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In recent years,. the rapid development of the Yangtze River Delta in China has led to increasingly serious regional eco-environmental problems. Therefore, it is of great significance for the construction of ecological civilization to study the ecosystem health in the Yangtze River Delta. In this paper, the assessment framework of "Vigor-Organization-Resilience" was used to assess the ecosystem health index (EHI) of the Yangtze River Delta from 2000 to 2020, and then the spatial autocorrelation method was used to analyze the agglomeration of EHI in 314 counties in this region. Finally, the eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) model and the SHapley Additive exPlanation (SHAP) model were combined to explore the synergistic impact of EHI driving factors. The results show that (1) from 2000 to 2020, the EHI in the Yangtze River Delta is at the level of ordinary health, and gradually decreased; (2) the EHI has significant spatial positive correlation and aggregation; (3) the driving factors in descending order of importance are urbanization level (UL), precipitation (PRE), PM2.5 (PM), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and temperature (TEMP); and (4) the relationship between UL and EHI is logarithmic; PRE and EHI are quartic polynomial; PM, NDVI, TEMP, and EHI are quadratic polynomial. The results of this paper are of great significance to the management and restoration of the ecosystem in this region [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atmospheric pollution in urban regions is highly influenced by oxidants due to their important role in the formation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) and smog. These include the nitrate radical (NO 3), which is typically considered a nighttime oxidant, and the chlorine radical (Cl), an extremely potent oxidant that can be released in the morning in chloride-rich environments as a result of nocturnal build-up of nitryl chloride (ClNO 2). Chloride makes up a higher percentage of particulate matter in Delhi than has been observed anywhere else in the world, which results in Cl having an unusually strong influence in this city. Here, we present observations and model results revealing that atmospheric chemistry in Delhi exhibits an unusual diel cycle that is controlled by high concentrations of NO during the night. As a result of this, the formation of both NO 3 and dinitrogen pentoxide (N 2 O 5), a precursor of ClNO 2 and thus Cl, are suppressed at night and increase to unusually high levels during the day. Our results indicate that a substantial reduction in nighttime NO has the potential to increase both nocturnal oxidation via NO 3 and the production of Cl during the day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Human babesiosis is a worldwide disease caused by intraerythrocytic protozoa of the genus Babesia. It is transmitted by bites from ixodid ticks, and mechanically transmitted by blood transfusion. It is primarily treated with quinine and/or atovaquone, which are not readily available in China. In this study, we developed a novel treatment regimen involving doxycycline monotherapy in a patient with severe Babesia venatorum infection as an alternative therapeutic medication. The aim of our study is to provide a guidance for clinical practice treatment of human babesiosis. Case presentation: A 73-year-old man who had undergone splenectomy and blood transfusion 8 years prior, presented with an unexplained fever, headache, and thrombocytopenia, and was admitted to the Fifth Medical Center of the PLA General Hospital. He was diagnosed with B. venatorum infection by morphological review of thin peripheral blood smears, which was confirmed by multi-gene polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and sequencing of the entire 18s rRNA and partial β-tubulin encoding genes, as well as isolation by animal inoculation. The doxycycline monotherapy regimen (peros, 0.1 g bisindie) was administered following pharmacological guidance and an effective outcome was observed. The patient recovered rapidly following the doxycycline monotherapy. The protozoan load in peripheral blood samples decreased by 88% in hematocrit counts after 8 days, and negative PCR results were obtained after 90 days of follow-up at the hospital. The treatment lasted for 3 months without any side effects or sequelae. The nine-month follow-up survey of the patient did not reveal any signs of recrudescence or anti-babesial tolerance. Conclusions: We have reported a clinical case of successful doxycycline monotherapy for human babesiosis caused by B. venatorum, which provides an optional medical intervention for human babesiosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is a common malignant tumor. 131I treatment can effectively kill residual PTC microtissues and inhibit metastases. METTL3 which mediates N6 methyladenosine (m6A) modification participates in the progression of PTC. However, the biomechanism through which METTL3 regulates 131I treatment to suppress PTC remains unclear. The mRNA, protein, and m6A levels were detected by RT-qPCR, western blot, and methylated RNA immunoprecipitation (MeRIP) kit respectively. The cell apoptotic ability was measured with flow cytometry (FCM) and TUNEL double staining assays. Transwell assay was used for migration and invasion evaluation. Our results showed that METTL3 was downregulated in PTC and was upregulated by treating with 131I. Knockdown of METTL3 inhibited the suppression of viability, migration, and invasion, and the promotion of apoptosis induced by 131I treatment. Additionally, METTL3 was found to bind with KDR, and KDR reversed the effects of METTL3 knockdown on the biological behaviors of 131I-treated PTC cells. Furthermore, m6A modification of KDR induced by METTL3 was recognized by YTHDC2 in PTC, and KDR is a key factor for the PTC progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To satisfy the design requirements for a hydropneumatic spring damper valve, the inlet–outlet pressure drop (ΔP) and the axial force on the spool (FZ) of a valve were investigated using fluid–solid coupling simulations and multi-objective optimization, along with the effects of the diameters of three internal holes (DA, DB, and DC) in the valve on the ΔP and the FZ. First, a meshed computational fluid dynamics model of a damper valve was established based on its geometric structure. Next, the effects of the flow rate (Q) and the diameter of the damping hole in the internal structure on the ΔP and the FZ of the damper valve were investigated. The results showed that the ΔP and the FZ varied nonlinearly with Q. For a given Q, the ΔP decreased as DA, DB, and DC increased. For a given Q, the FZ was not related to DA and DC, but it decreased as DB increased. Finally, the structure of the damper valve was optimized by defining the ΔP and the FZ as the response variables and DA, DB, and DC as the explanatory variables. The results showed that the best configuration of the hole diameters was DA = 8.8 mm, DB = 5.55 mm, and DC = 6 mm. In this configuration, ΔP = 0.704 MPa and FZ = 110.005 N. The ΔP of the optimized valve was closer to the middle value of the target range than that of the initial valve design. The difference between the simulated and target values of the FZ decreased from 0.28% to 0.0045%, satisfying application requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this experiment was to determine the energy values and nutrient utilisation of five corns at starer (14–16 days) and grower (28–30 days) phases. The 1–5 corn samples were obtained from Jinzhou, Liaoning; Gongzhuling, Jilin; Qingdao, Shandong; Songyuan, Jilin and Xinxiang, Henan, China. Each phase of the trial consisted of six treatments with six replicates each. The number of birds per replicate was 4 (Days 14–16) and 2 (Days 28–30). Diets included a corn–soybean meal basal diet and five test diets contained 30% of each corn sample, which replaced 30% of the energy‐yielding components of the basal diet (as‐fed basis). The trial consisted of six cycles, each cycle was 7 days, including 4 days for adaptation to feed. On Day 4, the birds were transferred to the respiration chambers. In the following 3 days, total excreta were collected and daily heat production was measured. The apparent total tract retention of dry matter, crude protein, ether extract, and starch improved with age, showing the same trend as energy values. The nitrogen‐corrected metabolisable energy (AMEn) values for corn samples at the starter phase were in the range of 16.25–17.41 MJ/kg DM and at the grower phase were in the range of 17.23–17.60 MJ/kg DM. On the other hand, the net energy (NE) values of the five corn samples ranged from 9.93 to 11.67 MJ/kg DM during the starter period and from 11.19 to 12.27 MJ/kg DM during the grower period. The AMEn and NE values of the five corn samples were close to the literature values for corn. Results from our research indicated the nutrient digestibility and energy values of corn samples increase with the age of the broiler. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]