Association of urinary bisphenols with thyroid function in the general population: a cross-sectional study of an industrial park in China.

Bisphenols (BPs) are potential thyroid disruptors that are widely used in many consumer products, leading to their widespread exposure in the general population. Current cross-sectional and case-control studies have found associations between exposure to BPs and serum thyroid function, but the results were contradictory. The objectives of this study are to describe demographic characteristics, BP exposure levels, and thyroid function measurements in potentially exposed and control districts and to investigate the association of urinary BPs with thyroid function. Data were collected from a general population aged 3-79 years (N = 281) recruited by the Zhejiang Human Biomonitoring Program (ZJHBP). The concentrations of 10 kinds of BPs in urine and serum free triiodothyronine (FT3), total triiodothyronine (TT3), free thyroxine (FT4), total thyroxine (TT4), thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), thyroglobulin (Tg), thyroglobulin antibodies (TgAb), thyroid peroxidase antibodies (TPOAb), and thyrotropin receptor antibody (TRAb) in serum were measured. Multiple linear regression and weighted quantile sum (WQS) regression were used to estimate the relationship between single and mixed exposure of BPs and thyroid function. Bisphenol A (BPA), bisphenol S (BPS), and bisphenol P (BPP) were detected, respectively, in 82.73%, 94.24%, and 55.40% of the population in the exposed area and 81.69%, 61.27%, and 43.66% of the population in the control area. Among adult females, serum TT3 was negatively associated with urinary BPA (ß = -0.033, 95% CI = -0.071, -0.008, P = 0.021). Among minor females, FT4 and Tg levels were negatively associated with the urinary BPA (ß = -0.026, 95% CI = -0.051, -0.002, P = 0.032 for FT4; ß = -0.129, 95% CI = -0.248, -0.009, P = 0.035 for Tg), and TPOAb was positively associated with urinary BPA (ß = 0.104, 95% CI = 0.006, 0.203, P = 0.039). In WQS models, BPs mixture was positively associated with FT3 (ßWQS = 0.022, 95% CI = 0.002, 0.042) and TT3 (ßWQS = 0.033, 95% CI = 0.004, 0.062), and negatively associated with FT4 (ßWQS = -0.024, 95% CI = -0.044, 0.004). We found widespread exposure to BPA, BPS, and BPP in the general population of Zhejiang province and found an association between BPA and thyroid hormones. This association is gender- and age-dependent and needs to be confirmed in further studies.

Insights into the health status of the general population living near an electroplating industry zone: metal elevations and renal impairment.

A cross-sectional study was conducted in 2016 in Zhejiang Province, China, to evaluate the body burdens of metals and metalloids associated with renal dysfunction in populations living near electroplating industries. We recruited 236 subjects and performed physical examinations, determined the blood and urinary levels of arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), antimony (Sb), and selenium (Se) by an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS), and measured three renal impairment biomarkers, namely nacetyl-ß-D-glucosaminidase (NAG), retinol-binding protein (RBP), and ß2-microglobulin (BMG). The proportion of abnormal nasal symptoms in the exposure group (10.1%) was much higher than in the control group (0; p < 0.05). The blood and urinary levels of As, Cd, and Se in the exposure group were significantly higher than those in the control group (p < 0.05). The blood levels of Mn and Pb, as well as the urinary levels of Cr and Ni, were significantly higher in the exposure group than in the control group (p < 0.05). The exposure group demonstrated higher levels of NAG, RBP, and BMG than the control group (0.51 vs. 0.14 mg/g creatinine, 12.79 vs. 9.26 IU/g creatinine, and 1.39 vs. 0.78 mg/g creatinine, respectively; p < 0.05). Urinary BMG was positively correlated with urinary Cd levels (r = 0.223, p < 0.05), while urinary RBP was correlated with blood Cd levels (r = 0.151, p < 0.05) and urinary Cd, Cr, Ni, and Se levels (r = 0.220, 0.303, 0.162, and 0.306, respectively; p < 0.05). In conclusion, our study indicated that a population living in the vicinity of electroplating industries had high body burdens of certain metals and metalloids associated with non-negligible renal dysfunction.

Trend analysis of drinking behavior among middle school students in Quzhou during 2012 to 2022 / 中国学校卫生

Objective@#To understand prevalence and trend of drinking behavior among middle school students in Quzhou during 2012 to 2022, and to provide a basis for formulating scientific and effective intervention measures for adolescent drinking.@*Methods@#By using stratified cluster sampling method, a questionnaire survey using Zhejiang adolescent health related behavior questionnaire was conducted anonymously in selected classes in May 2012, 2017 and 2022, respectively. Changes of drinking behavior of middle school students in different years were analyzed.@*Results@#The prevalence of ever drinking, current drinking and drunkenness among middle school students in Quzhou decreased from 58.05%, 22.70% and 21.25% in 2012 to 41.83%, 15.35% and 11.54% in 2022, respectively ( χ 2 trend =82.69, 30.00，58.24, P <0.01). In the past 30 days, 66.67% of students reported drinking 1-2 days, the proportion of drinking for 3-5 days increased from 16.36% in 2012 to 26.19% in 2022, the proportion of drinking for 6-19 days decreased from 13.03% in 2012 to 3.40% in 2022. The proportion of buying alcohol increased from 22.12% in 2012 to 35.03% in 2022. The results of the three surveys showed that, now drinking rates, drinking rates, Male students (27.88%，23.96%，18.75%；24.69%，17.44%，13.75%) was higher than the girls (17.60%，17.25%，11.31%；17.87%，10.61%，8.91%)， non ordinary high schools (33.96%，34.69%，22.77%；33.65%，23.91%，19.49%) were higher than ordinary high schools (25.82%，18.80%， 12.62 %；25.82%，17.35%，9.94%) and junior middle school (16.53%，15.83%，12.22%；13.93%，8.47%，7.35%).@*Conclusion@#Progress in adolescent drinking control is being made in Quzhou, with the prevalence of ever drinking, current drinking and drunkenness significantly decreased. It is necessary to strengthen the control of drinking behavior among middle school students from the aspects of school, family and society, especially for boys and students in non ordinary high school students.

Comparison of smoking status of middle school students during 2012 to 2017 in Quzhou / 中国学校卫生

Objective@#To understand the change of smoking status among middle school students in Quzhou City from 2012 to 2017, and to provide a basis for school tobacco control.@*Methods@#Through stratified cluster sampling method, Zhejiang youth health-related behavior questionnaire survey was conducted among 1 454 students in May 2012 and among 1 655 students in May 2017.@*Results@#Among middle school students in Quzhou, attempting smoking rate, ever-smoking a whole cigarette reporting rate and current-smoking report rate decreased from 31.36%, 17.81% and 8.73% in 2012 to 21.70%,12.45% and 6.22% in 2018 respectively, with statistically significant differences(χ2=37.30,17.52,7.12,P<0.01). Among the current-smoking students, the rate of smoking frequency≥20 d/month and heavy-smoking rate decreased from 30.71% and 7.09% in 2012 to 15.53% and 0.97% respectively. It showed that attempting smoking rate, ever-smoking a whole cigarette reporting rate and current-smoking report rate of male students were higher than that of female students(χ2=117.50,63.99;47.14,51.26;110.18,22.50), and the non-ordinary high school students were higher than that of ordinary high school students and middle school students across two waves surveillance(χ2=47.14,51.26;70.34,43.77;62.67,22.50)(P<0.01).@*Conclusion@#School tobacco control have made a great progress，the tobacco use behavior of middle school students declines sharply in Quzhou.

Pixelwise Estimation of Signal-Dependent Image Noise Using Deep Residual Learning.

In traditional image denoising, noise level is an important scalar parameter which decides how much the input noisy image should be smoothed. Existing noise estimation methods often assume that the noise level is constant at every pixel. However, real-world noise is signal dependent, or the noise level is not constant over the whole image. In this paper, we attempt to estimate the precise and pixelwise noise level instead of a simple global scalar. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work on the problem. Particularly, we propose a deep convolutional neural network named "deep residual noise estimator" (DRNE) for pixelwise noise-level estimation. We carefully design the architecture of the DRNE, which consists of a stack of customized residual blocks without any pooling or interpolation operation. The proposed DRNE formulates the process of noise estimation as pixel-to-pixel prediction. The experimental results show that the DRNE can achieve better performance on nonhomogeneous noise estimation than state-of-the-art methods. In addition, the DRNE can bring denoising performance gains in removing signal-dependent Gaussian noise when working with recent deep learning denoising methods.

Nosocomial transmission of avian influenza A (H7N9) virus in China: epidemiological investigation.

STUDY QUESTION: Can avian influenza A (H7N9) virus be transmitted between unrelated individuals in a hospital setting? METHODS: An epidemiological investigation looked at two patients who shared a hospital ward in February 2015, in Quzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. Samples from the patients, close contacts, and local environments were examined by real time reverse transcriptase (rRT) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and viral culture. Haemagglutination inhibition and microneutralisation assays were used to detect specific antibodies to the viruses. Primary outcomes were clinical data, infection source tracing, phylogenetic tree analysis, and serological results. STUDY ANSWER AND LIMITATIONS: A 49 year old man (index patient) became ill seven days after visiting a live poultry market. A 57 year old man (second patient), with a history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, developed influenza-like symptoms after sharing the same hospital ward as the index patient for five days. The second patient had not visited any poultry markets nor had any contact with poultry or birds within 15 days before the onset of illness. H7N9 virus was identified in the two patients, who both later died. Genome sequences of the virus isolated from both patients were nearly identical, and genetically similar to the virus isolated from the live poultry market. No specific antibodies were detected among 38 close contacts. Transmission between the patients remains unclear, owing to the lack of samples collected from their shared hospital ward. Although several environmental swabs were positive for H7N9 by rRT-PCR, no virus was cultured. Owing to delayed diagnosis and frequent hospital transfers, no serum samples were collected from the patients, and antibodies to H7N9 viruses could not be tested. WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS: Nosocomial H7N9 transmission might be possible between two unrelated individuals. Surveillance on patients with influenza-like illness in hospitals as well as chickens in live poultry markets should be enhanced to monitor transmissibility and pathogenicity of the virus. FUNDING, COMPETING INTERESTS, DATA SHARING: Funding support from the Program of International Science and Technology Cooperation of China (2013DFA30800), Basic Work on Special Program for Science and Technology Research (2013FY114600), National Natural Science Foundation of China (81402730), Special Program for Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases in China (2013ZX10004218), US National Institutes of Health (1R01-AI108993), Zhejiang Province Major Science and Technology Program (2014C03039), and Quzhou Science and Technology Program (20111084). The authors declare no other interests and have no additional data.

A master-slave surveillance system to acquire panoramic and multiscale videos.

This paper describes a master-slave visual surveillance system that uses stationary-dynamic camera assemblies to achieve wide field of view and selective focus of interest. In this system, the fish-eye panoramic camera is capable of monitoring a large area, and the PTZ dome camera has high mobility and zoom ability. In order to achieve the precise interaction, preprocessing spatial calibration between these two cameras is required. This paper introduces a novel calibration approach to automatically calculate a transformation matrix model between two coordinate systems by matching feature points. In addition, a distortion correction method based on Midpoint Circle Algorithm is proposed to handle obvious horizontal distortion in the captured panoramic image. Experimental results using realistic scenes have demonstrated the efficiency and applicability of the system with real-time surveillance.

Green channel guiding denoising on bayer image.

Denoising is an indispensable function for digital cameras. In respect that noise is diffused during the demosaicking, the denoising ought to work directly on bayer data. The difficulty of denoising on bayer image is the interlaced mosaic pattern of red, green, and blue. Guided filter is a novel time efficient explicit filter kernel which can incorporate additional information from the guidance image, but it is still not applied for bayer image. In this work, we observe that the green channel of bayer mode is higher in both sampling rate and Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) than the red and blue ones. Therefore the green channel can be used to guide denoising. This kind of guidance integrates the different color channels together. Experiments on both actual and simulated bayer images indicate that green channel acts well as the guidance signal, and the proposed method is competitive with other popular filter kernel denoising methods.