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【Objective】 N2O is a greenhouse gas 298 times more effective than CO2 at trapping heat in the atmosphere. Reducing its emission from agricultural soils hence plays a crucial role in mitigating global warming. In this paper, we investigate experimentally the efficacy of regulating nitrogen fertilization to reduce N2O emission from wheat-maize rotation farmlands in Northern China. 【Method】 The experiment was conducted in field, consisting of conventional nitrogen fertilization of 300 kg/hm2 (N1), and reduced nitrogen fertilization of 240 kg/hm2 (N2). Without nitrogen fertilization was taken as the control (CK). In each treatment, we measured N2O efflux during the growing season of the wheat and maize, respectively, as well as soil properties. 【Result】 ① Reducing nitrogen fertilization effectively reduced N2O efflux; N2O efflux in the maize growing season was much higher than that in the winter wheat growing season. Because of temperature difference, N2O efflux induced by nitrogen fertilization to maize was higher than that to the wheat. ② The N2O efflux was influenced by soil nitrogen and soil properties; its variation with these factors can be fitted to N2O efflux =181.952+1.450×NO3--N+8.401×NH4+-N-0.514×EC for the wheat, and N2O efflux = -354.606+4.592×NO3--N +157.848×NH4+-N to the maize, where EC is electrical conductivity of soil solution. 【Conclusion】 Appropriately reducing nitrogen fertilization can reduce N2O efflux in winter wheat-maize rotation production systems without compromising the crop yields in Northern China, with the reduction in the maize growing season more significant than in the wheat growing season.

Aim: Geriatric patients are increasingly dominating the daily routine in emergency department (ED). The atypical clinical presentation of disease, multimorbidity, frailty and cognitive impairment of geriatric patients pose particular challenges for triage in the ED. Efficient and accurate emergency triage plays a key role in differentiating between geriatric patients who need timely treatment and those who can wait safely. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of the modified Manchester Triage System (mMTS) in classifying geriatric patients. Design: An observational retrospective study. Methods: A retrospective study of 18,796 geriatric patients (≥65 years) attending the ED of a tertiary care hospital in Zhejiang province between 1 June 2020 and 30 June 2022. Baseline information on patients was collected and divided into two different study groups according to triage level: high priority (red/orange) and low priority (yellow/green). The sensitivity and specificity of the mMTS were estimated by verifying the triage classification received by the emergency geriatric patients and their survival at 7 days or the need for acute surgery within 72 h. Results: The study included a total of 17,764 geriatric patients with a median age of 72 years in ED. 10.7% (1896/17,764) of the geriatric patients were assigned to the high priority code group (red/orange) and 89.3% (15,868/17,764) were in the low priority code group (yellow/green). The sensitivity of the mMTS associated with death within 7 days was 85.7% (77.5–91.4), specificity was 89.8% (89.3–90.2), and accuracy was 89.8% (89.3–90.2). 1.8% of patients required surgery within 72 h. The sensitivity was 62.6% (57.0–67.9), specificity was 90.3% (89.8–90.7), and negative predictive value was 99.2% (99.0–99.4). Conclusions: The mMTS has good specificity, accuracy and negative predictive value for geriatric patients. However, its incorrect prediction of triage in high‐priority code patients results in lower sensitivity, which may serve as a protective strategy for these individuals. The current emergency triage system does not completely screen geriatric patients with severe acute illness who present to the ED, and it is necessary to add comprehensive assessment tools that match the characteristics of geriatric patients to improve triage outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective To investigate the inhibitory effect of cordycepin on immune function injury in lung cancer rats after radiation therapy through JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway. Methods Fifty rats were used to establish tumor-bearing model and other 10 rats were taken as normal group. After successful modeling, the rats were randomly divided into model group, radiotherapy group, cordycepin group, agonist group and agonist+cordycepin group (10 rats in each group). We compared tumor weight, tumor volume, tumor inhibition rate, IL-6, TNF-α, spleen index and thymus index, the number of T lymphocyte subsets, JAK2, p-JAK2, STAT3 and p-STAT3 protein expression levels among all groups. Results Compared with normal group, IL-6, TNF-α, CD8+, p-JAK2 and p-STAT3 in model group were increased, while spleen index, thymus index, CD4+ and CD4+/CD8+ were decreased (P < 0.05). Compared with model group, tumor weight, tumor volume, spleen index, thymus index, CD4+ and CD4+/CD8+ were decreased in radiotherapy group, while IL-6, TNF-α, CD8+, p-JAK2 and p-STAT3 were increased (P < 0.05). Compared with radiotherapy group, tumor weight, tumor volume, IL-6, TNF-α, CD8+, p-JAK2 and p-STAT3 were decreased in cordycepin group, while tumor inhibition rate, spleen index thymus index, CD4+ and CD4+/CD8+ were increased; tumor weight, tumor volume, IL-6, TNF-α, CD8+, p-JAK2 and p-STAT3 protein expression were increased in agonist group, while tumor inhibition rate, spleen index, thymus index, CD4+ and CD4+/CD8+ were decreased (P < 0.05). Compared with agonist+cordycepin group, tumor weight, tumor volume, IL-6, TNF-α, CD8+, p-JAK2 and p-STAT3 were decreased in cordycepin group, while tumor inhibition rate, spleen index, thymus index, CD4+ and CD4+/CD8+ were increased; tumor weight, tumor volume, IL-6, TNF-α, CD8+, p-JAK2 and p-STAT3 were increased in agonist group, while tumor inhibition rate, spleen index, thymus index, CD4+ and CD4+/CD8+ were decreased (P < 0.05). Conclusion Cordycepin can effectively inhibit the immune function injury in lung cancer rats after radiation therapy, and may play a regulatory role by inhibiting the JAK2/STAT3 signal pathway.

【Objective】 Global warming would lead to soil temperature rising and alter the physical and biogeochemical properties of the soil. How these affect the growth and yield of crops remains largely absurd, and the purpose of this paper is to present an experimental study on the effect of soil warming on growth and yield of winter wheat in central China. 【Method】 The experiment was conducted in 2012—2103 at a field in the Comprehensive Experimental Station of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences at Shangqiu. A heating pipeline buried 1.2 m deep warmed the whole soil profile, and the control was a site far away from the pipe (CK). Based on the horizontal distance from the pipe, we divided the topsoil into four warming zones: right above the pipe with the soil temperature increased by 8 ℃ (T8, compared to CK, same hereafter), 0.5 m away from the pipe with the soil temperature increased by 6 ℃ (T6), 1.0m from the pipe with the soil temperature increased by 4 ℃ (T4), 1.5 m from the pipe with the soil temperature increased by 2 ℃ (T2). In each treatment, we measured root growth and its traits, yield traits, water consumption and water use efficiency (WUE). 【Result】 The soil temperature peaked at 14:00 every day. Increasing soil temperature by 2.0 ℃ was beneficial to root growth, while over 4.0 ℃ would impede root growth. Most roots were found in the 0~40 cm of soil, with the root-length density in which accounting for more than 75% of the total root lengths from the tillering stage to the green stage over the soil profile. Soil warming boosted crop height and its leaf area index (LAI) after the greening stage, but slowed down crop growth at the late stages, especially in the high-temperature zones. Increasing soil temperature by less than 4.0 ℃ significantly increased grain and biological yields, the number of spikes, the number of spikes per spike, and the 1 000-grain weight. In contrast, increasing soil warming by more than 4.0 ℃ significantly reduced the yield traits. We found that soil warming also impacted water consumption (ET) and WUE, with the impact ranked in the order T2>CK>T4> T6> T8 for ET, and T2> T4>CK> T6> T8 for WUE, despite the insignificant difference between CK and T4. 【Conclusion】 Increasing soil temperature by 2.0 ℃ over the ambient temperature is beneficial to the yield and WUE of the winter wheat.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the correlation between serum homocysteine (Hcy) and cognitive impairment (CI) in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD).

Based on a novel phenylacetylene capped polyimide (PI) with unique high-temperature resistance, its curing kinetics and thermal decomposition behavior were investigated. The curing mechanism and kinetics were studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and the activation energy (Ea) and pre-exponential factor (A) of the curing reaction were calculated based on the Kissinger equation, Ozawa equation, and Crane equation. According to the curve of conversion rate changing with temperature, the relationship between the dynamic reaction Ea and conversion rate (α) was calculated by the Friedman equation, Starink equation, and Ozawa–Flynn–Wall (O-F-W) equation, and the reaction Ea in different stages was compared with the results of molecular dynamics. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and a scanning electron microscope (SEM) were used to analyze the thermal decomposition behavior of PI resins before and after curing. Temperatures at 5% and 20% mass loss (T5%, T20%), peak decomposition temperature (Tmax), residual carbon rate (RW), and integral process decomposition temperature (IPDT) were used to compare the thermal stability of PI resins and cured PI resins. The results display that the cured PI has excellent thermal stability. The Ea of the thermal decomposition reaction was calculated by the Coats–Redfern method, and the thermal decomposition behavior was analyzed. The thermal decomposition reaction of PI resins at different temperatures was simulated by molecular dynamics, the initial thermal decomposition reaction was studied, and the pyrolysis mechanism was analyzed more comprehensively and intuitively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]