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Carbon emission accounting is an important basis for global climate governance. Based on the consumption-based accounting (CBA) method, the characteristics of carbon flow between national, regional, and product processes could be more clearly reflected. Therefore, CBA is more conducive to clarifying the attribution of responsibilities between producers and consumers, with the principles of fairness and justice. By accounting for carbon emissions in typical countries from 1990 to 2019, we found that the CBA emissions are higher than the production-based accounting (PBA) emissions in major developed countries, while the results are reversed for developing countries. In the past 30 years, the CBA emissions in targeted developed countries generally have shown a downward trend, while in developing countries, they have shown an upward trend. CBA emissions in China have shown a continuous growth trend from 1990 to 2019, but the pace has slowed down significantly over the last decade. Meanwhile, the embodied carbon intensity of China's exports continues to decline, indicating that China is providing more green and low-carbon products to the world. Taking the PV industry as an example, this study further reveals the contribution of specific product industries to the country's carbon transfer through product carbon footprint analysis. In order to provide a scientific basis for global mitigation and climate governance, it is urgent to innovate a scientific, practical, and standardized CBA technology system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies quantify the impact of climate change and human activities on runoff changes on an annual scale, but few studies have examined this on multiple time scales. This paper quantifies the contribution of different factors to the variability of Jinsha River runoff at multiple time scales (annual, seasonal and monthly). First, the trend analysis of Jinsha River runoff is carried out, and the Mann–Kendall mutation test was then applied to the runoff data for mutation analysis. According to the mutation year, the research period is divided into the base period and the mutation period. By constructing an ABCD hydrological model simulation and monthly scale Budyko model, the contribution rate of human and climate factors to the multitime-scale runoff of Jinsha River is calculated. The results showed that: (1) The sudden year of change in the Jinsha River runoff is 1978, and the Nash coefficients of the ABCD hydrological model in the base period and sudden change period were 0.85 and 0.86, respectively. (2) Climate factors were the dominant factor affecting annual runoff changes (98.62%), while human factors were the secondary factor affecting annual runoff changes (1.38%). (3) The contribution rates of climate factors in spring, summer, autumn, and winter to runoff were 91.68%, 74.08%, 95.30%, and 96.15%, respectively. The contribution rates of human factors in spring, summer, autumn, and winter to runoff were 8.32%, 25.92%, 4.70%, and 3.85%, respectively. (4) The contribution rates of climate factors to runoff in May, June, and July were 95.14%, 102.15%, and 87.79%, respectively. The contribution rates of human factors to runoff in May, June, and July were 4.86%, −2.15%, and 12.21%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reliable city-level product, building, and infrastructure material stocks data are essential for understanding historical material use patterns, benchmarking material efficiency, and informing future recycling potentials. However, such urban material stocks data are often limited, due primarily to unavailable, inconsistent, or noncontinuous city-level statistics. Here, we provided such an Urban Product, Building, and Infrastructure Material Stocks (UPBIMS) dataset for China, a country that has undergone a remarkable urbanization process in the past decades, by collating different official statistics and applying various gap-filling methods. This dataset contains the stock of 24 materials contained in 10 types of products, buildings, and infrastructure in all 337 prefecture-level cities in China from 1978 to 2020. This quality controlled and unified dataset is the first of its kind with such a full coverage of all prefecture-level Chinese cities and can be used in a variety of applications, for example in urban geography, industrial ecology, circular economy, and climate change mitigation. Every piece of data is tagged with its source and the dataset will be periodically updated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientifically measuring the quantitative coupling relationship between urban–rural construction land (URCL) and population and formulating URCL utilization countermeasures are needed for protecting cultivated land resources, intensive utilization of land resources, and sustainable socioeconomic development. This study proposed an improved transition process theory of URCL and population and a coupling model of polar coordinates. Then, the coupling model was applied to Henan Province in China to analyze the coupling relationship between URCL and population, showing that the coupling relationship between URCL and urban–rural population (URP) in the province was unreasonable. However, the coupling rationality between rural construction land (RCL) and rural population (RP) had a significant improvement tendency. Furthermore, the coupling relationship between URCL and the population of prefecture-level cities in Henan province was analyzed, and the coupling model of polar coordinates proposed in this study achieved satisfactory results. Thus, compared with the commonly used Tapio's decoupling model of elasticity, the coupling model further extends the concept of coupling analysis to the coupling type, coupling strength, and coupling rationality. The extension makes the measurement of the quantitative coupling relationship between URCL and population more scientific, comprehensive, and accurate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the changes and coupling characteristics between rural population (RP) and rural residential land (RRL) provides a theoretical basis for sustainable rural land use. Based on the index of human–land coupling development, this study analyzed the spatial–temporal characteristics and coupling types of RRL and RP on the levels of China's national and prefectural cities by using the data of official land use survey and demographic statistics from 2009 to 2016. Results showed that (a) China's RP is declining at an average annual rate of 2.07%, and the RP in most cities decrease from −3.33% to −1.20%. (b) The area of RRL in China constantly increased at an average annual rate of 0.56% and that of most cities has also maintained growth, with only 11.76% of cities that declined. (c) The per capita RRL in China increased from 267.96 m2 in 2009 to 325.58 m2 in 2016. The relationship between the RRL and RP in China was uncoordinated with a coupling type of G (rapid decline in RP and increase in RRL). The coupling types of most cities were also the uncoordinated type of G, and only less than 10% of cities had a coordinated type (Types B, C, D, and E). The results indicated that the coupling relationship between RP and RRL in China is decoupled and has obvious spatial heterogeneity, which could provide scientific support for optimizing land resources and coordinating human–land relationship in China's rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Anlotinib showed significant survival benefits in advanced non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients as a third‐ or further‐line treatment in the ALTER0303 trial. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy of anlotinib in patients with different histologies. Methods: The ALTER0303 trial was a randomized, open‐label, phase 3 study of anlotinib in NSCLC patients previously treated with at least two lines of chemotherapy or a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) in 31 centers in China. Patients were randomly assigned at a 2:1 ratio to receive anlotinib (12 mg QD from days 1 to 14 of a 21‐day cycle) or placebo until progression or intolerable toxicity. The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS). We assessed the efficacy of anlotinib in histological subgroups in the full analysis set. Results: In the ALTER0303 trial, 336 patients had the histological subtype of adenocarcinoma (ACC), 86 patients had the histological subtype of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), and 15 patients had another subtype. In the ACC subgroup, the median OS time was significantly improved with anlotinib compared with placebo (9.6 months vs 6.9 months, P =.0051), as was the median progression‐free survival (PFS) time (5.5 months vs 1.4 months, P <.0001). In the SCC subgroup, the median OS time was 10.7 months in the anlotinib group and 6.5 months in the placebo group (P =.2570), and the median PFS time was 4.8 months and 2.7 months (P =.0004), respectively. The common adverse events observed in the SCC and ACC subgroups were similar. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that anlotinib significantly improves PFS and OS in ACC patients and has a tendency to prolong survival in SCC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the general framework of substance flow analysis, this paper quantifies the social economic metabolism of indium in China. The results show that in recent years, the output of indium primary products in China accounts for more than 50% of the worldwide production, but the domestic consumption is less than 20%. For the lack of key technologies for processing into indium tin oxide (ITO), more than 98% of the high quality ITO targets depend on imports. As the indium industry has been affected by policy, great changes have occurred in China's indium import/export trade, which has mainly focused on a few countries. There is a significant excess in indium primary products, which are mainly absorbed by national purchasing and the Pan Asian Nonferrous Metals Exchange. In the short-term this protects the development of China's primary indium industry, but in the long-term the development of indium still needs to rely on downstream industries. The quantitative analysis of indium flow can provide a quantitative scientific basis for adjusting the indium industrial structure, improving the indium industrial policy and realizing the sustainable development of the indium industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Based on the characterization of aluminium life cycle in the anthroposphere, stocks and flows accounting of aluminium in mainland China for 2001, 2004 and 2007 was performed in this paper. Findings include the following: (1) the production and consumption of aluminium contained in aluminium-containing products generated from each life process grew from 2001 to 2004, and then to 2007; (2) the share of recycled aluminium in both production and consumption of unwrought aluminium was in the range of 20–26%, and a majority of aluminium scrap used to produce recycled aluminium for 2004 and 2007 came from net import, which revealed that China was still in the stage of mainly depending on primary aluminium rather than secondary aluminium and the in-use stock of aluminium was still too small to generate enough end-of-life (EOL) scrap; (3) China was a net importer of aluminium from the life cycle perspective, with total net import increasing from 2001 to 2004, and then to 2007; as for the trade structure, China was a net importer of raw materials including bauxite, alumina, EOL products and aluminium scrap, while a net exporter of unwrought aluminium and final products, and changed from a net importer of wrought products in 2001 and 2004 to a net exporter in 2007; (4) total quantity losses of aluminium in China increased from 2001 to 2004 and then to 2007 as a result of the growth of production; (5) depletion of domestic ore stock in China also increased from 2001 to 2004, and then to 2007, making China''s depletion time of bauxite probably less than 15 years; (6) growth of in-use stock was 2.4kg per capita, 3.7kg per capita and 6.3kg per capita for 2001, 2004 and 2007, respectively; (7) more than 80% of the addition of aluminium to the deposited stock came from aluminium losses in Bauxite Mining and Alumina Refining processes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess the efficacy, safety and tolerability of oral moxifloxacin in patients with respiratory tract infections (RTIs) treated by attending physicians in routine clinical practice in China. METHODS: This was an open-label, prospective, uncontrolled, post-marketing surveillance study that was undertaken between November 2002 and July 2003. Altogether, 855 patients with RTIs were treated with moxifloxacin. Data were collected by 257 physicians throughout China. Symptoms of RTI (fever, cough, purulent sputum, dyspnoea, thoracic pain, nasal obstruction, nasal secretion and headache), together with auscultatory findings, were assessed at baseline and at follow-up visits, and classified as ‘absent’, ‘mild’ or ‘severe’ by the attending physician. RESULTS: Moxifloxacin produced significant improvements in 70.7% of patients after only 3 days of treatment. In 91.7% of patients, symptoms were improved after 5 days of treatment; 76.1% of patients recovered after 7 days and 84.7% recovered after 10 days of treatment. The mean ± SD time until recovery was 5.1 ± 2.6 days. Assessment of treatment efficacy by the physicians was ‘good’ or ‘very good’ for 89.2% of patients. In 87.3% of cases, physicians rated patients’ acceptance of therapy with moxifloxacin as ‘good’ or ‘very good’. The tolerability of moxifloxacin therapy was rated as ‘good’ or ‘very good’ for 88.8% of patients. Very few adverse events (4.1% of patients) were reported with moxifloxacin; most of them involved mild CNS disorders and gastrointestinal disturbances. CONCLUSIONS: Moxifloxacin was shown to be an effective and well tolerated treatment for this group of patients with RTIs and was highly rated by both physicians and patients because of rapid symptom improvement and good tolerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Bivariate LISA statistic is effective to reveal the city typologies. • L pgdp H pm2.5 cities have 60% more coal-fired power plants than L pgdp H pm2.5 cities. • L pgdp H pm2.5 cities have 2.3 times as many iron and steel plants as L pgdp H pm2.5 cities. • Local economic transition benefits for nearby air quality in northern cities of China. • Air pollution policies should consider city typologies instead of being uniform over China. Air quality has proven to be closely related to economic levels. China is a vast country with substantial economic level and air quality disparities among cities. Consequently, policy-makers face challenges in implementing regional collaborative governances. Here, we use the bivariate local indicator of spatial association (LISA) statistic to reveal the spatial heterogeneous relationship between local per capita GDP and nearby air quality, especially fine particulate matter (PM 2.5). This study was conducted in 256 prefecture-level cities for the year 2015. The results show that 20, 28, 30, 28, and 187 cities were identified as the H pcgdp H pm2.5 , L pcgdp L pm2.5 , L pcgdp H pm2.5 , H pcgdp L pm2.5 , and 'not significant' typologies, respectively. Furthermore, L pgdp H pm2.5 cities are mainly located in the northern China, whereas H pcgdp L pm2.5 cities are mainly distributed in the Guangdong provinces. The underlying causes may be attributed to the differences in economic structures. We found that L pgdp H pm2.5 cities has approximate 60% more coal-fired power plants, 2.3 times iron and steel plants than those of H pgdp L pm2.5 cities, whereas the latter attracted 5.1 times as much investment capitals from foreign, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan as the former. This indicates the industries of H pgdp L pm2.5 cities have higher technology levels and lower emission intensities. Thus, policy makers should accelerate economic transformation, especially in Shandong, Hebei, and Henan provinces. Overall, our findings suggest that not only bivariate LISA statistic is a simple and useful approach to distinguish city typologies, but also provide the evidences for those cities responsible for air quality of adjacent cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Combining organic and inorganic fertilizer applications can help reduce inorganic fertilizer use and increase soil fertility. However, the most suitable proportion of organic fertilizer is unknown, and the effect of combining organic and inorganic fertilizers on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is inconclusive. This study aimed to identify the optimum ratio of inorganic fertilizer to organic fertilizer in a winter wheat–summer maize cropping system in northern China to achieve high grain yields and low GHG intensities. The study compared six fertilizer treatments: no fertilization (CK), conventional inorganic fertilization (NP), and constant total nitrogen input with 25% (25%OF), 50% (50%OF), 75% (75%OF), or 100% (100%OF) organic fertilizer. The results showed that the 75%OF treatment increased the winter wheat and summer maize yields the most, by 7.2–25.1% and 15.3–16.7%, respectively, compared to NP. The 75%OF and 100%OF treatments had the lowest nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emissions, 187.3% and 200.2% lower than the NP treatment, while all fertilizer treatments decreased methane (CH 4) absorption (by 33.1–82.0%) compared to CK. Carbon dioxide flux increased in the summer maize growing season (by 7.7–30.5%) compared to CK but did not significantly differ between fertilizer treatments. The average global warming potential (GWP) rankings across two wheat–maize rotations were NP > 50%OF > 25%OF > 100%OF > 75%OF > CK, and greenhouse gas intensity (GHGI) rankings were NP > 25%OF > 50%OF > 100%OF > 75%OF > CK. We recommend using 75% organic fertilizer/25% inorganic fertilizer to reduce GHG emissions and ensure high crop yields in wheat–maize rotation systems in northern China. • We compared organic and chemical fertilizers effects in a wheat–maize rotation systems. • Organic substitution decreased N 2 O emission. • The combined application of organic and chemical fertilizers decreased GWP and GHGI. • 75%OF treatment increased grain yield with the lowest emission intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hazardous substances are used as additives in many products. It is a challenge to monitor hazardous substance flows through complex economic systems. This study seeks to derive these hazardous material flow networks based on material flow analysis and a lower resolution monetary input-output table. The lead material flow networks for China in 2012 is studied as a representative case. Using adjusted input-output material flow networks (AIO-MFN), a complete and more accurate picture of lead flow networks in China is presented. Some previously unavailable lead material critical sector and flows are identified: 1) The specific lead material domestic demands, inflows, and outflows of 34 critical economic sectors in China during 2012 are found; 2) It is found that 74 intersectoral lead flows which are more than 5 k tons; 3) The flows from refined lead to batteries (containing lead-acid battery), chemicals for painting (containing lead oxides), nonferrous metal processing (containing lead alloy), and cable electrical materials (containing lead sheathing) sectors are 3,671, 364, 434, and 41 k tons, respectively. The lead dissipation from the critical sectors to the environment is estimated and potential environmental risks are indicated. This method can be used to approach the complete flow picture of typical hazardous materials (non-bulk materials) by using the lower resolution IOT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the close links between quality of life standards and level of regional development, it is important to gain an improved understanding of the factors that contribute to unequal spatial accessibility of medical and health services in China. This study analyzed 2859 counties using the average shortest distance traveled from settlements to medical facilities to calculate spatial accessibility. The Theil index at three levels (three partitions, eight economic zones and provinces) was used to assess the inequality between regions. Then, a method of spatial autocorrelation was used to assess the spatial agglomeration characteristics of spatial accessibility. To explore the underlying reasons for the imbalance in spatial accessibility, a total of eight indicators in three aspects (nature, society, and economy) were collected and geographically weighted regression (GWR) was employed to investigate spatial heterogeneity. We observed marked disparities in spatial accessibility to medical facilities at the national level. In particular, there appears to be improved spatial accessibility and lesser regional inequality in eastern and central regions as opposed to western Chinese regions; in coastal regions instead of inland regions; and in municipalities such as Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai, but not in other provinces and autonomous regions. Besides, significant global autocorrelation and obvious clusters were revealed in a spatial pattern analysis. A wide range of hot-spot areas (clusters of poor spatial accessibility) mainly concentrated in Tibet and other areas with complex terrain and lagging social and economic development. A number of cold-spot areas (clusters of good spatial accessibility) mostly scattered in built-up areas especially municipalities and well-developed urban agglomeration such as the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and the Wuhan 1 + 8 city circle. Furthermore, the relationships between influencing factors and spatial accessibility were also investigated. The influence of altitude on spatial accessibility gradually decreased from the West to the East, while the influence of slope decreased from the South to the North with prominent provinces of Qinghai and Gansu. Population density exerted a higher impact on the distance in the southwest region whereas the urbanization rate influenced the northeast and southeast coastal region more intensively. In contrast, the pattern of educational level was relatively discrete. The influencing pattern of economic factors in both per area GDP and tertiary industry output share of accessibility showed apparent regional characteristics in the southeast coastal areas, as well as in the northwestern and northeastern parts. Outcomes from this study can be used to provide important information to aid policy making, while also facilitating future research aimed at improving the understanding of equality and sustainable development of medical facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CO 2 emissions mitigation in iron and steel industry (ISI) and construction material industry (CMI), including cement, glass, and ceramics materials, is crucial for the realization of CO 2 emission peak targets in China, given their great contributions to China’s emission structure. Great transitions have occurred in the two industries recently, including scale expansion, efficiency improvement, and changes in production and demand structures. By developing an integrated framework for inter-sector linkage analysis, we investigated the impact of recent transitions in the ISI and CMI on China’s CO 2 emissions between 1992 and 2012. Results show that the CO 2 emissions from ISI and CMI increased by 4.2 and 6.8 times over two decades, respectively, and the two key sectors have significantly higher backward and forward linkages than average in terms of CO 2 emissions. The internal efficiency improvement of the ISI and CMI are crucial factors curbing the rising CO 2 emissions in these two sectors. The total CO 2 intensity of the ISI and CMI have declined by 78% and 68%, separately, cumulatively reducing 517 Mt and 704 Mt CO 2 emissions during the studied period. The external final demand growth and its structure changes of the ISI and CMI have had a significant impact on their CO 2 emissions. The construction sector is the greatest consumer, responsible for 53% and 86% emissions increase of ISI and CMI during 2002–2012, respectively. Emerging manufacturing and machinery also became substantial emissions sources, generating 536 Mt CO 2 emissions in 2012 by consuming iron and steel products. Based on these findings, policy recommendations for CO 2 emissions mitigation in the two key sectors and their related sectors are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The land surface area of the mainland China was calculated based on 30 m resolution DEM. • Absolute difference and relative difference of ESV based on surface area and plane area was conducted at country, provincial and county levels. • The characteristics of temporal-spatial variation of ESV of various ecosystems based on surface area in China were revealed. • The total ESV based on surface area was compared with other studies. • The importance of the surface area in land resource survey, natural asset estimation and ecological protection was emphasized. The assessment of ecological assets is of great significance for protecting and using ecological resources. Traditional methods of ecological assets assessment, which adopt the planar area as the standard, often ignore the impact of the surface area, resulting in a large difference between the evaluation and the actual result. To fill this gap, this paper conducted research on ecological assets assessment based on surface area. Taking mainland China into consideration, this paper constructed a triangulation network based on 30 m resolution DEM data to simulate the real land surface form and calculate its surface area. Then, land use/cover data from 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015 were used to estimate the ecosystem service value (ESV) and analyze its spatial variation. This paper found that: (1) The surface area of mainland China is 1.04 × 107 km2, which is 8.2 × 105 km2 larger than the planar area; (2) A huge difference was found between the total ESV based on the surface and planar area, with an absolute difference of ∼$141.66-$144.14 billion and a relative difference of ∼ 10%. For different ecosystem types, the largest difference was found in the forest ecosystem, followed by the grassland ecosystem, while the wetland ecosystem showed the smallest difference; (3) The high value of absolute difference between the ESV based on the surface and planar area was concentrated in Tibet and Northeast China. The high value of relative difference was mainly distributed in Central and Southern China. On the provincial level, the absolute difference in Tibet ranked in the first place. There was a total of 14 provinces showing a relative difference above 10%; (4) The total ESV based on surface area was basically unchanged, while various ecosystems underwent significant changes. The ESV of wetland increased by nearly 50%, while the ESV of grassland decreased by more than 10%; and (5) Change in the ESV based on surface area showed obvious spatial heterogeneity. High-High cluster was located in Tibet and the Northeast China while the Low-Low cluster was distributed in the North China Plain and Xinjiang. This paper emphasized the importance of the surface area in resource survey and asset estimation and gave more effective suggestions for ecological protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Aluminum demand is predicted based on quasi-dynamic material flow. • A comprehensive energy conservation and CO 2 emissions framework of the aluminum industry is analyzed. • Cost-effectiveness of selected energy-saving technologies is evaluated. • Policy suggestions for China's future aluminum industry are given. Over the past decade, the global aluminum industry has undergone profound changes, particularly as a result of China emerging as a powerhouse production base, accounting for approximately 60% of global smelting capacity by the end of 2018. To explore the potential energy conservation and CO 2 emission reduction of China's aluminum industry during 2010–2050, we developed a comprehensive assessment framework based on quasi-dynamic material flow analysis, energy consumption, and CO 2 emission models. Four scenarios were designed to outline future energy savings and CO 2 emission mitigation in China's aluminum industry. The results show that China's aluminum demand will consistently increase from 22.67 Mt in 2010 to 51.20 Mt in 2050. In the short term, China's aluminum industry cannot achieve a completely circular economy without implementing new policies. The results also indicate that the energy intensity and CO 2 emissions per ton of aluminum will gradually decline under the multiple effects of technology promotion and structure adjustment. Under all four scenarios, the strengthened policy (STP) scenario has the least total energy consumption (TEC), reaching 46.57 Mtce and 24.11 Mtce in 2030 and 2050, respectively. The effect of energy conservation and emission reductions brought about by adjusting the production structure was far higher than the increasing technology penetration rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 may predispose patients to cardiac injuries but whether COVID-19 infection affects the morphological features of coronary plaques to potentially influence the outcome of patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) remains unknown. By using optical coherence tomography (OCT), this study compared the characteristics of coronary plaque in patients with CAD with/without COVID-19 infection. The 206 patients were divided into 2 groups. The COVID-19 group had 113 patients between December 7, 2022, and March 31, 2023, who received OCT assessment after China decided to lift the restriction on COVID-19 and had a history of COVID-19 infection. The non-COVID-19 group had 93 patients without COVID-19 infection who underwent OCT before December 7, 2022. The COVID-19 group demonstrated a higher incidence of plaque ruptures (53.1% vs 38.7%, p = 0.039), erosions (28.3% vs 11.8%, p = 0.004), fibrous (96.5% vs 89.2%, p = 0.041) and diffuse lesions (73.5% vs 50.5%, p <0.001) compared with the non-COVID-19 group, whereas non-COVID-19 group exhibited a higher frequency of cholesterol crystals (83.9% vs 70.8%, p = 0.027), deep calcifications (65.6% vs 51.3%, p = 0.039) and solitary lesions (57.0% vs 34.5%, p = 0.001). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis revealed a significantly lower major adverse cardiac events-free probability in the COVID-19 group (91.6% vs 95.5%, p = 0.006) than in the non-COVID-19 group. In conclusion, OCT demonstrated that COVID-19 infection is associated with coronary pathological changes such as more plaque ruptures, erosions, fibrosis, and diffuse lesions. Further, COVID-19 infection is associated with a higher propensity for acute coronary events and a higher risk of major adverse cardiac events in patients with CAD., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors have no competing interests to declare., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

China provides over 80% of global rare earth (RE) that caused serious domestic environmental impacts. However, how much RE-related pollution was transferred to China along global supply chain remains poorly understood. Here we, for the first time, established the RE industry-specific input-output approaches to trace environmental costs transfer through China's RE exports from whole supply chain perspective. We found that foreign consumption contributed over half of the environmental costs from China's RE production, with a gross value increasing from $4.8 billion (65% of total environmental costs) in 2010 to $5.4 billion in 2015 (74% of total environmental costs). Countries in the East Asia (i.e., Japan and South Korea) made the largest contribution (27-37%) to the exports induced environmental costs, followed by North America (i.e., the United States, Mexico, and Canada) with a contribution of 20-27% and the rest East Asia (including countries in Asia-Pacific except China Mainland, by 16-23%). Exports induced environmental costs were mainly from RE raw materials (60%) and high value-added products (22%). Suggestions such as rationalizing RE cost as well as production- and consumption-based measures to mitigate environmental impacts were proposed to enhance RE utilities for global sustainable development., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Predicting the spatio-temporal evolution characteristics and trade-off/synergy relationships of ecosystem service value (ESV) under different policy scenarios is of great significance for realizing regional sustainable development. This study established a framework and used the geographical simulation and optimization systems-future land use simulation (GeoSOS-FLUS) model and bivariate local autocorrelation analysis to stimulate and predict the impact of land use change on the ESV of Anyang City from 1995 to 2025. We also explored the trade-offs and synergy among ecosystem services under three policy scenarios (natural evolution, cultivated land protection, and ecological protection) in 2025. Results show that (1) the land use change in Anyang from 1995 to 2025 was significant, and the degree of land use change under the cultivated land and ecological protection scenarios was more moderate than that under the natural evolution scenario; (2) The total ESV decreased between 1995 and 2015, amounting to losses of 1126 million yuan, and the decline from 2015 to 2025 under the natural evolution scenario was more significant than those under the cultivated land protection and ecological protection scenarios; and (3) an obvious synergy was observed between various ecosystem services in Anyang City under different scenarios in 2025, and the most significant synergy was observed under the natural evolution scenario. In terms of spatial distribution, the agglomeration of "high-high" synergy in the west and "low-low" synergy in the central region was significant. Local areas showed "high-low" and "low-high" trade-off relationships scattered between their built land and woodland or cultivated land. The proposed framework can provide certain scientific support for regulating land use and ecosystem services in rapidly urbanized areas.

Current Chinese national guidelines recommend routine screening for liver cancer in patients positive for HBsAg, irrespective of fibrosis status, age, or family history of liver cancer. We aim to evaluate whether the recommended screening strategy could reduce liver-cancer-specific mortality. We conducted a liver cancer mass screening trial in Xiaolan Town, Zhongshan City, China, among residents aged 35-64 years in 2012. All volunteers were offered serological testing for hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg). We proposed biannual screening using serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and ultrasonography examination for subjects positive for HBsAg. Among 17,966 participants (26.2% of 68,510 eligible residents) who were free of liver cancer at baseline in 2012, we identified 57 incident cases of liver cancer within the first 4 years of follow-up (i.e., 43 among 2,848 HBsAg-positive participants and 14 among 15,118 HBsAg-negative participants), compared with 104 cases identified in non-participants (N = 50,544). A total of 207 participants had the recommended number of ultrasonography examinations (every 6 months) during the screening period. Compared with cases identified from non-participants, the cases arising among participants were more likely to be at early stage and had better survival than those among non-participants. However, we did not observe a reduction in liver cancer-specific mortality rate among participants (relative risk = 1.04, 95% confidence interval = 0.68, 1.58, P = 0.856). Our demonstration screening study does not show a reduction in liver cancer mortality within the first 4 years of follow-up according to current guidance in China, although long-term efficacy remains to be evaluated. Targeted surveillance among high-risk individuals as recommended by international guidelines, along with measures to improve compliance, should be evaluated in the Chinese population.

Objective: Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a complex disease resulting from a combination of environmental and genetic factors. We hypothesized that polymorphisms in methionine sulfoxide reductase A (MSRA: rs10903323 G/A) and vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA: rs699947 C/A, rs2010963 G/C, and rs3025039 C/T) contribute to CAD susceptibility., Designs and Methods: We examined the association between the four polymorphisms and the risk of CAD in a Chinese population of 435 CAD patients and 480 controls. Genotyping was performed using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization/time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI/TOF-MS)., Results: When the MSRA rs10903323 GG homozygous genotype was used as the reference group, the GA and GA/AA genotypes were associated with a significantly increased risk of CAD (GA vs GG: adjusted OR=1.36, 95% CI=1.02-1.82, p=0.038; GA/AA vs GG: adjusted OR=1.33, 95% CI=1.01-1.76, p=0.042). The AA homozygous genotype was not associated with a risk of CAD. In the recessive model, when the MSRA rs10903323 GG/GA genotypes were used as the reference group, the AA homozygous genotype was not associated with a risk of CAD. Logistic regression analyses revealed that the VEGFA rs699947 C/A, VEGFA rs2010963 G/C, and VEGFA rs3025039 C/T polymorphisms were not associated with a risk of CAD., Conclusions: These findings suggest that the functional MSRA rs10903323 G/A polymorphism is associated with CAD development. However, our results allow only a preliminary conclusion, which must be validated with a larger study of a more diverse ethnic population., (© 2013.)

The aim of this study was to retrospectively evaluate the effectiveness of the Stryker Leibinger neuronavigation system in surgical resection of hemangioblastomas of the posterior fossa. The study included 16 cases of solid hemangioblastoma of posterior cranial fossa treated since we began using Stryker Leibinger neuronavigation system-assisted microneurosurgery in 2003. These cases were compared on the basis of time, blood loss, and complications to 19 similar cases of solid hemangioblastoma that underwent conventional microneurosurgical resection prior to 2003. All patients in the experimental (neuronavigation-assisted) group underwent surgical resection without complications while the control groups' resections all involved blood loss related to the longer operation time. Neuronavigation also resulted in a clear field of surgical vision and clear lesion boundaries, making it easier to remove lesions and reduce accidental injury of adjacent normal structures. The application of navigation technology is very valuable for solid hemangioblastoma operations not only by shortening operative time, thereby significantly reducing operative blood loss, but also by making surgical excision easier, reducing damage to adjacent normal structures, and decreasing surgical complications and mortality.

It is critical to understand environmental impacts embodied in the bilateral trade between China and the United States, given the political, economic, and geographical importance of the two countries and the fact that few studies have investigated this before. This article studies the environmental impacts, particularly energy consumption and air emissions, embodied in the eastbound (from China to the U.S.) trade from 2002 to 2007 using an environmental input-output analysis technique and the adjusted bilateral trade data. In general,trade volume increased until the panic of 2008, and shifting trade patterns cause fluctuating embodied energy and air emissions in trade in China. Results show that embodied energy ranges from 7 to 11 exajoule (EJ) and takes about 12-17% of China's energy consumption. Embodied CO2 ranges between 400 and 800 Mt and represents about 8-12% of China's CO2 emissions. SO2 and NOx embodied in the eastbound trade generally grow over this period, from 4.2 to 6.3 Mt and from 1.4 to 2.9 Mt and account for 10-15% and 8-12% of China's total emissions, respectively.