Clinical Characteristics of Patients Infected With the Novel 2019 Coronavirus (SARS-Cov-2) in Guangzhou, China.

BACKGROUND: The clinical manifestations and factors associated with the severity of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections outside of Wuhan are not clearly understood. METHODS: All laboratory-confirmed cases with SARS-Cov-2 infection who were hospitalized and monitored in Guangzhou Eighth People's Hospital were recruited from January 20 to February 10. RESULTS: A total of 275 patients were included in this study. The median patient age was 49 years, and 63.6% had exposure to Wuhan. The median virus incubation period was 6 days. Fever (70.5%) and dry cough (56.0%) were the most common symptoms. A decreased albumin level was found in 51.3% of patients, lymphopenia in 33.5%, and pneumonia based on chest computed tomography in 86%. Approximately 16% of patients (n = 45) had severe disease, and there were no deaths. Compared with patients with nonsevere disease, those with severe disease were older, had a higher frequency of coexisting conditions and pneumonia, and had a shorter incubation period (all P < .05). There were no differences between patients who likely contacted the virus in Wuhan and those who had no exposure to Wuhan. Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that older age, male sex, and decreased albumin level were independently associated with disease severity. CONCLUSIONS: Most of the patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 in Guangzhou, China are not severe cases and patients with older age, male, and decreased albumin level were more likely to develop into severe ones.

Phthalates in soft glass (a soft transparent PVC plastic sheet used extensively in household and public place in developing countries in recent years): Implication for oral exposure to young children.

It has been several years that a soft transparent polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic sheet, commonly known as "soft glass", or "crystal plate" in China and other developing countries, has quietly and gradually found extensive applications. This material has widely replaced cloth and glass as table cover in household and office, and replaced cloth as door drape in public place in China. In this study, the concentration of plasticizer used in soft glass and the migration of the plasticizer from soft glass to olive oil and porcine skin during contact were determined. The oral exposure of young children to the plasticizer from soft glass was estimated for the first time. Two exposure routes, one via ingestion of contaminated food, the other via mouthing of contaminated hand, were considered. It is found that Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is the major plasticizer used in soft glass, which could leach out of the material and migrate easily to the olive oil and porcine skin during contact. A rough estimation of oral exposure for young children to DEHP from soft glass was 126 µg/person/d, which would be converted to 12.6 µg/kg bw/d and 7.9 µg/kg bw/d, for body weight of 10 kg and 16 kg, respectively. The estimated exposure dosages would not pose immediate health hazard to the children. The implications of these dosages were also discussed.

Development and evaluation of height diameter at breast models for native Chinese Metasequoia.

Accurate tree height and diameter at breast height (dbh) are important input variables for growth and yield models. A total of 5503 Chinese Metasequoia trees were used in this study. We studied 53 fitted models, of which 7 were linear models and 46 were non-linear models. These models were divided into two groups of single models and multivariate models according to the number of independent variables. The results show that the allometry equation of tree height which has diameter at breast height as independent variable can better reflect the change of tree height; in addition the prediction accuracy of the multivariate composite models is higher than that of the single variable models. Although tree age is not the most important variable in the study of the relationship between tree height and dbh, the consideration of tree age when choosing models and parameters in model selection can make the prediction of tree height more accurate. The amount of data is also an important parameter what can improve the reliability of models. Other variables such as tree height, main dbh and altitude, etc can also affect models. In this study, the method of developing the recommended models for predicting the tree height of native Metasequoias aged 50-485 years is statistically reliable and can be used for reference in predicting the growth and production of mature native Metasequoia.