A New Index Developed for Fast Diagnosis of Meteorological Roles in Ground-Level Ozone Variations.

China experienced worsening ground-level ozone (O3) pollution from 2013 to 2019. In this study, meteorological parameters, including surface temperature (T 2 ), solar radiation (SW), and wind speed (WS), were classified into two aspects, (1) Photochemical Reaction Condition (PRC = T 2 × SW) and (2) Physical Dispersion Capacity (PDC = WS). In this way, a Meteorology Synthetic Index (MSI = PRC/PDC) was developed for the quantification of meteorology-induced ground-level O3 pollution. The positive linear relationship between the 90th percentile of MDA8 (maximum daily 8-h average) O3 concentration and MSI determined that the contribution of meteorological changes to ground-level O-3 varied on a latitudinal gradient, decreasing from ∼40% in southern China to 10%-20% in northern China. Favorable photochemical reaction conditions were more important for ground-level O3 pollution. This study proposes a universally applicable index for fast diagnosis of meteorological roles in ground-level O3 variability, which enables the assessment of the observed effects of precursor emissions reductions that can be used for designing future control policies. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at 10.1007/s00376-021-1257-x.

Quantifying gait impairment in individuals affected by Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease: the usefulness of gait profile score and gait variable score.

Background: Gait analysis is a reliable tool to characterise ambulation in Charcot-Marie-Tooth, the obtained are complex data makes its use scarce in clinical practice. The use of synthetic measures may enable the clinician to easily interpret gait kinematics in Charcot-Marie-Tooth.Aims: To test the usefulness of Gait Profile Score as a method to quantify and monitor kinematic gait alterations in Charcot-Marie-Tooth.Methods: A group of patients with Charcot-Marie-Tooth and a control group underwent Gait Analysis. Neurological impairment was evaluated by means of the Charcot Marie Tooth neuropathy score in his original form and in the Rasch Analysis revised form. Differences in Kinematics scores induced by the pathology were assessed using the Mann-Whitney U test. The relationship between gait parameters and Charcot Marie Tooth neuropathy score was assessed by means of the Spearman correlation.Results: Twenty patients were enrolled. Mann-Whitney U test revealed a significant effect of the pathology on Gait Profile Score (p < 0.001). Charcot Marie Tooth neuropathy score was positively correlated with Gait Profile Score (Rho = 0.708, p = 0.001).Conclusion: Gait profile score can differentiate Charcot Marie Tooth from unaffected people and to quantify ambulation impairment, also identifying the joints more affected by the disease.Implications for rehabilitationPhysiotherapy and orthotics constitute the sole possible clinical approach for Charcot Marie Tooth, but the clinical scales are scarcely effective for assessing the rehabilitative outcome.Synthetic measures are able to summarize Charcot Marie tooth kinematics in a single score, and Gait Profile Score is able to differentiate patients with Charcot Marie tooth from healthy controls.Gait Profile Score is related to clinical disability as measured by the Charcot Marie tooth neuropathy score.

[Establishment of the classified evaluation system on the levels of influenza epidemics through a synthetic index method, in Beijing].

Objective: To establish a classified evaluation system for recognizing the levels of influenza epidemics and to explore the new reporting system on influenza epidemics. Methods: The following 3 indicators, including 1) the number of influenza-like illness, 2) positive rate of detection on influenza virus nucleic acids, and 3) the number of influenza outbreaks were chosen to calculate the synthetic index and to classify the grades of evaluation. Results: 209 weeks during 2013-2017 were classified into 5 grades: Grade 1 were 110 weeks (52.63%), Grade 2 were 47 weeks (22.49%), Grade 3 were 44 weeks (21.05%), Grade 4 were 8 weeks (3.83%), and Grade 5 were 0 week. Conclusion: This classified evaluation system provided simple, comprehensive and comparable reference indicators and used for the evaluation on influenza epidemics, also providing suggestions for influenza prevention and control accordingly.

Establishment of the classified evaluation system on the levels of influenza epidemics through a synthetic index method, in Beijing / 中华流行病学杂志

Objective To establish a classified evaluation system for recognizing the levels of influenza epidemics and to explore the new reporting system on influenza epidemics.Methods The following 3 indicators,including 1) the number of influenza-like illness,2) positive rate of detection on influenza virus nucleic acids,and 3) the number of influenza outbreaks were chosen to calculate the synthetic index and to classify the grades of evaluation.Results 209 weeks during 2013-2017 were classified into 5 grades:Grade 1 were 110 weeks (52.63％),Grade 2 were 47 weeks (22.49％),Grade 3 were 44 weeks (21.05％),Grade 4 were 8 weeks (3.83％),and Grade 5 were 0 week.Conclusion This classified evaluation system provided simple,comprehensive and comparable reference indicators and used for the evaluation on influenza epidemics,also providing suggestions for influenza prevention and control accordingly.

Establishment of the classified evaluation system on the levels of influenza epidemics through a synthetic index method, in Beijing / 中华流行病学杂志

Objective To establish a classified evaluation system for recognizing the levels of influenza epidemics and to explore the new reporting system on influenza epidemics.Methods The following 3 indicators,including 1) the number of influenza-like illness,2) positive rate of detection on influenza virus nucleic acids,and 3) the number of influenza outbreaks were chosen to calculate the synthetic index and to classify the grades of evaluation.Results 209 weeks during 2013-2017 were classified into 5 grades:Grade 1 were 110 weeks (52.63％),Grade 2 were 47 weeks (22.49％),Grade 3 were 44 weeks (21.05％),Grade 4 were 8 weeks (3.83％),and Grade 5 were 0 week.Conclusion This classified evaluation system provided simple,comprehensive and comparable reference indicators and used for the evaluation on influenza epidemics,also providing suggestions for influenza prevention and control accordingly.

Classification of the European Union member states according to the relative level of sustainable development.

Nowadays methods of measurement and assessment of the level of sustained development at the international, national and regional level are a current research problem, which requires multi-dimensional analysis. The relative assessment of the sustainability level of the European Union member states and the comparative analysis of the position of Poland relative to other countries was the aim of the conducted studies in the article. EU member states were treated as objects in the multi-dimensional space. Dimensions of space were specified by ten diagnostic variables describing the sustainability level of UE countries in three dimensions, i.e., social, economic and environmental. Because the compiled statistical data were expressed in different units of measure, taxonomic methods were used for building an aggregated measure to assess the level of sustainable development of EU member states, which through normalisation of variables enabled the comparative analysis between countries. Methodology of studies consisted of eight stages, which included, among others: defining data matrices, calculating the variability coefficient for all variables, which variability coefficient was under 10 %, division of variables into stimulants and destimulants, selection of the method of variable normalisation, developing matrices of normalised data, selection of the formula and calculating the aggregated indicator of the relative level of sustainable development of the EU countries, calculating partial development indicators for three studies dimensions: social, economic and environmental and the classification of the EU countries according to the relative level of sustainable development. Statistical date were collected based on the Polish Central Statistical Office publication.

Characterizing physical activity and food urban environments: a GIS-based multicomponent proposal.

BACKGROUND: Healthier urban environments influence the distribution of cardiovascular risk factors. Our aim was to design and implement a multicomponent method based on Geographic Information Systems to characterize and evaluate environmental correlates of obesity: the food and the physical activity urban environments. METHODS: Study location comprised a socio-demographically average urban area of 12 contiguous census sections (≈16,000 residents), in Madrid, Spain. We conducted on-field audits on all food stores and street segments. We designed a synthetic index integrating continuous measures of both environments, by kernel density analyses. Index ranges from 0 to 100 (least-most healthy). RESULTS: We found a heterogeneous distribution with 75 and 50 % of the area scoring less than 36.8 and 25.5, respectively. Census sections of study area were categorized by Jenks intervals as high, medium-high, medium-low and low. 41.0 % of residents lived in an area with a low score, 23.6 % medium-low and 31.1 % medium-high and 4.2 % in a high. CONCLUSION: The proposed synthetic index may be a relevant tool to inform urban health interventions, providing a feasible way to integrate different measures of barriers and facilitators of healthy urban environments in terms of food and physical activity.

Predicting gene expression level by the transcription factor binding signals in human embryonic stem cells.

The transcription factor (TF) binding signals play important role in the control of gene expression. In this study, to elucidate the relationship between the transcription factor binding signals and gene expression, we firstly analyze the distributions of 57 kinds of TFs' binding signals in human H1 embryonic stem cells. Their distributions in highly and lowly expressed genes are further compared. On this basis, a statistic model of predicting gene expression level is constructed by using 57 kinds of transcription factor synthetic indexes (TFSIs). Then, the TF's Down-regulated and Up-regulated genes are predicted and the statistics significance is estimated by one-sided Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Based on the stepwise regression analysis, the "optimal" TFSIs are selected out, and the better results for predicting the expression level of genes with high CpG content promoters (HCPs) and low CpG content promoters (LCPs) are obtained.