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Abstract. Regional land carbon budgets provide insights on the spatial distribution of the land uptake of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and can be used to evaluate carbon cycle models and to define baselines for land-based additional mitigation efforts. The scientific community has been involved in providing observation-based estimates of regional carbon budgets either by downscaling atmospheric CO2 observations into surface fluxes with atmospheric inversions, by using inventories of carbon stock changes in terrestrial ecosystems, by upscaling local field observations such as flux towers with gridded climate and remote sensing fields or by integrating data-driven or process-oriented terrestrial carbon cycle models. The first coordinated attempt to collect regional carbon budgets for nine regions covering the entire globe in the RECCAP-1 project has delivered estimates for the decade 2000–2009, but these budgets were not comparable between regions, due to different definitions and component fluxes reported or omitted. The recent recognition of lateral fluxes of carbon by human activities and rivers, that connect CO2 uptake in one area with its release in another also requires better definition and protocols to reach harmonized regional budgets that can be summed up to the globe and compared with the atmospheric CO2 growth rate and inversion results. In this study, for the international initiative RECCAP-2 coordinated by the Global Carbon Project, which aims as an update of regional carbon budgets over the last two decades based on observations, for 10 regions covering the globe, with a better harmonization that the precursor project, we provide recommendations for using atmospheric inversions results to match bottom-up carbon accounting and models, and we define the different component fluxes of the net land atmosphere carbon exchange that should be reported by each research group in charge of each region. Special attention is given to lateral fluxes, inland water fluxes and land use fluxes.

Xuanwei City (formerly known as Xuanwei County) locates in the northeastern of Yunnan Province and is rich in coal, iron, copper and other mines, especially the smoky (bituminous) coal. Unfortunately, the lung cancer morbidity and mortality rates in this region are among China's highest, with a clear upward trend from the mid-1970s to mid-2000s. In 2004-2005, the crude death rate of lung cancer was 91.3 per 100,000 in the whole Xuanwei City, while that for Laibin Town in this city was 241.14 per 100,000. The epidemiologic distribution (clustering patterns by population, time, and space) of lung cancer in Xuanwei has some special features, e.g., high incidence in rural areas, high incidence in females, and an early age peak in lung cancer deaths. The main factor that associates with a high rate of lung cancer incidence was found to be indoor air pollution caused by the indoor burning of smoky coal. To a certain extent, genetic defects are also associated with the high incidence of lung cancer in Xuanwei. Taken together, lung cancer in this smoky coal combustion region is a unique model for environmental factor-related human cancer, and the current studies indicate that abandoning the use of smoky coal is the key to diminish lung cancer morbidity and mortality.

Gynura divaricata (L.) DC and G. bicolor DC are used as secret recipes to treat diabetes mellitus in some parts of China. Pharmacological tests were performed to prove the anti-hyperglycemic effect of these two plants of genus Gynura Cass. in this study. Both water and 95% ethanol extracts of fresh G. divaricata had significant effects on lowering blood glucose level in normal mice, in which the dose of 0.4 g (crude drug)/kg of 95% ethanol extract was more effective than 50 mg/kg glyburide. The ethyl acetate and n-butanol extracts of dried G. divaricata had significant effects on lowering blood glucose level in normal and alloxan diabetic mice too. Both ethyl acetate and n-butanol extracts of dried G. bicolor showed very significant effect on lowering blood glucose level to normal and alloxan-diabetic mice, and the dose 4.0 g (crude drug)/kg had a more hypoglycemic effect than 50 mg/kg glyburide in normal mice.

Our previous studies showed that prenatal ethanol exposure (PEE) elevated blood total cholesterol (TCH) level in adult offspring rats. This study was aimed at elucidating the intrauterine programming mechanism of hypercholesterolemia in adult rats induced by PEE. Pregnant Wistar rats were intragastrically administered ethanol (4 mg/kg∙d) from gestational day (GD) 9 to 20. The offspring rats were euthanized at GD20 and postnatal week 24. Results showed that PEE decreased serum TCH and HDL-C levels (female and male) as well as LDL-C level (female only) in fetal rats but increased serum TCH level and the TCH/HDL-C and LDL-C/HDL-C ratios in adult rats. Furthermore, PEE elevated serum corticosterone levels but inhibited hepatic insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) signaling pathway, cholesterol synthesis and output in fetal rats. The conversed changes were observed in adult rats. Moreover, histone acetylation (H3K9ac and H3K14ac) and expression of hepatic reverse cholesterol transport (RCT) related genes, scavenger receptor BI and low-density lipoprotein receptor were decreased before and after birth by PEE. In HepG2 cells, cortisol negatively regulated the IGF1 signaling pathway and cholesterol metabolic genes, but this inhibition of the cholesterol metabolic genes could be reversed by glucocorticoid receptor antagonist RU486, whereas exogenous IGF1 treatment only reversed the downregulation of RCT genes by cortisol. We confirmed a "two programming" mechanism for PEE-induced hypercholesterolemia in adult rats. The "first programming" was a glucocorticoid (GC)-induced persistent reduction of RCT genes by epigenetic modifications, and the "second programming" was the negative regulation of cholesterol synthesis and output by the GC-IGF1 axis.

The accessibility of hospital facilities is of great importance not only for maintaining social stability, but also for protecting the basic human right to health care. Traditional accessibility research often lacks consideration of the dynamic changes in transport costs and does not reflect the actual travel time of urban residents, which is critical to time-sensitive hospital services. To avoid these defects, this study considered the city of Kaifeng, China, as an empirical case, and directly acquired travel time data for two travel modes to the hospital in different time periods through web mapping API (Application Program Interface). Further, based on travel time calculations, we compared five baseline indicators. For the last indicator, we used the optimal weighted accessibility model to measure hospital accessibility for each residential area. The study discovered significant differences in the frequency and spatial distribution of hospital accessibility using public transit and self-driving modes of transportation. In addition, there is an imbalance between accessibility travel times in the study area and the number of arrivals at hospitals. In particular, different modes of transportation and different travel periods also have a certain impact on accessibility of medical treatment. The research results shed new light on the accessibility of urban public facilities and provide a scientific basis with which local governments can optimize the spatial structure of hospital resources.

ObjectivesThe poor safety profile of sunitinib capsules has encouraged the identification of targeted drug delivery systems against renal cell carcinoma. This study aimed to explore the effect of sunitinib‐loaded microbubbles along with ultrasound (US) treatment on proliferation and apoptosis of human GRC‐1 granulocyte renal carcinoma cells in vitro and in vivo (xenograft tumor growth in nude mice).MethodsLiposomes containing sunitinib were prepared by using the transmembrane ammonium sulfate gradient method and then absorbed into polymer microbubbles to generate sunitinib‐loaded microbubbles. Entrapment of sunitinib was verified by 25‐25‐[N‐[(7‐nitro‐2‐1,3‐benzoxadiazol‐4‐yl)methyl]amino]‐27‐norcholesterol staining. GRC‐1 cells were treated with microbubbles alone, liposomes alone, sunitinib alone, sunitinib‐loaded microbubbles without and with US, and no treatment (control). Cell survival and apoptosis were assessed at 12, 24, and 48 hours after treatment. Xenograft tumors were induced by implantation of GRC‐1 cells in nude mice. The animals with tumors were then randomly assigned to sunitinib alone, sunitinib‐loaded microbubbles − US, sunitinib‐loaded microbubbles + US, and no treatment (control; n = 10 per group). The tumor volumes were analyzed on the 7th, 15th, and 21st days.ResultsThe sunitinib entrapment efficiency in the liposomes was approximately 78%. The effective sunitinib concentration in each group was 0.1 μg/mL. The sunitinib‐loaded microbubble + US group showed a lower in vitro cell survival rate (P < .001) compared with the other groups. Greater in vivo inhibition of xenograft tumor growth was also observed in the sunitinib‐loaded microbubble + US group compared with the other groups.ConclusionsCombined sunitinib‐loaded microbubbles and US treatment significantly inhibits growth of renal carcinoma cells both in vitro and in vivo.

The macroalgal industry is expanding, and the quest for novel ingredients to improve and develop innovative products is crucial. Consumers are increasingly looking for natural-derived ingredients in cosmetic products that have been proven to be effective and safe. Macroalgae-derived compounds have growing popularity in skincare products as they are natural, abundant, biocompatible, and renewable. Due to their high biomass yields, rapid growth rates, and cultivation process, they are gaining widespread recognition as potentially sustainable resources better suited for biorefinery processes. This review demonstrates macroalgae metabolites and their industrial applications in moisturizers, anti-aging, skin whitening, hair, and oral care products. These chemicals can be obtained in combination with energy products to increase the value of macroalgae from an industrial perspective with a zero-waste approach by linking multiple refineries. The key challenges, bottlenecks, and future perspectives in the operation and outlook of macroalgal biorefineries were also discussed.