Evaluation of Ecological Supply-demand Synergy of Park Green Space in the Main Urban Region of Zhengzhou City

As important types of green spaces in the urban green space system, park green spaces are closely related to the urban residents. Research on park green spaces mainly focuses on the functions and the accessibility, and the synergy between supply and demand of park green spaces remains to be studied. This paper aims to promote the synergistic development between park green spaces and residents, and provide a scientific basis for the construction of an efficient park green space system and sustainable urban development. Based on the perspective of the supply-demand synergy of the ecological function of park green spaces, this paper took the main urban region of Zhengzhou City as the study area. An evaluation system of synergy degree of supply and demand was constructed using network analysis method, quantitative model of supply-demand synergy and analytic hierarchy process to study the characteristics of synergistic evolution between park green spaces and residents in the space-time dimension. The results show that the overall synergy degree of the study area increased from 0.1522 to 0.4256 from 2000 to 2020, and the overall supply index was always lower than the overall demand index. According to the results above, the authors proposed the optimizing strategies of increasing the number and green area of parks and improving connectivity between parks. Based on the top-down planning system, this study suggests bottom-up supply and demand evaluation and synergistic optimization, which can promote the efficiency of the ecological function of park green spaces, and solve the mismatch of supply and demand resources between the old and new urban areas

Study On Land Use Aggregation Pattern Of Luohe City Based On Spatial Heterogeneity

The spatial layout of land use can reflect the health of urban development and inform the construction of green infrastructure. Many layout measurements have been proposed for lands in homogeneous spaces. Researchers and planners have used them to describe the urban structure and identify current problems in pursuit of problem-oriented optimizations. Now, with the urban expansion and accessibility development, the urban space has gradually changed from homogeneous to heterogeneous. However, the study of land use layout based on heterogeneous space is insufficient. Different land use types are expected to be allocated more scientifically, so providing more objective evidence on the urban land layout is necessary. Among them, the Aggregation-Diffusion status of each type of land is the most basic and vital information. In this paper, the spectral, index, and inversion data of Landsat 8 and Sentinel2 were collected, combined with NPP/VIIRS, and the Weka-EM clustering method was used to determine the boundary of build-up area in Luohe City (China) to obtain our study area. Then, we improve the traditional RAD by measuring roads \u27Efficiency value\u27 using Space Syntax: the homogeneous space is weighted to describe the effect of spatial heterogeneity for each land type. Therefore, by comparing the differences in the aggregation-diffusion land layout of these two spaces, the results are as follows: first of all, RAD shows that there is a dense core in Luohe City, in which priority development of ecological land can achieve a multiplier effect with half the effort. Secondly, in AAD, the basic unit based on efficiency value shows apparent spatial heterogeneity in Luohe urban space, represented by the contour line. The benefits of the greenway will be more fully realized where the contours are dense. Thirdly, comparing the description of the Aggregation-Diffusion situation of each land type by RAD and AAD, it can be found that: each land type has a different sensitivity to spatial heterogeneity, and AAD is a more accurate way of spatial description; Both AAD and RAD indicate a significant radial differentiation of land use in Luohe, which means that the significance of greenway construction in this religion is further enhanced. In addition to the greenway’s fundamental ecological implications, it also plays a vital role in facilitating the material-energy flow as well as promoting integration and equitable urban development

Comprehensive identification of ecologically important areas in Zhengzhou, China

Ecosystem services include the direct and indirect contributions of ecosystems to human well-being and survival, which are important factors that maintain and influence the ecological environment of humans, animals, and plants. Identification of ecological source areas is the first step for mapping high-quality ecological networks, ensuring urban ecological security, and improving the ecosystem service functions. Zhengzhou City is located in the central region of China, and is the core transportation hub of the country. In recent decades, Zhengzhou has accumulated a series of ecological problems in the dramatic urbanization development, such as the destruction of natural resources, environmental pollution, and biological species reduction. Ecological conservation is an urgent need for Zhengzhou. Based on the ecosystem services theory, we selected biodiversity maintenance function, habitat quality, water conservation, and soil conservation as key ecological impact factors to comprehensively evaluate the ecosystem service functions of the study area. By using GIS spatial analysis tool, the InVEST habitat quality model, and spatial connectivity analysis, we can implement the integrated identification of ecological source areas on a large scale. After superimposing the evaluation of ecological factors, the results show that the most important source areas are primarily distributed in the southwest of Zhengzhou. The proportion of ecological sources in Zhengzhou is relatively small, with an area of about 711.16km2, accounting for only 9.3% of Zhengzhou. Most of them have already been protected as forest parks or nature reserve by the government, while some sources like sections of Yellow River which are close to main urban area are facing development pressure. The ecological corridors in the urban area mostly are based on water system like Jinshui river, Xiliu Lake, and Longzi Lake that can connect green open space in the main urban area and natural green space outside

Immunoglobulin G N-glycan, inflammation and type 2 diabetes in East Asian and European populations: A Mendelian randomization study

Background: Immunoglobulin G (IgG) N-glycans have been shown to be associated with the risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and its risk factors. However, whether these associations reflect causal effects remain unclear. Furthermore, the associations of IgG N-glycans and inflammation are not fully understood. Methods: We examined the causal associations of IgG N-glycans with inflammation (C-reactive protein (CRP) and fibrinogen) and T2D using two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis in East Asian and European populations. Genetic variants from IgG N-glycan quantitative trait loci (QTL) data were used as instrumental variables. Two-sample MR was conducted for IgG N-glycans with inflammation (75,391 and 18,348 participants of CRP and fibrinogen in the East Asian population, 204,402 participants of CRP in the European population) and T2D risk (77,418 cases and 356,122 controls of East Asian ancestry, 81,412 cases and 370,832 controls of European ancestry). Results: After correcting for multiple testing, in the East Asian population, genetically determined IgG N-glycans were associated with a higher risk of T2D, the odds ratios (ORs) were 1.009 for T2D per 1- standard deviation (SD) higher GP5, 95 % CI = 1.003–1.015; P = 0.0019; and 1.013 for T2D per 1-SD higher GP13, 95 % CI = 1.006–1.021; P = 0.0005. In the European population, genetically determined decreased GP9 was associated with T2D (OR = 0.899 per 1-SD lower GP9, 95 % CI: 0.845 – 0.957). In addition, there was suggestive evidence that genetically determined IgG N-glycans were associated with CRP in both East Asian and European populations after correcting for multiple testing, but no associations were found between IgG N-glycans and fibrinogen. There was limited evidence of heterogeneity and pleiotropy bias. Conclusions: Our results provided novel genetic evidence that IgG N-glycans are causally associated with T2D

Bidirectional causality between immunoglobulin G N-glycosylation and metabolic traits: A mendelian randomization study

Although the association between immunoglobulin G (IgG) N-glycosylation and metabolic traits has been previously identified, the causal association between them remains unclear. In this work, we used Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to integrate genome-wide association studies (GWASs) and quantitative trait loci (QTLs) data in order to investigate the bidirectional causal association of IgG N-glycosylation with metabolic traits. In the forward MR analysis, 59 (including nine putatively causal glycan peaks (GPs) for body mass index (BMI) (GP1, GP6, etc.) and seven for fasting plasma glucose (FPG) (GP1, GP5, etc.)) and 15 (including five putatively causal GPs for BMI (GP2, GP11, etc.) and four for FPG (GP1, GP10, etc.)) genetically determined IgG N-glycans were identified as being associated with metabolic traits in one- and two-sample MR studies, respectively, by integrating IgG N-glycan-QTL variants with GWAS results for metabolic traits (all P \u3c 0.05). Accordingly, in the reverse MR analysis of the integrated metabolic-QTL variants with the GWAS results for IgG N-glycosylation traits, 72 (including one putatively causal metabolic trait for GP1 (high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C)) and five for GP2 (FPG, systolic blood pressure (SBP), etc.)) and four (including one putatively causal metabolic trait for GP3 (HDL-C) and one for GP9 (HDL-C)) genetically determined metabolic traits were found to be related to the risk of IgG N-glycosylation in one- and two-sample MR studies, respectively (all P \u3c 0.05). Notably, genetically determined associations of GP11 BMI (fixed-effects model-Beta with standard error (SE): 0.106 (0.034) and 0.010 (0.005)) and HDL-C GP9 (fixed-effects model-Beta with SE: –0.071 (0.022) and –0.306 (0.151)) were identified in both the one- and two-sample MR settings, which were further confirmed by a meta-analysis combining the one- and two-sample MR results (fixed-effects model-Beta with 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 0.0109 (0.0012, 0.0207) and –0.0759 (–0.1186, –0.0332), respectively). In conclusion, the comprehensively bidirectional MR analyses provide suggestive evidence of bidirectional causality between IgG N-glycosylation and metabolic traits, possibly revealing a new richness in the biological mechanism between IgG N-glycosylation and metabolic traits. © 2022 THE AUTHOR

Association between ideal cardiovascular health metrics and suboptimal health status in Chinese population

Suboptimal health status (SHS) is a physical state between health and illness, and previous studies suggested that SHS is associated with majority components of cardiovascular health metrics defined by American Heart Association (AHA). We investigated the association between SHS and cardiovascular health metrics in a cross-sectional analysis of China suboptimal health cohort study (COACS) consisting of 4313 participants (60.30% women) aged from 18 to 65 years old. The respective prevalence of SHS is 7.10%, 9.18%, 10.04% and 10.62% in the first, second, third and fourth quartiles of ideal cardiovascular health (CVH) metrics (P for trend = 0.012). Participants in the largest quartile of ideal CVH metrics show a lower likelihood of having optimal SHS score compared to those in the smallest quartile (odds ratio (OR), 0.43; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.32–0.59), after adjusting for age, gender, marital status, alcohol consumption, income level and education. Four metrics (smoking, physical inactivity, poor dietary intake and ideal control of blood pressure are significantly correlated with the risk of SHS. The present study suggests that ideal CVH metrics are associated with a lower prevalence of SHS, and the combined evaluation of SHS and CVH metrics allows the risk classification of cardiovascular disease, and thus consequently contributes to the prevention of cardiovascular diseases

Association between ideal cardiovascular health metrics and suboptimal health status in Chinese population

Suboptimal health status (SHS) is a physical state between health and illness, and previous studies suggested that SHS is associated with majority components of cardiovascular health metrics defined by American Heart Association (AHA). We investigated the association between SHS and cardiovascular health metrics in a cross-sectional analysis of China suboptimal health cohort study (COACS) consisting of 4313 participants (60.30 % women) aged from 18 to 65 years old. The respective prevalence of SHS is 7.10 %, 9.18 %, 10.04 % and 10.62 % in the first, second, third and fourth quartiles of ideal cardiovascular health (CVH) metrics (P for trend = 0.012). Participants in the largest quartile of ideal CVH metrics show a lower likelihood of having optimal SHS score compared to those in the smallest quartile (odds ratio (OR), 0.43; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.32 – 0.59), after adjusting for age, gender, marital status, alcohol consumption, income level and education. Four metrics (smoking, physical inactivity, poor dietary intake and ideal control of blood pressure are significantly correlated with the risk of SHS. The present study suggests that ideal CVH metrics are associated with a lower prevalence of SHS, and the combined evaluation of SHS and CVH metrics allows the risk classification of cardiovascular disease, and thus consequently contributes to the prevention of cardiovascular diseases

The indirect efficacy comparison of DNA methylation in sputum for early screening and auxiliary detection of lung cancer: A meta-analysis

Background: DNA methylation in sputum has been an attractive candidate biomarker for the non-invasive screening and detection of lung cancer. Materials and Methods: Databases including PubMed, Ovid, Cochrane library, Web of Science databases, Chinese Biological Medicine (CBM), Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang, Vip Databases and Google Scholar were searched to collect the diagnostic trials on aberrant DNA methylation in the screening and detection of lung cancer published until 1 December 2016. Indirect comparison meta-analysis was used to evaluate the diagnostic value of the included candidate genes. Results: The systematic literature search yielded a total of 33 studies including a total of 4801 subjects (2238 patients with lung cancer and 2563 controls) and covering 32 genes. We identified that methylated genes in sputum samples for the early screening and auxiliary detection of lung cancer yielded an overall sensitivity of 0.46 (0.41–0.50) and specificity of 0.83 (0.80–0.86). Combined indirect comparisons identified the superior gene of SOX17 (sensitivity: 0.84, specificity: 0.88), CDO1 (sensitivity: 0.78, specificity: 0.67), ZFP42 (sensitivity: 0.87, specificity: 0.63) and TAC1 (sensitivity: 0.86, specificity: 0.75). Conclusions: The present meta-analysis demonstrates that methylated SOX17, CDO1, ZFP42, TAC1, FAM19A4, FHIT, MGMT, p16, and RASSF1A are potential superior biomarkers for the screening and auxiliary detection of lung cancer

Causal association of circulating cholesterol levels with dementia: a mendelian randomization meta-analysis

Prospective studies have shown that abnormally circulating cholesterol is associated with the risk of dementia. However, whether the association is causal or not remains unclear. We attempt to infer the causal association in a MR meta-analysis by using ApoE gene polymorphisms as instrument variables. Studies with dementia risk (27 studies) or circulating lipid levels (7 studies) were included, with totally 3136 dementia patients and 3103 healthy controls. The analyses showed that carriers of ε2 allele significantly were of decreased risk of AD (OR = 0.70; 95% CI: 0.58–0.84; P \u3c 0.01), whereas carriers of ε4 allele were of increased risk of AD (OR = 3.62; 95% CI: 3.03–4.32; P \u3c 0.05), compared to these of ε3 allele. Circulating TC was significantly reduced in carriers of ε2 allele (WMD = − 0.29 mmol/L; 95% CI: −0.54 to −0.03; P \u3c 0.05) and increased in carriers of ε4 allele (WMD = 0.42 mmol/l; 95% CI: 0.001–0.84; P \u3c 0.05). In addition, carriers of ε4 allele had reduction in circulating HDL-C (WMD = − 0.04 mmol/L; 95% CI: − 0.07 to −0.001; P \u3c 0.05). In comparing allele ε2 with ε3, the predicted OR of having AD for 1 mg/dL increment in circulating TC was 0.97 (95% CI: 0.86–0.98; P \u3c 0.05). Comparing allele ε4 with ε3, the predicted OR for a 1 mg/dL increment in TC was 1.08 (95% CI: 1.05–17.58; P \u3c 0.05), and reduction in HDL-C was 2.30 (95% CI: 1.51–43.99; P \u3c 0.05). Our findings demonstrate that high circulating TC and reduced HDL-C levels might be potential risk factors of the development of AD

Astragalus Inhibits Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition of Peritoneal Mesothelial Cells by Down-Regulating β-Catenin

Background/Aims: The epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of peritoneal mesothelial cells (PMCs) is a crucial event in the induction of peritoneal fibrosis (PF), in which canonical Wnt/β-catenin signaling participates. Smads signaling is reported to interact with β-catenin and synergistically regulates EMT. This study was aimed to reveal the effect of Astragalus on β-catenin in EMT of PMCs. Methods: To obtain the role of β-catenin in EMT, gene transfer into HMrSV5 cell line and rats has been achieved. After Astragalus treatment, EMT markers and signaling pathway-related indicators were detected by western blotting, immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry, immunoprecipitation and real time-PCR. Results: β-catenin knockdown suppressed EMT of HMrSV5 cells. Astragalus alleviated EMT of PMCs characterized by increased E-cadherin and decreased α-SMA and Vimentin. In rat model of peritoneal dialysis (PD), Astragalus attenuated peritoneal thickening and fibrosis. Astragalus down-regulated β-catenin by stabilizing the Glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β)/β-catenin complex and further inhibited the nuclear translocation of β-catenin. Meanwhile, Astragalus down-regulated β-catenin by enhancing Smad7 expression. Silencing Smad7 antagonized the EMT-inhibitory effect of Astragalus. Conclusion: Astragalus inhibits EMT of PMCs by down-regulating β-catenin. The modulation of β-catenin in peritoneum can be a novel tool to prevent PF