[Assessment of carbon reduction and sink enhancement potential of photovoltaic+mining ecological restoration model]. / å ‰ä¼+矿山生态修复模式的减碳增汇潜力评估.

The energy oriented mine ecological restoration mode of photovoltaic+ecological restoration provides a breakthrough for alleviating the dilemma of photovoltaic land development and solving the urgent need for restoration of abandoned mining land. Taking a mining area in central Liaoning Province as an example, we established three photovoltaic+mining ecological restoration modes, including forest-photovoltaic complementary, agriculture-photovoltaic, and grass photovoltaic complementation. Combined with the life cycle assessment method, we calculated and assessed the potential of photovoltaic+mining ecological restoration in carbon reduction and sink enhancement. The average annual carbon reduction and sink increase was 514.93 t CO2·hm-2 under the photovoltaic+mining ecological restoration mode, while the average annual carbon reduction per megawatt photovoltaic power station was 1242.94 t CO2. The adoption of photovoltaic+ecological restoration mode in this mining area could make carbon reduction and sink enhancement 6.30-7.79 Mt CO2 during 25 years. The carbon reduction and sink increment mainly stemmed from the photovoltaic clean power generation induced carbon reduction, accounting for 96.4%-99.4%, while the contribution of ecosystem carbon sink increment was small, accounting for only 0.6%-3.7% of the total. Among different photovoltaic+ecological restoration modes, the carbon reduction and sink increment was the largest in forest-photovoltaic complementary (7.11 Mt CO2), followed by agriculture-photovoltaic (7.04 Mt CO2), and the least in grass photovoltaic complementation (6.98 Mt CO2). Constructing the development mode of "photovoltaic+mining ecological restoration" could effectively leverage the dual benefits of reducing emissions from photovoltaic power generation and increase sinks from mining ecological restoration, which would be helpful for achieving the goal of carbon neutrality in China.

A Degree-Dependent Polynomial-Based Reciprocally Convex Matrix Inequality and Its Application to Stability Analysis of Delayed Neural Networks.

In this article, several improved stability criteria for time-varying delayed neural networks (DNNs) are proposed. A degree-dependent polynomial-based reciprocally convex matrix inequality (RCMI) is proposed for obtaining less conservative stability criteria. Unlike previous RCMIs, the matrix inequality in this article produces a polynomial of any degree in the time-varying delay, which helps to reduce conservatism. In addition, to reduce the computational complexity caused by dealing with the negative definite of the high-degree terms, an improved lemma is presented. Applying the above matrix inequalities and improved negative definiteness condition helps to generate a more relaxed stability criterion for analyzing time-varying DNNs. Two examples are provided to illustrate this statement.

[Health Assessment of the Stream Ecosystem in Beijing, China].

With economic development, the health of river ecosystems is becoming severely threatened because of the increasing effects of human activities on river ecosystems. Here, 101 sites along regional river systems in Beijing rivers were investigated from autumn 2020 to summer 2021. A total of 34 metrics, including aquatic organisms, hydrology, water quality, and habitat, were calculated to be the candidate indicators. Principal component and correlation analyses were used to select the core metrics from the candidate indicators, and the weight of each core metric was estimated using the entropy method. The integrated index of stream ecological health was constructed to assess the health condition of the Beijing rivers. The results of the PCA and correlation analyses revealed that eleven metrics were selected as the core metrics to construct the integrated index of stream ecological health, including water temperature, flow velocity, BOD5, NH4+-N, Cu, the density of phytoplankton and zooplankton, the Shannon-Wiener diversity index of macroinvertebrates and fish, the BMWP index, and the qualitative habitat evaluation index. According to the health assessment results, 4.95% of the sampling sites were healthy, 23.76% were subhealthy, and 71.29% were in a fair or below healthy state. The river health status showed strong spatial heterogeneity, and the river health statuses in the northern and western regions were relatively good, whereas the river health status in the central and southeastern regions were relatively poor. The results of four aspects stream ecosystem assessment showed that the overall water quality of the rivers was "subhealthy" and the aquatic organisms and habitat were "general poor," but the hydrology was "poor." The evaluation results of five water systems demonstrated that the Chaobai River had the best health status, followed by that of the Yongding River, Daqing River, and Jiyun River, and the Beiyun River had the worst health status. Maintaining river ecological baseflow, ensuring river system connectivity, and improving and restoring the river habitat environment are the key aspects of river ecological restoration and protection in Beijing in the future.

Dynamic gene screening enabled identification of a 10-gene panel for early detection and progression assessment of gastric cancer.

Early diagnosis and progression assessment are critical for the timely detection and treatment of gastric cancer (GC) patients. Identification of diagnostic biomarkers for early detection of GC represents an unmet clinical need, and how these markers further influence GC progression is explored rarely. We performed dynamic gene screening based on high-throughput data analysis from patients with precancerous lesions and early gastric cancer (EGC) and identified a 10-gene panel by the lasso regression model. This panel demonstrated good diagnostic performance in TCGA (AUC = 0.95, sensitivity = 86.67 %, specificity = 90.63 %) and GEO (AUC = 0.84, sensitivity = 91.67 %, specificity = 78.13 %) cohorts. Moreover, three GC subtypes were clustered based on this panel, in which cluster 2 (C2) demonstrated the highest tumor progression level with a high expression of 10 genes, showing a decreased tumor mutation burden, significantly enriched epithelial-mesenchymal transition hallmark and increased immune exclusion/exhausted features. Finally, the cell localization of these panel genes was explored in scRNA-seq data based on more than 40,000 cells. The 10-gene panel is expected to be a new clinical early detection signature for GC and may aid in progression assessment and personalized treatment of patients.

Spatial-temporal characteristics and influencing factors of county-level carbon emissions in Zhejiang Province, China.

Zhejiang Province is a "demonstration area for high-quality development and construction of common prosperity" in China. Moreover, the county is the basic unit and power source for the economic development of Zhejiang Province. Therefore, the research on the spatial-temporal characteristics and influencing factors of county-level carbon emissions is of great significance for Zhejiang Province to achieve the strategic goal of carbon peak and carbon neutrality. Based on the carbon emissions and socio-economic data of 62 counties in Zhejiang Province from 2014 to 2020, the spatial dependence and agglomeration of county-level carbon emissions are analyzed through the spatial autocorrelation test and local spatial autocorrelation test respectively. According to the spatial-temporal characteristics of county-level carbon emissions revealed by the index of Moran's I and local Moran's I, the spatial error STIRPAT model is used to study the influencing factors of county-level carbon emissions in Zhejiang Province, China. The main results are as follows: (1) The total amount of county-level carbon emissions of 62 counties fluctuates from 259.69 to 326.28 million tons and shows a growth trend. (2) Moran's I index is between 0.369 and 0.399. The county-level carbon emissions have a significant spatial correlation, and the spatial agglomeration trend is relatively stable, which is consistent with the hypothesis of the geographical polarization effect. (3) High-high agglomeration counties are concentrated in the northeast of Zhejiang Province, while low-low agglomeration counties are mainly in the southwest. (4) The relationship between county per capita GDP and carbon emissions has not been "decoupled," because when other variables remain unchanged, the county's total carbon emissions will increase by 2.866% for every 1% increase in the county's per capita GDP; the increase of the proportion of secondary industry contributes to the decline of carbon emissions, and the low-carbon effect brought by large-scale industrial development as well as scientific and technological innovation has not yet appeared. (5) The estimate of the spatial coefficient λ was 0.324, which illustrates that the carbon emission of a single county is positively affected by the carbon emission of the neighboring counties, and other socio-economic factors affecting carbon emission among counties also have a spatial correlation. Therefore, the policy of realizing regional coordinated development as well as the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals should not only focus on industrial layout, but also take a dynamic and comprehensive consideration from a spatial perspective.

Malnutrition and infection lead to poor prognosis and heavy financial burden of patients with chronic heart failure.

Background: Chronic heart failure (CHF) is a major public health concern, as it is associated with poor prognosis and heavy financial burden. In recent years, there has been increasing interest in medications for CHF in China, but few studies pay attention to the effects of nutrition and infection. Methods and results: This was a retrospective study collected patients with CHF admitted to the Department of Cardiology of Qilu Hospital of Shandong University from January 2017 to May 2018. Patients were classified according to the prognosis and the financial burden. Through comparison and regression analysis, we found that the factor associated with worse prognosis were decreased heart rate, albumin and prealbumin; ß-blockers and mineralocorticoid receptor antagonism (MRA) were the factor improved the prognosis of patients with CHF; the factor overburdening financial condition were infection, decreased prealbumin, high Alanine aminotransferase (ALT), usage of recombinant human brain natriuretic peptide (rhBNP) and Levosimendan; aspirin and Sacubitril/Valsartan were the factor releasing financial burden of patients with CHF. Then, we grouped by Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT) score, which enabled evaluation of the patient's protein reserve and immune defenses. Patients in the malnutrition group had higher infection ratios, longer hospital stays, and greater hospital expenses than the normal group. The improvement ratios of therapeutic outcomes in the moderate or severe malnutrition group were lower than in the normal and mild malnutrition group. Conclusion: Malnutrition and infection caused poor prognosis and increased financial burden of patients with CHF. The high CONUT score indicated the CHF patient's unfavorable prognosis and heavy financial burden.

Current Genetic Structure Analysis of Leopard Cats Reveals a Weak Disparity Trend in Subpopulations in Beijing, China.

In the face of habitat shrinkage and segregation, the survival of wild cats looks bleak. Interpreting their population genetic structure during habitat fragmentation is critical in planning effective management strategies. To reveal the segregation effects of road construction and human settlements on the population genetic structure, we analyzed non-invasive fecal DNA samples from leopard cats (Prionailurus bengalensis) from five nature reserves in mountainous areas around Beijing. We focused on microsatellite markers. A total of 112 individual leopard cats were identified among 601 samples of scat, and moderate population genetic diversity was detected. Microsatellite-marker-based genetic differentiation (Fst) and gene flow (Nm) showed a weak trend toward discrepancies in the Baihuashan and Songshan subpopulations, which indicated habitat fragmentation effects on individual dispersal. Because the segregated subpopulations may suffer a high risk of genetic diversity loss, we suggest that their genetic structure be monitored with more molecular markers to detect any changes, and that female individuals be artificially introduced as needed to maintain the viability of the leopard cat subpopulations in Beijing.

Accounting for the cost of ecological degradation in Fuzhou City, China.

Ecological degradation accounting is a critical content of building green GDP and gross economic-ecological product (GEEP) accounting systems. With ecosystems in Fuzhou City as a research object, we built an accounting framework for the cost of ecological degradation according to the unreasonable human activity. Following the accounting framework, we calculated the ecological degradation cost in Fuzhou City of 2015 and 2018. The results showed that the ecological degradation cost in Fuzhou City of 2015 was 9.08 billion yuan, accounting for 1.6% of local GDP. For different ecosystem types, marine ecological degradation cost was the largest, about 6.311 billion yuan, accounting for 69.5% of the total loss, followed by wetland ecosystem, accounting for 28.7%, and then arable land, contributing only 1.8%. In term of functions, the cost of provisioning degradation was the largest, about 6.313 billion yuan, accounting for 69.5% of the total loss, followed by regulation loss, accounting for 27.5%, mainly from the loss of climate regulation and hydrological regulation. In the regional distribution, the ecological degradation cost was mainly concentrated in Lianjiang County, Luoyuan County, Fuqing City, and Minqing County, up to 8.092 billion yuan in total, accounting for 89.7% of total loss. Compared with 2015, the ecological degradation cost in 2018 decreased by 2.608 billion yuan, showing an obvious downward trend, with a decrease rate of 28.7%. The reductions were major in Lianjiang County (86.4%), Luoyuan County (14.8%), Fuqing City (19.9%), and Minqing County (12.6%), and mainly concentrated in marine and wetland ecosystems. Such a result indicated that people's awareness of ecological protection in Fuzhou City was increasing, and that the ecological damage due to human activity in marine and wetland system was obviously decreased. This study provided data support for promoting regional sustainable development and ecological civilization construction.

Gross economic-ecological product accounting of Fuzhou City, China.

The gross economic-ecological product (GEEP) accounting is crucial to promote the construction of ecological civilization, and practice the ideas of "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets". GEEP accounting had been conducted at national and provincial scales, but not at urban scale. According to the economic and ecological development, the GEEP accounting framework was built in Fuzhou City. The GEEP value of Fuzhou City in 2015 and 2018 was calculated and the spatiotemporal variation was analyzed. The results showed that the GEEP value of Fuzhou City was 1208.568 billion yuan in 2015. Among which, the value of GDP and ecological regulation, and the cost of environmental degradation and ecological damage were 577.742, 636.420, 3.095 and 2.500 billion yuan, respectively. Minqing County had the highest GEEP, with a value of 170.022 billion yuan, which accounted for 14.1% of that in Fuzhou City. The lowered values were found in Fuqing City, Minhou County and Yongtai County, accounting for 12.2%, 12.1% and 10.4%, respectively. In 2018, the GEEP of Fuzhou City increased to 1445.399 billion yuan, with an increase rate of 19.6%, mainly due to the GDP increase (up by 47.4% from 2015). The highest proportions of GEEP were observed in Minqing County and Gulou District (12.0%), followed by Fuqing and Minhou counties (11.0%). Compared with 2015, the increase trends were observed for the total value of GEEP, unit area and per capita of GEEP values in Fuzhou City. The cost of environmental and ecological degradation in Fuzhou decreased by 7.2% and 12.4%, respectively, indicating that the overall ecological environment of Fuzhou was improving. The accounting of GEEP in Fuzhou could effectively make up for the shortage of GDP assessment at the urban scale in China. It could provide an instrument for Fuzhou government to formulate rational ecological civilization assessment system and promote regional sustainable development.

Regional ecological compensation accounting in Fuzhou City based on a payment for ecosystem services (PES)model.

The determination of regional ecological compensation quota and spatial selection are key issues in the study of horizontal transfer payment ecological compensation mechanism. Taking 12 districts of Fuzhou City as the basic research unit, we accounted the ecological function values of forest, grassland, wetland, agriculture, and marine ecosystems in 2015 and 2018. Combined with local economic development situation, we constructed an ecological compensation model. With this model, we determined the ecological compensation quota and spatial distribution of different ecosystems in various districts and counties of Fuzhou. The results showed that from 2015 to 2018, Gulou District had the largest ecological payment, with 36.384 billion yuan, followed by Mawei, Cangshan and Jin'an districts, with 7.809, 6.974 and 6.669 billion yuan, respectively. Luoyuan County and Taijiang District had lower payment, which were 2.942 and 1.903 billion yuan respectively. Among the areas requiring ecological compensation, Lianjiang County and Changle District had high compensation quotas, being 25.120 and 20.261 billion yuan, followed by Yongtai County (12.570 billion yuan). The compensation amounts in Minhou County, Fuqing City and Minqing County were less than 10 billion yuan. The distribution of ecological compensation differed across various ecosystems. In general, the main ecological compensation areas of forest, grassland, wetland and agriculture ecosystem were in Yongtai, Minqing, Minhou, Lianjiang and Luoyuan counties. The compensation amounts were 2.424-31.379 billion yuan in forest, 1.181-20.708 billion yuan in grassland, 1.015-45.493 billion yuan in wetland, and 5.780-23.954 billion yuan in cropland. The main regions that need compensation for marine ecosystem were Lianjiang County, Changle District, and Fuqing City, with the amount of compensation being 8.216-47.854 billion yuan. The results could properly reflect the coordinated development of regional ecological and economic conditions, which could provide a reference for the improvement of the ecological compensation mechanism in Fuzhou City.

Accuracy assessment of a novel semiautomatic method evaluating bone grafts around the dental implant: an in vitro and ex vivo study.

The present study aimed to evaluate the accuracy and repeatability of morphological contour interpolation (MCI)-based semiautomatic segmentation method for volumetric measurements of bone grafts around dental implants. Three in vitro (one with a cylinder and two with a geometrically complex form) and four ex vivo models (peri-implant cylinder-shaped bone defect) were created for imitating implant placement with simultaneous guided bone regeneration (GBR) procedure. Cone beam computerized tomography (CBCT) scans of all models were obtained with the same parameters. For volumetric measurements, the actual volumes of bone grafts in models were assessed by computer-aided calculation and both manual and MCI-based methods were utilized as test methods. The accuracy of the methods was evaluated by comparing the measured value and the actual volume. The repeatability was assessed by calculating the coefficients of variation of repeated measurements. For the accuracy of three dimensional (3D) reconstructions, the computer-designed corresponding models were set as the reference and the morphological deviation of 3D surface renderings created by two methods were evaluated by comparing with reference. Besides, measurement time was recorded and a comparison between the two methods was performed. High accuracy of the MCI-based segmentation method was found with a discrepancy between the measured value and actual value never exceeding - 7.5%. The excellent repeatability was shown with coefficients of variation never exceeding 1.2%. The MCI-based method showed less measurement time than the manual method and its 3D surface rendering showed a lower deviation from the reference.

Green certification, e-commerce, and low-carbon economy for international tourist hotels.

Increasing population and over-consumption are placing unprecedented demands on agriculture and natural resources. The Earth is suffering from global warning and environmental destruction while our agricultural systems are concurrently degrading land, water, biodiversity, and climate on a global scale. For a sustainable future, green certification, e-commerce, and environment education can boost low-carbon economy with decreasing carbon emissions, but very few researches address them for the hotel industry. This research studies the performance impact of e-commerce, international hotel chain, local hotel chain, and green certification for carbon emission reductions of international tourist hotels of Taiwan. It reveals that, after a sufficiently long time, there is an improvement in the environmental and economic performance of the green-certified hotel group. In addition, it reveals that, as recommended by the operation policy, the international hotel chain group together with e-commerce has better performance than local hotel chain. It is also discussed how to sustain the continuing improvement in low-carbon performance of the hotel industry.

Benzophenone-UV filters in personal care products and urine of schoolchildren from Shenzhen, China: Exposure assessment and possible source.

The use of benzophenone (BP)-type UV filters in personal care products (PCPs) has rapidly increased in China over the past decade, leading to growing concerns on the potential adverse effects associated with the usage. Urine analysis is an ideal non-invasive approach for human biomonitoring of xenobiotics that are excreted mainly through urinary system. To investigate human exposure of PCPs to children from South China, we determined BP-type UV filters in a total of 156 commercial PCP goods covering 11 categories, as well as 280 urine samples collected from elementary school students in Shenzhen, China. Five BP analogues (i.e., BP1, BP2, BP3, BP8, and 4HB) were frequently detected in both PCPs and urine, among which BP3 was the dominant analogue, accounting for 96.3% of the total BPs in PCPs and 53.2% in urine, respectively. Sunscreens contained the highest BP concentrations (mean: 2.15 × 104 ng g-1) among all PCP goods. Girls exhibited higher urinary BP concentrations than boys, and body mass index positively influenced BP concentrations. However, no regional difference in urinary BP concentration was observed. The estimated dermal uptake of BPs from PCPs after considering the percutaneous absorption rates was much lower than the estimated dermal intake. The total daily excretion doses estimated from urinary BPs were 74.4 and 47.4 ng·kg-1bw day-1 for girls and boys, respectively. The higher usage of body lotions, hand lotions, and sunscreens by girls than boys (1.49 vs. 1.03 times week-1) might play an important role.

[Atomic absorption fingerprint and identification studies of Da Huo Luo pill. I. Exploration of inorganic elements fingerprint for establishment of industrial standard].

The fingerprints for most of Chinese medicines based on their organic compositions have been well established. Nevertheless, there are very few known fingerprints which are based on inorganic elements. In order to identify the Da Huo Luo Dan and its efficiency from other Chinese medicines, the authors attempted to set up a fingerprint which could be determined by the measurement of inorganic elements in Da Huo Luo Dan and other Chinese medicines. In the present study, the authors first employed 28 batches of Da Huo Luo Dan produced by Zhang-Shu Pharmatheutical Company in Jiang Xi Province to screen 12 kinds of inorganic elements measured by atomic absorption spectrophotometer and established the atomic absorption fingerprints. Secondly, the authors tried to identify Da Huo Luo Dan and other Chinese medicines by using the similarly analysis of vectors and the statistical analysis of compositional data. The result showed that the methods the authors used here were predictable to tell the efficiency of Da Huo Luo Dan from others. The authors' study also proves that establishment of standard for quality control by analysis of inorganic elements in Chinese medicines is feasible. The present study provides a new idea and a new technique that serve for the establishment of industrial standards for analysis of inorganic elements fingerprint to explore the effects of Chinese medicines.

[Assessment of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer patients].

OBJECTIVE: To assess the response of neoadjuvant chemotherapy and its influencing factors in the breast cancer patients. METHODS: 171 patients with stage II or operable stage III breast cancers were treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy before surgery between January 2004 and May 2005. Of these, 160 received and completed > or =3 cycles of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, 11 received only 2 cycles. The regimens of neoadjuvant chemotherapy were: CEF (CTX, Epirubicin, 5-Fu); NE (Navelbine, Epirubicin); TEC (Taxotere, Epirubicin, CTX). Response of neoadjuvant chemotherapy was evaluated in all patients by palpation, ultrasonography and pathological methods. RESULTS: Complete response rate and clinical objective response rate determined by clinical palpation (cCR, cOR), ultrasonography (sCR, sOR) and pathology (pCR) was 18.7% and 88.3%; 4.1% and 74.9%; 15.2%, respectively. The correspondence rate of the pCR with cCR and sCR was 43.8% and 42.9%, respectively. It was showed by univariate analysis that patient whose tumor was < or =3 cm in diameter, or ER negative or grade 3 were more likely to achieve a pCR than those whose tumor was >3 cm, or ER positive or grade 1. Logistic regression analysis showed that only tumor size was the significant predictive factor for response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with primary breast cancer. CONCLUSION: Patient with small, or ER negative or grade 3 tumor may have better pathological response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy, particularly, the tumor size is more predictive of pCR. Palpation or ultrasonography may have a tendency either to under- or to overestimate pCR. Breast neoplasms/drug therapy;

[Assessment of the Escherichia coli Tat protein translocation system with fluorescent proteins].

The possibility of using fluorescent proteins as probes to study the twin-arginine translocation (Tat) system was assessed in Escherichia coli. When fused to the twin-arginine signal peptide of trimethylamine N-oxide reductase, the DsRed2 red fluorescent protein from the Discosoma sp. was successfully synthesized and folded in E. coli cells. However, RR-DsRed2 aggregated inside the cells. Therefore, although DsRed2 has been engineered from DsRed for faster maturation and lower non-specific aggregation, it is still not compatible with Tat-dependent translocation. In contrast, the jellyfish green fluorescent protein (GFP) was efficiently exported into periplasm even when the RR motif was changed to KR or RK. These results show that GFP can be used as an efficient reporter protein to study Tat system, but DsRed2 is not suitable for such purpose because of its aggregation property. In addition, when the protein concentration was similar, the fluorescence intensity of KR-GFP and RK-GFP decreased compared with RR-GFP, which would suggest that the twin-arginine signal peptide is not only essential for mediating protein translocation, but also important for the folding of down-stream protein.

In vivo assessment of the Tat signal peptide specificity in Escherichia coli.

Tat- and Sec-targeting signal peptides are specific for the cognate Tat or Sec pathways. Using two reporter proteins, the specificity and convertibility of a Tat signal peptide were assessed in vivo. The specific substitutions by RK, KR and KK for the RR motif of the TorA signal peptide had no effect on the exclusive Tat-dependent export of colicin V (ColV). By introducing multiple substitutions in a typical Tat signal peptide, altered signal peptides lacking the twin-arginine motif were obtained. Interestingly, some of these signal peptides preserved Tat-pathway targeting capacity, but resulted in a loss of exclusivity. In addition, further increasing the hydrophobicity of the n-region without modifying the h-region converted the Tat signal peptides to Sec signal peptides in the ColV transport. Replacement of positively charged residues in the c-region also abolished the Tat-exclusive targeting of ColV or green fluorescent protein (GFP), but the folded GFP could be transported only through the Tat pathway. These results strongly suggest that the overall hydrophobicity of the n-region is one of the determinants of Tat-targeting exclusivity.