Secondhand smoke increases the risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Smoking is the most important risk factor for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), however evidence from large-scale studies on whether secondhand smoke (SHS) increases the risk of COPD is still lacking. We conducted this large longitudinal study to investigate the association between SHS and the development of COPD. This is a longitudinal study. Data on 6519 subjects who were never-smokers, had no history of COPD, and had complete lung function records were extracted from the Taiwan Biobank. They were divided into two groups according to SHS exposure: no exposure and exposure groups. Data were collected when participants enrolled in the study and during regular follow-up. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to estimate the relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) for the association between SHS and the risk of developing COPD. At 48 months of follow-up, 260 (4%) participants in the no exposure group and 34 (7%) participants in the exposure group developed COPD. The RR of incident COPD development was significantly higher in the exposure group than that in the no exposure group after adjusting for confounders (RR = 1.49; 95% CI 1.04 to 2.14; P value = 0.031). There is a dose-response relationship between the duration of exposure to SHS and the risk of incident COPD, which demonstrates that an additional hour of exposure to SHS per week was associated with a 1.03-fold increased likelihood of developing COPD after adjusting for confounders (RR = 1.03; 95% CI 1.00 to 1.05; P value = 0.027). SHS exposure contributes to the development of COPD. This finding can help raise awareness of the harms of SHS and provide a reference for formulating anti-smoking policies.

The use of intravenous fluids in the rehabilitation of stroke survivors / 中华物理医学与康复杂志

Objective:To investigate the use of intravenous infusion in the rehabilitation of stroke survivors so as to further standardize and reduce the rate of use.Methods:Stroke survivors hospitalized in rehabilitation departments in Shandong Province in the first 5 months of 2021 were the study′s subjects. Data on the use of intravenous infusion were compiled including the medicine administered, the reason for the infusion, as well as the duration and the number of days of infusion. The rehabilitative effect, stroke complications and hospitalization costs were recorded, as well as the attitude toward the use of infusion and any measures taken to reduce their use.Results:The utilization rate of intravenous infusion was 31.72%. The drugs infused were mainly to improve circulation and feed the nerves. Short-term infusion had no adverse effects on functional recovery, but long-term infusion had negative effects and led to complications. The average daily cost of stroke survivors receiving intravenous infusion was significantly lower than that of patients not receiving it, and the proportion of their drug expenditure in the total cost was also significantly higher. There was no significant difference in the average length of hospital stay between patients receiving and not receiving infusion.Conclusions:Intravenous infusion predicts greater drug use, and long-term infusion has a bad effect on rehabilitation and recovery. Various measures should be taken to reduce the utilization of intravenous infusion and standardize its application.

[Temporal and spatial change of climate resources and meteorological disasters under climate change during winter crop growing season in Guangdong Province, China.] / 气候变暖背景下广东冬种生产季气候资源和气象灾害的时空变化.

Trend analysis method was applied to analyze the general variation characteristics of the climate resources and meteorological disasters of growing season of the winter planting in Guangdong before (1961-1996) and after climate warming (1997-2015). Percentile method was employed to determine thresholds for extreme cold and drought in major planting regions, and the characteristics of extreme disasters since climate warming were analyzed. The results showed that, by comparing 1997-2015 with 1961-1996, the heat value in winter growing season increased significantly. The belt with a higher heat value, where the average temperature was ≥15 ℃ and accumulated temperature was ≥2200 ℃·d, covered the main winter production regions as Shaoguan, Zhanjiang, Maoming, Huizhou, Meizhou and Guangzhou. Meanwhile, the precipitation witnessed a slight increase. The regions with precipitations of 250-350 mm included Zhanjiang, Maoming, Huizhou, Guangzhou and Meizhou. Chilling injury in the winter planting season in the regions decreased, the belt with an accumulated chilling of <2 ℃·d covered the major geographic parts of the involved regions as Zhanjiang, Maoming, Guangzhou and Huizhou; and the belt with an accumulated chilling of 8-16 ℃·d covered the major geographic parts of Shaoguan and Meizhou. Meanwhile, the drought days decreased, the belt with drought days ≥50 included the major geographic parts of Zhanjiang, Maoming, Huizhou, Guangzhou and the belt with drought days <50 included the major geographic parts of Shaoguan. The typical case of the extreme disasters showed that the extreme chilling injury and drought in the main producing regions should not be overlooked. Maoming, Huizhou and Meizhou were at higher risk of extreme chilling injury, followed by Shaoguan and Guangzhou. Zhanjiang and Maoming faced the highest risk of extreme drought, Huizhou and Guangzhou took the second place, Shaoguan and Meizhou went last. During 1997-2015, the heat of winter season increased significantly, the trend of chilling and drought decreased, however, the extreme disasters occurred frequently and the risks were higher in winter production areas. It was suggested that the winter planting should be closely integrated with climate resources and the occurrence law of meteorological disasters in growing season.

Effect of low-temperature preparation on the biological characteristics of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells / 中国组织工程研究

BACKGROUND: Adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADSCs) that are manufactured in good manufacturing practice (GMP) clean rooms should be made into stem cell preparations before administration. Low-temperature preparation has many advantages over cryopreservation preparation; however, little is reported on the effect of short-term low-temperature storage on the biological characteristics of stem cells. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of 24-hour low-temperature storage using multiple electrolytes containing 5% human serum albumin on the biological characteristics of ADSCs.METHODS: ADSCs at passages 3-6 at a concentration of 5×109/L were suspended in multiple electrolytes containing 5% human serum albumin. Cell suspension was transferred into cryogenic vials, and then these vials were placed in a cold chain shipping box for 2-8 ℃ low-temperature storage for 24 hours. Cell morphology, adhesion ability, cell viability, cell diameters and cell immunophenotyping before and after the storage were observed. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: (1) After low-temperature storage of ADSCs for 24 hours, the number of dead cells increased. Although cell viability decreased significantly, it was still higher than 80%. Cell diameters of living cells increased significantly. (2) After low-temperature storage of ADSCs for 24 hours, few cells which were circle-shaped lost adhesion ability, and most cells could adherently grow, with the spindle-shaped morphology similar to the cells before preservation. (3) After low-temperature storage of ADSCs for 24 hours, HLA-DR, CD34 and CD45 were negatively expressed with a positive rate lower than 2%; CD29, CD73 and CD105 were positively expressed with a positive rate higher than 95%. However, the cell cluster was clearly divided into two parts after the preservation. Cells with enlarged diameters moved right in the FSC/SSC dot-plot. These results show that low-temperature preparation storage has no significant effect on the stemness of ADSCs, such as adhesion ability, cell viability and cell immunophenotype.