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Bone metastases are common in malignant tumors and the effect of conventional treatment is limited. How to effectively inhibit tumor bone metastasis and deliver the drug to the bone has become an urgent issue to be solved. While bone targeting drug delivery systems have obvious advantages in the treatment of bone tumors. The research on bone-targeted anti-tumor therapy has made significant progress in recent years. We introduced the related tumor pathways of bone metastases. The tumor microenvironment plays an important role in metastatic bone tumors. We introduce a drug-loading systems based on different environment-responsive nanocomposites for anti-tumor and anti-metastatic research. According to the process of bone metastases and the structure of bone tissue, we summarized the information on bone-targeting molecules. Bisphosphate has become the first choice of bone-targeted drug delivery carrier because of its affinity with hydroxyapatite in bone. Therefore, we sought to summarize the bone-targeting molecule of bisphosphate to identify the modification effect on bone-targeting. And this paper discusses the relationship between bisphosphate bone targeting molecular structure and drug delivery carriers, to provide some new ideas for the research and development of bone-targeting drug delivery carriers. Targeted therapy will make a more outstanding contribution to the treatment of tumors.

The exploding popularity of social networks, provides a new opportunity to study disasters and public emotion. Among the social networks, Weibo is one of the largest microblogging services in China. Taking Guangdong and Guangxi in the south of China as a case, Web Scraper was used to obtain Weibo texts related to floods in 2020. The spatial distribution of floods was analyzed using Kernel Density Estimation. Public emotion was analyzed using Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools. The association between floods and public emotion was explored through correlation analysis methods. The results indicated that: (1) Weibo texts could be utilized as an effective data to identify urban waterlogging risk in Guangdong and Guangxi. (2) More floods occurred in the southeast than in the central and northwest, and more in the south than in the north in Guangdong and Guangxi. The coastal cities and provincial capitals were severely affected. (3) The public emotion was mainly negative and varied significantly over time, generally showing stronger negative emotion during periods of heavy precipitation. (4) There was a strong correlation between public emotion and floods in spatial-temporal variation. The degree of negative public emotion was significantly influenced by the number of waterlogging points. The presented results serve as the pre-liminary data for future planning and designing of emergency management.

Начально-краевые задачи для матричной системы Лакшманана-Порсезиана-Дэниеля изучаются с использованием унифицированного преобразования Фокаса. Проведен спектральный анализ ($4\times4$)-матричной пары Лакса типа Абловица-Каупа-Ньюэла-Сигура. Показано, что решения исследуемой матричной системы можно восстановить из ($4\times4$)-матричной задачи Римана-Гильберта. Кроме того, доказано, что спектральные функции не являются независимыми, а связаны так называемым глобальным соотношением.

In this paper, we investigate the fifth-order modified Korteweg-de Vries (fomKdV) equation on the half-line via the Fokas unified transformation approach. We show that the solution u(x,t) of the fomKdV equation can be represented by the solution of the matrix Riemann-Hilbert problem constructed on the plane of complex spectral parameter θ. The jump matrix L(x,t,θ) has an explicit representation depended on x, t and it can be represented exactly by the two pairs of spectral functions y(θ),z(θ) (obtained from the initial value u0(x)) and Y(θ),Z(θ) (obtained from the boundary conditions v0(t), vk(t), k=1,2,3,4). Furthermore, the two pairs spectral functions y(θ),z(θ) and Y(θ),Z(θ) are not independent of each other, but are related to the compatibility condition, the so-called global relation.

Purpose:This study examined safety, pharmacokinetics, and efficacy of veliparib, a PARP inhibitor, combined with carboplatin and etoposide in patients with extensive-stage (ED) small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and other solid tumors.Patients and Methods:The 3 + 3 design was used for dose escalation of oral veliparib in combination with carboplatin (AUC 5 on day 1) and etoposide (100 mg/m2 on days 1–3) in 21-day cycles. Veliparib dose was explored from 80 to 240 mg b.i.d. on 7-day, 14-day, or continuous schedules. Patients without disease progression continued on maintenance monotherapy (veliparib 400 mg b.i.d.) until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.Results:Thirty-nine patients were enrolled to determine the recommended phase II dose of 240 mg veliparib for 14 days combined with carboplatin and etoposide based on long-term tolerability. Dose-limiting toxicity occurred in 1 patient (grade 2 toxic motor polyneuropathy) at veliparib 240 mg b.i.d. for 7 days. Most common adverse events related to veliparib were nausea (39%), fatigue (39%), and hematologic toxicities. Continuous dosing of veliparib 240 mg b.i.d. with carboplatin and etoposide resulted in excessive chemotherapy dose delays due to hematologic toxicity (grade 3/4 neutropenia/thrombocytopenia). Etoposide pharmacokinetics was not affected by veliparib. Confirmed responses occurred in 17 of 39 (44%) and 16 of 25 (64%) of all enrolled and ED SCLC patients, respectively. At the RP2D, confirmed responses occurred in 6 of 13 (46%) and 5 of 6 (83%) of all enrolled and ED SCLC patients, respectively.Conclusions:Veliparib (240 mg b.i.d. 14 days) plus carboplatin/etoposide can be safely combined. Phase II of this study is ongoing in first-line patients with ED SCLC.

Table S1. Tolerability of veliparib, carboplatin, and etoposide over entire combination cycles treatment period Table S2. Mean {plus minus} SD (% CV) pharmacokinetic parameters of veliparib following oral administration of veliparib in combination with carboplatin and etoposide on Cycle 1 Day 1 Figure S1. Mean (+SD) dose normalized etoposide plasma concentration-time profile with and without veliparib co-administration Table S3. Pharmacokinetic parameters of etoposide {plus minus} veliparib Table S4. Objective response rate in biomarker cohort by tumor type and veliparib dose level Figure S2. Tumor response and time on study for all dosed patients (n=39) Figure S3. Progression-free survival by disease type Figure S4. Confirmed objective response by gene type in small cell lung cancer samples (n=17)

Purpose:Bromodomain and extraterminal (BET) proteins play important roles in transcriptional regulation relevant to cancer pathogenesis, and therapeutic targeting/inhibition of BET causes apoptosis of cancer cells in vitro. In this first-in-human study of the pan-BET inhibitor mivebresib (ABBV-075), the safety profile, MTD, and recommended phase II dose (RP2D) were determined in patients with advanced solid tumors.Patients and Methods:A 3 + 3 dose escalation for different mivebresib dosing schedules [daily, Monday/Wednesday/Friday (M-W-F), 4 days on/3 off (4/7)] was followed by dose expansion in patients with prostate cancer. Endpoints were safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and preliminary antitumor activity.Results:Seventy-two patients with solid tumors (14% uveal melanoma; 11% colorectal; 11% breast; 8% pancreatic; 7% head/neck; 49% others) were treated with mivebresib during dose escalation, and 12 additional patients with prostate cancer in expansion cohort. Most common treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAE) related to mivebresib were dysgeusia (49%), thrombocytopenia (48%), fatigue (26%), and nausea (25%). Most common grade 3/4 TEAEs related to mivebresib were thrombocytopenia (35%) and anemia (6%). Dose-limiting toxicities included thrombocytopenia (2 mg daily; 4.5 mg M-W-F), gastrointestinal bleed (2 mg daily), hypertension (2–3 mg 4/7), fatigue, decreased appetite, and aspartate aminotransferase elevation (4 mg M-W-F). Of 61 evaluable patients from dose escalation, 26 (43%) had stable disease and 35 (57%) had progressive disease. Median progression-free survival was 1.8 months (95% confidence interval, 1.8–1.9).Conclusions:On the basis of safety and tolerability, mivebresib RP2D is 1.5 mg for the daily schedule, 2.5 mg for 4/7, and 3 mg for M-W-F. Mivebresib has a tolerable safety profile, and stable disease was observed in some patients with malignant solid tumors.

Supplemental Methods, Figures S1-S5, Tables S1-S7

Organogels are excellent drug carrier for controlled release. Organogels based on amino acid derivatives has been widely used in the area of drug delivery. In this study, a series of the organogel system based on amino acid derivatives gelators was designed and prepared to investigate the structure-property correlation in organogels. To investigate the factors that influence the property of drug release, we varied the formulation in the organogels: gelator structure, gelator concentration, volume of antigelation solvent, and drug loading. Through the Box–Behnken tests, the optimum organogel formulation in vitro was obtained. The self-healing properties of the organogel have been utilised for injection of a model lipophilic risperidone in situ, and sustained release of the drug has been studied over about one week in vivo. In conclusion, the gelation ability of gelators could be adjusted by the gelator structure. Gel property is related with the whole composition of the formulation. As drug carrier, the drug release property of organogels is affected by multiple factors. Our investigation of the gel release property will play a theoretical guiding role in the application in the in situ drug delivery system.

Для изучения начально-краевой задачи для комбинированного уравнения Шредингера-Герджикова-Иванова на полуоси применяется метод Фокаса. В предположении, что решение $u(x,t)$ этого уравнения существует, его можно представить как единственное решение матричной задачи Римана-Гильберта на плоскости комплексного спектрального параметра $\xi$. Матрицы скачков определяются спектральными функциями, которые не являются независимыми, а связаны глобально.

In this paper, by using Fokas method, we study the initial-boundary value problems (IBVPs) of the fourth-order dispersive nonlinear Schrödinger (FODNLS) equation on the half-line, which can simulate the nonlinear transmission and interaction of ultrashort pulses in the high-speed optical fiber transmission system, and can also describe the nonlinear spin excitation phenomenon of one-dimensional Heisenberg ferromagnetic chain with eight poles and dipole interaction. By discussing the eigenfunctions of Lax pair of FODNLS equation and analyzing symmetry of the scattering matrix, we get a matrix Riemann–Hilbert (RH) problem from for the IBVPs of FODNLS equation. Moreover, we get the potential function solution u(x, t) of the FODNLS equation by solving this matrix RH problem. In addition, we also obtain that some spectral functions satisfy an important global relation.

Most proteins given orally have low bioavailability and are easily eliminated by rapid metabolism in vivo. In order to immobilize the drug at the site of administration and delay its release, a natural, gentle release system was designed. In this study, a heteropolysaccharide (ZOP) was isolated from

Downloads and citations of papers are regarded as significant metrics of the academic level of researchers and the influence of journals. Besides, exploring the association between them helps grease the wheels of the academic evaluation system. In this paper, we select 7552 articles published in The Lancet from January 2007 to October 2017 as the research sample and conduct Granger causal inference to investigate the relationship and directionality between downloads and citations. Furthermore, based on the download-citation patterns of articles, this study stratifies articles to explore the directionality between the downloads and citations of articles with different patterns. The results show that 75.86% of the articles have Granger causality between download and citation counts, suggesting that there is a significant causal relationship between downloads and citations. Specifically, the proportion of articles with bilateral Granger causality between download counts and citation counts is the highest, accounting for 35.51%; the proportion of articles whose download counts affect citation counts unilaterally accounts for 14.3%; and the proportion of articles whose citation counts affect download counts unilaterally accounts for 26.05%; 24.14% of the articles have no Granger causality between downloads and citations. Further, most Lancet articles are downloaded more at the early stage after publication, while the citations mainly appear after a period of time, making the slope trend of downloads and citations inconsistent throughout the citation life cycle. Meanwhile, the Granger causal relationship between downloads and citations is related to the slope of their curves. That is, the metric with a lower slope tends to be influenced by the metric with a higher slope.

Correlation has become a fundamental method for information science. However, correlations are limited in making concrete decisions. In this article, we detail how causal inference could be utilised in the field of information science. There are six main steps of implementing matching for causal inference, namely, selecting candidate control variables, determining control variables, calculating similarities among all samples, forming control group, examining the performance of control group and estimating causal effects. As an example, this article applies causal inference to investigate whether Nobel Physics award increases the after-award citations. The method is presented in a step-by-step manner so that researchers can reproduce our analysis in the future.

Polygonatum sibiricum polysaccharides (PSPs) have important biological functions, such as antioxidation, immunomodulatory, and hypolipidemic functions. Different extraction methods have effects on their structures and activities. In this study, six extraction methods, including hot water extraction (HWE), alkali extraction (AAE), ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE), enzyme-assisted extraction (EAE), microwave-assisted extraction (MAE), and freeze–thaw-assisted extraction (FAE) were used to extract PSPs, and their structure–activity relationships were analyzed. The results showed that all six PSPs had similar functional group compositions, thermal stability, and glycosidic bond compositions. PSP-As (PSPs extracted by AAE) exhibited better rheological properties due to their higher molecular weight (Mw). PSP-Es (PSPs extracted by EAE) and PSP-Fs (PSPs extracted by FAE) had better lipid-lowering activity due to their lower Mw. PSP-Es and PSP-Ms (PSPs extracted by MAE), which do not contain uronic acid and have a moderate Mw, had better 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH)-radical-scavenging activity. On the contrary, PSP-Hs (PSPs extracted by HWE) and PSP-Fs, with the Mw of uronic acid, had the best OH-radical-scavenging activity. The high-Mw PSP-As had the best Fe2+-chelating ability. In addition, mannose (Man) may play an important role in the immunomodulatory activity. These results indicate that different extraction methods affect the structure and biological activity of polysaccharides to varying degrees, and these results are helpful for understanding the structure–activity relationship of PSPs.

Background: Tumor mutation burden (TMB) has been considered biomarker for using of immune checkpoint inhibitors(ICIs), but whole exome sequencing(WES) and cancer gene panel(CGP) based on next generation sequencing for TMB detection are costly. Here, we use transcriptome data of TCGA to construct a model for TMB prediction in gastrointestinal tumors.Methods: Transcriptome data, somatic mutation data and clinical data of four gastrointestinal tumors from TCGA, including esophageal cancer (ESCA), stomach adenocarcinoma (STAD), colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) and rectal adenocarcinoma (READ). Using R, we performed visual analysis of somatic mutation data, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) function enrichment analysis, gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA), and estimated the value of TMB in clinic. Finally, a deep neural network (DNN) model was constructed for TMB prediction.Results: Visualization of somatic mutation data summarized the classification of mutation, frequency of each mutation type, and top-mutated genes. GSEA showed the enrichment of CD4+/CD8+ T cells in the high TMB group and the activation of tumor suppressing pathways. Single-sample GSEA (ssGSEA) found that the high-TMB group had higher level of multiple immune cells infiltration. In addition, distribution of TMB was related to age, M stage, N stage, AJCC stage, and overall survival. After model optimization with the genetic algorithm, in the training set, validation set, and testing set, the Pearson relevance coefficient r between predicted values and actual values reaches 0.98, 0.82, and 0.92, respectively; the coefficient of determination R2 is 0.95, 0.82, and 0.7, respectively. Conclusion: TMB correlates with clinicopathological parameters in gastrointestinal carcinoma, and patients with high TMB have higher levels of immune infiltration. In addition, the DNN model based on 31 genes predicts TMB of gastrointestinal tumors in a high accuracy.

We here perform a systematic bioinformatic analysis to uncover the role of sorting nexin (SNX) family in clinical outcome of gastric cancer (GC). Comprehensive bioinformatic analysis were realized with online tools such as TCGA, GEO, String, Timer, cBioportal and Kaplan–Meier Plotter. Statistical analysis was conducted with R language or Perl, and artificial neural network (ANN) model was established using Python. Our analysis demonstrated that SNX4/5/6/7/8/10/13/14/15/16/20/22/25/27/30 were higher expressed in GC, whereas SNX1/17/21/24/33 were in the opposite expression profiles. GSE66229 was employed as verification of the differential expression analysis based on TCGA. Clustering results gave the relative transcriptional levels of 30 SNXs in tumor, and it was totally consistent to the inner relevance of SNXs at mRNA level. Protein–Protein Interaction map showed closely and complex connection among 33 SNXs. Tumor immune infiltration analysis asserted that SNX1/3/9/18/19/21/29/33, SNX1/17/18/20/21/29/31/33, SNX1/2/3/6/10/18/29/33, and SNX1/2/6/10/17/18/20/29 were strongly correlated with four kinds of survival related tumor-infiltrating immune cells, including cancer associated fibroblast, endothelial cells, macrophages and Tregs. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis based on GEO presented more satisfactory results than that based on TCGA-STAD did, and all the 29 SNXs were statistically significant, SNX23/26/28 excluded. SNXs alteration contributed to microsatellite instability (MSI) or higher level of MSI-H (hyper-mutated MSI or high level of MSI), and other malignancy encompassing mutation of TP53 and ARID1A, as well as methylation of MLH1.The multivariate cox model, visualized as a nomogram, performed excellently in patients risk classification, for those with higher risk-score suffered from shorter overall survival (OS). Compared to previous researches, our ANN models showed a predictive power at a middle-upper level, with AUC of 0.87/0.72, 0.84/0.72, 0.90/0.71 (GSE84437), 0.98/0.66, 0.86/0.70, 0.98/0.71 (GSE66229), 0.94/0.66, 0.83/0.71, 0.88/0.72 (GSE26253) corresponding to one-, three- and five-year OS and recurrence free survival (RFS) estimation, especially ANN model built with GSE66229 including exclusively SNXs as input data. The SNX family shows great value in postoperative survival evaluation of GC, and ANN models constructed using SNXs transcriptional data manifesting excellent predictive power in both OS and RFS prediction works as convincing verification to that.

The purposes of this study were to analyse the spatiotemporal variations in greenhouse gas diffusive fluxes at the sediment–water interface of sewage-draining rivers and natural rivers, and investigate the factors responsible for the changes in greenhouse gas diffusive fluxes. Greenhouse gas diffusive fluxes at the sediment–water interface of rivers in Tianjin city (Haihe watershed) were investigated during July and October 2014, and January and April 2015 by laboratory incubation experiments. The influence of environmental variables on greenhouse gas diffusive fluxes was evaluated by Spearman’s correlation analysis and a multiple stepwise regression analysis. Sewage-draining rivers were more seriously polluted by human sewage discharge than natural rivers. The greenhouse gas diffusive fluxes at the sediment–water interface exhibited obvious spatiotemporal variations. The mean absolute value of the CO2 diffusive fluxes was seasonally variable with spring>winter>fall>summer, while the mean absolute values of the CH4 and N2O diffusive fluxes were both higher in summer and winter, and lower in fall and spring. The annual mean values of the CO2, CH4 and N2O diffusive fluxes at the sewage-draining river sediment–water interface were − 123.26 ± 233.78 μmol m−2 h−1, 1.88 ± 6.89 μmol m−2 h−1 and 1505.03 ± 2388.46 nmol m−2 h−1, respectively, which were 1.22, 4.37 and 134.50 times those at the natural river sediment–water interface, respectively. The spatial variation of the N2O diffusive fluxes in the sewage-draining rivers and the natural rivers was the most significant. As a general rule, the more serious the river pollution was, the greater the diffusive fluxes of the greenhouse gases were. On average for the whole year, the river sediment was the sink of CO2 and the source of CH4 and N2O. There were positive correlations among the CO2, CH4 and N2O diffusive fluxes. The main influencing factor for CO2 and N2O diffusive fluxes was the water temperature of the overlying water; however, the key factors for CH4 diffusive fluxes were the Eh of the sediment and the NH4+-N of the overlying water. River sediment can be either a sink or a source of greenhouse gases, which varies in different levels of pollution and different seasons. Human sewage discharge has greatly affected the carbon and nitrogen cycling of urban rivers.

Land use regression (LUR) models are mainly used for the simulation and prediction of conventional atmospheric pollutants. Whether the LUR models can be expanded to study more toxic and hazardous pollutants (such as heavy metals) remains to be verified. Combined with the factors of road, land use type, population, pollution enterprise, meteorology, and terrain, the LUR models were used to simulate the spatial distribution characteristics of heavy metals in road dust and determine the main influencing factors. Samples of road surface dust were collected from 144 evenly distributed points in Tianjin, China, with 108 modelling points and 36 verification points. The R

The lipid-coated mesoporous silica nanoparticles (LMSNs) that can synergistically harness the advantages and mitigate the disadvantages of the liposomes and MSNs are considered potential drug carriers. So far, several methods have been developed to prepare LMSNs, including vesicle fusion, thin-film hydration, and solvent exchange. Despite their wide application in LMSN preparation, these methods are short of detailed elaboration and comparison, which hinders their further development. In this review, for the first time, the three methods are systematically summarized, including their mechanisms, influence factors, advantages, and limitations. Although these methods are all based on lipid self-assembly, there is still a difference between them. In order to efficiently prepare LMSNs, we proposed that a suitable method should be selected based on the actual situation. It is conceivable that the elaboration and comparison in this review will make these methods easy to be understood and provide guidance for the design of LMSNs as drug carriers.

In urban North China, nitrate ( NO 3 − ) is a primary contributor to haze formation. So far, the production processes and source apportionments of atmospheric NO 3 − during the heating season (i.e. the wintertime) have not yet been well understood. This study determined δ15N– NO 3 − , δ18O– NO 3 − , and Δ17O– NO 3 − of aerosol samples to compare the potential sources and formation pathways of atmospheric NO 3 − during heating (November to March) and non-heating (April to May) seasons. Combining stable isotope composition with the MixSIAR model based on Δ17O– NO 3 − showed that NO3 + DMS/HC (dimethyl sulfate/hydrocarbon) pathway was the dominant process of atmospheric nitrate formation during the heating season (mean = 52.88 ± 16.11%). During the non-heating season, the contributions of NO3 + DMS/HC (mean = 37.89 ± 13.57%) and N2O5 + H2O (mean = 35.24 ± 3.75%) pathways were comparable. We found that Δ17O– NO 3 − was negatively correlated with wind speed and positively correlated with relative humidity during the heating season, possibly associated with the sources and production of atmospheric NO 3 − . In specific, in a dust storm event, the very low Δ17O– NO 3 − is likely associated with particles from land surface. Under the premise of considering 15N fractionation, the constraint-based on δ15N– NO 3 − illustrated that coal combustion was the major source of NO x emission during the heating season, and the relative contribution of coal combustion decreased rapidly from the heating season (mean = 42.56 ± 15.50%) to the non-heating season (mean = 21.86 ± 4.91%). Conversely, the proportion of NOx emitted by soil microbes rose significantly from the heating (mean = 9.67 ± 5.99%) to non-heating season (mean = 24.02 ± 11.65%). This study revealed differences in the sources and formation processes of atmospheric NO 3 − during the heating and non-heating seasons, which are of significance to atmospheric nitrogen oxide/nitrate pollution mitigation.

In order to provide more scientific guidance for wetland bird protection, this study addressed the dynamics of the bird community sorted by ecotypes, classifications and threat categories from 2015 to 2019, and non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis, generalized additive models and the Mantel test were used to examine the relationships between bird communities and habitat types. The results showed that: (1) The abundance of birds peaked in 2017 at 88,258 individuals and then declined. Moreover, there was an inverse trend between species richness and abundance of birds, meaning greater abundance is associated with fewer species. (2) Swimming birds were dominant ecotypes and Anseriformes possessed the highest abundance. It was noteworthy that the abundance of critically endangered birds (Aythya baeri and Grus leucogeranus) and the species richness of endangered birds increased. (3) Building land and farmland had dominant impacts on the composition of bird community. Wading birds and birds in Gruiformes were significantly impacted by building land and farmland, and near threatened species were substantially influenced by farmland. Therefore, maintaining good connectivity between protected areas and surrounding areas is one of the best ways to effectively manage biodiversity of the target area. This research may provide a broader insight for coastal wetland bird habitat management and bird diversity preservation.

Recently, mixed bromine/chlorine transformation products of tetrabromobisphenol A (Cl

The large increase in the number of tourists brings challenges to the tourist carrying capacity of tourist destinations. By constructing a tourism carrying capacity indicator system and a coupling coordination model, we calculate and compare the development of tourism carrying capacity and the coupling coordination between all first-class indicators of tourism carrying capacity for provinces and cities in China. We find that the tourism carrying capacity and the coupling coordination between all first-class indicators of tourism carrying capacity for provinces and cities in China both showed an upward trend from 2008 to 2017, but the development was not balanced. In coastal provinces, their development level was high although lately showing a downward trend. In the provinces of the northwest China, their development level is low, and their development speed is relatively slow. The provinces and cities in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the southwest China recorded the fastest growth rate. In addition, we found that the development of tourism carrying capacity is closely related to coupling coordination between all first-class indicators of tourism carrying capacity.

Understanding the spatial distribution pattern change and driving factors behind ecosystem health is essential to ecosystem management and restoration. However, in the research of regional ecosystem health, there is little research on ecosystem health in coastal regions, and there is little exploration of its temporal and spatial pattern change and its driving factors. In this study, we use the Vigor-Organization-Resilience-Services (VORS) model and marine ecosystem health index to diagnose the ecosystem health of the whole coastal area of China over the last 20 years, and find the main contributing factors affecting ecosystem health with the help of geographic detectors and geographic weighted regression analysis. Our results show that: (1) the ecosystem health level in the south of the coastal region is higher than that in the north, mainly with 30° north latitude as the main dividing line. (2) The regions with high change rate are mainly concentrated in Bohai Bay, the Yangtze River Estuary, Hangzhou Bay and the Pearl River Estuary, and the change is mainly negative. (3) Both natural and human factors have an impact on ecosystem health, and the influencing factors are different on different scales. The interaction between different factors is greater than the impact of a single factor on ecosystem health. The study puts forward a new evaluation framework for the study of ecosystem health in coastal areas, which can be applied to other coastal areas with similar conditions, and can help the sustainable and healthy development of coastal areas.

In this paper, we investigate vector Lakshmanan-Porsezian-Daniel (VLPD) model which can be used to describe the ultrashort pulses in the birefringent optical fiber. Based on the unified transformation method, the Riemann-Hilbert problem is introduced and initial-boundary value problems of the VLPD model are studied. By solving the formulated matrix Riemann-Hilbert problem, the potential function solutions of the VLPD model can be reconstructed. Moreover, that the spectral functions are not independent but meet the so-called global relation is shown.

In this paper, we use the Riemann-Hilbert (RH) approach to examine the integrable three-coupled Lakshmanan-Porsezian-Daniel (LPD) model, which describe the dynamics of alpha helical protein with the interspine coupling at the fourth-order dispersion term. Through the spectral analysis of Lax pair, we construct the higher order matrix RH problem for the three-coupled LPD model, when the jump matrix of this particular RH problem is a 4×4 unit matrix, the exact N-soliton solutions of the three-coupled LPD model can be exhibited. As special examples, we also investigate the nonlinear dynamical behaviors of the single-soliton, two-soliton, three-soliton and breather soliton solutions. Finally, an integrable generalized N-component LPD model with its linear spectral problem is discussed.

Beibei Hu,1,2 Jianxin Wang,3 Jing Li,3 Sanming Li,3 Heran Li1 1School of Pharmacy, China Medical University, Shenyang 110122, People’s Republic of China; 2College of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Hebei University of Science and Technology, Shijiazhuang 050018, People’s Republic of China; 3School of Pharmacy, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Heran LiSchool of Pharmacy, China Medical University, 77 Puhe Road, Shenyang North New Area, Shenyang 110122, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86 13897945866Email liheranmm@163.comPurpose: The purpose of this research was to study the basic physicochemical and biological properties regarding the application of L-tartaric acid modified chiral mesoporous silica nanoparticle (CMSN) as a drug carrier, and to explore the structure–property relationship of silica-based materials.Methods: CMSN with functions of carboxyl modification and chirality was successfully synthesized through co-condensation method, and the basic characteristics of CMSN, including morphology, structure, wettability, degradation, bio-adhesion and retention ability in gastrointestinal tract (GI tract) were estimated by comparing with non-functionalized mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN). Meanwhile, the biocompatibility and toxicity of L-tartaric modification were systematically evaluated both in vitro and in vivo through MTT cell viability assay, cell cycle and apoptosis assay, hemolysis assay, histopathology examination, hematology analysis, and clinical chemistry examination.Results: CMSN and MSN were spherical nanoparticles with uniform mesoporous structure. CMSN with smaller pore size and carboxyl functional groups exhibited better wettability. Besides, CMSN and MSN could dissolve thoroughly in simulated physiological fluids during a degradation period of 1– 12 weeks. Interestingly, the in vitro and in vivo behaviors of carriers, including degradation, bio-adhesion and retention ability in the GI tract were closely related to wettability. As expected, CMSN had faster degradation rate, higher mucosa-adhesion ability, and longer retention time. Particularly, CMSN improved the bio-adhesion property in both gastric mucosa and small intestinal mucosa, and prolonged the GI tract retention time to at least 12 h, which meant higher probability for absorption. The biocompatibility and toxicity examination indicated that CMSN was a kind of biocompatible bio-material with good blood compatibility and negligible toxicity, which is required for further applications in biological fields.Conclusion: CMSN with functions of carboxyl modification and chirality had superiority in terms of both physicochemical and biological properties. The in vitro and in vivo behaviors of carriers, including degradation, bio-adhesion, and retention were closely related to wettability.Keywords: chiral mesoporous silica, carboxyl modification, wettability, bio-adhesion, biocompatibility

Existing methods for the sustainability assessment of industrial production processes have considered the values of natural resource use and ecosystem services. However, these methods mainly focus on monetary measures of natural capital cost and ignore some other costs, including human health effects, biodiversity loss and indirect exergy consumption in labor employment. The integrated ecological cumulative exergy consumption accounting method was proposed to improve the existing extended exergy model and provide a comprehensive perspective of the full cost of production including natural resources, human resources and environmental cost. The improved model is illustrated by its application for the steel-making process in China. Of the total cost of the steel-making process, the human resources cost (investment) accounts for only 9.7%. Contrary to the traditional cost evaluation, the result of this case study shows that classical economic assessment cannot reflect an overall ecological sustainable level of the steel-making process. The integrated method framework can be used to assess sustainability in a different spatial scale.

For the environmental efficiency assessment of the plant nursery production system, the total CO2 eq emissions of 18 nurseries in China was calculated using the LCA “from cradle to gate” approach. The analysis revealed that the GHG emissions of potted plant production were higher than those of field-grown nurseries. The CO2 eq emissions were variable between 0.31 and 2.19 Mg ha−1 year−1 for field-grown nurseries, while the lowest and the highest emissions were 4.09 and 6.06 Mg ha−1 year−1, respectively, for potted plant nurseries. In 2015, the total CO2 eq emissions of the nursery production industry in China were approximately 1.59 Mt, which consisted of 1.07 Mt from field-grown nurseries and 0.52 Mt from pot-grown plant nurseries. In China, nursery production industry carbon emissions were 0.19% of the national agriculture emissions. The comparison showed that the GHG emissions of the nursery plant system have significant differences depending on region, production method, plant species and economic development level.