Blood pressure, body mass index and risk of cardiovascular disease in Chinese men and women

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>It is still uncertain whether increased blood pressure (BP) has a stronger effect on the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in lean persons than in obese persons. We tested it using a data set collected from a large cohort of Chinese adults.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Systolic and diastolic BP, body mass index (BMI) and other variables were measured in 169,871 Chinese men and women ≥ 40 years of age in 1991 using standard protocols. Follow-up evaluation was conducted in 1999-2000, with a response rate of 93.4%. Data were analyzed with Cox proportional hazards models.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>After adjusted for age, sex, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, high school education, physical inactivity, geographic region, and urbanization, we found that the effects of systolic or diastolic BP on risk of CVD generally increased with the increasing BMI levels (underweight, normal, overweight, and obese). For example, hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence interval (CI) per 1- standard deviation (SD) increase in systolic BP within corresponding BMI levels were 1.27(1.21-1.33), 1.45(1.41-1.48), 1.52 (1.45-1.59) and 1.63 (1.51-1.76), respectively. Statistically significant interactions (P < 0.0001) were observed between systolic BP, diastolic BP and BMI in relation to CVD. In baseline hypertensive participants we found both obese men and women had higher risk of CVD than normal-weight persons. The multivariate-adjusted HRs(95%CI) were 1.23(1.03-1.47) and 1.20(1.02-1.40), respectively.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our study suggests that the magnitude of the association between BP and CVD generally increase with increasing BMI. Hypertension should not be regarded as a less serious risk factor in obese than in lean or normal-weight persons in Chinese adults.</p

Classical risk factors of cardiovascular disease among Chinese male steel workers: a prospective cohort study for 20 years

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cardiovascular disease (CVD) constitutes a major public health problem in China and worldwide. We aimed to examine classical risk factors and their magnitudes for CVD in a Chinese cohort with over 20 years follow-up.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A cohort of 5092 male steelworkers recruited from 1974 to 1980 in Beijing of China was followed up for an average of 20.84 years. Cox proportional-hazards regression model were used to evaluate the risk of developing a first CVD event in the study participants who were free of CVD at the baseline.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The multivariable-adjusted hazard ratio (HR) associated with every 20 mmHg rise in systolic blood pressure (SBP) was 1.63 in this Chinese male population, which was higher than in Caucasians. Compared to non-smokers, men who smoked not less than one-pack-a-day had a HR of 2.43 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.75-3.38). The HR (95% CI) for every 20 mg/dl increase in total serum cholesterol (TC) and for every point rise in body mass index (BMI) was 1.13 (1.04-1.23) and 1.06 (1.02-1.09), respectively.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our study documents that hypertension, smoking, overweight and hypercholesterolemia are major conventional risk factors of CVD in Chinese male adults. Continued strengthening programs for prevention and intervention on these risk factors are needed to reduce the incidence of CVD in China.</p

Integrated traffic-power simulation framework for electric vehicle charging stations based on cellular automaton

Abstract This paper presents a novel integrated framework for simulating the charging load of an electric vehicle charging station. The framework is built based on the cellular automaton model, including five modules: vehicle generation, charging station, lane change, speed update and boundary clear. The proposed framework can effectively stimulate the system dynamics of the traffic system and charging power process in a charging station. Case studies have verified its feasibility and effectiveness

Study on Sewage Sludge Drying System With Built-in Solar Drying Bed

In this paper, the renewable energy solar energy is used as the heat source. The combination of solar drying bed and traditional hot air drying can effectively reduce energy consumption and operation cost. The drying chamber is divided into three layers. The top air supply outlet supplies hot air, the middle layer places wet sludge, and the bottom layer uses hot water coil to dry the sludge. The whole drying process is a heat and mass transfer process with convective heat transfer and radiation heat transfer. After analysis and comparison with traditional energy drying, it is found that drying 97.5kg of sewage sludge will save 79% energy, save 12.84 kg of standard coal, reduce 32 kg of carbon dioxide and 1.284 kg of sulphur dioxide

Improvement of PLLA Ductility by Blending with PVDF: Localization of Compatibilizers at Interface and Its Glycidyl Methacrylate Content Dependency

In this work, the localization of reactive compatibilizer (RC, containing poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) backbone with randomly distributed glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) on it) at the polyvinylidene fluoride/poly(l-lactic acid) (PVDF/PLLA) interface has been manipulated by means of GMA contents. At the very beginning of mixing, RC tends to stay in the PVDF phase due to the miscibility between PVDF and PMMA. Upon further shearing, more and more PLLA chains have been grafted on PMMA backbone, producing PLLA&ndash;g&ndash;PMMA copolymer. The balanced stress on two sides accounts for the localization of compatibilizers at the PVDF/PLLA interface. Finally, the stress of the PLLA side has been enhanced remarkably due to the higher graft density of PLLA, resulting in the enrichment of the copolymer in the PLLA matrix. The migration of RC from the PVDF phase to the immiscible interface and PLLA matrix can be accelerated by employing RC with higher GMA content. Furthermore, the compatibilizer localization produces a significant influence on the morphology and ductility of the PVDF/PLLA blend. Only when the compatibilizers precisely localize at the interface, the blend exhibits the smallest domain and highest elongation at break. Our results are of great significance for not only the fabrication of PLLA with high ductility, but also the precise localization of compatibilizers at the interface of the immiscible blend

Numerical analysis for estimating residual DNAPL by single-well “push-pull” partitioning tracer tests

The drilling methods and the partitioning inter-well tracer tests which are often used to characterize dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPL) source zones cost a lot. Compared with common methods, the single- well “push-pull” partitioning tracer tests not only save money, but also reduce the disturbance to the contaminated site, which can be used to estimate the residual DNAPL. However, the accuracy of this method in estimating residue DNAPL has not been quantitatively verified. To solve the problem, this paper analyses the influence of several factors on estimating the accuracy of residual DNAPL based on the numerical method, including tracer type, the injection and pumping rate and contaminant source zone architectures. The results display that Hexanol with a smaller partition coefficient than DMP can be selected for tests, as the tracer are recovered more fully, which can result in the average accuracy of residue DNAPL estimated to increase by 35.11%. When the injection rate of the tests increases from 100 m³/d to 130 m³/d and the pumping rate increases from 120 m3/d to 150 m3/d, the tracer can expose to a larger contaminant source area so that the average accuracy of the homogeneous source zones increases from 42.45% to 60.26% while the average accuracy of the heterogeneous source zones increases from 27.69% to 48.72%. The increase of the complexity of the source zone architectures will hinder the tracer migration, and the average accuracy of the heterogeneous source zones is 13.15% lower than that of the homogeneous source zones. The single well “push-pull” partitioning tracer test is more suitable for the ganglia-dominated contaminant source zones, and the average accuracy of the ganglia-dominated contaminant source zones is 15.74% higher than that of the pool-dominated source zones. The single-well “push-pull” partitioning tracer tests combined with numerical analysis can effectively estimate the distribution of residual NAPL, and are recommended for use in the fine investigation of DNAPL contaminated sites, so as to provide a reference for the risk assessment and the site remediation

Resection of Liver Metastases: A Treatment Provides a Long-Term Survival Benefit for Patients with Advanced Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Purpose. Nonsurgical therapies, including biotherapy, chemotherapy, and liver-directed therapy, provided a limit survival benefit for PNET patients with hepatic metastases. With the development of liver resection technique, there was a controversy on whether to perform a liver resection for these patients. Methods. A computerized search was made of the Medline/PubMed, EMbase, Cochrane Library, and SinoMed (CBM) before March 2018. A meta-analysis was performed to investigate the differences in the efficacy of liver resection and nonliver resection treatments based on the evaluation of morbidity, 30-day mortality, symptom relief rate, and 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival. Two investigators reviewed all included articles and extracted the data of them. The meta-analysis was performed via Review Manager 5.3 software. Results. A total of 13 cohort studies with 1524 patients were included in this meta-analysis. Compared with the nonliver resection group, liver resection group had a longer 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival time and a higher symptom relief with an acceptable mortality and morbidity. Conclusions. Liver resection is a safe treatment and could significantly prolong the long-term prognosis for highly selected patients with resectable liver metastases from PNET. Further randomized, controlled trials are needed