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Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) is a rodent-borne disease caused mainly by two hantaviruses in China: Hantaan virus and Seoul virus. Environmental factors can significantly affect the risk of contracting hantavirus infections, primarily through their effects on rodent population dynamics and human-rodent contact. We aimed to clarify the environmental risk factors favoring rodent-to-human transmission to provide scientific evidence for developing effective HFRS prevention and control strategies. The 10-year (2006–2015) field surveillance data from the rodent hosts for hantavirus, the epidemiological and environmental data extracted from satellite images and meteorological stations, rodent-to-human transmission rates and impacts of the environment on rodent community composition were used to quantify the relationships among environmental factors, rodent species and HFRS occurrence. The study included 709 cases of HFRS. Rodent species in Chenzhou, a hantavirus hotspot, comprise mainly Rattus norvegicus, Mus musculus, R. flavipectus and some other species (R. losea and Microtus fortis calamorum). The rodent species played different roles across the various land types we examined, but all of them were associated with transmission risks. Some species were associated with HFRS occurrence risk in forest and water bodies. R. norvegicus and R. flavipectus were associated with risk of HFRS incidence in grassland, whereas M. musculus and R. flavipectus were associated with this risk in built-on land. The rodent community composition was also associated with environmental variability. The predictive risk models based on these significant factors were validated by a good-fit model, where: cultivated land was predicted to represent the highest risk for HFRS incidence, which accords with the statistics for HFRS cases in 2014–2015. The spatial heterogeneity of HFRS disease may be influenced by rodent community composition, which is associated with local environmental

Background The avian influenza A H7N9 virus has caused infections in human beings in China since 2013. A large epidemic in 2016–17 prompted concerns that the epidemiology of the virus might have changed, increasing the threat of a pandemic. We aimed to describe the epidemiological characteristics, clinical severity, and time-to-event distributions of patients infected with A H7N9 in the 2016–17 epidemic compared with previous epidemics. Methods In this epidemiological study, we obtained information about all laboratory-confirmed human cases of A H7N9 virus infection reported in mainland China as of Feb 23, 2017, from an integrated electronic database managed by the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and provincial CDCs. Every identified human case of A H7N9 virus infection was required to be reported to China CDC within 24 h via a national surveillance system for notifiable infectious diseases. We described the epidemiological characteristics across epidemics, and estimated the risk of death, mechanical ventilation, and admission to the intensive care unit for patients admitted to hospital for routine clinical practice rather than for isolation purpose. We estimated the incubation periods, and time delays from illness onset to hospital admission, illness onset to initiation of antiviral treatment, and hospital admission to death or discharge using survival analysis techniques. Findings Between Feb 19, 2013, and Feb 23, 2017, 1220 laboratory-confirmed human infections with A H7N9 virus were reported in mainland China, with 134 cases reported in the spring of 2013, 306 in 2013–14, 219 in 2014–15, 114 in 2015–16, and 447 in 2016–17. The 2016–17 A H7N9 epidemic began earlier, spread to more districts and counties in affected provinces, and had more confirmed cases than previous epidemics. The proportion of cases in middle-aged adults increased steadily from 41% (55 of 134) to 57% (254 of 447) from the first epidemic to the 2016–17 epidemic. Proportion, SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Because of overusing water resources in the upper and middle reaches of the Haihe Basin, less and less water flows to the river mouth. The Haihe River flow is cut off in most time of the seasons, sediment deposited in the river mouth channel is rarely scoured away, and many of the river mouth channels have been shrinking quickly. The discharge capacity of the channel is consequently reduced greatly, which results in more and more serious flood hazard. Many tide gates have been built for storing fresh water and preventing the salty and turbid water. The channel downstream of the gate is silting up and people have to dredge the channel every year before the flood season. This paper studies the laws of the siltation and strategies controlling channel shrinkage. The strategies are digger dredging, trailer dredging, scouring with pumping water or storing tidal water, building double guiding dikes and building a new gate. Comparison of various strategies is performed, suggesting the most effective strategy controlling estuarine channel shrinkage.

Because of overusing water resources in the upper and middle reaches of the Haihe Basin, less and less water flows to the river mouth. The Haihe River flow is cut off in most time of the seasons, sediment deposited in the river mouth channel is rarely scoured away, and many of the river mouth channels have been shrinking quickly. The discharge capacity of the channel is consequently reduced greatly, which results in more and more serious flood hazard. Many tide gates have been built for storing fresh water and preventing the salty and turbid water. The channel downstream of the gate is silting up and people have to dredge the channel every year before the flood season. This paper studies the laws of the siltation and strategies controlling channel shrinkage. The strategies are digger dredging, trailer dredging, scouring with pumping water or storing tidal water, building double guiding dikes and building a new gate. Comparison of various strategies is performed, suggesting the most effective strategy controlling estuarine channel shrinkage.

Because of overusing water resources in the upper and middle reaches of the Haihe Basin, less and less water flows to the river mouth. The Haihe River flow is cut off in most time of the seasons, sediment deposited in the river mouth channel is rarely scoured away, and many of the river mouth channels have been shrinking quickly. The discharge capacity of the channel is consequently reduced greatly, which results in more and more serious flood hazard. Many tide gates have been built for storing fresh water and preventing the salty and turbid water. The channel downstream of the gate is silting up and people have to dredge the channel every year before the flood season. This paper studies the laws of the siltation and strategies controlling channel shrinkage. The strategies are digger dredging, trailer dredging, scouring with pumping water or storing tidal water, building double guiding dikes and building a new gate. Comparison of various strategies is performed, suggesting the most effective strategy controlling estuarine channel shrinkage.