Anxiety and Depression of Nurses in a North West Province in China During the Period of Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Outbreak.

PURPOSE: To investigate the anxiety and depression levels of frontline clinical nurses working in 14 hospitals in Gansu Province, China, during this period. DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey was conducted online between February 7 and 10, 2020, with a convenience sample of 22,034 nurses working in 14 prefecture and city hospitals in Gansu Province, located in northwest China. METHODS: A self-reported questionnaire with four parts (demographic characteristics, general questions related to novel coronavirus-infected pneumonia, self-rating anxiety scale, and self-rating depression scale) was administered. Descriptive statistics including frequencies, means, and SDs were computed. The associations between anxiety and depression with sociodemographic characteristics, work-related concerns, and impacts were analyzed, followed by multiple stepwise linear regression to identify factors that best predicted the nurses' anxiety and depression levels. FINDINGS: A total of 21,199 questionnaires were checked to be valid, with an effective recovery rate of 96.21%. The mean ± SD age of the respondents was 31.89 ± 7.084 years, and the mean ± SD length of service was 9.40 ± 7.638 years. The majority of the respondents were female (98.6%) and married (73.1%). Some demographic characteristics, related concerns, and impacts of COVID-19 were found to be significantly associated with both anxiety (p < .001) and depression (p < .001). Nurses who needed to take care of children or elderly relatives, took leave from work because they were worried about COVID-19, avoided contact with family and friends, and wanted to obtain more COVID-19-related knowledge had higher levels of both anxiety and depression. CONCLUSIONS: Results show that nurses faced with the COVID-19 outbreak are at risk for experiencing anxiety and depression. Demographic background, psychosocial factors, and work-related factors predicted the psychological responses. The family responsibilities and burdens of women may explain the higher levels of anxiety and depression among nurses with these obligations as compared to those without. On the other hand, nurses who chose not to take leave from work or who did not avoid going to work during this period were less anxious and depressed. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Professional commitment might be a protective factor for adverse psychological responses. It is pertinent to provide emotional support for nurses and recognize their professional commitment in providing service to people in need.

[Effects of soil structure improvement on chlorophyll fluorescence parameters and yield of rice in a coastal reclamation region]. / æµ·æ¶‚åœŸå£¤ç»“æž„æ”¹è‰¯å¯¹æ°´ç¨»å¶ç»¿ç´ è§å ‰å‚æ•°å’Œäº§é‡çš„å½±å“.

To examine the effects of soil structure improvement due to the amendment of biochar and polyacrylamide (PAM) on the chlorophyll fluorescence characteristics of rice leaves and the yield of rice, a pit cultivation experiment was carried out in a coastal reclamation region. Three levels of biochar (0%, 2% and 5% by the mass of 0-20 cm surface soil and noted as B1, B2 and B3, respectively) and PAM (0‰, 0.4‰ and 1‰ by the mass of 0-20 cm surface soil and noted as P1,P2 and P3, respectively) were applied to the adopted soil, respectively. The results of the three-year experiment showed that an appropriate application quantity of biochar and PAM could improve the fluorescence characteristics of rice leaves. However, high levels of biochar and PAM had no obvious or even a negative effect. Among all the treatments, the B2P2 treatment always had the highest the maximum photochemical efficiency (Fv/Fm), the actual photochemical efficiency of photosystem II (ΦPS2), the photochemical quenching coefficient (qP) and the non-photochemical quenching coefficient (NPQ) values during the whole growth period. The chlorophyll content (SPAD value) of rice leaves showed no significant difference among different biochar application levels. However, it showed significant differences among different PAM application levels, with the highest value under the soil amended with 0.4‰ PAM (the P2 treatment). The application of biochar and PAM had significant impacts on rice yield, with the highest yield, namely 7236 kg·hm-2, presenting under the B2P2 treatment, which was 28.5% higher than that of the control. The improved soil structure of the coastal saline soil due to the amendment of biochar and PAM affects rice yield mainly through its influences on the 1000-grain weight, the spike number per hole, the grain number per spike and the seed setting rate. It is concluded that improving soil structure by applying an appropriate quantity of biochar and PAM is conducive to increase the chlorophyll fluorescence characteristics and the yield of rice in the coastal reclamation region.

Effects of vegetative filter strip on overland flow nitrogen and phosphorus intercepting under different inflow conditions.

The vegetative filter strips can effectively intercept erosion of water and sediment on the slope, with huge potential to prevent and control soil erosion and agricultural non-point source pollution. A series of muddy water scouring experiments under different inflow conditions in the indoor soil trays were conducted to investigate the effects of vegetative filter strip (VFS) on intercepting nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) under different inflow conditions and its internal hydrological responses. The results showed that the VFS could effectively intercept N and P in the runoff. When the inflow was 200, 400, 600 L·h-1, the intercepting rates were 74.9%, 62.0%, 58.3% for N and 85.0%, 75.6%, 72.0% for P, respectively. The best intercepting effect occurred at the lower inflow rates. Different inflow N and P concentrations had no significant effect on N and P interception efficiency. Under different inflow conditions, the intercepting rates of N and P by VFS increased with the increases of Froude value with a significant linear positive correlation. However, there were linear negative correlations between the intercepting rate and resistance coefficient, shear stress and stream power. The relationship between the N and P intercepting rates and shear stress was the best among others, and the N and P intercepting rates could be well predicted by a formula containing shear stress.

[Impact of Exogenous Nitrogen Import on Sediment Denitrification and N2O Emissions in Ditches Under Different Land Uses].

Farmland drainage ditch soil can consume part of the agricultural non-point nitrogen through nitrification-denitrification processes. Paddy fields, vegetable land, and orchards are the main types of land uses in the Taihu Lake region, and many drainage ditches are distributed across these lands. The way exogenous nitrogen is imported to drain ditches under different land uses differs significantly, which can directly affect the nitrogen consumption ability of the channels. A soil incubation experiment was conducted under laboratory conditions to study the denitrification loss and N2O emissions of drainage ditch soil under different land uses. In this study, drainage ditch sediment was collected from orchards, paddy fields, and vegetable land in the Taihu Lake region. Five different NO3--N content import levels were set:0, 0.5, 1.0, 5.0, and 10 mg·L-1, which were denoted as N0, N1, N2, N3, and N4, respectively. The results showed that exogenous nitrogen input stimulated sediment denitrification in the drainage ditches. The sediment denitrification rates of the three types of channels increased significantly with the increase of input NO3--N concentration (P<0.05). There was a significant linear positive correlation between the cumulative denitrification loss and input NO3--N concentration (R2>0.75). Excluding for the vegetable land sediment, the N2O emission rate and cumulative emissions did not increase significantly with the increase of input NO3--N concentration (P>0.05). There was no significant difference in the denitrification and N2O emissions among the three kinds of channel sediment, with no or low exogenous nitrogen input (N0and N1) (P>0.05). As the input NO3--N concentration increased, especially under the condition of high exogenous nitrogen input (N3and N4), the nitrogen consumed via denitrification in orchard and paddy field sediment was significantly higher than that in vegetable land sediment (P<0.05), whereas the N2O emissions of drainage ditch sediment from the vegetable land was significantly higher than that of the other two channel sediments (P<0.05). The mineralization rate of ditch soil organic carbon had a positive correlation with denitrification rate (n=15), and microbial mineralization (CO2-C) promoted the nitrification and denitrification of the drainage ditch soils.

[Effects of biochar and PAM application on saline soil hydraulic properties of coastal reclamation region]. / æ–½ç”¨ç”Ÿç‰©ç‚­å’Œèšä¸™çƒ¯é °èƒºå¯¹æµ·æ¶‚å›´åž¦åŒºç›ç¢±åœŸæ°´åŠ›æ€§è´¨çš„å½±å“.

Disc infiltration tests were carried out to study the soil infiltration characteristics under different rates of soil amendments application, and to investigate the effects of biochar and polyacrylamide (PAM) application on saline soil hydraulic properties, pore characteristics and contribution of each pore to soil water flow in coastal reclamation region. The results showed that soil satura-ted hydraulic conductivity increased by 46.4% when biochar was applied at 2% compared with the control, and decreased with increasing PAM application. The total effective soil porosity and r>100 µm pores were increased by 8.3% and 10.2% (P<0.05) with the application of 2% biochar alone. The total effective soil porosity and different radius pores decreased with the PAM application. Particularly, the total effective soil porosity decreased markedly when PAM was applied at 1‰ and the reduction was up to 88%. With the application of biochar and PAM, the contribution of r<100 µm pores to water flow decreased and the pores with r>500 µm played a major role in determining water flows.

[Effects of Biochar Amendment and Irrigation on Denitrification Losses in Greenhouse Tomato Fields].

Biochar addition and irrigation are normal farm practices for tomatoes management, while their impacts on denitrification are less known. In this study, three irrigation treatments(hereafter main plots)were set as 50% (W50%), 75% (W75%) and 100% (W100%) of reference evapotranspiration (ET0), and the subplots coupled three biochar treatments at the rates of 0 (B0), 25 t·hm-2 (B25) and 50 t·hm-2 (B50). Typical soil samples in each plot were collected when tomatoes were harvested in 2014 and 2015. We used acetylene inhibition method to study the denitrification loss, and also measured N2O emissions of tomato soil without acetylene amendment. The results showed that biochar and irrigation significantly changed the physical and chemical properties of the soil. Adding biochar improved total carbon, total nitrogen content and pH of the soil, while reduced the content of NH4+-N and NO3--N compared to B0. On the contrary, irrigation reduced the amount of total nitrogen and total carbon content. As a result, both biochar and irrigation significantly reduced denitrification losses (P<0.05). Moreover, the interaction of biochar and irrigation significantly reduced soil inorganic nitrogen and denitrification losses (P<0.05),and the orders of the influencing factors of NO3--N were irrigation, biochar, their interactions in turn, the orders of the influencing factors of NH4+-N were biochar, irrigation, their interactions in turn, the orders of the influencing factors of denitrification losses were irrigation, biochar, their interactions in turn. Denitrification losses were positively related to inorganic nitrogen content in the soil, CO2mineralization rates and N2O emission rates. The ratio of N2O/DN, ranging from 0.31% to 1.88%, was significantly affected by biochar and irrigation treatment in the fields (P<0.05).

[Denitrification Loss and N2O Emission from Different Carbon Inputs in Orchard Drains Sediments].

The orchard is an important economic crop in Taihu Lake region. Heavy nitrogen application in orchard results in great nitrogen loss to drainage ditch, and unbalanced carbon nitrogen ratio. Therefore, carbon might be an important limiting factor for sediment nitrification and denitrification. A soil incubation experiment controlled by the acetylene inhibition method was conducted under laboratory conditions to study the denitrification loss and N2O emissions of orchard drainage ditch soil. We designed five carbon input levels of 0, 5, 25, 50 and 100 mg·L-1, which were noted as C0, C1, C2, C3 and C4, respectively, meanwhile there was 5 mg·L-1 net nitrogen input in the form of KNO3 in each treatment. The results showed that carbon inputs could stimulate both denitrification rates (DN) and N2O emission rates. Carbon and nitrogen ratio had a significant effect on N2O emission rates and denitrification loss rates (P<0.05). When the carbon and nitrogen ratio was 10:1, total cumulative denitrification losses and N2O emissions were both highest (319.26 µg·kg-1 and 6.20 µg·kg-1, respectively) among the treatments, which accounted for 1.28% and 0.02% of net nitrogen input, respectively. This result indicated that the carbon and nitrogen ratio of 10:1 was most favorable for N2O emissions and denitrification process in sediments.

Pretreatment Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio as a Prognostic Predictor of Urologic Tumors: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

The relationship between inflammation and tumor development and progression has been recognized in recent decades. NLR is an easily reproducible and widely used inflammatory response marker. The prognostic value of NLR for urologic tumors has been reported in succession. Here, we perform a systematic review and meta-analysis to summarize the association between the NLR and prognosis of urologic tumors. We conducted a computerized search of PubMed, Embase, and ISI Web of Knowledge to identify clinical studies that had evaluated the association between the pretreatment NLR and prognosis in urologic tumors. Prognostic outcomes included overall survival (OS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), recurrence-free survival (RFS), progression-free survival (PFS), and metastasis-free survival (MFS). We extracted and synthesized corresponding hazard ratios (HRs) and confidence intervals (CIs) using Review Manager 5.3 and STATA 13. We identified 34 retrospective cohort studies and conducted the meta-analysis. The results showed that all OS, CSS, RFS, PFS, and MFS risks were significantly different between patients with an elevated NLR and those with a low NLR in various urologic tumors. A high NLR portended poor prognosis. However, no significance was observed for CSS in patients with renal cell carcinoma (HR = 1.38, 95% CI: 0.96-1.99). Our meta-analysis suggests that NLR could be a prognostic predictor for urologic tumors. Patients with a high NLR were deemed to have a poor prognosis.

Kidney-sparing Management Versus Nephroureterectomy for Upper Tract Urothelial Carcinoma: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

PURPOSE: To evaluate and update evidence for prognostic effects of kidney-sparing (KS) management and nephroureterectomy (NU) for upper tract urothelial carcinomas. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Pubmed, Embase and the Cochrane Library were retrieved for the identification of comparative studies of kidney-sparing procedure and nephroureterectomy for upper tract urothelial carcinoma prior to December 2014. The data were extracted independently by 2 reviewers and the quality of the included studies was assessed. Review Manager 5.3 and STATA 13 were used to perform the meta-analysis. RESULTS: Twenty-three observational studies including 1,587 KS and 3,996 NU were evaluated. The results of the meta-analysis showed that nephroureterectomy had no significant benefit with regard to intravesical recurrence (IRFS), metastasis (MFS), cancer specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS) except the total tumor recurrence (RFS) when compared with kidney sparing management. The respectively pooled outcomes were HR 1.36 (0.69-2.68, P=0.38) for IRFS, 1.09 (0.59-2.01, P=0.78) for MFS, 1.17 (0.77-1.79, P=0.47) for CSS, 1.50 (0.90-2.48, P=0.12) for OS and 1.61 (1.03-2.51, P=0.04) for RFS. CONCLUSIONS: On the whole, kidney-sparing management had equivalent prognostic effect on upper tract urothelial carcinoma as the standard nephroureterectomy except in tumor recurrence. However, the results should be interpreted with caution for lack of stage and grade stratification and multi-center randomized controlled trials are still needed to verify our results.

The Prognostic Effect of Statin Use on Urologic Cancers: An Updated Meta-Analysis of 35 Observational Studies.

Recent studies suggest that statin may benefit cancer prognosis, especially through its radiosensitization effect. But controversy exists in other studies. Hence, we performed a meta-analysis of results from 35 studies to evaluate the effect of statin use on urologic cancers.We conducted computerized search from PubMed, Embase, and ISI Web of Knowledge through May 2015, screened the retrieved references, and collected and evaluated relevant information. We extracted and synthesized corresponding hazard ratios (HR) and confidence interval (CI) by using Review Manager 5.3 and STATA 13. This review was registered at PROSPERO with registration No. CRD42015020171.We selected total 35 retrospective studies and conducted a meta-analysis of results from these studies. The pooled results suggested no benefit of statin use to bladder cancer and renal cell carcinoma, except overall survival [HR = 0.81, 95% CI: 0.69-0.96]. However, significant improvement of prostate cancer prognosis including overall survival [HR = 0.82, 95% CI: 0.70-0.97] and cancer-specific survival [HR = 0.70, 95% CI: 0.59-0.83] was indicated, but not including tumor progression [HR = 0.84, 95% CI: 0.62-1.14]. Statin use improved biochemical recurrence of prostate cancer in radiotherapy patients [HR = 0.68, 95% CI: 0.54-0.85] but not in radical prostatectomy patients [HR = 0.97, 95% CI: 0.82-1.15].Current evidence suggests no benefit of statin use to bladder cancer and renal cell carcinoma, except in overall survival. While statin use benefited prostate cancer patients in overall survival, cancer-specific survival but not in tumor progression; it also improved biochemical recurrence in radiotherapy patients but not in radical patients. To verify these results, randomized controlled trials are necessary.

Diagnostic Value of Liquid-Based Cytology in Urothelial Carcinoma Diagnosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the value of liquid-based cytology (LBC) in the diagnosis of urothelial carcinoma. METHOD: Diagnostic studies were searched for the diagnostic value of LBC in urothelial carcinoma in PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, CBM and CNKI. The latest retrieval date was September 2014. The data were extracted and the quality of the included studies was independently assessed by 2 reviewers. Stata 13 software was used to perform the statistical analysis. The research was conducted in compliance with the PRISMA statement. RESULT: Nineteen studies, which included 8293 patients, were evaluated. The results of the meta-analysis showed that the pooled sensitivity and specificity of LBC were 0.58 (0.51-0.65) and 0.96 (0.93-0.98), respectively. The diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) was 31 (18-56) and the area under the curve (AUC) of summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) was 0.83 (0.80-0.86). The post-test probability was 80% when a positive diagnosis was made. Compared with high grade urothelial carcinoma (HGUC), the sensitivity of detecting low-grade urothelial carcinoma (LGUC) was significantly lower, risk ratio of sensitivity was 0.54 (0.43-0.66), P<0.001. However, no significant sensitivity improvement was observed with LBC when compared with traditional cytospin cytology, risk ratio was 1.03 (0.94-1.14), P = 0.524. CONCLUSION: Despite LBC having a pooled 58% positive rate for urothelial carcinoma diagnosis in our meta-analysis, no significant improvement in sensitivity was observed based on the studies evaluated. Further research is needed to validate these findings.

Preoperative C-reactive protein as a prognostic predictor for upper tract urothelial carcinoma: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) is a relatively rare and highly aggressive tumor. However, the prognosis of UTUC is rarely predicted accurately due to the lack of reliable biomarkers. C-reactive protein (CRP) has been found to be correlated with several types of cancer. In this study, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the association between CRP levels and prognosis in UTUC. A computerized search was conducted through PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library and CBM databases to identify clinical studies that have evaluated the association between preoperative CRP levels and prognosis of UTUC. The prognostic outcomes included recurrence-free survival (RFS), cancer-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS). We extracted and synthesized corresponding hazard ratios (HRs) and confidence intervals (CIs) using Review Manager 5.3 software. We identified 7 retrospective cohort studies including a total of 1,919 patients and analyzed these studies using univariate and multivariate models. Our meta-analysis results revealed that RFS and CSS were significantly different between patients with elevated CRP levels and those with low CRP levels (P<0.0001 and P<0.00001, respectively); however, that was not the case for OS (P=0.22) in the multivariate or the univariate model. The pooled HR of RFS was 2.90 (95% CI: 1.87-4.51, P<0.00001) in the univariate analysis and 1.57 (95% CI: 1.26-1.97, P<0.0001) in the multivariate analysis. The pooled HRs of CSS were 2.78 (95% CI: 1.75-4.43, P<0.0001) and 1.64 (95% CI: 1.32-2.03, P<0.00001) in the univariate and multivariate analysis, respectively. However, the pooled HRs of OS were not significant in the univariate [1.24 (95% CI: 0.72-2.15, P=0.43)] or the multivariate analysis [1.24 (95% CI: 0.88-1.75, P=0.22)]. In conclusion, our meta-analysis results suggested that CRP level may be a prognostic predictor in UTUC.

Growth and comprehensive quality index of tomato under rain shelters in response to different irrigation and drainage treatments.

The effects of two levels of irrigation water (100%, 60%) and buried underground pipe depths (0.8 m, 0.6 m) under rain shelters' conditions on yield and some quality parameters of tomato were investigated. A fully randomized factorial experiment was conducted between April and August in 2011 and 2012 at Hohai University. It was found that drainage treatments enhanced biomass production, whereas soil desiccation led to biomass reduction. At 60 cm buried underground pipe depths, the drought treatments increased the mean root weight and root-shoot ratio by 14% and 39%, respectively. The main effects of drainage treatments on the fruit quality were increases in total soluble solids (TSS), soluble sugar (SS), and vitamin C (VC) compared to the control. In addition, drainage treatments increased the average yield by 13% and 9%, respectively, in both years. The drought treatments did not significantly alter fruit yield, although mean single fruit weight was slightly reduced. Instead, these treatments tend to have great potential to improve fruit quality (TSS, SS, and VC) to variable extents. In both years, the drought treatment at 60 cm buried underground pipe depths proved to possess the highest comprehensive quality index based on Principal Component Analysis.

Emergy evaluation of a production and utilization process of irrigation water in China.

Sustainability evaluation of the process of water abstraction, distribution, and use for irrigation can contribute to the policy of decision making in irrigation development. Emergy theory and method are used to evaluate a pumping irrigation district in China. A corresponding framework for its emergy evaluation is proposed. Its emergy evaluation shows that water is the major component of inputs into the irrigation water production and utilization systems (24.7% and 47.9% of the total inputs, resp.) and that the transformities of irrigation water and rice as the systems' products (1.72E + 05 sej/J and 1.42E + 05 sej/J, resp.; sej/J = solar emjoules per joule) represent their different emergy efficiencies. The irrigated agriculture production subsystem has a higher sustainability than the irrigation water production subsystem and the integrated production system, according to several emergy indices: renewability ratio (%R), emergy yield ratio (EYR), emergy investment ratio (EIR), environmental load ratio (ELR), and environmental sustainability index (ESI). The results show that the performance of this irrigation district could be further improved by increasing the utilization efficiencies of the main inputs in both the production and utilization process of irrigation water.