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BackgroundFew studies have analysed oxaliplatin-induced adverse events (ADEs) in the immune system and skin and subcutaneous tissues through pharmacovigilance. We used this approach to analyse the risk of such ADEs when oxaliplatin combined with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs).MethodsWe evaluated the association between oxaliplatin and ADEs in the immune system and skin and subcutaneous tissues using the reporting odd ratio (ROR) for mining the ADE report signals in the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System database. Risk factors were analyzed using a binary logistic regression analysis using the sex and age of the patients.ResultsThere were 40,474 reports of oxaliplatin as primary suspect drug or second suspect drug. The signal intensities of ADEs such as type II hypersensitivity, type I hypersensitivity, type III immune complex–mediated reaction, anaphylactoid shock and cytokine release syndrome were high in PTs classified by SOC as immune system disorders; in the PTs classified as skin and subcutaneous tissue disorders by SOC, the signal intensities of ADEs such as skin toxicity, skin reaction, rash maculo-papular and skin fissures were higher. In the risk assessment between the two groups, rash showed an increased risk in the oxaliplatin-ICI group, with an OR of 1.96. Nivolumab in combination with oxaliplatin had an OR of 2.196 and an adjusted OR of 2.231. Combined with pembrolizumab, OR was 2.762 and the adjusted OR was 2.678.ConclusionType II hypersensitivity shows a stronger pharmacovigilance signal. Oxaliplatin in combination with nivolumab or pembrolizumab has been shown to increase the risk of rash.

To develop a national reference panel for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antigen detection kit and establish a quality standard. The cultures of SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogens were collected to establish a national reference panel for SARS-CoV-2 antigen detection. The stability and homogeneity of the reference panel were evaluated. Based on World Health Organization (WHO) guidance and nucleic acid quantitative results, a quality standard reference panel was established. Currently, three generations of SARS-CoV-2 antigen national reference materials with batch numbers 370095–202001, 370095–202202, and 370095–202203 have been successfully established. These national reference panels comprised 8 positive samples, 20 negative samples, 1 repetitive sample, and 1 lower detection limit sample. The stability and homogeneity of the reference panel meet the requirements. The quality standards are as follows: the positive and negative coincidence rates are 8/8 and 20/20, respectively. The 10 test results of the medium and low-concentration repetitive reference materials should be positive, and the color rendering should be uniform (or the coefficient of variance should not be higher than 20.0%). The lower detection limit should be at least 5 × 105 U/mL (equivalent to copies/mL), and higher concentrations above the lower detection limit must be positive. A national reference panel for the SARS-CoV-2 antigen detection kit has been established. As the standard of SARS-CoV-2 antigen reagents, the reference panel has played a crucial role in the pre-marketing quality evaluation and post-marketing quality supervision in China.

Abstract Aging and cancer are increasingly becoming big challenges for public health worldwide due to increased human life expectancy. Meanwhile, aging is one of the major risk factors for cancer. In December 2019, the first International Conference on Aging and Cancer was held in Haikou, Hainan province (island), China, preluding the establishment of the International Center for Aging and Cancer (ICAC) at Hainan, an institute dedicated to the research at the intersection of aging and cancer. Since then, the ICAC has hosted the annual conference each December in Hainan. The 2022 ICAC conference, with the theme of “promoting longevity with less cancer,” invited 17 internationally renowned scientists to share their new research and insights. Topics included DNA methylation in rejuvenation, development, and cellular senescence; lifespan regulation and longevity manipulation; metabolism and aging; cellular senescence and diseases; and novel therapeutics for cancer and antiaging/anticancer drug discovery. The forum highlighted the interconnectedness of aging and senescence with cancer evolution and risk. Although there is hope for preventing diseases like cancer by modulating systems that also control lifespan, attention has to be paid to the conflicting needs and competing demands in human biology.

ObjectiveThe aim of this study is to determine the residual C-peptide level and to explore the clinical significance of preserved C-peptide secretion in glycemic control in Chinese individuals with type 1 diabetes (T1D).Research design and methodsA total of 534 participants with T1D were enrolled and divided into two groups, low–C-peptide group (fasting C-peptide ≤10 pmol/L) and preserved–C-peptide group (fasting C-peptide >10 pmol/L), and clinical factors were compared between the two groups. In 174 participants who were followed, factors associated with C-peptide loss were also identified by Cox regression. In addition, glucose metrics derived from intermittently scanned continuous glucose monitoring were compared between individuals with low C-peptide and those with preserved C-peptide in 178 participants.ResultsThe lack of preserved C-peptide was associated with longer diabetes duration, glutamic acid decarboxylase autoantibody, and higher daily insulin doses, after adjustment {OR, 1.10 [interquartile range (IQR), 1.06–1.14]; OR, 0.46 (IQR, 0.27–0.77); OR, 1.04 (IQR, 1.02–1.06)}. In the longitudinal analysis, the percentages of individuals with preserved C-peptide were 71.4%, 56.8%, 71.7%, 62.5%, and 22.2% over 5 years of follow-up. Preserved C-peptide was also associated with higher time in range after adjustment of diabetes duration [62.4 (IQR, 47.3–76.6) vs. 50.3 (IQR, 36.2–63.0) %, adjusted P = 0.003].ConclusionsOur results indicate that a high proportion of Chinese patients with T1D had preserved C-peptide secretion. Meanwhile, residual C-peptide was associated with favorable glycemic control, suggesting the importance of research on adjunctive therapy to maintain β-cell function in T1D.

Large differences in projected future annual precipitation increases in North America exists across 27 CMIP6 models under four emission scenarios. These differences partly arise from weak representations of land-atmosphere interactions. Here we demonstrate an emergent constraint relationship between annual growth rates of future precipitation and growth rates of historical temperature. The original CMIP6 projections show 0.49% (SSP126), 0.98% (SSP245), 1.45% (SSP370) and 1.92% (SSP585) increases in precipitation per decade. Combining observed warming trends, the constrained results show that the best estimates of future precipitation increases are more likely to reach 0.40-0.48%, 0.83-0.93%, 1.29-1.45% and 1.70-1.87% respectively, implying an overestimated future precipitation increases across North America. The constrained results also are narrow the corresponding uncertainties (standard deviations) by 13.8-31.1%. The overestimated precipitation growth rates also reveal an overvalued annual growth rates in temperature (6.0-13.2% or 0.12-0.37°C) and in total evaporation (4.8-14.5%) by the original models' predictions. These findings highlight the important role of temperature for accurate climate predictions, which is important as temperature from current climate models' simulations often still have systematic errors.

Objective: To explore the relationship between C-peptide secretion and time in range (TIR) in adult patients with type 1 diabetes. Methods: From December 2018 to December 2020, 76 type 1 diabetes participants were enrolled from the Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism of Peking University People’s Hospital. All participants wore intermittently scanned continuous glucose monitoring (isCGM), and insulin dosage was adjusted according to standardized clinical procedures. Subjects were divided into low C-peptide group (

ABSTRACT Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP) is an important respiratory pathogen, the prevalence of macrolide-resistant MP (mainly containing A2063G mutation in 23S rRNA) increased in recent years. Epidemiological studies suggest a higher prevalence of type I resistant (IR) strains than corresponding sensitive (IS/IIS) strains, but not type II resistant (IIR) strains. Here, we aimed to analyze the factors underlying the altered prevalence of IR strains. First, proteomic analyses exhibit the protein compositions were type specific, while more differential proteins were detected between IS and IR (227) than IIS and IIR strains (81). mRNA level detection suggested posttranscriptional regulation of these differential proteins. Differential protein-related phenotypic changes were also detected: (i) P1 abundance was different between genotypes (I < II, IR < IS), the adhesion of MPs showed accordance to P1 abundance within IS and IIS strains; (ii) type I, especially IR, strains had a higher proliferation rate, which is potentially associated with differential proteins participating in glycolysis and one carbon pool metabolisms; (iii) A549 cells infected with IR strains had lower activity of caspase-3 and higher levels IL-8, but the differences were not significant between groups (P > 0.05). Correlations of P1 abundance to caspase-3 activity and proliferation rate to the level of IL-8 were obtained. These results suggest changes in protein composition influenced the pathogenicity of MP, especially in IR strains, which may impact the prevalence of MP strains of different genotypes. IMPORTANCE The prevalence of macrolide-resistant MPs increased the difficulty in treatment of MP infections and posed potential threats to children's health. Epidemiological studies showed a high prevalence of IR-resistant strains (mainly A2063G in 23S rRNA) in these years. However, the trigger mechanisms for this phenomenon are not clear. In this paper, proteomic and phenotypic studies suggest that IR strains have reduced levels of multiple adhesion proteins and increased proliferation rate, which may lead to higher transmission rate of IR strains in the population. This suggests that we should pay attention to the prevalence of IR strains.

Mycoplasma pneumoniae (MP) is an important human pathogen that mainly affects children causing general and severe Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia (G/SMPP). In the present study, a comprehensive immune response data (33 cytokines) was obtained in school-age children (3–9 years old) during MPP, aiming to analyze the immune response patterns during MPP. At acute phase, changes of cytokines were both detected in GMPP (24/33) and SMPP (23/33) groups compared to the healthy group (p < 0.05), with 20 identical cytokines. Between MPP groups, the levels of 13 cytokines (IL-2, IL-10, IL-11, IL-12, IL-20, IL-28A, IL-32, IL-35, IFN-α2, IFN-γ, IFN-β, BAFF, and TSLP) were higher and three cytokines (LIGHT, OPN and CHI3L1) were lower in the SMPP group than in the GMPP group (p < 0.05). Function analysis reveals that macrophage function (sCD163, CHI3L1) are not activated in both MPP groups; difference in regulatory patterns of T cells (IL26, IL27, OPN, LIGHT) and defective activation of B cells (BAFF) were detected in the SMPP group compared to the GMPP group. Besides, the level of osteocalcin; sIL-6Rβ and MMP-2 are both decreased in MPP groups at acute and convalescent phases compared to the healthy group, among which the levels of sIL-6Rβ and MMP-2 showed negative correlations (p < 0.1) to the application of bronchial lavage in SMPP group, indicating their roles in the development of MPP. At the convalescent phase, more cytokines recovered in GMPP (18) than SMPP (11), revealing better controlled immune response during GMPP. These results reveal different immune response patterns during GMPP and SMPP. In addition, the differentiated cytokines may serve as potential indicators of SMPP; early intervention on immune response regulations may be helpful in reducing the severity of SMPP.

Vaccines are a key weapon against the COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2. However, there are inter-individual differences in immune response to SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and genetic contributions to these differences have barely been investigated. Here, we performed genome-wide association study (GWAS) of antibody levels in 168 inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine recipients. A total of 177 SNPs, corresponding to 41 independent loci, were identified to be associated with IgG, total antibodies or neutral antibodies. Specifically, the rs4543780, the intronic variant of FAM89A gene, was associated with total antibodies level and was annotated as a potential regulatory variant affecting gene expression of FAM89A, a biomarker differentiating bacterial from viral infections in febrile children. These findings might advance our knowledge of the molecular mechanisms driving immunity to SARS-CoV-2 vaccine.

Abstract A 62‐day “extremely violent Meiyu” occurred in the Yangtze River basin from June to July in 2020, and its abnormal precipitation caused serious losses to the social economy. In this paper, the characteristics of newly formed mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) and the environmental conditions affecting the MCS formation during this abnormal precipitation event are investigated based on hourly datasets, including the temperature of brightness blackbody (TBB) data derived from the FY‐2F geostationary meteorological satellite, and the three‐source merged precipitation products from China Meteorological Administration. The results show that there were 31,778 times of short‐duration heavy precipitation (hourly precipitation exceeding 20 mm) occurred in the Yangtze River basin from June to July in 2020. The 69.3% of short‐duration heavy precipitation (hourly precipitation exceeding 20 mm) are closely related to the MCSs. The increase of newly formed MCSs leaded to more short‐duration heavy precipitation. The abnormal precipitation in the Yangtze River basin from June to July is mainly caused by elongated MCSs with an average lifetime of 6 h. The number of the newly formed MCSs presents obvious diurnal variations, with the most frequent at 20:00 (Beijing Time, the same below). The newly formed MCSs are prone to appear near the Yangtze–Huaihe shear line, and the magnitude of southerly wind at 500 hPa determines the distance between the MCSs and the shear line. The enhancement of vorticity advection at 500 hPa and water vapor convergence are conducive to the MCS formation. The weakening of low‐level jet corresponds to the increase of newborn MCS.

A phytoplankton bloom was observed in the southeastern Arabian Sea after the passage of the anti-S-type track Tropical cyclone ARB 06 in 1998, which lasted for 22 days. The dynamic mechanism of the phytoplankton bloom was investigated with high-resolution satellite remote sensing data, reanalysis data and buoy data. The results show that the double thermocline structure hindered the uplift of deep nutrients to the surface before the tropical cyclone arrival. During and after the passage of the cyclone, the shallower thermocline disappeared, the deeper thermocline changed from 45.7 m to 76.5 m, the mixed layer deepened, and the upper oceanic stratification weakened. Additionally, a weak ocean eddy pair was enhanced gradually after the passage of cyclone. The relative vorticity of the ocean eddy pair was calculated. In the oscillation with a period of two days, the vorticity of the cyclonic eddy was stronger than that of the anticyclonic eddy, which enhanced a strong upwelling at a depth of more than 55 m for more than 10 days. The vertical current shear generated by the oscillation not only enhanced the vertical mixing, but also plays an important role in the distribution of phytoplankton blooms. The phytoplankton bloom was triggered by the nutrient below the thermocline into the sea surface, where a strong upwelling and weakened oceanic stratification occurred after the passage of cyclone. This study offers new insights on the mechanism of phytoplankton bloom induced by tropical cyclones and will be helpful for evaluating tropical cyclone-induced biological responses in future.

Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase catalyzes the reaction from PI(4,5)P2 to PI(3,4,5)P3 and is encoded by the age-1 gene known to regulate lifespan. Here the researchers found that the metabolite myo-inositol, which can be converted to PI(3,4,5)P3 extends worm lifespan and alleviates worm as well as mouse health decline during aging.

Background: Mycoplasma pneumoniae is a leading cause of community-acquired respiratory infections. Infantile Feire Kechuan Oral Solution (IFKOS) is effective for treatment of M. pneumoniae infection. The aim of this study was to explore the potential mechanism of IFKOS against M. pneumoniae infection in basal epithelial human lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells. Methods: The 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay was used to determine the effects of IFKOS on the viability of A549 cells infected with M. pneumoniae. Optical microscopy was used to observe cell morphology and a Muse cell analyzer was used to assess apoptosis and the cell cycle phase. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays were employed to assess the expression levels of interleukin (IL)-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-17, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interferon (IFN)-α, and IFN-γ. Results: Under certain conditions, M. pneumoniae infection reduced the viability and inhibited the proliferation of A549 cells, promoted early apoptosis, and arrested cells in the G0/G1 phase, thus shortening the S and G2/M phases (all p

Based on 130 climate signal indexes provided by National Climate Center of China, this paper established a decision tree diagnostic prediction model for Spring Kuroshio Sea Surface Temperature (SST) from 1961 to 2015 (65 years) by using Chi-Squared Automatic Interaction Detector (CHAID) algorithm in data mining and obtained five rule sets to determine whether Spring Kuroshio SST is high or not. Considering the data of the 44 years from 1961 to 2004 as the training set of the model and the other years as the test set, the training accuracy of the model can reach to 95.45% and the test accuracy can reach to 81.82%. Three types of Spring Kuroshio SST are different in intensity and distribution. The results show that the prediction model of Spring Kuroshio SST based on CHAID algorithm has a high prediction accuracy, with the reasonable and effective model and the well-thought-out decision rules. Moreover, based on the results of decision classification, the SST anomalies correspond to different distribution characteristics of summer daily precipitation anomalies in eastern China, which can provide a new idea and method for climate prediction of regional summer precipitation.

Background: Shotgun metagenomics has been used clinically for diagnosing infectious diseases. However, most technical assessments have been limited to individual sets of reference standards, experimental workflows, and laboratories. Methods: A reference panel and performance metrics were designed and used to examine the performance of shotgun metagenomics at 17 laboratories in a coordinated collaborative study. We comprehensively assessed the reliability, key performance determinants, reproducibility, and quantitative potential. Findings: Assay performance varied significantly across sites and microbial classes, with a read depth of 20 millions as a generally cost-efficient assay setting. Results of mapped reads by shotgun metagenomics could indicate relative and intra-site (but not absolute or inter-site) microbial abundance. Interpretation: Assay performance was significantly impacted by the microbial type, the host context, and read depth, which emphasizes the importance of these factors when designing reference reagents and benchmarking studies. Across sites, workflows and platforms, false positive reporting and considerable site/library effects were common challenges to the assay's accuracy and quantifiability. Our study also suggested that laboratory-developed shotgun metagenomics tests for pathogen detection should aim to detect microbes at 500 CFU/mL (or copies/mL) in a clinically relevant host context (10^5 human cells/mL) within a 24h turn-around time, and with an efficient read depth of 20M. Funding: This work was supported by National Science and Technology Major Project of China (2018ZX10102001).

Background and Objectives: Mounting evidence demonstrates that proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are associated with a number of adverse effects. However, the literatures about hepatotoxicity-related adverse effects (HRAEs) of PPIs are mostly case reports and a few clinical studies.Methods: We evaluated the association between PPIs and HAREs using the reporting odd ratio (ROR) for mining the adverse event report signals in the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) database.Results: There were 23,825 reports of PPIs as primary suspect drug or second suspect drug, of which 3,253 reports were HRAEs. The top five HRAE signals caused by PPIs were hepatitis cholestatic, cholestasis, fulminant hepatitis, subacute hepatic failure, and acute hepatitis. We also summarized the signals of the HRAEs caused by each PPI. The simultaneous signals were cholestasis and hepatitis cholestatic. For the cholestasis signal, esomeprazole showed an ROR of 21.556 (95% CI 17.592–26.413); pantoprazole showed the highest ROR of 22.611 (95% CI 17.794–28.733) in the hepatic cholestatic signal; lansoprazole was the only PPI with expression in the coma hepatic signal, with an ROR of 10.424 (95% CI 3.340–32.532). By analyzing the reports of pantoprazole-induced hepatic encephalopathy, we found that patients aged over 65 years and males reported the highest rate. And from the combination of drugs and indications of drugs, no significant results were obtained.Conclusions: The RORs of signals of “cholestasis” were generally higher than those of “hepatocellular injury.” And the signals about “cholestasis” in HRAE caused by PPIs are more reported.

Listeria monocytogenes remains a significant public health threat, causing invasive listeriosis manifested as septicemia, meningitis, and abortion, with up to 30% of cases having a fatal outcome. Tracking the spread of invasive listeriosis requires an updated knowledge for virulence factors (VFs) and antimicrobial resistance features, which is an essential step toward its clinical diagnosis and treatment. Taking advantage of high-throughput genomic sequencing, we proposed that the differential genes based on the pathogenomic composition could be used to evaluate clinical observations and therapeutic options for listeriosis. Here, we performed the comparative genomic analysis of 60 strains from five continents with a diverse range of sources, representing serotypes 1/2a, 1/2b, 1/2c, and 4b, comprising lineage I and lineage II and including 13 newly contributed Chinese isolates from clinical cases. These strains were associated with globally distributed clonal groups linked with confirmed foodborne listeriosis outbreak and sporadic cases. We found that L. monocytogenes strains from clonal complex (CC) CC8, CC7, CC9, and CC415 carried most of the adherence and invasive genes. Conversely, CC1, CC2, CC4, and CC6 have the least number of adherence and invasive genes. Additionally, Listeria pathogenicity island-1 (LIPI-1), LIPI-2, intracellular survival, surface anchoring, and bile salt resistance genes were detected in all isolates. Importantly, LIPI-3 genes were harbored in CC3, CC224, and ST619 of the Chinese isolates and in CC1, CC4, and CC6 of other worldwide isolates. Notably, Chinese isolates belonging to CC14 carried antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) against β-lactams (blaTEM-101, blaTEM-105) and macrolide (ermC-15), whereas CC7 and CC8 isolates harbored ARGs against aminoglycoside (aadA10_2, aadA6_1), which may pose a threat to therapeutic efficacy. Phylogenomic analysis showed that CC8, CC7, and CC5 of Chinese isolates, CC8 (Swiss and Italian isolates), and CC5 and CC7 (Canadian isolates) are closely clustered together and belonged to the same CC. Additionally, CC381 and CC29 of Chinese isolates shared the same genomic pattern as CC26 of Swiss isolate and CC37 of Canadian isolate, respectively, indicating strong phylogenomic relation between these isolates. Collectively, this study highlights considerable clonal diversity with well-recognized virulence and antimicrobial-resistant determinants among Chinese and worldwide isolates that stress to design improved strategies for clinical therapies.

Salmonella spp. is recognized as an important zoonotic pathogen. The emergence of antimicrobial resistance in Salmonella enterica poses a great public health concern worldwide. While the knowledge on the incidence and the characterization of different S. enterica serovars causing chick embryo death remains obscure in China. In this study, we obtained 45 S. enterica isolates from 2,139 dead chick embryo samples collected from 28 breeding chicken hatcheries in Henan province. The antimicrobial susceptibility assay was performed by the broth microdilution method and the results showed that 31/45 (68.8%) isolates were multidrug-resistant (≥3 antimicrobial classes). Besides the highest resistance rate was observed in the aminoglycoside class, all the isolates were susceptible to chloramphenicol, azithromycin, and imipenem. Furthermore, genomic characterization revealed that S. Enteritidis (33.33%; 15/45) was a frequent serovar that harbored a higher number of virulence factors compared to other serovars. Importantly, genes encoding β-lactamases were identified in three serovars (Thompson, Enteritidis, and Kottbus), whereas plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance genes (qnrB4) were detected in certain isolates of S. Thompson and the two S. Kottbus isolates. All the examined isolates harbored the typical virulence factors from Salmonella pathogenicity islands 1 and 2 (SPI-1 and SPI-2). Additionally, a correlation analysis between the antimicrobial resistance genes, phenotype, and plasmids was conducted among Salmonella isolates. It showed strong positive correlations (r < 0.6) between the different antimicrobial-resistant genes belonging to certain antimicrobial classes. Besides, IncF plasmid showed a strong negative correlation (r > −0.6) with IncHI2 and IncHI2A plasmids. Together, our study demonstrated antimicrobial-resistant S. enterica circulating in breeding chicken hatcheries in Henan province, highlighting the advanced approach, by using genomic characterization and statistical analysis, in conducting the routine monitoring of the emerging antimicrobial-resistant pathogens. Our findings also proposed that the day-old breeder chicks trading could be one of the potential pathways for the dissemination of multidrug-resistant S. enterica serovars.

Gynandropsis gynandra (L.) Briquet is a monoecious herb species in the family Cleomaceae. It is an important commercial crop with medicinal and nutritional values. Here, we sequenced, assembled, and analyzed the complete chloroplast genome of G. gynandra. The circular genome is 158,152 bp in size, consisting of two copies of inverted repeat (IR) regions of 26,181 bp, one large single-copy (LSC) region of 87,242 bp, and one small single-copy (SSC) region of 18,548 bp. The overall GC content was 35.81%. A total of 131 genes were annotated, including 37 tRNA genes, 87 protein-coding genes, and seven rRNA genes. Phylogenetic analysis based on 10 chloroplast genome sequences indicated that G. gynandra was more closely related to Tarenaya hassleriana.

Background The distribution and use of camphor (Cinnamomum camphora L.) trees are constrained by increasing soil salinity in south-eastern China along the Yangtze River. However, the response mechanism of this species to salinity, especially in team of photosynthesis, are unknown. Methods Here, we analysed themorphological, physiological, ultrastructural, and proteomic traits of camphor seedlings under NaCl (103.45 mM) treatment in pot experiments for 80 days. Results The growth was limited because of photosynthetic inhibition, with the most significant disturbance occurring within 50 days. Salinity caused severe reductions in the leaf photosynthetic rate (An), stomatal conductance (gs), maximal chlorophyll fluorescence (Fm), maximum quantum yield of PSII (Fv/Fm), non-photochemical quenching (NPQ), relative quantum efficiency of PSII photochemistry (ΦPSII), photochemical quenching coefficient (qP) and photo-pigment contents (chlorophyll a (Cha), chlorophyll b (Chb), total chlorophyll (Chl)); weakened the antioxidant effects, including those of malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POD); and injured chloroplasts. The physiologicalresults indicated that the main reason for photo-inhibition was oxidative factors induced by NaCl. The proteomic results based on isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ) further confirmedthat photosynthesis was the most significant disrupted process by salinity (P

Concerns on the timing and processes associated with petroleum degradation were raised after the use of Corexit during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. There is a lack of understanding of the removal of oil associated with flocculate materials to the sediment. Mesocosm studies employing coastal and open-ocean seawater from the Gulf of Mexico were undertaken to examine changes in oil concentration and composition with time. The water accommodated fractions (WAF) and chemically enhanced WAF (CEWAF) produced using Macondo surrogate oil and Corexit were followed over 3-4 days in controlled environmental conditions. Environmental half-lives of estimated oil equivalents (EOE), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), n-alkanes (C10-C35), isoprenoids pristane and phytane, and total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) were determined. EOE and PAH concentrations decreased exponentially following first-order decay rate kinetics. WAF, CEWAF and DCEWAF (a 10X CEWAF dilution) treatments half-lives ranged from 0.9 to 3.2 days for EOE and 0.5 to 3.3 days for PAH, agreeing with estimates from previous mesocosm and field studies. The aliphatic half-lives for CEWAF and DECWAF treatments ranged from 0.8 to 2.0 days, but no half-life for WAF could be calculated as concentrations were below the detection limits. Biodegradation occurred in all treatments based on the temporal decrease of the nC17/pristane and nC18/phytane ratios. The heterogeneity observed in all treatments was likely due to the hydrophobicity of oil and weathering processes occurring at different rates and times. The presence of dispersant did not dramatically change the half-lives of oil. Comparing degradation of oil alone as well as with dispersant present is critical to determine the fate and transport of these materials in the ocean.

Considering the high risk of flooding during tropical cyclones (TCs), there is great practical significance in researching and predicting precipitation during TC landfalls. Using NECP FNL reanalysis data and GPM_MERGIR datasets, two TCs with similar trajectories, ARB 01 in 2002 and Luban in 2018, were analyzed. For ARB 01 and Luban, there are separate effects of wind shear at different heights on the development of vertical motion. Meridional wind shear affects the main deviation direction of vertical motion (downshear), while zonal wind shear mainly affects the deviation direction of vertical motion to the left or right of downshear. The divergent configuration of wind promotes the development of vertical motion. The influence of wind speed provided ideal conditions for ARB 01 to generate symmetric precipitation along its path when it made landfall. Additionally, more water vapor support was obtained from the southern Indian Ocean, which enabled ARB 01 to have a larger and broader average precipitation rate after landing.

The concentration of total suspended matter (TSM) is an important parameter for evaluating lake water quality. We determined in situ hyperspectral data and TSM concentration data for Changdang Lake, China, to establish a TSM concentration inversion model. The model was applied using 60 Sentinel-2 images acquired from 2016 to 2021 to determine the temporal and spatial distribution of TSM concentration. Remote sensing images were also utilized to monitor the effect of ecological dredging in Changdang Lake. The following results were obtained: (1) Compared with four existing models, the TSM concentration inversion model established in this study exhibited higher accuracy and was suitable for Changdang Lake. (2) TSM concentrations obtained for the period 2016–2021 were higher in spring and summer, and lower in autumn and winter. (3) The dredging process influenced a small area of the surrounding water body, resulting in higher TSM concentrations. However, a subsequent reduction in TSM concentrations indicated that the ecological dredging project might improve the water quality of Changdang Lake to a considerable extent. Therefore, it was inferred that the use of Sentinel-2 images was effective for the long-term monitoring of water quality changes in small and medium-sized lakes.

The machine learning algorithms application in atmospheric sciences along the Earth System Models has the potential of improving prediction, forecast, and reconstruction of missing data. In the current study, a combination of two machine learning techniques namely K-means, and decision tree (C4.5) algorithms, are used to separate observed precipitation into clusters and classified the associated large-scale circulation indices. Observed precipitation from the Chinese Meteorological Agency (CMA) during 1961–2016 for 83 stations in the Poyang Lake basin (PLB) is used. The results from K-Means clusters show two precipitation clusters splitting the PLB precipitation into a northern and southern cluster, with a silhouette coefficient ~0.5. The PLB precipitation leading cluster (C1) contains 48 stations accounting for 58% of the regional station density, while Cluster 2 (C2) covers 35, accounting for 42% of the stations. The interannual variability in precipitation exhibited significant differences for both clusters. The decision tree (C4.5) is employed to explore the large-scale atmospheric indices from National Climate Center (NCC) associated with each cluster during the preceding spring season as a predictor. The C1 precipitation was linked with the location and intensity of subtropical ridgeline position over Northern Africa, whereas the C2 precipitation was suggested to be associated with the Atlantic-European Polar Vortex Area Index. The precipitation anomalies further validated the results of both algorithms. The findings are in accordance with previous studies conducted globally and hence recommend the applications of machine learning techniques in atmospheric science on a sub-regional and sub-seasonal scale. Future studies should explore the dynamics of the K-Means, and C4.5 derived indicators for a better assessment on a regional scale. This research based on machine learning methods may bring a new solution to climate forecast.

Chemical characterization of the presence of oil in environmental samples are performed using methods of varying complexity. Extraction of samples with an organic solvent and analysis by fluorescence spectrometry has been shown to be a rapid and effective screening technique for petroleum in the environment. During experiments, rapid analysis of oil by fluorescence provides the opportunity for researchers to modify the experimental conditions in real time. Estimated Oil Equivalents (EOE) relies on the fluorescence measurement of the aromatic compounds to estimate the oil concentration.The present intercalibration study was designed to investigate whether different fluorometer instruments can reliably measure EOE and whether the results are intercomparable. Additionally, the need for extraction of oil compounds into an organic solvent was investigated. Three different fluorometers were used in three different laboratories: a Horiba Aqualog, a Turner Trilogy and a Shimadzu Spectrofluorophotometer RF-1501. Results from these different instruments showed excellent agreement for EOE determinations. A very high correlation was found between the EOE results obtained with Aqualog Horiba and Turner Trilogy (r2 = 0.9999), with no significant differences between the mean EOE results (t-test, p = 0.30), and the Aqualog Horiba and Shimadzu (r2 = 0.995) fluorometers, with no statistically difference between the EOE results obtained by the two instruments (p = 0.40).

Marine snow was implicated in the transport of oil to the seafloor during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, but the exact processes remain controversial. In this study, we investigated the concentrations and distributions of the 16 USEPA priority polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in marine snow aggregates collected during a mesocosm experiment. Seawater only, oil in a water accommodated fraction (WAF), and Corexit-enhanced WAF (DCEWAF) were incubated for 16 d. Both WAF and DCEWAF aggregates were enriched in heavy molecular weight PAHs but depleted in naphthalene. DCEWAF aggregates had 2.6 times more total 16 PAHs than the WAF (20.5 vs. 7.8 µg/g). Aggregates in the WAF and DCEWAF incorporated 4.4% and 19.3%, respectively of the total PAHs in the mesocosm tanks. Our results revealed that marine snow sorbed and scavenged heavy molecular weight PAHs in the water column and the application of Corexit enhanced the incorporation of PAHs into the sinking aggregates.

Soil moisture is a key variable in terrestrial water cycle, playing a key role in the exchange of water and energy in the land-atmosphere interface. The spatiotemporal variations of soil moisture from multiple sources during 1988–2010 are evaluated against in situ observations in the Yellow River basin, China, including the Essential Climate Variable satellite’s passive microwave product (SMECV), ERA-Interim reanalysis (SMERA), the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/Department of Energy’s Reanalysis-2 (SMNCEP), and the Variable Infiltration Capacity model products (SMVIC). The seasonal soil moisture dynamics of SMECV and SMVIC appear to be consistent with SMin situ, with significant soil drying in spring and wetting in summer. SMERA and SMNCEP, however, fail to capture the soil drying before rainy seasons. Remarkably, SMECV shows large agreement with SMin situ in terms of the interannual variations and the long-term drying trends. SMVIC captures the interannual variations but fails to have the long-term trends in SMin situ. As for SMERA and SMNCEP, they fail to capture both the interannual variations and the long-term soil drying trends in SMin situ.

Polylactic acid (PLA) holds enormous potential as an alternative to the ubiquitous petroleum-based plastics to be used in packaging film and agricultural film. However, the poor viscoelastic behavior and its extremely low melt strength means it fails to meet the requirements in film blowing processing, which is the most efficient film processing method with the lowest costs. Also, the PLA’s brittleness and insufficient gas barrier properties also seriously limit PLA’s potential application as a common film material. Herein, special stereocomplex (SC) networks were introduced to improve the melt strength and film blowing stability of PLA; polyethylene glycol (PEG) was introduced to improve PLA’s toughness and gas barrier properties. Compared with neat poly(l-lactide) acid (PLLA), modified PLA is stable in the film blowing process and its film elongation at break increases more than 18 times and reaches over 250%, and its O2 permeability coefficient decreased by 61%. The resulting film material also has good light transmittance, which has great potential for green packaging applications, such as disposable packaging and agricultural films.

Ebola is an emerging infectious disease caused by a deadly virus belonging to the family Filoviridae, genus Ebolavirus. Based on their geographical distribution, Ebolavirus has been classified into total five species so far, mainly Zaire, Sudan, Taï Forest, Bundibugyo and Reston. It is important to be able to differentiate the Ebolavirus species as they significantly differ in pathogenicity and more than one species can be present in an area. We have developed a one-step step-down RT-PCR detecting all five Ebolavirus species with high sensitivity (1 copy of Ebolavirus DNA, 10 copies of RNA and 320 copies of RNA spiked in 1 ml whole blood). The primers and FRET-probes we designed enabled us to differentiate five Ebolavirus species by distinct Tm (Zaire: flat peaks between 53.0°C and 56.9°C; Sudan: 51.6°C; Reston: flat peaks between 47.5°C and 54.9°C; Tai Forest: 52.8°C; Bundibugyo: dual peaks at 48.9°C and 53.5°C), and by different amplicon sizes (Zaire 255 bp, Sudan 211 bp, Reston 192 bp, Taï Forest 166 bp, Bundibugyo 146 bp). This one-size-fit-all assay enables the rapid detection and discrimination of the five Ebolavirus species in a single reaction.

A novel avian influenza A H7N9-subtype virus emerged in China in 2013 and threatened global public health. Commercial kits that specifically detect avian influenza A (H7N9) virus RNA are urgently required to prepare for the emergence and potential pandemic of this novel influenza virus. The safety and effectiveness of three commercial molecular diagnostic assays were evaluated using a quality-control panel and clinical specimens collected from over 90 patients with confirmed avian influenza A (H7N9) virus infections. The analytical performance evaluation showed that diverse influenza H7N9 viruses can be detected with high within- and between-lot reproducibility and without cross-reactivity to other influenza viruses (H1N1 pdm09, seasonal H1N1, H3N2, H5N1 and influenza B). The detection limit of all the commercial assays was 2.83 Log10 copies/μl [0.7 Log10TCID50/mL of avian influenza A (H7N9) virus strain A/Zhejiang/DTID-ZJU01/2013], which is comparable to the method recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). In addition, using a WHO-Chinese National Influenza Center (CNIC) method as a reference for clinical evaluation, positive agreement of more than 98% was determined for all of the commercial kits, while negative agreement of more than 99% was observed. In conclusion, our findings provide comprehensive evidence for the high performance of three commercial diagnostic assays and suggest the application of these assays as rapid and effective diagnostic tools for avian influenza A (H7N9) virus in the routine clinical practice of medical laboratories.