Abstract We depicted the epidemiological characteristics of infectious diarrhoea in Jiangsu Province, China. Generalized additive models were employed to evaluate the age-specific effects of etiological and meteorological factors on prevalence. A long-term increasing prevalence with strong seasonality was observed. In those aged 0–5 years, disease risk increased rapidly with the positive rate of virus (rotavirus, norovirus, sapovirus, astrovirus) in the 20–50% range. In those aged > 20 years, disease risk increased with the positive rate of adenovirus and bacteria ( Vibrio parahaemolyticus , Salmonella , Escherichia coli , Campylobacter jejuni ) until reaching 5%, and thereafter stayed stable. The mean temperature, relative humidity, temperature range, and rainfall were all related to two-month lag morbidity in the group aged 0–5 years. Disease risk increased with relative humidity between 67–78%. Synchronous climate affected the incidence in those aged >20 years. Mean temperature and rainfall showed U-shape associations with disease risk (with threshold 15 °C and 100 mm per month, respectively). Meanwhile, disease risk increased gradually with sunshine duration over 150 hours per month. However, no associations were found in the group aged 6–19 years. In brief, etiological and meteorological factors had age-specific effects on the prevalence of infectious diarrhoea in Jiangsu. Surveillance efforts are needed to prevent its spread.
Objective. In pediatric central diabetes insipidus (CDI), etiology diagnosis and pituitary function monitoring are usually delayed. This study aimed to illustrate the importance of regular follow-up and pituitary function monitoring in pediatric CDI. Methods. The clinical, hormonal, and neuroradiological characteristics of children with CDI at diagnosis and during 1.5-2-year follow-up were collected and analyzed. Results. The study included 43 CDI patients. The mean interval between initial manifestation and diagnosis was 22.29 ± 3.67 months (range: 2-108 months). The most common complaint was polyuria/polydipsia. Causes included Langerhans cell histiocytosis, germinoma, and craniopharyngioma in 2, 5, and 4 patients; the remaining were idiopathic. No significant changes were found during the 1.5-2 years after CDI diagnosis. Twenty-three of the 43 cases (53.5%) had ≥1 anterior pituitary hormone deficiency. Isolated growth hormone deficiency was the most frequent abnormality (37.5%) and was not associated with pituitary stalk diameter. Multiple pituitary hormone deficiencies were found in 8 cases with pituitary stalk diameter > 4.5 mm. Conclusion. Diagnosis of CDI is usually delayed. CDI with a pituitary stalk diameter > 4.5 mm carries a higher risk of multiple pituitary hormone deficiencies. Long-term MRI and pituitary function follow-ups are necessary for children with idiopathic CDI.
Influenza is an acute respiratory infectious disease that poses a threat to public health. We assessed the association between atmospheric visibility and influenza and influenza-like illness (ILI) in Wuxi city, China.Daily meteorological data, ILI activity, and influenza virus infection rates were collected between 31 December 2012 and 31 December 2017. A distributed lag non-linear model (DLNM) was used to analyze the exposure-lag-response of ILI and influenza activity and daily average visibility.A total of 12,800 cases were detected; 1046 cases (8.17%) were of Flu-A and 527 (4.12%) were of Flu-B infection. Our analysis suggested a non-linear relationship between atmospheric visibility and influenza: U-shaped for ILI, and L-shaped for Flu-A and Flu-B. Comparing low visibility (2.5 km) to ILI cases, the risk appeared between day 1 and day 2. For Flu-A, the risk appeared between days 5 and 9, whereas for Flu-B, the risk effect was much stronger and had a longer reaction delay, staying above zero until day 9. The protective effects of high visibility (14 km) on ILI and Flu-B occurred the same day or one day later. However, we found no association between high visibility and Flu-A.In conclusion, our study contributes novel evidence for the effects of atmospheric visibility on influenza. These findings are important for the development of influenza surveillance and early warning systems in Wuxi city.
Relative fatness is an important general indicator of physiological body condition of small mammals and reflects their adaptive ability to the environment. The relative fatness of Mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus) was studied from March to November 1997 in TaiPuSi Banner, Inner Mongolian in China. It was calculated by the formula: K′=100W N/L 3(g/cm 3), where L indicated the naso-anal length, and W N was the carcass body weight minus all internal organs.The removal of all internal organs is to exclude the possible ones caused by the weight of food in digestive canal, embryos or pregnancy and sexual organs. Results indicated that the relative fatness changed significantly with age which relative fatness of sub-adult individuals was significantly higher than that of adult ones. Its seasonal changes of different sexual age groups were in accordance with this rule: relative fatness of rodents becomes high in spring, lowest in summer and fatted again in autumn in high altitude zones. Our results indicated that the relative fatness of the female was higher than that of the male before August; and the relative fatness of the sub-adult and adult male groups were fatted until September or October, while that of the female group fatted until November. Combined with the life-history characteristics,it was concluded that Mongolian gerbils adjusted its physiological conditions to adapt to the environment in different life stages. In addition, the monthly relative fatness in males negatively correlated to its monthly population relative size, and relative fatness in the adults had a significant positive correlation with the population size 4-month later. Our results indicated that using relative fatness as an indicator in forecasting relative size of population in Mongolian gerbils has its reference value.
Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is a novel tick-borne viral disease with high mortality. Since January 2010, we have conducted an epidemiological surveillance and etiological study of SFTS in Jiangsu and Anhui provinces. From January 2010 through December 2015, a total of 286 SFTS cases were confirmed in Jiangsu and Anhui provinces with a case fatality rate of 16.1%. The majority of confirmed SFTS cases were distributed in the border area of Jiangsu and Anhui provinces. Our findings suggest that the SFTS prevalence rate rose since 2010 and reached its highest in 2015. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that the majority of the SFTSV strains (83.6%) from Jiangsu and Anhui provinces belonged to genotypes A and D. Notably, we identified three strains of SFTSV clustered into the genotype E. This is the first report of the genotype E SFTSV strains in mainland of China. A reassortment between genotype A and D was found in the central region of the endemic areas, where three SFTSV genotypes (A, C and D) were co-circulating.
Hepatitis E is an increasingly serious worldwide public health problem that has attracted extensive attention. It is necessary to accurately predict the incidence of hepatitis E to better plan ahead for future medical care. In this study, we developed a Bi-LSTM model that incorporated meteorological factors to predict the prevalence of hepatitis E. The hepatitis E data used in this study are collected from January 2005 to March 2017 by Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention. ARIMA, GBDT, SVM, LSTM and Bi-LSTM models are adopted in this study. The data from January 2009 to September 2014 are used as the training set to fit models, and data from October 2014 to March 2017 are used as the testing set to evaluate the predicting accuracy of different models. Selecting models and evaluating the effectiveness of the models are based on mean absolute per cent error (MAPE), root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE). A total of 44 923 cases of hepatitis E are detected in Jiangsu Province from January 2005 to March 2017. The average monthly incidence rate is 0.35 per 100 000 persons in Jiangsu Province. Incorporating meteorological factors of temperature, water vapour pressure, and rainfall as a combination into the Bi-LSTM Model achieved the state-of-the-art performance in predicting the monthly incidence of hepatitis E, in which RMSE is 0.044, MAPE is 11.88%, and MAE is 0.0377. The Bi-LSTM model with the meteorological factors of temperature, water vapour pressure, and rainfall can fully extract the linear and non-linear information in the hepatitis E incidence data, and has significantly improved the interpretability, learning ability, generalisability and prediction accuracy.
Research background and significance: Under the current development trend in the field of global food science and technology, consumers' requirements for food safety, nutritional value and sensory quality are increasing, prompting the innovation of food processing and preservation technology to become the core of the industry development. In the production of traditional food spiced beef, how to ensure the yield and quality of spiced beef is the focus of the spiced beef market. By adding edible glue can gain weight, thereby improving the yield, but previous studies have shown that carrageenan, seaweed extract and so on seriously affect the sensory quality of marinated beef, especially causing its juice oozing, colloidal attachments oozing and so on. Research content: Through the systematic study of the application of curdlan gel in the processing of brine injection spiced beef, the specific effects of curdlan gel on the water retention and sensory quality of spiced beef were discussed in this study. (1) Sensory optimization injection rolling composite curing process. The experiment was carried out with beef tendinous meat and a series of auxiliary materials, using fine processes and methods, including saline injection, rolling salting, cooking treatment, etc., and then conducting sensory evaluation. (2) Compare the quality difference of curdlan gel 1 and 2. Determination of gel strength and optimization of water retention of stewed beef were carried out. Single factor ANOVA test was used to determine the optimal dosage of curdlan gel. The results showed that the water retention of beef with brine injection could be enhanced significantly when the dosage was 2%, respectively. Under the optimal process conditions, the sensory score of brined beef was 85.4 points. Through this study, important scientific and technological findings were obtained, which did not mean that the higher the concentration of curdlan gel, the better the water retention, on the contrary, the higher the concentration of its water retention would be affected but would decrease. This research not only expands the application range of curdlan gel in the food industry, but also provides new technical solutions and theoretical support for the innovation and development of meat processing technology, and meets the needs of consumers for high-quality meat products.
Download This Paper Open PDF in Browser Add Paper to My Library Share: Permalink Using these links will ensure access to this page indefinitely Copy URL Copy DOI