Influences of shallow groundwater depth on NO diffusion along the soil profile of summer maize fields in North China Plain.

The emissions of nitrous oxide (NO) from agricultural fields are a significant contribution to global warming. Understanding the mechanisms of NO emissions from agricultural fields is essential for the development of NO emission mitigation strategies. Currently, there are extensive studies on NO emissions on the surface of agricultural soils, while studies on NO fluxes at the interface between the saturated and unsaturated zones (ISU) are limited.

Non-negligible NO emission hotspots: Rivers impacted by ion-adsorption rare earth mining.

Rare earth mining causes severe riverine nitrogen pollution, but its effect on nitrous oxide (NO) emissions and the associated nitrogen transformation processes remain unclear. Here, we characterized NO fluxes from China's largest ion-adsorption rare earth mining watershed and elucidated the mechanisms that drove NO production and consumption using advanced isotope mapping and molecular biology techniques. Compared to the undisturbed river, the mining-affected river exhibited higher NO fluxes (7.

Leaf photosynthetic pigment as a predictor of leaf maximum carboxylation rate in a farmland ecosystem.

The leaf maximum rate of carboxylation (V) is a key parameter of plant photosynthetic capacity. The accurate estimation of V is crucial for correctly predicting the carbon flux in the terrestrial carbon cycle. V is correlated with plant traits including leaf nitrogen (N) and leaf photosynthetic pigments.

Pollution caused by mining reshaped the structure and function of bacterial communities in China's largest ion-adsorption rare earth mine watershed.

Ion-adsorption rare earth mining results in the production of high levels of nitrogen, multiple metals, and strong acidic mine drainage (AMD), the impacts of which on microbial assembly and ecological functions remain unclear. To address this knowledge gap, we collected river sediments from the watershed of China's largest ion-adsorption rare earth mine and analyzed the bacterial community's structure, function, and assembly mechanisms. Results showed that bacterial community assembly was weakly affected by spatial dispersion, and dispersal limitation and homogeneous selection were the dominant ecological processes, with the latter increasing with pollution gradients.

Effect of Lianhua Qingwen capsules on the positive rate of COVID-19 close contacts: A retrospective analysis of a large-scale population-based cohort study.

Objective: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is still spreading worldwide. COVID-19 close contact is a key point of this epidemic. However, no medication is now available for close contact.

Survival benefit of primary and metastatic tumor resection for colon cancer with liver metastases: A population based, propensity score-matched study.

Background: Colon cancer remains one of the most common malignancies and we aimed to evaluate whether surgery has an effect on the survival of metastatic colon patients.

Methods: We analyzed 7,583 metastatic colon patients from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, between January 2010 and December 2015. Using Cox proportional hazards models and Kaplan-Meier curves, the overall survival rate (OS) and cancer-specific survival rate and End Results (SEER) registry (CSS) months (m) were evaluated with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs).

Effects of straw mulching and nitrogen application rates on crop yields, fertilizer use efficiency, and greenhouse gas emissions of summer maize.

Although straw mulching and nitrogen applications are extensively practiced in the agriculture sector, large uncertainties remain about their impacts on crop yields and especially the environment. The responses of summer maize yields, fertilizer use efficiency, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions including carbon dioxide (CO), methane (CH), and nitrous oxide (NO) in the North China Plain (NCP) to two straw management practices (S0: no straw and S1: straw mulching) and two nitrogen application rates (N1: 180 and N2: 210 kg N ha) were investigated in field tests in 2018, 2019, and 2020. The highest yields and partial factor productivity (PFP) were obtained by S1N1, followed by S1N2, S0N1, and S0N2.

Effects of no-tillage on greenhouse gas emissions in maize fields in a semi-humid temperate climate region.

Agricultural tillage practices have a significant impact on the generation and consumption of greenhouse gases (GHGs), the primary causes of global warming. Two tillage systems, conventional tillage (CT) and no-tillage (NT), were compared to evaluate their effects on GHG emissions in this study. Averaged from 2018 to 2020, significant decreases of CO and NO emissions by 7.

Virtual water transfers in Africa: Assessing topical condition of water scarcity, water savings, and policy implications.

Africa is facing an increasing challenge with respect to water scarcity (WS), which is driven by climate change, population growth, and socioeconomic growth combined with inadequate water resources management. In particular, there is significant concern of virtual water (VW) trade, which plays the key role in water resource management and food security sustainability. Using bilateral trade data, this study consistently evaluated the change and balanced trade of major grains, the VW flows, WS status, water dependency (WD), water self-sufficiency (WSS), and water savings/losses within5 African sub-regions and their partners from 2000 to 2020.

Neoadjuvant and Adjuvant Treatments Compared to Concurrent Chemoradiotherapy for Patients With Locally Advanced Cervical Cancer: A Bayesian Network Meta-Analysis.

Aim: This study aimed to identify the most effective treatment mode for locally advanced cervical cancer (LACC) by adopting a network meta-analysis (NMA).

Methods: Randomized controlled trials about treatments were retrieved from PubMed, Medline and Embase. Odds ratios (OR) of overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were calculated by synthesizing direct and indirect evidence to rank the efficacy of nine treatments.

Evaluation of no-tillage impacts on soil respiration by C-isotopic signature in North China Plain.

It is a challenge to characterize soil respiration of crop residue return systems in the North China Plain (NCP) under no-tillage (NT) and conventional tillage (CT) practices. In this study, we addressed the "hot spot" research challenge of impacts of tillage practices on soil carbon storage and soil CO emissions in the NCP by C-isotopic signature. A short-term (2018-2020) field experiment was conducted with two tillage practices: NT and CT.

Efficiency and driving force assessment of an integrated urban water use and wastewater treatment system: Evidence from spatial panel data of the urban agglomeration on the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.

With the rapid development of urban agglomerations, urban water use and wastewater environments have gradually constrained sustainable development and caused increasing concern. In this paper, we selected the urban agglomeration on the middle reaches of the Yangtze River (UAMRYZ) as a typical area. We proposed an integrated urban water use and wastewater treatment (UWUWT) system and its urban water use (UWU) subsystem and urban wastewater treatment (UWT) subsystem.

Influence of the shallow groundwater table on the groundwater NO and direct NO emissions in summer maize field in the North China Plain.

Agriculture is an important NO emissions source. Water cycle and nitrogen cycles have important effects on NO in farmland ecosystems. The changes in the groundwater table can lead to changes in farmland the water and nitrogen cycle processes.

Agricultural impacts drive longitudinal variations of riverine water quality of the Aral Sea basin (Amu Darya and Syr Darya Rivers), Central Asia.

River ecosystems are under increasing stress in the background of global change and ever-growing anthropogenic impacts in Central Asia. However, available water quality data in this region are insufficient for a reliable assessment of the current status, which come as no surprise that the limited knowledge of regulating processes for further prediction of solute variations hinders the development of sustainable management strategies. Here, we analyzed a dataset of various water quality variables from two sampling campaigns in 2019 in the catchments of two major rivers in Central Asia-the Amu Darya and Syr Darya Rivers.

Influence of no-tillage and precipitation pulse on continuous soil respiration of summer maize affected by soil water in the North China Plain.

Soil respiration (R) from cropland in response to tillage practices contribute to global climate change. We quantified the effect of no-tillage (NT) and conventional tillage (CT) on R and precipitation in the North China Plain (NCP). An in-situ automatic sampling and measurement method was applied during the maize (Zea mays L.

The stage-specific roles of radiotherapy and chemotherapy in nodular lymphocyte predominant Hodgkin lymphoma patients: a propensity score-matched analysis of the SEER database.

Background: The stage-specific roles of radiotherapy (RT) alone, chemotherapy alone, and combined RT and chemotherapy (CRT) for patients with nodular lymphocyte predominant Hodgkin lymphoma (NLPHL) have not been adequately evaluated.

Methods: We analyzed patients with all stages of NLPHL enrolled in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registry from January 2000 to December 2015. Propensity score (PS) analysis with 1:1 matching (PSM) was performed to ensure the well-balanced characteristics of the comparison groups.

Radiotherapy for patients with stage IV classical Hodgkin lymphoma: a propensity-matched analysis of the surveillance, epidemiology, and end results database.

Background The survival advantage of radiotherapy for patients with stage IV classic Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) has not been adequately evaluated. Methods We analyzed patients with stage IV HL enrolled from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registry from January 2000 to December 2012. Propensity score (PS) analysis with 1:2 matching was performed to ensure well-balanced characteristics of the comparison groups.

Comparison of Treatment Modalities for Locally Advanced Gastric Cancer: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis.

: A consensus regarding optimum treatment strategies for locally advanced gastric cancer (LAGC) has not yet been reached. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy of various treatment modalities for LAGC and provided clinicians salvage options under real-world situation. : Medical charts of patients with LAGC who underwent radical resection plus adjuvant chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy from July 2003 to December 2014 were included.

Spatial Distribution and Health Risk Assessment of Dissolved Trace Elements in Groundwater in southern China.

To understand the groundwater environmental quality and the impact of trace elements in the construction of urban agglomeration in China, this study collected 58 groundwater samples from the core area of the Chang-Zhu-Tan urban agglomeration (Changsha, Zhuzhou, Xiangtan) and quantitatively analyzed the content of 13 dissolved trace element and their spatial distribution characteristics. The health risk assessment model was further used to evaluate the human health risk caused by trace element pollution in groundwater. It was observed that Ba had the highest average concentration (0.

Reassessment of American Joint Committee on Cancer Staging for Stage III Renal Cell Carcinoma With Nodal Involvement: Propensity Score Matched Analyses of a Large Population-Based Study.

To assess the role of nodal involvement in stage III renal cell carcinoma (RCC) according to the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) 8th staging system. We compared the survival outcomes of RCC patients with pTNM disease and those with pTNM or stage IV (stratified as pTNM and pTNM) disease in a large population-based cohort. A cohort of 3,112 eligible patients with RCC was identified from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database, registered between January 2004 and December 2015.

Multi-factor identification and modelling analyses for managing large river algal blooms.

River algal blooms have become a newly emerging global environmental issue in recent decades. Compared with water eutrophication in lakes and reservoirs, algal blooms in large river systems can cause more severe consequences to watershed ecosystems at the watershed scale. However, reveal the causes of river algal blooms remains challenging in the interdisciplinary of hydrological-ecological-environmental research, due to its complex interaction mechanisms impacted by multiple factors.

Surgery to the primary tumor is associated with improved survival of patients with metastatic esophageal cancer: propensity score-matched analyses of a large retrospective cohort.

The survival advantage of surgery to the primary tumor for patients with distant metastatic esophageal cancer has not been adequately evaluated. This study aims to investigate the role of surgery to the primary tumor in distant metastatic esophageal cancer and to evaluate possible different effects of surgery on survival of esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). This study included a cohort of 4,367 metastatic esophageal cancer patients from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database, registered from January 2004 to December 2014.

Palliative Gastrectomy and Survival in Patients With Metastatic Gastric Cancer: A Propensity Score-Matched Analysis of a Large Population-Based Study.

Objectives: The role of palliative gastrectomy in the management of metastatic gastric cancer remains inadequately clarified.

Methods: We analyzed patients with metastatic gastric cancer enrolled in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registry from January 2004 to December 2012. Propensity score (PS) analysis with 1:1 matching and the nearest neighbor matching method was performed to ensure well-balanced characteristics of the groups of patients who undergone gastrectomy and those without gastrectomy.

Stable isotope evidence for identifying the recharge mechanisms of precipitation, surface water, and groundwater in the Ebinur Lake basin.

Arid areas cover more than one third of global land, and as such, water resources are vital for this fragile ecosystem. In order to reveal the recharge mechanisms among different water bodies in arid areas, precipitation, surface water, and groundwater were sampled in the Ebinur Lake basin, Xinjiang, China, and the isotopic values for hydrogen and oxygen were measured. The stable isotope values of precipitation showed significant seasonal variation, with minimum values in the winter, medium values in the spring and autumn, and maximum values in the summer.