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Although straw returning combined with blended controlled-release urea fertilizer (BUFS) has been shown to improve wheat-maize rotation system productivity, their effects on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, carbon footprints (CF), and net ecosystem economic benefits (NEEB) are still unknown. Life cycle assessment was used to investigate a long-term (2013-2022) wheat-maize rotation experiment that included straw combined with two N fertilizer types [BUFS and (conventional urea fertilizer) CUFS] and straw-free treatments (BUF and CUF). The results showed that BUFS and CUFS treatments increased the annual yield by 13.8% and 11.5%, respectively, compared to BUF and CUF treatments. The BUFS treatment increased the yearly yield by 13.8% compared to the CUFS treatment. Since BUFS and CUFS treatments increased soil organic carbon (SOC) sink sequestration by 25.0% and 27.0% compared to BUF and CUF treatments, they reduced annual GHG emissions by 7.1% and 4.7% and CF per unit of yield (CF Y ) by 13.7% and 9.6%, respectively. BUFS treatment also increased SOC sink sequestration by 20.3%, reduced GHG emissions by 10.7% and CF Y by 23.0% compared to CUFS treatment. It is worth noting that the BUFS and CUFS treatments increased the annual ecological costs by 41.6%, 26.9%, and health costs by 70.1% and 46.7% compared to the BUF and CUF treatments, but also increased the net yield benefits by 9.8%, 6.8%, and the soil nutrient cycling values by 29.2%, 27.3%, and finally improved the NEEB by 10.1%, 7.3%, respectively. Similar results were obtained for the BUFS treatment compared to the CUFS treatment, ultimately improving the NEEB by 23.1%. Based on assessing yield, GHG emissions, CF, and NEEB indicators, the BUFS treatment is recommended as an ideal agricultural fertilization model to promote sustainable and clean production in the wheat-maize rotation system and to protect the agroecological environment., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest No conflict of interest exists in the submission of this manuscript. This manuscript has been approved for publication by all authors. I also like to declare on behalf of my co-authors that the work described was original research that has not been published previously. All the authors listed have approved the manuscript that is enclosed., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objective: The risk of gallstones among metabolically healthy obesity (MHO) individuals is largely unexplored. Therefore, the present study investigated the association between MHO and gallstones in a health check-up cohort of Chinese adults., Design: A prospective cohort study., Methods: Participants included 58 862 individuals from the MJ health check-up cohort aged ≥ 18 years without a history of gallstones at baseline. Gallstones were diagnosed using abdominal B-type ultrasound. Metabolically healthy was defined as not having any one of the components of metabolic syndrome. Obesity was identified by BMI and waist circumference (WC). Participants were cross-classified at baseline by metabolic health and obesity. Adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs of gallstones across BMI or WC categories were estimated with Cox proportional hazard regression models., Results: During a median follow-up of 3.0 years (interquartile range, 1.6-6.1), 1269 participants developed gallstones. Individuals with MHO (HR: 1.95, 95% CI: 1.23, 3.09 for BMI criteria; HR: 1.74, 95% CI: 1.37, 2.21 for WC criteria) had a significantly higher risk of gallstones than those with metabolically healthy normal weight. In metabolically healthy individuals, BMI and WC both displayed linear dose-response relationships with gallstones (P for non-linearity >0.05). The association between MHO and gallstones remained unchanged when using different criteria for metabolic health and obesity., Conclusions: MHO was significantly associated with gallstones, suggesting that obesity can independently contribute to gallstones development, even among metabolically healthy individuals. These findings emphasize that metabolically healthy individuals may still benefit from maintaining normal body weight to prevent gallstones.

Aim: This real-world study was aimed at establishing reference intervals (RIs) of ten commonly used clinical chemistry analytes (total cholesterol, triglycerides, Apo A1, Apo B, creatine kinase (CK), CK isoenzyme MB, glucose, alkaline phosphatase, γ-glutamyltransferase and blood urea nitrogen) in an apparently healthy population in China. Materials & methods:  A total of 17,356 healthy participants aged 18-79 years who underwent check-up at MJ Health Check-up Center were included. The establishment of RIs was performed according to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute EP28-A3c guideline. Roche Cobas c701 automatic analyzer (Roche Diagnostics, Mannheim, Germany) was employed to measure the concentrations of analytes. Results: Total cholesterol, triglycerides, Apo B, CK, alkaline phosphatase, glucose, γ-glutamyltransferase and blood urea nitrogen required gender and age-specific partitioning. Conclusion: The RIs established in this study were parallel to current national standards and previous RIs established in Chinese population. Real-world studies may play an important and practical role in the determination of RIs in the future.

The study aimed to evaluate the relationships between air pollutants and risk of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-defined brain infarcts (BI). We used data from routine health examinations of 1,400,503 participants aged ≥18 years who underwent brain MRI scans in 174 cities in 30 provinces in China in 2018. We assessed exposures to particulate matter (PM) 2.5 , PM 10 , nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), and carbon monoxide (CO) from 2015 to 2017. MRI-defined BI was defined as lesions ≥3 mm in diameter. Air pollutants were associated with a higher risk of MRI-defined BI. The odds ratio (OR) (95% CI) for MRI-defined BI comparing the highest with the lowest tertiles of air pollutant concentrations was 2.00 (1.96-2.03) for PM 2.5 , 1.68 (1.65-1.71) for PM 10 , 1.58 (1.55-1.61) for NO 2 , and 1.57 (1.54-1.60) for CO. Each SD increase in air pollutants was associated with 16-42% increases in the risk of MRI-defined BI. The associations were stronger in the elderly subgroup. This is the largest survey to evaluate the association between air pollution and MRI-defined BI. Our findings indicate that ambient air pollution was significantly associated with a higher risk of MRI-defined BI.

Evaluation of the effectiveness of best management practices for reducing nitrate leaching in agricultural systems requires detailed water and nitrogen (N) budgets. A 3-year field experiment using 15 auto-weighing lysimeters was set up to quantify nitrate leaching, crop evapotranspiration (ET), and N and water use efficiencies within an intensive wheat-maize rotation system in the Northern China Plain. The lysimeter consists mainly of the following: (1) high-resolution weighing cells; (2) ceramic solution samplers for soil solutions collection; and (3) circular stainless steel leaching trays for collecting seepage water. Two N fertilizer types were applied at two rates (150 and 225 kg N hm -2 for each crop) with no-N applied as the control. The N fertilizer types were monotypic un-coated urea and a blend product with controlled-release urea (CRU) and un-coated urea. The results indicate that when compared with un-coated urea at the same application rate, the blend product greatly improved water and N use efficiencies with significant increase in yields and crop ET as well as reduction of nitrate accumulation and leaching in the soil profile (p < 0.05). This was mostly because the blend product consistently supplied N to meet crop demands over the entire growth season. The study implied that effective best management practices to control nitrate leaching should be based on technically sound fertilization and irrigation schemes in terms of timing, rate, and fertilizer type to suit site specific conditions., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no competing financial interest., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)