Evaporation from the hypersaline Aral Sea in Central Asia.

The Aral Sea, once the world's fourth largest lake, has shrunk by 91 % in area and 95 % in volume since 1960s. The shrinkage has resulted in a notable increase in water salinity, which may affect the surface evaporation. Despite previous studies, the hydrological consequences of salinity in the Aral Sea have often been overlooked.

Indicator-based assessments of the coupling coordination degree and correlations of water-energy-food-ecology nexus in Uzbekistan.

Grappling with the global ecological concern of the Aral Sea disaster, Uzbekistan exemplifies the urgent necessity of unravelling and addressing the complex Water-Energy-Food-Ecology (WEFE) nexus conflicts in arid regions, a critical task yet largely uncharted. Through the strategic process of 'Indicator Articulation - Weight Calibration - Nexus Coordination Quantification - Correlational Analysis', this work has developed a tailored framework that integrates a novel, context-specific indicator system, enabling an illumination of the intricate dynamics within the WEFE nexus in arid regions. During 2000-2018, the WEFE Nexus in Uzbekistan showed low-level coordination, indicating systemic imbalances.

Impacts of climate change and evapotranspiration on shrinkage of Aral Sea.

The massive desiccation of the Aral Sea, the fourth largest lake in the world, has led to severe ecological problems, expansion of cropland was thought to be the main factor driving that shrinkage. But this study performed a long-term land cover and use change assessment for Aral Sea Basin (ASB) to show that the cropland has stopped expanding in 2000, of which the cropland in the ASB plain area has decreased significantly (-140 km/year) from 2001 to 2019. By contrast, this study finds the hydrological cycle in the ASB has intensified through a spatial and temporal scale approach based on Earth observation.

Probing Dynamic Features of Phagosome Maturation in Macrophage using Au@MnO @SiO Nanoparticles as pH-Sensitive Plasmonic Nanoprobes.

Phagosome maturation in macrophage is essential to the clearance of pathogenic materials in host defence but the dynamic features remain difficult to be measured in real time. Herein, we reported the multilayered Au@MnO @SiO nanoparticle as a robust pH-sensitive plasmonic nanosensor for monitoring the dynamic acidification features over the phagosome maturation process in macrophage under darkfield microscopy. For this multilayered nanosensor, the gold nanoparticle core plays a role of signal reporter, the MnO shell and the outmost SiO act as the sensing layer and the protecting layer, respectively.

Effectiveness of auricular point therapy for cancer-related fatigue: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Aims: To systemically review the efficacy and safety of auricular point therapy in patients with cancer-related fatigue.

Design: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

Data Sources: Eight electronic databases (PubMed, CENTRAL, Embase, CINAHL, Web of Science, China Biology Medicine, China National Knowledge Infrastructure and WanFang Data Knowledge Service Platform) were explored for randomized controlled trials from their inception to 1 December 2018.

Magnetic chitosan-graphene oxide composite for anti-microbial and dye removal applications.

Magnetic chitosan-graphene oxide (MCGO) nanocomposite was prepared as a multi-functional nanomaterial for the applications of antibacterial and dye removal. The nanocomposite was characterized by scanning electronic microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR). The antibacterial performance for MCGO against Escherichia coli was varied depending on the concentration of MCGO.

[Evaluation of CT and MRI in diagnosis of intranasal encephalomeningocele].

Objective: To evaluate the values of CT and MRI in diagnosing intranasal encephalomeningocele.

Method: The CT and MRI features of 7 cases confirmed by operation and pathology were retrospectively analyzed.

Result: CT and MRI demonstrated that all cases were encephalomeningocele and 1 case was accompanied with hydrocephalus.