Validation of recommended definition in identifying elevated blood pressure in adolescents

Recently, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended 120/80 mm Hg as thresholds for identifying elevated blood pressure (BP) in adolescents aged 13‐17 years. The authors aimed to compare the performance of the new definition in identifying elevated BP with traditional percentile‐based definition. Data were obtained from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999‐2014, which included 7485 adolescents aged 13‐17 years. Elevated BP was defined using the recommended (≥120/80 mm Hg) and traditional definition (≥90th percentile for sex, age, and height or 120/80 mm Hg) presented in AAP guideline. The prevalence of elevated BP was 15.7% and 17.2% using the recommended and traditional definition, respectively (P < .001). The recommended definition had high sensitivity (90.9%), perfect specificity (100.0%), perfect positive predictive value (100.0%), and very high negative predictive value (98.1%) compared with the traditional definition. The Kappa correlation coefficient between two definitions was 0.94 (P < .001). Similar results can be observed in subgroups across sex, age, and sex‐ and age‐specific height percentile except for both sexes with young age and low height percentile. Generally, our results supported the use of the recommended definition for identifying elevated BP in adolescents.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151868/1/jch13640.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151868/2/jch13640_am.pd

Quantitative Data Analysis of Multiple Factors Associated With Low Birth Weight in Bibb County, Georgia

Objective: This study aims to identify and evaluate significant risk factors associated with low birth weight in Bibb County, Georgia. Methods: Data used in this study was obtained from the Georgia Department of Human Resources’ Vital Records Offices. The sample consists of 2,346 white and black or African American women giving birth in Bibb County, Georgia in 2005. Logistic regression was used to analyze the risk factors associated with low birthweight in Bibb County, Georgia. The multiple factors analyzed as independent variables included maternal race, maternal education, maternal age group, socioeconomic status, marital status, maternal tobacco use during pregnancy, maternal alcohol use during pregnancy, trimester mother began prenatal care and number of prenatal care visits mother received. The dependent variable analyzed was whether the infant was born low birth weight. Results: Logistic regression analysis showed that the most significant risk factor associated with low birth weight in 2005 was receiving less than six prenatal care visits (odds ratio [OR]= 3.6; 95% CI = 2.5, 5.3). Maternal education of 12th grade of less (OR = 1.7; 95% CI = 1.2, 2.3), maternal race of black or African American (OR = 2.0; 95% CI =1.5, 2.6), and use of tobacco during pregnancy (OR = 1.7; 95% CI = 1.2, 2.4) were also significant factors for low birth weight. Conclusions: Based on the observations of the present study, it is recommended that intervention programs and communication tools should focus on those significant risk factors associated with low birth weight and target at-risk pregnant women; hence, reducing the incidence of infants born low birth weight in Bibb County, Georgia

Land surface phenology and its response to climate change in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area during 2001–2020

Land surface phenology (LSP), an important branch of vegetation phenology, which is sensitive to climate change and play important role in ecosystem. As a typical subtropical area, in spite of its complex vegetation structure, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) LSP was not focused fully. Hence, In this study, a long time series LSP data from 2001 to 2020 was obtained based on MODIS normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) using classical Savitzky-Golay filter. Subsequently, phenology spatial pattern and spatiotemporal trends and their correlation with climate change were analyzed for different vegetation types in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The results revealed an obvious spatial heterogeneity and significant annual variation trend in vegetation phenology. The start of growing season (SOS) and the end of growing season (EOS) appeared delayed trend and the length of growing season (LOS) showed a prolonged trend, with average slope values of 0.55, 0.52 and 0.81 days per year, respectively. In general, preseason precipitation and solar radiation are the main climatic factors regulating vegetation phenology in the Greater Bay Area, and the enhancement of preseason precipitation and solar radiation is the main reason for the delay of vegetation withering and yellowing period and the extension of growing season. Ecosystems of the Greater Bay Area were mainly depending on preseason precipitation and solar radiation to regulate the leaf senescence and control plant growth duration. The present study can enhance performance of vegetation phenology models and provide useful information on ecological protection in subtropical areas

Validation of recommended definition in identifying elevated blood pressure in adolescents

Recently, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended 120/80 mm Hg as thresholds for identifying elevated blood pressure (BP) in adolescents aged 13‐17 years. The authors aimed to compare the performance of the new definition in identifying elevated BP with traditional percentile‐based definition. Data were obtained from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999‐2014, which included 7485 adolescents aged 13‐17 years. Elevated BP was defined using the recommended (≥120/80 mm Hg) and traditional definition (≥90th percentile for sex, age, and height or 120/80 mm Hg) presented in AAP guideline. The prevalence of elevated BP was 15.7% and 17.2% using the recommended and traditional definition, respectively (P < .001). The recommended definition had high sensitivity (90.9%), perfect specificity (100.0%), perfect positive predictive value (100.0%), and very high negative predictive value (98.1%) compared with the traditional definition. The Kappa correlation coefficient between two definitions was 0.94 (P < .001). Similar results can be observed in subgroups across sex, age, and sex‐ and age‐specific height percentile except for both sexes with young age and low height percentile. Generally, our results supported the use of the recommended definition for identifying elevated BP in adolescents.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151868/1/jch13640.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/151868/2/jch13640_am.pd

An Integrated Method of Supply Chains Vulnerability Assessment

Supply chain vulnerability identification and evaluation are extremely important to mitigate the supply chain risk. We present an integrated method to assess the supply chain vulnerability. The potential failure mode of the supply chain vulnerability is analyzed through the SCOR model. Combining the fuzzy theory and the gray theory, the correlation degree of each vulnerability indicator can be calculated and the target improvements can be carried out. In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, we use Kendall’s tau coefficient to measure the effect of different methods. The result shows that the presented method has the highest consistency in the assessment compared with the other two methods

Interaction Analysis and Sustainable Development Strategy between Port and City: The Case of Liaoning

Although port-city interaction and sustainability are becoming increasingly essential, prospering regional economy and facilitating international shipping trade, problems of their mismatch and incoordination have also been aroused. Thus, research on their relationship is necessary to generate profound enlightenment on how to achieve healthy and benign development for ports and cities. In this paper, a typical Chinese port-city group, six ports and their corresponding port cities in Liaoning are selected as research objects. Firstly, a grey relative relational model and a coupling coordination degree model based on entropy weight method are applied to analyse the port-city interactive trend and degree as well as exploring the relative impacts among internal factors in port and city subsystems. Then, a sustainability analysis box of correlation&ndash;coordination is constructed to further investigate the sustainable development status. Finally, strategies for the port-city sustainable development are proposed. The results indicate the six port-city systems have not strongly correlated and are in the stage of coordinated development. Only Dalian and Yingkou have realized sustainable development. Thus, there is still much room for improvement. Measures such as resources integration and dislocation development should be taken into account to optimize the sustainable and coordinated development of the port-city systems

Systematic change: context, people, and technology: a methodological framework for research, design and education

In this paper we present our vision on how to bring about Systemic Change. We define the system and introduce achieving systemic change as an iterative, data-informed process consisting of four major phases. First, we state that Context Exploration and research in a real-life setting are crucial aspects when modeling and implementing systemic change through design interventions. Combined with prior knowledge, context exploration forms the base for both the derivation of scientific Hypotheses and the Design of technological interventions for societal transformation. Finally, continuous reflection and Validation of findings and results will induce effective design interventions. The use of data and a multidisciplinary approach are two driving forces in this process of achieving systemic change. Data plays a central role here, continuously providing insights, inspiration, evidence and possibilities. And because design for systemic change cannot be conducted in isolation, a multidisciplinary approach and collaboration are essential to its success

Dynamic Changes in Serum Cytokine Profile in Rats with Severe Acute Pancreatitis

Background and Objectives: Most published research has only investigated a single timepoint after the onset of severe acute pancreatitis (SAP), meaning that they have been unable to observe the relationship between the dynamic changes in cytokines and SAP progression. In this study, we attempted to reveal the relationship between dynamic changes in cytokine expression levels and SAP disease progression and the relationship between cytokines, using continuous large-scale cytokine detection. Materials and Methods: Seventy rats were randomly assigned to control (Con), sham operation (SO) and SAP groups. The SAP group was randomly allocated to five subgroups at 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15 h after the operation. In the SAP group, 5% sodium taurocholate was injected retrograde into the pancreatic bile duct. Animals in the SO group received a similar incision, a turning over of the pancreas. Control animals did not receive any treatment. We observed the survival, ascites fluid amount, pancreatic histopathological scores and serum amylase activity of SAP rats. We used the cytokine microarray to simultaneously detect 90 cytokines and the dynamic changes in one experiment and to analyze the correlation between cytokine expression and disease progression. Results: The mortality of SAP rats increased with an increase in time. Serum amylase activity, pancreatic histopathological scores and ascites fluid amount were time-dependent. Compared with normal rats, 69 cytokines in SAP rats were significantly changed for at least one timepoint, and 49 cytokines were significantly changed at different timepoints after SAP induction. The changes in inflammatory cytokines were significantly upregulated at 6 and 9 h and 12 h and then significantly decreased. Conclusions: The trend of cytokine expression in SAP rats was not consistent with the disease progression. The cytokine&ndash;cytokine receptor interaction and MAPK signal&rsquo;s dominant cytokines were always highly expressed at various time points over the course of SAP

Dynamic Changes in Serum Cytokine Profile in Rats with Severe Acute Pancreatitis

Background and Objectives: Most published research has only investigated a single timepoint after the onset of severe acute pancreatitis (SAP), meaning that they have been unable to observe the relationship between the dynamic changes in cytokines and SAP progression. In this study, we attempted to reveal the relationship between dynamic changes in cytokine expression levels and SAP disease progression and the relationship between cytokines, using continuous large-scale cytokine detection. Materials and Methods: Seventy rats were randomly assigned to control (Con), sham operation (SO) and SAP groups. The SAP group was randomly allocated to five subgroups at 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15 h after the operation. In the SAP group, 5% sodium taurocholate was injected retrograde into the pancreatic bile duct. Animals in the SO group received a similar incision, a turning over of the pancreas. Control animals did not receive any treatment. We observed the survival, ascites fluid amount, pancreatic histopathological scores and serum amylase activity of SAP rats. We used the cytokine microarray to simultaneously detect 90 cytokines and the dynamic changes in one experiment and to analyze the correlation between cytokine expression and disease progression. Results: The mortality of SAP rats increased with an increase in time. Serum amylase activity, pancreatic histopathological scores and ascites fluid amount were time-dependent. Compared with normal rats, 69 cytokines in SAP rats were significantly changed for at least one timepoint, and 49 cytokines were significantly changed at different timepoints after SAP induction. The changes in inflammatory cytokines were significantly upregulated at 6 and 9 h and 12 h and then significantly decreased. Conclusions: The trend of cytokine expression in SAP rats was not consistent with the disease progression. The cytokine–cytokine receptor interaction and MAPK signal’s dominant cytokines were always highly expressed at various time points over the course of SAP