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Groundwater exploitations in semi‐arid regions result in significant declines of groundwater levels and streamflow and even trigger seasonal streamflow drying up, which may bring adverse impacts on riparian ecosystems. It is critical to explore future streamflow changes caused by variable climate scenarios and groundwater exploitation intensities; however, a comprehensive assessment of the streamflow drying up frequency remains lacking. Furthermore, the thresholds of controlling factors beyond which streamflow drying up occurs have rarely been explored. Here we develop an integrated surface water‐groundwater model for the Taoer River Basin (TRB), a typical semi‐arid watershed in northeast China. We apply the model to multiple future scenarios to reveal the frequency of potential streamflow drying up and explore the thresholds of controlling factors of streamflow drying up based on a decision tree method. We find that the groundwater level in the lower region of the TRB (LTRB) is hard to recover to the riverbed elevation and the streamflow drying up frequency is still high unless the groundwater exploitation is reduced by 50%. However, this leads to a competition between the ecological and economic objectives. Our results also show that the streamflow drying up frequency in the LTRB is very sensitive to the upstream water inflow that can be regulated through the reservoir operation or inter‐basin water diversion, indicating the importance of a basin scale strategic management. The findings of this paper can help policy makers sustainably exploit water resources in semi‐arid regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Swan Islet, located in the old course of the Yangzi River in Shishou, Hubei, central China, was chosen as a nature reserve first to conserve milu 麋鹿 (Père David's deer) in 1987 and white-fin dolphins 白鱀豚 in 1992. The local government then built dikes to protect this area from the annual high water of the Yangzi River, which turned a considerable amount of riverside wasteland into reclaimable land attractive to the local farmers. At the same time, more land was needed to feed the fast-growing herds of milu. In the river, dolphins and fisherfolk compete for resources. Different interests have caused conflicts between the government, farmers, and fisherfolk. Conflicts between governmental bureaus has made things even more complicated. With the increasing appeal of wetland preservation, the local government added wetland preservation to its agenda and applied for financial support from upper-level governments. Attempting to lure tourists with milu—a "national treasure"—and original wetlands, the local government is hoping to promote eco-tourism and eventually to boost local economic growth, all in the name of protecting the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses different perspectives regarding the ownership of land on the Jianghan Plain of China. The author discusses how Chinese leader Mao Zedong used the uneven distribution of land between landlords and peasants as a rationale for land reforms enacted by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and notes objections by some scholars to CCP propaganda regarding inequalities in land ownership. He notes surveys which indicate that over half of rural households on the Jianghan Plain owned land and reveal different classifications for the social classes of peasants.

This study evaluated and intercompared seven near-real-time (NRT) versions of satellite-based precipitation products (SPPs) with latencies of less than one day, including GSMaP-NRT, GSMaP-Gauge-NRT, GSMaP-NOW, IMERG-Early, IMERG-Late, TMPA 3B42RT, and PERSIANN-CCS for wet seasons from 2008 to 2019 in a typical middle–high latitude temperate monsoon climate basin, namely, the Nierji Basin in China, in four aspects: flood sub-seasons, rainfall intensities, precipitation events, and hydrological utility. Our evaluation shows that the cell-scale and area-scale intercomparison ranks of NRT SPPs are similar in these four aspects. The performances of SPPs at the areal scale, at the event scale, and with light magnitude are better than those at the cell scale, at the daily scale, and with heavy magnitude, respectively. Most SPPs are similar in terms of their Pearson Correlation Coefficient (CC). The main difference between SPPs is in terms of their root-mean-square error (RMSE). The worse performances of TMPA 3B42RT are mainly caused by the poor performances during main flood seasons. The worst performances of PERSIANN-CCS are primarily reflected by the lowest CC and the underestimation of precipitation. Though GSMaP-NOW has the highest RMSE and overestimates precipitation, it can reflect the precipitation variation, as indicated by the relatively high CC. The differences among SPPs are more significant in pre-flood seasons and less significant in post-flood seasons. These results can provide valuable guidelines for the selection, correction, and application of NRT SPPs and contribute to improved insight into NRT-SPP retrieval algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The parasitic nematode Haemonchus contortus is economically an important parasite of small ruminants across the globe. China is the world's largest producer, consumer, and importer of mutton. With ubiquitous distribution across the country H. contortus is one of the potential candidates to cause huge economic losses to small ruminant farming industry in China. We herein investigated genetic diversity and population structure of six farm populations of H. contortus in northern China, and also compared them to H. contortus isolates from UK and Australia. We first prepared individual DNA samples from 240 adult worms, and generated genotyping data using eight microsatellite markers. Obtained data was then subjected to allelic frequency and population genetic analyses. The overall allelic richness (mean/locus/pop = 7.375 ± 0.844–10.125 ± 1.109), and expected heterozygosity (mean/locus/pop = 0.646 ± 0.040–0.735 ± 0.025) indicated high degree of population genetic variation across the Chinese isolates. Low level of genetic differentiation (Fst = 0.010–0.066) was observed across all the populations. AMOVA results showed high level of variation (93%) within the populations. PCA analysis revealed mixed clustering of all the populations with no visible geographical sub-structuring. Finally the population admixture analysis resulted in extensive admixing of genotypes across all the populations. With these findings we conclude that there is no obvious population genetic structure with extensive gene flow across all the farm populations of H. contortus in northern China. • Investigation of genetic diversity and population structure of Haemonchus contortus farm populations in northern China • There was an extensive gene flow among all the populations. • There was no population sub-structuring, and the geographically distinct populations were not genetically distinct. • Chinese farm isolates of H. contortus were found sharing genotypes locally as well as globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Backgrounds: Frequent hospitalization and the costs of hospitalization are the main burdens in China for patients with acute pancreatitis. Most admitted patients have mild disease conditions that do not require hospitalization., Aims: Here, we compare some health and economic aspects of patients with mild acute pancreatitis who received nurse-led care at home visits against those who were hospitalized on follow-up., Methods: Patients discharged from the hospital after treatment for mild acute pancreatitis received (NC cohort, n = 104) or did not receive (HN cohort, n = 141) regular home visits by nurses for treatment and care. Patients were rehospitalized by caregivers with or without help of nurse., Results: Hospital readmission events occurred in both cohorts at a follow-up care time of 2 months. Compared with the time of discharge from the hospital, unwanted effects were higher in follow-up care in all patients (p < 0.001 for all). Patients in the NC cohort had less time to resolution of pain, less time to resumption of oral solid food intake, smaller number of patients with hospital readmissions, less average time of hospitalization, lower cost of care, and lower occurrence of unwanted effects than those of patients in the HN cohort during 2 months of follow-up care (p < 0.05 for all)., Conclusions: Patients with mild acute pancreatitis who undergo treatment require nurse-led nontreatment intervention(s) for rehabilitation in follow-up. Nurse-led follow-up care at-home visits increase recovery, are beneficial and cost-effective, and decrease unwanted adverse effects in patients receiving treatment for mild acute pancreatitis., Level of Evidence: IV., Technical Efficacy: Stage 5., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Antiangiogenic tyrosine kinase inhibitors (AA-TKIs) have become a promising therapeutic strategy for colorectal cancer (CRC). In clinical practice, a significant proportion of cancer patients temporarily discontinue AA-TKI treatment due to recurrent toxicities, economic burden or acquired resistance. However, AA-TKI therapy withdrawal-induced tumour revascularization frequently occurs, hampering the clinical application of AA-TKIs. Here, this study demonstrates that tumour perivascular cells mediate tumour revascularization after withdrawal of AA-TKI therapy. Pharmacological inhibition and genetic ablation of perivascular cells largely attenuate the rebound effect of CRC vascularization in the AA-TKI cessation experimental settings. Mechanistically, tumour perivascular cell-derived extracellular vehicles (TPC-EVs) contain Gas6 that instigates the recruitment of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) for tumour revascularization via activating the Axl pathway. Gas6 silence and an Axl inhibitor markedly inhibit tumour revascularization by impairing EPC recruitment. Consequently, combination therapy of regorafenib with the Axl inhibitor improves overall survival in mice metastatic CRC model by inhibiting tumour growth. Together, these data shed new mechanistic insights into perivascular cells in off-AA-TKI-induced tumour revascularization and indicate that blocking the Axl signalling may provide an attractive anticancer approach for sustaining long-lasting angiostatic effects to improve the therapeutic outcomes of antiangiogenic drugs in CRC., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2021 The Authors. Journal of Extracellular Vesicles published by Wiley Periodicals, LLC on behalf of the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles.)