Analysis on spatial heterogeneity of ecological restoration demand in resource-based cities: taking Jiawang District of Xuzhou city as an example

After a long period of coal resource exploitation in resource-based cities, the imbalance and disharmony between resource development and ecological protection in coal mining areas are prominent. In the context of ecological civilization construction, clarifying the spatial heterogeneity of ecological restoration needs and reasonably arranging the priority of ecological restoration work will become the basic work for efficient and coordinated ecological protection and restoration, which will help to plan as a whole, coordinate and orderly promote the high-quality sustainable development of resource-based cities. From the comprehensive perspective of the coordinated development of ecosystem and human well-being, Jiawang District, Xuzhou City, was selected as an example, and the historical remote sensing images, historical mine information and social and economic statistics in 2000, 2010 and 2019 were taken as the data sources. The equivalent assignment method was used to calculate the regional ecosystem service value and make coefficient correction. The landscape ecological risk assessment system was constructed by integrating the topographic location index, mining area disturbance index and landscape vulnerability index. The spatial and temporal patterns of ecosystem service value and ecological risk index in the study area were analyzed, and the sharpe ratio was introduced to further explore the spatial heterogeneity of ecological restoration needs. The results showed that: ① From 2000 to 2019, the total value of ecosystem services in Jiawang district increased first and then decreased, and the value of ecological risk index decreased first and then increased. The growth rate was relatively flat, showing a small range; the spatial distribution of ecological service value and ecological risk level shows a trend of overall connectivity, with local circles moving outward. Urbanization and coal mining subsidence land management are the main factors influencing the spatial pattern differentiation. ② At the quantitative level, the ecosystem service value per unit area and the ecological risk index have strong negative grade correlations, but there is no obvious functional relationship; At the spatial level, the overall Moran’s I index of unit ecosystem service value and ecological risk index in Jiawang District from 2000 to 2019 were negative, showing negative spatial correlation. Ecological risks and ecosystem services have obvious dislocation characteristics. ③ The heterogeneity index R of ecological restoration demand in Jiawang district presents a gradient spatial change trend to a certain extent, and the overall ecological restoration demand tends to decrease, but the R index is still too high or too low in some regions; with the increase of degree of deviation, the range of high value areas for ecological restoration needs gradually narrowed and transformed to low value areas, and the areas requiring key ecological construction tend to be more centralized. The research conclusion can provide reference for the decision-making arrangement of systematic and integrated ecological restoration of resource exhausted cities

BRCAA1 monoclonal antibody conjugated fluorescent magnetic nanoparticles for in vivo targeted magnetofluorescent imaging of gastric cancer

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Gastric cancer is 2th most common cancer in China, and is still the second most common cause of cancer-related death in the world. How to recognize early gastric cancer cells is still a great challenge for early diagnosis and therapy of patients with gastric cancer. This study is aimed to develop one kind of multifunctional nanoprobes for <it>in vivo </it>targeted magnetofluorescent imaging of gastric cancer.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>BRCAA1 monoclonal antibody was prepared, was used as first antibody to stain 50 pairs of specimens of gastric cancer and control normal gastric mucous tissues, and conjugated with fluorescent magnetic nanoparticles with 50 nm in diameter, the resultant BRCAA1-conjugated fluorescent magnetic nanoprobes were characterized by transmission electron microscopy and photoluminescence spectrometry, as-prepared nanoprobes were incubated with gastric cancer MGC803 cells, and were injected into mice model loaded with gastric cancer of 5 mm in diameter via tail vein, and then were imaged by fluorescence optical imaging and magnetic resonance imaging, their biodistribution was investigated. The tissue slices were observed by fluorescent microscopy, and the important organs such as heart, lung, kidney, brain and liver were analyzed by hematoxylin and eosin (HE) stain method.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>BRCAA1 monoclonal antibody was successfully prepared, BRCAA1 protein exhibited over-expression in 64% gastric cancer tissues, no expression in control normal gastric mucous tissues, there exists statistical difference between two groups (<it>P </it>< 0.01). The BRCAA1-conjugated fluorescent magnetic nanoprobes exhibit very low-toxicity, lower magnetic intensity and lower fluorescent intensity with peak-blue-shift than pure FMNPs, could be endocytosed by gastric cancer MGC803 cells, could target <it>in vivo </it>gastric cancer tissues loaded by mice, and could be used to image gastric cancer tissues by fluorescent imaging and magnetic resonance imaging, and mainly distributed in local gastric cancer tissues within 12 h post-injection. HE stain analysis showed that no obvious damages were observed in important organs.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The high-performance BRCAA1 monoclonal antibody-conjugated fluorescent magnetic nanoparticles can target <it>in vivo </it>gastric cancer cells, can be used for simultaneous magnetofluorescent imaging, and may have great potential in applications such as dual-model imaging and local thermal therapy of early gastric cancer in near future.</p

Problematic Internet Use in High School Students in Guangdong Province, China

BACKGROUND: Problematic Internet Use (PIU) is a growing problem in Chinese adolescents. There are many risk factors for PIU, which are found at school and at home. This study was designed to investigate the prevalence of PIU and to investigate the potential risk factors for PIU among high school students in China. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: A cross-sectional study was conducted. A total of 14,296 high school students were surveyed in four cities in Guangdong province. Problematic Internet Use was assessed by the 20-item Young Internet Addiction Test (YIAT). Information was also collected on demographics, family and school-related factors and Internet usage patterns. Of the 14,296 students, 12,446 were Internet users. Of those, 12.2% (1,515) were identified as problematic Internet users (PIUs). Generalized mixed-model regression revealed that there was no gender difference between PIUs and non-PIUs. High study-related stress, having social friends, poor relations with teachers and students and conflictive family relationships were risk factors for PIU. Students who spent more time on-line were more likely to develop PIU. The habits of and purposes for Internet usage were diverse, influencing the susceptibility to PIU. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: PIU is common among high school students, and risk factors are found at home and at school. Teachers and parents should pay close attention to these risk factors. Effective measures are needed to prevent the spread of this problem

Gamma-Secretase Represents a Therapeutic Target for the Treatment of Invasive Glioma Mediated by the p75 Neurotrophin Receptor

The multifunctional signaling protein p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75NTR) is a central regulator and major contributor to the highly invasive nature of malignant gliomas. Here, we show that neurotrophin-dependent regulated intramembrane proteolysis (RIP) of p75NTR is required for p75NTR-mediated glioma invasion, and identify a previously unnamed process for targeted glioma therapy. Expression of cleavage-resistant chimeras of p75NTR or treatment of animals bearing p75NTR-positive intracranial tumors with clinically applicable γ-secretase inhibitors resulted in dramatically decreased glioma invasion and prolonged survival. Importantly, proteolytic processing of p75NTR was observed in p75NTR-positive patient tumor specimens and brain tumor initiating cells. This work highlights the importance of p75NTR as a therapeutic target, suggesting that γ-secretase inhibitors may have direct clinical application for the treatment of malignant glioma

Retrospective evaluation of whole exome and genome mutation calls in 746 cancer samples

Funder: NCI U24CA211006Abstract: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) curated consensus somatic mutation calls using whole exome sequencing (WES) and whole genome sequencing (WGS), respectively. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, which aggregated whole genome sequencing data from 2,658 cancers across 38 tumour types, we compare WES and WGS side-by-side from 746 TCGA samples, finding that ~80% of mutations overlap in covered exonic regions. We estimate that low variant allele fraction (VAF < 15%) and clonal heterogeneity contribute up to 68% of private WGS mutations and 71% of private WES mutations. We observe that ~30% of private WGS mutations trace to mutations identified by a single variant caller in WES consensus efforts. WGS captures both ~50% more variation in exonic regions and un-observed mutations in loci with variable GC-content. Together, our analysis highlights technological divergences between two reproducible somatic variant detection efforts

A multivariate natural gas load forecasting method based on residual recurrent neural network

Abstract Current natural gas load forecasting encounters with the conundrum of unsatisfying accuracy and interpretability. To address the challenge, a multi‐variate forecasting method is proposed, which contains three phases: First, an integrate history‐climate‐holiday factor set is established to provide multi‐perspective for a more explainable forecast; Second, factor fusion interaction between features and instances is carried out based on hierarchical contrastive learning, which contributes to inter‐intra factors potential relationships exploration. Third, a multivariate forecasting model named ResRNN is trained using fused target dataset. Due to its innovation in structure and loss, forecasting accuracy is further improved. Finally, the authors’ method's superiority is confirmed by several groups of comparative experiments and results demonstrate that it outperforms mainstream methods

Extreme Winds from Ku-Band and C-Band Wind Scatterometers

International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), 16-21 July 2023, Pasadena, CA, USA.-- 4 pages, 6 figures.-- © 2023 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other worksC-band scatterometer winds have been adjusted for extreme conditions and in this research extension to Ku-band scatterometers is investigated. With rain rates from the Global Precipitation Measurement mission collocated to the Ku-band scatterometer observations to identify and exclude rain contamination of winds, calibration of the Ku-band observations can be done. Using high-wind cases extracted from collocated C- and Ku-band observations, we develop a calibration model and extend the Ku-band winds to 35 m/s. Validation is obtained from the set not included in the model derivation, indicating a speed error less than 10% for wind speed larger than 30m/s. The modified speed is consistent with the Step Frequency Microwave Radiometer measurements, when collocated with another Ku-band scatterometer. A comparison for the Tropical Cyclone Manyi in 2018 shows the adjustedd wind fits better with the best-track information provided by the Chinese Meteorological Administration, while more details are revealed. Results can be improved after obtaining more collocations with the dual-frequency scatterometer "WindRad" onboard the FY-3E satellite. A method for wind direction enhancement in extreme conditions is also discussedThis research is partly supported by the Feng-Yun Application Pioneering Project from China Meteorological Administration (Grant FY-APP-2022.0109)With the institutional support of the ‘Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence’ accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S)Peer reviewe

The association between Geriatric Nutritional Risk Index and the risk of Invasive Candidiasis in critically ill older adults

Abstract Background Invasive candidiasis is the most common hospital-acquired fungal infection in intensive care units (ICU). The Geriatric Nutritional Risk Index (GNRI) score was developed to evaluate the nutritional status of elderly adults. We aimed to assess the association between the GNRI score and the risk of invasive candidiasis in elderly patients admitted to ICU. Methods Hospitalization information of elderly patients with invasive candidiasis was collected retrospectively from Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC) IV and MIMIC-III Clinical Database CareVue subset from 2001 to 2019. The main outcome of this study was the diagnosis of invasive candidiasis in patients. We employed a multivariable Cox regression and propensity score matching to balance the influence of confounding factors on the outcome. Furthermore, we conducted sensitivity analyses by categorizing the GNRI into classes based on thresholds of 98, 92, and 81. Results A total of 6739 patients were included in the study, among whom 134 individuals (2%) were diagnosed with invasive candidiasis. The GNRI scores of patients with invasive candidiasis upon admission to the ICU were significantly lower, measuring 88.67 [79.26–98.27], compared to the control group with a score of 99.36 [87.98-110.45] (P < 0.001). The results of the multivariable Cox regression analysis demonstrated a strong association between higher GNRI scores and a decreased risk of invasive candidiasis infection (HR: 0.98, 95% CI: 0.97–0.99, P = 0.002). Consistently, similar results were obtained when analyzing the propensity score-matched cohort (HR: 0.99, 95% CI: 0.98-1, P = 0.028). Sensitivity analyses further confirmed a significantly increased risk of invasive candidiasis infection with lower GNRI scores. Specifically, the following associations were observed: GNRI ≤ 98 (HR: 1.83, 95% CI: 1.23–2.72, P = 0.003), GNRI ≤ 92 (HR: 1.68, 95% CI: 1.17–2.4, P = 0.005), 82 ≤ GNRI ≤ 92 (HR: 1.63, 95% CI: 1.01–2.64, P = 0.046), GNRI ≤ 81 (HR: 2.31, 95% CI: 1.44–3.69, P < 0.001). Conclusions Lower GNRI score was significantly associated with an increased risk of invasive candidiasis in elderly patients in ICU. Further research is needed to validate whether improving nutrition can prevent invasive candidiasis