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Background: Organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs) are compounds with a wide range of industrial and commercial applications and are mainly used as flame retardants and plasticizers. The global consumption of OPFRs has risen rapidly in recent decades, and they have been widely detected in environmental media. Unfortunately, OPFRs have been associated with many adverse health outcomes. The issue of the health risks of OPFRs is attracting increasing attention. Therefore, there is a need to review the current state of research and trends in this field to help researchers and policymakers quickly understand the field, identify new research directions, and allocate appropriate resources for further development of the OPFR health risk research field. Methods: This study statistically analyzed 1162 relevant publications included in the Web of Science Core Collection from 2003–2023. The internal and external features of the literature, such as publication trends, countries, authors, journals, and keywords, were quantitatively analyzed and visually presented to identify the research hotspots, compositions, and paradigms of the field and to horizontally and vertically analyze the development trends and structural evolution of the field. Results: The development of the field can be divided into three stages, and the field entered a period of rapid development in 2016. China (649 papers) is the most prolific country, followed by the United States (188 papers). The authors STAPLETON HM and WANG Y have the highest combined impact. International collaboration between countries and researchers still needs to be strengthened. Science of The Total Environment is the most frequently published journal (162 papers), and Environmental Science and Technology is the most frequently cited journal (5285 citations). Endocrine disruption, developmental toxicity, and neurotoxicity are the health effects of greatest interest. Conclusions: Future research is expected to be multidisciplinary, and research hotspots may involve a comprehensive assessment of OPFR exposure in the population, exploration of the mechanisms of endocrine-disrupting effects and in vivo metabolic processes, and examination of the health effects of OPFR metabolites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public acceptance is important for the provision of potentially hazardous facilities and may be affected by many factors such as perceived risk/benefit/stress/fairness and public trust. In this study, the underlying mechanism behind the influence of perceived stress on public acceptance of waste-to-energy (WTE) incinerators was explored by structural equation modeling of a face-to-face questionnaire survey of 1066 urban residents in three regional central cities in China. The results indicate that, firstly, the perceived stress of the laypeople has an impact on their acceptance by influencing risk/fairness they perceived and public trust. Secondly, the paths of influence of individual perceptions on acceptance differ between cities with different economic, cultural, and social characteristics. Perceived stress mainly affects public acceptance through perceived risk in the eastern residents while perceived stress mainly affects public acceptance through public trust in the western residents. The findings clarify the theoretical role of perceived stress in shaping laypeople's acceptance of potentially hazardous facilities which are of value for both governments and owners in siting potentially hazardous facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The genetic characteristics of maize (Zea mays L.) germplasm are helpful to understand their genetic diversity and heterotic group, as well as provide a reference for germplasm improvement and GWAS. A total of 241 maize inbreds including tropical, subtropical, and temperate maize, were selected from the global maize germplasm in the study. Genetic diversity, population structure, genetic relationship, and LD were analyzed using the Affymetrix SNP56K chip. Finally, 20,586 high-quality SNP markers were screened out which detected a total of 41,172 allelic variants among materials, the average gene diversity was 0.3779 and the average PIC was 0.3002. There were greater genetic differences between different germplasm sources, the genetic diversity of China & USA maize was higher than that of CIMMYT & Thailand maize. Based on model analysis, cluster analysis, and PCA, a consistent population structure was got that the materials were firstly divided into tropical & subtropical maize and temperate maize; then, the latter was furtherly divided into three subgroups named SS, NSS, and TSPT, and the remaining inbreeds were classified into Mixed groups. The results were consistent with domestic major results as well as their pedigree information. The LD decay distance of temperate maize was greater than tropical & subtropical maize. This study further confirmed that there exists population stratification among tropical, subtropical, and temperate maize germplasm, but the specific stratification results may be different by using different materials, markers, and analysis methods. In addition, the genetic difference between temperate maize and tropical & subtropical maize is certainly great, the latter will continue to play an important role in maize breeding in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A neutron time-of-flight (nTOF) system has been implemented at the largest laser facility in China. The nTOF system is used to measure neutron spectra in inertial confinement fusion experiments. The nTOF system consists of 11 fast plastic scintillation detectors. The detectors employed three designs to measure neutron yield, ion temperature, and neutron bang time. The nTOF system is capable of measuring the primary neutron yield from 107 to 1013, secondary DT neutron yield from 106 to 108, and ion temperature and neutron bang time yields from 108 to 1013. The accuracies of the nTOF system are about 10% for neutron yield and ion temperature measurements and better than 60 ps for neutron bang time measurements. The nTOF system has become one of the most important diagnostics for implosions, and it is used for more than 200 shots per year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of coal industry in Shanxi province in China has important effects on its economic development. A large amount of money has been invested into the coal industry and other related industries during the recent years. However, research on the investment effect of Shanxi's coal industry was rare. In order to analyze the investment effect of coal industry, based on the crowding-out effect model, cointegration test, and the data available in Shanxi Statistical Yearbooks, this paper calculates the effect between coal industry investment and other 17 industry investment. The results show that the investment of coal industry produces crowding-out effect on food industry, building materials industry, and machinery industry. Increasing 1% of the coal industry investment can reduce 0.25% of the food industry investment, or 0.6% of building materials industry investment, or 0.52% of the machinery industry investment, which implies that Shanxi province should adjust coal industrial structure, promote the balance development of coal industry and other industries, so as to promote its economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cities are the consumption concentration of energy, resources, and the concentration of CO emissions. The cities' area only accounted for 2% in the world's surface; however, their population accounted for about 50% of the total population, and CO emissions accounted for about 80% of the total emissions. The cities lie in a key position in solving the global climate change. China's urbanization level was just exceeding by 50%, which was in the intermediate stage of urbanization. The rapid development of the urbanization process and the expansion of city scale have brought economic growth and all kinds of environmental issues. Therefore, is there an optimal city scale which can make cities maintain economic growth and can also reduce or even avoid the environmental problems in the meantime? The question deserves deep research. Based on the background, the data from 1998 to 2014, and the goals of the cities' economic and environmental benefits, this paper builds the optimal scale model for the cities, and obtain two conclusions: (1) in a certain period and range, the cities have the optimal scale; (2) for the cities in China, the optimal scale is about 1.78 million people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of trade on the environment and the climate has become a focus of attention. Tending to develop industries with higher added values, developed countries rely on importing high energy consumption goods from developing countries, and however, some CO emissions are embodied in the process of import. Currently, the accounting method of the territorial responsibility used to get the international data of greenhouse gas inventories ignores the difference between domestic consumption and export demands. Thus, developing countries bear the responsibility of pollution emissions from the export. The steel industry is an important basic industry of China's national economy as well as a vital part in the industrial system. With the expansion of trade scale, the impact of the export and import of China's steel on CO emissions is growing. This paper studied the embodied CO emissions in the trade of China's steel from 2005 to 2014, using the input-output model and the trade data of the China's steel imports and exports. The results indicate that (1) the complete CO emissions of China's steel industry are high. (2) The increase in the export scale makes the embodied CO emissions in the trade of China's steel export increase, and (3) China is a net exporter of CO emissions in the steel trade. Especially after 2007, the value of China's steel exports has been larger than that of China's steel imports, so China had borne much CO emissions responsibility in the trade of China's steel. Therefore, this paper puts forward that, in the future, the export structure of goods should be optimized into the high-tech products with the high added value, low energy consumption and low carbon emissions, and meanwhile, service industry is promoted to improve technical support to reduce CO emissions in the steel industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change has threatened our economic, environmental, and social sustainability seriously. The world has taken active measures in dealing with climate change to mitigate carbon emissions. Predicting the carbon emissions peak has become a global focus, as well as a leading target for China’s low carbon development. China has promised its carbon emissions will have peaked by around 2030, with the intention of peaking earlier. Scholars generally have studied the influencing factors of carbon emissions. However, research on carbon emissions peaks is not extensive. Therefore, by setting a low scenario, a middle scenario, and a high scenario, this paper predicts China’s carbon emissions peak from 2015 to 2035 based on the data from 1998 to 2014 using the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence, and Technology (STIRPAT) model. The results show that in the low, middle, and high scenarios China will reach its carbon emissions peak in 2024, 2027, and 2030, respectively. Thus, this paper puts forward the large-scale application of technology innovation to improve energy efficiency and optimize energy structure and supply and demand. China should use industrial policy and human capital investment to stimulate the rapid development of low carbon industries and modern agriculture and service industries to help China to reach its carbon emissions peak by around 2030 or earlier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new generation of numerical prediction system GRAPES (a short form of Global/Regional Assimilation and PrEdiction System) was set up in China Meteorological Administration (CMA). This paper focuses on the scientific design and preliminary results of the numerical prediction model in GRAPES, including basic idea and strategy of the general scientific design, multi-scale dynamic core, physical package configuration, architecture and parallelization of the codes. A series of numerical experiments using the real data with horizontal resolutions from 10 to 280 km and idealized experiments with very high resolution up to 100 m are conducted, giving encouraging results supporting the multi-scale application of GRAPES. The results of operational implementation of GRAPES model in some NWP centers are also presented with stress at evaluations of the capability to predict the main features of precipitation in China. Finally the issues to be dealt with for further development are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the test run of Shenguang III laser prototype facility, under the low density condition, the yield ratio method was used to measure the fuel areal density. Considering the uncertainty of the neutron yield, detectors with different efficiencies were used. The clear secondary-neutron signals in inertial confinement fusion experiments were obtained for the first time in China, and the values of the areal density were deduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PM 2.5 is the fine particle matter with the size smaller than 2.5 μm, and it is considered to be one of the atmospheric pollutants whose effects are the greatest on the public health. In recent years, the effects of PM 2.5 in Beijing are getting more and more public attention. Based on this situation, using the exposure-response relationship model, the health loss assessment model and the annual average concentration data of PM 2.5 from 2014 to 2015, this paper quantified the public health effect losses of PM 2.5 and estimated the economic loss utilizing the willingness to pay in Beijing. The results demonstrated that in the four different concentrations baseline levels and the three different categories, the health economic loss caused by PM 2.5 pollution was 4.83–6.63 billion yuan in 2014 and 4.32–6.32 billion yuan in 2015 in Beijing. And, the loss of the total death, cardiovascular disease death and respiratory system disease death accounted for the major loss in all kinds of health effect loss. From the results, it could also be seen that the number of people damaged by PM 2.5 and the economic loss were falling from 2014 to 2015, which showed the worsening trend of air quality began to reverse in Beijing. It had played a positive role for Beijing to continue to control atmospheric pollution. However, because the annual concentration of PM 2.5 in Beijing is still higher than four annual mean concentration baseline levels, it still exists a larger threat to the health effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Micro-LiNiCoMnO 2 (MNCM), a cathode material with highest market share, has increasing demand with the growth of lithium battery industry. However, whether MNCM exposure brings adverse effects to workers remains unclear. This study aimed to explore the association between MNCM exposure with systemic inflammation and cardiac function. A cross-sectional study of 347 workers was undertaken from the MNCM production industry in Guangdong province, China in 2020. Metals in urine were measured using ICP-MS. The associations between metals, systemic inflammation, and cardiac function were appraised using a linear or logistic regression model. Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) and generalized weighted quantile sum (gWQS) models were used to explore mixed metal exposures. The analysis of interaction and mediation was adopted to assess the role of inflammation in the relation between urinary metals and cardiac function. We observed that the levels of lithium (Li) and cobalt (Co) were positively associated with systemic inflammation and heart rate. The amount of Co contributed the highest weight on the increased systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) (59.8%), the system inflammation response index (SIRI) (44.3%), and heart rate (65.0%). Based on the mediation analysis, we estimated that SII mediated 32.3% and 20.9% of the associations between Li and Co with heart rate, and SIRI mediated 44.6% and 22.2% of the associations between Li and Co with heart rate, respectively. This study demonstrated for the first time that MNCM exposure increased the risk of workers' systemic inflammation and elevated heart rate, which were contributed by the excessive Li and Co exposure. Additionally, it indicates that systemic inflammation was a major mediator of the associations of Li and Co with cardiac function in MNCM production workers., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Air pollution mainly comes from fossil energy consumption (FEC), and it brings great threat to public health. The respiratory system of the elderly is highly susceptible to the effects of air pollution due to the decline in body functions. PM 2.5 is a major component of air pollution, so the study of the impact of PM 2.5 generated by FEC on the respiratory health of the elderly is of great significance. The existing studies have focused more on the effect of PM 2.5 on mortality, and this paper is a useful addition to the existing studies by examining the effect of PM 2.5 from FEC on the health of the elderly from the perspective of prevalence. In this paper, the binary Logistic regression model was used to calculate the exposure-response relationship coefficient for respiratory health in older adults using the data in 2018 from the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey. And referring to the Dynamic Projection model for Emissions in China, the changes in the number of older persons suffering from respiratory diseases due to PM 2.5 from FEC in the baseline scenario, the clean air scenario, and the on-time peak-clean air scenario were predicted. The results indicated that: (1) PM 2.5 from FEC mainly came from coal; (2) PM 2.5 from FEC was detrimental to the respiratory health of the elderly, and older seniors were more affected as they age; (3) In the on-time peak-clean air scenario, the number of elderly people suffering from respiratory diseases due to PM2.5 from FEC was growing at the slowest rate. Based on the above results, this paper raised recommendations for reducing the effect of PM 2.5 from FEC on the health of the elderly., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: An increasing number of original studies suggested that occupational noise exposure might be associated with the risk of hypertension, but the results remain inconsistent and inconclusive. In addition, the attributable fraction (AF) of occupational noise exposure has not been well quantified. We aimed to conduct a large-scale occupational population-based study to comprehensively investigate the relationship between occupational noise exposure and blood pressure and different hypertension subtypes and to estimate the AF for hypertension burden attributable to occupational noise exposure., Methods: A total of 715,135 workers aged 18-60 years were included in this study based on the Key Occupational Diseases Surveillance Project of Guangdong in 2020. Multiple linear regression was performed to explore the relationships of occupational noise exposure status, the combination of occupational noise exposure and binaural high frequency threshold on average (BHFTA) with systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP, DBP). Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine the relationshipassociation between occupational noise exposure status, occupational noise exposure combined with BHFTA and hypertension. Furthermore, the attributable risk (AR) was calculated to estimate the hypertension burden attributed to occupational exposure to noise., Results: The prevalence of hypertension among occupational noise-exposed participants was 13·7%. SBP and DBP were both significantly associated with the occupational noise exposure status and classification of occupational noise exposure combined with BHFTA in the crude and adjusted models (all P < 0·0001). Compared with workers without occupational noise exposure, the risk of hypertension was 50% greater among those exposed to occupational noise in the adjusted model (95% CI 1·42-1·58). For participants of occupational noise exposed with BHFTA normal, and occupational noise exposed with BHFTA elevated, the corresponding risks of hypertension were 48% (1·41-1·56) and 56% (1·46-1·63) greater than those of occupational noise non-exposed with BHFTA normal, respectively. A similar association was found in isolated systolic hypertension (ISH) and prehypertension. Subgroup analysis by sex and age showed that the positive associations between occupational noise exposure and hypertension remained statistically significant across all subgroups (all P < 0.001). Significant interactions between occupational noise status, classification of occupational noise exposure combined with BHFTA, and age in relation to hypertension risk were identified (all P for interaction < 0.001). The associations of occupational noise status, classification of occupational noise exposure combined with BHFTA and hypertension were most pronounced in the 18-29 age groups. The AR% of occupational noise exposure for hypertension was 28·05% in the final adjusted model., Conclusions: Occupational noise exposure was positively associated with blood pressure levels and the prevalence of hypertension, ISH, and prehypertension in a large occupational population-based study. A significantly increased risk of hypertension was found even in individuals with normal BHFTA exposed to occupational noise, with a further elevated risk observed in those with elevated BHFTA. Our findings provide epidemiological evidence for key groups associated with occupational noise exposure and hypertension, and more than one-fourth of hypertension cases would have been prevented by avoiding occupational noise exposure., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

To discover immune factors that can predict the progression of COVID-19, we evaluated circulating immune cells and plasma cytokines in COVID-19 patients. We found that T cells, including CD4 + T cells and CD8 + T cells, were significantly decreased in severe COVID-19 symptoms but not in mild symptoms, in comparison with healthy people. T cells remained at a low level after recovery from severe COVID-19. CD4 + CD25 + CD127 low Treg-enriched cells were significantly increased in either mild or severe COVID-19 patients, regardless of recovery or not. Moreover, in either mild or severe COVID-19 patients, Treg-enriched cells up-regulated CD25 and down-regulated CD127. After recovery, CD25 was partially down-regulated but still higher than the normal level, while CD127 returned to the normal level in mild patients but not severe patients. B cells were decreased in mild patients and further decreased in severe patients, and remained low after recovery. NK cells were decreased only in severe COVID-19, with a tendency to return to the normal level after recovery. Plasma IL-6 and IL-10 were both elevated in severe patients but not in mild patients. After recovery, IL-6 remained higher than its normal level, while IL-10 returned to the normal level. Binary logistic regression analysis indicated that CD4 + T cells, B cells, IL-6, and IL-10 were significantly associated with COVID-19 severity. Therefore, these parameters are indicators of COVID-19 severity. Dynamic monitoring of these parameters would benefit therapy planning and prognosis evaluation., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Larvae of Zophobas atratus (synonym as Z. morio, or Z. rugipes Kirsch, Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) are capable of eating foams of expanded polystyrene (EPS) and low-density polyethylene (LDPE), similar to larvae of Tenebrio molitor. We evaluated biodegradation of EPS and LDPE in the larvae from Guangzhou, China (strain G) and Marion, Illinois, U.S. (strain M) at 25 °C. Within 33 days, strain G larvae ingested respective LDPE and PS foams as their sole diet with respective consumption rates of 58.7 ± 1.8 mg and 61.5 ± 1.6 mg 100 larvae -1 d -1 . Meanwhile, strain M required co-diet (bran or cabbage) with respective consumption rates of 57.1 ± 2.5 mg and 30.3 ± 7.7 mg 100 larvae -1 d -1 . Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, proton nuclear magnetic resonance, and thermal gravimetric analyses indicated oxidation and biodegradation of LDPE and EPS in the two strains. Gel permeation chromatography analysis revealed that strain G performed broad depolymerization of EPS, i.e., both weight-average molecular weight (M w ) and number-average molecular weight (M n ) of residual polymers decreased, while strain M performed limited extent depolymerization, i.e., M w and M n increased. However, both strains performed limited extent depolymerization of LDPE. After feeding antibiotic gentamicin, gut microbes were suppressed, and M w and M n of residual LDPE and EPS in frass were basically unchanged, implying a dependence on gut microbes for depolymerization/biodegradation. Our discoveries indicate that gut microbe-dependent LDPE and EPS biodegradation is present within Z. atratus in Tenebrionidae, but that the limited extent depolymerization pattern resulted in undigested polymers with high molecular weights in egested frass., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no competing financial interest., (Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Yellow mealworms (larvae of Tenebrio molitor, Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) have been proven to be capable of biodegrading polystyrene (PS) products. Using four geographic sources, we found that dark mealworms (larvae of Tenebrio obscurus) ate PS as well. We subsequently tested T. obscurus from Shandong, China for PS degradation capability. Our results demonstrated the ability for PS degradation within the gut of T. obscurus at greater rates than T. molitor. With expanded PS foam as the sole diet, the specific PS consumption rates for T. obscurus and T. molitor at similar sizes (2.0 cm, 62-64 mg per larva) were 32.44 ± 0.51 and 24.30 ± 1.34 mg 100 larvae -1 d -1 , respectively. After 31 days, the molecular weight ( M n ) of residual PS in frass (excrement) of T. obscurus decreased by 26.03%, remarkably higher than that of T. molitor (11.67%). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) indicated formation of functional groups of intermediates and chemical modification. Thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) suggested that T. obscurus larvae degraded PS effectively based on the proportion of PS residue. Co-fed corn flour to T. obscurus and wheat bran to T. molitor increased total PS consumption by 11.6% and 15.2%, respectively. Antibiotic gentamicin almost completely inhibited PS depolymerization. High-throughput sequencing revealed significant shifts in the gut microbial community in both Tenebrio species that were associated with the PS diet and PS biodegradation, with changes in three predominant families (Enterobacteriaceae, Spiroplasmataceae, and Enterococcaceae). The results indicate that PS biodegradability may be ubiquitous within the Tenebrio genus which could provide a bioresource for plastic waste biodegradation.

Idiosyncratic generalized skin disorders complicated by hepatitis, which resemble severe drug hypersensitivities, occur sporadically in workers exposed to trichloroethylene (TCE) in China. However, it has been a matter of controversy whether the solvent itself, not its impurities or stabilizers, can cause hypersensitivity reactions or not. This study aimed to characterize the exposure of hospitalized patients and their healthy colleagues. TCE metabolites were measured in urine of 19 hospitalized patients suffering from the disorders. To assess the exposure of patients' healthy colleagues, on-site surveys were conducted in 6 factories where the disorders occurred and in 2 control factories without such occurrences despite TCE use. Urinalysis of the patients detected trichloroacetic acid (TCA) in all of them. Its average concentration in the end-of-shift urine was estimated to be 206 mg/l. On-site survey of healthy exposed workers revealed that the maximum urinary TCA concentrations and the maximum time-weighted average concentrations of personal TCE exposure were 318-1,617 mg/l and 164-2,330 mg/m(3), respectively. There was no common impurity in TCE used in the factories. These results suggested that TCE itself caused the skin hypersensitivity disorders, and that the disorders occurred in factories where TCE metabolites could be extensively accumulated, possibly due to long working hours. Since the lowest TCA concentration in the end-of-shift urine of the patients was estimated to be 72-80 mg/l, it is recommended to control TCE exposure to keep the urinary TCA concentration below 50 mg/l to reduce the disease risk.