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Urban areas demonstrate great influence on precipitation, yet the spatial clustering features of precipitation are still unclear over urban areas. This study quantitatively examines the spatial clustering of precipitation intensity in 130 urban-affected regions over mainland China during 2008-15 using a high-resolution merged precipitation product. Results show that the spatial heterogeneity patterns display diverse distribution and vary with precipitation intensity and urban sizes. Extreme and heavy precipitation has higher spatial heterogeneity than light precipitation over the urban-affected regions of grade 1 cities, and their mean Moran's I are 0.49, 0.47, and 0.37 for the intensity percentiles of ≥95%, 75%-95%, and < 75%, respectively. The urban signatures in the spatial clustering of precipitation extremes are observed in 37 cities (28%),mainly occurring in the Haihe River basin, the Yangtze River basin, and the Pearl River basin. The spatial clustering patterns of precipitation extremes are affected by the local dominant synoptic conditions, such as the heavy storms of convective precipitation in Beijing (Moran's I = 0.47) and the cold frontal system in the Pearl River delta (Moran's I = 0.78), resulting in large regional variability. The role of urban environments for the spatial clustering is more evident in wetter conditions [e.g., relative humidity (RH) > 75% over Beijing and RH > 85% over the Pearl River delta] and warmer conditions (T > 258C over Beijing and T > 288C over the Pearl River delta). This study highlights the urban modification on the spatial clustering of some precipitation extremes, and calls for precautions and adaptation strategies to mitigate the adverse effect of the highly clustered extreme rainfall events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Data regarding HIV-seronegative pediatric patients with cryptococcal meningitis (CM) have been very limited. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed non-HIV-infected in patients with CM from January 2002 through December 2013 in Beijing Children's Hospital. Records of the all patients were obtained and compared. Results: The 34 children had a median age of 5.6 years. Most of the patients were male (67.6%). Only 23.5% of the cases had identifiable underlying diseases. The sensitivity of the CSF cryptococcal antigen, India ink smear and CSF culture in our study were 81.5, 85.3 and 82.4%, respectively. And the sensitivity of combinations of these tests was 91.2%. Out of the 34 patients, 16 (47.1%) had other organs involvement in addition to the brain. The main abnormal features via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were Virchow-Robin space dilatation (44.4%), hydrocephalus (38.9%), gelatinous pseudocysts (33.3%), brain atrophy (33.3%), meningeal enhancement (27.8%) and local lesions (27.8%). In total, 64.7% of the patients were successfully treated at discharge, whereas treatment failed in 35.3% of the patients. Conclusions: Cryptococcal meningitis is an infrequent disease with a high fatality rate in children in China. The majority of patients were apparently healthy. Clinicians should consider cryptococcal infection as a potential pathogen of pediatric meningitis. Cryptococcal antigen, India ink smear and culture tests are recommended for diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]