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Water project and watershed management is currently being reengineered under digital twin schemes in China through pilot projects. An evaluation on pilot reengineering is important for its further implementation and improvement. This paper investigates national legislation and pilot projects' implementations of a digital twin watershed and digital twin water project from the perspectives of design, policy, technology, investment, personnel, cyberspace security, co-construction, and sharing through interviews and expert review, and it uses a Bayesian network to study their reliability. First, the design of the digital twin watershed and digital twin water project is reasonable with regard to system architecture and business management. Second, although there are some national legislations on cyberspace security and geospatial data, they are incomplete for policy making and are probably infeasible for some technology. Third, there are insufficient mechanisms to sustainably support investment, personnel, and cyberspace security. Forth, co-construction and sharing are required for both inside and outside water departments. Fifth, the Bayesian network is useful for investigating the reliability of weak nodes, and it is helpful for the design and further implementation of the digital twin watershed and digital twin water project, as will be demonstrated with an anonymous example. This study could provide useful insights into the further reengineering of water projects and watershed management under a digital twin scheme in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diagnosing water conditions timely and accurately is crucial for seasonal irrigation scheduling in crop production. The purpose of this study was to establish robust water deficit models of winter wheat in different growing seasons by combining unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) multispectral and thermal images. In 2021 and 2022, a water deficit field experiment on winter wheat was carried out in Hebei Province, China. Five-band multispectral and thermal images were obtained with a UAV at six key growth stages of winter wheat. Fourteen vegetation indices (VIs) and two thermal indices (TIs) were calculated. Simultaneously, wheat stomatal conductance and soil water content were measured. On this basis, normalized stomatal conductance (NGS) and effective water content (EWC) were calculated. TIs had the highest correlation with NGS and EWC at early growth stages, whereas ratio vegetation index (RVI), modified simple ratio index (MSR) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) were highly correlated at later stages. Partial least squares (PLS), support vector machine (SVM) and gradient boosting decision tree (GBDT) were used to predict NGS and EWC for each growth stage, with the data of 2021 as the training set and the data of 2022 as independent test set. In general, GBDT outperformed PLS and SVM, and NGS was better predicted than EWC. Including VIs and TIs effectively improved the estimation accuracy of the predictive models. The test set results of the NGS and EWC models built by GBDT achieved the best performance in flowering stage (coefficient of determination (R 2) = 0.88, root mean square error (RMSE) = 0.08, normalized root mean square error (NRMSE) = 14.7%) and filling stage (R 2 = 0.90, RMSE = 0.05, NRMSE = 15.9%), respectively. The models of the post-heading stage were better than those of the pre-heading stage for both NGS and EWC. This study provides a robust method for diagnosing water stress only using UAV remote sensing data. • Combining UAV multispectral and thermal data improved accuracy of wheat water stress models. • GBDT outperformed PLS and SVM in diagnosing wheat water stress. • Normalized stomatal conductance can be better predicted than effective water content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Pancreatic cancer (PC) is one of the most lethal cancers. Currently, the most commonly used PC cell lines were all derived from White individuals, and few models can be used to study in Asian populations. In China, the incidence of PC is increasing every year, highlighting the need to develop new Chinese PC cell lines for cancer research., Methods: A total of 203 patients diagnosed with PC, enrolled from January 2012 to December 2017 in our hospital (Department of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery), had received surgery. Primary PC patient tumor samples were harvested sterilely from surgery, minced, and digested in collagenase. Cells were cultured in plates precoated with l-polylysine., Results: Two primary PC cell lines, Si-Liang 187 and Si-Liang 188, were established, both of which grew as adherent monolayers and demonstrated distinguished phenotypes. Si-Liang 187 shows the typical mesenchymal pattern, whereas Si-Liang 188 shows epithelial phenotype. Moreover, they carry different genetic backgrounds according to whole exome sequencing., Conclusions: Two new Chinese PC cell lines were established, both of which were characterized and confirmed with high tumorigenicity. They may serve as useful tools for pathogenesis research when evaluating new treatment strategies in Asian patients., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background/aims: HBV-related acute-on-chronic liver failure (AoCLF) is associated with a high mortality rate. An artificial liver support system (ALSS) is a newly emerging therapeutic option, which can be implemented in routine patient care. In order to determine if any pretreatment immunological parameter could be an indicator to evaluate immune states for the outcome of the AoCLF patients, we analyzed the relationship between the level of T-lymphocyte subsets (CD4+, CD8+, CD4/CD8 ratio) and its therapeutic effect and prognosis., Methodology: Sixty-three patients with AoCLF were enrolled in 2 groups (ALSS plus routine-care, n=29 and routine-care only, n=34). In the ALSS group, there were 17 survivors (17/29), while in the routine-care group there were 11 survivors (11/34), both after 30 days of treatment. Twenty-three healthy donors were used as the control group. The number of CD4 and CD8 T cells was detected by flow cytometry and the ratio of CD4/ CD8 was calculated on admission and on days 7, 14, 21 and 30, during hospitalization., Results: More dramatic increased CD4/CD8 ratio in the ALSS survivors (form 0.92±0.18 to 1.26±0.24, p<0.01) than the medical survivors (form 0.86±0.16 to 1.09±0.16, p<0.05) after 30 days of treatment. A declined tendency was observed in nonsurvivors., Conclusions: T-lymphocyte subsets may be important in the pathogenesis of the AoCLF and ALSS may represent a reliable hepatic support device for Ao- CLF.

Objective: To investigate the possible genetic associations between the C602A and T1559C polymorphisms of E-selectin (SELE) and essential hypertension., Methods: Essential hypertensive patients (n = 500) and healthy normotensive subjects (n = 930) were screened for the genotypes C602A and T1559C by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction after DNA extraction to identify representative variations in the SELE gene., Results: Normotensive subjects and hypertensive patients were significantly different with respect to the genotypes CC, CA and AA, 26 (5.2%), 20 (4.0%) and 454 (90.8%) vs 14 (1.5%), 53 (5.7%) and 863 (92.8%) respectively of C602A. And the C-allele frequency was also significantly different between the NT and EH groups (C, A = 7.2%, 92.8% vs 4.4%, 95.6%). When subgrouped by gender, frequency of CC, CA, AA between normotensive and essential hypertensive males was 14 (4.7%), 11 (3.7%), 272 (91.6%) and 10 (1.7%), 34 (5.8%), 545 (92.5%), which differed significantly (P < 0.05), while in female groups, all the frequency of genotypes were significantly different (P < 0.01) except CC + CA. The additive model (TT, TC, CC) of the T1559C genotype was significantly different between essential hypertensive and normotensive groups overall, 57 (11.4%), 200 (40.0%), 43 (48.6%) and 66 (7.1%), 354 (38.1%), 510 (54.8%), respectively. The T-allele of hypertensive patients significantly differed from normotensive subjects (T, C = 31.4%, 68.6% vs 26.1%, 73.9% respectively). When subgrouped by gender, between the male NT and EH groups, the TT, TC and CC frequency of T1559C were 36 (5.9%), 117 (39.4%), 144 (48.5%) and 35 (5.9%), 230 (39.0%), 354 (55.0%), and the frequency of T vs C was 31.4% vs 68.6% and 26.1% vs 73.9%, which were significantly different (all P < 0.01). As in female NT and EH groups, there were not significant differences existed at all., Conclusion: C602A and T1559C of SELE are associated with essential hypertension in the Chinese population, and T1559C is closely related with male hypertension other than in females.

Objective: To evaluate the relationship between A46G and C79G polymorphisms in the β2-adrenergic receptor (ADRB2) gene and the incidence of essential hypertension (EH) among the Han Chinese population., Methods: We conducted a computer retrieval of PUBMED, EMBASE, CNKI, Wanfang and VIP databases prior to May 2010. Articles investigating the relationship of EH and ADRB2 gene polymorphism of Han group were found through literature search, including 15 articles on A46G and 10 articles on C79G. According to the including and excluding criteria, a Meta-analysis was conducted in EH and ADRB2 gene polymorphism of A46G and C79G. The association was examined by RevMan4.2 software through quantitative analysis., Results: Eight articles on A46G polymorphism (including 1078 EH cases and 788 control subjects) and six articles on C79G polymorphism (including 1367 EH cases and 1006 control subjects) were included in the current study. Meta-analysis showed that there was a significant association between A46G polymorphism and EH: genotype GG/(AA + AG) (fixed-effected model, OR = 1.35, 95%CI = 1.04 - 1.74, P = 0.02), genotype GG/AA (fixed-effected model, OR = 1.41, 95%CI = 1.06 - 1.89, P = 0.02). No significant association was found between C79G polymorphism and EH of Han group in China: G/C allele comparison (random-effected model, OR = 0.88, 95%CI = 0.55 - 1.39, P = 0.57)., Conclusion: Significant association was found between A46G polymorphism of ADRB2 gene and EH, whereas no association could be found between C79G polymorphism and EH among Han Chinese population.

Objective: To study an epidemic of human lung plague fulminant from September to October, 2004 in Nangqian county, Qinghai province., Methods: Cases were diagnosed through data from epidemiological, clinical, bacteriological, serological and autopsy studies., Results: 14 patients were identified, ending up with 6 deaths and 8 cured. The first case was diagnosed as primary pesticemia late progressed to lung plague. 4 cases were transformed from pesticemia out of 13, leaving the 9 cases as primary lung plague. Situation was under complete control through routinely handling the plague focus., Conclusion: The first case was bitten by the infected fleas which parasitized the marmota preyed on a dog but later these fleas were brought into the tent by the dog. The others cases were infected through droplets or dust. Programs on monitoring and controling the amount of marmotas and fleas should to be strengthened to prevent the epidemics of plague in the area.