Counterfactual time series analysis for the air pollution during the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan

Environmental issues are becoming one of the main topics of concern for society, and the quality of air is closely linked to people's lives. Previous studies have examined the effects of abrupt interventions on changes in air pollution. For example, researchers used an interrupted time series design to quantify the impact of the 1990 Dublin coal ban; and a regression discontinuity to determine the arbitrary spatial impact of the Huaihe River policy in China. An important feature of each of these studies is that they investigated abrupt and localized changes over relatively short time spans (the Dublin coal ban) and spatial scales (the Huaihe policy). Due to the abrupt nature of these interventions, defining a hypothetical experiment in these studies is straightforward. In response to the novel coronavirus outbreak, China implemented 'the largest quarantine in human history' in Wuhan on January 23, 2020. Similar measures were implemented in other Chinese cities. Since then, the movement of people and associated production and consumption activities have been significantly reduced. This provides us with an unprecedented opportunity to estimate the changes in air pollution brought about by this sudden "silent" move. We speculate that the initiative will lead to a significant reduction in regional air pollution. Thus, we performed counterfactual time series analysis on Wuhan air quality data from 2017-2022 based on three models, SARIMA, LSTM and XGBOOST, and compared the excellence of different models. Finally, we conclude that 'silent' measures will significantly reduce air pollution. Using this conclusion to further investigate the extent of air pollution reduction will help the country to better designate environmental policies.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure

Modeling And Experimental Study On A Direct Expansion Based Enhanced Dehumidification Air Conditioning System

Direct expansion (DX) air conditioning (A/C) systems are widely used for controlling indoor air temperature and humidity in various buildings in hot and humid climates since they are simpler and more energy efficient, and generally cost less to own and maintain. However, it is often problematic for a DX A/C system to provide desired humidity control due to the current system design trends, variable weather conditions and the commonly used control strategies for DX A/C systems. Therefore, a standalone DX based enhanced dehumidification air conditioning (EDAC) system is proposed to provide suitable indoor humidity control at different seasons. There are two evaporators in the EDAC system, thus it could act as a dehumidifier (ADO mode) on the days when less or no additional cooling is required by employing one evaporator as a reheating coil, or act as an enhanced dehumidification A/C system (EDAC mode) by functioning two evaporators to separately deal with sensible and latent cooling. A prototype experimental EDAC system was established in a laboratory. The operational characteristics of the EDAC system at ADO mode in terms of the moisture removal capacity (MRC), the specific moisture extraction rate (SMER) and the resulted supply air temperature were investigated and reported in this paper. Firstly, the experimental results on operational characteristics are reported. Secondly, the development of a steady-state mathematical model for the ADO mode of the EDAC system is presented. The developed model was thereafter used to study the influence of different sizes of the evaporator and the reheating coil on the operational characteristic of the EDAC system at ADO mode. The study results could lead to a better understanding of the operational characteristics of the EDAC system, facilitating its design, operation and control

Proteomic profiling reveals the potential mechanisms and regulatory targets of sirtuin 4 in 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine-induced Parkinson’s mouse model

IntroductionParkinson’s disease (PD), as a common neurodegenerative disease, currently has no effective therapeutic approaches to delay or stop its progression. There is an urgent need to further define its pathogenesis and develop new therapeutic targets. An increasing number of studies have shown that members of the sirtuin (SIRT) family are differentially involved in neurodegenerative diseases, indicating their potential to serve as targets in therapeutic strategies. Mitochondrial SIRT4 possesses multiple enzymatic activities, such as deacetylase, ADP ribosyltransferase, lipoamidase, and deacylase activities, and exhibits different enzymatic activities and target substrates in different tissues and cells; thus, mitochondrial SIRT4 plays an integral role in regulating metabolism. However, the role and mechanism of SIRT4 in PD are not fully understood. This study aimed to investigate the potential mechanism and possible regulatory targets of SIRT4 in 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-induced PD mice.MethodsThe expression of the SIRT4 protein in the MPTP-induced PD mouse mice or key familial Parkinson disease protein 7 knockout (DJ-1 KO) rat was compared against the control group by western blot assay. Afterwards, quantitative proteomics and bioinformatics analyses were performed to identify altered proteins in the vitro model and reveal the possible functional role of SIRT4. The most promising molecular target of SIRT4 were screened and validated by viral transfection, western blot assay and reverse transcription quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) assays.ResultsThe expression of the SIRT4 protein was found to be altered both in the MPTP-induced PD mouse mice and DJ-1KO rats. Following the viral transfection of SIRT4, a quantitative proteomics analysis identified 5,094 altered proteins in the vitro model, including 213 significantly upregulated proteins and 222 significantly downregulated proteins. The results from bioinformatics analyses indicated that SIRT4 mainly affected the ribosomal pathway, propionate metabolism pathway, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) signaling pathway and peroxisome pathway in cells, and we screened 25 potential molecular targets. Finally, only fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP4) in the PPAR signaling pathway was regulated by SIRT4 among the 25 molecules. Importantly, the alterations in FABP4 and PPARγ were verified in the MPTP-induced PD mouse model.DiscussionOur results indicated that FABP4 in the PPAR signaling pathway is the most promising molecular target of SIRT4 in an MPTP-induced mouse model and revealed the possible functional role of SIRT4. This study provides a reference for future drug development and mechanism research with SIRT4 as a target or biomarker

Association of gestational age at birth with subsequent suspected Developmental Coordination Disorder in early childhood

Importance. It remains unknown whether children born at different degrees of prematurity, early-term and post-term might have a higher risk of developing Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) compared to completely full-term children (39-40 gestational weeks). Objective. To differentiate between suspected DCD in children with different gestational ages based on a national representative sample in China. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS We conducted a retrospective cohort study in China from 2018 to 2019. A total of 152,433 children from 2,403 public kindergartens in 551 cities of China aged 3-5 years old were included in the final analysis. The association between gestational age and motor performance was investigated. A multi-level regression model was developed to determine the strength of association for different gestational ages associated with suspected DCD when considering kindergartens as clusters. Main outcomes and measures. Children’s motor performance was assessed using the Little Developmental Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (LDCDQ), completed by parents. Gestational age was determined according to the mother’s medical records. Results. Of the 152,433 children aged 3-5 years old, 80,370 (52.7%) were male, and 72,063 (47.3%) were female. There were 45,052 children aged 3 years old (29.6%), 59,796 aged 4 years old(39.2%), and 47,585 children aged 5 years old (31.2%). The LDCDQ total scores for very-preterm (β=-1.74, 95%CI: -1.98, 1.50; p<0.001), moderately-preterm (β=-1.24, 95%CI: -1.60, -0.89; p<0.001), late-preterm (β=-0.92, 95%CI: -1.08, -0.76; p<0.001), early-term (β=-0.36, 95%CI: -0.46, -0.25; p<0.001) and post-term children (β=-0.47, 95%CI: -0.67, -0.26; p<0.001) were significantly lower than full-term children when adjusting for child, family and maternal health characteristics. The very-preterm (OR=1.35, 95%CI: 1.23,1.48; p<0.001), moderately-preterm (OR=1.18, 95%CI: 1.02, 1.36; p<0.001), late-preterm (OR =1.24, 95%CI: 1.16,1.32; p<0.001), early-term (OR =1.11, 95%CI: 1.06,1.16; p<0.001) and post-term children (OR =1.167, 95%CI: 1.07, 1.27; p<0.001) were more likely to fall in the suspected Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) category on the LDCDQ compared with completely full-term children after adjusting for the same characteristics. The associations between different gestational ages and suspected DCD were stronger in boys and older (5 year old) children (each p<0.05). Conclusions and relevance. We found significant associations between every degree of prematurity at birth, early-term and post-term birth with suspected DCD when compared with full-term birth. Our findings have important implications for understanding motor development in children born at different gestational ages. Long-term follow-up and rehabilitation interventions should be considered for early- and post-term born children

The Formation and Practices of Childbearing Methodology in Contemporary Urban China. : Focusing on the Confinement Ladies

1. はじめに 2. 先行研究の枠組みと研究方法 3. 月嫂による新しい産育法の形成 4. 月嫂による科学的な産育技法の実践 5. 全体的考

現代中国都市部における産育方法の形成とその実践 : 家政婦「月嫂(yue sao)」を中心に

1. はじめに 2. 先行研究の枠組みと研究方法 3. 月嫂による新しい産育法の形成 4. 月嫂による科学的な産育技法の実践 5. 全体的考