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Following with the social-economy development and the increase of the incidence of various respiratory diseases, countries all over the world are increasingly paying attention to the issue of air pollution. This study uses the tracking data of 31 provincial capitals in China from 2013 to 2020, empirically tests the impact of air pollution on public health based on the ordinary least squares regression, and investigates the reliability of research conclusions with single instrumental variables and double instrumental variables based on the 2-Stage Least Squares and 3-stage Least Squares method. The results showed that air pollution significantly increased the “the number of respiratory diseases deaths per 10,000 people,” the effect reached 24.97%; and there were significant differences in the effects due to different pollution levels, along with the cumulation of the number of days with the air pollution index exceeds 300, the deterioration effects of air pollution on public health will reach the highest value as 0.42%. After replacing the indicators of public health and the treating of endogeneity, the above results are still robust. The impact coefficients significantly increased compare to benchmark model, which has increased to 89.66%. The variable coefficients of days with air pollution index exceeding 300 has increased to 6.66%. In the formation mechanism of air pollution, both industrial pollution and domestic pollution play significant roles, their effects reached 14.79% and 39.61%, respectively; they jointly increase the deterioration degree of air pollution and transmit to the impact of air pollution on public health, the interaction effect reached 5.86%. The air pollution has considerable impact on public health, and when the degree of air pollution increases, its impact is enhanced. The main impact mechanism of air pollution is presented as the joint influences of industrial pollution and domestic pollution that transmitting to the public health.

The Nitrogen Nutrition Index (NNI), based on the Critical Nitrogen Concentration (Nc), is widely utilized to evaluate crop nitrogen nutrition. However, the impact of water deficit on crop Nc remains unclear. To address this, a 3-year joint water-nitrogen regulation experiment on winter wheat was conducted to investigate the responses of Nc dilution curve parameters (A1 and A2 in Nc ​= ​A1DM−A2, where DM represents aboveground dry biomass), nitrogen accumulation (NA), and grain yield (GY) to different water management strategies. The study employed Bayesian statistical methods to establish the Nc dilution curve, which revealed a slightly lower curve compared to that derived using classical methods. The posterior distribution indicated substantial overlap in parameters A1 (89.8%) and A2 (89.4%) between deficit irrigation (DI) and full irrigation (FI). The overlap of parameter A1 was 67.2% between rainfed and irrigated (DI and FI) treatments, whereas for parameter A2, it was only 29.9%. Analysis of variance showed a significant difference (p ​ ​0.05) between DI and FI treatments. Additionally, NA and GY of winter wheat displayed insignificant differences between irrigation treatments; however, they were, on overage, significantly higher by 31.2% and 23.2%, respectively, under irrigated conditions compared to rainfed conditions. This study is the first to demonstrate that severe water deficit (rainfed conditions) significantly affects parameter A2 of the Nc dilution curve, underscoring the importance of considering actual water conditions in applying the NNI for nitrogen fertilizer management.

The effects of integrated ultrasonic infrared frying (USIF) on the oil absorption of apple slices and the oil deterioration were studied with frequency of 28 and 40 kHz, respectively. Results showed that the heat transfer and moisture migration was accelerated by the integrated ultrasound in IF. The soluble Gal-A content and esterification degree of pectin was increased, the damages of pectin crystal structure and chemical structure in side chain was aggravated. These damages to pectin were intensified with higher frequency (40 kHz) of ultrasound. Lower retention of phenols was found in USIF apple slices, but the flavonoids content had no significant change compared to CF samples. USIF samples showed a smoother morphology, and the pore volume and porosity were reduced by ultrasonication applied with 28 kHz but increased with 40 kHz. The largest volume fraction of pores was changed from 100-250 μm in IF to 0.02–10 μm and 10–100 μm by the integrated ultrasound at 28 kHz and 40 kHz samples, respectively. The total oil uptake in USIF samples was reduced by 24.9 %–33.2 % compared to the conventional fried (CF) samples, and achieved the lowest with the frequency of 40 kHz. The surficial and structural oil were also decreased by 39.2 %-51.3 % and 20.9 %–32.3 %, respectively. The peroxide value, acid value, carbonyl value, polar component, and the saturated fatty acids ratio of oil in repeated frying for 16 h was reduced in USIF, especially with ultrasonication 40 kHz. These results indicate that USIF is a promising method for producing novel low-oil apple fries.

The relationship between stress and strength in granular soil differs under low confining pressure as compared to high confining pressure, which is of great importance for the geotechnical engineering. Numerical simulations using discrete element method (DEM) are conducted to model consolidated-drained triaxial compression tests, with the confining pressure σc ranging from 1 to1000 kPa. From the analysis of the shear strength of granular soils under various confining pressures and void ratios, it is found that the peak stress ratio ηp under a low σc is significantly lower than that under the high σc, particularly for samples with the same initial void ratio. As the confining pressure increases, ηp for samples with the same initial void ratio increases up to 29 % under the low σc while stabilizing under the high σc. Conversely, ηp for samples with the same void ratio after the consolidation can increase up to 13.5 % under the low σc while declining under the high σc. In addition, the critical confining pressure distinguishing the low and high confining pressures is about 200 kPa for dense samples with initial void ratio of 0.605 used in the study, and it increases as the sample void ratio increases. From the microscopic analysis, the variation of ηp under the low σc can be attributed to the enhanced anisotropy of normal contact force and contact normal under the low confining pressure. Finally, a modified Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion is proposed, which can determine the strength of granular soils under the low confining pressure with different void ratios.

Formulating warning signals for canopy growth status at different stages are an effective way to dynamically regulate the water and fertilizer management based on the relationship between growth information and orchard productivity. In the study, the response of leaf nitrogen content (LNC), leaf area index (LAI), fruit yield, quality and water and nitrogen use efficiency to irrigation levels and nitrogen rates was investigated in a field experiment from 2017 to 2022. Principal component analysis was used to construct an orchard production comprehensive evaluation index (OPCEI) to assess orchard productivity, and the relationship between LAI, LNC and OPCEI was analyzed by the structural equation modeling. The results showed that nitrogen rates had significant effect on OPCEI in the different years, but irrigation levels had significant effect in 2019 and 2021. Compared to no fertilization, the OPCEI of 120, 240, and 360 kg ha−1 under low irrigation amount showed average increased 28.90%, 48.54%, and 25.85%, while it increased by an average of 33.51%, 55.65%, and 32.44% for 120, 240, and 360 kg ha−1 under high irrigation amount. Also, low irrigation amount did not significantly reduce OPCEI at 240 kg ha−1 compared to high irrigation amount. Structural equation modeling revealed that LNC had significant positive effect on fruit yield, while had significant negative effect on total soluble solids. Furthermore, LAI had a significant positive effect on fruit yield and sugar-acid ratio. On the basis of the relationship of LAI, LNC and OPCEI, the reference value of LNC was proposed. The suitable range of LNC in the shoot growth and young fruit stage is 2.96%-3.79% and 2.62%-3.30%, and that is 2.43%-3.17%, 2.21%-2.97%, and 2.13%-2.63% in the early, middle and late fruit expansion stage, respectively. The study results provide a basis for canopy nitrogen diagnosis, which is guide for achieving precise nitrogen application in apple orchards.

The deoxygenation of organic acids, important biomass feedstocks and derivatives, to synthesize hydrocarbon products under mild electrochemical conditions, holds significant importance for the production of carbon-neutral biofuels. There is still limited research on the influential factors of the electrochemical decarboxylation reaction of medium-chain fatty acids. In this study, n-octanoic acid (OA) was chosen as the research subject to investigate the electrochemical decarboxylation behavior of OA on a platinum electrode, focusing on the influence of different alkali metal cations (Li+, Na+, K+), common anions (SO42−, Cl−), and electrolyte pH. It was found that KOH as an electrolyte exhibited the best performance for OA. Possibly, the larger size of K+ increased the alkalinity of the electrode surface, facilitating OA deprotonation. LiOH electrolyte reduced the solubility of OA, thereby inhibiting the decarboxylation reaction. SO42− exhibited a weak promoting effect on the decarboxylation reaction of OA, while Cl− showed no adverse effect although Cl− may adsorb on the electrode surface. Furthermore, unlike short-chain fatty acids, medium-chain OA can only achieve efficient decarboxylation under alkaline conditions due to its solubility properties. This study provides references and foundations for future efforts to enhance the efficiency of electrochemical decarboxylation synthesis of hydrocarbon biofuels from medium-chain fatty acids.

Appropriate water and nitrogen fertilizer management is crucial for achieving sustainable development in the apple industry. However, the soil nitrogen supply capacity and residual nitrate characteristics under drip fertigation remain poorly understood. Therefore, this study aims to (1) investigate the coupling effects of irrigation and nitrogen levels on the concentrations and distribution characteristics of soil soluble nitrogen fractions and residual soil nitrate; (2) explore the relationships between Christiansen uniformity coefficient (CU) of soil nitrate and apple yield, water productivity (WPc) and nitrogen use efficiency (nitrogen agronomic efficiency, AEn). The field experiment was conducted in a drip-fertigated apple orchard starting in 2017, which included two irrigation levels, 85% (W1) and 100% (W2) of field capacity (FC), and four nitrogen rates, 0 (N1), 120 (N2), 240 (N3) and 360 (N4) kg ha–1. The results showed that nitrogen inputs significantly increased soil soluble inorganic nitrogen and soluble organic nitrogen (SON) contents. However, the SON content significantly decreased when 360 kg N ha–1 was applied, particularly at W1. The maximum nitrate accumulation in the 0–3 m soil layer at N4 reached 2540.97 kg ha–1 in 2021, but the maximum value decreased to 1251.62 kg ha–1 in 2022 due to extreme rainfall. The average CU of residual nitrate across irrigation levels in the 0–3 m soil layer was highest at N3, with values of 0.68 and 0.57 in 2021 and 2022, respectively. High irrigation level increased the diffusion distances of nitrate both vertically and horizontally, resulting in a significant effect on CU. Apple yield and WPc first increased and then decreased with increasing nitrogen rates, while AEn consistently decreased, but they were all greater with a higher CU. The recommended combination of irrigation and nitrogen application was 85% FC and 240 kg N ha–1, which can achieve the dual goals of enhancing soil nitrogen supply capacity and minimizing environmental risks while improving orchard productivity.

Based on the three-year survey data from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) database, in combination with the environmental statistical data of 122 cities, this study empirically tests the effect of air pollution on the labor participation of the elderly and the mechanism. Using the panel data model, two-way fixed effect method, and instrumental variable method, the results show that air pollution significantly reduces the labor participation of the elderly, with a decrement of 0.43%. With the respect of transmission mechanisms, air pollution affects the overall labor participation behavior of the elderly mainly through the number of working days per week and working hours per day. At the same time, along with the cumulating of the days of Air Quality Index (AQI) [Formula: see text], the labor participation of the elderly is significantly reduced. In addition, the impact of air pollution on the labor participation of the elderly shows apparent heterogeneity divided by the gender, education level, urban-rural, and regional economic-level, and there are obvious substitution effects and income effects. This study confirms that air pollution affects the total labor participation of the elderly through the number of working days per week and working hours per day, and this impact reaches a peak when AQI is in the range from 100 to 150.

Abstract Background Little information is available regarding the impact of air pollution on cognitive impairment in older individuals in developing countries. This study empirically tested the impacts of the air quality index (AQI), air pollution intensity (quantified by the number of days of extreme air pollution in a year), and different pollutants on the cognitive abilities of older Chinese individuals. Methods A panel of 28,395 participants spanning 122 cities in 2015 and 2018 was used, based on 3-year follow-up survey data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) database. Data from the two phases of the CHARLS microsurvey were combined with relevant statistical data on air pollution in each region in the current year. These two surveys were used to investigate changes in basic health and macro-environmental indicators in older individuals in China, and a mean difference test was conducted. We then reduced the sample selection error by controlling for environmental migration and used two-way fixed and instrumental variable methods for endogenous treatment to avoid the estimation error caused by missing variables. Results Air pollution had a significantly negative effect on the cognitive abilities of older individuals (odds ratio [OR]: 1.4633; 95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 1.20899–1.77116). Different pollution intensities(only AQI value is greater than 200 or more) had apparent effects on cognitive impairment, with an OR of approximately 1.0. Sulfur dioxide had significantly negative effects on cognitive ability, with OR of 1.3802 (95% CI: 1.25779–1.51451). Furthermore, air pollution impact analysis showed heterogeneous results in terms of age, sex, education, and regional economic development level. In addition, social adaptability (calculated using social participation, learning, adaptability, and social support) not only had a significant positive effect on the cognitive abilities of older individuals, but also regulated the cognitive decline caused by air pollution. Conclusions Air pollution affects cognitive impairment in older individuals, especially in those with lower education levels, and living in economically underdeveloped areas. This effect is synchronous and has a peak at an AQI of > 200.

BackgroundExploring the value orientation of city development from the perspective of people’s well-being is key to clarifying the current debate on city size strategies.MethodsBased on the survey data of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study in two phases, and by using the unbalanced panel-ordered logit model, stepwise analysis method, and KHB method, among others, we discuss the impact of city size on the disability rate of older adults.ResultsThe study finds that city size significantly and positively affects the activities of daily living (ADL) of older adults, with odd ratios of 1.3286 (95% CI = [1.082243, 1.631089]), and exhibits significant group heterogeneity in terms of age, registered residence, income, and education level. City size has indeed played an mediation role through the health improvement effect, disease mitigation effect, emotional effect, and employment structure optimization effect, with a cumulative contribution rate of the mediation effect of 35.17%. In addition, the urban sprawl index has a significant moderation role.DiscussionRobust urban sprawl is conducive to promoting the improvement of the regional health environment, the improvement of the medical security policy, the optimization of the family support policy, and the employment structure, thus helping to reduce the disability rate of older adults.

This study aimed to investigate the antioxidant effect of soybean milk fermented by a new type of Lactobacillus fermentum (LF-HFY02) by using D-galactose induced aging mice model. Firstly, the optimal fermentation conditions was screened out by detecting the effects of different fermentation temperature and time on the active components and antioxidant activity of soybean milk in vitro. And then unfermented soybean milk and the soybean milk fermented by different Lactobacillus was given by gavage to D-galactose-induced aging mouse. The activities of GSH, GSH-Px, SOD, CAT and T-AOC in serum, brain and liver of soybean milk fermented by LF-HFY02 were significantly increased, while the content of MDA and the level of AGEs in hippocampal were significantly decreased compared with D-galactose induced group. Further more, the mRNA expression of GSH and SOD in mouse liver were obviously up-regulated by soybean milk fermented by LF-HFY02. The skin tissue structure of mice in the LF-HFY02 fermented soybean milk group was more complete, the collagen fibers were increased and arranged orderly and liver inflammation has improved compared with the model group. And Western blot analysis showed that LF-HFY02 effectively upregulated EGFR, SOD and GSH protein expression in mouse liver. These findings suggest that LF-HFY02 can effectively prevent D-galactose-induced oxidation and aging in mice, and the effect was even better than that of the Lactobacillus delbruechii subsp. bulgaricus and vitamin C. Thus, LF-HFY02 may be potentially employed as a probiotic strain. In conclusion, soybean milk fermented by LF-HFY02 can increase the content of antioxidant factors and the activity of antioxidant enzymes by regulating gene and protein expression, and finally inhibit the process of tissue cell peroxidation, and improve the oxidative damage of mouse skin and liver. The results could provide a basis for the research and development and industrial production of probiotic-related fermented soybean milk products.

Diabetes nephropathy (DN) is the leading cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) worldwide, and podocyte injury is the central contributor to the progression of DN. Despite the emerging evidence that has established the importance of podocyte endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress in the pathogenesis of DN, abnormal protein O-GlcNAcylation is also augmented. Currently, the mechanism associating these two hyperglycemia-induced disorders remains poorly understood. This study intended to elucidate whether ER stress drives hyper-protein O-GlcNAcylation to cause podocyte injury in DN. We used both type 1 and type 2 DN models to confirm the occurrence of ER stress and excessive protein O-GlcNAcylation, and then podocyte purification was also conducted for further investigation. Nephroseq V5 data were mined and in vitro studies were applied to reveal the involvement of ER stress and hyper-O-GlcNAcylation in podocyte injury. Our results indicated that ER stress was induced in both type 1 and type 2 DN, and the human RNA-seq data from Nephroseq V5 showed that O-GlcNAcylation-related genes were significantly upregulated in the DN patients. We further demonstrated that ER stress occurred prior to hyper-O-GlcNAc modification and that pharmacologically inhibited protein O-GlcNAcylation can help decrease the podocyte apoptosis induced by hyperglycemia. Together, these discoveries will aid in uncovering the activation of the ER stress–O-GlcNAcylation axis in podocyte injury under DN, which will help open up new therapeutic approaches for preventing DN progression.

The representation of cloud microphysical processes in models has always been a challenge leading to uncertainty in convective simulations. This paper evaluates the effect of cloud microphysical parameterizations on the simulation of mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) through a realistic banded convection process. A series of numerical simulation experiments are performed using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model at a convection-permitting scale with a 3 km horizontal grid spacing. Specifically, four experiments considering different hydrometeor species within the WRF single-moment-microphysics schemes (WSMMPs) are conducted, and three additional sensitivity tests change the graupel particle properties. The results indicate that the significant differences in the times of convection initiation across the experiments reach 120 min, and more hydrometeor species may lead to later convection initiation. Moreover, the frozen graupel hydrometeor characteristics can appreciably alter the simulated convective morphology, even more than other hydrometeor species. When the graupel becomes smaller (such as Graupel-like), the fall speed of the graupel particles decreases. Therefore, more numerous graupel particles reside in clouds for a longer time, and experience more atmospheric diabatic heating and cooling effects. As a result, the simulated convective systems exhibit strong banded convective echo characteristics, the surface 10-m wind gust increases, and the cold pools associated with additional melting and evaporation become stronger, accelerating the propagation of the system. In contrast, larger and less abundant graupels (e.g., Hail-like) have a faster fall speed, and the atmospheric diabatic heating and cooling decrease by shortening the duration of their residence time within the clouds, resulting in a weak quasi-linear convective system, weak surface 10-m wind gust, unobvious cold pool, and slower propagation. Comparisons of the experiments further demonstrate that the fall speeds of frozen graupel particles largely impact the vertical distribution of the hydrometeors and the related microphysical processes.

Abstract Background Since the national long-term care (LTCI) policy pilot in 2016 of China, the LTCI policy has had significant impact on the residents in the pilot area. Methods From the perspective of medical expenses and health security equity, this study selects tracking survey data from the CHARLS database in 2013, 2015, and 2018 and empirically investigates the effect of LTCI policy pilot by using differences-in-differences method (DID). Moreover, this study measures the economic distribution and health equity of the treated and untreated groups using the concentration and Theil indices. Results The results showed that group heterogeneity of medical expenses and health level of elderly in the treatment group were narrowing. Moreover, the policy results showed that the LTCI policy pilot significantly affects the outpatient, hospital expenses, and length of stay of elders. Residence registration, income level, and basic medical insurance play a significant regulatory role. Additionally, LTCI policy pilot significantly improved the overall health of the elderly. Conclusions The measurement results of inequality show that the policy increases the income of low-income people, lowers the inequality level of outpatient and inpatient reimbursement, and reduces the concentration index of ADL disability and serious diseases. However, the inequality of serious diseases is becoming higher. Based on this, this paper provides several suggestions on optimizing the pilot policy of LTCI.

BackgroundPeople living with HIV (PLWH) experience multiple psychological symptoms. Few studies have provided information on central and bridge psychological symptoms among PLWH. This information has implications for improving the efficiency and efficacy of psychological interventions. Our study aimed to identify the central and bridge psychological symptoms of PLWH and to explore the interconnectedness among symptoms and clusters.MethodsOur study used data from the HIV-related Symptoms Monitoring Survey, a multisite, cross-sectional study conducted during 2017–2021. We used R to visualize the network of 16 symptoms and analyzed the centrality and predictability indices of the network. We further analyzed the bridge symptoms among the three symptom clusters.ResultsA total of 3,985 participants were included in the analysis. The results suggested that sadness had the highest strength (rS = 9.69) and predictability (70.7%) compared to other symptoms. Based on the values of bridge strength, feeling unsafe (rbs = 0.94), uncontrollable worry (rbs = 0.82), and self-abasement (rbs = 0.81) were identified as bridge symptoms. We also found a strong correlation between sadness and self-abasement (r = 0.753) and self-loathing and self-blame (r = 0.744).ConclusionWe found that sadness was the central psychological symptom of PLWH, indicating that sadness was the center of the psychological symptom network from a mechanistic perspective and could be a target for intervention. Deactivating bridge symptoms, including “feeling unsafe,” “self-abasement,” and “uncontrollable worry,” could be more effective in preventing symptom activation from spreading (e.g., one symptom activating another).

The vision-based fruit recognition and localization system is the basis for the automatic operation of agricultural harvesting robots. Existing detection models are often constrained by high complexity and slow inference speed, which do not meet the real-time requirements of harvesting robots. Here, a method for apple object detection and localization is proposed to address the above problems. First, an improved YOLOX network is designed to detect the target region, with a multi-branch topology in the training phase and a single-branch structure in the inference phase. The spatial pyramid pooling layer (SPP) with serial structure is used to expand the receptive field of the backbone network and ensure a fixed output. Second, the RGB-D camera is used to obtain the aligned depth image and to calculate the depth value of the desired point. Finally, the three-dimensional coordinates of apple-picking points are obtained by combining two-dimensional coordinates in the RGB image and depth value. Experimental results show that the proposed method has high accuracy and real-time performance: F1 is 93%, mean average precision (mAP) is 94.09%, detection speed can reach 167.43 F/s, and the positioning errors in X, Y, and Z directions are less than 7 mm, 7 mm, and 5 mm, respectively.

In this article, the preventive and protective effect of a new Lactobacillus fermentum, (Lactobacillus fermentum TKSN02: LF-N2), which was isolated and identified from Xinjiang naturally fermented yogurt, on hydrochloric acid (HCl)/ethanol induced gastric injury in mice was studied. A total of 40 mice were divided into the following five groups: normal, model, LF-N2, LB (Lactobacillus bulgaricus), and Ranitidine groups. Except for the normal and model groups, mice in the other groups were treated with LF-N2, LB (Lactobacillus bulgaricus), and Ranitidine separately, and the injury of the gastric tissue was observed by taking photos and pathological sections. The levels of oxidation indicators, gastrointestinal hormone and the inflammatory cytokines in serum and gastric tissue in each group were measured. Further more, the gene expression levels of oxidative stress and inflammation related genes in the colon tissue were determined by the Real-Time PCR method. Pathological observation confirmed that LF-N2 could inhibit the gastric injury caused by HCl/ethanol. Observation of the appearance of the gastric indicated that LF-N2 could effectively reduce the area of gastric injury. Biochemical results showed that the serum gastrin (GAS) and gastric motilin (MTL) levels in the LF-N2 group were significantly lower and the serum somatostatin (SS) level was higher than in the model group and there was no significant difference between all treatment groups. The activities of total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD) and glutathione (GSH) were increased while the malondialdehyde (MDA) content was decreased in LF-N2 treatment group mice, which suggested that LF-N2 has a good antioxidant effect. Further RT-PCR experiments also showed that LF-N2 could promote the related mRNA expression of antioxidant enzymes (Cu/Zn-SOD, Mn-SOD, and CAT) and anti-inflammatory cytokines (IL-4, and IL-10), while it inhibited the gene expression of pro-inflammatory cytokine (IL-6) and apoptosis factor (Caspase-3). As observed, LF-N2 exerted a good preventive effect on HCl/ethanol induced gastric injury in mice, and the effect was close to that of LB, which indicated that LF-N2 has potential use as a probiotic due to its gastric injury treatment effects.

The effects of inoculating plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) and soil water deficits on crop growth and physiology remain largely unknown. Here, the responses of leaf gas exchange, growth, and water use efficiency (WUE) of tomato plants to Bacillus pumilus (B.p.) inoculation under four irrigation strategies (I1-I4) were investigated in a greenhouse. Results showed that soil water deficits, especially at I4 (20%, v/v), significantly decreased leaf stomatal conductance (gs), transpiration rate (Tr), and photosynthetic rate (An), and the decrease of gs and Tr were more pronounced than An. Reduced irrigation regimes significantly lowered dry matter and plant water use both in the non-B.p. control and the B.p. plants, while reduced irrigation significantly increased plant WUE, and B.p. inoculation had little effect on this parameter. Synergistic effects of PGPR and deficit irrigation on leaf gas exchange, leaf abscisic acid content, and stomatal density were found in this study, and specifically, B.p. treated plants at I4 possessed the highest WUE at stomatal and leaf scales, suggesting that B.p. inoculation could optimize water use and partly alleviate the negative effects of soil water deficit. These findings provide useful information for effective irrigation management and the application of PGPR in agriculture in the future.

Objective: To observe the clinical efficacy of electroacupuncture treatment for primary dysmenorrhea. Methods: In total 75 patients with primary dysmenorrhea were randomized into electroacupuncture with point injection group (37 patients), and electroacupuncture group (38 patients). Cox Menstrual Symptom Scale (CMSS) and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) were observed before and after three treatment interventions, and the clinical efficacies were compared. Results: The total effective rates were 91.9% and 86.8%, and the difference was not significant (P>0.05). Conclusions: Electroacupuncture with point injection and electroacupuncture are effective methods in treating primary dysmenorrhea, and the difference between the two groups is not statistically significant.

The extensively studied cAMP-dependent protein kinase A (PKA) is involved in the regulation of critical cell processes, including metabolism, gene expression, and cell proliferation. Therefore, PKA has been viewed increasingly as potential target for variety of drugs and environmental endocrine disruptors. Consequentially, the preparation of PKA protein became an important initial step for the subsequent exploration of PKA’s character in endocrine disrupting effects of pesticides. To investigate PKA protein, which is potential to be the environmental endocrine toxicity target of triazole fungicides, a strategy to heterologously express protein kinase A catalytic alpha subunit of human (hPKAcα) and zebrafish (zPKAcα) in Escherichia coli (E. coli) BL21(DE3) host cells was demonstrated. After optimizing conditions and protein purification, we successfully obtained enzymatically active hPKAcα and zPKAcα. Western blot analysis indicated that the recombinant hPKAcα and zPKAcα still retained their characteristic antigenicity and binding activity, while in vitro kinase activity assays revealed that the recombinant hPKAcα and zPKAcα maintained enzyme activity. By in silico methods including homology modelling and molecular docking, the affinity of ligands and the models of hPKAcα and zPKAcα were further tested. The present study offered a valuable method to achieve the prokaryotic expression of a eukaryotic protein kinase and laid a foundation to facilitate further investigation of toxicological target of triazole pesticides.

Background: With the development of the social economy, air pollution has resulted in increased social costs. Medical costs and health issues due to air pollution are important aspects of environmental governance in various countries.Methods: This study uses daily air pollution monitoring data from 122 cities in China to empirically investigate the impact of air pollution on residents' medical expenses using the Heckman two-stage and instrumental variable methods, matching data from the 2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) survey.Results: The study found that poor air quality, measured by the air quality index (AQI), significantly increased the probability of chronic lung disease, heart disease, and self-rated poor health. Additionally, the AQI (with an effect of 4.51%) significantly impacted health-seeking behavior and medical expenses. The medical expenditure effects of mild, moderate, severe, and serious pollution days were 3.27, 7.21, 8.62, and 42.66%, respectively.Conclusion: In the long run, residents' health in areas with a higher air pollution index, indicating poor air quality, is negatively impacted. The more extreme the pollution, the higher the probability of residents' medical treatment and the subsequent increase in medical expenses. Group and regional heterogeneity also play a role in the impact of air pollution on medical expenses. Compared with the existing literature, this study is based on individuals aged 15 years and above and produces reliable research conclusions.

β2 integrins are transmembrane receptors that exist widely in human immune cells and participate in pathological processes such as chronic inflammation, thrombosis, and malignant tumor formation. They mainly mediate intercellular adhesion, coordinate the ingestion of extracellular matrix components, and regulate cytoskeleton formation, thereby regulating cell signaling. Osteoarthritis (OA) is a chronic joint disease that causes joint pain and increases disease burden; it has a high prevalence among populations worldwide. Previous studies have reported that β2 integrins are overexpressed in OA and may play an essential role in the occurrence of OA. The important roles of β2 integrins in the maturation and differentiation of osteoclasts, the regulation of bone homeostasis, and the polarization and migration of macrophages have also been reported. The present review aims to highlight the role of β2 integrins in OA pathogenesis and outline their potential for serving as therapeutic targets.

The objective of this study was to explore the effects of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), strain Bacillus licheniformis, with softwood biochar amendment on potato growth and water use efficiency (WUE) under a deficit irrigation (DI) regime. A pot experiment was conducted in a greenhouse. The results showed that PGPR improved leaf gas exchange rates, including photosynthesis rate, stomatal conductance and transpiration rate at early seedling stage, while tended to depress these parameters gradually until final harvest. The effects of biochar on plant leaf physiology, plant growth and WUE were not evident. Plants were more affected by DI than PGPR inoculation and biochar amendment. DI significantly decreased leaf gas exchange rates after exposure to water treatment for around three weeks, and the negative effect was eliminated at final harvest. At final harvest, DI significantly decreased leaf area, specific leaf area, dry mass of leaf and stem, total dry mass, dry mass increment and plant water use. The synergistical effect of PGPR strain Bacillus licheniformis and DI on plant growth and WUE were not observed in our study. WUE was solely improved by DI, indicating that, compared to PGPR inoculation, DI was a more effective measure to enhance plant WUE.

Faced with the scarcity of water resource and irrational fertilizer use, it is highly important to supply plants with water and fertilizer at desiderated stages to improve yield with high water use efficiency (WUE). A pot experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of growth stage-specific water deficiency and potassium (K) fertilization on tomato yield and WUE. The entire growing season of tomato was divided into 5 stages: vegetative growth stage (VG), flowering and fruit setting stage (FS), early fruit growth stage (FG), fruit development stage (FD) and fruit maturity stage (FM). Three soil moisture (W) and three K fertilization levels were set up. W levels included W1, W2 and W3, indicating that soil water was maintained at 60-70% field capacity, 70-80% field capacity, and 80-90% field capacity, respectively. K levels included K1, K2 and K3, indicating that 0 g K2O per kg soil, 0.46 g K2O per kg soil and 0.92 g K2O per kg soil was applied. All combinations of the three W and three K levels were solely imposed at each of the five growth stages, for other four stages, plants were watered to 80-90% field capacity without K fertilizer (W3K1). The permanent W3K1 over the entire growth stage was taken as control (CK). The results showed that W deficiency imposed at all stages significantly affected tomato yield (P

In this study, we analyzed the meteorological processes associated with 2018 tropical cyclone No. 14, “Yagi.” TC Yagi continued moving northeastward after losing its numerical designation from the National Meteorological Center of the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) because of weakening and then restrengthened when it moved over the Bohai Sea, inducing an ocean gale on 14-15 August 2018. The results of our investigation revealed that the continued northeastward movement of Yagi on 14 August was related to the divergence of the upper-level westerly jet stream, the northward shift of the subtropical high in the midtroposphere, as well as the steering flow and asymmetrical air flow around the disturbance itself in the lower troposphere. The enhancement of Yagi over the Bohai Sea on the night of 14 August was related to the decrease of friction over the ocean and the increase of diabatic heating from the sea surface flux. The wind speed increased to a maximum when the depression moved over the Bohai Sea, an occurrence that was not only due to the enhancement of the cyclone itself but also due to the flow of cold air from high latitudes along the north side of the Bohai Sea. The behavior of the cold air was related to the shift of the convergence zone in the upper-level westerly jet at 200 hPa, long-wave troughs and ridges at 500 hPa, and terrain effects. Thus, the gale development in the Bohai Sea was due to both the enhancement of tropical cyclone Yagi after it moved over the ocean and the flow of cold air from high latitudes.

Internal erosion can trigger severe engineering disasters, such as the failure of embankment dams and uneven settlement of buildings and sinkholes. This paper comprehensively reviewed the mechanisms of soil internal erosion studied by numerical simulation, which can facilitate uncovering the internal erosion mechanism by tracing the movement of particles. The initiation and development of internal erosion are jointly influenced by the geometric, mechanical, and hydraulic conditions, which determine the pore channels and force chains in soil. The geometric conditions are fundamental to erosion resistance, whereas the mechanical conditions can significantly change the soil erosion resistance, and the hydraulic conditions determine whether erosion occurs. The erosion process can be divided into particle detachment, transport, and clogging. The first is primarily affected by force chains, whereas the latter two are mostly affected by the pore channels. The stability of the soil is mainly determined by force chains and pore channels, whereas the hydraulic conditions act as external disturbances. The erosion process is accompanied by contact failure, force chain bending, kinetic energy burst of particles, and other processes due to multi-factor coupling.

The two most important aspects of material research using deep learning (DL) or machine learning (ML) are the characteristics of materials data and learning algorithms, where the proper characterization of materials data is essential for generating accurate models. At present, the characterization of materials based on the molecular composition includes some methods based on feature engineering, such as Magpie and One-hot. Although these characterization methods have achieved significant results in materials research, these methods based on feature engineering cannot guarantee the integrity of materials characterization. One possible approach is to learn the materials characterization via neural networks using the chemical knowledge and implicit composition rules shown in large-scale known materials. This article chooses an adversarial method to learn the composition of atoms using the Generative Adversarial Network (GAN), which makes sense for data symmetry. The total loss value of the discriminator on the test set is reduced from 4.1e13 to 0.3194, indicating that the designed GAN network can well capture the combination of atoms in real materials. We then use the trained discriminator weights for material characterization and predict bandgap, formation energy, critical temperature (Tc) of superconductors on the Open Quantum Materials Database (OQMD), Materials Project (MP), and SuperCond datasets. Experiments show that when using the same predictive model, our proposed method performs better than One-hot and Magpie. This article provides an effective method for characterizing materials based on molecular composition in addition to Magpie, One-hot, etc. In addition, the generator learned in this study generates hypothetical materials with the same distribution as known materials, and these hypotheses can be used as a source for new material discovery.

A simple and fast high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) fingerprint method combining reference standard extract for the identification of bilberry extract was developed and validated. Six batches of bilberry extract collected from different manufactures were used to establish the HPLC fingerprint. Other berry extracts—such as blueberry extracts, mulberry extracts, cranberry extracts, and black rice extracts—were also analyzed for their HPLC chromatograms. The fingerprints of five batches of bilberry extract showed high similarities, while one batch was distinguished from others. Additionally, the content of anthocyanin Cyanidin-3-O-glucoside (Cy-3-glc) in each berry extract was analyzed and compared. The results indicate that this HPLC fingerprint method, combining reference standard extracts, could be used for the authentication and quality control of bilberry extracts.

In this paper, a hybrid neural network (HNN) that combines a convolutional neural network (CNN) and long short-term memory neural network (LSTM) is proposed to extract the high-level characteristics of materials for critical temperature (Tc) prediction of superconductors. Firstly, by obtaining 73,452 inorganic compounds from the Materials Project (MP) database and building an atomic environment matrix, we obtained a vector representation (atomic vector) of 87 atoms by singular value decomposition (SVD) of the atomic environment matrix. Then, the obtained atom vector was used to implement the coded representation of the superconductors in the order of the atoms in the chemical formula of the superconductor. The experimental results of the HNN model trained with 12,413 superconductors were compared with three benchmark neural network algorithms and multiple machine learning algorithms using two commonly used material characterization methods. The experimental results show that the HNN method proposed in this paper can effectively extract the characteristic relationships between the atoms of superconductors, and it has high accuracy in predicting the Tc.

In this paper, we investigate the observational direct radiation characteristics of several sandstorm events in Northwestern China (NWC). A simulating sensitivity experiment was designed to reduce the downward radiation in RegCM4 to investigate the climatic impacts and persistence of the direct radiation effect (DRE) from dust aerosols in sandstorms. The results show that dust aerosols in sandstorms can change the radiation heating rate of the atmosphere, heating the air in the middle and low troposphere and cooling Earth’s surface. The climate effects of continuous and intense sandstorms in April in NWC can reach downstream areas such as Southeast and Northeast China and can persist for months. The dust aerosols in sandstorms can enhance diabatic heating and moisture loss. Therefore, dust storms lead to the environment in NWC becoming warmer and dryer. Through analysis of the dust tracer total burden, we identified that the enhancement of the dust total burden in the arid region illustrated that the DRE of dust aerosol in sandstorm process can react with the dust emission, thus forming a self-feedback loop. The DRE can persist three months.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of tetramethylpyrazine (TMP) in combination with arsenic trioxide (As2O3) on the proliferation and differentiation of HL-60 cells. The HL-60 cells were treated with 300 µg/mL TMP, 0.5 µM As2O3, and 300 µg/mL TMP combined with 0.5 µM As2O3, respectively. The proliferative inhibition rates were determined with MTT. Differentiation was detected by the nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) reduction test, Wright’s staining and the distribution of CD11b and CD14. Flow cytometry was used to analyze cell cycle distribution. RT-PCR and Western blot assays were employed to detect the expressions of c-myc, p27, CDK2, and cyclin E1. Combination treatment had synergistic effects on the proliferative inhibition rates. The rates were increased gradually after the combination treatment, much higher than those treated with the corresponding concentration of As2O3 alone. The cells exhibited characteristics of mature granulocytes and a higher NBT-reducing ability, being a 2.6-fold increase in the rate of NBT-positive ratio of HL-60 cells within the As2O3 treatment versus almost a 13-fold increase in the TMP + As2O3 group. Cells treated with both TMP and As2O3 expressed far more CD11b antigens, almost 2-fold compared with the control group. Small doses of TMP potentiate As2O3-induced differentiation of HL-60 cells, possibly by regulating the expression and activity of G0/G1 phase-arresting molecules. Combination treatment of TMP with As2O3 has significant synergistic effects on the proliferative inhibition of HL-60 cells.

Abstract Background Lychee seeds were fermented by three kinds of bacteria (Lactobacillus plantarum, Saccharomyces cerevillus and ganoderma lucidum mycelium), and two effective strains were selected by two indexes of activity content and antioxidant, so as to further verify whether lychee seeds have waste multiplication effect and can protect cells damaged by oxidation from anti-inflammatory, anti-aging and safety. Results The contents of polyphenols, flavonoids and proteins in the solution fermented by Ganoderma lucidum mycelium did not increase, thus affecting the antioxidant capacity of the solution was far less than that of the water extract. The active content of the other two fermentation solutions was higher than that of the water extract, and the ability of scavenging free radicals of the two solutions increased with the increase of the volume fraction. At the cellular level, the two fermentation solutions showed repair effects on UVA-induced damaged cells. The contents of type I collagen (COL-1), total antioxidant capacity and ELN were increased, the contents of reactive oxygen species and MDA were decreased, and the expressions of inflammatory factors IL-6, TNF-a, iNOS and COX-2 were decreased in HaCaT cells. From the gene level, the mRNA contents of IL-6, TNF-a, Caspase-3, Caspase-9, Bax and Bcl were significantly decreased. The test of chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane (HTET CAM) showed that there was no bleeding and litchi seed fermentation liquid was not irritating. Conclusions Therefore, two kinds of litchi seed fermentation can be used as natural plant raw materials for cosmetics, and have strong antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-aging functions on skin, and also have good human safety. Graphical Abstract