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The study focuses on the research performance of Double First-Class (DFC) universities in China. A theoretical framework based on economic theory and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method for a novel evaluation model is proposed. The model is performed on a sample of 41 participant DFC universities in China. Using data collected from these universities, it was found that there is no consistency between performance ranking, input ranking, and output ranking, with the best ranked universities far from the most efficient. These findings provide empirical evidence of DFC universities' research performance situation and suggest strategies that the government can use to propel their sustainable development.

Assessing student learning outcomes has become a global trend in higher education. In this paper, we report on the validation of the Chinese HEIghten® Critical Thinking assessment with a nationally representative sample of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science students from 35 institutions in China. Key findings suggest that there was a test delivery mode effect favoring the paper tests over the online tests. In general, the psychometric quality of the items was satisfactory for low-stakes, group-level uses but there were a few items with low discrimination that awaits further investigation. The relationships between test scores and various external variables such as college entrance examination scores, university elite status and student perceptions of the test were as expected. We conclude with speculations on the key findings and discussion of directions for future research.

Simple Summary: Carposina coreana Kim is the most serious pest of Cornus officinalis. In recent years, its damage to C. officinalis has become increasingly serious, causing enormous economic losses in China. Here, the maximum entropy (MaxEnt) model was used to predict the distribution of C. coreana under current climate scenarios and future climate scenarios in China with ArcGIS software. Suitable areas for C. coreana under the current climate scenarios were mainly distributed in central China, and the highly suitable areas were distributed in southern Shaanxi, southwestern Henan, and northwestern Hubei. Under future climate scenarios, the boundaries of the suitable areas for C. coreana tended to shift to northern China. Given the predictive results of this study, we can clearly see the future diffusion trend of C. coreana in China, which has important theoretical significance for the control of this pest in China. Carposina coreana is an important pest of Cornus officinalis, distributed in China, Korea, and Japan. In recent years, its damage to C. officinalis has become increasingly serious, causing enormous economic losses in China. This study and prediction of current and future suitable habitats for C. coreana in China can provide an important reference for the monitoring, early warning, prevention, and control of the pest. In this study, the potential distributions of C. coreana in China under current climate and future climate models were predicted using the maximum entropy (MaxEnt) model with ArcGIS software. The distribution point data of C. coreana were screened using the buffer screening method. Nineteen environmental variables were screened using the knife-cut method and variable correlation analysis. The parameters of the MaxEnt model were optimized using the kuenm package in R software. The MaxEnt model, combined with key environmental variables, was used to predict the distribution range of the suitable area for C. coreana under the current (1971–2000) and four future scenarios. The buffer screening method screened data from 41 distribution points that could be used for modeling. The main factors affecting the distribution of C. coreana were precipitation in the driest month (Bio14), precipitation in the warmest quarter (Bio18), precipitation in the coldest quarter (Bio19), the standard deviation of seasonal variation of temperature (Bio4), minimum temperature in the coldest month (Bio6), and average temperature in the coldest quarter (Bio11). The feature class (FC) after the kuenm package optimization was a Q-quadratic T-threshold combination, and the regularization multiplier (RM) was 0.8. The suitable areas for C. coreana under the current climate model were mainly distributed in central China, and the highly suitable areas were distributed in southern Shaanxi, southwestern Henan, and northwestern Hubei. The lowest temperature in the coldest month (Bio6), the average temperature in the coldest quarter (Bio11), and the precipitation in the warmest quarter (Bio18) all had good predictive ability. In future climate scenarios, the boundary of the suitable area for C. coreana in China is expected to shift northward, and thus, most of the future climate scenarios would shift northward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, China has been committed to strengthening environmental governance and trying to build a sustainable society in which humans and nature develop in harmony. As a new urban construction concept, sponge city uses natural and ecological methods to retain rainwater, alleviate flooding problems, reduce the damage to the water environment, and gradually restore the hydrological balance of the construction area. The paper presents a review of sponge city construction from its inception to systematic demonstration. In this paper, research gaps are discussed and future efforts are proposed. The main contents include: (1) China's sponge city construction includes but is not limited to source control or a drainage system design. Sponge city embodies foreign experience and the wisdom of ancient Chinese philosophy. The core of sponge city construction is to combine various specific technologies to alleviate urban water problems such as flooding, water environment pollution, shortage of water resources and deterioration of water ecology; (2) this paper also introduces the sponge city pilot projects in China, and summarizes the achievements obtained and lessons learned, which are valuable for future sponge city implementation; (3) the objectives, corresponding indicators, key contents and needs of sponge city construction at various scales are different. The work at the facility level is dedicated to alleviating urban water problems through reasonable facility scale and layout, while the work at the plot level is mainly to improve the living environment through sponge city construction. The construction of urban and watershed scales is more inclined to ecological restoration and blue-green storage spaces construction. Besides, the paper also describes the due obligations in sponge city construction of various stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land use/cover changes (LULC) are complicated and regionally diverse. When mining regional patterns, the use of a spatial relationship that is determined without considering the spatial correlation among geographical objects can lead to problematic results, e.g. mistakenly treating unrelated objects as adjacent. Additionally, traditional prevalence measures are unstable for uneven datasets such as LULC, wherein some land-use change types show small numbers and uneven quantities, and valuable rules for some land-use categories may be ignored. Therefore, we proposed a regional pattern mining method. First, we developed adaptive adjacent criteria, which can be automatically generated for each specific zone to define adjacency for better spatial-temporal mining. Then, a combinational decision model was built to improve the stability of the prevalence measure, which was used to filter out the insignificant spatial-temporal rules. Furthermore, we proposed two levels of land-use pattern mining, i.e. cluster-level mining and polygon-level mining, to first discover hot-spot areas where similar land-use change has occurred frequently and then to determine the location, frequency, and change time of rules related to different land-use activities. The proposed method was used for mining the dependence of land use and regional patterns on land-use changes. Results show that the proposed method can determine the spatial dependence between the land-use categories, as well as regional patterns of land-use changes. According to our research, the study area, Xinbei District, China, is undergoing land-use change involving rapid urbanization, extensive transportation construction, and losses of farmland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Alteration" geologically refers to chemical composition and/or structural changes of minerals under the influences of hydrothermal fluids, surface water, seawater, or other environmental conditions. In this paper, we use the word "alteration" to refer to chemical component and structural changes in jade artifacts caused by human activity and natural weathering, which is different from the term in geology. "Mercury alteration", a kind of black alteration related to Hg, is unique among the several types of alteration that occur in Chinese ancient jades. Mercury alteration often appears on ancient jade artifacts unearthed from high-grade tombs of the pre-Qin period (before 221 B.C.). Therefore, ancient jades with mercury alteration have attracted substantial attention from Chinese archaeologists. This paper reports the use of materials analytic techniques to study such ancient jade fragments. The studied jade samples date to the middle and late periods of the Spring and Autumn Period (~500 B.C.) and were unearthed from Lizhou'ao Tomb in Jiangxi Province, China. Structural analyses revealed the internal microstructure of the ancient jade fragments and the microdistribution of the mercury alteration. The jade fragments exhibit typical characteristics of round holes and structural hierarchy, which imply that the jades were heated before burial. The black alteration on these jade samples was found to be rich in Hg. The results of this study will be widely useful in the study of ancient jade artifacts and jade culture in Chinese archeology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A life-cycle evaluation framework coupled with NSGA-II and SWMM was proposed. • NSGA-II algorithm was used for automatic GI layout optimization. • SWMM was used to calculate the objective function scores of each scheme. • The optimal layout under 10-year return period was recommended. • Three preferences were provided for more convincible results. Rapid urbanization and more frequent urban floods instigated by climate change make traditional gray infrastructure become less effective and efficient. Green infrastructure (GI) have proved to be effective measures to address urban floods. Whether the GI layout can yield significant benefits and low investment cost requires further exploration. Besides, the type, size, and location of GI needs to be optimized to achieve better performance. A life-cycle evaluation framework coupled with a multi-objective optimization algorithm (NSGA-II) and SWMM was proposed for GI layout optimization. The framework took investment cost, economic-environmental-social monetization benefit, and runoff control capacity into consideration. Tongzhou District in Beijing was selected for empirical analysis. Simulation results reveled that GIs performed good in runoff control and the optimal layout under 10-year return period was recommended. The total cost and benefit of the recommended layout is 6.34×109 RMB and 8.36×106 RMB/Design rainfall, respectively, which outperforms than other scenarios. Permeable pavement accounted for the highest proportion in the optimized layout scenario. For actual construction, decision-makers should select appropriate measures according to local conditions (e.g., precipitation, land use type, cost of GIs) and choose the optimal layout scheme according to their preference. Results displayed can provide a reproducible and dependable planning scheme for future Sponge City construction in China. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Most existing methods for evaluating the national environmental impact of product manufacturing follow a top-down approach based on national annual statistical data. However, such approach fails to include many important data points and has a low level of quantification, which causes the difficulty in identifying insights on the location, causes, and characteristics of environmental problems. Hybrid life cycle assessment (LCA), which combines input-output data and process-based LCA, has recently been proposed and widely implemented for the collection of regional inventory. However, the limitation of using input-output data, which involves the adoption of averaging data associated with different inputs within various industry subsectors, has been highlighted. In this study, national and provincial statistical data combined with the bottom-up approach is used to solve the aforementioned problems and to assess the environmental effects of mechanical coke production at a national level. Methods: A bottom-up approach combined with national and regional statistical data on product yield is used in this study to estimate the environmental effects and improvement potential of mechanical coke production at the national level. Results and discussion: The total mechanical coke production and environmental burden generated by global warming, respiratory inorganics, and nonrenewable energy in 2010 were approximately 3.31 × 10 t, 1.01 × 10 t-CO eq., 1.98 × 10 t PM eq., and 1.05 × 10 GJ Primary, respectively. The highest coke production fluxes were found in Shanghai, followed by Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong, and Henan. The lowest coke production was observed in Hainan and Xizang. The difference can be attributed to coal mining and economic levels. From 2008 to 2012, the CO, SO, and NOx emissions as well as nonrenewable energy consumption for mechanical coke production accounted for 0.5 to 1.4, 1.5 to 2.2, 3.8 to 4.7, and 4.8 to 13.2 % of the total CO, SO, and NOx emissions and nonrenewable energy consumption in China, respectively. The following processes are highly important in reducing the environmental burden imposed by mechanical coke production in China: optimizing the transport distance and type, using underground coal washing technology, decreasing coke exports, and improving the efficiency of coking coal consumption, the average usage rate of seam gas drainage, the energy recovery rate of coke dry quenching technology, and the amount of imported coking coal. Conclusions: The most significant processes, substances, and potential environmental impact categories that contribute to the overall environmental burden in China can be easily evaluated. The combination of national information, provincial statistical data, and LCA results on mechanical coke production represents a large group of LCA products that can further determine the key improvement factors for reducing the national overall environmental burden imposed by the manufacturing of mechanical coke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is aimed to evaluate the effects of Psoraleae fructus (PF) on Th2 responses in a rat model of asthma in vivo and psoralen, a major constituent in PF, on Th2 responses in vitro. A rat model of asthma was established by sensitization and challenged with ovalbumin (OVA). Airway hyperresponsiveness was detected by direct airway resistance analysis. Lung tissues were examined for cell infiltration and mucus hypersecretion. Bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) was assessed for cytokine levels. In vitro study, Th2 cytokine production was evaluated in the culture supernatant of D10.G4.1 (D10 cells) followed by the determination of cell viability, meanwhile Th2 transcription factor GATA-3 expression in D10 cells was also determined. The oral administration of PF significantly reduced airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) to aerosolized methacholine and decreased IL-4 and IL-13 levels in the BALF. Histological studies showed that PF markedly inhibited inflammatory infiltration and mucus secretion in the lung tissues. In vitro study, psoralen significantly suppressed Th2 cytokines of IL-4, IL-5 and IL-13 by ConA-stimulated D10 cells without inhibitory effect on cell viability. Furthermore, GATA-3 protein expression was also markedly reduced by psoralen. This study demonstrated that PF exhibited inhibitory effects on hyperresponsiveness and airway inflammation in a rat model of asthma, which was associated with the suppression of Th2 response. Psoralen, a major constituent of PF, has immunomodulatory properties on Th2 response in vitro, which indicated that psoralen might be a critical component of PF for its therapeutic effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A cost-combined life-cycle assessment was conducted to estimate the environmental and economic burdens of 13 sewage sludge-treatment scenarios in China. Results showed that anaerobic digestion was a suitable alternative to reduce both environmental and economic burdens because this approach reduced dry mass volume and applied energy recovery. Landfill and incineration technologies had the highest and lowest environmental burdens, respectively. Direct heavy metal emissions generated from landfill and incineration processes contributed significantly to human toxicity and marine ecotoxicity. However, energy recovery from the landfill and incineration stages was important to reduce both environmental and economic burdens. This study indicated that a sewage sludge-treatment scenario with anaerobic digestion, dewatering, and incineration technologies was the most environmentally and economically suitable method to treat sewage sludge because of energy recovery. All new sewage treatment plants should be constructed to operate according to this method, and existing plants should be retrofitted. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Urban runoff source control facilities (URSCFs) are important parts of Sponge City (SC) by controlling urban flooding, restoring eco-balance, and enhancing city resilience. To evaluate the performance of URSCF, one needs to summarize and analyze the past SC construction and operation data. Previous studies however are predominately engineering practice studies. There lacks localized reference datasets to quantitatively evaluate the performance and guide public policy development for SC. Therefore, it is imperative to develop a database, which would summarize data obtained through the already completed pilot sponge cities, and provide a reference for future URSCFs planning and construction. This study makes a zero to one breakthrough by establishing a SC database using New Orleans method. Then statistical results of facility type, size, and costs information for 30 pilot sponge cities have been summarized and analyzed. The URSCFs type distribution statistical results show that bioretention, permeable pavement, detention cell, grassed swale and constructed wetland are the top five most constructed facilities in China. The cost statistical results display that the range of facility cost collected is usually larger than the range given by the reference value, which may attribute to the variation in material cost, labor cost and design parameters in different cities. To check the similarities and differences of URSCFs parameters between China and the US. A configuration parameters comparison of URSCFs has been conducted. Bioretention is taken as an exampl. Comparison results show that factors such as climate type, geographical environment, and socio-economic conditions will affect the configuration parameters of URSCFs. The groundwater depth and designed rainfall intensity are mainly influenced by local climate and geographical conditions. Surface area is influenced by local socio-economic conditions. The thickness of the covering layer and drainage layer are not affected by geographic location. The service area ratio, water storage depth and planting soil layer thickness are significantly different between China and the US. • This study established a China Sponge City database. • The data on runoff control facilities has been summarized from 30 pilot sponge cities. • Configuration parameters comparison between China and the US is through three dimensions. • Climate type, geographical environment, and socio-economic conditions can affect design parameters. • China and the US. differ greatly in different configuration parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Environmental and economic benefit comparison of coupled grey and green system was conducted. • The research considers both internal and external economic cost. • Environmental impacts from construction stage of coupled system are higher than grey system. • Payback time of related environmental impacts and total economic costs is 4 years. • Green building subsidy can significantly reduce 3.6 years of the economic cost payback time. Green infrastructure is increasingly incorporated into the existing urban drainage system, i.e., grey infrastructure, for stormwater management in the context of rapid urbanization and climate change. Whether the coupled green–grey system can yield additional benefits requires quantification of environmental and economic performance. This study proposes a cost-combined life cycle assessment method to evaluate the environmental and economic benefits of coupled grey and green infrastructure system. Compared to traditional assessment methods, this method introduces internal (e.g., material cost, energy cost) and external (i.e., human health, ecological restoration, and pollutants emission) economic costs to conduct assessment. This research identifies key factors (i.e., categories, processes, and substances) of a coupled grey and green infrastructure system in a typical residential area in China. The coupled system is shown to generate higher environmental impacts and economic costs than grey system in the construction stage. The operation stage of coupled system can observe significant environmental and economic benefits. The payback time of related environmental impacts (except for non-carcinogens) and total economic costs is 4 years for the current case study. Noteworthy, a currently existing subsidy scheme would allow to reduce the payback time of total economic costs from 3.78 to 1.18 years. This study provides concrete evidence in support of urban stormwater management. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, power grid accidents have occurred frequently and higher requirements have been placed on their safety operation. In current safety management in the world, there is an effective practice that uses a unified standard for structuring an accident case database and based on that database, conducts quantitative analysis to cope with accident risks. However, that is not the case for power safety management. Case-based reasoning (CBR) is such a process that solves new problems based on the solutions to similar past problems. It works by matching a current problem with historical cases and solutions in a database, in order to obtain similar case solutions or inspirations. In the matching process, if necessary, such past solutions may be modified in order to better adapt to the current actual problems. Based on the CBR method, this paper proposes how to construct a case database of power grid operational accidents, provide data support for management of power grid risks and provide knowledge services for accurate grasping of grid accident development dynamics and making quick decisions to rapidly response to the emergencies. First, it designs an operational accident case database after considering the following three aspects: case features, power grid features and accident features based on safety management theory. Secondly, in terms of how to use the power grid operational accident case database, it proposed a two-level search strategy, as well as the corresponding similarity calculation methods for different feature attributes of the case. Finally, it carried out a demonstration to verify the model by selecting four typical grid accidents. The grid database and CBR strategy proposed in this article could help China's power grids practice intelligent analysis of grid operational accidents and improve digitalization in safety management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facing increasingly serious water pollution, the Chinese government is changing the environmental management strategy from solely pollutant concentration control to a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program, and water quality models are increasingly being applied to determine the allowable pollutant load in the TMDL. Despite the frequent use of models, few studies have focused on how parameter uncertainty in water quality models affect the allowable pollutant loads in the TMDL program, particularly for complicated and high-dimension water quality models. Uncertainty analysis for such models is limited by time-consuming simulation and high-dimensionality and nonlinearity in parameter spaces. In this study, an allowable pollutant load calculation platform was established using the Environmental Fluid Dynamics Code (EFDC), which is a widely applied hydrodynamic-water quality model. A Bayesian approach, i.e. the DiffeRential Evolution Adaptive Metropolis (DREAM) algorithm, which is a high-efficiency, multi-chain Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method, was applied to assess the effects of parameter uncertainty on the water quality model simulations and its influence on the allowable pollutant load calculation in the TMDL program. Miyun Reservoir, which is the most important surface drinking water source for Beijing, suffers from eutrophication and was selected as a case study. The relations between pollutant loads and water quality indicators are obtained through a graphical method in the simulation platform. Ranges of allowable pollutant loads were obtained according to the results of parameter uncertainty analysis, i.e. Total Organic Carbon (TOC): 581.5–1030.6 t·yr − 1 ; Total Phosphorus (TP): 23.3–31.0 t·yr − 1 ; and Total Nitrogen (TN): 480–1918.0 t·yr − 1 . The wide ranges of allowable pollutant loads reveal the importance of parameter uncertainty analysis in a TMDL program for allowable pollutant load calculation and margin of safety (MOS) determination. The sources of uncertainty are discussed and ways to reduce the uncertainties are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A hybrid life-cycle assessment method was performed on national and provincial statistics to study pollutants generated by the cement industry in China, the impacts of these pollutants, and the potential for environmental improvement. Results showed that the key factors that contribute to overall environmental burden are the direct emissions of nitrogen oxides (NO x ), particulates, and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) into the atmosphere, as well as the use of coal during cement production. The amounts of CO 2 , sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ), NO x , and particulates generated by the cement industry in China in 2009 were approximately 1.11 billion, 0.53 million, 2.10 million, and 3.60 million tons respectively, which accounted for approximately 14.8%, 2.4%, 12.3%, and 26.2% of the national CO 2 , SO 2 , NO x , and particulate emissions, respectively. Effective approaches to reduce the environmental impacts of the cement industry include optimizing the industrial structure in cement production, improving consumption efficiency of energy and raw materials in cement production, using industrial waste and by-products instead of limestone, decreasing cement export, and promoting electricity recovery technologies in the cement industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Upregulation of keratin 80 (KRT80) expression levels and carcinogenic function has been found in several types of tumors. However, its contribution and mechanism in NSCLC remain to be outlined. In this study, bioinformatic investigation from the TCGA dataset revealed that KRT80 was confirmed to be elevated in human NSCLC tissues. The results of qRT-PCR and Western blot assays disclosed that KRT80 was uplifted in NSCLC cells. Data from CCK-8 and colony formation assays exhibited that depletion of KRT80 restrained NSCLC cell proliferation. Findings from Transwell and Western blot assays illustrated that downregulation of KRT80 inhibited NSCLC cell migration, invasion, and EMT. Further mechanism exploration implied that KRT80 may be included within the regulation of EMT of NSCLC cells by affecting the TGF-β/SMAD pathway. Moreover, depletion of KRT80 attenuated xenograft tumor growth and the expressions of KRT80, Ki-67, and TGFBR1. In conclusion, depletion of KRT80 repressed NSCLC cell proliferation, invasion, and EMT, possibly mediated by the TGF-β/SMAD signaling pathway, indicating that KRT80 may be a potentially useful target for NSCLC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emissions from and potential environmental effects of open field burning of corn straw in China in 2011 were investigated to provide policymakers with the information needed in preventing and minimizing the environmental burden resulting from open field burning. Results show that direct CO 2 , NO x , SO 2 , and PM emitted from corn straw open burning accounts for 0.12%, 0.73%, 7.15 × 10 −3 %, and 2.16% of national CO 2 , NO x , SO 2 , and dust emissions in 2011, respectively. Air pollutants and their potential environmental burden were mainly generated from eastern China, which has relatively high income and rural population densities. From an environmental perspective, composting technology, as opposed to technologies of returning to field, feed, biogas, and electricity generation, is the most efficient use of straw as resources because of its ability to substitute artificially synthesized fertilizers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gold and silver production was of major importance for almost all ancient societies but has been rarely studied archaeologically. Here we present a reconstruction of a previously undocumented technology used to recover gold, silver and lead at the site of Baojia in Jiangxi province, China dated between the 7th and 13th centuries AD. Smelting a mixture of sulphidic and gossan ores in a relatively low temperature furnace under mildly reducing conditions, the process involved the use of metallic iron to reduce lead sulphide to lead metal, which acted as the collector of the precious metals. An experimental reconstruction provides essential information, demonstrating both the significant influence of sulphur on the silicate slag system, and that iron reduction smelting of lead can be carried out at a relatively low temperature. These new findings are relevant for further studies of lead and precious metal smelting slags world-wide. The technological choices of ancient smelters at this site are then discussed in their specific geographical and social-economic settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Life cycle assessment was conducted to estimate the environmental impact of caustic soda production. Electricity and raw salt production accounted for >90% of the overall environmental burden. These findings can be attributed to electrical consumption for bipolar electrolysis and brine extraction, diesel consumption for generating electricity during well production, and direct heavy metal emissions during drilling fluid loss and waste disposal. The key factors in reducing the overall environmental impact include optimizing raw salt production, electricity, and steam consumption efficiency, choosing drilling fluids with less toxic heavy metals (e.g., arsenic, barium, molybdenum, selenium, vanadium, beryllium, and nickel), minimizing brine leakage during brine transport, reducing the volume of drilling fluid lost, and decreasing the transport distance from brine buyers to suppliers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

As the global climate change and the rapid progress of urbanization, the frequent occurrence of flooding disasters and non-point source pollution seriously threaten the sustainable development of modern cities. To alleviate these problems, China started to pilot construction of the "Sponge City" (SPC). Over a decade, it has attracted public attention, supports, and participations. The paper presents a literature review of sponge city construction (SPCC) process (planning, design and construction) as well as the assessment of SPC, including: operation, maintenance, and effectiveness. Research gap and future works are also proposed. The paper offers some tactics for SPCC, including: 1) in the planning and construction stage of SPC, the goals and systematic plans should be formulated according to local water-environmental conditions. The drainage plan should cover the strategy to dispose runoff volumes at sources and the ultimately goal for flood mitigation. The drainage design involves the combination of various green and grey infrastructures; 2) It is important to identify monitoring methods and hydrological models which can be used to assess the performance of a SPC. With adequate field data, all models and methods should be calibrated for not only runoff quantity and quality control but also the alleviation of urban heat island effects, including the base flows and local groundwater table; 3) Based on the regional field data, it is necessary to standardize regional design parameters, construction material specifics, and maintenance scheme and schedule that would significantly affect the facility's infiltrating and filtering processes, therefore, a regular maintenance program should be initiated to monitor the operations of the as-built facilities according to local climate conditions. The paper evaluated several maintenance methods for ten typical facilities to provide a reference for the operation and maintenance of facilities in SPCC. • The sponge city construction (SPCC) and design methods were introduced in detail. • Scientific and reasonable assessment can better guide the SPCCs. • The sponge city (SPC) facilities can be a better way to control stormwater runoff. • Monitoring and simulation method are equally important for assessing SPC effect. • A maintenance program should be initiated to monitor the operations of SPC facility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional runoff control measures ignore the spatial imbalance of regional pressures, thereby failing to achieve a site-specific placement for green and grey infrastructure simultaneously. A multi-criterion decision-making framework for runoff control infrastructure spatial planning was therefore developed in this study. The pressure-state-response framework was applied to creatively match the pressure induced adjustment demands with the infrastructure effectiveness. The pressures were quantified from the perspective of environment, economy, and ecology on a grid scale. States were considered as the relative priority of regional pressure adjustment demand in multiple perspectives. Responses were presented as state-targeted green and grey infrastructure placement. Multi-perspective effectiveness of different green and grey infrastructure was simultaneously evaluated at an effective scale of controlling 1 m 3 /s runoff for comparison. Methods such as data mining, hydrological model simulation, and remote sensing inversion were combined to quantify the regional pressures. The capital investment and ecological impact of infrastructures were quantified from a life cycle perspective. A case study was carried out in Wuhan, China. The study area was clustered by gridded pressure into three regions. In region Ⅰ, ecological and environmental pressure were of higher weight. In region Ⅱ, the environmental pressure was dominant. In region Ⅲ, the ecological pressure took precedence over the environmental and economic constraints. The area ratios of the region Ⅰ, Ⅱ, and Ⅲ were 43%, 36%, and 21% respectively. The result indicated a synergy and spatial heterogeneity of multi-perspective pressures, and further demonstrating that expert experience tends to fail to weigh the multi-function of green and grey infrastructures for coping with the pressures. Results also stated that green infrastructures were more acceptable in areas that aspire to achieve simultaneous runoff control and ecological improvement. The decision-making framework developed in this study can maximize the overall performance by providing targeted infrastructure placement solutions., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective: The objective of our study was to introduce community quarantine strategy against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Anhui and evaluate the effectiveness of community quarantine based on trauma center (TC) patients., Method: The structure of community quarantine strategy was illustrated. Distribution of injuries among patients in two TCs between January 24, 2020 and February 24, 2020 was described. Multiple linear regression was used to analyze the correlation between the distribution of Injuries in TCs and the number of COVID-19-associated cases., Results: A total of 757 TC patients in the two hospitals were enrolled. The number of traffic injuries and outdoor injuries showed a significant decrease in the early stage and began to increase on February 17. The number of indoor injuries neither decreased nor increased. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed a significant correlation between COVID-19-associated cases and traffic and outdoor injuries., Conclusion: From the perspective of the injuries in TCs, community quarantine strategy was effectively implemented and significantly slowed the outbreak of COVID-19 in Anhui. However, the implementation and maintenance of the strategy is costly and requires the participation of the entire population., (Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Background: The XRCC6 and XRCC5 genes are part of the nonhomologous end-joining (NHEJ) pathway, which is the main mechanism repairing DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) in human cells. Genetic variations of XRCC6 and XRCC5 might contribute to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) susceptibility., Methods: ESCC patients (n = 189) and cancer-free controls (n = 189) were recruited in an ESCC high-risk area of north China. Then the rs2267437 (XRCC6), rs3835 (XRCC5) and rs16855458 (XRCC5) polymorphisms were genotyped using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis., Results: A significant difference in genotype distribution and allele frequency of rs2267437 (XRCC6) was observed between the cases and controls. The CG carriers were at higher risk of ESCC (p = 0.001, odds ratio [OR] = 2.040, 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.323-3.147). G allele carriers were also associated with an increased ESCC risk (p = 0.003, OR = 1.868, 95% CI, 1.230-2.836). In the 2 polymorphisms of XRCC5, no significant difference was found between both groups in the distribution of either genotype or allelic frequency. But in the haplotypes established by the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of XRCC5, the haplotype AT and CC separately increased by 4.28- and 2.31-fold the risk ratio of ESCC (p = 0.01, OR = 4.28, 95% CI, 1.40-13.05; p = 0.03, OR = 2.31, 95% CI, 1.11-4.80, respectively). In addition, gene-smoking or gene-drinking interactions, and their effect on the risk of ESCC were observed, but no significant gene-environment interaction was demonstrated., Conclusions: In conclusion, both the CG carriers/G allele carriers of rs2267437 (XRCC6) and the haplotype AT/CC established by the SNPs of XRCC5 are associated with ESCC susceptibility.

A life cycle assessment was conducted to evaluate the environmental and economic effects of sewage sludge co-incineration in a coal-fired power plant. The general approach employed by a coal-fired power plant was also assessed as control. Sewage sludge co-incineration technology causes greater environmental burden than does coal-based energy production technology because of the additional electricity consumption and wastewater treatment required for the pretreatment of sewage sludge, direct emissions from sludge incineration, and incinerated ash disposal processes. However, sewage sludge co-incineration presents higher economic benefits because of electricity subsidies and the income generating potential of sludge. Environmental assessment results indicate that sewage sludge co-incineration is unsuitable for mitigating the increasing pressure brought on by sewage sludge pollution. Reducing the overall environmental effect of sludge co-incineration power stations necessitates increasing net coal consumption efficiency, incinerated ash reuse rate, dedust system efficiency, and sludge water content rate., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background and Aims: Low molecular mass protein-2 (LMP2) and low molecular mass protein-7 (LMP7) genes play a critical role in foreign antigen processing on the major histocompatibility complex-I CD8(+) cytotoxic T-lymphocyte pathway. This study was designed to investigate whether the sequence variants in the LMP2/LMP7 coding region were associated with intestinal Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) infection or with the co-infection of pulmonary tuberculosis., Methods: A total of 168 patients with intestinal tuberculosis and 235 normal controls were recruited for this study. Two polymorphisms of LMP2 (Arg60-His) and LMP7 (Gln145-Lys) were identified by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism method. The associations of the LMP2/LMP7 genotype and haplotype with intestinal M. tuberculosis infection were assessed by using logistic regression analysis., Results: The results revealed that LMP7 position codon 145 Lys/Lys and Gln/Lys alleles in the coding region were associated with the infection of intestinal M. tuberculosis (P=0.003, odds ratio [OR]= 3.86 and P < 0.001, OR = 2.28, respectively). Meanwhile, the Arg-Lys and Cys-Lys haplotypes exhibited significant relation to the intestinal M. tuberculosis infection (P= 0.006, OR=1.87; P=0.021, OR=1.83, respectively). No significant associations were observed for any of the single-nucleotide polymorphism genotypes or haplotypes with the co-infection of pulmonary tuberculosis (P > 0.05)., Conclusions: The results indicated that the genetic variant within the LMP2/LMP7 gene would increase the risk of intestinal M. tuberculosis infection., (© 2011 Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Foundation and Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.)

Background: The T-box21 (TBX21) gene encodes the transcription factor T-bet (T-box expressed in T-cells), which influences naive T-lymphocyte development and has been implicated in the pathogenesis of many diseases., Methods: We selected 208 hepatitis B patients and 213 healthy volunteers to examine whether polymorphisms or haplotypes of the TBX21 gene promoter were associated with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in the Chinese population. Two polymorphisms at -1499 and -1514 located in the TBX21 promoter region were identified by the PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method., Results: Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) at -1499 was significantly different between HBV patients and healthy controls [p=0.003; odds ratio (OR) 3.65, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.58-8.45]. Similarly, our results showed a significantly higher level of haplotype D (--/AC) in HBV patients compared to control subjects (p=0.005; OR 4.82, 95% CI 1.59-14.61)., Conclusions: Based on our findings, it seems that genetic variations of allele -1499 and haplotype D (--/AC) within the TBX21 promoter region contribute to susceptibility to HBV infection in the Chinese population.

In general, cytokines encoded by different genes of human genome might strongly influence host cell-mediated immune responses, which play an important role in the clearance of virus by the infected host. Interferon gamma (IFN-gamma) produced by T lymphocytes and natural killer cells plays an essential role in affecting cellular immune responses. A functional study demonstrated that two single nucleotide polymorphisms located in the IFN-gamma gene intron (at positions +874 and +2109) were involved in its transcriptional regulation. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether IFN-gamma gene polymorphisms or its haplotypes might be associated with predisposition to hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in the Chinese population. The study included 181 cases with HBV infection and 272 gender, age-matched healthy controls. All genotyping were identified by polymerase chain reaction in association with the measurement of amplification refractory mutation system. A significant difference was observed between case and control groups. The frequency of +874A allele was significantly higher in patients than in controls (OR = 2.25, 95%CI = 1.69-2.99, P < 0.0001). However, no significant difference was found in the allelic frequencies of IFN-gamma +2109A/G between cases and controls (P > 0.05). By haplotype analysis, the frequency of haplotype AG (+874A and +2109G) revealed a significant difference in the cases in comparison to controls (P < 0.0001). Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that individuals possessing haplotype AG had an increased likelihood of HBV infection (OR = 8.14, 95%CI = 4.98-13.30). Our results suggest that haplotype AG containing +874A and +2109G may be a crucial risk factor of genetic susceptibility to HBV infection in the Chinese population.

Interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma) is a pleiotropic cytokine that plays an important role in regulating cellular immune responses. Regulation of IFN-gamma expression is considered to be strictly controlled at the transcriptional level. Two single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the human IFN-gamma promoter (at positions -183 and -155) are considered to influence the promoter activity by altering the acting transcription factor-1 (AP-1) binding. We sought to assess the association between the SNPs of the IFN-gamma promoter and the host susceptibility to hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, as well as its interaction with age and gender. No polymorphism at position-155 was detected in any of the participants, but a significant difference was found in the polymorphism at position -183 between the cases and controls (G/T and T/T vs. GG; P < 0.01, odds ratio (OR) = 4.50 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 2.23-9.09). A susceptibility analysis revealed a gradually increased trend of the OR value from the young to the old group (OR = 3.03, 4.17, and 5.56). Similarly, the association of the -183 polymorphism was markedly different in females (OR = 5.71). Our data suggest that the polymorphism at position -183 of the IFN-gamma gene promoter may be associated with susceptibility to HBV infection, and age and gender factors are coordinative risk factors., (Copyright 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.)