Objective: To investigate the tissue structure, chondrocyte characteristics, and the differential expression of related genes and cell surface markers of auricular cartilage of patients in different ages, in order to provide a basis for the age selection of tissue engineered cartilage repair defects. Methods: The auricular cartilage tissue was obtained from 22 patients with microtia in the Plastic Surgery Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Science, ranged from 6 to 28 years old, and divided into the child group (6-12 years old), the adolescent group (13-18 years old) and the adult group (21-28 years old). The proliferation and differentiation features of chondrocytes which from different-aged patients were detected. Furthermore, quantitative real-time PCR was used to detect the differences in the expression of genes related to cell proliferation and chondrocyte extracellular matrix. Flow cytometry, immunofluorescence and immunohistochemistry were used to detect the differences in the expression of mesenchymal stem cell markers CD90, CD44, CD73 and CD105 in chondrocytes. SPSS Statistics 21.0 software was used to process statistics. Results: The proliferation capability of auricular chondrocytes of children was stronger than adolescents and adults, the child group vs the adult group P<0.05, the child group vs the adolescent group P<0.01. The expression of cartilage extracellular matrix related gene COL2A1 increased with age, the child group vs the adult group P<0.01, the adolescent group vs the adult group P<0.01. While the capability of cell osteogenic differentiation decreased with age(P<0.05). However, there was no significant difference in the capability of adipogenic differentiation when considering the ages of patients. The results of both flow cytometry and real-time PCR showed that the expression of mesenchymal stem cell markers decreased with age, with the most significant decrease in CD90(P<0.01). Conclusions The biological characteristics and stem cell content of cells derived from auricular cartilage tissue was influenced by the patients′age.

Objective:Telemedicine,as an information-based tool,is widely recognized as an effective solution for compensating for the imbalanced allocation of medical resources in China.This study specifi-cally aimed to analyze the impact of telemedicine functions on the operational efficiency of public hospi-tals,with a particular focus on their heterogeneous effects on hospitals of different levels.Methods:A cross-sectional research design was used based on the 2022 Health Informatization Statistical Survey data,and 8 944 public hospitals were used as research objects to analyze the impact of telemedicine on hospital revenues and business capacity.Multivariate linear model,propensity score matching(PSM),and grouped regression methods were employed to evaluate the impact of telemedicine on hospital revenues,number of consultations,and the number of discharges.Results:The descriptive results showed that telemedicine was available in 35.51％of public hospitals.The analysis also demonstrated that various factors,such as hospital level,academic category,area of the hospital,administrational level and num-ber of beds all had a significant influence on the operation of the hospital.Moreover,the regression re-sults showed that opening telemedicine could increase hospital revenues by 0.140(P＜0.01),hospital consultations by 0.136(P＜0.01),and the number of discharges by 0.316(P＜0.01).After correc-ting for endogeneity using the propensity score matching,the results showed that the effect of opening telemedicine on hospital revenues,consultations,and the number of discharges was 0.191(P＜0.01),0.216(P＜0.01),and 0.353(P＜0.01),respectively.Further heterogeneity analysis was conducted to explore the differential effects of telemedicine on hospitals of different levels.Grouped regression showed that telemedicine had a positive impact on the income of secondary hospitals,with a coefficient of 0.088(P＜0.05),and it had a more significant positive impact on hospital consultations in secondary hospitals,with a coefficient of 0.127(P＜0.01).An even greater impact on the number of discharges in primary hospitals,with a coefficient of 1.203(P＜0.01).Telemedicine,on the other hand,did not have a significant positive impact on the overall revenue and operational capacity of tertiary hospitals.Conclusion:Telemedicine had a significant promoting effect on hospital revenues,hospital consultations and the number of discharges,and this effect was differentiated between hospitals of different levels.Through the construction of telemedicine,primary hospitals were able to significantly improve their business capacity and revenue,which played a positive role in improving the operation of primary public hospitals.

Objective:To explore clustered epidemic of COVID-19 in Liaocheng city and analyze infection status and chain of transmission of the cases.Methods:A joint investigation team of emergency response for COVID-19 epidemic by CDC professional workers of Liaocheng city and district at two levels on January 30, 2020. According to a indicator case from ZH supermarkets, close contacts and related subjects were tracked and screened on February 1, including ZH supermarket employees, family members having contact history with related cases during January 13-26, supermarket clients during January 16-30 and family members of related cases. an epidemiological investigation was carried on and their swab of nose/throat were collected and were sent to Liaocheng CDC laboratory, real-time fluorescence quantitative RT-PCR was used to detect nucleic acids of SARS-CoV-2.Results:a total of 8 437 people were screened during January 30 to February 9, 2020 (120 employees of supermarket, 93 family members, and 8224 clients of supermarket). The epidemic was caused by ZH cases and brought clustered cases in four families. A total 25 cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection, the total infection rate of subjects was 0.30% (25/8 437) with 22 confirmed cases (0.26%, 22/8 437) and 3 asymptomatic patients (0.04%, 3/8 437), asymptomatic patients accounted for 12.00% (3/25) of all infection cases. The infection rates of supermarket employees, family members of confirmed cases and supermarket clients were 9.17% (11/120), 12.90% (12/93) and 0.02% (2/8 224).Conclusions:This was a cluster epidemic caused by one imported case of COVID-19 in a supermarket of Liaocheng city. Prevention and control of cluster epidemic should be focused on chain of community transmission and family cluster cases. It must also be an attention for transmission risk of asymptomatic patients.