Carbon benefits of wolfberry plantation on secondary saline land in Jingtai oasis, Gansu:A case study on application of the CBP model

The largest global source of anthropogenic CO2 emissions comes from the burning of fossil fuel and approximately 30% of total net emissions come from land use and land use change. Forestation and reforestation are regarded worldwide as effective options of sequestering carbon to mitigate climate change with relatively low costs compared with industrial greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction efforts. Cash trees with a steady augmentation in size are recognized as a multiple-beneficial solution to climate change in China. The reporting of C changes and GHG emissions for sustainable land management (SLM) practices such as afforestation is required for a variety of reasons, such as devising land management options and making policy. The Carbon Benefit Project (CBP) Simple Assessment Tool was employed to estimate changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks and GHG emissions for wolfberry (Lycium barbarum L.) planting on secondary salinized land over a 10 year period (2004–2014) in the Jingtai oasis in Gansu with salinized barren land as baseline scenario. Results show that wolfberry plantation, an intensively managed ecosystem, served as a carbon sink with a large potential for climate change mitigation, a restorative practice for saline land and income stream generator for farmers in soil salinized regions in Gansu province. However, an increase in wolfberry production, driven by economic demands, would bring environmental pressures associated with the use of N fertilizer and irrigation. With an understanding of all of the components of an ecosystem and their interconnections using the Drivers-Pressures-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework there comes a need for strategies to respond to them such as capacity building, judicious irrigation and institutional strengthening. Cost benefit analysis (CBA) suggests that wolfberry cultivation was economically profitable and socially beneficial and thus well-accepted locally in the context of carbon sequestration. This study has important implications for Gansu as it helps to understand the role cash trees can play in carbon emission reductions. Such information is necessary in devising management options for sustainable land management (SLM)

Meta-analysis of gene–environment-wide association scans accounting for education level identifies additional loci for refractive error

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Myopia is the most common human eye disorder and it results from complex genetic and environmental causes. The rapidly increasing prevalence of myopia poses a major public health challenge. Here, the CREAM consortium performs a joint meta-analysis to test single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) main effects and SNP × education interaction effects on refractive error in 40,036 adults from 25 studies of European ancestry and 10,315 adults from 9 studies of Asian ancestry. In European ancestry individuals, we identify six novel loci (FAM150B-ACP1, LINC00340, FBN1, DIS3L-MAP2K1, ARID2-SNAT1 and SLC14A2) associated with refractive error. In Asian populations, three genome-wide significant loci AREG, GABRR1 and PDE10A also exhibit strong interactions with education (P<8.5 × 10(-5)), whereas the interactions are less evident in Europeans. The discovery of these loci represents an important advance in understanding how gene and environment interactions contribute to the heterogeneity of myopia

Regional determinants of China’s consumption-based emissions in the economic transition

China has entered the economic transition in the post-financial crisis era, with unprecedented new features that significantly lead to a decline in its carbon emissions. However, regional disparity implies different trajectories in regional decarbonisation. Here, we construct multi-regional input-output tables (MRIO) for 2012 and 2015 and quantitatively evaluate the regional disparity in decarbonisation and the driving forces during 2012-2015. We found China's consumption-based emissions peaked in 2013, largely driven by a peak in consumption-based emissions from developing regions. Declined intensity and industrial structures are determinants due to the economic transition. The rise of the Southwest and Central regions of China have become a new feature, driving up emissions embodied in trade and have reinforced the pattern of carbon flows in the post-financial crisis period. Export-related emissions have bounced up after years of decline, attributed to soaring export volume and export structure in the Southeast and North of the country. The disparity in developing regions has become the new feature in shaping China's economy and decarbonisation

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Effectiveness of Lateral Auditory Collision Warnings: Should Warnings Be Toward Danger or Toward Safety?

Objective. The present study investigated the design of spatially oriented auditory collision warning signals to facilitate drivers’ responses to potential collisions. Background. Prior studies on collision warnings have mostly focused on manual driving. It is necessary to examine the design of collision warnings for safe take-over actions in semi-autonomous driving. Method. In a video-based semi-autonomous driving scenario, participants responded to pedestrians walking across the road, with a warning tone presented in either the avoidance direction or the collision direction. The time interval between the warning tone and the potential collision was also manipulated. In Experiment 1, pedestrians always started walking from one side of the road to the other side. In Experiment 2, pedestrians appeared in the middle of the road and walked toward either side of the road. Results. In Experiment 1, drivers reacted to the pedestrian faster with collision-direction warnings than with avoidance-direction warnings. In Experiment 2, the difference between the two warning directions became non-significant. In both experiments, shorter time intervals to potential collisions resulted in faster reactions but did not influence the effect of warning direction. Conclusion. The collision-direction warnings were advantageous over the avoidance-direction warnings only when they occurred at the same lateral location as the pedestrian, indicating that this advantage was due to the capture of attention by the auditory warning signals. Application. The present results indicate that drivers would benefit most when warnings occur at the side of potential collision objects rather than the direction of a desirable action during semi-autonomous driving

Perspectives of US women participating in a candidate PrEP study: adherence, acceptability and future use intentions

IntroductionLimited data exist on acceptability of candidate preâ exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) regimens among US women. We evaluated PrEP experiences, attitudes and future use intentions among sexually active women who completed the USâ based HIV Prevention Trials Network 069/AIDS Clinical Trials Group 5305 study.MethodsWomen participated in the study between March 2013 and November 2015. We analysed computerâ assisted selfâ interview (CASI) surveys among 130 women and conducted inâ depth interviews among a subset of 26 women from three sites. Interviews were conducted in mid/lateâ 2015.ResultsMost women (57%) reported very good/excellent PrEP adherence on CASI, although 21% acknowledged overâ reporting adherence at least some of the time. Commitment to preventing HIV infection, a sense of ownership of the study, and keeping pills stored in a visible location facilitated adherence. Adherence barriers included â simply forgettingâ and being away from home. Most women interviewed did not intend to use PrEP in the future because of lack of perceived need due to their own (as opposed to their partnersâ ) lowâ risk behaviour and concerns about affordability â but not because of side effects or other characteristics of the regimens.DiscussionImproving HIV prevention options for US women will require access to affordable PrEP as well as expanding women’s understanding of relationshipâ and communityâ level factors that increase their risk of acquiring HIV.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/148389/1/jia225247_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/148389/2/jia225247.pd

Analysis of factors influencing the outpatient workload at Chinese health centres

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Although the community health service system is now established in China, the utilisation of the community health service institutions is low due to the lack of a gate-keeping role of the primary health service providers and referrals among the three-tiered health service institutions. In addition to this, patients who can afford to pay, often seek best services in big hospitals to guarantee the quality of care. Thus, the need of guiding the patients to the community health services and increasing the utilisation of the community health service institutions is becoming an urgent problem, which hinders the future development of community health services. This study focuses on the question of how to increase the utilisation of Chinese community health centres (HCs).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cross-sectional Base-line Survey of Chinese City Community Health Service System Building using the multi-staged cluster sampling was conducted to collect data from all HCs in 28 key contact cities. Relevant indicators of totally 1790 HCs were analysed. The statistical methods included ANONVA and logistic regression.</p> <p>Results and Conclusions</p> <p>The analysis suggested several key factors for increasing the outpatient workload (OW) at the HCs: establishing an adequate referral system among the different levels of the health system; enhancing the qualification of health personnel and increasing the compensation by the health insurance for services provided at HCs. Other key factors with a positive effect on the OW included: the government ownership of the HCs, the scale of the institutions, the medical equipment used, the mix of health services provided, and the women in childbearing age in the residence.</p

Anti–SARS-CoV Immunoglobulin G in Healthcare Workers, Guangzhou, China

Low level of immunity for SARS-CoV among well healthcare workers reinforces the need for infection control measures in hospitals to prevent epidemics