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Objective: Both patients and physicians may be hesitant toward vaccination in patients with asthma, which may result in lower vaccine uptake. The aim of this work was to investigate the vaccination rate, the adverse reactions, as well as the factors associated with vaccine acceptance and hesitancy toward COVID-19 vaccination among asthmatic patients in Beijing. Methods: A multi-center, cross-sectional face-to-face survey was conducted in patients with asthma consecutively recruited from December 2021 to April 2022. The survey included asthma status, COVID-19 vaccine uptake and adverse reactions, and knowledge of and attitude toward COVID-19 vaccination. Results: A total of 261 patients were enrolled. The rate of COVID-19 vaccination during the study period was 73.6%, as compared to 87.64% in the general population in China. Patients who were currently working, had received other vaccines in the past, and had had no adverse reactions to other vaccines, showed a higher rate of COVID-19 vaccination. Patients believing that the vaccination of family members and colleagues had a positive impact on their decision to get vaccinated, were more likely to get the COVID-19 vaccines. The COVID-19 vaccination rate was lower in those with poorly monitored asthma and those using biologic therapies. The adverse effects of COVID-19 vaccines in asthmatic patients were similar to those in the general population. Conclusion: The COVID-19 vaccination rate in asthmatic patients was lower than the general population in China. Active measures should be taken to control asthma and increase vaccination rates in these patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To explore the genotyping characteristics of human fecal Escherichia coli (E. coli) and the relationships between antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and multidrug resistance (MDR) of E. coli in Miyun District, Beijing, an area with high incidence of infectious diarrheal cases but no related data. Over a period of 3 years, 94 E. coli strains were isolated from fecal samples collected from Miyun District Hospital, a surveillance hospital of the National Pathogen Identification Network. The antibiotic susceptibility of the isolates was determined by the broth microdilution method. ARGs, multilocus sequence typing (MLST), and polymorphism trees were analyzed using whole-genome sequencing data (WGS). This study revealed that 68.09% of the isolates had MDR, prevalent and distributed in different clades, with a relatively high rate and low pathogenicity. There was no difference in MDR between the diarrheal (49/70) and healthy groups (15/24). We developed a random forest (RF) prediction model of TEM.1 + baeR + mphA + mphB + QnrS1 + AAC.3-IId to identify MDR status, highlighting its potential for early resistance identification. The causes of MDR are likely mobile units transmitting the ARGs. In the future, we will continue to strengthen the monitoring of ARGs and MDR, and increase the number of strains to further verify the accuracy of the MDR markers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To explore the risk factors of elevated alanine aminotransferase (ALT) in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and to establish a risk prediction model of elevated ALT in patients with NAFLD. Methods: A total of 200 NAFLD subjects were enrolled in a third-class hospital in Beijing. The relevant clinical indexes and TCM tongue picture data were collected standardized. According to the elevation of ALT, the patients were divided into ALT elevation group and ALT normal group. The independent risk factors of ALT elevation were obtained by logistic regression analysis. Based on this, the logistic regression prediction model of ALT elevation in NAFLD patients was established, and the calibration of the model was evaluated by Hosmer-Lemshow goodness-of-fit test. The area under the subject's working characteristic curve (AUROC) was used to test the discrimination of the model. Results: The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the OR value of male, obesity, elevated total cholesterol (TC), elevated triglyceride (TG) and prickly tongue were 6.059, 2.216, 2.649, 2.106, 3.646, respectively, and the P-values were all < 0.05. The AUROC of logistic regression prediction Model 1 (without prickly tongue) and Model 2 (include prickly tongue) were 0.771 (95%CI:0.703-0.840) and 0.801 (95%CI:0.736-0.866), respectively, and the maximum Youden index, sensitivity and specificity were 0.414, 0.829, 0.585 and 0.478, 0.686, 0.792, respectively. Conclusion: Male, obesity, elevated TC, elevated TG and prickly tongue were independent risk factors for elevated ALT in NAFLD patients; This study established an integrated traditional Chinese and Western medicine model that includes the tongue characteristics, which have certain clinical value in predicting the risk of elevated ALT in patients with NAFLD, and are worth popularizing and applying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recurrent tuberculosis (TB) is a major health problem in countries with a high TB burden. It is very necessary to elucidate the situation of recurrent TB in Beijing, capital of China. To determine the proportion of recurrent tuberculosis (TB) cases and to identify relapsed or reinfected cases, as well as risk factors associated with recurrence in Beijing. We conducted a retrospective study that included all TB cases in Beijing that were successfully treated from 2013 to 2015. Recurrence due to relapse or reinfection was determined using the variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) method. Risk factors associated with recurrence were analysed. Tuberculosis recurred in 275 of the 4043 successfully treated TB patients, giving a recurrence rate of 6.8% (275/4043). 190 of the 275 cases were culture positive in both instances, and genotyping results for both episodes were available for 58 of these patients. The cultured isolates from 40 of the 58 recurrent cases (69%) had identical genotypic patterns in both episodes, indicating a relapse. 31% (18/58) had different genotypes, indicating reinfection by a new strain and suggested recent transmission. Those people in the 30–59 age group (p <.001), and those retreated for pulmonary TB (p <.001) were more likely to have TB recurrence. Our results indicate that relapse was more common than reinfection in recurrent TB cases in Beijing from 2013 to 2015. Age and retreatment were found to be risk factors for TB recurrence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water uptake by aerosol particles alters its light-scattering characteristics significantly. However, the hygroscopicities of different aerosol particles are not the same due to their different chemical and physical properties. Such differences are explored by making use of extensive measurements concerning aerosol optical and microphysical properties made during a field experiment from December 2018 to March 2019 in Beijing. The aerosol hygroscopic growth was captured by the aerosol optical characteristics obtained from micropulse lidar, aerosol chemical composition, and aerosol particle size distribution information from ground monitoring, together with conventional meteorological measurements. Aerosol hygroscopicity behaves rather distinctly for mineral dust coarse-mode aerosol (Case I) and non-dust fine-mode aerosol (Case II) in terms of the hygroscopic enhancement factor, f β (R H , λ 532 ) , calculated for the same humidity range. The two types of aerosols were identified by applying the polarization lidar photometer networking method (POLIPHON). The hygroscopicity for non-dust aerosol was much higher than that for dust conditions with the f β (R H , λ 532 ) being around 1.4 and 3.1, respectively, at the relative humidity of 86% for the two cases identified in this study. To study the effect of dust particles on the hygroscopicity of the overall atmospheric aerosol, the two types of aerosols were identified and separated by applying the polarization lidar photometer networking method in Case I. The hygroscopic enhancement factor of separated non-dust fine-mode particles in Case I had been significantly strengthened, getting closer to that of the total aerosol in Case II. These results were verified by the hygroscopicity parameter, κ (Case I non-dust particles: 0.357 ± 0.024; Case II total: 0.344 ± 0.026), based on the chemical components obtained by an aerosol chemical speciation instrument, both of which showed strong hygroscopicity. It was found that non-dust fine-mode aerosol contributes more during hygroscopic growth and that non-hygroscopic mineral dust aerosol may reduce the total hygroscopicity per unit volume in Beijing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution has been a major concern in China, especially in densely populated megacities. Particulate pollutants, generally known as aerosols, have sizes that range widely and complex physical and chemical compositions with high spatiotemporal variabilities. We have conducted a series of experiments using the same comprehensive observation system, measuring various aerosol properties in the three megacities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Although there are differences in the total particle number concentration and particle number size distribution among the three sites due to differences in emission sources and sampling seasons, a high proportion of ultrafine particles was observed in all cities, i.e., 86.33%, 88.34%, and 81.1%, respectively. The high particle number concentration at the Beijing and Guangzhou sites was caused by an increase in nucleation-mode particles at nighttime. The concentration of nucleation-mode particles at nighttime was significantly higher than during the daytime. We call this phenomenon a nocturnal nucleation event, and combined with analyses of factors involved, attribute this event to traffic emissions. To investigate the pollution sources at each location, we identified and quantified the pollution contributions from different sources by applying the k-means clustering analysis to observational datasets of environmental quantities. Clustering results showed that traffic emissions were the main contributor in Beijing and Guangzhou, with direct and significant impacts ranging from 37% to 45%, respectively. • Particle sources were identified and quantified in three Chinese megacities by K-means clustering. • Frequent Nocturnal Nucleation Events have been observed in Beijing and Guangzhou. • Traffic emissions were the main contributor in Beijing and Guangzhou. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]