3D automatic liver and spleen assessment in predicting overt hepatic encephalopathy before TIPS: a multi-center study.

BACKGROUND: Overt hepatic encephalopathy (HE) should be predicted preoperatively to identify suitable candidates for transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) instead of first-line treatment. This study aimed to construct a 3D assessment-based model to predict post-TIPS overt HE. METHODS: In this multi-center cohort study, 487 patients who underwent TIPS were subdivided into a training dataset (390 cases from three hospitals) and an external validation dataset (97 cases from another two hospitals). Candidate factors included clinical, vascular, and 2D and 3D data. Combining the least absolute shrinkage and operator method, support vector machine, and probability calibration by isotonic regression, we constructed four predictive models: clinical, 2D, 3D, and combined models. Their discrimination and calibration were compared to identify the optimal model, with subgroup analysis performed. RESULTS: The 3D model showed better discrimination than did the 2D model (training: 0.719 vs. 0.691; validation: 0.730 vs. 0.622). The model combining clinical and 3D factors outperformed the clinical and 3D models (training: 0.802 vs. 0.735 vs. 0.719; validation: 0.816 vs. 0.723 vs. 0.730; all p < 0.050). Moreover, the combined model had the best calibration. The performance of the best model was not affected by the total bilirubin level, Child-Pugh score, ammonia level, or the indication for TIPS. CONCLUSION: 3D assessment of the liver and the spleen provided additional information to predict overt HE, improving the chance of TIPS for suitable patients. 3D assessment could also be used in similar studies related to cirrhosis.

Heterogeneous effects of China's low-carbon city pilots policy.

Global south countries, including China, have faced a challenging dilemma of reducing carbon emissions while maintaining rapid economic growth. The low-carbon city pilots (LCCPs) policy in China is a demonstration of how state power intervenes and commands national low-carbon development through voluntary policy tools. Our study, based on panel data of 331 cities from 2005 to 2019, evaluates the policy effect of all three batches of LCCPs and presents an analysis of time-varying effects through batch decomposition and synthetic difference-in-difference models. The study found that implementing low-carbon policies can significantly reduce total carbon emissions and carbon emissions per capita. However, the reduction in carbon emissions per unit of GDP is insignificant, and the policy effect varies according to the batches and their characteristics. The reduction effects in the first and second batches, as well as the insignificance or even increasing effects of the third batch, may be due to carbon leakage between different batches of LCCPs. Overall, this research provides novel and quantitative evidence on low-carbon development in China, making theoretical and empirical contributions to the field, and expanding econometric assessment methods to evaluate the effectiveness of environmental and climate change policies.

Multi-scale analysis of the impacts of meteorology and emissions on PM2.5 and O3 trends at various regions in China from 2013 to 2020 3. Mechanism assessment of O3 trends by a model.

A multiscale analysis of meteorological trends was carried out to investigate the impacts of the large-scale circulation types as well as the local-scale key weather elements on the complex air pollutants, i.e., PM2.5 and O3 in China. Following accompanying papers on synoptic circulation impact and key weather elements and emission contributions (Gong et al., 2022a; Gong et al., 2022b), an emission-driven Observation-based Box Model (e-OBM) was developed to study the impact mechanisms on O3 trend and quantitatively assess the effects of variation in the emissions control over 2013-2020 for Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou and Shanghai. Compared with the original OBM, the e-OBM not only improves the performance to simulate the hourly O3 peak concentration in daytime, but also reasonably reproduces the maximum daily 8-hour average (MDA8) O3 concentrations in the four cities. Based upon the sensitivity experiments, it is found that the meteorology is the dominant driver for the MDA8 O3 trend, contributing from about 32 % to 139 % to the variations. From the mechanistic point of view, the variations of meteorology lead to the enhancement of atmospheric oxidation capacity and the acceleration of O3 production. Further evaluation to the emission changes in four cities shows that the O3-precursors relationships of the four cities have been changed from the VOC-limited regime in 2013 to the transition regime or near-transition regime in 2020. Though the NOx/VOCs ratios have been obviously decreased, the emission reductions up to 2020 were still not enough to mitigate O3 pollution in these cities. It is emphasized in this study that the strengthened control measures with maintaining a certain ratio of NOx and VOCs should be implemented to further curb the increasing trend of O3 in urban areas.

Characteristics and Health Risk Assessment of Heavy Metal Pollution in Haikou Bay and Adjacent Seas.

Heavy metal contamination in coastal waters may pose a serious threat to aquatic products and human health. This study aimed to gain a better understanding of the pollution-induced by heavy metals in Haikou Bay and adjacent seas and assessed the potential ecological risk. The spatial distributions of heavy metals including Cu, Pb, Zn, Cd, Cr, Hg, and As were analyzed in the surface and bottom water, surface sediment, and five species of fish collected from Haikou Bay and adjacent seas. For seawater, the results showed that the horizontal distribution of the seven heavy metal elements in the study area had no uniform pattern due to the influence of complex factors, such as land-based runoff, port shipping, and ocean current movement. In contrast, the vertical distribution of these heavy metal elements, except for Zn and Cd, showed high concentrations in the surface water and low concentrations in the bottom water. Due to the symbiotic relationship between Zn and Cd, the distributions of these two elements were similar in the study areas. Different from the complex distribution of heavy metals in water, the highest concentrations of these elements in surface sediment all occurred at station 11 except for Pb. Our study revealed that organic carbon and sulfide are important factors affecting the heavy metal concentrations in the surface sediments. Heavy metals in waters and surface sediment were lower than the quality standard of class I according to the China National Standard for Seawater Quality and the sediment quality, except for Zn in water, suggesting that the seawater and surface sediment in Haikou Bay and adjacent seas has not been polluted by heavy metals. Additionally, the heavy metal As was the main element affecting the quality of fish in this study area, and attention should be paid in the future. The target hazard quotient (THQ) values of seven heavy metal elements in fish were all lower than 1.0, indicating that eating fish in this area will not pose a risk to human health. These results provide valuable information for further understanding the status of heavy metal pollution in Haikou Bay and adjacent seas and the development of targeted conversation measures for the environment and fish consumers.

A simple assessment model based on phase angle for malnutrition and prognosis in hospitalized cancer patients.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Malnutrition in cancer patients is a common but under-diagnosed condition that has negative effects on clinical outcomes. The development of an easy and reliable malnutrition assessment tool is thus critical for identification and nutritional support. We aimed to develop a phase angle (PA)-based prediction model of malnutrition and evaluate it in patient prognosis. METHODS: A retrospective cohort of data consisting of demographic, clinical parameter and PA test from 702 adult hospitalized cancer patients between June 2020 to February 2021 was analysed. PAs for 6 body sites were measured by a body composition analyser. Patient-generated subjective global assessment (PG-SGA) scale was used as the diagnostic standard of nutritional status (PG-SGA ≥ 4 points defined as malnutrition). Decision tree, mean decrease accuracy of random forest, stepAIC strategy and test of generalized likelihood ratio were employed to select important variables and develop models for predicting PG-SGA binary classification (PG-SGA < 4 or ≥ 4 as a split). Survival curves were plotted by using the Kaplan-Meier method. RESULTS: In all, 490 (69.8%) patients were malnourished according to their actual PG-SGA scores. Except for age, tumor type and body mass index (BMI), PA of the left arm was found to influence malnutrition classification and incorporated in the final predictive model. The model achieved good performance with an AUC of 0.813, 75.9% sensitivity and 73.3% specificity. The actual and predicted survival curves were almost overlapped. CONCLUSION: This study provides a simple nutritional assessment tool which may be used to facilitate oncology physicians to identify cancer patients at nutritional risk and potentially implement nutritional support. CLINICAL TRIAL NO: ChiCTR2100047858.

Combined Assessment of Elevated Plasma Lipoprotein-Associated Phospholipase A2 and Plaque Enhancement Improved Accuracy in the Risk of Acute Ischemic Stroke in Patients with Intracranial Artery Stenosis.

PURPOSE: We evaluated the relationship between plasma lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) concentration and plaque characteristics in patients with intracranial artery stenosis and their clinical relevance in acute ischemic stroke. METHODS: Eighty-seven patients with intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis (66 males, 21 females) were retrospectively enrolled. Plasma Lp-PLA2 concentration was measured, and vessel wall magnetic resonance imaging (VW-MRI) was used to determine intracranial vascular stenosis and plaque characteristics, including plaque enhancement, surface morphology, and T1 hyperintensity. Binary logistic regression was used to evaluate the relationship between Lp-PLA2 concentration and plaque characteristics of intracranial artery after adjusting for demographic and confounding factors and to assess their diagnostic efficacy for the risk of acute ischemic stroke. RESULTS: After adjustment for demographic, medication and related lipid factors, Lp-PLA2 elevation was associated with plaque enhancement (odds ratio [OR]=12.7, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.51-64.82, P=0.002) and surface irregularity (OR=2.9, 95% CI 1.06-7.98, P=0.038). Both Lp-PLA2 elevation (OR=8.8, 95% CI 1.64-47.72, P=0.011) and plaque enhancement (OR=34.3, 95% CI 5.88-200.4, P=0.001) were associated with acute ischemic stroke. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis showed that the area under the curve for Lp-PLA2 concentration and plaque enhancement combined in the diagnosis of acute ischemic stroke was 0.884, significantly higher than that for Lp-PLA2 concentration (0.724) and plaque enhancement (0.794) alone. CONCLUSION: Elevated Lp-PLA2 is associated with plaque enhancement and plaque surface irregularity. Combined assessment of Lp-PLA2 concentration and plaque enhancement is of greater diagnostic value for the risk of acute ischemic stroke in patients with intracranial artery stenosis.

Polydopamine nanodots-based cost-effective nanoprobe for glucose detection and intracellular imaging.

The cellular glucose detection remains a vital topic, which could provide some essential information about the glucose-based pathological and physiological processes. In this study, a smart polydopamine nanodots-based cost-effective fluorescence turn-on nanoprobe (denoted as PDA-Ag-GOx) for intracellular glucose detection is established. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are directly formed in one step by the reduction of fluorescent polydopamine nanodots (PDADs) which have much phenolic hydroxyls on the surface. The fluorescence of PDADs could be quenched by AgNPs through surface plasmon-enhanced energy transfer (SPEET) from donor PDADs to acceptor AgNPs. Glucose oxidase (GOx) is modified on the PDA-Ag NPs by covalent bond. In the presence of glucose, GOx could catalyze glucose to produce H2O2 and gluconic acid. The generated acid and H2O2 would degrade AgNPs into Ag+, the PDADs release and restore its fluorescence. The proposed nanoprobe has some advantages, such as cost-effective, easy preparation, and excellent selectivity toward glucose, which could be successfully utilized to intracellular glucose imaging.

Inclusive ecological efficiency analysis in China's Hainan Island: an extended meta-frontier DEA approach.

China is advocating the ecological civilization for a sustainable society and resource-economic-environmental system due to its environmental and climate problems. As a special resource-economic-environmental system, island systems are facing severe challenges due to the vulnerable coordination ability between ecological environment and economic development. To measure the sustainable performance of island systems more directly and specifically, this paper extends the concept of ecological efficiency to inclusive ecological efficiency. For the first time, we analyze the inclusive eco-efficiency of Hainan Island, the second largest island in China, from 2008 to 2017. Due to the large technological heterogeneity among the diverse industries, this paper combines inclusive eco-efficiency with meta-frontier data envelopment analysis (DEA). And we propose a revised meta-frontier slack-based measure (SBM) model and meta-frontier non-radial directional distance function (NRDDF) model, which makes the technology gap rate (TGR) no larger than 1. The empirical results show that the average inclusive total factor energy efficiency (ITFEE) of the tertiary industry under the group-frontier is the largest while the average ITFEE of the primary industry is the highest under the meta-frontier. Moreover, the technology gap rate of the primary industry is the largest. Policy implementations are presented based on the empirical results.

[A comparative research of effect on inserting a distal perfusion catheter and preventive insertion of a distal perfusion catheter based on the limb ischemia risk assessment table in patients with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation].

OBJECTIVE: To compare the treatment effect of venous-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) patients in the prophylactic distal perfusion catheter (DPC) and the non-prophylactic DPC. METHODS: A prospective randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted. Patients who received VA-ECMO treatment were reviewed at Affiliated Jinhua Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine from January 2019 to June 2020 were divided into two groups, the prophylactic DPC group (DPC placed immediately after the patient VA-ECMO) and the non-prophylactic DPC group (the DPC was placed after the early limb ischemic signs by using evaluation of the lower extremity perfusion assessment table). Comparing the differences of clinical data of two group patients. Pearson correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between peak velocity of dorsalis pedis artery and peak velocity of posterior tibial artery and transcutaneous oxygen partial pressure (TcPO2). RESULTS: A total of 62 patients were included in the analysis, with 31 cases in prophylactic DPC group and another 31 cases in non-prophylactic DPC group. There were no significant differences in sex, age, body mass index (BMI), smoking index, underlying disease, catheterization site, recovery time before on machine, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) operation time, mechanical ventilation time, length of stay in intensive care unit (ICU), mortality rate in hospital, and acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE II) between the preventive DPC group and the non-preventive DPC group. There was no significant difference in ECMO indications, ECMO intubation location and pipeline type. The bleeding in the non-prophylactic DPC group was lower than that in the non-prophylactic DPC group [6.5% (2/31) vs. 29.0% (9/31), P < 0.05]. There were no significant differences in limb complications such as cyanosis, necrosis, amputation, compartment syndrome, arterial thrombosis, vascular reconstruction and repair, pseudoaneurysm, limb ischemic or limb infection. During the ECMO operation, except the blood stream infection in the non-prophylactic DPC group was lower than that in the non-prophylactic DPC group [3.2% (1/31) vs. 19.4% (6/31), P < 0.05], there was no other statistical difference in complications between the two groups. The peak velocity of dorsalis pedis artery in the preventive DPC group was significantly higher than that of the non-preventive DPC group (cm/s: 19.30±10.85 vs. 17.85±8.55, P < 0.05), and the peak velocity of posterior tibial artery was significantly lower than that of the non-preventive DPC group (cm/s: 19.90±10.94 vs. 21.58±9.77, P < 0.05). Pearson correlation analysis showed that the peak velocity of dorsalis pedis artery and peak velocity of posterior tibial artery of the preventive DPC group and the non-preventive DPC group were positively correlated with TcPO2 (r values were 0.747, 0.856, 0.850, 0.813, respectively, and P values were all 0.000). CONCLUSIONS: For patients with VA-ECMO treatment, the incidence of blood stream infection and bleeding during ECMO operation in non-prophylactic DPC implantation patients is lower than that of prophylactic DPC implantation patients. TcPO2 is positively correlated with peak velocity of posterior tibial artery and dorsal foot artery in the cannulated limb. In patients with VA-ECMO undergoing femoral artery and vein puncture,in addition to judging the blood supply of lower limbs according to symptoms and signs, ultrasound and TcPO2 monitoring can also be used as effective monitoring methods.

Do double-edged swords cut both ways? Housing inequality and haze pollution in Chinese cities.

Housing inequality, where the wealthy hold much more housing than those 5 less so, is common worldwide, but how it correlates with haze pollution and hence air pollution has not been studied to date. Due to the market-oriented and finance-driven evolution of its housing system over the last two decades, housing inequality is particularly prominent in post-reform urban China while air pollution has become an increasingly serious problem too. This study explores the relationship between housing inequality and air pollution using 2002-2009 spatial panel data of 65 Chinese cities, to find that housing inequality contributes to exacerbating air pollution. It is also shown that an excessive demand for real estate development due to the uneven distribution of the housing stock is an important mechanism underlying the correlation between housing inequality and air pollution. In addition, such factors as economic development, city size, urbanization level, industrial structure, and capital stock all have different degrees of impact on the correlation between housing inequality and air pollution. The paper concludes by discussing the policy implications of this research and offering some policy recommendations.

CD4-binding obstacles in conformational transitions and allosteric communications of HIV gp120.

As the only exposed viral protein at the membrane surface of HIV, envelope glycoprotein gp120 is responsible for recognizing host cells and mediating virus-cell membrane fusion. Available structures of gp120 indicate that it exhibits two distinct conformational states, called closed and open states. Although experimental data demonstrates that CD4 binding stabilizes open state of gp120, detailed structural dynamics and kinetics of gp120 during this process remain elusive. Here, two open-state gp120 simulation systems, one without any ligands (ligand-free) and the other complexed with CD4 (CD4-bound), were subjected to microsecond-scale molecular dynamics simulations following the conformational transitions and allosteric pathways of gp120 evaluated by using the Markov state model and a network-based method, respectively. Our results provide an atomic-resolution description of gp120 conformational transitions, suggesting that gp120 is intrinsically dynamic from the open state to closed state, whereas CD4 binding blocks these transitions. Consistent with experimental structures, five metastable conformations with different orientations of the V1/V2 region and V3 loop have been extracted. The binding of CD4 significantly enhances allosteric communications from the CD4-binding site to V3 loop and ß20-21 hairpin, resulting in high-affinity interactions with coreceptors and activation of the conformational transitions switcher, respectively. This study will facilitate the structural understanding of the CD4-binding effects on conformational transitions and allosteric pathways of gp120.

Health assessment of spatial and temporal distribution of arsenic in soils irrigated with reclaimed water.

Reclaimed water is an important water resource for agricultural irrigation. Based on the systematic analysis of experimental data, this paper studies the spatiotemporal transformation and distribution of As in soil-crop system. Through the comparison with groundwater irrigation, reclaimed water irrigation was tested and studied in connection with the greenhouse vegetables in the growing season. The accumulation, distribution and transportation of As in different depths of soil within 7 days after reclaimed water irrigation were analyzed and discussed. The results showed that the concentration of As was the highest on the first day after irrigation; it was the highest at the depth of 100 cm on the third day after irrigation, but its concentration in the topsoil slightly decreased; from the fifth to the seventh day, the concentrations of As in the different layers of soil were almost the same, but it was the highest at the depth of 80-120 cm; and it decreased slightly with the increase in depth when the depth was less than 120 cm. As in soil during the growing season varied as the frequency of irrigation increased. The specific situation was as follows: as the accumulated As in the topsoil increased, the increased As at the depth of 80-120 cm would become less and the concentration of As at 200 cm would fall. Therefore, when the appropriate concentration of reclaimed water is used for irrigation, the concentration of As in the deep layer soil will comply with the standard limits of GB15618-1995 and the irrigation with reclaimed water of appropriate concentration will not cause As pollution.

The non-linear effect of environmental regulation on haze pollution: Empirical evidence for 277 Chinese cities during 2002-2010.

Numerous studies have examined the correlation between economic growth and air pollution, but few focuses on the nexus between environmental regulation and <2.5 µm (PM2.5) fine particle matter. Using Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) and Spatial Two-stage Least Squares (2SLS) methods to analyze 277 Chinese cities over the period 2002-2010, this paper finds inverted U-shaped relationships between PM2.5 concentration and formal/informal environmental regulations for the whole and eastern and western regions. By removing the depression year of 2008, regulation effect on pollution strengthened, indicating that the main task for local governments in crisis is to avoid GDP decline rather than official promotion. Further, green technological innovation and industrial structure optimization induced by environmental regulation is shown to be beneficial for haze pollution mitigation. Some policy recommendations are proposed in conclusion.

Pollute first, control later? Exploring the economic threshold of effective environmental regulation in China's context.

For most developing countries, local government faces a trade-off between economic growth and environmental protection. The intentions towards having a better environment as the economy grows will trigger a shift in the priorities of local government from economy to environment at a certain level of economic development. To investigate the "pollute first, control later" path in China and how environmental regulation performs differently due to economic development, this paper develops a conceptual model to depict the nexus between economic growth and environmental improvement. A panel threshold model is estimated based on Chinese data from different spatial scales - 30 provinces and 105 environmental monitoring cities. The results validate the threshold of economic development of approximately CNY 90,000 GDP per capita, which represents the turning point for the local government priority change; such that only when it is exceeded does environmental regulation significantly reduce emissions. Until 2016, only 4 provincial districts and 35 prefecture-level cities have crossed the threshold, these being mostly in the more prosperous eastern coastal areas. The results emphasize the need to consider timeliness when evaluating the effectiveness of environmental regulation and highlight the importance of adopting differentiated governance. Moreover, the need to enhance the effectiveness of environmental regulation requires driving the change of local government's priority to the environment and strengthening the institutional capacity of environmental protection agencies.

Distinguishing soft tissue sarcomas of different histologic grades based on quantitative MR assessment of intratumoral heterogeneity.

PURPOSE: To explore the role of intratumoral heterogeneity on MRI assessed by histogram analysis in differentiating soft-tissue sarcomas (STS) of different grades. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patients with primary STS undergoing MRI prior to iatrogenic procedures were included retrospectively. The histologic grade was assigned according to Federation Nationale des Centres de Lutte Contre le Cancer grading system. T1WI and T2WI were normalized by dividing mean signal intensity (SI) of contralateral/near unaffected muscles. Contrast-enhanced T1WI was normalized by computing enhancement ratio (ER) map as (SIpost-SIpre)/SIpre×100, where SIpre and SIpost represent SI of each pixel before and after enhancement. A region of interest (ROI) was manually drawn to include entire tumor area on axial slice with largest tumor diameter. Mean, mode, standard deviation, kurtosis and skewness on ROIs were extracted with ImageJ software. ANOVA/Kruskal-Wallis test was used to determine the significance of differences. ROC curve was applied for statistically significant parameters. P value ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: Among involved 67 patients, 8 were assigned to grade 1, 38 to grade 2 and 21 to grade 3. Skewness (P =  0.022) and kurtosis (P =  0.035) on ER maps were significantly different among STS of different grades. The optimal cutoffs of skewness and kurtosis on ER maps were -0.488 (AUC[95% CI] 0.747[0.557-0.937]; sensitivity/specificity, 62.5%/86.4%) and 0.762 (AUC[95% CI] 0.684[0.548-0.821]; sensitivity/specificity, 76.2%/56.5%), respectively. CONCLUSION: Intratumoral heterogeneity on MRI quantitatively displayed by histogram parameters can differentiate STS of different grades. Skewness and kurtosis on ER maps show the capacity.

Backward and forward multilevel indicators for identifying key sectors of China's intersectoral CO2 transfer network.

Many countries face a dilemma of economic growth and carbon emission mitigation, which is highly associated with energy consumption. In order to initiate effective policies for controlling carbon emissions, it is important to identify the key sectors in the value chain, thus proposing corresponding measures. To date, however, energy and carbon emissions have been studied mainly from a production or consumption perspective, with important interactions between sectors being seldom considered. In response, a new CO2 flow model is presented in which input-output analysis and network theory are combined with multilevel indicators to identify the key sectors affecting carbon emissions in terms of total, immediate, and mediative centrality effects. The model is demonstrated with an analysis of 2007 and 2012 China sectoral data, showing that Production & Supply of Electric Power, Steam and Hot Water (PESH), Nonmetal Mineral Products (NMMP), and Coal Mining & Dressing (CMDG) played key roles in China's carbon transfer network; the roles of Electronic & Telecommunications Equipment (ETET), Instruments & Office Machinery (IOMY), and Electric Equipment & Machinery (EEMY) had the largest immediacy effect; and, acting as key transmission sectors, PESH, Smelting & Pressing of Metals (SPOM), and NMMP controlled a large share of CO2 transfer. The measures used are closely related to, and provide new insights into, the traditional indicators of sector centrality. At the same time, the proposed multilevel indicators are supplements for techniques that aim to instruct sector-level carbon mitigation policies.

Pollution haven hypothesis of domestic trade in China: A perspective of SO2 emissions.

Domestic trade flourishes with economic development and the spatial separation of production and consumption. Therefore, the prosperity of trade is accompanied by the transfer of pollution from the demand side to the supply side, which could potentially worsen the environmental quality of the supply side. Despite a large number of studies on the pollution haven hypothesis in international trade, little attention has been paid to testing the hypothesis in domestic trade. Here, combining a multiregional input-output analysis and a gravity model of trade in China, we provide an empirical test to address this problem for the first time. We also assess the factors affecting the SO2 emissions embodied in trade, including population, economic development, coal consumption, distance, and environmental regulations. We found that domestic trade contributed approximate one third of the total SO2 emissions in China, and interprovincial transfers of SO2 embodied in trade were significantly determined by the population, economic development, coal consumption of the trade pairs, as well as their distance. SO2 emission mitigation policies, such as emission reduction target and sulfur dioxide control zone, has a more significant influence on the direct transfer of SO2 emission via direct bilateral trade, while their effects were largely offset by indirect trade (through third-party transfers). Our results do not support the pollution haven hypothesis existed in domestic trade in China during 2007-2012. Our paper sets an example and provides a reference for the domestic pollution transfer problem from an econometric perspective. Further attempts on testing pollution haven hypothesis in consideration of various pollutants are still needed to arrive at a robust conclusion.

Impact of Family Socioeconomic Status on Health-Related Quality of Life in Children With Critical Congenital Heart Disease.

Background Socioeconomic status ( SES ) is associated with health-related quality of life ( HRQOL ) for children with critical congenital heart disease; however, literature from newly industrialized countries is scarce. Methods and Results This cross-sectional study included 2037 surviving patients operated on for critical congenital heart disease at a tertiary hospital in China between May 2012 and December 2015. All eligible patients were aged 2 to 12 years. HRQOL was measured by the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory 4.0 generic and 3.0 cardiac modules. Family SES was assessed by a composite of household income in the past year and occupation and education level of each parent in the family. Mean scores of major domains in HRQOL were significantly lower in the low- SES group than in the medium- and high- SES groups (total generic scores: 71.2±7.9 versus 75.0±8.0 and 76.0±7.9, respectively [ P<0.001]; psychosocial functioning: 70.8±9.0 versus 74.4±8.4 and 75.3±8.4 [ P<0.001]; physical functioning: 71.6±10.4 versus 76.0±9.7 and 77.1±9.4 [ P<0.001]; heart symptoms: 71.9±11.6 versus 75.7±11.0 and 76.8±10.3 [ P<0.001]; cognitive problems: 65.4±11.1 versus 69.4±12.1 and 74.6±13.6 [ P<0.001]). After adjustment for other clinical and demographic variables in the multivariable linear regression model, family SES significantly affected all dimensions of HRQOL except for treatment barriers, treatment anxiety, physical appearance and communication. Conclusions Family SES is an important factor associated with HRQOL in patients with critical congenital heart disease. Further targeted interventions to improve HRQOL that consider the family and environmental issues confronted by those who are economically disadvantaged might help these patients have better outcomes.

Effects of Life Review Intervention on Life Satisfaction and Personal Meaning Among Older Adults With Frailty.

The current study aimed to examine the effects of life review intervention on life satisfaction and personal meaning among frail older adults. Seventy-four participants were randomly assigned to either the intervention or control group. The intervention group received the Haight Structured Life Review with modified guiding questions and memory prompts. The control group received usual nursing home care. The Life Satisfaction Index A and Purpose in Life Test questionnaires were administered at baseline and immediately after the intervention. Participants in the life review group demonstrated significant improvement in life satisfaction compared to the control group, but no significant differences in personal meaning. The study suggests that life review is a promising psychospiritual intervention for older adults, which could be delivered as a separate program or integrated into usual care in nursing homes. [Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 56(7),30-36.].