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Background: Neonatal posthemorrhagic hydrocephalus remains a common complication in preterm infants, with high rates of mortality and morbidity, placing parents at high risk of anxiety and depression. We sought to investigate the neurodevelopmental outcomes of infants with posthemorrhagic hydrocephalus who underwent surgery and the psychological effect on their parents. Methods: We retrospectively analysed all infants with posthemorrhagic hydrocephalus born between 2014 and 2020 in the Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, China. The neurodevelopmental outcomes of 28 patients were evaluated by the Pediatric Stroke Outcome Measure score, and the psychological states of the parents of survivors were assessed by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Results: The families of the 28 patients were followed up for a median duration of 3 years; 6 (21.4%) patients died within 6 months after discharge, 12 (42.9%) patients had moderate to severe dysfunction, and only 10 (35.7%) patients had good outcomes. Regarding the 22 parents of the survivors, 5 (22.7%) and 4 (18.2%) had borderline anxiety and depression symptoms, respectively. Two (9.1%) caregivers had exact anxiety and depression symptoms. Leukomalacia after intraventricular haemorrhage was associated with adverse neurological outcomes. The infants' histories of epileptic seizures during the neonatal period were associated with the anxiety of their parents. Conclusion: The overall outcome of posthemorrhagic hydrocephalus patients is unsatisfactory, and children with leukomalacia after haemorrhage tend to have poor outcomes. A history of epileptic seizures during the course of the disease may exacerbate the anxiety of the caregivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought is complex and is also one of the main disasters affecting China. Exploring the response of agricultural drought and meteorological drought to climatic factors helps us to understand the causes of drought. In this paper, we evaluated the temporal and spatial characteristics of soil drought and meteorological drought (SMD) and explored their responses to climatic factors and latent heat fluxes (LHF), and then explained their variation from the perspective of atmospheric circulation. The following results were obtained. (1) Meteorological drought has gradually increased in the Liaohe River Basin, on the North China Plain, and on the Loess Plateau while average soil moisture has been maintained at only approximately 25%. The impacts of drought are very serious in these regions. (2) LHF response to short time-scale (3-month scale) drought performance is high in the dry season, and the regions with high correlation coefficients are spatially distributed and concentrated in the monsoon climate zone. The regions with high correlation coefficients between drought and LHFs on long time scales (12-month scale) are concentrated in the coastal basin of southeast China. (3) Short- and long-term SMDs showed highly responsive and significant relationships with PDO, showing variations in the southeast coastal basin, the Pearl River basin, the northwest inland basin and the eastern part of the Heilongjiang basin, with a maximum correlation coefficient of 0.21 (p < 0.01). The short-term SMD in the northwestern inland region was significantly negatively correlated with AMO (correlation coefficient of −0.19, p < 0.01). the Nino3.4 index is significantly positively correlated with the SMD in the southeast coastal region of China, with a maximum correlation coefficient of 0.23 (p < 0.01). The decrease in convective precipitation led to a stronger association between soil and meteorological drought and climatic factors. This study helps to reveal the changing patterns of SMDs and can also be used globally to identify the local development patterns of drought under climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought is a multifaceted natural disaster that can impact the ecological environment, crop yield, and social economy through the hydrological cycle process. Meteorological drought occurs first, which then propagates to other forms. This study presents the propagation characteristics of meteorological to hydrological drought in different river basins of China. The main drivers of drought propagation are also quantitatively analyzed in this study. The standardized precipitation index (SPI) and standardized runoff index (SRI) were used to describe meteorological and hydrological drought, respectively. The Songhua and Liaohe River Basin (SLRB), Haihe River Basin (HARB), Huaihe River Basin (HURB), Yellow River Basin (YRB), Yangtze River Basin (YARB), Pearl River Basin (PRB), Southeast Basin (SEB), Southwest Basin (SWB), and Continental Basin (CB) were analyzed in this study. The precipitation and runoff datasets were used to compute the SPI and SRI, respectively. The results showed that the drought propagation time was mainly 1–3 months in China. In general, drought propagation had a stronger relationship in the central and eastern river basins of China than in the western river basins (SWB and CB). Spring and winter had a weaker drought propagation relationship than autumn and winter. Drought propagation was driven by precipitation in the HURB, YARB, SEB, and PRB; soil moisture and precipitation were drivers in the HARB and YRB; moreover, soil moisture and potential evapotranspiration were drivers in the SLRB and CB. This study improves the understanding of the characteristics and drivers of drought propagation in droughts in river basins. Therefore, this study might provide a reference to reveal the mechanism of drought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• People with epilepsy strongly desire to access information related to epilepsy, but lack reliable and easily accessible sources. • ChatGPT provide accurate and consistent answers to common concerns in patients withepilepsy, helping them better understand their condition. • ChatGPT may generate incorrect answers, leading users to adopt incorrect and potentially harmful advice. • ChatGPT is suitable for patient education and should be used as an information channel rather than a basis for decision-making at this stage. • ChatGPT can offer emotional support that may benefit for patients experiencing specific emotional distress. People with epilepsy desire to acquire accurate information about epilepsy and actively engage in its management throughout the long journey of living with seizures. ChatGPT is a large language model and we aimed to assess the accuracy and consistency of ChatGPT in responding to the common concerns of people with epilepsy and to evaluate its ability to provide emotional support. Questions were collected from the International League against Epilepsy and the China Association against Epilepsy. The responses were independently assessed by two board-certified epileptologists from the China Association against Epilepsy, and a third reviewer resolved disagreements. The reviewers assessed its ability to provide emotional support subjectively. A total of 378 questions related to epilepsy and 5 questions related to emotional support were included. ChatGPT provided "correct and comprehensive" answers to 68.4% of the questions. The model provided reproducible answers for 82.3% questions. The model performed poorly in answering prognostic questions, with only 46.8% of the answers rated as comprehensive. When faced with questions requiring emotional support, the model can generate natural and understandable responses. ChatGPT provides accurate and reliable answers to patients with epilepsy and is a valuable source of information. It also provides partial emotional support, potentially assisting those experiencing emotional distress. However, ChatGPT may provide incorrect responses, leading users to inadvertently accept incorrect and potentially dangerous advice. Therefore, the direct use of ChatGPT for medical guidance is not recommended and its primary use at present is in patients education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil water is the most critical factor influencing the growth and productivity of crops on the Loess Plateau of China. The popular clean-cultivation soil management practice in rainfed jujube orchards in this region causes a variety of environmental problems, including serious soil erosion and soil quality degradation. Agroforestry is a promising avenue to cope with this problem but its effect on soil water in the root zone is yet to be elucidated. In this study, two different agroforestry systems were established in jujube orchards on the hillslopes of the Loess Plateau, to test the effects on root-zone soil water. The Hemerocallis fulva and fodder Brassica napus were planted between jujube rows. The results showed that both agroforestry systems clearly improved soil water at depths of 0–20 cm and 20–60 cm under jujube trees, however, they apparently reduced the inter-row soil water at depths of 60–120 cm and 120–180 cm in different years compared to the control. A simple method, based on the difference of soil water content between inter-row crops and jujube trees (SWDR), was introduced to judge the possibility of water competition happening. The analyses based on this method showed that in the jujube- H. fulva intercropping system, H. fulva frequently competed soil water with jujube trees in the 0–120 cm depth primarily in the relatively dry period (May to July). However, there was almost no water competition occurred in the jujube- B . napus treatment. Overall, fodder B. napus may be more appropriate than Hemerocallis fulva for intercropping with jujube trees. The results here can provide insights into ground management practice of sloping orchards in water-limited areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • SIF and NDVI datasets had large differences on Yun-Gui Plateau and northwestern China. • Drought propagation time based on NDVI is larger than that based on SIF. • Drought had a similar impact degree in SIF and NDVI. • Both SIF and NDVI showed similar performance when monitoring crop yield. An increase in global warming has resulted in a global increase in meteorological droughts. As droughts play a key factor regulating vegetation growth, they inevitably have social and economic effects. Understanding vegetation dynamics and its response to climate change is therefor highly important to reveal the behavior mechanism of terrestrial ecosystems and to guide environmental management. In this investigation, Solar-induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence (SIF) and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) were applied as vegetation indicators to describe vegetation dynamics and meteorological drought was described using the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI). Bias correction of precipitation and crop yield data of major crop producing areas was also used. By employing correlation coefficient of the maximum absolute value, a drought impact degree and propagation time to vegetation were defined. Dimensions of SIF and NDVI were unified by normalization. Results indicated that: (1) SIF and NDVI generally had a high level of consistency over China, and NDVI had a higher normalized value distribution level than SIF for different vegetation types. (2) Drought generally had a negative impact on vegetation in northern China and a positive impact in southern China. (3) Drought propagation time based on NDVI was larger than that based on SIF. (4) SIF had some advantages when monitoring crop yields among different crop producing areas. Results from this investigation will enable a greater understanding of SIF and NDVI for their application to monitor droughts and crop yield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]