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Ingestion of breast milk represents the primary exposure pathway for endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in newborns. To elucidate the associated risks, it is essential to quantify EDC levels in both breast milk and infant urine. This study measured the concentrations of 13 EDCs, including parabens (methyl paraben (MP), ethyl paraben (EP), propyl paraben (PP), iso-propyl paraben, butyl paraben, and iso-butyl paraben), bisphenols (bisphenol A (BPA), bisphenol F, bisphenol S, bisphenol AF, and bisphenol Z), triclosan (TCS), and triclocarban, in breast milk and infant urine to assess their potential health effects and endocrine disruption risks. In total, 1 014 breast milk samples were collected from 20 cities across China, along with 144 breast milk samples and 134 urine samples from a mother-infant cohort in Hangzhou. The EDCs were detected using ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry. Endocrine-disrupting potency was evaluated using a predictive method based on EDC affinity for 15 hormone receptor proteins. The toxicological priority index (ToxPi), incorporating population exposure data, was employed to assess health risks associated with exposure to multiple EDCs. Among the 13 EDCs, MP, EP, PP, BPA, and TCS were detected in over 50 % of breast milk samples, with the highest median concentrations observed for MP (0.37 ng/mL), EP (0.29 ng/mL), and BPA (0.17 ng/mL). Across the 20 cities, 0 %–40 % of infants had a hazard index (HI) exceeding 1. Based on affinity prediction analysis and estimated exposure, cumulative endocrine disruption risk intensity was ranked as MP > TCS > BPA > EP > PP. This research highlights the extensive exposure of Chinese infants to EDCs, offering a detailed analysis of their varying endocrine disruption potencies and underscoring the significant health risks associated with EDCs in breast milk.

Abstract Preterm labor, a condition associated with various risk factors such as a history of prior preterm birth (PTB) and multiple pregnancies, has recently seen an increasing focus on its potential link with dyslipidemia. This study aims to investigate the relationship between dyslipidemia in expectant mothers and the risks of PTB. We studied 6963 mothers who gave birth at the International Peace Maternal and Child Health Hospital of Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine in 2020, among which, 437 women had PTB. We extracted clinical and lipid data from electronic records, using multivariable logistic regression and restricted cubic spline models to explore the link between lipid concentrations (by quartiles) in pregnancy stages and PTB risk. The PTB rate was 6.3%. Early pregnancy in the PTB group showed elevated ApoA, ApoB, CHOL, LDL, and TG levels compared to controls (all P

Abstract Exposure to PM2.5, a harmful type of air pollution, has been associated with compromised male reproductive health; however, it remains unclear whether such exposure can elicit transgenerational effects on male fertility. Here, we aim to examine the effect of paternal exposure to real-world PM2.5 on the reproductive health of male offspring. We have observed that paternal exposure to real-world PM2.5 can lead to transgenerational primary hypogonadism in a sex-selective manner, and we have also confirmed this phenotype by using an external model. Mechanically, we have identified small RNAs (sRNAs) that play a critical role in mediating these transgenerational effects. Specifically, miR6240 and piR016061, which are present in F0 PM sperm, regulate intergenerational transmission by targeting Lhcgr and Nsd1, respectively. We have also uncovered that piR033435 and piR006695 indirectly regulate F1 PM sperm methylation by binding to the 3′-untranslated region of Tet1 mRNA. The reduced expression of Tet1 resulted in hypermethylation of several testosterone synthesis genes, including Lhcgr and Gnas, impaired Leydig cell function and ultimately led to transgenerational primary hypogonadism. Our findings provide insights into the mechanisms underlying the transgenerational effects of paternal PM2.5 exposure on reproductive health, highlighting the crucial role played by sRNAs in mediating these effects. The findings underscore the significance of paternal pre-conception interventions in alleviating the adverse effects of environmental pollutants on reproductive health.

ABSTRACT Much effort has been made to uncover the cellular heterogeneities of human hearts by single-nucleus RNA sequencing. However, the cardiac transcriptional regulation networks have not been systematically described because of the limitations in detecting transcription factors. In this study, we optimized a pipeline for isolating nuclei and conducting single-nucleus RNA sequencing targeted to detect a higher number of cell signal genes and an optimal number of transcription factors. With this unbiased protocol, we characterized the cellular composition of healthy human hearts and investigated the transcriptional regulation networks involved in determining the cellular identities and functions of the main cardiac cell subtypes. Particularly in fibroblasts, a novel regulator, PKNOX2, was identified as being associated with physiological fibroblast activation in healthy hearts. To validate the roles of these transcription factors in maintaining homeostasis, we used single-nucleus RNA-sequencing analysis of transplanted failing hearts focusing on fibroblast remodelling. The trajectory analysis suggested that PKNOX2 was abnormally decreased from fibroblast activation to pathological myofibroblast formation. Both gain- and loss-of-function in vitro experiments demonstrated the inhibitory role of PKNOX2 in pathological fibrosis remodelling. Moreover, fibroblast-specific overexpression and knockout of PKNOX2 in a heart failure mouse model induced by transverse aortic constriction surgery significantly improved and aggravated myocardial fibrosis, respectively. In summary, this study established a high-quality pipeline for single-nucleus RNA-sequencing analysis of heart muscle. With this optimized protocol, we described the transcriptional regulation networks of the main cardiac cell subtypes and identified PKNOX2 as a novel regulator in suppressing fibrosis and a potential therapeutic target for future translational studies.

The development of receptive endometrium (RE) from pre-receptive endometrium (PE) for successful embryo implantation is a complex dynamic process in which the morphology and physiological states of the endometrial epithelium undergo a series of significant changes, including cell proliferation and apoptosis. However, the molecular mechanisms are not yet fully understood. In this study, a higher circRNA3669 level was observed in PE than in RE of goats. Functional assays revealed that this overexpression promoted the proliferation of goat endometrial epithelial cells (GEECs) by activating the expression of genes related to the PI3K/AKT-mTOR and MAPK pathways, thereby inhibiting apoptosis in vitro. Furthermore, circRNA3669 functioned as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) to upregulate Reticulocalbin-2 (RCN2) expression at the post-transcriptional level by interacting with and downregulating miR-26a in GEECs. In addition, RCN2, which is highly expressed in the PE of goats, was found to be regulated by β-estradiol (E2) and progesterone (P4). Our results demonstrated that RCN2 also affected the key proteins PI3K, AKT, mTOR, JNK, and P38 in the PI3K/AKT-mTOR and MAPK pathways, thereby facilitating GEECs proliferation and suppressing their apoptosis in vitro. Collectively, we constructed a new circRNA3669-miR-26a-RCN2 regulatory network in GEECs, which further provides strong evidence that circRNA could potentially play a crucial regulatory role in the development of RE in goats.

With the popularity of smart terminals and mobile Internet, mobile phone had been a necessity in everyone's daily life. Problematic mobile phone use (PMPU) also needs attention. Although there were multiple measurements to assess the PMPU, most of the tools were in traditional forms with fixed items. Therefore, the current study aimed to develop a computerized adaptive testing for problematic mobile phone use (CAT-PMPU) based on the Item Response Theory, which might help to provide an optimal solution to psychological assessments with long-scale and heterogeneous samples. The data in this article provided results of PMPU with different measurements. The dataset provided in this article includes 1619 participants, encompassing middle school students, undergraduate students, and graduate students recruited from various grades in China. The sample consists of 628 males and 991 females. Self-report measures were administrated including the Chinese version of the Nomophobia Questionnaire, Smartphone Addiction Proneness Scale, Smartphone Addiction Inventory, Mobile Phone Addiction Scale, Mobile Phone Addiction Tendency Scale, Smartphone Addiction Scale for College Students, and the Smartphone Addiction Scale for Chinese Adults. All the measurements were in the Chinese version. A .csv file consists of major variables we used was included as supplementary material on the Zenodo Repository. The discussion of the findings based on the dataset could be found in two articles: Development of a Computerized Adaptive Test for Problematic Mobile Phone Use & Generalizing computerized adaptive testing for problematic mobile phone use from Chinese adults to adolescents.

Objective: Shenmai injection is a classic herbal prescription, and is often recommended for the treatment of anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity. However, the efficacy and safety of Shenmai injection for the treatment of anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity have not been reported. Materials and methods: We conducted a comprehensive search of eight literature databases and two clinical trial registries, retrieving all randomized controlled trials (RCTs) related to the treatment of anthracycline-induced cardiotoxicity with Shenmai injection from the establishment of the databases to July 1, 2023. Data analysis was performed using the Meta package in RStudio and RevMan 5.4. The GRADE pro3.6.1 software was utilized for assessing the quality of evidence. Results: A total of 16 RCTs including 2140 patients were included in this study. Meta-analysis showed that Shenmai injection had an advantage in improving ST-T segment changes (RR = 0.28; 95 % CI, 0.20 to 0.39; P

The physiological regulation of Welsh onion seedlings was explored under short- and long-term drought stress. The Welsh onion cultivar 'Neicong 3' was grown in pots under drought stress (22.5-25% soil water content) or controlled watering conditions (65-67.5% soil water content). Different lengths of drought stress (7, 14, 21, and 28 days) were studied to determine the effects of the drought on the levels of the osmoregulatory substances, including proline (Pro), free amino acids (FAAs), soluble sugar (SS), and soluble protein (SP); the membrane-damage indicator malondialdehyde (MDA); the endogenous hormones indoleacetic acid (IAA), gibberellic acid (GA), abscisic acid (ABA), and jasmonic acid (JA); and the activities of the antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and peroxidase (POD). The soil water content was restored to the control level after the drought stress to analyse the physiological responses of the Welsh onion with regards to rehydration. The results showed that the Welsh onion responded to drought stress primarily by increasing the levels of the osmoregulatory substances and the activities of the protective enzymes. The drought stress resulted in the accumulation of Pro, FAA, SS, MDA, and ABA in the pseudostems, while the IAA and GA levels decreased. Short-term drought stress led to a decrease in the SOD activity and an increase in the CAT activity, whereas the long-term drought stress led to a decrease in the POD activity. The effects of the drought stress on the SP and JA contents were negligible. The rehydration demonstrated that the short-term drought stress (7 or 14 days) did not exceed the tolerance of the Welsh onion; the substances regulating the drought tolerance were restored to normal levels after the stress conditions were relieved. In contrast, after the severe drought stress (28 days), the substances regulating the drought tolerance in the seedlings could not return to normal levels. This study provides a theoretical basis for the cultivation of the Welsh onion under early drought conditions and for breeding of drought-resistant varieties.

Oropharyngeal microbiomes play a significant role in the susceptibility and severity of COVID-19, yet the role of these microbiomes play for the development of COVID-19 Omicron variant have not been reported. A total of 791 pharyngeal swab samples were prospectively included in this study, including 297 confirmed cases of Omicron variant (CCO), 222 confirmed case of Omicron who recovered (CCOR), 73 confirmed cases of original strain (CCOS) and 199 healthy controls (HC). All samples completed MiSeq sequencing. The results showed that compared with HC, conditional pathogens increased in CCO, while acid-producing bacteria decreased. Based on six optimal oropharyngeal operational taxonomy units (OTUs), we constructed a marker microbial classifier to distinguish between patients with Omicron variant and healthy people, and achieved high diagnostic efficiency in both the discovery queue and the verification queue. At same time, we introduced a group of cross-age infection verification cohort and Omicron variant subtype XBB.1.5 branch, which can be accurately distinguished by this diagnostic model. We also analyzed the characteristics of oropharyngeal microbiomes in two subgroups of Omicron disease group-severity of infection and vaccination times, and found that the change of oropharyngeal microbiomes may affect the severity of the disease and the efficacy of the vaccine. In addition, we found that some genera with significant differences gradually increased or decreased with the recovery of Omicron variant infection. The results of Spearman analysis showed that 27 oropharyngeal OTUs were closely related to 6 clinical indexes in CCO and HC. Finally, we found that the Omicron variant had different characterization of oropharyngeal microbiomes from the original strain. Our research characterizes oropharyngeal microbiomes of Omicron variant cases and rehabilitation cases, successfully constructed and verified the non-invasive diagnostic model of Omicron variant, described the correlation between microbial OTUs and clinical indexes. It was found that the infection of Omicron variant and the infection of original strain have different characteristics of oropharyngeal microbiomes.

BackgroundSerum albumin plays a pivotal role in regulating plasma oncotic pressure and modulating fluid distribution among various body compartments. Previous research examining the association between maternal serum albumin levels and fetal growth yielded limited and inconclusive findings. Therefore, the specific influence of serum albumin on fetal growth remains poorly understood and warrants further investigation.MethodsA retrospective study involved 39200 women who had a singleton live birth at a tertiary-care academic medical center during the period from January 2017 to December 2020. Women were categorized into four groups according to the quartile of albumin concentration during early pregnancy: Q1 group, ≤41.0 g/L; Q2 group, 41.1-42.6 g/L; Q3 group, 42.7-44.3 g/L and Q4 group, >44.3 g/L. The main outcome measures were mid-term estimated fetal weight, birthweight and gestational age. Multivariate linear and logistic regression analysis were performed to detect the independent effect of maternal serum albumin level on fetal growth after adjusting for important confounding variables.ResultsIn the crude analysis, a significant inverse correlation was found between early pregnancy maternal serum albumin levels and fetal growth status, including mid-term ultrasound measurements, mid-term estimated fetal weight, birthweight, and gestational age. After adjustment for a number of confounding factors, mid-term estimated fetal weight, birthweight, and birth height decreased significantly with increasing albumin levels. Compared to the Q2 group, the Q4 group had higher rates of preterm birth (aOR, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.01–1.34), small-for-gestational-age (aOR, 1.27; 95% CI, 1.11–1.45) and low birthweight (aOR, 1.41; 95% CI, 1.18–1.69), and lower rate of large-for-gestational-age (aOR, 0.85; 95% CI, 0.78–0.94). Moreover, to achieve the optimal neonatal outcome, women with higher early pregnancy albumin levels required a greater reduction in albumin levels in later pregnancy stages.ConclusionsA higher maternal serum albumin level during early pregnancy was associated with poor fetal growth, with the detrimental effects becoming apparent as early as the mid-gestation period. These findings provided vital information for clinicians to predict fetal growth status and identify cases with a high risk of adverse neonatal outcomes early on.

Summary: China as a major coal-consuming economy faces the challenge of balancing economic development and carbon neutrality goal. This paper incorporates both efficiency-based and equity-based carbon neutrality policies into a numerical model to quantitatively assess how coal reduction under various carbon-neutral policies affects energy mix, economic growth, and industrial structures by 2060. Results show the nationwide coal intensity will ultimately plunge by over 95% from 2017 to 2060, mainly attributed to the coal-phasing-out in most industries. National Gross Domestic Product losses reaches 4,951 billion USD in efficiency-based scenarios by 2060, and the economic losses are even more severe in less developed provinces, especially provinces in Northern China. Although the equity-based policy can reduce the economic burden for the Northern China, the equity-based policy is accompanied by a significant regional shift in coal across the country: eastern coal-intense industries will be relocated northward, leading to increases in embodied coal consumption.

Abstract The rural energy transition is critical in China’s efforts to achieve carbon neutrality and improve air quality. However, the costs and health benefits associated with the transition to carbon neutrality remain unclear. Here we explore the cost-effective transition pathways and air quality-related health impacts using an integrated energy-air quality-health modeling framework. We find that decarbonizing rural cooking and heating would triple contemporary energy consumption from 2014 to 2060, considerably reducing energy poverty nationwide. By 2060, electric cooking ranges and air-to-air heat pumps should be widely integrated, costing an additional 13 billion USD nationally in transformation costs, with ~40% concentrated in Shandong, Heilongjiang, Shanxi and Hebei provinces. Rural residential decarbonization would remarkably improve air quality in northern China, yielding substantial health co-benefits. Notably, monetized health benefits in most provinces are projected to offset transformation costs, except for certain relatively lower-development southwestern provinces, implying more financial support for rural residents in these areas will be needed.

Efficient traffic sign recognition is crucial to facilitating the intelligent driving of new energy vehicles. However, current approaches like the Vision Transformer (ViT) model often impose high storage and computational demands, escalating hardware costs. This paper presents a similarity filter pruning method based on locally linear embedding. Using the alternating direction multiplier method and the loss of the locally linear embedding method for the model training function, the proposed pruning method prunes the operation model mainly by evaluating the similarity of each layer in the network layer filters. According to the pre-set pruning threshold value, similar filters to be pruned are obtained, and the filter with a large cross-entropy value is retained. The results from the Belgium Traffic Sign (BelgiumTS) and German Traffic Sign Recognition Benchmark (GTSRB) datasets indicate that the proposed similarity filter pruning based on local linear embedding (SJ-LLE) pruning algorithm can reduce the number of parameters of the multi-head self-attention module and Multi-layer Perceptron (MLP) module of the ViT model by more than 60%, and the loss of model accuracy is acceptable. The scale of the ViT model is greatly reduced, which is conducive to applying this model in embedded traffic sign recognition equipment. Also, this paper proves the hypothesis through experiments that “using the LLE algorithm as the loss function for model training before pruning plays a positive role in reducing the loss of model performance in the pruning process”.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the association of maternal first-trimester vitamin D levels and vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy with infant atopic dermatitis (AD) and to determine the effect of variables such as mode of conception on the association. Methods: This study was based on the Shanghai sub-cohort of the International Birth Cohort of China. A total of 4051 woman–infant pairs with singleton pregnancies were recruited. Vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency were defined as serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations of 25 and 50 nmol/L, respectively. AD in infants was assessed during the first six months using a standardized questionnaire based on the British Working Party criteria. Modified Poisson regression estimated the association between maternal vitamin D status and infant AD. Results: The risk of AD in infants was higher in women with deficient 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels in the first trimester (RR: 1.77, 95% CI: 1.41–2.23). This increased risk was seen in naturally conceived pregnancies, but not in those conceived using assisted reproductive technology (ART). The incidence of AD decreased in infants of mothers who took multi-vitamin (RR: 0.79, 95% CI: 0.67–1.98) and vitamin D supplements (RR: 0.51, 95% CI: 0.37–0.71) compared to those whose mothers did not take any supplements. Maternal vitamin D deficiency had varying effects on AD risk based on passive smoking exposure and breastfeeding patterns. Conclusions: Our findings highlight the importance of monitoring and supplementing vitamin D during pregnancy, especially in specific maternal populations, to reduce the risk of AD in offspring.

Thermal transport is of grave importance in many high-value applications. Heat dissipation can be improved by utilizing liquid metals as thermal interface materials. Yet, liquid metals exhibit corrosivity towards many metals used for heat sinks, such as aluminum, and other electrical devices (i.e., copper). The compatibility of the liquid metal with the heat sink or device material as well as its long-term stability are important performance variables for thermal management systems. Herein, the compatibility of the liquid metal Galinstan, a eutectic alloy of gallium, indium, and tin, with diamond coatings and the stability of the liquid metal in this environment are scrutinized. The liquid metal did not penetrate the diamond coating nor corrode it. However, the liquid metal solidified with the progression of time, starting from the second year. After 4 years of aging, the liquid metal on all samples solidified, which cannot be explained by the dissolution of aluminum from the titanium alloy. In contrast, the solidification arose from oxidation by oxygen, followed by hydrolysis to GaOOH due to the humidity in the air. The hydrolysis led to dealloying, where In and Sn remained an alloy while Ga separated as GaOOH. This hydrolysis has implications for many devices based on gallium alloys and should be considered during the design phase of liquid metal-enabled products.

Chinese solar greenhouses are important agricultural building facilities with highly efficient and sustainable solar energy consumption. A solar greenhouse with an external insulation blanket for heat preservation is the most prevalent type of CSG. However, greenhouse performance degrades as the thermal insulation performance of the external blanket deteriorates over time when the blanket is exposed to harsh environmental conditions. Moreover, the external blanket is usually parked in an inconvenient location on the south roof in the practice, resulting in shading owing to its increasing coverage length. This significantly influences the solar radiation received by the south roof and that projected on the wall, ultimately affecting the light performance of the greenhouse. Therefore, a solar greenhouse with an innovatively applied internal insulation system was proposed in this study. To analyze the light performance of the solar greenhouse, a solar radiation model was established and verified by comparing the measured and calculated values. Based on the calculated model results, the spatial distribution of solar radiation inside the greenhouse and its allocation to the interior surfaces of the greenhouse were simulated. The total captured and transmitted solar radiation accumulations were compared for three different roof shapes. The captured and transmitted radiation accumulation of the greenhouse with internal insulation increased by 3.9–9.5 and 1.8–4.4 MJ compared to the two other greenhouses, respectively. The effect of the position of the parked blanket on the beam solar radiation projected on the wall and ground was considered. The results indicated that the increased blanket coverage length decreased the cumulative radiation on the wall by 25.24%–99.82%, which did not contribute to improving greenhouse energy-saving production. This study provides a new approach to greenhouse design and optimization.

Microgrids (MGs) have gained significant attention considering their enhanced capability to integrate increasing distributed energy resources (DERs). The application of grid forming (GFM) inverters in a MG can control voltage/frequency, enable both islanded and grid-connected operation, and achieve 100% penetration. However, cyberphysical anomaly detection for a MG with GFM inverters has not been investigated before. In this article, the cyberphysical security of an ac MG with multiple GFM inverters is comprehensively assessed by considering short-circuit high-impedance faults (HIFs) as well as firstly exploiting False Data Injection Attacks (FDIAs) against centralized communication networks. Although the applied IEEE 1547-2018 based protection function could detect abnormal conditions, there exist cyberphysical anomalies could bypass it. In order to accomplish the detection and classification of such anomaly cases, a novel LSTM-based approach is proposed to identify the multi-class pattern regarding normal, cyberphysical threats during islanded and grid-connected by utilizing time series point of common coupling (PCC) frequency data as the paramount feature to effectively reflect the system operation status. The simulation is conducted in OPAL-RT real-time environment and the effectiveness of the proposed strategy is verified with an average detection accuracy of 94.72%.

Summary: Developing renewable energy could jointly reduce air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and bring air pollution-related health co-benefits. However, the temporal and sub-national distributions of investment costs and human health co-benefits from renewable energy deployment remain unclear. To investigate this gap, we linked multiple models for a more comprehensive assessment of the economic-environmental-health co-benefits of renewable energy development in China. The results show that developing renewable energy can avoid 0.6 million premature mortalities, 151 million morbidities, and 111 million work-loss days in 2050. Meanwhile, the human health and economic co-benefits vary substantially across regions in China. Renewable energy can undoubtedly bring health and economic co-benefits. Nevertheless, the economic benefits lag considerably behind the high initial investment cost, first negative in 2030 (−0.6 trillion Yuan) and then positive in 2050 (2.9 trillion Yuan). Hence, renewable energy deployment strategy must be carefully designed considering the regional disparities.

This study proposed a novel scheme for filterless frequency 32-tupling millimeter wave (MMW) generation based on two cascaded dual-parallel Mach–Zehnder modulators (DPMZMs). When the MZMs are biased on a maximum transmission point and the phase difference of the radio frequency (RF) driving voltage between the two MZMs in DPMZM is π/2, the DPMZM can be used as a quadrupler, which can generate ±4n-order optical sidebands. When the phase difference of the RF driving voltage between the two DPMZMs is π/4, the two cascaded DPMZMs can be used as an octupler, which can generate ±8n-order optical sidebands. After the ±8th-order optical sidebands are suppressed by adjusting the modulation index of MZMs, the center carrier is suppressed by a polarization multiplexing structure, and the ±8n (n > 2) sidebands are ignored because their amplitudes are very small. The main optical components remaining in the output of the two cascaded DPMZMs are ±16th-order optical sidebands, which are beaten in the photodetector to obtain frequency 32-tupling MMW. The theoretical and experimental optical sideband suppression ratios (OSSRs) and radio frequency spurious suppression ratios (RFSSRs) are 53.7 dB and 53.53 dB and 47.7 dB and 47.33 dB, respectively. The experimental and theoretical analysis is consistent, which verifies the feasibility of the scheme. The influence on the OSSR and RFSSR of the generated signals by the extinction ratio and DC bias drift of the MZMs, the initial phases and the amplitudes of the RF drive signal, and the azimuth of the polarization controller (PC) are investigated.

Quantifying regional health disparities linked to air pollution is essential for enhancing air quality and attaining carbon neutrality objectives. Nonetheless, the efficacy of proactive policies in ensuring equitable health protection in China’s Eastern Coastal Area (ECA) remains uncertain. Here, we employed an integrated assessment model to assess the combined reduction of carbon dioxide (CO _2 ) and atmospheric pollutants and their health repercussions in the ECA of China. Our findings reveal that 273 000 premature deaths are attributable to air pollution in 2060 in the ECA in the absence of mitigation policies. Conversely, carbon reduction policies are poised to curtail 80% of CO _2 emissions, alongside reductions of 76% for NO _x , 79% for SO _2 , 80% for PM _2.5 , 72% for VOCs, and 66% for NH _3 emissions. Air pollution control policies could mitigate premature deaths by 19 600, while carbon reduction policies could potentially lower them by 50 800. The health inequality coefficient among provinces stands at 0.19, primarily attributable to significantly higher mortality rates in Hebei and Shandong. These findings yield valuable insights for crafting synergistic abatement strategies in similarly imbalanced developmental regions grappling with comparable environmental challenges.

Abstract With regard to human–machine interaction, accurate emotion recognition is a challenging problem. In this paper, efforts were taken to explore the possibility to complete the feature abstraction and fusion by the homogeneous network component, and propose a dual-modal emotion recognition framework that is composed of a parallel convolution (Pconv) module and attention-based bidirectional long short-term memory (BLSTM) module. The Pconv module employs parallel methods to extract multidimensional social features and provides more effective representation capacity. Attention-based BLSTM module is utilized to strengthen key information extraction and maintain the relevance between information. Experiments conducted on the CH-SIMS dataset indicate that the recognition accuracy reaches 74.70% on audio data and 77.13% on text, while the accuracy of the dual-modal fusion model reaches 90.02%. Through experiments it proves the feasibility to process heterogeneous information within homogeneous network component, and demonstrates that attention-based BLSTM module would achieve best coordination with the feature fusion realized by Pconv module. This can give great flexibility for the modality expansion and architecture design.

Background Bigu is a health-preserving regimen with a long history advocating appropriately reducing food intake in China, whose efficacy has been confirmed in practical treatment of some diseases currently. However, the applicability of Bigu in human experiments is poor due to nonforcible control of dietary intake in the participants. Objective To assess the effect of medicine-qi intake type of Bigu in healthy people using real-world data. Methods Two hundred and eighty healthy volunteers were recruited from Sichuan Nursing Vocational College from November 2018 to September 2020, and equally divided into two groups (A and B, with 140 cases in each) after being matched using k-nearest neighbor propensity score approach based on their demographics, and received a two-round Bigu trial: in the first round, group A received 10-day diet-restriction type of Bigu, while group B received 10-day medicine-qi intake in combination with diet-restriction type of Bigu. Then, after one-month washout period, the second round was conducted, during which group A received 10-day medicine-qi intake in combination with diet-restriction type of Bigu, while group B received 10-day diet-restriction type of Bigu. Comparisons were performed between two groups in terms of incidence of adverse reactions and number of dropouts in two rounds of Bigu, and subjective hunger sensation, weight, BMI, morning blood pressure, and fasting fingerstick glucose on the first and 10th days of two rounds of Bigu. Results After being assigned by PSM, there were 72 males and 80 females in group A; 61 males and 67 females in group B. In the first round, the incidence of adverse reactions in group A was 65.7% (92/140) , and the trial discontinuation rate was 48.6% (68/140) ; the incidence of adverse reactions in group B was 42.9% (60/140) , and the trial discontinuation rate was 20.0% (28/140) . The incidence of adverse reactions and trial discontinuation rate in group A were higher than those in group B, and the difference was statistically significant (P

Uterine spiral artery remodeling is necessary for fetal growth and development as well as pregnancy outcomes. During remodeling, trophoblasts invade the arteries, replace the endothelium and disrupt the vascular smooth muscle, and are strictly regulated by the local microenvironment. Elevated glucose levels at the fetal-maternal interface are associated with disorganized placental villi and poor placental blood flow. Hyperglycemia disturbs trophoblast proliferation and invasion via inhibiting the epithelial-mesenchymal transition, altering the protein expression of related proteases (MMP9, MMP2, and uPA) and angiogenic factors (VEGF, PIGF). Besides, hyperglycemia influences the cellular crosstalk between immune cells, trophoblast, and vascular cells, leading to the failure of spiral artery remodeling. This review provides insight into molecular mechanisms and signaling pathways of hyperglycemia that influence trophoblast functions and uterine spiral artery remodeling.

Under the background that Covid-19 is spreading across the world, the lifestyle of people has to confront a series of changes and challenges. This also presents new problems and requirements to automation facilities. For example, nowadays masks have almost become necessities for people in public places. However, most access control systems (ACS) cannot recognize people wearing masks and authenticate their identities to deal with increasingly serious epidemic pressure. Consequently, many public entries have turned to an attendant mode that brings low efficiency, infection potential, and high possibility of negligence. In this paper, a new security classification framework based on face recognition is proposed. This framework uses mask detection algorithm and face authentication algorithm with anti-spoofing function. In order to evaluate the performance of the framework, this paper employs the Chinese Academy of Science Institute of Automation-Face Anti-spoofing Datasets (CASIA-FASD) and Reply-Attack datasets as benchmarks. Performance evaluation indicates that the Half Total Error Rate (HTER) is 9.7%, the Equal Error Rate (EER) is 5.5%. The average process time of a single frame is 0.12 seconds. The results demonstrate that this framework has a high anti-spoofing capability and can be employed on the embedded system to complete the mask detection and face authentication task in real-time.

One-step oxidative esterification of 2,5-furandiformaldehyde (DFF) derived from biomass to prepare Dimethyl Furan-2,5-dicarboxylate (FDMC) not only simplifies the catalytic process and increases the purity of the product, but also avoids the polymerization of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) at high-temperature conditions. Gold supported on a series of acidic oxide, alkaline oxide, and hydrotalcite was prepared using colloidal deposition to explore the effect of support on the catalytic activities. The Au/Mg3Al-HT exhibited the best catalytic activity, with 97.8% selectivity of FDMC at 99.9% conversion of DFF. This catalyst is also suitable for oxidative esterification of benzaldehyde and furfural. X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and CO2 temperature programmed desorption (CO2-TPD) were performed to characterize the catalysts. The results indicated that the medium and strong basic sites in the catalysts benefited for the absorption of intermediate agents and facilitated the oxidative esterification of aldehyde groups, while neutral or acidic supports tended to produce an acetal reaction. It is worth noting that basicity on the support surface reduced the electronic state of the Au nanoparticle (Auδ−) and, thus, enhanced the catalytic selectivity of oxidative esterification. This finding demonstrated that the support plays a crucial role in oxidative esterification.