The mediating role of sleep quality in the relationship between dispositional mindfulness and fatigue in Chinese nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: During the COVID-19 epidemic in China, clinical nurses are at an elevated risk of suffering fatigue. This research sought to investigate the correlation between dispositional mindfulness and fatigue among nurses, as well as the potential mediation role of sleep quality in this relationship. METHODS: This online cross-sectional survey was performed from August to September 2022 to collect data from 2143 Chinese nurses after the re-emergence of COVID-19. The significance of the mediation effect was determined through a bootstrap approach with SPSS PROCESS macro. RESULTS: Higher levels of dispositional mindfulness were significantly negatively related to fatigue (r = -0.518, P < 0.001) and sleep disturbance (r = -0.344, P < 0.001). Besides, insufficient sleep was associated with fatigue (r = 0.547, P < 0.001). Analyses of mediation revealed that sleep quality mediated the correlation of dispositional mindfulness to fatigue (ß = -0.137, 95% Confidence Interval = [-0.156, -0.120]). CONCLUSIONS: In the post-COVID-19 pandemic era, Chinese nurses' dispositional awareness was related to the reduction of fatigue, which was mediated by sleep quality. Intervention strategies and measures should be adapted to improve dispositional mindfulness and sleep quality to reduce fatigue in nurses during the pandemic.

Carbon Monitor Europe near-real-time daily CO2 emissions for 27 EU countries and the United Kingdom.

With the urgent need to implement the EU countries pledges and to monitor the effectiveness of Green Deal plan, Monitoring Reporting and Verification tools are needed to track how emissions are changing for all the sectors. Current official inventories only provide annual estimates of national CO2 emissions with a lag of 1+ year which do not capture the variations of emissions due to recent shocks including COVID lockdowns and economic rebounds, war in Ukraine. Here we present a near-real-time country-level dataset of daily fossil fuel and cement emissions from January 2019 through December 2021 for 27 EU countries and UK, which called Carbon Monitor Europe. The data are calculated separately for six sectors: power, industry, ground transportation, domestic aviation, international aviation and residential. Daily CO2 emissions are estimated from a large set of activity data compiled from different sources. The goal of this dataset is to improve the timeliness and temporal resolution of emissions for European countries, to inform the public and decision makers about current emissions changes in Europe.

Substantial short- and long-term health effect due to PM2.5 and the constituents even under future emission reductions in China.

Heavy pollution events of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) frequently occur in China, seriously affecting the human health. However, how meteorological factors and anthropogenic emissions affect PM2.5 and the major constituents, as well as the subsequent health effect, remains unclear. Here, based on regional climate and air quality models Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) and Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ), the PM2.5 and major constituents in China at present and mid-century under the carbon neutral scenario Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP)1-2.6 are simulated. Due to anthropogenic emission reduction, concentrations of PM2.5 and the constituents decrease substantially in SSP1-2.6. The long-term exposure premature deaths at present are 2.23 million per year in mainland China, which is projected to increase by 76 % under SSP1-2.6 despite emission reduction, primarily attributable to aging which strikingly offsets the effect of air quality improvement. The number of annual premature deaths resulting from short-term exposure is 228,104 in mainland China at present, which is projected to decrease in the future. Using North China Plain as an example, we identify that among the major constituents of PM2.5, organic carbon leads to the most short-term exposure deaths considering the largest exposure-response coefficient. Regarding the abnormally meteorological conditions, we find, relative to low relative humidity (RH) and non-stagnation, the compound events, defined as concurrence of high RH and atmospheric stagnation, exhibit an amplified role inducing larger premature deaths compared to the additive effect of the individual event of high RH and atmospheric stagnation. This nonlinear effect occurs at both present and future, but diminished in future due to emission reductions. Our study highlights the importance of considering both the long- and short-term premature deaths associated with PM2.5 and the constituents, as well as the critical effect of extreme weather events.

Near-real-time global gridded daily CO2 emissions 2021.

We present a near-real-time global gridded daily CO2 emissions dataset (GRACED) throughout 2021. GRACED provides gridded CO2 emissions at a 0.1° × 0.1° spatial resolution and 1-day temporal resolution from cement production and fossil fuel combustion over seven sectors, including industry, power, residential consumption, ground transportation, international aviation, domestic aviation, and international shipping. GRACED is prepared from the near-real-time daily national CO2 emissions estimates (Carbon Monitor), multi-source spatial activity data emissions and satellite NO2 data for time variations of those spatial activity data. GRACED provides the most timely overview of emissions distribution changes, which enables more accurate and timely identification of when and where fossil CO2 emissions have rebounded and decreased. Uncertainty analysis of GRACED gives a grid-level two-sigma uncertainty of value of ±19.9% in 2021, indicating the reliability of GRACED was not sacrificed for the sake of higher spatiotemporal resolution that GRACED provides. Continuing to update GRACED in a timely manner could help policymakers monitor energy and climate policies' effectiveness and make adjustments quickly.

Common and unique neural activities in subclinical depression and major depressive disorder indicate the development of brain impairments in different depressive stages.

BACKGROUND: Subclinical depression (SD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) can be considered as the early and late stages of depression, but the characteristics of intrinsic neural activity in different depressive stages are largely unknown. METHODS: Twenty-six SD, 36 MDD subjects and 33 well-matched healthy controls (HCs) were recruited and underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). Voxel-wise regional homogeneity (ReHo) was analyzed to explore the alterations of intrinsic neural activity, and machine learning classification based on ReHo features was performed to assess potential performance for diagnostic classification. RESULTS: Common alterations of ReHo in both SD and MDD groups were found in the bilateral middle temporal gyrus and the left middle occipital gyrus. Opposite alterations in SD and MDD groups were found in the right superior cerebellum. Moreover, increased ReHo in the bilateral precuneus was only found in MDD, while increased ReHo in the right middle frontal gyrus and precentral gyrus were unique to SD. The distinct ReHo values correctly identified SD, MDD, and HC by linear support vector machine (SVM) with an accuracy of 77.89 %, which further verified the discrimination ability of altered ReHo in these brain regions. LIMITATION: The sample size is relatively small. CONCLUSION: Common and unique ReHo alterations provided insights into the development of brain impairments in depression, and helped to understand the pathophysiology of SD and MDD.

Near-real-time global gridded daily CO2 emissions.

Precise and high-resolution carbon dioxide (CO2) emission data is of great importance in achieving carbon neutrality around the world. Here we present for the first time the near-real-time Global Gridded Daily CO2 Emissions Dataset (GRACED) from fossil fuel and cement production with a global spatial resolution of 0.1° by 0.1° and a temporal resolution of 1 day. Gridded fossil emissions are computed for different sectors based on the daily national CO2 emissions from near-real-time dataset (Carbon Monitor), the spatial patterns of point source emission dataset Global Energy Infrastructure Emissions Database (GID), Emission Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR), and spatiotemporal patters of satellite nitrogen dioxide (NO2) retrievals. Our study on the global CO2 emissions responds to the growing and urgent need for high-quality, fine-grained, near-real-time CO2 emissions estimates to support global emissions monitoring across various spatial scales. We show the spatial patterns of emission changes for power, industry, residential consumption, ground transportation, domestic and international aviation, and international shipping sectors from January 1, 2019, to December 31, 2020. This gives thorough insights into the relative contributions from each sector. Furthermore, it provides the most up-to-date and fine-grained overview of where and when fossil CO2 emissions have decreased and rebounded in response to emergencies (e.g., coronavirus disease 2019 [COVID-19]) and other disturbances of human activities of any previously published dataset. As the world recovers from the pandemic and decarbonizes its energy systems, regular updates of this dataset will enable policymakers to more closely monitor the effectiveness of climate and energy policies and quickly adapt.

Impacts of biogenic emissions from urban landscapes on summer ozone and secondary organic aerosol formation in megacities.

The impact of biogenic emissions on ozone and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) has been widely acknowledged; nevertheless, biogenic emissions emitted from urban landscapes have been largely ignored. We find that including urban isoprene in megacities like Beijing improves not only the modeled isoprene concentrations but also its diurnal cycle. Specifically, the mean bias of the simulated isoprene concentrations is reduced from 87% to 39% by adding urban isoprene emissions while keeping the diurnal cycle the same as that in non-urban or rural areas. Further adjusting the diurnal cycle of isoprene emissions to the urban profile steers the original early morning peak of the isoprene concentration to a double quasi-peak, i.e., bell shape, consistent with observations. The efficiency of ozone generation caused by isoprene emissions in urban Beijing is found to be twice as large as those in rural areas, indicative of vital roles of urban BVOC emissions in modulating the ozone formation. Our study also shows that in the future along with NOx emission reduction, isoprene emissions from urban landscapes will become more important for the formation of ozone in urban area, and their contributions may exceed that of isoprene caused by transport from rural areas. Finally, the impact of biogenic emissions on SOA is examined, revealing that biogenic induced SOA accounts for 16% of the total SOA in urban Beijing. The effect of isoprene on SOA (iSOA) is modulated through two pathways associated with the abundance of NOx emissions, and the effect can be amplified in future when NOx emissions are reduced. The findings of our study are not limited to Beijing but also apply to other megacities or densely populated regions, suggesting an urgent need to construct an accurate emission inventory for urban landscapes and evaluate their impact on ozone and SOA in air quality planning and management.

Unveiling the dipole synergic effect of biogenic and anthropogenic emissions on ozone concentrations.

Biogenic emissions are widely known as important precursors of ozone, yet there is potentially a strong interaction and synergy between biogenic and anthropogenic emissions, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), in modulating ozone formation. To a large extent, the synergy affects the effectiveness of anthropogenic emission control, thereby reshaping the O3-NOx-VOC empirical kinetic modeling approach (EKMA) diagram. Focusing on the ozone pollution period of June 2017 in the North China Plain, we design almost 500 numerical experiments using regional air quality model Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) that revealed an interesting synergic effect, defined as the contribution of biogenic emissions to ozone concentrations concomitant with a reduction in anthropogenic emissions. A quasi-EKMA diagram is constructed to delineate the contribution of biogenic emissions to ozone concentrations, indicative of a linearly amplified or nonlinearly weakened result associated with reductions in anthropogenic VOCs or NOx emissions, respectively, illustrating the dipole characteristics of the synergic effect. The reduced ozone contribution from biogenic emissions along with NOx emission reduction can be used to represent controllable biogenically induced ozone (BIO). Both the amplified and controllable BIO are tightly linked to both local emissions and regional transport, implicative of an essential role in joint regional emission control. In regard to ozone exceedance, the role of biogenic emissions may be even more important, in that its contribution is comparable to or even larger than that of anthropogenic emissions when associated with a reduction in anthropogenic emissions, which is clearly demonstrated based on the near carbon neutrality scenario shared socioeconomic pathway (SSP) 126. Meanwhile, the biogenic emissions may steer the modulation of anthropogenic emissions in the change rate of MDA8 ozone concentration. Therefore, the synergic effect of biogenic and anthropogenic emissions elucidated in this study should be carefully considered in future ozone pollution control.

Uric acid played a role in the association between gender and deep vein thrombosis in patients with stroke.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Gender-specific differences were found in serum uric acid (SUA) levels and the risk of isolated distal deep vein thrombosis (IDDVT). This study aimed to explore the association among gender, SUA, and IDDVT in stroke patients. METHODS AND RESULTS: Finally, 3404 patients were recruited and divided into two groups: IDDVT (n = 1233) and Non-IDDVT (n = 2171) groups. Propensity score matching (PSM) was conducted to match the patients. Binary logistic regression was adopted to explore the association between SUA and IDDVT, with the SUA divided into quartiles. After PSM, 975 patients were included in each group. Non-IDDVT group had a larger proportion of male than IDDVT group (64.9% vs. 52.7%, p < 0.001). Moreover, males showed higher SUA levels than females (316.7 ± 102.1 vs. 261.8 ± 94.0 µmol/L, t = 12.1, p < 0.001). The highest quartile of SUA (≥346 µmol/L) showed a lower risk of IDDVT (OR = 0.629, p = 0.001), while the lowest quartile (≤225 µmol/L) showed a higher risk of IDDVT (OR = 1.361, p = 0.022). CONCLUSION: In patients with stroke, SUA played a protective role in IDDVT. Females had a higher risk of IDDVT, which may be owing to the lower SUA levels than males. In clinical practice, more attention should be paid to the risk of IDDVT in females, especially those with lower SUA levels.

Revealing the modulation of boundary conditions and governing processes on ozone formation over northern China in June 2017.

In this study, ozonesonde data were used to evaluate the impact of different boundary conditions on the vertical distribution of ozone over urban Beijing. The comparison shows that the clean and static boundary conditions, referred to as PROFILE, apparently underestimate the ozone concentration over the upper troposphere and stratosphere, whereas the global chemical transport model (CTM) provides much more reasonable performance. Further investigation reveals that the boundary conditions exert larger impacts over areas with high altitudes and close distances to boundaries, such as the Tibetan Plateau, while they yield weak impacts on regions relatively far from the boundary, such as the North China Plain (NCP). Process analysis was conducted to investigate the modulation of physical and chemical processes on ozone formation in June 2017, illustrating that during the daytime of the high-O3 period, the photochemical reactions within the planetary boundary layer (PBL) almost become the only source favorable to ozone accumulation. Motivated by this phenomenon, we constructed a linear regression and found that the maximum daily 8-hr ozone (MDA8) ozone concentration was highly correlated with the surface ozone change rate and chemical reactions in the PBL during the pollution period, with MDA8 ozone exceeding 70 ppbv over NCP. Based on this relationship as well as the design of numerical experiments, we propose a strategy of dynamic emission control. Firstly, the emission reduction during the peak ozone formation period may weaken the fast chemical reactions in the PBL and subsequent surface ozone concentration. Secondly, emission reduction one or two days prior to an episode might achieve larger ozone reduction through the accumulation effect. Lastly, emission control outside of the NCP may surpass the local impact under favorable meteorological conditions. Therefore, the efficacy of dynamic emission control was striking when both the accumulation and transport effect were taken into consideration.

The climate impact on atmospheric stagnation and capability of stagnation indices in elucidating the haze events over North China Plain and Northeast China.

In this study, the spatial pattern and temporal evolution of PM2.5 over North China Plain (NCP) and Northeast China (NEC) during 2014-2018 was investigated. The annual mean PM2.5 shows clear decreasing trends over time, but the seasonal mean PM2.5 as well as the seasonal total duration and frequency of haze days shows large inter-annual fluctuation. Based on the atmospheric stagnation index (ASI), this study examined the correlation between ASI and haze events over NCP and NEC. Detailed analysis indicates that location dependency exists of ASI in the capability of capturing the haze events, and the ability is limited in NCP. Therefore, we first propose two alternative methods in defining the ASI to either account for the lag effect or enlarge the threshold value of wind speed at 500 hPa. The new methods can improve the ability of ASI to explain the haze events over NEC, though marginal improvement was achieved in NCP. Furthermore, this study constructed the equation based on the boundary layer height and wind speed at 10-meter, apparently improving the ability in haze capture rate (HCR), a ratio of haze days during the stagnation to the total haze days. Based on a multi-model ensemble analyses under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5, we found that by the end of this century, climate change may lead to increases in both the duration and frequency of wintertime stagnation events over NCP. In contrast, the models predict a decrease in stagnant events and the total duration of stagnation in winter over NEC.