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Rutting is one of the most prevalent road distresses in asphalt pavement (AP), it is therefore critical to accurately predict the development of rutting to guide pavement design and maintenance. Based on the measured rutting data obtained from the RIOHTrack in China, the the most widely used MEPDG rutting model is evaluated for its applicability. Due to the original MEPDG rutting model being highly sensitive to a rapid increase of the number of load repetitions (NLR), a modified MEPDG rutting model is proposed by introducing a growth coefficient ($\alpha$ α) for the NLR to reduce the effect of the rapid increase of NLR on the rutting prediction. The applicability of the modified rutting model is then verified by various pavement structures tested in the RIOHTrack, and the value of coefficient ($\alpha$ α) based on the different annual average growth rates of traffic volume is provided for facilitating application. Moreover, the growth rate of the flow ruts is indicated as the critical parameter to describe the rutting development and used for rutting prediction, and the correlations between the pavement structures and the parameter are analyzed. The findings can guide for predicting the rut depth of the asphalt pavement within the whole service life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Artemisia argyi (A. argyi), also called Chinese mugwort, has been widely used to control pandemic diseases for thousands of years since ancient China due to its anti-microbial infection, anti-allergy, and anti-inflammation activities. Therefore, the potential of A. argyi and its constituents in reducing the infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was investigated in this study. Results: Among the phytochemicals in A. argyi, eriodictyol and umbelliferone were identified to target transmembrane serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2) and angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) proteins, the essential factors for the cellular entry of SARS-CoV-2, in both FRET-based enzymatic assays and molecular docking analyses. These two ingredients of A. argyi suppressed the infection of ACE2-expressed HEK-293 T cells with lentiviral-based pseudo-particles (Vpp) expressing wild-type and variants of SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein (SARS-CoV-2 S-Vpp) via interrupting the interaction between S protein and cellular receptor ACE2 and reducing the expressions of ACE2 and TMPRSS2. Oral administration with umbelliferone efficiently prevented the SARS-CoV-2 S-Vpp-induced inflammation in the lung tissues of BALB/c mice. Conclusions: Eriodictyol and umbelliferone, the phytochemicals of Artemisia argyi, potentially suppress the cellular entry of SARS-CoV-2 by preventing the protein binding activity of the S protein to ACE2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Due to the rarity of PBL and the lack of large-scale studies, the prognostic value of IPI in PBL was controversial. Especially in the rituximab era, the ability of IPI to stratify prognosis in patients receiving immunochemotherapy was severely reduced. Then revised IPI (R-IPI) and National Comprehensive Cancer Network IPI (NCCN-IPI) were introduced. The present study aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of IPI and the other IPIs in patients with PBL in a Chinese population. Methods: We performed a multicenter retrospective study of 71 patients with PBL from 3 institutions in China. The Kaplan–Meier method and log-rank tests were used for the survival analysis. Cox regression analysis was performed to evaluate the prognostic factors. Subgroup analysis was performed to assess the prognostic significance of IPI scores, R-IPI scores, and NCCN-IPI scores. Results: The median follow-up was 4.7 years (0.7–21.8 years). The 5-year progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) rates were 90.2% and 96.3%. In the multivariate analysis, only IPI scores and radiotherapy were significantly associated with OS and PFS (P < 0.05). Applying the R-IPI in our patient cohort indicates a significant difference in PFS between the two groups of R-IPI (P = 0.034) but not for OS (P = 0.072). And the NCCN-IPI was prognostic for OS (P = 0.025) but not for PFS (P = 0.066). Subgroup analyses of IPI showed that survival analysis of IPI scores for the PFS and OS of patients using rituximab were not significantly different (P > 0.05). Conclusions: Our study confirms the prognostic value of IPI in patients with PBL, but the predictive value of IPI proved to be relatively low with the addition of the rituximab. The R-IPI and NCCN-IPI can accurately assess the high and low-risk groups of PBL patients but were insufficient to evaluate the intermediate risk group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A 1000-year-old marine solar saltern in Hainan Island, South China, is in the continuation of traditional skills involving mud soak and solarization for three days to accumulate salt, which is a unique process contributing to the selection of highly halophilic microbes related to salt quality and flavor. Herein, the successions of physicochemical properties and bacterial and fungal communities of muds from the saltern were investigated during the processing of mud solarization. The results showed that Na+, Cl−, Mg2+ and total nitrogen were the main factors in explaining the fluctuation of the fungal community, whereas the bacterial community was predominantly determined by Ca2+, total kalium and total phosphorus. During three days of mud solarization, the soil bacterial alpha diversity in the saltern was significantly lower than that of the surroundings, whereas the fungal alpha diversity showed an opposite trend. The bacterial functional groups with the same survival and adaptation strategies remained relatively stable, while the dominant functional type in fungi changed from monotropic to complex trophic mode. Additionally, some unidentified fungi species were increasingly found in mud. The abundances of Saitozyma , Solicoccozyma and Wallemia (Basidiomycota) increased and may contribute to the salt flavor through decomposing cellulose molecules into glucose due to their higher β-glucosidase activity, while the harmful fungal genera including Inocybe and Paraconiothyrium decreased obviously due to the stresses of salinity and solar exposure. These results showed that the traditional salt-making skills associated with mud solarization have selected a high abundance of beneficial halophilic microbes to increase the salt quality and flavor. Our findings not only reveal the underlying mechanisms for the long-history salt-making skills of this 1000-year-old unusual cultural heritage but also are highly valuable for bioprospecting to develop novel halophilic bacteria and fungi for modern chemistry industries. [Display omitted] • Mud-solarization is a critical skill for the selection of highly halophilic microbes. • Successions of bacterial and fungal communities are revealed during the mud-solarization. • Bacterial functional groups with the same survival and adaptation strategies remain stable. • The dominant functional type in fungi changes from monotropic to complex trophic mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs), as a unique natural medicine resource, were used to prevent and treat bacterial diseases in China with a long history. To provide a prediction model of screening antibacterial TCMs for the design and discovery of novel antibacterial agents, the literature about antibacterial TCMs in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Web of Science database was retrieved. The data were extracted and standardized. A total of 28,786 pieces of data from 904 antibacterial TCMs were collected. The data of plant medicine were the most numerous. The result of association rules mining showed a high correlation between antibacterial activity with cold nature, bitter and sour tastes, hemostatic, and purging fire efficacies. Moreover, TCMs with antibacterial activity showed a specific aggregation in the phylogenetic tree; 92% of them came from Tracheophyta, of which 74% were mainly concentrated in rosids, asterids, Liliopsida, and Ranunculales. The prediction models of anti- Escherichia coli and anti- Staphylococcus aureus activity, with AUC values (the area under the ROC curve) of 77.5 and 80.0%, respectively, were constructed by the Neural Networks (NN) algorithm after Bagged Classification and Regression Tree (Bagged CART) and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) selection. The in vitro experimental results showed the prediction accuracy of these two models was 75 and 60%, respectively. Four TCMs (Cirsii Japonici Herba Carbonisata, Changii Radix, Swertiae Herba, Callicarpae Formosanae Folium) were proposed for the first time to show antibacterial activity against E. coli and/or S. aureus. The results implied that the prediction model of antibacterial activity of TCMs based on properties and families showed certain prediction ability, which was of great significance to the screening of antibacterial TCMs and can be used to discover novel antibacterial agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cast-in-place concrete base plate is a main member of the China Railway Track System (CRTS) III ballastless track structure that is prone to generating early transverse cracking. Such cracks can dramatically affect the performance and service life of the railway track structure. This study investigated the influence of temperature and moisture boundary conditions on early cracking behavior of the CRTS III base plate by using approaches of both in situ measurements and numerical modelling. In-site measurements of strain and temperature were made in four test series of CRTS III base plates under the same natural environmental condition but cured with different regimes, and a total of 96 measuring positions were monitored for up to 150 days. The results showed that the strain magnitude and distribution in the field base plate, the initial time at cracking, and the observed cracking pattern varied significantly between the different test series. In order to understand the mechanisms that create these transverse cracks and to provide guidelines for the current curing strategy during construction, the characteristics of temperature-induced and moisture-induced stresses were analyzed by using 3D numerical modelling and by considering early-age concrete creep properties, meteorological factors, and the influence from environmental boundary conditions. The calculated results revealed that early-age transverse cracking in CRTS III base plate depends more on drying shrinkage stress than temperature stress. By conducting this study, we expect to provide guidance for reducing or eliminating early cracks of CRTS III concrete base plate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ma Lan loess is a typical structural soil due to its water sensitivity, collapsibility, and seismic vulnerability. In this study, Ma Lan loess samples were extracted from 17 sites distributed on the Loess Plateau, and field and laboratory tests were conducted to ascertain the physical and mechanical parameters of the loess. The optical microscopy-based serial sectioning method was adopted to systematically research the characteristics and regional variation in the microstructure of the Ma Lan loess. The results show that the relationships of the equivalent diameter of loess particles, pores, and throats versus the corresponding quantitative percentages satisfy the rational and Gaussian distributions, respectively, and that the channel length of the loess throat versus the quantitative probability can be accurately fitted by adopting the gamma distribution. The distributions of particle size and orientation, pore size, throat radius, and channel length of the Ma Lan loess show obvious regional zonation on the Loess Plateau, which are influenced by the factors of source properties, aeolian power, migration distance, erosional history, and so on. The microstructure of the Ma Lan loess can be classified into the following three categories: particle aerial structure (I), aggregation aerial structure (II), and flocculated structure (III); the loess in the northern Loess Plateau is primarily Category I, and the loesses from other locations are primarily Categories II and III. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Six new triterpenes, uncarinic acids KP (1–6), along with 24 known analogues, were isolated as minor constituents of an aqueous decoction of the hook-bearing stems of Uncaria rhynchophylla (Gou-teng). By comprehensive spectroscopic data analysis, their structures were elucidated as derivatives of olean-12-en-28-oic acid and urs-12-en-28-oic acid with different oxidized forms at C-3, C-6, and/or C-23, respectively. Cell-based preliminary bioassay showed that the (E)-/(Z)-coumaroyloxy and (E)-/(Z)-feruloyloxy units at C-27 of olean-12-en-28-oic acid and urs-12-en-28-oic acid played roles in their bioactivities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Baijiu is a traditional distilled beverage in China with a rich variety of aroma substances. 2,3,5,6-tetramethylpyrazine (TTMP) is an important component in Baijiu and has the function of promoting cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health. During the brewing of Baijiu, the microorganisms in jiuqu produce acetoin and then synthesize TTMP, but the yield of TTMP is very low. In this work, 2,3-butanediol dehydrogenase (BDH) coding gene BDH1 and another BDH2 gene were deleted or overexpressed to evaluate the effect on the content of acetoin and TTMP in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The results showed that the acetoin synthesis of strain α5-D1B2 was significantly enhanced by disrupting BDH1 and overexpressing BDH2 , leading to a 2.6-fold increase of TTMP production up to 10.55 mg/L. To further improve the production level of TTMP, the α-acetolactate synthase (ALS) of the pyruvate decomposition pathway was overexpressed to enhance the synthesis of diacetyl. However, replacing the promoter of the ILV2 gene with a strong promoter (PGK1p) to increase the expression level of the ILV2 gene did not result in further increased diacetyl, acetoin and TTMP production. Based on these evidences, we constructed the diploid strains AY-SB1 (Δ BDH1:loxP/ Δ BDH1:loxP) and AY-SD1B2 (Δ BDH1:loxP-PGK1p-BDH2-PGK1t/ Δ BDH1:loxP-PGK1p-BDH2-PGK1t) to ensure the fermentation performance of the strain is more stable in Baijiu brewing. The concentration of TTMP in AY-SB1 and AY-SD1B2 was 7.58 and 9.47 mg/L, respectively, which represented a 2.3- and 2.87-fold increase compared to the parental strain. This work provides an example for increasing TTMP production in S. cerevisiae by genetic engineering, and highlight a novel method to improve the quality and beneficial health attributes of Baijiu. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multiple consolidation-permeability tests were performed on loess samples from the South Jingyang Plateau in northwest China to analyze permeability under actual stresses. Three-dimensional microstructures for loess samples under each consolidation stress were established based on high-resolution computed tomography images to thoroughly interpret the permeability variation in terms of the loess microstructures including the pores and throats. With increasing consolidation pressure, the permeability decreased greatly at the beginning and tended to become stable. In the stage of dramatic decrease in permeability, pore coordination number decreased slightly under pressure, indicating little influence of connectivity among pores on permeability. The pores in the range of 14 to 25 μm decreased by 10.1% in volume percentage, and the pores larger than 13 μm decreased by 19.6% in number. Accordingly, throats larger than 6 μm decreased by 13.1% in area percentage, and throats larger than 2 μm decreased by 14.9% in number. Throat size distribution played a decisive role in permeability, pore size distribution acted as a bridge to influence permeability, and only the spaced pores and some interaggregate or intergrain pores larger than 13 μm that allowed free water to pass were related to permeability. The decreases in these relatively large pores and throats caused considerable decreases in permeability. However, the existence of large throats, even large numbers of such throats, does not mean high permeability, which can be verified in the stable stage of permeability. This research provides a better understanding of loess permeability in terms of three-dimensional microstructure and further insights into the stability analysis of loess slopes and the control of other hazards in loess regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Super-long span bridges demand high design requirements and involve many difficulties when constructed, which is an important indicator to reflect the bridge technical level of a country. Over the past three decades, a large percentage of the new long-span bridges around the world were built in China, and thus, abundant technological innovations and experience have been accumulated during the design and construction. This paper aims to review and summarize the design and construction practices of the superstructure, the substructure, and the steel deck paving of the long-span bridges during the past decades as well as the current operation status of the existing long-span bridges in China. A future perspective was given on the developing trend of high-speed railway bridge, bridge over deep-sea, health monitoring and maintenance, intellectualization, standard system, and information technology, which is expected to guide the development direction for the construction of future super long-span bridges and promote China to become a strong bridge construction country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the sustainable livelihoods of rural households is of great significance to mitigating rural poverty and reasonable land expropriation policy helps to realize better livelihoods and sustainable development. Scholars have conducted considerable research on the relationships between land expropriation and farmers' livelihoods. However, few quantitative studies have used the characteristics of villages as control variables to systematically analyze the impact of land expropriation on farmers' livelihood capital and strategy in the mountainous and hilly regions of China. This study uses the Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Model (PLS- SEM) to systematically explain the impact of land expropriation on farmers' livelihoods in mountainous and hilly regions of Sichuan in 2013, with the characteristics of the village including income, accessibility and terrain as control variables. The analysis uses both representative sample data of 240 rural households and spatial data calculated using a 30 m Digital Elevation Model (DEM) by Geographic Information System (GIS). Results are as follows: (1) The land expropriation characteristics are negatively affected by village accessibility. Villages with worse accessibility tend to have fewer land parcels and less land area expropriated. Additionally, land that is expropriated from inaccessible villages tends to receive less compensation. (2) Natural capital is negatively affected by number and area of land expropriation. Natural capital is not only directly affected by village accessibility, but also indirectly affected by village accessibility through the mediating effect of the number and area of land parcels expropriated. (3) Physical capital is positively affected by compensation for land expropriation, and negatively affected by village accessibility through compensation for land expropriation. The worse a village's accessibility/location is, the less compensation it will receive for land expropriation, resulting in lower physical capital. (4) Financial capital is negatively affected by village accessibility indirectly through compensation for land expropriation. The better the village's accessibility is, the greater is its compensation for land expropriation and, hence, the greater is its financial capital. (5) Social capital is directly and negatively affected by the number and area of land parcels expropriated, and is indirectly and positively affected by village accessibility through the number and area of land parcels expropriated. This study enhances our understanding of the characteristics of land expropriation and rural households' livelihood as well as the impact of land expropriation on rural households' livelihood. These findings provide reference for the formulation of proper policies related to land expropriation and the improvement of rural households' livelihoods in the mountainous and hilly regions of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene rs2736100_C allele has recently been shown to be associated with an increased risk for myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) among Caucasians. However, it is unknown if this association is present in other ethnical populations and whether rs2736100 allele frequencies mirror the incidence of MPNs in a population. Here we genotyped TERT rs2736100 variants in 126 Swedish and 101 Chinese MPN patients and their age-, sex-, and ethnically-matched healthy controls. Healthy Chinese adults had a higher frequency of the A allele and lower frequencies of the C allele compared to Swedish counterparts (57.4 vs 47.0 % for A, 42.6 vs 53.0 % for C, P = 0.006). Both Swedish and Chinese patients harbored significantly higher C allele frequency than their controls (62.7 vs 53.0 % and 57.4 vs 42.6 % for Swedish and Chinese, respectively, P = 0.004). Swedes and Chinese bearing the CC genotype had a significantly increased risk of MPN compared to AA carriers (OR = 2.47; 95 % CI: 1.33-4.57, P = 0.003, for Swedes, and OR = 3.45; 95 % CI: 1.52-7.85, P = 0.005, for Chinese). Further analyses showed that rs2736100_CC was associated with robustly enhanced risk in males only (CC vs AA, OR = 5.11; 95 % CI: 2.19-11.92, P < 0.0001). The CC-carrying MPN patients exhibited significantly higher TERT expression than patients with the AC genotype. Collectively, the rs2736100_C is a risk allele for MPNs in Swedish and Chinese males, and the lower incidence of MPNs in the Chinese population is correlated with a lower rs2736100_C risk allele frequency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oxidative DNA damage pathogenically links to some major diseases. This study aimed to comprehensively assess the association between serum total cholesterol (TC) and oxidative DNA damage based on propensity score matching (PSM) method. A total of 407 participants chronically exposed to arsenic via drinking water from China were enrolled. Oxidative DNA damage was determined with urinary 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG). Serum TC was classified into favourable TC (FTC, TC <5.18 mmol/L) and unfavourable TC (NFTC, TC ≥5.18 mmol/L) categories. Multivariable generalised linear regression model was applied to examine the association. Of 407 participants, 125 pairs with FTC and NFTC subjects were matched using PSM. Urinary 8-OHdG/creatinine levels in NFTC were significantly higher than those in FTC category (p =.002). As compared to the counterparts, additional adjusted log-transformed 8-OHdG/creatinine increase was observed in NFTC for unmatched (β = 0.12, p =.052) and matched (β = 0.17, p <.001) participants, respectively. We also detected obviously increased log-transformed urinary 8-OHdG/creatinine with per interquartile range raise of serum TC either in unmatched (β = 0.10, p =.007) or matched (β = 0.16, p =.003) subjects. In conclusion, serum TC was independently associated with oxidative DNA damage. Our findings provided new insights on the health promotion of lipids relevant to the early warning of diseases due to oxidative DNA damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to build a research model to examine the effects of business planning on the new venture emergence, as well as to examine the moderating effects of innovativeness of products.Design/methodology/approach Four hypotheses are put forward and examined by hierarchical binary logistic regression. The data of this paper are based on the first two waves of data from Chinese Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics project.Findings Results show that engaging in business planning has a positive effect on the new venture emergence, and the timing of business planning does not affect the new venture emergence significantly. This study also finds that the innovativeness of products has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between the timing of business planning and the new venture emergence.Research limitations/implications This study has some limitations. The innovativeness of products is measured by a single indicator, which may not completely reflect the meaning of the attribute. Moreover, this study explores new ventures only in the nascent stage.Practical implications The study is useful for entrepreneurs to realize the importance of business planning. First, engaging in business planning in early start-up stage is a very valuable activity, because business planning can help new ventures reduce the loss caused by trial and error learning. Second, engaging in business planning is more likely to ensure high innovative products quickly be accepted by the market. Because in the process of new venture emergence, the legitimacy signal to stakeholders can be transmitted and new products can be promoted to get support and recognition from stakeholder through the business plan.Originality/value This paper focuses on the early stage of new venture life cycle and the contextual factors to explore the influence of business planning on the new venture emergence under the logic of legitimacy. This paper could enrich business planning research from the perspective of legitimacy theory by inspiring scholars to focus on the differences between new ventures and mature enterprises and to offer proposals of legitimation strategies suitable for new ventures. Meanwhile, this study contributes to the understanding of the contextual factors of business planning. And it discusses the impact of the attribute in business planning on the new venture emergence, which helps scholars to get a deep thought about the value of business planning in entrepreneurial process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology has begun to transform into the boom of CO utilization technology, which is of great significance to China considering its coal-based primary energy mix. CO utilization technology can be divided into three categories, i.e., CO geological utilization (CGU), CO chemical utilization, and CO biological utilization. In this paper, first, the development status of the different utilization technologies in China is introduced, and then, the situation, distribution, and water characteristics of China's Coal Chemical Industry (CCI, i.e., an industry to convert coal to synthetic fuel and/or chemical products) are analyzed in detail. Subsequently, utilization technologies suitable for China's CCI are proposed combining water consumption of CCS technology. The results of this research led to the following conclusions: (1) CO utilization technology is undoubtedly the best choice for the CCI; (2) CGU technologies are viewed as the best choices for the coal chemical industry, with supplementary, small-scale chemical utilization of three wastes, i.e., waste gas, wastewater, and industrial residue; (3) The CO-Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR), CO-Enhanced Uranium Leaching (EUL), CO-Enhanced Coal Bed Methane recovery (ECBM), and CO-Enhanced (Saline) Water Recovery (EWR) technologies show great promise, and CCI preferentially uses the option with low water consumption, such as CO-EWR. However, as the carbon market matures, CO-EOR will become the first priority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Because the prevalence of connective tissue disease (CTD)-associated interstitial lung disease (ILD; CTD-ILD) in China is unknown, we wanted to analyze the clinical characteristics of this disease in Chinese patients.Methods: The medical records of patients who received a diagnosis of ILD and treated in Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital from January 1999 to January 2013 were reviewed. Based on the records, patients who also received a diagnosis of CTD were identified, and their records of follow-up examinations for a minimum of 12 months until the end of December 2013 were reviewed.Results: Of the 2,678 patients who received a diagnosis of ILD, 1,798 (67%) were identified as having CTD-ILD; 299 (11.2%) had idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Complete clinical data were available for 1,044 patients with CTD-ILD and 178 with IPF. We found that 332 of the 1,044 patients with CTD-ILD (32%) did not receive an accurate diagnosis at the initial hospital admission, 195 (18.7%) of the 1,044 patients showed persistent negative test results for autoantibodies, and 262 (25.1%) of the 1,044 patients had negative autoantibodies at the initial hospital admission and then became positive at follow-up examinations. Of the 288 patients who had confirmed CTD-ILD, 41 (14%) showed pulmonary symptoms as the initial clinical manifestation (PSIM) and 247 (86%) showed extrapulmonary symptoms as the initial clinical manifestation (EPSIM). For the 756 patients who had undifferentiated CTD-ILD, the proportion of PSIM and EPSIM was 44% and 56%, respectively. For patients who presented with PSIM, 23 who had confirmed CTD-ILD (56%) and 216 who had unconfirmed CTD-ILD (65%) did not receive an accurate diagnosis at the initial visit but were ultimately diagnosed at subsequent follow-up examinations.Conclusions: Patients with CTD-ILD do not receive an accurate diagnosis at the initial hospital admission possibly because of negative serologic test results for autoantibodies and the absence of obvious extrapulmonary symptoms. Thus, patients with ILD should be examined for extrapulmonary symptoms and tested for autoantibodies at follow-up examinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions become the primary factor for the global warming, whereas carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), as one of the primary greenhouse gases, takes an inescapable responsibility for climate change. Currently, various energy conservation and carbon emission reduction technologies, including the carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, as well as other clean, low-carbon energy exploitation technologies exhibit a rapid development trend to alleviate the growing crisis of climate change. Other than traditional CO 2 geological storage, a novel geoengineering approach of CO 2 geological utilization and storage, named CO 2 geological storage combining with deep saline water/brine recovery (CO 2 -EWR), is put forward to solve the dilemma between the increasing carbon emissions from coal chemical industry and national energy and water security in China. Compared with the traditional CCS technology, CO 2 -EWR has two advantages: (1) it can control the relief of reservoir pressure and water production by a reasonable design of pumping wells to achieve the security and stability of the large-scale geological storage of CO 2 ; (2) it can collect and process deep saline water after a treatment for life drinking, industrial and/or agricultural utilizations to alleviate the water shortage situation as well as ecological environmental problems, and in addition, the deep brine resources may create considerable profit margins by cascade extraction, which could be used to fill the gap of cost primarily criticized from capture and sequestration processes of current CCS technologies. China mainland can be partitioned into three potential CO 2 -EWR zones primarily according to different types of aquifer system, whereas considering research and development maturity and cost prediction of the potential technology adopted, it can be found that coal power and coal chemical enterprises in China's western region have an early opportunity. Three sub-modules of CO 2 -EWR technology including CO 2 storage in deep saline aquifer, saline water extraction and desalination as well as brine resources utilization are analyzed from a prospective of energy conservation, carbon emission reduction and environmental friendship. Through detailed analyses, it can be concluded that CO 2 -EWR technology can be absolutely considered as a clean technology for environmental improvement and green development, and finally development direction and future prospective of the CO 2 -EWR technology are pointed out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] A novel CO2-EWR system is proposed for coal chemical industry enterprises in western China. [•] Parametric sensitivity analysis is investigated in comparison with the traditional process of CO2 geological storage. [•] Influence of well arrangements, such as well distance and pumping rate, on reservoir pressure exhibits nonlinearly variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Quercetin''s protective effects on the glomerulosclerosis of diabetic nephropathy (DN) in rat mesangial cells were investigated. The cell cycles, type IV collagen and laminin, TGF-β1 mRNA, Smad 2/3 and Smad 7, and activities of cell antioxidases were measured. Compared with the high glucose group, quercetin may decrease the cell percentages of G0/G1 phase, Smad 2/3 expression, laminin and type IV collagen, and TGF-β1 mRNA level significantly. The antioxidant capacity, the cell percentages of S phase and Smad 7 expression was significantly increased by quercetin. These results suggest that quercetin is a protective agent against glomerulosclerosis in DN. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

For 15 years, there is an increasing expansion of some interior improvement for modern service industry in Liaoning Province. However, compared to other parts in China, there exists a great difference in Liaoning Province. In addition, GDP of service industry tends to be decreasing in Liaoning Province. By doing a research to the development of service industry in Liaoning Province, the problems are pointed out and some counter-measures are proposed for the development of service industry in Liaoning Province. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Extranodal nasal-type natural killer/T-cell lymphoma presenting in skin, either primary or secondary, is relatively rare in China, accounting for about 4.1% of tumors. The clinicopathologic features of the neoplasm are still poorly understood. Sixteen Chinese cases of cutaneous natural killer/T-cell lymphomas were investigated retrospectively by pathology, immunophenotype, genotype, Epstein-Barr virus status, and survival analysis. The mean age of the patients was 36.3 years; 81% of the patients presented with multiple cutaneous lesions. Angiocentricity and epidermotropism were observed in 43.7% and 25%, respectively; the average number of mitoses was 12 per 10 high-power fields. The neoplastic cells of all 16 cases were positive for CD3ɛ/CD45RO and granzyme B and negative for CD4, CD5, CD8, and CD20; 87.5% of the tumors expressed CD56. Signals for EBER were detected in 81.3% of cases. No clonal TCRγ/TCRβ gene rearrangement was demonstrated. Thirteen of 15 patients received chemotherapy; a partial response was achieved in 10 patients; 10 (66.7%) of 15 patients died of the disease, and the average survival time was 6.6 months. In conclusion, both primary and secondary cutaneous natural killer/T-cell lymphomas are highly aggressive. The outcome is closely related to the number and distribution of the lesions as well as the stage. In patients with generalized skin lesions and extracutaneous involvement, the prognosis usually is poor. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Dehydroandrographolide succinate (DAS) injection, which was approved in China for the treatment of viral pneumonia and upper respiratory tract infections, is often off-label used for nebulization therapy to avoid the adverse drug reactions associated with the injection. However, the aerodynamic properties and pulmonary fate of nebulized DAS was largely uninvestigated. In this study, the main objectives were to evaluate the in vitro aerodynamic deposition profiles of nebulizer generated aerosols and comparatively investigate the local drug availability and anti-inflammatory efficacy of DAS between intratracheal and intravenous dosing. The in vitro evaluation of aerodynamic characteristics and droplet size distribution showed more than 50% aerosol particles with size being <5 μm, allowing the aerosols to reach the lower respiratory tract. Following intratracheal administration, the drug underwent pulmonary absorption into the bloodstream, rendering an absolute bioavailability of 47.3%. Compared to the intravenous delivery, the intratracheal administration dramatically increased the drug availability in the lung tissue in rats by more than 80-fold, leading to an improved and prolonged local anti-inflammatory efficacy in a lipopolysaccharide induced lung injury model in mice. The present results demonstrated that inhalation delivery of DAS is a convenient and effective alternative to intravenous injections. Image, graphical abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to fully realize the clinical plausibility of a newly introduced yttria gradient monolithic multilayer dental zirconia and the current indication range for dental zirconia; hence, an investigation leading to a comprehensive understanding of the effect of yttria content on the properties of zirconia was undertaken. Each layer from a yttria gradient monolithic multilayer zirconia system with two types (esthetic and functional types, Meiying Zirconia, UPCERA, China) was selected for investigation of its chemical composition by X-ray fluorescence. Layers with yttria content interval of about 0.4 mol%-0.5 mol% were chosen for subsequent testing. Their phase fractions, grain sizes, low-temperature degradation (LTD) resistance, coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), and mechanical properties were characterized. The yttria content from the occlusal to the gingival region was from 5 mol% to 4.1 mol% and 4.7 mol% to 3.2 mol% for esthetic type and functional type, respectively. Ultimately, we investigated the selected five yttria content layers, 5Y, 4.5Y, 4Y, 3.6Y, and 3.2Y. With increased yttria content, increasing cubic phase fractions (from 25.86 wt% to 58.53 wt%) and mean grain sizes (from 0.31 μm to 0.72 μm) were detected; monoclinic content after LTD decreased; and there was a decreasing tendency for CTE, although no statistically significant difference was found (F = 2.43, p = 0.117). In addition, yttria dopant showed no effect on elastic modulus (F = 2.43, p = 0.464) but slightly increased hardness (F = 4.10, p = 0.014). However, there were notable decreases in fracture toughness (F = 227.58, p < 0.001), biaxial flexural (F = 52.31, p < 0.001), and fatigue strength (F = 56.52, p < 0.001). The percentages of strength degradation from monotonic to fatigue tests were about 33%–40%, independent of yttria doping (F = 1.82, p = 0.136). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The deformation and failure of a loess slope are closely related to the loess collapsibility and permeability, which are primarily controlled by the pore geometrical structure. This is a microstructural investigation of loess and paleosol from Jingyang on the South Loess Plateau in China using X-ray micro-computed tomography to explore the three-dimensional pore structure by quantitative pore network parameters. The three soil types (L1, L2 and S2) exhibit complex pore structures and obvious anisotropy, as reflected by dense networks, wide pore size ranges and different pore throat radii and frequencies at different dip angles. From L1 to L2 to S2, the structure tends to become more compact, the pore size tends to decrease, and the connectivity tends to weaken; these differences chiefly depend on the particle composition. In soil with low clay content, the clay particles mainly act as connectors of silt and sand particles or adhere to their peripheries. With high clay content, the clay particles also combine with silt particles to form bulky aggregates, generating some large inter-aggregate pores and numerous fine intra-aggregate pores. Pore structure, which provides space for water movement, has a profound influence on the mechanical behavior of soil, and the relationship between permeability and pore structure is discussed. The results demonstrate the positive role that the pore (> 13 μm) proportion, pore connectivity and pore throat radius play in permeability. Both the pore throat radius and the permeability coefficient are greater in the vertical direction than in the horizontal direction, implying a large pore throat has a greater effect on water migration than that of multiple small pore throats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incidence of type 2 diabetes is high, and the existing metformin hydrochloride (MH) tablets of 250 mg cannot meet the demands of the Chinese drug market. This study aimed to evaluate the bioequivalence and safety of generic formulations of MH tablets (test formulation [T], 250 mg/tablet) and innovative products (reference formulation [R], 250 mg/tablet) under fasting conditions. This was an open-label, single-dose, 2-period, 2-sequence crossover, single-center, randomized phase I clinical trial. T and R were considered bioequivalent if the adjusted geometric mean ratios (GMRs) and 90% confidence intervals of the area under the curve (AUC) and maximum concentration (C max ) were within the range of 0.8-1.25. Thirty-five participants completed the trial. The T/R adjusted GMRs (95.7% for C max , 98.7% for AUC 0→t , 98.8% for AUC 0→∞ ) were within the acceptable bioequivalence range of 80%-125%. No serious adverse events or suspected or unexpected serious adverse reactions occurred during this trial. The study findings confirmed that generic MH is a well-tolerated and bioequivalent alternative to innovative products under fasting conditions in healthy Chinese participants. (www.chinadrugtrials.org.cn; registration no. CTR20190356)., (© 2024, The American College of Clinical Pharmacology.)

Chinese quince fruit (CQF) contains abundant pectin; however, the pectin cannot be efficiently separated by conventional approaches because of strong lignin-carbohydrate complexes (LCC). In this study, to elucidate the structural characteristics of the original LCC formed by lignin and pectin in CQF, single and multiple enzymatic hydrolysis pretreatments were innovatively performed, and the resulting LCC preparations were comprehensively characterized using a series of techniques. The enzymatic hydrolysis pretreatments significantly increase the LCC yield, releasing LCC fractions with low molecular weights (M w  = 4660-8288 Da). LCC-4, isolated by pretreatment with cellulase plus xylanase, had the highest galacturonic acid content (15.5 %), followed by LCC-2 (isolated by xylanase pretreatment) of 14.0 %. In CQF, lignin develops lignin-carbohydrate (LC) bonds with pectin to form LCC, with phenyl-glycoside bond being the dominant linkage. Although the pectinase pretreatment reduced the pectin content, signals of the LC linkages in the 2D-HSQC spectra were enhanced. LCC-4 could be considered as the most representative of the original LCC in CQF due to its high pectin content and multiple LCC signals in the 2D-HSQC spectrum. The structural understanding of the original LCC in CQF will lay a foundation for designing appropriate methods for extracting pectin from CQF., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this article., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Vitex rotundifolia L. f. and Vitex trifolia L. belong to the genus Vitex, and Vitex rotundifolia L. f. evolved from Vitex trifolia L. Both are essential ethnic medicinal plants with a long history, commonly used to treat headaches, fever, diarrhea, hair loss, wound recovery, and other diseases., Aim of the Review: The research status of Vitex trifolia L. and its relative species Vitex rotundifolia L. f. were reviewed from the aspects of traditional medicinal use, phytochemistry, and pharmacological activities, to provide a reference for the further development and utilization of Vitex rotundifolia L. f. and Vitex trifolia L., Materials and Methods: In this paper, a comprehensive search of published literature was conducted through various books and online databases to obtain relevant information on Vitex rotundifolia L. f. and Vitex trifolia L. The search terms "(Vitex rotundifolia) OR (Vitex trifolia) OR (Fructus viticis)" were entered in PubMed, Web of Science, China national knowledge infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Data, Baidu Scholar, respectively. In addition to setting the year threshold of "2018-2022" on Baidu Scholar, other databases searched all fields and found 889, 283, 1263, 1023, and 147 articles, respectively. Among them, review, repetition, overlapping data, and other reasons were excluded, and finally, a total of 164 articles were included in the review study., Results: A total of 369 compounds have been identified, including 159 terpenoids, 51 flavonoids, 83 phenylpropanoids, and 76 other compounds. Pharmacological studies have shown that Vitex rotundifolia L. f. and Vitex trifolia L. have a variety of pharmacological activities, such as anti-tumor, analgesic, antipyretic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antibacterial, and estrogen-like activity. Modern clinical use for treating cold headaches, diarrhea dysentery, irregular menstruation, and other diseases., Conclusions: As traditional medicinal plants, Vitex rotundifolia L. f. and Vitex trifolia L. have wealthy chemical constituents and extensive pharmacological activities and are widely used in clinical practice from traditional to modern times. However, the research on the pharmacological activities of Vitex rotundifolia L. f. and Vitex trifolia L. is not in-depth, and the potential active components still need to be explored., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest 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 © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: As per the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) requirements, the quality and efficacy of generic drugs must be consistent with those of the innovator drug. We aimed to evaluate the bioequivalence and safety of generic metformin hydrochloride sustained-release (MH-SR) tablets (Boke ® ) developed by Beijing Wanhui Double-crane Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., China and the innovator product metformin hydrochloride extended-release tablets (Glucophage ® -XR) manufactured by Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, New York, NY, in healthy Chinese volunteers., Materials and Methods: We performed a bioequivalence and safety assessment of MH-SR (500 mg/tablet) and Glucophage ® -XR (500 mg/tablet) tablets in a randomized, open-label, two-period, two-sequence crossover, single-dose oral study in 48 healthy Chinese adult participants under fasting conditions (Chinese Clinical Trial Registration No. CTR20171306). The washout period was seven days. Bioequivalence (80.00-125.00%) was assessed using adjusted geometric mean ratios (GMRs) and two-sided 90% confidence intervals (CIs) of the area under the curve (AUC) and maximum concentration ( C max ) for each component., Results: The 90% CIs of the test/reference preparation for key pharmacokinetic parameters were 97.36-108.30% for AUC 0→ t , 97.26-108.09% for AUC 0→∞ and 96.76-111.37% for C max . No severe adverse events (AEs) were observed. However, 38 adverse drug reactions (ADRs) occurred, including metabolic or nutritional conditions ( n  = 8), infections ( n  = 2), gastrointestinal conditions ( n  = 10) and abnormal inspection ( n  = 18). No significant difference was observed between MH-SR (23 ADRs, 10 participants) and Glucophage ® -XR (15 ADRs, 12 participants) ( p  = .500). Bioequivalence was concluded since the 90% CIs of the main pharmacokinetic parameters were within the equivalence interval (80.00-125.00%)., Conclusions: MH-SR (500 mg/tablet) and Glucophage ® -XR (500 mg/tablet) were found to be bioequivalent and safe under fasting conditions in healthy Chinese participants. Thus, the market demand for MH-SR tablets (500 mg/tablet) can be met using the generic alternative.KEY MESSAGESGeneric MH-SR tablets (500 mg, Beijing Wanhui Double-crane Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Beijing, China) and innovator MH-SR tablets (Glucophage ® -XR, 500 mg, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, New York, NY, USA) were bioequivalent and safe in healthy Chinese volunteers under single-dose administration and fasting conditions.The main goal of this study is to support an increase in the supply of MH-SR tablets in China by proving the efficacy and safety of a generic alternative.Although no sugar was administered in the BE trial of the MH-SR tablets under fasting conditions, no hypoglycaemic event occurred. The method used in this study is expected to serve as a reference for BE studies of different MH-SR formulations.

The urban-rural difference in poverty is an important issue in China, particularly for people with disabilities. The extra costs of disability render this population susceptible to falling into poverty, where this can exacerbate the inequality among people with disabilities between urban and rural areas of the country. Previous studies have provided empirical evidence for the extra costs of disabilities in certain countries, but little scholarly attention has been devoted to the urban-rural gap in the costs of disability, particularly in countries like China that have a dual urban-rural system. This study explores changes in the extra costs of disability in China between urban and rural households with disabled members from 2008 to 2018 by using the standard of living approach. We apply the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke Poverty Index to measure the rates of poverty in urban and rural households with disabilities after considering the costs of disability. The results reveal that the costs of disability were not always lower for rural households than for urban households. At the same time, many rural households with disabled people were found to suffer from severe poverty owing to the high costs of their disabilities. The difference in health insurance and rehabilitation services between urban and rural China have led to an urban-rural gap in the costs of disability. This suggests that supplying more goods and services for disabled people in rural areas, especially free services, and raising the reimbursement due to them from their health insurance can help improve their standard of living., 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 © 2022 Liao, Wang, Huang and Wei.)

Umami peptides formed by microbial metabolism play an important role in the umami taste of Chouguiyu. In this study, 138 umami peptides and 6 kinds of proteases in two categories from 35 microbial genera were identified from Chouguiyu during the fermentation process by peptidomics and metagenomics analysis, respectively. The interaction network maps between the umami peptides and protease-producing microbial genera in each protease classification were constructed based on Pearson's correlation coefficient after a two-way orthogonal partial least squares (O2PLS) evaluation. The proteases classified in 34 clusters of orthologous groups (COG) from Vagococcus, Peptostreptococcus, Acinetobacter, Psychrobacter, and Enterococcus played a major role in the formation of umami peptides. The core umami peptides with the highest abundance and correlation were mainly derived from troponin and myosin in mandarin fish. The lactic acid bacteria contributed most to the hydrolysis preparation of these umami peptides. This study is beneficial to screen the proteases and related microbial strains to improve the umami taste of Chouguiyu., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

In Hainan Island, South China, a 1000-year-old marine saltern has been identified as an intangible cultural heritage due to its historical complicated salt-making techniques, whereas the knowledge about this saltern is extremely limited. Herein, DNA sequencing and biochemical technologies were applied to determine bacterial and fungal communities of this saltern and their possible functions during four stages of salt-making, i.e. seawater storage, mud solarization, brine concentrating, and solar crystallization. The results showed that both of bacterial and fungal communities were suffered from significant changes during processing of salt-making in Danzhou Ancient Saltern, whereas the richness and diversity of bacterial community dominated by Proteobacteria, Bacteroidota and Cyanobacteria was considerably greater than that of fungal community dominated by Ascomycota, Basidiomycota and Mortierellomycota. Additionally, the succession of bacterial community was closely associated with both of salt physicochemical properties (Na + , Cl - , total phosphorus, total nitrogen, Ca 2+ and Mg 2+ ) and bacteria themselves, whereas fungal community was more closely associated with physicochemical properties than fungi themselves. Importantly, Cyanobium&#95;PCC-6307, Synechococcus&#95;CC9902, Marinobacter, Prevotella and Halomonas as dominant bacterial genera respectively related to the metabolisms of amino acid, carbohydrate, terpenoids/polyketides, lipid and nucleotide were correlated with salt flavors. Saprophytic and saprotroph-symbiotroph fungi dominated by Aspergillus, Mortierella, Amanita, Neocucurbitaria and Tausonia also played core roles in the formation of salt flavors including umami and sweet smells. These findings revealed the highly specified microbiome community in this 1000-year-old saltern that mainly selected by brine solarization on basalt platforms, which is helpful to explore the underlying mechanisms of traditional salt-making techniques and to explore the useful microbes for nowadays food, medicine and chemical industries., 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.)

The stability of aggregates is of great significance to evaluate water and soil environment in regions plan-ting economic fruit forest. We explored the effects of economic fruit forest types on the structure and stability of soil aggregates in the 0-50 cm soil layer from 5-year-old Amygdalus persica , Pyrus sorotina , Citrus reticulata , Camellia oleifera and Actinidia chinensis forests in the hilly area in northern Hunan. The content, distribution characteristics and stability indices of soil aggregates from each economic fruit forest were quantitatively analyzed by the Shavinov method. The results showed that most soil aggregates were mechanically stable, with a minimum content of 92.3%. After wet sieving, the size of water-stable aggregates in the soil from Camellia oleifera forest was mainly &gt;2 mm, accounting for 55.9% of the total aggregates. The 0.25-2 mm aggregates were the dominant particles in the A. persica , P. sorotina , C. reticulata and A. chinensis forest soils, with contributions higher than 43.6%. The mean weight diameter (MWD) and the geometric mean diameter (GMD) of soil aggregates for the five economic fruit forest types ranged from 1.10 to 3.19 mm and 0.61 to 2.28 mm, respectively. Furthermore, the percentages of soil aggregate destruction (PAD) and fractal dimension ( D ) were in the range of 2.9%-37.3% and 2.30-2.68, respectively. With the increases of soil depth, the stability of soil aggregates from A. persica , C. oleifera and A. chinensis forest soils became worse; MWD and GMD decreased by 1.7%-57.7% and 4.5%-65.8%, respectively; PAD and D increased by 0.4%-17.3% and 1.6%-11.1%, respectively. The effects of economic fruit forest types on the stability of soil aggregates decreased with increasing soil depth. Based on the stability indices, aggregate stability from five economic fruit forests followed the order of C. oleifera &gt; A. chinensis &gt; P. sorotina &gt; C. reticulata &gt; A. persica . The type of economic fruit forest improved the stability of soil structure mainly by affecting the content of large-size aggregates. In terms of improving the distribution and stability of soil aggregates, it was suggested that C. oleifera should be given the top priority as the economic fruit forest in the subtropical hilly area, followed by A. chinensis . Whereas A. persica planting might reduce the degree of soil agglomeration, thus, the protective measures of soil loss should be considered during planting. Our results could provide theoretical basis and application guidance for the development, utilization, and ecological management of economic fruit forests in subtropical hilly areas.

The mechanical properties of loess-steel interface are of great significance for understanding the residual strength and deformation of loess. However, the undisturbed loess has significant structural properties, while the remolded loess has weak structural properties. There are few reports on the mechanical properties of loess-steel interface from the structural point of view. This paper focused on the ring shear test between undisturbed loess as well as its remolded loess and steel interface under the same physical mechanics and test conditions (water content, shear rate and vertical pressure), and explored the influence mechanism of structure on the mechanical deformation characteristics of steel-loess interface. The results show that the shear rate has little effect on the residual strength of the undisturbed and remolded loess-steel interface. However, the water content has a significant influence on the residual strength of the loess-steel interface, moreover, the residual internal friction angle is the dominant factor supporting the residual strength of the loess-steel interface. In general, the residual strength of the undisturbed loess-steel interface is greater than that of the remolded loess specimen (for example, the maximum percentage of residual strength difference between undisturbed and remolded loess specimens under the same moisture content is 6.8%), which is because that compared with the mosaic arrangement structure of the remolded loess, the overhead arrangement structure of the undisturbed loess skeleton particles makes the loess particles on the loess-steel interface re-adjust the arrangement direction earlier and reach a stable speed relatively faster. The loess particles with angular angles in the undisturbed loess make the residual internal friction between the particles greater than the smoother particles of the remolded loess (for example, the maximum percentage of residual cohesion difference between undisturbed and remolded loess specimens under the same vertical pressure is 4.29%), and the intact cement between undisturbed loess particles brings stronger cohesion than the remolded loess particles with destroyed cement (for example, the maximum difference percentage of residual cohesion between undisturbed and remolded soil specimens under the same vertical pressure is 33.80%). The test results provide experimental basis for further revealing the influence mechanism of structure, and parameter basis for similar engineering construction., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

To fully understand the characteristics of particulate matter (PM) retained on plant leaves (PMR) and the effect of vegetation on haze on a large spatial scale, we investigated needle samples collected from 78 parks and campuses in 31 cities (30 provincial cities) of China and developed a comprehensive method to characterise PMR. Both the PMR load (including water-insoluble particulate matter (WIPM), water-soluble inorganic ions (WSIS) and water-soluble organic matter (WSOM)), with a mean value of 554 ± 345 mg m -2 leaf area, and component profiles of PMR showed obvious spatial variation across the cities. Though haze pollution levels vary greatly among the 31 cities, the PM retention capacity of needles does not depend on haze level because PMR generally reaches saturation before precipitation in winter. The water-soluble component (WSC, the sum of WSIS and WSOM) accounted for 52.3% of PMR on average, among which WSIS and WSOM contributed 21.4% and 30.9% to PMR, respectively. The dominant ions of WSIS in PMR in the cities were Ca 2+ , K + and NO 3 , indicating that raised dust, biomass combustion and traffic exhaust are significant sources of PM in China. Compared with previous reports, the particle size distributions of PMR and PM across China were consistent, with fine PM (PM - , indicating that raised dust, biomass combustion and traffic exhaust are significant sources of PM in China. Compared with previous reports, the particle size distributions of PMR and PM across China were consistent, with fine PM (PM 2.5 ) constituting a substantial proportion (43.8 ± 17.0%) of PMR. These results prove that trees can effectively remove fine particles from the air, thereby reducing human exposure to inhalable PM. We proposed a method to estimate the annual amount of PMR on Cedrus deodara, with an average value of 11.9 ± 9.6 t km -2 in China. Compared with the load of dust fall (atmospheric particles naturally falling on the ground, average of 138 ± 164 t km -1 in China. Compared with the load of dust fall (atmospheric particles naturally falling on the ground, average of 138 ± 164 t km -2 in China), we conclude that trees play a significant role in mitigating haze pollution.-1 in China), we conclude that trees play a significant role in mitigating haze pollution., 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.)

Lipid deposition in the kidney can cause serious damage to the kidney, and there is an obvious epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and fibrosis in the late stage. To investigate the interventional effects and mechanisms of phenolic compounds from Mori Cortex on the EMT and fibrosis induced by sodium oleate-induced lipid deposition in renal tubular epithelial cells (NRK-52e cells), and the role played by CD36 in the adjustment process, NRK-52e cells induced by 200 μmol/L sodium oleate were given 10 μmoL/L moracin-P-2″- O -β-d-glucopyranoside (Y-1), moracin-P-3'- O -β-d-glucopyranoside (Y-2), moracin-P-3'- O -α-l-arabinopyranoside (Y-3), and moracin-P-3'-O-[β-glucopyranoside-(1→2)arabinopyranoside] (Y-4), and Oil Red O staining was used to detect lipid deposition. A Western blot was used to detect lipid deposition-related protein CD36, inflammation-related protein (p-NF-κB-P65, NF-κB-P65, IL-1β), oxidative stress-related protein (NOX1, Nrf2, Keap1), EMT-related proteins (CD31, α-SMA), and fibrosis-related proteins (TGF-β, ZEB1, Snail1). A qRT-PCR test detected inflammation, EMT, and fibrosis-related gene mRNA levels. The TNF-α levels were detected by ELISA, and the colorimetric method was used to detects SOD and MDA levels. The ROS was measured by flow cytometry. A high-content imaging analysis system was applied to observe EMT and fibrosis-related proteins. At the same time, the experiment silenced CD36 and compared the difference between before and after drug treatment, then used molecular docking technology to predict the potential binding site of the active compounds with CD36. The research results show that sodium oleate can induce lipid deposition, inflammation, oxidative stress, and fibrosis in NRK-52e cells. Y-1 and Y-2 could significantly ameliorate the damage caused by sodium oleate, and Y-2 had a better ameliorating effect, while there was no significant change in Y-3 or Y-4. The amelioration effect of Y-1 and Y-2 disappeared after silencing CD36. Molecular docking technology showed that the Y-1 and Y-2 had hydrogen bonds to CD36 and that, compared with Y-1, Y-2 requires less binding energy. In summary, moracin-P-2″- O -β-d-glucopyranoside and moracin-P-3'- O -β-d-glucopyranoside from Mori Cortex ameliorated lipid deposition, EMT, and fibrosis induced by sodium oleate in NRK-52e cells through CD36.

Objectives: To assess the bioequivalence and safety of generic metformin hydrochloride (test preparation) and glucophage (reference preparation) in healthy Chinese subjects., Materials and Methods: A bioequivalence and safety assessment of two formulations of metformin (850 mg) using a randomized, open, two-period, two cross-over, single-dose, fed trial in 36 healthy Chinese adult subjects was performed at our center from March 22, 2018, to April 9, 2018. Bioequivalence was determined as two-sided 90% confidence intervals (CI) of the test-to-reference ratio of area under the curve (AUC) and peak concentration (C max ) for each constituent within 80.00 - 125.00%. SAS 9.4 software was employed for the statistical analysis., Results: One subject was excluded from the trial. The 90% CIs (95.36 - 101.43% for AUC 0→t , 95.65 - 101.66% for AUC 0→∞ ; 94.43 - 101.74% for C max ) of test/reference preparation for these pharmacokinetic parameters were within the range of 80.00 - 125.00%. No severe adverse events were observed during this trial. The two preparations were safe and well-tolerated., Conclusion: It was concluded that generic metformin was bioequivalent and as safe as glucophage under fed conditions in healthy Chinese subjects.

Fermented mandarin fish have been receiving attention from consumers due to their nutritional value and specific flavor. Microbial diversity in fermented mandarin fish has an important impact on their flavor and quality. However, little is known about the microbiome and the differences among different products. In this study, the bacterial profiles and flavor compounds in three typical fermented mandarin fish products were investigated and compared, and a correlation network was used to explore the potential relationship between microorganisms and flavor. Bacterial community analysis demonstrated clear differences in microbiota among the HF-, MF-, and OF-fermented mandarin fish products. Psychrilyobacter, Fusobacterium, and Vibrio were the most dominant in the HF-, MF-, and OF-fermented products, respectively. In addition, 14, 12, and 4 flavor substances (relative odor activity value, ROAV ≥ 1) were detected in the muscles from the central dorsal and ventral sides of the three samples, respectively. Several bacteria correlated with the production of important flavor compounds, and three genera (Arcobacter, Psychrilyobacter, and Shewanella) were the primary microorganisms contributing to more than six characteristic flavor compounds in fermented mandarin fish products. Therefore, the study's systematic method allows identificating important microbes and characteristic volatile flavor compounds in fermented mandarin fish and provides new insights into the relationship between microorganisms and flavor., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Heavy metals (HMs) are constantly released into the environment during the production and use of batteries. Battery manufacturing has been ongoing for over six decades in the "Battery Industrial Capital" (located in Xinxiang City) of China, but the potential exposure pathways of residents in this region to HMs remain unclear. To clarify the exposure pathways and health risk of human exposure to HMs, hand wipe samples (n=82) and fingernail samples (n=36) were collected from residents (including young children (0-6 years old), children (7-12 years old) and adults (30-60 years old)) living around battery factories. The total concentrations of the target HMs (Zn, Mn, Cu, Pb, Ni, Cr, Cd, Co) in hand wipes ranged from 133 to 8040 μg/m 2 , and those in fingernails ranged from 9.7-566 μg/g. HM levels in the hand wipe and fingernail samples both decreased with age, and higher HM levels were observed for males than females. The HM composition profiles in these two matrices represented a high degree of similarity, with Zn as the predominant element, and thus, oral ingestion and dermal exposure via dust were expected to be the most important HM exposure pathways for residents in this region. The non-carcinogenic risks (HQs) from dermal and oral ingestion exposure to Cd, Cr, and Pb were higher than those of the other five elements for all three populations, and the HQ derm of Cd for young children was 2.1 (HQ oral =0.6). Moreover, the hazard index (HI) values of ∑ 8 HMs for young children (HI total =5.2, HI oral =2.0, HI dermal =3.2) and children (HI total =1.6, HI oral =1.3, HI dermal =0.3) exceeded the safe threshold (1.0). Therefore, young children and children should be prioritized for protection from HM pollution, and more attention should be paid to young children's dermal exposure to Cd in this region., 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 © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

A new species of the genus Aneuclis Förster, 1869, A. flavopedes Sheng, Zhou Wei, sp.nov. collected from the field of the Research Station of Liaohe-River Plain Forest Ecosystem, Zhangwu, Liaoning Province, China, is described and illustrated. The new species is inserted into the key provided by Khalaim (2004).

We investigated the effects of interplanting on soil aggregate distribution and stability of red soil in economic orchard in a new-constructed slope land, based on 12 kiwifruit planting experi-mental plots with a slope of about 12°, a length of 18 m, and a width of 1.5 m. Three types of interplanting patterns were implemented by interplanting purple sweet potato (PSP), hairy vetch (HV), and weeds (W) for three years, respectively, taking the bare land with no vegetation as control (CK) to determine the aggregate indicators at 0-15 cm soil layer. The results showed that the quantity and size of soil water stabilized aggregates (WR >0.25 ) all tended to increase which ranked in the order of PSP>HV>W>CK. The order of soil aggregate structure damage rate (PAD) and fractal dimension (D) were CK>W>HV>PSP, indicating that soil aggregate in PSP was the most stable, followed by HV treatment. Along the downslope, the content of WR >0.25 , mean weight diameter (MWD), and geometric mean diameter (GMD) all tended to decrease, while the PAD and D increased, indicating that soil structure turned to be poorer in downslope of the new-constructed slope land. D was negatively correlated with MWD, GMD, and the content of >0.25 mm aggregates. It was concluded that interplanting could increase the quantity and size of soil aggregates, improve soil structure and soil quality of economic orchard in hilly slope land.

Spontaneous fermentation is a critical step in the processing of high-quality fish sauce. In this study, a comparative UHPLC-Q/TOF-MS-based metabolomics approach combining equivalent-quantification and the taste activity value (TAV) was used, for the first time, to evaluate the taste qualities and characterize metabolite profiles in Chinese fish sauce during fermentation. A total of 22,816 metabolite ion features were extracted from fish sauce samples. Forty-six metabolites, including amino acids, small peptides, organic acids, amines, carbohydrates, and nucleic acids, were identified as key chemical components of fish sauce. In addition, absolute quantification and TAV showed that aspartic acid and glutamic acid exert an important influence on the umami taste of fish sauce. Specific metabolites were primarily associated with amino acid metabolism, particularly alterations in arginine and proline metabolism. This study identifies chemical components and provides novel insights into the taste quality of fish sauce due to fermentation., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Aims: As a top ambient pollutant in urban area, fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) has been associated with the occurrence and deterioration of many medical conditions, while limited studies have observed the association with psychiatric conditions. This study aimed to investigate the association between short-term PM 2.5 exposure and psychiatric emergency events, and further explored the variation by age, sex and seasonal patterns, which have been suggested to be associated with both psychiatric risk and pollutant toxicity., Methods: We used time-series analysis to investigate the association between short-term exposure of PM 2.5 and emergency ambulance dispatches for psychiatric emergencies (EPE) (n = 158634) in Beijing, one of the top polluted cities in China during the study period between 2008 and 2014. Stratified analyses were conducted to examine the effects of age, sex and seasonal pattern., Results: Every 10 μg/m 3 increase of the PM 2.5 concentration was associated with a 0.12% increase of the same-day overall EPE (95% CI: 0.03-0.22%, p = 0.013) and a 0.12% increase of the suicide-related EPE at lag 2 (95%CI: 0.01-0.24%, p = 0.041). The associations remained when adjusted for sunlight duration. An age effect was observed where children (age <18) showed a higher risk of suicide-related EPE after PM 2.5 exposure compared to adults (18 ≤ age≤64). We did not observe evidence of effect modification by sex and season based on the results of stratified analysis., Conclusions: We found a positive association between acute PM 2.5 exposure and increased psychiatric emergency presentations indicated by emergency ambulance dispatches data. Children were more vulnerable and might develop psychiatric problems including those leading to suicide. Public awareness of the health risks of PM 2.5 is important to strengthen current efforts to reduce emissions., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Nitrogen deposition and climate warming-drying are the main environmental changes in Northeast China. How they affect forest ecosystems has always been studied in ecological research. In this study, we explored the effects of water stress and nitrogen (N) addition on the short-term (in 55 weeks) growth of seedlings of Pinus koraiensis and Fraxinus mandshurica, two key species in broad-leaved and P. koraiensis mixed forests in temperate zone of Northeast China. Results showed that the responses of seedling growth of P. koraiensis and F. mandshurica to nitrogen addition and water stress were significantly different. P. koraiensis was more sensitive to water stress. In the early stage (in 10 weeks) of water stress, leaf biomass of P. koraiensis significantly decreased while the root biomass increased. Nitrogen addition significantly reduced the root and total biomass of P. koraiensis under water stress. F. mandshurica was more sensitive to N addition. Nitrogen addition rapidly increased the stem, root and total biomass of F. mandshurica. Only sustained water stress could significantly affect the stem, root and total biomass of F. mandshurica. Under continuous water stress and N addition, the biomass contribution of leaves and roots to whole seedling, and the ratio of aboveground to underground biomass of both species tended to be constant, indicating strong self-regulation ability of both species. The results suggested that when drought occurred in the future, P. koraiensis would adopt a "positive" adjustment strategy, while F. mandshurica would adopt a "passive" response. The survival rate and adaptability of P. koraiensis would be higher than F. mandshurica. F. mandshurica would benefit more from N deposition than P. koraiensis. Our results are helpful for predicting the changes of community structure in temperate forest in Northeast China.

Objective: The accuracy of the occlusion vertical dimensions of edentulous Han patients from Yunnan province was compared and analyzed on the basis of cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT)-synthesized cephalograms, closest speaking space method, and interocclusal distance., Methods: A database correlating the CBCT head lateral images of Han patients from Yunnan province with normal occlusal conditions was first constructed. Then, five edentulous Han patients aged 63-78 years old from Yunnan Province were selected. NNT.View software was used to measure and analyze hard tissue cephalometric radiographs that had been transformed by the CBCT marker. The radiographs were then combined with the normal population database for the assessment of occlusion vertical dimensions. The occlusion vertical dimensions determined on the basis of CBCT-synthesized cephalograms, the closest speaking space method, and the free-way space were analyzed., Results: The closest speaking space method was used as the standard control group, the differences between seven methods and the closest speaking space method were analyzed. The seven methods include free-way space method and six CBCT-synthesized cephalograms methods (N-ANS/ANS-Me, S-Go/N-Me, ANS-Gn/N-ANS, ANS-FH/Me-FH, ANS-Xi-Pm, and CA/LA). The seven methods were highly consistent with the closest speaking space method (intraclass correlation coefficient>0.986). The absolute values of the differences between the methods of free-way space, N-ANS/ANS-Me, S-Go/N-Me and the closest speaking space method were lower than those of the other four groups (P<0.05), while the differences between ANS-FH/Me-FH and the closest speaking space method was higher than those other groups (P<0.05)., Conclusions: CBCT-synthesized cephalograms, with the exception of ANS-FH/Me-FH, can provide references for the clinical evaluation of the occlusion vertical dimensions of patients with edentulous jaws.

Background: Acute exacerbation of IPF (AE-IPF) is associated with high mortality. We studied changes in pathogen involvement during AE-IPF and explored a possible role of infection in AE-IPF., Objectives: Our purpose is to investigate the role of infection in AE-IPF., Methods: Overall, we recruited 170 IPF patients (48 AE-IPF, 122 stable) and 70 controls at Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital. Specific IgM against microbial pathogens and pathogens in sputum were assessed. RNA sequences of pathogens in nasopharyngeal swab of IPF patients were detected by PathChip. A panel of serum parameters reflecting immune function were assessed., Results: Antiviral/bacterial IgM was higher in IPF vs. controls and in AE-IPF vs. stable IPF. Thirty-eight different bacterial strains were detected in IPF patient sputum. Bacteria-positive results were found in 9/48 (18.8%) of AE-IPF and in 26/122 (21.3%) stable IPF. Fifty-seven different viruses were detected in nasopharyngeal swabs of IPF patients. Virus-positive nasopharyngeal swabs were found in 18/30 (60%) of tested AE-IPF and in 13/30 (43.3%) of stable IPF. AE-IPF showed increased inflammatory cytokines (IL-6, IFN- γ , MIG, IL-17, and IL-9) vs. stable IPF and controls. Mortality of AE-IPF in one year (39.5%) was higher compared to stable IPF (28.7%) .Conclusions . IPF patients had different colonization with pathogens in sputum and nasopharyngeal swabs; they also displayed abnormally activated immune response, which was exacerbated during AE-IPF.

Background: Because the prevalence of connective tissue disease (CTD)-associated interstitial lung disease (ILD; CTD-ILD) in China is unknown, we wanted to analyze the clinical characteristics of this disease in Chinese patients., Methods: The medical records of patients who received a diagnosis of ILD and treated in Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital from January 1999 to January 2013 were reviewed. Based on the records, patients who also received a diagnosis of CTD were identified, and their records of follow-up examinations for a minimum of 12 months until the end of December 2013 were reviewed., Results: Of the 2,678 patients who received a diagnosis of ILD, 1,798 (67%) were identified as having CTD-ILD; 299 (11.2%) had idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Complete clinical data were available for 1,044 patients with CTD-ILD and 178 with IPF. We found that 332 of the 1,044 patients with CTD-ILD (32%) did not receive an accurate diagnosis at the initial hospital admission, 195 (18.7%) of the 1,044 patients showed persistent negative test results for autoantibodies, and 262 (25.1%) of the 1,044 patients had negative autoantibodies at the initial hospital admission and then became positive at follow-up examinations. Of the 288 patients who had confirmed CTD-ILD, 41 (14%) showed pulmonary symptoms as the initial clinical manifestation (PSIM) and 247 (86%) showed extrapulmonary symptoms as the initial clinical manifestation (EPSIM). For the 756 patients who had undifferentiated CTD-ILD, the proportion of PSIM and EPSIM was 44% and 56%, respectively. For patients who presented with PSIM, 23 who had confirmed CTD-ILD (56%) and 216 who had unconfirmed CTD-ILD (65%) did not receive an accurate diagnosis at the initial visit but were ultimately diagnosed at subsequent follow-up examinations., Conclusions: Patients with CTD-ILD do not receive an accurate diagnosis at the initial hospital admission possibly because of negative serologic test results for autoantibodies and the absence of obvious extrapulmonary symptoms. Thus, patients with ILD should be examined for extrapulmonary symptoms and tested for autoantibodies at follow-up examinations., (Copyright © 2016 American College of Chest Physicians. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: The value of percutaneous transluminal angioplasty and stenting (PTAS) in the context of aggressive medical treatment for severe intracranial artery stenosis (ICAS) is under debate. This study compared the effects of PTAS and aggressive medical treatment in patients with severe ICAS and transient ischemic attack or stroke., Material and Methods: A retrospective cohort study was performed. Patients with severe ICAS were assigned to a PTAS group or aggressive medical treatment group, according to the angiographic features of the stenotic lesions. The primary outcome was defined as stroke or death within 30 days or cerebral ischemia occurring ipsilaterally to the qualifying artery beyond 30 days., Results: We included 220 patients: 48 in the PTAS group and 172 in the medical group. The median follow-up was 32 months. PTAS was not associated with an increased incidence of the primary outcomes (10/42 vs. 39/172, p=0.96) or increased risks of the secondary outcomes of stroke, cardiovascular events, major bleeding, or mortality. The results of log-rank tests did not support a significant difference in event-free survival as a primary outcome between the 2 groups (chi-square=0.07, p=0.79). Moreover, although not significantly greater, the mean survival of patients in the PTAS group appeared to be better than that among patients in the medical group, as indicated by the curve for cumulative survival., Conclusions: A suitable PTAS procedure is safe for patients with severe ICAS, and no significant differences in incidence of recurrent stroke or death were found between PTAS and aggressive medication treatment.

The Box-Jenkins approach was used to fit an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model to the incidence of hemorrhagic fever with renal Syndrome (HFRS) in China during 1986-2009. The ARIMA (0, 1, 1) × (2, 1, 0)(12) models fitted exactly with the number of cases during January 1986-December 2009. The fitted model was then used to predict HFRS incidence during 2010, and the number of cases during January-December 2010 fell within the model's confidence interval for the predicted number of cases in 2010. This finding suggests that the ARIMA model fits the fluctuations in HFRS frequency and it can be used for future forecasting when applied to HFRS prevention and control.