Electric vehicles are promoted as ‘clean’ technologies and offer promising reductions in transportation emissions. Nevertheless, their environmental benefits critically depend on the local electricity grid mix and the type of emission being considered. Here, we conduct a comparative life cycle assessment of the four dominant light-duty vehicle categories at both the global scale and in three representative countries: Norway, the US, and China. By analyzing different environmental indicators, particularly global warming potential and respiratory effects, and quantifying related parametric uncertainties, we reveal that the advantages of electric vehicles vary across these regions and across environmental impact types. While electric vehicles offer considerable decarbonization potential as the grid mix becomes cleaner, they might not mitigate other environmental impacts, such as increased respiratory effects on rural, low-income communities. Our results support stakeholders in identifying environmentally friendly vehicle and policy options while considering multiple factors, and emphasize the importance of tailored approaches over one-size-fits-all solutions in sustainable transportation.

Astragalus polysaccharide (APS) is an important bioactive component of Astragalus membranaceus Bunge (Leguminosae) that has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for treating muscle wasting, a serious complication with complex mechanism manifested as myofibers atrophy and satellite cells apoptosis. In this study, the anti-atrophy and anti-apoptotic activity of Astragalus polysaccharide (APS) was characterized in C2C12 skeletal muscle myotubes and myoblasts. APS inhibited dexamethasone-induced atrophy by restoring phosphorylation of Akt, m-TOR, P70s6k, rpS6 and FoxO3A/FoxO1. The targets that protected C2C12 myoblasts from damage by H2O2 were promoting cells proliferation and inhibiting cells apoptosis. The protective mechanisms involved mitochondrial pathway and death receptor pathway. Moreover, Antioxidant effect of APS was also detected in this work. Our findings suggested that APS could be explored as a protective and perhaps as a therapeutic agent in the management of muscle wasting.

Multi-temporal and spatially explicit population data are vital in many fields, such as demography, urban planning, disaster prevention,economics, and environmental modeling. Population data used in these studies are typically aggregated at census enumeration units, which are too coarse for many applications. Accurate population downscaling methods are needed to obtain population data at finer spatial resolutions. We use a novel settlement-related database, Built-Up Property Records (BUPR) from the Historical Settlement Data Compilation for the United States (HISDAC-US) to downscale population from census tracts to block groups. The BUPR dataset provides the number of built-up property records for each 250-m grid at 5-year temporal resolution from 1810 to 2015 for most contiguous United States (CONUS). The ability of BUPR to downscale population from census tracts to block groups for four states, representing a range of population densities, is evaluated here by comparing against other commonly-used ancillary datasets. The BUPR-based method outperforms all other methods in all but one state with highly-incomplete BUPR. A more detailed accuracy assessment is performed by dividing each state into low, medium, and high population density categories. The BUPR method produces more accurate downscaled population estimates for low and medium categories, though its performance deteriorates in the high density category due to its relatively coarse spatial resolution. BUPR-based dasymetric mapping is subsequently applied to the CONUS and found to generalize well beyond the four comparison states with high downscaling accuracy. The long-term record of the HISDAC-US dataset enables the potential construction of fine-grained population data back to 1810.

Context: The double burden of malnutrition (DBM), undernutrition in early life and an obesogenic environment later on, influences later risk of chronic disorders. The Great Famine in China from 1959 to1962 and remarkable economic development from the 1980s provided such a burden for a large number of people in their 60s. Objective: We aimed to analyze the effect of economic status on the association between famine exposure in early life and hyperuricemia in adulthood. Design and Setting: Participants numbering 12 666 were enrolled in China based on the Survey on Prevalence in East China for Metabolic Diseases and Risk Factors (SPECT-China) Study from 2014 to 2016. Participants: Participants with fetal or childhood famine exposure (birth year 1949-1962) formed the exposure group. Main Outcome Measure: Hyperuricemia was defined as uric acid (UA) > 420 μmol/L for men and > 360 μmol/L for women. The association of famine with hyperuricemia was assessed via regression analyses. Results: Early-life famine exposure was negatively associated with UA levels (P = .045) but was not associated with hyperuricemia (P = .226) in the whole study population. Economic status could moderate the association of famine exposure with UA and hyperuricemia (P ≤ .001). In participants with high economic status, early-life famine exposure was positively associated with UA levels (unstandardized coefficients 7.61, 95% CI 3.63-11.59, P < .001), and with hyperuricemia (odds ratio 1.47, 95% CI 1.19-1.81, P < .001). Conclusions: Economic status could moderate the association between exposure to famine in early life and hyperuricemia in adulthood, indicating that the DBM might affect hyperuricemia in an opposite direction of the effects of undernutrition in early life alone.