Sanitary Evaluation of Rural Water Supply Projects - China, 2020.

What is already known about this topic?: Over the last decade, the centralized water quality and supply have been substantially enhanced in rural China. However, compared with the urban water supply, most of the rural Water Supply Projects (WaSPs) are small in scale, simple in engineering facilities, and poor in management. What is added by this report?: Most of the rural WaSPs have been basically guaranteed sustainable sources of water. More measures should be taken to improve water disinfection effects, water losses control, and operational and maintenance management. The WaSPs with water supply <3,000 m3/d need to be paid more attention. What are the implications for public health practice?: Laws and regulations requiring rural WaSPs to carry out a sanitary evaluation should be established. WaSPs should use tools such as World Health Organization Water Safety Plans to identify and control risks.

A COVID-19 Outbreak - Nangong City, Hebei Province, China, January 2021.

WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT THIS TOPIC?: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is widespread globally. In China, COVID-19 has been well controlled and has appeared only in importation-related cases. Local epidemics occur sporadically in China and have been contained relatively quickly. WHAT IS ADDED BY THIS REPORT?: Epidemiological investigation with genome sequence traceability analysis showed that the first case of COVID-19 in Nangong City acquired infection from a confirmed case from Shijiazhuang City; infection subsequently led to 76 local cases. All cases were associated with the index case, and most were located in Fenggong Street and did not spread outside of Nangong City. The main routes of transmission were family clusters, intra-unit transmission, and nosocomial transmission. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH PRACTICE?: This study highlights new techniques for rapidly tracing cases and identifying COVID-19 transmission chains. The different epidemiological characteristics in Nangong City, from the earliest stages of the outbreak, suggest that allocation of health sources for prevention and treatment were reasonable. Preventing transmission within medical institutions and isolation facilities and strengthening management in the community should be priorities for COVID-19 control during a city lockdown.

COVID-19 Outbreak Caused by Contaminated Packaging of Imported Cold-Chain Products - Liaoning Province, China, July 2020.

What is known about this topic? Few major outbreaks of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have occurred in China after major non-pharmaceutical interventions and vaccines have been deployed and implemented. However, sporadic outbreaks that had high possibility to be linked to cold chain products were reported in several cities of China.. What is added by this report? In July 2020, a COVID-19 outbreak occurred in Dalian, China. The investigations of this outbreak strongly suggested that the infection source was from COVID-19 virus-contaminated packaging of frozen seafood during inbound unloading personnel contact. What are the implications for public health practice? Virus contaminated paper surfaces could maintain infectivity for at least 17-24 days at -25 ℃. Exposure to COVID-19 virus-contaminated surfaces is a potential route for introducing the virus to a susceptible population. Countries with no domestic transmission of COVID-19 should consider introducing prevention strategies for both inbound travellers and imported goods. Several measures to prevent the introduction of the virus via cold-chain goods can be implemented.

[Reliability and validity of SF-36 scale for evaluating the quality of life of Tuva adults in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region].

OBJECTIVE: To assess the reliability and validity of SF-36 scale in measuring quality of life of Tuva adults in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. METHODS: A total of 437 Tuva adults were selected by multistage sampling method, in Tuva families lived in Baihaba Village Habahe county and Kanasi and Hemu Villages Buerjin County in Artay Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in 2016, including 100 males and 50 females, the three age groups 18-29, 30-49, 50 and above accounted for 30. 66%, 54. 00% and 15. 33% respectively. SF-36 scale was be used to measure the quality of life. The scale's reliability was assessed by internal consistency reliability and half-fold reliability, and the validity was assessed by set validity, discriminate validity and structural validity. RESULTS: The Cronbach's α coefficient of the SF-36 scale was 0. 838, and all of the Cronbach's α coefficients were more than 0. 750 after corresponding dimensions were deleted. The Spearman-Brown coefficient was 0. 828. The achievement ratio of aggregation tests and discrimination tests were 100% and 99. 59%, respectively. Thirty-five items were included in EFA. Seven common factors were extracted through maximum balanced rotation method, and the cumulative contribution rate was 68. 97%. Eight-dimensional data were included in EFA, and two common factors were extracted with a cumulative contribution rate of 66. 44%. The fitting degree of confirmatory factor analysis model is invalid. CONCLUSION: SF-36 has showed a good reliability, set validity and discrimination validity in evaluating the quality of life of Tuva adults in Xinjiang, but its structural validity needs to be improved.

Evaluating coverage of exons by HapMap SNPs.

Genome-wide association (GWA) studies are currently one of the most powerful tools in identifying disease-associated genes or variants. In typical GWA studies, single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are often used as genetic makers. Therefore, it is critical to estimate the percentage of genetic variations which can be covered by SNPs through linkage disequilibrium (LD). In this study, we use the concept of haplotype blocks to evaluate the coverage of five SNP sets including the HapMap and four commercial arrays, for every exon in the human genome. We show that although some Chips can reach similar coverage as the HapMap, only about 50% of exons are completely covered by haplotype blocks of HapMap SNPs. We suggest further high-resolution genotyping methods are required, to provide adequate genome-wide power for identifying variants.

A feasible method for growing fungal pellets in a column reactor inoculated with mycelium fragments and their application for dye bioaccumulation from aqueous solution.

In the present paper, a feasible method was developed to grow fungal pellets in an air lift column reactor inoculated with mycelium fragments for improving separation effect of biomass from solution and reducing clogging effect of biomass; bioaccumulation of dye by the growing fungal pellets in the case of mycelium fragments inoculation was investigated. The results showed that inoculation with the mycelium fragments without any pre-treatment did not witness the formation of pellets; only pre-treated fragments using maize as both nucleus and carbon source for 72 h incubation guaranteed the formation of pellets in the air lift column reactor. Nearly 100% of dye removal was obtained by bioaccumulation of the growing pellets in successive three batches of dye wastewater treatment. The formation of pellets not only resulted in low clogging effect to promote mass transfer and dye bioaccumulation but also caused quick separation of dye-loaded biomass from treated wastewater.

Bioleaching mechanism of Co and Li from spent lithium-ion battery by the mixed culture of acidophilic sulfur-oxidizing and iron-oxidizing bacteria.

The bioleaching mechanism of Co and Li from spent lithium-ion batteries by mixed culture of sulfur-oxidizing and iron-oxidizing bacteria was investigated. It was found that the highest release of Li occurred at the lowest pH of 1.54 with elemental sulfur as an energy source, the lowest occurred at the highest pH of 1.69 with FeS(2). In contrast, the highest release of Co occurred at higher pH and varied ORP with S + FeS(2), the lowest occurred at almost unchanged ORP with S. It is suggested that acid dissolution is the main mechanism for Li bioleaching independent of energy matters types, however, apart from acid dissolution, Fe(2+) catalyzed reduction takes part in the bioleaching process as well. Co(2+) was released by acid dissolution after insoluble Co(3+) was reduced into soluble Co(2+) by Fe(2+) in both FeS(2) and FeS(2) + S systems. The proposed bioleaching mechanism mentioned above was confirmed by the further results obtained from the experiments of bioprocess-stimulated chemical leaching and from the changes in structure and component of bioleaching residues characterized by XPS, SEM and EDX.