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The Jing-Mi Diversion Canal is a large-scale water diversion project in Beijing. Routine monitoring is crucial for the reliability and stability of urban water supply. Compared with traditional monitoring methods, interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) has the advantages of large scale and high accuracy. Based on the small baseline subset InSAR, 187 ascending and 102 descending SAR images obtained from Sentinel-1 were used to detect the deformation along the diversion canal from 2017 to 2023. The results show that there was a sinking trend along the diversion canal. The subsidence was serious in the first half of the canal, and continued to sink from 2019 to 2020. The subsidence was alleviated in 2023. Combined with leveling measurements, the InSAR deformation monitoring results of important pumping station buildings were verified. The measurement accuracy of InSAR can reach the millimeter level. We extracted the groundwater level time series and subsidence for risky canal segments. Through pixel-by-pixel comparison, it was found that fluctuations in groundwater level would have some impact on surface deformation. Severe local subsidence or uplift deformation occasionally occurred. To ensure the safety of water diversion, the monitoring and maintenance of relevant pump station buildings in risky areas should be increased in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Our objective was to investigate the basic information of the personnel and facilities of nuclear medicine in Beijing. Methods This survey was performed by the Beijing Quality Control Center in 2018. The investigation included personnel, equipment, and clinical applications, and data were then compared with previous surveys. The paper questionnaires were used for the survey, which required information about the personnel, devices, and clinical applications. Results About 38 nuclear medicine departments in Beijing were involved in the survey. The number of nuclear medicine staff was 531 in 2018, showing an increase of 58.7% over the past decade. Positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT), single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), and single-photon emission computed tomography/computed tomography (SPECT/CT) represented the main nuclear medicine facilities, and the total number of surveyed departments was 18, 24, and 34, respectively. The quality control results showed significant improvement from the 2005 levels. The total number of scintigraphy procedures was estimated at 199,607 (153,185 SPECT and 46,422 PET/CT). The estimated annual number of scintigraphy images was 8.9 per 1,000 population for SPECT and 2.7 per 1,000 population for PET/CT during 2018. The most frequent radioiodine-targeted therapy was 131 I-targeted therapy for hyperthyroidism in 2018. Conclusion Nuclear medicine has experienced rapid growth in the past 10 years in Beijing, either in personnel, equipment, and scintigraphy. Future efforts will focus on the use of new isotopes in the diagnosis, implementing quality strategy, and enhancing training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The built environment's impact on human activities has been a hot issue in urban research. Compared to motorized spaces, the built environment of pedestrian and cycling street spaces dramatically influences people's travel experience and travel mode choice. The streets' built environment data play a vital role in urban design and management. However, the multi-source, heterogeneous, and massive data acquisition methods and tools for the built environment have become obstacles for urban design and management. To better realize the data acquisition and for deeper understanding of the urban built environment, this study develops a new portable, low-cost Arduino-based multi-sensor array integrated into a single portable unit for built environment measurements of street cycling spaces. The system consists of five sensors and an Arduino Mega board, aimed at measuring the characteristics of the street cycling space. It takes air quality, human sensation, road quality, and greenery as the detection objects. An integrated particulate matter laser sensor, a light intensity sensor, a temperature and humidity sensor, noise sensors, and an 8K panoramic camera are used for multi-source data acquisition in the street. The device has a mobile power supply display and a secure digital card to improve its portability. The study took Beijing as a sample case. A total of 127.97 G of video data and 4794 Kb of txt records were acquired in 36 working hours using the street built environment data acquisition device. The efficiency rose to 8474.21% compared to last year. As an alternative to conventional hardware used for this similar purpose, the device avoids the need to carry multiple types and models of sensing devices, making it possible to target multi-sensor data-based street built environment research. Second, the device's power and storage capabilities make it portable, independent, and scalable, accelerating self-motivated development. Third, it dramatically reduces the cost. The device provides a methodological and technological basis for conceptualizing new research scenarios and potential applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking the megacity of Beijing as an example, a short‐time Fourier transform (STFT) method was employed to extract the multi‐timescale evolution pattern of the canopy urban heat island intensity (CUHII) during 2000–2020. The STFT of CUHII showed a close relationship between the evolution of the CUHII in Beijing and the background meteorological forcing at intra‐annual, weather and intra‐daily scales. The intra‐annual‐scale spectrum of CUHII exhibited an increasing trend with obvious seasonal variation of the canopy urban heat island (CUHI). The intra‐daily‐scale spectrum of CUHII showed an increasing trend with the nighttime CUHI developing faster. Increasing Western Pacific Subtropical High intensity can enhance the seasonal and diurnal fluctuations of CUHII. The weather‐scale spectrum of CUHII is controlled by weather system evolution, showing that the frequency of cold/heat waves (CWs/HWs) in Beijing was significantly negatively correlated with the weather‐scale spectral intensity of the CUHII. CWs and HWs can increase the CUHII for a long duration. Plain Language Summary: The canopy urban heat island (CUHI) phenomenon can affect human health and the ecological environment, and its multi‐timescale variability brings great uncertainty to the study of urban climates worldwide. In this study, taking the megacity of Beijing as an example, a novel short‐time Fourier transform (STFT) method was used to extract the multi‐timescale pattern of the CUHI intensity (CUHII) during 2000–2020. The STFT of CUHII showed a close relationship between the CUHI and the background meteorological forcing at intra‐annual, weather and intra‐daily scales. The intra‐annual spectrum of CUHII showed an increasing trend with a V‐shaped mode. The local climatic backgrounds of different cities can lead to differences in the seasonal development of the CUHI. The intra‐daily spectrum of CUHII showed an increasing trend due to the asymmetry in the day/night development of the CUHI. Increasing Western Pacific Subtropical High Intensity can enhance the seasonal and diurnal fluctuations of CUHII. The weather‐scale spectrum of CUHII was mainly controlled by weather system evolution, showing that cold waves and heat waves can increase the CUHII over a long duration. Our findings indicate that the evolution of CUHII is a nonlinear and complex process that is directly related to multi‐timescale background climate forcing. Key Points: Using a short‐time Fourier transform to study the multi‐timescale evolution of the canopy urban heat island intensity (CUHII)Close relationships existed between CUHII and the background meteorological forcing at intra‐annual, intra‐daily, and weather scalesThe frequency of cold/heat waves in Beijing showed a significant negative correlation with the weather‐scale spectral intensity of the CUHII [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To investigate whether stratifying participants with prediabetes according to their diabetes progression risks (PR) could affect their responses to interventions. Methods: We developed a machine learning‐based model to predict the 1‐year diabetes PR (ML‐PR) with the least predictors. The model was developed and internally validated in participants with prediabetes in the Pinggu Study (a prospective population‐based survey in suburban Beijing; n = 622). Patients from the Beijing Prediabetes Reversion Program cohort (a multicentre randomized control trial to evaluate the efficacy of lifestyle and/or pioglitazone on prediabetes reversion; n = 1936) were stratified to low‐, medium‐ and high‐risk groups using ML‐PR. Different effect of four interventions within subgroups on prediabetes reversal and diabetes progression was assessed. Results: Using least predictors including fasting plasma glucose, 2‐h postprandial glucose after 75 g glucose administration, glycated haemoglobin, high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides, and the ML algorithm XGBoost, ML‐PR successfully predicted the 1‐year progression of participants with prediabetes in the Pinggu study [internal area under the curve of the receiver operating characteristic curve 0.80 (0.72–0.89)] and Beijing Prediabetes Reversion Program [external area under the curve of the receiver operating characteristic curve 0.80 (0.74–0.86)]. In the high‐risk group pioglitazone plus intensive lifestyle therapy significantly reduced diabetes progression by about 50% at year l and the end of the trial in the high‐risk group compared with conventional lifestyle therapy with placebo. In the medium‐ or low‐risk group, intensified lifestyle therapy, pioglitazone or their combination did not show any benefit on diabetes progression and prediabetes reversion. Conclusions: This study suggests personalized treatment for prediabetes according to their PR is necessary. ML‐PR model with simple clinical variables may facilitate personal treatment strategies in participants with prediabetes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some of Beijing’s recent assertive actions in the South China Sea can be understood as a manifestation of what Chinese analysts call “independent development”. The concept is conceived as a responsive measure to what Beijing views as other claimants’ unilateral hydrocarbon development activities in the South China Sea and as a means to pressure other claimants into engaging in joint development with China and to compensate for what Beijing perceives as the disadvantages it faces being a latecomer to the energy development race in the region. In attempting to conduct independent development, China has mostly targeted areas of the South China Sea that overlap with Vietnam’s designated oil and gas development blocks. By contrast, when dealing with the Philippines, especially during the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte (2016–22), China has adopted the more loosely defined concept of “cooperative development” to minimize potential legal and political barriers that Philippine leaders may face domestically. With Malaysia, China has traditionally been ambivalent to the prospect of joint development but may increasingly utilize independent development to nudge Malaysia into starting a serious discussion on joint development. However, pursuing independent development does not portend China’s abandonment of joint or cooperative development. Indeed, there remains hope for regional collaboration in hydrocarbon development in the South China Sea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Parathyroidectomy is the only curative treatment for primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT). Ultrasound (US) and technetium-99 m sestamibi (99mTc-MIBI) scintigraphy are recommended as the first-line localization imaging modalities for PHPT in adults, but the value of preoperative imaging in pediatric patients has not been reported. Objective: To evaluate the added value of 99mTc-MIBI scintigraphy in pediatric PHPT patients with positive ultrasound results. Materials and methods: Pediatric patients (≤18 years old) who were diagnosed with PHPT and underwent surgical treatment in Peking Union Medical College Hospital between January 2003 and January 2021 were included in this study. Demographic and clinical characteristics, preoperative localization US, 99mTc-MIBI scintigraphy and pathology results were collected. Preoperative localization results were evaluated by comparison with surgical and pathological findings. Results: There were 32 pediatric PHPT patients with median age of 14.7 ± 2.5 years who all proved to have single-gland disease without ectopic lesions. The median lesion size was 2.85 cm (range 1.0–5.8 cm). All patients underwent US and 99mTc-MIBI scintigraphy. Neck US demonstrated 100% sensitivity. Of 32 patients with a positive US, 99mTc-MIBI scintigraphy was concordant in 30 (93.8%). In 2 patients (6.3%), US reported suspected multigland disease, which was correctly diagnosed by 99mTc-MIBI scintigraphy as single lesions. Conclusion: In pediatric PHPT patients, US achieved high sensitivity for preoperative localization. 99mTc-MIBI scintigraphy for pediatric patients with positive US results would not increase the sensitivity. Implementation of 99mTc-MIBI scintigraphy could increase the specificity in pediatric patients with multigland disease suspected by US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For very-high-resolution (VHR) remote sensing images with complex objects and rich textural information, multi-difference image fusion has been proven as an effective method to improve the performance of change detection. However, errors are superimposed during this process and a single spectral feature cannot fully utilize the correlation between pixels, resulting in low robustness. To overcome these problems and optimize the performance of multi-difference image fusion in change detection, we propose a novel multi-difference image fusion change detection method based on a visual attention model (VA-MDCD). First, we construct difference images using change vector analysis (CVA) and spectral gradient difference (SGD). Second, we use the visual attention model to calculate multiple color, intensity and orientation features of the difference images to obtain the difference saliency images. Third, we use the wavelet transform fusion algorithm to fuse two saliency images. Finally, we execute the OTSU threshold segmentation algorithm (OTSU) to obtain the final change detection map. To validate the effectiveness of VA-MDCD on VHR images, two datasets of Jilin 1 and Beijing 2 are selected for experiments. Compared with classical methods, the proposed method has a better performance with fewer missed alarms (MA) and false alarms (FA), which proves that the method has a strong robustness and generalization ability. The F-measure of the two datasets is 0.6671 and 0.7313, respectively. In addition, the results of ablation experiments confirm that the three feature extraction modules of the model all play a positive role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, China has implemented several measures to improve air quality. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region is one area that has suffered from the most serious air pollution in China and has undergone huge changes in air quality in the past few years. How to scientifically assess these change processes remain the key issue in further improving the air quality over this region in the future. To evaluate the changes in major air pollutant emissions over this region, this paper employs ensemble Kalman filtering (EnKF) for integrating the national ground monitoring pollutant observation data and the Nested Air Quality Prediction Modeling System (NAQPMS) simulation data to inversely estimate the emission rates of SO2, NOX, CO, and primary PM2.5 over BTH region in February from 2014 to 2019. The results show that SO2, NOX, CO, and primary PM2.5 emissions in the BTH region decreased in February from 2014 to 2019 by 83%, 37%, 41%, and 42%, while decreases in Beijing during this period were 86%, 67%, 59%, and 65%, respectively. Compared with the prior emission inventory, the inversion emission inventory reduces the uncertainty of multi-pollutant simulation in the BTH region, with simulated root mean square errors of the monthly average concentrations of SO2, NOX, PM2.5, and CO reduced by 41%, 30%, 31%, and 22%, respectively. The average uncertainties of SO2, NOX, PM2.5, and CO inversion emissions in 2014–19 are ±14.03% yr−1, ±28.91% yr−1, ±126.15% yr−1, and ±43.58% yr−1. Compared with the uncertainty of MEIC emission, the uncertainties of all species changed by +2% yr−1, −2% yr−1, −26% yr−1, and −4% yr−1, respectively. The spatial distribution results illustrate that air pollutant emissions are mainly distributed over the eastern and southern BTH regions. The spatial gap between the inversion emissions and MEIC emissions was further closed in 2019 compared to 2014. The results of this paper can provide a new reference for assessing changes in air pollution emissions over the BTH region in recent years and validating a bottom-up emission inventory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to investigate the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of the acute respiratory tract infections (ARTI) caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) among the population of all age categories in Beijing, China. Outpatients and inpatients with ARTI were enrolled from 35 sentinel hospitals in Beijing between March 2015 and February 2019. They were interviewed and their medical records were collected using a standardized form. Their respiratory specimens were collected and tested for the nucleic acid of RSV. The RSV-positive specimens were further genotyped into RSV-A and RSV-B groups. A total of 29,923 cases were included in this study. RSV was detected in 623 (2%, 623/29923) patients, with 391 (62.8%) genotypd as RSV-A, 126 (20.2%) as RSV-B, and 106 (17.0%) untyped. The RSV epidemic season usually occurred between October and March covering approximately 90% of annual RSV infections. The RSV-infected children aged < 5 years accounted for 52.2% of the total RSV infections with cough and fever as the most common manifestations. The RSV-infected elderly adults aged ≥ 60 years have the second largest proportion (25.2%) with dyspnea and lymphocytopenia as the most common manifestations and showed an elevated rate of hospitalization, an increased rate of ICU admission, an extended length of hospital stay, and an elevated mortality compared to the RSV-infected children. The RSV infections aged ≥ 60 years old, as the second largest population of the total annual RSV infections, usually developed worse outcomes than children and should be taken seriously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food waste (FW) is an increasing concern worldwide, especially for its severe impacts on eco-environmental sustainability. However, the most recent interventions for reducing FW have still been focusing on slogans only, and the invisibility of the food-saving effect for new interventions such as small serving portions or intelligent catering systems, might weaken its application for investors. In this study, we used visual inspection, ecological footprints, and questionnaire survey to evaluate the food-saving potential by 1143 observations and 326 questionnaires at a university in Beijing, China. The results showed that using the new intervention of smaller serving portions coupled with an intelligent catering system, FW at canteens could decrease by 32.4% per year, that means it may reduce the original FW of 6.7 kt per year in Beijing, China. Correspondingly, this amount of reduced FW could equally reduce 24.7 kt of CO2-eq, 1.6 kt of nitrogen loss, 10.4 Mt of water wasted, and 2815.6 hm2 of land use. This study provided a promising alternative for soft persuasion, confirmed the potential of reducing FW and related eco-environmental loads, and increased the visibility of a new food-saving system for investors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background--As a significant ecological safeguard measure, the new round of returning farmland to forests project is of great ecological significance for ecological protection in Beijing and Tianjin. However, as a policy measure involving the withdrawal of farmers' cultivated land, whether it can guarantee the continuous in-crease of farmers' income and the stability of farmers' consumption is more worthy of discussion. (2) Methods--Based on the micro-panel data of 1115 farmers from 223 rural households in the "Beijing-Tianjin Sandstorm Source Treatment Project Monitoring" project from 2013 to 2017, this paper used the random effect model and the mediating effect model to study the impact of the new round of returning farmland to forests on the rural households' income and consumption and the effect mechanism on the rural households' consumption. (3) Results--The new round of returning farmland to forests significantly increased the total family income of the rural households, and had a significant positive impact on the total family income and operational income of the rural households at the level of 10%. However, the new round of returning farmland to forests did not improve the income structure of the rural households, and did not significantly affect the wage income, property income and transfer income of the rural households. The factors such as the farmers' education level and the number of migrant workers had a significant positive impact on the wage income. Overall, the income of the rural households was still dominated by operational income. The new round of returning farmland to forests significantly increased the total family consumption of the rural households, especially the basic consumption and productive consumption. However, there was no significant increase in children's education consumption, medical consumption and interpersonal communication consumption, which also indicated that the consumption structure of the rural households was still in basic consumption. The new round of returning farmland to forests had a positive impact on the rural households' consumption through the mediating variable of increasing the rural households' income, which verified the transmission mechanism that the farmers participated in the new round of returning farmland to forests to promote the increase of their income, and then affected their consumption. (4) Conclusions and Discussions--First, appropriately raise the subsidy standards and improve the compensation mechanism. Especially for areas prone to return to poverty and ecological functional areas, reasonable compensation standards can make up part of the losses caused by the farmers' participation in the project of returning farmland to forests. In addition, the government can implement a dynamic compensation mechanism according to the actual local situation, so that the subsidy standard is in line with the actual social and economic development situation. Second, actively promote the centralized utilization and circulation of the remaining finely fragmented land through the separation of the three rights of land. On one hand, the circulation of the fragmented land can improve the utilization rate of land, on the other hand, it can promote the flow of labor forces, so as to promote the increase of the rural households' income and the improvement of consumption structure. Third, actively implement the reform policy of forest rights, ensure clear rights to the rural households, and fully improve the promotion role of property rights income on the farmers' willingness to return farmland to forests. In addition, the farmers can also use forest rights as collateral to obtain loans to inject financial impetus into forestry production. Fourth, encourage the development of undergrowth economy and develop three-dimensional agriculture such as fruit industry, under-forest breeding industry, forage-grass planting industry, medicinal materials planting industry according to local conditions. However, while developing the corresponding undergrowth economy, we should also pay attention to the maintenance of forest nutrients, which is conducive to the sustainable and circular development of forestry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objectives of this study were to estimate genetic parameters for milk urea nitrogen (MUN) in Holstein cattle and to conduct a single-step (ss)GWAS to identify candidate genes associated with MUN. Phenotypic measurements from 24,435 Holstein cows were collected from March 2013 to July 2019 in 9 dairy farms located in the Beijing area, China. A total of 2,029 cows were genotyped using the Illumina 150K Bovine Bead Chip, containing 121,188 SNP. A single-trait repeatability model was used to evaluate the genetic background of MUN. We found that MUN is a trait with low heritability (0.06 ± 0.004) and repeatability (0.12). Considering similar milk production levels, a lower MUN concentration indicates higher nitrogen digestibility. The genetic correlations between MUN and milk yield, net energy concentration, fat percentage, protein percentage, and lactose percentage were positive and ranged from 0.02 to 0.26. The genetic correlation between MUN and somatic cell score (SCS) was negative (−0.18), indicating that animals with higher MUN levels tend to have lower SCS. Both ssGWAS and pathway enrichment analyses were used to explore the genetic mechanisms underlying MUN. A total of 18 SNP (located on BTA11, BTA12, BTA14, BTA17, and BTA18) were found to be significantly associated with MUN. The genes CFAP77 , CAMSAP1 , CACNA1B , ADGRB1 , FARP1 , and INTU are considered to be candidate genes for MUN. These candidate genes are associated with important biological processes such as protein and lipid metabolism and binding to specific proteins. This set of candidate genes, metabolic pathways, and their functions provide a better understanding of the genomic architecture and physiological mechanisms underlying MUN in Holstein cattle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to concealed initial symptoms, many diabetic patients are not diagnosed in time, which delays treatment. Machine learning methods have been applied to increase the diagnosis rate, but most of them are black boxes lacking interpretability. Rule extraction is usually used to turn on the black box. As the number of diabetic patients is far less than that of healthy people, the rules obtained by the existing rule extraction methods tend to identify healthy people rather than diabetic patients. To address the problem, a method for extracting reduced rules based on biased random forest and fuzzy support vector machine is proposed. Biased random forest uses the k-nearest neighbor (k-NN) algorithm to identify critical samples and generates more trees that tend to diagnose diabetes based on critical samples to improve the tendency of the generated rules for diabetic patients. In addition, the conditions and rules are reduced based on the error rate and coverage rate to enhance interpretability. Experiments on the Diabetes Medical Examination Data collected by Beijing Hospital (DMED-BH) dataset demonstrate that the proposed approach has outstanding results (MCC = 0.8802) when the rules are similar in number. Moreover, experiments on the Pima Indian Diabetes (PID) and China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) datasets prove the generalization of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Annual mean PM 1.0 and PM 2.5 were 35.49 and 66.58 µg/m3 in urban Beijing. • Growth of sulfate, nitrate, and ammonium plays an enhancement role in polluted days. • Notable discrepancy of chemical species is observed between PM 1 and PM 2.5 in spring. • Regional transportation from surroundings facilitates PM increase in haze episodes. • Secondary and vehicular sources become more important to fine PM loading in Beijing. Particulate matter (i.e., PM 1.0 and PM 2.5), considered as the key atmospheric pollutants, exerts negative effects on visibility, global climate, and human health by associated chemical compositions. However, our understanding of PM and its chemical compositions in Beijing under the current atmospheric environment is still not complete after witnessing marked alleviation during 2013–2017. Continuous measurements can be crucial for further air quality improvement by better characterizing PM pollution and chemical compositions in Beijing. Here, we conducted simultaneous measurements on PM in Beijing during 2018–2019. Results indicate that annual mean PM 1.0 and PM 2.5 concentrations were 35.49 ± 18.61 µg/m3 and 66.58 ± 60.17 µg/m3, showing a positive response to emission controls. The contribution of sulfate, nitrate, and ammonium (SNA) played an enhanced role with elevated PM loading and acted as the main contributors to pollution episodes. Discrepancies observed among chemical species between PM 1.0 and PM 2.5 in spring suggest that sand particles trend to accumulate in the range of 1–2.5 µm. Pollution episodes occurred accompanied with southerly clusters and high formation of SNA by heterogeneous reactions in summer and winter, respectively. Results from positive matrix factorization (PMF) combined with potential source contribution function (PSCF) models showed that potential areas were seasonal dependent, secondary and vehicular sources became much more important compared with previous studies in Beijing. Our study presented a continuous investigation on PM and sources origins in Beijing, which provides a better understanding for further emission control as well as a reference for other cities in developing countries. Graphical abstract [Display omitted]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lungs are the most common site of metastasis in patients with gestational trophoblastic neoplasia. We investigated surgical management and prognostic factors of patients with refractory gestational trophoblastic neoplasia to assess the value of lung metastasis resection. The clinical data of patients with refractory gestational trophoblastic neoplasia and lung metastasis treated at Peking Union Medical College Hospital from January 2005 to December 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. Surgical characteristics and survival outcomes were analyzed. In total, 213 patients with refractory gestational trophoblastic neoplasia and lung metastasis were screened, and 148 patients who underwent unilateral lung resection were analyzed. Patients' median age was 32 years. Lobectomy was performed in 65.5% of patients, while wedge resection was performed in 34.5%. The rate of postoperative complications was 12.2%. The pathological rate was 66.2%. Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery showed better surgical characteristics than thoracotomy did. Compared with lobectomy, wedge resection had a shorter operative time, shorter duration of chest tube placement, shorter postoperative hospital stay, and fewer postoperative complications. The median follow-up period was 36 months. During follow-up, 90.5% of patients achieved complete remission. The 5-year disease-free and overall survival rates were 80.4% and 92.6%, respectively. More previous chemotherapy courses and failure to achieve normal β-human chorionic gonadotropin levels postoperatively were predictors of poor prognosis. Surgical treatment of lung metastasis is valuable and safe for patients with refractory gestational trophoblastic neoplasia. The minimally invasive video-assisted thoracoscopic approach and wedge resection are recommended. • Gestational trophoblastic neoplasia is easily metastasized to lung. • Gestational trophoblastic neoplasia patients with drug-resistant lesions have a high rate of relapse rate. • Surgical resection of lung metastasis is valuable to acquire higher complete remission rate and better prognosis. • Video-assisted thoracic surgery and wedge resection are safe and recommended in these patients. • This is the largest cohort provides unique information for the treatment in refractory GTN patients with lung metastasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing park accessibility plays an essential role in providing rational recreational services for residents in a city. The perceptions and comments of residents are also important nonspatial factors for accessibility. However, there are few accessibility studies that are combined with public perceptions. Addressing this deficit, this study proposes a perception-based, multi-travel mode, two-step floating catchment area (PM2SFCA) method to calculate park accessibility. First, we quantified the selection probability of residents to parks by integrating the Huff model and the people's perceptions towards parks. Next, under four travel modes (walking, biking, driving and public transport), we combined the Huff model and the two-step floating catchment area method to compute park accessibility. Furthermore, the Gini coefficient and the Pearson correlation coefficient were used to illustrate the proposed method compared with the traditional E2SFCA method. Based on the above, taking the area of Beijing within the Fifth Ring Road as a study area, this paper facilitated the accessibility computation. The results indicated that the spatial distribution patterns of accessibility differed greatly under the four travel modes. Even under the same travel mode, there was an uneven accessibility distribution. Areas with high accessibility were mainly concentrated in the north, and some marginal areas also presented higher accessibility to parks. The comparative analysis results suggest that our proposed method for accessibility measurements alleviates the underestimation and overestimation of accessibility values obtained by a traditional method such as the center and edge of the study area. The research explores a new research perspective for measuring park accessibility. Furthermore, this study offers better guidance for policymakers trying to optimize park spatial distribution issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon emissions trading (CET) is now one of China's key policy tools for achieving the goals of carbon peak and carbon neutrality. To comprehensively explore the consequences of China's CET policy, the study first evaluated the content validity of CET policies across China's 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities falling directly under the central government using policy strengths, tools, and measures from 2011 to 2020. The spatiotemporal drivers of regional carbon efficiency improvements from aspects of actual policy effect, average policy content validity effect, and policy quantity effect were also evaluated via the logarithmic mean Divisia index. This analysis revealed that the policy content validity was increasing in general and was higher in pilot regions. On average, the policy quantity effect was the primary driver of carbon efficiency improvements in both pilot and non-pilot regions, but the actual policy effect failed to promote carbon efficiency in both regions. Beijing's carbon emissions reduction effect was superior to that of other pilot regions, and where actual policy effect and policy quantity effect were the primary and secondary drivers of local carbon efficiency improvements, respectively. These findings suggest that when formulating CET policies, each region should not only focus on improving policy content validity, but also pay attention to the actual carbon emissions reduction effects produced by policies as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to concealed initial symptoms, many diabetic patients are not diagnosed in time, which delays treatment. Machine learning methods have been applied to increase the diagnosis rate, but most of them are black boxes lacking interpretability. Rule extraction is usually used to turn on the black box. As the number of diabetic patients is far less than that of healthy people, the rules obtained by the existing rule extraction methods tend to identify healthy people rather than diabetic patients. To address the problem, a method for extracting reduced rules based on biased random forest and fuzzy support vector machine is proposed. Biased random forest uses the k-nearest neighbor (k-NN) algorithm to identify critical samples and generates more trees that tend to diagnose diabetes based on critical samples to improve the tendency of the generated rules for diabetic patients. In addition, the conditions and rules are reduced based on the error rate and coverage rate to enhance interpretability. Experiments on the Diabetes Medical Examination Data collected by Beijing Hospital (DMED-BH) dataset demonstrate that the proposed approach has outstanding results (MCC = 0.8802) when the rules are similar in number. Moreover, experiments on the Pima Indian Diabetes (PID) and China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) datasets prove the generalization of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1 Transmission chain of COVID-19 outbreak in Beijing was reconstructed. 2 The Bayesian data augmentation approaches account for uncertain data. 3 The risk of infection among different populations was quantified. 4 The source and captured transmission patterns of COVID-19 were effectively traced. The aim of the study was to reconstruct the complete transmission chain of the COVID-19 outbreak in Beijing's Xinfadi Market using data from epidemiological investigations, which contributes to reflecting transmission dynamics and transmission risk factors. We set up a transmission model, and the model parameters are estimated from the survey data via Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling. Bayesian data augmentation approaches are used to account for uncertainty in the source of infection, unobserved onset, and infection dates. The rate of transmission of COVID-19 within households is 9.2%. Older people are more susceptible to infection. The accuracy of our reconstructed transmission chain was 67.26%. In the gathering place of this outbreak, the Beef and Mutton Trading Hall of Xinfadi market, most of the transmission occurs within 20 m, only 19.61% of the transmission occurs over a wider area (>20 m), with an overall average transmission distance of 13.00 m. The deepest transmission generation is 9. In this outbreak, there were 2 abnormally high transmission events. The statistical method of reconstruction of transmission trees from incomplete epidemic data provides a valuable tool to help understand the complex transmission factors and provides a practical guideline for investigating the characteristics of the development of epidemics and the formulation of control measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. We aim to develop a deep neural network model to differentiate pneumonia-type lung carcinoma from pneumonia based on chest CT scanning and evaluate its performance. Materials and Methods. We retrospectively analyzed 131 patients diagnosed with pneumonia-type lung carcinoma and 171 patients with pneumonia treated in Beijing Hospital from October 2019 to February 2021. The average age was 68 (±15) years old, and the proportion of men (162/302) was slightly more than that of women (140/302). In this study, a deep learning based model UNet was applied to extract lesion areas from chest CT images. Lesion areas were extracted and classified by a designed spatial attention mechanism network. The model AUC and diagnostic accuracy were analyzed based on the results of the model. We analyzed the accuracy rate, sensitivity, and specificity and compared the results of the model to the junior and senior radiologists and radiologists based on the model. Results. The model has a good efficiency in detecting pneumonia-like lesions (6.31 seconds/case). The model accuracy rate, sensitivity, and specificity were 74.20%, 60.37%, and 89.36%, respectively. The junior radiologist's accuracy rate, sensitivity, and specificity were 61.00%, 48.08%, and 75.00%, respectively. The senior radiologist's accuracy rate, sensitivity, and specificity were 65.00%, 51.92%, and 79.17%, respectively. The results of junior radiologists based on the model were improved (76.00% for accuracy rate, 62.75% for sensitivity, and 89.80% for specificity). The results of senior radiologists based on the model were also improved (78.00% for accuracy rate, 64.71% for sensitivity, and 91.84% for specificity) and the diagnostic accuracy of which was statistically higher than other groups P < 0.05 . Based on the lesion texture diversity and the lesion boundary ambiguity, the algorithm produced false-positive samples (13.51%). Conclusion. This deep learning model could detect pneumonia-type lung carcinoma and differentiate it from pneumonia accurately and efficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Performance evaluation of bifacial PV systems incorporating dynamic albedo. • Study of the optimal installation angle of bifacial PV systems in the Chinese grid. • Prediction of carbon reduction potential for bifacial PV systems on life cycle. • Comparison between optimal fixed tilt and biannual tilt angle adjustment. Bifacial PV modules, capable of generating electricity from both sides, are highly efficient but vulnerable to environmental factors. This study investigated the photovoltaic performance characteristics and carbon emission reduction potential of bifacial PV systems, considering China's regional power grid independence, environmental diversity, variations in carbon emission factors, and daily fluctuations in albedo. When the installed capacities of bifacial and monofacial PV systems are 253.80 Wp/m2 and 235.00 Wp/m2 respectively, the initial annual electricity generation of the bifacial PV system installed in Beijing is 461.11 kWh/m2, which is only 83.95 % of that in Lhasa, but the corresponding carbon reduction in Beijing exceeds that of Lhasa by 11.13 %, amounting to 407.75 kgCO 2. These indicate significant regional disparities in both the electricity generation capacity and carbon reduction potential of PV systems. Furthermore, compared to fixed installations, adjusting the tilt angles twice a year can increase the annual electricity generation of bifacial PV systems by approximately 2.37 %-3.17 % and monofacial PV systems by approximately 2.23 %-3.83 %. The research findings offer valuable insights regarding the impact of regional climate and grid characteristics on bifacial PV systems, thereby providing a reliable reference for optimizing their design and enhancing performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Adrenal hemorrhage (AH) is a rare condition and severe cases can lead to acute adrenal insufficiency with potentially life-threatening consequences. AH can be caused by a variety of etiologic factors, including systemic lupus erythematosus and antiphospholipid syndrome (APS). The early identification and treatment of these patients improves their prognosis. Objective: The aims of this study were to analyze and summarize the clinical characteristics of systemic lupus erythematosus patients with AH. Methods: The clinical characteristics of 6 systemic lupus erythematosus patients complicated with AH admitted to Peking Union Medical College Hospital and Beijing Shijitan Hospital from May 2004 to April 2022 were retrospectively analyzed. Results: The diagnosis of AH was based on computed tomography (CT) findings. Two patients had bilateral lesions, and the other 4 patients had unilateral lesions. The symptoms of adrenal insufficiency were observed in 2 patients. The frequent presenting symptoms were abdominal pain, lower abdominal distension, vomiting, weakness, fever, arthrodynia, and skin rash. Four patients had APS. Five patients (4 patients with APS and 1 patient without APS) had thromboembolic events. All patients received glucocorticoid and immunosuppressant therapy. Five patients were treated with anticoagulant therapy. Follow-up imaging examinations showed a partial or total regression of the lesions after treatment. Conclusions: In the proper clinical setting, having high clinical suspicion for AH, early diagnosis and timely management is crucial to avoid life-threatening adrenal insufficiency. Key Points • AH is a rare condition and severe cases may lead to death. It can be caused by a variety of etiologic factors, including SLE. • In patients with SLE, especially combined with APS, if they complain of abdominal pain, particularly when common gastrointestinal involvement is difficult to explain, a high index of clinical suspicion is needed for the diagnosis of AH. • Early identification of AH in SLE patients can improve their prognosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The regional economy, population and ecology are closely linked in regional development, and the study of the harmonization between these systems contributes to the sustainable development of cities. In this study, 43 cities in the Bohai Rim region (BRR) urban agglomeration of China were selected for investigation in 2000, 2010, and 2020. By introducing an ecological subsystem indicator (Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP)) applicable to the study area, a coupled coordination degree (CCD) model relating ecology, economy and population was developed to explore the mechanism of sustainable development among the considered cities. The results indicated the following: the BBR GEP increased significantly over the study period, and Beijing and Tianjin exhibited the highest GEP values. The obvious increase in the CCD demonstrated that coordinated development of the BRR has improved since 2000, the center of gravity of coordination has shifted southwards, and stable high-high agglomeration occurs. This study is important for optimizing the strategic layout of regional development, enhancing regional synergy, and promoting high-level and high-quality regional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study compared the differences in the clinical manifestations, treatment courses and clinical turnover between mild and moderate coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Clinical data of the patients with imported COVID-19 admitted to Beijing Xiaotangshan Designated Hospital between March 15 and April 30, 2020, were retrospectively analysed. A total of 53 COVID-19 patients were included, with 21 mild and 32 moderate cases. Compared with the mild group, the moderate group showed significant differences in breathing frequency, lymphocyte count, neutrophil percentage, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio, procalcitonin, C-reactive protein, and dynamic erythrocyte sedimentation rate. In the moderate group, 87.5% exhibited ground-glass opacities, 14% exhibited consolidative opacities, 53.1% exhibited local lesions and 68.8% exhibited unilateral lesions. The proportion of patients who received antiviral or antibiotic treatment in the moderate group was higher than that in the mild group, and the number of cases that progressed to severe disease in the moderate group was also significantly higher (18.7% vs. 0%, p = 0.035). Compared with patients with mild COVID-19, those with moderate COVID-19 exhibited more noticeable inflammatory reactions, more severe pulmonary imaging manifestations and earlier expression of protective antibodies. The overall turnover of the moderate cases was poorer than that of the mild cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of damping plates on structural vibration, noise and the contribution of the box girder bridge panels was analysed using the model test and numerical calculation methods. In this paper, a 1/10 scale box girder model test system was designed and constructed using a simply supported 32 m box girder from the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway as a prototype, and damping plates were laid on the box girder web side after the model was verified as being similar to the prototype by means of a series of model tests. The effects of the damping plates on the reduction of the structural vibration and noise were evaluated according to scaled model acoustic tests. In addition, the influence of the damping plates on the sound contribution of the panel was analysed based on the transient boundary element method. The study shows that the damping plates had an obvious vibration reducing effect on the concrete box girder, though their noise reduction properties were less than ideal. The vibration level reduction and time–history noise level reduction were kept within 10.2–29.5 dB and around 1.0 dB (A), respectively. The noise would decrease to its lowest value at 250 Hz – down to 4.0 dB. The damping plates were helpful in effectively reducing the sound power contribution and the sound pressure contribution of the concrete panel. At the peak frequencies of 17 Hz and 251 Hz, the sound power contributions of the panel on the damper side were reduced by 3.4 dB and 3.7 dB, respectively, compared with the normal side, while the sound pressure contributions on the panel decreased by 4.9 dB and 4.2 dB, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Heat transfer model of greenhouse cover under all operating conditions proposed. • The model can calculate the heat loss on the surface of greenhouse cover. • First study the long wave radiation relationship between crops and greenhouse cover. • First study on the influence of latent heat on the heat loss of the covering layer. • Considering the impact of greenhouse building layout on heat loss. The solar greenhouses in China are composed of gables on the east and west sides, north walls, and north and south roofs. The south roof is the main heat dissipation surface of the greenhouse. To quantitatively and comprehensively analyse the heat transfer characteristics and heat loss pathways of the south roof of a solar greenhouse, based on the actual usage of the greenhouse, the heat transfer of the south roof is classified into two working conditions: heat transfer of the transparent covering material (TCM) and heat transfer of the composite thermal insulation coating (CTIC). A theoretical heat transfer model of the covering layer of the solar greenhouse under all working conditions is constructed by applying the heat transfer theory. The model was tested using field test data from two areas different regions in China: Beijing and Lhasa. The results show good agreement between the simulated and measured values, the relative errors between simulated and measured values were 18.54% and 8.17%, respectively, with root mean square errors of 1.69 and 1.92. The model can comprehensively and accurately reflect the comprehensive heat transfer coefficient and heat loss changes of the south roof of the solar greenhouse. It can be used to analyze the proportion of heat loss caused by radiation, convection, and water vapor condensation. The analysis shows that condensation heat loss cannot be ignored during the winter night period. Measures such as covering the roof with plastic film and controlled irrigation can help reduce condensation heat loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Schizophrenia is a public concern in metropolises. Increases in city size may strengthen the correlation between prevalence of schizophrenia and indices of socioeconomic status, such as education. This study used population-based data of adults to investigate the association between education and schizophrenia in Chinese metropolises and its differences between inner city areas and outer suburbs. Methods: Data was obtained from the Second China National Sample Survey on Disability in 2006, and analysis was restricted to 189,143 participants aged 18 years or older in all counties (districts) of Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin. Schizophrenia diagnoses were ascertained according to the International Statistical Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision. Logistic regression models were fitted to examine the association between education and schizophrenia. Results: An inverse U-shaped pattern between education and schizophrenia was found in inner city areas of Chinese metropolises. Compared with the primary school or below group, the odds ratios of junior high school group and senior high school or above group was 2.79 (95% CI 1.96, 3.96) and 1.45(95% CI 0.99, 2.13), respectively. In outer suburbs, junior high school (OR = 0.87, 95% CI 0.63, 1.19) and senior high school or above groups (0.58, 95% CI 0.38, 0.87) were less likely to develop schizophrenia than the primary school or below group. Conclusions: This study showed an association between education and schizophrenia in Chinese metropolises. In inner city areas, the association was an inverse U-shaped pattern between education and schizophrenia, whereas in suburban areas, the association was a negative linear pattern. Our findings can help identify high-risk populations of schizophrenia in Chinese metropolises. Programs for prevention and early intervention of schizophrenia will need to consider the socioeconomic disparities between inner city and outer suburban areas. Public policies can help improve mental health by developing social security for migrants in inner city areas and promoting regional equality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a classification model for the migration of residents without local household registration in Beijing is established through the algorithm of Support Vector Machine (SVM) and the model is verified by using the migration data of Beijing, which is collected from various surveys. Our result shows that, compared to BP Neural Network and Logistic Regression, SVM performs better in terms of accuracy and generalization for these particular classification tasks. We identify ten classification features, which, we believe, are crucial as the determining factors to predict the migration trend in Beijing. These ten features include age, education, occupation, income, family status, housing status, leisure status, insurance status, temporary residence permit status and residence time. Our research shows that, taking into account the population demographic attributes and behavioral characteristics, our SVM classification model is able to predict the migration trend with a high accuracy rate. We believe that the results presented in this paper will provide valuable practical insights for various governmental departments of megacities in grasping the migration trend of different types of residents without local household registration, as well as in improving the residence policies, in order to encourage outward migration and tackle the issue of rapid population growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent advance in VMS technology has made it viable to ease traffic congestion and improve road traffic efficiency. However, the drivers' low compliance with the posted information may limit its performance to ease traffic congestion and improve traffic safety. This paper explores drivers' attitude to the service quality of VMS system resulted from the identified predominant influencing factors. A questionnaire is developed and used for surveying 9,600 drivers in Beijing, China. The collected data are analyzed with a multiple indicators and multiple causes (MIMIC) model considering different driver categories (e.g., private car driver, office car driver, taxi driver). The results show that the causal relationships between latent variables and socio-demographic characteristic is significant. Driving frequency, attitude towards contents of VMS, drivers' decision-making and the effectiveness of VMS message can directly and indirectly affect driver's perceived quality of service. The attitude towards formats of VMS indirectly affect their QoS resulting from the effectiveness of VMS message, while there is no indirect impact for taxi drivers. Besides, the drivers' decision-making directly affects the perceived quality of service for private car drivers and office car drivers, but there is no impact for taxi drivers. The findings of this study can provide guidance and reference for urban authorities to perform the relevant actions required to meet user expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Fabry disease (FD) is a rare X‐linked lysosomal storage disorder due to the absent or deficient activity of lysosomal hydrolase a‐galactosidase A (α‐Gal A), which leads to the accumulation of its substrates in various organs and tissues. Classic clinical manifestations include angiokeratomas, proteinuria, renal failure, neuropathic pain, and left ventricular hypertrophy. Fever is one of the rare symptoms that may occur during FD. Methods: Three Chinese Han patients with FD referred to Peking Union Medical College Hospital were reported. The complete medical records were established, and detailed data were collected. Whole‐exome sequencing by next‐generation sequencing and α‐Gal A enzyme activity assay were performed to confirm the diagnosis. Results: These three patients all presented with recurrent fever of unknown origin initially, accompanied with arthralgia/arthritis and other symptoms. We identified two known variants in the GLA gene, c.1176_1179delGAAG and c.782G>A (p.G261D), and a novel variant c.440G>A (p.G147E) which is likely pathogenic in our patient. Conclusions: FD should be considered as a rare cause of recurrent fever of unknown origin. The coexistence of gene variants related to systemic autoinflammatory diseases may make the clinical phenotypes of FD more complex and prone to recurrent fever. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beijing, the capital of China, has a fast-growing economy but is known for water scarcity. Therefore, relieving plans such as wastewater utilization and South-to-North-Transfer are implemented. Therefore, relationships are complicated among components in Beijing's water supply-and-demand system. Maintaining the water balance in Beijing is crucial both economically and politically. However, few have directly addressed the problem systematically recently. Therefore, the system dynamics (SD) approach is applied for modeling of the water supply-and-demand system. The objective is to investigate and forecast water balance, and to identify and propose solutions for potential challenges. The SD approach is a popular computer-aided systematic method for investigating intricate behaviors of complicated systems. A serious water shortage in Beijing in a few years is forecast because current relieving plans will reach their limits. Restricting certain water demands and improving water reclamation is recommended. There is an urgent need to develop and implement sustainable methods for Beijing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to predict more accurately the structural vibration and noise of elevated tracks induced by moving trains, a new prediction method based on the scaled model test is proposed in this paper. A 32-m simply supported box girder bridge used in the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway is selected as the prototype for designing and constructing a scaled model test with 10:1 geometric similarity ratio. Both experimental tests and finite element analyses were carried out to verify the similarity relationship between the model and prototype. The test result shows that the scaled model can predict the structural vibration and noise of the prototype, as long as the similarity constants between the prototype and scaled model are correctively determined. Furthermore, a standard finite element analysis model for the scaled model is built. Based on the sensitivity analysis, the model parameters for finite element analysis are updated by minimizing the errors between the measured and calculated modes. The computational results show that the updated model based on the local parameters partitioning works best, and the precision of the modal frequency calculated is noticeably improved after updating, with the average relative error reduced from 5.46% to 3.09%, and the difference of the peak values reduced from 0. 3 5 8 × 1 0 3 m/s2 to 0. 1 8 9 × 1 0 3 m/s2. The calculated dynamic response of the finite element model after updating is basically in line with experimental results, indicating that the updated model can better reflect the dynamic properties of the scaled box girder model. The updated finite element model is useful both for verification with the model test result and for reliable prediction of the dynamic characteristics of the prototype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electric vehicle timeshare rental is a form of sustainable transportation and is growing in popularity around the world. An analysis of the present situation is thus useful for transport management and planning. The study reported in this paper aimed to clarify the usage and operation of electric vehicle timeshare rental schemes in Beijing, China, including mobility patterns, pricing structure, willingness and factors affecting satisfaction through data analysis and questionnaires. The results showed that users had distinctive socio-demographic attributes. Mobility patterns represented a regularity in both time and space, and the pricing structure was a significant factor affecting the users' opinions. Eight factors, including age and cost, showed strong correlation with user satisfaction. It is concluded that electric vehicle timeshare rental is a promising travel mode that could replace private cars and promote the development of electric vehicles. The results of this study can contribute to programming and management of electric vehicle timeshare rental schemes in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Objective: To assess the diagnostic value of serum Candida mannan antigen (MN) and anti‐mannan IgG and IgM antibodies for candidiasis. Methods: This study was a prospective cohort study. Clinical data and venous blood samples from 23 medical centres in Beijing, China were collected between 1 January 2017 and 31 December 2018. All collected specimens were tested within one week for serum Candida MN and IgG and IgM antibodies using an ELISA kit. Results: A total of 452 patients were enrolled, including 188 patients in the Candida exposure groups (56 patients with Candida bloodstream infection, 69 patients with Candida‐positive tracheal aspirate cultures and 63 patients with Candida‐positive urine cultures) and 264 patients in the control groups (212 healthy controls and 52 patients with bacteraemia). The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of the 56 patients with Candida bloodstream infection and 212 healthy controls showed that serum MN and IgG had good diagnostic value. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) values were 0.812 (95% CI, 0.750‐0.873) and 0.866 (95% CI, 0.808‐0.924), respectively, wherein the MN specificity and sensitivity were 86.79% and 60.71%, and the IgG were 84.43% and 80.36%, respectively. The AUC of the combination of serum MN and IgG was 0.871(95% CI, 0.813‐0.929), and the specificity and sensitivity were 93.87% and 57.14%. Conclusions: The serum levels of Candida MN and its IgG antibody have diagnostic value for Candida bloodstream infection, and combination of MN and IgG can improve diagnostic specificity and may provide a new approach for diagnosis of candidaemia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The chronic traffic congestion undermines the level of satisfaction within a society. This study proposes a departure time model for estimating the temporal distribution of morning rush-hour traffic congestion over urban road networks. The departure time model is developed based on the point queue model that is used for estimating travel time. First, we prove the effectiveness of the travel time model (i.e. point queue), showing that it gives the same travel time estimation as the kinematic wave model does for a road with successive bottlenecks. Then, a variant of the bottleneck model is developed accordingly, aiming to capture travelers' departure time choice for commute trips. The proposed departure time model relaxes a traditional assumption that the last commuter experiences the free flow travel time and considers travelers' unwillingness of late arrivals for work. Numerical experiments show that the morning rush-hour generally starts at 7:29 am and ends at 8:46 am with a traffic congestion delay index (TCDI) of 2.164 for Beijing, China. Furthermore, the estimation of rush-hour start and end time is insensitive to most model parameters including the proportion of travelers who tend to arrive at work earlier than their schedules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proteus mirabilis is an opportunistic pathogen that causes diarrhea and urinary tract infections in humans and companion animals. Emergence of antimicrobial resistance in P. mirabilis increases risk of failure of antimicrobial therapy in companion animals. The current study determined prevalence, genetic diversity and phenotypic antimicrobial resistance of P. mirabilis isolated from feces of 35 dogs with diarrhea hospitalized in Beijing, China. Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), pulse-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), PCR and antimicrobial disk diffusion were used to characterize these isolates. Prevalence of P. mirabilis in feces from hospitalized dogs was 28%. RAPD and PFGE demonstrated a great diversity of isolates. Thirteen (37%) of 35 isolates produced extended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBLs), with blaTEM being detected in all ESBLs-producing isolates. All isolates were susceptible to imipenem, cefoxitin and cefotaxime/clavulanic. rmtB (with 51% prevalence rate) was the only aminoglycoside 16S rRNA methylase resistance gene identified. Among plasmid-mediated quinolones resistance genes, qnrB (14%) and aac(6')-Ib (26%) were detected. In conclusion, P. mirabilis isolates from feces of dogs with diarrhea in China had great genetic diversity and a high prevalence produced ESBLs. Consequently, antimicrobial stewardship programs should also target companion animals to reduce emergence of antimicrobial resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land subsidence caused by long-term over-exploitation of groundwater is the main geological disaster in the plain area of Beijing, China. To obtain accurate and dynamic monitoring information on land subsidence, primary level measurement is carried out every year. However, there are shortcomings in the existing level monitoring network and development of land subsidence, which require optimization of the level monitoring network for land subsidence. Using a GIS analysis method, a zonal map of influencing factors was created by overlaying three thematic maps including hydrogeological units; the decline rate of the groundwater level in the main mining layer; and the thickness of the compressible layer. The data were classified into 448 zones. Based on the zoning map, we created an optimal design for the location of level monitoring points, locating 220 new points. Kriging interpolation error variance was chosen to evaluate map accuracy. Standard deviation contour maps of the existing level network and the optimized level network were created, and the results showed that the error of the optimized level network was smaller than the existing level network. The method proposed by this paper was reasonable for optimizing a level monitoring network for land subsidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land surface temperature (LST) is one of the most important parameters of the interface between the earth surface and the atmosphere, and it plays a significant role in many research fields, such as agriculture, climate, hydrology, and the environment. However, the thermal infrared band of remote sensors is easily affected by clouds and aerosols, leading to many data gaps in LST products, which restricts the subsequent application of these products. In this paper, Beijing, China, is selected as the study area, and the LST data retrieved from Fengyun 4A (FY-4A) Advanced Geosynchronous Radiation Imager (AGRI) are reconstructed based on the two-point machine learning method. Firstly, the two-point machine learning model is built to reconstruct the theoretical clear-sky LST from simulated and actual images, and the accuracy of the reconstruction results is evaluated compared with the random forest algorithm and the inverse distance weighted method. Secondly, the actual LST under the influence of clouds is reconstructed by using the ERA5 reanalysis LST data as the auxiliary data, and the reconstruction accuracy is then evaluated by the field measurement LST data. The experimental results show that (1) the prediction accuracy of the two-point machine learning method is higher than that of the random forest method in both simulated data and actual data experiments; (2) the R2 of reconstructed LST under theoretical clear-sky conditions is 0.6860 and the root mean square error (RMSE) is 2.9 K, while the R2 of the reconstructed accuracy of actual LST under clouds is 0.7275 and the RMSE is 2.6 K, i.e., the RMSE decreases by 10.34%; (3) the two-point machine method combined with the auxiliary ERA5 LST data can well reconstruct LST under cloudy conditions and present a reasonable LST distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relapses frequently occur following CD19-directed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell treatment for relapsed or refractory B-cell acute lymphocytic leukaemia in children. We aimed to assess the activity and safety of sequential CD19-directed and CD22-directed CAR T-cell treatments. This single-centre, single-arm, phase 2 trial, done at Beijing GoBroad Boren Hospital, Beijing, China, included patients aged 1–18 years who had relapsed or refractory B-cell acute lymphocytic leukaemia with CD19 and CD22 positivity greater than 95% and an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status of 0–2. Patients were initially infused with CD19-directed CAR T cells intravenously, followed by CD22-directed CAR T-cell infusion after minimal residual disease-negative complete remission (or complete remission with incomplete haematological recovery) was reached and all adverse events (except haematological adverse events) were grade 2 or better. The target dose for each infusion was 0·5 × 106 to 5·0 × 106 cells per kg. The primary endpoint was objective response rate at 3 months after the first infusion. Secondary endpoints were duration of remission, event-free survival, disease-free survival, overall survival, safety, pharmacokinetics, and B-cell quantification. The prespecified activity analysis included patients who received the target dose and the safety analysis included all treated patients. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov , NCT04340154 , and enrolment has ended. Between May 28, 2020, and Aug 16, 2022, 81 participants were enrolled, of whom 31 (38%) were female and 50 (62%) were male. Median age was 8 years (IQR 6–10), all patients were Asian. All 81 patients received the first infusion and 79 (98%) patients received sequential infusions, CD19-directed CAR T cells at a median dose of 2·7 × 106 per kg (IQR 1·1 × 106 to 3·7 × 106) and CD22-directed CAR T cells at a median dose of 2·2 × 106 per kg (1·1 × 106 to 3·7 × 106), with a median interval of 39 days (37–41) between the two infusions. 62 (77%) patients received the target dose, including two patients who did not receive CD22 CAR T cells. At 3 months, 60 (97%, 95% CI 89–100) of the 62 patients who received the target dose had an objective response. Median follow-up was 17·7 months (IQR 11·4–20·9). 18-month event-free survival for patients who received the target dose was 79% (95% CI 66–91), duration of remission was 80% (68–92), and disease-free survival was 80% (68–92) with transplantation censoring; overall survival was 96% (91–100). Common adverse events of grade 3 or 4 between CD19-directed CAR T-cell infusion and 30 days after CD22-directed CAR T-cell infusion included cytopenias (64 [79%] of 81 patients), cytokine release syndrome (15 [19%]), neurotoxicity (four [5%]), and infections (five [6%]). Non-haematological adverse events of grade 3 or worse more than 30 days after CD22-directed CAR T-cell infusion occurred in six (8%) of 79 patients. No treatment-related deaths occurred. CAR T-cell expansion was observed in all patients, with a median peak at 9 days (IQR 7–14) after CD19-directed and 12 days (10–15) after CD22-directed CAR T-cell infusion. At data cutoff, 35 (45%) of 77 evaluable patients had CAR transgenes and 59 (77%) had B-cell aplasia. This sequential strategy induced deep and sustained responses with an acceptable toxicity profile, and thus potentially provides long-term benefits for children with this condition. The National Key Research & Development Program of China, the CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (CIFMS), and the Non-Profit Central Research Institute Fund of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences. For the Chinese translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of road trips and car campsites depends on the construction of road infrastructure. The development of road trips and car campsites is described as follows: • Since 2016, high-speed rail travel and road travel have become the mainstream, and people's travel patterns have undergone significant changes. • China's self-drive tour industry is growing steadily. In 2016, the number of self-drive tour employees reached 2.64 billion, up 12.8% year on year, accounting for 59.5% of the total domestic tourism. • Due to the differences in economic development, transportation infrastructure and tourist attractions in different regions, the proportion of self-drive trips ranged from 49 percent to 65 percent. Road trips in Beijing remained the most popular form of road trips, accounting for 84.32 percent of the total. • In September 2016, six national ministries and commissions jointly issued the Notice on Accelerating the Construction of Self-driving RV Camp [1]. The implementation of the paid leave system, the improvement of road infrastructure, the regulation of scenic spots and the regulation of market behavior have all promoted the significant expansion of motor campsites, thus promoting the development of leisure tourism in China. The development of self-driving tourism and automobile campgrounds depends on the construction of road infrastructure. In this study, we utilized aeronautical reconnaissance coverage geographic information system (ArcGIS), spatial analysis technology and accessibility model to quantitatively examine the accessibility and spatial pattern of automobile campgrounds in Beijing. Our findings reveal that Beijing's automobile campgrounds exhibit a circular distribution pattern, with decreasing accessibility from the center to the periphery areas. The overall accessibility maintains high-level road directivity, with an average travel time to automobile campgrounds ranging from 0.028 to 3.37 h. Access to automobile campgrounds is higher in the central and southern-central regions compared to the northwest and southwest regions, highlighting a highly unbalanced spatial pattern of accessibility. Finally, we provide suggestions for optimizing the accessibility of automobile campgrounds in Beijing based on our research. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Household size and its spatial distributions reflect not only the socioeconomic development in a city but also the rationality of urban resource allocation. Most existing studies rely heavily on census data to explore the potentially influential factors using methods such as macro-statistical analysis and socioeconomic analysis, of which the spatial resolutions and geographic scales are constrained. More importantly, the association between the household size distribution and the built environment is oversimplified or even neglected to some extent. In this work, we use massive mobile phone data combined with travel surveys of Beijing inhabitants' data (TSBI) to infer the household size and analyze the effect of spatial heterogeneity in a finer spatial resolution in Beijing, China. First, the machine learning method (i.e., support vector machine (SVM)) is applied to identify the household relationships of mobile users, and there are around 3.44 million households (families) with different sizes are obtained. Second, we analyze the spatial distribution patterns of household size and its association with built environmental indicators (e.g., public service density, public transportation density, etc.). The results exhibit a heterogeneous effect of the regional built environment on average household size (AHS). For instance, "commercial density" and "administrative density" show a negative impact on household size, while "public service density" and "public transportation density" show positive correlations with household size. As a complement to census data, mobile phone data can be used to obtain the household size in real-time. This paper provides quantified evidence for government departments to allocate facilities in a more targeted, balanced, and reasonable way according to the regional differences in household size, which would potentially support the sustainable urban development. • Using phone call characteristics between family members to infer family relationships • Family relationship was determined using SVM algorithm. • MGWR is applied to explore the effects of built environment factors on family size. • House prices and distance to city center have significant effects on household size. • Potential decision-making support is provided for the facility allocation for government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is confronted with serious PM 2.5 pollution, especially in the capital city of Beijing. Exposure to PM 2.5 could lead to various negative health impacts including premature mortality. As people spend most of their time indoors, the indoor exposure to PM 2.5 from both indoor and outdoor origins constitutes the majority of personal exposure to PM 2.5 pollution. Different building interventions have been introduced to mitigate indoor PM 2.5 exposure, but always at the cost of energy expenditure. In this study, the health and economic benefits of different ventilation intervention strategies for reducing indoor PM 2.5 exposure are modeled using a representative urban residence in Beijing, with consideration of different indoor PM 2.5 emission strengths and outdoor pollution. Our modeling results show that the increase of envelope air-tightness can achieve significant economic benefits when indoor PM 2.5 emissions are absent; however, if an indoor PM 2.5 source is present, the benefits only increase slightly in mechanically ventilated buildings, but may show negative benefit without mechanical ventilation. Installing mechanical ventilation in Beijing can achieve annual economic benefits ranging from 200yuan/capita to 800yuan/capita if indoor PM 2.5 sources exist. If there is no indoor emission, the annual benefits above 200yuan/capita can be achieved only when the PM 2.5 filtration efficiency is no <90% and the envelope air-tightness is above Chinese National Standard Level 7. Introducing mechanical ventilation with low PM 2.5 filtration efficiency to current residences in urban Beijing will increase the indoor PM 2.5 exposure and result in excess costs to the residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Obesity is the most serious global epidemic and body composition is the main indicator to evaluate obesity. This study aimed to investigate the changing trends of body composition by age and gender in Beijing adults aged 20–60 years and explore the distribution of obesity rates in different age groups of both sexes under different evaluation criteria. Methods: A total of 24,948 adults aged 20–60 years in Beijing, including 10,225 males and 14,192 females, were included, divided into four age groups (20–29, 30–39, 40–49, and ≥ 50 years) with each decade of age as an age group. Body composition indicators (BMI, fat mass, BF%, muscle mass, visceral fat area, and WHR) were measured in all subjects. Results: BMI and total fat mass peaked in males aged 40–49 years (BMI = 25.75 kg/m2, total fat mass = 17.70 kg). Female BMI, fat mass and BF% all increased significantly with age (p < 0.01). Total muscle peaked in males aged 30–39 years and decreased significantly thereafter (p < 0.0001). Visceral fat area and WHR increased significantly with age in both sexes (p < 0.0001). Age was significantly positively correlated with BMI, BF%, fat mass, WHR, and visceral fat area in both sexes (p < 0.0001), and age was negatively correlated with muscle mass in males (standard β = − 0.14, p < 0.0001) while positive in female (standard β = 0.05, p < 0.0001). Under the BMI criterion, the obesity rate peaked at 27.33% in males at the age of 20–29 years. Under the BF% criterion, the obesity rate peaked at 17.41% in males at the age of 30–39 years, and increased in females with age. The central obesity rate of both sexes increased with age under the criteria of WHR and visceral fat area. Conclusion: The results of this study reveal that age- and sex-related patterns of body composition and obesity change among Beijing adults aged 20–60 years may differ across age groups and that such patterns of change should be considered when developing public health strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper proposed a pavement comprehensive performance ranking method based on the extended matter-element model and TOPSIS. • Seven indices, including functional performance, structural performance, and material performance, are selected. • The priority of pavement maintenance was determined by the optimal proximity coefficient K+. • The recommended evaluation method can be used to develop a pavement repair plan. The evaluation of pavement conditions determines the need for pavement maintenance. To ensure that maintenance funds are allocated fairly, it is necessary to prioritize the overall performance of pavement sections based on multidimensional state data and determine maintenance priority. In this study, the pavement functional performance, structural performance, and material performance were among seven indexes chosen to evaluate to overcome the limitation of only considering the functional index in evaluating the performance of asphalt pavement. The extended matter-element model was combined with the technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) based on determining the weight of the index combination and applied to the Hubei section of the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macao Expressway to calculate the matter-element of the best closeness of the pavement performance and determine the priority of maintenance. The case study demonstrates that the proposed method can obtain an accurate ranking of the overall performance of the alternative road sections, and its superiority was demonstrated through comparative analysis. Furthermore, the degree of influence of each performance index on overall performance was determined and discussed. Among them, dynamic modulus (|E⁎|), which represents the mechanical strength of asphalt mixture material, contributed the most influence, while the rut depth index (RDI), which represents the permanent deformation level of road surface, contributed the least. This recommended evaluation method can be used to develop a pavement repair plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental exposure to surface ozone (O 3) has become a major public health concern. To accurately estimate the spatial-coverage O 3 from sparse ground-truth data, we here propose a two-stage, deep learning model, "the explainable and spatial dependence deep learning model (ExDLM)", which combines convolutional neural networks (CNN), deep neural network (DNN), and integrated gradients (IG). Compared to individual CNN and DNN, our model showed higher accuracy and exhibited the highest R2 of 0.78 and the lowest RMSE of 18.35 μg/m3. The estimated O 3 was 66.19 ± 33.87 μg/m3 as compared to the 69.51 ± 39.38 μg/m3 calculated using the ground-truth data. Using ExDLM, we interpreted the contribution of nearby cities to O 3 in Beijing during extreme weather (dust storms) and clean days. During dust storms, the surrounding dust cells had negative IG scores, ranging from −1.43 to −0.01, indicating that these areas inhibited the formation of O 3 in Beijing. Conversely, in clean days, especially during summer when O 3 pollution is often extreme, the surrounding cells had positive scores, indicating that these areas enhanced O 3 formation. Nearby cities had the highest scores, ranging from 0.05 to 0.11. Using the proposed model, we were able to assess O 3 dynamics in Beijing, with greater temporal and spatial accuracy than that achieved by current models. The ExDLM also allows for finer-scale analysis of O 3 pollution, even under dust storms conditions, which traditionally limit model accuracy, as well as great spatial interpretability. [Display omitted] • A novel two-stage deep learning model (ExDLM) outperformed traditional models. • ExDLM combines the best features of both CNN and DNN. • ExDLM can infer how neighboring cells contribute to the target O 3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the total water resources consumption control and carbon mitigation continuous improvement, the weak water-carbon incorporate management is increasingly exposed. In this study, a water-carbon nexus assessment framework is proposed to analyze the nexus relationship between water consumption and carbon emission, and distinguishes the coupled water-carbon transmission intensity and the transfer paths under regional and industrial scales. According to the practical input-output table, water consumption, and carbon emission information, the framework is applied to Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration (BTHUA), a population, resource, and trade intensive area of China. Inter-regional/intra-regional water consumption and carbon emission transfer fluxes between sectors, the pairwise ecological relationship, and the water-carbon nexus were analyzed. Results indicated that the water-carbon transfer indexes from Hebei to Beijing and Tianjin were 161.85 kg/m3 and 113.88 kg/m3 in the study period, along with the most water consumption and carbon emission, and the worst water-carbon nexus. From the industrial perspective, electricity and gas supplying industry provided 7.8% and 29.1% of the total carbon transfer in Tianjin and Hebei, as the most key node sectors on the water-carbon nexus in the BTHUA. The research provides valuably supporting the adjustment of the existing urban agglomeration water-carbon nexus management schemes. • A new assessment framework was developed to analyze water-carbon nexus among regions/industries. • Water-carbon nexus among provinces and sectors was accounted in urban agglomeration. • It can identify key region/sectors for dual goals of water saving and carbon emission reduction. • Electricity and Gas Supplying was the most key node sector on the water-carbon nexus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The reliability and economy of UMES integrated with PTH are assessed. • Modeling of PTH flexibility considering both energy- and service-related constraints. • A system operation model combining energy management, vehicle dispatch and V2G is proposed. • A holistic evaluation framework embedded with multi-modal operation simulation is developed. • Influential factors for the contribution of PTH flexibility are analyzed. Growing penetration of renewable energy sources (RES) and emerging electrified loads (EEL) are bringing about increased difficulties for the power balancing and efficient operation of energy system, due to the impact of remarkable volatilities introduced. Public transport hub (PTH), as a new-style infrastructure of traffic service carriers, is regarded to offer a cogent solution to this problem, in terms of their potential operational flexibilities permitted by energy regulation, vehicular dispatch, and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) programs. As such, this paper carries out a comprehensive study to investigate the implication of harnessing PTH-enabled flexibility in a context of urban multi-energy system (UMES). The proposed methodology is established on a holistic reliability/economic analysis framework which is designed to indicate how UMES's performances would vary with different utilization of PTH resources. In order to portray the real-time controllability of PTH during operation, a PTH model that takes into account the impacts of both energy- and service-related aspects has been developed, with particular focus on the interdependencies between the energy and transportation sector. The operational simulation of UMES in presence of PTHs is implemented by using a multi-modal-based optimization model, which captures the effects of PTH flexibility under both normal and contingency scenarios integratedly. By embedding the above formulation into a sequential Monte Carlo simulation-based assessment framework, the contribution of PTH to the reliability and economy of UMES can be determined. Numerical studies are conducted based on an illustrative electricity-gas-heat test case and the real PTH datasets in Beijing. The simulation results confirm the significance of PTH-enabled flexibility in improving the performances of UMES. Also, it is demonstrated that the reserving strategy adopted, the composition of vehicle model, and the travel demand profile of passengers are the noteworthy factors that influence the profitability of PTH exploitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dust, as an important carrier of inorganic and organic pollutants, daily exposes to human without any protection. It affects our health adversely, especially its chemical elements and ions. In this research, we investigated the chemical characteristics of dustfall in Beijing, specifically in terms of 40 major and trace elements, and presented semi-quantitative evaluations of the relative local and remote contributions. In total, 58 samples were collected in Beijing and nearby cities during 2013–2014 “the winter heating period”. Using multiple statistical methods and GIS techniques, we obtained the relative similarities among certain elements and identified their pollution sources (from local or nearby cities). And more interestingly, the relative contributions of nearby cities can be calculated by the Hysplit4 backward-trajectory model. In addition, the correlation analysis for the 40 elements in dust and soil indicated that traffic restricted interchange between them; the city center, with the heaviest traffic, had the most significant influence. Finally, the resulting source apportionment was examined and modified using land use data and terrain information. We hope it can provide a strong basis for the environmental protection and risk assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Question Plant trait mean values and trait responsiveness to different environmental regimes are both important determinants of plant field distribution, but the degree to which plant trait means vs trait responsiveness predict plant distribution has rarely been compared quantitatively. Because hydrological regime is a key determinant of wetland plant distribution, we hypothesized that both plant trait means and trait responsiveness to experimental submergence could predict plant adaptation to a wet or a dry part of hydrological gradients in wetlands. Location Beijing, China. Methods We measured mean values for 14 plant traits by growing 30 wetland species both on land (control) and partially submerged in a greenhouse, and calculated log response ratios (Ln RRs) of these traits to submergence. A distribution pattern index of wetland plants along the moisture gradient (from the zone furthest from the wetland waterline to that nearest to the waterline) was developed based on plant survey data in 3988 field plots in 24 wetlands in Beijing, China. Results Ln RRs of performance traits (shoot biomass, root biomass, plant height and total root length; R2 = 0.249, P = 0.005) and one out of five morphological traits (i.e. shoot elongation capacity; R2 = 0.194, P = 0.015) between partially submerged and control treatments could predict the distribution pattern of the 30 wetland plant species. In contrast, means of plant traits in either control or submergence could not predict species distribution. The trait Ln RRs, increasing from very negative to very positive, corresponded positively with the distribution, ranging from the zone furthest from the wetland waterline to that nearest to the waterline. Surprisingly, physiological trait Ln RRs that had been expected to underpin performance trait Ln RRs did not themselves predict the distribution pattern of these species. Analyses at the level of multivariate trait groups (based on PCA) showed that species Ln RRs of the morphological trait group were positively correlated with Ln RRs of the performance trait group. Conclusions Our findings demonstrate that screening wetland plant species for performance and morphological trait Ln RRs under experimentally flooded conditions is an effective approach to understand and predict their distribution pattern along moisture gradients in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]