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Background: Fusarium crown rot (FCR) is one of the most significant diseases limiting crop production in the Huanghuai wheat-growing region of China. Prothioconazole, a triazole sterol 14α-demethylation inhibitor (DMI) fungicide developed by the Bayer Crop Protection Company, is mainly registered for the prevention and control of wheat powdery mildew and stripe rust (China Pesticide Information Network). It is known to exhibit high activity against F. pseudograminearum, but further research, particularly regarding the potential for fungicide resistance, is required before it can be registered for the control of FCR in China. Results: The current study found that the baseline sensitivity of 67 field isolates of F. pseudograminearum collected between 2019 and 2021 ranged between 0.016–2.974 μg/mL, with an average EC50 value of 1.191 ± 0.720 μg/mL (mean ± SD). Although none of the field isolates exhibited signs of resistance, three highly resistant mutants were produced by repeated exposure to prothioconazole under laboratory conditions. All of the mutants were found to exhibit significantly reduced growth rates on potato dextrose agar (PDA), as well as reduced levels of sporulation, which indicated that there was a fitness cost associated with the resistance. However, inoculation of wounded wheat coleoptiles revealed that the pathogenicity of the resistant mutants was little affected or actually increased. Molecular analysis of the genes corresponding to the prothioconazole target protein, FpCYP51 (FpCYP51A, FpCYP51B, and FpCYP51C), indicated that the resistant mutants contained three conserved substitutions (M63I, A205S, and I246V) that were present in the FpCYP51C sequence of all three mutants, as well as several non-conserved substations in their FpCYP51A and FpCYP51B sequences. Expression analysis revealed that the presence of prothioconazole (0.1 μg/mL) generally resulted in reduced expression of the three FpCYP51 genes, but that the three mutants exhibited more complex patterns of expression that differed in comparison to their parental isolates. The study found no evidence of cross-resistance between prothioconazole and any of the fungicides tested including three DMI fungicides tebuconazole, prochloraz, and flutriafol. Conclusions: Taken together these results not only provide new insight into the resistant mechanism and biological characteristics associated with prothioconazole resistance in F. pseudograminearum, but also strong evidence that prothioconazole could provide effective and sustained control of FCR, especially when applied in combination with other fungicides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Fusarium head blight (FHB) caused by Fusarium graminearum is one of the most important diseases threatening wheat production in China. However, the triazole sterol 14α-demethylation inhibitor (DMI), prothioconazole, is known to exhibit high activity against F. graminearum. The current study indicated that three highly resistant laboratory mutants exhibited significantly (p < 0.05) altered growth and sporulation, although contrary to expectation, only one of the mutants exhibited reduced growth and sporulation, while the other two exhibited significant (p < 0.05) increases. Despite this, pathogenicity tests revealed that all of the mutants exhibited significantly (p < 0.05) reduced pathogenicity, indicating a substantial cost to fitness. Sequence analysis of the prothioconazole target protein, CYP51, of which F. graminearum has three homologues (FgCYP51A, FgCYP51B, and FgCYP51C), identified three mutations in the FgCYP51B sequence with a high likelihood of being associated with the observed resistance, as well as another three mutations in the FgCYP51B sequence, and two in the FgCYP51A sequence that are worthy of further investigation. Two of the prothioconazole-resistant mutants were also found to have several amino acid substitutions in their FgCYP51C sequences, and it was interesting to note that these two mutants exhibited significantly (p < 0.05) reduced pathogenicity compared to the other mutant. Expression analysis revealed that prothioconazole treatment (0.1 μg/mL) resulted in altered expression of all the FgCYP51 target genes, and that expression was also altered in the prothioconazole-resistant mutants compared to their wild-type parental isolates. Meanwhile, no evidence was found of any cross-resistance between prothioconazole and other commonly used fungicides, including carbendazim, pyraclostrobin, and fluazinam, as well as the triazole tebuconazole and the imidazole DMI prochloraz. Taken together, these results not only provide new insight into potential resistance mechanism in F. graminearum, and the biological characteristics associated with them, but also convincing evidence that prothioconazole can offer effective control of FHB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ginkgo leaf blight, one of the most economically important ginkgo diseases, has become very prevalent in many places in China. Flavonoids and endophytes are both considered important in ginkgo plant functioning. However, little is known about the potential relationships among ginkgo leaf blight pathogens, flavonoid accumulation profiles in infected leaves, and ginkgo leaf endophytes. In this study, the flavonoid accumulation profiles in infected leaves, pathogens of ginkgo leaf blight, and the endophytes of healthy ginkgo leaves were characterized. The levels of total flavonoids in the healthy parts of the infected leaves were significantly higher than those in the healthy leaves. Furthermore, Alternaria tenuissima, Botryosphaeria dothidea, and Dothiorella gregaria were identified as pathogens of ginkgo leaf blight; among them, A. tenuissima was the major pathogen. The in vitro experiments showed that flavonoids (apigenin, luteolin, and kaempferol) could significantly inhibit the growth of one or more pathogens at a concentration of 10 mg/L. Furthermore, fifty-six ginkgo leaf endophytic fungi (GLEF) from healthy ginkgo plants were isolated and characterized. Among them, Alternaria spp. were the most abundant, and GLEF55 shared the same ITS sequence with the pathogen Alternaria tenuissima. Thereafter, four flavonoid-producing endophytes were selected and their effects on the growth of pathogens were evaluated. The extracts of GLEF55 could significantly inhibit the growth of the pathogens B. dothidea and D. gregaria simultaneously in vitro, but not the growth of the pathogen A. tenuissima. Furthermore, the dual cultures of the candidate GLEF and ginkgo leaf blight pathogens revealed that GLEF55 had a similar growth rate to that of A. tenuissima and D. gregaria, but its growth rate was significantly slower than that of B. dothidea. Finally, the GLEF exhibited variable roles when facing pathogens in ginkgo leaves. Among them, GLEF55 showed similar pathogenicity as the pathogen A. tenuissima when they were dually cultured in ginkgo leaves. By contrast, GLEF17 (an uncultured soil fungus) could significantly counteract the pathogenic effects of A. tenuissima and D. gregaria, but it dramatically exacerbated the pathogenic effects of B. dothidea. Larger lesion areas were observed on the side of ginkgo leaves where GLEF39 (Alternaria sp.) or GLEF54 (Aspergillus ruber) and pathogens were simultaneously inoculated, which suggested that the pathogenicity of specific endophytic fungi occurred when plants were wounded. Overall, A. tenuissima, a major pathogen of ginkgo leaf blight, might lurk inside the plants as a friendly endogenous fungus and convert into a hostilely pathogenic mode at a particular time. This study proposed a possible cause of ginkgo leaf blight and provided potential theoretical guidance for its prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the development of more cropping systems in response to global warming and food security concerns. A two-year field experiment (2017–2018) was conducted to investigate the effects of greenhouse gases (GHGs), soil environmental factors and yield on traditional double-cropping rice (DR), maize rice (MR) and ratooning rice (Rr). The results showed a significant annual effect of temperature and rainfall on GHG emissions under different cropping systems. Annual CH4 emissions under MR and Rr were significantly lower than under DR. Compared to DR, the highest cumulative N2O emissions were observed in MR (14.9 kg·ha−1) with a reduction of 23.7% in Rr. In addition, the upland crops significantly reduced CH4 emissions for late rice, while N2O emissions increased by 20.6%. Compared with DR and Rr, global warming potential (GWP) and greenhouse gas intensity (GHGI) were significantly lower for MR (p < 0.05). Meanwhile, the annual yield of MR (16.40 t·ha−1) was 8.1% and 2.4% higher than that of DR and Rr, respectively. This study further found that soil temperature and NH4+-N content were positively correlated with CH4 and N2O emissions, and soil moisture was positively correlated with N2O emission. Thus, we concluded that MR has the greatest potential to improve crop yield and mitigate GHG emissions in central China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current treatment processes for the cold rolling emulsion wastewater were in the dilemma that the cost was so high while the efficiency was not satisfied in China. In this work, a novel material with high-performance demulsification was obtained and used to treat the emulsion wastewater efficiently by modifying blast furnace dust (BFD), a steel industry waste. Firstly, the BFD was characterized by various analytical techniques and the results suggested that hydrophobic functional groups, positively charged iron oxide, and polysilicon in the BFD were contributed to removing stable oil droplets. Therefore, the BFD modification was conducted accordingly by optimizing the proportion and reaction conditions of these three components. The study demonstrated that the removal rate of oil and CODcr reached 75.21% and 81.23% under the conditions of the carbon type of GWF-HAC-R90, the carbon content of 14.86%, and the n(Fe)/n(Si) of 1.55, respectively. Based on this, the effects of pH, demulsifier dosage, and average agitation rate were investigated. The emulsion components before and after demulsification were analyzed by GC-MS, and the demulsification mechanism was expounded combined with kinetics. Results showed that the Fe2O3 with positive charge played a dominant role in emulsions with mainly anionic surfactants, while hydrophobic carbon structures and polysilicate acted as the auxiliaries. Besides, comprehensive analysis and characterization results suggested that the demulsification effect was a combination of the synergic processes: 1) electrostatic interaction developed by the anionic surfactant oil droplets and the positively charged the BFD particles; 2) hydrophobic association among the oil droplet with nonionic surfactant and amphiphilic carbon-iron complexes; 3) adsorption bridging between the surfactant oil droplets and polysilicate. The results of comparative tests in treating the actual cold-rolling emulsion wastewater showed the MBFD could bring about significant technical, economic benefits and achieve utilization of metallurgical solid wastes. Implications: Blast furnace dust (BFD) is an industrial solid waste obtained by dry de-dusting from blast furnace gas during the blast furnace ironmaking process. The main components of BFD are iron oxide and carbon, and also contain small amounts of different recoverable non-ferrous metals zinc, secret, indium and lead, which have recovery value. In this study, we enhanced the three parts of BFD and used to demulsification. In this study, the BFD was modified in three aspects (hydrophobic functional groups, positively charged iron oxide, and polysilicon) to achieve the secondary utilization of waste in emulsion wastewater treatment. And investigated the effect of reaction conditions on the demulsification effect with modified blast furnace dust (MBFD). Furthermore, the GC-MS analyzes combined with kinetics interpret the demulsification mechanism with the MBFD as a secondary resource. Finally, the comparative tests in treating the actual cold-rolling emulsion wastewater showed the MBFD could bring about significant technical and economic benefits and achieve utilization of metallurgical solid wastes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The commonly used NEMA IEC Body phantom has a number of defects, hindering its application for detecting micro-lesions and measuring the performance parameters of computed tomography (CT). This study aimed to propose a PET/CT phantom designed by National Institute of Metrology (NIM), China, which is capable of simultaneously testing the performance of PET and CT systems, and to evaluate the quality of imaging. Methods: The phantom developed in the present study, the NIM PET/CT phantom, is composed of a PET imaging module and a CT imaging module, and these modules are connected together through bolts, which can simultaneously measure the imaging performance of PET and CT systems. Hot spheres were filled with 4:1 sphere-to-background activity concentration using 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG), and cold spheres were filled with non-radioactive water. We compared the results of imaging obtained from the NIM PET/CT phantom and the NEMA IEC Body phantom to assess their diagnostic efficacy. In order to evaluate the generalization ability of the NIM PET/CT phantom, three different PET/CT systems were used to scan on the same scanning protocol. To evaluate the effects of image reconstruction algorithms on image quality assessment, ordered subset expectation maximization (OSEM), OSEM-point-spread function (PSF), OSEM-TOF, and OSEM-PSF-TOF algorithms were employed. Results: The imaging quality of the NIM PET/CT phantom and the NEMA IEC Body phantom was relatively consistent. The NIM PET/CT phantom could detect 7 mm spheres without influencing the imaging quality. It was found that PSF reconstruction exhibited to reduce the speed of convergence, the contrast and background variability of spheres (13–28 mm) were significantly improved after two iterations. In addition to improve the image contrast and background variability, TOF could markedly improve the overall image quality and instrument detection limit. TOF-PSF could noticeably reduce noise level, enhance imaging details, and improve quality of imaging. Conclusions: The results showed that in comparison with the NEMA IEC Body phantom, the NIM PET/CT phantom outperformed in evaluating the PET image quality of micro-lesions and the performance parameters of CT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Visceral white nodules disease (VWND) caused by Pseudomonas plecoglossicida is a common disease in cage‐farmed large yellow croaker (Larimichthys crocea) in China. VWND usually occurred at water temperature of 16–19℃, resulting in high mortality in farmed large yellow croaker. Now, P. plecoglossicida as its pathogen has been considered nonpathogenic at 7–12℃. During February 2019, an infectious disease outbreak was observed in cage‐farmed large yellow croaker at a water temperature of 12℃ in Ningde, China. This disease is characterized by white granulomatous lesions in internal organs of the diseased fish, which was similar with the symptoms of the VWND in large yellow croaker. Then, we isolated a bacterial strain named PQLYC4 from visceral lesions of the diseased fish. The experimental infection studies demonstrated that the strain PQLYC4 was the pathogen of the disease, which was further identified as P. plecoglossicida by the analysis of morphology, 16s rRNA gene homology and average nucleotide identity based on the whole genome sequence. Our results revealed that P. plecoglossicida strain PQLYC4 could cause the outbreak of the VWND at 12℃, a water temperature lower than that reported previously, thus providing new knowledges of prevalence and prevention of the VWND in large yellow croaker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Average daytime SUHII showed higher seasonal fluctuations than nighttime. • RF model explained 68% of day/night SUHII SAV on average. • We highlighted the multi-factor driven of day/night SUHII SAV. • Climatic zones showed significant impact on variations, trends, and drivers of UHI. Urban heat island (UHI) adversely impacts the human-earth system. However, the impact of climatic zones on UHI remains unclear. This study, therefore, aimed at investigating how climatic zones affect spatiotemporal variations, trends and potential drivers of surface UHI intensity (SUHII) based upon 253 Chinese cities in five climatic zones: middle temperate zone (MTZ), south temperate zone (STZ), north subtropical zone (NSZ), middle subtropical zone (MSZ), and south subtropical zone (SSZ) during 2001–2020. The results showed that the SUHII ranged from -2.59 to 6.20 °C, average daytime SUHII showed higher seasonal fluctuations and larger variation than nighttime and summer daytime had the highest seasonal and annual SUHII variation (SUHII SAV). Cities in NSZ, MSZ, and SSZ had high average daytime SUHII SAV and a large proportion had significant increasing trends (Trend SI) (P <0.05) from 2001–2020, while the nighttime showed opposite rule in general. Random forest (RF) model explained 68% of day/night SUHII SAV on average. Except for city area, which greatly impacted day/night SUHII SAV in all periods and climatic zones, other drivers more significantly influenced SUHII in certain periods and climatic zones, e.g. aerosol optical depth (AOD) in winter nighttime in MTZ and STZ. Compared with single or serval drivers' determination of UHI effect, we highlighted the multi-factor driven of day/night SUHII SAV. Specific suggestions, e.g. controlling haze pollution can bring co-benefits on urban air quality and UHI mitigation were proposed. These findings could help to provide valuable reference for future climatic adaptive strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Under the background of the increasing trend of population aging, the health and quality of life of older adults have become the focus of social concern. As an important part of older adults' daily life, the design and configuration of the built environment may positively or negatively affect older adults' health behaviors. Therefore, this study aims to explore the relationship between older adults' perceived built environments and health behaviors, which is the association between perceived built environments and older adults' physical activity (PA) and social interactions. This is important for optimizing the community built environment and improving the quality of life of older adults., Methods: In this study, a questionnaire was surveyed on 916 Chinese older adults aged 60 and above. The questionnaire was used to collect demographic information and social interaction from the participants, and the Physical Activity Neighborhood Environment Scale (PANES) and the Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly (PASE) were used to assess older adults' subjective perceptions of the built environment in their neighborhoods and their levels of PA, respectively. In data analysis, ANOVA and chi-square tests were used to compare the significance of differences between groups, and multiple linear regression model were used to estimate the association between older adults' perceived characteristics of the built environment and their PA and social interaction., Results: After controlling for confounders such as gender, age, BMI, and education level, the multiple linear regression model showed that perceived destination accessibility, neighborhood infrastructure, aesthetic qualities, and neighborhood environment indices were significantly correlated with PA (β = 0.083 ~ 0.095, P < 0.05) and social interaction (β = 0.087 ~ 0.144, P < 0.05) among older adults. In addition, neighborhood safety (β = -0.084, P < 0.05), social environment (β = 0.091, P < 0.01), and street connectivity (β = 0.112, P < 0.001) were also strongly associated with older adults' social interaction., Conclusions: Different perceived built environment attributes are correlated with the health behaviors of Chinese older adults to different degrees. This finding helps to guide community planning and construction, provides an empirical basis for improving health behaviors of older adults, and provides an important reference for building healthy communities for older adults and realizing comprehensive healthy development of older adults., Trial Registration: There was no trial registration for this study, but the study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Tsinghua University (No. THU0120230196)., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: The novel coronavirus disease 2019 as the most pervasive and consequential pandemic in recent years, has exerted significant impacts on human health, including aspects related to body weight. Objectives: This study aims to assess the influence of the lockdown measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic on Chinese college students' Body Mass Index (BMI) through a three-year cohort study., Methods: We recruited 6156 college students (n = 4,248, 69% male, and n = 1,908, 31% female, with an average age of 18.68 ± 0.86 yr.) from a University in China to participate in this three-year cohort study. All of the subjects took the same physical fitness tests from 2019 to 2021 (pre-lockdown, during lockdown and post-lockdown). Participants' height and weight data were objectively measured by Tongfang Health Fitness Testing Products 5000 series. A paired t-test was performed in the analysis., Results: During the lockdown, there is 4.2% increase of BMI among the college student (p<0.001). Moreover, males had a greater overall mean BMI rate increase of 4.74% (p<0.001) than females (2.86%, p<0.001). After the lockdown, there is 0.94% increase of BMI among the college student (p<0.001). However, females had a greater overall mean BMI rate increase of 1.49% (p<0.001) than males (0.72%, p<0.001). During this period, the obese and overweight group's growth rate from 2019 to 2020 was smaller than the normal and underweight group, which were 2.94% (p<0.001), 3.90% (p<0.001), 4.44% (p<0.001) and 5.25% (p<0.001), respectively., Conclusion: BMI increased both during and post-lockdown periods among Chinese college students. However, during the lockdown, participants with higher BMI groups appeared to have a diminished BMI growth rate compared to those with lower BMI. After the lockdown, participants with higher BMI levels appeared to have an augmented BMI growth rate. Public policy action is needed to increase the level of physical activity of Chinese college students and take action to improve students' physical fitness performance after the lockdown., 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 Li, Song, Wang, Feng, Li, Peng and Yu.)

Climate change pressure and biodiversity degradation in coastal regions have caused an increase in urban vulnerability. Current coastal vulnerability studies fail to consider the interactions among the perturbations. Increases in such interactions contribute to the indeterminate changes in the ecosystem productivity and impact on human well-being. Therefore, by integrating water, heat, and vegetation biodiversity (WHB) indicators using catastrophe theory in the study, the interaction among subsystems was explored to expound on the multi-effect of the urban. The results showed that (1) the overall vulnerability of China's coastal cities has increased, and high-value areas were mainly distributed in the three southern provinces; (2) the spatial-temporal pattern of vulnerability was highly heterogeneous. As low-low clusters, Shanghai and its surrounding cities exhibited spatial aggregation characteristics; (3) social, physical and financial capitals were the first three main adaptive capacity factors. The distance-based linear model (DistLM) evidenced that per capita GDP, and road density explained about 30 % and 10 % of the difference in vulnerability variation. The proposed framework could help decision-makers detect how vulnerable coastal areas exposed to WHB impacts are, with crucial implications for future sustainable management., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declaim that there is no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V.)