To provide comprehensive estimates of the global, regional, and national burden of infertility from 1990 to 2017, using findings from a 2017 study on the global burden of disease (GBD), we assessed ...the burden of infertility in 195 countries and territories from 1990 to 2017. DisMod-MR 2.1 is a Bayesian meta-regression method that estimates non-fatal outcomes using sparse and heterogeneous epidemiological data. Globally, the age-standardized prevalence rate of infertility increased by 0.370% per year for females and 0.291% per year for males from 1990 to 2017. Additionally, age-standardized disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) of infertility increased by 0.396% per year for females and 0.293% per year for males during the observational period. An increasing trend to these burden estimates was observed throughout the all socio-demographic index (SDI) countries. Interestingly, we found that high SDI countries had the lowest level of prevalence and DALYs in both genders. However, the largest increasing trend was observed in high-SDI countries for females. By contrast, low-SDI countries had the largest increasing trend in males. Negative associations were observed between these burden estimates and the SDI level. The global disease burden of infertility has been increasing throughout the period from 1990 to 2017.
At the present, the information technology develops with high-speed, the advent of the period of big data allows people to analyse and handle various data generated in production and life, and ...discover the internal laws of event development based on these data. The operation of big data is helpful for us to grasp the development law of the event better, forecast and assess the future process current of the event. At the same time, the big data thinking mode helps us to get information and learn knowledge more deeply and quickly. If we apply the big data model at the area of college teaching, it will bring about tremendous changes to college education. Nowadays, the ideological and political education in Chinese colleges and universities still maintains traditional classroom education model. Recently, due to the epidemic situation, online education has gradually come into view. In the information age, online education will be the general trend, therefore, the usage of big data in high-school education will receive unprecedented attention. In the era of big data, university ideological and political education should up to date and fully reflect the features of the new age. In addition, we must integrate information technology into all aspects of the educational mechanism, organically combine data thinking with ideological and political education, and contribute to the development of my country's university education. In this article, the author will discuss the optimization of network teaching resources of high-school ideological and political courses at the period of big data.
Fluorine, as the most electronegative element, can replace the oxygen ligands of functional groups under given conditions. These fluoride groups are more or less different from the pure oxide groups ...in composition, symmetry, polarizability, transmittancy,
etc.
The rational use of these differences is expected to improve the probability of noncentrosymmetric structures and the comprehensive performance of second-harmonic-generation (SHG) materials. In this feature article, we introduce the recent developments in fluoride selenite and tellurite SHG materials together with highlighting our contributions, including Se(
iv
) and Te(
iv
) compounds with (i) d
0
transition metal oxyfluoride octahedron, (ii) IIIA metal oxyfluoride octahedron, (iii) fluoride lone pair cation polyhedron, and (iv) other fluoride polyhedron. The future perspectives of fluoride selenite and tellurite SHG materials are also discussed.
Inclusion of the most electronegative fluorine can regulate the distortion direction and magnitude of the structure, bandgap, and second-harmonic-generation (SHG) efficiency of materials effectively.
Using an incentive-compatible framed field experiment, we investigate whether consumers’ food consumption is more eco-friendly when the information about a product’s environmental impact is more ...easily accessible. Through an online survey, we identify a food label that is perceived to be the most easily accessible for assessing a product’s eco-friendliness among six alternatives. These alternatives vary on multiple dimensions, including whether a standardized score of the overall environmental impact is added. This new food label is subsequently tested in an experimental food market embedded in a Belgian supermarket. We find that the presence of the new label that was preselected in the online survey leads to more eco-friendly food consumption relative to either the label currently used in the supermarket, or the label that contains the raw information of the environmental impact. In our experimental food market, the use of an easy-to-interpret but comprehensive environmental information label increases the overall eco-friendliness of our subjects’ food consumption by about 5.3% relative to the default label used in current markets.
•The impact of environmental information on consumer behavior•We use multi-criteria environmental information labels in a framed field experiment.•Switching behavior towards environmentally friendly food products is observed.•Choice experiment findings are confirmed in an incentive compatible field setting.•Potential for policy makers to enlarge environmentally friendly consumer segment
Ischemic stroke is one of the leading causes of mortality and disability worldwide. However, there is a current lack of effective therapies available. As the resident macrophages of the brain, ...microglia can monitor the microenvironment and initiate immune responses. In response to various brain injuries, such as ischemic stroke, microglia are activated and polarized into the proinflammatory M1 phenotype or the anti‑inflammatory M2 phenotype. The immunomodulatory molecules, such as cytokines and chemokines, generated by these microglia are closely associated with secondary brain damage or repair, respectively, following ischemic stroke. It has been shown that M1 microglia promote secondary brain damage, whilst M2 microglia facilitate recovery following stroke. In addition, autophagy is also reportedly involved in the pathology of ischemic stroke through regulating the activation and function of microglia. Therefore, this review aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of microglia activation, their functions and changes, and the modulators of these processes, including transcription factors, membrane receptors, ion channel proteins and genes, in ischemic stroke. The effects of autophagy on microglia polarization in ischemic stroke were also reviewed. Finally, future research areas of ischemic stroke and the implications of the current knowledge for the development of novel therapeutics for ischemic stroke were identified.
Cultural heritage in Chinese
qiaoxiang
is constructed where Chinese and foreign cultures gather, connecting overseas Chinese with their country of origin. However, conflicts concerning this type of ...heritage comes out frequently, such as house reconstruction clash, host-guest conflicts and destructive competition in heritage tourism. The economic and cultural duality of heritage is perceived as the source of intrinsic contestation in heritage tourism, and conflicts related to different types of heritage may take on different appearances and causes. Extant tourism studies have generalised cultural heritage in Chinese
qiaoxiang
, neglecting the unique characteristics of the diaspora and their corresponding influence on heritage protection and utilisation, that makes the reasons for these conflicts remain unclear. By answering the basic question of what heritage is, this research proposes an analytical framework to understand the intrinsic contestation of cultural heritage tourism in Chinese
qiaoxiang
. The paper points out that the contradiction between ‘ancestral root culture’ and modernity and between flow and stillness is the trigger for intrinsic contestation. The paper also summarises the core issues in conflicts that need further discussion by answering the questions of ‘what is heritage’, ‘whose heritage’ and ‘how to interpret heritage’. The core issues include heritage selection and identification, the commercialisation of ‘home’, heritage interpretation and so on.
Endometrial cancer (EC) is the most common malignancy affecting women in developed countries. Recently, the EC disease burden has changed; therefore, the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2017 was used ...to comprehensively analyze the global, regional, and national burden of EC between 1990 and 2017. General GBD cancer estimation methods were used with the data input from vital registration systems and cancer registries. Annual percent changes were calculated to quantify the trends of EC burden estimates during the study period. Furthermore, the sociodemographic index (SDI) was used to assess the relationship between the EC burden estimates and development level. From 1990 to 2017, the age-standardized incidence and prevalence rate of EC increased globally by 0.58 and 0.89% per year, respectively. In contrast, the age-standardized death rate and disability-adjusted-life years (DALYs) decreased by 1.19 and 1.21% per year, respectively. Increasing trends in both the incidence and prevalence were observed in all SDI quintiles, except for the low SDI quintiles, whereas decreasing trends were observed in all SDI quintiles for mortality and DALYs. Additionally, a non-linear association existed for the level of mortality rate, DALYs, and SDI. Of note, there was a strong positive association between a high body mass index and DALYs across all SDI quintiles. In conclusion, EC incidence and prevalence rates are growing globally, whereas the death rate and DALYs decreased between 1990 and 2017. Greater efforts, particularly detailed prevention strategies for reducing obesity, should be performed to reverse this phenomenon.
Hyperbranched polyethylenimine (HPEI) modified polyacrylonitrile fiber (PANF) was prepared through a water mediated hydrolysis and amidation reaction in an autoclave. The grafting amount of HPEI onto ...PANF could be modulated conveniently by varying the preparation conditions, such as reaction temperature, reaction time and the feed ratio of HPEI to PANF. The Young's modulus of the PANF decreased with the grafting of HPEI, especially when more HPEIs were grafted. As for the PANF-g-HPEI with low HPEI content, the Young's moduli were similar before and after loading of AuNPs, whereas the loading of AuNPs obviously deteriorated the strength of the fibers with high HPEI content. From the nitrogen adsorption and desorption isotherms, it could be seen that PANF contained nanometer sized pores, and the grafting with HPEI did not affect the pore size, but did reduce the surface area. Moreover, the loading of AuNPs into PANF-g-HPEI also did not influence the pore size, but decreased the surface area. FTIR and XPS analyses demonstrated that the obtained PANF-g-HPEI not only contained a large amount of amino groups from the HPEI moiety, but also many carboxylate ions due to the hydrolysis of the cyano groups of PANF. XRD characterization proved that the inner crystal region of PANF was partially broken by the introduction of HPEI moieties. SEM showed that the PANFs swelled up after grafting with HPEI, and the increase of the grafting efficiency led to a larger average diameter of the fibers. When the grafting amount of HPEI onto PANF reached as high as 97%, the surface of the fibers was severely impaired. The obtained PANF-g-HPEIs could be successfully used as supporters and stabilizers in the preparation of small-sized AuNPs. TEM characterization showed that the mixing time of PANF-g-HPEIs with HAuCl sub(4) aqueous solution affected the size and size distribution of the formed AuNPs, and the optimal mixing time was around 0.5 h. The average diameter of the obtained AuNPs was around 3.0 nm at a feed ratio of amino groups of PANF-g-HPEI to Au atoms (N : Au) of 200, independent of HPEI content of the PANF-g-HPEIs used. Reducing the N : Au feed ratio increased the average size of the obtained AuNPs. The AuNPs supported by PANF-g-HPEIs could be used as efficient catalysts for the heterogeneous catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol by NaBH sub(4). The PANF-g-HPEI with lower HPEI content endowed the supported AuNPs with a slightly higher catalytic rate. These heterogeneous AuNP catalysts could be conveniently recovered and reused many times, especially the AuNPs supported by the PANF-g-HPEIs containing a low content of HPEI. The turnover number (TON) values of the AuNPs supported by PANF-g-HPEI sub(0.31) and PANF-g-HPEI sub(0.58) could reach more than 5 10 super(4), which is unprecedented in the catalytic reduction of 4-nitrophenol.
Nitrate (NO
) and ammonium (NH
) are the primary forms of inorganic nitrogen (N) taken up by plant roots, and a lack of these N sources commonly limits plant growth. To better understand how NO
and ...NH
differentially affect root system architecture, we analyzed the expression profiles of microRNAs and their targets in poplar roots treated with three forms of nitrogen S1 (NO
), S2 (NH
NO
, normal), and S3 (NH
) via RNA sequencing.
The results revealed a total of 709 miRNAs. Among them, 57 significantly differentially expressed miRNAs and 28 differentially expressed miRNA-target pairs showed correlated expression profiles in S1 vs. S2. Thirty-six significantly differentially expressed miRNAs and 12 differentially expressed miRNA-target pairs showed correlated expression profiles in S3 vs. S2. In particular, NFYA3, a target of upregulated ptc-miR169i and ptc-miR169b, was downregulated in S1 vs. S2, while NFYA1, a target of upregulated ptc-miR169b, was downregulated in S3 vs. S2 and probably played an important role in the changes in root morphology observed when the poplar plants were treated with different N forms. Furthermore, the miRNA-target pairs ptc-miR169i/b-D6PKL2, ptc-miR393a-5p-AFB2, ptc-miR6445a-NAC14, ptc-miR172d-AP2, csi-miR396a-5p_R + 1_1ss21GA-EBP1, ath-miR396b-5p_R + 1-TPR4, and ptc-miR166a/b/c-ATHB-8 probably contributed to the changes in root morphology observed when poplar plants were treated with different N forms.
These results demonstrate that differentially expressed miRNAs and their targets play an important role in the regulation of the poplar root system architecture by different N forms.
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