The timing and nature of the arrival and the subsequent expansion of modern humans into eastern Asia remains controversial. Using Y-chromosome biallelic markers, we investigated the ancient human-migration patterns in eastern Asia. Our data indicate that southern populations in eastern Asia are much more polymorphic than northern populations, which have only a subset of the southern haplotypes. This pattern indicates that the first settlement of modern humans in eastern Asia occurred in mainland Southeast Asia during the last Ice Age, coinciding with the absence of human fossils in eastern Asia, 50,000-100,000 years ago. After the initial peopling, a great northward migration extended into northern China and Siberia.

The growing water stress both in terms of water scarcity and quality deterioration promotes the development of reclaimed water as a new water resource use. This paper reviewed wastewater reuse practices in China, and the opportunities and challenges of expanding reclaimed water use were analyzed. Rapid urbanization with the increasing of water demand and wastewater discharge provides an opportunity for wastewater reuse. The vast amount of wastewater discharge and low reclaimed water production mean that wastewater reuse still has a great potential in China. Many environmental and economic benefits and successful reclamation technologies also provide opportunities for wastewater reuse. In addition, the overall strategy in China is also encouraging for wastewater reuse. In the beginning stage of wastewater reclamation and reuse, there are many significant challenges to expand wastewater reuse in China including slow pace in adopting urban wastewater reuse programs, the establishment of integrated water resources management framework and guidelines for wastewater reuse programs, incoherent water quality requirements, the limited commercial development of reclaimed water and the strengthening of public awareness and cooperation among stakeholders.

Chemokine receptor CCR2 and stromal-derived factor (SDF-1) are involved in HIV infection and AIDS symptom onset. Recent cohort studies showed that point mutations in these two genes, CCR2-64I and SDF1-3'A, can delay AIDS onset > or = 16 years after seroconversions. The protective effect of CCR2-64I is dominant, whereas that of SDF1-3'A is recessive. SDF1-3'A homozygotes also showed possible protection against HIV-1 infection. In this study, we surveyed the frequency distributions of the two alleles at both loci in world populations, with emphasis on those in east Asia. The CCR2-64I frequencies do not vary significantly in the different continents, having a range of 0.1-0.2 in most populations. A decreasing cline of the CCR2-64I frequency from north to south was observed in east Asia. In contrast, the distribution of SDF1-3'A in world populations varies substantially, and the highest frequency was observed in Oceanian populations. Moreover, an increasing cline of the SDF1-3'A frequency from north to south was observed in east Asia. The relative hazard values were computed to evaluate the risk of AIDS onset on the basis of two-locus genotypes in the east Asian and world populations.

To identify genetic abnormalities in primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), we performed microsatellite analysis (MSA) on 60 Chinese HCC specimens. Utilizing a semi-quantitative MSA and 292 highly polymorphic markers spanning all 22 autosomes, we found that somatic allelic imbalance (AI) occurred frequently in HCC. To evaluate the nature of the AI, comparative genomic hybridization was performed on 20 HCC specimens. The combined use of these two methods revealed frequent allelic loss on 17p, 9p21-p23, 4q, 16q21-q23.3, 13q, 8p21-p23, and 6q24-q27, whereas there was frequent allelic gain on 1q, 17q, and 8q24. The region with the highest incidence of genomic imbalance was 17p13 (65%), followed by 9p21-p23 (55%), 4q (35-51%), 16q21-q23.3 (52%), 17p12 (49%), 13q (39-46%), 8p21-p23 (41-45%), 8q24 (41%), and 1q32 (40%). In addition, aberrations of 19p13.3, 16p13.3, 13q33-q34, 9q13-31, and 7q were reported for the first time. The presence of a close correlation of 17p13 deletion with abnormalities of some other loci implies that 17p13 could play a crucial role in oncogenesis. Interestingly, microsatellite instability was rarely seen in our patients, in contrast to that observed in European HCC samples.

Children developed retinoblastoma at a young age. Early diagnosis is difficult. Key factors of clinical treatment and long survival rate were diagnosis and treatment at the early stage with multidisciplinary methods.

Due to the strict requirements of extremely high accuracy and fast computational speed, real-time transient stability assessment (TSA) has always been a tough problem in power system analysis. Fortunately, the development of artificial intelligence and big data technologies provide the new prospective methods to this issue, and there have been some successful trials on using intelligent method, such as support vector machine (SVM) method. However, the traditional SVM method cannot avoid false classification, and the interpretability of the results needs to be strengthened and clear. This paper proposes a new strategy to solve the shortcomings of traditional SVM, which can improve the interpretability of results, and avoid the problem of false alarms and missed alarms. In this strategy, two improved SVMs, which are called aggressive support vector machine (ASVM) and conservative support vector machine (CSVM), are proposed to improve the accuracy of the classification. And two improved SVMs can ensure the stability or instability of the power system in most cases. For the small amount of cases with undetermined stability, a new concept of grey region (GR) is built to measure the uncertainty of the results, and GR can assessment the instable probability of the power system. Cases studies on IEEE 39-bus system and realistic provincial power grid illustrate the effectiveness and practicability of the proposed strategy.

Public involvement is critical to the successful implementation of reclaimed water reuse programs. Based on the participatory research method, we studied the attitudes of the stakeholders who are involved in reclaimed water reuse in Beijing, China. Results showed that the general public's knowledge on water resources was poor, while their awareness on reclaimed water reuse was high. The general public showed a strong acceptance of non-contact and non-potable reclaimed water reuse, but their acceptance of the three major water reuse types of river water supplement, park water supplement, and agriculture irrigation was not high. The beneficial use of reclaimed water was admired by water resource managers, industrial sectors, and researchers, and these stakeholders strongly supported the advancement of reclaimed water reuse. However, some of the stakeholders showed concerns about the potential risks from reclaimed wastewater reuse. Among them, risks from waste water treatment facilities were the biggest concern. Stakeholders' perception of reclaimed water was influenced by their social-economic attributes. This study will enrich the current survey findings on public perception of reclaimed water reuse, particularly in developing countries. OPEN ACCESSSustainability 2015, 7 9697

Background The data regarding a transposed ovary in intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) are not sufficient. Here we aim to investigate the adequate dose constraint of ovarian transposition before radiotherapy in cervical cancer patients. Methods This was a retrospective analysis of 118 patients with cervical cancer who received a radical hysterectomy and ovarian transposition before pelvic irradiation from April 2012 to July 2017. A total of 105 patients underwent IMRT with a limited radiation dose to the ovaries; 48 of these patients received unilateral ovary limitation, while 57 received bilateral ovary limitations. Patient follow up regarding sex hormone levels (estrogen [E2], follicle stimulating hormone [FSH]) and menopausal symptoms was completed one year after their radiation therapy. Results A total of 41 out of 105 patients (39.0%) who underwent IMRT with a limited radiation dose to the ovaries preserved their normal ovarian function. The cutoff dose of comparatively lower side ovarian maximum dose was 9.985Gy and the cutoff of mean dose was 5.32Gy. The optimal dose–volume constrains to ovaries was V5.5 < 29.65%. Age ≤ 38 ( P = 0.001) was an independent predictors of ovarian function, while limited ovarian side numbers were excluded. Conclusion Using IMRT, preservation of ovarian function was possible when the limited dose was as low as possible to the ovaries regardless of bilateral or unilateral limitation to the ovaries. The ovarian maximum dose of less than 9.985Gy, the mean dose less than 5.32Gy and V5.5 < 29.65% could be better at preventing ovarian dysfunction. Patients younger than 38 years old were more likely to keep normal ovarian function while limited ovarian side numbers did not appear to exert an obvious effect.