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Lanzhi Li,1,&ast; Keshuai Liu,1,&ast; Xingwu Duan,1 Limei Xu,2 Qingqi Yang,2 Fang Liu2 1Department of Dermatology, Dongzhimen Hospital, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Dermatology, Air Force Medical Center of PLA, Beijing, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Xingwu Duan, Email xwduan@sina.comBackground: Psoriasis is a chronic, inflammatory skin disease that is often accompanied by multiple comorbidities. Obesity is considered an independent risk factor for the development of psoriasis. However, most of the related data are derived from epidemiological studies conducted in the United States of America and Europe. This study aimed to compare the clinical characteristics of patients with psoriasis who are overweight/obese and patients with psoriasis with normal weight in China.Methods: We reviewed the medical records of 208 patients with psoriasis. Based on their body mass index (BMI), the patients were divided into two groups: patients with psoriasis who were overweight/obese and patients with psoriasis with normal weight.Results: The most patients enrolled in this study were men (77.40%). Patients with psoriasis who were overweight/obese had a higher mean age, longer disease duration, and significantly higher Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) values (P=0.032). Additionally, the incidence of fatty liver, hyperlipidemia, hyperuricemia, and abnormal liver function was higher among patients with psoriasis who were overweight/obese (P< 0.05). Linear regression analysis revealed a linear relationship between PASI values and BMI (P=0.016). Moreover, patients with psoriasis who were overweight/obese had significantly higher levels of serum alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), uric acid (UC), total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and fasting plasma glucose (FPG) (P< 0.05) and lower serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels and absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) (P< 0.05).Conclusion: Patients with psoriasis who are overweight/obese have more severe psoriatic lesions and metabolic comorbidities. Detailed assessment of the BMI of patients with psoriasis revealed that weight loss may be necessary for patients who are overweight/obese to reduce the risk of metabolic disorders.Keywords: psoriasis, obesity, metabolic disorders

The Yunnan Plateau (YP), southwest China, is a typical plateau mountain region characterized by a monsoon climate. Soil erosion in the YP is recognized as a major environmental problem. Rainfall is abundant in the YP but distributed unevenly on a spatiotemporal scale. However, little published work is available on rainfall erosivity (R factor) in the YP, an important basic parameter for representing the potential ability of precipitation and runoff to erode soil in the Universal Soil Loss Equation. This study integrates the trend coefficient and climate tendency rate indicators and Mann-Kendall nonparametric statistical test to identify the spatial distribution and temporal variation of the R factor in the YP. The daily rainfall records from 1960 to 2012 in the YP were collected from 115 national meteorological observatory stations. The result shows that the average annual R factor was 4382.65 MJ·mm·ha − 1 ·h − 1 in the YP, and > 80% of the annual R was concentrated in the summer and autumn. The spatial distribution of annual, summer and autumn R was greater in the south than in the north while the northwest surpassed other regions for winter and spring R factor. There was significant variability in temporal trends from station to station, in general, the annual and autumn R showed a distribution pattern of an increase in the western YP and a reduction in the eastern YP. The temporal variance of winter R showed a pattern opposite of that of annual and autumn R, indicating an increase in the eastern YP and a reduction in the western YP over recent decades.

Mountainous regions are more susceptible to food insecurity because of the shortage of farmland and the conflict between population and cultivated land resources. Here, we focused on the Yunnan province, a typical mountainous region in southwest China, where soil productivity plays a key role in agricultural development. The objectives were to assess spatial variation and sustainable utilization of soil productivity in the Yunnan province. We constructed a soil database based on 706 soil profiles collected from China's second national soil survey, and assessed soil productivity with a soil productivity index model. We found significant differences in the soil productivity indexes among soil types; the indexes ranged from 0.12 to 0.85 and averaged 0.47. Higher productivity soils generally occurred in forest areas within the west and northwest sub-regions of Yunnan, while lower productivity soils tend to be located at low or extremely high elevations. The soil productivity index was lowest for barren land, followed by dry farmland, grassland, paddy fields, horticultural land, and forest lands. We found the productivity index to increase significantly as latitude increased and to vary with altitude at lower elevations. The soil productivity index ranged from 0.32 to 0.61 generally from the southeast sub-region to the northwest sub-region. Conversion of forest land or grassland to dry farmland may seriously degrade soil productivity. Local governments should consider soil productivity conservation practices when seeking to exploit land resources in mountainous areas. Yunnan's western sub-region has high potential for agricultural development. Effective soil remediation measures and soil and water conservation are needed in the central and southeast sub-regions to maintain sustainable soil productivity. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.