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Background:Identifying risk factors and mortality of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) could have important implications for the clinical management of AD.Objective:This pilot study aimed to examine the overall mortality of AD patients over a 10-year surveillance period in Shanghai, China. This study is an extension of our previous investigation on mortality of neurodegenerative diseases.Methods:One hundred and thirty-two AD patients recruited from the memory clinics of two hospitals in Shanghai in 2007 were followed up until December 31, 2017 or death, representing a follow-up period of up to 10 years. Overall standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) were calculated, and predictors for survival at recruitment were estimated.Results:Sixty-seven patients had died by December 31, 2017, and the SMR at 10 years of follow-up was 1.225 (95% confidence interval 0.944–1.563). Employing Cox’s proportional hazard modeling, lower Mini-Mental State Examination score, and comorbid diabetes predicted poor survival in this cohort.Conclusion:This pilot study suggests a similar survival trend of patients with AD compared to the general population in Shanghai urban region. Poor cognitive status and comorbid diabetes had a negative impact on the survival of AD patients.

Recently, a new handheld ultrasound-based device, called Accuro, has been commercialized with a real-time automated interpretation of lumbar ultrasound images. We hypothesized that the handheld ultrasound device would improve the efficacy and safety of combined spinal-epidural anesthesia (CSEA) for cesarean delivery in obese parturients.Eighty parturients with a body mass index 30 kg∙mCompared to the palpation group, the first insertion success rate was significantly higher (72.5% vs. 40.0%; P = 0.003), and time taken to identify the needle puncture site was less (30 [26-36] vs. 39 [32-49] seconds; P = 0.001) in the ultrasound group. The rate of parturients who required needle redirections (40.0% vs. 72.5%; P = 0.003) and the incidence of paresthesia were both lower (7.5% vs. 45.0%; P 0.001). The other outcomes had no significant difference between groups. The mean difference between the epidural depth measured by the handheld ultrasound and needle depth was - 0.29 cm [95% limit of agreement, - 0.52 to - 0.05].Our study suggests using the Accuro ultrasound device can enhance the efficacy and safety of CSEA in obese parturients when executed by experienced anesthesiologists, and its automated estimation of epidural depth is accurate.

Cold-adapted alginate lyases have unique advantages for alginate oligosaccharide (AOS) preparation and brown seaweed processing. Robust and cold-adapted alginate lyases are urgently needed for industrial applications. In this study, a cold-adapted alginate lyase-producing strain Vibrio sp. W2 was screened. Then, the gene ALYW201 was cloned from Vibrio sp. W2 and expressed in a food-grade host, Yarrowia lipolytica. The secreted Alyw201 showed the activity of 64.2 U/mL, with a molecular weight of approximate 38.0 kDa, and a specific activity of 876.4 U/mg. Alyw201 performed the highest activity at 30 &deg, C, and more than 80% activity at 25&ndash, 40 &deg, C. Furthermore, more than 70% of the activity was obtained in a broad pH range of 5.0&ndash, 10.0. Alyw201 was also NaCl-independent and salt-tolerant. The degraded product was that of the oligosaccharides of DP (Degree of polymerization) 2&ndash, 6. Due to its robustness and its unique pH-stable property, Alyw201 can be an efficient tool for industrial production.

Background Standardized mortality ratio (SMR) is the most frequently used index in Parkinson's disease (PD) survival survey. However, there is little SMR data in PD from China. Objective To examine the outcome, including overall and cause-specific mortality, of PD patients subsequent to 10 years of surveillance in Shanghai, China. This is an extension study of our previous investigation on mortality. Methods One hundred fifty-seven PD patients recruited from the movement disorder clinic of Rui Jin Hospital in 2006 were followed up until December 31, 2016 or death, representing a follow-up period of up to 10 years. Overall and cause-specific standardized mortality ratios (SMR) were calculated, and predictors for survival at disease onset were estimated. Results Thirty one patients had died by December 31, 2016, and the SMR at 10 years of follow-up was 0.87 (0.59–1.25). The primary direct cause of death was respiratory disease (SMR = 3.52, 95% CI 1.98–5.78). Employing Cox's proportional hazard modeling, postural instability gait disorder (PIGD) type and older age at onset predicted poor survival in this cohort. Conclusions This finding confirms the similar survival of patients with PD to the control population in the post-levodopa era. PIGD type and older age at onset had a negative impact on survival.

Projection moire method is a high-resolution, non-contacting and full-field optical measurement technique. But the 2π-ambiguity problem in phase unwrapping limits the phase difference between neighbouring pixels under π which makes projection moire method ineffective at measuring abrupt surfaces or steps. This paper aims at putting forward a phase compensation method to solve this 2π-ambiguity problem in projection moire. Since the phase of moire pattern is the variance between the phase of specimen grating on object’s surface and the phase of the reference grating, our method is to calculate the phases of specimen grating and the reference grating respectively, regard their difference as the phase of the moire pattern in theory and correct the wrong unwrapped moire fringe phase with integral multiple of 2π. In order to acquire the phase of specimen grating which also has the 2π-ambiguity problem, using multiple fringe pictures with different pitches. The experiments successfully reconstruct two objects with discontinuities in their surfaces. This phase compensation technique no longer requires us to count fringe orders or find a reference point to mark the zero-order moire fringe during experiments.

Background:Disclosing the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) to a patient is controversial. There is significant stigma associated with a diagnosis of AD or dementia in China, but the attitude of the society toward disclosure of such a diagnosis had not been formally evaluated prior to our study. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the attitude toward disclosing an AD diagnosis to patients in China with cognitive impairment from their caregivers, and the factors that may affect their attitude.Methods:We designed a 17-item questionnaire and administered this questionnaire to caregivers, who accompanied patients with cognitive impairment or dementia in three major hospitals in Shanghai, China. The caregiver's attitude toward disclosing the diagnosis of AD as evaluated by the questionnaire was compared to that of disclosing the diagnosis of terminal cancer.Results:A majority (95.7%) of the 175 interviewed participants (mean 14.2 years of education received) wished to know their own diagnosis if they were diagnosed with AD, and 97.6% preferred the doctor to tell their family members if they were diagnosed with AD. If a family member of the participants suffered from AD, 82.9% preferred to have the diagnosis disclosed to the patient. “Cognitive impairment” was the most accepted term by caregivers to disclose AD diagnosis in Chinese.Conclusion:This study suggests most of the well-educated individuals in a Chinese urban area favored disclosing the diagnosis when they or their family members were diagnosed with AD.

China has experienced a rapid growth of both SPV manufacturing capacity and installed capacity in the last twenty-five years. However, this growth has followed a very erratic path. This study identifies policies issued through this period for a closer look on the impact of these policies to the solar photovoltaic (SPV) industry development in China. This paper examines five stages in China’s SPV policy from mid-1990s to 2019. Each stage has implemented different combinations of policy program. These changes in government policy and the effects to the SPV sector are attributed to three main sets of variables. First and foremost, the events that influence the policy and strategy priorities of Chinese government. Secondary factors include the government’s poor management of the policy impacts to the SPV manufacturing industry and the domestic SPV market at early days, as well as policymaking and problems coping within government. The subsidy, FIT policies and other programs had stimulated the deployment of SPV in a large scale but brings several problems such as subsidy reliance. The fundamental measure to improve SPV development into a grid parity era is the technological advancement of photovoltaic in efficiency and manufacturing.

The major energy strategy of China has made a specific goal for the development of renewable energy. For the city of Guangzhou, the government has made a target of the installation of solar PV development: up to 2000MW by 2020. Huangpu district is one of the national economic development zone (EDZ) in Guangzhou, the district government has planned to install 302MW solar PV capacity in any form across all building sectors by 2020. This paper contributes to current renewable energy development planning by combining spatial analysis tools and urban planning data together to evaluate the solar energy resources and technical potential for the solar PV installation on industrial rooftop in Huangpu district in a more accurate method. Results shows that the technical potential for industrial rooftop solar PV in the Huangpu EDZ was estimated to be 649MW with a total effective solar PV panel area of 3,956,402 m2. It shows that the technical potential is enough to reach the solar PV target set by the government if we only consider the industrial buildings.