Source Apportionment and Geographic Distribution of Heavy Metals and as in Soils and Vegetables Using Kriging Interpolation and Positive Matrix Factorization Analysis

Food security and cultivated land utilization can be seriously affected by heavy metal (HM) pollution of the soil. Therefore, identifying the pollution sources of farmland is the way to control soil pollution and enhance soil quality effectively. In this research, 95 surface soil samples, 34 vegetable samples, 27 irrigation water samples, and 20 fertilizer samples were collected from the Wuqing District of Tianjin City, China and was used to determine their HMs accumulation and potential ecological risks. Then, kriging interpolation and positive matrix factorization (PMF) were utilized to identify the sources of soil HMs. The results indicated that soil HMs in the study area were contaminated at a medium level, but that the pollution of Cd was more severe, and the Cd content in vegetables was slightly higher than the permissible threshold (0.02 mg·kg−1). Furthermore, a non-homogeneous distribution was observed, with higher concentrations of HM contaminants concentrated in the southwest of the study area, where many metal manufacturing industries are located. Our results suggest that the Cd originated from industrial activity; As and Pb from agricultural practices; Ni, Cu, Cr, and As mainly from natural sources; Zn and Cu from organic fertilizer; Pb and Cd mainly from traffic discharge; and Cr, Ni, and Pb from sewage irrigation. Obviously, the accumulation of soil HMs in the study area could be mainly attributed to industrial activities, implying the need for implementation of government strategies to reduce industrial point-source pollution.

Characteristics of water quality response to hypolimnetic anoxia in Daheiting Reservoir

Anoxia is a common phenomenon at the bottom of large reservoirs during thermal stratification. In an anoxic environment, an increasing amount of reducing substances and nutrients are released and settle at the hypolimnion of the reservoir, leading to water quality deterioration and eutrophication. This work presents a case study on Daheiting Reservoir, a part of the Water Diversion Project from the Luanhe River to Tianjin City. With the monitored data of the water temperature and dissolved oxygen content in the reservoir, and based on the mechanism of redox reactions, the water quality response to the hypolimnetic anoxia in Daheiting Reservoir was systematically analyzed. It was found that the release of total phosphorus from the sediments in Daheiting Reservoir was a joint effect of the biological and chemical processes, and the redox reaction in the anoxic zone boosted release of phosphorus. Anoxia in the reservoir caused the ammonia nitrogen released from sediments in the reservoir to accumulate at the hypolimnion, which increased the concentration of ammonia nitrogen in the water. Anoxia in the reservoir led to an increase in the concentration of iron and manganese, which accounts for the major driving factor of release of iron and manganese.

Empathy And Burnout In Medical Staff: Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction And Job Commitment

Background: Burnout is a growing problem among medical staff worldwide and empathy has been described as an essential competence to attenuate burnout. Previous studies found job satisfaction and job commitment were affected by the empathy and associated with burnout. This study explores the effect and mechanism of empathy on burnout on medical staff and investigates the mediating role of job satisfaction and job commitment in the relationship between empathy and burnout among medical staff.Methods: Based on a self-administered questionnaire, 335 responses from medical staff in Tianjin City, China, yielded data on socio-demographic characteristics, empathy, burnout, job satisfaction and job commitment. Bivariate correlation and structured equation modeling (SEM) analyzed the relationships between empathy, job satisfaction, job commitment and burnout multi-group invariant analysis was used to evaluate whether the model was consistent across different type and level of hospitals and different job and employment type subgroups. Results: A total of 202 (60.3%) medical staff had low level burnout, 115 (34.3%) staff had the moderate level and 18 (5.4%) staff had the high level burnout. The results of the SEM showed that empathy not only had a direct negative effect on burnout (β = -0.401, p < 0.001), but also had an indirect impact through job satisfaction ( β = -0.373, p < 0.001) and job commitment (β = 0.489, p < 0.001). Job commitment was negatively associated burnout ( β = -0.513, p < 0.001) but, unexpectedly, job satisfaction was positively associated with burnout (β = 0.177, p < 0.001). The results also indicated the model was consistent across employment type ( Δχ2 = 5.904, p > 0.05) and hospital type ( Δχ2= 7.748, p > 0.05), but was inconsistent across hospital level (Δχ2 = 42.930, p < 0.05) and job type ( Δχ2= 52.912, p < 0.05).Conclusions: Our results confirm the important role that empathy plays in the prevention of burnout and by managing job satisfaction and increasing the job commitment burnout can be attenuated. We recommend that government should increase pay for medical staff; continue to reform the resourcing of different hospital levels; and that hospital managers implement additional training and strengthen psychological testing and counseling, to reduce medical staff burnout.

Construction of homogenized daily surface air temperature for the city of Tianjin during 1887–2019

Century-long continuous daily observations from some stations are important for the study of long-term trends and extreme climate events in the past. In this paper, three daily data sources – (1) the Department of Industry Agency of the British Concession in Tianjin covering 1 September 1890–31 December 1931, (2) the Water Conservancy Commission of North China covering 1 January 1932–31 December 1950 and (3) monthly journal sheets for Tianjin surface meteorological observation records covering 1 January 1951–31 December 2019 – have been collected from the Tianjin Meteorological Archive. The completed daily maximum and minimum temperature series for Tianjin from 1 January 1887 (1 September 1890 for minimum) to 31 December 2019 has been constructed and assessed for quality control with an early extension from 1890 back to 1887. Several significant breakpoints are detected by the penalized maximal T test (PMT) for the daily maximum and minimum time series using multiple reference series around Tianjin from monthly Berkeley Earth (BE), Climatic Research Unit Time-Series version 4.03 (CRU TS4.03) and Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN) v3 data. Using neighboring daily series the record has been homogenized with quantile matching (QM) adjustments. Based on the homogenized dataset, the warming trend in annual mean temperature in Tianjin averaged from the newly constructed daily maximum and minimum temperature is evaluated as 0.154 ± 0.013 ∘C per decade during the last 130 years. Trends of temperature extremes in Tianjin are all significant at the 5 % level and have much more coincident change than those from the raw data, with amplitudes of −1.454, 1.196, −0.140 and 0.975 d per decade for cold nights (TN10p), warm nights (TN90p), cold days (TX10p) and warm days (TX90p) at the annual scale. The adjusted daily maximum, minimum and mean surface air temperature dataset for Tianjin city presented here is publicly available at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.924561 (Si and Li, 2020).

Empathy and Burnout in Medical Staff: Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction and Job Commitment

Background: Burnout is a growing problem among medical staff worldwide and empathy has been described as an essential competence to attenuate burnout. Previous studies found job satisfaction and job commitment were affected by the empathy and associated with burnout. This study explores the effect and mechanism of empathy on burnout on medical staff and investigates the mediating role of job satisfaction and job commitment in the relationship between empathy and burnout among medical staff.Methods: Based on a self-administered questionnaire, 335 responses from medical staff in Tianjin City, China, yielded data on socio-demographic characteristics, empathy, burnout, job satisfaction and job commitment. Bivariate correlation and structured equation modeling (SEM) analyzed the relationships between empathy, job satisfaction, job commitment and burnout multi-group invariant analysis was used to evaluate whether the model was consistent across different type and level of hospitals and different job and employment type subgroups. Results: A total of 202 (60.3%) medical staff had low level burnout, 115 (34.3%) staff had the moderate level and 18 (5.4%) staff had the high level burnout. The results of the SEM showed that empathy not only have a direct negative effect on burnout (\(\beta =-0.401, Pcript>\), but also had an indirect impact through job satisfaction (\(\beta =-0.373, Pcript>\) and job commitment (\(\beta =0.489, Pcript>\). Job commitment was negatively associated burnout (\(\beta =-0.513, Pcript>\) but, unexpectantly, job satisfaction was positively associated with burnout (\(\beta =0.177, Pcript>\). The results also indicated the model was consistent across employment type (\(\varDelta {\chi }^{2}\) = 5.904, p > 0.05) and hospital type (\(\varDelta {\chi }^{2}\) = 7.748, p > 0.05), but was inconsistent across hospital level (\(\varDelta {\chi }^{2}\) = 42.930, p < 0.05) and job type (\(\varDelta {\chi }^{2}\) = 52.912, p < 0.05).Conclusions: Our results confirm the important role that empathy plays in the prevention of burnout and by managing job satisfaction and increasing the job commitment burnout can be attenuated. We recommend that government should increase pay for medical staff and continue to reform the resourcing of different hospital levels and that hospital managers implement additional training and strengthening psychological testing and counseling, to reduce medical staff burnout.

Construction of homogenized daily surface air temperature for Tianjin city during 1887–2019

The century-long continuous daily observations from some stations are important for the study of long-term trends and extreme climate events in the past. In this paper, three daily data sources: (1) Department of Industry Agency of British Concession in Tianjin covering Sep 1 1890–Dec 31 1931 (2) Water Conservancy Commission of North China covering Jan 1 1932–Dec 31 1950 and (3) monthly journal sheets for Tianjin surface meteorological observation records covering Jan 1 1951–Dec 31 2019 have been collected from the Tianjin Meteorological Archive. The completed daily maximum and minimum temperature series for Tianjin from Jan 1 1887 (Sep 1 1890 for minimum) to Dec 31 2019 has been constructed and assessed for quality control and an early extension from 1890 to 1887. Several significant breakpoints are detected by the Penalized Maximal T-test (PMT) for the daily maximum and minimum time series using multiple reference series around Tianjin from monthly Berkeley Earth, CRUTS4.03 and GHCNV3 data. Using neighboring daily series the record has been homogenized with Quantile Matching (QM) adjustments. Based on the homogenized dataset, the warming trend in annual mean temperature in Tianjin averaged from the newly constructed daily maximum and minimum temperature is evaluated as 0.154 ± 0.013 °C decade-1 during the last 130 years. Trends of temperature extremes in Tianjin are all significant at the 5 % level, and have much more coincident change than those from the raw, with amplitudes of −1.454 d decade−1, 1.196 d decade−1, −0.140 d decade−1 and 0.975 d decade−1 for cold nights (TN10p), warm nights (TN90p), cold days (TX10p) and warm days (TX90p) at the annual scale. The adjusted daily maximum, minimum and mean surface air temperature dataset for Tianjin city presented here is publicly available at https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.924561 (Si and Li, 2020).