Compensation mechanisms for fishermen quit fishing: A case of Jiangsu province, China.

The 'Ten-year Ban on Fishing' policy was designed by the Chinese government to protect the biodiversity of the Yangtze River basin. Fishermen are the ultimate implementers of the fishing ban policy. Therefore, a scientific compensation mechanism for fishers to stop fishing is the basis for ensuring the continuous implementation of the policy. First, we conducted a survey with 309 fishermen in eight cities along the Yangtze River in Jiangsu province. We also analyzed living conditions of fishermen before and after quitting fishing based on descriptive statistical analysis. Based on the theory of sustainable livelihood, a binary logistic regression model was used to analyze the relationship between fishermen's willingness to quit fishing and five types of livelihood capital (natural, material, human, financial, and social capital). The results showed that fishermen face severe livelihood sustainability issues after ceasing to fish and that their willingness to quit is closely related to the five types of livelihood capital. Based on this, and according to different age groups, this study constructed a compensation mechanism for retired fishermen from two aspects: monetary and social security compensation. The research results can provide a theoretical framework for other provinces in the Yangtze River basin to formulate a compensation system for fishermen.

Use and Cost of Skin Biopsy Procedures in the Medicare Part B Fee-for-Service Population, 2017 to 2020.

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services noted skin biopsies have high expenditures and changed biopsy billing codes in 2018 to better align procedure type and associated billings. We examined associations between billing code updates and skin biopsy utilization and reimbursement across provider specialties. While dermatologists perform most skin biopsies, the proportion of skin biopsies performed by dermatologists has continuously decreased, but the proportion of skin biopsies performed by nonphysician clinicians has increased from 2017-2020. After the code update, the non-facility national payment amount decreased for first tangential biopsy but increased for first punch, first incisional, additional tangential, additional punch and additional incisional biopsy compared to the corresponding amount for first and additional biopsy before the code update. The allowable charges and Medicare payment per skin biopsy increased across provider specialties but has increased the most for primary care physicians from 2018-2020.

Threshold effect of industrial agglomeration on carbon productivity in China's Yangtze River economic belt: a perspective of technical resourcing.

The Yangtze River Economic Belt's industrial layout is characterized by industrial agglomeration. However, industrial agglomeration, while promoting economic development, has an uncertain impact on the ecological environment. This research studies the threshold impacts of pollution-intensive industrial agglomeration and green-based industrial agglomeration on the carbon productivity of the Yangtze River Economic Belt through the panel threshold regression models to find the "optimal industrial agglomeration scale." The results of the "optimal industrial agglomeration scale" show that under the existing economic conditions, only if pollution-intensive industrial agglomeration is controlled within a reasonable range can it contribute to carbon productivity. Green-based industries can only enhance carbon productivity when the scale of agglomeration reaches a certain value. In addition, this paper also points out that along the Yangtze River Economic Belt, regions with high agglomeration of green industries should consider investing more technological resources in emerging technologies that use clean energy as a production condition. In contrast, regions with high agglomeration of pollution-intensive industries should focus on improving existing technologies in which traditional energy sources are used as production conditions to increased carbon productivity.

Resistance to pydiflumetofen in Botrytis cinerea: risk assessment and detection of point mutations in sdh genes that confer resistance.

BACKGROUND: Gray mold caused by Botrytis cinerea Pers. is one of the most significant airborne diseases. It can infest a wide range of crops, causing significant losses in yield and quality worldwide. Pydiflumetofen, a new generation succinate dehydrogenase inhibitor (SDHI), is currently being registered in China to control gray mold in a variety of crops. The baseline sensitivity, resistance risk, and resistance mechanism of Botrytis cinerea to pydiflumetofen were assessed in this study. RESULTS: A total of 138 strains of B. cinerea from 10 different regions were tested for their sensitivity to pydiflumetofen, and the mean EC50 value was 0.0056 µg mL-1 . Eight mutants were obtained by fungicide adaption from five sensitive parental isolates, and the resistance factor (RF) ranged from 51 to 135. The mutants exhibited strong adaptive traits in conidial production, conidial germination, and pathogenicity. Positive cross-resistance was only observed between other SDHIs (i.e. boscalid, fluopyram, and isopyrazam). Two different types of pydiflumetofen-resistant mutants were identified: point mutation P225L in sdhB and double mutation G85A and I93V in sdhC. The in vivo control efficacy of pydiflumetofen on the resistant mutants carrying P225L in sdhB as well as G85A and I93V in sdhC was significantly decreased to 52.62% and 32.27%, respectively. CONCLUSION: The fitness was significantly higher for all pydiflumetofen-resistant mutants than the corresponding parental. Two types of point mutations, sdhB-P225L and sdhC-G85A and I93V, might confer resistance to pydiflumetofen in B. cinerea. A precautionary resistance management strategy should be implemented. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry.

Occurrence and risk assessment of anthelmintics in Tuojiang River in Sichuan, China.

Recently, emerging pollutants, such as anthelmintics have attracted an increasing attention worldwide due to their extensive use and notable stability. However, the information on anthelmintics in the environment of southwest China is scarce. Thus, the occurrence, ecological risk and exposure evaluation of nineteen anthelmintics in Tuojiang River, which is one of the largest tributaries of Yangtze River, and drinking water source of Sichuan, southwest China, were investigated. The result showed that the detection frequency of anthelmintics was relatively high in Tuojiang River, ranging from 65% to 100% in river water. Among the seven kinds of anthelmintics, benzimidazoles are the primary anthelmintics, with concentrations up to 61.12 ng/L and 596.06 ng/g in water and sediment of the Tuojiang river, respectively. The total concentration of 19 anthelmintics in sediment samples from non-agricultural area was higher than that in agricultural area(p = 0.000 < 0.05). This could be attributed to anthropogenic activities, which lead to greater discharge and accumulation of anthelmintics in residential area along the river. It's worth to mention that the highest total concentrations of anthelmintics (109.28 ng/L) was found at the junction of rivers in R31 site. The results could be ascribed to the complexity of junction of Tuojiang River and Yangtze River, which could influence the distribution of pollutant. Besides, the ecological risk assessment showed that the macrocyclic lactones rather than benzimidazoles had relatively high toxicity to non-target organisms in aquatic environment (p = 0.000 < 0.05), with the highest RQEcotox value of 101 for Daphnia magna, while benzimidazoles had relatively high concentrations. The exposure risk could be ignored for both children and adults because the daily intake of anthelmintics via water ingestion were below 10 ng/kg/d. In addition, strong correlations were found between sucralose and most of the selected anthelmintics in Tuojiang River, indicating that sucralose might be a good tracer to evaluated the source of anthelmintics in surface water. This study provides the levels, risks and even some tracer information of pollutants for better understanding of anthelmintics in southwest China.

Metal-phenolic network coated cellulose foams for solar-driven clean water production.

Solar-driven water steam generation is a promising strategy for seawater desalination and wastewater purification. However, oil contaminants commonly exist in real water resources, which drives us to design and fabricate photothermal materials with high efficient water steam generation and outstanding anti-oil-fouling ability. Herein, we developed a metal-phenolic network-coated cellulose foam (Fe3+/TA@CF), which exhibits not only superb hydrophilicity and underwater lipophobicity, but also achieves high water evaporation rate of ∼1.3 kg m-2 h-1 even in oil-polluted seawater under one sun illumination. In addition, Fe3+/TA@CF is demonstrated to be both anti-oil-fouling and anti-salt-fouling, which benefits to long-term evaporation in practical utilizations. Metal ions and oil contaminants in the condensed water vapor are almost eliminated after purification. We believe that this low-cost, biodegradable Fe3+/TA@CF paves a way for rationally designing and fabricating high-performance evaporator for oil contaminated water purification.

Concentrations and health risk assessment of metal(loid)s in indoor dust from two typical cities of China.

Eleven trace metal(loid)s were determined in the household dust samples from Chengdu and Tianjin, China, and related human exposure and health risk to metal(loid)s via indoor dust intake were evaluated. The trace metal(loid)s were found to be highly concentrated and polluted in the indoor environment of Chengdu and Tianjin, especially for Cu, Zn, Cd, Sb, and Pb, of which the enrichment factors exceeding 5. Metal(loid) levels in the indoor dust samples exhibited no statistical differences between the two cities, with the exception of Sb, which was detected higher in the Chengdu samples. Bioaccessibilities in stomach phase of each element were estimated, Cd, Pb, and Sr exhibited higher bioaccessibility, and Sb showed the lowest bioaccessibility in both Chengdu and Tianjin. Dust ingestion was the main metal(loid) exposure pathway for Chengdu and Tianjin inhabitants, followed by dermal contact, dust inhalation accounted for less than 1 % of the total daily metal(loid) intakes and thus could be negligible. Children suffered more risk when exposure to metal(loid)s via indoor dust intake due to their higher frequency of hand to mouth activities. Risk evaluation indicated that, for most Chengdu and Tianjin inhabitants, there is little non-cancer and carcinogen risk when exposure to indoor dust. However, there is a potential non-cancer and carcinogen risk for children and adults in Chengdu, in the case of highly exposed scenario based on the current study.