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Energy consumption is a major factor influencing climate change. Low-carbon strategies can be defined from carbon (C) footprint and ecological pressure caused by energy consumption. We hypothesized that this should be done at the regional and city levels because factors controlling C footprints vary with location and time, yet there is actually little knowledge at local levels. Here, we mapped the C emissions and footprint of 11 cities in the Zhejiang Province of China, a rapidly growing area of about 57 million inhabitants, which is representative of the strong economic growth in China. The C footprint is expressed as the land surface necessary to adsorb C emissions. We studied spatio-temporal evolution of C footprints from 2005 to 2015 using the center of gravity method. Results show that total annual C emissions due to energy consumption in Zhejiang increased by 40.83 million tons (55.8%) from 2005 to 2011. Then, from 2011 to 2015, C emissions decreased by 5.8%, which is explained by the 5-year national plan aiming at decreasing emissions. Similarly, the total C footprint increased by 55.8% from 29,201,904 hm2 in 2005 to 45,496,817 hm2 in 2011 and then declined by 5.8% from 2011 to 2015. At the city level, Ningbo has the largest C footprint contribution, whereas Lishui the lowest. Zhoushan shows an increase in C emissions and footprint, whereas Hangzhou and Shaoxing show a decline. The center of gravity of the C footprint is located in Shaoxing and is moving southeast from 2006 to 2011. Overall, our findings reveal the high spatial heterogeneity of C footprint at the regional and city levels, implying that national low-carbon strategies should be adapted at lower levels for higher efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution represents a significant fraction of the total mortality estimated by the World Health Organization (WHO) global burden of disease project (GBD). The present paper discusses the characteristics of trace gases (O, NO, NO, and CO) and particulate matter (PM and PM) in two Asian megacities, Delhi (India) and Beijing (China). A continuous measurement of trace gases and particulate matter are considered from 12 measuring sites in Beijing and 8 sites in Delhi. Over Beijing, the annual average of PM, PM, O, NO, and CO is, respectively, 85.3, 112.8, 58.7, and 53.4 μg/m and 1.4 mg/m, and, respectively, over Delhi 146.5, 264.3, 24.7,and 19.8 μg/m and 1.73 mg/m. From the spatial variations of pollutants, the concentrations of particulate matter and trace gases are observed to be much higher in the urban areas compared to the suburban areas. The higher average concentrations of PM and PM over Delhi and Beijing are observed during winter season compared with other seasons. The maximum diurnal variation of PM concentration is observed during winter season over Beijing and Delhi. The comparison of trace gases shows that the O concentrations during daytime are obviously higher compared with nighttime, and the highest diurnal variation of O is observed during summer. The concentrations of CO are highest during winter season, and higher concentrations are observed during nighttime compared to daytime. The O and CO show negative correlation over Beijing and Delhi. The negative correlation between O and NO is merely observed over Beijing, while CO and NO concentrations, in contrast, show positive correlation over Beijing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetes mellitus, commonly characterized by hyperglycemia, is a group of metabolic diseases. Some oral anti-diabetic drugs show poor tolerability during chronic treatment, and associate with undesired side effects. Recent advances in the understanding of physiological functions of incretins and their degrading enzyme dipeptidyl peptidase DPP-IV have led to the discovery of DPP-IV inhibitors as a new class of oral anti-diabetic drugs. Several DPP-IV inhibitors have different chemical structures of which the xanthine scaffold has specific advantages. Combining previous work with the research strategy of pharmacophore hybridization, we retained this scaffold and synthesized a new series of amino-alcohol or diamino-modified xanthine compounds. Some xanthines exhibited submicromolar inhibitory activities against DPP-IV. The most potent compound 40 $$(\hbox {IC}_{50} = \hbox {19.6 nM})$$ exhibits a good in vivo efficacy in reducing glucose excursion at a single dose and a better chronic effect in reducing body weight than metformin in DIO mice. In other words, the combined effect improved the pathological state of DIO mice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]