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Summary: The thrombopoietin receptor agonists (TPO‐RA) were recommended for primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) during the pandemic of COVID‐19. However, the incidence of thrombocytosis and thrombosis was sporadically reported in the chronic immune thrombocytopenia (CITP) patients receiving TPO‐RA during the COVID‐19 infection. With the local prevalence of COVID‐19 in December 2022 in the Beijing area, we got more powerful evidence about the change in platelet (Plt) counts associated with COVID‐19 infection. A single‐centre observational cohort study was performed from the beginning of December 2022 to the end of February 2023 to enrol CITP children treated with TPO‐RA alone as the second‐line treatment and suffering from the COVID‐19 infection in December 2022. The Plt counts before, during and after COVID‐19 infection were collected. In total, 67 (34 males and 33 females) patients with 8.10 (2.15, 15.70) years of age were enrolled. Sixty‐three patients who had responded to the TPO‐RA showed a transient increase in Plt counts after the infection of COVID‐19. The time of starting to increase was on Day 3 (2, 7), and to the peak level on Day 14 (7, 19) of infection with the peak Plt count was 289 (88, 1974) × 109/L. With at least 2 months observation period from COVID‐19 infection, the Plt counts of 100% (63/63) patients declined to the baseline on Day 25 (14, 41). The phenomenon of transient increase in Plt counts has been shown in the CITP children who responded to TPO‐RA when suffering from COVID‐19 infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the feasibility and applicability of the test and evaluation methods for the temperature and energy consumption coefficient in the cold storage system are tested and verified which is specified in the Beijing local standard "Energy Conservation Monitoring of Refrigeration Storage." It also summarizes and analyses the test verification results of the evaluation index of the location of measuring points of temperature in refrigeration storage, data-collecting time interval of temperature in refrigeration storage, energy efficiency coefficient of the refrigeration unit, and energy consumption coefficient of the refrigeration. The study work provides technical support for making the monitor and evaluation methods which applies to the standard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The association between intestinal permeability and sarcopenia remains unclear, and few studies have mentioned the relationship between intestinal permeability and skeletal muscle strength. The present cross-sectional community study was conducted in a rural area of Beijing to explore the association between intestinal permeability and handgrip strength (HGS) in middle-aged and older adults. Serum lipopolysaccharide (LPS), diamine oxidase (DAO) and D-lactate were detected to evaluate intestinal permeability. Gut microbiota (GM) and its potential interaction were also analyzed in the decision tree model. HGS was negatively correlated with DAO (r = −0.396, p < 0.01) in males. The negative association between HGS and DAO remained significant with the adjustment of covariates (β = −1.401, p < 0.05). Serum DAO and LPS were both negatively associated with HGS in middle-aged and older males, with the significant interactions of GM in the decision tree model, and D-lactate showed a negative association with HGS in females. Therefore, intestinal permeability was associated with the loss of skeletal muscle strength in middle-aged and older adults, and serum DAO may be a novel predictor for the loss of skeletal muscle strength in middle-aged and older males. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Genetic testing for breast cancer (BC) patients may shift the paradigm towards more personalized management and treatment strategies. While gene alterations may be ethnic-specific in breast cancer, our understanding of genetic epidemiology of BC remains mainly driven by data from Caucasian populations and further limited to selected handful of genes. Methods: We collected whole blood samples from 356 BC patients at metastatic first line BC and primary stage IV disease at Beijing Cancer Hospital between Jan. 2013 to Dec. 2019. A comprehensive 600-gene cancer panel was used to detect germline variants in the covered genes with a median 300x sequencing depth. Variants were classified into pathogenic, likely pathogenic, variant of uncertain significance, likely benign and benign groups according to the ACMG/AMP Standards and Guidelines. Pathogenic and likely pathogenic variants were considered as deleterious mutations. Results: The median age of 356 BC patients was 49 years (range, 21-87 years) at the first diagnosis of BC. Deleterious germline mutations across 48 cancer-related genes were identified in 21.6% (77/356) of the patients. The most prevalent mutations were BRCA1/2 mutations (7.0%), followed by ATM and RAD50 mutations (1.4% each). In addition, patients with family history were more likely to carry BRCA1 mutations (P=0.04). Moreover, patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) were more likely to harbor BRCA1 mutations than those with HR+ or HER2+ breast cancer (P=0.006). While there was no significant survival difference observed in BRCA1/2 carriers relative to non-carriers, patients with DNA damage repair (DDR) gene mutations (mostly frequently BRCA, ATM, RAD50) had worse disease-free survival (P=0.02). Conclusions: The most prevalent germline mutations in a large cohort of Chinese patients with advanced BC were BRCA1/2 mutations, followed by ATM and RAD50 mutations. In total, approximately 16.0% (57/356) of patients carry deleterious mutations in DDR pathway. Patients with breast or ovarian cancer family history were more likely to carry BRCA1/2 mutations, and ones with DDR mutations had worse survival. These findings suggest that DDR mutations are prevalent in Chinese BC patients who may potentially benefit from treatment with Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advanced Himawari imager (AHI) onboard Himawari-8 can provide full-disk observations with high temporal resolution (10 min), which has outstanding advantages for dynamic real-time aerosol monitoring in East Asia. In this study, a new aerosol retrieval algorithm for AHI by integrating regional PM2.5 concentrations (IRPAR) was proposed. The IRPAR algorithm constructed the surface reflectance library by integrating regional PM2.5 levels as a quantitative indicator of atmospheric aerosol loadings. The IRPAR algorithm was used to obtain the aerosol optical depth (AOD) retrievals over Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region from March 2019 to February 2020, and its performance was preliminarily evaluated by aerosol robotic network (AERONET) measurements. The results showed that the IRPAR algorithm was able to obtain more highly accurate AOD retrievals compared to the JAXA L2 algorithm during the autumn in BTH region, with a large $R$ of 0.87 (0.71 for JAXA L2 AOD) and a global climate observing system fraction (GCOSF) percentage of 28% (21% for JAXA L2 AOD). During different daytime hours, the IRPAR AOD showed a stable retrieval performance, while the JAXA L2 AOD exhibited a worst performance from 12:00 to 14:00 Beijing standard time (BST). These results demonstrated that the IRPAR algorithm was relatively less affected by the viewing angle. Future work will require a comprehensive evaluation of the IRPAR algorithm on a larger spatial scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Oral supplementation with a standardized extract from the bark of the French pine (Pycnogenol®) has been reported to benefit the skin. It might thus represent an easy-to-use strategy to improve the skin health of individuals who are exposed to considerable environmental stress in large urban areas. Objective: We investigated if oral intake of Pycnogenol® can benefit the skin of Han Chinese working outdoors in Beijing, China. Methods: In a monocentre, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, and crossover study, the effects of Pycnogenol® intake (2 × 50 mg/day for a total of 12 weeks) on a variety of skin physiological parameters was studied in Chinese subjects (n = 76), from spring to autumn, who were working outdoors in Beijing, China. Results: During the intervention period, study subjects were constantly exposed to increased levels of particulate matter (PM)2.5 as well as seasonal changes in humidity and temperature. Despite this environmental stress, Pycnogenol® intake prevented (i) a decrease in the skin hydration, (ii) transepidermal water loss (TEWL), and (iii) skin darkening during the dry autumn season. In addition, Pycnogenol® intake improved (iv) viscoelastic skin properties such as gross elasticity and elastic recovery irrespective of the season. These beneficial effects were not observed if the same subjects were supplemented with placebo. Conclusion: Oral intake of Pycnogenol® benefits the skin in Han Chinese, who are working outdoors under considerable environmental stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: This paper examines rainstorm-related micro-blogging activities in response to rainstorms in an urban environment at fine spatial and temporal scales. Results could be used in supporting disaster assessment and mitigation decision making. Natural disasters cause significant casualties and losses in urban areas every year. Further, the frequency and intensity of natural disasters have increased significantly over the past couple of decades in the context of global climate change. Understanding how urban dwellers learn about and response to a natural hazard is of great significance as more and more people migrate to cities. Social media has become one of the most essential communication platforms in the virtual space for users to share their knowledge, information, and opinions about almost everything in the physical world. Geo-tagged posts published on different social media platforms contain a huge amount of information that can help us to better understand the dynamics of collective geo-tagged human activities. In this study, we investigated the spatiotemporal distribution patterns of the collective geo-tagged human activities in Beijing when it was afflicted by the "6-22" rainstorm. We used a variety of machine learning and statistical methods to examine the correlations between rainstorm-related microblogs and the rainstorm characteristics at a fine spatial and a fine temporal scale across Beijing. We also studied factors that could be used to explain the changes of the rainstorm-related blogging activities. Our results show that the human response to a disaster is very consistent, though with certain time lags, in the virtual and physical spaces at both the grid and city scales. Such a consistency varies significantly across our study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The geomorphic setting of the tectonically active area around Beijing is a result of complex interactions involving Yanshan neotectonic movements and processes of erosion and deposition. The Beijing Mountain study area contains the junction of two mountain ranges (the Yanshan Mountains and the Taihang Mountains). Tectonic activity has significantly influenced the drainage system and the geomorphic situation in the area, leading to a high probability of the development of debris flows, which is one of the major abrupt geological disasters in the region. Based on 30-m-resolution ASTER GDEM data, a total of 752 drainage basins were extracted using ArcGIS software. A total of 705 debris flow valleys were visually interpreted from ALOS satellite images and published documents. Seven geomorphic indices were calculated for each basin including the relief amplitude, the hypsometric integral, the stream length gradient, the basin shape indices, the fractal dimension, the asymmetry factor, and the ratio of the valley floor width to the height. These geomorphic indices were divided into five classes and the ratio of the number of the debris flow valleys to the number of the drainage basins for each geomorphic index was computed and analyzed for every class. Average class values of the seven indices were used to derive an index of relative active tectonics ( IRAT ). The ratio of the number of the debris flow valleys to the number of the drainage basins was computed for every class of IRAT . The degree of probable risk level was then defined from the IRAT classes. Finally, the debris flow hazard was evaluated for each drainage basin based on the combined effect of probable risk level and occurrence frequency of the debris flows. The result showed a good correspondence between IRAT classes and the ratio of the number of the debris flow valleys to the number of the drainage basins. Approximately 65% of the drainage basins with occurred debris flow valleys are at a high risk level, while 43% of the drainage basins without occurred debris flow valleys are at a high risk level. A comparison with results from past studies demonstrated that the accuracy of these findings is greater than 85%, indicating that the basin topography created by rapid tectonic deformations is more favorable for debris flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]