Achieving balance between socioeconomic development and ecosystem conservation via policy adjustments in Guangdong Province of southeastern China.

Rapid urbanization improves socioeconomic development but challenges ecosystem sustainability. Meanwhile, the gradient responses of ecosystem services (ESs) to landscape structures and associated regime shifts of the agriculture-ecosystem-economy nexus (AEEN) have not been sufficiently addressed, preventing an effective balance between socioeconomic prosperity and ecosystem conservation. To bridge this knowledge gap, this study selected the Guangdong Province of southeastern China to explore landscape dynamics from 1985 to 2020 and their spatially heterogeneous impacts on ESs and the AEEN, based on Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs approach and other biophysical models as well as statistical records about socioeconomic factors. AEEN elements, including ESs, responded directly to policy adjustments in terms of ecosystem restoration and landscape management and presented remarkable regime shifts (i.e., phase changes) and spatial heterogeneity. Aggressive agricultural reclamation before 1999 increased crop productivity but caused vegetation degradation and biomass decline. Accelerated urban expansion and ecosystem restoration efforts have improved economic and ecological benefits but have substantially reduced crop productivity and threatened food security. However, timely policy adjustments since 2009 reversed the declining trend and maintained the grain supply. Landscape composition presented patterns of gradual decline along the urban-rural gradient, which in turn determined ES gradient patterns. For instance, water yield and nitrogen export positively correlated with each other (p < 0.0001) but negatively correlated with other ESs. Our study enriches the understandings of social-ecological systems' response to man-made interventions from AEEN perspective allowing for spatial variabilities and regime shifts, which support policy formulation for coordinating ecological and economic benefits.

The complete chloroplast genome sequence of Michelia macclurei (Dandy, 1928) (Magnoliaceae), an important fire-resistant tree species.

Michelia macclurei (Dandy, 1928) is an evergreen broad-leaved tree species native to South China. This species has great ecological and economic importance. However, the genomic study of M. macclurei has lagged far behind. Here, we reported the complete chloroplast genome sequence of M. macclurei. The chloroplast genome size of M. macclurei was 160,139 bp, consisting of a pair of inverted repeat (IR) regions (26,575 bp), which was separated by a large single copy (LSC) region (88,167 bp) and a small single copy (SSC) region (18,822 bp). A total of 113 unique genes were annotated, including 79 protein-coding genes, 30 tRNA genes, and four rRNA genes. The overall GC content was 39.2%. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16 whole chloroplast genome sequences of Michelia species suggested that M. macclurei and M. maudiae are sister to each other, and jointly sister to M. chapensis.

A Comparative Study of Genetic Responses to Short- and Long-Term Habitat Fragmentation in a Distylous Herb Hedyotis chyrsotricha (Rubiaceae).

The genetic effects of habitat fragmentation are complex and are influenced by both species traits and landscape features. For plants with strong seed or pollen dispersal capabilities, the question of whether the genetic erosion of an isolated population becomes stronger or is counterbalanced by sufficient gene flow across landscapes as the timescales of fragmentation increase has been less studied. In this study, we compared the population structure and genetic diversity of a distylous herb, Hedyotis chyrsotricha (Rubiaceae), in two contrasting island systems of southeast China. Based on RAD-Seq data, our results showed that populations from the artificially created Thousand-Island Lake (TIL) harbored significantly higher levels of genetic diversity than those from the Holocene-dated Zhoushan Archipelago (ZA) (π = 0.247 vs. 0.208, HO = 0.307 vs. 0.256, HE = 0.228 vs. 0.190), while genetic differences between island and mainland populations were significant in neither the TIL region nor the ZA region. A certain level of population substructure was found in TIL populations, and the level of gene flow among TIL populations was also lower than in ZA populations (m = 0.019 vs. 0.027). Overall, our comparative study revealed that genetic erosion has not become much stronger for the island populations of either the TIL or ZA regions. Our results emphasized that the matrix of water in the island system may facilitate the seed (fruit) dispersal of H. chrysotricha, thus maintaining population connectivity and providing ongoing resilience to the effects of habitat fragmentation over thousands of years.

Construction and validation of nomograms combined with novel machine learning algorithms to predict early death of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical and non-clinical characteristics that may affect the early death rate of patients with metastatic colorectal carcinoma (mCRC) and develop accurate prognostic predictive models for mCRC. Method: Medical records of 35,639 patients with mCRC diagnosed from 2010 to 2019 were obtained from the SEER database. All the patients were randomly divided into a training cohort and a validation cohort in a ratio of 7:3. X-tile software was utilized to identify the optimal cutoff point for age and tumor size. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to determine the independent predictors associated with overall early death and cancer-specific early death caused by mCRC. Simultaneously, predictive and dynamic nomograms were constructed. Moreover, logistic regression, random forest, CatBoost, LightGBM, and XGBoost were used to establish machine learning (ML) models. In addition, receiver operating characteristic curves (ROCs) and calibration plots were obtained to estimate the accuracy of the models. Decision curve analysis (DCA) was employed to determine the clinical benefits of ML models. Results: The optimal cutoff points for age were 58 and 77 years and those for tumor size of 45 and 76. A total of 15 independent risk factors, namely, age, marital status, race, tumor localization, histologic type, grade, N-stage, tumor size, surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, bone metastasis, brain metastasis, liver metastasis, and lung metastasis, were significantly associated with the overall early death rate of patients with mCRC and the cancer-specific early death rate of patients with mCRC, following which nomograms were constructed. The ML models revealed that the random forest model accurately predicted outcomes, followed by logistic regression, CatBoost, XGBoost, and LightGBM models. Compared with other algorithms, the random forest model provided more clinical benefits than other models and can be used to make clinical decisions in overall early death and specific early death caused by mCRC. Conclusion: ML algorithms combined with nomograms may play an important role in distinguishing early deaths owing to mCRC and potentially help clinicians make clinical decisions and follow-up strategies.

[Effects of treatment based on different target mean arterial pressure on gastrointestinal function in septic shock patients with hypertension].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of fluid resuscitation and circulatory support, directed by different target mean arterial pressure (MAP), on abdominal blood flow, gastrointestinal function and inflammatory response in septic shock patients with hypertension. METHODS: A prospective randomized controlled study was conducted. Hypertensive patients with septic shock admitted to the department of intensive care unit (ICU) of Liuzhou People's Hospital from January 1, 2019 to May 31, 2020 were enrolled. Patients were randomly divided into the low MAP groups (low standard group, LS group) or high MAP group (high standard group, HS group). According to the Surviving Sepsis Campaign Guidelines in 2016 and the updated guideline in 2018, all patients were given treatment of primary disease, fluid resuscitation, supportive management. The target MAP was 65-70 mmHg (1 mmHg = 0.133 kPa) in LS group, and was 75-80 mmHg in HS group. Acute gastrointestinal function injury (AGI) classification was performed on the 1st, 3rd and 7th day. The mean flow rate (Vm) and resistance index (RI) of superior mesenteric artery were evaluated using ultrasound, and the gastrointestinal function was dynamically evaluated using the modified single section ultrasonic gastric antrum method. The gastric antrum movement index (MI) and gastric empaging time (GET) were recorded. The levels of inflammatory markers in serum were detected by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), such as tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6), procalcitonin (PCT) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). The target MAP, the days of use of vasopressors and the amount of fluid resuscitation were recorded. RESULTS: A total of 208 hypertensive patients with septic shock were enrolled, including 109 in the LS group and 99 in the HS group. There were no significant differences in gender, age, acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE II) score and sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score between the two groups when diagnosed. After treatment, there was no significant difference in AGI classification between the LS group and HS group on the 1st day. On the 3rd and 7th day, there were statistical differences between the two groups (3rd day: proportion of I, II, III, IV grades were 25.69%, 56.88%, 11.93%, 5.50% in LS group, 15.15%, 54.55%, 25.25%, 5.05% in HS group, respectively, χ2 = 7.900, P = 0.048; 7rd day: proportion of I, II, III, IV grades were 44.96%, 49.54%, 3.67%, 1.83% in LS group, 31.31%, 52.53%, 11.11%, 5.05% in HS group, respectively, χ2 = 8.178, P = 0.042). The Vm of superior mesenteric artery was higher and the RI was lower in the LS group than those in the HS group on day 1, 3 and 7 [Vm (cm/s): 21.72±3.02 vs. 19.50±2.83, 20.42±2.62 vs. 17.02±1.99, 26.52±2.70 vs. 22.47±4.03; RI: 0.86±0.05 vs. 0.92±0.04, 0.87±0.05 vs. 0.95±0.05, 0.81±0.03 vs. 0.85±0.03, all P < 0.01]. The MI was higher and the GET was shorter in the LS group than those in the HS group on day 3 and day 7 [MI: 3.00±0.33 vs. 2.60±0.29, 4.50±0.51 vs. 3.90±0.33; GET (minutes): 86.01±19.78 vs. 100.99±25.01, 71.00±16.37 vs. 84.98±20.18, all P < 0.01]. In addition, the levels of serum TNF-α, IL-6, PCT, VEGF were lower in the LS group than those in the HS group after 3 days of treatment [TNF-α (ng/L): 147.05±28.32 vs. 256.99±27.04, IL-6 (ng/L): 762.99±57.83 vs. 1 112.30±118.32, PCT (µg/L): 37.00±5.58 vs. 56.00±12.36, VEGF (ng/L): 123.00±19.78 vs. 167.01±21.55, all P < 0.05]. The target MAP was maintained at (68.02±4.71) mmHg in LS group, and (79.04±3.04) mmHg in HS group. The difference between the two groups was statistically significant (P < 0.01). Compared with the HS group, the days of using vasopressors was shorter in LS group (days: 3.50±1.27 vs. 4.55±1.47), and the amountof fluid was reduced significantly (mL: 1 602.29±275.49 vs. 2 000.30±272.59, both P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Maintaining a low target mean arterial pressure (65-70 mmHg) in hypertensive patients with septic shock can improve blood supply of superior mesenteric artery, protect the gastrointestinal function, reduce the level of inflammatory factors, and diminish the duration of using vasopressors and the amount of fluid.

Effect of Nursing Intervention in the Operating Room Based on Simple Virtual Reality Augmented Technology on Preventing Gastrointestinal Surgical Incision Infection.

Gastrointestinal surgery is currently a common gastrointestinal surgery in clinical practice. In recent years, the incidence of gastrointestinal diseases has gradually increased and increased as the lifestyle of modern people has developed and changed. Both physical health and quality of life have a serious impact. In the actual process, it was found that multiple links in operating room care may increase the risk of postoperative infections for patients. Therefore, this article proposes nursing in operating room based on simple virtual reality augmented technology. This article mainly studies the effect of nursing intervention on preventing gastrointestinal surgical incision infection, and hopes to provide help for preventing gastrointestinal surgical incision infection. In this trial, 80 patients with gastrointestinal surgery were randomly divided into two groups, each with 40 people. The experimental group was treated with an operating room nursing intervention combined with traditional treatment methods. Controls were treated with traditional nursing combined with traditional treatment, and both groups were analyzed for acceptance of nursing intervention in the operating room, poor mood, various indicator levels, postoperative complications, and postoperative incisional infections. The experiment proved that the postoperative rehabilitation indexes of the experimental group were better than those of the control group, the excellent rate of wound healing reached 92.5%, and the incidence of wound infection was only 5%, which was lower than that of the control group. This demonstrates that nursing intervention in the operating room can help to reduce the infection rate at the patient's incision site, increase the level of surgical indicators, promote healing of the incision site as quickly as possible, and significantly improve the safety of clinical treatment.

Classification of Opioid Usage Through Semi-Supervised Learning for Total Joint Replacement Patients.

Opioid misuse and overdose have become a public health hazard and caused drug addiction and death in the United States due to rapid increase in prescribed and non-prescribed opioid usage. The misuse and overdose are highly related to opioid over-prescription for chronic and acute pain treatment, where a one-size-fits-all prescription plan is often adopted but can lead to substantial leftovers for patients who only consume a few. To reduce over-prescription and opioid overdose, each patient's opioid usage pattern should be taken into account. As opioids are often prescribed for patients after total joint replacement surgeries, this study introduces a machine learning model to predict each patient's opioid usage level in the first 2 weeks after discharge. Specifically, the electronic health records, patient prescription history, and consumption survey data are collected to investigate the level of short-term opioid usage after joint replacement surgeries. However, there are a considerable number of answers missing in the surveys, which degrades data quality. To overcome this difficulty, a semi-supervised learning model that assigns pseudo labels via Bayesian regression is proposed. Using this model, the missing survey answers of opioids amount taken by the patients are predicted first. Then, based on the prediction, pseudo labels are assigned to those patients to improve classification performance. Extensive experiments indicate that such a semi-supervised learning model has shown a better performance in the resulting patients classification. It is expected that by using such a model the providers can adjust the amount of prescribed opioids to meet each patient's actual need, which can benefit the management of opioid prescription and pain intervention.

Tanshinol relieves lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammatory injury of HaCaT cells via down-regulation of microRNA-122.

This study investigated the effects of tanshinol (TAN) on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced human keratinocytes inflammatory injury and underlying potential molecular mechanisms. Viability and apoptosis of HaCaT cells were assessed using MTT assay and Annexin V-FITC/PI staining, respectively. Quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was performed to measure the expression of microRNA-122 (miR-122) in HaCaT cells. Cell transfection was conducted to up-regulate the expression of miR-122. Western blotting was used to detect the protein expression levels of key factors involved in cell apoptosis, inflammatory response, c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) pathways. We found that LPS treatment induced HaCaT cell inflammatory injury by inhibiting cell viability, promoting cell apoptosis, and enhancing the protein expression levels of cyclooxygenase 2 and inducible nitric oxide synthase. TAN treatment relieved LPS-induced HaCaT cell inflammatory injury. Moreover, TAN treatment attenuated LPS-induced activation of JNK and NF-κB pathways in HaCaT cells. Furthermore, TAN treatment alleviated LPS-induced up-regulation of miR-122. Overexpression of miR-122 reversed the effects of TAN on LPS-induced HaCaT cell inflammatory injury and activation of JNK and NF-κB pathways. In conclusion, TAN exerted anti-inflammatory and protective effects on keratinocytes injury. TAN relieved LPS-induced inflammatory injury of human HaCaT cells via down-regulating miR-122 and then inactivating JNK and NF-κB pathways.

Ligustrazine promoted hypoxia-treated cell growth by upregulation of miR-135b in human umbilical vein endothelial cells.

BACKGROUND: Pressure ulcers are a kind of troublesome disease which caused by long-term pressure and subsequently lead to tissue festering necrosis because of sustained ischemia, hypoxia and malnutrition. In our study, we used hypoxia to stimulate human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) to mimic pressure ulcers and investigated the effects of Ligustrazine (Lig) with multi-activities on HUVECs. METHODS: HUVECs were treated by hypoxia to induce cell injury. HUVECs were administrated with Lig and/or transfected with miR-135b inhibitor or negative control. Cell viability and cell apoptosis were detected by Cell Counting kit-8 assay and flow cytometry, respectively. The protein expression of Cyclin D1 and p53, the apoptosis-related proteins (Bcl-2, Bax, pro-/Cleaved-Caspas-3), and the JNK/SAPK and PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathways related proteins was examined by western blot. RESULTS: Hypoxia-induced injury presented by decreasing cell viability and increasing cell apoptosis. Then Lig administration enhanced cell viability and inhibited cell apoptosis. Importantly, miR-135b was upregulated by the treatment of Lig. Further studies revealed that transfection with miR-135b inhibitor led to the opposite result with decreasing cell viability and increasing cell apoptosis. In addition, Lig increased the phosphorylation of JNK, SAPK, PI3K, AKT and mTOR. CONCLUSION: Lig promoted hypoxia-treated HUVECs cell growth as evidenced by increasing cell viability and reducing cell apoptosis. This process might be modulated by upregulation of miR-135b and subsequent activation of JNK/SAPK and PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathways.

[Spatial distribution, mechanism and management strategies of carbon source and sink of urban residential area: a case in Guanzhong Region, China].

Urban residential area is an important component of urban ecosystem. Its carbon process will have an important impact on carbon cycle and carbon balance of urban ecosystem. In this paper, the data of CO2 emission and absorption in Guanzhong area were collected by case ana-lysis, literature consulting and questionnaires and surveys to analyze its sources and the spatial distribution characteristics. The results showed that building materials production and renovation of residential area had the most CO2 emission, and building materials had much larger CO2 emission compared with everyday means of subsistence. Only 40% -52% of total carbon emission occurred within the residential area, while the rest was in the peripheral area. The spatial distance variation of carbon source, the spatial differences of carbon component and the spatial distribution by spheres and zoning were observed. As for CO2 absorption, only 9%-17% CO2 emission could be absorbed in the residential area, and the others had to be imposed to the outer space, showing hierarchical grading rules and spatial variation. Some space management techniques and intervention measures were put forward.

[Estimation of carbonaceous gases emission from forest fires in Xiao Xing'an Mountains of Northeast China in 1953-2011].

Based on the forest resources investigation data and the forest fire inventory in 1953-2011, in combining with our field research in burned areas and our laboratory experiments, this paper estimated the carbonaceous gases carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), methane (CH4), and nonmethane hydrocarbons (NMHC) emission from the forest fires in Xiao Xing' an Mountains of Heilongjiang Province, Northeast China in 1953-2011. The total carbon emission from the forest fires in the Xiao Xing'an Mountains in 1953-2011 was 1.12 x 10(7) t, and the annual emission was averagely 1.90 x10(5) t, accounting for 1.7% of the annual average total carbon emission from the forest fires in China. The emission of CO2, CO, CH4, and NMHC was 3.39 x 10(7), 1.94 x 10(5), 1.09 x 10(5), and 7.46 x 10(4) t, respectively, and the corresponding annual average emission was 5.74 x 10(5), 3.29 x 10(4), 1.85 x 10(3), and 1.27 x 10(3) t, accounting for 1.4%, 1.2%, 1.7%, and 1.1% of the annual carbonaceous gases emitted from the forest fires in China, respectively. The combustion efficiency and the carbon emission per unit burned area of different forest types decreased in order of coniferous forest > broad-leaved forest > coniferous broadleaved mixed forest. Some rational forest fire management measures were put forward.

[Measurement model of carbon emission from forest fire: a review].

Forest fire is the main disturbance factor for forest ecosystem, and an important pathway of the decrease of vegetation- and soil carbon storage. Large amount of carbonaceous gases in forest fire can release into atmosphere, giving remarkable impacts on the atmospheric carbon balance and global climate change. To scientifically and effectively measure the carbonaceous gases emission from forest fire is of importance in understanding the significance of forest fire in the carbon balance and climate change. This paper reviewed the research progress in the measurement model of carbon emission from forest fire, which covered three critical issues, i. e., measurement methods of forest fire-induced total carbon emission and carbonaceous gases emission, affecting factors and measurement parameters of measurement model, and cause analysis of the uncertainty in the measurement of the carbon emissions. Three path selections to improve the quantitative measurement of the carbon emissions were proposed, i. e., using high resolution remote sensing data and improving algorithm and estimation accuracy of burned area in combining with effective fuel measurement model to improve the accuracy of the estimated fuel load, using high resolution remote sensing images combined with indoor controlled environment experiments, field measurements, and field ground surveys to determine the combustion efficiency, and combining indoor controlled environment experiments with field air sampling to determine the emission factors and emission ratio.