Policy instruments facilitate China's COVID-19 work resumption.

Governments worldwide have announced stimulus packages to remobilize the labor force after COVID-19 and therefore to cope with the COVID-19-related recession. However, it is still unclear how to facilitate large-scale work resumption. This paper aims to clarify the issue by analyzing the large-scale prefecture-level dataset of human mobility trajectory information for 320 million workers and about 500,000 policy documents in China. We model work resumption as a collective behavioral change due to configurations of capacity, motivation, and policy instruments by using qualitative comparative analysis. We find that the effectiveness of post-COVID-19 recovery stimulus varied across China depending on the fiscal and administrative capacity and the policy motivation of the prefecture. Subnational fiscal and procurement policies were more effective for the wholesale and retail sector and the hotel and catering sector, whereas the manufacturing and business services sectors required more effort regarding employment policies. Due to limited prefectural capacity and wavering policy motivation, the simultaneous adoption of fiscal, employment, and procurement policy interventions endangered post-COVID-19 work resumption. We highlight the necessity of tailored postcrisis recovery strategies based on local fiscal and administrative capacity and the sectoral structure.

The changes in job-housing balance during the Covid-19 period in China.

By using three continuous years of national-scale cellphone signaling data from Jan. 2019 to Dec. 2021, this study adds fresh evidence for job-housing balance changes at the Quxian level during the COVID-19 period in China. The findings show that according to the resident-balance index and worker-balance index, the job-housing balance jumped when the number of COVID-19 confirmed cases reached its peak in February 2020, with an average of 94.4 % which is the highest level during these three years. The study also found that the Quxian-level job-housing balance has generally improved steadily in the two years of the pandemic. In addition, the results highlighted the huge gaps between females and males in the job-housing balance, but the gender disparities in job-housing balance were reduced to a minimum during the pandemic lockdown. In addition, by comparison analysis of the changes in resident-balance index and worker-balance index during this unprecedented crisis, this study found that for Quxians with high economic vitality, worker-balance index increased greater than resident-balance index, but for Quxians with low economic vitality, the reverse happened. Our findings provide a better understanding of the job-housing relationship during public health crises that can support the urban management in the future policymaking.

Smartphone-based services, perceived accessibility, and transport inequity during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-lagged panel study.

Individuals have experienced various degrees of accessibility loss during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may consequently influence transport equity. However, conventional measurements of accessibility cannot capture individual experiences and perceptions of accessibility. Moreover, since many daily necessities and services can only be acquired online during the pandemic, the ease of using smartphone-based services play an essential role in people's everyday lives. Therefore, this paper investigates the relationship between the ease of using smartphone-based services, perceived accessibility, and perceived transport equity during the pandemic. Based on 186 family interviews, a panel survey with 569 respondents was conducted monthly from February to October 2020 in Kunming, China, and a three-wave cross-lagged panel model was developed to understand the causal relationship between the three constructs. The results indicate that the ease of using smartphone-based services dominantly influence transport equity in the early phase of the pandemic, but its effect faded after the lifting of travel restrictions. Perceived accessibility to services appears a sound indicator for transport equity in the new normal, but perceived accessibility and transport equity are not strongly associated when staying at home is perceived as desirable. Moreover, we found that contemporary practices of smartphone-based new mobility services only favour those who already have convenient access to services and have further excluded and marginalised disadvantaged populations, which urgently require policy interventions.

Elderly mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative exploration in Kunming, China.

The outbreak of COVID-19 in China started at the end of December 2019. This led to a series of containment measurements to control the spread of COVID-19. Despite of the widely reported effects of these measures, inadequate attention has gone to their social impacts. The elderly, as one of the most susceptible populations, has experienced a considerable reduction in mobility. This paper explores the role mobility played and how the social environment influenced elderly mobility in the first 2 months of the COVID-19 outbreak. We surveyed 186 families with a total of 248 elderly people in Kunming. The results show that mobility improves the quality of daily living, such as access to grocery shopping, maintenance of outdoor activities for health cultivation and preserving social networks even during the pandemic. Four themes relating to social environment emerged from the data as elements influencing elderly mobility during the pandemic: social pressure, practice of the virtue of Xiao, the social norm of respecting the aged and the impacts of technological advances. Among them, the virtue of Xiao enabled the elderly to stay in place in the early phase of COVID-19 by fulfilling their needs for daily necessities and social interactions, whilst being less technology-savvy further excluded them socially by restraining them from restoring mobility after the lifting of travel restrictions.

Transcatheter Approach for Critical Pulmonary Stenosis or Pulmonary Atresia with Intact Ventricular Septum in Young Infants Using the Simmons Catheter.

METHODS AND RESULTS: We retrospectively reviewed 52 young infants, 41 of whom had CPS and 11 had PA/IVS, in a single center from June 2009 to October 2017. Patients were divided into three groups according to the type of catheter used to enter through the RVOT. The unique structure of the Simmons catheter allowed it to be maneuvered directly into the RVOT within a few minutes. Compared with the other two groups, the Simmons catheter group had a significantly shorter fluoroscopy time entering through the RVOT (P < 0.001) and a shorter total X-ray exposure time (P < 0.001). Furthermore, compared with the floating catheter group, the success rate of surgery was much higher in the Simmons catheter group (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The Simmons catheter is a safe and effective method to enter through the RVOT in infants with CPS or PA/IVS. Therefore, the Simmons catheter could be an alternative catheter when entering through the RVOT in young infants, especially neonates with low birth weight.

Curcumin Inhibits Gastric Carcinoma Cell Growth and Induces Apoptosis by Suppressing the Wnt/ß-Catenin Signaling Pathway.

BACKGROUND Curcumin has well-known, explicit biological anti-tumor properties. The Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway plays a central role in tumor cell proliferation and curcumin can regulate the Wnt/b-catenin signaling pathway of several carcinomas. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of curcumin on the Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway in human gastric cancer cells. MATERIAL AND METHODS We used 3 gastric cancer cell lines: SNU-1, SNU-5, and AGS. Research methods used were MTT assay, flow cytometry, clonogenic assay, annexin V/PI method, Western blotting analysis, tumor formation assay, and in vivo in the TUNEL assay. RESULTS Curcumin markedly impaired tumor cell viability and induced apoptosis in vitro. Curcumin significantly suppressed the levels of Wnt3a, LRP6, phospho-LRP6, ß-catenin, phospho-ß-catenin, C-myc, and survivin. Xenograft growth in vivo was inhibited and the target genes of Wnt/ß-catenin signaling were also reduced by curcumin treatment. CONCLUSIONS Curcumin exerts anti-proliferative and pro-apoptotic effect in gastric cancer cells and in a xenograft model. Inhibition of the Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathway and the subsequently reduced expression of Wnt target genes show potential as a newly-identified molecular mechanism of curcumin treatment.

Trends of PM2.5 concentrations in China: A long term approach.

The fast economic growth of China along the last two decades has created a strong impact on the environment. The occurrence of heavy haze pollution days is the most visible effect. Although many researchers have studied such problem, a high number of spatio-temporal limitations in the recent studies were identified. From our best knowledge the long trends of PM2.5 concentrations were not fully investigated in China, in particular the year-to-year trends and the seasonal and daily cycles. Therefore, in this work the PM2.5 concentrations collected from automatic monitors from five urban sites located in megacities with different climatic zones in China were analysed: Beijing (40°N), Chengdu (31°N), Guangzhou (23°N), Shanghai (31°N) and Shenyang (43°N). For an inter-comparison a meta-analysis was carried out. An evaluation conducted since 1999 demonstrates that PM2.5 concentrations have been reduced until 2008, period which match with the occurrence of the Olympic Games. However, a seasonal analysis highlight that such decrease occurs mostly during warmer seasons than cold seasons. During winter PM2.5 concentrations are typically 1.3 to 2.7 higher than in summer. The average daily cycle shows that the lowest and highest PM2.5 concentrations often occurs in the afternoon and evening hours respectively. Such daily variations are mostly driven by the daily variation of the boundary layer depth and emissions. Although the PM2.5 levels have showing signs of improvement, even during the warming season the values are still too high in comparison with the annual environmental standards of China (35 µg m-3). Moreover, during cold seasons the north regions have values twice higher than this limit. Thus, to fulfil these standards the governmental mitigation measures need to be strongly reinforced in order to optimize the daily living energy consumption, primarily in the north regions of China and during the winter periods.

T790M mutation sensitizes non-small cell lung cancer cells to radiation via suppressing SPOCK1.

Background: Approximately 50% of patients harbor the T790M mutation after developing first-generation epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKI) resistance. Evidence has showed the major treatment failure is local relapses and limited metastases. Several studies have demonstrated the value of radiotherapy in metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with the EGFR T790M mutation after the development of TKI resistance. The aim of this study was to explore the role of radiation in T790M-mutant NSCLC and the value of early radiotherapy for NSCLC with T790M-mediated EGFR-TKI resistance. Methods: Gefitinib-resistant NSCLC cell lines were established via stepwise exposure to increasing concentrations of gefitinib (PC-9-GR). Droplet digital PCR was used to determine the relative T790M subclone abundance. In vitro and in vivo models were established using different mixtures of PC-9-GR and PC-9 cells. Differentially expressed genes were identified using RNA sequencing. Two research models were constructed (salvage and prophylactic radiotherapy) to determine the effects of early radiotherapy on gefitinib-resistant cells. Results: PC-9-GR cells exhibited higher radiosensitivity than PC-9 cells (sensitivity enhancement ratio = 1.5). Salvage radiation reduced the number of T790M-mutant subclones, and the relative T790M abundance was significantly lower than that without radiation at 90 days (10.94% vs. 21.54%). Prophylactic radiation prevented the development of T790M subclones. These results were also confirmed in vivo. qRT-PCR revealed threefold elevation of miR-1243 in PC-9-GR cells, and the increased radiosensitivity of PC-9-GR cells was inhibited when miR-1243 was knocked down. RNA sequencing revealed that SPOCK1 was downregulated in PC-9-GR cells. Interestingly, bioinformatic analysis showed that SPOCK1 was a target gene of miR-1243. SPOCK1 knockdown markedly increased the radiosensitivity of PC-9 cells. Conclusion: Gefitinib-resistant NSCLC with the T790M mutation had higher radiosensitivity than that without the mutation, possibly mediated by SPOCK1. Early radiotherapy can eliminate T790M subclones, providing evidence for the benefit of early local treatment in patients with TKI-resistant NSCLC.

Unravelling the spatial directionality of urban mobility.

As it is central to sustainable urban development, urban mobility has primarily been scrutinised for its scaling and hierarchical properties. However, traditional analyses frequently overlook spatial directionality, a critical factor in city centre congestion and suburban development. Here, we apply vector computation to unravel the spatial directionality of urban mobility, introducing a two-dimensional anisotropy-centripetality metric. Utilising travel data from 90 million mobile users across 60 Chinese cities, we effectively quantify mobility patterns through this metric, distinguishing between strong monocentric, weak monocentric, and polycentric patterns. Our findings highlight a notable difference: residents in monocentric cities face increasing commuting distances as cities expand, in contrast to the consistent commuting patterns observed in polycentric cities. Notably, mobility anisotropy intensifies in the outskirts of monocentric cities, whereas it remains uniform in polycentric settings. Additionally, centripetality wanes as one moves from the urban core, with a steeper decline observed in polycentric cities. Finally, we reveal that employment attraction strength and commuting distance scaling are key to explaining these divergent urban mobility patterns. These insights are important for shaping effective policies aimed at alleviating congestion and guiding suburban housing development.

Enhanced Thermal Stability and Broad Temperature Range in High-Entropy (La0.2Ce0.2Nd0.2Sm0.2Eu0.2)NbO4 Ceramics.

Next-generation high-temperature applications increasingly rely heavily on advanced thermistor materials with enhanced thermal stability and electrical performance. However, thus far, the great challenge of realizing high thermal stability and precision in a wide temperature range has become a key bottleneck restricting the high-temperature application. Here, we propose a high-entropy strategy to design novel high-temperature thermistor ceramics (La0.2Ce0.2Nd0.2Sm0.2Eu0.2)NbO4. Differences in atomic size, mass, and electronegativity in this high-entropy system cause high lattice distortion, substantial grain boundaries, and high dislocation density. These enhance the charge carrier transport and reduce the grain boundary resistance, thus synergistically broadening the temperature range. Our samples maintain high precision and thermal stability over a wide temperature range from room temperature to 1523 K (ΔT = 1250 K) with an aging value as low as 0.42% after 1000 h at 1173 K, showing breakthrough progress in high-temperature thermistor ceramics. This study establishes an effective approach to enhancing the performance of high-temperature thermistor materials through high-entropy strategies.

In Situ Formation of 2D Perovskite Seeding for Record-Efficiency Indoor Perovskite Photovoltaic Devices.

With 40% efficiency under room light intensity, perovskite solar cells (PSCs) will be promising power supplies for low-light applications, particularly for Internet of Things (IoT) devices and indoor electronics, shall they become commercialized. Herein, ß-alaninamide hydrochloride (AHC) is utilized to spontaneously form a layer of 2D perovskite nucleation seeds for improved film uniformity, crystallization quality, and solar cell performance. It is found that the AHC addition indeed improves film quality as demonstrated by better uniformity, lower trap density, smaller lattice stress, and, as a result, a 10-fold increase in charge carrier lifetime. Consequently, not only does the small-area (0.09 cm2 ) PSCs achieve a power conversion efficiency of 42.12%, the large-area cells (1.00 cm2 , and 2.56 cm2 ) attain efficiency as high as 40.93%, and 40.07% respectively. All of these are the highest efficiency values for indoor photovoltaic cells with similar sizes, and more importantly, they represent the smallest efficiency loss due to area scale-up. This work provides a new method to fabricate high-performance indoor PSCs (i-PSCs) for IoT devices with great potential in large-area printing technology.

Familial congenital heart disease: data collection and preliminary analysis.

The aim of this study was to explore genetic mechanisms of congenital heart disease by analysing family data. Families with two or more affected members were studied, and information on family history and risk factors was collected. A total of 25 families with congenital heart disease were identified, and among them the condition was confirmed in 57. The prevalence of congenital heart disease in first-degree relatives was 43.0%, that is 46 out of 107, significantly higher than that in second-degree relatives, that is, 4.4%, 11 out of 252) (χ2 = 83.897, P < 0.01). The prevalence difference between twins (90%) and siblings (62.2%) (χ2 = 4.983, P < 0.05) was also significant among first-degree relatives. Eleven families were found to have the same phenotype (44%), including ventricular septal defect in six families, atrial septal defect in two families, conotruncal defects in two families, and hypoplastic left heart syndrome in one family. Both twins were diagnosed with congenital heart disease in 8 out of 10 twin families - all eight twins were monozygotic. The cardiac phenotype of the twins was consistent in three families (37.5%). The cardiac phenotype of first- and second-degree relatives was not fully consistent with their probands. There was an increased incidence of threatened abortion in early pregnancy in patients with familial congenital heart disease when compared with sporadic congenital heart disease (χ2 = 8.704, P < 0.05). Morbidity in relatives was related to blood relationship, with a closer relationship increasing the risk of congenital heart disease. Genetic factors appear to play an important role in congenital heart disease.

[Clinical characteristics and prognosis of infantile-onset glycogen storage disease type II in 16 Chinese patients].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the clinical characteristics and prognosis of infantile-onset glycogen storage disease type II (GSDII) in Chinese patients. METHODS: Sixteen children diagnosed as infantile-onset GSDII in Shanghai Children's Medical Center during Jan 2005 to Dec 2012 were recruited. Their disease history, presenting symptom, physical signs, biochemical tests and examinations of electrocardiogram and echocardiography were analyzed retrospectively. Follow-up data on motor development and survival were also collected and analyzed retrospectively. RESULTS: 16 cases were diagnosed as infantile-onset GSDII (10 males, 6 females), in which the peripheral blood levels of acidic α-glucosidase were remarkably low or completely absent. All of them were complicated with cardiac hypertrophy and left ventricular mass index was 161-616 g/m(2). Severe muscular weakness, hypotonia and development lag were found in all during the follow-up. Creatine kinase was detected in 15 patients and its level became significantly elevated in 14 of them. Alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase were detected in 15 patients and their levels became significantly elevated in all of them. The median age was 3.6 (2.0-6.8) months at symptom onset and 6.5 (3.8-9.3) months at diagnosis. And 14 of them died during the follow-up and the median age at death was 9.0 (4.7-18.7) months. CONCLUSIONS: As a fatal disease, infantile-onset GSDIIhas the prominent clinical manifestations of progressive cardiac hypertrophy and muscular weakness or hypotonia. The clinical features and nature history of Chinese patients are similar as those reported in other countries. Detection of acidic α-glucosidase activity in peripheral blood is an effective way of screening for infantile-onset GSDII.

Changes in tourist mobility after COVID-19 outbreaks.

We comparatively examined tourist mobility changes in the entire country and explicitly covered two distinct waves of COVID-19 outbreaks, based on mobile phone data from 277.15 million tourists from 2019 to 2021 in China. The results show that domestic tourism in Beijing was even higher after the pandemic than prior to it. In addition, we found that female and elderly groups had a slower recovery after the first wave, whereas this was the opposite one year later, after the second wave. Additionally, wealthier, larger cities were notably hit the hardest. Overall, our findings provide a better understanding of tourism management in public health crises and policy-making during post-pandemic recovery and for future outbreaks.

The effects of urban land use on energy-related CO2 emissions in China.

Land use change caused by urbanization is widely believed to be the primary way human activities affect energy use and, thus, CO2 emissions (CEs) in China. However, there is a limited understanding of the role of land use with detailed categories in energy-related CEs is still absent. This paper aims to narrow the knowledge gap using multi-dimension metrics, including land use scale, mixture, and intensity. These metrics were derived from three years of sequential POI data. A GWR analysis was carried out to examine the associations between land use change and energy-related CEs. Our results show that (1) the scale of most land use types exerted a bidirectional effect on CEs, demonstrating apparent spatiotemporal heterogeneity; (2) land use mixture of mature city agglomerations had a significant suppressive effect on CEs, suggesting mixed land use be advocated in the urbanization process; (3) Land use intensity had a bi-directional association with CEs in most cities, but its adverse effect gradually spread from the west to the northeast. Therefore, systematically regulating land transaction to control land scale, appropriately interplanting biofuel plants, and utilizing renewable energy are encouraged to reduce energy footprints and mitigate CEs in China. The findings and conclusions of this paper enhance our knowledge on the relationship between land use and CEs and present the scientific basis for policy-making in building low-carbon cities in the context of rapidly urbanizing China.

Revisiting the gravity laws of inter-city mobility in megacity regions.

Inter-city mobility is one of the most important issues in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, as it is essential to access the regional labour market, goods and services, and to constrain the spread of infectious diseases. Although the gravity model has been proved to be an effective model to describe mobility among settlements, knowledge is still insufficient in regions where dozens of megacities interact closely and over 100 million people reside. In addition, the existing knowledge is limited to overall population mobility, while the difference in inter-city travel with different purposes is unexplored on such a large geographic scale. We revisited the gravity laws of inter-city mobility using the 2.12 billion trip chains recorded by 40.48 million mobile phone users' trajectories in the Jing-Jin-Ji Region, which contains China's capital Beijing. Firstly, unlike previous studies, we found that non-commuting rather than commuting is the dominant type of inter-city mobility (89.3%). Non-commuting travellers have a travel distance 42.3% longer than commuting travellers. Secondly, we developed more accurate gravity models for the spatial distribution of inter-city commuting and non-commuting travel. We also found that inter-city mobility has a hierarchical structure, as the distribution of inter-city travel volume follows Zipf's law. In particular, the hierarchy of non-commuting travel volume among the cities is more in line with an ideal Zipf distribution than commuting travel. Our findings contribute to new knowledge on basic inter-city mobility laws, and they have significant applications for regional policies on human mobility.

Urban flood risk differentiation under land use scenario simulation.

The frequent urban floods have seriously affected the regional sustainable development in recent years. It is significant to understand the characteristics of urban flood risk and reasonably predict urban flood risk under different land use scenarios. This study used the random forest and multi-criteria decision analysis models to assess the spatiotemporal characteristics of flood risk in Zhengzhou City, China, from 2005 to 2020, and proposed a robust method coupling Bayesian network and patch-generating land use simulation models to predict future flood risk probability. We found that the flood risk in Zhengzhou City presented an upward trend from 2005 to 2020, and its spatial pattern was "high in the middle and low in the surrounding areas". In addition, land use patterns under the sustainable development scenario would be more conducive to reducing flood risk. Our results can provide theoretical support for scientifically optimizing land use to improve urban flood risk management.

Uncovering spatial and social gaps in rural mobility via mobile phone big data.

Rural mobility inequality is an important aspect of inequality-focused Sustainable Development Goals. To reduce inequality and promote global sustainable development, more insight is needed into human mobility patterns in rural areas. However, studies on rural human mobility are scarce, limiting our understanding of the spatial and social gaps in rural human mobility and our ability to design policies for social equality and global sustainable development. This study, therefore, explores human mobility patterns in rural China using mobile phone data. Mapping the relative frequency of short-distance trips across rural towns, we observed that geographically peripheral populations tend to have a low percentage of short-distance flows. We further revealed social gaps in mobility by fitting statistical models: as travel distances increased, human movements declined more rapidly among vulnerable groups, including children, older people, women, and low-income people. In addition, we found that people living with low street density, or in rural towns in peripheral cities with long distances to city borders, are more likely to have low intercity movement. Our results show that children, older adults, women, low-income individuals, and geographically peripheral populations in rural areas are mobility-disadvantaged, providing insights for policymakers and rural planners for achieving social equality by targeting the right groups.

Resilience patterns of human mobility in response to extreme urban floods.

Large-scale disasters can disproportionately impact different population groups, causing prominent disparity and inequality, especially for the vulnerable and marginalized. Here, we investigate the resilience of human mobility under the disturbance of the unprecedented '720' Zhengzhou flood in China in 2021 using records of 1.32 billion mobile phone signaling generated by 4.35 million people. We find that although pluvial floods can trigger mobility reductions, the overall structural dynamics of mobility networks remain relatively stable. We also find that the low levels of mobility resilience in female, adolescent and older adult groups are mainly due to their insufficient capabilities to maintain business-as-usual travel frequency during the flood. Most importantly, we reveal three types of counter-intuitive, yet widely existing, resilience patterns of human mobility (namely, 'reverse bathtub', 'ever-increasing' and 'ever-decreasing' patterns), and demonstrate a universal mechanism of disaster-avoidance response by further corroborating that those abnormal resilience patterns are not associated with people's gender or age. In view of the common association between travel behaviors and travelers' socio-demographic characteristics, our findings provide a caveat for scholars when disclosing disparities in human travel behaviors during flood-induced emergencies.

Using mobile phone big data to discover the spatial patterns of rural migrant workers' return to work in China's three urban agglomerations in the post-COVID-19 era.

Knowing how workers return to work is a key policymaking issue for economic recovery in the post-COVID-19 era. This paper uses country-wide time-series mobile phone big data (comparing monthly and annual figures), obtained between February 2019 and October 2019 and between February 2020 and October 2020, to discover the spatial patterns of rural migrant workers' (RMWs') return to work in China's three urban agglomerations (UAs): the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region, the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta. Spatial patterns of RMWs' return to work and how these patterns vary with location, city level and human attribute were investigated using the fine-scale social sensing related to post-pandemic human mobility. The results confirmed the multidimensional spatiotemporal differentiations, interaction effects between variable pairs and effects of the actual situation on the changing patterns of RMWs' return to work. The spatial patterns of RMWs' return to work in China's major three UAs can be regarded as a comprehensive and complex interaction result accompanying the nationwide population redistribution, which was affected by various hidden factors. Our findings provide crucial implications and suggestions for data-informed policy decisions for a harmonious society in the post-COVID-19 era.