Distribution and Determinants of Correlation between PM2.5 and O3 in China Mainland: Dynamitic simil-Hu Lines

In recent years, China has made great efforts to control air pollution. During the governance process, it is found that fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and ozone (O3) change in the same trend among some areas and the opposite in others, which brings some difficulties to take measures in a planned way. Therefore, this study adopted multi-year and large-scale air quality data to explore the distribution of correlation between PM2.5 and O3, and proposed a concept called dynamic similar hu lines to replace the single fixed division in the previous research. Furthermore, this study discussed the causes of distribution patterns quantitatively with geographical detector and random forest. The causes included natural factors and anthropogenic factors. And these factors could be divided into three parts according to the characteristics of spatial distribution: broadly changing with longitude, changing with latitude, and having local characteristics. Overall, regions with relatively more densely population, higher GDP, lower altitude, higher humidity, higher atmospheric pressure, higher surface temperature, less sunshine hours and more accumulated precipitation often corresponds to positive correlation coefficient between PM2.5 and O3, no matter in which season. The parts with opposite conditions that mentioned above are essentially negative correlation coefficient. And what's more, humidity, global surface temperature, air temperature and accumulated precipitation are four decisive factors to form the distribution of correlation between PM2.5 and O3. In general, collaborative governance of atmospheric pollutants should consider particular time and space background and also be based on the local actual socio-economic situations, geography and geomorphology, climate and meteorology and other comprehensive factors.Comment: Our research group have decided to withdraw this preprin

Maternal and fetal/neonatal outcomes of pregnancies complicated by pulmonary hypertension: a retrospective study of 154 patients

Objectives: To determine the main clinical and demographic outcomes related to Pulmonary Hypertension (PH) and adverse obstetric and fetal/neonatal outcomes. Methods: This study retrospectively analyzed the medical record data of 154 patients with PH who were admitted to the Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University between January 2011 and December 2020. Results: According to the severity of elevated Pulmonary Artery Systolic Pressure (PASP), 82 women (53.2%) were included in the mild PH group, 34 (22.1%) were included in the moderate PH group, and 38 (24.7%) were included in the severe PH group. There were significant differences in the incidence of heart failure, premature delivery, Very-Low-Birth-Weight (VLBW) infants, and Small-for-Gestational-Age (SGA) infants among the three PH groups (p < 0.05). Five (3.2%) women died within 7-days after delivery, 7 (4.5%) fetuses died in utero, and 3 (1.9%) neonates died. The authors found that PASP was an independent risk factor for maternal mortality. After adjustment for age, gestational weeks, systolic blood pressure, Body Mass Index (BMI), mode of delivery, and anesthesia, the risk of maternal mortality in the severe PH group was 20.21 times higher than that in the mild-moderate PH group (OR = 21.21 [95% CI 1.7∼264.17]), p < 0.05. All 131 (85.1%) patients were followed up for 12 months postpartum. Conclusions: The authors found that the risk of maternal mortality in the severe PH group was significantly higher than that in the mild-moderate group, highlighting the importance of pulmonary artery pressure screening before pregnancy, early advice on contraception, and multidisciplinary care

A bibliometrics analysis and visualization of autism spectrum disorder

BackgroundThe prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) increased rapidly in the last 20 years. Although related research has developed rapidly, little is known about its etiology, diagnostic marker, or drug treatment, which forces researchers to review and summarize its development process and look for the future development direction.MethodsWe used bibliometrics to analyze papers of ASD in the Web of Science from 1998 to 2021, to draw the network of authors, institutions, countries, and keywords in the ASD field, and visualize the results.ResultsA total of 40,597 papers were included with a continually increasing trend. It turns out that the research on ASD is mainly concentrated in universities. The United States has the largest number of ASD studies, followed by England and Canada. The quality of papers related to ASD is generally high, which shows that ASD research has become a hot spot of scientific research. The keywords of ASD etiology and diagnostic markers can be classified into at least 7 aspects. The detection of keywords shows that ASD research is mostly based on its subtypes, takes children as the study population, focuses on neurodevelopmental imaging or genetics, and pays attention to individual differences. And ASD research has changed greatly under the impact of Corona Virus Disease 2019 in the past 2 years.ConclusionWe consider the future development direction should be based on the improvement of case identification, accurate clinical phenotype, large-scale cohort study, the discovery of ASD etiology and diagnostic markers, drug randomized controlled trials, and telehealth

A critical role of AREG for bleomycin-induced skin fibrosis

We report our discovery of an important player in the development of skin fibrosis, a hallmark of scleroderma. Scleroderma is a fibrotic disease, affecting 70,000 to 150,000 Americans. Fibrosis is a pathological wound healing process that produces an excessive extracellular matrix to interfere with normal organ function. Fibrosis contributes to nearly half of human mortality. Scleroderma has heterogeneous phenotypes, unpredictable outcomes, no validated biomarkers, and no effective treatment. Thus, strategies to slow down scleroderma progression represent an urgent medical need. While a pathological wound healing process like fibrosis leaves scars and weakens organ function, oral mucosa wound healing is a scarless process. After re-analyses of gene expression datasets from oral mucosa wound healing and skin fibrosis, we discovered that several pathways constitutively activated in skin fibrosis are transiently induced during oral mucosa wound healing process, particularly the amphiregulin (Areg) gene. Areg expression is upregulated ~ 10 folds 24hrs after oral mucosa wound but reduced to the basal level 3 days later. During bleomycin-induced skin fibrosis, a commonly used mouse model for skin fibrosis, Areg is up-regulated throughout the fibrogenesis and is associated with elevated cell proliferation in the dermis. To demonstrate the role of Areg for skin fibrosis, we used mice with Areg knockout, and found that Areg deficiency essentially prevents bleomycin-induced skin fibrosis. We further determined that bleomycin-induced cell proliferation in the dermis was not observed in the Areg null mice. Furthermore, we found that inhibiting MEK, a downstream signaling effector of Areg, by selumetinib also effectively blocked bleomycin-based skin fibrosis model. Based on these results, we concluded that the Areg-EGFR-MEK signaling axis is critical for skin fibrosis development. Blocking this signaling axis may be effective in treating scleroderma

Perceptions of the benefits of the basic medical insurance system among the insured: a mixed methods research of a northern city in China

BackgroundThe perceptions of the benefits of the basic medical insurance system among the insured not only reflect the system's performance but also the public's basic medical insurance policy literacy, valuable information for countries that have entered the stage of deepening reform. This study aims to examine the factors that affect the perceptions of the benefits of the basic medical insurance system in China, diagnose the key problems, and propose corresponding measures for improvement.MethodsA mixed method design was used. Data for the quantitative study were obtained from a cross-sectional questionnaire survey (n = 1,045) of residents of Harbin who had enrolled for basic medical insurance system. A quota sampling method was further adopted. A multivariate logistic regression model was then employed to identify the factors influencing the perceptions of the benefits of the basic medical insurance system, followed by semi-structured interviews with 30 conveniently selected key informants. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyze the interview data.ResultsApproximately 44% of insured persons reported low perceptions of benefits. The logistic regression model showed that low perceptions of the benefits of the basic medical insurance system was positively correlated with the experience of daily drug purchases (OR = 1.967), perceptions of recognition with basic medical insurance system (OR = 1.948), perceptions of the financial burden of participation costs (OR = 1.887), perceptions of the convenience of using basic medical insurance for medical treatment (OR = 1.770), perceptions of the financial burden of daily drug purchases costs (OR = 1.721), perceptions of the financial burden of hospitalization costs (OR = 1.570), and type of basic medical insurance system (OR = 1.456). The results of the qualitative analysis showed that the key problem areas of perceptions of the benefits of the basic medical insurance system were: (I) system design of basic medical insurance; (II) intuitive cognition of the insured; (III) rational cognition of the insured; and (IV) the system environment.ConclusionsImproving the perceptions of the benefits of the basic medical insurance system of the insured requires joint efforts in improving system design and implementation, exploring effective publicity methods of basic medical insurance system information, supporting public policy literacy, and promoting the health system environment

Early Low-Titer Neutralizing Antibodies Impede HIV-1 Replication and Select for Virus Escape

Single genome sequencing of early HIV-1 genomes provides a sensitive, dynamic assessment of virus evolution and insight into the earliest anti-viral immune responses in vivo. By using this approach, together with deep sequencing, site-directed mutagenesis, antibody adsorptions and virus-entry assays, we found evidence in three subjects of neutralizing antibody (Nab) responses as early as 2 weeks post-seroconversion, with Nab titers as low as 1∶20 to 1∶50 (IC50) selecting for virus escape. In each of the subjects, Nabs targeted different regions of the HIV-1 envelope (Env) in a strain-specific, conformationally sensitive manner. In subject CH40, virus escape was first mediated by mutations in the V1 region of the Env, followed by V3. HIV-1 specific monoclonal antibodies from this subject mapped to an immunodominant region at the base of V3 and exhibited neutralizing patterns indistinguishable from polyclonal antibody responses, indicating V1–V3 interactions within the Env trimer. In subject CH77, escape mutations mapped to the V2 region of Env, several of which selected for alterations of glycosylation. And in subject CH58, escape mutations mapped to the Env outer domain. In all three subjects, initial Nab recognition was followed by sequential rounds of virus escape and Nab elicitation, with Nab escape variants exhibiting variable costs to replication fitness. Although delayed in comparison with autologous CD8 T-cell responses, our findings show that Nabs appear earlier in HIV-1 infection than previously recognized, target diverse sites on HIV-1 Env, and impede virus replication at surprisingly low titers. The unexpected in vivo sensitivity of early transmitted/founder virus to Nabs raises the possibility that similarly low concentrations of vaccine-induced Nabs could impair virus acquisition in natural HIV-1 transmission, where the risk of infection is low and the number of viruses responsible for transmission and productive clinical infection is typically one

Recurrent Signature Patterns in HIV-1 B Clade Envelope Glycoproteins Associated with either Early or Chronic Infections

Here we have identified HIV-1 B clade Envelope (Env) amino acid signatures from early in infection that may be favored at transmission, as well as patterns of recurrent mutation in chronic infection that may reflect common pathways of immune evasion. To accomplish this, we compared thousands of sequences derived by single genome amplification from several hundred individuals that were sampled either early in infection or were chronically infected. Samples were divided at the outset into hypothesis-forming and validation sets, and we used phylogenetically corrected statistical strategies to identify signatures, systematically scanning all of Env. Signatures included single amino acids, glycosylation motifs, and multi-site patterns based on functional or structural groupings of amino acids. We identified signatures near the CCR5 co-receptor-binding region, near the CD4 binding site, and in the signal peptide and cytoplasmic domain, which may influence Env expression and processing. Two signatures patterns associated with transmission were particularly interesting. The first was the most statistically robust signature, located in position 12 in the signal peptide. The second was the loss of an N-linked glycosylation site at positions 413–415; the presence of this site has been recently found to be associated with escape from potent and broad neutralizing antibodies, consistent with enabling a common pathway for immune escape during chronic infection. Its recurrent loss in early infection suggests it may impact fitness at the time of transmission or during early viral expansion. The signature patterns we identified implicate Env expression levels in selection at viral transmission or in early expansion, and suggest that immune evasion patterns that recur in many individuals during chronic infection when antibodies are present can be selected against when the infection is being established prior to the adaptive immune response

Emerging Identity: Envisioning Eco-cultural Infrastructure in Post Industrial Shenyang, China

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2017-06De-industrialization is becoming a new challenge for many cities globally. Tiexi District, as one of the oldest and the most significant heavy-industrial areas in China, has experienced the deindustrialization process since 2000. Substantial factories and workplaces have relocated in rural areas, leaving a large amount of vacant land for redevelopment in the inner-city. Today, over a decade after regeneration, the district has become a diverse urban neighborhood with multiple functions. During this time, the demographics and cultural identities have also been shifting dramatically, calling for another series of renewal processes in the near future. Within this context, this thesis explores the central concept of the district’s emerging identity, and suggests planning and design strategies that approach a more sustainable and creative urban renewal process. Taking Tiexi District as a representative example, this thesis illustrates how an “identity-strategy-renewal” methodology works, and proposes design strategies to plan for future development of the district

To Settle Down

Shenzhen is the fastest growing magacity in China, and one that is always young. It attracts workers with a large number of jobs in high-tech zones, but the lack of housing and the banning of illegal urban villages also reduces the possibilities for workers to settle. The governmental planning of the high-tech zone attempts to address the spatial separation of work and life in future. On this basis, this project aims to reshape the urban spatial relationship and achieve a better quality of urban settlement, from a human perspective, using urban mobility and green accessibility. This project focuses on three aspects of urban spatial relationships:1. Increase in housing supply and coexistence with work space;2. Increased transport diversity, reshaping the urban street hierarchy;3. An east-west axis and integrated green network dominated by green accessibility

To Settle Down

Shenzhen is the fastest growing magacity in China, and one that is always young. It attracts workers with a large number of jobs in high-tech zones, but the lack of housing and the banning of illegal urban villages also reduces the possibilities for workers to settle. The governmental planning of the high-tech zone attempts to address the spatial separation of work and life in future. On this basis, this project aims to reshape the urban spatial relationship and achieve a better quality of urban settlement, from a human perspective, using urban mobility and green accessibility. This project focuses on three aspects of urban spatial relationships:1. Increase in housing supply and coexistence with work space;2. Increased transport diversity, reshaping the urban street hierarchy;3. An east-west axis and integrated green network dominated by green accessibility