Assessment of government supervision on the loss of sea sand resource in China

Illegal mining activities on offshore sands have recently increased dramatically in China owing to the strong demand of the construction industry and restriction of river sand mining. By studying the loss mechanism of marine sand resources, this study proposes a simplified linear programming model to quantitatively analyse the control effects related to resource loss and law enforcement costs. To accurately simulate the effectiveness of law enforcement activity, a set of variables is designed in the model to describe the severity of illegal mining and enforcement skills of the officers. Subsequently, based on different settings of law enforcement capability, the model can not only make reasonable projections for sand losses but also provide a minimum cost solution for marine sand control for government agencies. Finally, various regulatory measurements and suggestions are discussed to improve the effectiveness of the government’s regularisation and cost optimisation for law enforcement

Protecting public’s wellbeing against COVID-19 infodemic: The role of trust in information sources and rapid dissemination and transparency of information over time

ObjectivesThis study examined how trust in the information about COVID-19 from social media and official media as well as how the information was disseminated affect public’s wellbeing directly and indirectly through perceived safety over time.MethodsTwo online surveys were conducted in China, with the first survey (Time1, N = 22,718) being at the early stage of the pandemic outbreak and the second one (Time 2, N = 2,901) two and a half years later during the zero-COVID policy lockdown period. Key measured variables include trust in official media and social media, perceived rapid dissemination and transparency of COVID-19-related information, perceived safety, and emotional responses toward the pandemic. Data analysis includes descriptive statistical analysis, independent samples t-test, Pearson correlations, and structural equation modeling.ResultsTrust in official media, perceived rapid dissemination and transparency of COVID-19-related information, perceived safety, as well as positive emotional response toward COVID-19 increased over time, while trust in social media and depressive response decreased over time. Trust in social media and official media played different roles in affecting public’s wellbeing over time. Trust in social media was positively associated with depressive emotions and negatively associated with positive emotion directly and indirectly through decreased perceived safety at Time 1. However, the negative effect of trust in social media on public’s wellbeing was largely decreased at Time 2. In contrast, trust in official media was linked to reduced depressive response and increased positive response directly and indirectly through perceived safety at both times. Rapid dissemination and transparency of COVID-19 information contributed to enhanced trust in official media at both times.ConclusionThe findings highlight the important role of fostering public trust in official media through rapid dissemination and transparency of information in mitigating the negative impact of COVID-19 infodemic on public’s wellbeing over time

Hypermethylated gene ANKDD1A is a candidate tumor suppressor that interacts with FIH1 and decreases HIF1α stability to inhibit cell autophagy in the glioblastoma multiforme hypoxia microenvironment.

Ectopic epigenetic mechanisms play important roles in facilitating tumorigenesis. Here, we first demonstrated that ANKDD1A is a functional tumor suppressor gene, especially in the hypoxia microenvironment. ANKDD1A directly interacts with FIH1 and inhibits the transcriptional activity of HIF1α by upregulating FIH1. In addition, ANKDD1A decreases the half-life of HIF1α by upregulating FIH1, decreases glucose uptake and lactate production, inhibits glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) autophagy, and induces apoptosis in GBM cells under hypoxia. Moreover, ANKDD1A is highly frequently methylated in GBM. The tumor-specific methylation of ANKDD1A indicates that it could be used as a potential epigenetic biomarker as well as a possible therapeutic target

Real-time Management of groundwater resource based on wireless sensor networks

Groundwater plays a vital role in the arid inland river basins, in which the groundwater management is critical to the sustainable development of area economy and ecology. Traditional sustainable management approaches are to analyze different scenarios subject to assumptions or to construct simulation–optimization models to obtain optimal strategy. However, groundwater system is time-varying due to exogenous inputs. In this sense, the groundwater management based on static data is relatively outdated. As part of the Heihe River Basin (HRB), which is a typical arid river basin in Northwestern China, the Daman irrigation district was selected as the study area in this paper. First, a simulation–optimization model was constructed to optimize the pumping rates of the study area according to the groundwater level constraints. Three different groundwater level constraints were assigned to explore sustainable strategies for groundwater resources. The results indicated that the simulation–optimization model was capable of identifying the optimal pumping yields and satisfy the given constraints. Second, the simulation–optimization model was integrated with wireless sensors network (WSN) technology to provide real-time features for the management. The results showed time-varying feature for the groundwater management, which was capable of updating observations, constraints, and decision variables in real time. Furthermore, a web-based platform was developed to facilitate the decision-making process. This study combined simulation and optimization model with WSN techniques and meanwhile attempted to real-time monitor and manage the scarce groundwater resource, which could be used to support the decision-making related to sustainable management

Interpreting Distributional Reinforcement Learning: A Regularization Perspective

Distributional reinforcement learning~(RL) is a class of state-of-the-art algorithms that estimate the whole distribution of the total return rather than only its expectation. Despite the remarkable performance of distributional RL, a theoretical understanding of its advantages over expectation-based RL remains elusive. In this paper, we attribute the superiority of distributional RL to its regularization effect in terms of the value distribution information regardless of its expectation. Firstly, by leverage of a variant of the gross error model in robust statistics, we decompose the value distribution into its expectation and the remaining distribution part. As such, the extra benefit of distributional RL compared with expectation-based RL is mainly interpreted as the impact of a \textit{risk-sensitive entropy regularization} within the Neural Fitted Z-Iteration framework. Meanwhile, we establish a bridge between the risk-sensitive entropy regularization of distributional RL and the vanilla entropy in maximum entropy RL, focusing specifically on actor-critic algorithms. It reveals that distributional RL induces a corrected reward function and thus promotes a risk-sensitive exploration against the intrinsic uncertainty of the environment. Finally, extensive experiments corroborate the role of the regularization effect of distributional RL and uncover mutual impacts of different entropy regularization. Our research paves a way towards better interpreting the efficacy of distributional RL algorithms, especially through the lens of regularization

Critical role of FGF21 in diabetic kidney disease: from energy metabolism to innate immunity

Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) stands as the predominant cause of chronic kidney disease (CKD) on a global scale, with its incidence witnessing a consistent annual rise, thereby imposing a substantial burden on public health. The pathogenesis of DKD is primarily rooted in metabolic disorders and inflammation. Recent years have seen a surge in studies highlighting the regulatory impact of energy metabolism on innate immunity, forging a significant area of research interest. Within this context, fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21), recognized as an energy metabolism regulator, assumes a pivotal role. Beyond its role in maintaining glucose and lipid metabolism homeostasis, FGF21 exerts regulatory influence on innate immunity, concurrently inhibiting inflammation and fibrosis. Serving as a nexus between energy metabolism and innate immunity, FGF21 has evolved into a therapeutic target for diabetes, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, and cardiovascular diseases. While the relationship between FGF21 and DKD has garnered increased attention in recent studies, a comprehensive exploration of this association has yet to be systematically addressed. This paper seeks to fill this gap by summarizing the mechanisms through which FGF21 operates in DKD, encompassing facets of energy metabolism and innate immunity. Additionally, we aim to assess the diagnostic and prognostic value of FGF21 in DKD and explore its potential role as a treatment modality for the condition

Physiological Adaptive Strategies of Oil Seed Crop Ricinus communis Early Seedlings (Cotyledon vs. True Leaf) Under Salt and Alkali Stresses: From the Growth, Photosynthesis and Chlorophyll Fluorescence

Ricinus communis is an important energy crop and is considered as one of the most potential plants for salt-alkali soil improvement in Northeast China. Early seedling stage (such as the cotyledon expansion stage) is always a vulnerable stage but plays a vital role in plant establishment, especially under stress conditions. However, little information exists concerning the function of cotyledon and the relationship between cotyledon and true leaf in the adaptation to salt stress and alkali stress of this species. Here, Ricinus communis seedlings were treated with varying (40, 80 and 120 mM) salinity (NaCl) and alkalinity (NaHCO3), growth, photosynthesis, and chlorophyll fluorescence of cotyledons and true leaves were measured. The results showed that the biomass, photosynthetic parameters, and the qp value of both cotyledons and true leaves decreased with increasing salt-alkali stress, and the decrease in biomass, gs and Tr, of true leaves were much greater than that of cotyledons. Salt-alkali stress only reduced photosynthetic pigments and ΦPSII in cotyledons, but did not affect those in true leaves. Additionally, the Fv/Fm and NPQ between cotyledons and true leaves showed different trends in salinity and alkalinity. The results suggested that alkali stress could cause much more damage to the castor bean seedlings, and different physiological responses and adaptive strategies are found in cotyledons and true leaves under salt-alkali stress. This study will help us develop a better understanding of the adaptation mechanisms of cotyledon and true leaf during early seedling stage of castor bean plant, and also provide new insights into the function of cotyledon in Ricinus communis under salt-alkali stress conditions