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Purpose: Considering high risk of imported epidemic in port cities, it is necessary to estimate COVID-19 vaccine acceptability and to promote vaccination coverage of high-risk occupations. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was carried out among the occupations in Yantai city, China, using an online questionnaire service platform. Targeted strategies were developed based on the survey results. In addition, periodic monitoring of the vaccination rate was provided in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the strategies. Results: A total of 2231 (73.22%) of 3047 participants were willing to accept the vaccine, while 2.53% refused and 24.25% were not sure. Frontline port workers (133/152, 87.50%) and healthcare workers (999/1155, 86.49%) had higher intentions to accept, while public places and commercial service staff (584/1011, 57.76%) had the lowest. The reasons for refusal and hesitation were mainly "doubt of safety or effectiveness" (661/816, 81.00%) and "hearing previous news about vaccines" (455/816, 55.76%). Multilevel strategies such as adequate organizations, health education and promotion, and easy access to vaccination were promoted by local authorities in collaboration with schools, hospitals, enterprises and institutions. The study showed a significant increase in vaccination rate among these occupations after the implementation of these strategies (p< 0.001), reaching 87.96%. Conclusion: COVID-19 vaccine acceptability among high-risk occupations was unsatisfactory before the stage of emergency vaccination. An advanced understanding of vaccine attitudes and acceptance can aid in the development of focused immunization promotion programs. It is worth emphasizing that wide strategies with the strong support and enthusiastic cooperation of the government and the industry executive can contribute to increasing occupations' acceptance of the ongoing COVID-19 immunization project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China's rural areas, there is a sharp contradiction between the increased energy demand, serious environmental pollution and backward energy supply. The system of combined heating, power and biogas (CHPB) of multi-energy complementarity is examined in order to meet the multi-level energy demands of heating, electricity and biogas of 17 households in rural areas. Mathematical dynamic models for all operating modes of the system are established. The energy transfer rule, energy complementarity mechanism and annual dynamic characteristics of the system are analyzed and explored based on the climate condition and the variability of building loads. A comprehensive study is conducted by the method of thermodynamic performance analysis. Biogas from anaerobic digestion of cow manure is the main driving force of the system. The input energy of cow manure accounts for 77.81% of the total. Compared with the conventional system with separate electric and thermal generation, the primary energy saving rate of the CHPB system is negative for most of the year and the maximum renewable energy increasable rate is 600.46%. • The combined heating, power and biogas system is examined for a rural area of China. • The proposed system can completely meet the multi-level demands in the village. • The annual performance of the CHPB system is thermally analyzed. • Annual energy characteristics vary with changes of climate and load. • The energy-saving potential is evaluated by renewable energy increasable rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Intracranial aneurysms (IA) comprise a multifactorial disease with unclear physiological mechanisms. The lysyl oxidase ( LOX ) family genes ( LOX , LOX-like 1-4 ) plays important roles in extracellular matrix (ECM) reconstruction and has been investigated in terms of susceptibility to IA in a few populations. We aimed to determine whether polymorphisms in LOX family genes are associated with susceptibility to IA in a Chinese population., Methods: This case-control study included 384 patients with IA and 384 healthy individuals without IA (controls). We genotyped 27 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of LOX family genes using the Sequenom MassARRAY ® platform. These SNPs were adjusted for known risk factors and then, odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were evaluated using binary logistic regression analysis., Results: The result showed that LOX rs10519694 was associated with the risk of IA in recessive (OR, 3.88; 95% CI, 1.12-13.47) and additive (OR, 1.56; 95%CI, 1.05-2.34) models. Stratified analyses illustrated that LOX rs10519694 was associated with the risk of single IA in the recessive (OR, 3.95; 95%CI, 1.04-15.11) and additive (OR, 1.64; 95%CI, 1.04-2.56) models. The LOXL2 rs1010156 polymorphism was associated with multiple IA in the dominant model (OR, 1.92; 95%CI, 1.02-3.62). No associations were observed between SNPs of LOXL1 , LOXL3 , and LOXL4 and risk of IA., Conclusion: LOX and LOXL2 polymorphisms were associated with risk of single IA and multiple IA in a Chinese population, suggesting potential roles of these genes in IA. The effects of these genes on IA require further investigation., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Luo, Hu, Li, Liu, Hu, Dong, Liao, Zhou, Xu, Liu, Li, Yuan, Jiang and Yan.)

Objective: Cerebral arteriovenous malformation (AVM) is characterised by an abnormal tangle of arteries and veins, the rupture of which is a significant portion of the morbidity and mortality cases, especially in young populations. However, the exact risk factors and pathophysiologic mechanisms of AVM remain poorly understood. RNF213 variants have been identified as obvious susceptible factors of several cerebrovascular disorders, such as Moyamoya disease and intracranial aneurysms. Thus, this study aimed to determine whether there is an association between RNF213 rare variants and AVM., Methods: The AVM group included 22 patients with AVM. The control group included 1007 samples from the GeneSky in-house database and 208 samples from the 1000 Genome Project of Chinese Han Population. Genomic DNA samples were extracted from the peripheral blood of the AVM patients, and targeted exome sequencing of RNF213 was performed to assess the existence of low-frequency or rare variants. Sanger sequencing was performed to validate the identified variants. Logistic regression analysis was performed to calculate the odds ratios (ORs) and 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) of the candidate variants and risk of AVM. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 21.0., Results: The RNF213 c.10997T>C variant (amino acid mutation p.M3666T, NM&#95;001256071) was observed in two AVM patients after filtration. It was significantly associated with AVM in the Chinese population (ORs, 10.30 and 25.08; 95 %; CIs, 1.38-77.10 and 4.34-144.90 compared with 1000 Genome Project of Chinese Han Population and GeneSky in-house database, respectively)., Conclusion: Rare variants of RNF213 are associated with AVM in the Chinese population, suggesting the important role of RNF213 in AVM. Further studies are needed to verify these findings., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: RNF213 rare variant-p.R4810K (rs112735431) was significantly associated with intracranial artery stenosis/occlusion disease (ICASO) in Japan and Korea and to a lesser degree in China. Considering the allelic heterogeneity, we performed target exome sequencing of RNF213 with the aim to identify the rare variants spectrum and their association with ICASO in a Chinese population and further to explore whether the rare variants carrier patients present specific clinical phenotype., Methods: Target exome sequencing of RNF213 was performed in 250 ICASO patients using FastTarget sequencing technology. Various filtering process were used to select the candidate variants. Control individuals were obtain from 1000 Genome Project (208 Chinese samples) and GeneSky in-house database (1007 samples). Gene-based association analyses were conducted to identify the association between RNF213 rare variants and ICASO. The clinical characteristics of rare variant carriers and non-carriers were compared using Chi-squared test or Fisher's exact test., Results: After filtration, 18 rare variants were identified in 39 patients. Gene-based association test showed that rare variants of RNF213 were significantly associated with ICASO (Minor allele frequency < 0.05, WSS p = 4.88 × 10 - 10 ; SKAT p = 9.68 × 10 - 6 ; SKAT-O p = 3.42 × 10 - 9 ). There were no significant clinical characteristic differences other than the diagnosis age which was older in the carriers than the non-carriers (60.5 ± 6.2 vs 57.3 ± 8.9 years old, p = 0.028)., Conclusion: Rare variants of RNF213 are associated with ICASO in Chinese. However, there are limited genetic diagnosis values of the gene due to no specific phenotypic presentation in the carriers and non carrier patients.