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Objective·To explore the epidemiological characteristics of severe asthma in children and analyze the risk factors.Methods·A single-center prospective cohort study was conducted. Six hundred and seventy four children with difficult-to-treat asthma who visited the Children´s Hospital of Fudan University from January 1 to December 31, 2021 were included to establish a dynamic cohort. Basic information (including gender, age, gestational age at birth, birth weight, etc.) and comorbidity of the cohort members were collected. The asthma control status, drug inhalation technique level, medication compliance, pulmonary function parameters [forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) as a percent-age of the predicted value (FEV1%pred), FEV1/ forced vital capacity (FVC), and the rate of estimated values of forced expiratory flow at 50% of FVC exhaled (FEF50), FEF75, and FEF25-75 in percent-predicted value, respectively], airway inflammation index [fraction exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO)], and allergy status parameters [eosinophil (EOS) and immunoglobulin E (IgE)] of all cohort members were evaluated. All cohort members underwent re-evaluation respectively at the specialist asthma clinic of the hospital at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months.Results·At the endpoint of the cohort, 52 children were diagnosed with severe asthma, accounting for 7.7%. A high proportion of severe asthma was found in children who were exposed to secondhand smoke, used air conditioning at home all year round, or had coexisting rhinitis/nasosinusitis, FEV1%pred300/μL, IgE>200 IU/L, or FeNO>20/25 ppb [FeNO>20 ppb (≤12 years old) or >25 ppb (>12 years old), 1 ppb=1×10-9 mol/L]. A high proportion of non-severe asthma was found in children who were breastfed for 6 months or longer, or had good medication compliance. The differences were statistically significant (all P

Thin‐film interference is a significant optical phenomenon. In this study, we employed the transfer matrix method to pre‐calculate the reflectance of thin‐films at visible light wavelengths. The reflectance is saved as a texture through color space transformation. This advancement has made real‐time rendering of thin‐film interference feasible. Furthermore, we proposed the implementation of shallow water equations to simulate the morphological evolution of liquid thin‐films. This approach facilitates the interpretation and prediction of behaviors and thickness variations in liquid thin‐films. We also introduced a viscosity term into the shallow water equations to more accurately simulate the behavior of thin‐films, thus facilitating the creation of authentic interference patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continuous uptake of anthropogenic CO2 by the ocean leads to ocean acidification, which is an ongoing threat to the marine ecosystem. The ocean acidification rate was globally documented in the surface ocean but limited below the surface. Here, we present a monthly four-dimensional 1°×1° gridded product of global seawater pH, derived from a machine learning algorithm trained on pH observations at total scale and in-situ temperature from the Global Ocean Data Analysis Project (GLODAP). The constructed pH product covers the years 1992–2020 and depths from the surface to 2 km on 41 levels. Three types of machine learning algorithms were used in the pH product construction, including self-organizing map neural networks for region dividing, a stepwise algorithm for predictor selection, and feed-forward neural networks (FFNN) for non-linear relationship regression. The performance of the machine learning algorithm was validated using real observations by a cross validation method, where four repeating iterations were carried out with 25 % varied observations for each evaluation and 75 % for training. The constructed pH product is evaluated through comparisons to time series observations and the GLODAP pH climatology. The overall root mean square error between the FFNN constructed pH and the GLODAP measurements is 0.028, ranging from 0.044 in the surface to 0.013 at 2000 m. The pH product is distributed through the data repository of the Marine Science Data Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences at http://dx.doi.org/10.12157/IOCAS.20230720.001 (Zhong et al., 2023). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, China's coastal ecological environment has undergone significant changes under multiple pressures such as climate change and high intensity of human activities. The occurrence and scale of harmful algal blooms represented by the red tide and the green tide are increasing rapidly. Moreover environmental problems such as hypoxia and acidification in seawater have become increasingly prominent. It is urgent to find out the occurrence mechanism and prevention measures of marine eco-environmental disasters. Therefore; we explained the connotation of the concept of "marine eco-environmental disaster" for the first time, and systematically interpreted the biogenic element driving mechanisms in the occurrence of eco-environmental disasters in China nearshore area in the aspects of exogenous input of nutrients, the mineralization and decomposition of marine organic matters and nutrient regeneration as well as the abnormal nutrient structure in offshore waters. We pointed out that the drastic increases of terrigenous nutrient discharge caused by enhancing human activities, together with the complex biogeochemical cycle process after biogenic elements entering the sea; led to the frequent occurrence of coastal eco- environmental disasters. On this basis; combined with the latest research progress in this field ; we put forward the regulatory schemes for coastal ecological environment health based on the controlling of seawater biogenic element. That is' based on land-sea integration strategy, the reduction of land-source pollutants, especially inorganic nitrogen from land, coastal zone and into the sea, and the normalization of nutrient structure in coastal seawater through artificial regulation technology, are the key points to reduce and control the occurrence of disasters and improve the quality of the coastal ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aimed to investigate the life events, life satisfaction, and coping style of college students, and to assess the relationship between them by performing mediating effect analysis. Our findings may provide a scientific basis for promoting the mental health of college students. Students in a medical college were selected using grade-stratified cluster sampling, and administered a standardized questionnaire survey. Out of 2,000 participants, 1827 participants provided valid questionnaires (response rate: 91.4%). The mean scores of life satisfaction and life events were 181.39 ± 30.28 and 19.32 ± 15.62, respectively. The mean score of coping style was 14.34 ± 7.54, which reflected positive coping style. Analysis of life satisfaction, life events, and factor scores showed that different grades, sibling status (whether the respondent was the only child in the family or not), family location, and life events had a significant association with life satisfaction (p < 0.001). There were significant differences in coping style between male and female students, and between students in different grades (p < 0.001). Positive coping style was found to play a partial mediating role between life events and life satisfaction, and the mediating effect accounted for 33.2% of the total effect. These results suggest that both life events and coping styles are related to college students' life satisfaction. The impact of life events on life satisfaction can be adjusted by psychological interventions to develop coping styles that can help promote the mental health of college students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An organic electrochemical transistor (OECT) with MoS2 nanosheets modified on the gate electrode was proposed for glucose sensing. MoS2 nanosheets, which had excellent electrocatalytic performance, a large specific surface area, and more active sites, were prepared by liquid phase ultrasonic exfoliation to modify the gate electrode of OECT, resulting in a large improvement in the sensitivity of the glucose sensor. The detection limit of the device modified with MoS2 nanosheets is down to 100 nM, which is 1~2 orders of magnitude better than that of the device without nanomaterial modification. This result manifests not only a sensitive and selective method for the detection of glucose based on OECT but also an extended application of MoS2 nanosheets for other biomolecule sensing with high sensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transmucosal nasal delivery has been recognized as up-and-coming option for delivery of therapeutic compounds. However, the short residence time of the formulation within the nasal cavity coupled to its low permeability is regarded as the barrier to good bioavailability. To overcome those limitations, we developed a new formulation - nanosized Fluticasone Propionate (FP) nasal spray. High pressure homogenization (HPH) was employed to achieve effective particle size reduction. Latin square experimental design (LSED) was implemented for high pressure homogenization process. With optimized process conditions, the resulting particles were less than 250 nm in size. The aging effect in FP nanosuspensions after 30-day refrigerated storage was not considerable. However, for long-term storage, a combination of homogenization and lyophilization (HL) was required to acquire stable FP nanocystals. The crystallinity of FP was examined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), and no alternation was observed before or after homogenization and lyophilization process. The finished nasal spray offered a more uniform drug content compared to marketed formulation, which ensure the consistency and reproducibility of dose delivery. The study confirmed the effectiveness of homogenization, the usefulness of Latin square design and the feasibility of nano nasal spray.