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Purpose: Road dust samples in Baoshan District, Shanghai, were collected to explore magnetic and chemical properties of atmospheric dustfall in urban areas, intensively impacted by anthropogenic activities. Magnetic particles in road dusts were separated and analyzed to track their sources and then to discuss the influences of industrial and traffic emissions on the urban environment. Materials and methods: One hundred twenty-two road dust samples in the industrial, traffic, residential, and agricultural areas of Baoshan District, Shanghai, were collected. Magnetic susceptibility (χlf) and heavy metal content of the samples were determined. Micromorphological and microchemical features of magnetic particles separated from the road dusts were analyzed by a scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with energy spectrum. Results and discussion: The road dusts are usually alkaline and strong in magnetic signal, of which, magnetic susceptibility (χlf), 838.7 × 10−8 m3 kg−1 on average, is much higher than the nearby topsoils. Moreover, χlf of the industrial and traffic road dusts, 1363.0 × 10−8 m3 kg−1 and 775.9 × 10−8 m3 kg−1 on average, respectively, is significantly higher than that of the others. Magnetic spherules, mainly composed of Fe oxides, were commonly observed in the road dusts, which are mostly formed during industrial high-temperature processes. A high number of flake-like, rod-like, and other irregular-shaped magnetic particles were also found in the road dusts, which may come from metal processing or vehicular wearing. The road dusts in the study areas are heavily polluted by Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd, and Cr. The principal component analyses (PCA) indicate that χlf and Zn, Mn, and Fe contents in the road dusts belong to the same principal component. Conclusions: Magnetic dustfall commonly occurs in urban areas due to industrial or vehicular emissions, which leads to the enhancement of magnetic signal and heavy metal content in urban road dusts simultaneously. χlf can indicate the accumulation of toxic heavy metals in the road dusts effectively. This also highlights a fact that the urban environment is continuously and significantly affected by the deposition of artificial atmospheric magnetic particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Omicron variant BA.2 was the dominant variant in the COVID-19 outbreak in Shanghai since March 2022. We aim to investigate the characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant infection in pediatric liver-transplanted recipients. Methods: We conducted a single-center, prospective, observational, single-arm study. We enrolled pediatric liver-transplanted patients infected with the Omicron variant BA.2 from March 19th to October 1st, 2022 and analyzed their demographic, clinical, laboratory, and outcome data. The management of COVID-19 was conducted according to the 9th trial edition of the Chinese guideline. The immunosuppressive therapy was tailored considering the patients' infection developments and liver functions. Results: Five children were included. The primary diseases included Niemann-Pick disease, propionic acidemia, decompensated cirrhosis, biliary atresia, and Crigler-Najjar syndrome type I. All of the patients were onset with fever before or when getting RNA-positive results at the age of 3 (Range: 1–13) years. The infection duration was 29 (Range: 18–40) days. Three and two children were diagnosed with mild and moderate COVID-19 respectively. Two patients were tested RNA-positive within 14 days after having been tested negative. The immunosuppressants were paused or extenuated in four patients. Eight of all nine cohabitants were injected with at least two doses of inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. The disease courses were significantly longer than the patients (P < 0.05). Conclusions: Post-transplant immunosuppression slows down the virus clearance and increases the risk of relapse but does not affect symptom duration or infection severity in pediatric patients. Patients can usually gain a favorable outcome and prognosis by extenuating immunosuppressants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: We studied the profitable phytoremediation method with commercial chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum indicum L.) in order to remediate the soils contaminated with heavy metals and generate economy income from the contaminated sites. Materials and methods: A field experiment was carried out to remediate the contaminated soil through growing the commercial chrysanthemum plants in a farmland polluted with heavy metals of Cd and Zn due to application of creek sediments in the western suburb of Shanghai, Southeast China, since June 2013. Results and discussion: After the consecutive 3 years of phytoremediation, Cd and Zn contents in the soil were reduced by 78.1% and 28.4%, respectively. We also found that the rice grain growing on the 3-year phytoremediated soil met the requirements of dietary safety, so did the vegetable growing on the 5-year phytoremediated soil. Conclusions: Growing chrysanthemum plants as a method of phytoremediation can not only remove a large amount of toxic heavy metals from the contaminated soil but also be highly profitable from the sales of chrysanthemum flowers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To implement organic rice farming around a drinking water source in the western suburbs of Shanghai, pioneering field experiments on the relationships between fertilizer applications and occurrences of rice pests and diseases were performed without the use of pesticides and fungicides from 2012 to 2014. The rice plants treated with chemical fertilizers (CF) accumulated higher content of available nitrogen (NH 4 + + NO 3 − ) and grew higher and more luxuriantly, but they were more susceptible to pests and diseases. Comparatively, the plants treated with organic manure demonstrated higher resistance to rice pests and diseases and grew more healthily. However, excessive application of organic manure also increased the risks of pests and diseases. The unfertilized plants were highly deficient in nutrients, but they maintained the lowest rates of pests and diseases. This suggests that rice pests and diseases were easily triggered by a high content of N-related nutrients in plant tissues and inhibited by nutrient deficiency. Annual climatic conditions also deeply affected the occurrences of rice pests and diseases. Long-term warm and humid weather in the growing areas favored the development of herbivorous pests and fungal diseases. The incidence of migratory pests in Shanghai is also linked to violent summer storms. Frequent rain storms in southern or southwestern China increased the chance of infestations of migratory pests in Shanghai. Rice yield was primarily determined by the infestations of pests and diseases. In the pest-infested year of 2012, the grain yield for the different fertilizers was only 40%–44% of that under conventional farming practices, and the yield in CF was even significantly lower than that in the unfertilized CK. In 2013, with lower infestation rates, the grain yield of the different fertilizers was more than 80% of the conventional yield. The application of a lower amount of organic manure, 2100 kg ha −1 of cake manure, was recommended for the implementation of organic rice farming in the water source areas in Shanghai. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the magnetic method to detect soil pollution has attracted increasing interest. To study the influence of magnetic dustfall on urban environment, 105 soil samples (0–5 cm) were collected along three equidistant gradient profiles with respect to a major iron and steel industrial complex (ISIC) in the northern suburb of Shanghai, Southeast China. The soils and atmospheric particulate matter (APM) in the area were examined using magnetic and micromorphological analyses. As a result, magnetic susceptibility (χ lf) of study soils is commonly significantly enhanced, with a mean of 284.8 × 10−8 m3 kg−1. 68.6% of the soils are higher in χ lf than 100 × 10−8 m3 kg−1, more than three times the magnetic background. Moreover, it shows an increasing trend toward the ISIC. Frequency-dependent susceptibility (χ fd %) of the soils is mostly less than 2%, and is negatively significantly correlated with χ lf , suggesting that the enhancement of soil magnetism is due mainly to coarse anthropogenic magnetic particles (multi-domain (MD) or stable single domain (SSD)). A number of magnetic spheroids were observed in the soils and APM, which are believed to mainly come from the ISIC. The persistent deposition of anthropogenic Fe-borne magnetic dustfall has significantly influenced the urban environment, causing the synchronous enhancement of magnetic susceptibility and heavy metal contents in the soils. The study soils are moderately polluted by Zn and Pb, and the soils of Profile I, the nearest to the ISIC, are heavily polluted by Pb and moderately polluted by Cd and Zn. χ lf can reflect the overall level of heavy metal pollution of the soils effectively. Moreover, it is positively significantly correlated with the content of Cd, Cu, Zn, Ni, Cr, Pb and Mn (p < 0.01) in the soils. However, it is difficult to measuring the content of one or more heavy metals in the soils using the magnetic method as locally quantitative correlations between χ lf and heavy metal content cannot be established even within this small industrial area. The urban environment has been being persistently significantly influenced by anthropogenic magnetic dustfall, causing magnetic enhancement of urban soils and its close link to pollutant accumulation. [Display omitted] • χ lf of the industrial soils in Shanghai is significantly enhanced. • Magnetic spheroids were observed in the soils and atmospheric particles. • Magnetic dustfall has significantly influenced the urban environment. • χ lf of the soils is significantly correlated with heavy metal content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Indirect TARCH-CAViaR model is proposed to explain asymmetric impacts from lagged returns on its current quantiles. The nonlinearity and discrete gradient inherited in CAViaR model form a conundrum for parameter estimation. By introducing asymmetric Laplace distribution with parameterized scale parameter to be the error distribution in quantile regression, Bayesian inference joined with Markov chain Monte Carlo simulation is successfully used to estimate the model. In an example of measuring dynamic market risk of Shanghai Composite Index, news impact curves reveal significant asymmetric impacts from good or bad news on current market risk, and the impact intensities change with confidence levels of value at risk. Dynamic quantile test and back testing of value at risk also prove that the new model is effective in out-of-sample forecasting especially in extreme quantiles. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: In Shanghai there are 1.2 million people with hypertension, many of whom have difficulty in affording medical treatment. Community based, anti-hypertensive clubs have been created to provide health education but education alone is often ineffective. Lifestyle change programmes have shown some potential for reducing blood pressure but in previous trials have required specialist staff and extensive contact. We have previously demonstrated that self-management programmes delivered by health professionals, such as a nurse who has had short training in self-management techniques can change health behaviour and reduce symptoms. This study was designed to evaluate the benefits of a simple, cognitive behavioural, self-management programme for hypertension based around a hypertension manual and delivered in the setting of a community anti-hypertensive club in Shanghai. Method: The method was a pragmatic randomised controlled trial with an intention-to-treat analysis. Adult patients with mild-to-moderate primary hypertension, waiting to join a neighbourhood antihypertension club, were randomised to the self-management programme or to an information only control procedure. They attended the group treatment sessions on 4 occasions over 5 weeks for education combined with goal setting for lifestyle change and an introduction to exercise. The main outcome measures were: changes in blood pressure; blood total cholesterol; diet; activity level and health related quality of life 1 month and 4 months after the end of treatment. Results: A total of 140 adults with mild-to-moderate primary hypertension took part. All of the main outcomes showed beneficial changes. Four months after the end of treatment the mean blood pressure differences between groups were systolic 10.15 mm Hg (P < 0.001, 95% CI 7.25-13.05), and diastolic 8.29 mmHg (P < 0.001, 95% CI 6.71-9.88). Patients in the intervention group also had significantly reduced weight, lowered blood total cholesterol, increased physical activity and improved quality of life. Conclusion: Patients with mild-to-moderate primary hypertension attending a 5 week, group and manual based, cognitive-behavioural self-management programme, delivered through a voluntary club in Shanghai experienced a significant reduction in blood pressure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finless eel is a benthic aquatic animal and can live in different kinds of freshwaters with strong adaptability to adverse environment. It likes to drill into water-bottom mud, and often hides in caves calmly in the daytime and comes out for food at night. Finless eel is an omnivorous fish, and mainly preys on insects and their larvae, earthworms, froglets, meat of snails and mussels, small fish and shrimps, as well as algae and vegetable fragments. It is a kind of favorite food in high nutritional value in China and worldwide. With the increase of international and domestic demands, however, the wild source of it is sharply reduced. According to the investigations, the quantities of wild finless eels in China were reduced from 90 kg each hectare in 1960s to less than 1.5 kg each hectare in recent years. It is even on the verge of extinction in some areas of China. Artificial breeding of finless eels is the only way to solve the contradictory problem of the short supply and protection of wild source. Finless eels can be artificially cultured in paddy fields, as the fields are their natural inhabitats and can provide them with adequate natural bait, shaded waters and inhabitable mud. On the other hand, the eels in the fields can improve rice growth through loosening soil, reducing pests and increasing soil fertility, when they constantly burrow and run in the fields, eat insects and release excrements. According to our two-year field experiments, raising finless eels in the paddy fields effectively controlled the occurrences of rice leaf rollers, stem borers and planthoppers, significantly reduced the incidences of rice blight and blast, and increased the contents of ammonium nitrogen and phosphorus in the soils. As a result, no chemical fertilizers and pesticides were needed during the entire rice growing season any more. In the rice–eel integrated system, however, finless eels grew slowly. For the yield increase of eels, therefore, it was necessary to feed the eels with earthworms that were artificially cultured on the field ridges nearby. Earthworms mainly live on cow dung and straw, and finally transform them into wormcast, which is porous aggregates with many nutritional elements, humus and probiotics. The application of wormcast to fields improved physical-chemical properties of soils, increased crop resistance to pests and diseases and inhibited soil-borne diseases, thus highly raising the yield of agricultural products. This contributes to the development of recycling agriculture. The rice-eel organic farming system, combined with culturing earthworms on the field ridges, shows both ecological and economical benefits, and is very promising in the suburbs of Shanghai and other areas in China in the future. This work was supported by the Key Agricultural Technology Program of Shanghai Science and Technology Commission (16391901500). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Factorial cultivation of mushroom develops rapidly in Shanghai in recent years.According to statistics, the outputs of Agaricus bisporus (AB) and Flammulina velutipes(FV) attained 10,000 tons and 59,000 tons in Shanghai in 2017, respectively. Withthe outputs increasing, the wastes of culture materials also increase, and the reuseof them has become a headache problem. Field experiments were conducted toevaluate the risks of heavy metal contamination after applying the discarded culturematerials of AB and FV to paddy fields as organic fertilizers for the consecutive years2017-2018. The experiments had six fertilizer treatments: the culture material of AB,that of FV, cow manure, swine manure, chemical fertilizer and control (CK). Aplot of the experiments was 25 m2 in area, and each treatment was triplicated. Thecontents of Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd, Ni, Cr and Co in the culture materials of FV are 4.623 mgkg−1, 48.39 mg kg−1, 0.620 mg kg−1, 0.198 mg kg−1, 1.780 mg kg−1, 1.350 mgkg−1 and 0.460 mg kg−1, respectively; those of AB are 9.848 mg kg−1, 97.07mg kg−1, 1.870 mg kg−1, 0.283 mg kg−1, 9.060 mg kg−1, 13.79 mg kg−1 and1.288 mg kg−1, respectively. The FV culture material is mainly made of corn coband wheat straw; while AB, chicken manure and rice straw. Cu, Zn, Ni, and Crcontents in the latter are a little higher than the former. For comparison, Cu, Zn, Pb,Cd, Ni, Cr and Co contents in the swine manure are 117.9 mg kg−1, 412.6 mgkg−1, 2.730 mg kg−1, 0.426 mg kg−1, 11.96 mg kg−1, 8.160 mg kg−1 and 3.080mg kg−1, respectively; and those in the cow manure are 0.560 mg kg−1, 11.98mg kg−1, 0.900 mg kg−1, 0.060 mg kg−1, 4.900 mg kg−1, 7.790 mg kg−1 and0.830 mg kg−1, respectively. Affected by feed additives, the contents of heavymetals in the swine manure are higher than the AB and FV culture materials. Theexperiments indicated that there are no significant differences in the contents ofCd, Pb, Ni, Cr and Co in the soils for the different fertilizer treatments (p &#x003E;0.05).However, the contents of Cu and Zn in the soils for the swine manure treatment aresignificantly higher than the other treatments and CK (p &#x003C;0.05). Likewise, no significantdifferences in the heavy metals in the rice for the different treatments were observed(p &#x003E;0.05). The contents of Pb, Cu and Zn in the rice for the swine manure are alittle higher than the other treatments and CK, but do not attain a significant level(p &#x003E;0.05). In short, the culture materials of AB and FV are generally cleaner thanthe swine manure, and returning the materials to the fields as organic fertilizersdo not pose environmental hazards to the soils and rice. Promisingly, they can beapplied as environment-friendly manure to the organic rice fields. This work wassupported by the Agriculture Research System of Shanghai, China (Grant no. 201809). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and chlorinated paraffins (CPs) are well-knownpersistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the environment, which are toxic, bio-accumulativeand suspected to be carcinogenic. Short-chain (SCCPs) and medium-chain CPs (MCCPs) aremost commonly seen in soils and water and originate from typical industrial synthetics. Inthis work, the concentrations of 16 PAHs, prior controlled by the Environmental ProtectionAgency (EPA) of the US, 24 SCCPs and 24 MCCPs in the soils of six agricultural samplingfields in the suburbs of Shanghai were monitored. The results were as follows: Thetotal concentrations of the 16 PAHs are in a range of 161.69-5141.08 ng g−1. Theagricultural soils nearby industrial parks are often seriously polluted by PAHs,while those far away from the industrial areas in Qingpu District in the westernsuburb of Shanghai are in the lowest content of PAHs. The rate of fluoranthene(Flu) in the PAHs in the soils is the highest, 20.3% on average, followed by pyrene(Pyr) and chrysene (Chr), 16.3% and 12.8% on average respectively. The PAHsin the soils are dominated by high-ring homologues (above three rings), whichmakes up 87.5% on average. The rate of 4-ring homologues in the PAHs is thehighest, 59.1% on average. This suggests that the PAHs in the agricultural soils inShanghai were mainly derived from coal combustion. The concentrations of CPs in thesoils are in a range of 6.99 - 499.27 ng/g. SCCPs, in a range of 3.18 - 101 ng/g,are dominantly composed of C12−13 homologues, with the chlorination degreeof 63.1% on average. Especially, in the soils of Baoshan and Qingpu Districts,Shanghai, the C13 homologue makes up over 50% of the total SCCPs. MCCPs, in arange of 1.68 - 396 ng/g, are dominantly composed of C14−15 homologues, withthe chlorination degree of 52.3% on average. The concentrations of MCCPs aremostly higher than those of SCCPs in the soils. Compared with the soils of theother areas in the world, however, the concentrations of SCCPs and MCCPs in theagricultural soils in Shanghai are at the medium level. According to the ratios ofhomologues, CPs in the soils in Shanghai was mostly caused by the discharge ofindustrial solid wastes, sewage sludge application and/or wastewater irrigation.Generally, the degree of CPs contamination in the soils in Shanghai is lighter than thatof PAHs. Moreover, the increase of PAHs in the soils is not correlated with theelevation of CPs simultaneously, suggesting that PAHs and CPs in the soils havedifferent paths and sources of pollution. This work was supported by the Science andTechnology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (Grant no. 17DZ1202300). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]