Background: Antibiotic resistance is a significant public health concern around the globe.Antimicrobial peptides exhibit broad-spectrum and efficient antibacterial activity with an added advantage of low drug resistance. The higher water content and 3D network structure of the hydrogels are beneficial for maintaining antimicrobial peptide activity and help to prevent degradation. The antimicrobial peptide released from hydrogels also hasten the local wound healing by promoting epithelial tissue regeneration and granulation tissue formation. Objective: This study aimed at developing sodium alginate based hydrogel loaded with a novel antimicrobial peptide Chol-37(F34-R) and to investigate the characteristics in vitro and in vivo as an alternative antibacterial wound dressing to treat infectious wounds. Methods: Hydrogels were developed and optimized by varying the concentrations of crosslinkers and subjected to various characterization tests like cross-sectional morphology, swelling index, percent water contents, water retention ratio, drug release and antibacterial activity in vitro, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa infected wound mice model in vivo. Results: The results indicated that the hydrogel C proved superior in terms of cross-sectional morphology having uniformly sized interconnected pores, a good swelling index, with the capacity to retain a higher quantity of water. Furthermore, the optimized hydrogel has been found to exert a significant antimicrobial activity against bacteria and was also found to prevent bacterial infiltration into the wound site due to forming an impermeable barrier between the wound bed and external environment. The optimized hydrogel was found to significantly hasten skin regeneration in animal models when compared to other treatments in addition to strong inhibitory effect on the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines (interleukin-1β and tumor necrosis factor-α). Conclusions Our results suggest that sodium alginate -based hydrogels loaded with Chol-37(F34-R) hold the potential to be used as an alternative to conventional antibiotics in treating infectious skin wounds.

Objectives:To investigate the screening status of warning signs for mental and behavioral development (WS) and influencing factors of infants and young children (IYC) in poverty eliminated regions of Henan Province.Methods:This study was a cross-sectional study. A total of 15 680 IYC aged 6-23 months from 51 poverty eliminated counties in Henan province from June to September of 2023 were selected through a multi-stage random sampling method. IYC′s early warning signs were screened using the WS checklist (WSC). Children′s socio-demographic characteristics, maternal information, birth status, and illness conditions such as fever and diarrhea within 2 weeks were measured through a uniformly designed questionnaire. All participants also received the measurement of height, weight, and hemoglobin concentration level. Logistic regression model was used to explore the influencing factors of positive WSC and conducted sensitivity analyses.Results:Among the sample of 15 680 IYC, there were 8 462 boys (53.97%) and 7 218 girls (49.03%), with their age of (15±5) months. A total of 291 (1.86%) IYC were positive in WSC. Parenting risk ( OR=5.07, 95% CI 3.93-6.52, P<0.001) and preterm birth ( OR=1.63, 95% CI 1.06-2.52, P=0.027) were both positively associated with the odds of WSC′s positivity. Being girls ( OR=0.66, 95% CI 0.52-0.85, P=0.001), age (12-17 months, OR=0.47, 95% CI 0.35-0.62, P<0.001; 18-23 months, OR=0.40, 95% CI 0.30-0.54, P<0.001), and maternal educational level (junior high school, OR=0.46, 95% CI 0.32-0.66, P<0.001; senior high school or vocational high school, OR=0.35, 95% CI 0.23-0.56, P<0.001; college and above, OR=0.36, 95% CI 0.23-0.57, P<0.001) were all negatively associated with the risk of WSC′s positivity. Sensitivity analyses demonstrated that, after excluding anemic children, the association between preterm birth and WSC′s positivity was not significant ( OR=1.54, 95% CI 0.95-2.49, P=0.081). Despite this situation, being girls, age and maternal educational level were still negatively associated with the odds of WSC′s positivity (all P<0.05); preterm birth, parenting risk were remained positive associated with the risk of WSC′s positivity (all P<0.05) either by excluding children with protein-energy malnutrition or 2-week morbidity, or using prevalence ratio instead of OR. Conclusions:Among the IYC in poverty eliminated regions of Henan Province, the risk of positivity of WSC was higher for those IYC with parenting risk, preterm birth, boys, younger age, and lower maternal education level. These influencing factors, such as gender, age, preterm birth, parenting risk and maternal educational level, were in certain stability across different IYC characteristics and estimation models.

In recent years, the reported incidence of brucellosis continued to rise and the epidemic spread kept, which has become an important public health problem in China. Continuous improvement of the surveillance system is important for effective control and prevention of brucellosis. This article systematically summarizes the construction and development of the brucellosis surveillance system, analyzes the main characteristics of the current brucellosis surveillance system and evaluates the surveillance system in China, and it also put forward suggestions for the further improvement of the surveillance system to meet the new requirement for brucellosis surveillance, control and prevention.

Objective:To analyze the current status of duplicated reporting of brucellosis in China during 2005-2017, to understand the impact of duplicated reporting on the incidence of brucellosis, analyze the possible causes of duplicated reporting, and put forward propose solutions to further improve the brucellosis surveillance data quality.Methods:Data were from brucellosis case reporting cards in National Notifiable Disease Report System (NNDRS), Excel 2010 software was used to establish the database, the duplicated reporting was identified by using Spark DataFrame aggregation analysis in Python 3.2.Results:During 2005-2017, a total of 499 577 cases of brucellosis were reported, but the duplicated reporting rate was 75.76/10 000 (3 785/499 577). The duplicated reporting rate in same year was 37.21/10 000 (1 859/499 577), the duplicated reporting rate in other year was 39.87/10 000 (1 992/499 577) and the overall duplicated reporting rate increased year by year. The duplicated reporting rate in same institution was 33.59 % (1 271/3 785) and the duplicated reporting rate by other institutions was 66.41 % (2 514/3 785). Hospitals had the highest number of duplicated reporting (2 757), and community healthcare centers had the highest of duplicated reporting rate (281.27/10 000) (123/4 373). The reported incidence of brucellosis was 2.926 4/100 000 in 2017, the corrected incidence was 2.844 8/100 000 after removing the duplicated reporting, which was the maximum decrease from 2005 to 2017, the corrected incidence decreased by 2.79 %. From 2005 to 2017, the average reported incidence of brucellosis in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region was 14.712 0/100 000, and the corrected incidence was 14.060 0/100 000 after removing the duplicate reporting, with a decrease by 4.43 %, the biggest decline in China. The average reported incidence of brucellosis in Ningxia Hui autonomous region was 13.987 1/100 000, and the corrected incidence of brucellosis was 13.662 2/100 000, with a decrease of 2.32 %, ranking second in China. The reasons for duplicated reporting of brucellosis included repeated medical care seeking in same or different medical institutions in same year or other year, including the repeated medical care seeking in other areas. Conclusions:During 2005-2017, the number of duplicated reporting of brucellosis cases was on the rise in China. Hospital and community health service centers had highest case number and rate of duplicate reporting respectively, the duplicated reporting was mainly caused by re-reporting by other institutions or in other years. The duplicated reporting of brucellosis had greatly affected the accuracy of surveillance data of brucellosis in some provinces, such as Xinjiang and Ningxia. It is recommended to further strengthen brucellosis reporting management, improve data quality of NNDRS.