Associations between ultrafine particle pollution and daily outpatient visits for respiratory diseases in Shanghai, China: a time-series analysis.

Previous epidemiological studies have linked short-term exposure to particulate matter with outpatient visits for respiratory diseases. However, evidence on ultrafine particle (UFP) is still scarce in China. To investigate the association between short-term UFP exposure and outpatient visits for respiratory diseases as well as the corresponding lag patterns, information on outpatient visits for main respiratory diseases during January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2019 was collected from electronic medical records of two large tertiary hospitals in Shanghai, China. Generalized additive models employing a Quasi-Poisson distribution were employed to investigate the relationships between UFP and respiratory diseases. We computed the percentage change and its corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) for outpatient visits related to respiratory diseases per interquartile range (IQR) increase in UFP concentrations. Based on a total of 1,034,394 hospital visits for respiratory diseases in Shanghai, China, we found that the strongest associations of total UFP with acute upper respiratory tract infection (AURTI), bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and pneumonia occurred at lag 03, 03, 0, and 03 days, respectively. Each IQR increase in the total UFP concentrations was associated with increments of 9.02% (95% CI: 8.64-9.40%), 3.94% (95% CI: 2.84-5.06%), 4.10% (95% CI: 3.01-5.20%), and 10.15% (95% CI: 9.32-10.99%) for AURTI, bronchitis, COPD, and pneumonia, respectively. Almost linear concentration-response relationship curves without apparent thresholds were observed between total UFP and outpatient-department visits for four respiratory diseases. Stratified analyses illustrated significantly stronger associations of total UFP with AURTI, bronchitis, and pneumonia among female patients, while that with COPD was stronger among male patients. After adjustment of criteria air pollutants, these associations all remained robust. This time-series study indicates that short-term exposure to UFP was associated with increased risk of hospital visits for respiratory diseases, underscoring the importance of reducing ambient UFP concentrations for respiratory diseases control and prevention.

Impact of different pretreatments on the anaerobic digestion performance of cucumber vine.

Copious amounts of cucumber vine (CV) derived from crop growing and harvesting are casually discarded in the field, posing severely negative impacts on public health and the ecological environment. Treating CV via anaerobic digestion (AD) could represent a promising approach while the recalcitrant lignocellulosic structure restricts its conversion efficiency, thus underscoring the importance of valid pretreatments. This study systematically investigated the effects of nine types of commonly applied chemical pretreatments involved H2SO4, HCl, H3PO4, NaOH, KOH, Ca(OH)2, CaO, H2O2, and alkaline hydrogen peroxide (AHP) pretreatments on methane production of CV. Results showed that alkaline and AHP pretreatments were beneficial to the methane production of CV and obtained the considerable cumulative methane yield and biodegradability of 194.3-241.5 mL·gVS-1 and 47.59-59.15%, respectively, 36.83-70.07% higher than untreated. Analyses of lignocellulosic compositions and structural characterizations revealed that alkaline and AHP pretreatments well destroyed both hemicellulose and lignin, which commendably increased the accessibility of cellulose, facilitating the methane production. The findings of this study provide not only efficient pretreatment methods for the disposal and utilization of CV during AD process but also promising alternatives for enhancing methane production performance of similar vine residues, which would be greatly valuable for industrial applications in the future.

Development of a diagnostic model focusing on nutritional indicators for frailty classification in people with chronic heart failure.

AIMS: Frailty has a great impact on the quality of life of patients with chronic heart failure (CHF), which needs to be judged in time. To develop a diagnostic model based on nutritional indicators to judge the frailty status of patients with chronic heart failure (Frailty-CHF). METHODS AND RESULTS: In the data collection part of this study, questionnaire method and biomedical measurement method were adopted. The trace elements in serum samples were detected by high performance liquid chromatography, chemiluminescence, and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. We used Excel for data consolidation, and then imported the data into R software for modelling. Lasso method was used for variable screening, and Logistics regression fitting model was used after variables were determined. The internal validation of the model was completed by Bootstrap re-sampling. A total of 123 patients were included in this study. After variables' screening, age, nutritional status-heart failure, New York Heart Association Functional Class (NYHA), micronutrients B12, Ca, folic acid, and Se were included in the model, the c statistic and Brier score of the original model were 0.9697 and 0.0685, respectively. After Bootstrap re-sampling adjustment, the c statistic and Brier score were 0.8503 and 0.1690. CONCLUSION: In this study, a diagnostic model of age, nutritional status-heart failure, NYHA, the micronutrients B12, Ca, folic acid, and Se was established. It could help healthcare professionals better identify the frailty status in patients with CHF.

Epidemiological and clinical differences between sexes and pathogens in a three-year surveillance of acute infectious gastroenteritis in Shanghai.

Acute infectious gastroenteritis cases in Shanghai, reported over three years, were analyzed. Pathogens were identified in 1031 patients; of these, 725 and 306 were bacterial and viral cases, respectively. Vibrio parahemolyticus and Salmonella were the dominant bacteria, and Caliciviridae and Reoviridae were the dominant viral families in the local area. The acute gastroenteritis epidemic peaks appeared in August and January, which represented the active peak periods of bacteria and viruses, respectively. Logistic regression analyses with sex stratification showed that abdominal pain, fever and ingestion of unsafe food at restaurants were independent factors more frequently associated with bacterial gastroenteritis irrespective of sex; red cell-positive fecal matter was associated with bacterial gastroenteritis with an odds ratio (OR) of 3.28 only in males; and white blood cell count was associated with bacterial gastroenteritis with an OR of 1.02 only in females. Pathogen stratification showed that age, vomiting and red cell-positive fecal matter were associated with males with ORs of 0.99, 0.61 and 1.71, respectively, in bacterial gastroenteritis; and the migrant ratio was higher in males with an OR of 2.29 only in viral gastroenteritis. In conclusion, although bacterial and viral gastroenteritis shared many features, epidemiological and clinical factors differed between sexes and pathogens.

Mixed heavy metal removal from wastewater by using discarded mushroom-stick biochar: adsorption properties and mechanisms.

The physicochemical and morphological properties and the sorption capacities of discarded mushroom-stick biochar (DMB) prepared at different pyrolysis temperatures from 300 °C to 800 °C were explored. Results showed that the yield and surface oxygen-containing group content of DMB prepared at 300 °C (DMB3) were higher than those of DMB prepared at higher pyrolysis temperature (DMB5 and DMB8), while the DMB prepared at 800 °C (DMB8) had higher pH, mineral element and ash content, aromaticity, and polarity. Therefore, the heavy metal adsorption capacity of DMB3 was higher than that of DMB5, while the maximal sorption capacities for Pb2+, Cu2+, Cd2+, and Ni2+ (21.0, 18.8, 11.2, and 9.8 mg g-1) were obtained by DMB8. Adsorption kinetics and sorption isotherm data were fitted well by using pseudo-second order and Langmuir models, thereby indicating that the heavy metal adsorption by DMB was monolayer and rapid adsorption. Based on the contribution percentage parameters of diverse heavy metal sorption mechanisms, mineral precipitation and ion exchange were the two dominant mechanisms of heavy metal adsorption by DMB. This study provided a promising way not only to recycle discarded mushroom sticks into feasible heavy metal adsorbents, but also for potential utilization of agriculture waste.