Using Baidu Index Data to Improve Chickenpox Surveillance in Yunnan, China: Infodemiology Study.

BACKGROUND: Chickenpox is an old but easily neglected infectious disease. Although chickenpox is preventable by vaccines, vaccine breakthroughs often occur, and the chickenpox epidemic is on the rise. Chickenpox is not included in the list of regulated communicable diseases that must be reported and controlled by public and health departments; therefore, it is crucial to rapidly identify and report varicella outbreaks during the early stages. The Baidu index (BDI) can supplement the traditional surveillance system for infectious diseases, such as brucellosis and dengue, in China. The number of reported chickenpox cases and internet search data also showed a similar trend. BDI can be a useful tool to display the outbreak of infectious diseases. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to develop an efficient disease surveillance method that uses BDI to assist in traditional surveillance. METHODS: Chickenpox incidence data (weekly from January 2017 to June 2021) reported by the Yunnan Province Center for Disease Control and Prevention were obtained to evaluate the relationship between the incidence of chickenpox and BDI. We applied a support vector machine regression (SVR) model and a multiple regression prediction model with BDI to predict the incidence of chickenpox. In addition, we used the SVR model to predict the number of chickenpox cases from June 2021 to the first week of April 2022. RESULTS: The analysis showed that there was a close correlation between the weekly number of newly diagnosed cases and the BDI. In the search terms we collected, the highest Spearman correlation coefficient was 0.747. Most BDI search terms, such as "chickenpox," "chickenpox treatment," "treatment of chickenpox," "chickenpox symptoms," and "chickenpox virus," trend consistently. Some BDI search terms, such as "chickenpox pictures," "symptoms of chickenpox," "chickenpox vaccine," and "is chickenpox vaccine necessary," appeared earlier than the trend of "chickenpox virus." The 2 models were compared, the SVR model performed better in all the applied measurements: fitting effect, R2=0.9108, root mean square error (RMSE)=96.2995, and mean absolute error (MAE)=73.3988; and prediction effect, R2=0.548, RMSE=189.1807, and MAE=147.5412. In addition, we applied the SVR model to predict the number of reported cases weekly in Yunnan from June 2021 to April 2022 using the same period of the BDI. The results showed that the fluctuation of the time series from July 2021 to April 2022 was similar to that of the last year and a half with no change in the level of prevention and control. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicated that the BDI in Yunnan Province can predict the incidence of chickenpox in the same period. Thus, the BDI is a useful tool for monitoring the chickenpox epidemic and for complementing traditional monitoring systems.

Brucellosis screening and follow-up of seropositive asymptomatic subjects among household members of shepherds in China.

To measure the seroprevalence of high-exposure populations in brucellosis endemic areas and report the outcome and duration of seropositive asymptomatic subjects, we screened 595 family members of shepherds in Jilin Province, China and then followed up 15 seropositive asymptomatic subjects for 18 months. We found that the seropositive rate of 15.5%. Nearly half of seropositive asymptomatic subjects (7/15) developed into brucellosis in the short term; others were still seropositive asymptomatic or had decreased SAT titer in a longer time.

Facile and efficient preparation of organoimido derivatives of [Mo6O19]2- using accelerated reactions in Leidenfrost droplets.

Reaction acceleration is a hot topic in recent years since it is very useful for rapid reaction screening and small-scale synthesis on a short timescale. It is known that the rates of chemical reactions are often accelerated in confined volumes (small droplets or thin films) where the unique chemical reactivities of molecules at the air-droplet/thin film interface, usually different from that in the bulk and gas phases, play a dominant role in acceleration. The Leidenfrost effect was employed to create small levitated droplets with no net charge. These droplets can accelerate many kinds of organic reactions. Our first accelerated synthesis of a series of organoimido-functionalized polyoxometalate (POM) clusters using Leidenfrost droplets with product analysis by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) demonstrated that this method can be successfully extended to the synthesis of inorganic/organic hybrids, a very promising area for developing POM-based functional materials. Comparable amounts of synthetic products [Mo6O18(NC6H4R)]2- (R = H (6), m/z 477; p-i-C3H7 (7), m/z 498; p-OCH3 (8), m/z 492; p-NO2 (9), m/z 500) were prepared within minutes in Leidenfrost droplets versus in hours in the corresponding bulk reactions under the same reaction conditions in the presence of the DCC catalyst, suggesting that both concentration and interfacial effects are pivotal in causing reaction acceleration in the Leidenfrost droplet. Compared to the conventional bulk reactions, the acceleration factors (AFs) were 92, 136, 126, and 89 for the four model reactions (1)-(4), respectively. We also found out that substitution affects the rate of reactions occurring in droplets, and hence the magnitude of AF. The rates increase in the order of R = NO2 < H < i-C3H7 < OCH3, in which the electron-donating groups (i.e., R = OCH3, i-C3H7) on the benzene ring are more favorable to the reaction than the electron-withdrawing group (i.e., R = NO2). This experimental result is in good agreement with the DFT calculation which indicates that the free-energy barriers for the direct imidoylization of POM with RNH2 are linearly correlated with the basicity constants (pKb) of amines.

Follow-up outcomes of asymptomatic brucellosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Balancing the potentially serious outcomes of asymptomatic brucellosis and "waiting" for treatment in clinical practice is an urgent issue. Therefore, we assessed the follow-up outcomes and epidemiological characteristics of asymptomatic brucellosis in the absence of treatment to provide evidence-based clinical clues. We searched eight databases in which 3610 studies from 1990 to 2021 were related to the follow-up outcomes of asymptomatic brucellosis. Thirteen studies, involving 107 cases, were finally included. Regarding the follow-up outcomes, we examined the presence or absence of symptoms and decreased serum agglutination test (SAT) titre. During the 0.5-18 months follow-up period, the pooled prevalence of appearing symptomatic was 15.4% (95% CI 2.1%-34.3%), cases that remained asymptomatic were 40.3% (95% CI 16.6%-65.8%), and decreased SAT titre was observed in 36.5% (95% CI 11.6%-66.1%). Subgroup analysis indicated that the pooled prevalence of appearing symptomatic with follow-up times of less than 6 months, 6-12 months, and 12-18 months was 11.5%, 26.4%, and 47.6%, respectively. The student subgroup had a higher prevalence of symptoms (46.6%) than the occupational and family populations. In conclusion, asymptomatic brucellosis has a high likelihood of appearing symptomatic and its severity may be underestimated. Active screening of occupational and family populations should be enhanced, and special attention should be paid to high-titre students for early intervention, if necessary. Additionally, future prospective, long-term, and large-sample follow-up studies are essential.

Better efficacy of triple antibiotics therapy for human brucellosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: The treatment of brucellosis suffers from a high recurrence rate and drug resistance. Our study researched the differences in efficacy and side effects between triple antibiotics therapy and dual antibiotics therapy in the treatment of brucellosis through a systematic review and meta-analysis. METHODS: We searched 4 English electronic databases and 2 Chinese electronic databases for randomized controlled trials and cohort studies published through September 2022 on the use of triple antibiotics versus dual antibiotics in the treatment of brucellosis. Overall outcome indicators were therapeutic failure rate, relapse rate, overall therapeutic failure rate, and side effect rate. Relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were used as summary statistics. A fixed-effects model was used to combine the overall effect sizes. RESULTS: The meta-analysis included 15 studies consisting of 11 randomized controlled trials and 4 cohort studies. Triple antibiotics showed better efficacy than dual antibiotics in a comparison of 3 overall outcome indicators (therapeutic failure rate (RR 0.42; 95% CI 0.30 to 0.59 heterogeneity P = 0.29, I2 = 15%), relapse rate (RR 0.29; 95% CI 0.18 to 0.45 heterogeneity P = 0.88, I2 = 0%), and overall therapeutic failure rate (RR 0.37; 95% CI 0.28 to 0.48 heterogeneity P = 0.35, I2 = 9%)). The incidence of side effects in patients with brucellosis treated with triple antibiotics was not significantly different from that in brucellosis patients treated with dual antibiotics (RR 0.85; 95% CI 0.67 to 1.06 heterogeneity P = 0.1, I2 = 35%). Sensitivity analyses showed robust results and Peter's test showed no publication bias. The results of subgroup analyses for the research type, drugs, and type of brucellosis were largely consistent with the overall outcome indicators, indicating the reliability and robustness of the overall results. CONCLUSIONS: In the treatment of brucellosis, triple antibiotics have better efficacy than dual antibiotics and do not increase the incidence of side effects.

A new method for the evaluation of measurement uncertainty in strict accordance with measurement model: Determination of total thyroxine in human serum by triple isotope dilution mass spectrometry.

The rigorous and reasonable evaluation of uncertainty is crucial for the reliability of the results of a reference measurement procedure. A new uncertainty budget is proposed for uncertainty evaluation of a reference measurement procedure for total thyroxine in human serum based on isotope dilution liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. In this work, a measurement model for uncertainty evaluation of triple isotope dilution-mass spectrometry was established. The propagation of uncertainties assigned to various input quantities was expressed in strict accordance with the measurement model. A detailed description of the uncertainty evaluation process for the measurement result of a specific serum is given, including the estimate of the input quantities and the determination of the combined standard uncertainty. The expanded uncertainty of the specific human serum (at coverage probability of 95%) was 4.8 nmol/L at the concentration level of 113.6 nmol/L.

Prevalence and relevant factors of positive RF in brucellosis patients with arthralgia.

BACKGROUND: Brucellosis is a critical zoonotic disease in the world, it is the non-specific arthralgia that make brucellosis patients easily misdiagnosed as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in endemic regions. Elevated rheumatoid factor (RF) is an essential indicator of RA, and the RF in brucellosis patients is significantly higher than healthy people. Therefore, this study further explored the distribution of RF and the relevant factors of the RF positivity in brucellosis patients with arthralgia, in order to strengthen the recognition of physicians for brucellosis patients with RF positivity, especially in brucellosis-endemic areas, so as to avoid misdiagnosis and untimely treatment that may lead to malignant outcomes. METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The medical records of all 572 brucellosis inpatients were collected in the Sixth People's Hospital of Shenyang, China from 2015 to 2016. After excluding 106 patients without arthralgia, 5 patients who unwilling to perform RF testing and 16 patients with diseases that may affect RF, 445 brucellosis inpatients with arthralgia were involved in this retrospective cross-sectional study. 143 (32.1%) patients with RF >10 IU/ml were classified into the RF positive group, with an average level of 16.5[12.2, 34.7] IU/ml, of which 45 (10.1%) patients were high-positive with RF >30 IU/ml. Multivariate logistic regression model was used to further analyze the relevant factors of the RF positivity and found that age, wrist joint pain and elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) were positively associated with RF positivity, with OR of 1.02 (P = 0.024), 8.94 (P = 0.008) and 1.79 (P = 0.019), respectively. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of positive RF in brucellosis patients with arthralgia was critical, nearly one-third of patients had RF positive. Elderly men brucellosis patients with arthralgia, wrist joint pain and elevated CRP were at high risk of positive RF. It is reminded that physicians should focus on differential diagnosis during clinical diagnosis and treatment, especially in brucellosis-endemic regions.

Nitrogen-Activated Oxidation in Nitrogen Direct Analysis in Real Time Mass Spectrometry (DART-MS) and Rapid Detection of Explosives Using Thermal Desorption DART-MS.

Direct analysis in real time mass spectrometry (DART-MS) was used to analyze an array of explosives including nitro-based explosives, peroxide explosives, and energetic heterocyclic compounds with different DART discharge gases (helium, argon, and nitrogen). Profound analyte oxidation was observed for particular compounds (TNT (9) and 2, 4-DNT (10)), whose mass spectra were completely dominated by the oxidation products when nitrogen was substituted for helium in DART analysis. This interesting phenomenon suggested that a highly oxidative environment provided by N2 DART ion source. A possible mechanism involved in nitrogen DART was proposed which may help further understanding the different chemistry involved in the ionization process. This work also presents a thermal desorption DART (TD-DART) configuration that can enable rapid, specific analysis of explosives from swipes. The screening of swipes with three different compositions (fiberglass, Hybond N+ membrane, and filter paper) showed that fiberglass swipe has the best performance which was then used for the subsequent TD-DART analysis. A direct comparison of TD-DART with traditional DART demonstrated that TD-DART indeed gives better response than traditional DART (provided that the distance between the DART source and mass spectrometer is the same) and will have wider applications than traditional DART.

Gas-Phase Chemistry of Arylimido-Functionalized Hexamolybdates [Mo6O19]2.

The gas-phase fragmentations of a series of arylimido derivatives of hexamolybdate [Mo6O18(NC6H5-nR n )]2- (2-10, where R = CH3, i-C3H7, OCH3, NO2; n = 1 or 2) versus the parent species [Mo6O19]2- (1) were systematically studied using electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (ESI). Fragmentation of 1 generates two molybdate fragments only, [Mo3O10]2- and [Mo4O13]2-, whereas decomposition of 2-10 went through two dissociation pathways in which path A generates a variety of molybdate fragments via breaking the Mo-N bond followed by the cleavages of the multiple Mo-O bonds, whereas path B produces a range of molybdate fragments with arylimido group via breaking the multiple Mo-O bonds on POM framework. Moreover, the presences of mixed-oxidation-state molybdate fragments are characteristic for the fragmentation. The gas-phase stability order obtained by energy-variable collision-induced dissociation (CID) experiment reveals that 2-10 are generally less stable than 1 and substitution on the benzene ring exerts a considerable effect on the stabilization of the hybrid clusters. Graphical abstract ᅟ.