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Improving carbon emission efficiency (CEE) has emerged as a critical way for Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) members to promote carbon reduction in the context of climate change mitigation and carbon neutrality. The super-efficiency slacks-based measure (SBM) model, which considers non-desired outputs, is adopted to comprehensively assess the current state and trend of CEE in 15 RCEP countries from a spatio-temporal dynamic perspective, and the global Malmquist-Luenberger (GML) index is coupled to quantify the spatial and temporal differences and dynamic changes. Following that, taking into account the spatial characteristics of CEE, the extended STIRPAT model and the spatial Durbin model are combined to further investigate the primary influencing factors of CEE. It is found that (1) the CEE of RCEP members is generally poor and unevenly distributed in temporal and spatial dimensions, with significant room for improvement and an overall positive spatial autocorrelation; (2) CEE varies considerably among RCEP members, with developed countries far outstripping developing countries in terms of both the current status and trend of CEE; (3) on a dynamic level, the GML index exhibits W-shaped fluctuations, with technological progress acting as the dominant force; and (4) in terms of spillover effects, affluence and economic agglomeration inhibit CEE enhancement, whereas technology level and investment capacity facilitate it. The findings will be useful in developing carbon-neutral plans for various countries as well as coordinated sustainable development for RCEP regions.

Rapid urban expansion and energy transformation are two major challenges facing China. Many researchers have explored urban compactness and energy efficiency, but there is little literature on the coordinated development of the two. Therefore, this paper takes 35 cities in China as research object: The urban compactness evaluation index system is established, and the score is calculated using the entropy weight method; considering the bad output, SBM is used to calculate the green total factor energy efficiency (GTFEE); and the coupling coordination degree model is used to calculate their coordinated degree. The following conclusions can be inferred: (1) Although China's urban compactness has increased, it has not maintained a steady upward trend. Some more developed cities have the phenomenon of compactness rising first and then falling; (2) The overall GTFEE shows a continuous upward trend, but there is still much room for improvement, and regional disparities are significant; (3) The degree of coordination between the two maintains a steady upward trend, and the city's compactness lags behind GTFEE. Based on the findings of the study, this paper proposes policy recommendations that can serve as a reference for key decision-makers and are critical in promoting China's urbanization and energy transformation.

BACKGROUND The prevalence of thyroid diseases has been increasing year by year. In this study, we established and validated a deep learning method (Cascade region-based convolutional neural network, R-CNN) based on ultrasound videos for automatic detection and segmentation of the thyroid gland and its surrounding tissues in order to reduce the workload of radiologists and improve the detection and diagnosis rate of thyroid disease. METHODS Seventy-one patients with normal thyroid ultrasound were included. The ultrasound videos of 59 patients were used as the training dataset, the data of 12 patients were used as the validation dataset, and in addition, the data of 9 patents were used as the testing dataset. Ultrasound videos of thyroid examination, including five standard sections (left and right lobe transverse scan, central isthmus transverse scan, left and right lobe longitudinal scan), were collected from all patients. The radiologists labeled the neck tissues, including anterior cervical muscle, cricoid cartilage, trachea, thyroid gland, endothyroid vessels, carotid artery, internal jugular vein, and esophagus. A large dataset was constructed to train and test the deep learning method. The performance was evaluated using the COCO metrics AP, AP50, and AP75. We compared the Cascade R-CNN with a state-of-the-art method CenterMask in the test dataset. RESULTS We annotated 166817, 34364, and 29227 regions in training, validation and testing samples. The model could achieve a good detection performance for the thyroid left lobe, right lobe, isthmus, muscles, trachea, carotid artery, and jugular vein; the AP50 of these tissues were 86.5%, 87.5%, 89.1%, 96.1%, 96.6%, 97.7%, and 91.8%, respectively. In addition, the model showed good segmentation performance for the muscles, trachea, and carotid artery; the AP50 of these tissues were 96%, 96.6%, and 97.8%, respectively. For the left lobe, right lobe, isthmus, esophagus, and jugular vein, AP50 was ≥86%. However, the segmentation results for the cricoid cartilage and endothyroid vessels were not high (AP50 of 53.9% and 48.5%, respectively). For fair comparison, the performance of Cascade R-CNN is better than that of CenterMask for detection and segmentation tasks. The difference was statistically significant (p

The electrochemical nitrate reduction reaction (NO

The spatiotemporal characteristics of vegetation variation on Hainan Island were explored with normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data from 2001 to 2016 on the basis of a regression-analysis method. The impact of climatic factors and human activities on vegetation variation was assessed in different climate regions by residual analysis. Our study indicated that vegetation regions with significant improvement were primarily located in the coastal part of the semi-arid, central semi-humid, central mountainous humid, and parts of the humid regions. More serious vegetation degradation was observed in the northern part of the semi-humid region, eastern parts of the humid region, and the southern semi-arid and semi-humid regions. The relationship of NDVI with precipitation was stronger than that with temperature in the humid and semi-arid regions, and drought was the critical factor influencing vegetation changes in the semi-arid region due to comprehensive actions of rising temperature and declining rainfall. The findings of residual analysis highlighted that the degradation of vegetation was mainly triggered by anthropogenic factors: the rapid development of urbanization in the northern part of the semi-humid, and the southern semi-arid and semi-humid regions, and excessive aquaculture in the eastern parts of the humid region. The results are expected to provide an effective foundation of formulating environmental and ecological sustainability policies on Hainan Island.

Developing low-cost electrocatalysts for the nitrate reduction reaction (NO3RR) with superior performance is of great significance for wastewater treatment. Herein, we synthesized bimetal Cu/Fe nanoparticles encased in N-doped carbon nanofibers (Cu/Fe@NCNFs) through simple electrospinning followed by a pyrolysis reduction strategy. Metallic copper is beneficial for reducing nitrate to nitrite, and the existence of Fe is conducive to convert nitrate and nitrite into nitrogen. Additionally, the nitrogen-doped carbon nanofibers also facilitate the adsorption of nitrate, and the continuous and complete fiber structure enhances the stability of the catalyst and prevents the corrosion of the active sites. Therefore, the synergetic effect of bimetal Cu/Fe and N-doped carbon fiber plays a key role in promoting the efficiency of nitrate reduction. The obtained Cu/Fe@NCNF catalyst exhibits a satisfactory nitrate conversion efficiency of 76%, removal capacity of 5686 mg N g-1 Cu/Fe and nitrogen selectivity of 94%.

Background Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is a rare genetic disease which leads to formation of benign tumors in the brain and other organs of the body. Ultrasound (US) can detect the location, quantity, size and internal echo of TSC-associated renal diseases, liver angiomyolipoma (AML), and co-existing lesions, providing important diagnostic basis for clinical diagnosis. The aim of the present study was to investigate the abdominal ultrasonographic features of pediatric TSC and explore the advantages of abdominal ultrasonography in clinical practice. Methods Data of children with TSC, who presented to the Second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children's Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University, between January 2016 and November 2018, were analyzed by a retrospective chart review. The cases were identified from electronic medical records (EMR) system and underwent ultrasonography, we yielded a total of 12 patients. Results The 12 pediatric patients, including 5 boys and 7 girls, ranged in age from 9 months to 13 years old. And they all had a history of epilepsy. All the patients underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT) examination, which revealed a scattered distribution of multiple hyperintense nodules. Of the 12 patients, 10 had TSC-associated bilateral renal AMLs, 5 had hepatic AML, and 4 had renal cysts. Conclusions US is a useful and non-invasive tool for the detection of TSC-associated renal and liver lesions and for clinical follow-up among pediatric patients.

A flexible graphene platform electrode (GPE) was prepared by transferring chemical vapor deposition graphene film from Cu foil to polyethylene terephthalate substrate with the help of polymethyl-methacrylate. L-Arginine (L-Arg) was electrodeposited on GPE to form a poly(L-Arg)/GPE (P(L-Arg)/GPE) which was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The electrocatalytic activity and enhanced conductivity of P(L-Arg)/GPE sensor was evaluated by determining xanthine (XA) in the presence of uric acid (UA) and hypoxanthine (HX) in phosphate buffer solution. The electrochemical behaviors of XA on P(L-Arg)/GPE were studied by cyclic voltammetry and differential pulse voltammetry in comparison with those on bare GPE. The proposed sensor not only achieved the selective determination of XA, but also separated the voltammetric signals of UA and HX with potential differences of 420 and 384 mV, respectively. Under the optimized conditions, the proposed sensor displayed superb sensing property towards XA in a wide linear range of 0.5-140 μmol/L with corresponding detection limit of 0.083 μmol/L (S/N = 3). With good stability, reproducibility, high sensitivity, low cost as well as high resistance to interferences, the P(L-Arg)/GPE had been applied to determine XA in human serum successfully.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to evaluate the clinical value of virtual touch tissue imaging quantification (VTIQ) in the diagnosis and treatment of congenital muscular torticollis (CMT) in children. METHODS: Sixty-two CMT children treated in the clinics of our hospital were collected, and then 62 CMT children treated with manipulation massage were followed up; 23 CMT children receiving surgery in the same period served as controls. Conventional ultrasonography and VTIQ were performed at bilateral sternocleidomastoid muscles (SCM), and the shear wave velocity (SWV) was measured. RESULTS: In 62 patients and 23 controls, the average SWV of affected SCM was higher than the contralateral SCM. The difference was statistically significant (P0.05). The SWV of SCM after treatment was lower than before treatment. The difference was statistically significant (P

Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) as the major inducement of hepatocellular carcinoma and cirrhosis, imposes a heavy health burden upon patients. This research aims to investigate the diagnostic value of serum chitinase 3-like 1 (CHI3L1) in hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-negative CHB liver fibrosis (LF) and to analyze the risk factors. We selected 78 patients with HBeAg-negative CHB admitted to our hospital between October 2018 and October 2019, and grouped them (F(0,1) group, n=38; F(2-4) group, n=40) based on their stages evaluated by the METAVIR scoring system. Cubital venous blood was collected from patients in both groups to quantify the content of CHI3L1 after serum extraction. The correlation of CHI3L1 in CHB with LF diagnostic markers fibrosis 4 (FIB-4) and γ-glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT) to platelet (PLT) ratio (GPR) as well as LF staging was analyzed. The diagnostic value of serum CHI3L1 in HBeAg-negative CHB fibrosis staging was analyzed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, and the multivariate analysis of the risk factors for FB in HBeAg-negative CHB patients was performed using the Logistic regression model. This study found that serum CHI3L1 was positively correlated not only with LF markers (FIB-4, GPR), but also with LF staging. Serum CHI3L1 had high diagnostic efficiency for LF staging, with the sensitivity and specificity of 80.00% and 71.05%, respectively. In addition, CHI3L1, FIB-4, and GPR were identified to be the risk factors for LF in HBeAg-negative CHB. In conclusion, serum CHI3L1 can be used as a diagnostic marker and risk factor for LF in patients with HBeAg-negative CHB.

Background To investigate the diagnostic performance of the ultrasonography-based fine-needle aspiration biopsy criteria of the Chinese Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System (C-TIRADS) for malignant nodules compared to 3 other guidelines. Methods This study included 2,309 thyroid nodules in 1,697 patients with histopathological and cytopathological diagnoses of benign and malignant nodules from January 2018 to August 2020. The clinical and ultrasonographic features of the nodules were retrospectively reviewed and classified according to the Chinese guideline (C-TIRADS), the American College of Radiology guideline (ACR-TIRADS), the American Thyroid Association guideline (ATA guideline), and the Korean Thyroid Association guideline (K-TIRADS). The diagnostic performance of the guidelines and their unnecessary fine-needle aspiration biopsy rates were calculated using randomized, blinded trials. Results Of the 2,309 nodules, 1,418 (61.4%) were benign and 891 (38.6%) were malignant, with 884 (99.21%) papillary carcinomas. The accuracy of C-TIRADS was 84.71%, followed by the guidelines of ACR-TIRADS (82.11%), K-TIRADS (81.64%), and the ATA guideline (78.56%). Furthermore, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was the highest for the C-TIRADS (0.905). Similar results were revealed for both the diagnostic performance and AUC of nodules smaller and larger than 10 mm. The ACR-TIRADS showed the lowest unnecessary biopsy rate (17.54%), followed by the C-TIRADS (22.61%), ATA guideline (27.90%), and the K-TIRADS (28.67%). Conclusions The C-TIRADS demonstrated high diagnostic performance and a relatively low unnecessary biopsy rate in detecting thyroid cancer compared to the 3 other guidelines. However, further understanding of the ultrasonography-based fine-needle aspiration biopsy criteria of the C-TIRADS should be gained in the future.

Air quality has been one of the problems of global changes in recent years. Therefore, taking the main urban districts of Chongqing as the research area, we analyzed the spatial-temporal pattern and the driving factors by inverse distance weighting method and geographically weighted regression model. The results showed that: (1) The air quality of the research area was best in summer and worst in winter. And the air quality in the south is generally better than that in the north. (2) The temporal variation of air quality is significantly correlated with precipitation, air pressure and wind speed, and precipitation has the greatest influence on air quality; (3) The spatial distribution of air quality shows a strong trend of spatial aggregation and the geographically weighted regression model constructed in the study has certain predictive significance for air quality.

The use of remote sensing technology to monitor farmland is currently the mainstream method for crop research. However, in cloudy and misty regions, the use of optical remote sensing image is limited. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology has many advantages, including high resolution, multi-mode, and multi-polarization. Moreover, it can penetrate clouds and mists, can be used for all-weather and all-time Earth observation, and is sensitive to the shape of ground objects. Therefore, it is widely used in agricultural monitoring. In this study, the polarization backscattering coefficient on time-series SAR images during the rice-growing period was analyzed. The rice identification results and accuracy of InSAR technology were compared with those of three schemes (single-time-phase SAR, multi-time-phase SAR, and combination of multi-time-phase SAR and InSAR). Results show that VV and VH polarization coherence coefficients can well distinguish artificial buildings. In particular, VV polarization coherence coefficients can well distinguish rice from water and vegetation in August and September, whereas VH polarization coherence coefficients can well distinguish rice from water and vegetation in August and October. The rice identification accuracy of single-time series Sentinel-1 SAR image (78%) is lower than that of multi-time series SAR image combined with InSAR technology (81%). In this study, Guanghan City, a cloudy region, was used as the study site, and a good verification result was obtained.

A portfolio prediction model based on Bayesian game algorithm is proposed to improve the accuracy of correlation analysis model in portfolio application. Firstly, the portfolio problem is analyzed. The market value constraint and the upper bound constraint are combined considering the general portfolio model according to Markowitz theory, it improves the portfolio model and obtains the portfolio model with mixed constraints. Secondly, a probabilistic portfolio monitoring strategy based on incomplete information non-cooperative Bayesian game is proposed. The framework combines the enterprise investment behavior detection module with the specified rules to identify the portfolio pattern, the interaction between portfolio selection and monitored investment behavior is modeled as a two-person non-cooperative Bayesian game, which allows portfolio selection to adopt a probability monitoring strategy based on game Bayesian Nash equilibrium, thereby reducing the computational complexity of the portfolio approach introduced into the game algorithm. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified by simulation experiments.

Nitrate has a high level of stability and persistence in water, endangering human health and aquatic ecosystems. Due to its high reliability and efficiency, the electrochemical nitrate reduction reaction (NO

Habitat loss and fragmentation are serious threats to biodiversity worldwide. In order to promote animal movement and gene flow between habitat islands, it is important to identify and evaluate the ecological network of species. In Tieli Forestry Bureau (TFB) in Northeast China, we simulated and evaluated the ecological network of roe deer, aiming to provide theoretical support to population conservation. By using three sources of roe deer occurrence data and 15 environmental variables, we simulated the suitability of habitats using the Maximum Entropy Model (MaxEnt). Then, the corridor design model Linkage Mapper was used to identify and evaluate the linkages between habitat cores which are defined by the home range size of roe deer. The results showed that, of the terrain, land cover, vegetation, and anthropogenic interference factors, the anthropogenic interference factors played the most important and complex role in roe deer habitat selection, creating large-area suitable habitats by farming. Two innovative variables of farmland-forest edge length/patch perimeter (FFE:PP) and viewshed introduced in simulation contributed 8.5% and 2.3%, respectively. Surrounded by the unsuitable habitats, the suitable habitats mainly distributed along both sides of the river, covering 41.8% of the total area of TFB. The ecological network of roe deer was composed of 11 habitat cores and 17 linkages. Three linkages connecting the key habitat cores had low quality and linkage suitability ratios, which were probably due to barrier effect of the HeHa expressway intersecting with the linkages. Our study suggests the priority areas for protecting roe deer and the key locations where the wildlife road-crossing structures or animal guidance measures are needed.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to compare the diagnostic and predictive value of power Doppler ultrasonography (PDU) with Tc-99m dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) renal scintigraphy in pediatric acute pyelonephritis (APN) using a semiquantitative analysis system. METHODS: A total of 92 children and infants (184 kidneys) were hospitalized with possible APN. All children were examined by PDU and DMSA scintigraphy within 72 hours of admission. An empiric 9-point semiquantitative analysis system was used to sort kidneys into four grades (grade 0–III). Patients with several episodes of APN and congenital structural anomalies were excluded. RESULTS: Of 184 kidneys, we found 68 abnormal (grade I–III) and 116 normal (Grade 0) with DMSA scintigraphy, and 84 abnormal and 100 normal with PDU. In all, 23 kidneys were shown to be diseased by PDU but normal on DMSA scintigraphy while 7 kidneys showed the opposite trend. The sensitivity and specificity of PDU for diagnosing APN was 89.7% and 80.2%, respectively (P

Climate change could alter plant aboveground and belowground resource allocation. Compared with shoots, we know much less about how roots, especially root system architecture (RSA) and their interactions, may respond to temperature changes. Such responses could have great influence on species'acquisition of resources and their competition with neighbors. We used a gel-based transparent growth system to in situ observe the responses of RSA and root interactions of three common subtropical plant species seedlings in Asia differing in growth forms (herb, shrub, and tree) under a wide growth temperature range of 18-34°C, including low and supra-optimal temperatures. Results showed that the RSA, especially root depth and root width, of the three species varied significantly in response to increased temperature although the response of their aboveground shoot traits was very similar. Increased temperature was also observed to have little impact on shoot/root resource allocation pattern. The variations in RSA responses among species could lead to both the intensity and direction change of root interactions. Under high temperature, negative root interactions could be intensified and species with larger root size and fast early root expansion had competitive advantages. In summary, our findings indicate that greater root resilience play a key role in plant adapting to high temperature. The varied intensity and direction of root interactions suggest changed temperatures could alter plant competition. Seedlings with larger root size and fast early root expansion may better adapt to warmer climates.