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Tidal flats in eastern China have undergone various transformations into other land-use types. Understanding the impact of land-use conversion on soil properties and microbial communities is crucial for effective ecological conservation efforts. In this study, we compared soil chemical properties and the diversity, composition, and ecological functions of soil bacterial and fungal communities across four land-use types: natural bare land (BL), unused reclaimed tidal land (Phragmites, PL), agricultural land (maize, ML), and shelterbelt land (SL), utilizing next-generation sequencing technology. The results indicated that soil electrical conductivity decreased, while soil organic carbon (SOC) and nutrient contents increased in ML and SL compared to BL and PL. The bacterial Chao1 and fungal Chao1 and Shannon values vary across different land-use types. A higher relative abundance of Acidobacteriota, specifically RB41, was found in ML compared to BL. Principal coordinate and PerMANOVA analysis showed that the composition of bacterial and fungal communities differed significantly across the four land-use types. SOC explained the most variance in both bacterial and fungal communities. Carbon-related functional genes and fungal guilds exhibit greater diversity across the four land-use types compared to nitrogen-related functional genes. In conclusion, the transformation of natural land-use types to managed one greatly altered soil chemical and microbial properties. Our study offers foundational insights into the microbial communities in the typical land-use types of Eastern China's coastal area. Future studies should emphasize the quantification of human interventions and their impact on soil microbial communities and ecological functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Imbalanced classification is widely referred in many real-world applications and has been extensively studied. Most existing algorithms consider alleviating the imbalance by sampling or guiding ensemble learners with punishments. The combination of ensemble learning and sampling strategy at class level has achieved great progress. Actually, specific hard examples have little benefit for model learning and even degrade the performance. From the view of identifying classification difficulty of samples, one important motivation is to design algorithms to finely equip different samples with progressive learning. Unfortunately, how to perfectly configure the sampling and learning strategies under ensemble principles at the sample level remains a research gap. In this paper, we propose a new view from the sample level rather than class level in existing studies. We design an ensemble approach in pipe with sample-level gradient resampling, that is, balanced cascade with filters (BCWF). Before that, as a preliminary exploration, we first design a hard examples mining algorithm to explore the gradient distribution of classification difficulty of samples and identify the hard examples. Specifically, BCWF uses an under-sampling strategy and a boosting manner to train T predictive classifiers and reidentify hard examples. In BCWF, moreover, we design two types of filters: the first is assembled with a hard filter (BCWF_h), whereas the second is assembled with a soft filter (BCWF_s). In each round of boosting, BCWF_h strictly removes a gradient/set of the hardest examples from both classes, whereas BCWF_s removes a larger number of harder and easy examples simultaneously for final balanced-class retention. Consequently, the well-trained T predictive classifiers can be used with two ensemble voting strategies: average probability and majority vote. To evaluate the proposed approach, we conduct intensive experiments on 10 benchmark data sets and apply our algorithms to perform default user detection on a real-world peer to peer lending data set. The experimental results fully demonstrate the effectiveness and the managerial implications of our approach when compared with 11 competitive algorithms. History: Accepted by Ram Ramesh, Area Editor for Data Science & Machine Learning. Funding: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grants 72101176, 71722005, and 72241432], the National Key R&D program of China [Grant 2020YFA0908600] and the Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin City [Grant 18JCJQJC45900]. Supplemental Material: The software that supports the findings of this study is available within the paper and its Supplemental Information (https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/suppl/10.1287/ijoc.2023.1274) as well as from the IJOC GitHub software repository (https://github.com/INFORMSJoC/2021.0104) at (http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6360996). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the airflow rotation concept, a new packaging structure was designed to meet the performance requirements of China-VI stage emission regulations. The new structure is a hybrid structure of spiral space with small blades and conical plates. The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation was used to analyze the velocity uniformity and ammonia uniformity of the flow field, and the results showed that velocity uniformity and ammonia uniformity were higher than 0.95, and the possibility of crystallization risk was very low. The actual performance of the new structural prototype was verified by means of engine bench testing. The test results were excellent and the conversion efficiency reached 0.96. The new selective catalytic reduction (SCR) urea mixed structure design greatly improved the conversion efficiency of the after-treatment system and has excellent anti-crystallization performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Botrytis cinerea is one of the most destructive pathogens worldwide. It can damage over 200 crops, resulting in significant yield and quality losses. Cyclobutrifluram, a new generation of succinate dehydrogenase inhibitors, exhibits excellent inhibitory activity against B. cinerea. However, the baseline sensitivity and resistance of B. cinerea to cyclobutrifluram remains poorly understood. This study was designed to monitor the sensitivity frequency distribution, assess the resistance risk, and clarify the resistance mechanism of B. cinerea to cyclobutrifluram. The baseline sensitivity of B. cinerea isolates to cyclobutrifluram was 0.89 μg/mL. Cyclobutrifluram-resistant B. cinerea populations are present in the field. Six resistant B. cinerea isolates investigated in this study possessed enhanced compound fitness index compared to the sensitive isolates according to mycelial growth, mycelial dry weight, conidiation, conidial germination rate, and pathogenicity. Cyclobutrifluram exhibited no cross-resistance with tebuconazole, fludioxonil, cyprodinil, or iprodione. Sequence alignment revealed that BcSDHB from cyclobutrifluram-resistant B. cinerea isolates had three single substitutions (P225F, N230I, or H272R). Molecular docking verified that these mutations in BcSDHB conferred cyclobutrifluram resistance in B. cinerea. In conclusion, the resistance risk of B. cinerea to cyclobutrifluram is high, and the point mutations in BcSDHB (P225F, N230I, or H272R) confer cyclobutrifluram resistance in B. cinerea. This study provided important insights into cyclobutrifluram resistance in B. cinerea and offered valuable information for monitoring and managing cyclobutrifluram resistance in the future. [Display omitted] • Baseline sensitivity of B. cinerea to cyclobutrifluram was established. • The resistance risk of cyclobutrifluram in B. cinerea was high. • Point mutations in BcSDHB were associated with the cyclobutrifluram resistance in B. cinerea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Satisfying human food demands without degrading natural capital under climate change comprises one of the grandest challenges in the 21st century. Crop substitution - the process of replacing one crop with another crop, is an effective measure for adapting climate change, which helps to address this issue. The objective of this research is examining the potential of crop substitution based on climate changes to improve agri-food production, environmental stewardship and regional prosperity in China. First, we harness climate, crop, agricultural inputs and cost-benefits data of 2031 counties from 1981 to 2017 and project the crop yield and land-use climate suitability based on future climate projections. Second, we develop and invoke a conceptual framework of crop substituting based on maize (a crop requiring high nitrogen amounts) and soybean (a more sustainable crop but with lower productivity), which integrate demand, impacts of climate change on yield, crop land-use climate suitability, high- or low-yield and soybean-based rotation co-benefits to adapt future climate change. Finally, we scale these findings to compute implications for national environmental impacts and economic profit. After substitution, national soybean production would reach 37.2 Mt. in 2021–2060 when maize production meet demand, avoiding 4.0 Mt. reduction in production losses associated with climate change. Nitrogen fertilizer use and net greenhouse gas emissions would reduce by 21.5–24.6 and 7.9–8.7%, respectively, increasing soybean and maize economic profit by 46.1–49.3%. Our findings will help the policy makers for safeguarding food security under future climate in China. The conceptual framework of crop substituting we developed here would help to come up with suitable crop planting area programme to adapt climate change, and increase productivity, environmental stewardship and regional prosperity. [Display omitted] • Crop substitution integrates climate change impacts and crop rotation effects. • After substitution, national soybean production will reach 37.2 Mt. in 2021–2060. • Avoiding 4.0 Mt. production losses of maize and soybean with climate change. • Nitrogen fertilizer use and greenhouse gas emissions will reduce over 21.5 and 7.9%. • Soybean and maize economic profit will increase over 46.1%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the growth in population over the past decades, China's food demand has been increasing. However, crops are facing greater water stress with the rising temperature and increasing drought in future. Therefore, identifying potential crop yield and its driving factors is necessary to ensure continued food production. In the present study, we estimated the potential yields of maize and wheat in China, with and without water limits, from 1985 to 2015 using a simple generic crop model (SIMPLE). We then investigated how climate factors (temperature, precipitation, and solar radiation) drove the spatial and temporal variation of yield gaps (quantified as the difference between potential yields with and without water limits). We found an increasing trend in the water limited yield gap of maize in northern China (3.9 ± 4.3 kg ha-1 yr-2) and wheat in central China (2.6 ± 2.4 kg ha-1 yr-2). The temporal trends of maize and wheat yield gaps in China were mainly related to precipitation and temperature. However, the spatial variation in maize yield gap trends was mainly related to the variations in precipitation, whereas for wheat it was attributed to changes in temperature or solar radiation. Upgrading irrigation infrastructure and management techniques or spatially adjusting crop types could help closing the yield gap of wheat in some zones. • The change trends of yield gap between maize and wheat are inconsistent. • The maize yield gaps variation was spatially related to variations in precipitation. • For wheat, it was attributed to changes in temperature or solar radiation. • Management techniques should be upgraded or crop types adjusted to close yield gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenological development of rice is a critical element affecting grain yield. The phenophases of rice development from transplanting through heading to maturity have often been linked to climatic factors, such as temperature and solar radiation. In contrast, the effects of physiological processes on the timing of rice maturity have not been well investigated. In this study, we examined shifts in the timing of transplanting, heading, and maturity of single, early, and late rice in China during the period 1991–2012; we used in situ records assembled at 113 agricultural stations, and explored the correlations between changes in the timing of phenological events and (i) climatic and (ii) physiological factors. We detected a significant warming trend through whole growing seasons (from transplanting to maturity) for all three rice varieties; this trend had negative impacts on the dates of maturity. The durations of the growing seasons over the period were extended by 4.1 ± 2.0, 1.8 ± 2.9, and 2.2 ± 1.9 days for single, early, and late rice, respectively. However, for single rice, the extension was related to delayed dates of transplanting and maturity, whereas for early and late rice, it was attributed to advances in the dates of transplanting and maturity. The timing of maturity in all rice types was most closely related to transplantation and heading dates; climatic factors were of secondary importance. We hypothesize that internal regulation processes operating via carbohydrate content or leaf/cell longevities likely influence rice phenological processes through hormonal mechanisms. Early-season phenological events clearly influence the timing of plant maturity; the dates of early season events are shifting. Therefore, current protocols for global and regional crop modeling that use fixed planting dates are unlikely to accurately account for the impacts of climate change on croplands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• One measured and eleven estimated radiation datasets are analyzed in this study. • Using estimated radiation mostly led to an overestimation of the crop yields. • Estimated radiation caused greater bias in winter wheat yield than in maize yield. • The negative impacts of changes in radiation on crop yields could be exaggerated. As a main tool for climate variability impact studies on agriculture, crop models are widely used for agricultural assessments. However, the accuracy of input data like radiation data fundamentally affects the reliability of the crop model outputs. In previous studies, estimated radiation was commonly used due to the scarcity of directly measured radiation, which introduced errors into the assessment results. In this study, by assuming the measured radiation data as the true values, we used four sources of estimated solar radiation values to analyze the underlying errors in the results based on estimated solar radiation. The results showed that the total estimated radiation during the crop growing season is all higher than the measured radiation, especially for winter wheat (6.6%∼14.8% for maize, and 18.7%∼34.0% for winter wheat). When using estimated radiation as input data, regardless of the source, the crop model overestimated the simulated crop yields for maize (13.8%∼23.6%) and winter wheat (37.3%∼65.4%) in China. The amplitude of such overestimation was relatively greater in the south than in the north, and relatively greater for winter wheat than for maize. As compared to using the measured radiation, the negative impact of climate variability on simulated crop yield was exaggerated when using estimated radiation except for reanalysis datasets (1.6%∼4% for maize, and 4.2%∼6.3% for winter wheat). Our study results provide scientific evidence of the importance of using accurate radiation data in agricultural impact analyses, and the previous related results may need to be re-evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rice production is a primary contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, with unclear pathways towards carbon neutrality. Here, through a comprehensive assessment of direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emission using DNDC model and indirect GHG emission using emission factor methods, we estimated the annual crop yield, GHG emission amount and intensity, and economic benefits of different cropping patterns in the climate-sensitive regions of rice production in China. Through the expansion of single-rice and cropping pattern change from the wheat-rice to wheat-rice-rice in the climate-sensitive regions of single and triple-cropping cultivations, the total grain yield increased by 4.4 % and 4.5 % compared with the current national grain production, the GHG emission would increase by 2.4 % and 5.4 % of the current national GHG emissions from rice and wheat production, the net economic benefits could increase 0.9 % and decrease 2.0 % of the national output value of rice and wheat production. The study takes the entire-life cycle of crop growth as the principal line, and could provide a valuable reference for the regulation of the cropping pattern and the formulation of carbon reduction policies in the climate-sensitive 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 © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Optimizing crop distribution stands as a pivotal approach to climate change adaption, enhancing crop production sustainability, and has been recognized for its immense potential in ensuring food security while minimizing environmental impacts. Here, we developed a climate-adaptive framework to optimize the distribution of staple crops (i.e., wheat, maize, and rice) to meet the multi-dimensional needs of crop production in China. The framework considers the feasibility of the multiple cropping systems (harvesting more than once on a cropland a year) and adopts a multi-dimensional approach, incorporating goals related to crop production, water consumption, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. By optimizing, the total irrigated area of three crops would decrease by 7.7 % accompanied by a substantial 69.8 % increase in rain-fed areas compared to the baseline in 2010. This optimized strategy resulted in a notable 10.0 % reduction in total GHG emissions and a 13.1 % decrease in irrigation water consumption while maintaining consistent crop production levels. In 2030, maintaining the existing crop distribution and relying solely on yield growth would lead to a significant maize production shortfall of 27.0 %, highlighting a looming challenge. To address this concern, strategic adjustments were made by reducing irrigated areas for wheat, rice, and maize by 2.3 %, 12.8 %, and 6.1 %, respectively, while simultaneously augmenting rain-fed areas for wheat and maize by 120.2 % and 55.9 %, respectively. These modifications ensure that production demands for all three crops are met, while yielding a 6.9 % reduction in GHG emissions and a 15.1 % reduction in irrigation water consumption. This optimization strategy offers a promising solution to alleviate severe water scarcity issues and secure a sustainable agricultural future, effectively adapting to evolving crop production demands in China., 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 © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

The frozen period interaction of groundwater and lakes is crucial for hydrological properties and aquatic ecology in cold and arid regions. In this study, we investigate the spatial hydrochemical characteristics, influencing factors in the Hulun Lake basin. The hydrochemical type of lake water exhibits Na-HCO 3 -SO 4 -Cl, while river shows a primary classification of Na-Ca-HCO 3 . Groundwater in the eastern and western regions is characterized by Na-SO 4 -Cl and Na-HCO 3 , respectively. Silicic acid and ion exchange predominantly influence groundwater chemistry in the western region, whereas evaporation and concentration play a major role in the eastern region. Total dissolved solids, Cl - , and F - emerge as the primary influencing factors of hydrochemical components in the Hulun Lake basin. Ion content decreased from the southern to the northern region, with the lowest value occurring near the Urson River. The high-temperature water body is primarily distributed in the central and southern regions of the lake. Based on characteristic ions and partial characteristics of ice surface temperature, the potential groundwater discharge areas near the inlet of the Xinkai River, the central and southern region are determined. This study reveals the hydrochemical characteristics, vertical ice distribution, and provides a scientific foundation for water resource management in cold and arid regions., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

Soybean is an important oil crop in China, and the national focus of soybean production is in Northeast China. In order to achieve high-stable yield, it is crucial to acknowledge the impacts of mean climate and extreme climate indices on soybean yield and yield components. In this study, based on the weather data from 61 counties from 1981 to 2017 in Northeast China, we assessed the impacts of mean climate and extreme climate indices on soybean observed yield and simulated yield. Mean climate include effective growing degree days (GDD 10 ), precipitation (Pre), and solar radiation (SR); extreme climate indices include the number of cool days during seed-filling period (C 15 ), the number of cool days during 15 days before anthesis (C 17 ), the number of hot days (H 30 ), maximum amount of 5 Day accumulated precipitation (P5), and consecutive dry days (CDD)). We used the DSSAT-CROPGRO-Soybean model to identify the main yield components for soybean. The results showed that observed soybean yield reduced by 3.57% due to the collective changes in the eight study climate indices. Increases in GDD 10 , decreases in Pre, and decreases in SR caused a 3.96%, -3.89%, and - 0.48% change in soybean yield, respectively. Decreases in C 15 and C 17 led to a 5.36% increase in soybean yield; increases in H 30 , P5, and CDD caused a 5.75%, 0.30%, and 1.14% reduction in soybean yield, respectively. By comparing the response of observed and simulated soybean yield to climate indices (excluding P5) in the DSSAT-CROPGRO-Soybean model, we identified the key yield components for soybean as the number of pods and seed weight. The negative impacts on the number of pods and seed weight were mainly attributed to changes in Pre and H30 from anthesis to podding and during seed-filling period. Our results could be used to assist the local soybean community adapt to climate change., 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 © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical outcomes of isolated decompression for patients with transverse sacral fractures and cauda equina syndrome, which have been rarely reported before. MATERIAL AND METHODS Twelve neurological impaired patients with transverse sacral fracture from January 2010 to March 2017 treated in our institution were evaluated. All patients went through isolated decompression and were followed for a minimum of 12 months. Fracture causes, classifications, associated injury, radiologic results, clinical outcomes using the Majeed index, and neurological outcomes using the Gibbons criteria were evaluated. RESULTS Motor vehicle accidents and falling injuries were the major causes of trauma. The average time from trauma to surgery was 89.8 days. Eleven patients underwent laminectomy with no more than 3 segments resected and 1 patient had S1-S4 excised. Three patients with fracture involving the lumbopelvic joint had L5 laminectomy. All patients achieved bony union, with 7 patients (63.6%) showing satisfactory pelvic outcome. Average Gibbons scores improved from 2.8 to 1.9 at 18-month average follow-up, but most patients were left with residual pain. No surgical-related complications were seen in any patients. CONCLUSIONS Isolated decompression can be considered for patients who present a stable sacrum with non-displaced fracture or an old fracture that shows fracture healing. Favorable pelvic outcomes and neurological recovery, along with acceptable stability, can be acquired.

Background: Hypophasis is one of the most frequently observed sequelae of patients with Bell's palsy, who have not recovered completely, creating a clinical difficulty for physicians. Acupuncture therapy has been widely used to treat Bell's palsy as a reasonable resolution for management of symptoms such as hypophasis. The number of acupuncture points (acu-points) is frequently selected in the approach of acupuncture therapy; however, whether these had high efficiency has not been proved. According to the literature review, Bi'nao was useful for treating eye and eye lipid diseases, which could be proved only by some successful cases. Thus, a randomized controlled trial was designed to evaluate the efficiency of the acu-point Bi'nao., Methods/design: Participants with hypophasis as the major symptom are selected among patients with Bell's palsy and randomly allocated into one of the three groups at a 1:1:1 allocation ratio. All participants receive conventional acupuncture therapy; however, those assigned to the real acupuncture group will be given added acupuncture therapy on the acu-point Bi'nao, while those assigned to the sham acupuncture group were given extra acupuncture therapy on the sham Bi'nao as a placebo. The efficacy of the acupuncture therapy on the acu-point Bi'nao for hypophasis will be evaluated by Eye Crack Width Measurement (ECWM) and Eyelid Strength Assessment (ESA) before and after therapy., Discussion: This is the first study assessing the safety and efficiency of Bi'nao in treating the hypophasis of patients with Bell's palsy that might support the application of this acupuncture therapy. However, evaluating hypophasis is challenging, and, thus, ECWM and ESA were applied to measure the eyelid movement., Trial Registration: Chinese Clinical Trials Registry, ChiCTR-INR-17012955 . Registered on 12 October 2017.