Evaluation of linkage relationships between carbon emissions and economic development based on the decoupling model and the VAR model: a case study of Shanxi Province (China).

Economic development is the core driver of carbon emissions. It is of great significance to clarify the linkage relationship between economic development and carbon emissions. Therefore, the static and dynamic relationship between carbon emissions and economic development in Shanxi Province is analyzed by using the VAR model and decoupling model combined with data from 2001 to 2020. The results show that economic development and carbon emissions in Shanxi Province have mainly presented a weak decoupling state in the past 20 years, but the decoupling state is gradually increasing. Meanwhile, carbon emissions and economic development constitute a bidirectional cycle dynamic system. The impact of economic development on itself and carbon emissions account for 60% and 40%, respectively, while the impact of carbon emissions on itself and economic development accounts for 71% and 29%, respectively. This study provides a relevant theoretical basis for solving the problem of excessive dependence on energy consumption in economic development.

Organophosphate flame retardants and plastics in soil from an abandoned e-waste recycling site: significant ecological risks derived from plastic debris.

The distribution of 9 organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs) was determined in plastic debris and soil samples separated from twenty soil samples collected from an abandoned e-waste recycling area. Tris-(chloroisopropyl) phosphate (TCPP) and triphenyl phosphate (TPhP) were the main chemicals, with median concentrations of 124-1930 ng/g and 143-1170 ng/g in soil, and 712-803 ng/g and 600-953 ng/g in plastics, respectively. Plastics contributed less than 10% of the total OPFR mass in bulk soil samples. No apparent OPFR distribution trend was observed in different sizes of plastics and soil. The ecological risks of plastics and OPFRs were estimated by the species sensitivity distributions (SSDs) method, which resulted in lower predicted no-effect concentrations (PNECs) of TPhP and decabromodiphenyl ether 209 (BDE 209) than the standard values derived from limited toxicity tests. In addition, the PNEC of polyethene (PE) was lower than the plastic concentration in the soil of a previous study. TPhP and BDE 209 had high ecological risks with risk quotients (RQs) > 0.1, and RQ of TPhP was among the highest values in literature.

Impact of positive surgical margin location and perineural invasion on biochemical recurrence in patients undergoing radical prostatectomy.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the prognostic value of positive surgical margins (PSM) location and perineural invasion (PNI) for biochemical recurrence (BCR) in patients undergoing radical prostatectomy (RP). METHODS: All men with prostate cancer (PCa) who received RP in the second hospital of Tianjin Medical University from 2014 to 2018 were retrospectively identified. All patients met the following criteria: no neoadjuvant or adjuvant treatment, absence of lymph node invasion, or distant metastasis confirmed by surgery or imaging. Comparisons were made between cases with only apex positive (AM), isolated nonapical positive (OM), multiple positive (MM), and negative surgical margins (NSM). Patients were also subdivided according to the Gleason score and pathological tumor stage for analysis. RESULTS: A total of 416 patients available for analysis, of which 132 (31.7%) were PSM, 43 were AM, 37 were OM, and 52 were MM at a median follow-up of 27 months. The PNI was in 30.5% of patients. BCR occurred in 22.6% of patients during follow-up. Both AM and MM were noticed to be independent predictors of BCR with a hazard ratio of 4.192 (95% CI 2.185-8.042; p < 0.001) and 2.758 (95% CI 1.559-4.880; p < 0.001), respectively, when compared to NSM. Though the correlation was significant in univariate analysis, PNI was not an independent risk factor for BCR (p = 0.369). Subgroup analyses suggested that MM was not particularly predictive for BCR in the Gleason score < 8. The hole Cox regression model for the C-index was 0.843 CONCLUSIONS: PSM location was a significant independent predictor of BCR in PCa, especially in patients with AM or MM, while PNI is a non-independent risk factor. Compared with other locations, AM has a higher BCR risk.

AST/ALT ratio as a significant predictor of the incidence risk of prostate cancer.

BACKGROUND: To investigate the effect of serum aspartate transaminase/alanine transaminase (AST/ALT) on the risk of prostate cancer. METHODS: A total of 404 patients undergoing prostate biopsy from April 2016 to July 2019 were enrolled. One hundred and ninety-four patients with prostatic cancer (PCa) were diagnosed by pathology. Two hundred and ten patients were diagnosed with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the effect of AST/ALT ratio and other factors on the incidence of PCa. RESULT: AST/ALT ratio was significantly higher in PCa than in BPH patients (OR 2.313, 95%CI 1.337-4.003, P = .002). ROC curve indicated that the best cutoff was 1.155 in predicting the incidence risk of PCa. The age of PCa patients is higher than BPH patients (OR 1.054, 95%CI 1.027-1.082, P < .001). We also found that platelets were lower in PCa than in BPH patients. Multivariate analysis showed that AST/ALT ratio could be used as an independent predictor to assess the incident risk of PCa(OR 1.043, 95%CI 1.014-1.072, P = .003). However, AST/ALT ratio did not predict the incidence in high-risk or low-risk PCa. CONCLUSION: AST/ALT ratio was an independent factor in predicting the incidence of PCa. When the level of AST/ALT ratio in serum raised, the incidence risk of PCa was significantly increased, which was helpful for the clinical diagnosis of PCa. We still needed a multicenter study to verify the role of AST/ALT ratio in the development of PCa.