Study On Land Use Aggregation Pattern Of Luohe City Based On Spatial Heterogeneity

The spatial layout of land use can reflect the health of urban development and inform the construction of green infrastructure. Many layout measurements have been proposed for lands in homogeneous spaces. Researchers and planners have used them to describe the urban structure and identify current problems in pursuit of problem-oriented optimizations. Now, with the urban expansion and accessibility development, the urban space has gradually changed from homogeneous to heterogeneous. However, the study of land use layout based on heterogeneous space is insufficient. Different land use types are expected to be allocated more scientifically, so providing more objective evidence on the urban land layout is necessary. Among them, the Aggregation-Diffusion status of each type of land is the most basic and vital information. In this paper, the spectral, index, and inversion data of Landsat 8 and Sentinel2 were collected, combined with NPP/VIIRS, and the Weka-EM clustering method was used to determine the boundary of build-up area in Luohe City (China) to obtain our study area. Then, we improve the traditional RAD by measuring roads \u27Efficiency value\u27 using Space Syntax: the homogeneous space is weighted to describe the effect of spatial heterogeneity for each land type. Therefore, by comparing the differences in the aggregation-diffusion land layout of these two spaces, the results are as follows: first of all, RAD shows that there is a dense core in Luohe City, in which priority development of ecological land can achieve a multiplier effect with half the effort. Secondly, in AAD, the basic unit based on efficiency value shows apparent spatial heterogeneity in Luohe urban space, represented by the contour line. The benefits of the greenway will be more fully realized where the contours are dense. Thirdly, comparing the description of the Aggregation-Diffusion situation of each land type by RAD and AAD, it can be found that: each land type has a different sensitivity to spatial heterogeneity, and AAD is a more accurate way of spatial description; Both AAD and RAD indicate a significant radial differentiation of land use in Luohe, which means that the significance of greenway construction in this religion is further enhanced. In addition to the greenway’s fundamental ecological implications, it also plays a vital role in facilitating the material-energy flow as well as promoting integration and equitable urban development

Comprehensive identification of ecologically important areas in Zhengzhou, China

Ecosystem services include the direct and indirect contributions of ecosystems to human well-being and survival, which are important factors that maintain and influence the ecological environment of humans, animals, and plants. Identification of ecological source areas is the first step for mapping high-quality ecological networks, ensuring urban ecological security, and improving the ecosystem service functions. Zhengzhou City is located in the central region of China, and is the core transportation hub of the country. In recent decades, Zhengzhou has accumulated a series of ecological problems in the dramatic urbanization development, such as the destruction of natural resources, environmental pollution, and biological species reduction. Ecological conservation is an urgent need for Zhengzhou. Based on the ecosystem services theory, we selected biodiversity maintenance function, habitat quality, water conservation, and soil conservation as key ecological impact factors to comprehensively evaluate the ecosystem service functions of the study area. By using GIS spatial analysis tool, the InVEST habitat quality model, and spatial connectivity analysis, we can implement the integrated identification of ecological source areas on a large scale. After superimposing the evaluation of ecological factors, the results show that the most important source areas are primarily distributed in the southwest of Zhengzhou. The proportion of ecological sources in Zhengzhou is relatively small, with an area of about 711.16km2, accounting for only 9.3% of Zhengzhou. Most of them have already been protected as forest parks or nature reserve by the government, while some sources like sections of Yellow River which are close to main urban area are facing development pressure. The ecological corridors in the urban area mostly are based on water system like Jinshui river, Xiliu Lake, and Longzi Lake that can connect green open space in the main urban area and natural green space outside

Multidrug-Resistant Organism Infections in US Nursing Homes: A National Study of Prevalence, Onset, and Transmission across Care Settings, October 1, 2010-December 31, 2011

Objective.To understand the prevalence of multidrug-resistant organism (MDRO) infections among nursing home (NH) residents and the potential for their spread between NHs and acute care hospitals (ACHs).Methods.Descriptive analyses of MDRO infections among NH residents using all NH residents in the Long-Term Care Minimum Data Set (MDS) 3.0 between October 1, 2010 and December 31, 2011.Results.Analysis of MDS data revealed a very high volume of bidirectional patient flow between NHs and ACHs, indicating the need to study MDRO infections in NHs as well as in hospitals. A total of 4.24% of NH residents had an active MDRO diagnosis on at least 1 MDS assessment during the study period. This rate significantly varied by sex, age, urban/rural status, and state. Approximately 2% of NH discharges to ACHs involved a resident with an active diagnosis of infection due to MDROs. Conversely, 1.8% of NH admissions from an ACH involved a patient with an active diagnosis of infection due to MDROs. Among residents who acquired an MDRO infection during the study period, 57% became positive in the NH, 41% in the ACH, and 2% in other settings (eg, at a private home or apartment).Conclusion.Even though NHs are the most likely setting where residents would acquire MDROs after admission to an NH (accounting for 57% of cases), a significant fraction of NH residents acquire MDRO infection at ACHs (41%). Thus, effective MDRO infection control for NH residents requires simultaneous, cooperative interventions among NHs and ACHs in the same community.</jats:sec

Association between Hospital Admissions and Healthcare Provider Communication for Individuals with Sickle Cell Disease

Objective: To test the hypothesis that caregivers’ or adult participants’ low ratings of provider communication are associated with more hospital admissions among adults and children with sickle cell disease (SCD), respectively. Secondarily, we determined whether there was an association between the caregivers’ or participants’ health literacy and rating of providers’ communication. Methods: Primary data were collected from participants through surveys between 2014 and 2016, across six sickle cell centers throughout the U.S. In this cross-sectional cohort study, 211 adults with SCD and 331 caregivers of children with SCD completed surveys evaluating provider communication using the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS), healthcare utilization, health literacy, and other sociodemographic and behavioral variables. Analyses included descriptive statistics, bivariate analyses, and logistic regression. Results: Participants with better ratings of provider communication were less likely to be hospitalized (odds ratio (OR) = 0.54, 95% confidence interval (CI) = [0.35, 0.83]). Positive ratings of provider communication were associated with fewer readmissions for children (OR = 0.23, 95% CI = [0.09, 0.57]). Participants with better ratings of provider communication were less likely to rate their health literacy as lower (regression coefficient (B) = −0.28, 95% CI = [−0.46, −0.10]). Conclusions: Low ratings of provider communication were associated with more hospitalizations and readmissions in SCD, suggesting the need for interventions targeted at improving patient-provider communication which could decrease hospitalizations for this population

Study Protocol of a Randomized Controlled Trial Evaluating the Prime Time Sister Circles (PTSC) Program\u27s Impact on Hypertension among Midlife African American Women

Background The Prime-Time Sister Circles® (PTSC) program is a multifaceted, community-based peer support intervention targeting African American women who are 40 to 75 years of age. It aims to reduce hypertension disparities observed among African American women by promoting adherence to antihypertensive therapies, including lifestyle modification and therapeutic regimens. Methods The PTSC randomized controlled trial will evaluate the effectiveness of the PTSC Program on improved blood pressure control, healthcare utilization attributed to cardiovascular events, and healthcare costs. The study began in 2016 and will end in 2022. African American women who are 40–75 years old, have been diagnosed with hypertension, reside in Washington, D.C. or Baltimore, Maryland, and receive their care from Unity Health Care, a federally qualified health center in Washington, D.C., or Baltimore Medical System, a federally qualified health center in Baltimore, Maryland, are eligible to participate. Those randomized to the intervention group participate in the PTSC Program, which spans 13 weeks and comprises facilitator-led discussions, didactic training about hypertension management, and peer-based problem-solving concerning CVD risk factors and their amelioration. Blood pressure, weight, body mass index, waist circumference, self-reported adherence, physical activity, dietary practices, stress, and healthcare utilization data are collected at baseline, 13 weeks (end of the intervention), 9 months (months post-intervention), and 15 months (one year after the intervention). Healthcare costs will be computed at the end of the study. The study’s design is reported in the present manuscript, wherein we employed the SPIRIT checklist to guide its construction. Discussion Disparities in hypertension prevalence and management observed among mid-life African American women exist as a result of a confluence of structural determinants of health. Consequently, there is a need to develop, implement, and evaluate culturally appropriate and relevant interventions that are tailored to their lived experiences. The PTSC Trial aims to assess the impact of the program on participants’ cardiovascular, psychosocial, and cost outcomes. Its results have implications for advancing the science of designing and implementing culturally relevant interventions for African American women. Trial registration Unique identifier: NCT04371614. Retrospectively registered on April 30, 2020

The Uyghur Population And Genetic Susceptibility To Type 2 Diabetes: Potential Role For Variants In CDKAL1, JAZF1, and IGF1 Genes

Substantial evidence suggests that type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a multi-factorial disease with a strong genetic component. A list of genetic susceptibility loci in populations of European and Asian ancestry has been established in the literature. Little is known on the inter-ethnic contribution of such established functional polymorphic variants. We performed a case-control study to explore the genetic susceptibility of 16 selected T2DM-related SNPs in a cohort of 102 Uyghur objects (51 cases and 51 controls). Three of the 16 SNPs showed significant association with T2DM in the Uyghur population. There were significant differences between the T2DM and control groups in frequencies of the risk allelic distributions of rs7754840 (CDKAL1) (p=0.014), rs864745 (JAZF1) (p=0.032), and rs35767 (IGF1) (p=0.044). Carriers of rs7754840-C, rs35767-A, and rs864745-C risk alleles had a 2.32-fold [OR (95% CI): 1.19-4.54], 2.06-fold [OR (95% CI): 1.02-4.17], 0.48-fold [OR (95% CI): 0.24-0.94] increased risk for T2DM, respectively. The cumulative risk allelic scores of these 16 SNPs differed significantly between the T2DM patients and the controls [17.1±8.1 vs. 15.4±7.3; OR (95%CI): 1.27(1.07-1.50), p=0.007]. This is the first study to evaluate genomic variation at 16 SNPs in respective T2DM candidate genes for the Uyghur population compared with other ethnic groups. The SNP rs7754840 in CDKAL1, rs864745 in JAZF1, and rs35767 in IGF1 might serve as potential susceptibility loci for T2DM in Uyghurs. We suggest a broader capture and study of the world populations, including who that are hitherto understudied, are essential for a comprehensive understanding of the genetic/genomic basis of T2DM

The association between subclass-specific IgG Fc N-glycosylation profiles and hypertension in the Uygur, Kazak, Kirgiz, and Tajik populations

Hypertension results from the interaction of genetic and acquired factors. IgG occurs in the form of different subclasses, of which the effector functions show significant variation. The detailed differences between the glycosylation profiles of the individual IgG subclasses may be lost in a profiling method for total IgG N-glycosylation. In this study, subclass-specific IgG Fc glycosylation profile was investigated in the four northwestern Chinese minority populations, namely, Uygur (UIG), Kazak (KZK), Kirgiz (KGZ), and Tajik (TJK), composed of 274 hypertensive patients and 356 healthy controls. The results showed that ten directly measured IgG N-glycan traits (i.e., IgG1G0F, IgG2G0F, IgG2G1FN, IgG2G1FS, IgG2G2S, IgG4G0F, IgG4G1FS, IgG4G1S, IgG4G2FS, and IgG4G2N) representing galactosylation and sialylation are significantly associated with hypertension, with IgG4 consistently showing weaker associations of its sialylation, across the four ethnic groups. We observed a modest improvement on the AUC of ROC curve when the IgG Fc N-glycan traits are added into the glycan-based model (difference between AUCs, 0.044, 95% CI: 0.016-0.072, P = 0.002). The AUC of the diagnostic model indicated that the subclass-specific IgG Fc N-glycan profiles provide more information reinforcing current models utilizing age, gender, BMI, and ethnicity, and demonstrate the potential of subclass-specific IgG Fc N-glycosylation profiles to serve as a biomarker for hypertension. Further research is however required to determine the additive value of subclass-specific IgG Fc N-glycosylation on top of biomarkers, which are currently used

Using State-Space Model with Regime Switching to Represent the Dynamics of Facial Electromyography (EMG) Data

state-space model, regime-switching, time series, electromyography,

Psychometric properties of the PROMIS® Fatigue Short Form 7a among adults with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome

Purpose To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System® Fatigue Short Form 7a (PROMIS F-SF) among people with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS). Methods Analyses were conducted using data from the Multi-Site Clinical Assessment of ME/CFS study, which recruited participants from seven ME/CFS specialty clinics across the US. Baseline and follow-up data from ME/CFS participants and healthy controls were used. Ceiling/Floor effects, internal consistency reliability, differential item functioning (DIF), known-groups validity, and responsiveness were examined. Results The final sample comprised 549 ME/CFS participants at baseline, 386 of whom also had follow-up. At baseline, the sample mean of PROMIS F-SF T-score was 68.6 (US general population mean T-score of 50 and standard deviation of 10). The PROMIS F-SF demonstrated good internal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s α = 0.84) and minimal floor/ceiling effects. No DIF was detected by age or sex for any item. This instrument also showed good known-groups validity with medium-to-large effect sizes (η2 = 0.08–0.69), with a monotonic increase of the fatigue T-score across ME/CFS participant groups with low, medium, and high functional impairment as measured by three different variables (p \u3c 0.01), and with significantly higher fatigue T-scores among ME/CFS participants than healthy controls (p \u3c 0.0001). Acceptable responsiveness was found with small-to-medium effect sizes (Guyatt’s Responsiveness Statistic = 0.28–0.54). Conclusions Study findings support the reliability and validity of PROMIS F-SF as a measure of fatigue for ME/CFS and lend support to the drug development tool submission for qualifying this measure to evaluate therapeutic effect in ME/CFS clinical trials