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Root zone soil moisture (RZSM) is critical for water resource management, drought monitoring and sub-seasonal flood climate prediction. RZSM is not directly observable from space, but several RZSM products are available and widely used at global and continental scales. This paper presents a comprehensive quantitative evaluation of eight RZSM products over the Huai River Basin (HRB) in China. A direct validation is performed using observations from 58 in situ soil moisture stations from 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2020. Attention is drawn to the potential factors that increase the uncertainties of model-based RZSM, such as errors in atmospheric forcing (precipitation, air temperature), soil properties, and spatial scale mismatch. The results show that the Global Land Data Assimilation System Catchment Land Surface Model (GLDAS_CLSM) performs best among all RZSM products with the highest correlation coefficient (R) and the lowest unbiased root mean square error (ubRMSE): 0.69 and 0.018 m3 m−3, respectively. All RZSM products tend to overestimate in situ soil moisture values, except for the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) L4 product, which underestimates RZSM. The underestimation of Surface Soil Moisture (SSM) in SMOS L3, caused by underestimated physical surface temperature and overestimated ERA interim soil moisture, triggers the underestimation of RZSM in SMOS L4. The overestimation of RZSM by the other products can be explained by the overestimation of precipitation, the frequency of precipitation events (drizzle effects) and the underestimation of air temperature. In addition, the overestimation of soil clay content and the underestimation of soil sand content in different LSMs lead to higher soil moisture values. The intercomparison of the eight RZSM products shows that MERRA-2 and SMAP L4 RZSM have the highest correlation, which can be attributed to the fact that both products use the catchment land surface model and the atmospheric forcing provided by the Goddard Earth Observing System Model, version 5 (GEOS-5), although the versions differ slightly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Allergic rhinitis (AR) in children is associated with various comorbidities, posing challenges for treatment and management. There have been few investigations of these multimorbidities in Chinese children with AR. Here, we investigated the prevalence of multimorbidities in children with moderate to severe AR and analyzed the influencing factors using real-world data. Methods: In total, 600 children who visited the outpatient clinic of our hospital and were diagnosed with moderate-severe AR were prospectively enrolled. All children underwent allergen detection and electronic nasopharyngoscopy. Parents or guardians completed a questionnaire that included age, sex, mode of delivery, feeding pattern, and familial history of allergy. The multimorbidities investigated included atopic dermatitis (AD), asthma, allergic conjunctivitis (AC), chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS), adenoid hypertrophy (AH), tonsil hypertrophy (TH), recurrent epistaxis, and recurrent respiratory tract infections (RRTIs). Results: The AR multimorbidities reported in children were as follows: recurrent epistaxis (46.5%), AC (46.3%), AD (40.7%), asthma (22.5%), RRIs (21.3%), CRS (20.5%), AH (19.7%), and TH (12.5%). In univariate logistic regression analysis, age (<6 years), birth mode, familial history of allergy, and single dust mite allergy were associated with AR multimorbidity (p < 0.05). Multivariate logistic regression revealed that a familial history of allergy was an independent risk factor for AC (odds ratio [OR] = 1.539, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.104–2.145) and AH (OR = 1.506, 95% CI: 1.000–2.267) (p < 0.05). Age (<6 years) was independently associated with the risk of AD (OR = 1.405, 95% CI: 1.003–1.969) and RRTIs (OR = 1.869, 95% CI: 1.250–2.793) (p < 0.05), cesarean section with AR and CRS risk (OR = 1.678, 95% CI: 1.100–2.561), and single dust mite allergy with asthma (OR = 1.590, 95% CI: 1.040–2.432) and CRS (OR = 1.600, 95% CI: 1.018–2.515) risk (p < 0.05). Further, non-dust mite allergy was independently associated with AR and CRS (OR = 2.056, 95% CI: 1.084–3.899). Conclusion: AR was found to be accompanied by different comorbidities, including both allergic and non-allergic comorbidities, complicating disease treatment. These findings demonstrated that age (<6 years), familial history of allergy, types of allergens, and cesarean section were risk factors for different multimorbidities associated with AR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, acrylamide (AM), cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs), and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) were used as raw materials to prepare PAM/CNC/rGO interpenetrating network composite hydrogels by in situ free radical polymerization. Ions were introduced by soaking the composite hydrogels in an ionic solution. The composite hydrogels were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and tested for their mechanical, electrical, sensing, and water-retention properties. When 0.15 g of rGO was added, the composite hydrogel exhibited a large elongation at break (up to 680%) and tensile strength (0.28 MPa). The composite hydrogel has a high sensitivity factor (11.79) in the strain range of 300–400%, showing excellent strain sensitivity. After being immersed in 0.3 mol L−1 calcium chloride solution for 3 h, the conductivity of the composite hydrogel reached 3.39 S m−1, showing good conductivity. Therefore, the PAM/CNC/rGO interpenetrating network composite hydrogel has potential application value in the field of flexible sensors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]