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Noninvasive, practical, and convenient means of detection for the prediction of liver fibrosis and cirrhosis in China are greatly needed.To develop a precise noninvasive test to stage liver fibrosis and cirrhosis.With liver biopsy as the gold standard, we established a new index, [alkaline phosphatase (U/L) + gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (U/L)/platelet (10Correlation analysis revealed a significant positive correlation between AGPR and liver fibrosis stage (The AGPR index should become a new, simple, accurate, and noninvasive marker to predict liver fibrosis and cirrhosis in chronic hepatitis B patients.

We aimed to explore the associations between the age at which children undergo surgery for hypospadias and a range of social and clinical factors in a single center. Our aim was to promote the early surgical treatment of children with hypospadias. For a 6-year period, social and clinical data were collected from all children undergoing surgery to repair hypospadias in Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University (Chongqing, China), located in southwest of China. We analyzed the correlations between age at surgery and a range of social and clinical factors. A total of 1611 eligible cases were recruited, with a mean age of 54.3 months and a median age of 42 months: 234 cases (14.5%) were classified into a "timely operation" group, 419 (26.0%) cases into a "subtimely operation" group, and 958 (59.5%) cases into a "delayed operation" group. According to multivariate regression analyses, the higher the regional economic level, the closer the urethral opening to the perineum, and the higher the educational level of the guardians was, the younger the children were when they underwent the initial surgery for hypospadias; this was also the case for families without other children. Our subgroup analysis showed that the primary educational level of the guardians was a risk factor for subtimely surgery in their children (odds ratio [OR] = 1.52, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.08-2.15, P < 0.05). A lower regional economic level (OR = 1.87, 95% CI: 1.26-2.78, P < 0.01), a lower educational level of the guardians (OR = 3.84, 95% CI: 2.31-6.41, P < 0.01), and an anterior-segment urethral opening (OR1 [vs middle hypospadias] = 2.07, 95% CI: 1.42-3.03; OR2 [vs posterior hypospadias] = 2.63, 95% CI: 1.75-3.95; P < 0.01) were all risk factors for delayed surgery in children.

The traditional hydrology method, stable hydrogen and oxygen isotope technology, and rainfall simulation method were combined to investigate the hydrological function of small experimental plots (2 m×1.2 m) of contrasting architecture in Northwest Guangxi dolomite area. There were four typical catenary soils along the dolomite peak-cluster slope, which were the whole-sand, up-loam and down-sand, the whole loam, up-clay and down-sand soil types, respectively. All the experimental plots generated little amounts of overland runoff and had a high surface infiltration rate, ranging from 41 to 48 mm·h综合运用传统水文学、氢氧稳定同位素和原位模拟降雨等方法,研究了桂西北白云岩坡地典型土体构型石灰土微区(2 m×1.2 m)土壤水文功能.白云岩峰丛坡地沿坡向下表现出通体砂、上壤下砂、通体壤、上黏下砂4种典型石灰土土链格局,所有构型土体微区地表稳定入渗速率高达41～48 mm·h

With the development of the binary structure of karst landforms, surface water is largely drained with rapid loss of nutrients. However, the pathway and mechanism of nutrient loss remain elusive. From a three-dimensional (vegetation-soil-epikarst system) perspective of a critical zone in karst area, this study conducted rainfall induced runoff and nitrogen loss monitoring during monsoon in karst shrub slopes. Isotope-based (D and喀斯特二元结构发育,地表水大量漏失,养分表现出快速流失的特点,然而养分流失的途径和机制尚不清楚.本研究从喀斯特关键带三维空间的视角,通过监测喀斯特灌丛坡地雨季典型降雨产流和氮素流失特征,基于氢氧稳定同位素技术对主要水文路径“新旧水”比例进行划分,并探讨氮素流失的主要途径和机制.结果表明:深层渗漏和壤中流是喀斯特灌丛坡地主要水文路径,两者分别占降雨量的71%和9%,地表径流仅占2%;深层渗漏、壤中流均以“旧水”为主,“旧水”比例分别为85%、61%;硝态氮浓度在深层渗漏中最高(1.97 mg·L

Based on three manually excavated trenches (projection length of 21 m, width of 1 m) along a typical Karst hillslope, the changing trends for soil-bedrock structure, average water content of soil profile and soil-bedrock interface water content along each individual trench were studied. The effect of irregular bedrock topography on soil moisture distribution was discussed. The results showed that the surface topography was inconsistent with the bedrock topography in the Karst hill-slopes. The bedrock topography was highly irregular with a maximum variation coefficient of 82%. The distribution pattern of soil profile of moisture was significantly affected by the underlying undulant bedrock. The soil water content was related to slope position when the fluctuation was gentle, and displayed a linear increase from upslope to downslope. When the bedrock fluctuation increased, the downslope linear increasing trend for soil water content became unapparent, and the spatial continuity of soil moisture was weakened. The soil moisture was converged in rock dents and cracks. The average water content of soil profile was significantly positively correlated with the soil-bedrock interface water content, while the latter responded more sensitively to the bedrock fluctuation.研究了喀斯特地区典型坡地3条人工开挖样沟(投影长21 m、宽1 m)的岩土结构特征、土壤剖面平均含水量和土岩界面含水量沿坡面向下的变化趋势,探讨了喀斯特坡地基岩起伏对土壤水分格局的影响.结果表明: 喀斯特坡地地表地形与基岩地形不一致,基岩深度变异系数最大为82%,基岩起伏较大.基岩起伏程度明显影响到土壤剖面水分分布格局: 基岩起伏较小时,土壤含水量呈上坡位至下坡位逐渐增加的趋势,且土壤剖面平均含水量和土岩界面含水量与基岩深度相关性均不显著;基岩起伏越大,土壤含水量沿坡向下线性增加的趋势越不明显,土壤水分空间连续性越差,基岩凹陷、裂隙处土壤含水量较高,土壤剖面平均含水量和土岩界面含水量与基岩深度呈极显著正相关,但后者对基岩起伏的响应更明显.

Vegetation types restrict soil structure and heterogeneous processes of elements, which result in difference in spatial distribution of soil nutrients. In this study, the differences in contents of soil nutrients, TN, TP, TK, and soil organic matter (SOM) among different vegetation types were analyzed, and the accuracy of ordinary kriging, regression model and regression model based on vegetation type in predicting soil nutrients was compared. The results showed that, TN, TK and SOM were significantly (P0.05) correlated to vegetation type, and TP had no significant correlation with vegetation type (P=0.390). TN and SOM had significant difference between shrubbery and arable land. TK had significant difference between arbor and scrub-grassland, shrubbery and arable land, and scrub-grassland and arable land, respectively. In a non-continuous typical small karst catchment, because of high spatial heterogeneity of terrain, the accuracy of multivariate linear regression model based on the real terrain factors of various points was considerably higher than that of ordinary kriging prediction method considering the locations of the known points and prediction points. Moreover, the regression model based on vegetation type improved the prediction accuracy of the TN.植被类型制约着土壤结构和元素的异质化过程,致使土壤养分空间分布存在差异性.本文研究了典型喀斯特小流域不同植被类型间土壤养分(全氮TN、全磷TP、全钾TK、有机质SOM)含量分布的差异性,分析比较了普通克里金、回归模型、基于植被类型的回归模型对土壤养分预测的精度.结果表明: TN、TK、SOM与植被类型显著相关(

This study focused on bedrock outcrops, a very common habitat in karst region of southwest China. To reveal the responses of plant transpiration to natural rainfall and continuous drought, two tree species typical to this habitat, Radermachera sinica and Triadica rotundifolia, were selected as test materials. A rainout shelter was used to simulate continuous drought. The sap flow dynamics were monitored using the method of Granier's thermal dissipation probe (TDP). Our results showed that sap flow density increased to different degrees after rain in different stages of the growing season. Sap flow density of the deciduous species T. rotundifolia was always higher than that of the semi-deciduous species R. sinica. After two months without rainfall input, both species exhibited no obvious decrease in sap flow density, indicating that rainfall was not the dominant source for their water uptake, at least in the short-term. Based on the regression relationships between sap flow density and meteorological factors before and after rainfall, as well as at different stages of continuous drought, we found that the dynamics of meteorological factors contributed little to plant transpiration. The basic transpiration characteristics of both species were not changed in the circumstance of natural rainfall and short-term continuous drought, which would be closely related to the special water storage environments of bedrock outcrops and the reliance on deep water sources by tree species.以西南喀斯特地区常见的出露基岩生境为研究对象,针对该类生境典型乔木类植物菜豆树和圆叶乌桕,应用TDP热扩散探针技术,结合遮雨试验,分析了植物树干液流对自然降水和连续干旱的响应特征.结果表明: 在生长季不同时期,降水后2树种液流密度较降水前均有一定程度的升高,但始终呈现落叶乔木圆叶乌桕高于半落叶乔木菜豆树的特征;连续2个月遮雨条件下,2树种液流密度均无明显降低的趋势,表明2树种均不依赖受近期降水主导的水源;通过对降水前后及连续干旱条件下2树种液流密度与环境因子的拟合关系研究发现,气象因素差异对水分环境变化条件下植物蒸腾耗水的影响较小.自然降水和短时期的连续干旱并未显著改变2树种的蒸腾耗水特征,这可能与出露基岩生境特殊的水分蓄持环境和乔木类植物依赖相对稳定的深层水源有关.

Through in situ observation and indoor tests, the hydrochemical characteristics of a typical karst watershed at three different time scales (diurnal, single storm, and seasonal scales) from June 2013 to March 2014 were investigated, and their influencing factors were analyzed. The results showed that the diurnal variations of the hydrochemistry exhibited a regular changing pattern resulting from the shifting of the main vegetation physiological activity from photosynthesis in the day to respiration in the night. At single storm scale, however, the hydrochemical processes were mainly determined by the number of consecutive rainless days and rainfall intensity, while the diurnal scale effect was weakened. As to the seasonal scale, the overall hydrochemical processes showed quick responses to rainfall events although they responded more quickly in the rainy season than in the dry season. The temperature and the yearly rainfall distribution regime were the two main influencing factors at this scale.

Surface soil water-physical properties play a decisive role in the dynamics of deep soil water. Knowledge of their spatial variation is helpful in understanding the processes of rainfall infiltration and runoff generation, which will contribute to the reasonable utilization of soil water resources in mountainous areas. Based on a grid sampling scheme (10 m x 10 m) and geostatistical methods, this paper aimed to study the spatial variability of surface (0-10 cm) soil water content, soil bulk density and saturated hydraulic conductivity on a typical shrub slope (90 m x 120 m, projected length) in Karst area of northwest Guangxi, southwest China. The results showed that the surface soil water content, bulk density and saturated hydraulic conductivity had different spatial dependence and spatial structure. Sample variogram of the soil water content was fitted well by Gaussian models with the nugget effect, while soil bulk density and saturated hydraulic conductivity were fitted well by exponential models with the nugget effect. Variability of soil water content showed strong spatial dependence, while the soil bulk density and saturated hydraulic conductivity showed moderate spatial dependence. The spatial ranges of the soil water content and saturated hydraulic conductivity were small, while that of the soil bulk density was much bigger. In general, the soil water content increased with the increase of altitude while it was opposite for the soil bulk densi- ty. However, the soil saturated hydraulic conductivity had a random distribution of large amounts of small patches, showing high spatial heterogeneity. Soil water content negatively (P0.01) correlated with the bulk density and saturated hydraulic conductivity, while there was no significant correlation between the soil bulk density and saturated hydraulic conductivity.

A total of 163 soil samples (0-20 cm layer) were collected from the grid sampling plots (80 m x 80 m) in Huanjiang Observation and Research Station of Karst Ecosystem in a small catchment in Karst cluster-peak depression area, South China. By using classical statistics and geostatistics, the spatial heterogeneity of mineral components (SiO2, Fe2O3, CaO, MgO, Al2O3, MnO, and TiO2) in the soils were studied. The contents of the seven soil mineral components in the study area differed greatly, being in the order of SiO2Al2O3CaOMgOFe2O3TiO2MnO, and the variance coefficients also varied obviously, in the order of CaOMgOFe2O3TiO2SiO2Al2O3MnO. The seven mineral components accounted for 69.4% of the total soil mass. The spatial patterns and the fittest models of the seven soil mineral components differed from each other. All the seven soil mineral components had a strong spatial autocorrelation, with shorter variation ranges and stronger spatial dependence. The Kriging contour maps indicated that the distribution patterns of soil SiO2, Fe2O3, Al2O3, MnO, and TiO2 were similar, being higher in south and east, lower in north and west, higher in depression, and lower in slope, while the distribution patterns of soil CaO and MgO were in adverse. Natural conditions (vegetation, bare rock rate, slope degree, and slope aspect, etc. ) and human disturbance were the most important factors affecting the spatial patterns of the soil mineral components.

RNAs of GB virus C (GBV-C) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) were sought by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction with nested primers deduced from the 5' untranslated region: 79 patients on maintenance hemodialysis, 205 commercial blood donors, and 205 voluntary donors in Beijing were studied. GBV-C RNA was detected in 43 (54%) patients and 17 (8%) commercial donors, and HCV RNA in 43 (54%) patients and 13 (6%) commercial donors, respectively. By contrast, GBV-C RNA was detected only in 2 (1%) and HCV RNA in none among 205 volunteer blood donors serving as controls. Thus both patients and commercial blood donors were at higher risk for infection with GBV-C (P < 0.001) than controls. HCV RNA was detected more often in patients with GBV-C RNA than without (29/43 or 67%, vs. 14/36 or 39%, P < 0.05) as well as in commercial donors with GBV-C RNA than without (5/17 or 29% vs. 8/188 or 4%, P < 0.01). A phylogenetic tree constructed on a sequence of 100 base pairs in the helicase region indicated that GBV-C isolates from Beijing are more similar to Japanese isolates than to isolates from the United States and Africa. Sequences from certain hemodialysis patients and those from some commercial donors were similar, suggesting nosocomial infection and spread among restricted groups.

This paper studied the profile distribution characters of 137Cs and soil organic carbon (SOC) on the Karst slopes and in the fissures in typical peak-cluster depression in Northwest Guangxi, aimed to approach the applicability of 137Cs method on Karst slopes and the implication of 37Cs for the characteristics of slope soil erosion. In all test profiles, there was a significant correlation between 137Cs and SOC, indicating that both of them might have the same loss pathway. On the slopes under secondary forests, 137Cs mainly existed within the depth 0-24 cm. On the upper middle and middle slope sites, 137Cs had an exponential decrease with depth, indicating no or slight surface erosion; while on the foot slope site, the distribution pattern of 137Cs indicated severer erosion. On the slopes with cultivated lands, 137Cs distributed uniformly within the plough layer. In the upper middle and middle slopes profiles, 137Cs mainly existed in the depth around 15 cm and far less than the background value, indicating severe soil erosion; while in foot slope profiles, 137Cs was aggraded to the depth 45 cm. A discontinuous distribution of 137Cs in the profiles was detected on the foot slopes under secondary forests, on the upper middle and foot slopes of cultivated lands, and in the fissures, indicating that the soil particles on Karst slopes had a trend of losing with rainwater to the underground, but the loss quantity was negligible, compared with surface erosion.

Soil samples were collected from the grassland, shrub land, secondary forest, and original forest on the hill slope in a typical karst peak-cluster depression area of northwest Guanxi, with the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of soil physical properties investigated by classical statistics, and the formation causes of the heterogeneity analyzed by redundancy analysis (RDA). In 0-15 cm soil layer, the clay (0.002 mm) and silt (0.002-0.05 mm) contents of shrub land and original forest had significant differences with those of grassland and secondary forest, respectively, but the clay, silt, and sand (0.05-2.0 mm) contents had no significant differences between grassland and secondary forest. No significant difference was observed in the soil sand content among the four land types, but the soil bulk density of grassland was significantly different from that of other three land types. The soil clay content of grassland increased with increasing elevation, while that of the other three land types was the highest on medium slope, and had no significant differences for the same land types among different slope locations. The soil clay content in different layers of 0-30 cm had a greater variation extent in original forest (14.55%) than in grassland (7.12%), shrub land (11.24%), and secondary forest (13.77%), and the soil particle size composition was greatly affected by the disturbance of human activities. Soil organic carbon (SOC) and vegetation type were the dominant factors affecting the soil physical properties, and the bare rock ratio had greater effects on soil sand content.

Based on 3S technique, this paper examined the responses of ecosystem service values (ESVs) to the landscape pattern change in the typical Karst area of northwest Guangxi, China in 1985, 1990, 2000 and 2005. The ESVs in the study area had close relations to landscape area, fragmentation degree, complexity of patch shape, areas of critical type, patch connectivity, and patch richness. It was linearly positively correlated with landscape area and had curvilinear positive correlations with patch index (LPI), contagion index (CONTAG), aggregative index (AI), effective mesh (MESH), proportion of like adjacencies (PLADJ), and tended to be increased with increasing patch area and patch connectivity of critical landscape type. The ESVs had curvilinear negative correlations with division index (DIVISION), split index (SPLIT), and patch richness (PRD), and decreased with increasing patch fragmentation and shrinking patch size. Therefore, it would be important to protect the critical landscape types such as woodland, shrub, and grassland, and to increase the patch size and connectivity to 'avoid further fragmentation. Moreover, it would be necessary to reduce the frequency and severity of disturbances to ensure the ESVs growth and the sustainable development of the study area.

Based on the field survey and the analysis of a large number of soil samples, the distribution of 137 Cs and its influencing factors were studied using 137 Cs tracer technology on typical karst sloping land. The results indicate that the distribution of 137 Cs in soil profile in karst areas show the similar characteristics as that in non-karst areas, fitted an exponential pattern in forest soils and a uniform pattern in cultivated soils. In the sinkhole points in karst areas, 137 Cs exists in deep soil layers and its specific activity vary from 1.7 to 3.3 Bq/kg in soil layers above 45cm, suggesting the existing soil around karst sinkhole is mainly formed by the accumulation of erosion materials. The 137 Cs specific activity in the soil from two rock cracks are 16.8 Bq/kg and 37.6 Bq/kg respectively, which are much higher than that in the soil around the rock, this phenomenon indicates that bare rock is an important influencing factor for 137 Cs spatial movement. With the increment of altitude, the 137 Cs area activity exhibits an irregular fluctuation and evident spatial heterogeneity. On the forest land, the 137 Cs area activities which range from 299.4 to 1 592.6 Bq/m2 are highly positively correlated with the slope gradient and positively correlated with the altitude; while on the cultivated land, the 137 Cs area activities which range from 115.8 to 1478.6 Bq/m2 are negatively correlated with the slope gradient but negatively correlated with the altitude. Topography, geomorphology and human disturbance intensity are the key factors influencing 137 Cs spatial distribution.

Stable isotope techniques provide a new approach to study soil water movement. The process of water movement in soils under two kinds of plant types (oil tea and corn) were studied based on the observed values of hydrogen and oxygen isotopes of precipitation and soil water at different depths in red-soil sloping land. The results showed that stable isotopes of precipitation in this area had obvious seasonal effect and rainfall effect. The stable isotopes at 0-50 cm depth in oil tea forestland and at 0-40 cm depth in corn cropland increased with the increase in depth, respectively, but they had the opposite tendency after rainfall in arid time. The stable isotopes decreased with the increase in depth below 50 cm depth in oil tea forestland and below 40 cm depth in corn cropland where evaporation influence was weak. The infiltrate rate of soil in oil tea land was affected by precipitation obviously, and it was about 50-100 mm/d after 2-3 days in heavy rain, slowed sharply later, and soil water at 50 cm depth often became a barrier layer. The permeability of soil in corn land was poor and the infiltration rate was lower. The change of stable isotopes in soil water in red soil hilly region was mainly affected by the mixing water which was formed by the antecedent precipitation, and evaporation effect took the second place. The evaporation intensity in oil tea land was lower than that in corn land, but the evaporation depth was higher.

By using canonical correspondence analysis (CCA), sixteen landscape indices were adopted to quantitatively analyze the relationships between the landscape structure and rocky desertification in karst region of Huanjiang County, Guangxi Province. The results showed that the first and the second ordination axis of CCA were strongly correlated to the factors of average patch area, average dry land patch area, landscape shape index, and landscape aggregation index. The potential rocky desertification in the region was highly positively correlated with the average dry land patch area and the average fractal dimensions of dry land and shrub land, but negatively correlated with the patch numbers of dry land. Light rocky desertification had obvious positive correlations with the fractal dimension index, average fractal dimension of unused land, and patch numbers of shrub land; while moderate and strong rocky desertification had high positive correlations with the average unused land patch area but negative correlation with the average fractal dimension of shrub land. To some extent, rocky desertification degree might be represented by the values of landscape indices. The gradient variation in karst rocky desertification along landscape structure was clearly presented by the results of CCA.

The relationship between landscape pattern and ecological process is one of the key issues in landscape ecology. Both the species protection and the bio-disaster prevention are closed linked with the landscape pattern of organism's habitat. Taking Dongting Lake area as a case, this paper studied the characteristics of landscape pattern in typical sampling plots, and analyzed the correlation of mouse capture rate in farmland and in house with the indices reflecting the characteristics of landscape pattern. The results showed that the mouse capture rate in farmland correlated significantly with the landscape aggregation, connection, and mosaic shape, while that in house had a significant correlation with the mosaic shape of construction land. Some suggestions on reducing mouse pest were put forward from the viewpoint of landscape pattern.

This paper studied the effects of planting pattern and bare rock ratio on the spatial distribution of soil nutrients in Karst depression area of northwest Guangxi. The results showed that planting pattern had significant effects on soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), total potassium (TK), available nitrogen (AN), available phosphorus (AP), available potassium (AK), and C/N. Bare rock ratio also had significant effects on SOC, TN, TP, TK, AN, AK and C/N, and was the crucial factor in determining the spatial variability of SOC, TN, TP and AN, which was mainly due to the higher intensity of cultivation in the places covered with less bare rock. Fields planted with Cajanus cajan-Castanca mollissima had significantly higher contents of SOC, TN, TN, TK, AN, and AK than those with other planting patterns, suggesting that converting farmland into forestland had positive effects on the accumulation of soil nutrients. Due to the effects of local topography and land use structure, foot slope had a higher content of SOC than depression, while fertilization made the depression have a higher content of AP than foot slope.

Based on time series analysis, the correlation between soil water and precipitation on the sloping land in red soil hilly region under two land use modes was studied from March to September, 2002-2004. The results showed that precipitation was not an autocorrelation series, while soil water at the depths of 10, 30, 50, 70 and 90 cm was an autocorrelation series with 30-45 days of time correlation range. Precipitation and land use mode were the main factors affecting the correlation of soil water and precipitation. The effect of precipitation weakened gradually with increasing soil depth. This effect lasted 7-8 days in upper soil layers (0-10 and 0-30 cm) , but no marked regularity was observed in deeper soil layers. 2-3 days after raining, precipitation had the most prominent effect on soil water in 0-100 cm soil layer. The correlation time range was 1-3 days shorter in dry season than in wet season. When it didn' t rain more than 5 days, the water content in topsoil would decrease, and even, lead to seasonal drought. Compared with farmland, tea plantation had a weaker correlation between soil water and precipitation in surface soil, but a stronger and more persistent correlation in soil layers below 50 cm.

To understand HBV serotypes and genotypes epidemiology in a northern city and a southern city in China.Using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and direct sequencing of HBV DNA PCR products, the serotypes and genotypes of HBV in 530 from HBsAg positive samples. The enrolled patients were from Harbin, a northern city and Lianjiang, a southern city in China.Comparison of the serotypes and genotypes of HBV between Harbin and Lianjiang showed that adrq+ was the most predominant hepatitis B virus serotype in both Harbin and Lianjiang (87.2% and 73.5%,respectively), adw2 was the next (12.0% and 25.7%, respectively); genotype C was the most frequent in Harbin and Lianjiang (87.8% and 73.2%, respectively), and genotype B was the next (12.2% and 26.1%, respectively) only 1 patient was infected by genotype D, and 1 patient was found to be co-infected by genotype B and C in Lianjiang.The results suggest that the percentage of HBV serotypes and genotypes between Harbin and Lianjiang was significantly different (P less than 0.001), but the main HBV serotype and genotype of the two cities were similar.

To study the relationship between HCV infection and the development of type II diabetes mellitus.1. The case record files of 126 patients with chronic hepatitis C vs. 227 with chronic hepatitis B were reviewed and the laboratory and demographic data were extracted. 2. Anti-HCV and HBsAg were determined for 160 type II diabetes patients and 223 healthy adults by ELISA.1. The occurrence of diabetes in patients with chronic hepatitis C was 19.05%, higher than 8.37% in patients with chronic hepatitis B (P0.01). Age and HCV infection were independent risk factors for diabetes. 2. Five patients with type II diabetes were anti-HCV positive (3.12%) while none of the 223 healthy adults was anti-HCV positive (P0.05). Seven patients with diabetes (4.37%) and 12 healthy adults (5.38%)were HBsAg positive (P0.05).1. The occurrence of diabetes was significantly higher in patients with HCV related liver disease than in patients with HBV related liver disease. 2. The occurrence of anti HCV was higher in diabetes patients than in healthy adults. HCV may play a role in the development of diabetes mellitus.

The leaf beetle, Ophraella communa, has been introduced to control the spread of the common ragweed, Ambrosia artemisiifolia, in China. We hypothesized that the beetle, to be able to track host-range expansion into colder climates, can phenotypically adapt to cold temperatures across generations. Therefore, we questioned whether parental experience of colder temperatures increases cold tolerance of the progeny. Specifically, we studied the demography, including development, fecundity, and survival, as well as physiological traits, including supercooling point (SCP), water content, and glycerol content of O. communa progeny whose parents were maintained at different temperature regimes. Overall, the entire immature stage decreased survival of about 0.2%–4.2% when parents experienced cold temperatures compared to control individuals obtained from parents raised at room temperature. However, intrinsic capacity for increase (r), net reproductive rate (R 0) and finite rate of increase (λ) of progeny O. communa were maximum when parents experienced cold temperatures. Glycerol contents of both female and male in progeny was significantly higher when maternal and paternal adults were cold acclimated as compared to other treatments. This resulted in the supercooling point of the progeny adults being significantly lower compared to beetles emerging from parents that experienced room temperatures. These results suggest that cold hardiness of O. communa can be promoted by cold acclimation in previous generation, and it might counter-balance reduced survival in the next generation, especially when insects are tracking their host-plants into colder climates.