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Aim: With the implementation of China's three‐child policy in 2021, the nurse population faces an increase in the number of breastfeeding nurses returning to work after maternity leave. This study aims to describe the work experience of breastfeeding nurses returning to work after maternity leave. Design: A qualitative descriptive design. Methods: The data were collected through semi‐structured interviews with eight nurses and analysed through Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis. Results: Three themes and nine sub‐themes emerged from the analysis of the interviews: changes in nurses (emotional changes, physical changes and changes in work); needs for an improving work environment (needs for a supportive workplace and nurse shortage); support for breastfeeding nurses (support from coworkers, support from the manager, support from the organisation and own need for work). Public Contribution: This study highlighted that breastfeeding nurses need an adjustment period when they return to work after maternity leave. Successful breastfeeding requires support from coworkers, managers and the organisation. In addition, workplace support for breastfeeding and management for nurses needs to be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Questions: Woody-shrub encroachment affects community structure and composition. However, most studies focus on their effects on understorey plant communities, and the relative importance of shrubs in affecting plants vs soil biota communities is poorly known. Location: Inner Mongolian Steppe, China. Methods: We examined the effect of shrubs on multiple community attributes, including plants, soil biota (bacteria, fungi and nematodes), and soil fertility, and quantified how these effects changed from semi-arid to hyperarid conditions (from 281 mm to 110 mm of mean annual precipitation). In addition, we assessed whether the effects of shrubs on plant communities were directly mediated by biotic filtering in seed germination and establishment, or indirectly mediated by plant biomass or soil fertility in the case of soil organisms. Results: The effect of shrubs on soil biota was generally more positive than on plants, and it increased with aridity. We found that a larger proportion of below-ground taxa depended on shrub presence (36%) than plants (20%). Soil nematodes and soil bacteria were directly influenced by shrub presence whereas soil fungi were indirectly influenced by enhanced soil fertility. Shrubs also increased plant biomass under all conditions but only increased plant species richness in the most arid conditions. Despite the generally positive effect of shrubs, and the fact that they weakened the filtering effects of aridity on seed germination, aridity was a stronger predictor of changes in species composition than shrub presence was, particularly for plants. Conclusions: Our results illustrate the variety of positive effects of shrubs and show that they are particularly important in supporting biodiversity in the most arid conditions. These strong and positive effects could partially buffer the impacts of increasing aridity on dryland soil biodiversity, but our study suggests that facilitative interactions may not be able to completely mitigate the impacts of increasing aridity on drylands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction This study examined the validity and reliability of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 ( PHQ-9) and Patient Health Questionnaire-2 ( PHQ-2). The optimal cutoff score when screening for depression among Chinese college students was also determined. Methods A total of 959 participants completed the PHQ-9 and the Beck Depression Inventory ( BDI) questionnaire. The Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders was used to diagnose depression. Statistical tests were performed to determine the reliability, validity, and receiver operating characteristic curve of the data. The concurrent validity was tested by examining associations between PHQ-9 and BDI. The sensitivity and specificity, as well as the positive and negative predictive values, were calculated for different cutoff scores of PHQ-9 and PHQ-2. Results The internal consistency values of PHQ-9 and PHQ-2 were 0.854 and 0.727, respectively. The test-retest reliability values of PHQ-9 and PHQ-2 were 0.873 and 0.829, respectively. The scores of PHQ-9 ( r = 0.790) and PHQ-2 ( r = 0.651) were significantly associated with that of BDI. PHQ-9 had an optimal cutoff score of 11, which indicated a sensitivity of 0.89 and a specificity of 0.97, with an area under the curve of 0.977 (95% confidence interval: 0.966-0.988). The PHQ-2 demonstrated satisfactory sensitivity (0.81) and specificity (0.96) at the cutoff score of 3, and its area under the curve was 0.939. Discussion The PHQ-9 and the PHQ-2 are valid and reliable tools to screen depression in Chinese college students. For screening purposes, cutoff scores of 11 and 3 are recommended for PHQ-9 and PHQ-2, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts of gerontology studies including the use of an aging rat model with Pseudomonas aeruginosa pneumonia, the significance of clinical presentation with risk factors in coronary heart disease diagnosis, one on prognosis of acute coronary syndrome in older patients.

Ginkgo biloba is monotypic species native to China and has old, dioecious, medicinally important characteristics. The functional genes related to these characteristics have not been effectively explored due to a limited number of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from Ginkgo. To discover novel functional genes efficiently and to understand the development of a living fossil tree, Ginkgo, we used massive parallel pyrosequencing on the Roche 454 GS FLX Titanium platform to generate 64 057 ESTs. The ESTs combined with the 21 590 Ginkgo ESTs in genbank were assembled into 22 304 unique putative transcripts, in which 13 922 novel unique putative transcripts were identified by 454 sequencing. After being assigned to putative functions with Gene Ontology terms, a detailed view of the Ginkgo biological systems was displayed, including characterization of unique putative transcripts with homology to known key enzymes and transcription factors involved in ginkgolide/bilobalide and flavonoid biosynthetic pathways, as well as unique putative transcripts related to development, response to disease and defence. The fact that three full-length Ginkgo genes encoding key enzymes were found and cloned, suggests that high-throughput sequencing technology is superior to traditional gene-by-gene approach in discovery of genes. Additionally, a total of 204 simple sequence repeat motifs were detected. Our study not only lays the foundations for transcriptome-led studies in biosynthetic mechanisms, but also contributes significantly to the understanding of functional genomics and development in non-model plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although associations of the liver enzymes alanine aminotransaminase (ALT) and -glutamyltransferase (GGT) with metabolic syndrome (MetS) are well recognized, whether they are independent of insulin resistance and which enzyme is more effective are yet to be clarified. A total of 5404 subjects aged ≥40 years were recruited from two urban communities in Shanghai for cross-sectional analyses. A subgroup of 681 participants without MetS at baseline was included in the longitudinal analyses. Insulin resistance was measured using the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), and the modified National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III criteria were adopted to diagnose MetS. Both GGT and ALT were strongly and positively associated with MetS risks in simple and multivariate analyses. Further adjustment for HOMA-IR and ALT did not change the association of GGT and MetS materially, whereas adjustment for HOMA-IR and GGT substantially attenuated the ALT-MetS association. In longitudinal analyses, risks of developing MetS were increased across GGT quartiles in a dose-dependent manner after extensive adjustments (odds ratios were 1.00, 1.38, 1.62, and 2.29 for GGT, quartile 1 through quartile 4; P for trend = 0.01). In contrast, ALT was no longer associated with MetS development after final adjustment for GGT ( P for trend = 0.09). Our study confirmed significant and independent associations of GGT and ALT with MetS in adult Chinese people. Moreover, GGT might be more effective for indicating the future development of MetS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To study the symptom dimensions of Chinese patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), the symptom checklist of the Dimensional Yale–Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (DY-BOCS) was used to assess the symptom dimensions of 139 OCD patients at a mental health center in Shanghai. The most common symptom dimensions were symmetry (67.6%), contamination (43.2%), and aggression (31.7%). The frequency of patients with the miscellaneous, sexual/religious, and hoarding symptom dimensions was 25.9%, 10.8%, and 8.6%, respectively. The frequency of male patients with symmetry concerns was higher than that of the female patients, and the frequency of female patients with contamination concerns was higher than that of male patients. OCD symptom dimensions can be identified in the Chinese context but there is a low frequency of endorsement of certain dimensions: sexual/religious, aggression, and hoarding concerns. Future studies need to further investigate the sociocultural and gender factors that may result in these findings: low numbers of people in China with a religious affiliation and the Chinese emphasis on Confucian harmony philosophy, thrift, and saving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Serum C-reactive protein (CRP) and microalbuminuria are predictors of cardiovascular disease. The association of these factors of cardiovascular risk with fasting and 2-h postload plasma glucose in a group of Chinese subjects was investigated. Design This was a cross-sectional cohort study. Subjects and methods In 1776 subjects randomly selected from the permanent residents of a community in the city of Shanghai, China, a simplified 75-g oral glucose tolerance test (fasting and 2-h postload blood sampling only) was performed, and serum CRP concentrations and urinary albumin : creatinine ratio were measured. Results Serum CRP concentration significantly increased from 1·62 mg/l in normoglycaemic subjects to 2·63 mg/l in subjects with impaired glucose regulation, and to 3·09 mg/l in newly diagnosed diabetic patients ( P < 0·0001). The corresponding prevalence of microalbuminuria also increased from 4·3% to 6·6% and to 11·4% ( P < 0·0001). Both before and after adjustment for confounders, fasting and 2-h postload plasma glucose levels were significantly associated with serum CRP concentration and the risk of microalbuminuria ( P < 0·003). However, the association for CRP tended to be more prominent with 2-h postload plasma glucose than with fasting plasma glucose. Indeed, with adjustments applied, for 1 SD change in fasting and 2-h postload plasma glucose concentration, serum CRP concentration increased by 14% and 18% (between the two regression coefficients, P = 0·01), respectively. With similar adjustments, for 1 SD change in fasting and 2-h postload plasma glucose concentration, the odds of microalbuminuria increased by 28% and 32% ( P = 0·28 for the difference between 28% and 32%), respectively. Conclusions Our finding suggests that in Chinese plasma glucose, especially 2-h postload, is associated with biological markers of cardiovascular disease, such as serum CRP concentration and microalbuminuria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of the ShanghaiGrid is to provide information services to the people. It aims to construct a metropolitan-area information service infrastructure and establish an open standard for widespread upper-layer applications from both communities and the government. The Information Service Grid Toolkit and a typical application called the Traffic Information Grid are discussed in detail. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To explore the relationship between macro-economic indicators and incidences of adverse events linked to intrauterine devices (IUDs)., Methods: Data on IUD-associated adverse events were collected from a cohort study conducted between September 2005 and December 2006. Regional economic data were from the 2006 National Economic and Social Development Statistical Bulletins and Statistical Yearbooks of various regions. A total of 20,220 IUD users in 236 towns in Jiangsu, Shanghai, Guangdong, Anhui, Sichuan, and Chongqing provinces in China were included in this study. Linear correlation and regression analyses were used to analyze the relationships between regional income and total incidences of adverse events, incidences of mild adverse events, and incidences of severe adverse events., Results: Incidences of total adverse events and mild adverse events were positively correlated with regional economic level (rs= 0.336, p < 0.05; rs= 0.272, p < 0.05), while incidences of severe adverse events were not correlated with regional economic level., Conclusions: The positive relationship between regional economic level and reported IUD-associated mild adverse events likely reflects income-related disparities in women seeking care and receiving treatment for mild adverse events. This points to a need to improve both public health education and the quality of health services, particularly in poorer areas., (© 2011 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd and Chinese Cochrane Center, West China Hospital of Sichuan University.)