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High-silica granites are significant carriers of highly incompatible elements and are closely associated with mineralization of the rare metal beryllium. Thus, understanding their origin and evolution is of paramount importance for comprehending the evolution of the continental crust and enrichment processes of beryllium. This study presents zircon U-Pb ages, whole-rock major and trace element compositions, and Nd-Hf-O isotopic data for Early Cretaceous high-silica granite porphyries, monazite U-Pb ages and Nd isotopic data for beryllium-rich quartz veins, and whole-rock and apatite Nd isotopic data for Permian tuffs in the Dongshanwan WMo-Be deposit in the southern Great Xing'an Range, northeastern China. Our aim is to elucidate the link between mineralization and magmatism and to further our insight into the processes of crystal-melt separation and the mechanisms driving beryllium enrichment in granitic magmatic systems. Zircon U-Pb dating of the high-silica granite porphyry yields a weighted mean 206Pb/238U age of 141 ± 1 Ma, which is consistent with the age of hydrothermal monazite (ca. 140 Ma) from the beryllium-rich quartz veins. Hydrothermal monazite from the intra-granite porphyry quartz vein has positive eNd(t) values (+0.76 to +1.63) that overlap broadly with whole-rock Nd isotopic compositions of the host granite porphyry [eNd(t) = + 1.24 to +1.61]. These characteristics indicate that the Dongshanwan beryllium mineralization was temporally and genetically associated with magmatic-hydrothermal activity of the Dongshanwan high-silica granite porphyries. Our systematic studies suggest that both the Dongshanwan high-silica granite porphyries and coeval Be-barren high-silica granites in the study area are high-K calc-alkaline I-type granites. They originated from a shared magmatic system and formed by the partial melting of a predominantly juvenile medium- to high-K basaltic crustal source, with a minor addition of old crustal components. Rayleigh fractionation modeling indicates that the granitic magma underwent a two-stage crystal-melt separation process. During the first stage, the fractional crystallization of a large proportion of plagioclase, in which beryllium is compatible, not only effectively inhibited beryllium enrichment in the differentiated melt, but also removed a large amount of Ca. During the second stage, minerals in which beryllium is incompatible dominated the fractionating assemblage owing to the low Ca contents in the magma, resulting in a surge in beryllium concentration in the differentiated melt. Our findings reveal that beryllium cannot be appreciably enriched in calc-alkaline granitic magmatic systems until plagioclase fractionation has substantially removed Ca from the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the effects of urban rail transit on on-road carbon emissions in 90 Chinese cities, taking a structural equation modeling approach. Urban rail transit theoretically helps mitigate overall transport-sector emissions by absorbing part of the vehicular traffic demand or by generating traffic-diversion effects. However, its net contribution is obscure, given potential traffic-creation effects, since improved rail access can also incentivize new developments and thus induce additional on-road traffic. In contrast to many existing studies that neglect rail transit's traffic-creation effects, we analyze these opposing effects within a single framework, where primary rail-associated emission channels are explicitly modeled. Our central results show that urban rail density is negatively associated with on-road carbon emissions with a net elasticity of −0.0175, speaking for the dominance of the traffic-diversion effects in China's context. However, mixed evidence exists on the effects of increased urban rail density on vehicle-kilometers traveled and vehicle ownership, with the two opposing effects being relatively balanced. These findings suggest that transport-sector mitigation needs coordination between urban rail development and planning regulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rock fissures constitute the main habitat type in the karst rocky desertification (KRD) area, but the effects of their network morphology on soil properties remain unknown. To address this, we investigated 46 rock vertical profile plots in Guizhou Province of China and classified their habitats using the morphological characteristics of their fissure networks. The response characteristics of soil nutrients and enzyme activities to the rock fissure morphologies in different rock habitats were discussed, and the main factors affecting soil nutrients and enzyme activities were comprehensively analyzed. Rock fissure networks were divided into three types: Type 1, a random type, with a low dip angle, long trace length, multiple turns, multiple connections, and high density; Type 2, a uniform type, with a moderate dip angle, moderate trace length, fewer turns, fewer connections, and moderate density; and Type 3, an aggregation type, with a high dip angle, short trace length, fewer turns, moderate connections, and low density. Soil nutrient levels and enzyme activities were the highest in Type 1, followed by Types 2 and 3. There were no significant differences between the total phosphorus and available phosphorus content in Types 1–3. The dip angle, fractal dimension, and average trace length were identified as the main factors affecting soil nutrients and enzyme activities, and Type 1 was the most conducive for soil nutrient and enzyme accumulation. The restoration of Type 2 and 3 areas should be emphasized in future research, as these results will help guide vegetation restoration in KRD areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Allometric scaling of leaf nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) provides information on species adaptation to resource availability and nutrient limitation of primary production. Studies examining how plant functional traits vary spatially have historically used global datasets, which may blur variation at local scale and thus some of the key drivers. Global studies have observed leaf N–P scaling exponents varied across different functional groups, latitudinal zones, ecoregions, and sites. However, whether these trends are consistent in a local habitat is still unclear. Here, we capitalized on a soil P availability gradient in subtropical China to examine scaling exponents of leaf N–P. We investigated 21 woody species at P-rich and P-poor sites for two consecutive years and estimated scaling exponents of leaf N–P across P-type sites, leaf ages, plant functional types, and phylogeny. The exponents varied across the abovementioned levels from 0.356 to 0.699. Averaged across all plant species, the exponent of 0.612 was a departure from the global average of 2/3 (0.66) and 3/4 (0.75). Two types of P-sites did not affect N–P exponents of deciduous-broadleaved trees and evergreen conifers. Our findings indicated that leaf N–P scaling exponents significantly differed within plant functional types and highlighted the resource availability in shaping nutrient cycling and evolutionary processes at local scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last decades of neuroimaging research has revealed atypical development of intrinsic functional connectivity within and between large-scale cortical networks in autism spectrum disorder, but much remains unknown about cortico-subcortical developmental connectivity atypicalities. This study examined cortico-striatal developmental intrinsic functional connectivity changes in autism spectrum disorder and explored how those changes may be correlated with autistic traits. We studied 49 individuals with autism spectrum disorder and 52 age-, sex-, and head motion–matched typically developing individuals (5–30 years old (14.0 ± 5.6)) using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Age-related differences in striatal intrinsic functional connectivity were compared between the two groups by adopting functional network–based parcellations of the striatum as seeds. Relative to typically developing individuals, autism spectrum disorder individuals showed atypical developmental changes in intrinsic functional connectivities between almost all striatal networks and sensorimotor network/ default network, with connectivity increasing with age in the autism spectrum disorder group and decreasing or constant in typically developing individuals. Age-related degree centrality and voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity atypicalities in sensorimotor network/default network and voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity disruptions in striatal regions were also observed in autism spectrum disorder. Significant correlations were found between cortico-striatal intrinsic functional connectivities and Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule communication/repetitive and restricted-behavior subscores in autism spectrum disorder. Our results indicated that developmental atypicalities of cortico-striatal intrinsic functional connectivities might contribute to the neuropathology of autism spectrum disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite the growing number of studies on the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), little is known about the association of menopausal status with COVID-19 outcomes. Materials and methods: In this retrospective study, we included 336 COVID-19 inpatients between February 15, 2020 and April 30, 2020 at the Taikang Tongji Hospital (Wuhan), China. Electronic medical records including patient demographics, laboratory results, and chest computed tomography (CT) images were reviewed. Results: In total, 300 patients with complete clinical outcomes were included for analysis. The mean age was 65.3 years, and most patients were women (n = 167, 55.7%). Over 50% of patients presented with comorbidities, with hypertension (63.5%) being the most common comorbidity. After propensity score matching, results showed that men had significantly higher odds than premenopausal women for developing severe disease type (23.7% vs. 0%, OR 17.12, 95% CI 1.00–293.60; p = 0.003) and bilateral lung infiltration (86.1% vs. 64.7%, OR 3.39, 95% CI 1.08–10.64; p = 0.04), but not for mortality (2.0% vs. 0%, OR 0.88, 95% CI 0.04–19.12, p = 1.00). However, non-significant difference was observed among men and postmenopausal women in the percentage of severe disease type (32.7% vs. 41.7%, OR 0.68, 95% CI 0.37–1.24, p = 0.21), bilateral lung infiltration (86.1% vs. 91.7%, OR 0.56, 95% CI 0.22–1.47, p = 0.24), and mortality (2.0% vs. 6.0%, OR 0.32, 95% CI 0.06–1.69, p = 0.25). Conclusions: Men had higher disease severity than premenopausal women, while the differences disappeared between postmenopausal women and men. These findings support aggressive treatment for the poor prognosis of postmenopausal women in clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Study Question: What is the role of pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) from decidual natural killer (dNK) cells during early pregnancy?Summary Answer: PEDF from dNK cells limits the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced apoptosis and inflammation of decidual stromal cells (DSCs) to maintain DSCs homoeostasis and immune balance at the maternal-foetal interface during early pregnancy.What Is Known Already: dNK cells, which secrete PEDF, play critical roles during pregnancy via a series of key regulators. PEDF, a multifunctional endogenous glycoprotein, exhibits a wide range of biological actions upon angiogenesis, inflammation, metabolic homoeostasis, immunomodulation etc., providing potential clinical applications.Study Design, Size, Duration: Natural killer (NK) cells from decidua and peripheral blood as well as DSCs isolated from normal pregnancy (NP) during the first trimester (6-10 weeks) and the matched patients suffering recurrent miscarriage (RM) were studied. RNA-sequencing analysis of dNK cells was performed to screen for potential key genes involved in RM. The expression of PEDF in dNK cells in NP and RM was examined. A coculture system with LPS-stimulated DSCs and NK cell supernatants derived from NP or RM was established to explore the regulatory mechanisms of PEDF at the maternal-foetal interface.Participants/materials, Setting, Methods: Peripheral blood and decidual tissues were obtained from women with NP (n = 61) and RM (n = 21). The expression levels of PEDF in NK cells and its receptor (PEDFR) on DSCs were analysed using flow cytometry, western blot and immunohistochemistry. Purified peripheral natural killer (pNK) cells were cocultured with DSCs or trophoblast cells or a combination of both cell types, and PEDF expression in pNK cells was then examined by flow cytometry. DSCs were treated with LPS, an outer-membrane component of Gram-negative bacteria, thereby mimicking an enhanced inflammatory status within decidua, and were cocultured with dNK cell supernatants from NP or RM. In the coculture system, plasmids expressing short hairpin RNA were used to silence PEDFR on DSCs and block the PEDF/PEDFR interaction. Inflammatory cytokines and apoptosis of DSCs treated as described above were assessed by flow cytometry. Western blotting was performed, and the specific signal pathway inhibitors were used to determine downstream PEDF/PEDFR signalling in early decidua.Main Results and the Role Of Chance: Markedly higher RNA (P < 0.001) and protein expression of PEDF (P < 0.01) was detected in normal dNK cells when compared with pNK cells. Compared with pNK cells cultured alone, PEDF expression in pNK cells was elevated after coculture with DSCs (P < 0.01) or trophoblast cells (P < 0.001). The increased pro-inflammatory cytokine, tumour necrosis factor-α and apoptosis of DSCs following LPS stimulation were suppressed by recombinant human PEDF (P < 0.001) or the supernatant of dNK cells derived from NP (P < 0.001). However, these effects were somewhat abrogated when the PEDF/PEDFR interaction was blocked with PEDFR short hairpin sRNA (P < 0.01). Furthermore, dNK cell-derived PEDF protected DSCs from LPS-induced inflammation via inhibition of nuclear factor kappa-B activation, while also protecting DSCs from LPS-induced apoptosis via promotion of extracellular signal-regulated kinase expression. Compared with NP, both significantly decreased PEDF RNA (P < 0.001) and protein expression (P < 0.001) in dNK cells, but not in pNK cells (P > 0.05), were detected in women with RM. PEDFR on DSCs was also decreased within RM compared with that within NP (P < 0.001). As a result, dNK cell-mediated anti-inflammation (P < 0.01) and anti-apoptosis (P < 0.05) for protection of LPS-treated DSCs was attenuated in patients suffering from RM.Large Scale Data: N/A.Limitations, Reasons For Caution: We cannot exclude the possibility that the differences in amounts of PEDF and its receptor in tissue from NP versus RM women could be caused by the miscarriage event in women with RM. Our experiments only involved human samples investigated in vitro. Experiments in animal models and human study cohorts are still needed to confirm these findings and further clarify the role of PEDF-PEDFR in NP and/or RM.Wider Implications Of the Findings: To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate PEDF expression and function at the maternal-foetal interface in the first trimester, providing further evidence that PEDF exhibits functional diversity and has great potential for clinical application(s). The findings of selectively high expression of PEDF in normal dNK cells and the PEDF-mediated role of dNK cells during NP and RM help to further elucidate the immune mechanisms behind RM.Study Funding/competing Interest(s): This work was supported by the National Basic Research Programme of China (2017YFC1001403 and 2015CB943300), Nature Science Foundation from National Nature Science Foundation of China (NSFC; 31970859, 81630036, 81501334, 91542116, 31570920, 81490744 and 31171437), the Innovation-oriented Science and Technology Grant from NHC Key Laboratory of Reproduction Regulation (CX2017-2), the Programme of Shanghai Academic/Technology Research Leader (17XD1400900) and the Key Project of Shanghai Basic Research from Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission (STCSM; 12JC1401600). None of the authors has any conflict of interest to declare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the context of climate change and population growth, the development of urban agriculture is of great environmental and economic significance in rapidly urbanizing China. Based on the primary survey data, this paper evaluated the carbon footprint (CF) and economic efficiency of urban agriculture in Beijing (China) using the life cycle assessment method (from cradle to consumption approach). Two cases were analyzed and compared considering their differences in on-farm cultivation and off-farm supply chains: a conventional small householder farm that sells its vegetables directly to consumers in a local market, and a large home-delivery agriculture (HDA) initiative that delivers its vegetables to the consumers' home directly. Both cases were equipped with greenhouses with plastic covering but no heating system. The CF of the production, transportation and distribution of 1 kg fresh vegetables was estimated at 0.318 kg CO 2 -eq kg−1 and 0.624–0.652 kg CO 2 -eq kg−1 for conventional and HDA initiative farm, respectively. However, the HDA initiative showed a better environmental performance than the conventional operation when taking economic efficiency into consideration. The CF per unit of profit of HDA initiative (0.093–0.097 kg CO 2 -eq per CNY) was lower than conventional farm (0.111 kg CO 2 -eq per CNY). The lower CF per unit of product weight of the conventional farm was largely attributed to the high yield and the lower CF per unit of profit of the HDA initiative was mainly due to the outstanding economic profitability through income optimization. The major hotspots of CF in both cases were greenhouse plastic films in the cultivation phase (from cradle to farm gate) and transportation in the supply chain (from farm gate to consumption). Simulation of a switch to biodiesel instead of gasoline and diesel in combination with the replacement of current fossil-fuel-dominated electricity by hydro-powered electricity resulted in 20.0–21.8% reduction in the total CF. By identifying the CF hotspots of two farm cases, particular inputs and activities can be targeted for adjustment in order to effectively reduce the CF of urban agriculture in Beijing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • 36-representative-day traffic flow divided into 13 categories and one-year CO 2 flux data by field monitoring were collected. • Localized MOVES model was applied to accurately estimate traffic CO 2 emissions on high spatiotemporal resolution. • Temporal variation of traffic CO 2 emissions on various temporal scales were analysed. • Quantitative relationship between traffic CO 2 emissions and CO 2 flux were explored. Abstract Cities are the main source of CO 2. Traffic is one of the most important sources of CO 2 emissions in urban areas. One-year CO 2 flux and 36-days traffic flow data were collected by field monitoring in 2014 at the study area. The accurate traffic CO 2 emissions on 30-min scale were calculated by the localized MOVES model. The annual emissions were 4139.19 Mg. The traffic CO 2 emissions showed a "double-peak" diurnal pattern, with morning peak of 705.14 kg 30 min−1 (8:00–8:30) and the evening peak of 788.40 kg/30 min−1 (7:30–18:00). The tail number limited measure in Beijing has reached certain extent, with emissions by limited tail number as follows: 1 or 6 (11.03 Mg/d) < 3 or 8 (11.88 Mg/d) < 4 or 9 (12.13 Mg/d) < 2 or 7 (12.32 Mg/d) < 5 or 0 (12.57 Mg/d). The approach to exploring the relationship with traffic CO 2 emissions and CO 2 flux is modified from the perspective of spatial boundary definition and unit unification. Traffic CO 2 emissions had significantly positive effects on the CO 2 flux. The absolute values of the standard coefficients were in the following order: for the whole year in 2014, temperature (−0.316) > radiation (−0.152) > traffic CO 2 emissions (0.107); for the plant growing season, radiation (−0.254) > temperature (−0.130) > traffic CO 2 emissions (0.105). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japan has achieved the decoupling of economic growth from air-pollutant emissions since the rapid decrease in air-pollutant emissions in the 1970s and the further-abatement period. Air-pollutant emissions also decreased in China recently. We analyzed the factors driving the changes in air-pollutant emission, which enabled us to identify each factor's contribution and compare the further-abatement period in Japan with the primary reduction stage in China. This study performed the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index analysis to decompose the industrial-emission changes (SO 2 and NO x ) in Japan and China into the socioeconomic factors that drive these changes. Results showed that changes in these factors, especially energy intensity and economic level, contributed differently to the emission reduction in Japan and China because the two countries differed in emission-reduction periods. The decline in emission coefficient, measured by emissions per unit of energy consumption, was the most important contributor to emission reduction in Japan. The other factors did not exert considerable influence. However, energy intensity decrease in China significantly contributed to emission reduction besides emission coefficient, and economic growth had a substantial negative impact on emission reduction. Differences also appeared in contributions from the industrial and economic structure between the two countries. Some factors may have reached their limitation after the rapid reduction period and thus contributed less significantly in the further-abatement period. A tendency toward a similar condition to Japan was also observed in some factorial contributions in China. From a sectoral perspective, emission change was distributed evenly among sectors in Japan than in China. Based on the comparison between the two countries and the “new normal” that China is experiencing, we provided insights for China for further abating industrial air-pollutant emissions in succeeding years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid human activities and urbanization exacerbate the human health risks induced by antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). In this study, the profiling of ARGs was investigated using high-throughput qPCR from water samples of 13 catchment areas in East Tiaoxi River, China. High prevalence of ARGs indicated significant antibiotic resistance pollution in the research area (absolute abundance: 6.1 × 10 8 –2.1 × 10 10 copies/L; relative abundance: 0.033–0.158 copies/cell). Conventional water qualities (COD, TN, TP, NH 3 -N), bacterial communities and mobile gene elements (MGEs) were detected and analyzed as factors of ARGs shift. Nutrient and MGEs showed positive correlation with most ARGs ( P < 0.05) and bacteria community was identified as the key contributing factor driving ARGs alteration. With the land-use study and field investigation, country area, especially arable, was expected as a high spot for ARGs shift and pathogen breeding. Comparing to environmental background, promotion of ARGs and marked shift of bacterial community were observed in country and urban city areas, indicating that human activities may lead to the spread of ARGs. Analysis of factors affecting ARGs in this study may shed new light on the mechanism of the maintenance and propagation of ARGs in urban rivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Municipal infrastructure is a fundamental facility for the normal operation and development of an urban city and is of significance for the stable progress of sustainable urbanization around the world, especially in developing countries. Based on the municipal infrastructure data of the prefecture-level cities in China, municipal infrastructure development is assessed comprehensively using a FA (factor analysis) model, and then the stochastic model STIRPAT (stochastic impacts by regression on population, affluence and technology) is examined to investigate key factors that influence municipal infrastructure of cities in various stages of urbanization and economy. This study indicates that the municipal infrastructure development in urban China demonstrates typical characteristics of regional differentiation, in line with the economic development pattern. Municipal infrastructure development in cities is primarily influenced by income, industrialization and investment. For China and similar developing countries under transformation, national public investment remains the primary driving force of economy as well as the key influencing factor of municipal infrastructure. Contribution from urbanization and the relative consumption level, and the tertiary industry is still scanty, which is a crux issue for many developing countries under transformation. With economic growth and the transformation requirements, the influence of the conventional factors such as public investment and industrialization on municipal infrastructure development would be expected to decline, meanwhile, other factors like the consumption and tertiary industry driven model and the innovation society can become key contributors to municipal infrastructure sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ribonucleotide reductase M1 ( RRM1) is a crucial gene in DNA repair. Recent studies have shown that RRM1 expression can be a powerful predictor of survival or chemotherapy sensitivity in patients presenting with carcinomas who are treated with adjuvant gemcitabine-based chemotherapy including lung cancer. However, the relationship between the single nucleotide polymorphisms ( SNP) of RRM1 and the susceptibility of lung cancer to chemotherapy has not been well addressed. We detected six tag SNPs of RRM1 genotypes in a cohort of 1007 patients with primary lung cancer and 1007 age- and sex-matched population controls using SNaPshot detection technology. Logistic regression, odds ratios ( OR), and 95% confidence intervals were calculated to estimate lung cancer risk associated with SNP genotypes and haplotypes, after adjusting for case-control matching factors. Compared with the T/T and A/T genotype of RRM1 *151A>T, the A/A genotype had an increased risk for overall lung cancer (adjusted OR, 1.33). Additionally, the T/T+T/C genotypes of RRM1 -756T>C were risk factors that increased the susceptibility to lung cancer (adjusted OR 1.54, as compared with the C/C genotype). While the T/T+G/T genotypes of RRM1 -585T>G behaved as protective factors to increase the susceptibility to lung cancer (adjusted OR 0.44, as compared with the C/C genotype). In summary, this is the first study to systematically identify the relationship between the polymorphisms of RRM1 and individual susceptibility to lung cancer. It is anticipated that the RRM1 *151A>T, RRM1 -756T>C, and RRM1 -585T>G polymorphisms will improve the predictive prognosis of lung cancer sensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China′s bid for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games will promote rapid development of domestic ski tourism. More than 10 provinces in the northern China list ski tourism as a new source of growth in the tourism industry. Formulating a scientific evaluation system is an important foundation for ski resort development. By referring to the conditions of existing international ski resorts, a comprehensive index system for evaluating ski resort development was developed based on natural factors, human factors, athletic sports, and popular ski tourism. The system was composed of one target layer, two indices, seven sub-indices and twenty-five basic indices. Based on data collected during a field investigation in 2012 and on a statistical model, the development conditions of the following ski resorts were quantified: Yabuli Ski Resort in Heilongjiang Province and Beidahu Ski Resort in Jilin Province in Northeast China, Wanlong Ski Resort in Hebei Province and Nanshan Ski Resort in Beijing in the northern China, and Silk Road International Ski Resort in Uygur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang in the northwestern China. The resulting index values of development conditions at Beidahu, Yabuli, Wanlong, Nanshan, and Silk Road International Ski Resorts were 0.304, 0.278, 0.270, 0.214, and-0.025, respectively. Various natural and human factors exert positive and negative effects on the development potential of ski resorts. The development conditions of the five ski resorts were inferior to those of first-class international resorts. Therefore, the development conditions of the five ski resorts should be improved with future construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incidence of wildlife mortality on roads is a widespread phenomenon reported in many countries; despite this, it has received limited attention in China. To address this issue, a field investigation was conducted to assess the magnitude, composition, and temporal patterns of road mortality of native vertebrates on Ring Changbai Mountain Scenic Highway in north-east China from 2009 to 2012. A total of 3.475 vertebrates, belonging to 63 species were recorded as road mortalities. Amphibians were the most abundant taxa recorded (86.21 %), followed by mammals (5.70 %), birds (5.24 %), and reptiles (2.85 %). Regarding the number of species affected by the incidence of road kills, birds were the most affected taxa (31 species), followed by mammals (16 species) and reptiles (10 species), while amphibians were the least affected taxa (6 species). Three vertebrate species that were recorded as road mortalities are under second class protection in China. There were no differences between seasons or months for road mortality or richness for bird and reptile taxa, while significant differences between months were observed for mammals and amphibians. Mammal road mortality was highest in August, most road kills being encountered for the Siberian Chipmunk (Tamias sibiricus Laxmann, 1769) mortalities. Amphibian road mortality was highest in June, most road kills being encountered for the Chinese Brown Frog (Rana chensinensis David, 1875), Oriental Fire-bellied Toad (Bombina orientalis Boulenger, 1890), and Asiatic Toad (Bufo gargarizans Cantor, 1842). Each taxonomic group showed no distinct differences in species richness between months. This research recommends creating wildlife crossing structures for amphibians and small-sized mammals to reduce the incidence of road mortalities and adopting traffic management measures to mitigate amphibian mortality especially from April to September, and strictly controlling speed limitations to 60 km/h on this highway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sixty field strains of avian infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) were isolated from chicken flocks in different regions of Guangxi from 1985 to 2012. Phylogenetic analysis of S1 subunit glycoprotein genes revealed that field isolates from 2009-2011 mostly belonged to the LX4 type, while those from 1985-2008 belonged to the HN08 type, and a few others belonged to the 4/91 type, the TW type and the Mass type. In addition, it is noteworthy that no obvious regional differences were found among these 60 strains isolated from six regions in Guangxi, while there was a high degree of sequence identity among the isolates in the same period of time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We used generalized additive models (GAM) to analyze the relationship between spatiotemporal factors and catch, and to estimate the monthly marine fishery yield of single otter trawls in Putuo district of Zhoushan, China. We used logbooks from five commercial fishing boats and data in government's monthly statistical reports. We developed two GAM models: one included temporal variables (month and hauling time) and spatial variables (longitude and latitude), and another included just two variables, month and the number of fishing boats. Our results suggest that temporal factors explained more of the variability in catch than spatial factors. Furthermore, month explained the majority of variation in catch. Change in spatial distribution of fleet had a temporal component as the boats fished within a relatively small area within the same month, but the area varied among months. The number of boats fishing in each month also explained a large proportion of the variation in catch. Engine power had no effect on catch. The pseudo-coefficients (PCf) of the two GAMs were 0.13 and 0.29 respectively, indicating the both had good fits. The model yielded estimates that were very similar to those in the governmental reports between January to September, with relative estimate errors (REE) of <18%. However, the yields in October and November were significantly underestimated, with REEs of 36% and 27%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The genetic diversity of the hypervariable region I of S1 gene (HVR I) of infectious bronchitis (IB) vaccine strains H120, Ma5 and 4/91 was compared to that of 26 infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) strains isolated from the field in Guangxi province of China during the years 1985-2008, and the field isolates were classified into five major genotypes. Monovalent antisera against three vaccine strains and seven field isolates of different genotypes were prepared by immunizing rabbits with mineral oil adjuvant preparations containing viruses propagated in chicken embryos. Virus neutralization (VN) tests were performed in tracheal organ cultures (TOCs) using these 10 strains with the antisera, and a one-way VN test was then used to compare the relationship of 10 monovalent antisera to the other 19 field isolates. As a result, seven different serotypes were classified based on the results of VN tests with the 26 isolates plus the three vaccine strains. We found that different serotypes were prevalent during different time periods, that more new serotypes have been prevalent in more recent years, and the prevalence of the original dominant serotype has been in constant decline since 2004. In addition, the concordance rate of the 26 field isolates between the S1 genotypes and serotypes was 57.7%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concentrations of uranium, thorium, barium, nickel, strontium and lead in the samples of the tailings and plant species collected from a uranium mill tailings repository in South China were analyzed. Then, the removal capability of a plant for a target element was assessed. It was found that Phragmites australis had the greatest removal capabilities for uranium (820 μg), thorium (103 μg) and lead (1,870 μg). Miscanthus floridulus had the greatest removal capabilities for barium (3,730 μg) and nickel (667 μg), and Parthenocissus quinquefolia had the greatest removal capability for strontium (3,920 μg). In this study, a novel coefficient, termed as phytoremediation factor (PF), was proposed, for the first time, to assess the potential of a plant to be used in phytoremediation of a target element contaminated soil. Phragmites australis has the highest PFs for uranium (16.6), thorium (8.68), barium (10.0) and lead (10.5). Miscanthus floridulus has the highest PF for Ni (25.0). Broussonetia papyrifera and Parthenocissus quinquefolia have the relatively high PFs for strontium (28.1 and 25.4, respectively). On the basis of the definition for a hyperaccumulator, only Cyperus iria and Parthenocissus quinquefolia satisfied the criteria for hyperaccumulator of uranium (36.4 μg/g) and strontium (190 μg/g), and could be the candidates for phytoremediation of uranium and strontium contaminated soils. The results show that the PF has advantage over the hyperaccumulator in reflecting the removal capabilities of a plant for a target element, and is more adequate for assessing the potential of a plant to be used in phytoremediation than conventional method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the threat of COVID-19, many regions around the world implemented lockdown policies to control the spread of the virus. This restriction on both social and economic activities has improved the quality of the environment in certain aspects. However, most previous studies have only focused on the short-term impact of lockdown policies on the urban environment. The long-term effects of lockdown require a more focused exploration and analysis. Thus, five major urban agglomerations in China were selected as the research area; changes in the numerical and spatial distribution of NO2 concentration and surface temperature during four different lockdown stages in 2019, 2020, and 2021 were investigated to analyze the long-term effects of lockdown policies on the urban environment. The results indicated that the impact of shorter lockdowns was short-term and unsustainable; the NO2 concentrations increased again with the resumption of production. Compared with air pollutants, thermal environmental problems are more complex. The effect of the lockdown policy was not reflected in the decrease in the area proportions of the high- and sub-high-temperature regions but rather in the spatial distribution of the high-temperature area, which was manifested as a fragmentation and dispersion of heat source patches. In addition to the severity of the lockdown, the impact of the lockdown policy was also closely related to the level of development and industrial structure of each city. Among the urban environments of the five agglomerations, the most affected were the Yangtze River Delta and Yangtze River Middle-Reach urban agglomerations, which had the largest decline in NO2 concentrations and the most notable fragmentation of heat source patches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Species diversity plays an essential role in enhancing ecosystem functions (EF) in both natural and plantation forests. However, we do not fully understand whether species diversity could maintain the sustainability of EFs in multiple-rotation plantations. Here, we hypothesized that tree species mixtures could mitigate declines in EFs along successive rotations, but could not maintain ecosystem multifunctionality. To test our hypothesis, we examined the effects of species diversity on four EFs, i.e., aboveground biomass (AGB), soil available nitrogen (SAN) and phosphorus (SAP), and soil organic matter (SOM), based on pure model simulation in plantations of subtropical China. The model fusion framework was set up by the integration of the process-based FORECAST and Multivariate Diversity-Interactions models. In the simulation, four local typical plantation tree species (two conifers, one evergreen broadleaf, and one deciduous N-fixing broadleaf) were selected and combined to form four monoculture and 11 mixture stands, and for each stand, the simulation was made for four 25-year rotations. The results showed that all the four EFs declined with the progress of rotations in both monoculture and mixtures, and the declining range was larger in monoculture than in mixtures in each rotation. Particularly, SAP significantly decreased while AGB, SAN, and SOM increased with diversity evenness from 0 (monoculture) to 1 (four species being equal abundant in the mixture). Overall, SAP and AGB displayed higher sensitivity to the disturbance of successive rotations compared with SAN and SOM. These results suggest that mixing species could not maintain EFs along with successive rotations because it could not alleviate SAP deficiencies in the soils resulted from the disturbances of silvicultural measures. • We examine the effects of biodiversity on forest ecosystem multifunctionality. • We employed a process-based FORECAST and Multivariate Diversity-Interactions model. • Mixtures could not maintain ecosystem functions along with successive rotations. • Mixtures played a limited role in the sustainable multi-purpose forest management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deterioration of the urban thermal environment, especially in megacities with intensive populations and high densities of impervious surfaces, is a global issue resulting from rapid urbanization. The effects of landscape patterns on the urban thermal environment within a single area or single period have been well documented. Few studies, however, have explored whether the effects can be adapted to various cities at different urbanization stages. This paper investigated the variations of these effects in the five largest and highly urbanized megacities of China from 1990 to 2020 using various geospatial approaches, including concentric buffer analysis, correlation analysis, and hierarchical ridge regression models. The results indicated that the effects of landscape patterns on the urban thermal environment were greatly variable at different urbanization stages. Although landscape composition was more important than landscape configuration in determining the urban thermal environment, the standard coefficients of composition metrics continuously decreased from 1990 to 2020. However, configuration metrics, such as patch density, edge density, and shape complexity, could affect the land surface temperature (LST) to a larger extent at the highly urbanized stage. The urbanization process could also affect the cooling effect of urban green space. At the initial stage of rapid urban expansion in approximately 2000, urban green space explained the most variation in LST, with a value as high as 10%. To maximize the cooling effect, the spatial arrangement of urban green space should be highlighted in the region that was 10–15 km from the city center, where the mean LST experienced a significant decline. These results may provide deeper insights into improving the urban thermal environment by targeted strategies in optimizing landscape patterns for areas at different urbanization stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has become the largest CO2 emission country since 2014. The industrial sector is the largest contributor to CO2 emissions in China. This paper uncovers the spatiotemporal characteristics of the decoupling status of industrial CO2 emissions from economic growth at the provincial level during 1995–2019 in China and analyzed the structural characteristics of the industrial CO2 emissions. The results suggested that 2010 is an important turning point. Since 2010, the decoupling status of industrial CO2 emissions from economic growth has kept a continuously improving trend. During 2016–2019, all provinces achieved decoupling of the industrial CO2 emissions from economic growth. More than 20% achieved absolute strong decoupling. Four subindustries, including raw chemical materials and chemical products, production and supply of electric power and heat power, petroleum processing and coking products, and smelting and pressing of non-ferrous metals, with large CO2 emissions' contribution and a continuously increasing trend, should be paid more attention in the future CO2 reduction policies formulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban agglomeration is an advanced spatial form of integrating cities, resulting from the global urbanization of recent decades. Understanding spatiotemporal patterns and evolution is of great importance for improving urban agglomeration management. This study used continuous time-series NTL data from 2000 to 2018 combined with land-use images to investigate the spatiotemporal patterns of urbanization in the three most developed urban agglomerations in China over the past two decades: the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei urban agglomeration (BTH), the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration (YRD), and the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). The NTL intensity indexes, dynamic thresholds, extracted urban areas, and landscape metrics were synthetically used to facilitate the analysis. This study found that the urbanization process in the study areas could be divided into three stages: rapid urbanization in core cities from 2000 to 2010, a fluctuating urbanization process in both core cities and surrounding cities from 2010 to 2015, and stable urbanization, mainly in surrounding cities with a medium size after 2015. Meanwhile, the urbanization level of GBA was higher than that of YRD and BTH. However, with the acceleration of urban development in YRD, the gap in the urbanization level between GBA and YRD narrowed significantly in the third stage. In addition, this study confirmed that the scattered, medium-sized cities in YRD and GBA were more developed than those in BTH. This study showed that continuous NTL data could be effectively applied to monitor the urbanization patterns of urban agglomerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Seasonal variation in leaf stoichiometry and WUE was closely coupled. • Temperature may be the main driver of seasonal changes in stoichiometry and WUE. • Stable carbon isotope composition may be integrated in future Earth system models. Estimates of seasonal variation in plant stoichiometry and water use efficiency (WUE) are critical for predicting the time courses of carbon and water fluxes. However, the relationship between seasonal stoichiometry and WUE, and their relationship with climatic factors remains unclear. The carbon isotope composition has been widely used to evaluate the WUE. We hypothesized that WUE is closely related to seasonal variation in plant stoichiometry, and then stable carbon isotope can be used to indicate the variation in future models. For this study, we investigated seasonal changes in WUE and 14 elements (C, N, P, S, K, Na, Ca, Mg, Al, Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, and Ba) of Quercus variabilis in a warm temperate forest, Central China. The WUE gradually reduced from late spring until leaf senescence in fall. Leaf C and N initially increased and then decreased. Leaf P, S, and K generally decreased, whereas Ca, Ba, Al and Fe gradually accumulated throughout the growing season. Leaf C:N, C:P, and N:P were lowest in early season, and then typically increased. As expected, WUE was positively correlated with N, P, S, K, and Mg, while negatively with C, Ca, Al, and Fe as well as C:N, C:P, and N:P. WUE increased with higher temperatures but had no relationship with precipitation. Leaf N, P, S, and K increased, while C:N, C:P, and N:P decreased with higher temperatures. Our results suggested that seasonal stoichiometry and WUE was closely coupled with plant growth, and temperature may be the main dynamic driver of water and nutrients in forest ecosystems. As WUE was estimated by carbon isotope composition, our findings provide new insights toward integrating carbon isotope with Earth system models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Twenty autosomal short tandem repeat loci were genotyped in Zhangzhou Han population. • A total of 262 alleles were found among 1555 unrelated individuals. • The 20 autosomal loci in Zhangzhou Han population are useful in forensic medicine. • The structure of Zhangzhou Han was similar with that of the southern Han. China harbors 56 ethnic groups and Han is the largest population. It is informative and useful to explore the available population genetic characteristics of Chinese Han population from Fujian Province, Southeast China. In our study, we explored the genetic characteristics of 20 autosomal Short tandem repeat (STR) loci in 1555 unrelated Chinese Han individuals from Zhangzhou City, Southeastern China using the SureID® 21G Human STR Identification Kit. Moreover, phylogenetic analysis was performed between the Zhangzhou Han population and other relevant populations based on the shared autosomal STR genotyping. The neighbor-joining tree and multidimensional scaling analysis were analyzed based on the Nei's standard genetic distance. We found 262 alleles among 1555 unrelated individuals and the corresponding allele frequencies ranged from 0.5521 to 0.0003. The combined power of discrimination and exclusion of the 20 autosomal STR loci were 0.99999999999999999999999943 and 0.999999996166537, respectively. Population comparison revealed that the Zhangzhou Han population were lining up together with the southern Han populations in China while showed significant differences from other China populations. Our results found that the 20 autosomal STR loci in Zhangzhou Han population are meaningful for forensic medicine and human genetic. The genetics characteristic of Zhangzhou Han population is similar with the southern Han population in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It is meaningful to expand the available population information on forensic medicine and to investigate the genetic characteristics of Han population from Jilin Province, Northeast China. Methods: In this study, we investigated the genetic characteristics of 24 Y‐chromosomal short tandem repeat (STR) loci in 1,088 unrelated Chinese Han male individuals from Jilin Province, using DNATyperTM Y24 amplification kit. Additionally, we performed the population comparison between the Jilin population and the other nine reported populations based on the Y‐STR genotyping haplotypes. Results: A total of 1,067 different haplotypes were found from 1,088 unrelated individuals, of which 1,046 were unique and 21 were shared by two individuals. The gene diversity values of 22 loci ranged from 0.3870 (DYS391) to 0.9668 (DYS385ab). The random match probability was 0.0010 with the discrimination capacity of 0.9807. Population comparison showed that there were minor differences compared to Beijing Chinese Han, China Manchu, Gansu Chinese Han, and Jiangsu Chinese Han, but major differences with respect to the populations of Guangdong Chinese Han, Yunnan Chinese Han, China Hui, China Korean, and China Tibetan. Conclusion: Our results showed that the 24 Y‐STR loci in Jilin Han population are valuable for forensic application and human genetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-silica granitoids signal maturity of continental crust and are also closely associated with rare metal mineralization. However, the possible factors controlling the upper crustal differentiation and rare metal mineralization have not been well-constrained. In this work, we report zircon U-Pb ages, trace elements, Hf-O isotopes, and wholerock elemental and Sr-Nd-Hf isotopic data on six high-silica granitic intrusions from the Southern Great Xing'an Range Metallogenic Belt (SGXRMB), NE China, with a view to elucidate their source, differentiation mechanism, and rare metal mineralization potential. Zircon U-Pb dating of the granites (including porphyritic granite and alkalifeldspar granite) yields Early Cretaceous ages of ca. 144-135 Ma. Petrographic and geochemical features including the high SiO2, DI, and TE1,3 values, and similar Sr-Nd-Hf-O isotopes suggest that the rocks are weakly peraluminous, highly evolved I-type granites sharing a common silicic magma reservoir. Integrated isotope modeling suggests a complex source region for the evolved I-type granites involving dominantly juvenile lower crustal components with subordinate older continental basement and possible contribution of recycled pelagic sediments. The highsilica granite in the Jingpeng-Lindong region and the quartz diorite-monzonite, granodiorite, and monzogranite in the Lindong-Zalute region show close spatial-temporal distribution, common source and consistent variations in their whole-rock zircon compositions, indicating melt extraction processes in a highly crystalline mush rejuvenated by the injection of high temperature magma and F-enriched volatile filter-pressing, with the former derived from initial interstitial melts leaving behind residual silicic cumulates represented by the latter. Detailed comparisons of the rare metal-bearing and barren highsilica granites within the SGXRMB show that simple anatectic or fractional crystallization processes cannot account for the rare metal granites. Fluid-melt interactions combined with a high degree of crystallization differentiation and changes in melt structures are proposed as the potential mechanisms for generating the rare metal mineralization in I-type granitic magmas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It improves the discriminatory power of traditional DEA (data envelopment analysis) by Gini criteria approach to decrease the risk of influencing the results of performance evaluation, which is influenced by the number of evaluating indicator. Utilizing the data from the urban public transit enterprises of Nanjing in the first half of the year 2011 illustrates how to apply the DEA-Gini approach to evaluate the efficiency of urban public transit enterprises and give an objective performance evaluation result. After establishing a set of evaluating indicator system considering both commonweal and business for urban public transit enterprises, calculating the efficiencies of them under each possible variable subsets. Then obtaining the degrees of importance of all possible variable subsets based on Gini rule, and the comprehensive efficiency scores (CESs) can be gained at last, which can give a much more objective appraisal for urban public transit enterprises. Based on the results, doable suggestions are advanced to ensure that the giving priority to the development of public transportation can be put into practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an emerging pathogen, tilapia lake virus (TiLV) has caused severe socio-economic impacts and remains a devastating factor in wild and farmed tilapia. Early diagnosis and timely reporting of TiLV are very important and necessary. In the study, a TiLV infection event in a tilapia farm is studied and reported. Naturally diseased tilapia with clinical signs such as anorexia, exophthalmia, skin abrasion and hemorrhage are collected. Multiple tissue lesions of liver, spleen and kidney are observed by histopathological analysis, such as syncytial formation, intracytoplasmic inclusion body and necrosis. No bacterial pathogens are identified from liver, spleen and kidney of the diseased tilapia, while all of them show TiLV-positive. E-11 cells are employed for TiLV isolation, and cytopathic effects are developed following incubation with supernatants of the homogenized tissues collected from the diseased tilapia. Electron micrographs of the infected cells and purified TiLV show that nearly round-shaped, enveloped viral particles (60–80 nm) can be identified. Segment 1 of the isolated TiLV has a high sequence similarity to other isolates, but phylogenetic analysis shows that it is placed in a unique cluster. Experimental infection with the isolated TiLV can cause high mortality (> 90%) in healthy Nile tilapia, with the similar clinical signs and tissue lesions to those found in naturally infected tilapia. Moreover, vacuolation and necrosis in brain, inclusion body and necrosis in heart, megalocytes and necrosis in intestine are observed in experimentally infected tilapia. Muscle, spleen, liver, intestine, brain, heart, kidney and gill of the re-infected tilapia show TiLV-positive, and liver, spleen and brain are the main target tissues. The data so far confirm a TiLV-associated disease outbreak in China, enriching the relevant information of TiLV. • A natural TiLV infection event is reported. • TiLV infection is confirmed by symptoms, histopathology, pathogen detection, isolation and identification. • TiLV infection fulfills Koch's postulates. • Liver, spleen and brain are the main target tissues of the isolated TiLV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vehicle exhaust substantially contributes to ambient volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that imperil environmental and human health. The quantitative characterization of VOCs derived from heavy-duty diesel trucks (HDDTs) at a high spatiotemporal resolution is an important prerequisite of atmospheric quality management. However, there is little knowledge about VOC emission characteristics and accurate control policies of HDDTs owing to limited fine-grained traffic activity data. To fill this gap, this research aims to construct a link-level and hourly-based VOC emission inventory of HDDTs by combining fine-grained trajectory data, detailed vehicle specification information, localized emission factors, and underlying geographic information. The emission reduction potentials of different emission control scenarios were also evaluated. The research was conducted in Hebei Province, a predominant heavy industrial province in China. The results demonstrated that HDDTs with China 3 and below emission standards contributed to 74.85% of the HDDT generated VOC emissions, although they only accounted for 25.43% of the HDDTs operating on the road networks. The VOC emission characteristics of HDDTs were further explored at various temporal and spatial scales. Temporally, the difference between the maximum and minimum hourly VOC emissions reached 29.19%, and daily emission changes were considerably affected by holidays. Spatially, road segments with higher emission intensities and statistically significant emission hot spots were primarily distributed in intercity highways and national freeways, reflecting the contribution of high freight activity to the VOC emissions. Emission control scenario simulations demonstrated that improving HDDT emission standards can reduce VOC emissions by up to 80.06%. The results of this study contribute to a deeper understanding of the spatiotemporal patterns of VOC emissions from HDDTs and the effectiveness of emission reduction measures. [Display omitted] • VOC emission from heavy-duty diesel truck was estimated with traffic activity data. • Vehicle pollution controls were evaluated by setting 7 emission policy scenarios. • Spatiotemporal characteristics of VOC emissions were elucidated at different levels. • Emission standard updates would greatly reduce VOC emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The aim of this study was to explore the association between tea-drinking habits and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in Chinese adults and the mediating effect of sleep quality in this association., Methods: Data were derived from the 2020 Survey of Social Factors for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control among adults in Lishui District, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China. Tea-drinking habits were measured by participants' self-report. The HRQoL was measured using the 12-item Short Form Health Survey. Multiple linear regression modelling and mediating effects modelling were used for analyses., Results: Habitual tea drinking, frequent tea drinking (drinking tea 6-7 days per week), tea concentration and <10 g of tea per day were strongly associated with an increase in HRQoL among Chinese adults (all p<0.05). The association between tea-drinking habits and HRQoL among Chinese adults was more pronounced in the male population and in those ≥45 y of age (all p<0.05). Tea drinking habits may improve HRQoL in Chinese adults by enhancing sleep quality (all p<0.05)., Conclusions: Maintaining the habit of habitual tea drinking (6-7 days per week), in small amounts (<10 g tea per day) was conducive to improving HRQoL of Chinese adults by improving sleep quality., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.)

Background: A significant relationship between gastric cancer (GC) and depression has been found in the last 20 years. However, there is no comprehensive information that helps researchers find popular and potential research directions on GC and depression., Aim: To determine the research status and hotspots by bibliometric analysis of relevant publications on the relationship between GC and depression., Methods: We used the Web of Science Core Collection to search and collate the literature on GC and depression from 2000 to 2022 on 31 May, 2023. Then, visualization analysis was performed using VOSviewer software (version 1.6.19) and the Bibliometrix package in R software., Results: We retrieved 153 pertinent publications from 2000 to 2022. The annual publication count showed an overall upward trend. China had the most prominent publications and significant contributions to this field ( n = 64, 41.83%). Before 2020, most studies focused on "the effect of GC on the development and progression of depression in patients." The latest research trends indicate that "the effect of depression on the occurrence and development of GC and its mechanism" will receive more attention in the future., Conclusion: The study of "the effect of depression on the occurrence and development of GC and its mechanism" has emerged as a novel research theme over the past two years, which may become a research hotspot in this field. This study provides new insights into the hotpots and frontiers of the relationship between GC and depression, potentially guiding researchers toward hot research topics in the future., Competing Interests: Conflict-of-interest statement: Dr. Zhang has nothing to disclose., (©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.)

Previous studies mainly focus on the game analysis of green building development under carbon tax policy, while carbon trading, as one of the important means to promote low-carbon development, is rarely mentioned in promoting the development of the green building market. Based on this, to study the impact of carbon trading policy on the development of the green building market, this study combines prospect theory for carbon trading to build a three-way evolutionary game model of developer-government-consumer. It studies the influencing causes of green building market development under the carbon trading mechanism from the whole perspective. The study shows the existence of a carbon trading policy helps the development of the green building market. In the presence of a carbon trading market, the government's punishment, subsidies, and the setting of carbon prices influence the development of the green building market. In addition, the percentage of carbon emissions bought, the potential benefits, and the selling price also affect the chance of consumers buying green buildings to a greater or lesser extent. This study introduces prospect theory into the developer-government-consumer three-way evolutionary game model, which enriches the research perspective of each subject's behavior in the green building market. It provides theoretical support for developers, governments, and consumers to collaborate to promote the coordination and development of the green building market. It has policy implications for promoting the green and high-quality development of the construction industry., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Objective: We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the effect of preoperative pelvic floor muscle exercise on urinary incontinence after radical prostatectomy., Methods: We searched the literature for randomized controlled trials evaluating the diagnostic analysis of preoperative pelvic floor muscle exercise (PFME) and postprostatectomy incontinence in the MEDLINE, EMBASE, PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), PsycINFO, China Biomedical Literature Database, China Journal Full-text Database, Wanfang Database and Weipu Database. The retrieval time limit is from the establishment of the database to January 2023. We used a risk ratio with accompanying 95% confidence interval (CI) to express estimates. Reviewer Manager (RevMan) 5.1.0 was used to complete all statistical analyses., Results: Twelve studies were included based on the selection criteria. The total number of patients included in the final analysis was 1,365. At 1th month, there was no difference in continence rates between the groups [odds ratio (OR): 0.47; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.22-1.02, p  = 0.06]. At 3th month, there was statistically significant difference in PFME group before operation (OR: 0.61; 95% CI, 0.37-0.98, p  = 0.04). At 6th and 12th months, there was no difference between groups (OR: 0.57; 95% CI, 0.28-1.17, p  = 0.13), (OR: 0.56; 95% CI, 0.27-1.15, p  = 0.12)., Conclusion: Preoperative pelvic floor muscle exercise can improve postoperative urinary incontinence at 3rd months after radical prostatectomy, but it cannot improve urinary incontinence at 6th months or longer after surgery, which indicates that preoperative PFME can improve early continence rate, but cannot improve long-term urinary incontinence continence rate., 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 © 2023 Zhou, Chen, Yuan, Zeng, Zhu and Zheng.)

Background: Correction surgery for cleft palate is recommended between 9 and 18 months of age. Patients suffer from acute pain after palatoplasty. Clinicians are hesitant to use opioids for analgesia concerning the potential high risk of respiratory adverse events. Intravenous ibuprofen perhaps be a suitable adjuvant to pain relief. We try to assess whether preoperative administration of intravenous ibuprofen can decrease opioid requirements following cleft palate repair in infants., Methods: This single center prospective randomized clinical trial was performed from February to April 2021 at Department of Anesthesiology in Shanghai Children's Medical Center. Forty patients ASA I-II, aged 9-24 months with isolated cleft palate and undergoing palatoplasty were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to receive either a single dose of 10 mg/kg ibuprofen intravenously or normal saline at induction. Children and infants postoperative pain scale (CHIPPS) was used for pain assessment. Those patients CHIPPS pain score equal or higher than 4 received analgesic rescue with titrating intravenous fentanyl 0.5 μg/kg and repeated in 10 min if required. The primary outcome was the amount of postoperative fentanyl used for rescue analgesia in postanesthesia care unit (PACU)., Results: Patients (n = 20 in each group) in IV-Ibuprofen group required less postoperative fentanyl than those in placebo group (p<0.001). There was no significant difference between two groups in first rescue analgesia time (p = 0.079) and surgical blood loss (p = 0.194). No incidence of obvious adverse events had been found within the first 24 h after surgery in both groups., Conclusions: Preemptive intravenous administration ibuprofen 10 mg/kg at induction had a significant opioid sparing effect in early postoperative period without obvious adverse effects in infants undergoing palatoplasty., Trial Registration: CHICTR, CTR2100043718, 27/02/2021 http://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.aspx?proj=122187., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

Elite hospitals represent the highest level of Chinese hospitals in medical service and management, medical quality and safety, technical level and efficiency, which are also one of the important indicators reflecting high-quality medical resources in the region, and their spatial allocation is directly related to the fairness of health resource allocation. We explored the allocation pattern of high-quality resources and its influencing factors in the development of China's health system using geographic weighted regression (GWR), Multi-scale Geographically Weighted Regression (MGWR), GWR and MGWR with Spatial Autocorrelation(GWR-SAR and MGWR-SAR), spatial lag model (SLM), and spatial error model (SEM). The results of OLS regression showed that city level, number of medical colleges, urbanization rate, permanent population and GDP per capita were its significant variables. And spatial auto-correlation of elite hospitals in China is of great significance. Further, its spatial agglomeration phenomenon was confirmed through SLM and SEM. Among them, the city level is the most important factor affecting the spatial allocation of elite hospitals in China. Its action intensity shows a solid and weak mosaic trend in the Middle East, relatively concentrated in some areas with medium intensity and concentrated in the West China. Obviously, China's elite hospitals are unevenly distributed and have evident spatial heterogeneity. Therefore, we suggest that we should pay attention to the spatial governance of high-quality medical resources, attract medical elites in the region, increase investment in medical education in the scarce areas of elite hospitals and develop tele-medicine service., 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 Shi, Fu, Bai, Zhang, Zheng, Wang, Li and Zhang.)

Based on the fishery resource investigation data in Pishan waters of Zhejiang coastal area in November of 2015 (autumn), February (winter), May (spring) and August (summer) of 2016, we analyzed the spatio-temporal niche characteristics and interspecific association of the domi-nant shrimp and crab species using the methods of niche test, variance ratio, chi-square test, Spearman test and redundancy analysis. A total of 34 shrimp and crab species belonging to 14 families and 20 genera were identified. Among them, 10 species were collected in all the four seasons. Dominant species were Parapenaeopsis hardwickii, Exopalaemon carinicauda and Portunus trituberculatus . The temporal, spatial and spatio-temporal niche breadths of the major shrimp and crab species ranged from 0.03-1.34, 2.07-3.63 and 0.08-4.64, respectively. The cluster analysis of niche breadths suggested that all the species could be divided into narrow, medium and wide niche breadth groups under the 90% similarity level. In addition, the spatio-temporal niche overlap values of the major species in Pishan Sea were mainly at low level (68.9% of the species's Q ik <0.3), implying little interspecific competition for resource utilization. The analysis of variance ratio showed that the major shrimp and crab species were mainly positively correlated, with 11.1% of the species showing significantly positive association. The JI index, OI index and Spearman test all showed the relationship between major shrimp and crab species tended to be positive correlation as a whole. Redundancy analysis showed that surface temperature, bottom temperature, and surface salinity were the main environmental factors affecting the distribution of shrimp and crab species in Pishan waters.

Based on seasonal bottom trawl surveys in November 2015 (autumn), February (winter), May (spring) and August (summer) in 2016, the index of relative importance (IRI), Shannon index and Pianka index were used to analyze the breadth and overlap of spatio-temporal niche of major fish species in the Pishan waters off Zhejiang Province. Redundancy analysis and interspecific competition coefficient were used to examine the competition relationship and niche differentiation of those major fish species. The results showed that a total of 61 fish species were recorded throughout the year, which belonged to 13 orders, 29 families and 48 genera. A total of 19 species with IRI&gt;100 were identified as major fish species. The temporal niche overlap value between Chelidonichthys kumu and Atule kalla was largest, indicating high temporal synchronization. Both the spatial niche overlap value and the spatio-temporal niche overlap value between Trpauchen vagina and Cynoglossus interruptus were largest, indicating that their spatial homology was high and that the use of spatial and temporal two-dimensional resource of both species were consistent. The percentage of species pairs with spatio-temporal niche overlap at the significant level ( Q ik &gt;0.6) was only 5.8% in Pishan waters, indicating that the spatial and temporal distribution of those species were quite different. The overlap of spatio-temporal niche significantly varied across different seasons. The results of the interspecific competition coefficient were basically consistent with the niche overlap. Results of the redundancy analysis revealed the relationships between major fish species and environmental factors (temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen), and further explained the niche diffe-rentiation among species.

A pandemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection broke out all over the world; however, epidemiological data and viral shedding in pediatric patients are limited. We conducted a retrospective, multicenter study, and followed-up with all children from the families with SARS-CoV-2 infected members in Zhejiang Province, China. All infections were confirmed by testing the SARS-CoV-2 RNA with real-time reverse transcription PCR method, and epidemiological data between children and adults in the same families were compared. Effect of antiviral therapy was evaluated observationally and fecal-viral excretion times among groups with different antiviral regiments were compared with Kaplan-Meier plot. By 29 February 2020, 1298 cases from 883 families were confirmed with SARS-CoV-2 infection and 314 of which were families with children. Incidence of infection in child close contacts was significantly lower than that in adult contacts (13.2% vs 21.2%). The mean age of 43 pediatric cases was 8.2 years and mean incubation period was 9.1 days. Forty (93.0%) were family clustering. Thirty-three children had coronavirus disease 2019 (20 pneumonia) with mild symptoms and 10 were asymptomatic. Fecal SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection was positive in 91.4% (32/35) cases and some children had viral excretion time over 70 days. Viral clearance time was not different among the groups treated with different antiviral regiments. No subsequent infection was observed in family contacts of fecal-viral-excreting children. Children have lower susceptibility of SARS-CoV-2 infection, longer incubation, and fecal-viral excretion time. Positive results of fecal SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection were not used as indication for hospitalization or quarantine., (© 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Background: Subclinical hypothyroidism is a common condition in patients with heart failure and is defined as elevated serum thyroid hormone (TSH) with normal circulating free thyroxine (FT4). Evidence on the effect of thyroid hormone treatment is lacking. We designed a randomized controlled trial to compare the efficacy and safety of thyroid hormone supplementation in patients with chronic heart failure complicated with subclinical hypothyroidism., Methods/design: Eligible participants were identified from the cardiology units of five study centers based on the following criteria: 18 years or older, systolic heart failure with NewYork Heart Association (NYHA) class II-III, left ventricular ejection fraction ≤ 40%, and subclinical hypothyroidism (TSH > 4.78μIU/ml, < 10 μIU/ml + FT4 level within reference range). Eligible patients will be randomly assigned in a 1:1 manner to receive thyroxine replacement therapy plus standard chronic heart failure (CHF) treatment or only standard CHF therapy. Levothyroxine will be administered at an initial dose of 12.5 μg once daily and will be titrated until TSH is within the normal range. The primary endpoints include the difference in distance of the six-minute walk test between 24 weeks and baseline. The secondary endpoints include differences in plasma NT-proBNP levels and serum lipid profiles, changes in the NYHA classification, cardiovascular death, re-hospitalization, differences in echocardiographic and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging measures, and Minnesota Living With Heart Failure Questionnaire (MLHFQ) results between 24 weeks and baseline., Discussion: ThyroHeart-CHF is designed as a prospective, multi-center, randomized, controlled clinical trial to study the efficacy and safety of thyroid hormone supplementation in patients with chronic heart failure complicated with subclinical hypothyroidism. The study findings will have significant implications for discovering the new therapeutic targets and methods of heart failure., Trail Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03096613 . Registered on 30 March 2017.

To gain comprehensive genetic information of circulating avian coronavirus infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) isolates in China, analysis of the phylogenetic tree, entropy of the amino acid sequences, and the positive selection as well as computational recombinations of S1, M and N genes of 23 IBV isolates was conducted in the present study. The phylogenetic trees based on the S1, M and N genes exhibited considerably different topology and the CK/CH/LSC/99I-type isolates were the predominant IBVs based on the phylogenetic analysis of S1 gene. Results of entropy of amino acid sequences revealed that the S1 gene had the largest variation; the M gene had less variation than the N gene. Positive selections were detected in not only S1 but also M and N gene proteins. In addition, five S1 gene recombinants between vaccine strain 4/91 and CK/CH/LSC/99I-type field isolate were confirmed. In conclusion, multiple IBV genotypes co-circulated; genetic diversity and positive selections existed in S1, M and N genes; 4/91 vaccine recombinants emerged in China. Our results show that field IBVs in China are continuing to evolve and vaccine strains may have an important role in the appearance of new IBV strains via recombination. In addition, the present study indicates that IBV evolution is driven by both generations of genetic diversity and selection.

Objective: To compare the clinical outcome and surgical complications in circumcision using the Shang Ring between children and adults., Methods: Circumcision using the Shang Ring was performed on 702 adults and 216 children. Comparative analysis on indices including operative time, healing time, postoperative edema, postoperative bleeding, postoperative pain, and postoperative infection was conducted., Results: When the ring was removed after surgery, the pain was tolerable in the adult group, but more substantial in the child group. The optimal time for removing the ring was 2 weeks after surgery., Conclusion: Special attention to the pain management is needed when using the Shang Ring to treat redundant foreskin or phimosis in children. The timing of the ring removal is critical to avoiding complications. Surgeons' knowledge in urology is also critical to the clinical outcome., (Crown Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: Seasonal variation in blood pressure had been observed in several studies on Western populations, but uncertainty remains about the strength of the relationship in other populations and the extent to which it was modified by other factors., Methods: This study was based on cross-sectional data from the China Kadoorie Biobank study with 53 260 men and women from the Suzhou area involved. Linear regression model was used to analyze the association of blood pressure with outdoor temperature-overall and in various subgroups., Results: Blood pressure varied with the seasons, ascending in winter and descending in summer. The difference in systolic blood pressure (SBP) between summer and winter was 8.8 mm Hg in men and 7.0 mm Hg in women. SBP was inversely correlated with outdoor temperature, especially above 10°C, with every 10°C colder temperature causing 6.1 mm Hg increase of SBP. The seasonal variation in SBP was more obviously seen in older people and in those with lower body mass index., Conclusion: Blood pressure was strongly and inversely associated with outdoor temperature in the population in Suzhou area. Seasonal variation of blood pressure should be considered when the hypertension screening programs, clinical management and data management on hypertensive patients.

Monovalent antisera of 3 vaccine strains and 7 representative field isolates were prepared based on the comparison of genetic diversity of the hypervariable region I of S1 gene (HVR I from 3 infectious bronchitis (IB) vaccine strains (H120, Ma5 and 4/91) ,one reference strain M41 and 26 IB field isolates. These 30 strains were classified in 7 different genotypes, respectively. Virus-neutralizing test on tracheal organ cultures (TOC) with chicken embryo were used to evaluate relatedness values of the antigenicity based on the antibody titer, to analyze the antigenic relationships between the isolates and vaccine strains, as well as to determine the serotypes of 26 IB viruses isolated from the field in Guangxi between 1985 and 2008. The results showed 30 strains were classified into 7 distinct serotypes and there were two predominant serotypes within the 26 isolates, serotypes 1 (totally 13 isolates) and serotype 2 (totally 5 isolates), respectively. In addition, there were some differences observed between the results of serotyping and the genotyping (including the S1, N, M and 3'UTR). The results of the study demonstrated that there were different predominant serotypes and multiple serotypes of IBV circulated in Guangxi in recent years, antigenic variation existed between Guangxi field isolates and vaccine strains.

Background: Hirschsprung disease (HSCR) is a complex congenital disorder characterized by intestinal obstructions owing to the absence of the intestinal ganglion cells of the nerve plexuses in variable lengths of the digestive tract. Several RET polymorphisms and haplotypes have been described as underrepresented in HSCR patients with respect to controls. We thus sought to investigate whether polymorphisms in RET 3'UTR are associated with isolated HSCR in the Chinese population., Methods: Polymerase chain reaction amplification and direct sequencing were used to screen polymorphisms in RET 3'UTR in patients with sporadic HSCR and ethnically matched controls in Han Chinese populations. Association tests of RET 3'UTR variants and haplotypes with HSCR were performed., Results: We examined a total of 107 Chinese sporadic HSCR patients and 89 ethnically matched controls by sequencing the 3'UTR of the RET gene. Five single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 2 monomorphic SNPs were identified. The genotype distributions and the allele frequencies of the 5 SNPs were significantly different between HSCR cases and controls and occurred more frequently in the control population. Haplotype analysis has shown a higher frequency of haplotypes comprising variant alleles in controls as compared with cases., Conclusions: The significant deviations of the genotype distributions and the allele frequencies of these SNPs in the HSCR population compared with the control population demonstrate that these SNPs have a strong negative association with HSCR and could act as protective alleles., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)