Even though researchers have paid a great deal of attention to wetland loss and status, the actual extent of wetland loss on a global scale, especially the loss caused directly by human activities, ...and the actual extent of currently surviving wetlands remains uncertain. This paper simulated the potential distribution of global wetlands by employing a new Precipitation Topographic Wetness Index (PTWI) and global remote sensing training samples. The results show earth would have approximately 29.83millionkm2 of wetlands, if humans did not interfere with wetland ecosystems. By combining datasets related to global wetlands, we found that at least 33% of global wetlands had been lost as of 2009, including 4.58millionkm2 of non-water wetlands and 2.64millionkm2 of open water. The areal extent of wetland loss has been greatest in Asia, but Europe has experienced the most serious losses. Wetland-related datasets suffer from major inconsistencies, and estimates of the areal extent of the remaining global wetlands ranged from 1.53 to 14.86millionkm2. Therefore, although it is challenging, thematic mapping of global wetlands is necessary and urgently needed.
Display omitted
•Global potential wetland distribution was simulated based on PTWI and RS samples.•Global wetlands loss were at least 33% as of 2009, smaller estimation than before.•The greatest wetland loss happened in Asia, but the most serious situation in Europe.•There was a great inconsistency among the global wetland-related landcover products.
The work started 20 years ago Appl. Opt.
42
, 6255 (2003) investigating the physical mechanism of multilayer dielectric reflection gratings to achieve 100% diffraction efficiency is extended to offer ...much deeper insight than before. How different diffraction amplitudes of the top surface corrugation contribute to the −1st-order efficiency of such a grating is shown analytically using a minimum set of real parameters. The two diffraction amplitudes transmitted through the corrugation play a dominant role in enabling DE = 100%. The necessary and sufficient condition for 100% efficiency is derived, and a very simple sufficient condition is also given. Moreover, the role of the reflection phase of the perfect-reflector, including the contribution due to optical path between the corrugation and the reflector, is emphasized.
In this study we seek to assess recent trends in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use based on a comparative analysis of data from the 2002 and 2007 National Health Interview Survey ...(NHIS). The findings suggest that CAM use, in particular the use of provider-based CAM therapies such as chiropractic care, massage, and acupuncture, have grown significantly in the U.S. This growth was more pronounced among non-Hispanic Whites than among racial and ethnic minorities, increasing an already existing White-minority gap in CAM use. Findings from this study also reveal that CAM use becomes more likely when access to conventional care has been restricted. In both 2002 and 2007, having unmet needs in medical care or having delayed care due to cost were associated with a higher chance of CAM use.
Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) provides a noninvasive approach to elucidate a patient's genomic landscape and actionable information. Here, we design a ctDNA-based study of over 10,000 pan-cancer ...Chinese patients. Using parallel sequencing between plasma and white blood cells, 14% of plasma cell-free DNA samples contain clonal hematopoiesis (CH) variants, for which detectability increases with age. After eliminating CH variants, ctDNA is detected in 73.5% of plasma samples, with small cell lung cancer (91.1%) and prostate cancer (87.9%) showing the highest detectability. The landscape of putative driver genes revealed by ctDNA profiling is similar to that in a tissue-based database (R
= 0.87, p < 0.001) but also shows some discrepancies, such as higher EGFR (44.8% versus 25.2%) and lower KRAS (6.8% versus 27.2%) frequencies in non-small cell lung cancer, and a higher TP53 frequency in hepatocellular carcinoma (53.1% versus 28.6%). Up to 41.2% of plasma samples harbor drug-sensitive alterations. These findings may be helpful for identifying therapeutic targets and combined treatment strategies.
Molodtsov’s soft set theory was originally proposed as a general mathematical tool for dealing with uncertainty. Recently, decision making based on (fuzzy) soft sets has found paramount importance. ...This paper aims to give deeper insights into decision making based on fuzzy soft sets. We discuss the validity of the Roy–Maji method and show its true limitations. We point out that the choice value designed for the crisp case is no longer fit to solve decision making problems involving fuzzy soft sets. By means of level soft sets, we present an adjustable approach to fuzzy soft set based decision making and give some illustrative examples. Moreover, the weighted fuzzy soft set is introduced and its application to decision making is also investigated.
•Established an evaluation index of tidal flat ecological stability (ECO-CSI).•Urbanization and the traffic road were the key negative artificial factors.•The sediment discharge, the precipitation, ...etc. were the key guarantee factors.•The threshold value of the Liaohe River sediment discharge was 792.91×104t y−1.•The threshold value of the scale of traffic roads was 770.9244 hm2.
The tidal flat, located at the forefront of the coastal estuary wetland, serves as a peripheral defense line to maintain the stable ecological function of the estuary wetland. Therefore, the accurate identification of the stable state of a tidal flat is rendered as the decision-making basis for the restoration and management of estuary wetland ecosystems. Conducted at the tidal flat of the Liaohe Estuary Wetland, the study established a comprehensive evaluation index of tidal flat ecological stability (ECO-CSI) based on the Pressure-State-Response model and Rough Set theory. The driving factors and threshold values which affected the stability of the tidal flat were identified. The results showed that the average ECO-CSI value of the tidal flat during the past 30 years was 0.44 indicating, in general, a relatively stable state of the tidal flat. On the other hand, in 2017 the ECO-CSI value was 0.25, pointing that the tidal flat is in an unstable state currently. Among the factors affecting the tidal flat ecological stability, the artificial development activities were the major driving factors, and the urbanization and the traffic road scale were the key driving factors leading to the instability of the tidal flat. Of the natural factors, the sediment discharge, the flow in flood season, and the precipitation in the upstreams were the key guarantee factors for maintaining the material supply of the tidal flat. The threshold values for maintaining the ecological stability of the tidal flat in the Liaohe Estuary wetland were determined that the sediment discharge of the Liaohe River should be not less than 792.91 × 104t⋅y-1 and the scale of traffic roads in the tidal flat should be less than or equal to 770.9244 hm2. Hence, in the development and utilization of tidal flats and coastal wetlands, unreasonable human development activities should be minimized to avoid damage to the integrity and natural dispositions of the tidal flat. In this way, the stability of the tidal flat could be improved, contributing to the ecological security for the overall stability of the estuary wetland ecosystem.
Recent studies have reported that preadmission metformin users had lower mortality than non-metformin users in patients with sepsis and diabetes mellitus; however, these results are still ...controversial. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of published observational cohort data to determine the association between preadmission metformin use and mortality in septic adult patients with diabetes mellitus.
The MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane CENTRAL databases were searched from their inception to September 30, 2018. Cohort studies that evaluated the use of metformin in septic adult patients with diabetes mellitus were included. The quality of outcomes was evaluated using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). The inverse variance method with random effects modelling was used to calculate the pooled odds ratios (ORs) and 95% CIs.
Five observational cohort studies (1282 patients) that were all judged as having a low risk of bias were included. In this meta-analysis, metformin use was associated with a significantly lower mortality rate (OR, 0.59; 95% CI, 0.43-0.79, P = 0.001).
This meta-analysis indicated an association between metformin use prior to admission and lower mortality in septic adult patients with diabetes mellitus. This finding suggested that the possible effect of metformin should be evaluated in future clinical trials.
To explore the feasibility of using ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) to strengthen reinforced concrete (RC) beams in torsion, pure torsion tests on 9 specimens have been conducted in this ...study, including one RC beam without strengthening (referred as control beam) and 8 UHPC-strengthened beams. The variables considered for investigation included the wrapping form of UHPC layer, thickness of UHPC layer, shape of steel fibers added in UHPC layer, UHPC-RC interfacial treatment, and reinforcement ratio of UHPC layer. The overall torsional behavior, torque–twist curves, torque-principal strain curves, cracking pattern and UHPC-RC interfacial slippage for all specimens were obtained based on the torsion tests. Results show that the cracking and ultimate torsional moments of all strengthened beams were higher than those of the control beam, with maximum increases of 488.5% and 593.2%, respectively. When the RC beam cannot be fully wrapped, which is the preferred strengthening scheme, 3-sided wrapping form is also an acceptable choice, but the 2-sided strengthening scheme should be avoided. The determination of the thickness of UHPC layer should comprehensively consider the strengthening effect, cost for strengthening and requirements for RC beam's dimensions after strengthening. RC beam surfaces should be fully roughened before casting UHPC to ensure that the UHPC layers and the RC beam persistently act together as a whole to resist torsional loads. The UHPC layers are recommended to be equipped with steel bars, which could substantially improve the torsional capacity and ductility of the strengthened beam on the premise of limited increase in the cost. Finally, the effectiveness of torsional strengthening using UHPC was compared with that using fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) in terms of increase in cross-sectional area, increases in cracking and ultimate torsional moments, increase in torsional stiffness, failure mode and long-term performance.
Lung cancer (LC) is one of the top ten malignant tumors and the first leading cause of cancer-related death among both men and women worldwide. It is imperative to identify immune-related biomarkers ...for early LC diagnosis and treatment.
Three Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets were selected to acquire the differentially expressed genes(DEGs) between LC and normal lung samples through GEO2R tools of NCBI. To identify hub genes, the DEGs were performed functional enrichment analysis, the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network construction, and Lasso regression. Then, a nomogram was constructed to predict the prognosis of patients with carcinoma based on hub genes. We further evaluated the influence of COL1A1 on clinical prognosis using GSE3141, GSE31210, and TCGA database. Also, the correlations between COL1A1 and cancer immune infiltrates and the B7-CD28 family was investigated via TIMER and GEPIA. Further analysis of immunohistochemistry shown that the COL1A1 expression level is positively correlated with CD276 expression level.
By difference analysis, there were 340 DEGs between LC and normal lung samples. Then, we picked out seven hub genes, which were identified as components of the risk signature to divide LC into low and high-risk groups. Among them, the expression of COL1A1 is highly correlated with overall survival(OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) (
< 0.05). Importantly, there is a moderate to strong positive relationships between COL1A1 expression level and infiltration level of CD4+ T cells, Macrophage, Neutrophil, and Dendritic cell, as well as CD276 expression level.
These findings suggest that COL1A1 is correlated with prognosis and immune infiltrating levels, including CD4+ T cells, Macrophage, Neutrophil, and Dendritic cell, as well as CD276 expression level, indicating COL1A1 can be a potential immunity-related biomarker and therapeutic target in LC.
CD39/CD73-adenosine pathway has been recently defined as an important tumor-induced immunosuppressive mechanism. We here documented a fraction of CD11b
+
CD33
+
myeloid-derived suppressor cells ...(MDSCs) in peripheral blood and tumor tissues from non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients expressed surface ectonucleotidases CD39 and CD73. Tumor TGF-β stimulated CD39 and CD73 expression, thereby inhibited T cell and NK cell activity, and protected tumor cells from the cytotoxic effect of chemotherapy through ectonucleotidase activity. Mechanistically, TGF-β triggered phosphorylation of mammalian target of rapamycin, and subsequently activated hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) that induced CD39/CD73 expression on MDSCs. CD39 and CD73 on MDSCs, therefore, link their immunosuppressive and chemo-protective effects to NSCLC progression, providing novel targets for chemo-immunotherapeutic intervention.
PDF
