County level study of the interaction effect of PM2.5 and climate sustainability on mortality in China

IntroductionPM2.5 and climate change are two major public health concerns, with majority of the research on their interaction focused on the synergistic effect, particularly for extreme events such as hot or cold temperatures. The climate sustainability index (CLS) was introduced to comprehensively explore the impact of climate change and the interactive effect on human health with air pollution.MethodsIn this study, a county-level panel data in China was collected and used. The generalized additive model (GAM) and geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) was used to explore the interactive and spatial effect on mortality between CLS and PM2.5.Results and discussionsIndividually, when CLS is higher than 150 or lower than 50, the mortality is higher. Moreover, when PM2.5 is more than 35 μg/m3, the influence on mortality is significantly increased as PM2.5 concentration rises; when PM2.5 is above 70 μg/m3, the trend is sharp. A nonlinear antagonistic effect between CLS and PM2.5 was found in this study, proving that the combined adverse health effects of climate change and air pollution, especially when CLS was lower (below 100) and PM2.5 was higher (above 35 μg/m3), the antagonistic effect was much stronger. From a spatial perspective, the impact of CLS and PM2.5 on mortality varies in different geographical regions. A negative and positive influence of CLS and PM2.5 was found in east China, especially in the northeastern and northern regions, -which were heavily polluted. This study illustrated that climate sustainability, at certain level, could mitigate the adverse health influence of air pollution, and provided a new perspective on health risk mitigation from pollution reduction and climate adaptation

High-quality de novo assembly of the Eucommia ulmoides haploid genome provides new insights into evolution and rubber biosynthesis

We report the acquisition of a high-quality haploid chromosome-scale genome assembly for the first time in a tree species, Eucommia ulmoides, which is known for its rubber biosynthesis and medicinal applications. The assembly was obtained by applying PacBio and Hi–C technologies to a haploid that we specifically generated. Compared to the initial genome release, this one has significantly improved assembly quality. The scaffold N50 (53.15 MB) increased 28-fold, and the repetitive sequence content (520 Mb) increased by 158.24 Mb, whereas the number of gaps decreased from 104,772 to 128. A total of 92.87% of the 26,001 predicted protein-coding genes identified with multiple strategies were anchored to the 17 chromosomes. A new whole-genome duplication event was superimposed on the earlier γ paleohexaploidization event, and the expansion of long terminal repeats contributed greatly to the evolution of the genome. The more primitive rubber biosynthesis of this species, as opposed to that in Hevea brasiliensis, relies on the methylerythritol-phosphate pathway rather than the mevalonate pathway to synthesize isoprenyl diphosphate, as the MEP pathway operates predominantly in trans-polyisoprene-containing leaves and central peels. Chlorogenic acid biosynthesis pathway enzymes were preferentially expressed in leaves rather than in bark. This assembly with higher sequence contiguity can foster not only studies on genome structure and evolution, gene mapping, epigenetic analysis and functional genomics but also efforts to improve E. ulmoides for industrial and medical uses through genetic engineering

Ultrasound Capsule Endoscopy With a Mechanically Scanning Micro-ultrasound:A Porcine Study

Wireless capsule endoscopy has been used for the clinical examination of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract for two decades. However, most commercially available devices only utilise optical imaging to examine the GI wall surface. Using this sensing modality, pathology within the GI wall cannot be detected. Micro-ultrasound (μUS) using high-frequency (>20 MHz) ultrasound can provide a means of transmural or cross-sectional image of the GI tract. Depth of imaging is approximately 10 mm with a resolution of between 40–120 μm that is sufficient to differentiate between subsurface histologic layers of the various regions of the GI tract. Ultrasound capsule endoscopy (USCE) uses a capsule equipped with μUS transducers that are capable of imaging below the GI wall surface, offering thereby a complementary sensing technique to optical imaging capsule endoscopy. In this work, a USCE device integrated with a ∼30 MHz ultrasonic transducer was developed to capture a full 360° image of the lumen. The performance of the device was initially evaluated using a wire phantom, indicating an axial resolution of 69.0 μm and lateral resolution of 262.5 μm. Later, in vivo imaging performance was characterised in the oesophagus and small intestine of anaesthetized pigs. The reconstructed images demonstrate clear layer differentiation of the lumen wall. The tissue thicknesses measured from the B-scan images show good agreement with ex vivo images from the literature. The high-resolution ultrasound images in the in vivo porcine model achieved with this device is an encouraging preliminary step in the translation of these devices toward future clinical use

Retina stimulation with low-frequency ultrasound in vivo

PURPOSE: More and more researches are exploring the neuromodulation effect of ultrasound (US) on the central nervous system (e.g. brain and retina) and the peripheral nervous system (such as skin). US stimulation has been regarded as a new noninvasive neurostimulation approach by many researchers. Our previous studies had shown that the temporal response patterns of RGCs could be modulated by US in vitro. In this article, we studied US stimulation to the retina in vivo. This study attempted to use low-frequency (2.25 MHz) focused US to stimulate the rat eyes and investigate the effect on the primary visual cortex. METHODS: Experiments were conducted on adult male and female Sprague Dawley rats (250&ndash;300 g). A 2.25 MHz focused US transducer (D = 0.75 in., SF = 2.0 in., Olympus, Waltham, MA, USA) was used to stimulate the rat eyes in vivo. Rats were anaesthetized with urethane (5 ml/kg, 20% aqueous solution, intraperitoneally; Sigma-Aldrich, Munich, Germany). Next, the rat was laid prone on an automatic heating pad (69002, RWD Life Science Co.) at 37℃ and with its head gently immobilized using a stereotaxic frame (68028, RWD Life Science Co.). The skin on the head was swabbed with iodine and then a local anesthetic (lidocaine hydrochloride, Lidocaine 0.5%, 1mL) was injected subcutaneously along the incision line. The skull was exposed and trephined in an area (4x4 mm2) overlaying the monocular visual cortex: 6.0 mm posterior to bregma, and 3.0 mm lateral from the midline, the depth of multi-electrode arrays implantation were 300-500&micro;m below the pia surface. US stimulation was modulated in the pulsed mode, which parameters included: pulse repetition frequency (PRF) = 1 kHz, tone burst duration (TBD) = 0.5 ms, sonication duration (SD) = 300 ms, and inter-stimulus interval (ISI) = 3 s. In each experiment, 40 trials (stimulus trains) were delivered, and there were 2-min intervals between each experiment. The neural activities from the primary visual cortex was amplified, filtered and digitized by Cerebus 64-Channel system (Animal Use). RESULTS: As shown in Fig. 1a, the low-frequency focused US (2.25 MHz) transducer was used to stimulate the rat left eye and a 4x4 multi-electrode array was used to record neural activities from the right primary visual cortex. Some preliminary experimental results showed that the local field potentials and the single neuron spikes recorded from the primary visual cortex were both changed by US stimulation. Fig. 1b showed the responses of local field potentials that were recorded by 13 electrodes to US stimulation. The average latency of these responses was about 250 ms, which was consistent with the previous study. The peri-stimulus time histogram (PSTH) of a single spiking unit that was sorted by Offline Sorter showed that the neuron responded to US stimulation at the offset Fig. 1c. CONCLUSIONS: Such influence on the neural activities in brain demonstrated that the low-frequency focused US was capable of stimulating retinas in vivo, which might become a novel therapy tool for ophthalmic diseases. Figure 1. US influenced on the neural activities of visual cortex. (a) The experimental paradigm. US stimulation to the rat left eye and multi-electrode arrays recording from the right primary visual cortex. (b) The local field potentials responded to US stimulation. X-axis is time (ms) and Y-axis is recording channels. (c) The PSTH of a single spiking unit that was sorted by Offline Sorter. X-axis is time (ms) and Y-axis is firing rate (Hz) .</p

Study on the impact of vegetation change on ecosystem services in the Loess Plateau, China

Vegetation change has a non-negligible role in the impact of ecosystem services (ESs). Quantitative assessment of vegetation ecosystem services is the basis for sustainable regional development. Using the Chinese Loess Plateau (LP) as the study area, this study firstly analysed the spatial and temporal characteristics of vegetation change and used a Geodetector model to reveal the driving mechanism. Next, this study applied the InVEST model to quantitatively assess the four services of carbon storage, habitat quality, soil conservation and water yield, and explored the vegetation ecosystem service balance through vegetation type transfer. The results showed that (1) there was a trend towards an increase in the area of all vegetation types, with sparse vegetation being the most pronounced. Areas of damaged vegetation were concentrated in urban and peripheral areas, as well as wasteland and bare ground. (2) Annual precipitation, soil types and cumulative afforestation area ratio were the main drivers of vegetation change on the LP. (3) Restoration of woodland enhanced carbon storage, habitat quality and soil retention services for vegetation on the LP, while water yield decreased by 31.66%. The restoration of vegetation area did not enhance all ecosystem services. This study may provide a reference and basis for the sustainable management of regional ecosystems

Effects of Non-Elevation-Focalized Linear Array Transducer on Ultrasound Plane-Wave Imaging

Plane-wave ultrasound imaging (PWUS) has become an important method of ultrasound imaging in recent years as its frame rate has exceeded 10,000 frames per second, allowing ultrasound to be used for two-dimensional shear wave detection and functional brain imaging. However, compared to the traditional focusing and scanning method, PWUS images always suffer from a degradation of lateral resolution and contrast. To improve the image quality of PWUS, many different beamforming algorithms have been proposed and verified. Yet the influence of transducer structure is rarely studied. For this paper, the influence of using an acoustic lens for PWUS was evaluated. Two linear array transducers were fabricated. One was not self-focalized in the elevation direction (non-elevation-focalized transducer, NEFT); the other one was a traditional elevation-focalized transducer (EFT). An initial simulation was conducted to show the influence of elevation focusing. Then the images obtained with NEFT on a standard ultrasound imaging phantom were compared with those obtained with EFT. It was demonstrated that, in a relatively deep region, the contrast of an NEFT image is better than that of an EFT image. These results indicate that a more sophisticated design of ultrasound transducer would further improve the image quality of PWUS

Piezoelectric single crystal ultrasonic transducers for biomedical applications

Piezoelectric single crystals, which have excellent piezoelectric properties, have extensively been employed for various sensors and actuators applications. In this paper, the state-of-art in piezoelectric single crystals for ultrasonic transducer applications is reviewed. Firstly, the basic principles and design considerations of piezoelectric ultrasonic transducers will be addressed. Then, the popular piezoelectric single crystals used for ultrasonic transducer applications, including LiNbO3 (LN), PMN–PT and PIN–PMN–PT, will be introduced. After describing the preparation and performance of the single crystals, the recent development of both the single-element and array transducers fabricated using the single crystals will be presented. Finally, various biomedical applications including eye imaging, intravascular imaging, blood flow measurement, photoacoustic imaging and microbeam applications of the single crystal transducers will be discussed

Attribution Analysis of Runoff in the Upper Reaches of Jinsha River, China

The upper Jinsha River is an important ecological reserve and hydropower energy base in China. This paper uses relative importance analysis to analyze the causes of runoff changes from the perspectives of early runoff, rainfall, snowfall, evaporation and soil water content. The results show that the factors influencing runoff in the upper Jinsha River are complex and have significant spatial and temporal heterogeneity. From November to March, the main factor is the runoff in the preceding month, the contribution of which can be more than 85%; from April to May, the runoff is significantly affected by snow, and its contribution in May is more than 65%. The snow affecting the runoff is mainly located near Gangtuo station and Batang station, and its influence has a time lag of about one month, In June, the influence factors of the runoff are quite complicated, and the contribution of the early runoff, rainfall, snow, evaporation and soil water content is relatively close; from July to September, the runoff is mainly influenced by the rainfall above Batang station, its average contribution being more than 50% and higher than 80% in August. Runoff in July and August is mainly affected by the rainfall in the same period, and in September is mainly affected by the rainfall in the preceding month. In October, the main influence factors are runoff and rainfall of the preceding month, and their contributions are more than 70%

Extramedullary Manifestation in Multiple Myeloma Bears High Incidence of Poor Cytogenetic Aberration and Novel Agents Resistance

Extramedullary disease (EMD) in multiple myeloma (MM) patients is an uncommon event and more attention was directed toward the feature of these patients. Cytogenetic aberration is an important characteristic of MM and is associated with patients’ outcome. In this study, we aimed to compare the cytogenetic abnormality of patients with and without extramedullary manifestation, and to analyze the clinical outcomes of novel agents in EMD patients. We retrospectively investigated data from 41 MM patients. Our analyses showed del(17p13) in 31% of EMD versus 13% of medullary disease (P=0.03) and amp(1q21) in 55% versus 32% (P=0.019). No differences were shown in del(13q14) and t(4;14). 24/27 patients with EMD at diagnosis responded to the novel agents-containing regimens. However, when relapsed, 70% of patients did not benefit from the sequential use of novel agents as salvage therapy. In 14 patients who developed EMD at relapse phase, only 2 patients responded to novel agents therapy. Median overall survival of patients with extramedullary manifestations was 30 months, in comparison to 104 months for patients without EMD (P=0.002). Patients with extramedullary manifestation bore high incidence of poor cytogenetic aberration and novel agents resistance