Assessing Temporal Trade-Offs of Ecosystem Services by Production Possibility Frontiers

Ecosystems provide multiple valuable services that play an essential role in preventing meteorological risks, combating sandy land expansion, and ensuring sustainable development in the West Liao River Basin. The trade-off among ecosystem services (ES) is inevitable because of biophysical constraints and societal preferences. The production possibility frontier (PPF) is increasingly deemed an appropriate tool for representing trade-off relationships among ES. In this study, we developed a feasible approach for estimating PPF, which includes three steps. First, the annual water yield model, the sediment delivery ratio model, the carbon storage and sequestration model, and the habitat quality model of InVEST models were used to quantify temporal changes in four key ES, including water retention, soil conservation, carbon sequestration, and habitat improvement, in five-year periods from 1990 to 2020. Second, after the standardization of ES quantities, the functional forms of PPF curves for six pairs of ES trade-offs were derived by adopting a two-term exponential function of the curve fitting tool in MATLAB. Third, the trade-off intensity for each ES pair was defined and calculated based on the distance from the mean point to the PPF curve. Compared to the existing approaches, our approach has the advantage of fitting functional forms of PPF curves, handling both positive and negative values of ES, and calculating trade-off intensities. This study has three implications. First, showing the trade-offs between ES by PPF is helpful for providing knowledge on the existence of turning points and a complex relationship between certain ES pairs, thus avoiding unintended and large-scale shifts in the provision of ES. Second, PPF curves are a useful tool for visualizing the nature of ES relationships and the changes in trade-off intensity, thus supporting decision-makers to identify optimal solutions and make land use planning that can increase the overall efficiency over multiple ES. Third, socioeconomic components should be integrated into the assessment of ES trade-offs in order to understand the influences of societal choices on and examine stakeholders’ preferences regarding efficient ES combinations

Prevalence and Control Status of Diabetes and Related Risk Factors Among 4196 Chinese Male Older Elderly Aged ≥80 Years

Summary: Backgrounds: Diabetes had become one of the major public health problems. However there was little information about the situation among older elderly, those who were aged more than 80 years old and usually had a worse health conditions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and control status of diabetes among 4196 Chinese male older elderly. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in all the cadre sanitariums in Beijing. 4196 men aged≥80 years old were included in this study. Results: The prevalence of diabetes was 38.1% among this male older elderly. Among participants with diabetes, the awareness rate, treatment rate and control rate were 84.4%, 60.6% and 36.6% respectively among those with diabetes. Age, marital status, physical activity, BMI, combined chronic diseases, and polypharmacy were related with diabetes management. Age was reversely associated with diabetes management. Participants, who were divorced/widowed, overweight/obesity, had more combined chronic diseases, and had polypharmacy, had worse diabetes management. The ORs of BMI≥24 kg/m2 for treatment and control rates were 0.53 (95%CI: 0.42–0.66) and 0.17 (95%CI: 0.13–0.26). The ORs of polypharmacy for awareness, treatment and control rates were 0.38(95%CI: 0.28–0.53), 0.17(95%CI: 0.13–0.26) and 0.70 (95%CI: 0.53–0.90). Conclusion: The prevalence of diabetes was up to 38.1%, among this male older elderly. The awareness rate was high; however the treatment and control rates were relatively low. Age, marital status, lifestyles, obesity, combined chronic diseases, and polypharmacy were related risk factors with diabetes management. Keywords: diabetes, glycemic control, older elderly, Chin

Large-Scale Battery System Development and User-Specific Driving Behavior Analysis for Emerging Electric-Drive Vehicles

Emerging green-energy transportation, such as hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and plug-in HEVs (PHEVs), has a great potential for reduction of fuel consumption and greenhouse emissions. The lithium-ion battery system used in these vehicles, however, is bulky, expensive and unreliable, and has been the primary roadblock for transportation electrification. Meanwhile, few studies have considered user-specific driving behavior and its significant impact on (P)HEV fuel efficiency, battery system lifetime, and the environment. This paper presents a detailed investigation of battery system modeling and real-world user-specific driving behavior analysis for emerging electric-drive vehicles. The proposed model is fast to compute and accurate for analyzing battery system run-time and long-term cycle life with a focus on temperature dependent battery system capacity fading and variation. The proposed solution is validated against physical measurement using real-world user driving studies, and has been adopted to facilitate battery system design and optimization. Using the collected real-world hybrid vehicle and run-time driving data, we have also conducted detailed analytical studies of users’ specific driving patterns and their impacts on hybrid vehicle electric energy and fuel efficiency. This work provides a solid foundation for future energy control with emerging electric-drive applications

Cross-Regulation between the phz1 and phz2 Operons Maintain a Balanced Level of Phenazine Biosynthesis in Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1.

Gene duplication often provides selective advantages for the survival of microorganisms in adapting to varying environmental conditions. P. aeruginosa PAO1 possesses two seven-gene operons [phz1 (phzA1B1C1D1E1F1G1) and phz2 (phzA2B2C2D2E2F2G2)] that are involved in the biosynthesis of phenazine-1-carboxylic acid and its derivatives. Although the two operons are highly homologous and their functions are well known, it is unclear how the two phz operons coordinate their expressions to maintain the phenazine biosynthesis. By constructing single and double deletion mutants of the two phz operons, we found that the phz1-deletion mutant produced the same or less amount of phenazine-1-carboxylic acid and pyocyanin in GA medium than the phz2-knockout mutant while the phz1-phz2 double knockout mutant did not produce any phenazines. By generating phzA1 and phzA2 translational and transcriptional fusions with a truncated lacZ reporter, we found that the expression of the phz1 operon increased significantly at the post-transcriptional level and did not alter at the transcriptional level in the absence of the phz2 operon. Surprisingly, the expression the phz2 operon increased significantly at the post-transcriptional level and only moderately at the transcriptional level in the absence of the phz1 operon. Our findings suggested that a complex cross-regulation existed between the phz1 and phz2 operons. By mediating the upregulation of one phz operon expression while the other was deleted, this crosstalk would maintain the homeostatic balance of phenazine biosynthesis in P. aeruginosa PAO1