Publications by authors named "Yaoyang Xu"

Article Synopsis
  • High levels of arsenic (As) and fluoride (F), along with microbial pathogens, are a significant public health risk in semiarid regions, affecting over 240 million people, including those in Pakistan.
  • Groundwater around coal mines in Quetta shows concerning concentrations of As (0.2-16.6 µg/L) and F (0.4-18.5 mg/L), with mining areas experiencing even higher levels and various geochemical factors influencing these contaminants.
  • A health risk assessment indicates that over 64% of groundwater samples exceed WHO guidelines for As and F, posing greater carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks to children, highlighting a critical need for improved water quality and management.
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Global patterns in soil microbiomes are driven by non-linear environmental thresholds. Fertilization is known to shape the soil microbiome of terrestrial ecosystems worldwide. Yet, whether fertilization influences global thresholds in soil microbiomes remains virtually unknown.

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  • The study synthesizes data on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) to analyze their contamination levels, composition, and sources in marine bays around the world, with a particular focus on hotspots in Asia.
  • It finds that PAH concentrations have increased significantly since 2000, with different ring structures dominating in water (2-3 ring) and sediment (4-6 ring), and notes that no clear pattern links PAH composition to geographical distance due to global energy trade.
  • The research identifies both petrogenic and pyrolytic sources of PAHs, primarily from coal and petroleum combustion, and highlights temporal patterns of PAH concentrations, providing valuable insights for efforts to reduce contamination.
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Wastewater discharge from wastewater treatment plants continuously pumps microplastics into rivers, yet their transport distances within these waterways remain unknown. Herein, we developed a conceptual framework by synthesizing the microplastic data from the Yangtze River Basin to evaluate its transport distances, quantifying a significant spatial dependence between large-scale wastewater discharge and riverine microplastics ( < 0.05).

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Distance-decay (DD) equations can discern the biogeographical pattern of organisms and genes in a better way with advanced statistical methods. Here, we developed a data Compilation, Arrangement, and Statistics framework to advance quantile regression (QR) into the generation of DD equations for antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) across various spatial scales using freshwater reservoirs as an illustration. We found that QR is superior at explaining dissemination potential of ARGs to the traditionally used least squares regression (LSR).

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Nature-based solutions (NbS), including China's Sponge City Program (SCP), can address the challenges urban communities face due to surface runoff and flooding. The current capacity of SCP facilities in urban environments falls short of meeting the demands placed on communities by climate change. Bioswales are a form of SCP facility that plays an important role in reducing surface runoff by promoting infiltration.

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Given that microplastics (MPs) in groundwater have been concerned for risks to humans and ecosystems with increased publications, a Contrasting Analysis of Scales (CAS) approach is developed by this study to synthesize all existing data into a hierarchical understanding of MP accumulation in groundwater. Within the full data of 386 compiled samples, the median abundance of MPs in Open Groundwater (OG) and Closed Groundwater (CG) were 4.4 and 2.

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Research on riverine microplastics has gradually increased, highlighting an area for further exploration: the lack of extensive, large-scale regional variations analysis due to methodological and spatiotemporal limitations. Herein, we constructed and applied a comprehensive framework for synthesizing and analyzing literature data on riverine microplastics to enable comparative research on the regional variations on a large scale. Research results showed that in 76 rivers primarily located in Asia, Europe, and North America, the microplastic abundance of surface water in Asian rivers was three times higher than that in Euro-America rivers, while sediment in Euro-American rivers was five times more microplastics than Asia rivers, indicating significant regional variations (p < 0.

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The global health crisis posed by increasing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) implicitly requires solutions based a One Health approach, yet multisectoral, multidisciplinary research on AMR is rare and huge knowledge gaps exist to guide integrated action. This is partly because a comprehensive survey of past research activity has never performed due to the massive scale and diversity of published information. Here we compiled 254,738 articles on AMR using Artificial Intelligence (AI; i.

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  • Organophosphate esters (OPEs) are found in high concentrations in heavily urbanized estuaries in eastern China, posing risks to ecosystems and human health, with total concentrations ranging from 22.3 to 1201 ng/L and an average of 162.6 ± 179.8 ng/L.
  • Chlorinated OPEs are the most prevalent, making up 27.4-99.6% of the total, with the leading compounds being tris(2-chloroisopropyl) phosphate and others, indicating industrial activities and sewage treatment plant effluents as significant sources of contamination.
  • The study highlights how watershed characteristics such as slope and elevation negatively impact O
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Green infrastructure (GI) is increasingly popular in solving urban environmental challenges and enhancing ecosystem services. Yet the research status and challenges of GI planning have not been comprehensively benchmarked to date. We explored the GI types, actions, goals, and spatiotemporal characteristics of GI planning cases worldwide based on the available literature.

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Pharmaceuticals are causing environmental concerns associated with their widespread distribution in aquatic ecosystems. The environmental fate and behavior of pharmaceutical residues are related to dissolved organic matter and bacterial communities, both of which are strongly influenced by human activities. However, the relationships among pharmaceutical pollution, dissolved organic matter pool, and bacterial community structure under the pressure of human activities are still unclear, especially in highly urbanized bay areas.

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  • The study investigates the potential of plasma alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) as predictors for survival in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
  • An analysis of 2327 patients showed that high levels of ALP and LDH correlate with lower median overall survival rates, indicating these levels are significant negative prognostic factors.
  • A nomogram developed from the data exhibited strong predictive accuracy for 1-, 2-, and 3-year survival rates, suggesting that ALP and LDH can be used as effective biomarkers for HCC prognosis, guiding treatment strategies.
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The propagation of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in freshwater reservoirs threatens ecosystem security and human health, and has attracted increasing attention. A series of recent research articles on ARGs provides a unique opportunity for data-driven discoveries in this emerging field. Here, we mined data from a total of 290 samples from 60 reservoirs worldwide with a data-driven framework (DD) developed to discover geographical distribution, influencing factors and pollution hotspots of ARGs in freshwater reservoirs.

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Microplastic contamination in the sediment of marine bays has attracted widespread attention, whereas the distribution, sedimentation, morphology and risk of microplastics at regional scale remain poorly understood. By introducing a data mining framework into microplastic research, we compiled a microplastic dataset of 649 samples from 24 bays to enhance the understanding of geographical difference and drivers, transfer, composition profile and environmental risk of sedimental microplastics. Microplastic abundance varied from 0.

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Aim: A programmed death 1 (PD-1) inhibitor coupled with radiotherapy and antiangiogenic therapy is a potential therapeutic strategy for advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We aimed to determine if circulating tumor cells (CTCs) positive for programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) could be employed as a predictive biomarker in HCC patients receiving triple therapy.

Methods: In this study, HCC patients received a PD-1 inhibitor in combination with intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and antiangiogenic therapy.

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Background: Although the diagnostic value of plasma heat-shock protein 90α (HSP90α) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has been previously reported, the causal effect of the plasma HSP90α levels on HCC prognosis remains largely unclear. To this extent, we sought to assess whether the plasma HSP90α acts as a prognostic factor for HCC patients.

Methods: A total of 2150 HCC patients were included in this retrospective study between August 2016 and July 2021.

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The unreasonable use of antibiotics and the transmission of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) induced by antibiotics have led to a large number of ARGs entered the water environment, which seriously threatened human health and environmental safety. The estuarine aquatic environment connects with inland rivers and sea and is frequently influenced by human activities. This study aims to reveal the occurrences and abundances of ARGs and bacterial community composition by high-throughput quantitative PCR including 296 primers and high-throughput sequencing in the tide rising and ebbing of surface water in the Yongjiang Estuary, China.

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Gulf ecosystems provide many beneficial services to humanity and play a key role in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, the sustainability of gulf ecosystems has been severely threatened by climatic and anthropogenic stresses. Using network analysis of article records downloaded from Web of Science, we summarize the current research framework of gulf ecosystems via the perspectives of research themes, interdisciplinarity, and international collaborations.

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Microplastic contamination in reservoirs is receiving increasing attention worldwide. However, a holistic understanding of the occurrence, drivers, and potential risks of microplastics in reservoirs is lacking. Building on a systematic review and meta-analysis of 30 existing publications, we construct a global microplastic dataset consisting of 440 collected samples from 43 reservoirs worldwide which we analyze through a framework of Data processing and Multivariate statistics (DM).

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Article Synopsis
  • * The study revealed significant variations in antibiotic concentrations, with hotspots in East Asia, and highlighted that sewage treatment, domestic waste, agriculture runoff, and mariculture are major sources of these antibiotics.
  • * Erythromycin is a particular concern for human health, while other antibiotics like sulfamethoxazole and oxytetracycline also pose ecological risks; addressing these in wastewater treatment, especially in Asia, is crucial for reducing harm.
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Organophosphate esters (OPEs) pose increasing concerns for their widespread distribution in soil environments and potential threat to human health. In this study, we investigated the occurrence and associated risks of seven OPEs in surface soils and the potential influence of human activities on soil OPE contamination in a heavily urbanized region of the Yangtze River Delta in Eastern China. All target OPEs were detected in the soil samples (100% of samples) reflecting their widespread distribution in the study region.

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Investigation of seasonal variations of water quality parameters is essential for understanding the mechanisms of structural changes in aquatic ecosystems and their pollution control. Despite the ongoing rise in scientific production on spatiotemporal distribution characteristics of water quality parameters, such as total nitrogen (TN) in reservoirs, attempts to use published data and incorporate them into a large-scale comparison and trends analyses are lacking. Here, we propose a framework of Data extraction, Data grouping and Statistical analysis (DDS) and illustrate application of this DDS framework with the example of TN in reservoirs.

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Dimethyl sulfide (DMS) serves as an anti-greenhouse gas, plays multiple roles in aquatic ecosystems, and contributes to the global sulfur cycle. The chlorophyll a (CHL, an indicator of phytoplankton biomass)-DMS relationship is critical for estimating DMS emissions from aquatic ecosystems. Importantly, recent research has identified that the CHL-DMS relationship has a breakpoint, where the relationship is positive below a CHL threshold and negative at higher CHL concentrations.

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Microplastic pollution of freshwaters is known to be a great concern in China and these pollutants can be discharged into the coastal environment through fluvial processes, posing threats to the global marine ecosystem. This paper reviewed the literature measuring microplastic pollution in the Chinese freshwater environment and found that microfibres dominate other plastic morphologies in more than 65% of samples collected in surface water, sediments and effluents of wastewater treatment plants and domestic sewers. Current potential sources of microfibre pollution are identified including fishery activities, laundry sewage, and waste textiles according to previous research.

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