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Despite the growing evidence on the health effects of wildfire smoke in the western U.S., the nationwide mortality risk and burden attributable to wildfire smoke fine particles (PM2.5) remain unclear. This study aims to investigate the association between wildfire smoke PM2.5and mortality from all causes, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, and mental disorders, and calculate the corresponding attributable mortality burden in all 3,108 counties in the contiguous U.S., 2006–2016. Monthly county-level mortality counts were collected from National Center for Health Statistics. Wildfire smoke PM2.5concentration was derived from a 10×10 km2resolution spatiotemporal model. Controlling for non-smoke PM2.5, air temperature, and unmeasured spatial and temporal confounders, we found that a 1 μg/m3increase in smoke PM2.5was significantly associated with an increase of 0.14% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.11%, 0.17%) in all-cause mortality, 0.13% (95% CI: 0.08%, 0.18%) in cardiovascular mortality, 0.16% (95% CI: 0.07%, 0.25%) in respiratory mortality, and 1.08% (95% CI: 0.93%, 1.23%) in mental disorder mortality. Smoke PM2.5contributed to approximately 1,141 all-cause deaths/year (95% CI: 893, 1,388) in the contiguous U.S., of which over three-fourths were from cardiovascular, respiratory, and mental causes. We found a higher vulnerability among males than females, people aged 0 to 64 years than those ≥ 65 years, and racial/ethnic minorities than non-Hispanic White people. Mild droughts were found to enhance the association between smoke PM2.5and mortality. Our results indicate that wildfire smoke PM2.5harms both physical and mental health, which suggests the need for more effective wildfire mitigation strategies and public health responses in the U.S.Significance StatementWildfires activities have significantly increased in the United States in recent decades. Smoke pollutants emitted by wildfires, particularly PM2.5, can bring adverse health effects. However, the nationwide wildfire smoke PM2.5-related mortality risk and burden remain unclear. Utilizing wildfire smoke PM2.5and mortality data in the contiguous U.S. from 2006 to 2016, we found significant associations between smoke PM2.5and increased mortality risks from all causes, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, and mental disorders. Each year, smoke PM2.5contributed to an estimated over one thousand deaths in the U.S., indicating a great number of indirect deaths brought by wildfires that official tolls could not capture. This study demonstrates the detrimental effects of wildfire smoke PM2.5on both physical and mental health and calls for more effective wildfire prevention and mitigation policies in the U.S.

The clinical treatment of metastatic spinal tumor remains a huge challenge owing to the intrinsic limitations of the existing methods. Programmed cell death protein 1 (PD1)/programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) pathway blockade has been explored as a promising immunotherapeutic strategy; however, their inhibition has a low response rate, leading to the minimal cytotoxic T cell infiltration. To ameliorate the immunosuppressive microenvironment of intractable tumor and further boost the efficacy of immunotherapy, we report an all-round mesoporous nanocarrier composed of an upconverting nanoparticle core and a large-pore mesoporous silica shell (UCMS) that is simultaneously loaded with photosensitizer molecules, the IDO-derived peptide vaccine AL-9, and PD-L1 inhibitor. The IDO-derived peptide can be recognized by the dendritic cells and presented to CD8+ cytotoxic T cells, thereby enhancing the immune response and promoting the killing of the IDO-expressed tumor cells. Meanwhile, the near-infrared (NIR) activated photodynamic therapy (PDT) could induce immunogenic cell death (ICD), which promotes the effector T-cell infiltration. By combining the PDT-elicited ICD, peptide vaccine and immune checkpoint blockade, the designed UCMS@Pep-aPDL1 successfully potentiated local and systemic antitumor immunity and reduced the progression of metastatic foci, demonstrating a synergistic strategy for cancer immunotherapy. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12951-021-00975-5.

BackgroundThe average concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) has decreased in the U.S. in recent years. However, the health benefits of this improvement among different racial/ethnic groups are not known. This study aimed to estimate the associations between long-term exposure to ambient PM2.5and cause-specific cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality rate and assess the PM2.5-attributable CVD deaths in non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, and Hispanic people across all counties in the contiguous U.S. from 2001 to 2016.MethodsUsing nationwide CVD mortality data for all ages obtained from National Center for Health Statistics, this study applied interactive fixed effects models to estimate the associations between 12-month moving average of PM2.5concentrations and monthly age-adjusted CVD mortality rates by race/ethnicity, controlling for both measured and unmeasured spatiotemporal confounders. Mortality from major types of CVD (ischemic heart disease [IHD], myocardial infarction [MI], stroke, hypertensive disease, and hypertensive heart disease) was also studied. We then calculated the burden of PM2.5-attributable CVD deaths in different race/ethnicity groups and examined the magnitude of racial/ethnic disparity and its changes over time.ResultsA total of 13,289,147 CVD deaths were included in the study. Each 1-µg/m3increase in 12-month moving average of PM2.5concentration was associated with increases of 7.16 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 3.81, 10.51) CVD deaths per 1,000,000 Black people per month, significantly higher than the estimates for non-Hispanic White people (Pvalue: 0.002). The higher vulnerability in non-Hispanic Black people was also observed for mortality from IHD, MI, and stroke. Long-term PM2.5exposure contributed to approximately 75.47 (95% CI: 40.14, 110.80) CVD deaths per 1,000,000 non-Hispanic Black people annually, over 3 times higher than the estimated rate in non-Hispanic White people (16.89, 95% CI:13.17, 20.62). From 2001 to 2016, the difference in attributable CVD mortality rate between Black and White people reduced by 44.04% (from 75.80 to 42.42 per 1,000,000 people), but the burden in Black people was still over 3 times higher compared to White people.ConclusionsNon-Hispanic Black people have the highest PM2.5-attributable CVD mortality burden. Although the racial/ethnic disparity in this burden was narrowed over time, the gap between racial/ethnic minorities and non-Hispanic White people remains substantial.

Local epidemiological evidence is imperative for making state and regional policy decisions addressing climate change, especially considering geographic variability in temperature and acclimatization. While the health impacts of extreme heat have been quantified in broad contexts, greater research is needed to provide accurate and precise health impact estimates on local scales where climate action is likely. The re-establishment of Connecticut’s Governor’s Council on Climate Change and its formation of an Office of Climate Change and Public Health demonstrate Connecticut’s commitment to and readiness for climate change planning and adaptation. Using data on daily all-cause mortality and average temperature across Connecticut during the warm season from 2005–2016, we estimated the total mortality burden of extreme heat (defined as temperatures above the 90th percentile, 24.7°C, and 99th percentile, 27.4°C during the warm season) in Connecticut compared to the reference temperature (41.5th percentile, 18.9°C). We conducted a time-series analysis using a generalized linear model with a quasi-Poisson regression, adjusting for the day of the week, holidays, and long-term trend. We found a statistically significant positive association between extreme heat and all-cause mortality, with a relative risk of 1.021 (95% CI: 1.002,1.041) at the 90th warm season temperature percentile and 1.039 (95% CI: 1.009,1.071) at the 99th warm season temperature percentile. We estimated that 31 deaths or 0.28% of all warm season deaths (95% eCI: 9, 53 or 0.08%, 0.48%) were attributable to extreme heat above the 90th warm season temperature percentile in Connecticut each year, more than five times what is reported in the Global Burden of Disease 2019 study. These results support state-wide action to mitigate the negative health effects of extreme heat and further research to understand the specific causes behind and modifiers of heat-related mortality in localized contexts in Connecticut and elsewhere.

Improved encryption devices place higher demands on the randomness and security of encrypted images. Existing image encryption optimization methods based on single- or multi-objectives concentrate on selecting keys and parameters, resulting in relatively fixed parameters and keys that are susceptible to leakage and cracking. Despite the possibility of increasing security, the DNA coding encryption method does not fully take into account the large capacity of image data and the difference between pixels, resulting in a limited level of randomness. To overcome the problems above, this paper proposes a method for generating complex texture features in images using random variation of pixels. With an annealing algorithm that can find an optimal solution in a large search space, the image is optimally optimized in terms of information entropy, pixel correlation, and value of x2. Each iteration involves selecting one of 25632 combinations of DNA coding and operation. In comparison with current encryption algorithms based on optimization algorithms and DNA coding, this method is more secure and unbreakable.

The presence of iron ore spot prices has raised the question whether iron ore spot prices are driven by market fundamentals. We analyse iron ore spot prices over the period 2014–18 while considering a structural break. The results show that China's steel production only affects the volatility of iron ore spot prices. Over the two subsample periods, the mean and volatility of iron ore spot prices are vulnerable to changes in port stock. Overall, in determining iron ore spot prices, the effect of supply fundamentals outweighs that of demand fundamentals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Osteosarcomas (OS) are the most frequent primary malignant bone tumor. Emerging evidence revealed that karyopherin alpha 2 (KPNA2) was strongly associated with the tumorigenesis and development of numerous human cancers. The aim of the present study was to investigate the expression pattern, biological functions and underlying mechanism of KPNA2 in OS. Methods: Bioinformatics TFBIND online was applied to forecast the transcription factor (TF) binding sites in the promoter region of KPNA2. The expression profile of KPNA2 in OS tissues were firstly assessed using TARGET dataset. The expression of KPNA2 in clinical OS samples and normal human adjacent samples were analyzed by RT-qPCR and western blot. CCK8, colony formation, wound-healing, and Transwell assays were used to assess cell viability, proliferation and migration in vitro, and in vivo experiments were performed to explore the effects of KPNA2 and interferon regulatory factor-2 (IRF2) on tumor growth. In addition, the correlation between IRF2 and KPNA2, and their roles on the NF-κB/p65 was investigated using chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), RT-qPCR, western blot and dual-luciferase assays. Results: KPNA2 was obviously upregulated while IRF2 was significantly decreased in OS tissues and cell lines, as well as they were negatively correlated with each other. KPNA2 knockdown remarkably suppressed OS cell growth, migration, invasion in vitro and tumor growth in vivo, while IRF2 knockdown exerts an opposing effect. IRF2 binds to KPNA2 promoter to modulate the tumorigenic malignant phenotypes of OS via regulating NF-κB/p65 signaling. Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that KPNA2 performed the oncogenic function, possibly regulating tumorigenesis through NF-κB/p65 signaling pathway. Importantly, IRF2 was confirmed to serve a potential upstream TF of KPNA2 involving in the regulation of NF-κB/p65 pathway in OS.

Most previous studies on the acute health effects of ozone are limited to urban areas, largely due to the paucity of air pollutant measurements in rural areas. We here estimated the county-specific daily maximum 8-h average ozone concentration in Jiangsu Province, China during 2015-2018, using a recently developed spatiotemporal machine learning model at a spatial resolution of 0.1° × 0.1° (∼11 × 11 km). Counties were equally divided into urban and rural groups based on the median of the percentage of urban residents across Jiangsu counties obtained from the National Population Census in 2010. We first conducted time-series analyses to estimate the county-specific effect of ozone using generalized linear models, then pooled the effect estimates by random-effects modeling. A 10 μg/m

Improved understanding of the effects of meteorological conditions on the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent for COVID-19 disease, is needed. Here, we estimate the relationship between air temperature, specific humidity, and ultraviolet radiation and SARS-CoV-2 transmission in 2669 U.S. counties with abundant reported cases from March 15 to December 31, 2020. Specifically, we quantify the associations of daily mean temperature, specific humidity, and ultraviolet radiation with daily estimates of the SARS-CoV-2 reproduction number (Rt) and calculate the fraction of Rt attributable to these meteorological conditions. Lower air temperature (within the 20–40 °C range), lower specific humidity, and lower ultraviolet radiation were significantly associated with increased Rt. The fraction of Rt attributable to temperature, specific humidity, and ultraviolet radiation were 3.73% (95% empirical confidence interval [eCI]: 3.66–3.76%), 9.35% (95% eCI: 9.27–9.39%), and 4.44% (95% eCI: 4.38–4.47%), respectively. In total, 17.5% of Rt was attributable to meteorological factors. The fractions attributable to meteorological factors generally were higher in northern counties than in southern counties. Our findings indicate that cold and dry weather and low levels of ultraviolet radiation are moderately associated with increased SARS-CoV-2 transmissibility, with humidity playing the largest role.

Mapping of air temperature (Ta) at high spatiotemporal resolution is critical to reducing exposure assessment errors in epidemiological studies on the health effects of air temperature. In this study, we applied a three-stage ensemble model to estimate daily mean Ta from satellite-based land surface temperature (Ts) over Sweden during 2001–2019 at a high spatial resolution of 1 × 1 km2. The ensemble model incorporated four base models, including a generalized additive model (GAM), a generalized additive mixed model (GAMM), and two machine learning models (random forest [RF] and extreme gradient boosting [XGBoost]), and allowed the weights for each model to vary over space, with the best-performing model for each grid cell assigned the highest weight. Various spatial predictors were included as adjustment variables in all the base models, including land cover type, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and elevation. The ensemble model showed high performance with an overall R2 of 0.98 and a root mean square error of 1.38 °C in the ten-fold cross-validation, and outperformed each of the four base models. Although each base model performed well, the two machine learning models (RF [R2 = 0.97], XGBoost [R2 = 0.98]) had better performance than the two regression models (GAM [R2 = 0.95], GAMM [R2 = 0.96]). In the machine learning models, Ts was the dominant predictor of Ta, followed by day of year, NDVI, latitude, elevation, and longitude. The highly spatiotemporally-resolved Ta can improve temperature exposure assessment in future epidemiological studies.

Aim: To improve the bioactivity and antibacterial activity of titanium (Ti) implants. Materials & methods: Magnesium (Mg)-doped titanium dioxide microporous coatings (Mg-TiO2) were prepared on the surface of Ti implants by plasma electrolytic oxidation. Results: Ti surfaces were covered with porous Mg-TiO2, and Mg was evenly distributed throughout the coating. Mg-TiO2 could not only promote osteoblast adhesion, proliferation and differentiation but also inhibit the colonization and growth of Staphylococcus. In addition, Mg-TiO2 may promote osteogenesis through the ERK/c-Fos signaling pathway as well as the early osseointegration of Ti implants. Conclusion: Mg-TiO2 has both osteogenic and antibacterial effects and thus presents important theoretical significance and clinical potential.

Purpose Spectral CT uses energy-dependent measurements that enable material discrimination in addition to reconstruction of structural information. Flat-panel detectors (FPDs) have been widely used in dedicated and interventional systems to deliver high spatial resolution, volumetric cone-beam CT (CBCT) in compact and OR-friendly designs. In this work, we derive a model-based method that facilitates high-resolution material decomposition in a spectral CBCT system equipped with a prototype dual-layer FPD. Through high-fidelity modeling of multilayer detector, we seek to avoid resolution loss that is present in more traditional processing and decomposition approaches. Method A physical model for spectral measurements in dual-layer flat-panel CBCT is developed including layer-dependent differences in system geometry, spectral sensitivities, and detector blur (e.g., due to varied scintillator thicknesses). This forward model is integrated into a model-based material decomposition (MBMD) method based on minimization of a penalized weighted least-squared (PWLS) objective function. The noise and resolution performance of this approach was compared with traditional projection-domain decomposition (PDD) and image-domain decomposition (IDD) approaches as well as one-step MBMD with lower-fidelity models that use approximated geometry, projection interpolation, or an idealized system geometry without system blur model. Physical studies using high-resolution three-dimensional (3D)-printed water-iodine phantoms were conducted to demonstrate the high-resolution imaging performance of the compared decomposition methods in iodine basis images and synthetic monoenergetic images. Results Physical experiments demonstrate that the MBMD methods incorporating an accurate geometry model can yield higher spatial resolution iodine basis images and synthetic monoenergetic images than PDD and IDD results at the same noise level. MBMD with blur modeling can further improve the spatial-resolution compared with the decomposition results obtained with IDD, PDD, and MBMD methods with lower-fidelity models. Using the MBMD without or with blur model can increase the absolute modulation at 1.75 lp/mm by 10% and 22% compared with IDD at the same noise level. Conclusion The proposed model-based material decomposition method for a dual-layer flat-panel CBCT system has demonstrated an ability to extend high-resolution performance through sophisticated detector modeling including the layer-dependent blur. The proposed work has the potential to not only facilitate high-resolution spectral CT in interventional and dedicated CBCT systems, but may also provide the opportunity to evaluate different flat-panel design trade-offs including multilayer FPDs with mismatched geometries, scintillator thicknesses, and spectral sensitivities.

Improved understanding of the effects of meteorological conditions on the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent for COVID-19 disease, is needed. Here, we estimate the relationship between air temperature, specific humidity, and ultraviolet radiation and SARS-CoV-2 transmission in 2669 U.S. counties with abundant reported cases from March 15 to December 31, 2020. Specifically, we quantify the associations of daily mean temperature, specific humidity, and ultraviolet radiation with daily estimates of the SARS-CoV-2 reproduction number (Rt) and calculate the fraction of Rt attributable to these meteorological conditions. Lower air temperature (within the 20–40 °C range), lower specific humidity, and lower ultraviolet radiation were significantly associated with increased Rt. The fraction of Rt attributable to temperature, specific humidity, and ultraviolet radiation were 3.73% (95% empirical confidence interval [eCI]: 3.66–3.76%), 9.35% (95% eCI: 9.27–9.39%), and 4.44% (95% eCI: 4.38–4.47%), respectively. In total, 17.5% of Rt was attributable to meteorological factors. The fractions attributable to meteorological factors generally were higher in northern counties than in southern counties. Our findings indicate that cold and dry weather and low levels of ultraviolet radiation are moderately associated with increased SARS-CoV-2 transmissibility, with humidity playing the largest role., The role of meteorological factors in SARS-COV-2 transmission is not well understood. Here, the authors use county-level data from the United States to the end of 2020 and find evidence of a moderate association between increased transmissibility and cold, dry weather and low ultraviolet radiation.

Metastatic tumors present great challenges in diagnosis and treatment. Herein, a proof-of-concept theranostic nanoplatform composed of an Au nanoparticle core and a double-shell of metal-organic framework (MOF) and mesoporous silica (MS) is developed for combating spinal metastasis of lung cancer in an orthotopic model. Two drugs, Alpelisib (BYL719) as an inhibitor and cisplatin as a chemotherapeutic drug, are separately loaded into the double-shell with high loading content. A targeting peptide called dYNH and indocyanine green (ICG) are conjugated onto the outmost MS layer for specifically targeting metastatic tumor cells and enhancing photothermal effect. The resultant Au@MOF@MS-ICG -dYNH-PAA (AMMD) shows enhanced cellular uptake on tumor cells and accumulation at metastatic spinal tumors, as evidenced by fluorescent and photoacoustic imaging. Benefiting from this ultra-high affinity to tumor cells and the photothermal effect of ICG, the dual-drug-loaded AMMD (BCAMMD) modified with ICG exhibits superior therapeutic efficacy on spinal tumors. More importantly, bone destruction, which frequently occurs in bone-related tumors, is effectively suppressed by BYL719 in BCAMMD. Hence, by rationally integrating multiple functions, including excellent targeting ability, dual-drug loading, photothermal therapy, and photoacoustic imaging, the developed all-in-one theranostic nanoplatform provides a useful paradigm of employing nanomedicine to treat metastatic spinal tumors efficiently.

Metal artifacts are a major confounding factor for image quality in CT, especially in image-guided surgery scenarios where surgical tools and implants frequently occur in the field-of-view. Traditional metal artifact correction methods typically use algorithmic solutions to interpolate over the highly attenuated projection measurements where metal is present but cannot recover the missing information obstructed by the metal. In this work, we treat metal artifacts as a missing data problem and employ noncircular orbits to maximize data completeness in the presence of metal. We first implement a local data completeness metric based on Tuy’s condition as the percentage of great circles sampled by a particular orbit and accounted for the presence of metal by discounting any rays that pass through metal. We then compute the metric over many locations and many possible metal locations to reflect data completeness for arbitrary metal placements within a volume of interest. We used this metric to evaluate the effectiveness of sinusoidal orbits of different magnitudes and frequencies in metal artifact reduction. We also evaluated noncircular orbits in two imaging systems for phantoms with different metal objects and metal arrangements. Among a circular, tilted circular, and a sinusoidal orbit of two cycles per rotation, the latter is shown to most effectively remove metal artifacts. The noncircular orbit not only reduce the extent of streaks, but allows better visualization of spatial frequencies that cannot be recovered by metal artifact correction algorithms. These results illustrate the potential of relatively simple noncircular orbits to be robust against metal implants which ordinarily present significant challenges in interventional imaging.

In this work, we present a novel model-based material decomposition (MBMD) approach for x-ray CT that includes system blur in the measurement model. Such processing has the potential to extend spatial resolution in material density estimates - particularly in systems where different spectral channels exhibit different spatial resolutions. We illustrate this new approach for a dual-layer detector x-ray CT and compare MBMD algorithms with and without blur in the reconstruction forward model. Both qualitative and quantitative comparisons of performance with and without blur modeling are reported. We find that blur modeling yields images with better recovery of high-resolution structures in an investigation of reconstructed line pairs as well as lower cross-talk bias between material bases that is ordinarily found due to mismatches in spatial resolution between spectral channels. The extended spatial resolution of the material decompositions has potential application in a range of high-resolution clinical tasks and spectral CT systems where spectral channels exhibit different spatial resolutions.

Exposure to air pollution has been associated with increased risk for a range of adverse mental health conditions. Less is known about whether air pollution is also associated with increases in the utilization of mental health services, especially outpatient mental health service utilization. This study aimed to examine the association between the number of daily outpatient visits at the psychological disease departments of two major hospitals (PSYC) and daily average concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 in a heavily polluted city in China, Nanjing, from 2013/7/1 to 2019/2/28, using generalized additive models with a quasi-Poisson regression. Results showed that each 10 μg/m3 increase in PM2.5 concentration on lag0 day was associated with a 0.40% increase (95% CI: 0.07-0.72) in PSYC visits, and each 10 μg/m3 increase in PM10 concentration on the same day a 0.31% increase (95% CI: 0.09-0.54) in PSYC visits. Exposure-response curves suggested linear relationships between PM concentration and daily PSYC outpatient visits, without evidence of a threshold. Associations remained positive, but were non-significant, with adjustment for co-pollutants, SO2, NO2 and CO. Significantly larger effects were found for older and male participants, vs. their counterparts. These findings add to the growing literature linking air pollution to mental health service utilization, demonstrating the critical need for both air pollution mitigation measures and increased capacity of the mental health system in China.

Previous epidemiological studies primarily examined the temperature-related mortality burden of all-cause or cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and respiratory diseases. However, evidence on the heat- and cold-attributable mortality burden from other specific causes is limited. This paper aimed to systematically examine the association of heat and cold with a comprehensive spectrum of plausible temperature-related diseases, and to estimate the mortality burdens attributable to heat and cold. In the time-series study of 11 cities in Jiangsu, China, distributed lag non-linear models were applied to estimate city-specific temperature-mortality associations, and then meta-analysis was conducted to pool the estimates. A total of 1,368,648 cases of death were included in this study. Both extreme heat and cold were associated with increased mortality risks from all-cause, CVD, respiratory diseases, nervous diseases, and external causes. Short-term exposures to heat and cold were associated with excess burden of mortality for several specific diseases, accounting for 16.38% (95% eCI, 7.27-22.31%) for myocardial infarction (MI), 12.41% (95% eCI, 8.81-15.07%) for stroke, 27.97% (95% eCI, 18.42-33.35%) for hypertensive heart disease, 25.18% (95% eCI, 18.42-29.63%) for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and 28.46% (95% eCI: 4.93-33.57%) for Alzheimer's and dementia. Diabetes was only associated with extreme heat, with 4.61% (95% eCI, 0.13-7.13%) of diabetes mortality attributable to heat. In total, 11.98% (95% eCI, 10.46-13.08%) of mortality was attributable to heat and cold, with 3.49% (95% eCI, 2.87-4.00%) attributable to heat and 8.48% (95% eCI, 7.31-9.49%) attributable to cold, and about 64% of this overall temperature-related mortality burden was found in 6 aforementioned specific causes and about 10% of mortality burden in external causes. Extreme heat and/or cold are associated with increased risks of mortality from a wide range of causes, including previously identified causes in cardiorespiratory diseases and under-studied causes such as diabetes and Alzheimer's and dementia. Future research is needed to confirm the substantial mortality burden of heat and cold.

This study is aimed to quantify the association among weather conditions, ambient air temperature, and sedentary time in Chinese adults. The participants were 3,270 Chinese users of a wrist-worn activity tracker. Their daily activity data were collected using an algorithm based on raw data to determine the sedentary time. The data of ambient air temperature and weather were collected from the meteorological data released by China Central Meteorological Observatory. Two-level linear regression analyses showed that weather conditions had a significant influence on sedentary time in Chinese adults after adjustments for some covariates were made. When the weather condition changed from rainy days to sunny and cloudy days, sedentary time might decrease by about 6.89 and 5.60 min, respectively. In conclusion, weather conditions were independently associated with sedentary time in Chinese adults. The daily sedentary time was shorter on sunny and cloudy days than on rainy days.

Compared to pure poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA), PLLA/nano-sized β-tricalcium phosphate (PLLA/nβ-TCP) composites show both superior interfacial compatibility and osteoinductive, and consequently hold great potential for bone defect repair applications. However, their dismal osteointegration limits their further development in bone regeneration, adding the need for tailored modification. In this study, a bioinspired modification approach was proposed to construct gelatinhydroxyapatite (GEL/HAP) coating onto PLLA/nβ-TCP composites by combining chemical grafting with in situ reaction methods. The incorporation of the biomimetic GEL/HAP coating substantially improved MC3T3-E1 cell adhesion, proliferation and osteogenic differentiation, as demonstrated by morphological observation. Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) assay, alkaline phosphate activity test (ALP), and quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis. Furthermore, GEL/HAP-PLLA/nβ-TCP composites and their control counterparts (i.e., bare PLLA/nβ-TCP) were synchronously implanted into femoral condylar defects of an identical rabbit. Characterizations including microcomputed tomography (micro-CT), histological analysis and the push-out test revealed that the biomimetic coating not only improved osteointegration but also significantly promoted bone regeneration. Overall, for the first time, bioinspired surface modification of the PLLA/nβ-TCP composite with GEL/HAP coating was demonstrated to be an efficient strategy for enhancing the osteointegration and osteogenesis functions of bone implants.

We examine the spillovers and dependencies between iron ore prices, bond yields of mechanical equipment, infrastructure construction and housing, and car industries, and steel prices by using the spillover index and copula model over the period 2011–2021. Our results show that compared with bond yields, iron ore prices are primary contributors of price spillovers and highly comparable with China's steel prices. Notably, the magnitudes of correlations and risk transmissions from bond yields of related industries to steel prices shifts over the period before the implementation of China's policy to cut overcapacity in steelmaking, after the policy implementation and before the outbreak of coronavirus, and after the outbreak of coronavirus. Because of high price spillovers from iron ore to steel prices and iron ore-steel relationship, policymakers in the steel industry should consider more supply-side policies to mitigate market risks. Meanwhile, risk-averse investors should increase the share of bonds of related industries.

We have examined the time-varying price spillovers and dependencies between iron ore, scrap steel, carbon emissions, seaborne transportation, and China's steel stock by using price spillover and copula models to cover the period 2011–2020. More specifically, the Platts, the MBIOI, and the Chinese Iron Ore spot prices (CIOPI) are analyzed and compared. Our results show that of the three iron ore price indexes, the Platts is a primary contributor of price spillover and highly comparable with China's steel stock prices. The scrap steel, seaborne transportation, and carbon emission prices incur relatively low price spillovers and moderately link with China's steel stock prices. In addition, the time-varying price spillovers and links are sensitive to economic shocks stemming from China's policy implementation to cut overcapacity in steelmaking and the spread of coronavirus. Our results may suggest that the Platts is still the benchmark spot price in determining China's steel stock prices. The results might also guide market investors to hedge the financial risks in the commodity market and help policymakers design appropriate financialization policies for the iron ore and steel markets.

An open source remote monitoring system is designed and built to address the needs of researchers to provide basic illuminated visual indication of laser operation for university research laboratories that are equipped with multiple types of high-powered lasers and have limited financial resources. The 3D printed remote monitoring system selectively monitors either the total current running through a laser or a TTL shutter signal to wirelessly indicate at the laboratory entrances that a laser is in use. Several lasers can be monitored in a single room and each room entrance can have its own wireless laser activity indicator. The wireless feature eliminates the expense of in-wall wiring for the system. An emergency shut off switch is included as an optional attachment. This article describes the design of the readily deployed open source laser monitoring system, including how it was built and tested for integration into a microscopy research laboratory.

Lu Cao,1,* Qian Chen,1,* Li-Bo Jiang,1,* Xiao-Fan Yin,1,2 Chong Bian,1 Hui-Ren Wang,1 Yi-Qun Ma,1 Xiang-Qian Li,1 Xi-Lei Li,1 Jian Dong1 1Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Zhongshan Hospital, 2Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Minhang Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China *These authors contributed equally tothis work Study design: This is an experimental animal study.Objective: The objective of this study was to compare an anterior cervical discectomy and interbody fusion of a novel polylactide/nano-sized β-tricalcium phosphate (PLA/nβ-TCP) bioabsorbable self-retaining cervical fusion cage (BCFC) with an autologous bone graft and polyetheretherketone (PEEK) cages.Background: Although PLA cervical cages have potential advantages compared with traditional materials, they are not currently routinely used in spine surgery because of undesirable effects such as the lack of osteoconductivity and osteolysis around the implant. This study involved the manufacturing of a bioabsorbable cage from PLA/nβ-TCP that was then used as a device for anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) on a goat cervical spine fusion model.Materials and methods: Eighteen goats underwent C3/C4 discectomy and were randomly divided into three groups based on the following methods: Group A (n=6), an autologous bone graft; GroupB (n=6), PEEK cage filled with an autologous graft; and Group C (n=6), BCFC filled with an autologous iliac bone. Radiography was performed preoperatively and postoperatively and at 1, 4, 8, and 12 weeks after the operation. Disc space height (DSH) was measured at the same time. After 12 weeks, the fused segments were harvested and evaluated with functional radiographic views, biomechanical testing, and histological analyses.Results: Over a 12-week period, the BCFC and PEEK cage groups exhibited significantly higher DSH values than the bone graft group. Additionally, the BCFC group yielded a significantly lower range of motion in axial rotation than both the autologous bone graft and PEEK cage groups. A histologic evaluation revealed an increased intervertebral bone volume/total volume ratio and better interbody fusion in the BCFC group than in the other groups.Conclusion: The BCFC device exhibited better results than the autologous bone graft and PEEK cages in single-level ACDF models in vivo. This device may be a potential alternative to the current PEEK cages. Keywords: goat, cervical spine cages, bioabsorbable, PLA, β-TCP, self-retaining&nbsp

We examine the sensitivity of China's steel price movements to iron ore, scrap steel, carbon emission allowance, and seaborne transportation prices over the period 2010–2020. More specifically, the price spillover, the dependence structure, and the spillover risk between iron ore, scrap steel, carbon emission allowance, seaborne transportation, and China's steel prices are analyzed in a multivariate framework, vine copula, and conditional risk setup. Our results demonstrate that before and after the implementation of China's policy to cut overcapacity in steelmaking, China's steel prices are mainly subject to iron ore prices. Our results have potential implications for policymakers to exploit market incentives to regulate steelmakers' investments and capacity in steelmaking.

Using Australian firm data, this study constructs an error correction model of capital stock adjustment to examine the uncertainty–investment relationship in the mining industry. As indicated, with firm features, the effect of demand uncertainty on the short run investment response to demand shocks is positive, while the effect of demand uncertainty on investment is negative. In addition, changes in exchange rate costs and Chinese ownership promote investment. More specifically, separating the sample period into before and after 2003, the estimation suggests that only after 2003 with the negative effect of Chinese GDP growth uncertainty, Chinese ownership had a positive effect on Australian mining investment. This suggests that rising Chinese demand after 2003 has a large impact on Australian mining investment.

Deficient osseointegration and implant-related infections are pivotal issues for the long-term clinical success of titanium (Ti) implants. Zinc (Zn) and strontium (Sr) serve dual functions by promoting osteogenesis and inhibiting bone destruction, and Zn has good antibacterial activity. As such, this study examined the preparation of a Zn/Sr-doped titanium dioxide microporous coating (MT-Zn/Sr) on a Ti surface using microarc oxidation (MAO), with Zn and Sr evenly distributed throughout the coating. In vitro, the coating could promote the adhesion, proliferation, differentiation and mineralization of osteoblasts, showing good biological activity. Antibacterial testing demonstrated the good antibacterial activity of the coating, as it inhibited the proliferation of Staphylococcus. In vivo, MT-Zn/Sr promoted early osseointegration between the Ti substrate and the bone tissue. This work is expected to provide a new method for improving the biological activity of Ti implants and thus has important theoretical significance and great clinical prospects.