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Abstract Background This study conducted a survey of men who have sex with men (MSM) in Maanshan City of Anhui Province to assess the risk behaviors related to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted from June 2016 to June 2019. The MSM were recruited by a peer-driven sampling method. A face-to-face interview with anonymous questionnaire was used for data collection. The information collected by the survey was summarized and epidemiology described the basic characteristics of MSM, and then the related factors were statistically analyzed. Results A total of 934 MSM were recruited with a average age was 30.5 (SD = 8.90) years old, including 816 (87.4%) HIV negative participants and 118 (12.6%) HIV positive ones. This study showed that freelancer (OR = 4.02, 95% CI: 1.96–8.23), scope of sexual partners distribution (OR = 1.78, 95% CI: 1.36–2.33), number of male sexual partners (OR = 2.11, 95% CI: 1.47–3.02), role of anal sex with men was receptive (OR = 2.54, 95% CI: 1.25–5.13) and versatile (OR = 2.34, 95% CI: 1.31–4.19) and non-steady sex partners (OR = 2.14, 95% CI: 1.56–2.93) were risk factors for HIV infection, while monthly income (OR = 0.68, 95% CI: 0.57–0.82), education level (OR = 0.79, 95% CI: 0.66–0.95), frequency of condom use (OR = 0.53, 95% CI: 0.35–0.81) and number of oral sex partners (OR = 0.35, 95% CI: 0.24–0.51) in the past 6 months were protective factors for HIV infection. Conclusion Risk behaviors were common in MSM, and urgent need for targeted and comprehensive interventions to reduce risky sexual behaviour and to prevent HIV infection in MSM.

ObjectiveTo examine the 2-year dynamics of quality of life (QoL) and its influencing factors among community elderly empty-nesters in Ma'anshan city and to provide evidence for developing health care strategies and conducting health care services and health education in the elderly. MethodsWith stratified cluster random sampling, we conducted a baseline survey among 3 476 permanent residents aged 60 years and above in Ma′anshan city from December 2016 to March 2017 and a follow-up interview was conducted from December 2018 to March 2019. Finally, the information on 2 344 elderly being empty-nesters during the period of baseline and follow-up survey were extracted to analyze dynamics and influencing factors of QoL for the elderly empty-nesters. World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale Abbreviated Version (WHOQOL-BREF), Activity of Daily Living Scale (ADL), Geriatric Depression Scale-15 (GDS-15), Stress Resilience Quotient Scale (SRQS), and a self-designed questionnaire were used in the study. ResultsCompared to those in the baseline survey in all the elderly empty-nesters, significantly lower scores of WHOQOL-BREF′s psychological domain (55.40 ± 10.76 vs. 65.71 ± 13.52) and social relationship domain (65.70 ± 12.56 vs. 67.43 ± 12.42) were measured in the follow-up survey (both P < 0.05); while there were no significant differences in the scores of physiological domain (64.62 ± 13.92 vs. 65.22 ± 14.55) and environmental domain (63.53 ± 11.90 vs. 63.97 ± 12.67) (both P > 0.05). The results of generalized estimating equation analysis revealed following influencing factors of elderly empty-nesters′ QoL: (1) for psychological domain, aged ≥ 70 years, impaired ADL, and depression were risk factors and moderate or good self-rated economic condition, smoking, alcohol-drinking, taking part in physical exercise, moderate or high resilience were protective factors; (2) for physiological domain, aged ≥ 70 years, with the education of primary school or above, living alone, suffering from a chronic disease, declined or impaired ADL, and depression were risk factors and moderate or good self-rated economic condition, smoking, alcohol-drinking, taking part in physical exercise, moderate or high resilience were protective factors; (3) for social relationship domain, aged 70 – 79 years, living alone, impaired ADL, and depression were risk factors and being female, moderate or good self-rated economic condition, alcohol-drinking, moderate or high resilience were protective factors; and (4) for environmental domain, impaired ADL and depression were risk factors and moderate or good self-rated economic condition, smoking, alcohol- drinking, taking part in physical exercise, moderate or high resilience were protective factors. ConclusionFor community elderly empty-nesters in Ma′anshan city, the main problem in quality of life is the declined quality of psychology and social relationship domains and the quality of the two domains are influenced in common by age, self-rated economic condition, alcohol-drinking, activity of daily living, depression, and resilience.

With the widespread application of low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) technology, pulmonary nodules have aroused more attention. Significant alteration in plasma metabolite levels, mainly amino acid and lipid, have been observed in patients of PNs. However, evidence on the association between central carbon metabolism and PNs are largely unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the underlying association of PNs and plasma central carbon metabolites. We measured the levels of 16 plasma central carbon metabolites in 1954 participants who gained LDCT screening in MALSC cohort. The inverse probability weighting (IPW) technique was used to control for bias due to self-selection for LDCT in the assessed high-risk population. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) penalized regression was used to deal with the problem of multicollinearity among metabolites and the combined association of central carbon metabolites with PNs was estimated by using quantile g-computation (QgC) models. A quartile increase in 3-hydroxybutyric acid, gluconic acid, succinic acid and hippuric acid was positively associated with the PNs risk, whereas a quartile increase in 2-oxadipic acid and fumaric acid was negatively associated with the risk of PNs in multiple-metabolite models. A positive but insignificant joint associations of the mixture of 16 metabolites with PNs was observed by using QgC models analyses. Further studies are warranted to clarify the association between circulating metabolites and PNs and the biological mechanisms.

Humans maybe simultaneously exposed to multiple-metals and indoor air pollution in daily life. However, limited prospective studies have assessed the interaction between multiple metals exposure and biomass fuels use on hypertension in China. The prospective cohort study in rural areas along the Yangtze River included 2625 adults in 2014–2015, and they were followed up till 2019. Among 1248 rural residents who were without hypertension at baseline, 377 hypertension events (30.21%) were observed after 4.5 years of average follow-up time. First-morning urine samples of residents were collected at baseline, the association between urinary metals level and hypertension were assessed using quantile g-computation. Additionally, we also examined the effect of biomass fuels use, fuels switching, and cookstove ventilation on the association of metals exposure with hypertension. Quantile g-computation analyses showed a positive joint effect of 17 metals on hypertension, with the odds ratio (OR) of 1.68 (95% CI: 0.89, 3.14) when increasing all seventeen metals by one quartile, and cadmium, lithium, copper contributed the largest positive weights. Biomass fuels use can interact with cadmium exposure on hypertension with OR for interaction of 1.28 (95%CI: 1.00, 1.73), and increase the association between copper, manganese and zinc exposure and systolic blood pressure, lithium exposure and diastolic blood pressure at the follow-up visit. Moreover, switching from biomass fuels to clean fuels during follow up, cookstove ventilation can alleviate the risk of higher blood pressure from metals exposure. In rural areas along the Yangtze River, China, biomass fuels use for cooking can interact with multiple-metals exposure on hypertension. Residents who switched from biomass fuels to clean fuels and who used ventilation had a lower risk of hypertension. Further cohort studies are needed to clarify the mechanism of combined effects of metals exposure and biomass fuels use on the human health.

Background: Exposure to multiple metals is recognized as a common and real scenario in daily life. However, limited prospective studies have assessed associations between multiple metals exposure and hypertension. Methods: In total, 2625 adults in a local area on the Yangtze River were investigated at baseline from 2014 to 2015 and followed up in 2019. We measured baseline urine levels of 22 metals and used multivariate logistic analysis and Bayesian kernel machine regression (BKMR) to explore associations between multiple metals exposure and the risk of hypertension. Results: A total of 385 individuals (29.6%) were diagnosed with hypertension. Five metals (cadmium, copper, magnesium, molybdenum and zinc) were positively associated with hypertension in single-metal models. Cadmium and zinc remained significantly positive associations after adjusting for these five metals, with the odds ratio (OR) in the highest quartiles of 1.49 (95% CI: 1.01, 2.21; p-trend = 0.05) and 1.60 (95% CI: 1.08, 2.38; p-trend = 0.02), respectively. BKMR analysis showed a significant joint effect of multiple metals on hypertension when the concentrations of five metals were at or above their 55th percentile compared with their median values. A potential interaction between cadmium and zinc in increasing the risk of hypertension was observed with the ORint of 1.41 (95%CI: 1.05, 1.89). Conclusions: We identified the joint effect of multiple metals on hypertension and observed a significant interaction between cadmium and zinc. Further cohort studies are needed to clarify the health effects of multiple metals exposure in a larger population.

In the present study, multi-fractal detrended fluctuation analysis has been used to get a better knowledge of the self-organization phenomenon inherent in gas emission series during the production period of mining face, focusing mainly on the multifractal characteristics of gas emission quantity. The results indicate that the gas emission quantity series has obvious multi-fractal characteristics and longterm correlation. By shuffling and phase adjusting the gas emission quantity series, the multi-fractal characteristics of the series have b een c ompared. The results derived from the analysis certainly exhibit that the multifractal characteristics of gas emission quantity are caused by long-range correlation and probability distribution, and long-range correlation of the fluctuation is the main factor leading to the multifractal features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of local anesthetic (LA) system is the application of commercial drug for the pain management that indorses the reversible obstructive mechanism of neural transmission through preventing the innervation process in human peripheral nerves. Ropivacaine (RV) is one of the greatest frequently used LA s with the actions of long-lasting and low-toxicity for the post-operative pain management. In this work, we have approached novel design and development of glycosylated chitosan (GCS) encapsulated mesoporous silica nanoparticles (GCS-MONPs)-based nano-scaffold for sustainable distributions and controlled/supported arrival of stacked RV for targeting sites, which can be activated by either outer ultrasound activating to discharge the payload, foundation on-request and dependable analgesia. The structural and morphology analyses result established that prepared nano-formulations have successful molecular interactions and RV loaded spherical morphological structures. The drug release profile of developed nanostructure with ultrasound-activation has been achieved 50% of drug release in 2 h and 90% of drug release was achieved in 12 h, which displays more controlled release when compared to free RV solution. The in vitro cell compatibility analysis exhibited GCS-MONPs with RV has improved neuron cell survival rates when compared to other samples due to its porous surface and suitable biopolymer proportions. The analysis of ex vitro and in vivo pain relief analysis demonstrated treated animal models have high compatibility with GCS-MONPs@RV, which was confirmed by histomorphology. This developed MONPs based formulations with ultrasound-irradiation gives a prospective technique to clinical agony the board through on-request and dependable help with discomfort.