A Case of Misdiagnosis Caused by the Coinheritance of Hb G-Siriraj [ß7(A4)Glu→Lys; HBB: c.22G>A] and Hb H Disease.

Despite the fact that most hemoglobin (Hb) variants are clinically and hematologically silent, they can interact with thalassemias, which could sometimes give rise to complicated routine thalassemia diagnostics. Hb G-Siriraj [ß7(A4)Glu→Lys; HBB: c.22G>A] alone is a benign condition, but its coinheritance with α-thalassemia (α-thal) may lead to misdiagnosis. We describe the case of a Chinese woman with an elevated Hb A2 level who was assumed to carry heterozygous ß-thalassemia (ß-thal), but was later shown to be a double heterozygote for Hb G-Siriraj and Hb H disease. This study for the first time described hematological characteristics of a patient with a double heterozygosity for Hb G-Siriraj and Hb H disease. It is of great significance for technicians and clinicians to expand their knowledge as well as to help guide clinical diagnosis, population screening and genetic counseling.

Tracking the scaling of urban open spaces in China from 1990 to 2020.

Urban open spaces (UOS) are crucial for urban life, offering benefits across individual and societal levels. However, the understanding of the systematic dynamic of UOS scaling with city size and its potential non-linear performance remains a limited clarity area. This study bridges this gap by integrating urban scaling laws with remote sensing data from 1990 to 2020, creating a framework to analyze UOS trends in China. Our findings reveal that UOS growth is sub-linear scaling with city size, exhibiting economies of scale with scaling exponents between 0.55 and 0.65 and suggesting potential shortages. The distribution structure of UOS across cities is becoming increasingly balanced, as indicated by the rising Zipf's slope from 0.66 to 0.88. Southeastern coastal cities outperform, highlighting spatial variations and path dependency in UOS development. Additionally, using metrics of Scale-adjusted metropolitan indicator (SAMI) and the ratio of open space consumption to population growth rates (OCRPGR), we observe a trend towards more coordinated development between UOS and population, with a declining proportion of uncoordinated cities. Our long-term, large sample coverage study of UOS in China may offer positive significance for urban ecological planning and management in similar rapidly urbanizing countries, contributing to critical insights for quantifying and monitoring urban sustainable development.

Quantifying Spatiotemporal Changes in Human Activities Induced by COVID-19 Pandemic Using Daily Nighttime Light Data.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused drastic changes in human activities and nighttime light (NTL) at various scales, providing a unique opportunity for exploring the pattern of the extreme responses of human community. This study used daily NTL data to examine the spatial variations and temporal dynamics of human activities under the influence of COVID-19, taking Chinese mainland as the study area. The results suggest that the change in the intensity of NTL is not correlated to the number of confirmed cases, but reflects the changes in human activities and the intensity of epidemic prevention and control measures within a region. During the outbreak period, the major provincial capitals and urban agglomerations were affected by COVID-19 more than smaller cities. During the recovery, different regions showed different recovery processes. The cities in West and Northeast China recovered steadily while the recovery in coastal cities showed relatively greater fluctuations due to an increase in imported cases. Wuhan, the most seriously affected city in China, did not recover until the end of March. Nevertheless, as of 31 March, the overall NTL across China had recovered to an 89.5% level of the same period in the previous year. The high consistency between the big data of travel intensity and NTL further proved the validity of the results of this study. These findings imply that daily NTL data are effective for rapidly monitoring the dynamic changes in human activities, and can help evaluate the effects of control measures on human activities during major public health events.

Diagnosing cropland's allowable range and spatial allocation in China's typical mountainous plateau area: An evaluation framework based on ecological carrying capacity.

Natural capital serves as a major constraint that affects the sustainable development of mountainous plateau areas. Determining ecological carrying capacity (ECC), as the key to measuring the critical natural capital of cropland, is needed for sustainable development. This study aims to provide new insights into ECC by diagnosing whether human activities are within the allowable range of natural capital and whether the spatial allocation of natural capital is reasonable in such specific areas. Taking Yunnan Province, China as the study area, we proposed an improved Ecological Footprint (EF) model to evaluate cropland's ecological capacity (CEC), and then, a framework of balance evaluation and spatial optimal allocation was constructed to examine the cropland's allowable range and optimize its spatial allocation if found unreasonable. Results show the following. (1) The per capita CEC of Yunnan Province between 2009 and 2016 decreased from 0.103 ha/capita to 0.095 ha/capita, and the cropland ecological balance index (EBI) presented a "critical overload" state ranging from 0.433 to 0.463, at which the supply exceeded the demand. Hence, the cropland was not within the allowable range in terms of supply-demand balance. (2) The comprehensive Gini coefficient of CEC was 0.462-0.515, and the gravity center of CEC deviated from the geometric center and shifted toward the westward, thereby, CEC is neither balanced in terms of spatial allocation nor coordinated with the population, economy, and resource environment. (3) The spatial allocation pattern of the study area was grouped into five zones on the basis of the optimization model. These zones are key optimization zone, adjustment optimization zone, maintenance zone, reasonable reduction zone, and key reduction zone. Accordingly, the targeted and differentiated strategies were accordingly put forward. Our study can contribute to identifying the practical approach to sustainable ecosystem management in mountainous plateau areas from the perspective of ECC and are beneficial for decision-making as regards new policies on cropland protection and Chinese ecological civilization construction.