Determining meteorologically-favorable zones for seasonal influenza activity in Hong Kong.

Investigations of simple and accurate meteorology classification systems for influenza epidemics, particularly in subtropical regions, are limited. To assist in preparing for potential upsurges in the demand on healthcare facilities during influenza seasons, our study aims to develop a set of meteorologically-favorable zones for epidemics of influenza A and B, defined as the intervals of meteorological variables with prediction performance optimized. We collected weekly detection rates of laboratory-confirmed influenza cases from four local major hospitals in Hong Kong between 2004 and 2019.

Association between cold weather, influenza infection, and asthma exacerbation in adults in Hong Kong.

Despite a conspicuous exacerbation of asthma among patients hospitalized due to influenza infection, no study has attempted previously to elucidate the relationship between environmental factors, influenza activity, and asthma simultaneously in adults. In this study, we examined this relationship using population-based hospitalization records over 22 years. Daily numbers of hospitalizations due to asthma in adults of 41 public hospitals in Hong Kong during 1998-2019 were obtained.

Incidence of neonatal sepsis after universal antenatal culture-based screening of group B streptococcus and intrapartum antibiotics: A multicentre retrospective cohort study.

Objective: To compare the incidences of early and late-onset neonatal sepsis, including group B streptococcus (GBS) and Escherichia coli (E. coli) before and after implementation of universal screening and intrapartum antibiotics prophylaxis (IAP).

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Independent effect of weather, air pollutants, and seasonal influenza on risk of tuberculosis hospitalization: An analysis of 22-year hospital admission data.

Background: While influenza infections and environmental factors have been documented as potential drivers of tuberculosis, no investigations have simultaneously examined their impact on tuberculosis at a population level. This study thereby made use of Hong Kong's surveillance data over 22 years to elucidate the temporal association between environmental influences, influenza infections, and tuberculosis activity.

Methods: Weekly total numbers of hospital admissions due to tuberculosis, meteorological data, and outdoor air pollutant concentrations in Hong Kong during 1998-2019 were obtained.

Who is at the centre of what? A scoping review of the conceptualisation of 'centredness' in healthcare.

Objectives: We aimed to identify the core elements of centredness in healthcare literature. Our overall research question is: How has centredness been represented within the health literature published between 1990 and 2019?

Methods: A scoping review across five databases (Medline (Ovid), PsycINFO, CINAHL, Embase (Ovid) and Scopus; August 2019) to identify all peer-reviewed literature published since 1990 that focused on the concept of centredness in any healthcare discipline or setting. Screening occurred in duplicate by a multidisciplinary, multinational team.

Association of weather, air pollutants, and seasonal influenza with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease hospitalization risks.

The influences of weather and air pollutants on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have been well-studied. However, the heterogeneous effects of different influenza viral infections, air pollution and weather on COPD admissions and re-admissions have not been thoroughly examined. In this study, we aimed to elucidate the relationships between meteorological variables, air pollutants, seasonal influenza, and hospital admissions and re-admissions due to COPD in Hong Kong, a non-industrial influenza epicenter.

Relationship between acute kidney injury, seasonal influenza, and environmental factors: A 14-year retrospective analysis.

Despite high incidence of acute kidney injury (AKI) among patients hospitalised for influenza, no previous work has attempted to analyse and quantify the association between the two. Herein, we made use of Hong Kong's surveillance data to evaluate the time-varying relationship between seasonal influenza and risk of AKI with adjustment for potential environmental covariates. Generalized additive model was used in conjunction with distributed-lag non-linear model to estimate the association of interest with daily AKI admissions as outcome and daily influenza admissions as predictor, while controlling for environmental variables (i.

Limited role for meteorological factors on the variability in COVID-19 incidence: A retrospective study of 102 Chinese cities.

While many studies have focused on identifying the association between meteorological factors and the activity of COVID-19, we argue that the contribution of meteorological factors to a reduction of the risk of COVID-19 was minimal when the effects of control measures were taken into account. In this study, we assessed how much variability in COVID-19 activity is attributable to city-level socio-demographic characteristics, meteorological factors, and the control measures imposed. We obtained the daily incidence of COVID-19, city-level characteristics, and meteorological data from a total of 102 cities situated in 27 provinces/municipalities outside Hubei province in China from 1 January 2020 to 8 March 2020, which largely covers almost the first wave of the epidemic.

Short-term association among meteorological variation, outdoor air pollution and acute bronchiolitis in children in a subtropical setting.

Objectives: To examine the association among acute bronchiolitis-related hospitalisation in children, meteorological variation and outdoor air pollution.

Methods: We obtained the daily counts of acute bronchiolitis-related admission of children≤2 years old from all public hospitals, meteorological data and outdoor air pollutants' concentrations between 1 January 2008 and 31 December 2017 in Hong Kong. We used quasi-Poisson generalised additive models together with distributed lag non-linear models to estimate the associations of interest adjusted for confounders.

Independent association between meteorological factors, PM2.5, and seasonal influenza activity in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China.

Background: Due to variations in climatic conditions, the effects of meteorological factors and PM on influenza activity, particularly in subtropical regions, vary in existing literature. In this study, we examined the relationship between influenza activity, meteorological parameters, and PM .

Methods: A total of 20 165 laboratory-confirmed influenza cases in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, were documented in our dataset and aggregated into weekly counts for downstream analysis.

The role of phosphoprotein phosphatases catalytic subunit genes in pancreatic cancer.

Compelling evidence suggests that phosphoprotein phosphatases (PPPs) are involved in a large spectrum of physiological and pathological processes, but little is known about their roles in pancreatic cancer. We investigated the expression level, prognostic value, and potential function of PPPs with data from Oncomine, GEPIA, THPA, and TCGA databases and an independent cohort of patients with pancreatic cancer. Among all the PPP catalytic subunits (PPPcs), the transcription levels of PPP1CA, PPP1CB, PPP3CA, PPP3CB, and PPP4C were higher in pancreatic cancer than in normal pancreas (P<0.

A 21-year retrospective analysis of environmental impacts on paediatric acute gastroenteritis in an affluent setting.

Background: Extreme weather events happen more frequently along with global warming and they constitute a challenge for public health preparedness. For example, many investigations showed heavy rainfall was associated with an increased risk of acute gastroenteritis. In this study, we examined the associations between different meteorological factors and paediatric acute gastroenteritis in an affluent setting in China controlling for pollutant effects.

The association between ambient particulate matters, nitrogen dioxide, and childhood scarlet fever in Hangzhou, Eastern China, 2014-2018.

Background: The emerging cases of childhood scarlet fever (SF) and worsening air pollution problems in Chinese cities suggests a potential linkage between them. However, few studies had explored this association in a large childhood population.

Methods: We conducted a time-series analysis using the daily count of SF and the daily concentrations of particulate matters with an aerodynamic diameter of 2.

Latitudes mediate the association between influenza activity and meteorological factors: A nationwide modelling analysis in 45 Japanese prefectures from 2000 to 2018.

Background: Cold and dry conditions were well-documented as a major determinant of influenza seasonality in temperate countries but the association may not be consistent when the climate in temperate areas is closer to that in sub-tropical areas. We hypothesized latitudes may mediate the association between influenza activity and meteorological factors in 45 Japanese prefectures.

Methods: We used the weekly incidence of influenza-like illness of 45 prefectures from 2000 to 2018 as a proxy for influenza activity in Japan, a temperate country lying off the east coast of Asia.

Association between meteorological variations and activities of influenza A and B across different climate zones: a multi-region modelling analysis across the globe.

Objective: To elucidate the effects of meteorological variations on the activity of influenza A and B in 11 sites across different climate regions.

Methods: Daily numbers of laboratory-confirmed influenza A and B cases from 2011-2015 were collected from study sites where the corresponding daily mean temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and daily precipitation amount were used for boosted regression trees analysis on the marginal associations and the interaction effects.

Results: Cold temperature was a major determinant that favored both influenza A and B in temperate and subtropical sites.

Comparison of Avian Influenza Virus Contamination in the Environment Before and After Massive Poultry H5/H7 Vaccination in Zhejiang Province, China.

Background: Information regarding comparison of the environmental prevalence of avian influenza virus (AIVs), before and after massive poultry vaccinations, is limited. Our study aimed to detect differences in the prevalence of AIVs type A and subtypes H5, H7, and H9 before and after the September 2017 massive poultry vaccination, across different sampling places and types.

Methods: We collected 55 130 environmental samples from 11 cities in Zhejiang Province (China) between March 2013 and December 2018.

Mathematical modelling of the impact of treating latent tuberculosis infection in the elderly in a city with intermediate tuberculosis burden.

Hong Kong is a high-income city with intermediate tuberculosis (TB) burden primarily driven by endogenous reactivations. A high proportion of remote latently infected people, particularly elderly, hinders the effectiveness of current strategies focusing on passive TB detection. In this study, we developed a mathematical model to evaluate the impact of treating latent TB infection (LTBI) in the elderly in addition to current TB control strategies.

Association between meteorological factors, spatiotemporal effects, and prevalence of influenza A subtype H7 in environmental samples in Zhejiang province, China.

Background: Human infection with the H7N9 virus has been reported recurrently since spring 2013. Given low pathogenicity of the virus in poultry, the outbreak cannot be noticed easily until a case of human infection is reported. Studies showed that the prevalence of influenza A subtype H7 in environmental samples is associated with the number of human H7N9 infection, with the latter associated with meteorological factors.

Monitoring the age-specificity of measles transmissions during 2009-2016 in Southern China.

Background: Despite several immunization efforts, China saw a resurgence of measles in 2012. Monitoring of transmissions of individuals from different age groups could offer information that would be valuable for planning adequate disease control strategies. We compared the age-specific effective reproductive numbers (R) of measles during 2009-2016 in Guangdong, China.

Neoadjuvant Stereotactic Radiosurgery Before Surgical Resection of Cerebral Metastases.

Objective: Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) has redefined the treatment paradigm for cerebral metastases. The benefits of SRS after surgical resection of a metastatic brain tumor have been well-defined. However, it is unclear whether preoperative SRS can improve the outcomes in select patients.

Identification of meteorological factors associated with human infection with avian influenza A H7N9 virus in Zhejiang Province, China.

Background: Since the first reported human infection with an avian-origin influenza A (H7N9) virus in China in early 2013, there have been recurrent outbreaks of the virus in the country. Previous studies have shown that meteorological factors are associated with the risk of human infection with the virus; however, their possible nonlinear and lagged effects were not commonly taken into account.

Method: To quantify the effect of meteorological factors on the risk of human H7N9 infection, daily laboratory-confirmed cases of human H7N9 infection and meteorological factors including total rainfall, average wind speed, average temperature, average relative humidity, and sunshine duration of the 11 sub-provincial/prefecture cities in Zhejiang during the first four outbreaks (13 March 2013-30 June 2016) were analyzed.

Impact of Socioeconomic Status on Pretreatment Weight Loss and Survival in Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer.

Purpose: Socioeconomic status (SES) influences health care outcomes, but the influence of primary payer on cancer-associated wasting is unknown. We hypothesized that primary payer as an indicator of SES would influence pretreatment cancer-associated weight loss and treatment outcomes.

Materials And Methods: Retrospective review of medical records identified 1,366 patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) consecutively treated at a tertiary care health system between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2013.

Prevalence and Survival Impact of Pretreatment Cancer-Associated Weight Loss: A Tool for Guiding Early Palliative Care.

Purpose: Cancer-associated weight loss is associated with poor prognosis in advanced malignancy; however, its pretreatment prevalence and survival impact are inadequately described in large cohorts. Such data, stratified by tumor type and stage, may facilitate the optimal and timely allocation of complementary care, leading to improvements in patient survival and quality of life.

Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study of 3,180 consecutively treated adult patients with lung or GI (including colorectal, liver, and pancreatic) cancer.

An increasing trend of rural infections of human influenza A (H7N9) from 2013 to 2017: A retrospective analysis of patient exposure histories in Zhejiang province, China.

Background: Although investigations have shown that closing live poultry markets (LPMs) is highly effective in controlling human influenza A (H7N9) infections, many of the urban LPMs were shut down, but rural LPMs remained open. This study aimed to compare the proportional changes between urban and rural infections in the Zhejiang province from 2013 to 2017 by analyzing the exposure histories of human cases.

Methods: All laboratory-confirmed cases of H7N9 from 2013 (the first wave) to 2017 (the fifth wave) in the Zhejiang province of China were analyzed.

A deep convolutional neural network-based automatic delineation strategy for multiple brain metastases stereotactic radiosurgery.

Accurate and automatic brain metastases target delineation is a key step for efficient and effective stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) treatment planning. In this work, we developed a deep learning convolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm for segmenting brain metastases on contrast-enhanced T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) datasets. We integrated the CNN-based algorithm into an automatic brain metastases segmentation workflow and validated on both Multimodal Brain Tumor Image Segmentation challenge (BRATS) data and clinical patients' data.