A study on the influence of perceived distance on China's inbound Tourism and the interaction of non-economic distance: An analysis of dynamic extended gravity model based on 61 countries' entry data (2004-2018).

In the post-epidemic era, the restart of China's inbound tourism is imminent. However, there are gaps in our current understanding of how distance perception dynamically affects inbound tourism in China. In order to understand the past patterns of inbound tourism in China, we mapped the data of 61 countries of origin from 2004 to 2018 into a dynamic expanding gravity model to understand the effects of cultural distance, institutional distance, geographical distance, and economic distance on inbound tourism in China and revealed the dynamic interaction mechanism of non-economic distance perception on inbound tourism in China. Our research results show that cultural distance has a positive impact on China's inbound tourism, while institutional distance has a negative impact. The significant finding is that the dynamic interaction of the above two kinds of perceived distance can still have a positive impact on China's inbound tourism. Its practical significance is that it can counteract the influence of institutional distance by strengthening the cultural distance. Generally speaking, geographical distance and institutional distance restrict China's inbound tourism flow, while cultural distance, economic distance, and interactive perceptual distance promote China's inbound tourism flow.

Geographical accessibility of medical resources, health status, and demand of integrated care for older people: a cross-sectional survey from Western China.

BACKGROUND: The World Health Organization (WHO) published the Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE) framework to help healthcare providers cope with the population aging crisis. However, the relevant evidence on the demands of older people and the compensatory capacity of the environment is limited. This study reports for the first time the level of the ICOPE demand in Western China that includes the impact of geographic accessibility of medical resources (GAMR) on ICOPE demand and the potential mechanism of health status. METHODS: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted among 1200 adults aged 60 years and older selected through multi-stage stratified cluster sampling to obtain relevant data, including ICOPE demand, health status, and GAMR. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to analyze the impact of GAMR on ICOPE demand among older people and those with different health statuses. RESULTS: Among the prospective research participants, 1043 were eligible for the study. The mean score of ICOPE demand among all participants was 3.68 (standard deviation [SD] = 0.78). After adjusting for covariates between high and low GAMR groups (1:1 match), ICOPE demand was significantly higher in the low GAMR group than in the high GAMR group (average treatment effect on the treated [ATT] = 0.270, p < 0.05). For both good and poor self-rated health status, the ICOPE demand of the low GAMR group was significantly higher than that in the high GAMR group (ATT = 0.345, p < 0.05; ATT = 0.190, p < 0.05). For chronic diseases, the ICOPE demand of older people with multimorbidity in the low GAMR group was significantly higher than that in the high GAMR group (ATT = 0.318, p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The older population in Western China has a relatively high demand for ICOPE. Low GAMR is a key factor in ICOPE demand growth in this region. It accelerates demand release for both older people with multimorbidity and self-perceptions of health.

Electrical impedance tomography as a bedside assessment tool for COPD treatment during hospitalization.

For patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the assessment of the treatment efficacy during hospitalization is of importance to the optimization of clinical treatments. Conventional spirometry might not be sensitive enough to capture the regional lung function development. The study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of using electrical impedance tomography (EIT) as an objective bedside evaluation tool for the treatment of acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD). Consecutive patients who required hospitalization due to AECOPD were included prospectively. EIT measurements were conducted at the time of admission and before the discharge simultaneously when a forced vital capacity maneuver was conducted. EIT-based heterogeneity measures of regional lung function were calculated based on the impedance changes over time. Surveys for attending doctors and patients were designed to evaluate the ease of use, feasibility, and overall satisfaction level to understand the acceptability of EIT measurements. Patient-reported outcome assessments were conducted. User's acceptance of EIT technology was investigated with a five-dimension survey. A total of 32 patients were included, and 8 patients were excluded due to the FVC maneuver not meeting the ATS criteria. Spirometry-based lung function was improved during hospitalization but not significantly different (FEV1 %pred.: 35.8% ± 6.7% vs. 45.3% ± 8.8% at admission vs. discharge; p = 0.11. FVC %pred.: 67.8% ± 0.4% vs. 82.6% ± 5.0%; p = 0.15. FEV1/FVC: 0.41 ± 0.09 vs. 0.42 ± 0.07, p = 0.71). The symptoms of COPD were significantly improved, but the correlations between the improvement of symptoms and spirometry FEV1 and FEV1/FVC were low (R = 0.1 and -0.01, respectively). The differences in blood gasses and blood tests were insignificant. All but one EIT-based regional lung function parameter were significantly improved after hospitalization. The results highly correlated with the patient-reported outcome assessment (R > 0.6, p < 0.001). The overall acceptability score of EIT measurement for both attending physicians and patients was high (4.1 ± 0.8 for physicians, 4.5 ± 0.5 for patients out of 5). These results demonstrated that it was feasible and acceptable to use EIT as an objective bedside evaluation tool for COPD treatment efficacy.

Value of the modified Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment in indicating the need for nutrition intervention and predicting overall survival in patients with malignant tumors in at least two organs.

BACKGROUND: Although the Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) is a reference standard used to assess a patient's nutrition status, it is cumbersome to administer. The aim of the present study was to estimate the value of a simpler and easier-to-use modified PG-SGA (mPG-SGA) to evaluate the nutrition status and need for intervention in patients with malignant tumors present in at least two organs. METHODS: A total of 591 patients (343 male and 248 female) were included from the INSCOC study. A Pearson correlation analysis was conducted to assess the correlation between the mPG-SGA and nutrition-related factors, with the optimal cut-off defined by a receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC). The consistency between the mPG-SGA and PG-SGA was compared in a concordance analysis. A survival analysis was used to determine the effects of nutritional intervention among different nutrition status groups. Univariable and multivariable Cox analyses were applied to evaluate the association of the mPG-SGA with the all-cause mortality. RESULTS: The mPG-SGA showed a negative association with nutrition-related factors. Individuals with an mPG-SGA ≥ 5 (rounded from 4.5) were considered to need nutritional intervention. Among the malnourished patients (mPG-SGA ≥ 5), the overall survival (OS) of those who received nutrition intervention was significantly higher than that of patients who did not. However, the OS was not significantly different in the better-nourished patients (mPG-SGA < 5). CONCLUSION: Our findings support that the mPG-SGA is a feasible tool that can be used to guide nutritional interventions and predict the survival of patients with malignant tumors affecting at least two organs.

Pollution characteristics, sources, and health risks of phthalate esters in ambient air: A daily continuous monitoring study in the central Chinese city of Nanchang.

In recent years, the atmospheric pollution caused by phthalate esters (PAEs) has been increasing due to the widespread use of PAE-containing materials. Existing research on atmospheric PAEs lacks long-term continuous observation and samples from cities in central China. To investigate the pollution characteristics, sources, and health risks of PAEs in the ambient air of a typical city in central China, daily PM2.5 samples were collected in Nanchang from November 2020 to October 2021. In this study, the detection and quantification of six significant PAE contaminants, namely diethyl phthalate (DEP), di-n-butyl phthalate (DnBP), diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP), Di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), di-n-octyl phthalate (DnOP), and diisodecyl phthalate (DIDP), were accomplished using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. The results revealed that the concentrations of DEP, DnBP, DEHP, and DnOP were relatively high. Higher temperatures promote the volatilization of PAEs, leading to an increase in the gaseous and particulate PAE concentrations in warm seasons and winter pollution scenarios. The results of principal component analysis show that PAEs mainly come from volatile products and polyvinylchloride plastics. Using positive matrix factorization analysis, it is shown that these two sources contribute 67.0% and 33.0% in atmosphere PAEs, respectively. Seasonally, the contribution of volatile products to both gaseous and particulate PAEs substantially increases during warm seasons. The residents in Nanchang exposed to PAEs have a negligible non-cancer risk and a potential low cancer risk. During the warm seasons, more PAEs are emitted into the air, which will increase the toxicity of PAEs and their impact on human health.

Integrated assessment and prediction of ecological security in typical ecologically fragile areas.

In order to safeguard and restore ecological security in ecologically fragile regions, a regionally appropriate land use structure and ecological security pattern should be constructed. Previous ecological security research models for ecologically fragile areas are relatively homogenous, and it is necessary to establish a multi-modeling framework to consider integrated ecological issues. This study proposes a coupled "PLUS-ESI-Circuit Theory" framework for multi-scenario ecological security assessment of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (NHAR). Firstly, the PLUS model was used to complete the simulation of four future development scenarios. Secondly, a new ecological security index (ESI) is constructed by synthesizing ecological service function, ecological health, and ecological risk. Finally, the Circuit Theory is applied to construct the ecological security pattern under multiple scenarios, and the optimization strategy of ecological security zoning is proposed. The results show that (1) from 2000 to 2030, the NHAR has about 80% of grassland and farmland. The built-up area is consistently growing. (2) Between 2000 and 2030, high ecological security areas are primarily located in Helan Mountain, Liupan Mountain, and the central part of NHAR, while the low ecological security areas are dominated by Shapotou District and Yinchuan City. (3) After 2010, the aggregation of high-security areas decreases, and the fragmentation of patches is obvious. Landscape fragmentation would increase under the economic development (ED) scenario and would be somewhat ameliorated by the ecological protection (EP) and balanced development (BD) scenarios. (4) The number of sources increases but the area decreases from 2000 to 2020. The quantity of ecological elements is on the rise. Ecological restoration and protection of this part of the country will improve its ecological security.

A new assessment framework to forecast land use and carbon storage under different SSP-RCP scenarios in China.

The vision of achieving "carbon neutrality" has created new requirements for the projection of land use and land cover (LULC), as well as the carbon storage (CS) of terrestrial ecosystem. Global-scale LULC scenario assessments with coarser resolution introduces uncertainties to national and regional-scale studies, which in turn has a negative impact on CS analysis based on land use perspective. Therefore, we proposed a new framework for scenario-based assessment that integrates the global-scale Land Use Harmonization (LUH2) dataset, Patch-generating Land Use Simulation (PLUS) model, and Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs (InVEST) model, which we called LUH2-PLUS-InVEST (LPI) model. Our aim is to investigate the potential impacts of the combinations of Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) and Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) on China's future LULC and CS. By calibrating the demands, we generated structural predictions that were consistent with the actual land use. Furthermore, we explored the spatial heterogeneity of potential land use changes using 500 m × 500 m downscale simulations. Additionally, we developed a quantitative evaluation of CS from a spatiotemporal perspective and made recommendations on potential ecological threats. Our findings indicate that the basic characteristics of LULC and CS are determined by the natural context and that the prospects of land use distribution and carbon sequestration capacity are influenced by global emission pressure, regional competition, and China's unique development pattern. The results demonstrate that the LUH2-PLUS-INVEST model can provide an effective method for modeling the feedbacks of LULC and CS to the climate-society system.

The green productivity of broiler production in China: Considering the resource utilization of manure.

Resource constraints and environmental challenges have emerged as serious impediments to the sustainable development of China's broiler industry, with potentially adverse consequences. The pursuit of sustainable development in China's broiler industry is predicated on significant reductions in manure and pollutant emissions from broiler farming. This study utilizes the slacks-based model and the global Malmquist-Luenberger index to calculate the green total factor productivity of broiler breeding across various provinces and scales from 2005 to 2020 within a joint production framework of considering undesirable outputs and desirable outputs. Fluctuations in economic distribution of broiler breeding are characterized using the kernel density estimation, and a convergence analysis is performed via absolute and conditional ß convergence methods. The results revealed an overall upward trend in China's broiler farming green total factor productivity from 2005 to 2020, corresponding to green total factor productivity in small-, medium-, and large-scale broiler breeding were 1.015, 1.017, and 1.009, respectively. The kernel density curve implies a narrowing trend in the discrepancy of green total factor productivity levels among provinces in broiler breeding of varying scales. For all scales, broiler breeding's green total factor productivity demonstrates considerable conditional and absolute ß convergence. Therefore, improving the efficiency of broiler breeding while addressing externalities requires the cultivation of broilers at different scales across diverse regions, coupled with an increased focus on improving the utility efficiency of broiler waste fertilization.

Clinical application of a fully automated blood collection robot and its assessment of blood collection quality of anticoagulant specimens.

Background and objectives: To investigate the application of intelligent puncture blood collection robots in anticoagulated blood specimens, the satisfaction of subjects with the two blood collection methods, and the feasibility of intelligent blood collection devices to replace manual blood collection methods in clinical work. Materials and methods: A total of 154 volunteers from Zhongshan Hospital Fudan University were recruited to compare the test results of anticoagulant blood samples between blood collection robot and manual blood collection, a questionnaire was used to inquire about the volunteers' feelings about the two blood collection methods; the blood collection data of 6,255 patients willing to use the robot for blood collection were collected to analyze the success rate of blood collection. Results: The blood collection robot is superior to manual specimen collection in terms of volume and pain of specimen collection, and the puncture success rate is 94.3%. The anticoagulated blood specimens collected by the robot had 11 indexes statistically different from the results of manual blood collection, but the differences did not affect the clinical diagnosis and prognosis. Conclusion: The intelligent robotic blood collection is less painful and has better acceptance by patients, which can be used for clinical anticoagulated blood specimen collection.

[Distribution, Source, and Ecological Risk Assessment of Persistent Organic Pollutants in Surface Sediments of Boao Coastal Waters].

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the environment have the characteristics of persistence, bioaccumulation, teratogenicity, carcinogenicity, and mutagenicity. Long-term exposure of low-content POPs will also have a certain impact on marine ecosystems and human beings. The contents of three typical persistent organic pollutants[polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), and polycyclic biphenyls (PCBs)] of surface sediments were analyzed using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to assess the pollution characteristics of persistent organic pollutants in Boao coastal waters. The distribution and source of persistent organic pollutants were analyzed in this study, and the ecological risk was assessed using three different methods:the effect interval low/median method (ERL/ERM), mean effect interval median quotient method (M-ERM-Q), and mean potential impact concentration quotient method (M-PEC-Q). The results indicated that the contents (measured by dry weight) of ΣPAHs, ΣOCPs, and ΣPCBs in the study area were 4.5-367.50, 3.99-175.30, and ND-2.89 ng·g-1, respectively, which were at a low level, and the overall distribution showed a trend of gradually increasing toward the sea. The results of POPs source analysis showed that the PAHs in the study area were mainly from the combustion of wood and coal. Among OCPs, the HCH was mainly from lindane, the historical land-based input had been completely degraded, and the DDT was mainly the traditional DDTs pesticides, with additional continuous DDT input. The PCBs were primarily pentachlorobiphenyls, which might have come from the release of paint on the bottom of the hull in the early stage of shipping and the peeling off of paint from old ships. The ecological risk assessment results showed that there was little difference among the assessment results of the three methods, which showed that only phenanthrene monomer of PAHs in the study area had a slight negative impact, and the DDT and the γ-HCH among PAHs would cause great ecological risk, whereas PCBs and other pollutants would not cause ecological risk. On the whole, the possibility of comprehensive ecological risk caused by the three pollutants was very small.

Safety assessment of Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 biomass: genotoxicity, acute and subchronic toxicity studies.

Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 has the potential to be used as a new resource of food owing to its nutritional and functional benefits. However, little information has been published regarding the safety of Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 biomass (SynB). The present study assessed genotoxicity, acute and subchronic toxicity of SynB for the first time. SynB did not show any genotoxicity based on the Ames test, mammalian erythrocyte micronucleus test, and mouse primary spermatocyte chromosome aberration test. SynB administered by gavage in mice at a dose of 10 g per kg body weight did not induce death or toxicity based on the acute toxicity study, indicating the median lethal dose value of SynB was over 10 g per kg body weight. In the 90-day subchronic toxicity study, no treatment-related mortality or clinical sign was noted with SynB at doses of 5 and 10 g per kg body weight in mice, and there was no adverse effect of SynB on food consumption, organ coefficients, blood biochemistry, urinalysis and histopathology. The Non Observed Adverse Effect Level for SynB in female and male mice was not less than 10 g per kg body weight per day based on subchronic toxicity. These results support the safe use of SynB as a new food raw material.

Land use and habitat quality change in the Yellow River Basin: A perspective with different CMIP6-based scenarios and multiple scales.

Studying the spatial distribution of land use/land cover (LULC) and habitat quality (HQ), influenced by both climate change and socio-economic factors, holds immense importance for fostering ecological sustainability. The previous scale setting was based on changes in granularity and division of spatial ranges, without considering the differences in land quantity structure and spatial expansion under different spatial ranges. Therefore, this study is based on climate and economic data at different spatial scales to determine the various land demands of provinces (YRB-P) and integration of provinces (YRB-I) in the Yellow River Basin, and to limit the expansion of LULC in corresponding regions. At the same time, we have also established three future scenarios representing different development speeds based on the latest path of shared socio-economic development in CMIP6. We found exhibit significant characteristics in ecological responses under combinations of different scales and scenarios. Shandong and Henan Provinces are the main gathering (38.7-41.7%, 24.1-26.5%) and expansion (68.54-85.99 × 102km2, 18.89-34.12 × 102km2) provinces of built-up land under the YRB-P scale, and their HQ (0.260-0.397) are significantly lower than the average HQ (0.619-0.654). Forest land, grassland, and high value regions of HQ show "45°" distribution at two scales, with high and low values clearly clustered (Moran's I is 0.5440-0.580). The HQ evolution region is larger and more dispersed at the YRB-P scale, but accumulates in local areas at the YRB-I scale. In addition, the highest and lowest HQ mean values appear under the low speed development scenario at the YRB-P scale (0.721) and the rapid development scenario at the YRB-I scale (0.689), respectively. This study helps decision-makers control different scales and development scenarios to improve the ecological level of the study area.

Unveiling Sustainable Potential: A Life Cycle Assessment of Plant-Fiber Composite Microcellular Foam Molded Automotive Components.

The development and utilization of new plant-fiber composite materials and microcellular foam molding processes for the manufacturing of automotive components are effective approaches when achieving the lightweight, low-carbon, and sustainable development of automobiles. However, current research in this field has mainly focused on component performance development and functional exploration, with a limited assessment of environmental performance, which fails to meet the requirements of the current green and sustainable development agenda. In this study, based on a life cycle assessment, the resource, and environmental impacts of plant-fiber composite material automotive components and microcellular foam molding processes were investigated. Furthermore, a combined approach to digital twinning and life cycle evaluation was proposed to conduct resource and environmental assessments and analysis. The research results indicate that under current technological conditions, resource and environmental issues associated with plant-fiber composite material automotive components are significantly higher than those of traditional material components, mainly due to differences in their early-stage processes and the consumption of electrical energy and chemical raw materials. It is noteworthy that electricity consumption is the largest influencing factor that causes environmental issues throughout the life cycle, especially accounting for more than 42% of indicators such as ozone depletion, fossil resource consumption, and carbon dioxide emissions. Additionally, the microcellular foam molding process can effectively reduce the environmental impact of products by approximately 15% and exhibits better overall environmental performance compared to chemical foaming. In future development, optimizing the forming process of plant-fiber composite materials, increasing the proportion of clean energy use, and promoting the adoption of microcellular foam injection molding processes could be crucial for the green and sustainable development of automotive components.

Refining feasibility assessment of endoscopic ear surgery: a radiomics model utilizing machine learning on external auditory canal CT scans.

BACKGROUND: Feasibility assessment of endoscopic ear surgery (EES) relies solely on subjective evaluation by surgeons. OBJECTIVE: Extracting radiomic features from preoperative CT images of the external auditory canal, we aim to classify EES patients into easy and difficult groups and improve accuracy in determining surgery feasibility. METHODS: 85 patients' external auditory canal CT scans were collected and 139 radiomic features were extracted using PyRadiomics. The most relevant features were selected and three machine learning algorithms (logistic regression, support vector machine, and random forest) were compared using K-fold cross-validation (k = 5) to predict surgical feasibility. RESULTS: The best-performing machine learning model, the support vector machine (SVM), was selected to predict the difficulty of EES. The proposed model achieved a high accuracy of 86.5%, and F1 score of 84.6%. The area under the ROC curve was 0.93, indicating good discriminatory power. CONCLUSIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE: The proposed machine learning model provides a reliable and accurate method for classifying patients undergoing otologic surgery based on preoperative imaging data. The model can help clinicians to better prepare for challenging surgical cases and optimize treatment plans for individual patients.

Patient-derived melanoma organoid models facilitate the assessment of immunotherapies.

BACKGROUND: Only a minority of melanoma patients experience durable responses to immunotherapies due to inter- and intra-tumoral heterogeneity in melanoma. As a result, there is a pressing need for suitable preclinical models to investigate resistance mechanisms and enhance treatment efficacy. METHODS: Here, we report two different methods for generating melanoma patient-derived organoids (MPDOs), one is embedded in collagen gel, and the other is inlaid in Matrigel. MPDOs in Matrigel are used for assessing the therapeutic effects of anti-PD-1 antibodies (αPD-1), autochthonous tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), and small molecule compounds. MPDOs in collagen gel are used for evaluating the chemotaxis and migratory capacity of TILs. FINDING: The MPDOs in collagen gel and Matrigel have similar morphology and immune cell composition to their parental melanoma tissues. MPDOs show inter- and intra-tumoral heterogeneity and contain diverse immune cells such as CD4+, CD8+ T, Treg, CD14+ monocytic, CD15+, and CD11b+ myeloid cells. The tumor microenvironment (TME) in MPDOs is highly immunosuppressive, and the lymphoid and myeloid lineages express similar levels of PD-1, PD-L1, and CTLA-4 as their parental melanoma tissues. Anti-PD-1 antibodies (αPD-1) reinvigorate CD8+ T cells and induce melanoma cell death in the MPDOs. TILs expanded by IL-2 and αPD-1 show significantly lower expression of TIM-3, better migratory capacity and infiltration of autochthonous MPDOs, and more effective killing of melanoma cells than TILs expanded by IL-2 alone or IL-2 with αCD3. A small molecule screen discovers that Navitoclax increases the cytotoxicity of TIL therapy. INTERPRETATION: MPDOs may be used to test immune checkpoint inhibitors and cellular and targeted therapies. FUNDING: This work was supported by the NIH grants CA114046, CA261608, CA258113, and the Tara Miller Melanoma Foundation.

In vitro and in vivo assessment of structural integrity for HPCD complex@Liposome nanocomposites from ocular surface to the posterior segment of the eye.

Investigating the structural integrity of carriers in transit from ocular surface to ocular posterior segment is essential for an efficient topical drug delivery system. In this study, dual-carrier hydroxypropyl-ß-cyclodextrin complex@Liposome (HPCD@Lip) nanocomposites were developed for the efficient delivery of dexamethasone. Förster Resonance Energy Transfer with near-infrared I fluorescent dyes and in vivo imaging system were used to investigate the structural integrity of HPCD@Lip nanocomposites after crossing Human conjunctival epithelial cells (HConEpiC) monolayer and in ocular tissues. The structural integrity of inner HPCD complexes was monitored for the first time. The results suggested that 23.1 ± 6.4 % of nanocomposites and 41.2 ± 4.3 % of HPCD complexes could cross HConEpiC monolayer with an intact structure at 1 h. 15.3 ± 8.4 % of intact nanocomposites could reach at least sclera and 22.9 ± 1.2 % of intact HPCD complexes could reach choroid-retina after 60 min in vivo, which showed that the dual-carrier drug delivery system could successfully deliver intact cyclodextrin complexes to ocular posterior segment. In conclusion, in vivo assessment of structural integrity of nanocarriers is greatly significant for guiding the rational design, higher drug delivery efficiency and clinical transformation for topical drug delivery system to the posterior segment of the eye.

Interpreting regional ecological security from perspective of ecological networks: a case study in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China.

The rapid economic development and intense human activities have seriously restricted the sustainable development of ecology and the maintenance of ecosystem services. Ecological network can effectively connect fragmented habitats and is an important way to couple landscape structure, ecological process, and function. This study proposes a multimodel coupling framework to explore the ecological security status of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (NHAR) under different development scenarios from the perspective of ecological networks. The conclusions are as follows: (1) From 2000 to 2030, grassland and arable land were the main land types of NHAR. Grassland is the main expansion land type under the ecological land protection (ELP) scenario, while construction land is the main expansion land type in two other scenarios. (2) The main gather and change of the ecological sources occurred in the central region, and the ecological expansion should develop from the middle to the south. (3) The average area of ecological sources under BAU and RED scenarios is smaller than that under ELP scenario, and more ecological corridors are needed to connect. (4) The centrality of the ecological sources under the BAU scenario is generally high, but the ecological sources under ELP and RED scenarios have undergone spatial migration. In addition, the urbanization trend of NHAR is different under different scenarios, and more attention should be paid to the maintenance and protection of ecological networks in typical areas. This study can provide important reference for NHAR's ecological space planning and ecological protection policy formulation.

Does migrant workers' subjective social status affect their mental health? Job satisfaction as a longitudinal mediator.

BACKGROUND: Prior studies on migrant workers have explored the effect of their subjective social status and job satisfaction on their mental health, respectively or combined, as well as how their subjective social status affects their job satisfaction. Nonetheless, few have accounted straightforwardly and holistically for the mechanism of interaction between subjective social status, job satisfaction and mental health amongst migrant workers. AIMS: Taking migrant workers in China as the object of study, we intended to probe the longitudinal links between their subjective social status, job satisfaction and mental health, in particular, their job satisfaction as a longitudinal mediator therein. METHOD: Using the three-wave data from the 2014, 2016 and 2018 China Labour-force Dynamics Survey, we defined migrant workers as labourers aged 15 to 64 with agricultural hukou and engaged in non-agricultural work in urban areas. The final valid sample comprised 2,035 individuals. Latent growth models (LGMs) were applied to test the hypothesised relationships. RESULTS: The LGMs based on bootstrapping showed that amongst migrant workers the subjective social status, job satisfaction and mental health tended overall to grow linearly and that the job satisfaction longitudinally mediated between the subjective social status and mental health. CONCLUSIONS: The findings may enlighten policymaking to elevate migrant workers mentally and inform future studies on theoretical and practical fronts.

Reduced-Cost Production of Sophorolipids by Starmerella bombicola CGMCC1576 Grown on Cottonseed Molasses and Cottonseed Oil-Based Medium.

A large-scale application of sophorolipids (SLs) was blocked by their high production cost. One feasible way to reduce the cost of SL production is to develop cheap feedstocks as the substrates for SL fermentation. In the present work, cottonseed molasses (CM), a waste from raffinose production, was used as the hydrophilic substrate;, and cottonseed oil (CO) was used as a hydrophobic substrate for SL production by Starmerella bombicola CGMCC 1576. The primary optimization of carbon sources, nitrogen source and inorganic salts, produced 57.6 ± 2.3 g/L of total SLs and 24.0 ± 1.2 g/L of lactonic SLs on CM and CO, almost equal to the titer of SLs produced from glucose and oleic. A response surface method was applied to optimize the fermentation medium for growth and SL production of S. bombicola. The production of total SLs reached 58.4 ± 3.4 g/L, and lactonic SLs were elevated to more than 25.0 ± 1.9 g/L. HPLC-MS analysis showed that the compositions of SLs produced by S. bombicola on CM and CO were very similar to those on glucose and oleic acid. These results suggested that cottonseed molasses and cottonseed oil can be used as renewable cheap substrates for the reduced-cost production of SLs.

Synergistic relationship or not? Understanding the resilience and efficiency of the tourism economy: evidence from Hainan Province, China.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a serious blow to the global tourism industry, causing a fracturing of and decline in tourism development efficiency and even a stagnation of tourism development in some regions. To solve the contradiction between efficiency and quality, it is necessary to ensure the endogenous power of tourism resilience while pursuing the efficiency of tourism development. This study assumes that Hainan Province follows a tourism development path led by resilience. The improved weighting method, EBM model and Haken model are used to evaluate the level of resilience, the level of efficiency and their co-evolution. The findings indicate that the core tourism cities represented by Sanya and Haikou have a high level in the individual fields of tourism development efficiency and tourism economic resilience but have limited performance in the synergistic relationship between tourism development efficiency and tourism economic resilience. In contrast, the marginal tourism cities represented by Tunchang County and Ledong County have low tourism development efficiency and resilience, but their synergistic development level is high. This result proves that co-evolution plays a dual forward and reverse driving role. Based on the identification of the order parameters, it is concluded that Hainan Province is characterized by a synergistic evolutionary synergy dominated by resilience, which is in line with the trend of social development and the sustainable development of tourism. While reasonably pursuing the tourism economy and development efficiency, we should pay attention to strengthening resilience construction based on multiple aspects, such as tourists, enterprises, organizations, governments and destinations.