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In 2019, two distinct bacterial isolates were independently isolated from the fecal samples of separate dogs in Beijing, China. These cells exhibit microaerobic, are Gram-negative, motile, and possess a characteristic spiral shape with bipolar single flagellum. They display positive results for the oxidase test while being negative for both catalase and urease. These organisms measure approximately 0.2-0.3 µm in width and 4.5-6 µm in length. The colonies are wet, flat, grey, circular, and smooth with sizes ranging from 1 to 2mm in diameter after 2 days of growth. However, strains may exhibit variations in size and morphology following extended incubation. Phylogenetic analyses based on the 16S rRNA gene and core genome indicated that these two isolates belong to the genus Helicobacter and formed a robust clade that was remains distinctly separate from currently recognized species. These two isolates shared low dDDH relatedness and ANI values with their closest species Helicobacter canis CCUG 32756T, with these values falling below the commonly cutoff values for strains of the same species. The genomic DNAG + C contents of strain XJK30-2 were 44.93 mol%. Comparing the phenotypic and phylogenetic features between these two isolates and their closely related species, XJK30-2 represents a novel species within the genus Helicobacter, for which the name Helicobacter zhangjianzhongii sp. nov. (Type strain XJK30-2T = GDMCC 1.3695T) is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

White LEDs, which have been widely used in the urban street lighting, are increasingly applied to replace traditional HPS lamps with a lower CCT (correlated color temperature). Generally, studies on the CCT of street lighting focus on providing safe functional lighting for vehicle drivers. However, it is still unknown how the street light color can affect pedestrians’ perception and preferences with respect to lighting levels and ambient temperature. In this study, a wide range of CCTs (1,600–5,400 K) was measured for urban street lighting in Beijing, China, for example. And the transition from traditional HPS lamps to LEDs lacks a reference street lighting standard for CCT. The study aims to conduct a cross-sensory test to evaluate urban street lighting with multiple combinations of CCT values and illuminance levels according to pedestrians’ visual perception and psychological preferences. A total of 18 night street lighting scenes with six CCT values and three illuminance levels were first selected in Beijing city, and then HDR videos of these scenes were taken from the view of pedestrians to conduct psychological experiments in an indoor environment with three ambient temperatures. A total of 77 university students (24 males) were invited to assess videos of the 18 lighting scenes in terms of seven factors, such as lighting brightness, color temperature sensation, light color preference, sense of safety, recognition, comfort, and overall preference. Several key findings were achieved as follows. (1) The CCT of urban street lighting can have significant effects on the visual psychological perceptions of participants. (2) There was a significant interaction between CCT, illuminance, and ambient temperature on the visual psychological performances of participants. (3) The higher ambient temperature will deliver the higher level of overall preference for the street lighting with medium and high CCT, and the perception of warmer light color. (4) There was a strong correlation found between participants’ light color preference, comfort, and overall preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Respiratory involvement is common in immunoglobulin G4-related disease (IgG4-RD). However, severe asthma as the initial clinical manifestation of IgG4-RD is rare and might be neglected by respiratory clinicians. We aimed to explore the clinical characteristics and prognoses of patients with immunoglobulin G4-related disease (IgG4-RD) manifesting as severe asthma.Methods: A retrospective analysis of the clinical characteristics and prognoses of patients with severe asthma who were eventually diagnosed with IgG4-RD was performed in the Peking Union Medical College Hospital from 2013 to 2019.Results: Twelve patients (5males, 7 females) were included. The mean age at enrollment and age of asthma onset were 59.4 ± 10.1 and 53.8 ± 10.4 years, respectively. The mean duration of asthma symptoms was 5.7 ± 2.0 years. In all patients, the proportion (25.1 ± 10.3%) and count (2.0 ± 1.1) × 109/L of eosinophils in peripheral blood increased. Additionally, all patients exhibited elevated total immunoglobulin E [IgE, (1279.3 ± 1257.9) KU/L] and IgG4 (9155.8 ± 9247.6) mg/dL. Bronchial wall thickening (n = 11) and mediastinal/hilar lymphadenopathy (n = 11) were major chest CT manifestations. All were pathologically diagnosed through surgical biopsy; submandibular gland (n = 8), supraclavicular lymph node (n = 2), stomach (n = 1), rashes (n = 1), lacrimal gland (n = 1) and thoracoscopic lung (n = 1) biopsies were performed. Asthma was well controlled by oral glucocorticoids (GCs), but some patients relapsed during tapering (n = 11). The refractory condition was controlled after increasing the dosage of GCs and add-on immunosuppressants.Conclusions: For patients with middle age-onset severe asthma with elevated eosinophils, total IgE and IgG4 levels and available salivary gland ultrasound imaging, ruling out IgG4-RD is recommended. GCs used in combination with immunosuppressants is recommended to prevent relapse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil moisture is an important indicator for agricultural planting and agricultural water management. People have been trying to guide crop cultivation, formulate irrigation systems, and develop intelligent agriculture by knowing exactly what the soil moisture is in real time. This paper considers the impact of meteorological parameters on soil-moisture change and proposes a soil-moisture prediction method based on the Gene Expression Programming (GEP) algorithm. The prediction model is tested on datasets from Shunyi, Yanqing and Daxing agricultural farms, Beijing. The results show that the GEP model can predict soil moisture with a maximum correlation coefficient of 0.98, and the root-mean-square errors in three different farms were below 2.32. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water pollution and water shortage are two of the most important environmental problems in Beijing, China. Water quality of rainfall from July to August 2011 and runoff from a felt roof and an asphalt road were analyzed chemically and further investigated because these are potential sources for augmenting city supplies. Results indicate that chemical oxygen demand (CODCr), total phosphorus (TP), total nitrogen (TN), and ammonia nitrogen (NH4+-N) concentrations of initial runoff from roofs and roads all exceeded the Class V surface water quality standard developed by the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People's Republic of China (MEP). CODCr concentration from road surfaces was more than 313.55 mg/L at the initial runoff stage, decreasing asymptotically to lower levels with increased rainfall duration. There is strong correlation between CODCr, TP, TN concentrations and that of total suspended solids in road runoff. Runoff from roofs, after treatment by grid filter, flocculation and sedimentation, can be used as city municipal and domestic water except during the initial runoff stage. However, runoff from road surfaces cannot be directly reused. For city planning, this conclusion may benefit the promotion of rainwater as a renewable water supply, and avoid flooding and water scarcity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives: Vitamin A is vital for the growth and health of children. This study aimed to estimate the current vitamin A status and the prevalence of vitamin A deficiency (VAD) among preschool children and explore the correlation between serum vitamin A concentration and changes in hematological parameters. Methods and Study Design: The study included 697 children aged 1-6 years, presenting for routine checkups at the Department of Pediatrics, Peking University Shougang Hospital, Beijing, from April 2017 to December 2020. We obtained the complete laboratory test data of 630 children. Results: The mean serum vitamin A concentration among preschool children was 0.29±0.08 mg/L, with a median of 0.29 mg/L. The proportion of children with VAD and marginal VAD (MVAD) was 9.84% and 43.49%, respectively. The highest prevalence of VAD and MVAD was in the 3- to 4-year age group. Compared with the normal vitamin A serum concentration group, other groups had lower mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, and higher red blood cell distribution width. The mean serum vitamin A concentration among anemic children was significantly lower (0.27±0.07 mg/L) than among those children who were not anemic (p<0.05). Conclusions: VAD constitutes a public health problem in northern China. The prevalence of VAD is highest, and the serum vitamin A concentration was the lowest among preschool children aged 3-4 years. Vitamin A serum concentration was associated with red blood cell indices. We should attach more importance to those children aged 3-4 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban parks are vital ecological recreational places, and their spatial evolution has a certain influence on the ecological environment and quality of citizens' daily life. Taking Beijing as an example, this paper firstly explores the dynamic evolution of urban parks in Beijing by comparing spatial distribution characteristics in three time points of 2005, 2010, and 2017. Besides changes in number and area, the spatial structure and accessibility are examined by the methods of directional distribution, kernel density estimation and network analysis. Then three-factor analysis method is used to explain the evolution mechanism. The results reveal that there exist obvious and continuous growths in urban parks regardless of quantity, area or accessibility. According to the core-periphery spatial distribution pattern, Beijing has gradually formed a systematic green recreational network, and the service area of urban parks by walking within 30 min is 58.6 % of total area. Stability factors, dynamic factors and random factors play important roles during the spatial evolution of urban parks through restraint mechanism, supply-demand mechanism and triggering mechanism respectively. The findings offer both theoretical construct and policy recommendations for the development and sustainability of urban parks in Beijing and other rapidly urbanizing cities with high population densities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Campylobacter spp. is the most common gastrointestinal pathogen worldwide with a very low reported incidence in China. In April 2018, one 36 cases of diarrhea outbreak occurred in a high school in Beijing after a trip to another province in Southern China. The investigation for the enteric pathogen infection was conducted to identify the cause. Methodology: Eighteen stool specimens from 11 diarrheal patients and 3 close contacts were collected and tested for 16 enteric bacterial and viral pathogens using real-time PCR methods. Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST), pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and antimicrobial susceptibility testing were applied to C. jejuni isolates in this outbreak in order to characterize the incident. Results: Ten (90.9%) of 11 stool specimens from diarrheal patients were positive for Campylobacter jejuni, confirmed as the cause of outbreak. Eight C. jejuni strains were obtained and produced 2 sequence types (STs) and 3 PFGE patterns. Six of them had the same ST (ST2274) and PFGE pattern (SMA001). The dominant outbreak strain with an identical subtyping profile was clustered with most chicken isolates from national MLST and PulseNet Campylobacter database. The entire 8 isolates were multi-drug resistant, with the dominant resistance pattern of nalidixic acid, tetracycline and ciprofloxacin combined, except for 2 isolates resistant to florfenicol. Conclusion: Molecular typing confirmed that most of the cases belonged to a clonal cluster supporting the hypothesis of a common source; however, the source was not identified. This was the first recognized Campylobacteriosis outbreak in China among 20 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ambient aerosol samples were collected at an urban site and an upwind rural site of Beijing during the CAREBEIJING-2008 (Campaigns of Air quality REsearch in BEIJING and surrounding region) summer field campaign. Contributions of primary particles and secondary organic aerosols (SOA) were estimated by chemical mass balance (CMB) modeling and tracer-yield method. The apportioned primary and secondary sources explain 73.8% ± 9.7% and 79.6% ± 10.1% of the measured OC at the urban and rural sites, respectively. Secondary organic carbon (SOC) contributes to 32.5 ± 15.9% of the organic carbon (OC) at the urban site, with 17.4 ± 7.6% from toluene, 9.7 ± 5.4% from isoprene, 5.1 ± 2.0% from á-pinene, and 2.3 ± 1.7% from α-caryophyllene. At the rural site, the secondary sources are responsible for 38.4 ± 14.4% of the OC, with the contributions of 17.3 ± 6.9%, 13.9 ± 9.1%, 5.6 ± 1.9%, and 1.7 ± 1.0% from toluene, isoprene, α-pinene, and β-caryophyllene, respectively. Compared with other regions in the world, SOA in Beijing is less aged, but the concentrations are much higher; between the sites, SOA is more aged and affected by regional transport at the urban site. The high SOA loading in Beijing is probably attributed to the high regional SOC background (2 ìg m-3). The toluene SOC concentration is high and comparable at the two sites, implying that some anthropogenic components, at least toluene SOA, are widespread in Beijing and represents a major factor in affecting the regional air quality. The aerosol gaseous precursor concentrations and temperature correlate well with SOA, both affecting SOA formation. The significant SOA enhancement with increasing water uptake and acidification indicates that the aqueous-phase reactions are largely responsible SOA formation in Beijing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To examine the frequency and distribution of antibodies against pandemic influenza A (H1N1 2009) [H1N1] in populations in Beijing and elucidate influencing factors. Methods: In January 2010, a randomized serologic survey of pandemic influenza A (H1N1 2009) was carried out. Six districts that were randomly selected with a total of 4601 participants involved in the survey have their antibody level tested by hemagglutination inhibition assay. Results: Among the 4601 participants, the overall seropositive rate for pandemic influenza A (H1N1 2009) antibodies was 31.7%. The seropositivity prevalence in participants who received the pandemic H1N1 vaccination was 60.9%. Only 53.1% of the pandemic influenza A (H1N1 2009) seropositive individuals who had not received the vaccination experienced respiratory tract infection symptoms. Multivariate logistic regression revealed that factors such as age, occupation, dwelling type, whether the participant''s family included students in school, and the vaccination history with pandemic influenza A (H1N1 2009) were associated with antibody titers (p <0.05). Conclusions: Our data indicated that almost 30.0% of the residents had appropriate antibody titers against pandemic influenza A (H1N1 2009) in Beijing, and these titers may provide an immune barrier. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]