Do you mind if I smoke here? Exploring the insights that public benches bring to public health research

In this commentary, we illustrate how exploring the meanings and uses of everyday, seemingly mundane, public objects can advance our understanding of health-related practices and the social norms that shape them. We use the example of the public bench and smoking for this purpose. By observing the design of public benches, the places where they are found, the meanings people attribute to them, and the way people use them, we can learn what health-related practices (e.g., smoking) and who (e.g., people who smoke or who do not smoke) are included and excluded as part of local community life. We thus consider the idea that public benches can be instructive in helping us understand how our health-related practices may be shaped by what can be seen enacted on or from public benches. We ultimately demonstrate how this type of object-based experiential exploration, largely absent from public health research, can provide a novel and insightful perspective to public health research.     

北京市不同居住时间的农村流动人口门诊服务利用状况及其影响因素

目的：研究北京市不同累计居住时间的农村流动人口门诊服务利用状况及其主要影响因素。方法：利用2014年北京市农村流动人口健康与卫生服务调查数据,以18岁及以上农村流动人口为研究对象,以两周内是否利用门诊服务为因变量,以性别、年龄、文化程度、社会经济地位自评分、在京累计居住时间、社会医疗保险（简称：医保）状况、家庭人均月收入和是否患有高血压或糖尿病为自变量,采用Logistic回归模型进行影响因素分析。结果：研究对象平均年龄36.7岁,多为中等学历,平均在京累计居住时间为8.4年,两周患病率为10.3%,按就诊人次计算的两周就诊率为6.0%。Logistic回归结果表明,社会经济地位自评分、累计居住时间和是否患有高血压或糖尿病对门诊服务利用的影响有统计学意义。结论：研究对象是一个较为年轻、健康状况较好的人群,门诊服务利用率较低。在京累计居住时间较长的流动人口门诊服务利用率较低,主要是因为年龄标化后的两周患病率有随居住时间增加而降低的趋势,以及居住时间较长者患病后遵医嘱持续治疗的比例较高。居住时间变量在研究中具有代理变量的作用,综合反映了那些随居住时间变化却未被纳入模型的因素对门诊服务利用的影响。     

Evaluation of Bioactivity and Pharmacokinetic Characteristics of PEGylated P.pastoris-Expressed Erythropoietin

High costs of production and relatively short serum half-life of mammalian cell-derived recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEpo) necessitate finding and developing superior hosts/technologies for more efficient production of longer-acting erythropoietic agents. With these aims, we provide the first report on reductive alkylation of low-cost P.pastoris-expressed rHuEpo (PPEpo) with PEG-aldehyde. The PCR-amplified cDNA of native rHuEpo was cloned into the pPICZαA vector and transformed into the yeast Pichia pastoris. The best expressing transformant was selected and employed for secreted-expression of PPEpo using the standard protocols. Purified PPEpo was N-terminally PEGylated with 20-kDa mPEG-propionaldehyde in a low pH (5) condition. The in vitro and in vivo biological activities of purified mono-PEGylated PPEpo was evaluated by the UT-7 cells proliferation assay and normocythaemic mice assay, respectively. Pharmacokinetic parameters were determined following intravenous administration of Epo proteins in rabbits. While PPEpo showed a higher in vitro bioactivity compared to rHuEpo, no in vivo efficiency was determined for PPEpo. However, the in vivo activity of PEG-PPEpo conjugate was comparable to that of rHuEpo. Pharmacokinetic studies showed that the terminal half-life and mean residence time of PEG-PPEpo were increased approximately 4-fold and 6.5-fold respectively, compared with those of PPEpo. The results indicate that N-terminal PEGylation of Pichia-expressed Epo could be considered as a promising approach for generating cost-effective and long-acting erythropoiesis-stimulating agents.     

Change in neighborhood environments and depressive symptoms in New York City: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis

Physical and social features of neighborhoods, such as esthetic environments and social cohesion, change over time. The extent to which changes in neighborhood conditions are associated with changes in mental health outcomes has not been well-established. Using data from the MultiEthnic Study of Atherosclerosis, this study investigated the degree to which neighborhood social cohesion, stress, violence, safety and/or the esthetic environment changed between 2002 and 2007 in 103 New York City Census tracts and the associations of these changes with changes in depressive symptoms. Neighborhoods became less stressful, more socially cohesive, safer, and less violent. White, wealthy, highly educated individuals tended to live in neighborhoods with greater decreasing violence and stress and increasing social cohesion. Individuals living in neighborhoods with adverse changes were more likely to have increased CES-D scores, although due to limited sample size associations were imprecisely estimated (P>0.05). Changes in specific features of the neighborhood environment may be associated with changes in level of depressive symptoms among residents.     

Density and type of food retailers surrounding Canadian schools: Variations across socioeconomic status

Lower socioeconomic status (SES) neighbourhoods may have differential access to food retailers, potentially explaining the varying area-level obesity rates. The food retail environment around 188 schools across Canada was examined, including full-service restaurants, fast food restaurants, sub/sandwich retailers, donut/coffee shops, convenience stores, and grocery stores. School addresses were linked to census data to obtain area-level SES measures. Access to food retailers was generally not associated with the neighbourhood SES in the immediate proximity. Within the broader neighbourhood, lower SES neighbourhoods had access to fewer food retailers of all types. This effect was diminished after taking population density into account.     

掺废渣墙体材料建筑物室内放射性水平研究

本文以我国中部地区首批节能住宅试验示范楼为例，对掺废渣墙体材料建筑物的室内氛浓度、γ外照射剂量率及所致居民年有效剂量当量，进行了测试和研究，并提出了降低掺废渣建筑物所致居民附加剂量的对策。     

Association Between Cohabitation Status and Sleep Quality in Families of Persons With Dementia in Korea: A Cross-sectional Study

ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to identify the association between cohabitation status and sleep quality in family members of people with dementia (PwDs).MethodsData of 190 365 participants aged ≥19 years from the 2018 Korea Community Health Survey were analyzed. Participants were categorized according to their cohabitation status with PwDs. Multiple logistic regression and ordinal logistic regression analyses were performed to evaluate the relationship between the cohabitation status of PwDs’ relatives and sleep quality measured using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and PSQI subscales.ResultsCompared to participants without PwDs in their families, both cohabitation and non-cohabitation with PwDs were associated with poor sleep quality (cohabitation, male: odds ratio [OR],1.28; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.08 to 1.52; female: OR, 1.40; 95% CI, 1.20 to 1.64; non-cohabitation, male: OR, 1.14; 95% CI, 1.05 to 1.24; female: OR, 1.23; 95% CI, 1.14 to 1.33). In a subgroup analysis, non-cohabiting family members showed the highest odds of experiencing poor sleep quality when the PwD lived alone (male: OR, 1.48; 95% CI, 1.14 to 1.91; female: OR, 1.58; 95% CI, 1.24 to 2.01). Cohabiting male and female participants had higher odds of poor subjective sleep quality and use of sleeping medications than non-cohabiting male and female participants, respectively.ConclusionsThe residence of PwDs and cohabitation status may contribute to poor sleep quality among PwDs’ family members. The circumstances faced by cohabiting and non-cohabiting family members should be considered when evaluating sleep quality in family members of PwDs, and appropriate interventions may be needed to improve sleep quality in both cohabiting and non-cohabiting family members.     

极端环境"极地综合征"机理探索

长时间在南极生活工作,科考队员几乎都会出现不同程度的诸如冲动、烦躁、抑郁、易激惹以及失眠、疲乏、反应迟钝、认知障碍等征兆和症状,即所谓的南极综合征或南极过冬综合征。导致这种综合征的病理生理学机制十分复杂。本文从南极恶劣的自然条件导致人类免疫-神经-内分泌系统失调和紊乱,进而导致出现各种的生理和心理方面异常变化的角度出发,对导致极地综合征的复杂机制进行分析和探讨,并对最近以来的南极医学方面的研究进行分析和说明。     

Assessment of a national health interview survey-based method of measuring community socioeconomic status

PURPOSE: Increasingly researchers are interested in assessing the role of community socioeconomic status (SES) in poor health outcomes, above and beyond the influence of low individual SES. However, the feasibility of conducting these multi-level studies is often limited by restrictions on release of confidential identifiers for linkage to census data, resources for the linkage, and the availability of data sources with individual SES measures. This study assessed a new method of measuring community socioeconomic status (SES) that can be used with the publicly available National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and preserves confidentiality and can be used with individual SES measures from the NHIS. METHODS: The associations between community SES and mortality from all causes and breast cancer in women were assessed in two samples: 1) deaths in 1987-1993 NHIS respondents linked to community SES measures developed with the new method; and 2) deaths in 1991 from the National Multiple Cause of Death Files linked to 1990 county-level census SES measures. The magnitude of crude mortality rates, direction of trend, and age-adjusted relative risk of mortality for low vs. high SES were compared in the two samples. RESULTS: Crude all-cause mortality and breast cancer mortality rates were similar in both samples in terms of magnitude and direction of trend. In both samples, as SES decreased, rates of all-cause mortality increased, whereas breast cancer mortality rates tended to decrease. Age-adjusted relative risks of mortality from all causes and breast cancer for low vs. high SES were similar in the two samples. CONCLUSIONS: Similarity of associations between community SES and mortality from all causes and breast cancer in the two samples provides support for the validity of a new NHIS-based method of measuring community SES. Since the NHIS is a large, nationally representative survey with high response rates and low loss to mortality follow-up, this method represents an important resource for multi-level studies.