Adequacy and Distribution Equity of Nutrition Supplies across China.

Procuring food enriched with diverse nutrients is pivotal for maintaining a robust immune system. However, the food system is now unprecedentedly globalized and faces challenges arising from climate change, pandemics, and political unrest. This study aims to illuminate the gap in exploring the adequacy and distribution equity of nutrition supplies in response to potential trade fluctuations and restrictions on agrifood within China's local agriculture endowments. Also, it seeks to identify the role of trade in contributing to these indices. Accordingly, we analyzed the distribution of nutrients in agrifood categories from production to consumption and assessed the adequacy and distribution equity of corresponding available nutrition supply from the local food provision system in terms of meeting residents' nutritional requirements, across China, and compared with those in the practical market. The local self-supply system showed that 12 out of 31 provinces have difficulty achieving an iron supply with 11% to 108% deficiencies. Except for iron, 52% (folate)-90% (vitamin B12) of agricultural output was available for diet provisioning nationwide. While food trade emerges as a crucial factor in enhancing secure and equitable nutrition supply, risks associated with micronutrient deficiencies necessitate careful consideration in current global circumstances. Our analysis explored a regional pool of nutrient information in supplements to the conventional food profile in China and could implicate better knowledge toward healthier food supplies and tailored improvements for achieving a resilient nutrition supply.

The burden of vision loss due to cataract in China: findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.

OBJECTIVE: To provide a reference for future policy and measure formulation by conducting a detailed analysis of the burden of vision loss due to cataract by year, age, and gender in China from 1990 to 2019. METHODS: Data on the prevalence and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) due to cataract in China and neighboring and other G20 countries were extracted from the 2019 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study to observe the changing trends of vision loss. RESULTS: The number and rate of all-age prevalence and DALYs for cataract in China increased significantly from 1990 to 2019. The age-standardized DALYs rate witnessed a slowly declining trend by 10.16%. And the age-standardized prevalence increased by 14.35% over the 30-year period. Higher prevalence and DALYs were observed in female population from 1990 through 2019, with little improvement over the decades(all p < 0.001). The disease burden of cataract is higher in middle-aged and elderly people. Blindness accounted for the largest proportion of vision impairment burden caused by cataract in China. The age-standardized prevalence and DALY rate of cataract in China were lower than those in India and Pakistan, but higher than those in Russia, South Korea, North Korea, Singapore, and Japan. CONCLUSIONS: In the past 30 years, although the age-standardized DALYs rate has decreased slightly in China, the all-age prevalence and DALYs have both increased. This study highlights the importance of reducing cataract burden by providing timely and easily accessible quality care, especially in females and the elderly population.

An analysis of silybin meglumine tablets in the treatment of drug-induced liver injury as assessed for causality with the updated Roussel Uclaf Causality Assessment Method using a nationwide database.

AIM: Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) poses significant challenges to clinical practice. Currently, there is no recommended therapy to treat DILI; therefore, it is vital to explore new therapeutic agents. This study aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of silybin meglumine tablets in treating DILI. METHODS: This study analysed 34 296 DILI cases assessed by the updated RUCAM from a nationwide database. A total of 301 patients with RUCAM scores ≥6 were directly enrolled in this study, while an additional 340 patients with RUCAM scores <6 who were adjudged as probable DILI by a panel of three hepatologists were also included in the analysis. The enrolled patients were divided into the silybin meglumine group and the control group. The propensity score matching (PSM) method was used to obtain comparable characteristics between the two groups. RESULTS: There were 129 cases in the silybin meglumine group and 512 cases in the control group. After applying PSM, 129 matched pairs were obtained. Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) resumption rates in the silybin meglumine group were significantly higher than the control group (58.91% vs. 20.93%, P ≤ .0001 and 63.49% vs. 37.50%, P ≤ .0001). The univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that grouping factor (odds raio [OR], 5.42; 95% confidenxe interval [CI], 3.12-9.39; P < .0001 and OR, 6.10; 95% CI, 2.98-12.48; P < .0001) and ALT levels (OR, 0.95; 95% CI, 0.93-0.98; P = .0015 and OR, 0.95; 95% CI, 0.92-0.99; P = .0157) were essential influencing factors for ALT normalization. CONCLUSIONS: Silybin meglumine tablets are safe and effective in DILI treatment. Large-scale and randomized controlled trials are required to further confirm their efficacy.

Global, regional, national burden and gender disparity of cataract: findings from the global burden of disease study 2019.

BACKGROUND: To evaluate the global burden of cataracts by year, age, region, gender, and socioeconomic status using disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and prevalence from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study 2019. METHODS: Global, regional, or national DALY numbers, crude DALY rates, and age-standardized DALY rates caused by cataracts, by year, age, and gender, were obtained from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. Socio-demographic Index (SDI) as a comprehensive indicator of the national or regional development status of GBD countries in 2019 was obtained from the GBD official website. Kruskal-Wallis test, linear regression, and Pearson correlation analysis were performed to explore the associations between the health burden with socioeconomic levels, Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test was used to investigate the gender disparity. RESULTS: From 1990 to 2019, global DALY numbers caused by cataracts rose by 91.2%, crude rates increased by 32.2%, while age-standardized rates fell by 11.0%. Globally, age-standardized prevalence and DALYs rates of cataracts peaked in 2017 and 2000, with the prevalence rate of 1283.53 [95% uncertainty interval (UI) 1134.46-1442.93] and DALYs rate of 94.52 (95% UI 67.09-127.24) per 100,000 population, respectively. The burden was expected to decrease to 1232.33 (95% UI 942.33-1522.33) and 91.52 (95% UI 87.11-95.94) by 2050. Southeast Asia had the highest blindness rate caused by cataracts in terms of age-standardized DALY rates (99.87, 95% UI: 67.18-144.25) in 2019. Gender disparity has existed since 1990, with the female being more heavily impacted. This pattern remained with aging among different stages of vision impairments and varied through GBD super regions. Gender difference (females minus males) of age-standardized DALYs (equation: Y = -53.2*X + 50.0, P < 0.001) and prevalence rates (equation: Y = - 492.8*X + 521.6, P < 0.001) was negatively correlated with SDI in linear regression. CONCLUSION: The global health of cataracts is improving but the steady growth in crude DALY rates suggested that health progress does not mean fewer demands for cataracts. Globally, older age, females, and lower socioeconomic status are associated with higher cataract burden. The findings of this study highlight the importance to make gender-sensitive health policies to manage global vision loss caused by cataracts, especially in low SDI regions.

Life cycle assessment and society willingness to pay indexes of food waste-to-energy strategies.

Food waste (FW) has received increasing attention because of its immense production quantities and significance to resource and environmental impacts related to disposal approaches. We combined life cycle assessment (LCA) with society's willingness to pay (WTP) index to evaluate energy, water, and environmental impacts on three food waste-to-energy (FWTE) options in China. For anaerobic digestion (AD) mode, the results showed that 1140 MJ of energy consumption could be saved by power generation from methane, power transmission, and biodiesel production from per ton of FW; the cost of climate change for treating FW was 137.8 kg CO2e t-1 FW, failing to be climate-sound due to the end life of digestate in practice. The total impact to AD mode in the form of monetized value for WTP was 13.3 CNY t-1 FW, of which the collection and transportation, pretreatment, AD reaction, wastewater treatment, biodiesel production, and residue landfilling stages contributed by 10.5%, 6.5%, 19.3%, 27.6%, 4.7%, and 75.7%, respectively, while biogas utilization offset it by 43.9%. Notably, a considerable amount of water used in AD prevented it from showing an advantage compared to incineration (-5.1 CNY t-1 FW), which performed best overall attributing to the generated electricity compensated for primary energy demand, water, and terrestrial acidification to a great extent. Landfilling turned out to be an unappealing FW disposal method due to the low landfill gas capture ratio. Given that AD is touted for its environmental benefits, potential approaches-such as developing a reliable and supportive technology to facilitate digestate recycling into agriculture-were discussed to improve its competitiveness and attractiveness. Our study employed a way to accumulate and compare impact indicators to better interpret FW management impacts and advantages, considering energy recovery, resource recycling, and the environment.

Challenges for China to achieve carbon neutrality and carbon peak goals: Beijing case study.

China has set a goal to achieve peak CO2 emissions before 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. To achieve the goals of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, China needs to address the challenge of the large and still growing CO2 emission base. This paper investigated the energy consumption and CO2 emission in Beijing from 2020-2035 based on the energy elasticity coefficient and contribution value of the sub-energy increment (CVSI) method. Beijing is one of the first cities in China to propose the "carbon peak" target as of 2020. From 2020 Beijing will strive to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality. The results show that in 2035 the CO2 emission in Beijing may drop to 50% of 2020. This decline would be affected by economic growth, energy efficiency and the proportion of renewable energy use. Beijing's energy supply mainly comes from outside the region. Therefore, for Beijing, in addition to increasing the proportion of renewable energy sources outside the region, its own energy acceptance also needs to be strengthened, including strengthening energy storage construction, actively researching and promoting carbon capture and utilization of gas-fired units, which are effective ways to achieve carbon neutrality target.

Online Monitoring of Bacterial Growth with an Electrical Sensor.

Herein, we developed an automatic electrical bacterial growth sensor (EBGS) based on a multichannel capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detector (C4D). With the use of the EBGS, up to eight culture samples of E. coli in disposable tubes were online monitored simultaneously in a noninvasive manner. Growth curves with high resolution (on the order of a time scale of seconds) were generated by plotting normalized apparent conductivity value against incubation time. The characteristic data of E. coli growth (e.g., growth rate) obtained here were more accurate than those obtained with optical density and contact conductivity methods. And the correlation coefficient of the regression line ( r) for quantitative determination of viable bacteria was 0.9977. Moreover, it also could be used for other tasks, such as the investigation of toxic/stress effects from chemicals and antimicrobial susceptibility testing. All of these performances required neither auxiliary devices nor additional chemicals and biomaterials. Taken together, this strategy has the advantages of simplicity, accuracy, reproducibility, affordability, versatility, and miniaturization, liberating the users greatly from financial and labor costs.

Isolation and molecular typing of Cronobacter spp. in commercial powdered infant formula and follow-up formula.

Cronobacter spp. (Enterobacter sakazakii) are important foodborne pathogens. Infections with this pathogen can lead to neonatal meningitis, necrotizing enterocolitis, and bacteremia. This study examined Cronobacter spp. contamination in commercial powdered infant formulas (PIFs) and follow-up formulas (FUFs) in China. Forty-nine of 399 samples were contaminated with Cronobacter spp. and 10.2% of the isolates were resistant to cefotaxime; in contrast, all of the tested isolates were susceptible to amikacin, amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, cefepime, ciprofloxacin, imipenem, and meropenem. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and multilocus sequence typing (MLST) analyses produced a total of 16 PFGE banding patterns and 11 sequence types (STs), including 7 novel STs. In summary, the rates at which Cronobacter spp. were isolated from commercial PIF and FUF samples in China were relatively high, and the isolated strains exhibited high susceptibility in vitro to most antibiotics. The PFGE method exhibited higher typing capability than the MLST method, and molecular typing results revealed that the contamination of PIF and FUF with Cronobacter spp. in China may be mainly due to the addition of contaminated materials. Thus, the development of more effective control strategies during the manufacturing process is needed.

[Current status and urban-rural comparison of clinical agency of detection, management, and health insurance for hypertensive patients in communities of five provinces in China in 2010].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the status of the clinical agency of detection, management, and health insurance for hypertensive patients in urban and rural communities of five provinces in China in 2010, in order to provide fundamental data for implementation and evaluation of community health management of hypertensive patients in basic public health service. METHODS: From Jiangsu, Shandong, Hebei, Sichuan and Gansu provinces, cities and districts (counties) were selected according to economic development level and 10 survey sites were finally determined. In each survey site, 3-4 communities or townships were selected by cluster sampling methods in 2010. A total of 8326 eligible hypertensive patients (4363 in urban and 3963 in rural) were included. The urban-rural difference of clinical agency and health insurance was compared for hypertensive patients. RESULTS: In urban areas, 43.74% (1867/4268) hypertensive patients were first diagnosed at hospitals of district level or above, 25.07% (1070/4268) at community health service centers (CHSC), and 20.20% (862/4268) at community health service stations (CHSS), respectively; 30.72% (1274/4147) and 31.11% (1290/4147) patients chose CHSC and CHSS for their follow-up visiting, respectively; 60.23% (3073/5102) antihypertensive medication was obtained from pharmacies. In rural areas, 54.58% (2133/3908) hypertensive patients were first diagnosed at village clinics, 22.36% (874/3908) at township hospitals, and 18.86% (737/3908) at hospitals of county level or above; 70.49% (2695/3823) patients chose village clinics for their follow-up visiting; 46.23% (2116/4577) antihypertensive medication was obtained from village clinics, and 36.29% (1661/4577) from pharmacies. The main reasons for choosing clinical agency for both urban and rural patients were convenience (45.79%, 6276/13 706) and low cost (11.78%, 1614/13 706). The proportions of reimbursements for hospitalization expenses and total medical expenses for hypertensive patients in urban in the past year were 66.67% and 34.78%, respectively, which were much higher than those in rural (35.71% and 9.50%) (Z value was -12.13 and -17.56, P < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Community-based hypertension detection and routine blood pressure measurement during clinical visiting should be further strengthened to improve early diagnosis of hypertension. The development of community-based clinical agency should be able to provide convenient and low cost health service for hypertensive patients to improve treatment, follow-up and control of hypertension.

4-(8-Quinolyl)amino-7-nitro-2,1,3-benzoxadiazole as a new colorimetric probe for rapid and visual detection of Hg2+.

4-Amino-7-nitro-2,1,3-benzoxadiazole (ANBD) usually serves as a scaffold for developing fluorescent probes. In this paper, however, ANBD has been used as a chromogenic unit to design a new colorimetric probe, 4-(8-quinolyl)amino-7-nitro-2,1,3-benzoxadiazole (1), for rapid and visual detection of Hg(2+). The reaction of 1 with Hg(2+) in NaH(2)PO(4)-Na(2)HPO(4) buffer (pH 7.0) containing 70% (v/v) acetonitrile forms a 1:1 complex, accompanying a red shift of the absorption maximum from 482 nm to 557 nm and a distinct color change from orange to violet. Moreover the color reaction exhibits a high selectivity and sensitivity to Hg(2+) only, instead of other common metal ions. This behavior may be ascribed to the formation of a specific 1-Hg(2+) complex, which is supported by (1)H NMR titration experiments. The present study is not only a supplement to the detection method of Hg(2+), but also a merit to the chemistry of 4-amino-7-nitro-2,1,3-benzoxadiazole.

[Distribution, sources and ecological risk assessment of polychlorinated biphenyl in sediments from Songhua River Basin].

In order to find out the distribution, source and pollution situation of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) in sediments of Songhua River basin, GC-ECD and GC-MS were used to determine the PCBs contents in sediments of Songhua River basin. Regulations of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Canadian Sediment Quality Guidelines (SQG) and the potential ecological risk index (Er) were utilized to evaluate the ecological risk of PCBs in the sediments. The results showed that 2-10 PCBs congeners were detected in the sediments. The total contents of PCBs varied from 0.83 ng x g(-1) to 125.53 ng x g(-1) in sediments of Songhua river basin, 0.83-4.44 ng x g(-1) for Nen River, 12.44-125.53 ng x g(-1) for Second Songhua River, and 1.74-6.25 ng x g(-1) for the mainstream of Songhua River. The highest level of PCBs was detected in sediments of Second Songhua River, which mainly came from pollution sources which are related with industrial products such as paint, insulation materials and the like, and were distributed along the river. While in other rivers, the dominant PCB was Dichlorobiphenyl, which mainly came from the atmospheric deposition. Risk assessment using three methods (EPA, SQG and Er) showed that PCBs in the sediment of the Second Songhua River has already reached the medium to high level of contamination, and PCBs in sediments of other rivers has no ecological risks at the moment.

Electrochemistry of room temperature protic ionic liquids: a critical assessment for use as electrolytes in electrochemical applications.

Ten room temperature protic ionic liquids (RTPILs) have been prepared from low-molecular-weight Brønsted acids and amines with high purity and minimal water content, and their electrochemical characteristics determined using cyclic, microelectrode, and rotating disk electrode voltammetries. Potential windows of the 10 RTPILs were established at glassy carbon, gold, and platinum electrodes, where the largest potential window is generally observed with glassy carbon electrodes. The two IUPAC recommended internal potential reference systems, ferrocene/ferrocenium and cobaltocenium/cobaltocene, were determined for the 10 RTPILs, and their merits as well as limitations are discussed. Other electrochemical properties such as mass transport and double layer capacitances were also investigated. The potential applications of these RTPILs as electrolytes for electrochemical energy devices were discussed, and two novel applications using PILs for metal deposition and water electrolysis were demonstrated.

[The analysis of drug cost and direct medical expense in community health management of hypertensive patients].

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the current situation of drug cost, hospitalization cost and direct medical expense in community health management of hypertensive patients, in order to lay foundation for evaluating whether the community health management in basic public health service has cost-effect in Health Economics. METHODS: A total of 8326 hypertensive patients from 10 survey pilots in 5 provinces were selected by cluster sampling methods, including 3967 patients who took part in community health management for over 1 year as management group and 4359 cases who have never taken part in community health management as control group. The essential information of research objects were collected by questionnaire; and the medical cost information in the last year (from November 2009 to November 2010) were collected retrospectively. The different annual medical treatment cost, hospitalization cost and direct medical expense in the two groups were compared and analyzed. RESULTS: The average annual drug cost in hypertension was (621.50 ± 1337.78) yuan per patient; while the cost was (616.13 ± 1248.40) yuan in management group and (626.44 ± 1414.30) yuan in control group respectively. The average annual drug cost of hypertensive patients who took medicine therapy was (702.05 ± 1401.79) yuan per person, while the cost in the management group ((688.50 ± 1300.70) yuan) was much lower than it in control group ((714.64 ± 1489.60) yuan). The annual average drug cost in urban was (731.88 ± 1403.31) yuan per person, which was higher than it in rural as (407.44 ± 1171.44) yuan per person. The average hospitalized rate was 12.2% (1014/8326), and the average annual cost among the hospitalized patients was (9264.47 ± 18 088.49) yuan per person; while the cost was (7583.70 ± 13 267.00) yuan in management group, which was lower than it in control group as (11 028.00 ± 21 919.00) yuan. The average annual hospitalized cost in hypertension was (1064.87 ± 6804.83) yuan per person; while the cost was (936.73 ± 5284.90) yuan in management group, which was lower than it in control group as (1181.50 ± 7937.90) yuan. The average annual direct medical expense in hypertension was (2275.08 ± 8225.66) yuan per person; while the expense was (2165.10 ± 6564.60) yuan in management group and (2375.20 ± 9487.60) yuan in control group. The average annual direct medical expense in urban ((2801.06 ± 9428.54) yuan per person) was higher than it in rural ((1254.70 ± 4990.27) yuan per person). CONCLUSION: The community health or standardized management of hypertensive patients can reduce the average annual drug cost and hospitalization cost (around 26 yuan and 245 yuan separately); and thereby save the annual direct medical expense per capita in hypertension (around 210 yuan). In the reform and development of national medical health system, we should enhance and promote the standardized community health management of hypertensive patients.