In the 2009 Copenhagen Accord, China agreed to slash its carbon intensity (carbon dioxide emissions/GDP) by 40% to 45% from the 2005 level by 2020. We assess whether China can achieve the target under the business-as-usual scenario by forecasting its emissions from energy consumption. Our preferred model shows that China's carbon intensity is projected to decline by only 33%. The results imply that China needs additional mitigation effort to comply with the Copenhagen commitment. In addition, China's baseline emissions are projected to increase by 56% in the next decade (2011-2020). The emission growth is more than triple the emission reductions that the European Union and the United States have committed to in the same period.

Qigong is a meditative movement with therapeutic effects and is commonly practiced in Eastern medicine. A growing body of evidence validates its health benefits, leading to mechanistic questions about how it works. We propose a novel mechanism by which the "acid" caused by hypoxia affects metabolism, and the way it is neutralized through Qigong practice involves the body's blood flow and vasculature modifications. Specifically, Qigong exercise generates an oxygen supply and acid-base balance against the hypoxic effects of underlying pathological conditions. We also propose that Qigong exercise mediated and focused on the local hypoxia environment of tissues might normalize the circulation of metabolic and inflammation accumulation in the tumor tissue and restore the normal metabolism of tissues and cells through calm, relaxation, and extreme Zen-style breathing that gravitates toward preemptive health and medicine. Thus, we propose the mechanisms of action related to Qigong, intending to unify Eastern and Western exercise theory.

Rising concerns about the short- and long-term detrimental consequences of administration of conventional pharmacopeia are fueling the search for alternative, complementary, personalized, and comprehensive approaches to human healthcare. Qigong, a form of Traditional Chinese Medicine, represents a viable alternative approach. Here, we started with the practical, philosophical, and psychological background of Ki (in Japanese) or Qi (in Chinese) and their relationship to Qigong theory and clinical application. Noting the drawbacks of the current state of Qigong clinic, herein we propose that to manage the unique aspects of the Eastern 'non-linearity' and 'holistic' approach, it needs to be integrated with the Western "linearity" "one-direction" approach. This is done through developing the concepts of "Qigong breathing signatures," which can define our life breathing patterns associated with diseases using machine learning technology. We predict that this can be achieved by establishing an artificial intelligence (AI)-Medicine training camp of databases, which will integrate Qigong-like breathing patterns with different pathologies unique to individuals. Such an integrated connection will allow the AI-Medicine algorithm to identify breathing patterns and guide medical intervention. This unique view of potentially connecting Eastern Medicine and Western Technology can further add a novel insight to our current understanding of both Western and Eastern medicine, thereby establishing a vitality score index (VSI) that can predict the outcomes of lifestyle behaviors and medical conditions.

Layered nickelates have the potential for exotic physics similar to high T _C superconducting cuprates as they have similar crystal structures and these transition metals are neighbors in the periodic table. Here we present an angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) study of the trilayer nickelate La₄Ni₃O₁₀ revealing its electronic structure and correlations, finding strong resemblances to the cuprates as well as a few key differences. We find a large hole Fermi surface that closely resembles the Fermi surface of optimally hole-doped cuprates, including its [Formula: see text] orbital character, hole filling level, and strength of electronic correlations. However, in contrast to cuprates, La₄Ni₃O₁₀ has no pseudogap in the [Formula: see text] band, while it has an extra band of principally [Formula: see text] orbital character, which presents a low temperature energy gap. These aspects drive the nickelate physics, with the differences from the cuprate electronic structure potentially shedding light on the origin of superconductivity in the cuprates.Exploration of the electronic structure of nickelates with similar crystal structure to cuprates may shed a light on the origin of high T _c superconductivity. Here, Li et al. report strong resemblances and key differences of the electronic structure of trilayer nickelate La₄Ni₃O₁₀ compared to the cuprate superconductors.

The original version of this Article contained errors in Fig. 2, Fig. 3a-c and Supplementary Fig. 2. In Fig. 2g and Supplementary Fig. 2, the band structure plot calculated from density function theory (DFT) had a missing band of mainly z² character that starts at about - 0.25 eV at the Y point and disperses downwards towards the Γ point. This band was inadvertently neglected when transferring the lines from the original band plot to the enhanced version for publication. Also in Fig. 2g, the points labelled M and Y were not exactly at (1/2 1/2 0) and (0 1/2 0), but rather (0.52 0.48 0) and (0 0.48 0) due to a bug in XCrysDen for low-symmetry structures that the authors failed to identify before publication. Thus, the bands presented were slightly off the true M-Y direction and additional splitting incorrectly appeared (in particular for the highly dispersive bands of x²-y² character). The correct versions of Fig. 2g (cited as Fig. 1) and Supplementary Fig. 2 (cited as Fig. 2) are:which replaces the previous incorrect version, cited here as Fig. 3 and Fig. 4:Neither of these errors in Fig. 2g or Supplementary Fig. 2 affects either the discussion or any of the interpretations of the ARPES data provided in the paper. The authors discussed the multilayer band splitting along the Γ-M direction (δ band and α band as assigned in the paper), and ARPES did not see any split band. The authors did not discuss the further splitting that arises due to back folding along the M-Y direction.In Fig. 3a-c, the errors in the M and Y points in Fig. 2g cause subtle changes to the DFT dispersions. The correct version of Fig. 3a-c is cited here as Fig 5:which replaces the previous incorrect version (Fig. 6):However, the influence on the effective mass results of Fig. 3d is negligible.These errors have now been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the Article. The authors acknowledge James Rondinelli and Danilo Puggioni from Northwestern University for calling our attention to these issues.

Background

Brugada syndrome (BrS) is a highly arrhythmogenic cardiac disorder, associated with an increased incidence of sudden death. Its arrhythmogenic substrate in the intact human heart remains ill-defined.

Methods and results

Using noninvasive ECG imaging, we studied 25 BrS patients to characterize the electrophysiological substrate and 6 patients with right bundle-branch block for comparison. Seven healthy subjects provided control data. Abnormal substrate was observed exclusively in the right ventricular outflow tract with the following properties (in comparison with healthy controls; P<0.005): (1) ST-segment elevation and inverted T wave of unipolar electrograms (2.21±0.67 versus 0 mV); (2) delayed right ventricular outflow tract activation (82±18 versus 37±11 ms); (3) low-amplitude (0.47±0.16 versus 3.74±1.60 mV) and fractionated electrograms, suggesting slow discontinuous conduction; (4) prolonged recovery time (381±30 versus 311±34 ms) and activation-recovery intervals (318±32 versus 241±27 ms), indicating delayed repolarization; (5) steep repolarization gradients (Δrecovery time/Δx=96±28 versus 7±6 ms/cm, Δactivation-recovery interval/Δx=105±24 versus 7±5 ms/cm) at right ventricular outflow tract borders. With increased heart rate in 6 BrS patients, reduced ST-segment elevation and increased fractionation were observed. Unlike BrS, right bundle-branch block had delayed activation in the entire right ventricle, without ST-segment elevation, fractionation, or repolarization abnormalities on electrograms.

Conclusions

The results indicate that both slow discontinuous conduction and steep dispersion of repolarization are present in the right ventricular outflow tract of BrS patients. ECG imaging could differentiate between BrS and right bundle-branch block.

Y-chromosomal microdeletion (YCM) serves as an important genetic factor in non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA). Multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is routinely used to detect YCMs by tracing sequence-tagged sites (STSs) in the Y chromosome. Here we introduce a novel methodology in which we sequence 1,787 (post-filtering) STSs distributed across the entire male-specific Y chromosome (MSY) in parallel to uncover known and novel YCMs. We validated this approach with 766 Chinese men with NOA and 683 ethnically matched healthy individuals and detected 481 and 98 STSs that were deleted in the NOA and control group, representing a substantial portion of novel YCMs which significantly influenced the functions of spermatogenic genes. The NOA patients tended to carry more and rarer deletions that were enriched in nearby intragenic regions. Haplogroup O2* was revealed to be a protective lineage for NOA, in which the enrichment of b1/b3 deletion in haplogroup C was also observed. In summary, our work provides a new high-resolution portrait of deletions in the Y chromosome.