Escaping from pollution: the effect of air quality on inter-city population mobility in China

China faces severe air pollution issues due to the rapid growth of the economy, causing concerns for human physical and mental health as well as behavioral changes. Such adverse impacts can be mediated by individual avoidance behaviors such as traveling from polluted cities to cleaner ones. This study utilizes smartphone-based location data and instrumental variable regression to try and find out how air quality affects population mobility. Our results confirm that air quality does affect the population outflows of cities. An increase of 100 points in the air quality index will cause a 49.60% increase in population outflow, and a rise of 1 μg m−3 in PM2.5 may cause a 0.47% rise in population outflow. Air pollution incidents can drive people to leave their cities 3 days or a week later by railway or road. The effect is heterogeneous among workdays, weekends and holidays. Our results imply that air quality management can be critical for urban tourism and environmental competitiveness

RNA-binding protein RALY reprogrammes mitochondrial metabolism via mediating miRNA processing in colorectal cancer

Objective: Dysregulated cellular metabolism is a distinct hallmark of human colorectal cancer (CRC). However, metabolic programme rewiring during tumour progression has yet to be fully understood. Design: We analysed altered gene signatures during colorectal tumour progression, and used a complex of molecular and metabolic assays to study the regulation of metabolism in CRC cell lines, human patient-derived xenograft mouse models and tumour organoid models. Results: We identified a novel RNA-binding protein, RALY (also known as hnRNPCL2), that is highly associated with colorectal tumour aggressiveness. RALY acts as a key regulatory component in the Drosha complex, and promotes the post-transcriptional processing of a specific subset of miRNAs (miR-483, miR-676 and miR-877). These miRNAs systematically downregulate the expression of the metabolism-associated genes (ATP5I, ATP5G1, ATP5G3 and CYC1) and thereby reprogramme mitochondrial metabolism in the cancer cell. Analysis of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) reveals that increased levels of RALY are associated with poor prognosis in the patients with CRC expressing low levels of mitochondrion-associated genes. Mechanistically, induced processing of these miRNAs is facilitated by their N6-methyladenosine switch under reactive oxygen species (ROS) stress. Inhibition of the m6A methylation abolishes the RALY recognition of the terminal loop of the pri-miRNAs. Knockdown of RALY inhibits colorectal tumour growth and progression in vivo and in organoid models. Conclusions: Collectively, our results reveal a critical metabolism-centric role of RALY in tumour progression, which may lead to cancer therapeutics targeting RALY for treating CRC

Potential of Core-Collapse Supernova Neutrino Detection at JUNO

JUNO is an underground neutrino observatory under construction in Jiangmen, China. It uses 20kton liquid scintillator as target, which enables it to detect supernova burst neutrinos of a large statistics for the next galactic core-collapse supernova (CCSN) and also pre-supernova neutrinos from the nearby CCSN progenitors. All flavors of supernova burst neutrinos can be detected by JUNO via several interaction channels, including inverse beta decay, elastic scattering on electron and proton, interactions on C12 nuclei, etc. This retains the possibility for JUNO to reconstruct the energy spectra of supernova burst neutrinos of all flavors. The real time monitoring systems based on FPGA and DAQ are under development in JUNO, which allow prompt alert and trigger-less data acquisition of CCSN events. The alert performances of both monitoring systems have been thoroughly studied using simulations. Moreover, once a CCSN is tagged, the system can give fast characterizations, such as directionality and light curve

Detection of the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background with JUNO

As an underground multi-purpose neutrino detector with 20 kton liquid scintillator, Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is competitive with and complementary to the water-Cherenkov detectors on the search for the diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB). Typical supernova models predict 2-4 events per year within the optimal observation window in the JUNO detector. The dominant background is from the neutral-current (NC) interaction of atmospheric neutrinos with 12C nuclei, which surpasses the DSNB by more than one order of magnitude. We evaluated the systematic uncertainty of NC background from the spread of a variety of data-driven models and further developed a method to determine NC background within 15\% with {\it{in}} {\it{situ}} measurements after ten years of running. Besides, the NC-like backgrounds can be effectively suppressed by the intrinsic pulse-shape discrimination (PSD) capabilities of liquid scintillators. In this talk, I will present in detail the improvements on NC background uncertainty evaluation, PSD discriminator development, and finally, the potential of DSNB sensitivity in JUNO

Real-time Monitoring for the Next Core-Collapse Supernova in JUNO

Core-collapse supernova (CCSN) is one of the most energetic astrophysical events in the Universe. The early and prompt detection of neutrinos before (pre-SN) and during the SN burst is a unique opportunity to realize the multi-messenger observation of the CCSN events. In this work, we describe the monitoring concept and present the sensitivity of the system to the pre-SN and SN neutrinos at the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), which is a 20 kton liquid scintillator detector under construction in South China. The real-time monitoring system is designed with both the prompt monitors on the electronic board and online monitors at the data acquisition stage, in order to ensure both the alert speed and alert coverage of progenitor stars. By assuming a false alert rate of 1 per year, this monitoring system can be sensitive to the pre-SN neutrinos up to the distance of about 1.6 (0.9) kpc and SN neutrinos up to about 370 (360) kpc for a progenitor mass of 30$M_{\odot}$ for the case of normal (inverted) mass ordering. The pointing ability of the CCSN is evaluated by using the accumulated event anisotropy of the inverse beta decay interactions from pre-SN or SN neutrinos, which, along with the early alert, can play important roles for the followup multi-messenger observations of the next Galactic or nearby extragalactic CCSN.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure

Evaluation of Social Vulnerability to Natural Disasters on a County Scale in Henan Province

Social vulnerability evaluation is of important significance to analyzing risks of natural disasters to human society and economy. By using expert investigation and AHP method, 12 indicators from four aspects (population, economy, infrastructure and disaster prevention and mitigation capacity) are selected to assess social vulnerability to natural disasters on a county scale in Henan Province. The results show that the population vulnerability and economic vulnerability to natural disasters in the eastern region is generally higher than in the western region, while the areas with high infrastructure vulnerability are mainly located in the northwest; the disaster prevention and mitigation capacity in northwest is higher than in east and south, and this capacity of various districts is obviously higher than that of counties; in terms of the spatial pattern, social vulnerability to natural disasters is roughly higher in a belt from northeast to southwest, and lower on both sides of the belt. The results can provide scientific basis for disaster risk management and disaster prevention and mitigation planning in Henan Province

Microclimate Effect of Artificial Caragana microphylla Communities in Horqin Sandy Land

Caragana microphylla is one of the key species for vegetation restoration in Horqin Sandy Land. Adopting field investigation and outdoor experiments, the microclimate effect of artificial C. microphylla communities with different restoration years were studied by observing wind velocity, air temperature, relative humidity and soil temperature. The results show that: (1) Caragana microphylla community has an obvious wind-breaking effect near ground surface. Compared with shifting dunes, the wind velocity in the 6-year-old and 11-year-old C. microphylla shrubs at the height of 30 cm separately decreases by 71.9% and 76.0%. (2) Mean daily temperature in the 6-year-old and 11-year-old C. microphylla communities is 3.7 ℃ and 4.9 ℃ lower than in shifting dunes, respectively. (3) The relative humidity of air in the Caragana microphylla shrubs is higher than in shifting dunes. (4) Soil temperature in C. microphylla plantation is lower than in shifting dunes. These results are significant in further exploring material and energy exchange near surface layer of artificial vegetation in the extremely arid condition

Spacio-Temporal Variation Characteristics of Northward-Moving Typhoon and Their Relationship with ENSO

Social and economic losses from typhoons are increasing owing to climate change. It is of practical significance to correctly understand new characteristics and trends in typhoon activity. Based on the best track dataset of tropical cyclones from the China Meteorological Administration, the temporal and spatial variation characteristics and evolution law of northward-moving typhoons from 1949 to 2022 were analyzed using the linear trend, Mann-Kendall test, and wavelet analysis method, and the impacts of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on typhoon activities were also discussed. The results showed that: (1) 275 northward-moving typhoons occurred during the past 74 years, with an average of 3.7 per year. The interannual fluctuation in typhoon frequency was large, and the upward trend was not significant. The proportion of northward-moving typhoons to the total number of generated typhoons in the Northwest Pacific was between 2% and 30%, showing a significant upward trend. (2) Northward-moving typhoons were mainly generated from July to September, accounting for approximately 88.4% of the total typhoons. The highest number of typhoons entering the defined area was 114 in August. The life-cycle intensity of northward-moving typhoons is dominated by high-intensity grades, such as super typhoons and typhoons. Among them, super-typhoons accounted for 30.5% of the total number of northward-moving typhoons, and the intensity of typhoons and above grades exceeded 70% of the total amount. In recent years, the probability of high-intensity northward-moving typhoons has increased. (3) A total of 159 northward-moving typhoons landed in China over 74 years. Most of the turning-track typhoons made landfall in Taiwan, Fujian, and Zhejiang, whereas the landing locations of landed disappearing-track typhoons made landfall more northerly. Most unlanded turning-track typhoons turned eastward near 30°N and 125–130°E, showing a significant upward trend. The generating positions of the northward-moving typhoons were mainly concentrated in the ranges of 10—20°N and 130—150°E, with a density of 4.65/10,000 km2. The central generation position of the landed northward-moving typhoons was 4.2° more westward than that of the unlanded typhoons. The latitude of the central generating position of the disappearing typhoons was 2.1° northward compared to that of the turning typhoons. (4) The Niño3.4 index had significant negative and positive correlations with the frequency and life-cycle intensity of northward-moving typhoons, respectively, and it also had an obvious effect on their generating positions. There were 4.5 northward-moving typhoons in the La Niña year, which was 1.67 times the El Niño year. However, the intensity of northward-moving typhoons generated during El Niño years was significantly higher than that generated during La Niña years, and the intensity of northward-moving typhoons increased with the Niño3.4 index. The central generating position of northward-moving typhoons during La Niña years was 5.8° northward and 12.4° westward compared to that during El Niño years, which was closer to China. This study provides a basis and reference for strengthening the risk management of typhoons and improving the efficiency of disaster prevention and reduction

Exercise‐induced bronchoconstriction assessed by a ratio of surface diaphragm EMG to tidal volume

Abstract Exercise‐induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) is usually assessed by changes in forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) which is effort dependent. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the diaphragm electromyogram (EMGdi) recorded from chest wall surface electrodes could be used to reflect changes in airway resistance during an exercise challenge test and to distinguish patients with EIB from those without EIB. Ninety participants with or without asthma history were included in the study. FEV1 was recorded before and 5, 10, 15, and 20 min after exercise. EIB was defined as an FEV1 decline greater than 10% after exercise. A ratio of root mean square of EMGdi to tidal volume (EMGdi/VT) was used to assess changes in airway resistance. Based on changes in FEV1, 25 of 90 participants exhibited EIB; the remainder were defined as non‐EIB participants. EMGdi/VT in EIB increased by 124% (19%–478%) which was significantly higher than that of 21% (−39% to 134%) in non‐EIB participants (p < 0.001). At the optimal cutoff point (54% in EMGdi/VT), the area under the ROC curve (AUC) for detection of a positive test was 0.92 (p < 0.001) with sensitivity 92% and specificity 88%. EMGdi/VT can be used to assess changes in airway resistance after exercise and could be used to distinguish participants with EIB from those without EIB

Characteristics of extreme precipitation and its sensitivity to regional climate change in the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River Basin

[Objective] Clarifying the regional characteristics and variation trends of extreme precipitation events has great significance for ecological security and disaster mitigation under climate change. [Methods] Based on the observation data from 1961-2020, linear trend analysis, M-K test, Morlet wavelet analysis, and correlation analysis were used to analyze the spatiotemporal variation of extreme precipitation events and their sensitivity to climate change from previous period (1961-1990) and recent period (1991-2020) across the upper and middle Yellow River Basin. [Results] (1) Most extreme precipitation indices decreased first and then increased around the 1990s, except the continuously decreasing consecutive dry days (CDD). In the recent period, average daily rainfall intensity (SDII), rainfall on very wet days (R95), and rainstorm days (R50) significantly rose at 0.43 mm/(d·10a), 13.98 mm/10a, and 0.06 d/10a respectively (p &lt; 0.05). (2) In the whole period, the southwestern part of the study region was relatively wet while the Yellow River bend area was the driest, and the extreme heavy precipitation presented more in the southeast and less in the west. In the recent period, the wetting trend in the upper Yellow River Basin gradually increased, and the frequency and intensity of extreme heavy precipitation in the middle Yellow River Basin increased significantly. (3) The average annual temperature in the upper and middle Yellow River Basin rose by about 1.5 ℃ with the acceleration of the warming rate during the past 60 years. The annual precipitation first decreased and then increased, and the upward trend in the recent period reached the extremely significant level (p &lt; 0.01). The climate of the study region was transforming from warm-dry to warm-wet, especially in the upper part of the basin. Extreme precipitation was more sensitive to the annual precipitation amount than average temperature and had significant positive correlations, except for CDD. [Conclusion] The trends and magnitudes of variation of extreme precipitation events in the previous period and the recent period were much larger than that in the whole period. Since the 1990s, distinct warm-wet trend appeared in the upper reaches, while extreme heavy precipitation events increased significantly in the middle Yellow River Basin, requiring special attention to future floods