Changes in the Prevalence of Hyperuricemia in Clients of Health Examination in Eastern China, 2009 to 2019

Background: With the continuous improvement of people's living standards, the incidence of hyperuricemia (HUA) is increasing globally. The prevalence of HUA ranged in terms of region, race, and age. This study aims to investigate the changes in the prevalence of HUA in clients of health examination in Eastern China between 2009 and 2019. Methods: Chinese men and women aged 20-79 years (n = 4847 in the 2009 cohort and n = 12188 in 2019) who had received health examinations were enrolled. Serum uric acid (UA) levels and biochemical parameters, including fasting blood-glucose (FBG), triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (CHOL), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), creatinine (Cr) and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) were evaluated. The prevalence of HUA in different age groups were measured, and the correlation of biochemical parameters with the onset of HUA were analyzed. Results: The prevalence of HUA was 18.7% in the 2019 cohort, which was significantly higher than that in 2009 (13.3%). In females, the prevalence of HUA was significantly higher in 2019 than 2009 for age groups of 20-29 and 30-39 years. In male population, 2019 cohort had significantly higher age-specific prevalence for all age groups than 2009 cohort. Young men aged 20-29 years became the main population of HUA in the 2019 male cohort, whereas middle-aged men aged 40-49 years had the highest prevalence of HUA in the 2009 male cohort. The prevalence rates of HUA in all BMI groups in 2019 cohort were significantly higher than those in 2009 cohort. Spearmen’s correlation analysis and Logistic regression analysis indicated that BMI was positively correlated with the onset of HUA. The receiver-operating characteristic curve (ROC) analysis showed BMI＞24.48kg/m2 and BMI＞23.84 kg/m2 displayed good capacities to discriminate the population with HUA from those without HUA in 2009 and 2019 cohort, respectively. Conclusions: In recent 10 years, the prevalence of HUA was increased rapidly in Chinese adults, especially in males. Young men aged 20-29 years in the 2019 cohort replaced the middle-aged males (40-49 years old) in the 2009 cohort, and became the main population of male HUA in the 2019 cohort. BMI was positively correlated with HUA, and might be a potential risk factors to predict the onset of HUA.

Study on the Evolution of the Source-Flow-Sink Pattern of China’s Chunyun Population Migration Network: Evidence from Tencent Big Data

We construct a comprehensive analysis framework of population flow in China. To do so, we take prefecture-level administrative regions as the basic research unit of population flow and use source-sink theory and flow space theory. Additionally, we reveal the dynamic differentiation of population flow patterns and the evolution of population source-flow-sink systems. We try to provide a theoretical basis for the formulation of population development policies and regional spatial governance. The results show the following: (1) The Hu Huanyong Line has a strong spatial lock-in effect on population flow. Additionally, provincial capital cities, headed by Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Hefei, have played an increasingly prominent role in population flow. (2) The developed eastern coastal areas have undertaken China’s main population outflow. The net population flow is spatially high in the middle of the region and low on the two sides, exhibiting an “inverted U-shaped” pattern. Furthermore, the borders of the central provinces form a continuous population inflow area. (3) The hierarchical characteristics of the population flow network are obvious. Strong connections occur between developed cities, and the effect of distance attenuation is weakened. The medium connection network is consistent with the traffic skeleton, and population flow exhibits a strong “bypass effect”. (4) The source and sink areas are divided into four regions similar to China’s three major economic belts. The 10 regions can be refined to identify the main population source and sink regions, and the 18 regions can basically reflect China’s level of urbanization. The network of the population flow source-flow-sink system exhibits notable nesting characteristics. As a result, it creates a situation in which the source areas on both sides of the east and the west are convective to the middle. The hierarchical differentiation of the source-flow sink system is related to the differences between the east and the west and between the north and the south, as well as local differences in China.

Cancer Incidence of Finnish Sami in the Light of Exposure to Radioactive Fallout

This article summarizes the results of studies on the exposure of the Finnish Sami people to radioactive fallout and the estimations of the related cancer risk. We also discuss the lifestyle, genetic origin and diet of this population. The Sami people are an indigenous people who live in the northern part of Scandinavia and Finland. The review is based on the available scientific literature of Finnish Sami. The traditional Sami diet, high in animal products, persists in Sami groups still involved in reindeer-herding, but others have adopted the typical diet of western cultures. Studies have consistently shown an overall reduced cancer risk among the Finnish Sami people, except for stomach cancer among the Skolt Sami. Common cancers among the Finnish main population, such as prostate, breast and skin cancer are especially rare among the Finnish Sami. The incidence of cancer among the Finnish Sami are mostly similar to those of the Swedish and Norwegian Sami. To conclude, we observed no effect of radioactive pollution on cancer incidence. The lifestyles and environments of the Sami are changing, and their cancer mortality rate today is similar to that of the majority of the Finnish and western population.

The Effects of Local Food Consumption Motivations on Customer Satisfaction: A Research on Turkish Food

The research was realized in order to determine local food consumption motivations on Turkish food of international food festival attendees and examine their satisfaction levels. The main population of the research was the guests attending “International Danang Food Festival”, held in the city of Danang, Vietnam between 31st May and 6th June 2019. The sampling of the study is the festival attendees experiencing Turkish foods. Data were collected from the attendees through the convenience sampling method as it is faster and and easier to be applied, when compared to other sampling types, during the festival lasted for seven days. According to the findings of the research, it is seen that there is a positive and significant relation between the local food consumption motivations of the attendees and satisfaction and hence, there is a covariance in local food consumption motivation and customer satisfaction. It was revealed that “health” and “learning” dimensions regarding local food consumption motivations affect customer satisfaction , “cultural experience “dimension has a negative effect on customer satisfaction and “interpersonal relations”, “ sensory experience” and “excitement” dimensions have no effect on customer satisfaction.

The complexity of verifying population protocols

Population protocols (Angluin et al. in PODC, 2004) are a model of distributed computation in which indistinguishable, finite-state agents interact in pairs to decide if their initial configuration, i.e., the initial number of agents in each state, satisfies a given property. In a seminal paper Angluin et al. classified population protocols according to their communication mechanism, and conducted an exhaustive study of the expressive power of each class, that is, of the properties they can decide (Angluin et al. in Distrib Comput 20(4):279–304, 2007). In this paper we study the correctness problem for population protocols, i.e., whether a given protocol decides a given property. A previous paper (Esparza et al. in Acta Inform 54(2):191–215, 2017) has shown that the problem is decidable for the main population protocol model, but at least as hard as the reachability problem for Petri nets, which has recently been proved to have non-elementary complexity. Motivated by this result, we study the computational complexity of the correctness problem for all other classes introduced by Angluin et al., some of which are less powerful than the main model. Our main results show that for the class of observation models the complexity of the problem is much lower, ranging from $$\varPi _2^p$$ Π 2 p to .

Social Heterogeneity Drives Complex Patterns of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Insights From a Novel Stochastic Heterogeneous Epidemic Model (SHEM)

In addition to vaccine and impactful treatments, mitigation strategies represent an effective way to combat the COVID-19 virus and an invaluable resource in this task is numerical modeling that can reveal key factors in COVID-19 pandemic development. On the other hand, it has become evident that regional infection curves of COVID-19 exhibit complex patterns which often differ from curves predicted by forecasting models. The wide variations in attack rate observed among different social strata suggest that this may be due to social heterogeneity not accounted for by regional models. We investigated this hypothesis by developing and using a new Stochastic Heterogeneous Epidemic Model that focuses on subpopulations that are vulnerable in the sense of having an increased likelihood of spreading infection among themselves. We found that the isolation or embedding of vulnerable sub-clusters in a major population hub generated complex stochastic infection patterns which included multiple peaks and growth periods, an extended plateau, a prolonged tail, or a delayed second wave of infection. Embedded vulnerable groups became hotspots that drove infection despite efforts of the main population to socially distance, while isolated groups suffered delayed but intense infection. Amplification of infection by these hotspots facilitated transmission from one urban area to another, causing the epidemic to hopscotch in a stochastic manner to places it would not otherwise reach; whereas vaccination only in hotspot populations stopped geographic spread of infection. Our results suggest that social heterogeneity is a key factor in the formation of complex infection propagation patterns. Thus, the mitigation and vaccination of vulnerable groups is essential to control the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide. The design of our new model allows it to be applied in future studies of real-world scenarios on any scale, limited only by computing memory and the ability to determine the underlying topology and parameters.

Heterogeneous Klebsiella pneumoniae Co-infections Complicate Personalized Bacteriophage Therapy

Multidrug-resistant (MDR) organisms have increased worldwide, posing a major challenge for the clinical management of infection. Bacteriophage is expected as potential effective therapeutic agents for difficult-to-treat infections. When performing bacteriophage therapy, the susceptibility of lytic bacteriophage to the target bacteria is selected by laboratory isolate from patients. The presence of a subpopulation in a main population of tested cells, coupled with the rapid development of phage-resistant populations, will make bacteriophage therapy ineffective. We aimed to treat a man with multifocal urinary tract infections of MDR Klebsiella pneumoniae by phage therapy. However, the presence of polyclonal co-infectious cells in his renal pelvis and bladder led to the failure of three consecutive phage therapies. After analysis, the patient was performed with percutaneous nephrostomy (PCN). A cocktail of bacteriophages was selected for activity against all 21 heterogeneous isolates and irrigated simultaneously via the kidney and bladder to eradicate multifocal colonization, combined with antibiotic treatment. Finally, the patient recovered with an obviously improved bladder. The success of this case provides valuable treatment ideas and solutions for phage treatment of complex infections.Clinical Trial Registrationwww.chictr.org.cn, identifier ChiCTR1900020989.

A retrospective survey of strabismus surgery in a tertiary eye center in northern China, 2014–2019

Background To evaluate the distribution pattern and changes of strabismus surgery in northern China. Methods The records of strabismus patients at Qingdao Eye Hospital from January 2014 to December 2019 were reviewed retrospectively. The characteristics analyzed included gender, regional distribution, constituent ratio of age and type of strabismus. Changes during the periods 2014–2016 and 2017–2019 were compared and analyzed. Results A total of 5746 strabismus patients were recruited. The number of strabismus patients was relatively stable each year from 2014 to 2016 but gradually increased each year from 2017 to 2019. Of these, 51.7% (2968/5746) were male, and 48.3% (2778/5746) were female. The majority (89.8%, 5159/5746) of the patients were from Shandong Province. The statistical results of the constituent ratio of age showed that 32.4% (1860/5746) were 7–12 years old (primary school level). Patients under 12 years of age (preschool and primary school level) accounted for 60.0% (3447/5746) of all the patients. In terms of the types of strabismus, exotropia accounted for 63.5% (3650/5746), followed by esotropia and vertical rotational strabismus at 13.2% (758/5746) and 9.7% (555/5746), respectively. Intermittent exotropia was the most common type among the exotropia patients, accounting for 71.3% (2604/3650). Among the patients with intermittent exotropia, 62.5% (1627/2604) were children aged 4–12 years, and the basic type of intermittent exotropia was the main type. Four percent (231/5746) of the patients, of which adult patients comprised the main population, required reoperation. Conclusions Patients with strabismus at primary school level comprised the largest group of strabismus patients in north China. Exotropia was the most common type of strabismus, and intermittent exotropia was the most common type of exotropia. The rate of exotropia to esotropia was 5:1.

Ongotson Khamnigans in the 19th Century: Ethnic Composition and Allocation

This article continues the series of the works devoted to the study of ethnic composition of the Buryat and Khamnigan departments in 19th century. One of the self-government bodies of indigenous of the Transbaikalia in the 19th century was the Urulginskaya Steppe Duma, the main population of which was the “Tungus of Manchu tribe”, as the Russian administration called them. The Ongotson indigenous council was the southwestern outskirts of the Urulga Steppe duma. In the 19th century, in the literature, the population of this council, like most of the population of Urulga Steppe Duma, was called “Horse Tungus”. The basis of the ethnic composition of the Ongotson Khamnigans was represented by Sartuls, Sarduls, Bakhashils, Lunikers and Chimchagits. The largest unit was the Sartuls – immigrants from Central Asia, who settled in Mongolia, mainly in the west of Khalkha. A part of the Sartuls in the east (in the Setsen-khan aimag, on the borderlands of Mongolia and Manchuria, in Jarut, Yekhe and Khada), became involved in the ethnic composition of both the Mongols and Manchus. From here, probably, take roots of both the Sartuls and Sarduls of Onon region. It was the Sartuls who had a key influence on the linguistic and confessional affiliation of all Ongotson Khamnigans. The ethnonym Bakhashil < Vakasil < Vakaroi indicates the participation of “Reindeer Tungus” (Evenks) in the formation of groups of “Horse Tungus” (Solon). The spread of the ethnonym Vakarai and its other phonetic variants indicates a wide area of its distribution in the Evenks environment. However, the existing hypotheses admit its origin in the Manchu-Tungusic, Yukaghir and Turkic environment, of which the first two are preferable. The ethnonym Chimchigit< Chimchagir may have Tungus-Manchurian and Mongolian roots. Lunikir is found in Transbaikalia, Mongolia and Barga, which reflects the long-term contacts of its carriers in this region. The origin of this ethnonym is unclear, although it has a form close to the Tungus languages. The discovered connections with Mongolia, Manchuria and vast expanses of Eastern Siberia and Amgun region reflect the crossroads of the migration routes of Mongols and Manchu-Tungusic both in Transbaikalia, and specifically in the Onon region. This significantly expands the research area into ethnic history not only of the Khamnigans, but also wider than the Mongolian and Manchu-Tungusic linguistic groups. A detailed map of the settlement of Ongotson Khamnigans, based on the census tables, was compiled.

A retrospective survey of strabismus surgery in a tertiary eye center in northern China, 2014-2019

Background To evaluate the distribution pattern and changes of strabismus surgery in northern China. Methods The records of strabismus patients at Qingdao Eye Hospital from January 2014 to December 2019 were reviewed retrospectively. The characteristics analyzed included gender, regional distribution, constituent ratio of age and type of strabismus. Changes during the periods 2014–2016 and 2017–2019 were compared and analyzed. Results A total of 5746 strabismus patients were recruited. The number of strabismus patients was relatively stable each year from 2014 to 2016 but gradually increased each year from 2017 to 2019. Of these, 51.7% (2868/5746) were male, and 48.3% (2778/5746) were female. The majority (89.8%, 5159/5746) of the patients were from Shandong Province. The statistical results of the constituent ratio of age showed that 32.4% (1860/5746) were 7–12 years old (primary school level). Patients under 12 years of age (preschool and primary school level) accounted for 60.0% (3447/5746) of all the patients. In terms of the types of strabismus, exotropia accounted for 63.5% (3650/5746), followed by esotropia and vertical rotational strabismus at 13.2% (758/5746) and 9.7% (555/5746), respectively. Intermittent exotropia was the most common type among the exotropia patients, accounting for 71.3% (2604/3650). Among the patients with intermittent exotropia, 62.5% (1627/2604) were children aged 4–12 years, and the basic type of intermittent exotropia was the main type. Four percent (231/5746) of the patients, of which adult patients comprised the main population, required reoperation.Conclusion Patients with strabismus at primary school level comprised the largest group of strabismus patients in north China. Exotropia was the most common type of strabismus, and intermittent exotropia was the most common type of exotropia. The rate of exotropia to esotropia was 5:1.