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Timber granaries are found in numerous ethnic minority settlements in the southeast and south of Guizhou Province in China. A timber granary is a unique type of vernacular building in rice-farming villages. Most of these granaries adopted the stilting architectural form and column-and-tie framework to provide a safe and cool inner space for the storage of grains, prevent rats, and enhance natural ventilation. This is a case study on the repair project of a timber granary in Yaogu village. The granary was disassembled into timber components and reconstructed for conservation, which is called 'Repair by Disassembly' in the east Asian tradition of wooden architecture. Through in-situ surveying, participant observation of the construction process, and interviews with local craftsmen, this study analyses the repair methodology and Buyi ethnic construction techniques applied in the timber granary. This work suggest guidelines for the conservation and restoration of similar wooden architectural heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of digital finance has changed all aspects of human life and has also had a deep impact on the social governance system. This paper constructs an unbalanced panel of data of the theft crime rates for 289 cities in China during 2014–2019 based on the theft criminal judgments published on China's Judicial Documents website and explores the impact of digital financial inclusion on urban theft crime. It shows that there is a significantly negative correlation between digital financial inclusion and the urban theft crime rate, indicating that the development of digital financial inclusion can effectively reduce urban theft crime, which is also confirmed by instrumental variable analysis based on the spherical distance between cities and Hangzhou, and that digital financial inclusion mainly reduces theft crime committed by more serious and highly educated individuals. In addition, mechanism analysis shows that digital financial inclusion can reduce the expected benefits of theft by enhancing payment convenience and raise the opportunity cost by promoting employment. Therefore, in the Internet era, it is essential for China to continuously improve social governance tools that adapt to the development of new technologies to achieve high-quality urban development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the water area is one of the six types of biologically productive land in the ecological footprint model, it is only described on its biological production not including its aquatic production function. An improved ecological footprint model was proposed to assess regional aquatic sensitivity. The water area account in the traditional ecological footprint model was expanded and modified to include the four accounting items: aquatic pollution footprint, aquatic pollutants' carrying capacity, aquatic ecological profit and loss and aquatic ecological pressure index. Totally the procedure introduced in the sensitivity assessment includes the five steps: (1) collecting information and calculating the amount of sewage discharged into the surface water of the region; (2) calculating the ecological footprint of different pollutants by the improved ecological footprint model, and identifying the maximum value of the footprints as the final pollution footprint; (3) evaluating the ecological carrying capacity of the region; (4) assessing the degree of aquatic pollution using the indicators of ecological deficit and ecological surplus; (5) determining the aquatic environmental sensitivity level using the aquatic pollution pressure value. The assessment model was applied to analyze the town-level aquatic environmental sensitivity in the coastal areas of Jiangsu province, China. The assessment showed that the aquatic pollution footprints in the 367 towns were in the downward trend and the aquatic pollution sensitivity decreased from 2014 to 2018. The model might improve the description of the functions on providing natural resources and consuming waste in natural systems in the footprint model. The evaluation model could objectively assess the pressure status of the regional aquatic pollution sensitivity and provide some effective suggestions for decision makers on the utilization and protection of regional water resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four behavior subjects, including governments, enterprises, and public and environmental non-government organizations (abbreviated as ENGOs), all play vital roles in environmental protection. As an important component, the ENGOs of all the world focus on environmental improvement and provide services for the whole society. In developed countries, the ENGOs have been formed earlier, and all kinds of regulation, supervision, and maintenance systems on the organizations are relatively mature. The development of the ENGOs in China started late, but the development speed was very fast. Some issues, including the exploring on their existing situation and how to promote their role in environmental protection, should be concerned. In total, 2510 ENGOs' information in China was collected and analyzed in the study. The ENGOs in the nation were not uniformly distributed, and there were great differences in the number of the ENGOs among the 34 provinces of China. With a few exceptions, the ENGOs in China were generally small in the scale and poor in the viability. They were mostly research-oriented and often less participating. The organizations' development and improvement still needed a long-term arduous course. Many negative factors might influence the sustainable and healthy development of the ENGOs in China, and the legislation might be one cause. Several aspects-related norms, including the registration system, the financial support mechanism, and the identification on their plaintiff qualification, needed to be improved to encourage the development of these organizations and then promote the improvement of environmental quality better in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Notoginseng leaf triterpenes (PNGL), derived from the dried stems and leaves of P. notoginseng, is a phytoestrogen that exerts many neuroprotective effects in vivo and in vitro of ischemic stroke. However, its impact on neurological restoration specifically in relation to angiogenesis following ischemic stroke remains unexplored. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of PNGL on angiogenesis subsequent to ischemic stroke. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were utilized in this study and were subjected to middle cerebral artery occlusion/reperfusion (MCAO/R). Post-ischemia, PNGL were administered through intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection. The high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fingerprinting, triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) staining, immunofluorescent staining, network pharmacology and western blot analyses were assessed to determine the therapeutical effect and molecular mechanisms of PNGL on cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury. Our findings demonstrate that PNGL effectively reduced infarct volume, enhanced cerebral blood flow, and induced angiogenesis in rats subjected to MCAO/R. Notably, PNGL also facilitated neuronal proliferation and migration in HUMECs in vitro. The proangiogenic effects of PNGL were found to be linked to the activation of the nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) pathway and the AMPK/SIRT1-mediated PGC-1/ERα axis, as well as the activation of neurological function. Our study provides evidence that PNGL hold promise as an active ingredient of inducing proangiogenic effects, potentially through the activation of the Nrf2 pathway and the AMPK/SIRT1-mediated PGC-1/ERα axis. These findings contribute to the understanding of novel mechanisms involved in the restoration of neurological function following PNGL treatment for ischemic stroke., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest No conflict of interest exits in the submission of this manuscript, and manuscript is approved by all authors for publication. I would like to declare on behalf of my co-authors that the work described was original research that has not been published previously, and not under consideration for publication elsewhere, in whole or in part. All the authors listed have approved the manuscript that is enclosed., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To clarify the association between levothyroxine (LT4) treatment and various adverse pregnancy outcomes in pregnant women with thyrotropin (TSH) levels ranging between 2.5 and 10.0 mIU/L in the first trimester, stratified according to thyroid peroxidase antibody (TPOAb) positivity and TSH level. Methods: This retrospective analysis of retrospectively and prospectively collected cohort data included Chinese pregnant women with TSH levels of 2.5-10 mIU/L and normal free thyroxine levels (11.8-18.4 pmol/L) in the first trimester. All participants were followed up until the completion of pregnancy, and information on LT4 treatment, pregnancy complications, and pregnancy outcomes was recorded. A 1:1 nearest-neighbor propensity score matching (PSM) between the LT4-treated and - untreated groups with a caliper distance of 0.02 was performed using a multivariable logistic regression model. Multivariable-adjusted modified Poisson regression was used to estimate the relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of LT4 treatment for adverse pregnancy outcomes. Subgroup analyses were also performed in four subgroups simultaneously stratified by TPOAb status (negative or positive) and TSH levels (2.5-4.0 mIU/L as high-normal group and 4.0-10.0 mIU/L as SCH group). The study was registered in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR2100047394). Results: Among the 4,370 pregnant women in the study, 1,342 received LT4 treatment and 3,028 did not. The 1:1 PSM yielded 668 pairs of individuals and revealed that LT4 treatment was significantly associated with a decreased risk of pregnancy loss (RR = 0.528, 95% CI: 0.344-0.812) and an increased risk of small-for-gestational-age infants (RR = 1.595, 95% CI: 1.023-2.485). Subgroup analyses suggested that the above effects of LT4 treatment were mainly from TPOAb-negative participants. LT4 treatment was associated with an increased risk of preterm birth (RR = 2.214, 95% CI: 1.016-4.825) in TPOAb-positive pregnant women with high-normal TSH levels. Conclusion: LT4 treatment was significantly associated with a lower risk of pregnancy loss and a higher risk of small-for-gestational-age infants in pregnant women with TSH levels of 2.5-10 mIU/L. An increased risk of preterm birth was observed in the LT4-treated group among TPOAb-positive participants with TSH levels of 2.5-4.0 mIU/L.