Local Climate Zone in Xi’an City: A Novel Classification Approach Employing Spatial Indicators and Supervised Classification

The Local Climate Zone (LCZ), as a foundational element of urban climate zone classification proposed by Oke and Stewart, categorizes urban surface types based on 10 influential parameters affecting the urban heat island effect, such as building density, surface reflectivity, sky view factor, and surface roughness length. This method divides cities into 17 different Local Climate Zones (LCZs) to standardize climate observations and promote global climate research exchange, offering valuable insights for heat island studies. In this study, we enhance the existing local climate zones spatial classification approach by focusing on Xi’an city’s urban layout and architectural features. By using urban spatial indicators and employing a supervised classification approach and a spatial clustering method with land parcels as statistical units, we investigate typical urban areas and classify Xi’an’s land parcels into 17 or 15 distinct local climate zones. Subsequently, through the evaluation of two distinct classification methods, the most suitable urban microclimate zoning method for Xi’an city was selected. This optimization of the local climate zoning representation introduces a spatial classification method tailored to urban climate planning and control, utilizing urban spatial indicators and remote sensing data. The resulting urban climate zoning map not only supports sample selection for urban heat environment parameter observation but also aids urban planners in identifying spatial distribution patterns for climate zoning

1-(2-Methoxy­ethoxy)-4-nitro­benzene

The title compound, C9H11NO4, is an inter­mediate for dyes and drugs. The O—C—C—O chain adopts a synclinal conformation. The crystal structure is stabilized by C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds

5,11,17,23-Tetra­bromo-25,26,27,28-tetra­kis(4-tolyl­sulfon­yloxy)-2,8,14,20-tetra­thia­calix[4]arene dichloro­methane solvate

In the crystal structure of the title compound, C52H36Br4O12S8·CH2Cl2, the thia­calix[4]arene unit adopts a 1,3-alternate conformation with an intra­molecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bond and four C—H⋯π inter­actions, with the four 4-MeC6H4SO3 groups located alternately above and below the virtual plane (R) defined by the four bridging S atoms. The benzene ring of each 4-MeC6H4SO3 unit is nearly perpendicular to one of the two neighboring phenol rings with inter­planar angles varying from 72.97 (13) to 78.70 (13)°, while the dihedral angles between the plane (R) and the phenol rings range from 83.04 (7) to 84.30 (9)°. In the supra­molecular structure, a solvent-bridged dimer composed of two main mol­ecules is formed by four inter­molecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds and locally creates an R 4 4(26) motif. Such dimers associate further into chains by inter­dimer C—Cl⋯O short contacts [Cl⋯O 3.182 (5) Å]. Finally, these chains are linked into a two-dimensional network by a combination of inter­chain C—Br⋯O inter­actions [Br⋯O = 3.183 (3) and 2.966 (4) Å] as well as C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds

5,11,17,23-Tetra-tert-butyl-25,26,27,28-tetra­kis[2-(2-chloro­ethoxy)eth­oxy]-2,8,14,20-tetra­sulfonyl­calix[4]arene

Mol­ecules of the title compound, C56H76Cl4O16S4, have crystallographic C 2 symmetry and adopt a 1,3-alternate conformation where the four –OCH2CH2OCH2CH2Cl groups are located alternately above and below the virtual plane (R) defined by the four bridging S atoms. The dihedral angles between the plane (R) and the phenolic rings are 72.85 (7) and 74.57 (7)°. An unusual 24-membered macrocyclic ring is formed in the crystal structure with an array of eight intra­molecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds between the ether arm H atoms and the sulfonyl O atoms. In the supra­molecular structure, the mol­ecular components are linked into infinite zigzag one-dimensional chains by a combination of four inter­molecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming R 2 2(13), R 2 2(16), R 2 2(21) and R 2 2(26) ring motifs. These chains are augmented into a wave-like two-dimensional network by weak C⋯O inter­actions. One tert-butyl group shows rotational disorder, and one CH2CH2Cl group is disordered over two orientations; the site-occupation factors are 0.756 (6) and 0.244 (6) for the two tert-butyl groups, and 0.808 (3) and 0.192 (3) for the two CH2CH2Cl units

TECHNICAL NOTE - Isolation of simple sequence repeats from groundnut

SSRs have proved to be the most powerful tool for variety identification in groundnut of similar origin, and have much potential in genetic and breeding studies. To facilitate SSR discovery in groundnut, we proposed a highly simplified SSR isolation protocol based on multiple enzyme digestion/ligation, mixed biotin-labeled probes and streptavidin coated magnetic beads hybridization capture strategy. Of the 272 colonies randomly picked for sequencing, 119 were found to have unique SSR inserts

Umbilical cord blood: A promising source for allogeneic CAR-T cells

Chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy is an effective treatment for relapsed and refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia (R/R ALL). However, autologous CAR-T cells derived from patients with B-ALL often show poor amplification ability, exhaustion, and anergy. To overcome these limitations, allogeneic CAR-T cells may be used as effective substitutes; however, which source would be the best substitute is unclear. In this study, we compared the immunophenotype and antitumor efficacy of anti-CD19 CAR-T cells derived from healthy donor cord blood (CB), healthy donor peripheral blood (PB), and PB of B-ALL patients [PB (patient)] in vitro and NOD-Prkdcem26cd52Il2rgem26Cd22/Nju (NCG)-immunodeficient mice, respectively. The results revealed that CAR-T cells derived from healthy donor CB and PB showed a higher proportion of naive T cells and longer tumor suppression in tumor-bearing mice than those of PB (patient). PB (patient) CAR-T cells had a higher proportion of regulatory T cells (Treg cells) and released high levels of interluekin-10 (IL-10), which also suggest a poor prognosis. Thus, CAR-T cells derived from healthy donors have better antitumor efficacy than CAR-T cells derived from PB (patient), and CB may be a good source of allogeneic CAR-T cells

The Changing Role of Chemotherapy in Locoregionally Advanced Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma: A Updated Systemic Review and Network Meta-Analysis

Background and Objective: Both induction chemotherapy (IC) followed by concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT; IC+CCRT) and CCRT plus adjuvant chemotherapy (AC; CCRT+AC) are standard treatments for advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). However, no prospective randomized trials comparing these two approaches have been published yet. We conducted this network meta-analysis to address this clinical question.Method: We recruited randomized clinical trials involving patients with advanced NPC randomly allocated to IC+CCRT, CCRT+AC, CCRT, or radiotherapy (RT) alone. Pairwise meta-analysis was first conducted, then network meta-analysis was performed using the frequentist approach. Effect size was expressed as hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI).Results: Overall, 12 trials involving 3,248 patients were recruited for this study, with 555 receiving IC+CCRT, 840 receiving CCRT+AC, 1,039 receiving CCRT, and 814 receiving radiotherapy (RT) alone. IC+CCRT achieved significantly better overall survival ([HR], 0.69; 95% [CI], 0.51–0.92), distant metastasis-free survival (HR, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.44–0.78), and locoregional recurrence-free survival (HR, 0.67; 95% CI, 0.47–0.98) than CCRT. However, survival outcomes did not significantly differ between IC+CCRT and CCRT+AC, or between CCRT+AC and CCRT arms for all the endpoints. As expected, RT alone is the poorest treatment. In terms of P-score, IC+CCRT ranked best for overall survival (96.1%), distant metastasis-free survival (99.0%) and locoregional recurrence-free survival (87.1%).Conclusions: IC+CCRT may be a better and more promising treatment strategy for advanced NPC; however, head-to-head randomized trials comparing IC-CCRT with CCRT-AC are warranted

Phaeoisaria laianensis (Pleurotheciales, Pleurotheciaceae), a new species from freshwater habitats in China

Freshwater fungi play an indispensable role in the ecosystem and have great research value. Based on morphological and phylogenetic analyses of a concatenated dataset of ITS, LSU and SSU sequences, a new species, Phaeoisaria laianensis, was introduced as a freshwater hyphomycete from Anhui Province, China.Phaeoisaria laianensis was morphologically described as erect, rigid, dark brown to black, velvety synnemata which has macronematous, septate, branched, brown to dark brown, parallel adpressed conidiophores with polyblastic, integrated, terminal, hyaline to pale brown, smooth, denticulate, sympodial conidiogenous cells and ellipsoidal to obovoid, rounded at the apex, obtuse and tapering towards base, septate, guttulate conidia. Based on molecular and morphological characteristics, it is confirmed to be a new species. All illustrations and descriptions have been provided