Search

Background: The health of the elderly is one of the major challenges in today's ageing society. However, research on infectious diseases among the elderly is limited. This study aimed to describe the epidemiological characteristics and dynamics of infectious diseases among the elderly population aged ≥60 years in Shandong province, China., Methods: Incidence data for infectious diseases were collected from the Shandong Multi-Center Healthcare Big Data Platform from January 2013 to June 2017, which involved 550 432 elderly persons. We compared the incidence of each infectious disease and disease category, stratified by age, gender, and region. Annual percentage change (APC) was estimated using logarithmic linear regression to examine the incidence trends. Poisson regression was conducted to identify the effect of demographic factors on incidence, with incidence rate ratio (IRR) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) estimated., Results: A total of 27 595 cases of 102 infectious diseases were reported during the study period, with an overall incidence of 1425.51/100 000 person-years. The most common infectious diseases were respiratory and mucocutaneous diseases among the elderly persons, with annual increases of 17.45% and 20.44%, respectively (both P <0.05). In rural areas, the incidence of respiratory, gastrointestinal, blood- and sex-transmitted, and mucocutaneous infections increased significantly, with APCs of 178.52%, 204.66%, 28.24%, 63.01%, respectively (all P <0.05). Elderly males had a higher risk of infections than that of females, with the highest IRRa of 2.94 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 2.89, 3.00) in respiratory diseases. The elderly aged 85-89 years had a much higher risk of respiratory diseases than those aged 60-64 years (IRRa = 9.85, 95%CI: 9.39, 10.33); however, the risk of blood- and sex-transmitted diseases was highest among the elderly aged 65-69 years (IRRa = 1.24, 95% CI = 1.06, 1.45)., Conclusions: Ageing population are facing a substantial challenge on infectious diseases. More attention should be paid to infections with significant growth. Targeted strategies and measures on elderly persons in different regions and subgroups are urgently needed., Competing Interests: Competing interests: The authors completed the ICMJE Declaration of Interest Form (available upon request from the corresponding author), and declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2021 by the Journal of Global Health. All rights reserved.)

Background: Several studies have suggested that laryngopharyngeal reflux disease (LPRD) or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is an independent risk factor for laryngeal carcinoma. However, it remains unclear whether either condition affects the level of H + /K + -ATPase expression in laryngeal carcinoma., Materials and Methods: Immunohistochemistry, real-time RT-PCR, and Western blotting were used to explore the distributions of proton pump (H + /K + -ATPase) α- and β-subunits in normal laryngeal tissue and laryngeal carcinoma., Results: Messenger RNAs encoding both the α- and β-subunits were found in the normal epiglottic, ventricular fold, vocal fold, and arytenoid mucosae, as well as epiglottic cartilage. The distributions and expression levels of H+/K+-ATPase α-subunits in various laryngeal subregions did not significantly differ in IHC, RT-PCR, or Western blotting. However, Western blotting revealed a significant difference between the expression level of the β-subunit protein in the epiglottic cartilage and the levels in other sites. The expression levels of both subunits were significantly higher in carcinomatous than in paracarcinomatous tissue and normal laryngeal tissue. The mean follow-up duration was 66.2 months (range, 17-162 months). In all, 4 patients died during follow-up, 4 were lost to follow-up, and 22 were alive and free of disease at the end of follow-up. Two patients developed lung metastases and six developed disease recurrences (at 2, 8, 14, 16, 36, and 41 months). The 3- and 5-year overall survival (OS) rates were 93.0% and 77.0%, respectively. Univariate analyses showed that the 5-year OSs were significantly associated with the T, N, and clinical stages but not with age, alcohol use, pathological differentiation, or the expression levels of the α- or β-subunits (as revealed by IHC, RT-PCR, or Western blotting). However, in multivariate regression analyses, the 5-year OSs were not significantly associated with any clinicopathological factor or the expression levels of either subunit., Conclusion: H + /K + -ATPase is expressed in the normal larynx, including in the epiglottic cartilage and the mucosae of the epiglottis, ventricular fold, and arytenoid vocal fold. The expression levels of the H + /K + -ATPase α- and β-subunits in laryngeal carcinomas were higher than in normal laryngeal tissues., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest for this work., (© 2020 Bao et al.)

Along the 368-591 mm precipitation gradient, 7 survey sites, i.e. a total 63 investigated plots were selected. At each sites, woodland, grassland, and cropland with similar restoration age were selected to investigate soil organic carbon distribution in surface soil (0-30 cm), and the influence of factors, e.g. climate, soil depth, and land uses, on soil organic carbon distribution were analyzed. The result showed that, along the precipitation gradient, the grassland (8.70 g . kg-1) > woodland (7.88 g . kg-1) > farmland (7.73 g . kg-1) in concentration and the grassland (20.28 kg . m-2) > farmland (19.34 kg . m-2) > woodland (17.14 kg . m-2) in density. The differences of soil organic carbon concentration of three land uses were not significant. Further analysis of pooled data of three land uses showed that the surface soil organic carbon concentration differed significantly at different precipitation levels (P<0.00 1). Significant positive relationship was detected between mean annual precipitation and soil organic carbon concentration (r=0.838, P<0.001) in the of pooled data. From south to north (start from northernmost Ordos), i.e. along the 368-591 mm precipitation gradient, the soil organic carbon increased with annual precipitation 0. 04 g . kg-1 . mm-1, density 0.08 kg . m-2 . mm-1. The soil organic carbon distribution was predicted with mean annual precipitation, soil clay content, plant litter in woodland, and root density in farmland.

Relationships between phosphorus pollutant concentrations and precipitation-runoff were analyzed by monitoring pollutant losses at outlets of the Menglianggu watershed in 2010. A typical small watershed was selected to examine the runoff and quality parameters such as total phosphorus (TP), particle phosphorus (PP), dissolve phosphorus (DP) and dissolve inorganic phosphorus (DIP) in rainfall-runoff of 10 rainfall events. Precipitation was above 2 mm for all the 10 rainfall events. The results showed that the peak of phosphorus concentrations occurred before the peak of water flows, whereas change processes of the phosphorus fluxes were consistent with that of the water flows and the phosphorus flux also have a strong linear relationship with the water flows. The minimums of the phosphorus concentrations in every 10 natural rainfall events have small differences with each other, but the maximum and EMCs of the phosphorus concentrations have significant differences with each rainfall event. This was mainly influenced by the precipitation, maximum rainfall intensity and mean rainfall intensity (EMCs) and was less influenced by rainfall duration. DP and TP were mainly composed of DIP and PP, respectively. There were no significant correlations between DIP/DP dynamic changes and rainfall characteristics, whereas significant correlations between PP/TP dynamic changes and maximum rainfall intensity were detected. The production of DIP, DP, AND TP were mainly influenced by the direct runoff (DR) and base flow (BF). The EMCs of DIP, DP, TP and the variations of DIP/DP were all found to have significant polynomial relationships with DR/TR., but the dynamic changes of PP/ TP and the EMCS of PP were less influenced by the DR/TR.

The relationships between pollutant concentrations and precipitation-runoff combined with the first and maximum intensity natural rainfall events were monitored at the outlets of the Menglianggu watershed in 2010. The results showed that dissolved organic phosphorus (DOP), dissolved inorganic phosphorus (DIP), total dissolved phosphorus (DP), total particle phosphorus (PP) and total phosphorus (TP) concentrations in the first rainfall were higher than those in the maximum intensity rainfall which was the largest average rainfall intensity, but the output of phosphorusin the first rainfall was all higher than that in the maximum intensity rainfall except dissolved organic phosphorus. The DOP, DIP, DP, PP and TP in two special rainfall events contributed 48%, 81%, 70%, 87% and 81% of the total output of rainy season. DP and TP were mainly composed by DIP and PP respectively. The two special rainfalls have the first flush effect and the maximum intensity rainfall was stronger than the first rainfall, so the analysis of M (V) curve showed that the priority should be given to the interception of corresponding phosphorus under special events. The regression analysis results showed that a linear relation existed between runoff and nutrient output, but there were some differences which the slope of the linear equation of the first rainfall was higher than that of the maximum intensity rainfall. Reducing agricultural practices such as tillage and fertilization during special rainfall period and building canals, ponds are effective ways for mitigating agricultural non-point source pollution.

Objective: To find an objective method for estimation of postmortem interval (PMI) with single-voxel proton MR spectroscopy at different temperature., Methods: Changes of metabolite peak area and peak area ratio of the N-acetylaspartate (Naa), choline (Cho) and total creatine (Cr) in the brain of 24 rabbit models were measured by 1H-MR spectroscopy (1H-MRS) at 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16 and 24 h, respectively after death., Results: Naa and Cr decreased continuously with the extension of PMI, and the ratios of Naa/Cr and Cho/Cr also decreased continuously with the extension of PMI within 24 h. The quadratic polynomial regression equation is y=0.0019x2-0.803x+1.4498 (R2=0.962) (Equation 1) with the Naa/Cr used as an independent variable, while the quadratic polynomial regression equation is y=-0.0024x2+0.926x+1.1777 (R2=0.986) (Equation 2) with the Cho/Cr used as an independent variable. The average deviations were about 2.10-37.90 min and 1.69-40.87 min, respectively if the PMI was estimated by Equation 1 and Equation 2, respectively., Conclusion: Our study indicates that there is a strong correlation between Naa/Cr, Cho/Cr and PMI, which may be used for estimation of PMI at different temperature.

Objective: The purpose of our study was to evaluate the postmortem interval with multi-voxel 1H-MR spectroscopy., Methods: Twelve healthy rabbits were studied and the quantities of N-acetylaspartate, total choline, phosphocreatine and creatine were measured by 1H-MR spectroscopy after death at 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, and 24 h., Results: The levels of Naa/Cr and Naa/Ch decreased following death, while the level of Ch/Cr increased initially and then decreased following death., Conclusion: Multi-voxel proton MR spectroscopy for Naa/Cr and Ch/Cr metabolic ratio could be used in future postmortem interval studies.