Carcinogens ; Occupational Exposure

Animals ; Humans ; MicroRNAs ; Pneumonia ; genetics ; Pulmonary Fibrosis ; genetics

Objective To evaluate the performance of the ABX Micro C-reactive protein(CRP)in determination of CRP.Methods The analytic characteristics including precision,carry-over,linearity, stability,interference and comparability were examined.Results The coefficient of variation(CV)was less than 5.1%,10% and d.3% for within-run,between-run and between-day,respectively.Carryover was less than 1.2%.Whole blood samples held at either room temperature or 4℃ were stable for 48 hours with relative deviation less than 6.0% relatively.Linear range was 1.0-70.0 mg/L using undiluted samples.The comparison between the ABX Micro CRP and Behring Nephelometer Ⅱ was well correlated Both serum:Y=0.996 7X-0.398 5,r~2=0.965 9;serum for BN Ⅱ,whole-blood samples for the ABX Micro CRP:Y=0.908 8X-0.138 2,r~2=0.959 4;both serum and whole-blood samples for the ABX Micro CRP: Y=1.001 7X-0.898 2,r~2=0.952 7.No obvious interference was observed by hyperhemoglobinemia and hyperlipidemia.Conclusion The determination of CRP test with ABX Micro is accurate and reliable.

To explore the effect of magnitude and duration on the performance of Cumulative Sum (CUSUM),with simulation method used on the subject after the insertion of 11 outbreak events into baseline data with Poisson distribution.Sensitivity fluctuated from 9.1％ to 100.0％ with specificities higher than 98.6％.Sensitivity was significantly correlated with magnitude,and increased along with the increase of magnitude.However,no significant correlation was observed between sensitivity and duration.A magnitude which was at least 2.6 times higher than that of the mean daily baseline could result in the sensitivity of 100.0％.Time-lag would be improved along with the increase of magnitude.Time between onset and detection of an outbreak was no longer than one day when magnitude was more than 1.8 of the mean daily baseline.In summary,the performance of CUSUM was influenced by magnitude,but not by duration.CUSUM had the advantage of good time-lag and high sensitivity when the outbreak magnitude was more than 2.4 time over the baseline data.

Health Personnel ; psychology ; Humans ; Logistic Models ; Multivariate Analysis ; Professional Competence ; statistics & numerical data ; Stress, Psychological ; epidemiology

Objective To evaluate the feasibility of localizing the internal auditory canal (IAC) and the facial nerve through the root of the zygoma、foramen spinosum and the head of the malleus in middle fossa approach with the assistance of high resolution computerized tomography (HRCT).Methods Eighteen human cadaveric temporal bones were scanned and measured by HRCT.Cadaver specimen were divided into two groups.Group A was studied first through a middle fossa approach to find out the relationship between the HRCT measurements and the anatomic measurements.Then 4 whole human cadaveric heads (8 temporal bones) of group B were dissected using a HRCT oriented middle fossa approach to localize IAC with the root of the zygoma,foramen spinosum and the head of the malleus as landmarks.The two measurement methods were analysed with the Paired-Sample T test,and the difference was thought to be statistical significant when P＜0.05.Results In Group A, there were no statistical significant differences between the CT measurements and the anatomic measurements from the head of the malleus to other important anatomic structures.In group B,the operation was guided with CT measurements:the distance between the head of the malleus and the root of the zygoma,and the distance between the head of the malleus and foramen spinosum.Within the range 1.5mm to 3.7mm,the head of malleus was correctly localized.In seven out of the eight cases,the root of the zygoma,the head of the malleus and the internal auditory canal were in a straight line,whereas,in one case,there was an angle of 15°between the root of zygoma-head of malleus line and head of malleus-internal auditory canal line.Conclusions HRCT would provide more information on the distance relationship between the head of malleus and the root of the zygoma,foramen spinosum and the internal auditory canal.The head of the malleus could be localized through the root of the zygoma and foramen spinosum with HRCT and therefore the IAC could be exposed with the head of the malleus as a landmark in middle fossa approach when other landmarks were not recognizable.

OBJECTIVETo test the reliability and validity of two mental workload assessment scales, i.e. subjective workload assessment technique (SWAT) and NASA task load index (NASA-TLX).

METHODSOne thousand two hundred and sixty-eight mental workers were sampled from various kinds of occupations, such as scientific research, education, administration and medicine, etc, with randomized cluster sampling. The re-test reliability, split-half reliability, Cronbach's alpha coefficient and correlation coefficients between item score and total score were adopted to test the reliability. The test of validity included structure validity.

RESULTSThe re-test reliability coefficients of these two scales and their items were ranged from 0.516 to 0.753 (P < 0.01), indicating the two scales had good re-test reliability; the split-half reliability of SWAT was 0.645, and its Cronbach's alpha coefficient was more than 0.80, all the correlation coefficients between its items score and total score were more than 0.70; as for NASA-TLX, both the split-half reliability and Cronbach's alpha coefficient were more than 0.80, the correlation coefficients between its items score and total score were all more than 0.60 (P < 0.01) except the item of performance. Both scales had good inner consistency. The Pearson correlation coefficient between the two scales was 0.492 (P < 0.01), implying the results of the two scales had good consistency. Factor analysis showed that the two scales had good structure validity.

CONCLUSIONBoth SWAT and NASA-TLX have good reliability and validity and may be used as a valid tool to assess mental workload in China after being revised properly.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Mental Competency ; Middle Aged ; Occupational Health ; Reproducibility of Results ; Sampling Studies ; Self-Assessment ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; standards ; Task Performance and Analysis ; Workload

In recent years, for improving the ability of early detection on infectious disease outbreak, many researchers study the disease outbreak detection algorithms, based on many disease surveillance data, expecting to detect the abnormal increasing and cluster of disease and symptom at an early stage by adopting appropriate algorithm. This paper introduces a cumulative sum control chart method, one of statistical process control algorithms widely used in foreign countries and describes its basic principle and characteristic, key points of design, typical examples in application of disease outbreak detection of cumulative sum method, with expect to provide reference for its application in studies of disease outbreak early warning in China.

Objective To compare the performance of aberration detection algorithm for infectious disease outbreaks, based on two different types of baseline data. Methods Cases and outbreaks of hand-foot-and-mouth disease (HFMD) reported by six provinces of China in 2009 were used as the source of data. Two types of baseline data on algorithms of C1 ,C2 and C3 were tested, by distinguishing the baseline data of weekdays and weekends. Time to detection (TTD) and false alarm rate (FAR) were adopted as two evaluation indices to compare the performance of 3 algorithms based on these two types of baseline data. Results A total of 405 460 cases of HFMD were reported by 6 provinces in 2009. On average,each county reported 1.78 cases per day during the weekdays and 1.29 cases per day during weekends, with significant difference (P<0.01) between them. When using the baseline data without distinguish weekdays and weekends, the optimal thresholds for C1, C2 and C3 was 0.2,0.4 and 0.6 respectively while the TTD of C1,C2 and C3 was all 1 day and the FARs were 5.33% ,4.88% and 4.50% respectively. On the contrast, when using the baseline data to distinguish the weekdays and weekends, the optimal thresholds for C1, C2 and C3 became 0.4,0.6 and 1.0 while the TTD of Cl,C2 and C3 also appeared equally as 1 day.However, the FARs became 4.81%,4.75% and 4.16% respectively, which were lower than the baseline data from the first type. Conclusion The number of HFMD cases reported in weekdays and weekends were significantly different, suggesting that when using the baseline data to distinguish weekdays and weekends, the FAR of C1, C2 and C3 algorithm could effectively reduce so as to improve the accuracy of outbreak detection.