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Epidemiology of Cardiovascular Disease in China and Opportunities for Improvement: JACC International
The burden of cardiovascular (CV) disease is very high in China, due to highly prevalent and poorly controlled risk factors resulting from changing sociodemographic structure and lifestyles in its large population. Rapid economic development and urbanization have been accompanied by changing patterns, expression, and management of CV disease. However, the health care system in China lacks a hierarchical structure, with a focus on treating acute diseases in hospital while ignoring long-term management, and primary health care is too weak to effectively control CV risk factors. To address these challenges, the Chinese central government has ensured health is a national priority and has introduced reforms that include implementing policies for a healthy environment, strengthening primary care, and improving affordability and accessibility within the health system. Turning the inverted pyramid of the health care system is essential in the ongoing battle against CV disease.
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Are current UK coastal defences good enough for tomorrow? An assessment of vulnerability to coastal erosion
Coastal vulnerability and its physical, economic and social consequences at national and international scales is of high scientific, political and policy interest. Anthropogenic climate change and coastal erosion threaten the very fabric of a society. Indications, that coastal hazards are impacting diverse coastal areas severely across the world, and it is no longer a vague future threat that can't be ignored. Rising eustatic sea levels synthesized by the growing frequency and scale of coastal hazards like storm surges, coastal erosion and coastal landslides threaten low-lying and unprotected coastal areas in the United Kingdom even if they have coastal defenses. However, there is still significant uncertainty about the degree of vulnerability along different coastal stretches, particularly in England. To fill this uncertainty, the current study estimated the coastal vulnerability of the coastal erosion hotspot Camber, England, by establishing a coastal vulnerability index. This index was developed by compounding various existing parameters and termed as Erosion Coastal Vulnerability Index (ECVI). Results illustrate that 67% of coastal area fall between high and very high vulnerability categories, and current coastal defenses are not strong enough to tackle the severe coastal erosion in Camber. Within the evaluation, thematic maps were generated to enable the intensity of the vulnerability for different coastal stretches to be identified. The evaluated vulnerable hotspot should be treated urgently by regional and national policy organizations to ameliorate the impacts of coastal erosion and other associated risks. Without action, the hotspot is likely to encounter unprecedented new vulnerabilities, disasters and humanitarian catastrophes. The current study results allow for a local, regional and national comparison that may help to evaluate changes in coastal erosion vulnerability.
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Research on rice acreage estimation in fragmented area based on decomposition of mixed pixels
Rice acreage estimation is a key aspect to guarantee food security and also important to support government agricultural subsidy system. In this paper, we explored a sophisticated method to improve rice estimation accuracy at county scale and we developed our approach with China Environment Satellite HJ-1A/B data in Hunan Province, a fragmented area with complex rice cropping patterns. Our approach improved the estimation accuracy by combing supervised and unsupervised classification upon decomposition of mixed pixels model, and the rice estimation results, validated by ground survey data, showed a close relationship (RMSE≈3.40) with survey figures, the estimated accuracy (EA) reached 83.74% at county level according to the sub-pixel method, and the accuracy can be increased about 12% compared to the pure-pixel method. The results suggest that decomposition of mixed pixels method has great significance to the improvement of rice acreage estimation accuracy, and can be used in mountainous and broken planting area.
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Research on rice acreage estimation in fragmented area based on decomposition of mixed pixels
Rice acreage estimation is a key aspect to guarantee food security and also important to support government agricultural subsidy system. In this paper, we explored a sophisticated method to improve rice estimation accuracy at county scale and we developed our approach with China Environment Satellite HJ-1A/B data in Hunan Province, a fragmented area with complex rice cropping patterns. Our approach improved the estimation accuracy by combing supervised and unsupervised classification upon decomposition of mixed pixels model, and the rice estimation results, validated by ground survey data, showed a close relationship (RMSE≈3.40) with survey figures, the estimated accuracy (EA) reached 83.74% at county level according to the sub-pixel method, and the accuracy can be increased about 12% compared to the pure-pixel method. The results suggest that decomposition of mixed pixels method has great significance to the improvement of rice acreage estimation accuracy, and can be used in mountainous and broken planting area.
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Design and simulation of an imaging neutral particle analyzer for the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak
An Imaging Neutral Particle Analyzer (INPA) diagnostic has been designed for the ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) tokamak. The AUG INPA diagnostic will measure fast neutrals escaping the plasma after charge exchange reactions. The neutrals will be ionized by a 20 nm carbon foil and deflected toward a scintillator by the local magnetic field. The use of a neutral beam injector (NBI) as an active source of neutrals will provide radially resolved measurements, while the use of a scintillator as an active component will allow us to cover the whole plasma along the NBI line with unprecedented phase-space resolution (<12 keV and 8 cm) and a fast temporal response (up to 1 kHz with the high resolution acquisition system and above 100 kHz with the low resolution one), making it suitable to study localized fast-ion redistributions in phase space. ; European Union's Horizon 2020 (Grant Agreement No. 805162) ; Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (Grant No. FPU19/02486)
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Design and simulation of an imaging neutral particle analyzer for the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak
An Imaging Neutral Particle Analyzer (INPA) diagnostic has been designed for the ASDEX Upgrade (AUG) tokamak. The AUG INPA diagnostic will measure fast neutrals escaping the plasma after charge exchange reactions. The neutrals will be ionized by a 20 nm carbon foil and deflected toward a scintillator by the local magnetic field. The use of a neutral beam injector (NBI) as an active source of neutrals will provide radially resolved measurements, while the use of a scintillator as an active component will allow us to cover the whole plasma along the NBI line with unprecedented phase-space resolution (<12 keV and 8 cm) and a fast temporal response (up to 1 kHz with the high resolution acquisition system and above 100 kHz with the low resolution one), making it suitable to study localized fast-ion redistributions in phase space. ; This project received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant Agreement No. 805162) and the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (Grant No. FPU19/02486).
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Endogenous Annexin-A1 Regulates Haematopoietic Stem Cell Mobilisation and Inflammatory Response Post Myocardial Infarction in Mice In Vivo
Endogenous anti-inflammatory annexin-A1 (ANX-A1) plays an important role in preserving left ventricular (LV) viability and function after ischaemic insults in vitro, but its long-term cardioprotective actions in vivo are largely unknown. We tested the hypothesis that ANX-A1-deficiency exaggerates inflammation, haematopoietic stem progenitor cell (HSPC) activity and LV remodelling in response to myocardial ischaemia in vivo. Adult ANX - A1 -/- mice subjected to coronary artery occlusion exhibited increased infarct size and LV macrophage content after 24-48 h reperfusion compared with wildtype (WT) counterparts. In addition, ANX - A1 -/- mice exhibited greater expansion of HSPCs and altered pattern of HSPC mobilisation 8 days post-myocardial infarction, with increased circulating neutrophils and platelets, consistent with increased cardiac inflammation as a result of increased myeloid invading injured myocardium in response to MI. Furthermore, ANX - A1 -/- mice exhibited significantly increased expression of LV pro-inflammatory and pro-fibrotic genes and collagen deposition after MI compared to WT counterparts. ANX-A1-deficiency increased cardiac necrosis, inflammation, hypertrophy and fibrosis following MI, accompanied by exaggerated HSPC activity and impaired macrophage phenotype. These findings suggest that endogenous ANX-A1 regulates mobilisation and differentiation of HSPCs. Limiting excessive monocyte/neutrophil production may limit LV damage in vivo. Our findings support further development of novel ANX-A1-based therapies to improve cardiac outcomes after MI. ; This work was supported in part by both the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia, including APP1045140 (to R.H.R., X.M.G., Y.H.Y.), APP1083138 & APP1106154 (to A.J.M.), and the Victorian Government's Operational Infrastructure Support Program. R.H.R. and X.J.D. are NHMRC Senior Research Fellows (APP1059960; APP1043026 respectively), A.J.M. is an NHMRC Career Development Fellow (APP1085752) and a NHF Future Leader Fellow (100440). A.A.S. and S.B.F. are supported by Australian Postgraduate Awards.
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Elective surgery cancellations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Global predictive modelling to inform surgical recovery plans
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted routine hospital services globally. This study estimated the total number of adult elective operations that would be cancelled worldwide during the 12 weeks of peak disruption due to COVID-19. Methods: A global expert response study was conducted to elicit projections for the proportion of elective surgery that would be cancelled or postponed during the 12 weeks of peak disruption. A Bayesian β-regression model was used to estimate 12-week cancellation rates for 190 countries. Elective surgical case-mix data, stratified by specialty and indication (surgery for cancer versus benign disease), were determined. This case mix was applied to country-level surgical volumes. The 12-week cancellation rates were then applied to these figures to calculate the total number of cancelled operations. Results: The best estimate was that 28 404 603 operations would be cancelled or postponed during the peak 12 weeks of disruption due to COVID-19 (2 367 050 operations per week). Most would be operations for benign disease (90·2 per cent, 25 638 922 of 28 404 603). The overall 12-week cancellation rate would be 72·3 per cent. Globally, 81·7 per cent of operations for benign conditions (25 638 922 of 31 378 062), 37·7 per cent of cancer operations (2 324 070 of 6 162 311) and 25·4 per cent of elective caesarean sections (441 611 of 1 735 483) would be cancelled or postponed. If countries increased their normal surgical volume by 20 per cent after the pandemic, it would take a median of 45 weeks to clear the backlog of operations resulting from COVID-19 disruption. Conclusion: A very large number of operations will be cancelled or postponed owing to disruption caused by COVID-19. Governments should mitigate against this major burden on patients by developing recovery plans and implementing strategies to restore surgical activity safely.
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