Adolescent suicide behaviour should be a serious problem. Measures can be taken to prevent suicide by observing the factors significantly linked to suicidal behaviour. Steps can then be taken to identify adolescents who have serious suicidal ideation so that intervention can be taken to reduce the suicidal rate.

Abstract. The explosive growth of PM2.5 mass usually results in extreme PM2.5 levels and severe haze pollution in eastern China, and is generally underestimated by current atmospheric chemistry models. Based on one such model, GRAPES_CUACE, three sensitivity experiments – a “background” experiment (EXP1), an “online aerosol feedback” experiment (EXP2), and an “80 % decrease in the turbulent diffusion coefficient of chemical tracers” experiment, based on EXP2 (EXP3) – were designed to study the contributions of the aerosol–radiation feedback (AF) and the decrease in the turbulent diffusion coefficient to the explosive growth of PM2.5 during a “red alert” heavy haze event in China's Jing–Jin–Ji (Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei) region. The results showed that the turbulent diffusion coefficient calculated by EXP1 was about 60–70 m−2 s−1 on a clear day and 30–35 m−2 s−1 on a haze day. This difference in the diffusion coefficient was not enough to distinguish between the unstable atmosphere on the clear day and the extremely stable atmosphere during the PM2.5 explosive growth stage. Furthermore, the inversion calculated by EXP1 was obviously weaker than the actual inversion from sounding observations on the haze day. This led to a 40 %–51 % underestimation of PM2.5 by EXP1; the AF decreased the diffusion coefficient by about 43 %–57 % during the PM2.5 explosive growth stage, which obviously strengthened the local inversion. In addition, the local inversion indicated by EXP2 was much closer to the sounding observations than that indicated by EXP1. This resulted in a 20 %–25 % reduction of PM2.5 negative errors in the model, with errors as low as −16 % to −11 % in EXP2. However, the inversion produced by EXP2 was still weaker than the actual observations, and the AF alone could not completely explain the PM2.5 underestimation. Based on EXP2, the 80 % decrease in the turbulent diffusion coefficient of chemical tracers in EXP3 resulted in near-zero turbulent diffusion, referred to as a “turbulent intermittence” atmospheric state, which subsequently resulted in a further 14 %–20 % reduction of the PM2.5 underestimation; moreover, the negative PM2.5 errors were reduced to −11 % to 2 %. The combined effects of the AF and the decrease in the turbulent diffusion coefficient explained over 79 % of the underestimation of the explosive growth of PM2.5 in this study. The results show that online calculation of the AF is essential for the prediction of PM2.5 explosive growth and peaks during severe haze in China's Jing–Jin–Ji region. Furthermore, an improvement in the planetary boundary layer scheme with respect to extremely stable atmospheric stratification is essential for a reasonable description of local “turbulent intermittence” and a more accurate prediction of PM2.5 explosive growth during severe haze in this region of China.

These results suggest that seasonal variations in mood and behavior are common in China. The predominance of summer difficulties stands in contrast to that in most Western studies and is consistent with the only other published study performed in Asia.

Abstract. Rapid urbanization throughout eastern China is imposing an irreversible effect on local climate and air quality. In this paper, we examine the response of a range of meteorological and air quality indicators to urbanization. Our study uses the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with chemistry (WRF/Chem) to simulate the climate and air quality impacts of four hypothetical urbanization scenarios with fixed surface pollutant emissions during the month of July from 2008 to 2012. An improved integrated process rate (IPR) analysis scheme is implemented in WRF/Chem to investigate the mechanisms behind the forcing–response relationship at the process level. For all years, as urban land area expands, concentrations of CO, elemental carbon (EC), and particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 microns (PM2.5) tend to decrease near the surface (below ~ 500 m), but increase at higher altitudes (1–3 km), resulting in a reduced vertical concentration gradient. On the other hand, the O3 burden, averaged over all newly urbanized grid cells, consistently increases from the surface to a height of about 4 km. Sensitivity tests show that the responses of pollutant concentrations to the spatial extent of urbanization are nearly linear near the surface, but nonlinear at higher altitudes. Over eastern China, each 10 % increase in nearby urban land coverage on average leads to a decrease of approximately 2 % in surface concentrations for CO, EC, and PM2.5, while for O3 an increase of about 1 % is simulated. At 800 hPa, pollutants' concentrations tend to increase even more rapidly with an increase in nearby urban land coverage. This indicates that as large tracts of new urban land emerge, the influence of urban expansion on meteorology and air pollution would be significantly amplified. IPR analysis reveals the contribution of individual atmospheric processes to pollutants' concentration changes. It indicates that, for primary pollutants, the enhanced sink (source) caused by turbulent mixing and vertical advection in the lower (upper) atmosphere could be a key factor in changes to simulated vertical profiles. The evolution of secondary pollutants is further influenced by the upward relocation of precursors that impact gas-phase chemistry for O3 and aerosol processes for PM2.5. Our study indicates that dense urbanization has a moderate dilution effect on surface primary airborne contaminants, but may intensify severe haze and ozone pollution if local emissions are not well controlled.

Abstract. Rapid urbanization throughout Eastern China is imposing an irreversible effect on local climate and air quality. In this paper, we examine the response of a range of meteorological and air quality indicators to urbanization. Our study uses the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF/Chem) to simulate the climate and air quality impacts of four hypothetical urbanization scenarios with fixed surface pollutant emissions during the month of July from 2008 to 2012. An improved integrated process rate (IPR) analysis scheme is implemented in WRF/Chem to investigate the mechanisms behind the forcing–response relationship at the process level. For all years, as urban land area expands, concentrations of CO, elemental carbon (EC), and particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 microns (PM2.5) tend to decrease near the surface (below ~ 500 m), but increase at higher altitudes (1–3 km), resulting in a reduced vertical concentration gradient. On the other hand, the O3 burden averaged over all newly urbanized grid cells consistently increases from the surface to a height of about 4 km. Sensitivity tests show that the response of meteorology and pollutant concentrations to the spatial extent of urbanization are nearly linear near the surface, but nonlinear at higher altitudes. Over eastern China, each 10% increase in nearby urban land coverage (NULC) on average leads to a decrease of approximately 2% in surface concentrations for CO, EC, and PM2.5, while for O3 an increase of about 1% is simulated. At 800 hPa, each 10% increase in the square of NULC enhances air pollution concentrations by 5–10%, depending on species. This indicates that as large tracts of new urban land emerge, the influence of urban expansion on meteorology and air pollution would be amplified. IPR results indicate that, for primary pollutants, the enhanced sink (source) caused by turbulent mixing and vertical advection in the lower (upper) atmosphere could be a key factor in changes to simulated vertical profiles. The evolution of secondary pollutants is further influenced by the upward relocation of precursors that impact gas phase chemistry for O3 and aerosol processes for PM2.5. Our study indicates that dense urbanization has a moderate dilution effect on surface primary airborne contaminants, but may intensify severe haze and ozone pollution if local emissions are not well controlled.

BackgroundSuicide and major depressive disorders (MDD) are strongly associated, and genetic factors are responsible for at least part of the variability in suicide risk. We investigated whether variation at the tryptophan hydroxylase-2 (TPH2) gene rs7305115 SNP may predispose to suicide attempts in MDD.MethodsWe genotyped TPH2 gene rs7305115 SNP in 215 MDD patients with suicide and matched MDD patients without suicide. Differences in behavioral and personality traits according to genotypic variation were investigated by logistic regression analysis.ResultsThere were no significant differences between MDD patients with suicide and controls in genotypic (AG and GG) frequencies for rs7305115 SNP, but the distribution of AA genotype differed significantly (14.4% vs. 29.3%, p < 0.001). The G-allele frequency was significantly higher in cases than control group (58.1% vs.45.6%, p < 0.001), but the A-allele carrier indicated a decreased trend in MDD with suicide behaviors than control group (41.9% vs.54.4%, p < 0.001). The multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that TPH2 rs7305115 AA (OR 0.33, 95% CI 0.22-0.99), family history of suicide (OR 2.98, 95% CI 1.17-5.04), negative life events half year ago (OR 6.64, 95% CI 2.48-11.04) and hopelessness (OR 7.68, 95% CI 5.79-13.74) were significantly associated with the suicide behaviors in MDD patients.ConclusionsThe study suggested that hopelessness, negative life events and family history of suicide were risk factors of attempted suicide in MDD while the TPH2 rs7305115A remained a significant protective predictor of suicide attempts.

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