Associations between short-term exposure to ambient PM2.5 and incident cases of cardiovascular disease in Yantai, China.

There are limited studies investigating the association between short-term exposure to PM2.5 and incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) cases in China. This study aims to examine the short-term effects of PM2.5 on the incidence of cardiovascular diseases. A combination of Poisson-distribution generalized linear model and distributed lag non-linear model was used to examine the association between short-term exposure to PM2.5 and incident cases of CVD. The results revealed that per 10 µg/m3 increment of PM2.5 would increase the incident CVD cases by 0.147% (Relative Risk: 1.00147, 95% Confidence Interval: 1.00008-1.00286) at a lag of 2 days. The stratified analyses showed higher effects risk in females, older residents (aged 60-75 years), and acute myocardial infarction group (p-value for difference <0.05). This study indicates that short-term exposure to PM2.5 may increase the risk of CVD and highlights the necessity for a higher air quality standard in Yantai, China.

Association between PM2.5 and hypertension among the floating population in China: a cross-sectional study.

Few studies have investigated the association between PM2.5 and hypertension among floating populations. We therefore examined the relationship using binary logistic regression. Each grade of increment in the annual average PM2.5 (grade one: ≤15 µg/m3; grade two: 15-25 µg/m3; grade three: 25-35 µg/m3 [Excluding 25]; grade four: ≥35 µg/m3) was associated with an increased risk of hypertension (odds ratio [OR] = 1.081, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.034-1.129). Among the female floating population (OR = 1.114, 95% CI: 1.030-1.204), those with education level of primary school and below (OR = 1.140, 95% CI: 1.058-1.229), construction workers (OR = 1.228, 95% CI: 1.058-1.426), and those living in the eastern region of China (OR = 1.241, 95% CI: 1.145-1.346) were more vulnerable to PM2.5. These results indicate that PM2.5 is positively associated with hypertension in floating populations. Floating populations who are female, less educated, construction workers, and living in the eastern region of China are more vulnerable to the adverse impacts of PM2.5.

Trends and prediction in the incidence rate of hepatitis C in Shandong Province in China from 2004 to 2030.

BACKGROUND: Hepatitis C threatens human health and brings a heavy economic burden. Shandong Province is the second most populous province in China and has uneven regional economic development. Therefore, we analyzed the incidence rate trend and regional differences of hepatitis C in Shandong Province from 2004 to 2021. METHODS: The monthly and annual incidence rates of hepatitis C in Shandong Province from 2022 to 2030 were predicted by fitting Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average model (ARIMA), Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and ARIMA-LSTM combined model. RESULTS: From 2004 to 2021, annual new cases of hepatitis C in Shandong Province increased from 635 to 5834, with a total of 61,707 cases. The incidence rate increased from 0.69/100 thousand in 2004 to 6.40/100 thousand in 2019, with a slight decrease in 2020 and 2021. The average annual incidence rate was 3.47/100 thousand. In terms of regional distribution, the hepatitis C incidence rate in Shandong Province was generally high in the west and low in the east. It is estimated that the hepatitis C incidence rate in Shandong Province will be 9.21 per 100 thousand in 2030. CONCLUSION: The hepatitis C incidence rate in Shandong Province showed an increasing trend from 2004 to 2019 and a decreasing trend in 2020 and 2021. Significant regional variations in incidence rate existed. An upward trend in incidence rate is predicted from 2022 to 2030. It is necessary to strengthen the prevention and control of hepatitis C to achieve the goal of eliminating viral hepatitis by 2030.

Event-triggered distributed secure state estimation for homologous sensor attacks.

Network security technology is capable of mitigating attack signals launched by malicious attackers, thereby safeguarding and bolstering system security. Secure state estimation is a type of network defense technology that involves reconstructing the system state by measuring potential attacks. The relevant research has also been expanded to distributed systems to enable collaborative secure state estimation among different agents facing homogeneous attacks; however, such research significantly enhance the communication load of the system. On the other hand, if the homogeneous attack is non-existent or consistent, excessive network communication is definitely inefficient. An event-triggered approach is a potent technique that can alleviate communication overhead while having minimal impact on system performance. This paper proposes a mechanism for event-triggered transmission in the context of distributed secure state estimation. While communication latency and data transmission disorder may be present within the communication network, the estimation error of the proposed observer is constrained and bounded. The simulation results indicate that for stable malicious attack signals, system communication can be divided into high-frequency and low-frequency communication periods. The simulation results also shows that the maximum estimation error is proportional to the trigger threshold, allowing the observer's performance to be finely tuned to the required precision.

Association between exposure to ambient PM2.5 and the health status in the mobile population from 338 cities in China.

There are limited studies investigating the relationship between exposure to PM2.5 and the health status among the mobile population. A cross-sectional analysis was performed in a nationally representative sample (2017 China Migrants Dynamic Survey data) consisting of 169,469 mobile population. The ordered logistic regression model was used to examine the association between PM2.5 and the health status in mobile population. Stratified analyses were performed to identify whether the association varied across gender, age group, and regions in China. Overall, every 10 µg/m3 increment in annual average PM2.5 was associated with increased risk of poor self-reported health (OR = 1.021, 95% CI: 1.012-1.030). Mobile population aged 31-49 years and living in the central region suffers the highest PM2.5-associated health risk (OR = 1.030, 95% CI: 1.019-1.042; OR = 1.095, 95% CI: 1.075-1.116). Our study suggests that PM2.5 exposure was associated with an increased risk of poor self-reported health in mobile population, particularly among the population aged 31-49 years and people living in the central region of China. Policymakers should pay more attention to the vulnerable mobile population to tackle the health burden of ambient air pollution.

The interaction effects between exposure to ambient PM2.5 and economic development on the settlement intention for floating population in China.

Limited studies examined the interaction effects between exposure to ambient PM2.5 and economic development on the settlement intention of floating population. We used binary logistic model to examine the association of PM2.5, per capita GDP (PGDP), PM2.5 [Formula: see text] PGDP on the settlement intention. Additive interaction term of PM2.5 and PGDP level was used to investigate their interactive effects. Overall, each one grade increment in annual average PM2.5 was associated with decreased probability of settlement intention (OR = 0.847, 95%CI: 0.811-0.885). The interaction effect between PM2.5 and PGDP on settlement intention was significant (OR = 1.168, 95%CI: 1.142-1.194). The stratified analysis showed PM2.5 exhibits lower settlement intention in the aged 55 years or above, engaged in low-skilled works, and living in the western China. This study indicates that PM2.5-exposed will decrease the settlement intention of floating population. High economic development level can weaken the relationship between PM2.5 and settlement intention. Policymakers should balance the socio-economic development and environmental health and focus on vulnerable population.

Highly Efficient and Chemoselective Tandem Hydroformylation-Hydrogenation of Alkenes to Alcohols over g-CN Supported Bimetallic Rh and Co Nanoparticles Catalysts.

The objective of the tandem hydroformylation-hydrogenation of alkenes to corresponding alcohols was to design an efficient and stable heterogeneous catalyst. To this end, a series of novel heterogeneous graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN) supported bimetallic Rh-Co nanoparticle catalysts (Rh-Co/g-CN) were prepared and subsequently studied for this one-pot two-step reaction. The lamellar structure makes Rh and Co nanoparticles with diameters of <1 nm and 20 nm, respectively, homogeneously deposited on the surface of g-CN layers, exhibit remarkable conversion of styrene (99.9 %) and chemoselectivity for alcohol (87.8 %). More importantly, Co nanoparticles are found to play an important role in the improvement of the chemoselectivity for alcohol due to the formation of catalytic active species [HCo(CO)y ]. Besides the detailed investigation of the catalytic properties of Rh-Co/g-CN under different reaction conditions, the reuse of Rh-Co/g-CN was conducted for five times and no evident decrease in the activity and chemoselectivity was observed. Therefore, we expect that this work could offer an initial insight into g-CN-based heterogeneous catalyst on the tandem hydroformylation-hydrogenation reaction.

Genetic and functional characterization of multiple thermophilic organosulfur-removal systems reveals desulfurization potentials for waste residue oil cleaning.

Heavy oil and petroleum refining residues usually contain high concentrations of recalcitrant hazardous organosulfur compounds, causing long-term serious global environmental pollution during leakage and combustion. Research conducted here identified a unique thermophilic bacterium Parageobacillus thermoglucosidasius W-36 with the notable ability of waste residue oil desulfurization, utilization and tolerance of multiplex hazardous organosulfur pollutants. Genome information mining revealed multiple desulfurization systems in three organosulfur-utilizing gene clusters. Enzymatic characterization, phylogenetic relationships, transcriptional performance and structural prediction indicated four novel key monooxygenases for diverse organosulfur removal. Importantly, all monooxygenases shared obvious commonalities in the predicted tertiary structure backbone and catalytic characteristics of C-S bond cleavage, implying the potential of genetic engineering for broad-spectrum hazardous organosulfur removal. Therefore, this work demonstrated the important application potential of thermophilic bacteria as a promising alternative biodesulfurization way for waste residue oil cleaning.

A novel zirconium-based metal-organic framework covalently modified by methyl pyridinium bromide for mild and co-catalyst free conversion of CO2 to cyclic carbonates.

Building metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) covalently modified by onium halides is a promising approach to develop efficient MOF-based heterogeneous catalysts for the cycloaddition of CO2 to epoxides (CCE) into cyclic carbonates. Herein, we report a novel zirconium-based MOF covalently modified by methyl pyridinium bromide, Zr6O4(OH)4(MPTDC)2.2(N-CH3-MPTDC)3.8Br3.8 ((Br-)CH3-Pyridinium-MOF-1), where MPTDC denotes 3-methyl-4-pyridin-4-yl-thieno[2,3-b] thiophene-2,5-dicarboxylate. The structure and composition of this complex were fully characterized with PXRD, NMR, XPS, TEM and so on. CO2 adsorption experiments show that (Br-)CH3-Pyridinium-MOF-1 has a higher affinity for CO2 than its electrically neutral precursor, which should be attributed to the fact that charging frameworks containing pyridinium salt have stronger polarization to CO2. (Br-)CH3-Pyridinium-MOF-1 integrated reactive Lewis acid sites and Br- nucleophilic anions and exhibited efficient catalytic activity for CCE under ambient pressure in the absence of co-catalysts and solvents. Furthermore, (Br-)CH3-Pyridinium-MOF-1 was recycled after five successive cycles without substantial loss in catalytic activity. The corresponding reaction mechanism also was speculated.

Associations between short-term exposure to ambient PM2.5 and incident cases of cerebrovascular disease in Yantai, China.

There are limited studies examining the association between PM2.5 exposure and incident cerebrovascular disease (CD) cases in China. In this study, daily counts of incident CD cases and daily PM2.5 concentrations were obtained in Yantai, Shandong Province, China from 2014 to 2019. We used a combination of the Poisson-distribution generalized linear model (GLM) and a distributed lag nonlinear model (DLNM) to examine the association of short-term exposure to ambient PM2.5 and incident cases of CD. The results revealed that for every 10 µg/m3 increment of PM2.5 would increase the incident CD cases by 0.216% (RR:1.00216, 95%CI:1.0016-1.0028) at lag4. The stratified analysis demonstrated that the females and residents aged 65 years or above presented higher short-term PM2.5-associated CD risks than the males and aged below 65 years. Targeted prevention strategies should be adopted to reduce the PM2.5-related CD burden, especially for the susceptible population in China.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons residues and the carcinogenic risk assessment to pregnant women in Nantong, China using QuEChERS method and HPLC-A pilot case study.

A high-performance liquid chromatographic method with a modified QuEChERS extraction for the determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in blood serum was developed to investigate the internal exposure level and the carcinogentic toxicity contribution rate of PAHs for pregnant women in Nantong, China. Venous blood (n = 48) was collected in the local hospital and the internal exposure level of 16 PAHs and the contribution rate of carcinogenicity to pregnant women were analyzed. Among all of the detected PAHs, the detection rate of pyrene (77.08%) was the highest, followed by naphthalene (64.58%) and benzo[a]anthracene (BaA, 45.83%). The carcinogenicity contribution rate of BaA (37.37%) was the highest, followed by fluorene (32.96%) and acenaphthylene (22.01%). The results showed that many kinds of carcinogenic PAHs can be detected in the serum of pregnant women in Nantong city, among which BaA should be paid most attention because of its high internal exposure level and carcinogenic risk. Meanwhile, the origins of general PAHs in serum samples were analyzed using the characteristic ratio analysis method. The PAH pollution level of air samples (n = 42) during the collection time of blood samples was also analyzed to compare the possible correlations between the two different results.

A high-resolution summary of Cambrian to Early Triassic marine invertebrate biodiversity.

One great challenge in understanding the history of life is resolving the influence of environmental change on biodiversity. Simulated annealing and genetic algorithms were used to synthesize data from 11,000 marine fossil species, collected from more than 3000 stratigraphic sections, to generate a new Cambrian to Triassic biodiversity curve with an imputed temporal resolution of 26 ± 14.9 thousand years. This increased resolution clarifies the timing of known diversification and extinction events. Comparative analysis suggests that partial pressure of carbon dioxide (Pco2) is the only environmental factor that seems to display a secular pattern similar to that of biodiversity, but this similarity was not confirmed when autocorrelation within that time series was analyzed by detrending. These results demonstrate that fossil data can provide the temporal and taxonomic resolutions necessary to test (paleo)biological hypotheses at a level of detail approaching those of long-term ecological analyses.

The determinants of urban sustainability in Chinese resource-based cities: A panel quantile regression approach.

Improving energy efficiency and reducing environmental pollution emissions are two important ways to alleviate energy problems. Despite the progress in energy efficiency, the growth in energy demand still exceeds the efficiency improvements. This study adopts nonparametric methods to estimate the total factor energy efficiency (TFEE) of 105 resource-based cities covering the period 2010-2016 in China and analyzes the spatiotemporal characteristics of changes in energy efficiency. Furthermore, panel quantile regression is applied to analyze the multiple impacts of economic level, industrial structure, resource endowment, energy price, government intervention and degree of openness on energy efficiency. The main findings are as follows. (1) Each determinant has a different influence on TFEE at different levels; among them, the influence of the fuel and energy price index show an inverted U-shaped distribution as the quantile increases, and that of the GDP per capita shows a stronger heterogeneity than those of other factors. (2) Resource-based cities with lower efficiency are more sensitive to government intervention than are cities with higher efficiency. (3) A city's openness has a negative effect on TFEE, which partly supports the pollution haven hypothesis: the more foreign investment a resource-based city receives, the lower its energy and technology efficiency. Finally, some practical suggestions for the sustainable development of resource-based cities are discussed.

Comparative transcriptomic analysis revealed the key pathways responsible for organic sulfur removal by thermophilic bacterium Geobacillus thermoglucosidasius W-2.

Biodesulfurization is a promising method to desulfurize sulfur-containing compounds in oil with its unique advantages, such as environment-friendly treatments and moderate reaction conditions. In this study, a thermophilic bacterium Geobacillus thermoglucosidasius W-2 was reported to show nearly 40% and 55% desulfurization rates on heavy oil with 2.81% and 0.46% initial total sulfur content, respectively. Subsequently, comparative transcriptome analysis indicated that several possible key desulfurization-related genes of this strain were found to be differentially up-regulated induced by benzothiophene and dibenzothiophene, respectively. These desulfurization-related genes were considered to conduct key step to convert organic sulfur to inorganic sulfur. Moreover, the characterization of thermophilic alkanesulfonate monooxygenase systems SsuD1/SsuE1 and SsuD2/SsuE2 revealed that the enzymes exhibit considerable thermal and pH stability and wide substrates applicability. These enzymes probably endowed the strain W-2 with the ability to desulfurize oil and eliminate the sulfur-containing surfactants. Thus, this study provides novel alkanesulfonate monooxygenase systems that have the application potential for heavy oil biodesulfurization, oil demulsification and other biocatalytic processes.

[Schistosomiasis monitoring and its cost in population in Danyang City, 2010-2014].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the monitoring method of the infection source of schistosomiasis in the population of the schistosomiasis transmission-interrupted area with Oncomelania hupensis snails. METHODS: The changes of schistosomiasis among the population were investigated by using the active and passive monitoring methods in Danyang City from 2010 to 2014, and the cost-effectiveness of the two monitoring methods was evaluated. RESULTS: Totally 49,277 persons were detected for schistosomiasis by dipstick dye immunoassay (DDIA) from 2010 to 2014 and 608 cases were positive, and the positive rate was 1.23%. There were no positive persons by etiology detections. The positive rates of active and passive monitoring methods were 1.61% and 1.13%, respectively and there was a significant difference between them (χ² = 15.982, P < 0.05). The average cost per positive case of the active monitoring was higher than that of the passive monitoring without considering the costs of the mobilization and labor. CONCLUSION: In the schistosomiasis transmission-interrupted area with snails, the active and passive monitoring methods need to be combined in the future.