Age-related changes of lateral ventricular width and periventricular white matter in the human brain: a diffusion tensor imaging study

Introduction Aging is the accumulation of multidimensional deterioration of process- ing of biological, psychological, and social changes with expansion over time （Bowen and Atwood, 2004; Grady, 2012）. Aging-related changes are typically accompanied by decline in cognitive function, urinary control, sensory-motor function, and gait ability （Bradley et al., 1991; Bowen and Atwood, 2004; Hedden and Gabrieli, 2004; Grady, 2012; Moran et al., 2012）. In addition, a number of studies have suggested changes in brain structure with normal aging, such as decrease in cortical thickness or increase in ventricular width （Blatter et al., 1995; Tang et al., 1997; Uylings and de Brabander, 2002; Preul et al., 2006; Apostolova et al., 2012）. In particular, ventricular enlargement has been suggested as a structural biomarker for normal aging and progression of some illnesses, such as Alzheimer＇s disease （Blatter et al., 1995; Tang et al.,

Crucial, But not Systematically Investigated: Rock Glaciers, the Concealed Water Reservoirs of the Himalayas: An Opinion

The current article is an opinion on the sensitivity of high mountain regions which are the most fragile,sensitive and vulnerable to ongoing climate change.Its impacts are especially severe on the high mountain communities owing to their weak socio-economic profile,limited livelihood resources and agricultural land.The melting of glaciers and changes in the snow cover under the climate change scenario is leading to the scarcity of freshwater supplies,affecting both local and downstream communities.Changes in the precipitation patterns have been suggested to cause droughts,impact restricted agriculture,and limit the availability of water for domestic use.Additionally,the high mountain areas contain distinct flora and fauna,and climate change is not just altering them,but also has resulted in biodiversity loss as species are unable to adapt to the changing climate.Because of its higher altitudes and semi-arid to arid climate,the consequences of climate change are more evident in the higher Himalayas.Climate change is affecting the availability of key resources,such as freshwater and agriculture and pasture lands,resulting in food and water insecurity and their reliance on imports from other regions.As a result,high mountain communities in the Himalayas are progressively shifting to higher glacier valleys in search of suitable cultivable land with adequate irrigation.People are engaging in agro-pastoral activities around thermokarst lakes(Oasis)atop rock glaciers as part of this endeavour.Such actions underscore the crucial role of rock glaciers in dealing with and adjusting to the consequences of climate change.Despite its relevance,rock glacier research in the Himalayan region is still in its infancy.The purpose of this work is to emphasise the significance of these major climate-resilient water resources,as well as the methodology that must be adopted for their systematic and compressive investigations.

Associations of soybean products intake with blood pressure changes and hypertension incidence: the China-PAR project

Background The relationships between dietary intake of soybean products and incident hypertension were still uncertain.This study aimed to illustrate the associations between intake of soybean products with risks of incident hypertension and longitudinal changes of blood pressure in a prospective cohort study.Methods We included 67,499 general Chinese adults from the Project of Prediction for Atherosclerosis Cardiovascular Disease Risk in China(China-PAR).Information about soybean products consumption was collected by standardized questionnaires,and study participants were categorized into the ideal(≥125 g/day)or non-ideal(<125 g/day)group.Hazard ratios(HRs)and corresponding 95%confidence intervals(95%CIs)for incident hypertension were calculated using Cox proportional hazard models.Among participants with repeated measures of blood pressure,generalized linear models were used to examine the relationships between soybean products consumption and blood pressure changes.Results During a median follow-up of 7.4 years,compared with participants who consumed<125 g of soybean products per day,multivariable adjusted HR for those in the ideal group was 0.73(0.67-0.80).This inverse association remained robust across most subgroups while significant interactions were tested between soybean products intake and age,sex,urbanization and geographic region(P values for interaction<0.05).The mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels were 1.05(0.71-1.39)mmHg and 0.44(0.22-0.66)mmHg lower among participants in the ideal group than those in the non-ideal group.Conclusions Our study showed that intake of soybean products might reduce the long-term blood pressure levels and hypertension incidence among Chinese population,which has important public health implications for primary prevention of hypertension.

Quantifying the effect of persistent dryer climates on forest productivity and implications for forest planning:a case study in northern Germany

Background: Forest management decisions are based on expectations of future developments. For sound decisions it is essential to accurately predict the expected values in future developments and to account for their inherent uncertainty,for example the impact of climate change on forests. Changing climatic conditions affect forest productivity and alter the risk profile of forests and forest enterprises. Intensifying drought stress is seen as one major risk factor threatening forest management in the north German lowlands. Drought stress reduces tree growth and vitality and might even trigger mortality. But so far, it is not possible to quantify effects of a persistent dryer climate on forest productivity at a level suitable for forest management.Methods: We apply a well-established single-tree forest growth simulator to quantify the effect of persistent dryer climates on future forest productivity. We analyse the growth of Scots pine(Pinus sylvestris L.), European beech(Fagus sylvatico L.) and oak(Quercus robur L. and Quercus petraea(Matt.) Liebl.) in two forest regions in the north German lowlands for a time interval of 60 years until 2070. The growth response under three different climate projections is compared to a baseline scenario.Results: The results show clear differences in volume increment to persistent dryer climates between tree species. The findings exhibit regional differences and temporal trends. While mean annual increment at biological rotation age of Scots pine and oak predominantly benefits from the projected climate conditions until 2070, beech might suffer losses of up to 3 m^3·ha^(-1)yr^(-1) depending on climate scenario and region. However, in the projection period2051 to 2070 the uncertainty ranges comprise positive as well as negative climatic effects for all species.Conclusions: The projected changes in forest growth serve as quantitative contributions to provide decision support in the evaluation of, for example, species future site suitability and timber supply assessments. The analysis of productivity changes under persistent dryer climate complements the drought vulnerability assessment which is applied in practical forestry in northwestern Germany today. The projected species' productivity has strong implications for forest management and the inherent uncertainty needs to be accounted for.

Oderly accumulation theory of shale system petroleum resource and its prospecting significance-A case study of Chang 7 Member of Yanchang Formation in Ordos Basin

1 Introduction Shale formations bear abundant mineral resource and*unconventional petroleum resource,and the unconventional petroleum resource that contain in the shale formation should be integrated and researched.

A comprehensive study of long-term skeletal changes after spinal cord injury in adult rats

Spinal cord injury（SCI）-induced bone loss represents the most severe osteoporosis with no effective treatment.Past animal studies have focused primarily on long bones at the acute stage using adolescent rodents. To mimic chronic SCI in human patients, we performed a comprehensive analysis of long-term structural and mechanical changes in axial and appendicular bones in adult rats after SCI. In this experiment, 4-month-old Fischer 344 male rats received a clinically relevant T13 contusion injury. Sixteen weeks later, sublesional femurs, tibiae,and L4 vertebrae, supralesional humeri, and blood were collected from these rats and additional non-surgery rats for micro-computed tomography（m CT）, micro-finite element, histology, and serum biochemical analyses.At trabecular sites, extreme losses of bone structure and mechanical competence were detected in the metaphysis of sublesional long bones after SCI, while the subchondral part of the same bones showed much milder damage. Marked reductions in bone mass and strength were also observed in sublesional L4 vertebrae but not in supralesional humeri. At cortical sites, SCI induced structural and strength damage in both sub- and supralesional long bones. These changes were accompanied by diminished osteoblast number and activity and increased osteoclast number and activity. Taken together, our study revealed site-specific effects of SCI on bone and demonstrated sustained inhibition of bone formation and elevation of bone resorption at the chronic stage of SCI.

A Sensitivity Study of IAP AGCM to Radiation Changes: Climate Simulation of 125kyr and 115kyr before Present

The IAP AGCM was used to simulate the climate of 125kyr and 115kyr before present. We analysed the results and then studied the sensitivity of the model to the changes of radiation distribution induced by orbital parameter changes. The reasonability of the results was also discussed.

A GRADIENT ANALYSIS & MODELING OF THE NECT FOR GLOBAL CHANGE STUDY

The North East China Transect (NECT) is an exemplary region of landmass running along the line of 43°30′ North Latitude and caught between 112° and 130°30′ East Longtitude, and is being sampled by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP) for today’s study on global change. So far, it has already been listed in the first set of IGBP-sponsored transects, becoming a key theatre and "hot spot" for probing terrestrial ecosystems. In terms of biota, the nearly 1,600-kilometre-long tract is located in a mid-latitude zone, featuring a vegetational transition from a temperate timberland of evergreen coniferous forests and broadleaved deciduous forests to a mild-temperate steppe. According to the norms of biome types, it consists of three subzones: meadow steppe, typical steppe and desert steppe in a continuous east-to-west spatial sequence. There are four ecological stations supported by a great number of permanent samples, long-term plots and an enormous build-up of experimental data along

The Influence of the Changes in Social Trends of Thought in Japan

The social trend of thought is the trend of thought that is of extensive influence formed in a certain period of time in a given society. It o-riginates from the changes in international environment and domestic social situation, reflecting the interests and demands of a given group of people and producing a great influence on the foreign and domestic policies and the future trend of the society. One prominent feature of

Detecting Climate Change in Using Extreme Data from Two Surface Weather Stations: Case Study Valle of Comitan and La Esperanza, Chiapas, Mexico

The study area is located between the cities of Comitan (16°10'43"N and 92°04'20''W) a city with 150,000 inhabitants and La Esperanza (16°9'15''N and 91°52'5''W) a town with 3000 inhabitants. Both weather stations are 30 km from each other in the Chiapas State, México. 54 years of daily records of the series of maximum (tmax) and minimum temperatures (tmin) of the weather station 07205 Comitan that is on top of a house and 30 years of daily records of the weather station 07374 La Esperanza were analyzed. The objective is to analyze the evidence of climate change in the Comitan valley. 2.07% and 19.04% of missing data were filled, respectively, with the WS method. In order to verify homogeneity three methods were used: Standard Normal Homogeneity Test (SNHT), the Von Neumann method and the Buishand method. The heterogeneous series were homogenized using climatol. The trends of tmax and tmin for both weather stations were analyzed by simple linear regression, Sperman’s rho and Mann-Kendall tests. The Mann-Kendal test method confirmed the warming trend at the Comitan station for both variables with ZMK statistic values equal to 1.57 (statistically not significant) and 4.64 (statistically significant). However, for the Esperanza station, it determined a cooling trend for tmin and a slight non-significant warming for tmax with a ZMK statistic of -2.27 (statistically significant) and 1.16 (statistically not significant), for a significance level α = 0.05.

Numerical Study for Characteristic Change of Asian Summer Monsoon Circulation and Its Influence Mechanism during the EI Nino Period

In this paper, the relation between Asian summer monsoon circulation and sea surface temperature anomalies over equatorial central-eastern Pacific is investigated by using a global spectral model. This model has nine layers in the vertical and the model variables are represented in the horizontal as truncated expansions of the surface spherical harmonics with rhomboidal truncation at wave number 15. The model involves comparatively complete physical processes and parameterizations with mountains.Using the above model, two experimental schemes are designed, namely control case and anomalous sea surface temperature case. The above two schemes are respectively integrated for forty days and the simulated results are obtained from the last 30-day averaged simulations.The simulations show that positive SST anomalies over equatorial central-eastern Pacific weakens Indian monsoon circulation,decreases precipitation in Indian sub-continent whereas it intensifies East Asian monsoon circulation and increases precipitation in East Asian area. All these results reflect the characteristics of Asian summer monsoon during the El Nino period. In this paper, SST anomalies over equatorial central-eastern Pacific have a direct influence on the intensity and position of subtropical high via the wave train over Northern Hemisphere, which is similar to that suggested by Nitta(1987) and the wave train over Southern Hemisphere has an influence on the intensity of Muscarene high and Australia high resulting in affecting cross equatorial flow. As a result, atmospheric interior heat sources and sinks are redistributed because of the change of cross equatorial flow. And the response of atmosphere to the new heat source and sink has a significant influence on Asian summer monsoon.

Electrochemical Study on the Change in Valency of Niobium Oxide in the MnO-SiO_2-Nb_2O_5 System

Change in valency of Nb-oxide in MnO-SiO_2-Nb_2O_5 system was studied with the electrochemical method using ZrO_2 as the solid electrolyte.Thermodynamic analysis has shown that the only possible reaction that could take place at the working elec- trode is:2(Nb_2O_5)=2(Nb_2O_4)+O_2 with the a_0 values experimentally evaluated,values of a Nb_2O:/a Nb_2O:were calculated and isoactivity-ratio curves drawn in MnO-SiO_2-Nb_2O_5 triangles at 1418 and 1585K.The simultaneous existence of tetra-and penta-valent Nb mineral constituents in industrial Nb-bearing slags was thus verified experimentally.

Study on Motivational Changes of Non-English Majors

This paper is on the study of motivational changes of Chinese non-English major students in their first two years of college English learning. The current study was carried out through the quantitative research method. The research question to be addressed is：During the first two years of college English learning, does non-English majors＇ learning motivation （i.e. types of motivation and motivational intensity） change？ The analyses of the data reveal that motivational changes do exist in the first two years of college English learning. Generally, most types of motivation （i.e. intrinsic interest motivation, information medium motivation, personal development motivation, and social responsibility motivation） decrease significantly except for the slight increase of immediate achievement motivation, and the decline of motivational intensity is also obvious.

The digital anatomic study of the changing regularity of thoracic pedicle screw channels in different transverse screw angle

Objective To investigate the changing regularity of thoracic pedicle screw channel (PSC) in different transverse screw angle(TSA).Methods CT scan images of thoracic vertebrae of a healthy adult ware digitally analyzed by Mimics 10.01

Climate change effects in the Western Himalayan ecosystems of India: evidence and strategies

Background： The fragile landscapes of the Himalayan region are highly susceptible to natural hazards, and there is ongoing concern about current and potential climate change impacts. This study provides background information on India＇s Western Himalayas and reviews evidence of warming as well as variability in precipitation and extreme events.Methods： Understanding and anticipating the impacts of climate change on Himalayan forest ecosystems and the services they provide to people are critical. Efforts to develop and implement effective policies and management strategies for climate change mitigation and adaptation requires particular new research initiatives. The various studies initiated and conducted in the region are compiled here.Results： Several new initiatives taken by the Himalayan Forest Research Institute in Shimla are described. This includes new permanent observational field studies, some with mapped trees, in high altitude transitional zones for continuous monitoring of vegetation response. We have also presented new strategies for mitigating potential climate change effects in Himalayan forest ecosystems.Conclusions： Assessment of the ecological and genetic diversity of the Himalayan conifers is required to evaluate potential responses to changing climatic conditions. Conservation strategies for the important temperate medicinal plants need to be developed. The impact of climate change on insects and pathogens in the Himalayas also need to be assessed. Coordinated efforts are necessary to develop effective strategies for adaptation and mitigation.

Multi-model comparison of CO2 emissions peaking in China:Lessons from CEMF01 study

The paper summarizes results of the China Energy Modeling Forum's(CEMF)first study.Carbon emissions peaking scenarios,consistent with China's Paris commitment,have been simulated with seven national and industry-level energy models and compared.The CO2 emission trends in the considered scenarios peak from 2015 to 2030 at the level of 9e11 Gt.Sector-level analysis suggests that total emissions pathways before 2030 will be determined mainly by dynamics of emissions in the electric power industry and transportation sector.Both sectors will experience significant increase in demand,but have low-carbon alternative options for development.Based on a side-by-side comparison of modeling input and results,conclusions have been drawn regarding the sources of emissions projections differences,which include data,views on economic perspectives,or models'structure and theoretical framework.Some suggestions have been made regarding energy models'development priorities for further research.

Effects of Land Use Change on Eco-environment in Hilly Area of Central Sichuan Basin——A Case Study of Yanting County, Sichuan Province

With the artificial alder and cypress mixed forest being planted, there has been a marked land use change since 1970s' in Hilly Area of Central Sichuan Basin, China. Data from meteorological observations or posts operated over long time, measurement and calculation of NPP (net primary production) and biomass of biological community, and analysis of soil organic matter content show that the artificial alder and cypress mixed forest has outstanding eco-environmental effect: adjusting local climate, raising soil fertility, alleviating menace of drought, and raising NPP and biomass of biological community. It is very beneficial for improving ecological environment to afforest artificial alder and cypress mixed forest in populous Hilly Area of Central Sichuan Basin, China. Key Words: land use/land cover change (LUCC); eco-environmental effect; Hilly Area of Central Sichuan Basin; the artificial alder and cypress mixed forest

Indigenous People’s Contribution to the Mitigation of Climate Variation, Their Perception, and Organizing Strategy for Sustainable Community Based Forest Resources Management in <i>Caraballo</i>Mountain, Philippines

The focus of the study is to measure the level of awareness of Indigenous People on Climate Variation. It inquired into their observations and organizing strategy to cope with the early impacts of climate change on their socio-economic and cultural beliefs. The organization’s adaptation and mitigation practices to protect the environment are also discussed using as basis of analysis the multi-stakeholders framework of forest protection. The study documented and recognized the Indigenous Peoples contributions to the preservation and protection of forest resources in Caraballo mountain and a shift in paradigm to Indigenous People’s centered forest resources management is recommended.

Global, regional, and national burden of gallbladder and biliary diseases from 1990 to 2019

BACKGROUND Gallbladder and biliary diseases(GABDs)are a major public health issue.AIM To analysis the cause-specific incidence,prevalence,and years lived with disability(YLDs)and its temporal trends of GABDs at the global,regional,and national level.Data on GABD were available from the Global Burden of Disease study 2019.METHODS The estimated annual percentage change(EAPC)was used to quantify temporal trend in GABD age-standardized incidence rates(ASIRs),age-standardized prevalence rate(ASPR),and age-standardized YLD rate(ASYR)by region,sex.We analyzed the relationship between the GABD burden and country development level using the human development index(HDI).RESULTS In 2019,the incident cases of GABD were 52003772,with an ASIR of 63432/100000 population.Globally,the number of incident cases and ASIR of GABD increased 97%and 58.9%between 1990 and 2019.Although,the ASPR and ASYR decreased from 1990 to 2019,the number of prevalent and YLDs cases increased.The highest ASIR was observed in Italy,and the highest ASPR and ASYR was observed in United Kingdom.The highest burden of GABD was found in low-SDI region,and the burden in female was significantly higher than males.A generally negative correlation(ρ=-0.24,P<0.05)of GABD with the EAPC and human development index(HDI)(in 2021)were observed for ASIR.What’s more,no correlation in ASPR(ρ=-0.06,P=0.39)and ASYR(ρ=-0.07,P=0.36)of GABD with the EAPC and HDI(in 2021)were observed,respectively.CONCLUSION GABD remain a major global public health challenge;however,the burden of GABD varies geographically.Globally,the number of incident cases and ASIR of GABD increased between 1990 and 2019.The results of our study provide insight into the global disease burden of GABD and may assist policymakers in formulating effective policies to mitigate modifiable risk factors.