The turning points of housing prices play a significant role in the real estate market and economy. However, because multiple factors impact the market, the prediction of the turning points of ...housing prices faces significant challenges. To solve this problem, in this study, a historical data-based model that incorporates a multi-population genetic algorithm with elitism into the log-periodic power law model is proposed. This model overcomes the weaknesses of multivariate and univariate methods that it does not require any external factors while achieving excellent interpretations. We applied the model to the case study collected from housing prices in Wuhan, China, from December 2016 to October 2018. To verify its reliability, we compared the results of the proposed model to those of the log-periodic power law model optimized by the standard genetic algorithm and simulated annealing, the results of which indicate that the proposed model performs best in terms of prediction. Efficiently predicting and analyzing the housing prices will help the government promulgate effective policies for regulating the real estate market and protect home buyers.
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is highly prevalent in the population, yet the factors contributing to AF events in susceptible individuals remain partially understood. The potential relationship between ...meteorological factors and AF, particularly with abnormal electrocardiograph (ECG) repolarization, has not been adequately studied. This case-crossover study aims to investigate the association between meteorological factors and daily hospital visits for AF with abnormal ECG repolarization in Shanghai, China.
The study cohort comprised 10,325 patients with ECG-confirmed AF who sought treatment at Shanghai Sixth People's Hospital between 2015 and 2018. Meteorological and air pollutant concentration data were matched with the patient records. Using a case-crossover design, we analyzed the association between meteorological factors and the daily count of hospital visitors for AF with abnormal ECG repolarization at our AF center. Lag analysis models were applied to examine the temporal relationship between meteorological factors and AF events.
The analysis revealed statistically significant associations between AF occurrence and specific meteorological factors. AF events were significantly associated with average atmospheric pressure (lag 0 day, OR 0.9901, 95% CI 0.9825-0.9977, P < 0.05), average temperature (lag 1 day, OR 0.9890, 95% CI 0.9789-0.9992, P < 0.05), daily pressure range (lag 7 days, OR 1.0195, 95% CI 1.0079-1.0312, P < 0.01), and daily temperature range (lag 5 days, OR 1.0208, 95% CI 1.0087-1.0331, P < 0.01). Moreover, a significant correlation was observed between daily pressure range and daily temperature range with AF patients, particularly those with abnormal ECG repolarization, as evident in the case-crossover analysis.
This study highlights a significant correlation between meteorological factors and daily hospital visits for AF accompanied by abnormal ECG repolarization in Shanghai, China. In addition, AF patients with abnormal ECG repolarization were found to be more vulnerable to rapid daily changes in pressure and temperature compared to AF patients without such repolarization abnormalities.
Abstract
Background
The relationship between air pollution and atrial fibrillation (AF) recorded by electrocardiograph (ECG) has not yet been illustrated which worsens AF precaution and treatment. ...This research evaluated the association between air pollution and daily hospital visits for AF with ECG records.
Methods
The study enrolled 4933 male and 5392 female patients whose ECG reports indicated AF from 2015 to 2018 in our hospital. Such data were then matched with meteorological data, including air pollutant concentrations, collected by local weather stations. A case-crossover study was performed to assess the relationship between air pollutants and daily hospital visits for AF recorded by ECG and to investigate its lag effect.
Results
Our analysis revealed statistically significant associations between AF occurrence and demographic data, including age and gender. This effect was stronger in female (
k
= 0.02635,
p
< 0.01) and in patients over 65 y (
k
= 0.04732,
p
< 0.01). We also observed a hysteretic effect that when exposed to higher nitrogen dioxide(NO
2
), counting AF cases recorded by ECG may elevate at lag 0 with a maximum odds ratio(OR) of 1.038 (95% CI 1.014–1.063), on the contrary, O
3
reduced the risk of daily visits for AF and its maximum OR was at lag 2, and the OR value was 0.9869 (95% CI 0.9791–0.9948). Other air pollutants such as PM
2.5
, PM
10
, and SO
2
showed no clear relationship with the recorded AF.
Conclusion
The associations between air pollution and AF recorded with ECG were preliminarily discovered. Short-term exposure to NO
2
was significantly associated with daily hospital visits for AF management.
Neohesperidin dihydrochalcone (NHDC), a sweetener derived from citrus, belongs to the family of bycyclic flavonoids dihydrochalcones. NHDC has been reported to act against CCl4-induced hepatic ...injury, but its mechanism is still unclear. We first discovered that NHDC showed a strong ability to scavenge free radicals. In addition, NHDC induces the phase II antioxidant enzymes heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) and NAD(P)H/quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1) through the activation of the nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2 (Nrf2)/antioxidant response element (ARE) signaling. Further assays demonstrated that NHDC induces accumulation of Nrf2 in the nucleus and augmented Nrf2-ARE binding activity. Moreover, NHDC inhibits the ubiquitination of Nrf2 and suggests the modification of Kelch-like ECH-associated protein 1 (Keap1) and the disruption of the Keap1/Nrf2 complex. c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and p38 but not extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase (ERK) phosphorylations were up-regulated by NHDC treatment. Taken together, NHDC showed its protective antioxidant effect against CCl4-induced oxidative damage via the direct free radical scavenging and indirect Nrf2/ARE signaling pathway.
Fine-grained subjective partitioning of urban space using human activity flows reveals actual human activity spaces with high resolution, which has great implications for the development and ...validation of planning strategies. This paper presents a new method for fine-grained subjective partitioning of urban space based on the combination of network analysis and human interactions from social media. Three main procedures are involved in this method: 1) a cut-off point for hierarchical partitioning is determined by fitting the probability distribution function of human activity patterns; 2) based on this cut-off point, improved hierarchical weighted-directed spatial networks are constructed by incorporating a gravity model into conventional spatial networks to take into account the importance of the attraction of nodes in shaping urban space; and 3) the hierarchical and fine-grained partitioning results, which reveal the actual human activity spaces with high resolution at multiscale are obtained by implementing a spatial community detection algorithm in these networks. A case study, using a real-world dataset from the capital of China validates the effectiveness of the proposed method. By analyzing the results from Beijing, we concluded that the social media, a gravity model, and the hierarchical subjective communities detected from the hierarchical human activity networks are all outstanding contributors to the fine-grained subjective partitioning of urban spaces.
The role of soil microbial variables in shaping the temporal variability of soil respiration has been well acknowledged but is poorly understood, particularly under elevated nitrogen (N) deposition ...conditions. We measured soil respiration along with soil microbial properties during the early, middle, and late growing seasons in temperate grassland plots that had been treated with N additions of 0, 2, 4, 8, 16, or 32 g N m(-2) yr(-1) for 10 years. Representing the averages over three observation periods, total (Rs) and heterotrophic (Rh) respiration were highest with 4 g N m(-2) yr(-1), but autotrophic respiration (Ra) was highest with 8 to 16 g N m(-2) yr(-1). Also, the responses of Rh and Ra were unsynchronized considering the periods separately. N addition had no significant impact on the temperature sensitivity (Q10) for Rs but inhibited the Q10 for Rh. Significant interactions between observation period and N level occurred in soil respiration components, and the temporal variations in soil respiration components were mostly associated with changes in microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs). Further observation on soil organic carbon and root biomass is needed to reveal the long-term effect of N deposition on soil C sequestration.
The relationship between air pollution and atrial fibrillation (AF) recorded by electrocardiograph (ECG) has not yet been illustrated which worsens AF precaution and treatment. This research ...evaluated the association between air pollution and daily hospital visits for AF with ECG records.
The study enrolled 4933 male and 5392 female patients whose ECG reports indicated AF from 2015 to 2018 in our hospital. Such data were then matched with meteorological data, including air pollutant concentrations, collected by local weather stations. A case-crossover study was performed to assess the relationship between air pollutants and daily hospital visits for AF recorded by ECG and to investigate its lag effect.
Our analysis revealed statistically significant associations between AF occurrence and demographic data, including age and gender. This effect was stronger in female (k = 0.02635, p < 0.01) and in patients over 65 y (k = 0.04732, p < 0.01). We also observed a hysteretic effect that when exposed to higher nitrogen dioxide(NO
), counting AF cases recorded by ECG may elevate at lag 0 with a maximum odds ratio(OR) of 1.038 (95% CI 1.014-1.063), on the contrary, O
reduced the risk of daily visits for AF and its maximum OR was at lag 2, and the OR value was 0.9869 (95% CI 0.9791-0.9948). Other air pollutants such as PM
, PM
, and SO
showed no clear relationship with the recorded AF.
The associations between air pollution and AF recorded with ECG were preliminarily discovered. Short-term exposure to NO
was significantly associated with daily hospital visits for AF management.
Research on the realistic and comprehensive identification of citywide spatial patterns of economic segregation is valuable for the sustainable development of cities. The consideration of human ...activities in segregation research inspires us to develop an alternative method to contribute to this type of research. In our method, we emphasize the combination of collective activity spaces (CASs) and spatial economic data, both of which are obtained from dynamic human activities. We first reveal the realistic use of urban spaces from human mobility patterns to generate multilevel CASs as basic analytical units. Then, we use a type of realistic economic data generated from human activities to measure the segregation level of each CAS. We realize this measurement by tailoring a segregation index, named the Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency-Index of Concentration at the Extremes-based (TFIDF-ICE-based) segregation index, for our economic data. Through these methods, we can uncover citywide multilevel spatial patterns of economic segregation realistically and comprehensively. Using Beijing and Wuhan as cases, we demonstrate and discuss the applicability and value of our method.
•Using data derived from human activities to contribute to realistic investigation.•Investigating the economic segregation of a region at different scales to contribute to comprehensive results.•Instead of an arbitrary division, our realistic and multilevel CASs can optimize the MAUP to a certain extent.•Involving TFIDF into ICE to contribute to a new segregation index for data with a multi-type nature.
•N switches microbial composition to more gram-positive bacteria but less fungi.•N weakens the contributions to glucose utilization in gram-negative bacteria and fungi.•N regulates the dynamics of ...glucose utilization in gram-negative bacteria and fungi.•Theories of ‘nutrient stoichiometry’ and ‘N mining’ are supported in the study.•No soil C accumulation by N can be explained by the C sources shift in microorganisms.
Carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling in soil during microbial decomposition is well studied, yet the mechanism underlying the response of microbial C utilization to the presence of N still remains an open question. This study was designed to determine the effect of long-term N fertilization on grassland microbial communities, and to explore if the alteration of labile C utilization of microbial communities was affected by N. A 35-day multi-factorial incubation experiment with three N fertilization rates 0, 4, or 16gNm−2 yr−1 (applied as urea) and one C substrate application, 0.4mg 13C glucose g−1 soil was conducted using a temperate grassland soil. Soil respiration, inorganic N, soil total C (TC) and total N (TN), and 13C-phospholipid fatty acids were measured. High N fertilization rate (16gNm−2 yr−1) increased soil inorganic nitrogen (ION) significantly and resulted in a significant drop of soil pH, which decreased from a neutral (∼pH 7) to pH 5.8. Long-term N fertilization caused an increased 13C utilization of gram-positive bacteria and actinomycetes, but reduced 13C utilization of gram-negative bacteria and fungi. Low and high N levels had inconsistent impacts on the temporal patterns of 13C distribution in saprophytic fungi and ratios of incorporated 13C in cyclopropyl to its precursor during the course of the decomposition. Decomposition theories such as ‘nutrient stoichiometry’ and ‘N mining’ were both supported in this study, as N mining was least prominent in soil with high N fertilization rates, while optimal nutrient ratio existed when labile C was added in soil under low N level. N fertilization in the temperate grassland might regulate the shift in labile C and SOM between microbial C utilization. To further understand the coupling of soil C and N, future work should focus on the beginning of the decomposition process, and increase the sampling frequency.
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