Spatial effects of environmental regulation on high-quality economic development: From the perspective of industrial upgrading

Studying the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of environmental regulations on high-quality regional economic development is of enormous practical value in the context of sustainable economic, social, and environmental development. Only a few studies, however, examined the regional heterogeneity of environmental regulation affecting economic development from the standpoint of upgrading the industrial structure. This research investigated the spatial distribution traits of high-quality regional development based on the construction of a comprehensive assessment index system for high-quality economic development. The economic geography-nested spatial Durbin model is then used to perform an empirical test. The findings demonstrate that (1) high-quality economic development has visible spatial heterogeneity, with strong local spatial agglomeration between regions; (2) environmental regulation and the modernization of the industrial structure are significant variables influencing high-quality economic development, but their development is not balanced; and (3) environmental policies promote high-quality regional development through a distinct channel. Formal environmental regulation promotes economic development through rationalizing industrial structure, while informal environmental regulation does so through upgrading the industrial structure. Further, both kinds of environmental regulation have positive spatial spillover effects on adjacent areas. Therefore, the regional heterogeneity of environmental regulation and industrial structure is of great significance in promoting the high-quality and sustainable development of regional economies

LucidDraw: Efficiently visualizing complex biochemical networks within MATLAB

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Biochemical networks play an essential role in systems biology. Rapidly growing network data and versatile research activities call for convenient visualization tools to aid intuitively perceiving abstract structures of networks and gaining insights into the functional implications of networks. There are various kinds of network visualization software, but they are usually not adequate for visual analysis of complex biological networks mainly because of the two reasons: 1) most existing drawing methods suitable for biochemical networks have high computation loads and can hardly achieve near real-time visualization; 2) available network visualization tools are designed for working in certain network modeling platforms, so they are not convenient for general analyses due to lack of broader range of readily accessible numerical utilities.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We present LucidDraw as a visual analysis tool, which features (a) speed: typical biological networks with several hundreds of nodes can be drawn in a few seconds through a new layout algorithm; (b) ease of use: working within MATLAB makes it convenient to manipulate and analyze the network data using a broad spectrum of sophisticated numerical functions; (c) flexibility: layout styles and incorporation of other available information about functional modules can be controlled by users with little effort, and the output drawings are interactively modifiable.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Equipped with a new grid layout algorithm proposed here, LucidDraw serves as an auxiliary network analysis tool capable of visualizing complex biological networks in near real-time with controllable layout styles and drawing details. The framework of the algorithm enables easy incorporation of extra biological information, if available, to influence the output layouts with predefined node grouping features.</p

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Reveals Executive Control Dissociation in the Rostral Prefrontal Cortex

Although previous studies have shown that the rostral prefrontal cortex (rPFC) plays a crucial role in executive tasks, the various functions of the rPFC in the humans are still understudied. Here we used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) with continuous theta burst stimulation (cTBS) to interfere with the executive control functions of the right rostrolateral PFC (RLPFC) or the right rostromedial PFC (RMPFC). Subjects performed a task-switching paradigm, which included spatial detection (SD), prospective memory (PM) and working memory (WM) tasks, after cTBS. The performance of 18 healthy volunteers was evaluated on different days after cTBS over the right RLPFC, the right RMPFC, and the vertex (serving as a control site). The application of cTBS over the RLPFC significantly increased the switching costs (SCs) of the error rates (ERs) when switching to the PM task, while RMPFC-cTBS decreased SCs of ERs when switching to the WM task, compared with the control vertex site. These findings provide evidence for a differential role of the RLPFC and the RMPFC in executive functions, with a specific involvement of the RLPFC and the RMPFC in PM, and WM, respectively

Melatonin modulates the effects of diethylstilbestrol (DES) on the anterior pituitary of the female Wistar rat.

We studied the anti-tumorigenic effect of melatonin in diethylstilbestrol (DES)-treated anterior pituitaries in rats. Twenty-one female Wistar rats were randomly allocated into three groups: vehicle control rats, DES-treated rats, and DES-treated rats co-administrated with melatonin beginning at week 13. At the end of 16 weeks, rats were weighed and decapitated for morphological studies, including an H+E staining-based score evaluation in regard to cell proliferation, angiogenesis, immunostaining for VEGF, MMP-9, and AQP-1, and electron microscopy. Compared with vehicle, long-term treatment of DES significantly reduced rat body weight and increased H+E score, both of which were counteracted by melatonin. Administration of melatonin also reduced the expression of VEGF and MMP-9, although no changes were detected in AQP-1 expression. In rats cotreated with melatonin, the RER loosened and accumulated more secretion granules. We thus concluded that melatonin can modulate the effects of DES on the rat anterior pituitary by downregulating expression of VEGF and MMP-9 and suppressing the release of secretion granules, suggesting a therapeutic potential in estrogen-induced pituitary malfunctions

Fear of cancer recurrence in adolescent and young adult cancer survivors : a systematic review of the literature

This study is funded by the President Foundation of Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University (2017L001); and the Science and technology project of Guangdong Province (2015A030302025)Objective The current systematic review aims to provide an overview of fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) in adolescent and young adult cancer survivors (15‐39 years at cancer diagnosis, AYAs). Methods MEDLINE, PubMed, PsycINFO, and Embase databases were independently searched to identify relevant quantitative articles. PRISMA systematic review procedures were followed with quality assessment. Results Seventeen studies were included in the current review. All were quantitative studies that utilized a cross‐sectional study design. Seven articles reported results of FCR prevalence, six studied determinants related to FCR, and 11 articles provided information about consequences of FCR. Prevalence of FCR ranged from 31% to 85.2% among AYA survivors. Associations between sociodemographic/clinical variables and FCR were inconsistent. Psychological distress and higher treatment intensity were positively associated with higher FCR levels. Lower scores on levels of physical, psychological functioning, and overall health‐related quality of life (QoL) were identified as consequences of increased FCR. Conclusion FCR appears to be a prevalent concern among adolescent and young adult cancer populations. Adequate assessment to determine need for support and intervention is still required. Longitudinal studies in AYAs are warranted to understand the development and potential influence of FCR. Age‐appropriate and flexible psychological care would be more successful potentially with this crucial background information.PostprintPeer reviewe

Causes and stability analysis of the landslide at Tianbao Reservoir in Jingning County, Gansu Province

On September 18, 2020, a landslide occurred on the left bank of Tianbao Reservoir in Tianbao Village, Sihe Town, Jingning County, Pingliang City, Gansu Province. The landslide is 180 m long, 240 m wide, 48.5×104 m3 in volume, and 191° in main sliding direction, which is the revival of the old loess-mudstone landslide. Landslide destroys the excavated slope and highway subgrade, which seriously threatens the normal construction of Tianbao Reservoir. Through field investigation, geotechnical test and calculation, the geological conditions, basic characteristics and causes of landslide formation in Tianbao Reservoir were discussed, and the stability of landslide was analyzed by simplified Janbu method. The study found that the formation conditions of the landslide are mainly three aspects : the geological foundation of the old landslide, the excavation of the front edge of the slope, and the continuous heavy rainfall. That is, the old landslide is caused by the large-scale excavation of the slope toe and the heavy rainfall. The stability calculation results show that after excavating the slope toe, the stability coefficient is less than 0.98 under the rainstorm condition, which is in the unstable sliding state. After sliding, the stability coefficient of each working condition is less than 1.05, which is in the unstable-unstable state

Detection of spin bias in four-terminal quantum-dot ring

In this work, we show that in a four-quantum-dot ring, via introducing a local Rashba spin-orbit interaction the spin bias in the transverse terminals can be detected by observing the charge currents in the longitudinal probes. It is found that due to the Rashba interaction, the quantum interference in this system becomes spin-dependent and the opposite-spin currents induced by the spin bias can present different magnitudes, so charge currents emerge. Besides, the charge currents rely on both the magnitude and spin polarization direction of the spin bias. It is believed that this method provides an electrical but practical scheme to detect the spin bias (or the spin current).Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure