The concentration of organic nitrogen in mountain lakes is increasing as a result of reduced acid deposition and climate change.

The ionic and nutrient composition of mountain lakes recovering from atmospheric acidification is increasingly influenced by climate change (increasing air temperature and frequency of heavy rainfall events). We investigated the evolution of organic nitrogen (ON), dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and phosphorus (P) concentrations in alpine lakes in the Tatra Mountains (Central Europe) between 1993 and 2023, resulting from changes in climate and the ionic composition of atmospheric deposition. Our results suggest that the decreasing acidity of precipitation and the climatically induced increasing frequency of heavy rainfall events and air temperatures fluctuating around the freezing point have the potential to increase ON concentrations in alpine lakes despite decreasing deposition of inorganic N. The increasing ON involves its allochthonous and autochthonous sources: (1) increased co-export of ON with DOC from soils in dissolved organic matter due to less acidic precipitation and more frequent heavy rainfall events and (2) increased in-lake primary productivity (chlorophyll a) associated with higher P availability. Based on our previous studies, we hypothesize that P availability has increased due to (i) reduced adsorption of phosphate in precipitation to the metal hydroxides in the soil-adsorption complex as a result of increasing pH in precipitation and soil water and (ii) increased P production by weathering due to climate-induced increased mechanical erosion of rocks in unstable scree areas. The extent of these changes was related to the percentage cover of scree areas and meadow soils in the lake catchments. In addition, our results suggest that ON (besides chlorophyll a) may be a more sensitive indicator of increasing productivity of oligotrophic alpine lakes under changing air pollution and climate than generally low P concentrations and their poorly detectable trends.

Biological invasions are a population-level rather than a species-level phenomenon.

Biological invasions pose a rapidly expanding threat to the persistence, functioning and service provisioning of ecosystems globally, and to socio-economic interests. The stages of successful invasions are driven by the same mechanism that underlies adaptive changes across species in general-via natural selection on intraspecific variation in traits that influence survival and reproductive performance (i.e., fitness). Surprisingly, however, the rapid progress in the field of invasion science has resulted in a predominance of species-level approaches (such as deny lists), often irrespective of natural selection theory, local adaptation and other population-level processes that govern successful invasions. To address these issues, we analyse non-native species dynamics at the population level by employing a database of European freshwater macroinvertebrate time series, to investigate spreading speed, abundance dynamics and impact assessments among populations. Our findings reveal substantial variability in spreading speed and abundance trends within and between macroinvertebrate species across biogeographic regions, indicating that levels of invasiveness and impact differ markedly. Discrepancies and inconsistencies among species-level risk screenings and real population-level data were also identified, highlighting the inherent challenges in accurately assessing population-level effects through species-level assessments. In recognition of the importance of population-level assessments, we urge a shift in invasive species management frameworks, which should account for the dynamics of different populations and their environmental context. Adopting an adaptive, region-specific and population-focused approach is imperative, considering the diverse ecological contexts and varying degrees of susceptibility. Such an approach could improve and refine risk assessments while promoting mechanistic understandings of risks and impacts, thereby enabling the development of more effective conservation and management strategies.

The influence of atmospheric deposition and climate change driven catchment internal processes on the recovery from acidification of high-altitude Alpine lakes.

The impact of atmospheric deposition and environmental factors on catchment processes and water chemistry of 20 high-altitude Alpine lakes in Southern Switzerland was investigated over four decades. Through the analysis of input-output budgets of sulphur (S), nitrogen (N), base cations and alkalinity significant trends emerged. Notably, S and N input concentrations significantly declined since the 1980s, by approximately 78 % and 22 %, respectively, with N primarily declining after 2000. Recovery from acidification was slightly delayed, likely due to the increased release of S, possibly originating from legacy S pools, alongside the simultaneous reduction in leaching of base cations from exchange sites. Catchments heavily impacted by thawing cryospheric features increasingly released S and base cations due to enhanced weathering processes, with hardly any impact on the recovery process, as evidenced by the balanced releases of S and base cations. N output concentrations followed the decrease of N input concentrations, while the relative N retention in the catchments remained relatively stable. Recently, both input concentrations of S and N have stabilised, while output concentrations of base cations began to increase across all catchments. The trend likely arises from the stabilisation of S and N input concentrations and/or the ongoing increase in weathering rates induced by climate change. Consequently, there was a consistent rise in alkalinity output concentrations even after the stabilisation of the S and N input concentrations. Ion ratio analysis suggests that carbonation primarily drives weathering processes in catchment areas unaffected by thawing cryosphere, while in areas impacted by thawing cryosphere, sulphide oxidation (or sulphate dissolution) is the dominant process. Further recovery depends on future N deposition and the effects of climate change.

How tolerances, competition and dispersal shape benthic invertebrate colonisation in restored urban streams.

Biotic communities often respond poorly to river restoration activities and the drivers of community recovery after restoration are not fully understood. According to the Asymmetric Response Concept (ARC), dispersal capacity, species tolerances to stressors, and biotic interactions are three key drivers influencing community recovery of restored streams. However, the ARC remains to be tested. Here we used a dataset on benthic invertebrate communities of eleven restored stream sections in a former open sewer system that were sampled yearly over a period of eleven years. We applied four indices that reflect tolerance against chloride and organic pollution, the community's dispersal capacity and strength of competition to the benthic invertebrate taxa lists of each year and site. Subsequently, we used generalised linear mixed models to analyse the change of these indices over time since restoration. Dispersal capacity was high directly after restoration but continuously decreased over time. The initial communities thus consisted of good dispersers and were later joined by more slowly dispersing taxa. The tolerance to organic pollution also decreased over time, reflecting continuous improvement of water quality and an associated increase of sensitive species. On the contrary, chloride tolerances did not change, which could indicate a stable chloride level throughout the sampling period. Lastly, competition within the communities, reflected by interspecific trait niche overlap, increased with time since restoration. We show that recovery follows a specific pattern that is comparable between sites. Benthic communities change from tolerant, fast dispersing generalists to more sensitive, slowly dispersing specialists exposed to stronger competition. Our results lay support to the ARC (increasing role of competition, decreasing role of dispersal) but also underline that certain tolerances may still shape communities a decade after restoration. Disentangling the drivers of macroinvertebrate colonisation can help managers to better understand recovery trajectories and to define more realistic restoration targets.

Surface ozone trends reversal for June and December in an Atlantic natural coastal environment.

Surface ozone and temperature trends were investigated using records from 2000 to 2021 in Southwestern Europe, at El Arenosillo observatory, focusing on June and December. The ozone trends for daily percentiles were increasing in June for lower percentiles (2.5 ± 1.2 ppb decade-1 for the 5th percentile) and decreasing for higher (- 2.2 ± 1.4 ppb decade-1 for the 95th percentile); in December, the trends were growing in the entire range of percentiles, with a peak of 2.2 ± 0.8 ppb decade-1. A declining trend was obtained for the geopotential height at the pressure level of 850 hPa (Z850) in June while highlighting the upward trend in December (26.3 ± 6.5 m decade-1). The hourly trends for ozone and temperature were also explored in these months. In June, the nocturnal ozone trends were growing (4.0 ± 1.2 ppb decade-1 or 10% decade-1 at 8:00 UTC) associated with temperature rises while in the daytime, a decrease in temperature was observed along with an ozone decreasing trend (- 2.6 ± 1.6 ppb decade-1 or - 5% decade-1 at 18:00 UTC). Hourly ozone and temperature trends in December were increasing with peaks of 3.0 ± 0.9 ppb decade-1 (~ 8% decade-1) at 12:00 UTC and 1.6 ± 0.3 °C decade-1 at 19:00 UTC. Two representative scenarios of these months were studied. The ozone decreases in June could be associated with several factors, decreasing in temperatures and a possible weakening of the anticyclonic conditions leading to changes in the mesoscale processes' development. The strengthening of the Azores anticyclone in December could be enhancing the upward ozone trend observed. It is unknown whether the reversal ozone pattern trends found in this region are a local phenomenon; although we suggest that it could be happening on a larger scale as well, future studies should be carried out.

[Elucidating the Impacts of Meteorology and Emission Changes on Concentrations of Major Air Pollutants in Major Cities in the Yangtze River Delta Region Using a Machine Learning De-weather Method].

This study applied a de-weather method based on a machine learning technique to quantify the contribution of meteorology and emission changes to air quality from 2015 to 2021 in four cities in the Yangtze River Delta Region. The results showed that the significant reductions in PM2.5, NO2, and SO2 emissions(57.2%-68.2%, 80.7%-94.6%, and 81.6%-96.1%, respectively) offset the adverse effects of meteorological conditions, resulting in lower pollutant concentrations. The meteorological contribution of maximum daily 8-h average O3(MDA8_O3) showed a stronger effect than that of others(23.5%-42.1%), and meteorological factors promoted the increase in MDA8_O3 concentrations(4.7%); however, emission changes overall resulted in a decrease in MDA8_O3 concentrations(-3.2%). NO2 and MDA8_O3 decreased more rapidly from 2019 to 2021, mainly because the emissions played a stronger role in reducing pollutant concentrations than from 2015 to 2018. However, emissions changes had weaker reduction effects on PM2.5 and SO2 from 2019 to 2021 than from 2015 to 2018. De-weather methods could effectively seperate the effects of meteorology and emission changes on pollutant trends, which helps to evaluate the real effects of emission control policies on pollutant concentrations.

44-year temporal trends and causes of maternal mortality at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, Lagos, Nigeria (1976-2019).

Background: Nigeria has committed to global initiatives aimed at improving maternal and child health. Institutional audit of maternal mortality over a long period can provide useful information on the trends in maternal death and the impact of interventions. Aim: To evaluate the trends in annual deliveries, maternal mortality ratio and causes of maternal death at a tertiary institution in Nigeria over a period of 44 years (1976-2019). Materials and Methods: We conducted a temporal trend analysis of annual births, maternal deaths, maternal mortality ratio (MMR), and ranking of causes of maternal deaths at a Teaching Hospital, in Southwest Nigeria using available data from 1976 to 2019. Overall and segmental annual percent change (APC) of the observed trends were conducted using Joinpoint version 4.5.0.1 software. Results: Over the 44-year study period, 1323 maternal deaths occurred at approximately 30 maternal deaths per annum. There was a four-fold increase in MMR from 881/100,000 total births in 1976 to 3389.8/100,000 total births in 2019, at an average increase of 3.1% per annum. (APC: 3.1%; P value < 0.001). The leading causes of maternal mortality were hypertension, sepsis, haemorrhage, and abortion, which together contributed to more than 70% of maternal deaths. All the leading causes of maternal deaths except abortion had constant ranking during the study period. Conclusion: The four-fold increase in MMR at our hospital from 1976-2019 is worrying and may suggest that previous efforts at reducing maternal mortality in our institution did not lead to significant improvement toward the attainment of Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG3). The hospital increasingly managed complex cases especially the unbooked patients who were referred to the hospital as a last resort.

Significant improvement in freshwater invertebrate biodiversity in all types of English rivers over the past 30 years.

There remains a persistent concern that freshwater biodiversity is in decline and being threatened by pollution. As the UK, and particularly England, is a densely populated nation with rivers of modest dilution capacity, this location is very suitable to examine how freshwater biodiversity has responded to human pressures over the past 30 years. A long-term dataset of 223,325 freshwater macroinvertebrate records from 1989 to 2018 for England was retrieved and examined. A sub-set of approximately 200 sites per English Region (1515 sites in total with 62,514 samples), with the longest and most consistent records were matched with predicted wastewater exposure, upstream land cover and terrain characteristics (latitude, altitude, slope gradient and flow discharge). To understand changes in macroinvertebrate diversity and sensitivity with respect to these parameters, the biotic indices of (i) overall family richness, (ii) Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera (EPT) family richness, and (iii) the Biological Monitoring Working Party (BMWP) scores of NTAXA (number of scoring taxa) and (iv) ASPT (average score per taxon) were selected. A review of how close the BMWP scores come to those expected at minimally impacted reference sites was included. For all latitudes, altitudes, channel slope, river size, wastewater exposure levels, and differing proportions of upstream woodland, seminatural, arable and urban land cover, all diversity or sensitivity indices examined improved over this period, although this improvement has slowed in some cases post 2003. Mean overall family richness has increased from 15 to 25 family groups, a 66 % improvement. The improvement in mean EPT family richness (3 to 10 families, >300 % improvement), which are considered to be particularly sensitive to pollution, implies macroinvertebrate diversity has benefited from a national improvement in critical components of water quality.

Changing patterns in the highly contributing aerosol types/species across the globe in the past two decades.

With the rapidly changing aerosol emissions due to the increase in urbanization, energy consumption, population density, and industrialization in the past two decades across the globe, there is an evolution of different chemical properties of aerosols that are yet not quantified properly. Therefore, a rigorous attempt is made in this study to obtain the long-term changing patterns in the contribution of different aerosol types/species, to the total aerosol loading. This study is carried out only over those regions exhibiting either increasing or decreasing trends in the aerosol optical depth (AOD) parameter on a global scale. Applying the multivariate linear regression trend analysis on Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Application version 2 (MERRA-2) aerosol species dataset obtained between 2001 and 2020, we found that despite the overall statistically significant decrease in total columnar AOD trend values over North-Eastern America, and Eastern and Central China regions, an increase in the dust and organic carbon aerosols is observed, respectively. As the uneven vertical distribution of aerosols can alter the direct radiative effects, the extinction profiles of different aerosol types obtained using Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) dataset between 2006 and 2020, are further partitioned, for the first time, based on their presence in different altitudes (i.e., within the atmospheric boundary layer and free-troposphere) as well as measurement timing (i.e., daytime and night-time) regimes. The detailed analysis showed that there exists an overall higher contribution of aerosols persisting in the free troposphere region which in turn can have a long-term effect on climate due to their higher residence time, particularly absorbing aerosols. As the trends are mostly associated with the changes in energy use, regional regulatory policies, and/or changing background meteorology conditions, therefore this study also elaborates on the effectiveness of these factors with the changes obtained in different aerosol species/types over the region.

Different health systems - Different mortality outcomes? Regional disparities in avoidable mortality across German-speaking Europe, 1992-2019.

BACKGROUND: Evaluating the impact of health systems on premature mortality across different countries is a very challenging task, as it is hardly possible to disentangle it from the influence of contextual factors such as cultural differences. In this respect, the German-speaking area in Central Europe (Austria, Germany, South Tyrol and large parts of Switzerland) represents a unique 'natural experiment' setting: While being exposed to different health policies, they share a similar culture and language. METHODS: To assess the impact of different health systems on mortality differentials across the German-speaking area, we relied on the concept of avoidable mortality. Based on official mortality statistics, we aggregated causes of death below age 75 that are either 1) amenable to health care or 2) avoidable through primary prevention. We calculated standardised death rates and constructed cause-deleted life tables for 9 Austrian, 96 German, 1 Italian and 5 Swiss regions from 1992 to 2019, harmonised according to the current territorial borders. RESULTS: There are strong north-south and east-west gradients in amenable and preventable mortality across the studied regions to the advantage of the southwest. However, the Swiss regions still show significantly lower mortality levels than the neighbouring regions in southern Germany. Eliminating avoidable deaths from the life tables reduces spatial inequality in life expectancy in 2017/2019 by 30% for men and 28% for women. CONCLUSIONS: The efficiency of health policies in assuring timely and adequate health care and in preventing risk-relevant behaviour has room for improvement in all German regions, especially in the north, west and east, and in eastern Austria as well.

Increasing numbers and complexity of Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infection-14 years of prospective evaluation at a German tertiary care centre with multi-centre validation of findings.

OBJECTIVES: Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infection (SAB) is a common and severe infection. This study aims to describe temporal trends in numbers, epidemiological characteristics, clinical manifestations, and outcomes of SAB. METHODS: We performed a post-hoc analysis of three prospective SAB cohorts at the University Medical Centre Freiburg between 2006 and 2019. We validated our findings in a large German multi-centre cohort of five tertiary care centres (R-Net consortium, 2017-2019). Time-dependent trends were estimated using Poisson or beta regression models. RESULTS: We included 1797 patients in the mono-centric and 2336 patients in the multi-centric analysis. Overall, we observed an increasing number of SAB cases over 14 years (6.4%/year and 1000 patient days, 95% CI: 5.1% to 7.7%), paralleled by an increase in the proportion of community-acquired SAB (4.9%/year [95% CI: 2.1% to 7.8%]) and a decrease in the rate of methicillin-resistant-SAB (-8.5%/year [95% CI: -11.2% to -5.6%]). All of these findings were confirmed in the multi-centre validation cohort (6.2% cases per 1000 patient cases/year [95% CI: -0.6% to 12.6%], community-acquired-SAB 8.7% [95% CI: -1.2% to 19.6%], methicillin-resistant S. aureus-SAB -18.6% [95% CI: -30.6 to -5.8%]). Moreover, we found an increasing proportion of patients with multiple risk factors for complicated/difficult-to-treat SAB (8.5%/year, 95% CI: 3.6% to 13.5%, p < 0.001), alongside an overall higher level of comorbidities (Charlson comorbidity score 0.23 points/year, 95% CI: 0.09 to 0.37, p 0.005). At the same time, the rate of deep-seated foci such as osteomyelitis or deep-seated abscesses significantly increased (6.7%, 95% CI: 3.9% to 9.6%, p < 0.001). A reduction of in-hospital mortality by 0.6% per year (95% CI: 0.08% to 1%) was observed in the subgroup of patients with infectious diseases consultations. DISCUSSION: We found an increasing number of SAB combined with a significant increase in comorbidities and complicating factors in tertiary care centres. The resulting challenges in securing adequate SAB management in the face of high patient turnover will become an important task for physicians.

Changing Patterns of Heart Disease Mortality in Rural and Urban Areas - China, 1987-2021.

What is already known about this topic?: The burden of heart disease is increasing rapidly due to the aging population and changing lifestyles in China. What is added by this report?: This study investigated the evolution of mortality rates due to heart disease in urban and rural areas of China over the past 35 years, and identified the age-period-cohort effects on mortality changes. What are the implications for public health practice?: Healthcare providers should prioritize attention to heart disease among older males living in rural areas.

Shifts in the composition of nitrogen deposition in the conterminous United States are discernable in stream chemistry.

Across the conterminous United States (U.S.), the composition of atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition is changing spatially and temporally. Previously, deposition was dominated by oxidized N, but now reduced N (ammonia [NH3] + ammonium [NH4+]) is equivalent to oxidized N when deposition is averaged across the entire nation and, in some areas, reduced N dominates deposition. To evaluate if there are effects of this change on stream chemistry at the national scale, estimates of N deposition form (oxidized or reduced) from the National Atmospheric Deposition Program Total Deposition data were coupled with stream measurements from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National Rivers and Streams Assessments (three stream surveys between 2000 and 2014). A recent fine-scaled N input inventory was used to identify watersheds (<1000 km2) where atmospheric deposition is the largest N source (n = 1906). Within these more atmospherically-influenced watersheds there was a clear temporal shift from a greater proportion of sites dominated by oxidized N deposition to a greater proportion of sites dominated by reduced forms of N deposition. We found a significant positive correlation between oxidized N deposition and stream NO3- concentrations, whereas the correlation between reduced N deposition and stream NO3- concentrations were significant but weaker. Sites dominated by atmospheric inputs of reduced N forms had higher stream total organic N and total N despite lower total N deposition on average. This higher stream concentration of total N is mainly driven by the higher concentration of total organic N, suggesting an interaction between elevated reduced N in deposition and living components of the ecosystem or soil organic matter dynamics. Regardless of the proportion of reduced to oxidized N forms in deposition, stream NH4+ concentrations were generally low, suggesting that N deposited in a reduced form is rapidly immobilized, nitrified and/or assimilated by watershed processes.

Overabundant deer and invasive plants drive widespread regeneration debt in eastern United States national parks.

Advanced regeneration, in the form of tree seedlings and saplings, is critical for ensuring the long-term viability and resilience of forest ecosystems in the eastern United States. Lack of regeneration and/or compositional mismatch between regeneration and canopy layers, called regeneration debt, can lead to shifts in forest composition, structure, and, in extreme cases, forest loss. In this study, we examined status and trends in regeneration across 39 national parks from Virginia to Maine, spanning 12 years to apply the regeneration debt concept. We further refined the concept by adding new metrics and classifying results into easily interpreted categories adapted from the literature: imminent failure, probable failure, insecure, and secure. We then used model selection to determine the potential drivers most influencing patterns of regeneration debt. Status and trends indicated widespread regeneration debt in eastern national parks, with 27 of 39 parks classified as imminent or probable failure. Deer browse impact was consistently the strongest predictor of regeneration abundance. The most pervasive component of regeneration debt observed across parks was a sapling bottleneck, characterized by critically low sapling density of native canopy species and significant declines in native canopy sapling basal area or density for most parks. Regeneration mismatches also threaten forest resilience in many parks, where native canopy seedlings and saplings were outnumbered by native subcanopy species, particularly species that are less palatable deer browse. The devastating impact of emerald ash borer eliminating ash as a native canopy tree also drove regeneration mismatches in many parks that contain abundant ash regeneration, demonstrating the vulnerability of forests that lack diverse understories to invasive pests and pathogens. These findings underscore the critical importance of an integrated forest management approach that promotes an abundant and diverse regeneration layer. In most cases, this can only be achieved through long-term (i.e., multidecadal) management of white-tailed deer and invasive plants. Small-scale disturbances that increase structural complexity may also promote regeneration where stress from deer and invasive plants is minimal. Without immediate and sustained management intervention, the forest loss we are already observing may become a widespread pattern in eastern national parks and the broader region.

Changing Patterns in Cancer Mortality from 1987 to 2020 in China.

BACKGROUND: China has the highest number of new cancer cases and deaths worldwide, posing huge health and economic burdens to society and affected families. This study comprehensively analyzed secular trends of national cancer mortality statistics to inform future prevention and intervention programs in China. METHODS: The annual estimate of overall cancer mortality and its major subtypes were derived from the National Health Commission (NHC). Joinpoint analysis was used to detect changes in trends, and we used age-period-cohort modeling to estimate cohort and period effects in Cancers between 1987 and 2020. Net drift (overall annual percentage change), local drift (annual percentage change in each age group), longitudinal age curves (expected longitudinal age-specific rate), and period (cohort) relative risks were calculated. RESULTS: The age-standardized cancer mortality in urban China has shown a steady downward trend but has not decreased significantly in rural areas. Almost all cancer deaths in urban areas have shown a downward trend, except for colorectal cancer in men. Decreasing mortality from cancers in rural of the stomach, esophagus, liver, leukemia, and nasopharynx was observed, while lung, colorectal cancer female breast, and cervical cancer mortality increased. Birth cohort risks peaked in the cohorts born around 1920-1930 and tended to decline in successive cohorts for most cancers except for leukemia, lung cancer in rural, and breast and cervical cancer in females, whose relative risks were rising in the very recent cohorts. In addition, mortality rates for almost all types of cancer in older Chinese show an upward trend. CONCLUSIONS: Although the age-standardized overall cancer mortality rate has declined, and the urban-rural gap narrowed, the absolute cancer cases kept increasing due to the growing elderly population in China. The rising mortality related to lung, colorectal, female breast, and cervical cancer should receive higher priority in managing cancer burden and calls for targeted public health actions to reverse the trend.

Temporal Trends in Variability of Respirable Dust and Respirable Quartz Concentrations in the European Industrial Minerals Sector.

While between- and within-worker variability have been studied quite extensively, hardly any research is available that examines long-term trends in the variability of occupational exposure. In this first study on trends in occupational exposure variability temporal changes in the variability of respirable dust and respirable quartz concentrations within the European industrial minerals sector were demonstrated. Since 2000 the European Industrial Minerals Association's Dust Monitoring Program (IMA-DMP) has systematically collected respirable dust and respirable quartz measurements. The resulting IMA-DMP occupational exposure database contains at present approximately 40 000 personal full-shift measurements, collected at 177 sites owned by 39 companies, located in 23 European countries. Repeated measurements of workers performing their duties within a specific site-job-campaign combination allowed estimation of within- and between-worker variability in exposure concentrations. Overall day-to-day variability predominated the between-worker variability for both respirable dust concentrations and quartz concentrations. The within-worker variability in concentrations by job was two to three times higher for respirable quartz than for respirable dust. The median between-worker variability in respirable dust concentrations was low and further reduced over time. For quartz concentrations the same phenomenon albeit somewhat less strong was observed. In contrast, for the within-worker variability in concentrations downward and upward temporal trends were apparent for both respirable dust and respirable quartz. The study shows that the (relative) size of temporal variability is large and unpredictable and therefore regular measurement campaigns are needed to ascertain compliance to occupational exposure limit values.

Trends in Educational Assortative Marriage in China Over the Past Century.

In the past century, China has undergone rapid and dramatic social and economic changes. This article describes trends in educational assortative marriages of cohorts born in 1906-1995 in China. We measure educational attainment relatively as an individual's percentile position in the education distribution of a 10-year birth cohort and study trends using comparable, easy-to-interpret couple rank-rank correlations. We analyze microdata samples from the 1982, 1990, 2000, and 2010 China censuses and the 2015 1% intercensus survey and nationally representative surveys between 1996 and 2018. We find a large and steady increase in educational assortative marriage over the past century, except among those born in 1946-1965, whose schooling and marriage were impacted by the Cultural Revolution. Our study highlights the critical roles of social, political, and economic contexts in shaping trends in educational assortative marriage.

Long-term dynamics and drivers of particulate phosphorus concentration in eutrophic lake Chaohu, China.

Particulate phosphorus (PP) plays an important biological role in the eutrophication process, and is thus an important water quality parameter for assessing climatic change and anthropogenic activity factors that affect aquatic ecosystems. Here, we used 20-year Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data to explore the patterns and trends of PP concentration (CPP) in eutrophic Lake Chaohu based on a new empirical model. The validation results indicated that the developed model performed satisfactorily in estimating CPP, with a mean absolute percentage error of 31.89% and root mean square error of 0.022 mg/L. Long-term MODIS observations (2000-2019) revealed that the CPP of Lake Chaohu has experienced an overall increasing trend and distinct spatiotemporal heterogeneity. The driving factor analysis revealed that the chemical fertilizer consumption, municipal wastewater, industrial sewage, precipitation, and air temperature were the five potential driving factors and collectively explained more than 81% of the long-term variation in CPP. This study provides the long-term datasets of CPP in inland waters and new insights for future water eutrophication control and restoration efforts.

Have attitudes toward epilepsy improved in Germany over the last 50 years?

OBJECTIVE: In Germany, six previous representative surveys on attitudes toward epilepsy (AE) have been conducted between 1967 and 2008 using the four original Caveness questions (CQs) from 1949 to 1980. The aims of this study were (1) to investigate changes in AE over the time span of 50 years, including the current survey in 2018 (2) to investigate the first-time emotional reactions measured with the Scales of Attitudes toward People with Epilepsy (SAPE) (3) to identify predictors of AE. METHODS: A representative face-to-face survey with CQ, in addition with the SAPE scales of Social Distance, Stereotypes, Personal Concerns, and Emotional Reactions was carried out in Germany in 2018. One thousand and twenty-six persons who ever had heard of epilepsy participated. Respondents who answered "don't know" in the CQs were subsequently asked to answer only yes/no. The analysis of trends from 1967 to 2018 was based on the pooled data of the surveys. The four CQs in the 2018 survey were included in the SAPE item pool and an exploratory principal axis factor analysis was performed. General linear models were performed to identify predictors. RESULTS: For all four CQs, the trend of improved AE was significant over the past 50 years. In the 2018 survey, excluding the "don't know" answer option increased the proportion of negative responses for contact of one's own children with a person with epilepsy (PWE) from 6.9% to 11.4% and for the marriage of one's own children with a PWE from 13.9% to 23.8%. When encountering a PWE, 30.1% would feel insecure or uncomfortable and nearly 60% were concerned that the PWE might be injured in case of a seizure. Knowing what to do in case of a seizure, knowing that seizures can be treated successfully, personal contact with a PWE along with younger age, and higher education were found to be the strongest predictors for positive AE identified by multivariate analyses. Exploratory principal axis factor analysis revealed that three of the four CQs items loaded > 0.30 at the factors of Social Distance and Stereotypes of SAPE but none on the factors measuring emotional reactions. SIGNIFICANCE: AE measured by CQs have markedly improved in Germany over the last 50 years. Germany is to our knowledge the only country with such a long-term trend investigation in AE. Negative AE may be underestimated by survey questions with "don't know" answer option. Emotional aspects of attitudes are underexposed resp. neglected in the CQs, which are used worldwide for measuring AE. Additional tools like SAPE can close this gap. The identified predictors may help to derive interventions against negative AE.

Understanding and revealing the intrinsic impacts of the COVID-19 lockdown on air quality and public health in North China using machine learning.

To avoid the spread of COVID-19, China implemented strict prevention and control measures, resulting in dramatic variations in urban and regional air quality. With the complex effect from long-term emission mitigation and meteorology variation, an accurate evaluation of the net effect from lockdown on air quality changes has not been fully quantified. Here, we combined machine learning algorithm and Theil-Sen regression technique to eliminate meteorological and long-term trends effects on air pollutant concentrations and precisely detect concentrations changes those ascribed to lockdown measures in North China. Our results showed that, compared to the same period in 2015-2019, the adverse meteorology during the lockdown period (January 25th to March 15th) in early 2020 increased PM2.5 concentration in North China by 9.8 %, while the reduction of anthropogenic emissions led to a 32.2 % drop. Stagnant meteorological conditions have a more significant impact on the ground-level air quality in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region than that in Shanxi and Shandong provinces. After further striping out the effect of long-term emission reduction trend, the lockdown-derived NO2, PM2.5, and O3 shown variety change trend, and at -30.8 %, -27.6 %, and +10.0 %, respectively. Air pollutant changes during the lockdown could be overestimated up to 2-fold without accounting for the influences of meteorology and long-term trends. Further, with pollution reduction during the lockdown period, it would avoid 15,807 premature deaths in 40 cities. If with no deteriorate meteorological condition, the total avoided premature should increase by 1146.