Ecological Analysis of the Influence of ACEIs and ARBs on the COVID-19 Prevalence and Death from COVID-19

Background: Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) and angiotensin-II receptor blockers (ARBs) have been an arguable risk factor for COVID-19 diseases because they could upregulate Angiotensin Converting Enzyme-2 (ACE2) expression, facilitating SARS-CoV2 entry to the lungs. Several retrospective clinical studies, however, found no such effect. Here, we explore how the use of ACEIs and ARBs links to COVID-19 across all countries of the world. Methods: Data on the availability of ACEIs and ARBs for 200 countries and on the number of cases and number of deaths per country by 28 December 2020 were extracted from WHO and Worldometer website, respectively. Data on life expectancy at age 65 years as a measure of ageing were from WHO and on Gross Domestic Product Per Capita (GDP PPP) and the percentage of urbanization were from the World Bank. Excel and SPSS v 26 software were used for statistical analyses. Results: In linear regression and logistic conditional regression analysis, GDP correlates with COVID-19 prevalence (rho = 0.66, p > 0.001) and deaths from COVID-19 (rho = 0.55, p < 0.001) while urbanization and life expectancy do not when GDP influence is controlled for. After statistically removing the effects of GDP on the prevalence and mortality from COVID-19, we found that countries without ACEI and ARB availability had lower COVID-19 cases and deaths (p < 0.02). Conclusions: Our study based on the global data contradicts findings of most published clinical studies at regional levels. We found that GDP positively correlates with prevalence of and mortality related to COVID-19. ACEI and ARB use increases COVID-19 infectivity and mortality.

Ecological Discourse Analysis Based on the Corpus-A Case Study on the Environmental Discourse of 21st Century

Language learning materials not only provide language input for learners but also subtly disseminate ideology and influence readers’behavior.This study,based on the framework of ecological discourse analysis,quantitatively analyzes and qualitatively describes the ecological significance of environmental texts in the 21st Century.The aim is to provide references for the compilation of environmental discourse in language learning materials,promote the construction of more ecologically beneficial discourse,and facilitate the widespread dissemination of the ecological philosophy of“Diversity and Harmony,Interaction and Co-existence”among young readers.The initial findings of this study are as follows:In the environmental texts of the publication,a large number of relational processes and action processes are used to objectively represent the natural environment;the discourse tends to be ambiguous and beneficial,generally aligning with the ecological philosophy of“Diversity and Harmony,Interaction and Co-existence.”This can guide readers to correctly understand and face environmental issues,which is conducive to the healthy development of natural ecosystems.

English Translation of Chinese Natural Ecological Discourse:A Corpus-based Case Study on Xi Jinping:The Governance of China

Amid the increasingly severe global natural eco-environment,it is necessary to build a natural ecological civilization by constructing an ecological civilization discourse.Against this background,this study compiles a corpus of natural ecological discourse in the English translation of Xi Jinping:The Governance of China(short for Xi).By using Wordsmith and AntConc,this study explores the linguistic features of the ecological discourse in English translation of Xi in the following dimensions,including high-frequency words,keywords,word collocations,concordance lines.This study aims to analyze the concepts and attitudes towards natural ecology,so as to provide certain valuable insights for the construction of China’s discourse on natural ecological civilization.The study found that the natural ecology discourse involving in the English translation of Xi turned out to be ecologically beneficial.

Transitivity Analysis of the Energy in China’s New Era

At present,with the steady development of the global economy,more and more countries begin to pay attention to the impact of ecological environment on economic development and human society,so the ecological environment has become a global issue that cannot be ignored in today’s era.Therefore,from the perspective of the ecological philosophy of Diversity&Harmony as well as Interaction&Co-existence,this paper will conduct ecological discourse analysis on the Energy in China’s New Era based on the transitivity system of systemic-functional grammar,and use the Corpus analysis software UAM Corpus Tool 3.3x to label and make statistics on the transitivity system,aiming to explore the distribution characteristics of the transitivity system in this white paper.Through the transitivity analysis of the white paper,this study helps readers to have a deeper understanding of the positive significance contained in the white paper.To a certain extent,it enables readers at home and abroad to understand China’s stance on energy issues and the positive image of China in energy ecology.It also awaken readers’awareness of environmental protection and acquire good habits of resource conservation to be in harmony between human and nature for sustainable development.

The Ecological Discourse Analysis of Grassland Novels from the Perspec⁃tive of Transitivity System—Taking The Black Steed as a Case Study

The research of the Ecological Discourse Analysis has preliminarily formed abroad,while it is at the initiating stage at home.Guided by Ecocentrism and One Assumption and Three Principles,based on Transitivity System,the paper carries out an Ecological Discourse Analysis to probe into the relationship between human-natural places,human-non-human organisms and human-human of the grassland novel The Black Steed.The language of the novel illustrates the beneficial ecological thoughts of ancient grassland civilization.

Ecological planning of land use in the central area of Tianjin,China

This paper is attempted to develop a set of suitable principles and methodologies for urban ecological planning of land use,to analyze the ecological suitability of different kinds of land use patterns of Tianjin City, to help local decision makers to work out concrete ecological strategies for promoting a sound development of the city and for improving the life quality of the citizens, and to provide the decision makers with a new approach for solving the environmental problems brought about by the improper mixture of industry and residence.

Evaluation of Ecological Carrying Capacity of Henan Province under the Sustainable Development

Based on the overview of social economy of Henan Province,I probe into the concept and evaluation of ecological carrying capacity.By using the ecological footprint analysis and the data of various kinds of land supply of Henan Province from 2000 to 2008,the ecological carrying capacity of Henan Province is analyzed.It is unveiled that inharmonious population,natural resources and economic resources affect the efficiency of the sustainable development of ecological carrying capacity of Henan Province;the underdeveloped economy of Henan Province impacts the sustainable development of ecological carrying capacity of Henan Province and the overburdened population lead to the insufficiency of ecological carrying capacity.Around protecting the threshold of ecological system,the countermeasures are put forward,which cover forming the idea of ecological economy and circular economy and promoting the transformation of economy growth mode;taking the development road of using resources intensively and performing the strategy of sustainable utilization of resources;strictly control population growth and strengthening people's crisis awareness of resources and environment.

Exploring Attitudes toward Ecology through Documentaries

The expanding development of the world economy has triggered various approaches to address the impending environmental problems,among which docximentary serves as one of the most effective and attractive ways to cultivate eco-harmony awareness.This article aims to probe how attitudinal resources are being distributed and what Sino-British ideologies have conveyed in the Chinese documentary,Wild China,and the British documentary,Climate Change:The Facts,under the framework of appraisal theory with the help of UAM CorpusTool 3.3.The results from this study indicate that Wild China tends to employ more dis/inclination resources to show that China is willful to collaborate with other countries for environmental protection.On the other hand,the United Kingdom(UK)tends to adopt dis/satisfaction resources to explicitly or implicitly convey their disagreement with the promotion of the economy under the cost of the environment.The appraisal resources employed by both documentaries convey the ideology of opposing humans5 over-exploitation of natural resources.The findings of this study have both theoretical and practical implications in enriching the application of appraisal theory on the analysis of ecological discourse and further encourage the world to take action in order to prevent the over-exploitation of natural resources.

Quantifying landscape linkages among giant panda subpopulations in regional scale conservation

Understanding habitat requirements and identifying landscape linkages are essential for the survival of isolat­ed populations of endangered species.Currently,some of the giant panda populations are isolated,which threat­ens their long-term survival,particularly in the Xiaoxiangling mountains.In the present study,we quantified niche requirements and then identified potential linkages of giant panda subpopulations in the most isolated re­gion,using ecological niche factor analysis and a least-cost path model.Giant pandas preferred habitat with co­nifer forest and gentle slopes(>20 to≤30°).Based on spatial distribution of suitable habitat,linkages were iden­tified for the Yele subpopulation to 4 other subpopulations(Liziping,Matou,Xinmin and Wanba).Their lengths ranged from 15 to 54 km.The accumulated cost ranged from 693 to 3166 and conifer forest covered over 31%.However,a variety of features(e.g.major roads,human settlements and large unforested areas)might act as barriers along the linkages for giant panda dispersal.Our analysis quantified giant panda subpopulation connec­tivity to ensure long-term survival.