Ning Zhang

• Master of Business Administration
• University of Birmingham

Urban governance aims to enhance overall social welfare, while residents’ happiness frequently falls by the wayside. Civilization, as a critical factor influencing residents’ happiness, has not yet been fully understood regarding its impact and mechanisms. This paper uses the China Family Panel Studies data, which includes around 50,000 samples ran...

Increasing air pollution could undermine human health, but the causal link between air pollution and eye and ear health has not been well-studied. Based on four-week-level records of eye and ear health over 1991–2015 provided by the China Health and Nutrition Survey, we estimate the causal effect of air pollution on eye and ear health. Using two-st...

Measuring environmental regulation's effect on firm competitiveness is central to designing optimal policies. Existing studies document significant negative effects of air pollution regulations on manufacturing competitiveness as measured by total factor productivity (TFP). A separate literature finds that air pollution lowers TFP through its ambie...

As a possible carcinogen, carbon black has threatened public health. However, the evidences are insufficient and the mechanism of carcinogenesis is still not specified. Thirty rats were randomly divided into 3 groups, namely 0, 5 and 30 mg/m³ Carbon Black nanoparticles (CBNPs) groups, respectively. Rats were treated with CBNPs by nose-only inhalati...

It is well known that women bear the greatest burden of health, work time, and labor supply due to gender disparity in many developing countries. In this study, we analyze the health inequality in rural China caused by indoor air pollution from traditional energy use. Specifically, we study the effect of clean energy access on woman health outcome...

It is well known that women bear the greatest burden of health, time and labor supply due to gender disparity in many developing countries. In this study, we analyze the health inequality in rural China caused by indoor air pollution from traditional energy use. Specifically, we study the effect of clean energy access on woman health outcome by exp...

Background Few studies have evaluated the effect of Hepatitis C (HCV) on primary total shoulder arthroplasty (TSA). Our purpose was to determine if HCV infection is associated with increased complication rates after TSA in United States (US) veterans and, secondarily, to determine if preoperative HCV treatment with direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) a...

We empirically examine the interplay between air pollution and tourism development based on a fine-grained dataset covering monthly-level tourism information of 58 major cities in China from October 2013 to December 2017. We adopt an empirical strategy utilizing wind speed as an instrumental variable for air pollution to deal with the endogeneity c...

The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting human activities, and in turn energy use and carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. Here we present daily estimates of country-level CO2 emissions for different sectors based on near-real-time activity data. The key result is an abrupt 8.8% decrease in global CO₂ emissions (−1551 Mt CO₂) in the first half of 2020 compare...

As an important new tool for ecological poverty alleviation, carbon trading compensation is combining ecological protection with rural poverty alleviation. This paper evaluates the poverty alleviation impact of China's pilot carbon emissions trading schemes (ETS) at the provincial level before and after the program, which was implemented from 2007...

The detection, quantification, diagnosis, and identification of plant diseases is particularly crucial for precision agriculture. Recently, traditional visual assessment technology has not been able to meet the needs of precision agricultural informatization development, and hyperspectral technology, as a typical type of non-invasive technology, ha...

Background: It is controversial whether the use of antibiotic-laden bone cement (ALBC) in primary total knee arthroplasty (TKA) affects periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) or revision rates. The impact of ALBC on outcomes of primary TKA have not been previously investigated in U.S. veterans, to our knowledge. The purposes of this study were to qu...

Introduction Because of the increased production and application of manufactured Nano-TiO2 in the past several years, it is important to investigate its potential hazards. TiO2 is classified by IARC as a possible human carcinogen; however, the potential mechanism of carcinogenesis has not been studied clearly. The present study aimed to investigate...

Importance Preexisting mental health disorders (MHDs) are associated with increased mortality in people diagnosed with cancer, yet few data exist on the efficacy of interventions to mitigate this disparity. Objective To evaluate the association of participation in mental health treatment programs (MHTPs), housing support programs, or employment su...

Hydrometeorological phenomena have increased in intensity and frequency in last decades, with Europe as one of the most affected areas. This accounts for considerable economic losses in the region. Regional adaptation strategies for costs minimization require a comprehensive assessment of the disasters’ economic impacts at a multiple‐region scale....

China has implemented retrofitting measures in coal-fired power plants (CFPPs) to reduce air pollution through small unit shutdown (SUS), the installation of air pollution control devices (APCDs) and power generation efficiency (PGE) improvement. The reductions in highly toxic Hg emissions and their related health impacts by these measures have not...

Background The health impacts of ambient air pollution impose large costs on society. While all people are exposed to air pollution, older individuals tend to be disproportionally affected. As a result, there is growing concern about the public health impacts of air pollution as many countries undergo rapid population ageing. We investigated the sp...

Accurate counting of wheat ears in field conditions is vital to predict yield and for crop breeding. To quickly and accurately obtain the number of wheat ears in a field, we propose herein a method to count wheat ears based on fully convolutional network (FCN) and Harris corner detection. The technical procedure consists essentially of (1) construc...

Northeast Asia is the most dynamic region in the world owing to its steady economic development and resultant air pollution. The Chinese government has expended much effort in addressing environmental issues. An important question for China is how much air pollution it can reduce and at what cost. Using streaming city-level data, this paper examine...

Importance Positron emission tomography–computed tomography (PET-CT) has been increasingly used in the management of lung cancer, but its association with survival has not been convincingly documented. Objective To examine the association of the use of PET-CT with non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) mortality in the US Department of Veterans Affair...

Fusarium damage in wheat reduces the quality and safety of associated food and feed products. In this study, a specific Fusarium head blight (FHB) classification index (FCI) for detection of this disease in wheat is proposed. Hyperspectral microscopy images of wheat spikelets are used as the data source. An algorithm combining the instability index...

The pulmonary fibrosis could be caused by long-term inhalation of carbon black (CB) particles. Studies on the mechanisms of pulmonary fibrosis induced by CB are required to develop the stratagem of prevention and treatment on fibrosis. The RNA-binding protein DiGeorge syndrome critical region gene 8 (DGCR8)-dependent pri-miRNAs processing is regula...

Ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) as an environmental pollution has been associated with the lung cancer. However, the mechanism of epigenetics such as miRNAs deregulation between PM2.5-exposure and lung cancer has not been elucidated clearly. Twenty C57BL/6 mice were divided randomly into 2 groups and exposed to the filtered air (FA) and the...

6577 Background: Emerging evidence suggests that cancer patients with comorbid mental disorders have worse outcomes. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States, yet the impact of specific mental disorders on outcomes for patients diagnosed with lung cancer is not well known. Methods: Stage at diagnosis and receipt...

Background Recent years, there occurs heavy haze pollution in northern China during wintertime. The potential influence of airborne particulate matter (PM) on human health attracts great concern. The fuel-derived PM in the inhalable size range is dominated by aggregates of nanoparticles of Carbon black (CB). However, there are still lack of evidenc...

Forest disruption caused by pest insects is a common disaster occurring in plantations, and is a threatening factor to forest health. Therefore, a precise method for monitoring individual tree health and estimating disturbance severity is urgently needed. Theoretically, terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) is a promising tool in high resolution remote...

Exposure to ambient fine particular matter (PM2.5) has been clearly associated with male reproductive disorders. However, very limited toxicological studies were carried out to investigate the potential mechanisms underlying the PM2.5-induced sperm quality decline. In the present study, we established a real time whole-body PM2.5 exposure mouse mod...

Taiwan aims to replace all nuclear power with renewable energy by 2025, and thus how much electricity from such sources can actually sustain or improve its energy structure must be thoroughly evaluated. This study is designed to explore the Taiwan's bioenergy potential in the face of climate change and climate-induced crop yield change. Multiple bi...

PM2.5 pollution has been associated with numerous adverse effects including cardiovascular, respiratory and metabolic diseases as well as emotional disorders. However, the potential mechanism has not known clearly. Twenty-four rats were divided into 3 groups and exposed to various airs: filtered air (FA), unfiltered air (UA) and concentrated PM2.5...

The increased frequency and intensity of insect-induced forest disturbances necessitates effective methods to precisely monitor and map the degree of disaster. Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based hyperspectral imaging is an effective technology for surveying and monitoring forest health. In this article, a novel framework that utilizes a UAV-based...

Background: Hospitalization with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is common and costly to the health care system. Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) can improve symptom burden and morbidity associated with COPD. The use of PR among Medicare beneficiaries is poor, and the use by Veterans Health Administration (VHA) bene...

We examines the movement trajectory of gravity centers of China's CO2 emissions on a regional level based on a gravity model, and then investigate the impact of urbanization on CO2 emissions by utilizing an extended Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology (STIRPAT) model under the change of gravity center. We measur...

Pine forests (Pinus tabulaeformis) have been in danger of defoliation by a caterpillar in the west Liaoning province of China for more than thirty years. This paper aims to assess and predict the degree of damage to pine forests by using remote sensing and ancillary data. Through regression analysis of the pine foliage remaining ratios of field plo...

In this paper we investigate the carbon efficiency and abatement cost for different main functional regions in China, to test whether major agriculture production zone has higher carbon efficiency and abatement cost than other functional regions. For this purpose, we use a global non-radial distance function to examine the efficiency and abatement...

Objectives: We sought to determine: a) the proportion of patients with heart failure (HF) who participated in cardiac rehabilitation (CR); and b) patient characteristics associated with participation. Background: CR is linked to reduced mortality and morbidity including improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness, psychosocial state, and quality o...

Introduction: Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is linked to reduced mortality and morbidity including improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness, psychosocial state, and quality of life in patients with heart failure (HF). However, little is known about CR utilization among patients with HF. We sought to determine: a) the proportion of patients with HF w...

In this study, parameter identifiability in array shape self-calibration in colocated multiple-input multiple-output radar is addressed under a deterministic framework. In contrast to the random model used in the previous analysis, some distinct identifiability conditions are established through deriving and then analysing the Cramér-Rao bound on s...

Orthogonal waveform design has become an important research topic in recent years due to the performance advantages of MIMO radar incorporating orthogonal transmitted signals. Complete complementary code (CCC) has ideal ambiguity along the zero Doppler axis, which is desirable in MIMO radar. However, the main obstacle for the extensive usage of CCC...

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar has been extensively studied in recent years, due to its outstanding performance in various aspects. Resolution and estimation of the targets' parameters are central capabilities of a MIMO radar system. In this paper, the resolution performance of MIMO radar in terms of the three-dimensional statistical r...

An ISAR imaging method based on orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) combined with Bayesian information criterion (BIC), namely OMP-BIC, is proposed in this paper. It is shown that the azimuth resolution has been remarkably improved by the presented method, furthermore, the number of prominent scatterers can be determined automatically in each range b...

This paper concerns the identifiability of antenna position errors in MIMO radar array shape self-calibration. Self-calibration is accomplished with the aid of far-field targets whose DOAs and scattering coefficients are initially unknown. By deriving and analyzing the hybrid Cramer-Rao bound (HCRB) of antenna position errors, we proved the followi...

In array shape self-calibration where the sensor position errors and source locations are both unknown, the identifiability of the unknowns is a fundamental problem. Previously, using an approximate hybrid Cramér-Rao bound (HCRB), it was found that under the assumption of small random errors, a nominally linear array is impossible to self-calibrate...

The identifiability of local oscillator phase perturbation self-calibration in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar is analyzed in this paper. There are four cases, the absolute phase perturbation (APP) and phase perturbation difference (PPD) in MIMO radar with widely separated antennas (SMIMOR), the APP and PPD in co-located MIMO radar (CMI...

We study the Cramer-Rao bounds of parameter estimation and coherence performance for the next generation radar (NGR). In order to enhance the performance of NGR, the signal model of NGR with master-slave architecture based on a single pulse is extended to the case of pulse trains, in which multiple pulses are emitted from all sensors and then integ...

To explore the relationship of DNA damage in lymphocytes with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Levels of heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) in peripheral lymphocytes were measured by Western blot in 20 COPD patients with smoking, 20 healthy smoking control subjects and 15 healthy nonsmokers. DNA damage in the lymphocytes was detected by Com...

To investigate the regulatory role of nitric oxide (NO)-nuclear factor kappaB (NF-kappaB) signal pathway in cytokine expressions, cell proliferation and apoptosis of T lymphocytes from asthmatic patients. We observed the expressions and secretions of IL-4, IL-5 and IFNgamma from T lymphocytes and measured the proliferation and apoptosis of these ce...

The effects of cigarette smoke extract (CSE) on the expression of heat stress protein 70 (Hsp70) in human bronchi smooth muscle cells were investigated in vitro, and the changes in Hsp70 mRNA in the patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and their significance were explored. Human bronchi smooth muscle cells were cultured with CSE at t...

To investigate whether nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappa B) participates in the regulatory function of lymphocyte proliferation and apoptosis in bronchial asthma and whether the regulatory effect of triptolide on lymphocyte proliferation and apoptosis is conducted through NF-kappa B. Intervention with dexamethasone, triptolide and PDTC, a NF-kappa B...

To explore the role of nitric oxide (NO)--NF-kappaB signaling pathway in the differentiation of human naive T lymphocytes into Th1/Th2 cells. Human naive T lymphocytes were isolated from umbilical blood. Various concentrations of NO donor sodium nitroprusside (SNP), NO inhibitor NAME and NF-kappaB inhibitor PDTC were added to the culture medium to...

To investigate the effect of nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-kappaB) decoy oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN) on proliferation, apoptosis and cytokine synthesis of T lymphocytes from asthmatic patients. T lymphocytes were divided into four groups, a normal control group (A group), an asthma control group (B group), a NF-kappaB cis decoy ODN group (B(1) group) an...

To investigate whether the relaxation of bronchial smooth muscle induced by isoprenaline and aminophylline is mediated by large conductance Ca2+-activated K+ channels (BK(Ca)) via cAMP-dependent mechanism. With isometric tension recording, the role of BK(Ca) in relaxations of rat bronchial strips induced by isoprenaline and aminophylline was determ...

To determine the feasibility of a nonradioactive electrophoresis mobility shift assay for detecting nuclear transcription factor, double-stranded oligonucleotides encoding the consensus target sequence of NF-kappa B were labelled with DIG by terminal transferase. After nuclear protein stimulated with phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) or PMA and...