[Epidemiological characteristics and spatiotemporal distribution of schizophrenia in Ningbo, 2018-2022].

Objective: To explore the temporal and spatial distribution characteristics of reported incidence of schizophrenia in Ningbo from 2018 to 2022 and to provide a scientific basis for rational allocation of mental health resources and comprehensive prevention and treatment of schizophrenia. Methods: The reported incidence data of schizophrenia from 2018 to 2022 were collected from Ningbo's mental health information management system, and the reported incidence was calculated by township. The spatial correlation analysis and the spatiotemporal scan analysis were used to study the spatiotemporal distribution of schizophrenia. Results: The reported incidence of schizophrenia decreased from 2018 to 2022, with 4 133 new cases reported, and the annual average reported incidence was 9.76/100 000. Global and local spatial autocorrelation analysis showed positive spatial correlations and hot spots in 2018-2020. The space-time scan analysis showed an incidence cluster in Dongqiao Town, Haishu District, during 2018-2019. The RR was 2.46, and the log-likelihood ratio was 256.89. Conclusions: The reported incidence of schizophrenia in Ningbo has obvious temporal and spatial aggregation, and the high incidence area explored can provide clues for further research on the correlation between environmental factors and the incidence of schizophrenia and has certain guiding significance for the rational allocation of mental health resources in Ningbo.

Surface-state Coulomb repulsion accelerates a metal-insulator transition in topological semimetal nanofilms.

The emergence of quantization at the nanoscale, the quantum size effect (QSE), allows flexible control of matter and is a rich source of advanced functionalities. A QSE-induced transition into an insulating phase in semimetallic nanofilms was predicted for bismuth a half-century ago and has regained new interest with regard to its surface states exhibiting nontrivial electronic topology. Here, we reveal an unexpected mechanism of the transition by high-resolution angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy combined with theoretical calculations. Anomalous evolution and degeneracy of quantized energy levels indicate that increased Coulomb repulsion from the surface states deforms a quantum confinement potential with decreasing thickness. The potential deformation strongly modulates spatial distributions of quantized wave functions, which leads to acceleration of the transition beyond the original QSE picture. This discovery establishes a complete picture of the long-discussed transition and highlights a new class of size effects dominating nanoscale transport in systems with metallic surface states.

Revealing interfacial disorder at the growth-front of thick many-layer epitaxial graphene on SiC: a complementary neutron and X-ray scattering investigation.

Epitaxial graphene on SiC provides both an excellent source of high-quality graphene as well as an architecture to support its application. Although single-layer graphene on Si-face SiC has garnered extensive interest, many-layer graphene produced on C-face SiC could be significantly more robust for enabling applications. Little is known, however, about the structural properties related to the growth evolution at the buried interface for thick many-layer graphene. Using complementary X-ray scattering and neutron reflectivity as well as electron microscopy, we demonstrate that thick many-layer epitaxial graphene exhibits two vastly different length-scales of the buried interface roughness as a consequence of the Si sublimation that produces the graphene. Over long lateral length-scales the roughness is extremely large (hundreds of Å) and it varies proportionally to the number of graphene layers. In contrast, over much shorter lateral length-scales we observe an atomically abrupt interface with SiC terraces. Graphene near the buried interface exhibits a slightly expanded interlayer spacing (∼1%) and fluctuations of this spacing, indicating a tendency for disorder near the growth front. Nevertheless, Dirac cones are observed from the graphene while its domain size routinely reaches micron length-scales, indicating the persistence of high-quality graphene beginning just a short distance away from the buried interface. Discovering and reconciling the different length-scales of roughness by reflectivity was complicated by strong diffuse scattering and we provide a detailed discussion of how these difficulties were resolved. The insight from this analysis will be useful for other highly rough interfaces among broad classes of thin-film materials.

Nutritional impacts of dietary oregano and Enviva essential oils on the performance, gut microbiota and blood biochemicals of growing ducks.

Nowadays, there is much legislation in the world devoted to restrict the use of synthetic antibiotics in the poultry industry, which could reduce performance rate and production profits. Various phyto-biotic growth promoters have been proposed to serve as antibiotic alternatives with emphasis on plant extracts and essential oils. This study was conducted to assess the impacts of using the oregano essential oil (OEO) (comprised of 5% thymol and 65% carvacrol) and Enviva essential oil (EEO) (4.5% cinnamaldehyde and 13.5% thymol) as phytobiotic feed additives (PFA) on growth performance, cecal microbiota and serum biochemicals of growing ducks. In total, 800 11-day-old ducklings, housed in 20 floor pens, were allotted randomly into five dietary treatments: (i) A basal diet (BD) (control), (ii.) BD+50 mg EEO/kg, (iii.) BD+100 mg EEO/kg, (iv.) BD+150 mg OEO/kg and (v.) BD+300 mg OEO/kg diet. The growth performance traits were studied between 11 and 42 days of age. At the experiment end, 40 ducks were slaughtered (eight/ treatment) and cecal digesta and blood samples were collected to estimate the cecal bacterial populations and serum blood biochemicals. The results indicated that the tested levels of OEO and EEO did not display any significant effect (P>0.05) on the duck's final BW, BW gain, growth rate, feed intake, feed conversion ratio or survivability rate. Besides, the different levels of EEO and OEO decreased the cecal populations of Coliforms (P<0.01), total aerobes (P<0.01) and lactose-negative Enterobacteria (P<0.05) in comparison with those of the control group. Finally, the tested EEO and OEO levels did not show any significant effect on the serum variables; in terms of total protein, albumin, globulin, total cholesterol, triglycerides, alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase. In conclusion, the antimicrobial effect of the OEO and EEO against the cecal microbiota has been proven, while they did not display significant effects on the growth performance or blood variables of growing ducks.

Validation of in vitro digestion using simulated small intestinal fluid with specific digestive activity to predict the metabolizable energy of feed ingredients for duck.

Two experiments were conducted to validate a method to prepare simulated small intestinal fluid (SSIF) for in vitro digestion in ducks. Experiment 1 compared the in vitro digestible energy (IVDE) of SSIF to endogenous small intestinal fluid (ESIF) on four feeds. The ESIF 1 or 2 obtained from two groups of jejunal cannulated ducks offered diet 1 (3,050 kcal/kg of ME and 19.95% of CP) or 2 (2,801 kcal/kg of ME and 14.90% of CP) was purified into raw enzyme power (REP) 1 or 2. SSIF 1 to 3 or 4 to 6 were prepared to mimic ESIF 1 or 2, respectively. The enzyme sources were REP 1 for SSIF 1 and 4, REP 2 for SSIF 2 and 5 or reagent enzymes for SSIF 3 and 6, respectively. The IVDE of each feed was determined with SSIF or ESIF. Experiment 2 was to validate whether REP 1 was more effective than only reagent enzymes to prepare SSIF. Ten feeds were determined with pepsin following SSIF 1 or 3 for IVDE 1 or 2, respectively. The accuracy of prediction model of true metabolizable energy (TME) from IVDE 1 or 2 was evaluated to validate the efficacy of SSIF. In experiment 1, higher activities of amylase, trypsin and chymotrypsin were observed in ESIF 1 than ESIF 2 (P < 0.05). The IVDE determined with SSIF 1 and 2 or 3 and 4 were more comparable to that of ESIF 1 or 2 than determinations with SSIF 3 or 6. In experiment 2, the mean IVDE 1 or 2 was 97.22% or 96.23% relative to TME, respectively, and both were highly correlated with TME (P < 0.01; R2 ≥ 0.98). However, the residual SD of TME prediction model with IVDE 1 was less than that generated with IVDE 2 (55 vs. 71 kcal/kg). In conclusion, the IVDE determined with in vitro digestion of pepsin following SSIF prepared with REP can predict accurately TME of feed for ducks.

Starter feeding altered ruminal epithelial bacterial communities and some key immune-related genes' expression before weaning in lambs.

To characterize changes in ruminal epithelial bacterial communities and immune-related gene expression during concentrate starter feeding before weaning in lambs, 6 pairs of 10-d-old Hu lamb twins were selected: 1 kid received milk (M, = 6), and the other received milk plus starter (M+S, = 6). All lambs received hay and water ad libitum and were slaughtered at 56-d-old. Their rumen fluid was collected to determine ruminal pH and VFA levels; rumen epithelia were collected to characterize their bacterial communities using Illumina MiSeq sequencing and to determine mRNA expression of immune-related genes using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). Results showed that starter feeding caused a decreased ruminal pH ( = 0.004) and increased concentrations of acetate, propionate, butyrate, and total VFA ( < 0.001). Principal coordinate analysis and analysis of molecular variance revealed that starter feeding affected ruminal epithelial bacterial communities in the lambs ( = 0.001), with higher relative abundance of dominant taxa , unclassified BS11 gut group, , unclassified Synergistaceae, , , , , and ( < 0.05) but lesser relative abundance of , unclassified Bacteroidales, unclassified Candidate, unclassified RF9, and ( < 0.05). Additionally, a phylogenetic investigation of communities by reconstruction of unobserved states analysis indicated that starter feeding markedly increased relative abundance values of dominant ruminal epithelial bacterial-inferred genes related to other ion-coupled transporters, pentose and glucuronate interconversions, glycosyltransferases, other glycan degradation, AA metabolism, sphingolipid metabolism, biotin metabolism, glycosphingolipid biosynthesis-globo series, and lysosome ( < 0.05) but decreased relative abundance values of genes related to carbon fixation pathways in prokaryotes and energy metabolism ( < 0.05) in the lambs. The qRT-PCR results showed that starter feeding decreased the relative mRNA expression of IL-6 ( = 0.003), IL-10 ( = 0.013), and interferon γ ( = 0.003). Collectively, this study showed that starter feeding could alter ruminal epithelial bacterial communities and some key immune-related genes' expression in preweaned lambs. All these responses of ruminal epithelial bacteria and the immune system would be beneficial for starter-fed lambs to be weaned.

[Incidence and trend of occupational diseases in Ningbo, China, from 2006 to 2015].

Objective: To investigate the incidence, distribution features, and incidence trend of occupational diseases in Ningbo, China, from 2006 to 2015. Methods: In February 2016, the data on occupational disease report cards in the occupational disease and occupational health information system from 2006 to 2015 were collected to perform a comprehensive analysis of the types, incidence trend, population characteristics, and enterprise characteristics of occupational diseases. Results: There were 845 new cases of occupational diseases in Ningbo from 2006 to 2015, among which 596 (70.53%) were pneumoconiosis; there were 445 (74.66%) cases of stage I pneumoconiosis, 73 (12.25%) cases of stage II pneumoconiosis, and 78 (13.09%) cases of stage III pneumoconiosis; silicosis (59.76%) was the most common type of pneumoconiosis. Of all patients with occupational diseases, 84.97% were male, 64.50%were aged 35-55 years, and 63.67% had 5-20 working years. Most of the patients with occupational diseases worked in small and medium-sized private (or foreign) enterprises; the most common industries were black metal smelting and rolling (38.76%) , construction (17.11%) , and non-metallic ore mining (13.09%) . A total of 51.28%, 10.26%, and 7.69% of the patients with occupational poisoning worked in the electric apparatus manufacturing industry, furniture manufacturing industry, and chemical raw material and chemical product manufacturing industry, respectively. The cases of occupational diseases are mainly distributed in Yuyao City (24.62%) , Yinzhou District (23.91%) , and Ninghai County (15.62%) . Conclusion: Pneumoconiosis is the most common type of occupational disease in Ningbo and most of these patients work in small and medium-sized private (or foreign) enterprises. The supervision of small and medium-sized private enterprises should be enhanced to protect workers' health.

[Relationship between weather factors and heat stroke in Ningbo city].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the main effects of weather factors on heat stroke. METHODS: Data from case report on heat stroke was collected in Ningbo city during 2011 to 2014. Temperature threshold, lag effects and interaction of weather factors on heat stroke had been analyzed, using the piecewise regression model, distributed lag non-linear model, response surface model and other methods. RESULTS: RESULTS showed that temperature and humidity were more correlated with heat stroke than other weather-related factors. Through different models, daily average temperature always presented a better role in predicting the heat stroke, rather than maximum or minimum temperature. Positive association between daily average temperature and heat stroke was obvious, especially at lag 0-1 days, with its threshold as 29.1 (95% CI: 28.7-29.5) ℃ . The cumulative RR of heat stroke at 90(th) percentile of daily average temperature versus 10(th) percentile was 14.05 (95% CI: 7.23-27.31) in lag 0-1 days. The effects of daily relative humidity on heat stroke appeared nonlinear, with low humidity showing a negative effect on heat stroke and could lag for 1-4 days. However, the effect of high humidity was not significant, with the cumulative RR of low humidity and high humidity as 2.35 (95%CI: 1.27-4.33) and 0.86 (95%CI: 0.40-1.85) in lag of 0-4 days, respectively. We also noticed that there was an interactive effect of both temperature and humidity on heat stroke. Under high temperature and low humidity, the risk of heat stroke showed the highest. CONCLUSIONS: Temperature and humidity showed obvious relationship with heat stroke in Ningbo city, with the threshold temperature as 29.1 ℃. Under high temperature and low humidity, the risk of heat stroke became the highest.

[Electrophysiological subtypes and long term prognosis of Guillain-Barré syndrome].

OBJECTIVE: To assess the electrophysiological subtypes of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (AIDP) and acute motor axonal neuropathy (AMAN), and long-term prognosis in northeastern China. METHODS: One hundred and eighteen patients with GBS were recruited between 2010 and 2012 and retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS: According to electrodiagnostic criteria, patients were classified as AMAN (49, 46.7%) or AIDP (39, 37.1%), or were unclassified (17, 16.2%). Between the AMAN and AIDP groups, age, sex, and clinical disability did not differ significantly, but the AMAN patients more frequently had preceding gastroenteritis. By 4 weeks after onset, 24.5% of the AMAN patients (12) and 33.3% of the AIDP patients (13) had regained the ability to walk; by 1 year, 77.6% of the AMAN patients (38) and 79.5% of the AIDP patients (31) could walk. Recovery was generally favorable in both subtypes. Immunotherapy was effective in patients with either AIDP or AMAN, and glucocorticoids and immunoglobulin treatment could achieve similar effect. CONCLUSIONS: AMAN and AIDP are the main subtypes of GBS in northeastern China. The prognosis of patients with AMAN is similar to that of patients with AIDP. Different immunotherapies have similar effect on long term prognosis.

[The application of two occupation health risk assessment models in a wooden furniture manufacturing industry].

Objective: To explore the applicability of 2 different models of occupational health risk assessment in wooden furniture manufacturing industry. Methods: American EPA inhalation risk model and ICMM model of occupational health risk assessment were conducted to assess occupational health risk in a small wooden furniture enterprises, respectively. Results: There was poor protective measure and equipment of occupational disease in the plant. The concentration of wood dust in the air of two workshops was over occupational exposure limit (OEL) , and the CTWA was 8.9 mg/m3 and 3.6 mg/m3, respectively. According to EPA model, the workers who exposed to benzene in this plant had high risk (9.7×10-6 ~34.3×10-6) of leukemia, and who exposed to formaldehyde had high risk (11.4 × 10-6) of squamous cell carcinoma. There were inconsistent evaluation results using the ICMM tools of standard-based matrix and calculated risk rating. There were very high risks to be attacked by rhinocarcinoma of the workers who exposed to wood dust for the tool of calculated risk rating, while high risk for the tool of standard-based matrix. For the workers who exposed to noise, risk of noise-induced deafness was unacceptable and medium risk using two tools, respectively. Conclusion: Both EPA model and ICMM model can appropriately predict and assessthe occupational health risk in wooden furniture manufactory, ICMM due to the relatively simple operation, easy evaluation parameters, assessment of occupational- disease-inductive factors comprehensively, and more suitable for wooden furniture production enterprise.

Epidemiological characteristics of malaria in Ningbo City, China 2000-2011.

The objective of this study was to explore the trend and the epidemiological characteristics of malaria in Ningbo from 2000 through 2011 and provide scientific evidence for the prevention and control. Using the retrospective study, data relating to malaria epidemics during 2000-2011 in Ningbo were collected through the questionnaires of the cases and other important surveillance data. Adult mosquitoes were collected using CDC light traps baited with CO2. Results showed that Plasmodium vivax was the main species, and Anopheles sinensis was the only vector species of malaria. The annual incidence rates (per 100000) ranged from 0.156 to 3.224, and about 95.41% of the cases were imported. The cases occurred mainly between May and November and the incidence showed two peaks, and the local transmission of malaria was determined by vector density. Considering the vast majority of these infections were imported vivax malaria cases from domestic endemic areas (particularly Anhui province), and may lead to limited local transmission, strengthening the routine monitoring of imported malaria, ensuring timely diagnosis, improving case detection rate, giving a standardized treatment to patients and intensifying public health education on malaria prevention are extremely important to malaria prevention and control activities.

Effective process to achieve enhanced electrochromic performances based on poly(4,4',4″-tris[4-(2-bithienyl)pheny]amine)/ZnO nanorod composites.

Poly(4,4',4″-tris[4-(2-bithienyl)pheny]amine) (PTBTPA) was electrochemically synthesized on a ZnO-coated ITO electrode to form a PTBTPA/ZnO nanocomposite electrode. The composite film exhibited a noticeable electrochromism, with reversible color changes from orange in the reduced state (0 V), olive green in the middle state (0.9 V) to dark gray in the oxidized state (1.2 V). Furthermore, the composite film showed a fast switching time of 0.92 s and a high optical contrast of 65% at 1100 nm, and retained 97% of its original electroactivity after 500 cycles, while PTBTPA film had switching time of 1.63 s and an optical contrast of 52% at 1100 nm, and retained 75% of its original electroactivity. The results demonstrated that the electrochromic performances were significantly enhanced through incorporating PTBTPA with ZnO nanorods. ZnO nanorods were introduced to modify the structure of the electrode: on one hand, to offer a directional attraction for the counterions, and on the other hand, to enhance the adhesion between the polymer and the ITO electrode. Accordingly, a conducting polymer/inorganic nanocomposite system could improve the polymer's electrochromic performance, especially in terms of the switching speed and long-term stability of the electrochromic materials.

Interfacial bonding and structure of Bi2Te3 topological insulator films on Si(111) determined by surface x-ray scattering.

Interfacial topological states are a key element of interest for topological insulator thin films, and their properties can depend sensitively on the atomic bonding configuration. We employ in situ nonresonant and resonant surface x-ray scattering to study the interfacial and internal structure of a prototypical topological film system: Bi2Te3 grown on Si(111). The results reveal a Te-dominated buffer layer, a large interfacial spacing, and a slightly relaxed and partially strained bottom quintuple layer of an otherwise properly stacked bulklike Bi2Te3 film. The presence of the buffer layer indicates a nontrivial process of interface formation and a mechanism for electronic decoupling between the topological film and the Si(111) substrate.

Electronic size effects in three-dimensional nanostructures.

We show that bismuth nanostructures form three-dimensional patterns governed by two-dimensional electronic effects. Scanning tunneling microscopy reveals that both the vertical and the lateral dimensions of the structures strongly favor certain values and that the preferred widths are substantially different for each preferred height. First-principles calculations demonstrate that this vertical-lateral correlation is governed by the Fermi surface topology and that this is itself sensitively dependent on the dimensions of the structure.

Molecular cloning and functional characterization of a mouse ccl6 analog gene in the rat.

Suppression subtractive hybridization was used to analyze differential expression of genes in rat peritoneal macrophages after granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor treatment. We identified and cloned the mouse C10 analog gene in the rat, and named it as ccl6. The full-length cDNA of rat ccl6 was 467 bp, which contains a single-open reading frame and encodes 116 amino acid residues. Compared with other C-C chemokines, the rat ccl6 gene had an unusual four-exon genome structure instead of the typical three exons, it had the highest homology with murine ccl6. The rat ccl6 gene was localized on chromosome 10, where most of the C-C chemokine superfamily members are located. The recombinant rat C-C chemokine ligand 6 (CCL6) protein was expressed by the pGEX4T-1 plasmid in Escherichia coli BL21. The purified recombinant protein had bioactivity similar to that of mouse CCL6, which is a chemoattractant for macrophages and lymphocytes, but not for neutrophils.

Visualizing electronic chirality and Berry phases in graphene systems using photoemission with circularly polarized light.

Electronic chirality near the Dirac point is a key property of graphene systems, which is revealed by the spectral intensity patterns as measured by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy under various polarization conditions. Specifically, the strongly modulated circular patterns for monolayer (bilayer) graphene rotate by ±90° (±45°) in changing from linearly to circularly polarized light; these angles are directly related to the phases of the wave functions and thus visually confirm the Berry's phase of π (2π) around the Dirac point. The details are verified by calculations.

Passage from spin-polarized surface states to unpolarized quantum well states in topologically nontrivial Sb films.

Topological materials have unusual surface spin properties including a net surface spin current protected by the bulk symmetry properties. When such materials are reduced to thin films, their gapless spin-polarized surface states must connect, by analytic continuation, to bulk-derived quantum-well states, which are spin-unpolarized in centrosymmetric systems. The nature of this passage in a model system, Sb films, is investigated. Angle-resolved photoemission shows a smooth transition, while calculations elucidate the correlated evolution of the spin and charge distributions in real space.

Phonon-induced gaps in graphene and graphite observed by angle-resolved photoemission.

Mapping by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy of the spectral functions of graphite and graphene layers at low temperatures reveals a heretofore unreported gap of ~ 67 meV at normal emission. This gap persists to room temperature and beyond, and diminishes for increasing emission angles. We show that this gap arises from electronic coupling to out-of-plane vibrational modes at the K(¯) point in the surface Brillouin zone in accordance with conservation laws and selection rules governed by quantum mechanics. Our study suggests a new approach for characterizing phonons and electron-phonon coupling in solids.

[Study on the needle biopsies of 100 prostatic adenocarcinoma].

OBJECTIVE: To study the morphological diagnostic criteria of prostatic adenocarcinoma in needle biopsy. METHODS: 250 cases of prostatic needle biopsy including 100 cases of adenocarcinoma were observed retrospectively. The diagnostic significance of 20 parameters of morphological criteria including the architectural changes, cytologic features, invasion and some additional histologic features (intraepithelial neoplasm, intraluminal crystelloid body, intraluminal basophilic mucin secretion, collagen nodule and coagulative necrosis) were analyzed. RESULTS: All 20 parameters of morphological criteria had practical significance in pathologic diagnosis, the most significant ones being architectural changes, prominent nucleoli, perineural and stromal invasion. CONCLUSION: The diagnosis of prostatic adenocarcinoma is based on a constellation of cytologic and architectural features.