Seagrass distribution changes in Swan Lake of Shandong Peninsula from 1979 to 2009 inferred from satellite remote sensing data

Seagrass and associated bio-resources are very important for swan’s overwintering in Swan Lake in Rongcheng of Shandong Peninsula of China. The seagrass distribution changes, which are usually affected by the regional human activities, can indirectly affect swan’s habitat. In this study the satellite remote sensing data in years 1979–2009 together with in-situ observations in recent years were used to examine the seagrass distribution changes in Swan Lake. The band ratio of band 1 to band 2, Lyzenga’s methods and band synthesize of band 1, band 2 and band 3 were used for seagrass retrieval. The band ratio of band 1 to band 2 with ranges greater than 4.5 was used for estimating the seagrass coverage greater than 50%. Results showed that in years 1979–1990 seagrass coverage greater than 50% occupied more than half of the surface area of Swan Lake. In years 2000–2005, the total area with seagrass distributions reduced greatly, only about one sixth to one fourth of Swan Lake’s surface area. After 2005, the seagrass area in Swan Lake increased gradually and occasionally was greater than one third of the total surface area of the Lake. It was shown that human activities such as the dam and fish pond establishment and the awareness of seagrass importance and protected actively result in the seagrass distributions changes in Swan Lake which decreased first and then increased afterwards

Attention-Block Deep Learning Based Features Fusion in Wearable Social Sensor for Mental Wellbeing Evaluations

With the progressive increase of stress, anxiety and depression in working and living environment, mental health assessment becomes an important social interaction research topic. Generally, clinicians evaluate the psychology of participants through an effective psychological evaluation and questionnaires. However, these methods suffer from subjectivity and memory effects. In this paper, a new multi- sensing wearable device has been developed and applied in self-designed psychological tests. Speech under different emotions as well as behavior signals are captured and analyzed. The mental state of the participants is objectively assessed through a group of psychological questionnaires. In particular, we propose an attention-based block deep learning architecture within the device for multi-feature classification and fusion analysis. This enables the deep learning architecture to autonomously train to obtain the optimum fusion weights of different domain features. The proposed attention-based architecture has led to improving performance compared with direct connecting fusion method. Experimental studies have been carried out in order to verify the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed architecture. The obtained results have shown that the wearable multi-sensing devices equipped with the attention-based block deep learning architecture can effectively classify mental state with better performance

Efficient removal of Pb(II) and Cd(II) from aqueous solutions by mango seed biosorbent

Abundant fruit waste materials can be utilized as sustainable biosorbents for heavy metal removal from aqueous solutions. In this study, mango seed (MS) comprising seed kernel and shell showed the maximum adsorption capacities of 263.4 mg-Pb/g at pH 5.0 and 93.7 mg-Cd/g at pH 7.5. The best fitting of the adsorption isotherms to the Redlich-Peterson model indicated multilayer adsorption of Pb(II) and Cd(II) on the heterogeneous surface of MS. The adsorption was rapid with 93% of Pb(II) and 78% of Cd(II) adsorption accomplished within 10 min. More than 99% of the sequestered Pb(II) and 88% of the sequestered Cd(II) were recovered by desorption using 0.2 M HNO3, and the regenerated MS maintained 96–97% of the adsorption capacities. A combination of physicochemical and spectroscopic approaches showed that carboxyl, hydroxyl, amine, and ether groups were the binding sites; electrostatic attraction, microprecipitation, complexation, and ion exchange (with Ca2+ and Mg2+) jointly contributed to the adsorption. The seed kernel which has a more amorphous structure and a higher ion exchange capability favored higher Pb(II) and Cd(II) adsorption compared with the seed shell which contains a higher content of crystalline cellulose. These findings imply the application potential of MS for heavy metal removal and provide important information for the (bio)sorbent development.</p

Does high-speed railway affect the cost behavior of tourism firms? Evidence from China

Cost stickiness, which is also termed cost asymmetry, describes the asymmetric relationship between revenue and cost. In this study, we examine whether high-speed railway (HSR) connection affects the cost stickiness of tourism firms. Employing a sample of 324 Chinese tourism firms from 2003 to 2018 and applying a difference-in-difference (DID) method, we find that the cost stickiness of tourism firms increases after HSR connection. Our results also reveal that the relationship between HSR connection and cost stickiness is more pronounced in firms with higher free cash flow (FCF), higher labor costs, and in state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Our research advances an indepth understanding of the cost behavior in tourism firms and sheds light on the policy effect of HSR connection

Sophisticated Deception in Junior Middle School Students: An ERP Study

Sophisticated deception refers to the deception of others based on inferences of their mental states (e.g., answering honestly when inferring that the other will not believe their answer). Studying the brain mechanism of sophisticated deception in junior middle school students can provide physiological evidence for deception detection and deceptive ability measurement. Sixteen junior middle school students were asked to engage in different trial types (i.e., instructed truth/lie and chosen truth/lie), during which we recorded their response times (RT) along with electroencephalographic data to calculate event-related potentials (ERPs). We observed significant differences in amplitude [N2, P3, N450, and medial frontal negativity (MFN)] between chosen reactions (sophisticated deception and simple deception) and instructed reactions (instructed truth and instructed lie) in both the stimulus presentation and feedback stages. In the former, the task scores of participants in the chosen condition were significantly and positively correlated with the N2 amplitude over the central brain area during sophisticated deception. In the latter, the task scores of participants in the chosen condition were negatively correlated with the MFN amplitude over the left frontal and left frontocentral regions. Overall, deception intention, rather than simply making counterfactual statements, appears to underlie the increased demand for cognitive control in deceivers. This can be attributed to deceivers’ need to strongly consider their opponent’s mental state—the better the deceivers’ deceptive ability, the more they will make conjectures about the mental state of their opponent with sophisticated deception and monitor conflict; the less conflict they experience while answering honestly with the intention to deceive, the more conflict may arise when the results of their deception are inconsistent with these conjectures

Analysis of refractive development characteristics in school-age children based on biometric measurements: a cross-sectional study involving 12,025 primary school students from Xingtai City

ObjectiveTo investigate refractive development, myopia prevalence trends, and correction status among 6–12-year-old primary students in Xingtai, Hebei, China, and provide evidence for childhood myopia interventions.MethodsThis cross-sectional study enrolled 12,025 eligible students (6–12 years) from 11 schools (2022–2023). Refractive status was assessed via non-cycloplegic autorefraction (NIDEK AR-1), with ocular biometry [axial length (AL), keratometry (K)]. Diagnostic criteria: spherical equivalent (SE) &lt; −0.50D (myopia), K ≤ −0.50D (astigmatism), uncorrected/corrected visual acuity &lt;5.0/&lt;4.9 (subnormal vision/insufficient correction).ResultsVisual impairment prevalence was 65.65% (7,895/12,025), rising significantly from 58.00% (Grade 1) to 75.75% (Grade 6). Myopia prevalence increased from 30.41% to 68.78% (overall 51.69%). SE shifted myopically (−1.46 ± 1.84D overall; Grade 1: −0.66 ± 1.54D vs. Grade 6: −2.20 ± 2.01D). AL increased with grade (23.64 ± 1.07 mm overall; 22.95 ± 0.83 mm to 24.13 ± 1.12 mm), while corneal curvature remained stable (43.39 ± 1.51D; inter-grade variation &lt;0.13D). The AL/corneal radius ratio correlated linearly with SE (3.02 ± 0.17 overall; 2.95 ± 0.10 to 3.08 ± 0.14).ConclusionVision impairment and myopia prevalence show higher prevalence in older age groups in Xingtai primary students. Suboptimal refractive correction rates highlight clinical challenges. AL progression and stable corneal curvature suggest axial elongation drives myopia. The AL/corneal radius ratio’s correlation with SE underscores its potential as a predictor for myopia progression, aiding risk prediction model development

IFT81 as a Candidate Gene for Nonsyndromic Retinal Degeneration.

PURPOSE: IFT81, a core component of the IFT-B complex, involved in the bidirectional transport of ciliary proteins, has been recently implicated in syndromic ciliopathies. However, none of the IFT-B core complex proteins have been associated with nonsyndromic retinal dystrophies. Given the importance of ciliary transport in photoreceptor function and structural maintenance, we sought to investigate the impact of IFT (intraflagellar transport) mutations in nonsyndromic retinopathies. METHODS: Whole exome sequencing was performed on 50 cone-rod dystrophy (CRD) patients that were previously screened for mutations in known retinal disease genes. The impact of candidate mutation was studied using in vitro cell system and in vivo zebrafish assay to determine the pathogenicity of the variant. RESULTS: Compound heterozygous mutations in IFT81, including one nonsense (c.1213C&gt;T, p.R405*) and one missense variant (c.1841T&gt;C, p.L614P), were identified in a nonsyndromic CRD proband. Extensive functional analyses of the missense variant in cell culture and zebrafish strongly suggests its pathogenic nature. Loss of IFT81 impairs ciliogenesis and, interestingly, the missense variant displayed significantly reduced rescue of ciliogenesis in the IFT81 knockdown in vitro system. Consistently, dramatic reduction of rescue efficiency of the ift81 mutant zebrafish embryo by mRNA with the missense variant was observed, further supporting its pathogenicity. CONCLUSIONS: Consistent with the function of the IFT-B complex in the maintenance of photoreceptor cilium, we report a case of mutations in a core IFT-B protein, IFT81. This represents the first report of mutations in IFT81 as a candidate gene for nonsyndromic retinal dystrophy, hence expanding the phenotype spectrum of IFT-B components

Factors associated with patients’ healthcare-seeking behavior and related clinical outcomes under China’s hierarchical healthcare delivery system

IntroductionThe hierarchical healthcare delivery system is an important measure to improve the allocation of medical resources and promote equitable distribution of basic medical and health services. It is one of the key factors in the success or failure of China’s medical reform. This study aims to analyze the factors influencing patients’ healthcare-seeking behaviors, including socioeconomic and clinical outcomes, under China’s hierarchical healthcare delivery system, and to provide potential solutions.MethodsPatients receiving outpatient treatment in the past 14 days and inpatient care in the past 1 year were investigated. The multivariate logistic regression was used to analyze the influencing factors of patient’s medical treatment behavior selection, and to compare whether the clinical outcomes of primary medical institutions and grade A hospitals are the same.ResultsNine thousand and ninety-eight person-times were included in the study. Of these, 4,538 patients were outpatients, 68.27% of patients were treated in primary medical institutions; 4,560 patients were hospitalized, 58.53% chose to be hospitalized in grade A hospitals. Provinces and cities, urban and rural areas, occupation, education level, medical insurance type, income, whether there are comorbid diseases, and doctors’ medical behavior are the factors affecting the choice of medical treatment behavior. Patients who choose primary medical institutions and grade A hospitals have different control levels and control rate for the blood pressure, blood lipids, blood glucose.ConclusionUnder the hierarchical diagnosis and treatment system, the patients’ choice of hospital is mainly affected by their level of education, medical insurance types, and the inpatients are also affected by whether there are comorbid conditions. Clinical outcomes of choosing different levels of hospitals were different

Sound Absorption Properties of Natural Fibers: A Review

In recent years, in an attempt to substitute the conventional synthetic sound absorption material, natural fibers and their sound absorption properties have been increasingly studied. This is due to the fact that conventional synthetic fiber has potential health risks for human beings and significant environmental impact. In this review, existing and newly emerging natural fiber sound absorbers are summarized and highlighted in three categories: raw material, fiber assembly and composite. The sound absorption mechanism, several widely used prediction models and the popular acoustic characterization methods are presented. The comparison of sound absorption properties between some natural sound absorbers and glass fiber is conducted in two groups, i.e., thin material and thick material. It is found that many natural fibers have comparable sound absorption performance, some of them can be the ideal alternatives to glass fiber, such as kapok fiber, pineapple-leaf fiber and hemp fiber. Last, the conclusion part of this review gives an outlook regarding the promotion of the commercial use of natural fiber by means of theoretical study, efficient and environmentally friendly pretreatment and Life Cycle Assessment