3% and 8.9% to the total antibiotics in the ERA. The results illustrate quantitatively the antibiotic flows from engineered wastewater systems to natural water environment, on the basis of which the improvements of wastewater treatment technologies and discharge management would be put forward., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Changshun green-shell laying hens are unique to Guizhou Province, China, and have high egg quality. Improving egg production performance has become an important breeding task, and in recent years, the development of high-throughput sequencing technology provides a fast and exact method for genetic selection. Therefore, we aimed to use this technology to analyze the differences between the ovarian mRNA transcriptome of low and high-yield Changshun green-shell layer hens, identify critical pathways and candidate genes involved in controlling the egg production rate, and provide basic data for layer breeding., Results: The egg production rates of the low egg production group (LP) and the high egg production group (HP) were 68.00 ± 5.56 % and 93.67 ± 7.09 %, with significant differences between the groups (p < 0.01). Moreover, the egg weight, shell thickness, strength and layer weight of the LP were significantly greater than those of the HP (p < 0.05). More than 41 million clean reads per sample were obtained, and more than 90 % of the clean reads were mapped to the Gallus gallus genome. Further analysis identified 142 differentially expressed genes (DEGs), and among them, 55 were upregulated and 87 were downregulated in the ovaries. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis identified 9 significantly enriched pathways, with the neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction pathway being the most enriched. GO enrichment analysis indicated that the GO term transmembrane receptor protein tyrosine kinase activity, and the DEGs identified in this GO term, including PRLR, NRP1, IL15, BANK1, NTRK1, CCK, and HGF may be associated with crucial roles in the regulation of egg production., Conclusions: The above-mentioned DEGs may be relevant for the molecular breeding of Changshun green-shell laying hens. Moreover, enrichment analysis indicated that the neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction pathway and receptor protein tyrosine kinases may play crucial roles in the regulation of ovarian function and egg production.

Reasonable application of microbial agents can significantly improve soil environment and increase the yield and quality of vegetables. In this study, we examined the effects of different forms of microbial agents on the growth and quality of Brassica rapa L. ssp. chinensis Makino (non-heading Chinese cabbage) under the conditions of no microbial agent application, liquid and solid microbe agents application. The results showed that compared with no microbial agent, application of liquid and solid microbial agent significantly improved soil urease activity, plant nitrogen content, leaf area, SPAD value, and net photosynthetic rate, and increased vegetable production by 26.9% and 34.4% respectively. Meanwhile, the total phenol content and ascorbic acid content of non-heading Chinese cabbage were increased and nitrate content was significantly decreased by applying microbial agents. Thus, rational application of microbial agents promoted the yield and quality of non-heading Chinese cabbage. From the perspective of vegetable growth, liquid microbial agents work fast, solid microbial agents had good long-term efficacy. The cooperating application with organic and inorganic fertilizers would facilitate the excellent quality and high yield of vegetables.

Abstract: Inflammation plays an important role in the pathophysiology of subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Recent studies have indicated that the albumin to fibrinogen ratio (AFR) is a useful biomarker of inflammation.This research aimed to determine the ability of AFR to predict the prognosis of patients with SAH.A total of 440 patients with SAH who had been diagnosed within 72 hours of symptom onset were retrospectively reviewed. Clinical findings and laboratory data were retrieved from the hospital database. Functional outcome was measured according to the modified Rankin scale at 30 days. Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the correlation between AFR and the prognosis of patients with SAH. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to determine the prognostic ability of AFR at admission to predict the 30-day outcomes.The average age of all 440 patients with SAH was 56.75 ± 11.19 years and 31.4% (138) were male. Of these patients, 161 exhibited unfavorable outcomes at 30 days. According to the multivariate logistic regression analysis, the AFR was positively correlated with the outcome of patients with SAH (odds ratio 0.939, 95% confidence interval 0.885-0.996, P = .038). The ROC analysis revealed an area under the curve of 0.713 for AFR's ability to predict the 30-day outcomes.AFR is independently associated with the outcome of SAH patients. As a parameter that can be easily assessed at admission, AFR could be used to help the decision-making of clinical treatment., Competing Interests: The authors have no funding and conflicts of interests to disclose., (Copyright © 2021 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

Introduction: Childhood obesity (OB) and metabolic syndrome (MetS) have become a worldwide health problem. Comparative proteomic approaches are widely used in human OB to analyze protein changes in blood plasma. The present study determined the galectin-3 binding protein (galectin-3BP) expression level in different weight categories and assessed the associations between galectin-3BP and OB and MetS., Research Design and Methods: The current study included 932 Chinese adolescents 13-18 years of age. The biochemical and anthropometric variables of all the subjects were evaluated using standardized procedures. The differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were investigated among 60 adolescents (20 normal weight, 20 overweight and 20 obese) using tandem mass tag (TMT) quantitative proteomics. The serum galectin-3BP level was measured using ELISA. The associations between galectin-3BP and OB and MetS were analyzed in 932 adolescents using multiple logistic regression analyses., Results: A significant DEP, galectin-3BP, can effectively separate the obese from the normal weight group using TMT. Adolescents in tertile 3 of galectin-3BP, when compared with adolescents in the tertile 1, were positively associated with OB (OR=3.32, 95% CI 1.79 to 6.16) and MetS (OR=3.28, 95% CI 1.30 to 8.26). The receiver operating characteristic curve for galectin-3BP in subjects with MetS indicated that the area under the curve was 0.85 (95% CI 0.79 to 0.91)., Conclusions: This study confirmed an association between galectin-3BP and OB in Chinese adolescents, and galectin-3BP was also positively associated with MetS, and thus might be useful for identifying adolescents with MetS., 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.)

The objective of this study was to investigate differentially abundant proteins (DAPs) of wheat seeds produced under two nitrogen levels (0 and 240 kg/ha) before and after germination. We selected samples at 8 and 72 h after imbibition (HAI) to identify DAPs by iTRAQ. The results showed 190 and 124 DAPs at 8 and 72 HAI, respectively. Alpha-gliadin and chlorophyll a-b binding protein showed the biggest difference in abundance before and after germination. In GO enrichment analysis, the most significantly enriched GO term was nutrient reservoir activity at 8 HAI and endopeptidase inhibitor activity at 72 HAI. Moreover, many DAPs involved in mobilization of stored nutrients and photosynthesis were mapped to KEGG pathways. Dough development time, dough stability time and seedling chlorophyll content under N240 were significantly higher than those under N0, which validated the results of proteomic analysis. These results are crucial for food nutrition and food processing., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)