Identifying risk factors to predict violent behaviour in community patients with severe mental disorders: A retrospective study of 5277 patients in China.

BACKGROUND: Patients with Severe Mental Disorders (SMD) have a higher risk of violent behaviour than the general population. The study aimed to investigate the predictive factors for the occurrence of violent behaviour in community SMD patients. METHODS: The cases and follow-up data were collected from SMD patient Information Management system in Jiangning District, Jiangsu Province. The incidence of violent behaviours was described and analyzed. Logistic regression model was used to examine the influencing factors for violent behaviours in those patients. RESULTS: Among 5277 community patients with SMD in Jiangning District, 42.4% (2236/5277) had violent behaviours. The stepwise logistic regression analysis revealed that the disease-related factors (including disease type, disease course, times of hospitalization, medication adherence, past violent behaviours), the demographic factors (age, male sex, educational level, economic and social living status), and the policy-related factors (like free treatment, annual physical check, disability certificate, family physician services, and community interviews) were significantly related to the violent behaviours in community SMD patients. After gender stratification, we found that male patients with unmarried status and with a longer course of disease were more likely to violent. However, we found that female patients with lower economic status and educational experience were more likely to violent. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that community SMD patients had a high incidence of violent behaviour. The findings may provide valuable information for policymakers and mental health professionals worldwide taking a number of measures to reduce the incidence of violence in community SMD patients and to better maintain social security.

Assessment of combustion and emission behavior of corn straw biochar briquette fuels under different temperatures.

The 350 °C and 700 °C corn straw biochars were used to produce solid fuel briquettes. NovoGro (NG), an industrial by-product, were selected as a binder in the briquetting process. The ratios of the raw material to NG was assumed as 100:1 and 50:1 (denoted as 350NB1, 350NB2, 700NB1 and 700NB2, respectively). The physicochemical and morphological properties, combustion characteristics and gas emissions of the four briquettes were investigated. The results revealed that the biochars and the NG binder performed a good combination. The low temperature biochar briquettes, especially 350NB2, had excellent combustion characteristics, including low H/C and O/C ratios (0.17 and 0.82), low gas emissions (104.06 mg/m3 of CO, 157.25 mg/m3 of NOx and 18.92 mg/m3 of SO2), optimal resistance to mechanical shock (~90%) and high calorific values (21.48 MJ/kg). Thus, NG is a good binder for the briquetting of biochar. The low temperature biochar was a good feedstock for solid fuel production in the improvement of the combustion and emission quality.

Health burden attributable to ambient PM2.5 in China.

In China, over 1.3 billion people have high health risks associated with exposure to ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) that exceeds the World Health Organization (WHO) Air Quality Guidelines (AQG). The PM2.5 mass concentrations from 1382 national air quality monitoring stations in 367 cities, between January 2014 and December 2016, were analyzed to estimate the health burden attributable to ambient PM2.5 across China. The integrated exposure-response model was applied to estimate the relative risks of disease-specific mortality. Disease-specific mortality baselines in province-level administrative units were adjusted by the national mortality baseline to better reveal the spatial inequality of the health burden associated with PM2.5. Our study suggested that PM2.5 in 2015 contributed as much as 40.3% to total stroke deaths, 33.1% to acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI, <5yr) deaths, 26.8% to ischemic heart disease (IHD) deaths, 23.9% to lung cancer (LC) deaths, 18.7% to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) deaths, 30.2% to total deaths combining IHD, stroke, COPD, and LC, 15.5% to all cause deaths. The population weighted average (PWA) attributable mortality rates (10-5 y-1) were 112.0 in current year analysis, and 124.3 in 10-year time lag analysis. The Mortality attributable to PM2.5 in 10-year time lag analysis (1.7 million) was 12% higher than the current year analysis (1.5 million). Our study also estimated site-specific annual PM2.5 concentrations in scenarios of achieving WHO interim targets (ITs) and AQG. The mortality benefits will be 24.0%, 44.8%, 70.8%, and 85.2% of the total current mortalities (1.5 million) when the PWA PM2.5 concentrations in China meets the WHO IT-1, IT-2, IT-3, and AQG, respectively. We expect air quality modeling and cost-benefits analysis of emission reduction scenarios and corresponding health benefits in meeting the site-specific annual PM2.5 concentrations (WHO IT-1, IT-2, IT-3, and AQG) this study raised.

[Characteristics and Health Risk Assessment of Metallic Elements in PM2.5 Fraction of Road Dust].

In order to analyze and compare the pollution characteristics and risks to human health of metallic elements in the PM2.5 fraction of urban road dust (RD) and park road dust (PRD), particles smaller than 2.5 µm were suspended to filters by a re-suspension system and concentrations of Na, Mg, Al, Fe, Cu, Mn, Ni, Sb, Zn, Cd, and Pb were quantified. Results showed that the average concentrations of Cu and Sb in RD were 626 mg·kg-1 and 23 mg·kg-1, significantly higher than that in PRD (274 mg·kg-1 and 11 mg·kg-1). This indicated that the elemental composition of RD was influenced by non-exhaust emissions. The geoaccumulation Index (Igeo) of each detected element showed that samples were strongly to extremely contaminated by Cd (4 < Igeo < 5), moderately to strongly contaminated by Cu, Sb, Zn, and Pb (2 < Igeo < 4), and uncontaminated to moderately contaminated by Ni and Mn (Igeo < 1). The hazard index (HI) values of Sb, Pb, Cu, Ni, Zn, and Cd were less than 1 and the incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) values of Ni and Cd were less than 10-6, indicating that these elements of RD and PRD are not associated with any cancer risks or non-cancer health risks.