A high-resolution dataset of water bodies distribution over the Tibetan Plateau.

Water body (WB) extraction is the basic work of water resources management. Tibetan Plateau is one of the largest alpine lake systems in the world. However, research on the characteristics of water bodies (WBs) is mainly focused on large and medium WBs due to spatial resolution. This research presents a dataset containing a 2-m resolution map of WBs in 2020 based on Gaofen-1 data, and morphometric and landscape indices of WBs across the Tibetan Plateau. The Swin-UNet model is well performed with overall accuracy at 98%. The total area of WBs is 56354.6 km2 across Tibetan Plateau in 2020. The abundance compared with that from size-abundance relationship indicate WBs in the Tibetan Plateau conformed to the classic power scaling law. We evaluate the influence of spatial-resolution in WB extraction, which shows the dataset could be valuable to fill the gap of existing WBs map, especially for small waters. The dataset is valuable for revealing the spatial patterns of WBs, and understanding the impacts of climate change on water resources in Plateau.

Underwater Biomimetic Lateral Line Sensor Based on Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Dynamic Pressure Monitoring and Trajectory Perception.

Developing desirable sensors is crucial for underwater perceptions and operations. The perceiving organs of marine creatures have greatly evolved to react accurately and promptly underwater. Inspired by the fish lateral line, this study proposes a triboelectric dynamic pressure sensor for underwater perception. The biomimetic lateral line sensor (BLLS) has high sensitivity to the disturbance amplitude/frequency, good adaptability to underwater environments and (relative) low cost. The sensors are deployed at the bottom of the test basin to perceive various moving objects, such as a robotic fish, robotic seal, etc. By analyzing the electrical signal of the sensor, the motion parameters of the objects passed over can be obtained. By monitoring signal variations across multiple sensors, the ability to sense different disturbance movement trajectories, including linear and angular trajectories, is achievable. The study will prove significant in forming an unconventional underwater perceiving method, which can back-up the sonic/optical sensors when are impaired in complex underwater environments.

Disaster experience and resident risk preference: Evidence from China household finance survey.

China is one of the countries hardest hit by disasters. Disaster shocks not only cause a large number of casualties and property damage but also have an impact on the risk preference of those who experience it. Current research has not reached a consensus conclusion on the impact of risk preferences. This paper empirically analyzes the effects of natural and man-made disasters on residents' risk preference based on the data of the China Household Financial Survey (CHFS) in 2019. The results indicate that: (1) Both natural and man-made disasters can significantly lead to an increase in the risk aversion of residents, and man-made disasters have a greater impact. (2) Education background plays a negative moderating role in the impact of man-made disasters on residents' risk preference. (3) Natural disaster experiences have a greater impact on the risk preference of rural residents, while man-made disaster experiences have a greater impact on the risk preference of urban residents. Natural disaster experiences make rural residents more risk-averse, while man-made disaster experiences make urban residents more risk-averse. The results provide new evidence and perspective on the negative impact of disaster shocks on the social life of residents.

Spatial patterns of climate change and associated climate hazards in Northwest China.

Northwest China (NWC) is experiencing noticeable climate change accompanied with increasing impacts of climate hazards induced by changes in climate extremes. Towards developing climate adaptation strategies to mitigate the negative climatic impacts on both the ecosystem and socioeconomic system of the region, this study investigates systematically the spatial patterns of climate change and the associated climate hazards across NWC based on high resolution reanalysis climate dataset for the period 1979 to 2018. We find that NWC overall is under a warming and wetting transition in climate with change rate of temperature and precipitation around 0.49 °C/10a and 22.8 mm/10a respectively. Characteristics of climate change over the NWC however vary considerably in space. According to significance of long-term trends in both temperature and aridity index for each 0.1° × 0.1° grids, five types of climate change are identified across NWC, including warm-wetting, warm-drying, warm without wetting, wetting without warming and unchanging. The warm-wetting zone accounts for the largest proportion of the region (41%) and mainly locates in the arid or semi-arid northwestern NWC. Our findings show most region of NWC is under impacts of intensifying heatwave and rainstorm due to significant increases in high temperature extremes and precipitation extremes. The warming but without wetting zone is found under a more severe impact of heatwave, particularly for areas near northern Mount. Qinling and northern Loess Plateau. Areas with stronger wetting trend is suffering more from rainstorm.

The effects of metals and mixture exposure on lung function and the potential mediating effects of oxidative stress.

Exposure to metals is associated with lung function decline. However, limited data are available about effects of co-exposure of metals on lung function. Additionally, the mechanism of the association between metals and lung function remains unclear. We conducted a longitudinal panel study in 2017-2018 among 45 healthy college students. Urinary 15 metals, lung function, biomarkers of oxidative stress and inflammation of participants were measured. Linear mixed effect (LME) and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) models were applied to explore the associations of urinary metals and mixture with lung function. Furthermore, we analyzed the mediating effect of biomarkers in the association between urinary metals and lung function. LME models showed the negative associations of aluminum (Al), vanadium (V), manganese (Mn), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), cadmium (Cd) or antimony (Sb) with Forced vital capacity (FVC), and V, Co, Ni, and Sb with Forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1). BKMR models indicated the overall effect of metals mixture was negatively associated with FEV1 and FVC; urinary Sb was identified as the major contributor to decreased FVC and FEV1. Urinary 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine mediated the association of Al, Mn, or Sb with FVC and the relationship of V with FEV1. The results revealed the longitudinal dose-response relationships of urinary metals with pulmonary function among healthy adults. Oxidative stress may be the underlying mechanisms of metals exposure associated with decreased lung function. Due to the small sample size, the interpretation of the results of this study should be cautious, and more studies are needed to verify the findings of this study.

Ice phenology dataset reconstructed from remote sensing and modelling for lakes over the Tibetan Plateau.

The Tibetan Plateau (TP) is a region sensitive to global climate change and has been experiencing substantial environmental changes in the past decades. Lake ice phenology (LIP) is a perceptible indicator reflecting changes of lake thermodynamics in response to global warming. Lake ice phenology over the Tibetan Plateau is however rarely observed and recorded. This research presents a dataset containing 39-year (1978-2016) lake ice phenology data of 132 lakes (each with area >40 km2) over the Tibetan Plateau by combining the strengths of both remote sensing (MOD11A2, MOD10A1) and numerical modelling (air2water). Data validation shows that the ice phenology data derived by our method is highly consistent with that based on existing approaches (with R2 > 0.75 for all phenology index and RMSE < 5d). The dataset is valuable to investigate the lake-atmosphere interactions and long-term hydrothermal change of lakes across the Tibetan Plateau.

Fabrication of Ce-doped DUT-52 as a sorbent for dispersive solid phase extraction of estrogens in human urine samples.

A cerium (Ce)-doped metal-organic framework composite (Ce/DUT-52) was prepared by using a solvothermal method and was explored as a sorbent for dispersive solid phase extraction (DSPE) of three estrogens (α-estradiol, estrone, and hexestrol) in human urine samples. After doping with Ce(III), Ce/DUT-52 exhibited more attractive features involving a higher specific surface area (774.7 m2 g-1) and zeta potential (31.4 mV), which made it an efficient adsorbent for the separation and enrichment of estrogens. The factors influencing DSPE efficiency such as the adsorbent amount, extraction time, pH, NaCl concentration, elution solvent and elution volume were investigated in detail. Under the evaluated conditions, Ce/DUT-52 showed good reusability (n = 6, RSDs ≤ 4.8%). Notably, the cofunction of electrostatic interaction, hydrophobic interaction, hydrogen bonding and π-π interaction might play major roles between estrogens and Ce/DUT-52. Finally, coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), a fast and sensitive method was established, which provided low limits of detection (1.5-2.0 ng mL-1), wide linear ranges (3-500 ng mL-1) and satisfactory recoveries (79.8-96.1%). The results demonstrated that Ce/DUT-52 had excellent adsorption ability to the targets and the developed method provided an alternative strategy for the determination of trace estrogens or other compounds with similar chemical structures in urine samples.

Exposure to barium and blood pressure in children and adolescents: results from the 2003-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Barium (Ba) is ubiquitous in the environment, and humans are primarily exposed to it through ingestion of drinking water. Previous studies focused on the exposure to lead, cadmium, and arsenic, but have not focused on exposure to Ba. Recent studies found a significant association between Ba exposure and elevated blood pressure in pregnant women and adults. However, there are no studies regarding the effect of Ba exposure on blood pressure in children and adolescents, and the potential biological mechanisms remain unclear. We evaluated the associations between urinary Ba and systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and pulse pressure (PP) among 8- to 17-year-old participants (n = 3707) of the 2003-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Furthermore, the potential roles of inflammation in these associations were explored. Weighted linear regression was used to analyze the association between urinary Ba and blood pressure, and mediation analyses were used to estimate the potential role of white blood cell count (WBC) in these associations. Quantile g-computation models were used to explore the effect of co-exposure to Ba and other metals on blood pressure. After adjusting for covariates, a two-fold increase in urinary Ba concentration was associated with a 0.41 (95% CI 0.12, 0.70) mmHg increase in SBP, a 1.04 (95% CI 0.55, 1.53) mmHg increase in PP, but a -0.63 (95% CI -1.04, -0.22) mmHg decrease in DBP. WBC significantly mediated 6% of the association between urinary Ba and SBP. Quantile g-computation models suggested that urinary Ba was the main contributor to the elevation of SBP and PP in the urinary metal mixture. Our findings revealed that exposure to Ba was associated with elevated SBP and PP among children and adolescents. Inflammation may play an important role in the associations of Ba exposure with SBP.

The pattern, change and driven factors of vegetation cover in the Qin Mountains region.

The Qin Mountains region is one of the most important climatic boundaries that divide the North and South of China. This study investigates vegetation covers changes across the Qin Mountains region over the past three decades based on the Landsat-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), which were extracted from the Google Earth Engine (GEE). Our results show that the NDVI across the Qin Mountains have increased from 0.624 to 0.776 with annual change rates of 0.0053/a over the past 32 years. Besides, its abrupt point occurred in 2006 and the change rates after this point increased by 0.0094/a (R2 = 0.8159, p < 0.01) (2006-2018), which is higher than that in 1987-1999 and 1999-2006. The mean NDVI have changed in different elevation ranges. The NDVI in the areas below 3300 m increased, such increased is especially most obviously in the cropland. Most of the forest and grassland locate above 3300 m with higher increased rate. Before 2006, the temperature and reference evapotranspiration (PET) were the important driven factors of NDVI change below 3300 m. After afforestation, human activities become important factors that influenced NDVI changes in the low elevation area, but hydro-climatic factors still play an important role in NDVI increase in the higher elevations area.

Hydroclimate assessment of gridded precipitation products for the Tibetan Plateau.

Precipitation is the main water source shaping the Tibetan Plateau (TP) to be the Asian "water tower," but it is challenging to estimate. It is crucial to assess the performances of the increasingly available precipitation products for hydroclimate research on the TP. In this paper, three precipitation products (CMFD, TRMM and CHIRPS) are evaluated within a comprehensive framework, covering temporal and spatial consistency between the products, the errors of each product on the basis of extended triple collocation (ETC) analysis, and the performance of each product in reproducing streamflow when used as input in a hydrological model. The results show that, overall, the three products have better precipitation estimates in the southeast of the TP (a wetter region) than in the northwest (a drier region). CMFD and TRMM are more consistent with each other and represent precipitation across the TP better than CHIRPS. Among the three products, the areal precipitation from CMFD results in more satisfactory simulation of streamflow. Collectively, these precipitation products, together with the limited available gauge observations, address the uncertainty range of the predicted streamflow well.