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This study sought to explore the effects of COVID‐19 exposure, pandemic‐related appraisals and coping strategies on psychological symptoms among the front‐line healthcare workers based on the transactional theory of stress and coping. A cross‐sectional study was conducted in a Wuhan hospital designated for inpatients with COVID‐19, assessing COVID‐19 exposure (whether or not exposed to confirmed patients at workplace), psychological symptoms, appraisals, and coping strategies in 311 participants. Results revealed that the pandemic markedly affected healthcare workers' mental well‐being through appraisal and coping, with 38.9% reporting high levels of psychological symptoms. Primary appraisal related closely with COVID‐19 exposure, especially in female, while secondary appraisal was associated with problem‐focused coping. Both problem‐focused and emotion‐focused coping had a protective effect against psychological symptoms, but also showed gender differences in its relations with other variables. These findings could potentially benefit to enrich relevant theories, and to develop psychological programs for future epidemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aimed to examine the effect of perceived organizational support on the PTSD symptoms of frontline healthcare workers, and to examine the mediating effects of coping self‐efficacy and coping strategies in this relationship. A short‐term longitudinal study design was used to conduct two waves of online surveys in March and April 2020. Participants comprised 107 medical staff in both waves of investigation. Self‐efficacy, coping strategies, and perceived organizational support were reported at Wave 1, and PTSD symptoms were reported at Wave 2. Results indicated that (1) The prevalence of probable PTSD was 9.3% and 4.7% on the Chinese version of the Impact of Events Scale‐Revised of 33 and 35, respectively. Local healthcare workers had greater risks of PTSD than the members of medical rescue teams. Doctors reported higher PTSD symptoms than nurses. (2) Perceived organizational support had a significant indirect effect on PTSD symptoms through the mediation of problem‐focused coping strategies and the sequential mediating effect of coping self‐efficacy and problem‐focused coping strategies. The findings highlight the importance of providing adequate organizational support to reduce PTSD symptoms in frontline medical staff during the COVID‐19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the trade-off between the loss of ecological lands and farmland to urbanisation could alleviate negative consequences to the environment and food security. This study aims to analyse the impact of urbanisation on ecological lands and farmland by comparing respective losses of habitat quality and agricultural productivity potential. Different scenarios are established indicating the priority of conserving ecological lands or farmland based on their vulnerability as measured by weight. With a land-use simulation model LANDSCAPE, the demand for urban land is met by occupying inferior ecological lands or farmland. Land-use patterns in each scenario are projected to 2035 in Wuhan (a rapidly urbanising city in China). As the weight of habitat quality decreases, the loss of habitat quality increases from 2.56 to 5.80%, while the loss of agricultural productivity potential decreases from 4.16 to 2.94%. The higher vulnerability of habitat quality loss indicates that ecological lands need a priori conservation than farmland in exchange for urbanisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective:To observe and analyze the application effect of the combined mode of Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) micro-video during the COVID-19 epidemic period in the distance teaching practice of interns in the emergency department. Materials and Methods:The subjects of this study were 60 trainee nurses who conducted emergency nursing practice in Tongji Hospital Affiliated to Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology from January 1 to February 29, 2020. At the time of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, they were divided into two groups: (1) the experimental group (combined mode of MOOC micro-video) and (2) the control group (traditional theory teaching combined with clinical practice teaching). The differences of theoretical and practical examination scores and teaching satisfaction between the two groups were compared. Results:There was no significant difference in theoretical, practical, and total examination scores between the two groups, but in terms of teaching satisfaction, the overall satisfaction, the degree of easy understanding, the evaluation of teachers and learning results in the experimental group were higher than those in the control group, with statistical difference (p < 0.05). Conclusion:Compared with the traditional teaching methods, the effect of combined mode of MOOC micro-video in emergency nursing practice is the same as that of traditional teaching methods, but the satisfaction is higher, so it is more suitable to be used in nursing practice during the COVID-19 epidemic period, so as to effectively reduce the cross-infection between doctors, nurses, and teaching staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's urban explosion has resulted in a substantial loss of agricultural production on the fringes of many cities. Farmland is not only converted into urban uses but also taken out of production because it has lost its value for those who can farm it. This farmland abandonment process has received little research attention. This paper studies the abandonment of farmland around the rapidly urbanizing city of Wuhan and aims to identify its important determinants based on an extensive field survey among local farmers. Around 800 semi-structured field interviews were conducted to capture the parcel and location characteristics, farming practices, and household characteristics. Important parcel-related drivers of land abandonment are lack of family members to work the land and fragmentation of parcels. Spatial characteristics are less important, except for the presence of certain soil types that favour cultivation and designation under the farmland protection policy. The planted crop species and the option to transfer land to other farmers are important farming practices to continue cultivation. Moreover, farmers with a higher farming income and lower education levels are less likely to abandon their farmland. We suggest that land use policies can help in preventing further farmland abandonment by steering urban development away from the most suitable soils for farming and concentrating development to limit the fragmentation of parcels. Strengthening the land market and removing the remaining barriers for farmers to transfer land to colleagues can further help to keep farmland in production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization drives changes in peri-urban farmland use which probably affects the spatial pattern of landscape service provision. This study charts patterns in these services and analyses the impacts of biophysical and social-economic factors such as land use allocation and proximity. A spatially explicit survey was conducted among 767 farmer households on the urban–rural fringe of rapidly urbanizing Wuhan (China). The hypothesis of a largely linear change with distance from the urban centre was tested separately for 7 quantified landscape services with RDA and regression analysis. Significant linear patterns were found for 4 landscape services: food, vegetables and fruits, trees, and storm water runoff reduction. Air pollution mitigation and recreation were found to be associated with nearby water rather than green infrastructure, which is likely due to the abundance of water around Wuhan. In addition, storm water runoff reduction correlated with green infrastructure (grasslands and forests). Bundling of landscape services was found to vary along the urban–rural fringe, with recreation and air pollution mitigation bundled at the urban end, while ponds and recreation bundled in the rural outer zone. In short, several provisioning and regulating services varied linearly with distance, whereas others did not, due to the strong geographical forcing by water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The urban heat island effect (UHI) is frequently observed in cities, and is associated with environmental effects. Urban green space (UGS) has been shown to play an important role in mitigating the UHI. However, impacts from the spatial pattern of UGS among different urban functional zones are largely ignored. This study established a spatial regression model to reveal the relationship between landscape metrics of UGS and land surface temperature (LST), in order to characterize the different effects of the spatial pattern of UGS on UHI among urban functional zones. The result shows that the proportion of UGS and shape complexity metric show a general negative impact on LST both overall and in individual urban functional zones; while none was found with aggregation, the fragmentation metric and connectivity. An area-related metric can be used to explain LST in public service zones and has a negative impact on LST. The research proves that UGS in different urban functional zones play different roles in mitigating the UHI effect. The cooling effects are related to the spatial pattern of UGS. Accordingly, it is recommended to consider the different roles of the spatial pattern of UGS in different urban functional zones in mitigating UHI for a liveable environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Trade-offs in compensated cropland quality and ecosystem services exist. • Lower cropland quality yet higher ecological cost as compensated cropland increase. • Strict cropland protection is not suitable for rapidly urbanizing areas. Urban expansion is taking in cropland at unprecedented rates worldwide, especially in China. In order to guarantee national food security, China has been implementing the strictest cropland protection policies in the world. The purpose of cropland protection policies in China is to keep the quantity and quality of cropland from declining. The loss of cropland resulted from urbanization is required to be compensated by occupying natural or semi natural land, which leads to a sharp degradation of the terrestrial ecosystem services. As a result, it is crucial to explore the relationship between cropland quality and ecosystem services with different amounts of compensated cropland required by cropland protection policies. In this paper, we evaluated the impacts of the combination of urban expansion and cropland protection policies on trade-offs between cropland quality and ecosystem services in Wuhan, China. Specifically, we simulated land use changes with different amounts of cropland compensation in order to reveal the relationship between cropland quality and ecosystem services of marginal compensated cropland. Results show that, with more cropland are compensated, the quality of marginal compensated cropland decreases while the marginal loss of ecosystem services increases. Our study indicates that, an increasing amount of compensated cropland would result in relative lower quality of compensated cropland with relatively higher ecological cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The accessibility to park green space is unequally distributed in Wuhan City. • Non-park green space facilitates people's accessibility to urban green space. • Considering non-park green space in landscape planning is important to improve environmental equity. Urban green space (UGS) plays a critical role in promoting a sustainable development of urban ecology and improving inhabitants' well-beings. Equal access to UGS is vital for enjoying the benefits of UGS. However, those non-park green space (NPGS) that is more closely related to inhabitants' residence are often ignored when investigating inhabitants' equity of UGS accessibility. In this study, two scenarios with or without considering NPGS were set up to reveal the contribution of NPGS in improving the equity of UGS accessibility. This study was conducted at a block scale in Wuhan, a megacity in central China. Results indicate that the accessibility to UGS is more equally distributed when considering NPGS compared to without considering NGPS and the contribution of NPGS is 79.32%. The Gini coefficients of the scenario without considering NGPS is higher (0.93) while a lower one in the other scenario (0.62). The Lorenz curve and Gini coefficients indicate an improvement of equity of UGS accessibility after considering NPGS. This study highlights the importance of considering the NPGS when improving the equity of UGS accessibility. This is particularly meaningful in megacities where UGS is scarce and more obviously unequal access to UGS may occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence concerning the association between ambient gaseous air pollutant exposures and semen quality is sparse, and findings in previous studies remain largely inconsistent We enrolled 1759 men and performed 2184 semen examinations at a large reproductive medical center in Wuhan, China, between 2013 and 2015. Inverse distance weighting interpolation was performed to estimate individual exposures to SO, NO, CO, and 03 during the entire period (lag 0-90 days) and key periods (lag 0-9, 10-14, 70-90 days) of sperm development. Linear mixed models were used to analyze exposure-response relationships. SO, exposure with 0-90 days lag was significantly associated with monotonically decreased sperm concentration (jl for each interquartile range increase of exposure: -0.14; 95% CI: -0.23, -0.05), sperm count (-0.21; -0.30, -0.12) and total motile sperm count (-0.16; -0.25, -0.08). Significant associations were observed for total and progressive motility only when SO, exposure was at the highest quintile (all P1t1d < 0.05). Similar trends were observed for SO2 exposure with 70-90 days lag. NO" CO, or 0, exposure was not significantly associated with semen quality. Our results su::est that ambient SO2 exposure adversely affects semen quality and highlight the potential to improve semen quality by reducing ambient SO2 exposure during early stages of sperm development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Health effects of exposure to particulate matter (PM) on male reproductive health remain unclear. Only a limited number of studies have investigated the effects of PM 2.5 or PM 10 exposure on semen quality, and the results were largely inconsistent. Objectives To quantitatively assess the exposure-response association between PM exposure and semen quality in Chinese men who were exposed to a wide concentration range of PM. Methods We investigated 1759 men from Wuhan, China, who were partners of women undergoing assisted reproductive technology procedures, and had semen examined at least once between 2013 and 2015. Individual PM 2.5 and PM 10 exposures during 0–90, 0–9, 10–14 and 70–90 days before each semen examination (corresponding to the entire and three key periods of sperm development, respectively) were retrospectively estimated by inverse distance weighting interpolation. Linear mixed models were used to assess exposure-response relations of PM exposure with sperm concentration, count and motility. Results PM 2.5 exposure during 0–90 lag days ranged from 27.3 to 172.4 μg/m 3 . It was linearly and inversely associated with sperm concentration (β: −0.20; 95% CI: −0.34, −0.07) and count (−0.22; −0.35, −0.08). For the three key exposure periods, only PM 2.5 exposure during the 70–90 lag days was significantly associated with sperm concentration (−0.12; −0.22, −0.03) and count (−0.12; −0.21, −0.02). Sensitivity analyses for a subgroup ( n = 1146) excluding subjects with abnormal sperm concentration, count or motility yielded similar results. Compared with PM 2.5 , we found generally similar associations for PM 10 exposure in relation to sperm concentration and count, except that the associations appeared to be nonlinear with inverted J-shaped relationships. Neither PM 2.5 nor PM 10 exposure was significantly associated with sperm motility (all p > 0.05). Conclusions Our results suggest that ambient PM exposure during sperm development adversely affects semen quality, in particular sperm concentration and count. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The optimisation of land use allocation plays an important role in sustainable land use planning. It is crucial to realise the synergy between economic development and ecosystem conservation by optimising land use allocation. In this study, we developed a method to optimise land use allocation to balance ecosystem services and economic benefits based on the spatial difference of both ecosystem services value (ESV) and land use efficiency, based on the LAND System Cellular Automata model for Potential Effect (LANDSCAPE). In the optimisation model, spatial difference of ESV was represented by the parameter of resistance, while spatial difference of land use efficiency was expressed as the parameter of asynchronous rate of transition. Subsequently, land use allocation was optimised based on spatial difference of resistances and asynchronous rates. Taking Wuhan as the study area, the proposed optimisation model was used to conduct the optimisation of land use allocation during 2010–2020. Results showed that: economic benefits would increase by 444.77 million US$, while losses of ESV would decrease by 142.55 million US$ by optimisation of land use allocation. This indicated that the optimal allocation of land use based on spatial difference of ESV and land use efficiency can increase economic benefits at lower cost of ESV. In conclusion, it is feasible to allocate land resources to balance ecosystem services and economic benefits based on the differences of ESV and land use efficiency. This study highlights that taking the spatial difference of both ESV and land use efficiency into consideration is helpful for a sustainable land use planning. • Spatial difference of ESV and land use efficiency can be used to optimise land use. • ESV and economic benefits can be balanced by optimising land use allocation. • The LANDSCAPE model can be applied to optimise land use allocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]