The management strategies of cancer-associated anorexia: a critical appraisal of systematic reviews

Abstract Background Cancer-related anorexia remains one of the most prevalent and troublesome clinical problems experienced by patients with cancer during and after therapy. To ensure high-quality care, systematic reviews (SRs) are seen as the best guide. Considering the methodology quality of SRs varies, we undertook a comprehensive overview, and critical appraisal of pertinent SRs. Methods Eight databases (between the inception of each database and September 1, 2017) were searched for SRs on the management of cancer-related anorexia. Two researchers evaluated the methodological quality of each SR by using the Revised Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews (R-AMSTAR) checklist. Characteristics of the “high quality” SRs were abstracted, included information on relevant studies numbers, study design, population, intervention, control, outcome and result. Results Eighteen SRs met the inclusion criteria. The R-AMSTAR scores of methodological quality ranged from 18 to 41 out of 44, with an average score of 30. Totally eight SRs scored ≥31 points, which showed high methodological quality, and would be used for data extraction to make summaries. Anamorelin had some positive effects to relieve cancer anorexia-cachexia syndrome (CACS) and improve the quality of life (QoL). Megestrol Acetate (MA) could improve appetite, and was associated with slight weight gain for CACS. Oral nutritional interventions were effective in increasing nutritional intake and improving some aspects of QoL in patients with cancer who were malnourished or at nutritional risk. The use of thalidomide, Eicosapentaenoic Acid, and minerals, vitamins, proteins, or other supplements for the treatment of cachexia in cancer were uncertain, and there was inadequate evidence to recommend it to clinical practices, the same situation in Chinese Herb Medicine and acupuncture (acupuncture and related therapies were effective in improving QoL) for treating anorexia in cancer patients, warranting further RCTs in these areas. Conclusions Anamorelin, MA, oral nutrition interventions, and acupuncture could be considered to be applied in patients with cancer-related anorexia. Future RCTs and SRs with high quality on the pharmaceutical or non-pharmaceutical interventions of anorexia in cancer patients are warranted

The Impact of Vehicle Ownership on Carbon Emissions in the Transportation Sector

As one of the important sources of carbon emissions, the transportation industry should be given attention. This study investigates the relationship between vehicle ownership, economic growth, and environmental pressure on the Chongqing transportation industry (CQTI) based on CQTI data, then constructs a comprehensive regression model and couples the EKC curve and Tapio model for integrated analysis, and finally constructs a LEAP-Chongqing model to forecast CQTI from multiple perspectives. The innovations are that the multi-model examines the effects of different variables and has a better classification of transportation modes in scenario simulation. The results show that: (1) there is an inverse N-shaped relationship between car ownership, economic growth, and environmental pressure of CQTI; (2) every 1% of transportation output, urbanization rate, or car ownership will cause 0.769%, 0.111%, and 0.096% of carbon emission change, respectively; (3) gasoline, diesel and aviation kerosene consumption account for 80–90%, private cars cause 41–52% of carbon emissions, and the energy structure and transportation structure of CQTI are unreasonable; (4) the results of a multi-scenario simulation show that the energy saving and emission reduction effect of a single policy is not satisfactory, and the integration of energy saving and emission reduction measures should be strengthened

The Impact of Vehicle Ownership on Carbon Emissions in the Transportation Sector

As one of the important sources of carbon emissions, the transportation industry should be given attention. This study investigates the relationship between vehicle ownership, economic growth, and environmental pressure on the Chongqing transportation industry (CQTI) based on CQTI data, then constructs a comprehensive regression model and couples the EKC curve and Tapio model for integrated analysis, and finally constructs a LEAP-Chongqing model to forecast CQTI from multiple perspectives. The innovations are that the multi-model examines the effects of different variables and has a better classification of transportation modes in scenario simulation. The results show that: (1) there is an inverse N-shaped relationship between car ownership, economic growth, and environmental pressure of CQTI; (2) every 1% of transportation output, urbanization rate, or car ownership will cause 0.769%, 0.111%, and 0.096% of carbon emission change, respectively; (3) gasoline, diesel and aviation kerosene consumption account for 80–90%, private cars cause 41–52% of carbon emissions, and the energy structure and transportation structure of CQTI are unreasonable; (4) the results of a multi-scenario simulation show that the energy saving and emission reduction effect of a single policy is not satisfactory, and the integration of energy saving and emission reduction measures should be strengthened

How Seasonal Grazing Exclusion Affects Grassland Productivity and Plant Community Diversity

The Sanjiang Plain is famous for its concentrated distribution of natural wet grasslands. These wet grasslands are an important source of seasonal pasture or hay in the area. However, changes in community structure and ecosystem function have already occurred in wet grasslands because of overgrazing and climate change, resulting in severe grassland degradation. Exploring a reasonable grazing management strategy is crucial for improving grassland species diversity, increasing grassland productivity, and maintaining sustainable grassland utilization. We investigated the effects of five grazing management (GM) strategies (no grazing through the growing season (CK), spring grazing exclusion (Spr-GE), summer grazing exclusion (Sum-GE)), autumn grazing exclusion (Aut-GE), and grazing through the growing season (G)) on the productivity, community composition and structure of wet grasslands in the Sanjiang Plain under three grazing intensities (GI) (light (L), moderate (M), and heavy (H)). Results showed that Spr-GE and Sum-GE were beneficial in increasing total aboveground biomass (AGB), but decreased plant community diversity in Spr-GE due to increased intraspecies and interspecies competition. The exclusion of different seasonal grazings changed the composition of plant communities. At the level of functional groups and dominant species, Spr-GE had a significant effect on most functional groups and dominant species’ characteristics, while Aut-GE had little effect on most functional groups and dominant species’ characteristics. However, different functional groups and dominant species had different responses to seasonal grazing exclusion. In addition, under M, there were significantly improved grassland total AGB and PF AGB. The results indicated that Spr-GE with M may be an effective livestock-management strategy to protect grassland vegetation and community diversity, as well as to restore degraded grassland

Risk factors of breast cancer-related lymphoedema: protocol of an umbrella review

Introduction Breast cancer-related lymphoedema (BCRL) is a progressive and debilitating complication post-breast cancer treatment. Identifying potential risk factors facilitates the prevention and management of BCRL. Multiple systematic reviews have been conducted to address the variables correlated with the occurrence of BCRL. This study aims to identify and examine factors predicting the development of BCRL, to clarify the predicting mechanism of these factors, as well to determine the credibility of risk factors for BCRL.Methods and analysis This umbrella review will be conducted with the methodological guidance of the Joanna Briggs Institute and the Cochrane handbook. A comprehensive systematic search will be performed in ten databases: PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, Web of Science, Scopus, CNKI, SinoMed, Wangfang database, the JBI Database of Systematic Reviews, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. The search for unpublished studies will include ProQuest and the PROSPERO register. Reference lists will also be hand searched. Two reviewers will independently screen the studies, extract data and assess the methodological quality using the Methodological Quality of Systematic Reviews-2 and the Risk of Bias in Systematic Reviews. The degree of overlap between included reviews will be assessed by calculating the Corrected Covered Area. The credibility of the associations between risk factors and lymphoedema will be graded into four classes: convincing, highly suggestive, suggestive and weak, referring to the classification system of recent umbrella reviews. A descriptive, narrative synthesis and suggestions for clinical practice and future research will be made based on included systematic reviews, considering the quality of the evidence.Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval is not required for this umbrella review. We will seek to submit the results for publication in a peer-reviewed journal or present it at conferences.PROSPERO registration number CRD42022375710

A novel CGBoost deep learning algorithm for coseismic landslide susceptibility prediction

The accurate prediction of landslide susceptibility shortly after a violent earthquake is quite vital to the emergency rescue in the 72-h “golden window”. However, the limited quantity of interpreted landslides shortly after a massive earthquake makes landslide susceptibility prediction become a challenge. To address this gap, this work suggests an integrated method of Crossing Graph attention network and xgBoost (CGBoost). This method contains three branches, which extract the interrelations among pixels within a slope unit, the interrelations among various slope units, and the relevance between influencing factors and landslide probability, respectively, and obtain rich and discriminative features by an adaptive fusion mechanism. Thus, the difficulty of susceptibility modeling under a small number of coseismic landslides can be reduced. As a basic module of CGBoost, the proposed Crossing graph attention network (Crossgat) could characterize the spatial heterogeneity within and among slope units to reduce the false alarm in the susceptibility results. Moreover, the rainfall dynamic factors are utilized as prediction indices to improve the susceptibility performance, and the prediction index set is established by terrain, geology, human activity, environment, meteorology, and earthquake factors. CGBoost is applied to predict landslide susceptibility in the Gorkha meizoseismal area. 3.43% of coseismic landslides are randomly selected, of which 70% are used for training, and the others for testing. In the testing set, the values of Overall Accuracy, Precision, Recall, F1-score, and Kappa coefficient of CGBoost attain 0.9800, 0.9577, 0.9999, 0.9784, and 0.9598, respectively. Validated by all the coseismic landslides, CGBoost outperforms the current major landslide susceptibility assessment methods. The suggested CGBoost can be also applied to landslide susceptibility prediction in new earthquakes in the future

Table_1_Photovoltaic panels have altered grassland plant biodiversity and soil microbial diversity.docx

IntroductionHuman concerns about fossil fuel depletion, energy security and environmental degradation have driven the rapid development of solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation. Most of the photovoltaic power generation plants are concentrated in desert, grassland and arable land, which means the change of land use type. However, there is still a gap in the research of the PV panel layout on grassland plant species diversity and ecological function.MethodsIn this study, Illumina high-throughput sequencing technology was used to investigate the effects of PV panel arrangement on grassland plant species diversity and soil microbial diversity. In view of the differences in the microclimate at different sites of the PV panels, quadrates were arranged in front edge (FE), beneath the center of each panel (BP), back edge (BE), the uncovered interspace adjacent to each panel (IS) and the undisturbed grassland around the PV panels (Control), respectively.ResultsPV panels (especially FE) significantly increased the total aboveground productivity (total AGB) and plant species diversity in grasslands. FE increased precipitation accumulation and plant species diversity directly and indirectly changed the diversity of soil bacterial and fungal communities. PV panels decreased the relative abundance of Actinobacteriota, while increased the relative abundance of Proteobacteria, Acidobacteriota, and Methylomirabilota. EC, Margalef’ s richness and total AGB were the main factors affecting the composition of bacterial communities, while alkaline hydrolysis nitrogen (AN) and available phosphorus (AP) were the main factors affecting the composition of fungal communities.DiscussionIn conclusion, the arrangement of PV panels increased the plant species diversity and soil microorganisms in grassland. This study provides important information for further understanding the impact of PV panels on grassland ecosystem function and is of great significance for maintaining grassland ecosystem function.</p

Image_3_Photovoltaic panels have altered grassland plant biodiversity and soil microbial diversity.jpg

IntroductionHuman concerns about fossil fuel depletion, energy security and environmental degradation have driven the rapid development of solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation. Most of the photovoltaic power generation plants are concentrated in desert, grassland and arable land, which means the change of land use type. However, there is still a gap in the research of the PV panel layout on grassland plant species diversity and ecological function.MethodsIn this study, Illumina high-throughput sequencing technology was used to investigate the effects of PV panel arrangement on grassland plant species diversity and soil microbial diversity. In view of the differences in the microclimate at different sites of the PV panels, quadrates were arranged in front edge (FE), beneath the center of each panel (BP), back edge (BE), the uncovered interspace adjacent to each panel (IS) and the undisturbed grassland around the PV panels (Control), respectively.ResultsPV panels (especially FE) significantly increased the total aboveground productivity (total AGB) and plant species diversity in grasslands. FE increased precipitation accumulation and plant species diversity directly and indirectly changed the diversity of soil bacterial and fungal communities. PV panels decreased the relative abundance of Actinobacteriota, while increased the relative abundance of Proteobacteria, Acidobacteriota, and Methylomirabilota. EC, Margalef’ s richness and total AGB were the main factors affecting the composition of bacterial communities, while alkaline hydrolysis nitrogen (AN) and available phosphorus (AP) were the main factors affecting the composition of fungal communities.DiscussionIn conclusion, the arrangement of PV panels increased the plant species diversity and soil microorganisms in grassland. This study provides important information for further understanding the impact of PV panels on grassland ecosystem function and is of great significance for maintaining grassland ecosystem function.</p

Image_6_Photovoltaic panels have altered grassland plant biodiversity and soil microbial diversity.jpg

IntroductionHuman concerns about fossil fuel depletion, energy security and environmental degradation have driven the rapid development of solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation. Most of the photovoltaic power generation plants are concentrated in desert, grassland and arable land, which means the change of land use type. However, there is still a gap in the research of the PV panel layout on grassland plant species diversity and ecological function.MethodsIn this study, Illumina high-throughput sequencing technology was used to investigate the effects of PV panel arrangement on grassland plant species diversity and soil microbial diversity. In view of the differences in the microclimate at different sites of the PV panels, quadrates were arranged in front edge (FE), beneath the center of each panel (BP), back edge (BE), the uncovered interspace adjacent to each panel (IS) and the undisturbed grassland around the PV panels (Control), respectively.ResultsPV panels (especially FE) significantly increased the total aboveground productivity (total AGB) and plant species diversity in grasslands. FE increased precipitation accumulation and plant species diversity directly and indirectly changed the diversity of soil bacterial and fungal communities. PV panels decreased the relative abundance of Actinobacteriota, while increased the relative abundance of Proteobacteria, Acidobacteriota, and Methylomirabilota. EC, Margalef’ s richness and total AGB were the main factors affecting the composition of bacterial communities, while alkaline hydrolysis nitrogen (AN) and available phosphorus (AP) were the main factors affecting the composition of fungal communities.DiscussionIn conclusion, the arrangement of PV panels increased the plant species diversity and soil microorganisms in grassland. This study provides important information for further understanding the impact of PV panels on grassland ecosystem function and is of great significance for maintaining grassland ecosystem function.</p

Image_1_Photovoltaic panels have altered grassland plant biodiversity and soil microbial diversity.jpg

IntroductionHuman concerns about fossil fuel depletion, energy security and environmental degradation have driven the rapid development of solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation. Most of the photovoltaic power generation plants are concentrated in desert, grassland and arable land, which means the change of land use type. However, there is still a gap in the research of the PV panel layout on grassland plant species diversity and ecological function.MethodsIn this study, Illumina high-throughput sequencing technology was used to investigate the effects of PV panel arrangement on grassland plant species diversity and soil microbial diversity. In view of the differences in the microclimate at different sites of the PV panels, quadrates were arranged in front edge (FE), beneath the center of each panel (BP), back edge (BE), the uncovered interspace adjacent to each panel (IS) and the undisturbed grassland around the PV panels (Control), respectively.ResultsPV panels (especially FE) significantly increased the total aboveground productivity (total AGB) and plant species diversity in grasslands. FE increased precipitation accumulation and plant species diversity directly and indirectly changed the diversity of soil bacterial and fungal communities. PV panels decreased the relative abundance of Actinobacteriota, while increased the relative abundance of Proteobacteria, Acidobacteriota, and Methylomirabilota. EC, Margalef’ s richness and total AGB were the main factors affecting the composition of bacterial communities, while alkaline hydrolysis nitrogen (AN) and available phosphorus (AP) were the main factors affecting the composition of fungal communities.DiscussionIn conclusion, the arrangement of PV panels increased the plant species diversity and soil microorganisms in grassland. This study provides important information for further understanding the impact of PV panels on grassland ecosystem function and is of great significance for maintaining grassland ecosystem function.</p