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Background: Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging zoonosis with a high fatality rate in China. Previous studies have reported that dysregulated inflammatory response is associated with disease pathogenesis and mortality in patients with SFTS. This investigation aimed to evaluate the prevalence and characteristics of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), and its impact on prognosis. Methods: Data on demographic characteristics, comorbid conditions, clinical manifestations, laboratory parameters, and survival time of patients with SFTS were collected. Patients were divided into the non-SIRS and SIRS groups according to the presence of SIRS, then their clinical data were compared. Results: A total of 290 patients diagnosed with SFTS were retrospectively enrolled, including 126(43.4%) patients with SIRS. Patients in the non-survivor group had more prevalence of SIRS than patients in the survivor group (P < 0.001), and SIRS (adjusted OR 2.885, 95% CI 1.226–6.786; P = 0.005) was shown as an independent risk factor for prognosis of patients with SFTS. Compared with patients without SIRS, patients with SIRS had lower WBC and neutrophils counts, and fibrinogen levels, but higher AST, LDH, amylase, lipase, CK, CK-MB, troponin I, APTT, thrombin time, D-dimer, CRP, IL-6, SAA levels, and viral load. The cumulative survival rate of patients with SIRS was significantly lower than that of patients without SIRS. Patients with SIRS also showed a higher incidence of bacterial or fungal infections than patients without SIRS. Conclusions: SIRS is highly frequent in patients with SFTS, and it is associated with high mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most common and vital areas of coverage in second language (L2) writing instruction is writing from sources, that is, the process of reading source text material and transferring content from that reading to writing. Research as well as everyday practice in the classroom has long shown that working with source texts is one of the most challenging of all academic literacy activities for L2 writers. This is particularly true in the domain of paraphrasing, an important and yet complicated device for the treatment of source text material. While the procedures involved in paraphrasing source text material may appear simple, the enactment of those procedures is a complex and often elusive experience for L2 writers. In this article we discuss a study of two mainland Chinese students' engagement with paraphrasing in an undergraduate academic writing course, with a particular focus on their understanding of the purposes and functions of paraphrasing and how such understanding influenced their paraphrasing practices. Our results reveal a multilayered relationship between the students and paraphrasing and contribute to the paraphrasing literature by drawing greater attention to paraphrasing from students' perspectives. (Contains 1 table.)

This cross‐sectional study explored the relationship between violent video game exposure (VVGE) and aggression in left‐behind adolescents (LBAs) in China, taking into account the effects of moral sensitivity and father presence. A cluster sampling design was applied in this study; we recruited 615 adolescents (45.85% male, age range 12–18 years, Mage = 14.70 years, SD = 1.66) from China. The results by using SPSS 25.0 and the PROCESS macro showed that VVGE was positively associated with LBAs' trait aggression and its items, and moral sensitivity played a partial mediating role in these relationships. Moreover, father presence moderated VVGE and LBAs' trait aggression, verbal aggression and hostility. Specifically, at a high level of father presence, the direct effect of VVGE on trait aggression was significantly moderated by increasing the level of father presence, whereas this moderating effect was not significant at a low level of father presence. The results were similar for verbal aggression and hostility. Thus, moral sensitivity and father presence should be considered in prevention and intervention strategies aimed at reducing LBAs' aggression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porcine epidemic diarrhoea virus (PEDV) is an emerging and re‐emerging swine enterovirus that causes highly contagious diarrhoea and mortality in piglets. To better understand the current prevalence of PEDV in mid‐west China, and to find out the reason for the re‐emergence of PEDV from the viral genomic characteristics. Herein, we firstly investigated epidemiology of PEDV in mid‐west China from 2019 to 2020. A total of 62.23% (257/413) of diarrhoea samples were positive for PEDV, and the PEDV‐positive cases were mainly detected in winter. Then, we selected the SXSL strain as a representative strain to study the genetic and pathogenic characterization of PEDV pandemic strains in mid‐west China. The recombination analysis showed that SXSL strain was a recombinant strain, and the major and minor parent strains of the recombination are CH/SCZJ/2018 strain and GDS48 strain, respectively. Complete genome sequencing and homology analysis showed that the S protein of SXSL strain contained multiple amino acid indels and mutations compared to the PEDV representative strains. Furthermore, we evaluated the effect of S protein on the infectivity and pathogenicity of PEDV by the PEDV reverse genetics system, and results showed that SXSL S protein increased the infectivity and pathogenicity of chimeric virus. Overall, our findings provided important information for understanding the roles of S protein in the prevalence of PEDV in mid‐west China and developing vaccines based on PEDV pandemic strains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hyperspectral image (HSI) change detection aims to identify the differences in multitemporal HSIs. Recently, a graph convolutional network (GCN) has attracted increasing attention in the field of remote sensing due to its advantages in processing irregular data. In comparison with a convolutional neural network (CNN) that can only perform convolution operations on data with the assumption of the Euclidean structure, GCN adopts a graph structure to flexibly capture the characteristics and structure information of non-Euclidean data. In this article, we propose a novel dual-branch difference amplification GCN (D2AGCN) for HSI change detection with limited samples, which allows the network to fully extract and effectively amplify the difference features of multitemporal HSIs for change detection. The dual-branch structure can effectively extract sufficient different features to facilitate the detection of the changed areas. As far as we know, this is the first time that GCN has been introduced into HSI change detection. A difference magnification module is designed to suppress similar regions and highlight the feature differences between the multitemporal HSIs in the dual-branch structure, which increases the distinction between change and nonchange classes. The visual and quantitative experimental results on three real hyperspectral datasets (i.e., China, Bay Area, and Santa Barbara) show that the proposed D2AGCN outperforms most of the state-of-the-art methods in HSI change detection with limited training samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) is an important global viral pathogen of cattle and other ruminants. To survey the infection rate and genetic diversity of BVDV in western China, a total of 1234 serum samples from 17 herds of dairy cattle, beef cattle and yak in 4 provinces were collected in 2019. Results: All the 1234 serum samples were screened individually for BVDV by RT-PCR. Our results demonstrated that the average positive rate of BVDV was 7.2% (89/1234) in animals and 82.4% (14/17) in herds. Thirteen BVDV strains were isolated from RT-PCR positive clinical samples and they were all NCP biotype. BVDV-1a and 1c subgenotypes were identified from 22 selected virus isolates in 14 BVDV-positive herds. These results confirmed that BVDV-1a and BVDV-1c were circulating in western China, similar to the BVDV epidemics in cattle in other regions of China. Conclusions: This study provides data for monitoring and vaccination strategies of BVDV in western China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is a common infectious disease occurring in children under 5 years of age worldwide, and Enterovirus A71 (EV-A71) and Coxsackievirus A16 (CVA-16) are identified as the predominant pathogens. In recent years, Coxsackievirus A6 (CVA-6) and Coxsackievirus A10 (CVA-10) have played more and more important role in a series of HFMD outbreaks. This study aimed to understand the epidemic characteristics associated with HFMD outbreak in Guangzhou, 2018.Methods: The clinical and laboratory data of 1220 enterovirus-associated HFMD patients in 2018 were analysed in this study. Molecular diagnostic methods were performed to identify its serotypes. Phylogenetic analyses were depicted based on the complete VP1 gene.Results: There were 21 enterovirus serotypes detected in Guangzhou in 2018. Three serotypes of enterovirus, CVA-6 (364/1220, 29.8%), CVA-10 (305/1220, 25.0%), and CVA-16 (397/1220, 32.5%), were identified as the causative pathogens and accounted for 87.3% among all 1220 HFMD patients. In different seasons, CVA-6 was the predominant pathogen of HFMD during autumn, and CVA-10 as well as CVA-16 were more prevalent in summer. Patients infected by CVA-6, CVA-10 or CVA-16 showed similar clinical features and laboratory characteristics, and the ratios of severe HFMD were 5.8, 5.9, and 1.5% in the three serotypes. Phylogenetic analyses of VP1 sequences showed that the CVA-6, CVA-10, and CVA-16 sequences belonged to the sub-genogroup E2, genogroup E, and genogroup B1, respectively.Conclusions: CVA-6, CVA-10, and CVA-16 were the predominant and co-circulated serotypes in Guangzhou China, 2018, which should be the new target for prevention and control of HFMD. Our findings provide useful information for diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of HFMD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To describe the characteristics of patients with syphilitic uveitis in northern China.Methods: A case series of 21 patients (33 eyes) diagnosed with syphilitic uveitis from 2011 to 2016 at a tertiary center in northern China was retrospectively analyzed.Results: Twenty-one patients (33 eyes) were diagnosed as syphilitic uveitis. Posterior segment involvement was found in 32 eyes (97.0%). Vitreous haze, neuroretinitis, and posterior placoid chorioretinitis were mainly found in patients with a relatively short duration of the disease, while diffuse chorioretinitis, pseudoretinitis pigmentosa, cystoid macular edema, and epiretinal membrane were found in patients with relatively long duration of ocular involvement. A low best-corrected visual acuity (P = 0.022) and a delay of syphilis treatment (P < 0.001) were associated with a significantly worse visual outcome.Conclusions: Syphilitic uveitis should be included in the differential diagnosis of any form of posterior ocular inflammation. The pattern of ocular involvement may change with the disease progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A model has been created for calculating the balanced diversion ratios of flow rate and sediment in the branches of a bifurcated river. The model is based on the extremity law of energy dissipation rate, and involves solving the simultaneous equations of flow and sediment motion for uniform flow in an open channel. The model has been verified by measured data obtained from the Meizizhou and Baguazhou branches of the Yangtze River in China. The parameters that influence the diversion ratios, such as river width, channel roughness and the total inflow, have been analysed. It was found that balanced diversion ratios are more sensitive to river width and roughness than to total inflow. Measures to regulate the Baguazhou branch have been compared further and analysed. The conclusions of this study can provide a theoretical basis for future regulation of the Baguazhou river branch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

CGG repeat expansion is the most common cause of fragile X syndrome. Numerous efforts have been made to identify novel mutations in patients with intellectual disability, developmental delay, and/or autism. To evaluate the mutational spectrum in the at-risk Chinese population, 60 pediatric patients presenting fragile X traits but normal-sized CGG repeats were sequenced for all 17 exons and regulatory regions in FMR1. A c.879A>C mutation, reported to alter a neighboring splicing, was detected in a severely retarded male and his normal mother. However, the exon junction appears unaffected. A 237-kb deletion covering the entire FMR1 was identified to cause moderate intellectual disability and marked hyperactivity in an 8-year-old boy. The 5′ and 3′ breakpoints were buried in the surrounding long interspersed and short interspersed elements, respectively. In general, missense mutations do not commonly cause fragile X syndrome, whereas deletions should be considered with caution in patient referrals presenting with developmental delay and/or ordinary retardation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Research in urban ecology has recently focused on the field of ecological security. Ecological security should be assessed at different scales, from global (to understand some processes of global change) to regional (to understand processes in specific areas) to urban (to consider the processes of urban development). Remote sensing (RS) and geographical information systems (GISs) are widely utilized in ecological security evaluation, with remotely sensed images applied to determine the structure and quantitative indicators of urban ecological systems and GIS to manipulate, analyse, and visualize multisource information in urban ecology. This article focuses on urban ecological security assessment based on multitemporal RS information and GIS. As a case study, the changes in spatial patterns of urban ecological security in Xuzhou City are evaluated during its transformation from a coal mining industrial city to a modern one with decreasing mining production. The popular ‘pressure–state–response’ conceptual model is used to construct an evaluation framework according to geographical properties and data availability. A hierarchical weighted model is adopted to take different factors into account and determine the state of ecological security in the study area. Using Landsat Thematic Mapper/Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (TM/ETM+) images as the main RS data source, the derived parameters, such as vegetation index, urban thermal information, and landscape pattern, are integrated to depict the structure and properties of the urban ecological system. Other ancillary information, including mining pressure, water pollution pressure, population density, and ecological flexibility are collected and managed by ArcGIS. The GIS is then used to manage ecological factors derived from remotely sensed data, statistical reports, and geographical data, to evaluate and analyse urban ecological security, and to generate quantitative evaluation and spatial patterns of ecological security. The resulting maps of urban ecological security situations in 1987, 1994, 2000, 2005, and 2007 are analysed in both temporal and spatial dimensions. By analysing urban ecological security in both temporal and spatial dimensions, it is concluded that the ecological security of Xuzhou City is under increasing pressure. Influenced by the pressure of urbanization and mining industry development, the unsafe areas of Xuzhou City have greatly expanded, and with accelerating speed. Finally, suggestions for improving urban ecological security are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The cost of centralized photovoltaic (CPV) power generation has been decreasing rapidly in China. However, the achievement of grid parity is full of uncertainties due to changes in policies and the industry environment. In order to explore the time, price, and external conditions in which grid parity can be achieved, we create the improved grey GM (1, 1) model to estimate the installed capacity over the next 10 years, and apply a learning curve to predict the cost of CPV generation. In the analysis of grid parity, we compare the benchmark price of coal power and the price under the market-oriented mechanism with CPV. The results show that China's CPV industry will enter the early stage of maturity from 2020 onwards; with the help of benchmark investment, the grid parity of CPV may be achieved in 2022 at the earliest and 2025 at the latest. After 2025, the photovoltaic electricity price will be generally lower than the coal electricity price under marketization. By 2030, CPV power generation costs will reach US $0.05/kWh, the accumulative installed capacity will exceed 370 GW, and the uncertainties will lead to a cumulative installed gap of nearly 100 GW. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The prevalence and genetic diversity of PCV4 in Guangxi Province have been uncovered. • 9 of these (69.2%) PCV4-positive samples were coinfected with PCV2 or PCV3, and one PCV4-positive sample was coinfected with both PCV2 and PCV3. Porcine circovirus type 4 (PCV4), a novel circovirus, was identified in pigs with serious symptoms, including porcine dermatitis and nephropathy syndrome (PDNS)-like signs, in China in 2019. This study investigated the prevalence and genome diversity of PCV4 in pigs from Guangxi Province, China, between 2015 and 2019. Thirteen of 257 (5.1%) samples were positive for PCV4, 9 of these (69.2%) PCV4-positive samples were coinfected with PCV2 or PCV3, and one PCV4-positive sample was coinfected with both PCV2 and PCV3. Three complete PCV4 genomes shared 36.9–73.8% nucleotide similarity with other representative circovirus genomes. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that PCV4 was most closely related to bat-associated circovirus and mink circovirus. In summary, this is the first epidemiological investigation and evolutionary analysis of PCV4 in Guangxi Province, China, and the results provide insight into the molecular epidemiology of PCV4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Violent video games exposure (VVGE) was positively associated with aggression. • Moral disengagement, anger and hostility played a mediating role between VVGE and adolescent aggression. • The negative parental rearing patterns moderated the relationship of moral disengagement on aggression. Based on the General Aggression Model (GAM), this study which was crosssectional explored the relationship between VVGE and aggression in Chinese adolescents, taking into account the effects of individual difference trait (i.e., moral disengagement, anger, hostility) and family situation (i.e., parental rearing patterns). The study sample consisted of 630 Chinese adolescents (M age = 15.43 years, SD = 1.40). Results showed that VVGE was positively associated with moral disengagement and adolescent aggression. Furthermore, when controlling for gender, moral disengagement played a partial mediating role between VVGE and adolescent aggression and physical aggression; anger and hostility played a partial mediating role between VVGE and physical aggression and a full mediating role between VVGE and verbal aggression. Father's preference and mother's denying of the parental rearing patterns moderated the relationship of moral disengagement on aggression. The findings suggest that moral disengagement, anger, hostility and parental rearing patterns may be the factors that increase in the risk of higher levels of adolescent aggression after repeated exposure violent video games. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The China GaoFen-5 (GF-5) satellite sensor, which was launched in 2018, collects hyperspectral data with 330 spectral bands, a 30 m spatial resolution, and 60 km swath width. Its competitive advantages compared to other on-orbit or planned sensors are its number of bands, spectral resolution, and swath width. Unfortunately, its applications may be undermined by its relatively low spatial resolution. Therefore, the data fusion of GF-5 with high spatial resolution multispectral data is required to further enhance its spatial resolution while preserving its spectral fidelity. This paper conducted a comprehensive evaluation study of fusing GF-5 hyperspectral data with three typical multispectral data sources (i.e., GF-1, GF-2 and Sentinel-2A (S2A)), based on quantitative metrics, classification accuracy, and computational efficiency. Datasets on three study areas of China were utilized to design numerous experiments, and the performances of nine state-of-the-art fusion methods were compared. Experimental results show that LANARAS (this method was proposed by lanaras et al.), Adaptive Gram–Schmidt (GSA), and modulation transfer function (MTF)-generalized Laplacian pyramid (GLP) methods are more suitable for fusing GF-5 with GF-1 data, MTF-GLP and GSA methods are recommended for fusing GF-5 with GF-2 data, and GSA and smoothing filtered-based intensity modulation (SFIM) can be used to fuse GF-5 with S2A data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The combined heating and power (CHP) system with turbine-driving fans and pumps is more efficient and economical in meeting heat demand in cold areas, however, there are no detailed studies that investigate its thermodynamic performance, improvement possibilities and economy. In this paper, the energy, exergy and economic analysis of a CHP system with turbine-driving fans and pumps operated in Northeast China were conducted to provide insights into improvement options. It is revealed that the boiler is the main source of exergy destruction, followed by the steam-water heat exchangers (SWHE), temperature and pressure reducer (TPR), turbines, and deaerator. The energy and exergy efficiencies of the system are 89.72% and 10.07%, while the boiler's are 84.89% and 30.04%. The thermodynamic performance of the boiler and turbines are compared with other studies, and the inefficiencies of major components are analyzed and some advice for further improvement is given. As the reference state changes, the main conclusions stay the same. The turbine-driving mode saves an electricity cost of 16,654.08 yuan on 15 December 2018. The effect of electricity price and on-grid price on the saved daily electricity cost is investigated and it proves that the turbine-driving mode is more economical in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heavy metals in the agricultural soils of reclaimed mining areas can contaminate food and endanger human health. The objective of this study is to effectively estimate the concentrations of heavy metals, such as zinc, chromium, arsenic, and lead, using hyperspectral sensor data and the random forest (RF) algorithm in the study area of Xuzhou, China. The RF's built-in feature selection ability and modeling expressive ability in heavy metal estimation of soil were explored. After the preprocessing of the spectrum obtained by an ASD (analytical spectral device) field spectrometer, the random forest algorithm was carried out to establish the estimation model based on the correlation-selected features and the full-spectrum features respectively. Results of all the different processes were compared with classical approaches, such as partial least squares (PLS) regression and support vector machine (SVM). In all the experimental results, from the perspective of models, the best estimation model for Zn (R2 = 0.9061; RMSE = 6.5008) is based on the full-spectrum data of continuum removal (CR) pretreatment, and the best models for Cr (R2 = 0.9110; RMSE = 4.5683), As (R2 = 0.9912; RMSE = 0.5327), and Pb (R2 = 0.9756; RMSE = 1.1694) are all derived from the correlation-selected features. And these best models of these heavy metals are all established by the RF method. The experiments in this paper show that random forests can make full use of the input spectral data in the estimation of four kinds of heavy metals, and the obtained models are superior to those established by traditional methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Household inputs and consumption play important roles in driving carbon emissions in China. However, existing studies have mainly studied consumption-based household carbon emissions in specific years to highlight consumption guidance and management, and little attention has been given to income-based accounting and policy-making focused on primary input behaviors and product allocation behaviors. In the quest for more coordinated and efficient mitigation strategies, we applied input–output analysis (IOA) combined with the biproportional scaling method (RAS) to obtain both income- and consumption-based annual accounting of rural and urban household carbon emissions from 2010 to 2017 and then used structural decomposition analysis (SDA) to determine key driving factors and sectors. Our results revealed that the proportions of income-based household emissions in gross emissions were higher than that of consumption-based household emissions. In terms of driving factors, per capita income/consumption contributed the largest increase in household emissions for most of the period, and population changes also showed a weak positive effect. However, intermediate input/output structure and carbon emission intensity were the main offsetting factors for household emissions. Compared with the consumption-based results, the income-based results can identify some new critical sectors that lead to household emission changes. Furthermore, the discrepant results for rural and urban household carbon emissions from both income and consumption perspectives suggest that differentiated measures of rural and urban households in key sectors are necessary. Finally, we propose industrial chain adjustment strategies and household input and consumption behavior recommendations in the context of urbanization. • The share of income-based household carbon emissions was higher than that of consumption. • Income- and consumption-based IOA-SDA are built to investigate the factors in changing household emissions. • Compared with consumption-based, income-based results identify new critical sectors for household emission mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wetland contains various ground objects with high spectral similarity. How to accurately distinguish complex classes has become a challenge in wetland land cover classification. In this paper, low-rank representation with elastic net (ENLRR) and the kernel version of ENLRR (KENLRR) are proposed for coastal wetland land cover classification by using Gaofen-5 (GF-5) hyperspectral data of China. The main idea of ENLRR is to combine elastic net with low-rank representation, which replaces rank function with the combination of nuclear norm and Frobenius norm when constraining the coefficient matrix. The KENLRR method considers nonlinear characteristics of hyperspectral data, where a neighborhood filter (NF) kernel function is adopted to map the original data space into a higher dimensional feature space for better classification. In the experiments, three typical coastal wetlands in China: Yellow River Delta, Jiangsu Dafeng Natural Reserve, and Yangtze River Delta (Nantong) are adopted, and the proposed methods and seven comparison methods are used to conduct wetland land cover classification. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed ENLRR and KENLRR are effective in accurately distinguishing wetland ground objects and reliably mapping their distribution. More specifically, the KENLRR method can provide the best performance, and the OAs are 96.63%, 96.76% and 87.67% for the three wetlands, respectively. The land cover distributions and spatial patterns of the three wetlands are studied as well. Yellow River Delta is a typical estuarine wetland with abundant landscapes, Dafeng Nature Reserve is a coastal wetland with the block regular feature distribution in spatial, and Yangtze River Delta (Nantong) mainly includes river and flood plain, whose ecological environment is deeply affected by human activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Construct a carrying genetic marker PPV infectious clone. • Rescued virus carry a genetic marker is able to distinguish from wild type infection. • The genetic marker does not change the biological characteristics of wild type parental PPV strain. Porcine parvovirus (PPV) is one of the major pathogens that bring about reproductive failure of pregnant sows. However, the study of the pathogenesis mechanism is circumscribed due to the lack of efficient genetic manipulation method. Infectious clone is a powerful tool for further studying the genetic mechanisms of PPV. In the present study, the gene fragment (157–4812) of PPV was amplified by PPV China isolate strain as a template, and PPV DNA fragments (1–182) forming Y-structure within in 5′ end and (4788–5074) forming U-structure in 3′ end were synthesized. And then, the above three fragments were inserted into plasmid pKQLL to congregate a PPV full-length recombinant plasmid by means of In-Fusion cloning technology. After the successful sequencing identification of the recombinant plasmid, the Eco R I restriction site was brought out as a genetic marker by nonsense mutation (A3058 T) to produce plasmid Y-PPV, which was transfected into PK-15 cells for rescue of virus. The rescued viral particles were observed under transmission electron microscopy, and the sequencing analysis showed that Y-PPV could stably carry the genetic marker. It could be seen that Y-PPV has similar replicate capability and pathogenicity as the wild-type parental PPV strain by cellular and animal experiments. These results confirmed that Y-PPV maintain similar biological characteristics with wild-type parental PPV strain. Infectious clone could be a valuable tool for studying the individual genes of PPV and applications in gene deletion or live vector vaccines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remote sensing technology has been frequently used to obtain information on changes in urban land cover because of its vast spatial coverage and timeliness of observation. Block-level change detection with high temporal resolution image data provides fine detail of urban changes, is suitable for urban management, and has gradually received widespread attention. High-dimensional features are required to express the heterogeneous structure of the blocks. High-dimensional high-frequency time series, namely, multivariate time series, are formed by arranging high-dimensional features chronologically. Classic change detection methods treat multivariate time series as univariate time series one by one. Few studies have analyzed the change in a multivariate time series by considering all variables as an entirety. Therefore, a graph-based segmentation for multivariate time series algorithm (MTS-GS) is proposed in this paper. Specifically, 1) we construct a similarity matrix to explore the changing patterns of multivariate time series for seasonal change, trend change, abrupt change, and noise disturbance; 2) a multivariate time series graph is defined based on the changing patterns; and 3) the corresponding graph segmentation algorithm is proposed in the paper to detect the abrupt and trend changes under noise and seasonal disturbances. Sentinel-2 images of the rapidly developing third-tier city of Luoyang, Henan province, China, are adopted to validate the algorithm. The F1-score in the spatial domain is 84.1%; the producer's and the user's accuracy in the temporal dimension are 81.8% and 80.1%, respectively. Seven change types are defined and extracted, showing the development pattern and the efficiency of land use in the city. Furthermore, the proposed MTS-GS can be used for pixel-level change detection and performs well under various time intervals and cloud covers. • Developing a new change detection algorithm for multivariate time series. • Exploring the changing pattern of multivariate time series. • Creating a multivariate time series graph. • Enabling the detection of trend changes with short duration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the techno-economic characteristics of renewable-based energy system design options that need to meet the multi-vector energy demand, i.e. electricity, heat and hydrogen of a food factory in four different places and two different years in China. A two-stage optimization approach is proposed: Firstly, the Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewable (HOMER) software is used to obtain all feasible scenarios meeting demands with the lowest cost; Then, a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making method, Vise Kriterijumska Optimizacija kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR), is adopted to re-evaluate all feasible scenarios to determine the optimal solution considering not only the economy but also energy and environment. Different technologies, like power generation: photovoltaic panel (PV), wind turbine (WT) and both together (PV/WT), energy storage: battery, fuel cell (FC), and both (battery/FC), and hydrogen production: steam methane reforming and water electrolysis, are evaluated to find the best combination. The software results show, PV/WT combination usually has advantages over PV alone and WT alone in power generation in locations with abundant solar energy and wind energy. So is the energy storage. Reformer scenarios are much cheaper than electrolyzers. However, the VIKOR results show, the top scenarios in different locations and years are all using electrolyzers to produce hydrogen. • An off-grid transformation for a food factory is conducted based on renewable resources. • A two-stage optimization approach based on HOMER and VIKOR is proposed. • Different power generation resources, energy storage methods and hydrogen production technologies, are evaluated. • Four different places and future scenarios are considered in HRES optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Construct a carrying genetic marker CPV-2 infectious clone. • The genetic marker does not change the biological characteristics of parental CPV-2 strain. • The phosphorylation sites of NS1 protein 598T and 601T is important for viral replication and pathogenicity. Canine parvovirus-2 (CPV-2) is an important pathogen causing severe diseases in dogs and other wild carnivores. Phosphorylation of NS1 may be related to CPV-2 pathogenicity, but the exact mechanism is unclear. Here, we conducted parvovirus disease surveillance in Shaanxi Province of China and 51 fecal swabs were detected to be infected with CPV-2. The 7 CPV-2 strains were identified, all of which belonged to CPV-2c. The complete genome sequence of one of the strains (CPV-2c XY) was cloned into pKQLL plasmid to construct a full-length infectious clone plasmid pX-CPV-2c, which carried a genetic marker. The plasmid pX-CPV-2c was transfected into F81 cells for virus rescue. And the rescued virus, which was designed as X-CPV-2c, showed the similar biological property to parental CPV-2c XY in vitro and in vivo. We further constructed four NS1 phosphorylation site mutant strains (X-CPV-2cT584A, X-CPV-2cS592A, X-CPV-2cT598A/T601A and X-CPV-2cT617A) on the basis of X-CPV-2c. After the analysis and comparison of biological characteristics, the low pathogenic strain X-CPV-2cT598A/T601A was further screened out, which emphasized the importance of phosphorylation sites 598 T/601 T for the pathogenicity of CPV-2. Overall, our data indicated that T598 and T601, the C-terminal phosphorylation site of CPV-2 NS1, play important roles in viral pathogenicity and laid the foundation for the development of new attenuated live vaccine vectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An ensemble learning method is proposed for the inversion modeling of soil samples. • CARS method is effective in selecting features for retrieval modeling. • The estimated results are consistent with the actual situation. The problem of heavy metal pollution of soils in China is severe. The traditional spectral methods for soil heavy metal monitoring and assessment cannot meet the needs for large-scale areas. Therefore, in this study, we used HyMap-C airborne hyperspectral imagery to explore the estimation of soil heavy metal concentration. Ninety five soil samples were collected synchronously with airborne image acquisition in the mining area of Yitong County, China. The pre-processed spectrum of airborne images at the sampling point was then selected by the competitive adaptive reweighted sampling (CARS) method. The selected spectral features and the heavy metal data of soil samples were inverted to establish the inversion model. An ensemble learning method based on a stacking strategy is proposed for the inversion modeling of soil samples and image data. The experimental results show that this CARS-Stacking method can better predict the four heavy metals in the study area than other methods. For arsenic (As), chromium (Cr), lead (Pb), and zinc (Zn), the determination coefficients of the test data set (R P 2) are 0.73, 0.63, 0.60, and 0.71, respectively. It was found that the estimated results and the distribution trend of heavy metals are almost the same as in actual ground measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Airborne hyperspectral imagery is used for fast retrieval of heavy metal in soils. • Spectral unmixing is conducted to improve the retrieval accuracy. • A random-forest-based model is recommended for the retrieval. Hyperspectral imaging, with the hundreds of bands and high spectral resolution, offers a promising approach for estimation of heavy metal concentration in agricultural soils. Using airborne imagery over a large-scale area for fast retrieval is of great importance for environmental monitoring and further decision support. However, few studies have focused on the estimation of soil heavy metal concentration by airborne hyperspectral imaging. In this study, we utilized the airborne hyperspectral data in LiuXin Mine of China obtained from HySpex VNIR-1600 and HySpex SWIR-384 sensor to establish the spectral-analysis-based model for retrieval of heavy metals concentration. Firstly, sixty soil samples were collected in situ, and their heavy metal concentrations (Cr, Cu, Pb) were determined by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry analysis. Due to mixed pixels widespread in airborne hyperspectral images, spectral unmixing was conducted to obtain purer spectra of the soil and to improve the estimation accuracy. Ten of estimated models, including four different random forest models (RF)—standard random forest (SRF), regularized random forest (RRF), guided random forest (GRF), and guided regularized random forest (GRRF)—were introduced for hyperspectral estimated model in this paper. Compared with the estimation results, the best accuracy for Cr, Cu, and Pb is obtained by RF. It shows that RF can predict the three heavy metals better than other models in this area. For Cr, Cu, Pb, the best model of RF yields R p 2 values of 0.75,0.68 and 0.74 respectively, and the values of RMSE p are 5.62, 8.24, and 2.81 (mg/kg), respectively. The experiments show the average estimated values are close to the truth condition and the high estimated values concentrated near several industries, valifating the effectiveness of the presented method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This study was the first seroprevalence and genetic investigation of PCV3 in dogs in the Guangxi province, China. • This work is the first in the world to obtain the complete genome of dog PCV3. • These PCV3 strains from the Guangxi province help to determine that PCV3 from dog origin and pig origin are from different branches. Porcine circovirus type 3 (PCV3) is an emerging circovirus species associated with several diseases. The study aimed to investigate the frequency of porcine circovirus 3 (PCV3) and its coinfection with canine parvovirus type 2 (CPV-2) in dogs in the Guangxi province from 2015 to 2017, China, and to examine the genome diversity of PCV3. Using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification and sequencing, 96 of 406 (23.6%)samples were positive for PCV3, 38 out of 406 (9.4%) samples were coinfected with both PCV3 and CPV-2. The CPV-positive rate was significantly higher in the PCV3-positive samples than in the non-PCV3 samples, and the difference was extremely significant (P < 0.01). The complete genome (n=4) and ten capsid genes (n=10) of PCV3 were sequenced. Multiple sequence alignment results showed that these sequences shared 98.5–100% nucleotide similarity with the reference genome sequence and 97.5–100% nucleotide similarity with the reference capsid gene sequence. PCV3 was classified into two different genotypes, according to phylogenetic analysis based on the whole genome. These strains were clustered in PCV3a, showing a close relationship with PCV3-US/SD2016. Surprisingly, we separately analyzed these PCV3 strains from the Guangxi province and found that the dog and pig PCV3 are from different branches. In summary, this was the first seroprevalence and genetic investigation of PCV3 in dogs in the Guangxi province, China, and the first complete genome PCV3 from dogs obtained in the world. The results provide insights into the epidemiology and pathogenesis of this important virus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The ability to teach, as a core competency, has always suffered from a lack of systematic cultivation., Objective: This study aimed to explore the difference in teaching quality before and after the application of the UTOP (UTeach observation protocol)-based multiple source feedback (MSF) formative assessment of the quality improvement of medical education classrooms., Methods: This study retrospectively analyzed the teaching quality of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the Third Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University. The participants were divided into control and UTOP groups according to the actual training they took in the teaching. All the participants, including teachers and trainee teachers, who were under conventional teaching methods were in the control group, and those who were under MSF training were in the UTOP group. UTOP and New Teacher Assessment Scores (NTAS) were evaluated, and the differences between the two courses were analyzed. The UTOP group was divided into a teacher group and a practice group according to differences in the participants' teaching experience. The UTOP-MSF evaluation data were extracted and analyzed, and the differences in teaching quality were compared before and after the implementation of MSF training., Results: The study was conducted for 10 months, with 43 participants completing 120 web-based lectures. In the control group, 32 participants were included, including 22 teachers with 27 courses and 10 trainee teachers who had no teaching experience with 13 courses. Eleven participants in the UTOP group received 9 rounds of MSF feedback training and completed 80 online lectures, including 3 teachers with 19 courses and 8 trainee teachers with 61 courses. A total of 324 evaluations from researchers were extracted and analyzed, including 162 UTOP scores and 162 NTAS; 575 MSF assessments were analyzed, including 438 from the teachers and 137 from the trainee teachers. The participants in the UTOP group had significantly higher UTOP and NTAS scores than did those in the control group did (59.84 ± 14.64 vs. 40.74 ± 6.80, p = 0.000; 73.00 (62.25, 80.00) vs. 53.00 (50.75, 57.00), p = 0.000, respectively). Among the participants who performed UTOP training, the UTOP-MSF scores increased for both teachers and trainee teachers (51.50 (37.75, 68.25) vs. 73.00 (68.00, 76.50), p = 0.022; 41.00 (36.00, 51.75) vs. 68.00 (59.75, 77.00), p = 0.000, respectively). The mean UTOP MSF scores were strongly positively correlated with the mean NTAS (r = 0.640, p = 0.000)., Conclusion: UTOP-based MSF training significantly improved teaching quality in medical education, and it can be an effective tool for evaluating teaching quality., Competing Interests: Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participate This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Third Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University (2024–37), and consent to participate was waived because the retrospective data analysis did not harm participants. Consent for publication Not applicable. Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Information on the comparison of blood microbiota between human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected and HIV-uninfected patients with suspected sepsis by metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) is limited., Methods: Retrospectively analysis was conducted in HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected patients with suspected sepsis at Changsha First Hospital (China) from March 2019 to August 2022. Patients who underwent blood mNGS testing were enrolled. The blood microbiota detected by mNGS were analyzed., Results: A total of 233 patients with suspected sepsis who performed blood mNGS were recruited in this study, including 79 HIV-infected and 154 HIV-uninfected patients. Compared with HIV-uninfected patients, the proportions of mycobacterium (p = 0.001), fungus (p < 0.001) and viruses (p < 0.001) were significantly higher, while the proportion of bacteria (p = 0.001) was significantly lower in HIV-infected patients. The higher positive rates of non-tuberculous mycobacteriosis (NTM, p = 0.022), Pneumocystis jirovecii (P. jirovecii) (p = 0.014), Talaromyces marneffei (T. marneffei) (p < 0.001) and cytomegalovirus (CMV) (p < 0.001) were observed in HIV-infected patients, compared with HIV-uninfected patients. In addition, compared with HIV-uninfected patients, the constituent ratio of T. marneffei (p < 0.001) in the fungus spectrum were significantly higher, while the constituent ratios of Candida (p < 0.001) and Aspergillus (p = 0.001) were significantly lower in HIV-infected patients., Conclusions: Significant differences in the blood microbiota profiles exist between HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected patients with suspected sepsis., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background and Objective: Cancer, as the second leading cause of death worldwide, poses significant challenges to human health and socio-economic development. In recent years, the incidence of cancer has shown a trend toward younger populations, drawing attention to cancer prevention education among college students. However, research on the specific impact of cancer prevention education on the mental health of college students is limited. This study aims to explore the impact of cancer prevention education on the mental health of college students, revealing the mediating role of disease awareness and the moderating roles of psychological resilience and cultural differences., Methods: A difference-in-differences (DID) approach was used, involving 1,670 freshmen from a Chinese university, divided into an experimental group ( n = 835) and a control group ( n = 835). The experimental group received a semester-long cancer prevention education program. Data were collected monthly from November 2022 to June 2023 using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21) and a custom Disease Awareness Scale., Results: The study found a significant improvement in mental health scores among the experimental group, with an average increase of 14.738 points on the DASS-21 scale ( p < 0.001), representing a 23% reduction in stress, anxiety, and depression levels compared to the control group. Disease awareness in the experimental group improved by 17%, as measured by the Disease Awareness Scale, with a mediation effect of 3.563 points ( p < 0.001). Furthermore, psychological resilience and cultural differences moderated the impact of the education program, with those scoring higher in resilience showing an additional 8% improvement in mental health scores (moderation effect = 0.892, p < 0.001), and cultural differences accounting for a 5% variance (moderation effect = 0.756, p < 0.001) in the outcomes., Conclusion: This study demonstrates that systematic and scientific cancer prevention education has a significant positive impact on the mental health of college students. Universities should promote comprehensive and personalized health education strategies to improve disease awareness, foster psychological resilience, and emphasize cultural differences, thereby enhancing the overall physical and mental health of college students and promoting their holistic development. This finding provides important empirical support and theoretical basis for the design and implementation of health education in universities., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Jia, Du, Huang and Pang.)

Objectives: To assess the impact of a patient-based self-assessed fatigue intervention aimed at promoting early postoperative ambulation., Design: Prospective randomised controlled trial., Setting: Single-centre, conducted at the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department of the Xiangyang Central Hospital, China., Participants: Eligible were adult patients undergoing elective gynaecologic oncologic surgery., Interventions: The intervention group utilised a modified Borg Rating of Perceived Experience (RPE) scale for self-assessment of fatigue levels. The control group followed fixed-activity distance guidelines postoperatively., Primary and Secondary Outcome Measures: The primary outcome was the self-reported the time to first flatus postoperatively. Secondary outcomes encompassed the time to first defecation, incidence of moderate-to-severe abdominal distention, ileus, postambulation adverse events (nausea, vomiting and dizziness), patient satisfaction with early ambulation instructions, compliance with early ambulation and average hospital costs and length of stay., Results: Between June 2021 and October 2022, 552 patients were enrolled. The self-assessed fatigue intervention group demonstrated non-inferior the time to first flatus compared with the fixed-activity distance assessment group (25.59±14.59 hours vs 26.10±14.19 hours, p non-inferiority <0.001). Compliance with activity was higher in the intervention group (49.40% vs 36.02%, p<0.001), although it did not reach 50%. The intervention group also exhibited significantly higher mean hospital costs, length of stay and incidence of moderate-to-severe abdominal distention (p<0.001)., Conclusions: The self-assessed fatigue intervention for early postoperative ambulation in gynaecologic oncology patients shows promise as an effective strategy; however, compliance is suboptimal. An intervention based on mandatory, yet reasonable, fixed-activity distance may represent the most viable current approach. Further research is warranted to confirm these findings., Trial Registration Number: CTR2100046035., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

High water-holding forests are essential for adapting to drought climates under global warming, and a central issue is which type of forests could conserve more water in the ecosystem. This paper explores how forest structure, plant diversity, and soil physics impact forest water-holding capacities. We investigated 720 sampling plots by measuring water-holding capacities from 1440 soil and litter samples, 8400 leaves, and 1680 branches and surveying 18,054 trees in total (28 species). Water-holding capacities were measured as four soil indices (Maxwc, maximum water-holding capacity; Fcwc, field water-holding capacity; Cpwc, soil capillary water-holding capacity; Ncpwc, non-capillary water-holding capacity), two litter metrics (Maxwcl, maximum water-holding capacity of litters; Ewcl, effective water-holding capacity of litters), and canopy interception (C, the sum of estimated water interception of all branches and leaves of all tree species in the plot). We found that water-holding capacity in the big-sized tree plots was 4-25 % higher in the litters, 54-64 % in the canopy, and 6-37 % in the soils than in the small-sized plots. The higher species richness increased all soil water-holding capacities compared to the lowest richness plot. Higher Simpson and Shannon-Wiener plots had 10-27 % higher Ewcl and C than the lowest plots. Bulk density had the strongest negative relations with Maxwc, Cpwc, and Fcwc, whereas field soil water content positively affected them. Soil physics, forest structure, and plant diversity explained 90.5 %, 5.9 %, and 0.2 % of the water-holding variation, respectively. Tree sizes increased C, Ncpwc, Ewcl directly (p < 0.05), and richness increased Ewcl directly (p < 0.05). However, the direct effects from the uniform angle index (tree distribution evenness) were balanced by their indirect effect from soil physics. Our findings highlighted that the mixed forests with big-sized trees and rich species could effectively improve the water-holding capacities of the ecosystem., 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 © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

The guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of monkeypox (2022 edition) issued by National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China introduces the key knowledge of the diagnosis and treatment of human monkeypox (HMPX) and does not systematically introduce the sampling methods and requirements of specimens for HMPX etiology testing and the discrepancy in diagnostic criteria between China and overseas. However, the doctors who are not engaged in dermatology lack understanding of the sampling methods and requirements of specimens for laboratory diagnosis of HMPX, and there are few relevant references available. This article collects the information on the diagnosis and treatment of HMPX, so as to provide a reference for learning, understanding, and application of this guideline.

The enrichment and translocation characteristics of Cd, Pb, Zn, and As by various parts of maize plants were investigated using field experiments in 22 maize varieties simultaneously under uncontaminated, low, middle, and serious heavy metal Cd, Pb, Zn, and As complex-contaminated farmland soil conditions. The relationship between the uptake of Cd, Pb, Zn, and As by maize plants and the morphological content of heavy metals in the soil was also discussed through principal component analysis and correlation analysis of the concentrations of eight heavy metals, including Cd, Hg, As, Pb, Cr, Cu, Ni, and Zn. The results showed that:① the distribution pattern of Cd and Zn contents in different parts of the maize plant was as follows:upper stalk>lower stalk>root>seed, the distribution pattern of Pb was As follows:root>lower stalk>upper stalk>seed, and the As distribution pattern was:root>upper stalk>lower stalk>seed. The different distribution patterns were closely related to the accumulation characteristics of the crop itself and the environmental activity of Cd, Pb, Zn, and As in the soil of the study area. ② There were significant differences in Cd and Pb accumulation among 22 maize cultivars due to their genetic background ( P <0.05), which showed four trends:Cd and Pb compound high-accumulation varieties, single Cd or Pb low-accumulation varieties (low Cd and high Pb, low Pb and high Cd), and Cd and Pb compound low-accumulation varieties. Among them, the content of Cd in the grain of the three varieties exceeded the national food safety standard, and the content of Cd in the stem and leaf of 14 varieties exceeded the national food health standard. The Pb content in stems, leaves, and grains of all cultivars did not exceed the standard, but the Pb content in grains of some cultivars was close to the limit and had the risk of exceeding the standard. The content of As in the stem, leaf, and grain of different maize varieties was much lower than the standard limit value, showing a stable low-accumulation characteristic. The content of Zn in the stem and leaf of different maize varieties increased with the increase in the content of Zn in soil, but the content of Zn in grain remained within the threshold of normal plant growth. ③ Cd, Pb, Zn, and As in maize plants in the study area had a certain homology and were mainly affected by the excessive levels of Cd, Pb, Zn, and As pollutants in the soil. This showed that anthropogenic sources were brought about by mine extraction and tailings stockpiles, whereas Cu elements in maize plants were affected by certain anthropogenic pollution sources, though to a limited extent. Hg, Ni, and Cr in maize plants had a certain homology; this showed the natural source of soil parent material and weathering product accumulation. ④ The contents of Cd, Pb, Zn, and As elements in various parts of the corn plant, as well as the contents of Cr and Ni elements all had a very significant positive correlation ( P <0.01). The transport mechanisms of Cd, Pb, Zn, and As elements in the plant may have a common. However, there was a synergistic effect in the migration from the root of the corn to the upper part of the ground, and the same was true for the elements of Cr and Ni. The elements of Hg and Cd, Pb, Zn, and As in the corn stems and leaves and Hg and Cd, Hg, As, Pb, Cr, Ni, and Zn in grains all showed certain antagonistic effects. ⑤ The comparison method simultaneously satisfied the following requirements:the contents of Cd, Pb, and As in stems and leaves did not exceed the national food hygiene standards, and the contents of Cd, Pb, and As in the grains did not exceed the national food safety standards. The cluster analysis of Cd, Pb, and As in grains was a low-accumulation group, and the enrichment and transport coefficients of Cd, Pb, and As in the stems and leaves and grains were low as the optimal conditions. C18 (Xianyu 335) could be selected as the optimal maize variety with low accumulation of Cd, Pb, and As and normal Zn content in grain, which is suitable for promoting and applying in the heavy metal complex-polluted farmland around industrial and mining enterprises in north China.

As the world's largest carbon emitter, China has committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2060, and photovoltaics (PV) is considered a primary approach for achieving this. However, few studies have considered the dynamic impact of the life cycle of the PV industry on carbon emissions under the goal of carbon neutrality. Thus, we assumed different carbon neutral scenarios to assess the impact of China's PV industry on carbon emissions and carbon neutrality. This is done using a system dynamics model and a Weibull function model. The result shows that the PV industry emitted more CO 2 than it reduced before 2018, meaning that the total carbon emission reductions from China's PV industry were negative. To reach carbon neutrality, under the benchmark scenario (where electricity generated by PV accounts for 40% of total electricity), beginning in 2030, there are more than 10 GW of waste PV modules per year and recycling scrap could reduce 55 million tons (Mt) CO 2 at a 90% recycling rate by 2060. The PV industry could reduce emissions by 1300 Mt CO 2 by 2030, with a cumulative reduction of 7260 Mt. By 2060, PV operating modules could reach 6000 GW, with annual emission reductions of 5430 Mt. This would represent the contribution of PV power generation to the zero carbon emissions of China's electricity is 36.8% and the contribution to the carbon neutrality of society is 14.7%., 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 © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To analyze the serotype distribution and drug resistance of Streptococcus pneumoniae isolated from hospitalized patients of all ages in Zhongjiang county, Sichuan province, where the young children have just begun to vaccinate the PCV13 in private sector., Methods: Serotypes were determined for 387 isolates of S. pneumoniae by Quellung reaction. Antibiotic susceptibility was tested with the E-test or disc diffusion method., Results: The most common serotypes were type 19F and confirmed for 88 isolates (22.7%), followed by 19A (15.0%), 6B (7.8%), 16F (7.8%), 23F (7.0%) and 15A (4.4%). The coverage rates of PCV13 and PPSV23 were 63.3% and 65.1%. With the increase of age, the proportion of PCV13 types decreased significantly, from 71.3% (<2 years old) to 41.9% (≥60 years old). The intermediate rate and resistance rate of the isolates to oral penicillin were 48.6% and 45.2%, respectively. The resistance rate of erythromycin was high (94.4%). The PCV13 isolates was more resistant to penicillin than the non-PCV13 ones., Conclusion: The PCV13 coverage rate in pediatric isolates was higher than those in adult isolates. The adults, especially the elderly, may be the reservoir of non-PCV13 types. It is necessary to investigate the serotype distribution of S. pneumoniae based on all age population to assess potential epidemics of non-vaccine serotype associated with PCVs administration., 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 © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Because of its unpredictable side effects and efficacy, the anticancer drug docetaxel (DTX) requires improved characterisation of its pharmacokinetic profiles through population pharmacokinetic studies. A sensitive and rugged LC-MS/MS method for the detection of DTX in human plasma was developed and optimised using paclitaxel as an internal standard (IS). The plasma samples underwent rapid extraction using hybrid solid-phase extraction-protein precipitation. The analyte and IS were separated with an isocratic system on a Zorbax Eclipse Plus C 18 column using water containing 0.05% acetic acid along with 20 μM of sodium acetate and methanol (30/70, v/v) as the mobile phase. Quantification was performed using a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer through multiple reaction monitoring in positive mode, using the m/z 830.3 → 548.8 and m/z 876.3 → 307.7 transitions for DTX and paclitaxel, respectively. The range of the calibration curve was 1-500 ng/mL for DTX, and the linear correlation coefficient was >0.99. The accuracies ranged from -4.6 to 4.2%, and the precision was no higher than 7.0% for the analytes. No significant matrix effect was observed. Both DTX and the IS showed considerable recovery. This method was finally applied to the establishment of a population pharmacokinetic model to optimise the clinical use of DTX., (© 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)

Porcine parvovirus (PPV) is one of the major pathogens causing reproductive failure of swine. However, its specific pathogenesis has not been fully elucidated. Infectious clone is a powerful tool for further studying the pathogenic mechanism of PPV. In the present study, a PPV infectious clone was constructed, and the clone carries His-tag and Flag-tag double-genetic marker at the end of the ns1 gene 3' terminal and vp1 gene 5' terminal, respectively. The PPV DNA fragment F1 (1-182) in 5' end and the other PPV DNA fragment F2 (4788-5074) in 3' end were synthesized and assembled to the lower copy plasmid to construct pKQLL(F1 + F2), while the PPV DNA genome as a template to amplify carrying tags sequence PPV middle DNA fragment F3 and F4 by introducing Flag and His tags sequence in primers. Subsequently, the fused fragment F3/F4 were cloned into the Stu I/Sna B I sites of pKQLL(F1 + F2) plasmid to assemble the complete full-length PPV DNA recombinant plasmids, named as pD-PPV. The pD-PPV was transfected into PK-15 cells to gain rescued PPV virus, designed as D-PPV. Moreover, D-PPV showed similar replicate capability and pathogenicity comparing to the wild-type parental PPV through in vitro and in vivo studies, and the double labels can effectively indicate the expression and localization of viral proteins. Finally, the rescued D-PPV was found to be a convenient tool for antiviral drug screening. These data indicated that the newly established reverse genetic system for PPV would be a useful tool for further studying the pathogenesis mechanisms of PPV, developing labeled vaccine and screening antiviral drug., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A self-flushing wet electrostatic precipitator was developed to investigate the removal performance for fine particles. Flexible material (polypropylene, 840A) and carbon steel in the form of a spiked band were adopted as the collection plate and discharge electrode, respectively. The particle concentration, morphology, and trace-element content were measured by electric low-pressure impactor, scanning electron microscope, and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, respectively, before and after the electrostatic precipitator. With increasing gas velocity, the collection efficiency of fine particles (up to 0.8 μm in diameter) increased, while it decreased for particles with diameters larger than 0.8 μm. Increasing the dust inlet concentration increased the collection efficiency up to a point, from which it then declined gradually with further increases in the inlet concentration. The particulate matter after the wet electrostatic precipitator showed different degrees of agglomeration. The collection efficiency of trace elements within PM 10 was less than that of the PM 10 itself. Notably, the water consumption in the current setup was significantly lower than for other treatment processes of comparable collection efficiencies., Implications: Wet electrostatic precipitators, as fine filtration equipment, were generally applicable to coal-fired plants to reduce PM 2.5 emissions in China. However, high energy consumption and unstable operation, such as water usage and spray washing directly in the electric field, seriously restricted the further development. The utilization of self-flushing wet electrostatic precipitator can solve these problems to some extent.

The emergence of human infection with a novel H7N9 influenza virus in China raises a pandemic concern. Chicken H9N2 viruses provided all six of the novel reassortant's internal genes. However, it is not fully understood how the prevalence and evolution of these H9N2 chicken viruses facilitated the genesis of the novel H7N9 viruses. Here we show that over more than 10 y of cocirculation of multiple H9N2 genotypes, a genotype (G57) emerged that had changed antigenicity and improved adaptability in chickens. It became predominant in vaccinated farm chickens in China, caused widespread outbreaks in 2010-2013 before the H7N9 viruses emerged in humans, and finally provided all of their internal genes to the novel H7N9 viruses. The prevalence and variation of H9N2 influenza virus in farmed poultry could provide an important early warning of the emergence of novel reassortants with pandemic potential.