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In the granite regions of southern China, benggang poses a substantial threat to the ecological environment due to significant soil erosion. This phenomenon also imposes constraints on economic development, necessitating substantial investments in restoration efforts in recent decades. Despite these efforts, there remains a notable gap in comprehensive risk assessment that integrates both the erosion risk and disaster risk associated with benggang. This study focuses on a representative benggang area in Wuhua County, Guangdong province, employing transformer methods and high-resolution imagery to map the spatial pattern of the benggang. The integrated risk of benggang was assessed by combining soil-erosion risk and disaster risk, and cultivated land, residential land, and water bodies were identified as key disaster-affected entities. The machine-learning Segformer model demonstrated high precision, achieving an Intersection over Union (IoU) of 93.17% and an accuracy (Acc) of 96.73%. While the number of large benggang is relatively small, it constitutes the largest area proportion (65.10%); the number of small benggang is more significant (62.40%) despite a smaller area proportion. Prioritization for benggang management is categorized into high, medium, and low priority, accounting for 17.98%, 48.34%, and 33.69%, respectively. These priorities cover areas of 30.27%, 42.40%, and 27.33%, respectively. The findings of this study, which offer benggang management priorities, align with the nature-based solutions approach. Emphasizing the importance of considering costs and benefits comprehensively when formulating treatment plans, this approach contributes to sustainable solutions for addressing the challenges posed by benggang. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the capability of multiplexing thousands of sensors on a single optical cable, ultra-weak fiber Bragg grating (UWFBG) vibration sensing technology has been utilized in monitoring the vibration response of large-scale infrastructures, particularly urban railway tracks, and the volume of the collected monitoring data can be huge with the great number of sensors. Even though the train-induced vibration responses of urban railway tracks constitute the most informative and crucial component, they comprised less than 7% of the total operational period. This is mainly attributed to the temporal sparsity of commuting trains. Consequently, the majority of the stored data consisted of low-informative environmental noise and interference excitation data, leading to an inefficient structural health monitoring (SHM) system. To address this issue, this paper introduced an adaptive monitoring strategy for railway track structures, which is capable of identifying train-load patterns by leveraging deep learning techniques. Inspired by image semantic segmentation, a U-net model with one-dimensional convolution layers (U-net-1D) was developed for the pointwise classification of vibration monitoring data. The proposed model was trained and validated using a dataset obtained from an actual urban railway track in China. Results indicated that the proposed method outperforms the traditional dual-threshold method, achieving an Intersection over Union (IoU) of 94.27% on the segmentation task of the test dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The chestnut is widely cultivated fruit tree enriched with nutrients and has pleasant tasting fruit. The starch properties of kernels greatly influence the nutritional quality of chestnuts. Although various studies have examined the production and accumulation of starch in chestnuts, the transcription alteration linked with starch properties in the kernels has not yet been fully assessed. The present study was conducted to compare transcriptomic variation and starch profiling of three chestnut cultivars: "Garrone rosso" (eur), Castanea sativa Mill., native to Europe; "Dahongpao" (dhp) and "Jiandingyouli" (jdy), and Castanea mollissima Bl., native to China. The results revealed that "dhp" and "jdy" had higher amylose, amylopectin and total starch content than "eur". Based on transcriptome data, we screened 63.17G clean bases, and detected numerous differentially expressed genes (DEGs) that were associated with starch and sucrose metabolism. Through the combined transcriptomic and starch profiling analysis showed that DEGs in "the starch and sucrose metabolism", "bZIP transcriptional factors", and "zinc finger protein" pathways were positively correlated with starch accumulation, genes encoding sucrose synthase (CMHBY215664 and CMHBY203813), USPase (CMHBY206855), and PGI (CMHBY200699) were found to participate in the biosynthesis, transport, and regulation of starch according to their expression patterns in chestnut kernels. Furthermore, genes encoding different transcription factors (ERF, bZIP, MYB, and WRKY) that potentially regulate the expression of genes involved in starch and sucrose metabolism were selected by coexpression analysis, which highlighted that most MYB and WRKY TF members were positively correlated with starch synthase (SS). qRT-PCR assay results of nine selected DEGs confirmed the accuracy of the RNA-Seq data. Our results provide insights into genetic resources for deciphering the molecular mechanisms of chestnut starch accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we introduce our project on Dunhuang cultural heritage protection using artificial intelligence. The Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes in China, also known as the Grottoes of the Thousand Buddhas, is a religious and cultural heritage located on the Silk Road. The grottoes were built from the 4th century to the 14th century. After thousands of years, the in grottoes decaying is serious. In addition, numerous historical records were destroyed throughout the years, making it difficult for archaeologists to reconstruct history. We aim to use modern computer vision and machine learning technologies to solve such challenges. First, we propose to use deep networks to automatically perform the restoration. Through out experiments, we find the automated restoration can provide comparable quality as those manually restored from an archaeologist. This can significantly speed up the restoration given the enormous size of the historical paintings. Second, we propose to use detection and retrieval for further analyzing the tremendously large amount of objects because it is unreasonable to manually label and analyze them. Several state-of-the-art methods are rigorously tested and quantitatively compared in different criteria and categorically. In this work, we created a new dataset, namely, AI for Dunhuang, to facilitate the research. Version v1.0 of the dataset comprises of data and label for the restoration, style transfer, detection, and retrieval. Specifically, the dataset has 10,000 images for restoration, 3455 for style transfer, and 6147 for property retrieval. Lastly, we propose to use style transfer to link and analyze the styles over time, given that the grottoes were build over 1000 years by numerous artists. This enables the possibly to analyze and study the art styles over 1000 years and further enable future researches on cross-era style analysis. We benchmark representative methods and conduct a comparative study on the results for our solution. The dataset will be publicly available along with this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Most management methods for poultry farming currently rely on human labor. Such management is labor-intensive and inefficient, especially in identifying poultry growth stages. Given the lack of a high-precision artificial method for chick's day-age detection, a high-performance day-age classification and detection model for chicks was proposed based on artificial intelligent techniques. This method can detect and classify chicks in six different living stages from 1 to 32 day-ages, and the accuracy is 95.2%, superior to other current ones. In order to apply this method in practical scenarios, it has been deployed into an application based on the IOS system, which can recoganize the day-age of chicks by capturing real-time photos. The system is currently deployed in Rizhao City, Shandong Province, China. It helps chicken farm staff automatically detect the behavior of chickens, whose excellent working effect proves the robust availibility of the proposed method. Thanks to the boom of computer vision techniques and artificial intelligence algorithms, it is more available to achieve artificial rearing for animals in real production scenarios. Improving the accuracy of chicken day-age detection is one of the instances, which is of great importance for chicken rearing. To solve this problem, we proposed an attention encoder structure to extract chicken image features, trying to improve the detection accuracy. To cope with the imbalance of the dataset, various data enhancement schemes such as Cutout, CutMix, and MixUp were proposed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed attention encoder. This paper put the structure into various mainstream CNN networks for comparison and multiple ablation experiments. The final experimental results show that by applying the attention encoder structure, ResNet-50 can improve the accuracy of chicken age detection to 95.2%. Finally, this paper also designed a complete image acquisition system for chicken houses and a detection application configured for mobile devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contraindications for surgery: Surgery is contraindicated in patients to whom general contraindications for surgery apply, inactive asymptomatic cysts, difficult to access cysts, and very small cysts. Inclusion criteria: (1) patients with hepatic cystic echinococcosis who are able to tolerate surgery and routinely undergo open abdomen surgical treatment;(2) the case data is complete, and no important data is missing. Exclusion criteria: (1) patients with hepatic cystic echinococcosis who underwent emergency surgery (most of whom had hydatid complications, such as rupture);(2) patients who underwent surgery at other sites except for liver hydatid;(3) Laparoscopic treatment cases; (4) abnormal discharge patients. [Extracted from the article]

Chinese chestnut is a popular fruit tree with a high nutritional value of its nuts, which can suffer from infestation by the chestnut gall wasp Dryocosmus kuriphilus (GWDK) that results in gall formation and resultant loss of production and profitability. The physiological and molecular mechanisms of GWDK resistance found in certain genotypes currently remains elusive. To gain new insights into this phenomenon, a series of RNA-Seq integrated with metabolomic profiling experiments were executed to investigate the chemical and transcriptional differences in response to GWDK infestation in two contrasting chestnut varieties grown in China (the susceptible "HongLi," HL and the partially resistant "Shuhe_Wuyingli," SW). Three time points were selected for comparison: The initiation stage (A), growth stage (B), and maturation stage (C). Results showed that concentrations of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and the activities of peroxidase (POD) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzyme were elevated in the resistant SW leaves compared with those in HL leaves at all three developmental stages, while catalase (CAT) and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) activities were mostly higher in HL leaves. RNA-Seq transcriptomic analyses of HL and SW leaves revealed that various metabolic pathways involved in GWDK stress responses, such as plant hormone signal transduction, MAPK signaling, and the peroxisome pathway, were enriched in the contrasting samples. Moreover, the weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) of differentially expressed genes in the POD pathway combined with transcription factors (TFs) indicated that the expression of TF members of bHLH, WRKY, NAC, and MYB family positively correlated with POD pathway gene expression. The TFs CmbHLH130 (EVM0032437) , CmWRKY31 (EVM0017000) , CmNAC50 (EVM0000033) , and CmPHL12 (EVM0007330) were identified as putative TFs that participate in the regulation of insect-induced plant enzyme activities in chestnut, which may contribute to GWDK resistance in SW. Expression levels of 8 random differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were furthermore selected to perform quantitative reverse transcription PCR (qRT-PCR) to validate the accuracy of the RNA-Seq-derived expression patterns. This study guides the functional analyses of further candidate genes and mechanisms important for GWDK resistance in chestnuts in the future as well as can help in identifying the master transcriptional regulators and important enzyme steps that support major insect defense pathways in chestnut. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Wilson's disease (WD) is an autosomal recessive disorder of copper metabolism caused by ATP7B (encoding a copper-transporting P-type ATPase) variants that shows various characteristics according to race and geographical region. This study was aimed to provide a comprehensive analysis of ATP7B variants in China and to investigate a plausible role of common variants in WD manifestations. Methods: A total of 1366 patients (1302 index patients and 64 siblings) clinically diagnosed with WD (Leipzig score ≥ 4) were recruited. They underwent ATP7B gene sequencing and information of age and symptoms at onset was collected. The genotype–phenotype correlation was assessed in the index patients who were examined with two pathogenic variants and onset with hepatic (n = 276) or neurologic (n = 665) symptoms. Results: We identified 294 potentially pathogenic ATP7B variants (112 truncating, 174 missense, 8 in-frame) in the 1302 index patients, including 116 novel variants. The most frequent variant was c.2333G>T (R778L, allele frequency: 28.96%), followed by c.2975C>T (P992L, 13.82%), c.2621C>T (A874V, 5.99%), c.2755C>G (R919G, 2.46%), and c.3646G>A (V1216M, 1.92%). In 1167 patients, both pathogentic variants were identified, of which 532 different variant combinations were found. By binary logistic regression analysis, the factor associated with neurological presentation was high age-at-onset, but not sex, protein-truncating variant (PTV), or the common missense variants (R778L, P992L, and A874V). In the neurological group, low age-at-onset was a factor associated with dystonia, gait abnormality, and salivation; high age-at-onset was a factor associated with tremor; and the sex, low age-at-onset and A874V were independent factors associated with dysarthria. In addition, PTV, R778L, and P992L were predominant in early-onset patients, whereas A874V was predominant in late-onset patients, and patients with R778L/A874V genotype displayed a higher age-at-onset than patients with R778L/R778L or R778L/P992L genotype. Conclusions: Our work expanded the ATP7B variant spectrum and highlighted the differences among patients with WD in age-at-onset and ATP7B variants, which may provide some valuable insights into the diagnosis, counseling, and treatment of patients with WD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Human cystic echinococcosis (CE) is one of the commonest zoonoses, and it is endemic in many parts of the world including China. Complications and recurrences after the surgical treatment of hepatic CE (HCE) incur a large personal, healthcare, and societal burden. There has been some progress in HCE prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, but there is no "one size fits all" approach, and surgery still remains the cornerstone of treatment for some cyst stages and locations or in areas with little knowledge or access to other treatment modalities. In 2009 we designed and implemented a program to improve surgical outcomes from HCE in Xinjiang province, China. Methodology/Principal findings: A multimodal HCE training program was implemented in eleven primary hospitals in Xinjiang province, China, which provided education and training on HCE clinical knowledge and practice, the application of diagnostic and treatment options, and optimal surgery. The management of HCE cases was analyzed before and after program implementation. Contrast enhanced CT use, application of scoloicidal agents, removal of necrotic cyst wall remnants, appropriate perioperative drug use, and the use of optimal surgical approach increased after program implementation. Further, postoperative recurrences and residual cavity complications creased from 7.4% to 1.3% and 15.2% to 9.0% after program implementation, respectively. Conclusions/Significance: Tis integrated surgical training program is useful for improving outcomes of patients with HCE and can be used in institutions in other endemic areas. Author summary: Hepatic cystic echinococcosis (HCE) is an endemic and neglected global disease. Many deprived areas in China still lack the knowledge and expertise to successfully treat HCE surgically, which results in high postoperative complication and recurrence rates that further decrease postoperative quality of life. In this study, we aimed to transfer our extensive experience in the development and implementation of effective surgery for HCE to eleven hospitals in the Echinococcus granulosus endemic province of Xinjiang to improve the surgical treatment of HCE. Our results indicate that our training program effectively reduces recurrence and complication rates and will be of use in other endemic areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regulation of plant population density is crucial for optimizing cotton fiber quality. However, the relationship between plant density and fiber quality stability under contrasting climatic conditions remains unclear, and the compromise between fiber quality and temporal stability is unknown. In this study, based on a long-term field experiment with various plant densities (1.5–10.5 plants m–2) conducted from 2008 to 2021, cotton fiber quality variability, including fiber length, fiber strength, elongation, uniformity index, and micronaire, and their temporal stability, were evaluated. We determined the optimal plant density for cotton cultivation and elucidated the contributions of plant density and climatic conditions to the variability of cotton fiber quality and its temporal stability in China's Yellow River Valley. The results revealed that cotton maintained its upper-intermediate quality throughout the study period, with fiber length, strength, elongation, uniformity index, and micronaire values ranging between 28.04 and 30.03 mm, 26.15–30.05 cN tex–1, 5.90–6.83%, 83.85–85.44%, and 4.24–5.14, respectively. An increase in plant density improved fiber quality but impaired temporal stability (P < 0.01), and slight increases in stability at lower plant densities resulted in substantially decreased probabilities of years with major declines in fiber quality class. Plant density and climatic conditions regulated the quality traits (23.5% and 69.3% of the explained variance, respectively), including fiber length, fiber strength, and micronaire, while climate was the most important factor (75.9% of the explained variance) in determining their temporal stability. Photosynthetically active radiation and maximum and mean temperature exhibited significant positive effects on fiber quality, whereas mean diurnal temperature range had the opposite effect. A plant density of 3.3–5.1 plants m–2 ensures the highest temporal stability of cotton fiber quality without declines in the fiber quality class. This study first provides insights into balancing cotton fiber quality and temporal stability through agronomic interventions, with implications for the quantitative prediction of future crop quality changes owing to climatic variation. • Plant density and weather changes explain 23.5% and 69.3% of fiber quality variance. • Temporal stability of fiber quality was primarily affected by climatic variation. • Plant density had the opposite effect on fiber quality and temporal stability. • Small increases in stability reduced the probability of fiber quality decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laguncularia racemosa (L.) C.F. Gaertn is a controversial species in China, in terms of being a pioneer species for mangrove restoration and a putative invasive species occupying natural habitats. The tolerance to chilling stress allows L. racemosa to adapt to extreme climate change. However, little is known about the molecular-level chilling resistance mechanisms in L. racemosa, which restricts our understanding of its biological features and invasion potential. In this study, L. racemosa seedlings were treated with freezing temperature (0 °C) at four durations (0 h, 3 h, 12 h and 24 h of recovery after treatment), and both physiological and transcriptional regulations underlying chilling stress resistance were investigated. Chilling stress caused damage to the cell membrane system and reduced photosynthesis efficiency of L. racemosa seedlings. To combat the adverse impacts, plasma membrane biosynthesis and antioxidant processes were substantially enhanced. After 24 h of recovery, the seedlings nearly recovered to normal growth condition, except for the processes related to photosynthesis, indicating their vigorous adaptation to short-term chilling stress. Importantly, the individuals from higher latitude displayed better adaptation to chilling injury than those from lower latitude, highlighting the role of long-term heredity × environment interactions in promoting the chilling resistance capacity of L. racemosa. These features allow L. racemosa to survive in extremely cold weather, but may also increase its risk of invasion into intertidal ecosystems. Together, our findings present a comprehensive view of the chilling-adaptative mechanisms of L. racemosa, which provide clues for better evaluating the invasive potential of L. racemosa. • Chilling stress caused damage to cell membrane and photosynthesis of L. racemosa. • Lipid biosynthesis and antioxidant process were enhanced to cope with chilling damage. • L. racemosa exhibits a good recovery capacity under short-term chilling stress. • Different resistances in plants of different latitudes reflect phenotype plasticity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the reform of China's electricity market, the cascade hydropower plants' participation in the portfolio electricity market is an effective way to improve power generation profits and avoid risks. Hence, an optimized scheduling model for cascade hydropower plants simultaneously participating in both the daily contract market and the day-ahead spot market is developed. The dynamic water delay between the cascade hydropower plants, the uncertainty of the day-ahead market clearing price and the operating constraints of individual units are considered to make the model more realistic. To improve the solution efficiency, several linearization approaches are proposed to convert the original model into a scenario-based MILP problem, which can be solved by the efficient solver. The real-world case studies demonstrate that the developed model ensures appreciable power generation benefits while keeping the cascade hydropower plants in safe and stable operation. Moreover, compared with other water delay time formulations which we consider to be the most advanced in previous literature, the scheduling plan obtained from the proposed model is more realistic and computationally efficient. The impact of the penalty coefficient for the contract electricity imbalance is also analyzed, which can provide effective references for the market operators when formulating electricity trading rules. • Optimal scheduling of cascade hydropower plants participating in portfolio electricity markets is studied. • The dynamic water delay between cascade hydropower plants is well considered. • The MILP approach is employed to deal with the nonlinear and nonconcave model. • The generation scheduling plan obtained from the developed model is more accurate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crop residue retention has been established as an effective conservation tillage practice for decreasing nitrogen (N) runoff losses and increasing crop production. However, the impacts on N runoff losses from annual rice-wheat rotation are not well understood, which has prevented identification of optimal straw retention practice. Herein, N dynamics and losses in the runoff, crop yields, and soil properties were assessed for two years in a rice-wheat system after implementing straw return for five consecutive years. The field experiment included six treatments—N1, WN1, RN1: recommended N application with no straw, wheat straw, and rice straw return, respectively; and SN0, SN1, and SN2: both wheat and rice straw return with zero, recommended, and custom N addition, respectively. The results showed that NH 4 +-N and NO 3 --N were the major forms of N loads discharged during the rice and wheat season, respectively. The total N loss (TN, P < 0.001) and mean annual crop yield (rice and wheat, P < 0.01) significantly increased as the N fertilizer rate increased. With respect to crop residue retention modes, the cumulative TN loss and mean annual crop yield trends were: N1 > RN1 >WN1 >SN1 (P < 0.05) and SN1 ≥RN1 >WN1 ≈N1 (P < 0.05), respectively. During a one-year rice-wheat rotation cycle, the treatments with simultaneous incorporation of crop residue and N fertilizer reduced N runoff loss by 2.7–20.9% (P < 0.05) and increased crop yield by 8.7–16.9% (P < 0.05), of which the SN1 treatment was found to be the most effective. The straw-induced reducing effect occurred only during the base and tiller fertilization stages of the rice growing period, which was primarily regulated by soil inorganic nitrogen (SIN), soil organic carbon (SOC), and pH during the rice tiller stage. Our findings indicate that straw return decreases N runoff loss by mediating factors in soil and standing water. In order to reduce N runoff loss without jeopardizing crop yield, the practice of double seasons straw retention with recommended N application (SN1) is suggested in the rice-wheat rotation cropping system in southern China. • Five-year straw retention significantly reduced N runoff losses and increased crop yield in the rice-wheat rotation system. • More than half of the N runoff was lost as NH 4 +-N during the rice season and NO 3 --N during the wheat season. • The straw-induced nitrogen loss decreasing effect occurred during the base and tiller fertilization stages of rice growth. • During the rice tillering stage, soil inorganic N, SOC, and pH were responsible for the straw-induced N loss reducing effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is the largest power producer and consumer and has the largest installed capacity of wind turbines (WTs) worldwide. In the last two decades, China's installed capacity of WTs has exploded, significantly impacting its wind power (WP) industry and promoting the development of the industry globally. This paper examines China as one part of the world and elucidates its role, status, and impact on global WP development from a global perspective. Research indicates that China has become the global leader in WP, its WP development has greatly promoted the growth rate of global WP, and it has become an indispensable force in global WP development. However, the comprehensive capability of China's WP generation is not only lower than that of other major WP countries but also lower than the global average. China's WTs have low global recognition and are difficult to export. In addition, the proportion of WP in China's power structure is lower than that of most other major WP countries. Fortunately, these gaps between China and other major WP countries are gradually narrowing. The goal of this paper is to help researchers and investors better understand China's situation and to provide a reference for the rational investment in and development of China's WP. • China has become a global wind power leader, but only in the installed capacity. • China's wind turbines have low recognition in global, and difficult to export. • Comprehensive capability of China's wind power is lower than that of global average. • Currently, China's wind power mainly wins in terms of quantity rather than quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to use a computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system based on the Thyroid Imaging, Reporting, and Data System (TI-RADS) to improve the diagnostic performance of thyroid cancer by analyzing clinical ultrasound imaging data. A retrospective diagnostic study of ultrasound image sets was conducted at five hospitals in China. A CAD system based on TI-RADS was applied in this study, and the diagnostic performance of CAD system was tested through multi-center data. The performance of the CAD system was compared with the consensus of three experienced radiologists. The interobserver agreement for cancer diagnosis was calculated between the CAD system and the consensus of the three experienced radiologists. The CAD system performed well in the diagnosis of thyroid cancer, with an area under the curve (AUC) value of 0.902 (95% CI: 0.884–0.918), and obtained results similar to those of the three experienced radiologists. The CAD system performed better in the internal test set than in the external test set (AUC: 0.930 vs 0.877, respectively). The performance of the CAD system in the diagnosis of thyroid cancer for nodules of different sizes (<1 cm, 1–2 cm and ≥2 cm) was basically similar (accuracy: 84.6% vs 85% vs 84.2%). The CAD system can recognize 15 ultrasound features of thyroid nodules, most of which reached the level of 3 experienced radiologists (12/15, 85%). The CAD system achieved an improved AUC and similar sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of thyroid cancer compared with the consensus of experienced radiologists. • The TI-RADS-based CAD system performed better than three experienced radiologists in the diagnosis of thyroid cancer. • The diagnostic performance of the CAD system in the internal set was higher than that in the external set. • The diagnostic performance of the CAD system was basically the same for different sizes of thyroid nodules. • The recognition level of the CAD system to identify ultrasound features was close to that of the three experienced radiologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In recent years, the relationship between thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and obesity has been widely discussed. However, it is unclear how thyroid hormone concentrations relate to body weight and its impact on metabolic risk markers. This study aimed to assess how thyroid function is linked to underweight, overweight, or obesity, and metabolic risk markers in adults. Methods: A total of 16,975 subjects, aged 18–80 years, who attended the Health Management Center of Tongji Hospital, Wuhan, China were enrolled in this study. Anthropometric and laboratory data were collected and analyzed. Results: Serum free triiodothyronine (fT3) and fT3/free thyroxine (fT4) ratio (fT3/fT4) were positively associated with body mass index (BMI) (P < 0.001), while there was a negative relationship between fT4 and BMI (P < 0.001) according to multivariable regression analysis adjusted for age and sex. Associations between thyroid hormone concentrations and markers of blood pressure, and lipid and glucose metabolism were identified after adjustment for age, sex, and BMI, with TSH being negatively associated with fasting blood glucose (FBG). fT3 was positively associated with systolic blood pressure and low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, while fT4 was positively associated with diastolic blood pressure, FBG, and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), and negatively associated with hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) and triglyceride. Finally, fT3/fT4 was positively associated with HbA1c and triglyceride, and negatively associated with HDL-C. Conclusions: Overweight or obese participants had a high serum concentration of fT3, high fT3/fT4 ratio, and a low concentration of fT4. Underweight participants had high concentrations of fT4 and low concentrations of fT3. Thus, relationships between thyroid hormones and metabolic risk markers were identified which suggest that thyroid function might be one factor that influences body weight and the co-morbidities of obesity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The limitations of water quality management and assessment methods in China can be ascertained by comparison with other countries. However, it is unreasonable to use a uniform standard to evaluate water quality throughout China because one standard cannot fully account for the regional differences in background water quality. This study aimed to provide a basis for environmental water management decision-making. Areas seriously affected by background pollutants were identified by comparing several factors across 31 provinces in China. By coupling an improved export coefficient model (ECM) with a mechanistic model, a suitable pollutant yield coefficient was determined and its rationality was analysed. The export coefficient model was applied to estimate the pollutant (chemical oxygen demand and ammonia nitrogen) output of the basin in 2015. The spatial distribution characteristics of the pollutants were determined by simulating the pollutant outputs of 22 sub-basins and nine water function zones. For the year 2020, the simulation results of pollutant outputs far exceed the sewage discharge limit in water function zones and the pollutant concentration was much higher than the standard. Considering background pollutant outputs, more reasonable sewage discharge limit and water quality evaluation method are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, the use of certain standards to evaluate surface water quality in areas with high background values due to natural factors rather than to human activities results in water quality underestimation and thus affects regional water quality management and decision-making. Herein, we examined river source water function zones of the Heilongjang province characterised by high background values and analysed the corresponding water quality data acquired in 2011–2016. The examined samples featured elevated chemical oxygen demand (COD), permanganate index (CODMn), and ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) levels, which indicated that water quality was affected by the natural environment. The concentrations of background pollutants almost exceeded the limits stipulated by regional surface water quality standards and exhibited strong spatiotemporal variability. A three-step discrimination method including single index recognition, limiting factors, and a synthetic index was proposed to distinguish the background area among these zones for determining background values, and 10 complete background areas were identified. The background values of COD, CODMn, and NH3-N for the entire area were determined based on the data acquired during background area monitoring. Finally, considering the present procedure of water quality evaluation in China (single factor exponential method), a revised method based on background values was suggested. Thus, the evaluation results objectively and accurately reflect the regional water quality situation and therefore provide a scientific basis for the development of a better water quality assessment and management system in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil loss is an environmental concern of global importance. Accurate simulation of soil loss in small watersheds is crucial for protecting the environment and implementing soil and water conservation measures. However, predicting soil loss while meeting the criteria of high precision, efficiency, and generalizability remains a challenge. Therefore, this study first used three machine learning (ML) algorithms, namely, random forest (RF), support vector machine (SVM), and artificial neural network (ANN) to develop soil loss models and predict soil loss rates (SLRs). These soil loss models were constructed using field observation data with an average SLR of 1756.48 t/km2 from rainfall events and small watersheds in the hilly-gully region of the Loess Plateau, China. During training, testing and generalizability stages, the average coefficients of determination from the RF, SVM, and ANN models were 0.903, 0.860, and 0.836, respectively. Similarly, the average Nash-Sutcliffe coefficients of efficiency from the RF, SVM and ANN models were 0.893, 0.791 and 0.814, respectively. These results indicated that MLs have superior predictive performance and generalizability, and broad prospects for predicting SLRs. This study also demonstrated that the RF model outperformed better than the SVM and ANN models. Therefore, the RF model was used to simulate the SLR of each small watershed in the Chabagou watershed. Our results showed the four-year (2017–2020) average annual SLR of the small watersheds ranged from 0.73 to 1.63 × 104 t/(km2∙a) in the Chabagou watershed. Additionally, the results also indicated the SLR of small watersheds under the rainstorm event with a 100-year recurrence interval was 4.4–51.3 times that of other rainfall events.Furthermore, this study confirmed that bare land was the predominant source of soil loss in the Chabagou watershed, followed by cropland land and grassland. This study helps to provide the theoretical basis for deploying soil and water conservation measures to realize the sustainable utilization of soil resources in the future. [Display omitted] • Three machine learning algorithms were first used to build soil loss models. • Random forest demonstrated the most favorable performance for soil loss modeling. • Soil loss caused by rainstorms was 4.4–51.3 times that of other rainfall events. • Bare land was the predominant source of soil loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frogs are the main source of infection for human sparganosis. In this study, the prevalence and pathogenicity of plerocercoid larvae (sparganum) in frogs collected from the Yangtze River Delta in East China were investigated. A total of 386 frogs belonging to five species were purchased from farmers' markets across all three provincial level areas in the Yangtze River Delta region. The overall prevalence was 4.9% (19/386), and 39 spargana were detected visually, with the intensity ranging from 1 to 11. The spargana infection rate was 7.7% (11/143) in Jiangsu Province and 4.4% (8/181) in Shanghai City, while no spargana infection was detected in Zhejiang Province. In five tested frog species, only Rana nigromaculata and R. limnocharis were found to harbor spargana infection, with a prevalence of 7.7% (13/168) and 6.3% (6/95), respectively. There was no significant difference among the months of the experimental period, July to September. The spargana mostly parasitized the muscle tissues of frogs, especially in the hind legs. All the spargana were identified by molecular analysis based on cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (cox 1) and NADH dehydrogenase subunit 1 (nad 1) genes, and all plerocercoids were Spirometra erinaceieuropaei. Nine mice were infected orally with 1 to 3 scoleces, and 77.8% (14/18) of plerocercoids were found in mice at the 30th day post infection. No obvious clinical symptoms were observed in the mice; however, histopathological analysis showed an inflammatory cellular response in all tissues except intestinal tissue. Hematologic analysis showed an increased number of white blood cells (WBCs) at the 18th day post infection. These results indicated that R. nigromaculata and R. limnocharis are a potential source of zoonotic sparganosis in the Yangtze River Delta of China, and farmed frogs may substantially reduce zoonotic risk as compared to eating wild frogs. Our findings will provide data for frog food safety and prevention and control of sparganosis in the region. • R. nigromaculata and R. limnocharis may serve as a potential source of zoonotic sparganosis in the Yangtze River Delta region • There was no significant difference of spargana infection in frogs between the months. • All the spargana isolated from the Yangtze River Delta region belonged to S. erinaceieuropaei. • Rates of infection in farmed frogs are far lower than previous reports from wild frogs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese chestnut ( Castanea mollissima BL.) is a well-known fruit tree that has been cultivated in East Asia for millennia. Leaves and buds of the plant can become seriously infested by the gall wasp Dryocosmus kuriphilus (GWDK), which results in gall formation and associated significant losses in fruit production. Herbivore-induced terpenes have been reported to play an important role in plant-herbivory interactions, and in this study, we show that upon herbivory by GWDK, four terpene-related compounds were significantly induced, while the concentrations of these four compounds in intact buds were relatively low. Among these compounds, ( E )-nerolidol and ( E , E )-α-farnesene have frequently been reported to be involved in plant herbivory defenses, which suggests direct and/or indirect functions in chestnut GWDK defenses. Candidate terpene synthase (TPS) genes that may account for ( E )-nerolidol and ( E , E )-α-farnesene terpene biosynthesis were characterized by transcriptomics and phylogenetic approaches, which revealed altered transcript levels for two TPSs: CmAFS , a TPS-g subfamily member, and CmNES/AFS, a TPS-b clade member. Both genes were dramatically upregulated in gene expression upon GWDK infestation. Furthermore, Agrobacterium tumefaciens -mediated transient overexpression in Nicotiana benthamiana showed that CmAFS catalyzed the formation of ( E , E )-α-farnesene, while CmNES / AFS showed dual ( E )-nerolidol and ( E , E )-α-farnesene synthase activity. Biochemical assays of the recombinant CmAFS and CmNES / AFS proteins confirmed their catalytic activity in vitro, and the enzymatic products were consistent with two of the major volatile compounds released upon GWDK-infested chestnut buds. Subcellular localization demonstrated that CmAFS and CmNES / AFS were both localized in the cytoplasm, the primary compartment for sesquiterpene synthesis. In summary, we show that two novel sesquiterpene synthase genes CmAFS and CmNES/AFS are inducible by herbivory and can account for the elevated accumulation of ( E , E )-α-farnesene and ( E )-nerolidol upon GWDK infestation and may be implicated in chestnut defense against GWDK herbivores.

Background: Metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) is the most common chronic liver disease in China. Our study aimed to evaluate the screening value of the fatty liver index (FLI), hepatic steatosis index (HSI), lipid accumulation product (LAP), visceral adiposity index (VAI), and Zhejiang University index (ZJU), as well as other single indicators for MAFLD. We aimed to find the optimal screening tool and its appropriate cut-off values for rural Uyghur adults., Methods: We completed a survey of 14,321 Uyghur adults in 51 groups in Kashgar, Xinjiang, in 2016 using a typical sampling method, with 12,794 patients ultimately included in statistical analyses. Fatty liver was diagnosed using ultrasonography., Results: The prevalence of fatty liver disease (FLD) and MAFLD was 16.73% and 16.55%, respectively, and the FLI, HSI, LAP, VAI, and ZJU were all independently associated with an increased risk of MAFLD. The areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUCs) of the FLI for diagnosing MAFLD in men and women were 0.853 and 0.847, respectively. The AUCs of the body mass index (BMI) for diagnosing MAFLD in men and women were 0.850 and 0.852, respectively. Compared with other metabolic-related markers, FLI had the largest AUC. In men, the optimal cut-off values of FLI and BMI for diagnosing MAFLD were 45 (sensitivity 84.83%, specificity 69.57%) and 27.4 (sensitivity 78.47%, specificity 76.30%), respectively. In women, the optimal cut-off values of FLI and BMI for diagnosing MAFLD were 45 (sensitivity 80.11%, specificity 74.23%) and 28.0 (sensitivity 79.56%, specificity 75.41%), respectively. In men and women, an FLI score of < 30 ruled out MAFLD, while a score of ≥ 50 was a basis for diagnosis., Conclusion: FLI and BMI had good screening ability for MAFLD and were superior to HSI, LAP, VAI, and ZJU in both sexes., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the leading communicable diseases, with significant morbidity and mortality. Diabetes can increase the risk of developing TB and the related adverse outcomes. This study retrospectively analyzed the clinical characteristics and prognosis of patients with pulmonary TB and type 2 diabetes comorbidity. Methods: About 282 cases with pulmonary TB and type 2 diabetes comorbidity were identified from West China Hospital between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2016, and were followed up for at least 3 years. We further used Kaplan-Meier methods and COX regression analysis to identify the influence factors for all-cause death. Results: Compared to the survival patients, patients who died were older, exhibited significantly lower albumin and hemoglobin levels, but higher Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) score at admission, and had a lower usage rate of metformin. The all-cause mortality rates at 1 and 5 years were 5.67 and 20.59%, separately. For 1-year all-cause death, higher albumin level (HR = 0.90, 95% CI: 0.81-0.99) was the independently protective factor, but older age (HR = 1.07, 95% CI: 1.01-1.13) and CCI score ≥3 (HR = 6.77, 95% CI: 1.40-32.69) were the independent risk factors. For long-term all-cause death, higher albumin level (HR = 0.94, 95% CI: 0.88-1.00), the use of metformin (HR = 0.21, 95% CI: 0.07-0.59), insulin (HR = 0.27, 95% CI: 0.10-0.74), or sulfonylureas (HR = 0.23, 95% CI: 0.07-0.74) were the independently protective factors, but older age (HR = 1.03, 95% CI: 1.00-1.07) and CCI score ≥3 (HR = 7.15, 95% CI: 2.56-19.92) were the independent risk factors. Conclusions: The lower albumin level, older age, and CCI score ≥3 were predictors of all-cause death in patients with pulmonary TB and type 2 diabetes comorbidity. In the long run, patients who use metformin, insulin, or sulfonylureas as hypoglycemic agents may have a lower incidence of death., 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 © 2021 Zhang, Tong, Wang, Zhang, Huang, Wang, Wang and Fan.)

Abstract: The aim of this study is to evaluate the association between body mass index (BMI) and cardio-metabolic risk factors and to determine the optimal BMI cut-off values in male and female subjects in Wuhan, China.We conducted a retrospective cross-sectional analysis of 20218 adult subjects (aged 18-85 years, 12717 men of them) who had health examinations at the health management center of Tongji Hospital of Wuhan in 2017. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was preformed to calculate the odds ratios (ORs) of cardio-metabolic risk factors. Receiver operating characteristic curve was used to determine the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve and optimal cut-off values for BMI predictive of cardio-metabolic risk factors.Of the 20218 participants, the percentage of males with overweight and obesity was as twice as that of females and the prevalence of hypertension, diabetes mellitus (DM), dyslipidemia, and hyperuricemia was significantly higher in males than females (27.18% vs 17.69%, 7.88% vs 4.16%, 41.97% vs 15.20%, and 34.50% vs 9.93%, respectively). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that higher BMI was a significant risk factor for hypertension (OR:1.27, 95% confidence intervals [CI]: 1.25-1.29), DM (OR:1.25, 95% CI:1.22-1.28), dyslipidemia (OR:1.26, 95% CI:1.25-1.28), and hyperuricemia (OR:1.25, 95% CI:1.23-1.27) after adjusting for age in both sexes. But in overweight or obesity status, females had higher ORs for hypertension and DM, and lower ORs for dyslipidemia than that in males. The optimal cut-off values of BMI for the presence of cardio-metabolic risk factors were among 24.25 to 25.35 kg/m2 in males, which were higher than in females among 22.85 to 23.45 kg/m2.The association between BMI and cardio-metabolic risk factors is different by gender. It is necessary to determine appropriate threshold for overweight status in men and women separately., Competing Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose., (Copyright © 2021 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

Paraneoplastic autoimmune multiorgan syndrome is a complex and deadly disease. We retrospectively reviewed the clinical features and risk factors for paraneoplastic autoimmune multiorgan syndrome in 145 Chinese patients. The most common neoplasm was Castleman disease (56%), and patients with Castleman disease tended to be younger (≤ 42 years old: 83% vs. 29%) and to have a greater proportions of lichen planus-like lesions (47% vs. 27%) and bronchiolitis obliterans (49% vs. 29%), compared to other neoplasm-associated patients. Among all 145 patients in the study, the survival rates were 84% at 1 year, 65% at 3 years, and 54% at 5 years. Kaplan-Meier curve analysis revealed that mortality was associated with older age (> 42 years), neoplasm type, labial lesions, and larger skin lesion area (> 17.5% of the body surface area). However, only older age and larger skin lesion area were independent factors associated with mortality in multivariate analysis. We suggest that patients with Castleman disease and paraneoplastic autoimmune multiorgan syndrome have many unique characteristics and the underlying risk factors for death require further exploration.

Heavy background pollutant loads pose a difficult problem for the assessment and management of regional water quality, especially in areas where surface water quality is less affected by anthropogenic pollution. Deducting background values from those derived from water quality monitoring is a new method for evaluating surface water environments in areas with heavy background loads. In this study, river source reserves in Heilongjiang province were evaluated with an export coefficient model (ECM) that considers the rainfall influence factor, has an improved timescale, and is based on synchronous rainfall monitoring data and concentrations. Moreover, the ECM was combined with a mechanism model. The chemical oxygen demand, ammonia nitrogen, and other water quality indices are affected by background environment, and therefore, suitable export coefficients for the study area were determined and a regression equation between the rainfall influence factor and precipitation was established. By combining the ECM and mechanism model, the concentrations entering the river during eight rainfall events in 2018 were predicted, and the background value was calculated to evaluate surface water quality. The predicted values were found to approximate the monitored values. Therefore, this study is of great significance for water quality assessment and management in areas with heavy background pollutant loads.

In this study, we evaluated the performance of three blood culture systems in a Chinese tertiary-care hospital. Samples of simulated bacteremia were prepared using 10 mL of fresh blood from healthy humans and bacterial suspensions of known cell density. Portions of the specimens were treated with an antibiotic or antifungal drug at specified concentrations to simulate antibacterial drug treatment. We analyzed three blood culture systems: BACTEC Plus, BacT/Alert, and VersaTREK. Both time-to-detection (TTD) of 10 types of bacteria and five types of yeasts in samples without antibiotic treatment and positive detection rate of samples treated with different concentrations of antibiotic or antifungal drugs were compared among the culture systems. We also retrospectively analyzed the use of the culture systems in our hospital from 2015 to 2018. In the simulated study, in the absence of antibiotics, the VersaTREK REDOX 1 displayed the shortest TTD for Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Haemophilus influenzae, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Candida albicans , and Candida glabrata ( P < 0.001). Among the anaerobically cultured samples, BACTEC lytic/10 anaerobic/F displayed the shortest TTD for Escherichia coli, S. aureus, Enterococcus faecalis, S. pneumoniae, Bacteroides fragilis , and Bacteroides vulgatus ( P < 0.001). Comparatively, BacT/Alert FA/FN showed no advantages. In antibiotic-treated samples, overall recovery rates for the BACTEC, BacT/Alert, and VersaTREK systems were, were 70.2, 43.7, and 27.4%, respectively. BACTEC facilitated higher recovery rate than the other two systems ( P < 0.001). In antifungal treatment, the overall recovery rates for the BACTEC, BacT/Alert, and VersaTREK systems were 93.9, 98.3, and 69.4%, respectively. BACTEC Plus showed a recovery rate comparable to that of BacT/Alert ( P = 0.835), and the recovery rate of both these systems was higher than that of VersaTREK ( P < 0.001). The TTD values and positive rates determined in the retrospective study were consistent with those obtained in the simulated study. The combination of BACTEC PLUS Aerobic/F and BACTEC lytic/10 anaerobic/F culture systems displayed the best clinical performance. Furthermore, the BacT/Alert FAN culture system was found to be more resistant to antifungal drugs and levofloxacin, whereas the VersaTREK system is considered more suitable for primary blood cultures without antibiotic supplementation.

Introduction: Prostate cancer (PC) is one of the most common malignancies in male, and has become the fastest growing malignancy in recent years. Prostate specific antigen (PSA) is widely used as a tumor marker to screen for PC. Many studies have been performed to define the reference intervals (RIs) for total circulating PSA (tPSA). The results were different among different nations and races, even in the same race. Few researches have been performed on the RIs of free PSA (fPSA) and the ratio of free to total PSA (%fPSA). In this study, we aimed to simultaneously determine the age-specific RIs for tPSA, fPSA, and %fPSA in the healthy Han ethnic male., Methods: A total of 1862 apparently healthy male aged from 21 to 94 years were included in our study. Nonparametric 95th percentile intervals were used to define the RIs., Results: The reference limits in different age groups (21-50, 51-60, 61-70, 71-80, and ≥81 years) were 2.07, 3.59, 4.93, 6.83, and 7.73 ng/mL for tPSA, and 0.60, 0.76, 0.83, 1.30, and 2.41 ng/mL for fPSA. The RIs of %fPSA were ≥0.16 for 21-50 years and ≥0.13 for male over 50 years old., Conclusions: We established age-specific RIs for tPSA, fPSA and %fPSA. The newly established RIs should be more suitable for Chinese Han ethnic male. It will be valuable for physicians to make exact medical decision and appropriate medical intervention., (© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)