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Asian aerosols are among the most complex yet widely studied components of the atmosphere not only due to their seasonal variability but also their effects on climate change. Four Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) sites have been selected to represent aerosol properties dominated by pollution (Taihu), mixed complex particle types (Xianghe), desert-urban (SACOL), and biomass (Mukdahan) in East Asia during the 2001–2010 period. The volume size distribution, aerosol optical depth (τ and τabs), Ångström exponent (α and αabs), and the single scattering co-albedo (ωoabs) parameters over the four selected sites have been used to (a) illustrate seasonal changes in aerosol size and composition and (b) discern the absorptive characteristics of black carbon (BC), organic carbon (OC), mineral dust particles, and mixtures. A strongly absorbing mineral dust influence is seen at the Xianghe, Taihu, and SACOL sites during the spring months (MAM), as given by coarse mode dominance, mean α440–870 < 1, and mean αabs440–870 > 1.5. There is a shift towards weakly absorbing pollution (sulfate) and biomass (OC) aerosol dominance in the summer (JJA) and autumn (SON) months, as given by a strong fine mode influence, α440–870 > 1, and αabs440–870 < 1.5. A winter season (DJF) shift toward strongly fine mode, absorbing particles (BC and OC) is observed at Xianghe and Taihu (αabs440–870 > 1 and αabs440–870 > 1.5). At Mukdahan, a strong fine mode influence is evident year round, with weakly and strongly absorbing biomass particles dominant in the autumn and winter months, respectively, while particles exhibit variable absorption during the spring season. A classification method using α440–870 and ωoabs440 is developed in order to infer the seasonal physico-chemical properties of the aerosol types, such as fine and coarse mode, weak and strong absorption, at the four selected Asian sites.

In this study, we retrieve and document drizzle properties, and investigate the impact of drizzle on cloud property retrieval in Dong et al. (2014a) from ground-based measurements at the ARM Azores facility from June 2009 to December 2010. For the selected cloud and drizzle samples, the drizzle occurrence is 42.6 %, with a maximum of 55.8 % in winter and a minimum of 35.6 % in summer. The annual means of drizzle liquid water path LWPd, effective radius rd, and number concentration Nd for the rain (virga) samples are 4.73 (1.25) g m−2, 61.5 (36.4) μm, and 0.38 (0.79) cm−3. The seasonal mean LWPd values are less than 3 % of the LWP values retrieved by the microwave radiometer (MWR). The annual mean differences in cloud-droplet effective radius with and without drizzle are 0.75 and 2.35 %, respectively, for the virga and rain samples. Therefore, we conclude that the impact of drizzle below the cloud base on cloud property retrieval is insignificant for a solar-transmission-based method, but significant for any retrievals using radar reflectivity.

The aim of this study was to assess the performance of the blood pressure-to-height ratio (BPHR) for screening elevated blood pressure (BP) in children and adolescents using a meta-analysis of eligible published studies. We retrieved studies that investigated the performance of the BPHR for identifying elevated BP from Pubmed and other databases. We performed meta-analyses by subgroups of sex, age and ethnicity using a fixed or random effect model based on whether there was between-study heterogeneity. A total of 13 publications including 262 830 children and adolescents aged 6–18 years on BPHR and a total of three publications including 95 343 children on the modified BPHR were included in this meta-analysis. The summary results suggested that BPHR performed well to identify pre-high BP and high BP for children aged 6–11 years and adolescents aged 12–18 years. The performance of BPHR was perfect for identifying severe high BP in adolescents aged 12–18 years. However, the modified BPHR did not improve accuracy for screening high BP in children aged 6–12 years. In summary, BPHR performed well for identifying elevated BP in children and adolescents, independently of sex, age and ethnicity group. In addition, the modified BPHR performed similarly with BPHR for screening high BP in childhood.

Summary A nine‐week feeding trial was conducted to test the hypothesis that an adequate methionine diet might improve growth, feed utilization, body composition and physiology, and biochemical parameters in pre‐adult blunt snout bream Megalobrama amblycephala, whereas a methionine deficiency might have adverse effects on these parameters. Six isonitrogenous and isoenergetics semi‐purified diets (33.0% crude protein, 7.0% crude lipid) were formulated to contain graded methionine levels (0.39–1.54% of dry weight) at 0.25% increments replaced by equal proportions of glycine. Results show that the survival rate (SR) was not significantly affected by the dietary methionine level. Final weight (FW), feed efficiency ratios (FER), weight gain (WG), and specific growth rate (SGR) increased with increasing dietary methionine levels up to 1.00% and then showed a declining trend. Using quadratic regression analysis of FER and SGR, the dietary methionine requirement was estimated to be 0.74% (2.24% of dietary protein) and 0.76% of the diet (2.30% of dietary protein), respectively. Fish fed the 0.39% methionine diet showed significantly lower whole body protein content compared to those fed with 0.85, 1.00 and 1.24% methionine diets (P < 0.05). Whole body moisture, lipid, and ash contents in pre‐adult adult blunt snout bream were not significantly affected. The urea content in fish fed the 0.85% methionine diet was significantly higher than those of fish fed a 0.39, 0.56, 1.24, 1.54% methionine diet (P < 0.05), but not significantly different in fish fed the 1.00% methionine diet (P > 0.05). No significant differences were found in other indexes such as the hepatosomatic index (HSI), viscerosomatic index (VSI), condition factor (CF), albumin (ALB), total protein (TP), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and spartate transaminase (AST) (P > 0.05). Most important, the optimal dietary methionine level of pre‐adult blunt snout bream should be 0.74–0.76% of the diet (2.24–2.30% of dietary protein).

DNA polymorphism is the basis to develop molecular markers that are widely used in genetic mapping today. A genome-wide rice (Oryza sativa) DNA polymorphism database has been constructed in this work using the genomes of Nipponbare, a cultivar of japonica, and 93-11, a cultivar of indica. This database contains 1,703,176 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 479,406 Insertion/Deletions (InDels), approximately one SNP every 268 bp and one InDel every 953 bp in rice genome. Both SNPs and InDels in the database were experimentally validated. Of 109 randomly selected SNPs, 107 SNPs (98.2%) are accurate. PCR analysis indicated that 90% (97 of 108) of InDels in the database could be used as molecular markers, and 68% to 89% of the 97 InDel markers have polymorphisms between other indica cultivars (Guang-lu-ai 4 and Long-te-pu B) and japonica cultivars (Zhong-hua 11 and 9522). This suggests that this database can be used not only for Nipponbare and 93-11, but also for other japonica and indica cultivars. While validating InDel polymorphisms in the database, a set of InDel markers with each chromosome 3 to 5 marker was developed. These markers are inexpensive and easy to use, and can be used for any combination of japonica and indica cultivars used in this work. This rice DNA polymorphism database will be a valuable resource and important tool for map-based cloning of rice gene, as well as in other various research on rice (http://shenghuan.shnu.edu.cn/ricemarker).

Recent genome-wide association studies have identified several single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are associated with blood pressure (BP)/hypertension. In this study, we aimed to examine the established associations amongst Chinese children. We genotyped six SNPs ( ATP2B1 rs17249754, CSK rs1378942, MTHFR rs1801133, CYP17A1 rs1004467, STK39 rs3754777 and FGF5 rs16998073) in Chinese children ( N =3077, age range, 6–18 years). Based on the Chinese age- and sex-specific BP standards, 619 hypertensive cases and 2458 controls with normal BP were identified. Of the six SNPs, only ATP2B1 rs17249754 SNP was significantly associated with the risk of hypertension (allelic odds ratio (OR)=1.25, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.08–1.44, P =0.003). Although all other SNPs showed a trend towards increasing the BP values and risk of hypertension, there was no statistically significant association after false discovery rate analysis. We calculated the weighted risk score using six SNPs, for systolic BP (SBP), diastolic BP (DBP) and hypertension. Each additional weighted risk score was associated with SBP by 1.18 mm Hg (95% CI=0.62–1.73, P <0.001), but not with the DBP ( β =0.28, 95% CI=(-0.15)-0.74), and overall increased the risk of hypertension by 1.19-fold (95% CI=1.04–1.35, P =0.01). The present study confirmed the significant association of ATP2B1 rs17249754 with risk of hypertension among Chinese children, but failed to replicate the association of CSK rs1378942, MTHFR rs1801133, CYP17A1 rs1004467, STK39 rs3754777 and FGF5 rs16998073 with BP/risk of hypertension.

Context: Recent genome-wide association studies have identified several single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are associated with body mass index (BMI)/obesity. Objective: As obesity is an independent risk factor for hypertension, the objective of the study was to investigate the associations of obesity susceptibility loci with blood pressure (BP)/hypertension in a population of Chinese children. Design, setting and participants: This was a genotype–phenotype association study. Participants included 3077 Chinese children, aged 6–18 years. Based on the Chinese age- and sex-specific BP standards, 619 hypertensive cases and 2458 controls with normal BP were identified. Main outcome measures: BP was measured by auscultation using a standard clinical sphygmomanometer. Results: Of the 11 SNPs, only FTO rs9939609 was significantly associated with systolic BP (SBP; P =0.034) and three SNPs were significantly associated with diastolic BP (DBP; GNPDA2 rs10938397: P =0.026; FAIM2 rs7138803: P =0.015; NPC1 rs1805081: P =0.031) after adjustment for age, sex and hypertension status. In addition, three SNPs were significantly associated with hypertension risk after adjustment for age and sex ( FTO rs9939609: odds ratio (OR)=1.35, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.12–1.62, P =0.001; MC4R rs17782313: OR=1.22, 95% CI 1.06–1.42, P =0.007; GNPDA2 rs10938397: OR=1.17, 95% CI 1.02–1.34, P =0.021). After additional adjustment for BMI, none remained significant. The genetic risk score (GRS), based on three significant SNPs ( FTO rs9939609, MC4R rs17782313, GNPDA2 rs10938397), showed a positive association with SBP ( P =5.17 × 10 −4 ) and risk of hypertension (OR=1.22, 95% CI 1.12–1.33, P =6.07 × 10 −6 ). Further adjustment for BMI abolished the positive associations (SBP: P =0.220; DBP: P =0.305; hypertension: P =0.052). Only FTO rs9939609 and GRS were statistically associated with hypertension risk in the age- and sex-adjusted model after correction for multiple testing. Conclusions: The present study demonstrated that FTO rs9939609 and combined SNPs were significantly associated with risk of hypertension, which seems to be dependent on BMI.

In general, with the increase of pyrolysis temperature, the adsorption effect of the prepared biochar to Pb2+ is better.Under the same experimental conditions at 25°C, the adsorption capacity of biochar prepared by pyrolysis of sludge at 600°C was highest which was 611.8 mg/g. The adsorption kinetics of Pb2+ in solution by BC600 is better fitted to the first order kinetic equation. With the increase of pH value of solution, the adsorption capacity of lead increased from 441.3 mg/g to 650.6 mg/g.

Coal fly ash was the main burning by-products in a coal-fired power station, which is a major global environmental problem and is threat to public health and environmental pollution. In this study, the optimum condition of synthesized zeolite from fly ash were investigated. The results showed that the optimum conditions were that the OH-concentration, the Si/Al ratio, the solid liquid ratio and aging time were 0.75 mol/L, 2.8, 9 ml/g and 0.5 h, respectively, for the synthesis of zeolites X. It is suggested that this method for synthesized zeolite X from coal fly ash is an efficient technology.

CYP17A1 gene encodes the cytochrome P450 enzyme CYP17A1, a key enzyme involved in steroid metabolism. A single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) near CYP17A1 , rs11191548, showed significant association with hypertension in European adults. However, this association has not been demonstrated in children thus far. Additionally, the role of CYP17A1 in elevating blood pressure (BP) is unclear. We investigated the association of rs11191548 with hypertension in Chinese children. A total of 3422 children participated in the study, including 1009 children with elevated BP (EBP, including prehypertension and hypertension) and 2413 children with normal BP. SNP rs11191548 was associated with systolic BP (SBP) (CC vs TT: P =4.8 × 10 −4 ; additive model: P =0.002; dominant model: P =0.011; recessive model: P =0.001) and EBP (CC vs TT: odds ratio (OR)=0.43, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.26–0.72, P =0.001; additive model: OR=0.74, 95% CI 0.61–0.90, P =0.002; dominant model: OR=0.76, 95% CI 0.60–0.96, P =0.022; recessive model: recessive model: OR=0.46, 95% CI 0.28–0.77, P =0.003) in girls, but there was no statistically significant association between the SNP and diastolic BP in boys or girls. Our results also showed that rs11191548 was more significantly associated with SBP and EBP in obese girls than in girls of normal weight. Our study indicated that the SNP rs11191548, near CYP17A1, was associated with EBP in children. Moreover, we found a sex-specific effect of rs11191548 on SBP in Chinese children. Further studies are necessary to clarify the association between this CYP17A1 polymorphism and BP.