Occupational safety and health in China: junior college students' knowledge from a large cross-sectional survey in Jiangsu Province.

Occupational health and safety (OHS) is important for safeguarding workers during industrialization and pursuing economic benefits. We asked 123,943 junior college students from years 1-5 to complete an online questionnaire about their knowledge of occupational safety and health. A total of 101,577 students responded, with a response rate of 81.96%. The average score and pass rate for all valid respondents were 44.99 ± 12.53 and 75.2%, respectively. There were statistically significant differences in average scores and pass rates among students of different genders, levels, number of family members, and school locations. Government departments should increase investment in Occupational Safety and Health education for students in poverty-stricken areas, and should conduct regular assessments of students' knowledge. Junior colleges should also strengthen learning in occupational health education.

Diverse vaginal microbiomes in reproductive-age women with vulvovaginal candidiasis.

Vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) is one of the most prevalent vaginal infectious diseases, and there are controversial reports regarding the diversity of the associated vaginal microbiota. We determined the vaginal microbial community in patients with VVC, bacterial vaginosis (BV), and mixed infection of VVC and BV using Illumina sequencing of 16S rRNA tags. Our results revealed for the first time the highly variable patterns of the vaginal microbiome from VVC patients. In general, the alpha-diversity results of species richness and evenness showed the following order: normal control < VVC only < mixed BV and VVC infection < BV only. The beta-diversity comparison of community structures also showed an intermediate composition of VVC between the control and BV samples. A detailed comparison showed that, although the control and BV communities had typical patterns, the vaginal microbiota of VVC is complex. The mixed BV and VVC infection group showed a unique pattern, with a relatively higher abundance of Lactobacillus than the BV group and higher abundance of Prevotella, Gardnerella, and Atopobium than the normal control. In contrast, the VVC-only group could not be described by any single profile, ranging from a community structure similar to the normal control (predominated with Lactobacillus) to BV-like community structures (abundant with Gardnerella and Atopobium). Treatment of VVC resulted in inconsistent changes of the vaginal microbiota, with four BV/VVC samples recovering to a higher Lactobacillus level, whereas many VVC-only patients did not. These results will be useful for future studies on the role of vaginal microbiota in VVC and related infectious diseases.

[Effect of folic acid in preventing aberrant methylation of fetal endometriosis susceptibility gene HOXA10].

OBJECTIVE: To detect aberrant methylation in the promoter region of fetal endometriosis susceptibility gene homeobox-10 (HOXA10) in women with and without folic acid supplementation and explore the effect of folic acid in optimizing intrauterine environment. METHODS: Thirty-six cord blood specimens were collected between January, 2010 and December, 2012 from pregnant women with endometriosis, including 22 with folic acid treatment and 15 without. Methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (MSP) and bisulfite salt modified sequencing (BSP) were employed to detect aberrant methylation of HOXA10 gene in these specimens. RESULTS: The methylation rate of HOXA10 gene differed significantly between pregnant women with endometriosis taking folic acid and those who did (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: Folic acid treatment can significantly reduce the methylation rate of fetal endometriosis susceptibility gene HOXA10.

[Illumina sequencing 16S rRNA tagging reveals diverse vaginal microbiomes associated with bacterial vaginosis].

OBJECTIVE: To analyze and compare vaginal microbiomes in healthy women at child-bearing ages and patients with bacterial vaginosis (BV). METHODS: A total of 74 vaginal swabs of the vaginal fornix were collected from 37 BV patients and 37 healthy women. BV status was assessed according to Amsels clinical criteria for all the subjects and confirmed using Gram-stain criteria (Nugent scores). Genomic DNA of the samples was extracted for amplifying the 16S rRNA V6 hypervariable region by PCR and pyrosequencing by Illumina. BIPES, UCHIME, TSC and GAST were employed to analyze the information of the species from the samples. RESULTS: Lactobacillus was the predominant species in healthy women (more than 95%), including mainly L. iners and L. crispatus, with a small quantity of Gardnerella, Granulicatella, Streptococcus, Prevotella, Escherichia and other genus. The α diversity was significantly increased in 30 BV patients (P<0.001), and ß diversity also changed obviously shown by decreased Lactobacillus (varying from 45% to 1%, consisting mainly of L. iners) or even absence Lactobacillus in 6 cases, with increased relative abundance of Gardnerella, Prevotella, Granulicatella, Anaerococcus, Parvimonas, Peptoniphilus.harei, Peptostreptococcus, and Dialister. Different from previous data, 7 BV cases showed a predominance of the rare species L.gasseri and L.acidophilus (75% to 50%). CONCLUSION: Lactobacillus is the predominant vaginal species in healthy women (mainly L. iners and L. crispatus) co-existing with many other bacteria and a variety of microorganisms. Lactobacillus is significantly decreased and even absent in most of BV patients, and some cases show the predominance of the rare species L.gasseri and L.acidophilus.