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Background/aim: Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the principal agent of cancer deaths globally. The goal of this study was to determine how circular RNA_0000518 (circ_0000518) regulates tumor progression. Materials/Methods. circ_0000518 was selected as a study target involved in NSCLC from GEO (Gene Expression Omnibus) database. circ_0000518 level was gauged by qRT-PCR. It was confirmed as circRNA by actinomycin D inhibition and RNase R assay. Subcellular localization of circ_0000518 was identified by FISH. Cell function was determined by CCK-8, Transwell, and western blot. Glutamine metabolic factors were detected by ELISA. The target regulation relationship between genes was clarified by dual-luciferase reporter assay. In vivo models were established to evaluate the impact of circ_0000518 on tumor growth. Immunohistochemical staining for Ki67, vimentin, and E-cadherin was used to detect cell proliferation and metastasis, respectively.Results: circ_0000518 expression was enhanced in NSCLC. si-circ_0000518 inhibited cell proliferation, invasion, and glutamine metabolism. circ_0000518 functioned as a molecular sponge for miR-330-3p, and inhibition of miR-330-3p in cells markedly reversed circ_0000518 interference-mediated antitumor effects. miR-330-3p interacted with 3'-UTR of SLC1A5. miR-330-3p inhibitor-mediated protumor effect was remarkably reversed in cells after the knockdown of SLC1A5. circ_0000518 knockdown reduced glutamine, glutamate, and α-KG by targeting miR-330-3p. Intertumoral injection of circ_0000518 shRNA adeno-associated virus effectively halted xenograft tumor growth.Conclusion: The current study revealed that circ_0000518 may have a prooncogenic function in the formation and progression of NSCLC, which might be achieved through moderating the miR-330-3p/SLC1A5 axis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food waste is a major issue in the context of pollution, climate change, and the future circular economy. Composting kitchen waste is a promising method to recycle elements, yet the efficiency of composting is limited, calling for new processes that degrade rapidly and thoroughly organic matter. Here, we built a rapid laboratory-scale aerobic composting system, equipped with a water bath fueled with either solar energy, or electricity under low sunlight. We tested compositing with and without energy. Results show that only three days are needed to raise the temperature to over 45 °C by energy composting in winter, leading to notable increases in pH, total nitrogen, and cation exchange capacity after 7 days. Composting materials were thoroughly decomposed and mature in 10 days, displaying pH of 7.5, ratio of total organic carbon to total nitrogen of 9.9, cation exchange capacity of 65.61 cmol kg−1, and germination index of 80.4%. Overall, energy composting starts biodegradation quickly in 2 days, reduces effectively the inhibition from some waste compounds, decomposes organic substances well, and yields mature compost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Anticlockwise hysteresis type was the dominating hysteresis type. • Complex hysteresis type generated more sediment than either of three other types. • Antecedent rainfall dominated clockwise type, along with time lag for complex type. • Intraday rainfall and sediment separately dominated clockwise and anti-clock types. • Largest patch index and grassland separately dominated complex and other types. This study aims to quantitatively evaluate the effects of hydrological and landscape characteristics on suspended sediment concentration and discharge (SSC-Q) hysteresis. Runoff and sediment data of 405 flood events were collected from 10 basins in Wudinghe River basin on the Loess Plateau of China. Hysteresis analysis is a key tool for the interrogation of transport of sediment, which have been shown to be important within catchments. It can provide insight into catchment function, allowing the development and testing of process-based hypotheses. The principal components and corresponding explanatory power were extracted quantitatively from hydrological and landscape characteristics via principal component analysis (PCA) and redundancy analysis (RDA), respectively. The most common hysteresis type was anticlockwise. The proportions of the total event sediment loads for different hysteresis types were not always generally correlated to the frequency of the corresponding events. Furthermore, the composition and explanatory power of controlling principal components varied among clockwise, anticlockwise, figure-of-eight, and complex hysteresis types. For hydrological principal components, the antecedent precipitation, intraday precipitation, and sediment principal components controlled clockwise, anticlockwise, and figure-of-eight hysteresis types, which had explained 47.03%, 58.82% and 52.05% of the variation of hysteresis index, respectively; the antecedent precipitation and time lag principal component controlled complex hysteresis type and accounted for 28.22% and 34.65% of the variation of hysteresis index, respectively. For landscape principal components, grassland principal component dominated clockwise, anticlockwise, and figure-of-eight hysteresis types, and accounted for 95.00%, 69.70%, and 92.00% of the variation of hysteresis index, respectively. Largest patch index principal component controlled complex hysteresis type and accounted for 100% of the variation of hysteresis index. Therefore, within this catchment, whereas hysteresis patterns varied due to all of the hydrological and landscape variables to some extent, precipitation, suspended sediment, area of grassland, and the largest patch area had stronger impact on hysteresis dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) have been fabricated using various p -doped hole injection structures based on MoO 3 doped 4,4′- N , N′ -dicarbazole-biphenyl (CBP:MoO 3 ) and 2,3,5,6-Tetrafluoro-7,7,8,8,-tetracyano-quinodimethane doped 4,4-bis[ N -1-naphthyl- N -phenylamino]biphenyl (NPB:F 4 -TCNQ). It is found that the hole injection from indium tin oxide (ITO) to CBP:MoO 3 is more efficient than that from ITO to NPB:F 4 -TCNQ, although the CBP:MoO 3 is much less conductive than the NPB:F 4 -TCNQ. In addition, the CBP:MoO 3 is helpful to block F 4 -TCNQ from diffusing into the emissive zone and thereby relieve the exciton quenching induced by organic p -dopant. Thus, the improved hole injection structure of ITO/10 nm CBP:MoO 3 /5 nm NPB:F 4 -TCNQ/5 nm CBP:MoO 3 is provided to diminish the hole and exciton losses, greatly increasing the device performance than the other hole injection structures. The current research is believed beneficial for the development of OLEDs based on a p-i-n junction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exosomes mediate cellular communications in cancer by transmitting active molecules. However, the CAFs-derived molecular determinants that regulate esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) metastasis have not been fully characterized. The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential roles of exosomal LINC01410 of ESCC cells. The characteristics of exosomes were identified using transmission electron microscope (TEM), Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA). The expression of LINC01410 and miR-122–5p was analyzed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) assay. The biological roles of LINC01410 in ESCC cells were investigated using transwell assay. Western blot assay was employed to detect protein levels. The potential downstream molecular mechanism of LINC01410 was demonstrated with dual-luciferase reporter assay, RNA immunoprecipitation (RIP) assay and RNA pull down. CAFs promote the metastasis and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of ESCC cells. CAFs exert their roles by transferring exosomes to ESCC cells, leading to a significant increase of LINC01410 level in ESCC cells. Mechanically, LINC01410 secreted by CAFs-Exo could contribute to metastasis and EMT by sponging miR-122–5p and increasing PKM2 level in TE-1 and Eca-109 cells. Additionally, LINC01410/miR-122–5p/PKM2 axis affecting ESCC metastasis and EMT in vitro and in vivo. • CAFs promote metastasis and EMT of ESCC cells. • CAF-derived exosomes promote metastasis and EMT of ESCC. • Exosomal deliver LINC01410 essentially for metastasis and EMT of ESCC. • LINC01410/miR-122–5p/PKM2 axis regulates ESCC metastasis and EMT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Annual atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition in China increased approximately 8 kg N ha−1 from the 1980s to the 2000s, which may have greatly affected soil respiration (R s) and its temperature sensitivity (Q 10). Although numerous individual studies have been conducted, the responses of R s to simulated N deposition remain controversial. To reconcile the conflicting results of R s and expand our knowledge about the response of Q 10 to N addition, a dataset with 333 independent observations in China was compiled, and a meta-analysis was performed. Our results showed that N addition increased R s by 7.1% (P < 0.05) across all biomes. The positive response degree of R s in croplands (27.0%, P < 0.05) was significantly greater than those in the grassland and forest biomes, which indicated that R s in anthropogenic ecosystems might be more sensitive to N enrichment. In contrast to low and medium N levels (≤20 g m−2 yr−1), high N addition levels (>20 g m−2 yr−1) inhibited R s due to a decrease in plant fine root biomass (RB). Compared with ammonium nitrate, urea is more likely to stimulate the release of soil C. Regression models showed that the R s response ratio (RR) was positively correlated with pH and the RR s of microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and RB. Increases in both plant roots and microbial biomass induced by N addition directly promoted R s , and N enrichment likely increases R s in soil with a high pH. The temperature sensitivity parameter, Q 10 , decreased by 3.7% (P < 0.05) across all biomes and showed an overall negative response for different biomes (except wetlands and deserts), N addition levels and N types. The Q 10 response ratio was positively correlated with the RR of pH. Soil acidification induced by proton release during N fertilizer transformation might accelerate the decomposition of recalcitrant organic matter and further decrease the Q 10 value. Our study provides valuable information to Chinese environmental policy- and decision-makers in their attempts to evaluate the effects of N deposition on terrestrial ecosystem C cycle. • N addition increased R s by 7.1% and decreased Q 10 by 3.7% across all biomes. • Relative to grassland and forest, R s of cropland was more sensitive to N addition. • Contrary to low and medium N addition levels, high N addition levels inhibited R s. • Soil acidification induced by N addition increased R s and decreased the Q 10 value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MoO3p-doped 4,4′-N,N′-dicarbazole-biphenyl (CBP:MoO3) has been used as a hole extraction layer in inverted organic solar cells (OSCs). It is found that although the CBP:MoO3 shows reduced conductivity than the conventional hole extraction layer of MoO3, the CBP:MoO3 yields nearly the same quasi-Fermi level for holes in a photoactive layer as the MoO3 does. As a result, the open-circuit voltages of inverted OSCs based on CBP:MoO3 and MoO3 remain almost unchanged. When the thickness of hole extraction layer is ≤ 20 nm, the CBP:MoO3 can enable nearly the same short-circuit current density of inverted device but improved fill factor, in comparison to the MoO3, leading to the power conversion efficiency based on CBP:MoO3 higher than that based on MoO3. The results show that the CBP:MoO3 can act as an useful hole extraction material for fabricating high-efficiency inverted OSCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate spatial information for agricultural field parcels is important for agricultural production management and understanding agro-industrialization and intensification. However, traditional remote sensing methods that rely on single-modal or single-date data struggle to identify heterogeneous field parcels, particularly in regions dominated by smallholder farming systems. To address this challenge, we proposed a Dual branch Spatiotemporal Fusion Network (DSTFNet) that integrated very high-resolution (VHR) images and medium-resolution satellite image time series (MRSITS) to extract agricultural field parcels over various landscapes. The DSTFNet consisted of two branches: a spatial branch that extracted spatial features from VHR images and a temporal branch that explored seasonal spectral dynamics from MRSITS data by using ConvLSTM units and an attention module. We evaluated the DSTFNet in four regions across China by using GF-2 and Sentinel-2 data. The results showed that DSTFNet performed well in delineating agricultural field parcels, achieving the highest Matthew's correlation coefficient (MCC) = 0.823 for the field extent, the highest F1-score of edge (F edge) = 0.865 for field boundary, and the lowest errors of segmentation evaluation index (SEI) = 0.191 for the vectorized field parcels in Hubei province. In addition, DSTFNet significantly outperformed two single-branch models that used VHR or MRSITS alone, as well as existing BsiNet, ResUNet_a, UNet and RAUNet models. DSTFNet also showed good spatial transferability in distinct regions without training data (on average, MCC = 0.728, F edge = 0.729, and SEI = 0.281 for three target regions). Using limited training data to fine-tune the DSTFNet can further improve its ability to delineate field parcels over complex regions. The visualization analysis of temporal attention weights demonstrated that DSTFNet can well capture cropland spectral dynamics, making it advantageous in extracting diverse cropland parcels. By exploiting important spectral, spatial and temporal information from multimodal satellite data, DSTFNet provided an effective, robust, and transferable solution for accurately delineating agricultural field parcels across heterogeneous farming systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Pro-protein convertase subtilisin/kexin 9 (PCSK9) decreases the clearance of the pathogenic lipids, supporting the potential role of PCSK9 in the prognosis of sepsis. Methods: In this prospective cohort study, patients with sepsis were consecutively recruited from 1 to 2020 to 30 September 2021 at the First People's Hospital of Huaihua, China. All the eligible patients were categorized into low-PCSK9 and high-PCSK9 groups, based on their PCSK9 levels at admission. Time-dependent receiver operating characteristic curves and Cox proportional hazards regression were used to evaluate the association between PCSK9 level and 28-day mortality of sepsis. Results: Of the 203 enrolled patients, 56 (27.59%) died during the 28-day follow-up. The PCSK9 level was positively related to the C-reactive protein level. The cut-off point of PCSK9 levels for 28-day mortality risk was 370 ng/ml. Through comparison between high-PCSK9 (> 370 ng/ml) with low-PCSK9 (≤ 370 ng/ml) groups, the adjusted HR for mortality was 2.56 (95% CI: 1.25–5.23, p = 0.01). Conclusions: The 28-day mortality of sepsis increased significantly as the baseline circulating PCSK9 level exceeded 370 ng/ml, indicating circulating PCSK9 levels may be a potential biomarker to predict the prognosis of sepsis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graphical abstract The soil moisture (SM) dynamics change is mainly ascribed to the revegetation. The spatio-temporal dynamics of SM displays that the wet region with annual precipitation of >450 mm to be dry and dry region with annual precipitation of ≤450 mm to be wet. It is potentially beneficial to restore vegetation with the aim to further enhance the ecosystem services in arid and semi-arid areas, until the vegetation fraction reaches 1.4%–3.7% and 3.8%–7.2%, respectively. However, vegetation should be maintained rather than further expanded in semi-humid area. Highlights • The wet area gets drier but dry area gets wetter from 1982 to 2015. • "Grain for Green" project drives the soil moisture change in the Loess Plateau. • An optimal green cover is 1.4%–3.7% in arid area and 3.8%–7.2% in semiarid area. • It is still potentially beneficial to restore vegetation for 8.5% of drylands. Abstract The continuous afforestation has led to significant changes in soil moisture (SM) dynamics on the Loess Plateau, China (LPC). However, evaluating the spatio-temporal distributions and driving factors of the SM changes following afforestation is challenging because of the difficulty of accessing areas and the lack of long-term series records. Here, we evaluated the accuracy of Global Land Evaporation Amsterdam Model (GLEAM) SM product by comparing with in-situ SM data in LPC, and quantified the spatio-temporal variations of SM in different periods from 1982 to 2015 under the 'Grain for Green' program (GGP). The results showed that the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was well matched with the SM variations in more than 46% area of LPC from 1982 to 2015, which mainly located at the vegetated areas. The variations of SM responding to revegetation displayed obvious southeast-negative and northwest-positive patterns, which was the wet region (annual precipitation >450 mm) to be dry and dry region (annual precipitation ≤450 mm) to be wet. Path coefficient value revealed that the positive effect of vegetation activity for grassland on SM was ascribed to its promotion on the occurrence of rainfall (mean path coefficient = 0.278). Precipitation played vital impact on the SM in bareland and sparsely vegetated area, and evapotranspiration played a dominant role in the SM dynamic of the forestland, especially at the early stage of GGP (From 2000 to 2010), while precipitation and NDVI had stronger effects than evapotranspiration on the SM dynamics of grassland. Our study suggests that in arid and semi-arid areas, vegetation achieves the optimal water retention capacity when the vegetation fractions are 1.4%–3.7% and 3.8%–7.2%, respectively. Hence, vegetation should not be further expanded in semi-humid areas, but should be further restored in arid and semi-arid areas with sparse or excessively sparse vegetation cover (especially in desert). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate information on crop type spatial distributions is crucial for yield estimation, agroecological modeling, and agrarian policy development. In comparison with moderate resolution (10–30 m) satellite images, very high-resolution (VHR, ≤ 1 m) images are superior at describing the spatial details and complex texture features of agricultural land. However, VHR images generally suffer from insufficient spatiotemporal coverage and high spectral variation in crop type, making fine-scale crop type mapping at regional or larger scales challenging. In this study, we developed a novel data-driven residual attention U-shape network (RAUNet) to identify crop types at the regional scale based on VHR images. RAUNet was adapted from UNet by introducing a residual module and a gated attention mechanism to strengthen the multilevel representation of crop features from VHR images. We selected rice-crayfish fields (RCFs) in Hubei Province, China, as the case crop type and area to test the performance of RAUNet. Seven models, including RAUNet pan , ResUNet, AttnUNet, UNet, DeepLabV3 + and random forest at the pixel and object levels, were adopted for comparison with RAUNet. Moreover, the model transferability was evaluated over regions with different agricultural landscapes. Our results showed that RAUNet-derived RCF maps obtained an average F1-score and MCC of 0.90 and 0.85 at different cultivation stages, which significantly outperformed other methods. Additionally, RAUNet had good spatiotemporal transferability, with an average F1-score and MCC of 0.93 and 0.88 in four transfer areas. The visualization results of the attention weights indicated RAUNet's prominent capability in combining useful and relevant information from different feature levels to produce refinement predictions for the target crop type. Furthermore, the high-level features derived from RAUNet can well separate RCFs and non-RCFs over different landscapes, which were also consistent across different cultivation periods. These encouraging results suggest that RAUNet works well for fine-scale crop type mapping in smallholder farming systems, and it is an efficient method for land cover mapping based on VHR images at the regional scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the scarcity of fresh water resources and the increase in labor prices, rice cultivation is changing from transplanting to direct seeding. Weedy rice is a malignant weed with strong drought tolerance in seed germination in direct-seeding rice fields. As the same species of cultivated rice (Oryza sativa L.), weedy rice (Oryza sativa f. spontanea) has the potential of domestication into direct-seeding rice with strong drought tolerance in seed germination by changing a few unfavorable traits. The red pericarp, one of the harmful traits of weedy rice, seriously affects the quality and commercial value of cultivated rice. The recently developed CRISPR/Cas9 (Clustered Regular Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) technology can accurately edit the function of genes, providing a possibility for the directed evolution. Weedy rice (WRL-162) with red pericarp was used as a mutant material. Two mutation sites, upstream and downstream of the 14 bp differential fragment of exon 6 of Rc gene, were designed using the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technique. Consequently, three mutant types in T1 generation weedy rice with CRISPR-Cas9 vector changed from red to white pericarp. One mutant type in T1 generation weedy rice with CRISPR-Cas9 vector maintained red pericarp. Comparing the wild type of weedy rice and rice variety control (Nipponbare), mutant types in T3 generation weedy rice without CRISPR-Cas9 vector significantly improved the drought resistance in seed germination. In addition, there was no significant difference in panicle number, seed setting rate per plant, grain length and width between wild type and T3 generation mutant weedy rice without CRISPR-Cas9 vector. Comparing the wild type, some mutant types in T3 generation weedy rice without CRISPR-Cas9 vector significantly decreased plant height, decreased spikelet number per main panicle, decreased plump seed number per main panicle, and increased 1000-grain weight. Our results showed that the Rc gene editing using CRISPR/Cas9 technology can not only remove the harmful pericarp character of weedy rice, but also improve drought tolerance in seed germination. This study might provide new insights for the utilization of weedy rice as germplasm resources for direct-seeding rice by precisely editing genes to remove unfavorable traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional fingerprinting methods are limited in their ability to identify soil erosion sources where geologic variations are small or where different land uses span geological boundaries. In this study, a new biomarker for fingerprinting, specifically, n -alkanes, was used in a small catchment to identify sediment sources. The n -alkanes were based on land uses, could provide vegetation information, and were relatively resistant to diagenetic modifications and decomposition. This study used a composite fingerprinting method that was based on two types of fingerprint factors (27 biomarker properties and 45 geochemical properties) with 60 source samples (i.e., gully, grassland, forest, and cropland) and nine soil profiles. Genetic algorithm (GA) optimization has been deployed to find the optimal source contribution to sediments. The biomarker results demonstrated that young forest is the main sediment source in this catchment, contributing 50.5%, whereas cropland, grassland and gully contributed 25.6%, 14.4% and 9.5%, respectively; the geochemistry results were similar to the biomarkers. The forest and grassland contributions gradually increased from upstream to downstream, and the sediment contributions of cropland gradually decreased in the direction of the runoff pathway at the check dam. In a comparison of biomarker and geochemical fingerprinting data, the latter may have overestimated the forest inputs to the catchment sediment yields because of a mixed land use history (i.e., forest and grassland). The geochemical fingerprint approach limits its ability to fully discriminate sources based on land management regimes, but the biomarker (individual n -alkanes) displayed the potential to discriminate between a greater number and different types of sediment sources and to provide greater detail regarding sediment sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cropland soil erosion is primarily caused by agricultural production and indirectly altered by consumption patterns. A well-developed grain trade system transfers grain products to distant locations, away from their place of origin where soil erosion may have occurred. Evidence-based policies to control soil erosion can be developed by holding consumers responsible for the soil erosion caused by their consumption. However, there have been few systematic studies on cropland soil erosion that is embodied in grain trade. In this study, we estimated the soil erosion intensity (SEI) of grain production in each province of China from 1990 to 2020 by combining the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation and socio-economic statistics. We also constructed an interprovincial grain trade network using linear programming techniques and analyzed the cropland soil erosion associated with the interprovincial grain trade. The results showed a rise in national cropland soil erosion attributed to grain production from 5.36×108 t in 1990 to 7.56×108 t in 2020. In particular, those embodied in interprovincial grain trade increased from 0.94×108 t in 1990 to 3.52×108 t in 2020. Nationally, about 10.72% of soil erosion exports in 2020 was from provinces with lower-than-average SEI, compared to 18.42% in 1990, indicating that current patterns of grain production and consumption are unfavorable for erosion control. Accordingly, measures have been proposed to build a soil erosion control system that includes consumers, such as changing farming practices, optimizing agricultural layout, promoting technology export and establishing a provincial compensation mechanism. [Display omitted] • Trade was prominent and insufficiently explored driver for cropland soil erosion. • RUSLE and grain trade network were utilized to estimate embodied soil erosion. • Mismatch between production and consumption increased embodied soil erosion. • Soil erosion burden mainly shifted from south with high SEI to north with low SEI. • Current provincial grain trade patterns were not conducive to soil erosion control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The soil erosion performances of frozen, nonfrozen and thawed soil were evaluated. • Four models were implemented to simulate the key parameters for thawed soil erosion. • The performance of SR and machine learning models were compared. • Influencing factors of straw returning on thawed soil were analyzed. Snow and ice‐melted water flow over thawed soil cause severe soil erosion. The application of straw mulch has long been considered as an effective measure to reduce soil erosion, but the effects of straw mulch and straw incorporation on thawed soil erosion remain uncertain. This study conducted detailed laboratory experiments to investigate the effects of straw mulch and straw incorporation on soil erosion and sediment transport of thawed soil. The median particle size (D 50) of transported sediment, flow velocity and sediment concentration for thawed soil were compared with that of unfrozen and frozen soil. Models based on Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Back Propagation Neural Network (BP) and stepwise regression (SR) were implemented to simulate the key parameters of thawed soil erosion, and the accuracy of the developed models was evaluated. The results showed that the sediment yield increased significantly in thawed soil compared with that in unfrozen soil. The maximum flow velocity over thawed soil decreased by 20.7 % compared with that over frozen soil. The D 50 of transported sediment decreased by 29.4 % after the soil suffered the effects of freeze–thaw, and the finer sizes were more likely to be entrained. The straw mulch effectively reduced the D 50 of transported sediment, flow velocity and sediment concentration. In addition, the RF model showed a better result to predict the sediment concentration, flow velocity and D 50 of transported sediment (NSE > 0.849, RRMSE < 0.493) than the BP, SVM and SR models. Comparing the performance of the RF model with the models reported in previous studies, the RF model showed the best performance. In general, the results of this study provide important information for soil erosion in thawed soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, sloping farmland accounts for one-third of its total farmland, supporting ~330 million mountain people's livelihoods. Despite its long history of using soil conservation measures for reducing soil loss on sloping farmland, no comprehensive evaluation has ever been performed on their effectiveness. In this study, we reviewed the soil conservation measures on sloping farmland in China from ~2500 years ago to the present and examined their effectiveness under current and projected climate change scenarios based on 6909 plot-scale observations. For the sloping farmland across China, the average soil loss rate is 14.47 Mg ha−1 yr−1, with a quarter of the observed values exceeding the maximum tolerable soil loss rate (10 Mg ha−1 yr−1). Soil conservation measures can reduce soil loss by ~80%, with the highest effectiveness for the combination of biological and engineering measures (reduced by ~86%), followed by biological measures (reduced by ~84%) and engineering measures (reduced by ~82%) separately. However, the effectiveness of soil conservation measures shows a significant decrease in the farmland with a slope above 15° or a single rainfall event >25 mm. The effectiveness of currently applied soil conservation measures was also compared under the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP) 1, 2, and 5 in 2050, and their effectiveness is expected to decrease on over 27% of the sloping farmland. In particular, under the SSP1 scenario, the effectiveness of soil conservation measures is projected to diminish in 70%, 54%, and 54% of sloping farmland in Northeast China, Sichuan Basin and surrounding regions, and Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, respectively, due to changes in rainfall, highlighting the need to consider the impact of climate change when implementing soil conservation measures. Overall, this study provides useful information for scientific strategies on the construction, management, and maintenance of soil conservation measures to control soil loss on sloping farmland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Integrase inhibitors (INIs)-based antiretroviral therapies (ART) are more recommended than efavirenz (EFV)-based ART for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Yet, the advantage of integrase inhibitors in treating TB/HIV coinfection is uncertain. Therefore, the objective of this systematic review is to evaluate the effects and safety of INIs- versus EFV-based ART in TB/HIV coinfection, and demonstrate the feasibility of the regimens. Methods: Four electronic databases were systematically searched through September 2020. Fixed-effects models were used to calculate pooled effect size for all outcomes. The primary outcomes were virologic suppression and bacteriology suppression for INIs- versus EFV-based ART. Secondary outcomes included CD4+ cell counts change from baseline, adherence and safety. Results: Three trials (including 672 TB/HIV patients) were eligible. ART combining INIs and EFV had similar effects for all outcomes, with none of the point estimates argued against the INIs-based ART on TB/HIV patients. Compared to EFV-based ART as the reference group, the RR was 0.94 (95% CI 0.85 to 1.05) for virologic suppression, 1.00 (95% CI 0.95 to 1.05) for bacteriology suppression, 0.98 (95% CI 0.95 to 1.01) for adherence. The mean difference in CD4+ cell counts increase between the two groups was 14.23 cells/μl (95% CI 0− 6.40 to 34.86). With regard to safety (adverse events, drug-related adverse events, discontinuation for drugs, grade 3–4 adverse events, IRIS (grade 3–4), and death), INIs-based regimen was broadly similar to EFV-based regimens. The analytical results in all sub-analyses of raltegravir- (RAL) and dolutegravir (DTG) -based ART were valid. Conclusion: This meta-analysis demonstrates similar efficacy and safety of INIs-based ART compared with EFV-based ART. This finding supports INIs-based ART as a first-line treatment in TB/HIV patients. The conclusions presented here still await further validation owing to insufficient data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Land use change significantly reduces the lateral transport of sediment and SOC. • About 21.6–42.9 % of the mobilized SOC is effectively buried behind the check dams. • Soil conservation measures generated significant carbon sequestration effect. • The composition and age of SOC were quantified by radiocarbon isotopes. Human activity is thought to perturb the dynamic change of organic carbon (OC), but its impact on the transportation and redistribution of erosion-induced OC is still poorly understood. Here, we use multi-source field sampling data and long-term hydrological observation data to clarify the transportation and redistribution of OC in an agricultural watershed on the Loess Plateau. The endmember mixing model based on the radiocarbon isotopes (14C) and a budget equation were used to assess the composition and budget of erosion-induced OC in a 187 km2 watershed. The results showed that compared with the period of agricultural activities (1960−1969), soil conservation activities in 1970−1999 and 2000−2019 reduced soil erosion by 31.5 % and 75.4 %, respectively. Additionally, land use changes significantly reduced the mobilized OC, from 14,370 ± 1966 (1960−1969) to 3311 ± 431 Mg C yr−1 (2000−2019). Check dam construction led to the mobilized OC was effectively buried at a rate of 2125 ± 478 and 1420 ± 282 Mg C yr-1 in periods of 1970−1999 and 2000−2019, respectively. Further radiocarbon isotopes analysis shows that the land use changes and check dam construction effectively reduced the output of ancient petrogenic organic carbon (OC petro) and young biospheric organic carbon (OC bio) from the watershed, which has a positive impact on the regulation of atmospheric CO 2 level. Our results emphasize the positive effects of soil conservation activities on terrestrial carbon sequestration, which are of great significance to clarify the effects of soil erosion on the carbon cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aims: Trait-based approaches are increasingly used to improve ecological restoration in degraded ecosystems. The aim of this study was to evaluate how vegetation controls soil detachment capacity (Dc) by concentrated flow based on the linkages between root traits and soil physics. Methods: We selected 60 plots along a land degradation gradient caused by long-term water erosion in a small catchment, central China. These plots consisted of woodlands, scrublands, grasslands and bare lands. And soil physical properties, root traits and Dc were measured in each plot. Results: Fine roots (0.2 mm < diameter < 2 mm) accounted for 51–93% of total root length in topsoil. Roots explained most of the soil variations in noncapillary porosity, aggregate stability and shear strength. Furthermore, our prediction model (R2 = 0.88, NSE = 0.85) showed that fine roots length density and soil shear strength were the primary factors reducing Dc. Conclusions: Vegetation restoration improves multiple soil physical properties key to mitigating Dc, and the root functional traits play a substantial role in this relationship. These findings could provide the basis for soil conservation, and for expanding the pool of species of interest, which can be used to provide erosion mitigation services in degraded ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although soil erosion and land use change have long been focuses in carbon research, the combined influence of soil erosion and vegetation rehabilitation on aggregate stability and the associated soil organic carbon (SOC) and total nitrogen (TN) remains unclear. The current study evaluated the effects of soil erosion on aggregate stability and the associated SOC and TN dynamics in relation to vegetation rehabilitation after the implementation of the “Grain-for-Green” project in the hilly Loess region. A check dam sediment sequence was dated using 137 Cs activity and erosive rainfall events. The SOC and TN in the bulk soil and aggregate fractions were measured in soils from rehabilitated grasslands and sloping croplands and in sediments retained by the check dam. The results showed that vegetation rehabilitation led to 78%, 27% and 9% average increases in the macroaggregate amount, mean weight diameter (MWD) and mean geometric diameter (MGD), respectively. In addition, rehabilitation resulted in the highest SOC and TN concentrations and contents in macroaggregates among all the aggregate size fractions. Soil erosion facilitated the modification of the aggregate size distributions along with soil mineralization and induced the incorporation of deeper SOC-poor soils during transport. These processes resulted in the aggregate-associated SOC and TN concentrations and contents in the sediments being significantly lower than those in the eroding sloping cropland soils. The highest reductions were found in microaggregates, which exhibited decreases of 48% and 44% for SOC and TN, respectively. Moreover, reaggregation and gully soils incorporated during soil erosion led to higher values of macroaggregate amount and aggregate stability at depositional sites than those at eroding sloping cropland sites in this study. Our study contributes to the understanding of the effects of soil erosion and vegetation rehabilitation on SOC and TN dynamics, which is crucial for understanding the restoration efficiency in soil erosion control and ecosystem security evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Splash erosion affected the redistribution of soil particles and SIC. • The redistribution of splashed material and SIC varied with soil type. • SIC had sorting and enrichment characteristics. Splash erosion caused by raindrops is the first stage of water erosion that detaches and transports soil particles. As an important component of soil particles, soil inorganic carbon (SIC) contains little information on its redistribution during splash erosion. In this study, two soils, purple soil and loess, were selected and placed in a soil tray with a diameter of 20 cm at the center of a splash tray, and a rainfall simulator was used to simulate three raindrop energies in experiments to investigate the migration of soil particles and SIC. The results showed differences in the amount and selective migration of splashed material between the soils, which was evident in the obvious sorting of the particle size of purple soil with distance and the insignificant change of loess soil. The SIC sorting characteristic performed differently in the two soils, that is, the SIC content of purple soil increased with particle size, while that of loess was the opposite. The enrichment and depletion of SIC during splash erosion varied with soil type, and differed from the general enrichment of soil organic carbon (SOC). The SIC enrichment ratio (ER IC) of purple soil was generally > 1, whereas the ER IC values of loess were < 1. In addition, multiple linear regression (MLR) models were established to predict the SIC content of splashed material. Rainfall splash plays an important role in SIC migration and may further affect the carbon cycle. These preliminary results provide a basis for further study of SIC response to rainfall splash. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial restoring degraded grasslands has shown positive effects on topsoil conservation, leading to reduced soil erodibility and the activation of soil detachment. However, only a few studies have quantified the expected changes in both processes resulting from artificial restoration. In this study, we aim to survey the effects of grassland restoration on soil erodibility and soil loss in alpine degraded hillsides by changing vegetation and soil properties using artificially cultivated. We assessed soil erodibility K-factor (K), mean weight diameter of soil aggregates (MWD), soil saturated hydraulic conductivity (Ks) soil cohesion (Coh) using a structural equation modeling. Our results demonstrated that artificially cultivated grassland restoration effectively reduced soil erodibility on severely degraded hillslopes. The soil erodibility index Coh , MDW and Ks increased by 161.3, 53.4 and 8.6 %, respectively, while K decreased by 5.1 %. Additionally, the artificial grassland proved to be effective in reducing soil loss, with increasing age of artificial restoration. Over the study period from 2019 to 2022, sediment concentration and soil erosion rate decreased by −188.3–41.9 % and from −239.4–20.4 %, respectively. We concluded that artificially cultivated grassland is an efficient approach for reducing soil degradation activation on alpine degraded hillslopes. The findings suggest that this approach could be applicable worldwide under various parent material and climate conditions, providing a promising solution for addressing soil erosion in degraded areas. • Soil erodibility reduced after restoring degraded hillslopes to artificially cultivated grassland. • Soil erodibility index Coh and MDW increased by 161.3 % and 53.4 % after artificial restoration. • Cultivated grassland effectively reduced soil loss with increasing age of artificial restoration. • Sediment concentration and soil erosion modulus reduced by artificially cultivated grassland. • Artificial grassland effectively reduces the activation of soil degradation in alpine hillslopes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil erosion affects the redistribution of soil and associated soil organic carbon (SOC) from different landforms, and it has significant implications regarding the fate of eroded SOC and terrestrial carbon sequestration. Despite the importance of soil erosion, few studies have evaluated the sources and budget of eroded SOC in the Loess Plateau region, which suffers from severe soil erosion. Based on an 11.3 m check dam sediment profile, we used the 137 Cs activity and extreme rainfall events as dating methods to date sediment sequences. In addition, the natural abundance levels of the stable carbon isotope (δ 13 C) of bulk organic matter and a two-end-member mixing model were used to discriminate the sources of eroded SOC from different siltation stages retained by the check dam in an intensive agricultural catchment of the Loess Plateau, China. The eroded SOC captured by the check dam was compared to potential source materials from different landscape units, which included sloping cropland and gully surface soils (0–5 cm). The results showed that the check dam intercepted 98.5 Gg of eroded soil and 172.6 Mg of SOC. The eroded SOC was primarily sourced from sloping cropland, which contributed to 81.3% of the total SOC retained by the check dam, whereas the gully soils contributed to 18.7% during the entire siltation stage. Additionally, the contribution of sloping cropland to eroded SOC increased from 1960 to 1990 as a result of rainfall and anthropogenic activities. A total of 89.7 Mg SOC was lost during soil erosion processes at a rate of 0.17 Mg ha −1 yr −1 and accounted for approximately 30% of the total eroded SOC exported from the eroding areas. Our results indicate that the soil erosion process has been an important net source of SOC in the study catchment. The check dam served as a carbon storage and sequestration structure for the hilly loess region due to its beneficial conditions for carbon sequestration over broad temporal and spatial distributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The doped organic/organic p-n heterojunctions have been applied as charge generation structure (CGS) in tandem organic light emitting diodes (TOLEDs). It is found that the field-induced charge generation takes place more efficiently at the interface between Li2CO3 n-doped bathocuproine (BCP:Li2CO3) and MoO3 p-doped 4,4′- N, N′-dicarbazole-biphenyl (CBP:MoO3) than at the interface between BCP:Li2CO3 and MoO3 p-doped 4,4-bis[ N-1-naphthyl- N-phenylamino]biphenyl (NPB:MoO3). It is because the process of electrons tunneling through the depletion zone from the highest occupied molecular orbit (HOMO) of CBP:MoO3 to the lowest unoccupied molecular orbit (LUMO) of BCP:Li2CO3 is more efficient than that from the HOMO of NPB:MoO3 to the LUMO of BCP:Li2CO3. Compared to the TOLED using the conventional CGS of 10-nm BCP:Li2CO3/20-nm NPB:MoO3, the one using the CGS of 10-nm BCP:Li2CO3/10-nm CBP:MoO3/10-nm NPB:MoO3 shows increased device performance. In addition, the interconnecting property of CGS of 10-nm BCP:Li2CO3/ x nm CBP:MoO3/20 − x nm NPB:MoO3 shows a strong dependence on the thickness of CBP:MoO3. We provide a new insight on optimizing Ohmic loss in the CGSs, useful for improving the performance of TOLEDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Accurate quantification of soil erosion sub-process by remote sensing and check dam. • Vegetation restoration significantly reduced soil erosion modulus. • Check dams effectively reduce sediment delivery on the watershed scale. • The variation of erosion and deposition changes the sediment delivery ratio. China has implemented a series of ambitious soil and water conservation (SWC) projects on the Chinese Loess Plateau, which have significantly changed the erosion, transport, and deposition of sediment. As a result, the sediment flux of the Yellow River, once the largest carrier of fluvial sediment worldwide, has been reduced by approximately 85 % in the past 60 years. However, the effects of SWC measures on erosion, transport, and deposition of sediment are still difficult to quantify, which greatly limits the further planning and adjustment of SWC measures. Here, we determined soil erosion, sediment deposition, and sediment yield at different historical stages in a 187 km2 hilly and gully watershed on the Chinese Loess Plateau using the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) photogrammetry technology combined with check dam surveying and hydrologic monitoring. The results show that the construction of check dams and vegetation restoration significantly reduced the soil erosion rate, from 21,144 t km−2 yr−1 at Stage-1 (1960–1969) to 13,819 ± 3,622 t km−2 yr−1 at Stage-2 (1970–1999) and further to 4,723 ± 1,278 t km−2 yr−1 at Stage-3 (2000–2018). The sediment deposition rate was estimated to be 5,989 and 2,582 ± 351 t km−2 yr−1 at Stage-2 and Stage-3, respectively. The variation in the erosion and deposition of sediment led to a significant change in the sediment delivery ratio, from 1 at Stage-1 to 0.57 at Stage-2 and 0.45 at Stage-3. Our research results provide an important reference for further SWC planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cropland soil erosion is a major threat to global agricultural sustainability. Compared with the well-studied natural factors of soil erosion, socioeconomic factors have just begun to be considered. The major obstacle is that the soil erosion of different crops has not been accounted for and connected to socioeconomic activities. This study adopted the revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE) and the environmentally extended multiregional input-output (EE-MRIO) model to account for soil erosion on cropland from the production, consumption, and income perspectives at the provincial and sectoral levels in China. The results showed the major responsible agents in a synthetic view. On the production side, the Yunnan-Kweichow Plateau and surrounding hills of the Sichuan Basin, the Chinese grain bases located in northeastern and central China, and the Loess Plateau were the major regions that caused the most cropland soil erosion. On the consumption side, the national final demand for Sichuan, Yunnan, Shandong, Henan, and other provinces with high production-based cropland soil erosion (PBE) values per se pulled remarkable cropland soil erosion. On the income side, the crucial provinces into which the national primary input enabled notable cropland soil erosion were still those areas with serious cropland soil erosion. From the industrial perspective, the direct effects of human primary inputs into agriculture and the demand for agricultural products played the dominant role. In addition, Cereal and BOP (beans, oil and potatoes) were the most important among the agricultural sectors. The effects of the nonagricultural sectors, especially the manufacture of foods and tobacco (MFT) and the chemical industry (CI), on cropland soil erosion also cannot be ignored. Our results indicated that accounting from multiple perspectives could inform the better management of cropland soil erosion from a more comprehensive perspective. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to consider the accounting of cropland soil erosion in China from multiple perspectives. Tailored packages of measures should be established based on different patterns of areas with serious cropland soil erosion. [Display omitted] • Cropland soil erosion accounting was based on a multi-regional input-output table. • Multiple perspectives' accounting shows the major responsible agents for soil loss. • Crops in different regions also were the key to tackle cropland soil erosion. • Cropland soil erosion control cannot just narrow down to four agricultural sectors. • Cropland soil erosion is not a local phenomenon but a macroscopic problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A UAV-based method estimating sediment deposited behind check dams was developed. • Errors of the optimal model for single and regional check dams are 12–13% and 2–3%. • This method avoids limitations of tedious field surveys and historical records. • This method can evaluate sediment retained by check dams in areas as large as 211,800 km2. The estimation of sediment deposited behind dams and reservoirs is of great significance for quantifying soil erosion rate and sediment flux. However, existing methods of sediment volume estimation often require detailed field measurements and historical topographic data, limiting the broader application of these methods. In this paper, focusing on the region that suffers the world's most severe soil erosion, we combine unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) photogrammetry and simulate submerging analysis to propose a novel method for estimating sediment silted by check dams under complex topography. We obtained 1339 groups of topographic factors and ascertained the corresponding volumes of sediment deposited behind check dams in the loess hilly region of China (LHRC), and established five different models combined with regression analysis. Two different sets of data were used for method validation and optimal model determination. The results showed that the error of the optimal model in the volume estimation of single check dam and regional check dams is 12–13% and 2–3%, respectively. Additionally, the area-volume model has the potential to evaluate the sediment retention capacity of check dams (in the order of billions of cubic meters) in the whole LHRC, because the variables are easy to obtain and the model accuracy is relatively high. The further application of this method will help to evaluate the watershed sediment yield and regional soil and water conservation benefits, and is of great significance for explaining the future changes in water and sediment in the Yellow River basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Seasonal and diel CO 2 emissions in a hard-water reservoir show temporal variability. • Inputs of dissolved inorganic carbon play a central role in sustaining the p CO 2. • Nocturnal fluxes are higher than daytime fluxes due largely to aquatic metabolism. • Episodic weather events reverse the diel pattern and cause higher daytime fluxes. • Using daytime measurements alone would underestimate the daily efflux by 9–25%. Reservoirs represent a key component of the global carbon cycle. However, estimates of carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions from reservoirs remain poorly constrained due to the absence of spatially and temporally resolved measurements. We performed high-resolution monitoring of CO 2 emissions (F CO2) in a semiarid hard-water reservoir to examine its seasonal and diel variability. Our results suggest that dissolved inorganic carbon input plays a central role in sustaining the surface water CO 2 partial pressure (p CO 2), which varies from 1076 to 4587 μatm. Although the reservoir is moderately to highly productive throughout the year, it is a net CO 2 source with F CO2 values in the range of 308–1753 mg C m−2 d–1. This high CO 2 efflux indicates that productive waters are not necessarily CO 2 sinks. Both p CO 2 and F CO2 exhibit clear seasonal and diel patterns. Surface water p CO 2 is highest in March and presents a consistent diurnal/nocturnal pattern with the daytime p CO 2 6–13% lower than the nighttime p CO 2. High CO 2 efflux is observed during the ice-thaw period, indicating the release of CO 2 that was accumulated during the winter. CO 2 effluxes are typically higher during the nighttime driven by aquatic metabolism, but episodic weather events (e.g., rainfall and strong winds) can significantly enhance CO 2 emissions and even reverse the diel pattern. Our study also shows that using only daytime measurements to estimate daily CO 2 emissions would underestimate it by 9–25%. Hence, future global assessments should incorporate CO 2 emissions from hard-water reservoirs and account for their seasonal and diel variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Controlling soil hydrological processes and combating soil erosion on agricultural fields are high priorities for crop production and ecological environments. In this research, the effect of land application of rock fragments on surface runoff, subsurface runoff, infiltration and soil loss on Regosols had been investigated under field conditions using a portable rainfall simulator. Experimental twin-plot (two subplot with 1-m wide by 2-m long, 32% slope) with different rock fragment covers ranging from 0–40% were exposed to three rainfall intensities, low (57±2mmh-1), medium (91±3mmh-1), and high (122±5mmh-1). Fifteen treatments were conducted in the experiments in duplicates. Surface runoff, subsurface runoff, soil moisture and sediment were measured. Results show that surface rock fragment cover retarded surface runoff, increased infiltration and subsurface runoff, and diminished sediment concentration and soil loss. The final infiltration rates, which increased with increasing rock fragment covers, were 16.5–42.7mmh-1 at low intensity, 19.7–50.8mmh-1 at medium intensity and 23.8–56.4mmh-1 at high intensity. Compared with bare soils, surface runoff rates were reduced to 24%, 51% and 64% in soils with 40% rock fragment cover at low, medium and high intensity rainfall, respectively. Subsurface runoff volume was significantly higher and time to start subsurface runoff was shorter as surface rock fragment cover increased. Compared with bare soils, subsurface runoff coefficients increased to 3.5, 3.3 and 2.9 times in soils with 40% rock fragment cover at low, medium and high intensity, respectively. Sediment concentrations increased from 9.8gL-1 for 40% rock fragment cover under high intensity rainfall to 51.5gL-1 for bare soils with rain falling at high intensity. The erosion rate was <12gm-2 min-1 for soils with 40% rock fragment cover, even when rainfall intensity was high, while it was >15gm-2 min-1 for bare soils under low intensity. The relationship between rock fragment cover and soil loss ratio can be expressed by an exponential function with a high degree of reliability, regardless of rainfall intensities. Overall, results indicate the surface rock fragments can be influential in shaping hydrological processes and soil loss from sloping farmland. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Soil thickness exerts a first-order control on the hydrological processes of the hillslopes. However, from a hydropedological perspective, the knowledge of soil thickness effect on hydrological and erosion characteristics under sloping lands is limited. Based on a comprehensive survey of an experimental watershed in the Three Gorges Area of China, five typical sloping land plots (2m×1m) with different soil thickness were selected along a hillslope to investigate their hydrological processes and erosion response under three rainfall intensities (60, 90 and 120mmh−1) using a portable rainfall simulator. The results can be summarized as follows: (1) The surface flow coefficient was increased with increasing soil thickness, especially under the event of 60mmh−1. (2) The subsurface flow of the 23, 31 and 45cm plots mainly took the form of preferential flow. Conversely, the 59 and 76cm plots mainly took the form of matrix flow. (3) A prolonged low intensity rainfall is much more likely to facilitate deep percolation and subsurface flow than a short high intensity rainfall regardless of soil thickness. (4) Soil thickness and rock fragment cover were the most important factors than other soil properties in determining the hydrological and erosion behaviors. Thin soils showed higher infiltration capacity than thick soils due to their more distinct hydrological processes of subsurface flow and deep percolation. Rock fragment cover enhanced infiltration and served as a shield to protect the soil surface from detaching. Due to the synergies between thin soil thickness and high rock fragment cover, thin soils displayed significantly lower erosion rates than thick soils in all rainfall events, which increased from 211gm−2 h−1 for the 23cm plot with rainfall of 60mmh−1 to 4220gm−2 h−1 for the 76cm plot with rainfall of 120mmh−1. Our study suggested that the emerging interdisciplinary field of hydropedology promotes synergistic integration of pedology (e.g. watershed scale soil thickness investigation and soil profile description) and hydrology (e.g. rainfall simulation, subsurface flow and deep percolation) to enhance the holistic study of soil–water interactions in the sloping lands with different soil thickness. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In normal adult retinas, NGF receptor TrkA is expressed in retinal ganglion cells (RGC), whereas glia express p75NTR During retinal injury, endogenous NGF, TrkA, and p75NTR are up-regulated. Paradoxically, neither endogenous NGF nor exogenous administration of wild type NGF can protect degenerating RGCs, even when administered at high frequency. Here we elucidate the relative contribution of NGF and each of its receptors to RGC degeneration in vivo. During retinal degeneration due to glaucoma or optic nerve transection, treatment with a mutant NGF that only activates TrkA, or with a biological response modifier that prevents endogenous NGF and pro-NGF from binding to p75NTR affords significant neuroprotection. Treatment of normal eyes with an NGF mutant-selective p75NTR agonist causes progressive RGC death, and in injured eyes it accelerates RGC death. The mechanism of p75NTR action during retinal degeneration due to glaucoma is paracrine, by increasing production of neurotoxic proteins TNF-αand α2-macroglobulin. Antagonists of p75NTR inhibit TNF-α and α2-macroglobulin up-regulation during disease, and afford neuroprotection. These data reveal a balance of neuroprotective and neurotoxic mechanisms in normal and diseased retinas, and validate each neurotrophin receptor as a pharmacological target for neuroprotection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The collapse of the plastic waste trade (PWT) amplifies the threats of mismanaged plastic waste to the ecological system and human health, posing a risk as well as an opportunity to the global circular economy. Although trade barriers in the PWT continue to impact waste management systems, there are few analyses that propose global mitigation strategies in response to trade fluctuations. Here, we show that most countries have been overloaded with plastic waste compared to their ordinary capacity since China's import ban in 2017. We apply a cascading failure model to quantify the collapse process worldwide and find that 183 countries become overloaded as this collapse cascades, with nearly 6% of countries experiencing over 1.5 times their ordinary load. However, this overload could be greatly alleviated if leading countries were to sharply increase their capacity to treat plastic waste based on scenario analysis. Although waste exporters should take more responsibility and scenario analysis results show that top exporters could effectively mitigate global plastic waste levels by increasing their treatment capacity, cooperation between key exporters, importers, and intermediators has the best mitigation effects. Our analysis suggests that key countries should as soon as possible take responsibility for and cooperate in mitigating potential plastic waste pollution related to trade fluctuations. • Many countries show plastic waste overloading due to China's import ban. • Structural change of plastic waste trade could lead cascading failure worldwide. • Overload situation will be greatly alleviated, if leading countries work for it. • The cooperation strategy has the best mitigation effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil erosion on cropland is a result of the interaction between nature and human activities. The socioeconomic influencing factors of soil erosion have been less studied than the biophysical processes and previous studies have mainly focused on the impacts of local socioeconomic factors on soil erosion in the same region. However, since agricultural activities are densely connected to other socio-economic activities, the need for agricultural products from distant regions could potentially drive local soil erosion accompanying agricultural production. To the best of our knowledge, these telecoupling effects have not been studied. Here, we combined the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) and multiregional input-output analysis (MRIO) models to quantify the contribution of China's cross-provincial economic demand to local soil erosion at the provincial, sectoral, and supply chain levels. Our results show that a large amount of soil erosion in the southwest, northeast, and central regions is linked to the economic needs across provinces. Agriculture and food processing are the most important distant driving sectors. The driving effect of household consumption on soil erosion mainly occurs on shorter supply chains, while exports and capital formation drive soil erosion through longer chains. Our results indicate that local soil erosion management must consider the impact of distant agricultural product needs and coordinate food production and supply on a national scale to protect the ecological function of the land. [Display omitted] • Cropland soil erosion was linked to a multi-regional input-output table. • 28.19% of cropland soil erosion was driven by distant final demand. • Ten provinces had more than 1/4 of their soil erosion driven by other provinces' consumption. • Agriculture, Food Processing, and Construction contributed 72.28% telecouped erosion. • The telecoupled share increases along supply chains from 19.60% (tier 0) to 33.70% (tier 6). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atmospheric Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) emissions cause non-negligible damage to human health and well-being. Effective regional cooperation is urgently required to mitigate PAHs emissions to maintain satisfactory air quality. This study quantified and tracked China's PAHs emissions flows embodied in interprovincial trade. A production-based emissions inventory of 16 U.S. EPA priority PAHs based on commercial energy consumption in China in 2012 was compiled using the emissions factor approach. Then, a multiregional input-output model was constructed to reveal consumption-based emissions and to track the PAHs emissions embodied in the trade of 27 major sectors across 30 regions in China. Key structural paths were also identified using structural path analysis (SPA). In 2012, the total industrial energy-derived PAHs emissions were estimated to be 47.7 tons of BaP-toxic equivalents (8032.7 tons of mass). Shandong, Hebei, and Hubei accounted for more than 24.0% of the production-side PAHs emissions in the whole country. Approximately 30.8% of China's PAHs emissions were embodied in goods consumed outside of the province in which they were produced. PAHs flow tended to start in the western regions and ended in the eastern regions along the coast. The results of the SPA showed that critical paths, such as from the Metallurgy sector to the Construction sector, embodied a large amount of emissions and had the potential to affect the performance of the entire system. By paying attention to the consumption-based accounting as well as the production-based accounting of emissions and by focusing on vital transfer paths, policymakers can devise effective and targeted environmental protection and sustainable development policies in China. • PBA and CBA of PAHs emissions were constructed to show a geographical disparity. • Construction and Other Service were key sectors driving embodied emissions. • Metallurgy, Transportation and Coal Mining were key sectors in production. • The coastal region was important sink. • Central and northern China was the most important source for PAHs flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The frequency of harmful algal blooms caused by eutrophication is increasing globally, posing serious threats to human health and economic development. Reservoir bays, affected by water environment and local watershed landscape, are more prone to eutrophication and algal blooms. The chlorophyll a (Chl a) concentration is an important indicator for the degree of eutrophication and algal bloom. Exploring the complex relationships between water environment and landscape background, and Chl a concentration in the reservoir bays are crucial for ensuring high-quality drinking water from reservoirs. In this study, we monitored Chl a concentrations of 66 bays in Danjiangkou Reservoir and the related water quality parameters (e.g., water temperature, turbidity, nutrients) in waterbodies of these reservoir bays in the storage and discharge periods from 2015 to 2018. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to quantify the relationship between water environmental factors and watershed landscapes, and Chl a concentrations in reservoir bays. The results showed that mean Chl a concentration was higher in storage period than that in discharge period. Two optimal PLS-SEMs explained 66.8% and 53.6% of Chl a concentration variation in the storage and discharge periods, respectively. The net effect of water chemistry on Chl a concentration was more pronounced during the discharge period (total effect = 0.61, 37% of the total effect on Chl a), while the net effect of land-use composition on Chl a concentration was more significant during the storage period (total effect = 0.57, 30% of the total effect on Chl a). The landscape pattern had significant indirect effects on Chl a concentration, especially during the discharge period (indirect effect = −0.31, 19% of the total effect on Chl a). Our results provide valuable information for managers to make rational decisions, thereby contributing to the prevention of eutrophication and algal blooms in reservoir bays. Unlabelled Image • The relationships between water environment and local watershed landscape and Chl a in reservoir bays were investigated. • The Chl a concentration had significant variations between the storage and discharge periods. • Water chemistry had greater positive effects on Chl a concentration in the discharge period. • The positive effect of land use on the Chl a concentration was greater in the storage period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Socioeconomic factors are key driving forces for the occurrence and development of soil erosion, but their effects are not well understood. To analyse the relationship between the socioeconomic system and soil erosion, a framework was proposed and validated with structural equation modelling. Population pressure, economic development, agricultural inputs and outputs and soil erosion are latent variables of the framework. A case study was conducted in Jiangxi Province. The results showed that economic development was the key controlling factor and that agricultural output was the main promoting factor for soil erosion, with path coefficients of −1.321 and 1.609 in 1995 and -0.624 and 0.453 in 2010, respectively. This implied that the contradiction between socioeconomic development and ecological protection was alleviated during the study period. Agricultural input controlled severe soil erosion (-‍0.322) while promoting mild soil erosion (0.095), which indicated that more attention should be paid to the adverse impact of excessive agricultural inputs on soil erosion control. The identification of the socioeconomic driving forces of regional soil erosion could help adjust the development strategy and mitigate the negative effects of economic development on soil erosion control and ecological conservation. • Latent socio-economic variables have considerable influences on soil erosion. • Economic development is the most important driving force of soil erosion. • The promotional effect of surplus inputs on mild soil erosion should be of concern. • Structural equation modelling is a suitable framework to decouple this relationship.. • Contradiction between socio-economy and soil erosion have been alleviated in Jiangxi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural production in China is mainly decentralized, small in size, and involved by independent single households. Farmers are the main implementers of soil erosion control projects. Their willingness and abilities, which are crucial to the effectiveness of these projects, are closely related to their social networks. However, the relationship between farmers' social networks and soil erosion control remains unclear. Hengxi, a typical village in Jiangxi Province, China, was used as a case study. Traditional- and new-type of farmers' social networks were built according to the planting structures based on survey data. The results showed that both types of networks had the characteristics of small-world network and scale-free network. The ability to obtain and dispense information was the significant distinction between the two networks. The dealer was an influential key node in both networks. The government agencies were key nodes in the new-type network but not in the traditional-type network, which made it difficult for traditional farmers to obtain indispensable information about soil erosion control. The characteristics of farmers and their corresponding networks had significant influences on their awareness of soil erosion. Soil erosion management projects could be deployed smoothly by the key farmers and government agencies in the new-type social network, but difficultly in the traditional-type social network. To improve the effectiveness of soil erosion control projects, cooperation with dealers is important for government agencies. • Characteristics of farmers' social networks are distinct based on planting structure. • Information diffusion is more efficient in new-type social network. • Betweenness centrality affects farmers' awareness of soil and water conservation. • Government agencies should undertake proper roles in traditional-type social network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Afforestation projects have a positive effect on the increase of permanent water. • Dams construction is an important factor in controlling permanent water changes. • Vegetation changes have a greater impact on permanent water than climate factors. China is facing the challenge of the uncertain impacts of large-scale afforestation on regional water resources. However, the effects of vegetation cover changes on the variation in surface water at the regional scale are still controversial. Here, we focused on the 0.9 million km2 vegetation restoration region in China, where the highest significant vegetation cover changes on the earth. Multi-source remote sensing data were used to describe the characteristics of seasonality and transition of surface water and to analyse the causes of surface water changes from climate, vegetation cover and other human factors. Our results show that the annual maximum NDVI of Northeast region (NE) and Loess Plateau region (LP) increased significantly from 0.74 to 0.85 and 0.49 to 0.62 from 2000 to 2015, respectively. Meanwhile, permanent water, as a vital component of surface water, exhibited net increases of 695.6 km2 and 119.4 km2 in NE and LP from 2000 to 2015, respectively. The extension in permanent water and the implementation of ecological projects exhibited highly consistent spatiotemporal patterns. Statistical analysis indicated that vegetation cover is an important factor in controlling permanent water changes. Human activities such as building dams and reservoirs are also an important explanatory variable for permanent water increases. The newly built dams contributed 43% in NE and 25% in LP to the increase in permanent water. In addition, although climatic factors were not the main factor influencing permanent water, precipitation significantly affected the total surface water in NE. These findings have potential implications for understanding surface water and forest dynamics and formulating regional development plans in the vegetation restoration region in China. Image, graphical abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with spectral sensors have become useful in the fast and non-destructive assessment of crop growth, endurance and resource dynamics. This study is intended to inspect the capabilities of UAV-onboard multispectral sensors for non-destructive phenotype variables, including leaf area index (LAI), leaf mass per area (LMA) and specific leaf area (SLA) of rapeseed oil at different growth stages. In addition, the raw image data with high ground resolution (20 cm) were resampled to 30, 50 and 100 cm to determine the influence of resolution on the estimation of phenotype variables by using vegetation indices (VIs). Quadratic polynomial regression was applied to the quantitative analysis at different resolutions and growth stages. The coefficient of determination (R2) and root mean square error results indicated the significant accuracy of the LAI estimation, wherein the highest R2 values were attained by RVI = 0.93 and MTVI2 = 0.89 at the elongation stage. The noise equivalent of sensitivity and uncertainty analyses at the different growth stages accounted for the sensitivity of VIs, which revealed the optimal VIs of RVI, MTVI2 and MSAVI in the LAI estimation. LMA and SLA, which showed significant accuracies at (R2 = 0.85, 0.81) and (R2 = 0.85, 0.71), were estimated on the basis of the predicted leaf dry weight and LAI at the elongation and flowering stages, respectively. No significant variations were observed in the measured regression coefficients using different resolution images. Results demonstrated the significant potential of UAV-onboard multispectral sensor and empirical method for the non-destructive retrieval of crop canopy variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Baricitinib, an oral-administrated selective inhibitor of the JAK1 and JAK2, is recently approved for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treatment. With the aim to provide some insights on the clinical safety, the current study mainly focused on the effect of baricitinib on low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels and cardiovascular risk. Methods: The net change scores [least squares mean (LSM) and mean change] of LDL-C and HDL-C levels from baseline with the comparison of baricitinib versus placebo were pooled, respectively. Risk rations (RR) of major cardiovascular events (MACEs) and differences of cardiovascular risk scores at the end of treatment across groups were compared. Results: Six trials with randomized 3552 patients were finally included in summary analysis. Results showed that baricitinib significantly increased LDL-C levels, the net mean change was 13.15 mg/dl with 95% CI 8.89~17.42 (I2 = 0) and the net LSM was 11.94 mg/dl with 95% CI 7.52~16.37 (I2 = 84%). HDL-C also increased obviously with the net LSM change was 7.19 mg/dl (95% CI, 6.05~8.33, I2 = 47%) and net mean change was 5.40 mg/dl (95% CI, 3.07~7.74, I2 = 10%). Subgroup and meta-regression analysis demonstrated baricitinib induced LDL-C and HDL-C increases in a dose-response manner. However, both the pooled RRs of MACEs and differences of cardiovascular risk scores were not statistically significant across groups. Conclusion: This study confirmed that baricitinib induced a stable dose-response increase in LDL-C and HDL-C levels. Since the causality association between altered lipids and cardiovascular risk was not identified yet, this issue cannot be completely dismissed. Future research is needed to fully dissect the implications of these lipid changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inverted organic solar cells (OSCs) have been fabricated using the photoactive blend thin films based on regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT), [6,6]-phenyl C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM), and leuco-crystal violet (LCV). It was found that the LCV as an efficient n-dopant could significantly increase intrinsic electron concentration of PCBM zone. The electron mobility of P3HT:PCBM:LCV blend thin film was measured 1.75 times as high as that of P3HT:PCBM blend thin film, as a result of LCV-induced trap filling in the bandgap of PCBM. The power conversion efficiency for the inverted device using the photoactive layer of P3HT:PCBM:LCV could be 1.22 times as high as that for the inverted device using the conventional photoactive layer of P3HT:PCBM, mostly because (1) the higher electron mobility could enhance the exciton dissociation and thereby short-circuit current density in the former relative to the latter; (2) the increase in the electron concentration of PCBM zone in P3HT:PCBM:LCV blend thin film may help blocking holes diffusion towards cathode, improving the hole collection efficiency and thereby fill factor of device. We provide a new insight on optimizing the electron-conducting property of bulk-heterojunction photoactive thin film, useful for pushing forward inverted OSCs towards the cost-effective commercialization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Single-user multi-antenna technologies are well upported in current standard specifications like LTE Release 8/9. Further development of the specification (LTE-Advanced) is expected to conform to the requirements for IMT-Advanced systems. One of the key enabling features of LTE-Advanced to meet IMT-Advanced downlink performance requirements is multi-user MIMO, where a transmitter serves multiple users simultaneously on the same frequency resource, primarily relying on spatial separation. In general, multi-user MIMO is beneficial for improving average user spectral efficiency. However, cell edge user spectral efficiency may be reduced if multi-user MIMO is used exclusively, due to residual inter-user interference arising from practical multi-user beamforming and reduced transmit power allocated to each user. Therefore, it should be possible to configure the UE-specific transmission mode to support dynamic switching between single-user MIMO and multi-user MIMO to balance the cell edge user spectral efficiency as well as the average cell user spectral efficiency. In this article, we study various aspects of multi-user MIMO including design philosophy, multi-user precoding, and control signaling. The associated feedback schemes, including those that facilitate dynamic switching, are discussed. Performance evaluation is conducted to demonstrate the gain of dynamically switched single-user and multiuser MIMO as opposed to traditional single-user MIMO. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]