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Abstract Background To verify the validity of diagnosing initial caries on occlusal surface of permanent posterior teeth by laser fluorescence instrument DIAGNOdent pen. Methods Patients from School of Stomatology in Wuhan University were selected and their posterior teeth were examined using DIAGNOdent pen and the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS II) by an experienced dentist. After teeth extraction, histological criteria were used to determine the severity of the lesions. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, the area under the curve (AUC), and correlation of DIAGNOdent pen and ICDAS II were analyzed compared with histological criteria. Examiners’ agreement was measured. Results The sensitivity range was 0.440-1 while that of specificity was 0.750–0.994. The accuracy and AUC were above 80% and 0.7 respectively. Consistency of examiners’ kappa values of ICDAS II, DIAGNOdent pen, and histological criteria were ranged from 0.629 to 0.840. Conclusions ICDAS II and DIAGNOdent pen can be effectively used in tandem or independently for the assessment of initial caries.

We applied Mendelian randomization to explore the causal relationship between obesity and benign paroxysmal vertigo (BPV).

Background The disease burden of esophageal cancer is high in China, more and more studies have shown that tobacco has a greater adverse effect on the development of esophageal cancer. Objective To understand trends in esophageal cancer deaths and burden of disease attributable to tobacco in China from 1990 to 2019, and provide data to inform the development of public health policies and interventions. Methods Global burden of disease 2019 (GBD 2019) data were used to extract the age-specific and sex-specific data on esophageal cancer deaths attributable to tobacco in China from 1990 to 2019. Mortality, disability adjusted life years (DALYs) , years of life lost (YLLs) , and disability adjusted life years (YLDs) were used to assess the disease burden of esophageal cancer attributable to tobacco in China. Joinpoint regression software and age-period-cohort modeling methods were applied to analyze the trends of disease burden and mortality with age, period and cohort. the Bayesian-period-cohort analysis (BAPC) was applied to predict the mortality rate of esophageal cancer attributable to tobacco in China from 2020 to 2030. Results From 1990 to 2019, the number of deaths caused by esophageal cancer attributable to tobacco among Chinese residents rose from 76 400 to 123 900, with an increase of 62.17%, and the standardized mortality rate declined from 9.30/100 000 to 6.20/100 000, with a decrease of 33.33%; the DALYs rose from 1 972 500 person-years to 2 822 600 person-years, with an increase of 43.10%, and the DALYs rate decreased from 220.50/100 000 to 134.47/100 000, with a decrease of 39.02%. In terms of gender, the disease burden of esophageal cancer attributable to tobacco was mainly caused by males, with 117 700 deaths and a standardized mortality rate of 12.82/100 000 in 2019 due to tobacco-attributable esophageal cancer in males, compared to 0.62 million deaths number and a standardized mortality rate of 0.63/100 000 in females. In 2019, the number of esophageal cancer deaths attributable to tobacco among Chinese residents peaked in the age group of >69-74 years, while DALYs peaked in the age group of >64-69 years, at 23 000 and 510 300 cases, respectively. The mortality rate continued to increase with age, especially after 50 years of age. The results of Joinpoint regression analysis showed that the average annual percent change (AAPC) of esophageal cancer mortality attributable to tobacco was -1.4%〔95%CI (-1.6%, -1.2%) 〕 in China from 1990 to 2019, with -3.3%〔95%CI (-3.6%, -2.9%) 〕 for females, and -1.3%〔95%CI (-1.4%, -1.1%) 〕 for males; the AAPC for DALYs rate was -1.7%〔95%CI (-1.9%, -1.5%) 〕, with -3.7%〔95%CI (-4.0%, -3.4%) 〕 for females and -1.5%〔95%CI (-1.7%, -1.3%) 〕 for males. Analysis of the age-period-cohort model of mortality from esophageal cancer attributable to tobacco showed a negative net offset of -1.690%〔95%CI (-2.024%, -1.354%) 〕. It is expected that the number of deaths and mortality rate from tobacco-attributable esophageal cancer among Chinese residents will be relatively stable with a small decrease from 2020 to 2030, with mortality rates declining from 12.64/100 000 in 2020 to 12.63/100 000 in 2030 for males, and from 0.6/100 000 in 2020 to 0.46/100 000 for females. Conclusion Mortality rate and DALYs rate due to tobacco-attributable esophageal cancer among Chinese residents increased and then declined from 1990 to 2019. The burden of disease due to tobacco-attributable esophageal cancer is mainly caused by males in term of gender, by middle-aged and elderly people by age, which should be given sufficient attention. It is expected that the number of deaths and mortality rates from tobacco-attributable esophageal cancer will be stable and slightly decreasing from 2020 to 2030.

Background Diabetes is highly prevalent in China, the prevention and treatment of it and its related complications need a lot of medical resources. Local reports have revealed that although the mortality of diabetes is declining, the burden of diabetes is still increasing. Objective To understand the epidemiological characteristics and burden of diabetes in China from 1990—2019, forecast the incidence of diabetes in China from 2020 to 2030, to provide data for evaluating and formulating diabetes-related prevention and treatment policies and measures. Methods In August 2022, this study used data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. Temporal trends of the incidence, mortality, disability-adjusted life years (DALY), years of life lost (YLL), and years lost due to a disability (YLD) of diabetes in China from 1990 to 2019 were described. The Bayesian-age-period-cohort analysis was used to predict the incidence of diabetes in China from 2020 to 2030. Results Compared with 1990, in 2019, the crude prevalence of diabetes increased to 265.45/100 000, with an increase of 63.12%, the standardized prevalence of diabetes increased to 204.31/100 000, with an increase of 15.93%, the crude mortality rate of diabetes increased to 12.16/100 000, with an increase of 105.41%, and the standardized mortality rate of diabetes increased to 9.44/100 000, with an increase of 2.61%. The YLL rate decreased from 204.71/100 000 in 1990 to 178.45/100 000 in 2019. The YLD rate increased from 260.74/100 000 in 1990 to 316.30/100 000 in 2019. The DALY rate increased from 465.46/100 000 in 1990 to 494.76/100 000 in 2019. Compared with 1990, the DALY rate of diabetes increased by 21.08% in males and decreased by 6.68% in females. The YLL rate, YLD rate and DALY rate increased with age in 2019. According to the prediction of the standardized incidence of diabetes in China from 2020 to 2030, the overall standardized incidence of diabetes would present a decreasing trend during the period, and the standardized incidence of diabetes in 2030 would decrease by 11.45% in men and 18.60% in women compared with 2020. Conclusion The burden of diabetes in China is still heavy, with a large number of illness cases and decreased cases, mainly manifested by a high burden caused by diabetes-related disability. Attention should be paid to early prevention of diabetes to reduce the occurrence of complications. The disease burden of males and middle-aged and elderly people is heavy, so sufficient attention should be paid to them. Although the predicted diabetes incidence will reduce between 2020 and 2030, the number of patients is still increasing, so the prevention and control of diabetes should not be slack.

Under ambient conditions, the only known valence state of calcium ions is +2, and the corresponding crystals with calcium ions are insulating and nonferromagnetic. Here, using cryo-electron microscopy, we report direct observation of two-dimensional (2D) CaCl crystals on reduced graphene oxide (rGO) membranes, in which the calcium ions are only monovalent (i.e. +1). Remarkably, metallic rather than insulating properties are displayed by those CaCl crystals. More interestingly, room-temperature ferromagnetism, graphene-CaCl heterojunction, coexistence of piezoelectricity-like property and metallicity, as well as the distinct hydrogen storage and release capability of the CaCl crystals in rGO membranes are experimentally demonstrated. We note that such CaCl crystals are obtained by simply incubating rGO membranes in salt solutions below the saturated concentration, under ambient conditions. Theoretical studies suggest that the formation of those abnormal crystals is attributed to the strong cation-π interactions of the Ca cations with the aromatic rings in the graphene surfaces. The findings highlight the realistic potential applications of such abnormal CaCl material with unusual electronic properties in designing novel transistors and magnetic devices, hydrogen storage, catalyzers, high-performance conducting electrodes and sensors, with a size down to atomic scale.