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The unprecedented rapid growth of digital health has brought new opportunities to the health field. However, elderly patients with chronic diseases, as an important potential beneficiary group, are affected by the digital divide, leading to unsatisfactory usage of digital health technologies (DHTs). Our study focused on the factors influencing the adoption of DHTs among this vulnerable group. To extend the UTAUT theory, technology anxiety and several demographic predictors were included to address the age characteristics of the respondents. An on-site survey was conducted in general, district, and community hospitals in Shanghai (n = 309). Facilitating conditions negatively influenced technology anxiety. Technology anxiety hindered behavioural intention. Social influence had a significant but negative impact on behavioural intention. Education, whether older adults have had experience with DHTs and previous smartphone usage experiences were significantly associated with technology anxiety. The findings provide valuable information for multiple stakeholders, including family members of elderly users, product designers, and policymakers. Ameliorating facilitating conditions, improving devices' usage experience, encouraging attempts and focusing on groups with lower educational levels can help to reduce technology anxiety and promote DHT acceptance and use in older age groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The newly released 'Snow White' (SW), a white-fleshed loquat (Eriobotrya japonica Lindl.) cultivar, holds promise for commercial production. However, the specifics of the phenolic composition in white-fleshed loquats, along with the antioxidant substances and their regulatory mechanisms, are not yet fully understood. In this study, we examined the dynamic changes in the phenolic compounds, enzyme activities, antioxidant capacity, and gene expression patterns of SW during the key stages of fruit development and ripening. A total of 18 phenolic compounds were identified in SW, with chlorogenic acid, neochlorogenic acid, and coniferyl alcohol being the most predominant. SW demonstrated a stronger antioxidant capacity in the early stages of development, largely due to total phenolics and flavonoids. Neochlorogenic acid may be the most significant antioxidant contributor in loquat. A decline in enzyme activities corresponded with fruit softening. Different genes within a multigene family played distinct roles in the synthesis of phenolics. C4H1, 4CL2, 4CL9, HCT, CCoAOMT5, F5H, COMT1, CAD6, and POD42 were implicated in the regulation of neochlorogenic acid synthesis and accumulation. Consequently, these findings enhance our understanding of phenolic metabolism and offer fresh perspectives on the development of germplasm resources for white-fleshed loquats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the water–sand composition of the Yangtze River channel has changed due to the influence of human factors, especially the construction of water reservoirs such as the Three Gorges Project. Changing water–sand conditions have a long-term impact on the shaping of the river channel morphology in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and the erosion retreat of local river sections has caused great harm to embankment projects. This paper focuses on the river evolution mechanism of the river channel from Chenglingji to Datong in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River over the past 31 years. Landsat remote sensing images from 1989–2019 were used to extract and interpret water bodies, river shorelines, and central bars in the study area using the Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI) combined with visual interpretation. We used near analysis to study the morphological evolution characteristics of the river, the channel, and selected typical river reaches for comparative analysis. We found out that the overall change in river morphology between 1989 and 2019 was small in the horizontal direction, but the local area changed significantly. Considerable scouring occurred in the vertical direction. Combining hydrological and meteorological data, we investigated the effects of the Three Gorges Dam, instream sand mining, boundary conditions, vegetation cover on both sides of the riverbanks, and aspects of storm flooding in the watershed on the evolution of the river. The study indicated that the geological conditions on both sides of the river, the implementation of the bank protection project, and the improvement of vegetation cover on both sides of the river have made the riverbanks more resistant to scouring. However, heavy rainfall floods, the operation of the Three Gorges Reservoir, and sand mining activities in the river channel make the river channel more susceptible to scouring. Based on the calculation of the slope change rate of the accumulated volume, it was found that the runoff is mainly influenced by precipitations, while the sand transport is mainly affected by human activities. This study shows that natural and anthropogenic activities affect the equilibrium state of the river's water and sediment to varying degree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gamma amino butyric acid (GABA), an important free amino acid in plant tissues, plays an essential role in all stages of plant growth and development. In this study, we aimed to explore the effects of GABA on the nutrient absorption of loquat [Eriobotrya japonica (Thunb.) Lindl.] seedlings. The effects of applying exogenous GABA in different concentrations (0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2 g L−1) on the nutrient uptake of loquat seedlings were studied. GABA increased the biomass (dry weight) and contents of photosynthetic pigments in loquat seedlings to a certain extent. GABA concentration exhibited a quadratic polynomial regression relationship with the biomass. Exogenous GABA in different concentrations increased the total nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) contents in loquat seedlings, whereas only 0.5 and 1.0 g L−1 of GABA increased the potassium (K) content. Similarly, GABA concentration also had a polynomial regression relationship with the total N, P, and K contents. Compared to the control, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 g L−1 of GABA increased the shoot total N content by 27.30, 32.99, 15.41, and 12.93%, respectively, and also increased the shoot total P content by 26.12, 37.52, 21.99, and 9.61%, respectively. Furthermore, correlation and grey relational analyses showed that the carotenoid content, root biomass, and soil alkali-hydrolyzable N concentration were the indicators most closely associated with the uptakes of N, P, and K in shoots. This study shows that exogenous GABA can promote the growth and nutrient uptake of loquat seedlings at an optimum concentration of 1.0 g L−1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The environment supplies water, land, biological resources, and climate resources for people's daily life and development, dramatically affecting the subsistence and development of human beings. Panzhihua City is a representative resource-based industrial city of southwestern China. The abundant mineral resources provide the material basis for the city's development. However, while the overdevelopment of the past decades has provided the preconditions for its rapid economic growth, it has also inevitably had a huge impact on its environmental quality and land use structure. In this study, the landsat remote sensing images, terrain data, socio-economic data, and mining resources exploitation data of Panzhihua were used to extract the NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), NDBSI (Normalized Difference Build and Soil Index) and LST (Land Surface Temperature) of the past 20 years at 5-year intervals. We normalized four indicators by Principal Component Analysis to derive a remote sensing ecological index of each factor and build the Remote Sensing-based Ecological Index evaluation model. This research quantified the changes in environmental quality in the past 20 years through the range method, showing that the environmental quality of Panzhihua City first declined and then increased slowly. This research also analyzed the influence of land use types, terrain, mining area, and socio-economy on the environmental quality of Panzhihua City by grey relational analysis and buffer analysis. It is found that with the influence of its unique topographical factors and economic aspects, the environmental quality of Panzhihua City changed to varying degrees. The results provide a reliable basis for the future environmental planning of Panzhihua City and a reference for the ecological restoration of mining areas with different mineral species accurately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following significant urban expansion, the ecological problems of resource-based cities are gradually exposed. It is of great significance to study the ecosystem services of resource-based cities to achieve their sustainable development goals and to alleviate the conflicts between environmental protection and the utilization of the surrounding resources. However, in the current research on resource-based cities, few scholars have combined multiple minerals and multiple ecosystem services to explore the impact of mineral resources on the ecosystem. In this study, based on the historical data spanning from 2002 to 2018, we used the CA–Markov model to project the land use of Panzhihua City to 2030. Based on future land use projection, we quantified four ecosystem services (ESs) variables, including water yield, carbon storage, habitat quality, and soil conservation, using the InVEST model from the perspective of land use evolution in Panzhihua City. In addition, we explored the trade-offs and synergies of different ecosystem services and the correlations between different mineral species and ecosystem services using Spearman's correlation coefficient. Results showed the following: (1) During 2002–2018, water yield service, habitat quality service, and carbon storage service of Panzhihua City decreased year by year, and soil conservation service showed significant fluctuations; most of the low ESs areas were distributed in the central region of Panzhihua. On the contrary, most high ESs areas were located in the forest region. (2) The trade-offs and synergistic relationships among different ecosystem services showed significant spatial variations. There were synergistic relationships among ESs and weak trade-offs between water yield services, soil conservation, and habitat quality services. There was also significant spatial variability in the trade-offs and synergies among ecosystem services, with water production services showing "east trade-offs and west synergies" with soil conservation and habitat quality services, and most of the rest showing trade-offs in urban areas. (3) ESs in mining areas showed trade-offs in general, mainly between water production services and carbon storage services, with clay as the major negative factor of mineral species, and iron ore mines that have undergone ecological protection construction showed the lowest negative impact on ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The harsh environment of high-latitude areas with large amounts of snow and ice cover makes it difficult to carry out full geological field surveys. Uranium resources are abundant within the Ilimaussaq Complex in the Narsaq region of Greenland, where the uranium ore body is strictly controlled by the Lujavrite formation, which is the main ore-bearing rock in the complex rock mass. Further, large aggregations of radioactive minerals appear as thermal anomalies on remote sensing thermal infrared imagery, which is indicative of deposits of highly radioactive elements. Using a weight-of-evidence analysis method that combines machine-learned lithological classification information with information on surface temperature thermal anomalies, the prediction of radioactive element-bearing deposits at high latitudes was carried out. Through the use of Worldview-2 (WV-2) remote sensing images, support vector machine algorithms based on texture features and topographic features were used to identify Lujavrite. In addition, the distribution of thermal anomalies associated with radioactive elements was inverted using Landsat 8 TIRS thermal infrared data. From the results, it was found that the overall accuracy of the SVM algorithm-based lithology mapping was 89.57%. The surface temperature thermal anomaly had a Spearman correlation coefficient of 0.63 with the total airborne measured uranium gamma radiation. The lithological classification information was integrated with surface temperature thermal anomalies and other multi-source remote sensing mineralization elements to calculate mineralization-favorable areas through a weight-of-evidence model, with high-value mineralization probability areas being spatially consistent with known mineralization areas. In conclusion, a multifaceted remote sensing information finding method, focusing on surface temperature thermal anomalies in high-latitude areas, provides guidance and has reference value for the exploration of potential mineralization areas for deposits containing radioactive elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this proof-of-concept study, a novel nanocomposite of the thiolated polyaniline (tPANI), multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and gold–platinum core-shell nanoparticles (Au@Pt) (tPANI-Au@Pt-MWCNT) was synthesized and utilized to modify a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) for simultaneous voltammetric determination of six over-the-counter (OTC) drug molecules: ascorbic acid (AA), levodopa (LD), acetaminophen (AC), diclofenac (DI), acetylsalicylic acid (AS) and caffeine (CA). The nanocomposite (tPANI-Au@Pt-MWCNT) was characterized with transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Using the sensor (GCE-tPANI-Au@Pt-MWCNT) in connection with differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), the calibration plots were determined to be linear up to 570.0, 60.0, 60.0, 115.0, 375.0 and 520.0 µM with limit of detection (LOD) of 1.5, 0.25, 0.15, 0.2, 2.0, and 5.0 µM for AA, LD, AC, DI, AS and CA, respectively. The nanocomposite-modified sensor was successfully used for the determination of these redox-active compounds in commercially available OTC products such as energy drinks, cream and tablets with good recovery yields ranging from 95.48 ± 0.53 to 104.1 ± 1.63%. We envisage that the electrochemical sensor provides a promising platform for future applications towards the detection of redox-active drug molecules in pharmaceutical quality control studies and forensic investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, graphene oxide nanoribbons (GONRs) were obtained from the oxidative unzipping of multi-walled carbon nanotubes. Covalent coupling reaction of 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC) and N-hydroxy succinimide (NHS) with amine functional groups (-NH2) of the chitosan natural polymer (CH) was used for entrapping GONRs on the activated glassy carbon electrode (GCE/GONRs-CH). The nanocomposite was characterized by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), and field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). In addition, the modification steps were monitored using FTIR. The nanocomposite-modified electrode was used for the simultaneous electrochemical determination of four DNA bases; guanine (G), adenine (A), thymine (T) and cytosine (C). The nanocomposite-modified GCE displayed a strong, stable and continuous four oxidation peaks during electrochemistry detection at potentials 0.63, 0.89, 1.13 and 1.27 V for G, A, T and C, respectively. The calibration curves were linear up to 256, 172, 855 and 342 μM with detection limits of 0.002, 0.023, 1.330 and 0.641 μM for G, A, T and C, respectively. The analytical performance of the GCE/GONRs-CH has been used for the determination of G, A, T and C in real samples and obtained a recovery percentage from 91.1%–104.7%. Our preliminary results demonstrated that GCE/GONRs-CH provided a promising platform to detect all four DNA bases for future studies on DNA damage and mutations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The newly released 'Snow White' (SW), a white-fleshed loquat ( Eriobotrya japonica Lindl.) cultivar, holds promise for commercial production. However, the specifics of the phenolic composition in white-fleshed loquats, along with the antioxidant substances and their regulatory mechanisms, are not yet fully understood. In this study, we examined the dynamic changes in the phenolic compounds, enzyme activities, antioxidant capacity, and gene expression patterns of SW during the key stages of fruit development and ripening. A total of 18 phenolic compounds were identified in SW, with chlorogenic acid, neochlorogenic acid, and coniferyl alcohol being the most predominant. SW demonstrated a stronger antioxidant capacity in the early stages of development, largely due to total phenolics and flavonoids. Neochlorogenic acid may be the most significant antioxidant contributor in loquat. A decline in enzyme activities corresponded with fruit softening. Different genes within a multigene family played distinct roles in the synthesis of phenolics. C4H1 , 4CL2 , 4CL9 , HCT , CCoAOMT5 , F5H , COMT1 , CAD6 , and POD42 were implicated in the regulation of neochlorogenic acid synthesis and accumulation. Consequently, these findings enhance our understanding of phenolic metabolism and offer fresh perspectives on the development of germplasm resources for white-fleshed loquats.