Relationships among vegetation restoration, drought and hydropower generation in the karst and non-karst regions of Southwest China over the past two decades.

To curb the intensification of desertification, China has implemented a series of measures to control rocky desertification. However, the interaction between vegetation restoration and the frequent occurrence of extreme weather events has complicated the drought situation in Southwest China. Therefore, in this study, the vegetation health index (VHI) was used to analyze the spatiotemporal variations in drought.

Experimental evolution of gene essentiality in bacteria.

Essential gene products carry out fundamental cellular activities in interaction with other components. However, the lack of essential gene mutants and appropriate methodologies to link essential gene functions with their partners poses significant challenges. Here, we have generated deletion mutants in 32 genes previously identified as essential, with 23 mutants showing extremely slow growth in the SK36 strain of .

A novel infective endocarditis virulence factor related to multiple functions for bacterial survival in blood was discovered in .

We identified the role of a conserved hypothetical protein (SSA_0451) in that is involved in the virulence of infective endocarditis. An whole blood killing assay and rabbit endocarditis model studies revealed that the SSA_0451 mutant (ΔSSA_0451) was significantly less virulent than the wild-type (SK36) and its complementation mutant (ΔSSA_0451C). The mechanism underlying the SSA_0451 mutant's reduced virulence in infective endocarditis was evidentially linked to oxidative stress and environmental stress.

Uncertainty stress and self-rated health during the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Objectives: The COVID-19 crisis caused unparalleled uncertainty stress and health-related symptoms among Chinese residents. This study aimed to characterize stress status during the early stage of the pandemic and explore the inner mechanism between uncertainty stress and self-rated health.

Setting/participants: A cross-sectional design was conducted online from February 7 to 14, 2020.

Tobacco Advertising, Anti-Tobacco Information Exposure, Environmental Smoking Restrictions, and Unassisted Smoking Cessation Among Chinese Male Smokers: A Population-Based Study.

The study examined the prevalence of unassisted smoking cessation among Chinese urban male smokers and factors important in the decision to quit. A cross-sectional survey employing multistage sampling involving 5,782 participants in six cities in China was conducted. Survey respondents reported their smoking cessation status and related individual and environmental variables.

Iron Oxide Nanowire-Based Filter for Inactivation of Airborne Bacteria.

Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are among the most common methods to improve indoor air quality. However, after long-term operation, the HVAC filter can result in a proliferation of bacteria, which may release into the filtered air subsequently. This issue can be addressed by designing antibacterial filters.