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Constipation symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD) seriously reduce the quality of life of patients and aggravate the development of the disease, but current treatment options still cannot alleviate the progress of constipation. Electroacupuncture (EA) is a new method for the treatment of constipation, which can effectively treat the symptoms of constipation in PD patients. However, the specific regulatory mechanisms of EA in the treatment of constipation symptoms in PD remain unclear. The aim of this study is to investigate the therapeutic effect of EA on PD constipation rats and its regulatory mechanism. A rotenone (ROT)-induced gastrointestinal motility disorder model was used to simulate the pathological process of constipation in PD. The results showed that EA could effectively promote gastrointestinal peristalsis, reduce α-synuclein accumulation in substantia nigra and colon and colonic injury in rats after ROT administration. Mechanistically, EA activation of the central-cholinergic pathway increases acetylcholine release in the colon. At the same time, EA up-regulated the co-expression of enteric glial cells (EGCs) and α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α7nAChR). EA increased the expression of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT), neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS), and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) in the colon of PD rats. Further mechanistic studies showed that EA increased the expression of glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), GFRa1 and p-AKT in colon tissues. The present study confirmed that EA upregulates α7nAChR through a central-cholinergic mechanism to promote GDNF release from EGCs, thereby protecting intestinal neurons and thereby improving gastrointestinal motility.

Neoehrlichia mikurensis (N. mikurensis) is an emerging tick-borne pathogen that can cause neoehrlichiosis. Rodents are considered the major host for N. mikurensis. Currently, N. mikurensis has been detected in rodents in several studies from China and other countries. However, no research on N. mikurensis infection in rodents has been reported in the Liupan mountain region. The region of Liupan Mountain, located in northwestern China, is the center of the triangle formed by the cities of Xi’an, Yinchuan, and Lanzhou, with multiple tourist sites in the region. To survey whether there is N. mikurensis in hosts, rodents were captured in this region in September 2020. A nested polymerase chain reaction was used to detect the DNA of N. mikurensis, followed by nucleotide sequencing and phylogenetic analysis. In the region, among 88 rodents, 3 rodents were detected positive for N. mikurensis, a detection rate of 3.4%. Based on phylogenetic analysis of the partial groEL gene sequences, N. mikurensis from rodents in Liupan Mountain clustered in the same evolutionary branch with those found in rodents from Japan, Russia, and northeastern China, and also in ticks and clinical cases from Heilongjiang Province in northeastern China.

Synthesis of multi-satellite altimetry facilitates the acquisition of long-term changes in lake level but may induce biases due to inconsistent data sources, and thus remains largely unexplored. This study investigates the integrated application of Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat), ICESat-2, and CryoSat-2 missions to provide consecutive lake level series in 2003–2020. The sample comprises 48 lakes in the world with gauge-based or Hydroweb water level data. The CryoSat-2 data are first adjusted to the ICESat-2 height reference based on the mean values of their monthly water level difference during their overlapping period (2018–2020). Then, the corrected CryoSat-2 data are used to link the ICESat and ICESat-2 data. Results show that in the sample lakes, the deviations between CryoSat-2 and ICESat-2 data vary and range from −0.78 m to 0.13 m. The data quality of the synthesized time series is evaluated by comparing against the validation data, with an average R2 of 0.84. This study shows that CryoSat-2 has the potential of filling the gap between ICESat and ICESat-2. The three altimeters can be expected to integrate effectively for monitoring lake water level changes in the past two decades.

It is well accepted that the high performance of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) relies on the microbial community in activated sludge (AS). Hence, it is crucial to illuminate the geographic distributions and influencing factors of the ecological strategies employed by the AS microbial community. Here, we investigated how the ecological strategies of AS microbial communities influenced their ecological characteristics in 60 WWTPs across 15 cities in China. Our study showed that the average rrn copy number of the whole AS microbial community across China was 2.25 ± 0.12. The highest average rrn copy number of the core community indicated that core members tend to be r-strategists with an advantage in rapid pollutant removal and recovery of the community after environmental disturbances. High nutrient availability promoted microorganisms with higher average rrn copy numbers, while long sludge retention time (SRT) was preferred to the microorganisms with lower average rrn copy numbers. Homogenous selection and dispersal limitation were the predominant assembling processes at the city level, with a shift from deterministic to stochastic processes with increasing average rrn copy numbers. Furthermore, more r-strategists participated in chemoheterotrophic functions, while more K-strategists were related to the nitrification processes. Overall, our findings enrich the knowledge of AS microbial ecology and lay the theoretical foundation for the precise regulation of WWTPs.

Resumo Fundamento A fibrilação atrial (FA) e a insuficiência cardíaca (IC) coexistem frequentemente, resultando em desfechos adversos. No entanto, permanecem controvérsias quanto à eficácia da ablação por cateter (AC) em pacientes com FA com disfunção ventricular esquerda grave. Objetivos O objetivo deste estudo foi realizar uma metanálise de ensaios prospectivos randomizados e controlados para avaliar a eficácia da AC versus terapia médica (TM) em pacientes com FA com fração de ejeção do ventrículo esquerdo (FEVE) ≤45%. Métodos Procuramos na literatura estudos que comparassem AC com TM em pacientes com FA com FEVE ≤45%. Foi realizada uma metanálise de 7 ensaios clínicos, incluindo 1.163 pacientes com FA e IC. A análise de subgrupo foi realizada com base na FEVE basal. Todos os testes foram bilaterais; apenas o valor p

Study region: Southwest China (97.4ºE∼112.1ºE, 21.1ºN∼34.3ºN), including Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Chongqing, and Guangxi provinces. Study focus: Meteorological droughts were likely to become much more frequent and intensified, posing a huge threat to food security, drinking water supply, ecological environment security, and sustainable development of economy and society. However, the spatial and temporal variations of seasonal droughts and its possible driving forces are still not fully understood. In this work, we deeply explored the spatial and temporal variations of spring drought in Southwest China and its possible teleconnection mechanisms during 1961–2020. New hydrological insights for the region: The rising temperature and reduced precipitation led to a significant worsen trend of spring drought in the eastern parts of Southwest China (ESWC) during 1961–2020. Significant abrupt changes of spring drought occurred in 2003, and spring drought became much more frequent and intensified especially after 2003 in ESWC. Spring drought evolutions were dominated by NAO, and were also affected by the coupling of TNA and AO in ESWC during 1961–2020. However, the significant worsen trend of spring drought during 2003–2020 in ESWC could be largely explained by the coupling influences of NAO, TNA, and PDO. These results can provide valuable information for agricultural production, water resource management, and especially the early warning and prediction of spring drought in Southwest China.

Abstract Background Despite current best practices, pressure injuries (PI) remain a devastating and prevalent hospital-acquired complication for patients with acute traumatic spinal cord injuries (SCIs). This study examined associations between risk factors for PI development in patients with complete SCI, such as norepinephrine dose and duration, and other demographic factors or lesion characteristics. Methods This case–control study included adults with acute complete SCIs ASIA-A, who were admitted to a level-one trauma center between 2014–18. A retrospective review was implement using data on patient and injury characteristics, including age, gender, level of SCI (cervical vs. thoracic), Injury Severity Score (ISS), length of stay (LOS) and mortality; presence/absence of PI during their acute hospital stay; and treatment factors such as spinal surgery, mean arterial pressure (MAP) targets, and vasopressor treatment. Multivariable logistic regression evaluated associations with PI. Results Eighty-two out of 103 eligible patients had complete data, and 30 (37%) developed PIs. Patient and injury characteristics, including age (Mean: 50.6; SD:21.3), location of SCI (48 cervical, 59%) and ISS (Mean 33.1; SD:11.8), did not differ between PI and non-PI groups. Logistic regression analysis revealed that male gender (OR:34.1; CI95:2.3–506.5, p = 0.010) and increased LOS (log-transformed; OR:20.5, CI95:2.8–149.9, p = 0.003) were associated with increased risk of PI. Having an order for a MAP > 80mmg (OR:0.05; CI95:0.01–0.30, p = 0.001) was associated with a reduced risk of PI. There were no significant associations between PI and duration of norepinephrine treatment. Conclusions Norepinephrine treatment parameters were not associated with development of PI, suggesting that MAP targets should be a focus for future investigations for SCI management. Increasing LOS should highlight the need for high-risk PI prevention and vigilance.

Abstract Rivers are among the most diverse, dynamic, and productive ecosystems on Earth. River flow regimes are constantly changing, but characterizing and understanding such changes have been challenging from a long-term and global perspective. By analyzing water extent variations observed from four-decade Landsat imagery, we here provide a global attribution of the recent changes in river regime to morphological dynamics (e.g., channel shifting and anabranching), expansion induced by new dams, and hydrological signals of widening and narrowing. Morphological dynamics prevailed in ~20% of the global river area. Booming reservoir constructions, mostly skewed in Asia and South America, contributed to ~32% of the river widening. The remaining hydrological signals were characterized by contrasting hotspots, including prominent river widening in alpine and pan-Arctic regions and narrowing in the arid/semi-arid continental interiors, driven by varying trends in climate forcing, cryospheric response to warming, and human water management. Our findings suggest that the recent river extent dynamics diverge based on hydroclimate and socio-economic conditions, and besides reflecting ongoing morphodynamical processes, river extent changes show close connections with external forcings, including climate change and anthropogenic interference.

Introduction: The echocardiographic diagnosis criteria for arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) are highly specific but sensitivity is low, especially in the early stages of the disease. The role of echocardiographic strain in ARVC has not been fully elucidated, although prior studies suggest that it can improve the detection of subtle functional abnormalities. The purposes of the study were to determine whether these advanced measures of right ventricular (RV) dysfunction on echocardiogram, including RV strain, increase diagnostic value for ARVC disease detection and to evaluate the association of echocardiographic parameters with arrhythmic outcomes. Methods: The study included 28 patients from the Heart Institute of São Paulo ARVC cohort with a definite diagnosis of ARVC established according to the 2010 Task Force Criteria. All patients were submitted to ECHO’s advanced techniques including RV strain, and the parameters were compared to prior conventional visual ECHO and CMR. Results: In total, 28 patients were enrolled in order to perform ECHO’s advanced techniques. A total of 2/28 (7%) patients died due to a cardiovascular cause, 2/28 (7%) underwent heart transplantation, and 14/28 (50%) patients developed sustained ventricular arrhythmic events. Among ECHO’s parameters, RV dilatation, measured by RVDd (p = 0.018) and RVOT PSAX (p = 0.044), was significantly associated with arrhythmic outcomes. RV free wall longitudinal strain < 14.35% in absolute value was associated with arrhythmic outcomes (p = 0.033). Conclusion: Our data suggest that ECHO’s advanced techniques improve ARVC detection and that abnormal RV strain can be associated with arrhythmic risk stratification. Further studies are necessary to better demonstrate these findings and contribute to risk stratification in ARVC, in addition to other well-known risk markers.

Resumo Fundamento No tratamento da fibrilação atrial (FA), a arritmia sustentada mais frequente, com ablação por cateter (ABL) ou cardioversão elétrica (CVE), o período periprocedimento é uma das fases mais críticas. Atualmente, o uso de novos anticoagulantes orais de ação direta (DOAC) é cada vez mais frequente, no entanto, no mundo real, ainda existem poucos dados de estudos sobre a incidência de trombo no átrio esquerdo (TrAE) ou contraste espontâneo denso (CE) no ecocardiograma transesofágico (ETE). Objetivo Analisar a prevalência de TrAE, por ETE, em pacientes em uso de DOAC submetidos à CVE/ABL. Secundariamente: avaliar a associação de comorbidades com a presença de trombos e CE. Métodos Estudo de coorte retrospectivo, unicêntrico, com pacientes do Ambulatório de Arritmia (InCor-HCFMUSP). Foram selecionados e analisados dados clínicos e ecocardiográficos no prontuário da instituição de pacientes com indicação de procedimentos e em uso de DOACs. Considerado um nível de significância de 5%. Resultados Foram incluídos 354 pacientes, no total de 400 procedimentos, de março de 2012-março de 2018. TrAE foi encontrado em 11 pacientes (2,8%), associado com idade avançada (p=0,007) e CHA2DS2-VASc maior (p

Measurement(s) Hydrology, Topography, Climate, Anthropogenic, and Soils for China’s lake basins Technology Type(s) spatial analysis and mathematical statistics Factor Type(s) CODCLAB_Level1 • CODCLAB_Level2 • CODCLAB_Level3 Sample Characteristic - Location China’s lake basins

Background: Ventricular tachycardia (VT) is a life-threatening heart condition commonly seen in patients with myocardial infarction (MI). Although personalized computational modeling has been used to understand VT and its treatment noninvasively, this approach can be computationally intensive and time consuming. Therefore, finding a balance between mesh size and computational efficiency is important. This study aimed to find an optimal mesh resolution that minimizes the need for computational resources while maintaining numerical accuracy and to investigate the effect of mesh resolution variation on the simulation results. Methods: We constructed ventricular models from contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging data from six patients with MI. We created seven different models for each patient, with average edge lengths ranging from 315 to 645 µm using commercial software, Mimics. Programmed electrical stimulation was used to assess VT inducibility from 19 sites in each heart model. Results: The simulation results in the slab model with adaptive tetrahedral mesh (same as in the patient-specific model) showed that the absolute and relative differences in conduction velocity (CV) were 6.1 cm/s and 7.8% between average mesh sizes of 142 and 600 µm, respectively. However, the simulation results in the six patient-specific models showed that average mesh sizes with 350 µm yielded over 85% accuracy for clinically relevant VT. Although average mesh sizes of 417 and 478 µm could also achieve approximately 80% accuracy for clinically relevant VT, the percentage of incorrectly predicted VTs increases. When conductivity was modified to match the CV in the model with the finest mesh size, the overall ratio of positively predicted VT increased. Conclusions: The proposed personalized heart model could achieve an optimal balance between simulation time and VT prediction accuracy when discretized with adaptive tetrahedral meshes with an average edge length about 350 µm.

The provision of precise and dependable information regarding the extent and distribution of cropland is imperative for the evaluation of food security, agricultural planning, and resource management. Cropland is an important component of land cover type and is offered in multiple existing global/regional land cover products. However, global-scale accuracy evaluation may not be representative of class-specific or local-area accuracy, such as in Northeast China, which is an important grain-producing region of China and has various types of cultivated land (e.g., wheat, rice) and diverse terrains. It poses a great challenge in generating precise cropland classification by automated mapping. Thus, it is indispensable to evaluate the accuracy and reliability of these various land cover datasets before using them. In this study, we collected thirteen sets of global or national-scale land cover datasets. Through the visual interpretation of high-resolution images, ground “truth” samples were collected to evaluate the data accuracy across Northeast China. The overall accuracy (OA) evaluation results in Phase-2020 show that CLCD has the highest value with 0.914, followed by GlobeLand30 (0.906), GLC_FCS30 (0.902), and Esri (0.896) for cropland classification in Northeast China. CGLS-LC100 has the lowest OA (0.710). For the commission and omission errors of six datasets in Phase-2020, CGLS-LC100 has an obvious overestimation (larger commission error), while the two national-scale datasets (CLCD and CLUDs) perform relatively better. In terms of spatial consistency, high spatial agreement among the nine Phase-2015 datasets or in the six Phase-2020 datasets could be discovered in traditional agricultural regions like the Sanjiang–Songnen–Liaohe Plain, and low agreement is found in the transition areas of mountains (hills) and plains with the mixed landscape of forest (grassland) and farmland. In the aspect of comparison pairwise data, CLCD is in good agreement with GLC_FCS30, GlobeLand30, and Esri, while CGLS-LC100 is in the poorest agreement with any other dataset. The comparison and evaluation results are expected to provide a reference on which aspects and to what extent these land cover products may be consistent and guide the cropland data product selection for Northeast China.

Abstract Diabetic foot is one of the most serious and painful chronic complications of diabetic patients, especially elderly diabetic patients. It has a high rate of death, disability and amputation. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a treatable chronic sleep disorder. Existing evidence suggests that OSA may promote the development and delay the healing of diabetic foot, and continuous positive airway pressure therapy may promote the healing of ulcers. Therefore, in the multidisciplinary diagnosis and treatment of diabetes, cooperation with sleep medicine should be strengthened, and the basic and clinical research on diabetic foot combined with OSA should be strengthened, so as to reduce the amputation rate, improve the cure rate and reduce the incidence of cardiovascular events.

Resumo Fundamento A influência do volume do apêndice atrial esquerdo (VAAE) na recorrência de fibrilação atrial (FA) após ablação por cateter de radiofrequência permanece obscura. Objetivos Realizamos uma metanálise para avaliar se o VAAE é um preditor independente de recorrência de FA após ablação por cateter de radiofrequência. Métodos Os bancos de dados PubMed e Cochrane Library foram pesquisados até março de 2022 para identificar publicações avaliando o VAAE em associação com a recorrência de FA após ablação por cateter por radiofrequência. Foram encontrados 7 estudos que preencheram os critérios especificados de nossa análise. Usamos a Escala de Newcastle-Ottawa para avaliar a qualidade dos estudos. Os efeitos agrupados foram avaliados dependendo das diferenças médias padronizadas (DMPs) ou hazard ratios (HRs) com intervalos de confiança (ICs) de 95%. Valores de p < 0,05 foram considerados estatisticamente significativos. Resultados Um total de 1.017 pacientes de 7 estudos de coorte com um seguimento médio de 16,3 meses foram incluídos na metanálise. Dados de 6 estudos (943 indivíduos) comparando VAAE mostraram que o VAAE basal foi significativamente maior em pacientes com recorrência de FA em comparação com aqueles sem FA (DMP: −0,63; IC de 95%: −0,89 a −0,37; todos os valores de p < 0,05; I 2 = 62,6%). Além disso, maior VAAE foi independentemente associado a um risco significativamente maior de recorrência de FA após ablação por cateter de radiofrequência (HR: 1,10; IC de 95%: 1,02 a 1,18). Conclusões A metanálise mostrou que existe uma correlação significativa entre o VAAE e a recorrência de FA após ablação por cateter de radiofrequência, e o papel do VAAE em pacientes com FA não deve ser ignorado na prática clínica.

Myocardial infarction with non-obstructive coronary arteries (MINOCA) is a heterogeneous group of diseases with different pathological mechanisms, and it is uncertain whether the classical secondary prevention and treatment strategies for myocardial infarction in obstructive coronary artery disease (MI-CAD) are appropriate for patients with MINOCA. Therefore the choice of antiplatelet agents and the therapeutic effect may vary depending on the etiology and pathophysiological mechanisms of MINOCA. This requires our clinical and scientific researchers to properly design prospective studies to explore the pathophysiology of MINOCA and its corresponding etiology in greater depth, so as to understand the effectiveness and safety of medical therapies for different etiologies of MINOCA. Although the current observational studies do not show an obvious beneficial effect of antiplatelet therapy on MINOCA. We are eager to conduct specific prospective randomized controlled trials of antiplatelet agents to assess the specificity, efficacy and safety of different types of antiplatelet agents in patients with MINOCA of different etiologies.

To evaluate the tensile behavior, microstructural evolution, and deformation mechanisms of Ti-45Al-8Nb alloy additively manufactured by electron beam melting, uniaxial tensile experiments were performed at a constant strain rate of 2.5 × 10−4 s−1 at various temperatures. The experimental results indicated that the tensile behavior and flow stress are sensitive to temperature. The brittle to ductile transition temperature of Ti-45Al-8Nb alloy additively manufactured by electron beam melting is between 700 and 750 ℃. Below this temperature, the fracture was predominantly trans-granular, resulting in brittle failure. In addition, the brittle failure behavior is related to the localization of deformation within the grains and stress concentrations owing to plastic incompatibility at the interface of the α2+γ phases. However, above this temperature, the fracture transformed from the trans-granular type to the mixed mode of trans-granular and ductile dimples. Dynamic recovery and recrystallization are the primary processes leading to softening behavior. The flow behavior at elevated temperatures results from the competition between work hardening and softening. Furthermore, the Chaboche model was used to describe the tensile inelastic behavior at different temperatures.

Urbanization has introduced a series of environmental problems worldwide, and particulate matter (PM) is one of the main threats to human health. Due to the lack of high-resolution, large-scale monitoring data, few studies have analyzed the intraurban spatial distribution pattern of PM at a fine scale. In this study, portable air monitors carried by five taxis were used to collect the concentrations of PM1, PM2.5 and PM10 for five months in Shenyang during the heating season. The results showed that high concentrations of PM were distributed in the suburbs, while relatively low concentration areas were found in the central area. Agricultural, industrial and development zones had higher concentration values among the eight observed types. The PM concentration exhibited strong spatial autocorrelation based on Moran’s I index analysis. Meteorological factors were the most important influencing factors of the three pollutants, and their total contribution rate accounted for more than 80% among the 13 factors according to boosted regression trees analysis. The taxi monitoring method we proposed was a more efficient and feasible method for monitoring urban air pollution and could obtain higher spatial-temporal resolution data at a lower cost to elucidate the region’s dynamic air pollution distribution patterns.

Lakes provide critical water resources for human activities and ecosystems, particularly in the Mongolian Plateau (MP), which is characterized by a dry climate and a harsh environment. As a region that is sensitive to anthropogenic warming, tracking lake surface water temperature (LSWT) changes in Mongolian lakes is crucial for understanding the consequences of a warming climate on lake ecosystems. However, the long-term monitoring of LSWT is restricted by the spatiotemporal gaps in the raw imagery of remote sensing-based land surface temperature (LST), e.g., the commonly used Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) LST products. This study applied an improved gap-filling method by utilizing the discrete cosine transform-based penalized least squares (DCT-PLS) strategy in the spatial domain combined with the linear interpolation (LI) algorithm in the temporal domain. The method was applied to fill gaps in the LSWT imagery of 12 representative lakes across MP. The randomly sampled high-quality MODIS LSWT values in the spatial and temporal domains were excavated as false data gaps and considered “virtual true” validation datasets. The spatial validation results showed that the estimated LSWT for all the lake cases were comparable with the “virtual true” LSWT values, with the average values of the coefficient of determination, mean absolute error, mean square error, and root mean square error being 0.98, 0.38 °C, 0.45 °C, and 0.59 °C, respectively. Meanwhile, the error of nighttime LSWT results was relatively lower than that of daytime LSWT. For temporal interpolation validation, the LI algorithm exhibited relatively better performance and could more objectively indicate the variation in LSWT. Benefiting from the spatially and temporally well-constrained data, we analyzed the interannual and intra-annual change characteristics of the LSWTs of the 12 lakes. The long-term variations of annual and seasonal mean LSWTs in the 12 selected lakes exhibited no evident trends in 2000–2020, while presented apparent interannual fluctuations. The slight changes in the average LSWTs of the 12 selected lakes were in excellent synchronization with the surrounding LST derived from the reanalysis datasets, confirming the widely reported phenomenon of “global warming hiatus” that occurred in the early 21st century. This study improves the understanding of the LSWT variations in Mongolian lakes in response to global climate change. It has the potential to provide an effective approach for monitoring LSWT changes in other large-scale studies.

BackgroundThe treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF) has made significant progress, but the prevention of AF has not received the attention it deserves. A few recent large-sized studies have conducted dose response analysis and reported different conclusions from previous studies on alcohol consumption and AF risk.ObjectivesThe aim of this study is to examine the potential non-linear association between alcohol consumption and risk of AF and explore the potential differences of gender.MethodsIn this updated dose-response meta-analysis, PubMed, Embase and Cochrane databases were searched until June 2022. Risk estimates were reported as relative risk (RR) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The random-effects restricted cubic spline models are used to evaluate the potential non-linear association between alcohol consumption and AF risk.ResultsA total of 10,151,366 participants with 214,365 cases of AF enrolled in 13 prospective studies. The overall meta-analysis showed that a 1 drink/day increase in alcohol consumption increased the risk of AF by 6% (RR: 1.06; 95% CI: 1.03–1.08). In gender subgroup analysis, pooled results were different between men (RR: 1.08; 95% CI: 1.05–1.11) and women (RR: 1.05; 95% CI: 0.96–1.14). A linear relationship between alcohol consumption and risk of AF was found in men (p = 0.87) while a J-shaped curve was observed in women (p = 0.00). Regional subgroup analysis yielded broadly comparable results in Americas (RR: 1.07; 95% CI: 1.03–1.12), Europe (RR: 1.04; 95% CI: 0.99–1.1) and Asia (RR: 1.07; 95% CI: 0.99–1.14).ConclusionThe relationship between AF risk and alcohol consumption is linear in men, while a potential non-linear J-shaped relationship is shown in women.Condensed abstractWe conducted a dose-response meta-analysis on the relationship between alcohol consumption and risk of atrial fibrillation. We merged the data of over 10 million participants and found gender differences in the pattern of association with AF and alcohol consumption. The relationship between AF risk and alcohol consumption is linear in men, while a potential non-linear J-shaped relationship is shown in women. In summary, this research is vital in furthering our understanding of the role of alcohol consumption in new-onset AF, especially among different genders.

Climate change and human interference pose a significant threat to fishery habitats and fish biodiversity, leading to changes in fishery resources. However, the impact of environmental change on lake fishery resources has been largely blurred in assessments due to the complicated variables of the lake environment. Here, taking the largest freshwater lake (Poyang Lake) in China as a study case, we first proposed a conceptual model and simulated the effect of environmental variables on fish catches based on remote sensing techniques and machine learning algorithms. We found that the hydrometeorological conditions of fishery habitats are critical controlling factors affecting the fish catches in Poyang Lake through a long time series of simulations. Among the involved hydrometeorological variables, the temperature, precipitation, and water level are strongly correlated with the fish catches in the simulation experiments. Furthermore, we tested other experiments and found that the integration with water quality variables (correlation coefficient (R) increased by 11%, and root mean square error (RMSE) decreased by 2,600 tons) and water ecological variables (R increased by 17%, and RMSE decreased by 3,200 tons) can further improve the accuracy of fish catch simulation. The results also showed that fish catches of aquatic species in Poyang Lake are more susceptible to water ecological variables than water quality refers to the model performance improvements by different input variable selections. In addition, a multi-dimension variable combination involving hydrometeorological conditions, water quality, and water ecological variables derived from remote sensing can maximally optimize the model performance of fish catch simulation (R increased by 21%, and RMSE decreased by 4,300 tons). The approach developed in this study can save the labor and financial costs for large-area investigation and the assessment of lake fishery resources compared to conventional methods. It is expected to demonstrate an efficient way for public authorities, stakeholders, and decision-makers to guide fishery conservation and management strategies.

Study region: The upper Brahmaputra River, China. Study focus: The long-term water level and storage variations of the upper Brahmaputra River (UBR) are not yet clear due to the low accessibility of gauged data in high-altitude and harsh environments. The main objective of this study is to facilitate investigations of long-term river water level and storage variations over the UBR. Here we developed a hypsometric method to reconstruct temporally resolved long-term river water level observations based on remote sensing-derived accumulative water inundation area information and short-term altimetric water level data at 24 virtual stations (VSs) of the UBR. We further analyzed the intra-annual and inter-annual variations of the water level (storage) changes of the studied river reaches. New hydrological insights: The results reveal that the reconstructed water levels of the UBR are quite consistent with the water levels from the Hydroweb with an average R2 of 0.79 and the reconstructed water levels are generally consistent with the variation of the gauged runoff. The ascending amplitudes of the annual water level cycle of VSs were observed from upstream to downstream of the UBR, varying from 0.58 m to 6.92 m. Additionally, we find that the seasonal change in river water storage approximately accounted for one-tenth of the net mass seasonal amplitude of the UBR basin, as revealed from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data.

ObjectiveMutations in the Lamin A/C(LMNA) gene are commonly associated with cardiac manifestations, such as dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and conduction system disease. However, the overall spectrum and penetrance of rare LMNA variants are unknown. The present study described the presence of LMNAvariants in patients with “lone atrial fibrillation (AF)” as their sole clinical presentation.MethodsOne-hundred and one consecutive patients with “lone AF” criteria were initially screened by genetic testing. Genetic variants were classified according to the American College of Genetic and Genomic criteria. All subjects were evaluated through clinical and familial history, ECG, 24-h Holter monitoring, echocardiogram, cardiac magnetic resonance, treatment response, and the present relatives of LMNA carriers. In addition, whole-exome data from 49,960 UK Biobank (UKB) participants were analyzed to describe the overall penetrance of rare LMNA missense and loss of function (LOF) variants.ResultsThree missense variants in LMNA were identified in probands with AF as their first and unique clinical manifestation. Other five first-degree relatives, after the screening, also presented LMNA gene variants. Among 49,960 analyzed UKB participants, 331 carried rare LMNA missense or LOF variant. Participants who carried a rare LMNA variant were significantly associated with higher odds of arrhythmic events and of an abnormal ECG in the per-protocol ECG exam (p = 0.03 and p = 0.05, respectively).ConclusionAlthough a rare occurrence, our findings emphasize the possibility of an initial presentation of apparently “lone AF” in LMNA gene variant carriers.

Resumo Fundamento A ablação da taquicardia atrial (TA) com local de ativação mais precoce próxima ao feixe de His é um desafio, devido ao risco de bloqueio de AV completo por sua proximidade ao sistema de His-Purkinje (SHP). Uma alternativa para minimizar esse risco é posicionar o cateter na cúspide não coronária (CNC), que é anatomicamente contígua à região para-Hissiana. Objetivos O objetivo deste estudo foi fazer uma revisão de literatura e avaliar as características eletrofisiológicas, a segurança e o índice de sucesso de aplicação de radiofrequência (RF) por cateter na CNC para o tratamento de TA para-Hissiana em uma série de casos. Métodos Avaliamos retrospectivamente dez pacientes (Idade: 36±10 anos) que foram encaminhados para ablação de taquicardia paroxística supraventricular (TPSV) e haviam sido diagnosticados com TA focal para-Hissiana confirmada por manobras eletrofisiológicas clássicas. Para a análise estatística, um P valor d

Abstract Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread rapidly around the world. In addition to common respiratory symptoms such as cough and fever, some patients also have cardiac injury, however, the mechanism of cardiac injury is not clear. In this study, we analyzed the RNA expression atlases of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2(ACE2), cathepsin B (CTSB) and cathepsin L (CTSL) in the human embryonic heart at single-cell resolution. Results The results showed that ACE2 was preferentially enriched in cardiomyocytes. Interestingly, serine protease transmembrane serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2) had less expression in cardiomyocytes, but CTSB and CTSL, which belonged to cell protease, could be found to be enriched in cardiomyocytes. The results of enrichment analysis showed that differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in ACE2-positive cardiomyocytes were mainly enriched in the processes of cardiac muscle contraction, regulation of cardiac conduction, mitochondrial respiratory chain, ion channel binding, adrenergic signaling in cardiomyocytes and viral transcription. Conclusions Our study suggests that both atrial and ventricular cardiomyocytes are potentially susceptible to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2(SARS-CoV-2), and SARS-CoV-2 may enter ventricular cardiomyocytes using CTSB/CTSL for S protein priming. This may be the partial cellular mechanism of cardiac injury in patients with COVID-19.

High rise buildings with large volume, high energy consumption, and high carbon emission base have become the focus of emission reduction work in public building types. The key issue of reducing carbon emissions throughout the entire lifecycle of high-rise buildings is how to predict their carbon emissions during the design phase, which is also a current research hotspot. As a developed province in southern China, Zhejiang bears important emission reduction tasks and responsibilities in the construction industry. This article applies the carbon emission factor method to calculate the carbon dioxide emissions in the construction sector of Zhejiang Province from 2005 to 2022. Based on Kaya’s identity, a carbon emission calculation model is established. Combined with scenario analysis method, the carbon emissions in the construction sector of Zhejiang Province from 2023 to 2060 are predicted and compared under different scenarios. The results show that under the scenario of technological breakthrough, the construction field can achieve the carbon peak goal by 2025, but in order to achieve the carbon neutrality goal by 2060, the existing energy conservation measures and carbon reduction technologies need to be strengthened.

Satellite laser altimetry has been widely used for monitoring surface height changes in inland waters. However, constructing time series of water levels is partially limited in temporal resolution only based on the individual orbit of altimeter observations. To densify and optimize the time series of altimetry-based water levels is crucial to the scientific understanding of lake hydrologic dynamics. This paper focuses on synthesizing the multi-orbit on-lake observations from the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite 2 (ICESat-2) to densify and refine the water level time series for large lakes. The approach of synthesizing water level time series has been validated through experiments applied to 18 large lakes worldwide, resulting in an average R of 0.93, RMSE of 0.14 m, MAE of 0.12 m, NSE of 0.67, and CV of 2.86, according to the hydrologic gauge stations. The evaluation results demonstrate that our approach can provide an effective solution for densifying the water level series of large lakes covered by multi-orbit ICESat-2 observations. Further, the approach can be extended to monitor the high-frequency variation of other lakes covered by the multiple ICESat-2 orbits. This approach provides the potential of generating higher-frequency estimates of water levels based on satellite altimetry, which could not only help to reveal the characteristics of the seasonal dynamics of lakes but also be used to investigate the abrupt water level changes due to hydrological extreme events (e.g., floods, droughts, etc.).

Background: Ferroptosis is a new form of cell death recently discovered that is distinct from apoptosis, necrosis and autophagy. This article is expected to provide a new direction for the treatment of cardiomyopathy in the future by screening potential drug targets associated with ferroptosis.Methods: Differential expression analysis of GSE5406 from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database was performed using the GEO2R tool. Functional annotation of ferroptosis related genes was also performed. Then we constructed protein-protein interaction networks and identified hub genes using Cytoscape. The candidates for pharmacological compounds targeting the hub genes were screened by cMap.Results: Totally 15 ferroptosis related genes (4 upregulated and 11 downregulated) for ischemic cardiomyopathy and 17 ferroptosis related genes (13 upregulated and 4 downregulated) for idiopathic cardiomyopathy were found. The biological processes involved in these genes mainly include negative regulation of apoptotic process, flavonoid metabolic process, response to drug for ischemic cardiomyopathy and cellular response to fibroblast growth factor stimulus, negative regulation of apoptotic process, and response to drug for idiopathic cardiomyopathy. KEGG results showed that these genes were mainly involved in MAPK signaling pathway for ischemic cardiomyopathy and PI3K-Akt signaling pathway for idiopathic cardiomyopathy. We generated a co-expression network for hub genes and obtained top 10 medications suggested respectively for ischemic/idiopathic cardiomyopathy.Conclusion: Our study reveals the potential role of ferroptosis related genes in ischemic and idiopathic cardiomyopathy through bioinformatics analysis. The hub genes and potential drugs may become novel biomarkers for prognosis and precision treatment in the future.

Comprehensive evaluation of the geological disaster risk of super long tunnels is significant for safety construction. In this paper, we establish a comprehensive evaluation system based on the cloud model and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) theory, considering four kinds of geological hazards, such as water and mud inrush, large deformation, rock burst, and collapse. Then, based on a super long highway tunnel of the Chizhou-Qimen expressway in China, the construction risk evaluation is carried out. The results show that the evaluation system can accurately judge the disaster risk level of the tunnel under different conditions surrounding a rock. The cloud model theory can realize the mutual transformation of qualitative indicators and quantitative indicators and avoid the problem of intense subjectivity of evaluation indicators. The evaluation system can be used as a new approach to evaluate tunnel risks in similar projects.

Introduction: Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is associated with disrupted intestinal epithelial function, resulting from intestinal congestion. Intestinal congestion changes the morphology and permeability of the intestinal wall, and it becomes easy for the gut microbiota to change and transfer. Intervention on gut microbiota may become a new target for HFpEF treatment. However, the characteristics of gut microbiota in patients with HFpEF remain unknown. This preliminary report aims to detect the structure of gut microbiota in HFpEF patients so as to explore their characteristic changes, thereby providing a theoretical basis for future research.Methods: This research recruited 30 patients diagnosed with HFpEF and 30 healthy individuals. Stool specimens of research subjects were collected separately, and the microarray analyses of gut microbiota were conducted by Illumina high-throughput DNA sequencing. The differences in gut microbiota composition, alpha diversity, and beta diversity between the two groups were finally obtained.Results: The composition of gut microbiota was significantly different between the two groups. At the phylum classification level, the abundance of Synergistetes tended to be higher in the HFpEF group (P = 0.012). At genus classification level, the abundance of Butyricicoccus (P < 0.001), Sutterella (P = 0.004), Lachnospira (P = 0.003), and Ruminiclostridium (P = 0.009) in the HFpEF group were lower, while the abundance of Enterococcus (P < 0.001) and Lactobacillus (P = 0.005) were higher. According to the Chao index of alpha diversity analysis, HFpEF patients showed a nominally significant lower species richness when compared with controls (P = 0.046). However, there was no statistical difference in the Shannon index (P = 0.159) and Simpson index (P = 0.495), indicating that there was no difference in species diversity between the two groups. Beta diversity analysis revealed a highly significant separation of HFpEF patients and controls.Conclusions: An imbalance in the gut microbiota of HFpEF patients was observed. Patients with HFpEF have an increased abundance of microbiota associated with inflammation and a decreased abundance of microbiota associated with anti-inflammatory effects in the gut environment. In line with that, the species richness of gut microbiota in HFpEF patients tended to be lower.

Lakes are of significant importance in regulating floods and providing water sources. The seasonal water storage variations for the plain lake group in the Yangtze–Huai River Basin (YHRB) are significant for alleviating flood pressure and regulating runoff. However, to date, the seasonal amplitude of lake water storage variations and its capacity of buffering floodwater in the YHRB is not quantified well and remains to be investigated comprehensively. To advance the understanding of such a critical scientific issue, the water level data of the plain lake group (area>100 km2, 29 lakes) in the YHRB is collected from multi-source data between 1990 and 2020. Using lake inundation area obtained from Global Surface Water and water level variations, water storage dynamics for the plain lake group are quantified. Furthermore, this study also uses the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) products to analyze the terrestrial water storage anomalies (TWSA) in the whole basin. The results indicate that the seasonal amplitude of water level change and water storage variation of the plain lake group are 2.80 ± 0.71 m and 37.38 ± 14.19 Gt, respectively. Poyang and Dongting Lakes, two lakes that maintain the natural connection with the Yangtze River, have the most substantial seasonal amplitude in the hydrological situation. The amplitude in water level and water storage in Poyang Lake is 9.53 ± 2.02 m and 14.13 ± 5.54 Gt respectively, and that in Dongting Lake is 7.39 ± 1.29 m and 7.31 ± 3.42 Gt respectively. The contribution of seasonal variation of water storage for large plain lakes to TWSA in the YHRB is approximately 33.25%, fully reflecting these lake’s imperative position in the YHRB. This study is expected to enhance the scientific understanding of the seasonal hydrologic regime for the large lakes in the YHRB and contribute to the management of flood risks and water resources in East China.

Poyang Lake, the largest freshwater lake in China, is featured with high-frequency fluctuations and unique seasonal changes in water level and inundation areas, which plays a substantial part in regulating the runoff of the Yangtze River and maintaining the ecological balance of the region. Frequent observations enable more effectively reflecting the water budgets and related driving force of Poyang Lake. This study first utilized the Sentinel-1 SAR data and cloud-free Sentinel-2 images in conjugation with lake bathymetry to reconstruct the time series of the water inundation area and storage of Poyang Lake from 2017 to 2020. Further, a simple and straightforward method, named the Fitting Curves of each Block and Total area (FCoBT), is developed to reconstruct the complete inundation area of Poyang Lake from partially cloud-free Sentinel-2 images to densify the original time series. This method takes full advantage of the significant characteristics on the strong correlations of the block areas (one small part of lake area) varying with the complete lake areas, with a mean R2 and ρ value of 0.94 and 0.98, respectively. The complete inundation area of Poyang Lake can be reconstructed from 113 scenes of partially cloudless Sentinel-2 images acquired from 2017 to 2020 by using the FCoBT. After integrating the Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 images, a maximum of 13 measurements are available within one month, with the temporal intervals of 2–3 days. Results show that our reconstructed time series of water inundation area can finely depict significant seasonal fluctuation (wet season: from April to September, dry season: from October to the next March) and inter-annual variations (larger areas: 2017 and 2020, smaller areas: 2018 and 2019) of Poyang Lake during 2017–2020. Similar to the area change, the water storage of Poyang Lake also shows evident seasonal variation and inter-annual fluctuation, reaching the peaks in July and the lowest stages during November to February. This study cannot only provide an efficient and feasible remote sensing means of constructing long-term observations for highly variable lakes at high spatial–temporal resolutions, but also greatly refine our understanding on the intra-annual and inter-annual variations of Poyang Lake.

Objective: Ejection fraction preserved heart failure (HFpEF) is a common clinical syndrome with a high morbidity, accounting for ~50% of all heart failure patients, and a mortality comparable to that of ejection fraction reduced heart failure (HFrEF). The relationship between liver stiffness (LS) and HFpEF remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to explore the correlation between LS and the severity of HFpEF.Methods: We performed a prospective observational study. After accepting liver transient elastography on admission, consecutive 150 hospitalized HFpEF patients were divided into three groups based on their liver elasticity value: first-third quartiles. Left ventricular diastolic function, left ventricular hypertrophy degree, right cardiac function and short-term prognosis (≤1 year) were compared among the three groups, and the correlation between liver elasticity and each indicator was analyzed.Results: The elasticity of the liver was abnormally high in more than two-thirds of cases. The proportion of NYHA class III-IV in the third quartile group was significantly higher than that in the first quartile group (96 vs. 70%, P = 0.013). Significant differences were discovered in the level of lgNT-proBNP between the three groups (2.63 ± 0.65 vs. 2.84 ± 0.44 vs. 3.05 ± 0.71, P = 0.027). In terms of diastolic function and left ventricular hypertrophy, the ventricular septal e′ (5.01 ± 2.69 vs. 6.48 ± 2.29, P = 0.025), lateral wall e′ (6.63 ± 3.50 vs. 8.62 ± 2.73, P = 0.013), mean E/e′ (20.06 ± 7.53 vs. 13.20 ± 6.05, P = 0.001), left atrial volume index (43.53 ± 10.94 vs. 35.78 ± 13.86, P = 0.008), tricuspid regurgitation (TR) peak flow rate (3.16 ± 0.44 vs. 2.75 ± 0.50, P < 0.001), left ventricular mass index (LVMI) in male (163.2 ± 47.6 vs. 131.3 ± 38.0, P = 0.015) and in female (147.4 ± 48.6 vs. 110.6 ± 24.3, P = 0.036) was significantly different between the third quartile and the first quartile. The proportion of patients with diastolic dysfunction in the third quartile was significantly higher than that in the first quartile (70 vs. 36%, P = 0.017). In terms of right cardiac function, right ventricular fractional area change (RVFAC) (30.3 ± 5.4 vs. 36.5 ± 6.8, P < 0.001), tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE) (7.7 ± 5.2 vs. 14.8 ± 5.9, P = 0.010), pulmonary systolic pressure (38.0 ± 10.5 vs. 32.4 ± 10.3, P = 0.005), TR peak flow rate (3.16 ± 0.44 vs. 2.75 ± 0.50, P < 0.001), and inferior vena cava diameter (2.53 ± 0.51 vs. 1.98 ± 0.41, P < 0.001) were significantly different between the third quartile and the first quartile. More than half of HFpEF patients were combined with right ventricular dysfunction (RVD). Compared to HFpEF without RVD, HFpEF with RVD had higher male sex (53.6 vs. 30.3%, P < 0.001), higher NYHA class (3.2 ± 0.6 vs. 2.8 ± 0.6, P = 0.010), higher proportion of atrial fibrillation (45.2 vs. 18.2%, P < 0.001), and higher liver elasticity value (7.95 ± 0.60 vs. 7.31 ± 0.84, P = 0.003). In terms of short-term prognosis, the incidence of adverse cardiovascular events was significantly higher in the third quartile than in the first quartile (P = 0.003) and the second quartile (P = 0.008). Multivariate Cox proportional hazard analysis showed that adverse cardiovascular events were independently associated with NYHA class, atrial fibrillation, lgNT-proBNP and liver elasticity value (HR = 1.208, 95% CI 1.115–1.352, P = 0.002).Conclusion: Increase of liver stiffness is common in HFpEF patients. Increased LS in HFpEF patients was significantly associated with worsen left diastolic function, left ventricular hypertrophy, and the right cardiac function. LS in HFpEF patients may be more than the result of right ventricular dysfunction. Male, atrial fibrillation, poorer NYHA class and increased liver elasticity value were significantly associated with HFpEF combined with RVD. Atrial fibrillation, poorer NYHA class, higher NT-proBNP, and increased liver elasticity value were independent predictors of poor short-term prognosis of HFpEF patients.

High-latitude lakes are sensitive indicators of climate change. Monitoring lake dynamics in high-latitude regions (e.g., pan-Arctic regions) is essential to improving our understanding of the impacts of climate change; however, the lack of in situ water level measurements limits comprehensive quantification of the lake hydrologic dynamics in high-latitude regions. Fortunately, the newly launched ICESat-2 laser altimeter can provide finer footprint measurements and denser ground tracks, thus enabling us to measure the water level changes for more lakes than with conventional radar altimeters. This study aims to comprehensively assess the number and frequency of pan-Arctic lakes (>1 km2, north of 60°N) observable by the ICESat-2 in space and time over the past three years. Further, we analyze the spatial and temporal characteristics of the ICESat-2-based water level observations of these pan-Arctic lakes based on our customized classification of seasonal coverage patterns (wet/dry season, monthly, and ten-day). We find that the ICESat-2 observed 80,688 pan-Arctic lakes (97% of the total). Among the observed lakes, the ICESat-2 retrieved the seasonal coverage patterns for 40,192 lakes (~50% of observed lakes), accounting for nearly 84% of the area and 95% of the volumetric capacity. Most lakes (99%) have seasonal water-level fluctuation amplitudes within a range of 0–1 m. The latitudinal zonality analysis demonstrates that the seasonal change in pan-Arctic lake levels gently fluctuates around 0.5 m between 60°N and 74°N and becomes intense (range of level change from 1 m to 2 m) beyond 74°N. Our results are expected to offer an overall reference for the spatio-temporal coverage of the ICESat-2’s observations of pan-Arctic lakes, which is crucial for comprehending the hydrologic response of high-latitude lakes to ongoing climate change.

(1) Background: The mechanism of viral myocarditis (VMC) progression to dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) remains unclear. The aim of this study was to identify key genes in the progression of VMC to DCM, so as to find potential therapeutic drugs and provide insights for future research. (2) Methods: Differential expression analysis of GSE4172 and GSE17800 from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database was performed using GEO2R, which contained genome-wide analysis of myocardial biopsies from VMC and DCM, respectively. We used the Venn diagram analysis to screen the common differentially expressed genes (DEGs). GO functional enrichment analysis and KEGG pathway analysis were also performed. Then we conducted protein–protein interaction (PPI) networks using STRING and identified hub genes using Cytoscape. Finally, we used cMAP to screen out candidate compounds targeting these hub genes; (3) Results: In total, 2143 DEGs for VMC and 1365 DEGs for DCM were found. Then a total of 191 common DEGs were identified. Biological processes and pathway involved in these genes mainly include GABA−gated chloride ion channel activity and Rap1 signaling pathway. A total of 14 hub genes were identified. PPI network showed these hubs mainly enriched in regulation of WNT signaling pathway and GABA-gated chloride ion channel activity. Subgroup analysis of Severe VMC cohort revealed 10 hub genes which mainly clustered in GABA channel activity, extracellular matrix remodeling and sarcomere dysfunction. Using cMAP, we obtained top 10 potential medications, but only amlodipine is currently viable; (4) Conclusions: Our study finds the hub genes and reveals the important role of GABA-gated chloride ion channel, Rap1 signaling pathway, WNT signaling pathway, extracellular matrix remodeling and sarcomere dysfunction in the progression from VMC to DCM. Amlodipine is a potential viable drug in preventing the progression of VMC to DCM.

Cypress (Cupressus funebris Endl.) is a major tree species planted for forestland restoration in low-fertility soil and in areas where rocky desertification has occurred. Calcium (Ca) fertilizer can adjust the pH of soil and has an important effect on the growth of cypress. Soil and water losses are serious in Southern China, and soil acidification is increasing, which results in high calcium loss. However, the adaptability of cypress clones to different concentrations of calcium in acidic soils has not been studied. In this investigation, a potted-plant experiment was set up with three concentrations of calcium oxide (CaO) fertilizer (0, 3, and 6 g·kg−1) added under local soil conditions with 0 and 3 g·kg−1 nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) fertilizer. The effects of CaO on the growth, root development, and nutrient uptake and utilization efficiency of cypress clones were analyzed. The growth, root development, and nutrient absorption and utilization of cypress differed when calcium fertilizer was applied to acidic soils with different degrees of fertility. In the soil with 0 g·kg−1 NPK fertilizer, the 3 and 6 g·kg−1 CaO treatments significantly increased the clonal growth of cypress seedling height, basal diameter, and dry-matter weight. In addition, the length, surface area, and volume of the roots less than 2.0 mm of root diameter also significantly increased, indicating that the fine cypress roots were somewhat able to adapt to differing Ca levels under lower fertility conditions. Moreover, the efficiency of N, P, and Ca accumulation was highest in the 3 g·kg−1 CaO treatment. After adding 3 g·kg−1 CaO fertilizer to the soil with 3 g·kg−1 NPK fertilizer, only the root dry-matter weight increased significantly, indicating that root development (including root length, surface area, and volume) in the D1–D3 diameter classes (≤1.5 mm in diameter) was significantly elevated. When CaO application reached 6 g·kg−1, the seedling height, basal diameter, and dry-matter weight of each organ decreased, as did the length, surface area, and volume of the roots in the all diameter classes, indicating that the addition of excessive CaO to fertile soil could inhibit the growth and root development of cypress. In Ca-deficient low-quality acidic soils, adding CaO fertilizer can promote the development of fine roots and the uptake and utilization of N, P, and Ca. The results of this study provide a basis for determining the optimal fertilization strategy when growing cypress in acidic soils in Southern China.

This article presents multi-source remote sensing measurements to quantify the water impoundment and regulation of the Zhikong Reservoir (ZKR) and Pangduo Reservoir (PDR), together with the estimation of the glacier mass balance to explore whether the increased glacier meltwater supply can buffer the influences of the reservoir impoundment to some degree in the Tibetan highland catchment. The ZKR and PDR are two reservoirs constructed on the upper Lhasa River that originate from the Nyainqentanglha glaciers in the remote headwater in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and lacks historical in situ hydrological observations in the long term. Therefore, the Joint Research Center (JRC) Global Surface Water dataset (GSW), and the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) digital elevation model (DEM) data were used for estimating the total amount of water storage of the two reservoirs, and the SRTM and TanDEM-X DEMs were used for estimating the glacier mass balance. The result shows that the total amount of water impounded by reservoirs is 0.76 Gt, roughly 54% of their design capacities. The mass balance of the glaciers is estimated by comparing the elevation changes between the SRTM and TanDEM-X DEMs. The glaciers in this region melt at an average rate of 0.09 ± 0.02 Gt·year−1 from 2000 to circa 2013, and the impounded water of these reservoirs is comparable to the amount of glacier-fed meltwater in eight years.

Background Brugada syndrome and long‐QT syndrome may account for at least one third of unexplained sudden cardiac deaths. Dental care in patients with cardiac channelopathies is challenging because of the potential risk of life‐threatening events. We hypothesized that the use of local dental anesthesia with lidocaine with and without epinephrine is safe and does not result in life‐threatening arrhythmias in patients with channelopathies. Methods and Results We performed a randomized, double‐blind pilot trial comparing the use of 2% lidocaine without a vasoconstrictor and with 1:100 000 epinephrine in 2 sessions of restorative dental treatment with a washout period of 7 days (crossover trial). Twenty‐eight–hour Holter monitoring was performed, and 12‐lead electrocardiography, digital sphygmomanometry, and anxiety scale assessments were also conducted at 3 time points. Fifty‐six dental procedures were performed in 28 patients (18 women, 10 men) with cardiac channelopathies: 16 (57.1%) had long‐QT syndrome, and 12 (42.9%) had Brugada syndrome; 11 (39.3%) of patients had an implantable defibrillator. The mean age was 45.9±15.9 years. The maximum heart rate increased after the use of epinephrine during the anesthesia period from 82.1 to 85.8 beats per minute (P=0.008). In patients with long‐QT syndrome, the median corrected QT was higher, from 450.1 to 465.4 ms (P=0.009) at the end of anesthesia in patients in whom epinephrine was used. The other measurements showed no statistically significant differences. No life‐threatening arrhythmias occurred during dental treatment. Conclusions The use of local dental anesthesia with lidocaine, regardless of the use of a vasoconstrictor, did not result in life‐threatening arrhythmias and appears to be safe in stable patients with cardiac channelopathies. Clinical Trial Registration URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT03182777.