Cities In Zhejiang Research Articles

Evaluating High-Quality Development in the Construction Industry via the Matter–Element Extension Method: A Case Study of 11 Cities in Zhejiang, China

China’s construction industry is facing increasing pressure for transformation and upgrading, with high-quality development becoming an essential goal. However, the precise definition and evaluation criteria for high-quality development remain ambiguous. Against this backdrop, this study focuses on 11 cities in Zhejiang province to explore the connotations of high-quality development in the construction industry and establishes an evaluation index system for assessing it. This study employs the entropy weight method and matter–element extension method to evaluate the high-quality development levels of the construction industry across these cities. The empirical results reveal that the development of the construction industry in Zhejiang province is uneven across cities, with significant potential for overall improvement. This study validates the proposed index system and evaluation model while supplementing empirical evidence; it also enriches the literature and provides both theoretical and technical support for advancing the construction industry’s transition toward high-quality development.

Prevalence of thyroid nodule and relationship with physiological and psychosocial factors among adults in Zhejiang Province, China: a baseline survey of a cohort study

BackgroundThyroid nodules have attracted much attention due to their high incidence and potential for malignant transformation. Compared with the clinical assessment and diagnosis of thyroid nodules, there are relatively few studies on the epidemiological risk factors for thyroid nodules. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of thyroid nodule among adults in Zhejiang province and to explore their relationship with physiological and psychosocial factors.MethodsThe data used in this study were obtained from the baseline survey of the Zhejiang Provincial Cohort Study on Environment and Health. From June 2022 to December 2023, a total of 21,712 participants from five representative cities in Zhejiang were recruited for the baseline survey. Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 15,595 adults were included in the analysis. The data were collected via self-report questionnaires and physical examinations. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was subsequently performed.ResultsThe detection rate of thyroid nodules was 50.98% among adults in Zhejiang province. Age, gender, education level, BMI, tea and alcohol consumption all had a statistically significant association with thyroid nodules (p < 0.05). After adjusting for sociodemographic factors, results of logistic regression analysis showed that good life satisfaction (OR = 0.854, 95% CI: 0.780–0.934) had a lower risk of thyroid nodules, however, poor life satisfaction (OR = 1.406, 95% CI: 1.014–1.951), social isolation (OR = 1.294, 95% CI: 1.089–1.538) and a family history of thyroid nodules (OR = 1.334, 95% CI: 1.064–1.672) had a greater risk of thyroid nodules.ConclusionThe detection rate of thyroid nodules in adults of Zhejiang province was an increasing trend compared with that in previous years. In addition to the sensitive thyroid nodule screening technology, influencing factors mentioned in this study might also represent credible candidates for this increase. As variable influence factors, weight management, good interpersonal relationships and life satisfaction should be the focus of health interventions.

Dynamic change and evolutionary mechanism of city land leasing network—Taking the Yangtze River Delta region in China as an example

Mapping city networks has attracted scholarly attention in urban studies, while the relevant studies focusing on land elements are lacking. This study aims to address and fill this research gap by analyzing across-city land leasing relationships. Using Yangtze River Delta region (YRDR) in China as a case, we explore the dynamic change and evolutionary mechanism of city land leasing network based on urban land leasing data and temporal exponential random graph model (TERGM). The findings reveal that: 1) At the macro level, as the interconnections between cities in the YRDR grow stronger, the inter-city flow of land elements has become growingly convenient and accessible, there is a corresponding increase in the frequency of land use rights transfer between cities. This has led to the emergence of a more intricate and interconnected city land leasing network in the YRDR. 2) At the medium level, city land leasing network in the YRDR fosters land leasing communities within province boundary. Shanghai community is identified as the strongest community, which establish a compact relationship with a large number of cities in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Anhui provinces. The province of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Anhui have also foster communities with provincial capitals as the core, respectively. 3) At the individual level, Shanghai is the primary recipient city in terms of cross-city land leasing relationships, followed by provincial capital cities of Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Hefei. 4) Significant effects, including endogenous structural effects, actor-relation effects, exogenous network effects, and time effects, could be found in the city land leasing network of the YRDR. The city land leasing network in the YRDR is influenced by endogenous structural factors such as popularity, transitivity, and connectivity. Cities with low economic development levels, strong land leasing intervention, high real estate development investment levels, and high land leasing prices are more likely to lease land to other cities. Cities with higher levels of economic development, higher levels of industrial structure upgrading, higher levels of real estate development investment, and higher land prices are more likely to lease land from other cities. Furthermore, cities within the same province or within Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomerations (YRDUR) are more likely to foster inter-city land leasing relationships, while the distance between cities negatively affects the establishment of inter-city land leasing relationships.

Regional Differences in PM2.5 Environmental Efficiency and Its Driving Mechanism in Zhejiang Province, China

Improving the digital economy and environmental governance efficiency are important methods for current high-quality economic development. Based on the panel data of 11 cities in Zhejiang, on the eastern coast of China, fine particulate matter smaller than a 2.5 μm (PM2.5) environmental efficiency (PMEE) was measured by the undesirable output Slack-Based Measure-Data Envelopment Analysis (SBM-DEA) model. The fixed effect regression model, the divergences in the difference model and other empirical methods were obtained to test the driving mechanism of social-economic factors on the PMEE. The results showed that: (1) the concentration of PM2.5 was continually decreasing, and environmental quality experienced a continuous improvement in Zhejiang province in the observation period, although cities such as Hangzhou, Jiaxing and Shaoxing have relatively severe PM2.5 pollution. (2) The total average value of PMEE in Zhejiang was 0.6430 over the observation period, while there was still a lot of room for improvement when compared to the production frontier. Additionally, PMEE in each city showed a fluctuating growth trend. Cities with a higher PMEE were mainly Zhoushan, Hangzhou and Ningbo. (3) The level of the digital economy had a positive role in promoting the PMEE, which was statistically significant. The level of pollution control and technological innovation also had a significantly positive effect. However, the ratio of the industrial output value to the gross domestic product (GDP) presented a negative effect on the PMEE. In the future, it is suggested that the development of the urban digital economy should be accelerated in an all-around way to improve the efficiency of government pollution control and to improve the technical efficiency of PM2.5 via innovative technological progress.

The relationship between rural information consumption and regional economic development with spatial Durbin model-A case study of Zhejiang, China.

Information consumption is a kind of economic activity that directly or indirectly takes information products and information services as consumption objects. Most of the existing studies have established the "formula" of rural information consumption in promoting economic and social development, while few efforts have been devoted to study the quantitative reciprocities between them. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the relationship between information consumption in rural areas and regional economic development with a case study of Zhejiang, China. Based on rural information consumption-related indexes, basic geographic data, and other publicly available regional economic development related data, we conduct the exploration with the spatial Durbin model (SDM). The study indicates that (1) from the perspective of spatial analysis, the economic development level of all prefecture-level cities in Zhejiang, China has a significant positive spatial correlation; (2) in rural areas, the network infrastructure improvement, information industry clustering, etc. can accelerate enhancing information consumption and promote regional economic development; and (3) facilitate the development of rural information consumption is conducive to alleviate the imbalance of regional economic development. It is hoped that our study can help understand the current situation of information consumption in rural China and provide a theoretical reference for rural economic and social development.

Exploring the Coupling Coordination and Spatial Correlation of Logistics Industry and Regional Economy in the Context of Sustainable Development: Evidence from the Yangtze River Delta Region

As the economy develops, the level of logistics required means many activities become increasingly dependent on transportation, which leads to the deterioration of the ecological environment, aggravates air pollution, causes urban traffic jams, and has a negative influence on sustainable development. Therefore, in the context of sustainable development, how to coordinate the development of the logistics industry and regional economy has become a governmental and academic focus. The coupling coordination degree model and spatial autocorrelation analysis model were applied to empirically analyze the coupling and coordination of the logistics industry and economy in each city in YRDR and the relationship of mutual influence. The research results show that, for economically developed cities, economic development had more influence on the coupled and coordinated degree of the two, and for the less developed cities, the development of logistics drove the improvement of the coupled and coordinated degree of the two. The analysis of the Anhui Province showed that the coupling and coordination degree of its own logistics industry and economy was driven by strong radiation, and the impact on that degree of the logistics industry and economy of cities in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai was not significant. The development of the coupling and coordination degree of the two variables of cities in Jiangsu Province was more balanced. The divergence degree of that of the logistics industry and economy of cities in Zhejiang Province exhibited a tendency to increase, and the divergence mainly came from the endogenous development of each city. The variability was mainly due to the endogenous dynamics of each city’s development. Finally, suggestions for the coordinated and sustainable development of the logistics industry and regional economy are provided.

Spatial distribution and influencing factors of leisure fishery in Zhejiang Province, China

Context The leisure-fishery (LF) industry is an industry that provides fishing activities for recreation and sports. A well-designed layout of LF can reduce resource allocation costs, give play to regional advantages, and maximise utility. Aims This paper aims to provide a spatial evolutionary understanding of the development of leisure fishery, and on this basis provide guidance for the future development of leisure-fishery industry, focusing mainly on Zhejiang, an important coastal province of China. Methods ArcGIS spatial analysis tool was used to calculate the nearest-neighbour index, outlier analysis, kernel-density analysis, clustering, and coefficient of variation, to analyse the spatial-distribution characteristics of LF units and influencing factors of the spatial distribution in Zhejiang Province. Key results The results showed significant differences in the distribution density of LF units among cities in Zhejiang. Traffic, market, and scenic-spot location significantly affected the distribution of LF units in Zhejiang Province. Furthermore, population and economics also affected the spatial distribution of LF units. Conclusions The main influencing factors of LF were closely related to traffic, market, and scenic spots. Implications Future policy making should focus on the siphoning effects of infrastructure by achieving more rational transport planning and market incentives.

Characteristics and source apportionment of some halocarbons in Hangzhou, eastern China during 2021

In recent years, eastern China has been identified as an important contributor to national and global emissions of halocarbons, some of which are ozone depletion substances (ODSs) that delay the recovery of the stratospheric ozone layer. However, the most recent characteristics and sources of halocarbons in eastern China remain unclear. Thus, hourly atmospheric observations of halocarbons were conducted in Hangzhou throughout 2021. The results showed that methylene chloride (CH2Cl2) was the most abundant halocarbon (2207 (25 %–75 % quantile: 1116–2848) ppt; parts per trillion) followed by chloromethane (CH3Cl) (912 (683–1043) ppt), and 1,2-dichloroethane (CH2ClCH2Cl) (596 (292–763) ppt). Then, backward trajectory and potential source contribution function (PSCF) analysis show that the emission hot spots of halocarbons were concentrated in adjacent cities in Zhejiang and neighboring provinces in eastern China. Moreover, based on positive matrix factorization (PMF) analysis, industrial emission (38.7 %), solvent usage (32.6 %), and the refrigeration sector and biomass burning (23.7 %) were the main sources of halocarbons (observed in this study). This study reveals high concentrations and potential sources of halocarbons in eastern China, which are important for studying the recovery of the ozone layer.

The integrated exposure assessment and potential risks of five organophosphorus pesticides in vegetables in Zhejiang, China (2018-2020).

This research surveyed the concentrations of five organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) in vegetables with the purpose of assessing the potential integrated health risks of residents. From 2018 to 2020, 870 samples of eight kinds of vegetables from Zhejiang Province were collected. Gas chromatography coupled with a flame photometric detector (GC-FPD) analyzed the five OPs. OPs were most frequently detected in celery (18.9% of samples), cowpeas (18.3% of samples), and leeks (16.9% of samples) compared to other vegetables. Among the 11 cities in Zhejiang, the cities with high detection rates of OPs were Ningbo and Hangzhou. The integrated concentrations of OPs in different cities ranged from 71.9 to 376μg/kg. The cumulative risk assessment revealed that the estimated daily intake (EDI) of leek in Wenzhou was the highest, which was 0.0077 (mg/kg bw) and 0.0059 (mg/kg bw) in adults and children respectively. The health risks of residents who consume these vegetables were within a safe range. The data provided demonstrate the distribution and potential health hazards of OPs in commonly consumed vegetables.

An empirical analysis of the prosperity of tertiary sector and residents' income and employment--Sample data of Zhejiang, Anhui and Sichuan provinces from 2006 to 2020, for example

With the rapid development of China's economy, the tertiary industry has become the main force driving China's economic growth and absorbing employed people. The article conducts an empirical analysis of the relationship between the development of China's tertiary industry and residents' income and employment. This paper applies the panel data of a total of 48 cities in Zhejiang, Anhui and Sichuan provinces from 2006 to 2020 to regress the tertiary industry development on residents' income and residents' employment respectively, obtaining three results: (1) the tertiary industry has the most significant pulling effect on residents' income in each province.(2) the output value of the tertiary industry shows a negative correlation with the number of residents' employment, but the number of employed people in the tertiary industry is negatively correlated with the number of employed people. (3) there is regional heterogeneity in the income and employment of residents in different regions affected by the development of the tertiary industry. Finally, the paper proposes policy implications for the development of tertiary industry in China.

Design (Allocation) of a Carbon Emission System—A Lesson from Power Restrictions in Zhejiang, China

This paper discusses how to design (allocate) a city-level carbon emission system, considering the recent outbreak (end of 2020) of electricity consumption restrictions in a few cities in Zhejiang, China. Although these measures aimed to achieve environmental goals, they had a certain negative impact on residents’ lives and foreign trade production. This paper argues that local authorities should be more flexible in formulating performance targets, incorporate interactive feedback in performance management, and utilize assessment results and better government internal control. This paper proposes a (national) strategic plan to achieve carbon control through the implementation of a circular economy, such as the design of a carbon emission system considering the economic development (supporting industry) in each city and a city-level carbon trading market.

Coupling Coordination Analysis of New Urbanization and Urban Transportation in Zhejiang Province

At present, there are relatively few studies on the coupling coordination analysis of new urbanization and urban transportation. This paper takes 11 preface-level cities in Zhejiang Province as the research object and analyses the new urbanization and urban transportation development status of each city in 2010, 2015, and 2020 through the construction of the index system. In addition, the paper uses the entropy method and the coupling coordination model to evaluate their coupling coordination relationship. The results show that: (1) The new urbanization has developed from Hangzhou as the single core (2010) to the pattern of Hangzhou, Ningbo, and Zhoushan as the dual-core + the “Quzhou-Lishui-Wenzhou-Taizhou” high-value belt in the south (2020), which spatially shows a trend of high in the north and low in the south. (2) Urban transportation has always centralized in Zhoushan as the single core, with the overall distribution high in the north and low in the south. (3) At the three time periods, the coordination degree of new urbanization and urban transportation in all preference-level cities is almost 0.4 and above, which exceeds the level of antagonistic equilibrium (0-0.2), which is divided into four categories, namely, low, medium, high, and coordinated equilibrium levels. Most of the preface-level cities are in medium and high equilibrium. Hangzhou (0.707) and Zhoushan (0.800) are high-value representations of coordinated equilibrium, while Jinhua (0.473) and Lishui (0.439) are typically low in the value of low-grade equilibrium. (4) The development of new urbanization and urban transportation as well as their coupling coordination relationship are related to urban positioning and geographical location. The research has a constructive role in evaluating the new urbanization and urban transportation of the cities in Zhejiang, which also makes a reference on how to improve the quality of coordination based on the status quo of coupling coordination and the positioning of urban development.

Emergence of Incl2 plasmid-mediated colistin resistance in avian Escherichia fergusonii.

Escherichia fergusonii, an opportunistic zoonotic pathogen, has a greatly increased importance in public health with the discovery of cephalosporin- and colistin-resistant strains. The IncHI2 plasmid carrying mcr-1 has been reported in E. fergusonii, but the other types of plasmids carrying mcr-1 have never been reported. In this study, 268 samples of cecal contents or anal swabs were collected from slaughterhouses and farms in two cities in Zhejiang, China, where 54 E. fergusonii strains (18.88%) were isolated between 2020 and 2021. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the isolation of E. fergusonii in meat ducks (slaughterhouse). The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of isolates was determined by the broth microdilution method, in which it was determined that the tetracycline resistance rate was the highest (83.33%) and the multidrug-resistance (MDR) rate was 75.93%. A total of four strains of colistin-resistant E. fergusonii were found and identified as mcr-1-positive by PCR. Importantly, these strains could transfer the mcr-1 gene to strain E. coli J53 by conjugation. Genome sequencing revealed that the mcr-1 genes of the above four strains were all located on the Incl2 plasmid, and the mobile element ISApl1 upstream of mcr-1 was missing. Moreover, the plasmid pEF45-4 (61 140bp) harboring mcr-1 in strain EF20JDJ4045 was revealed by Oxford Nanopore Technology, showing high homology with the previously reported in E. coli. Taken together, the high antimicrobial resistance (AMR) rate of E. fergusonii may herald a novel reservoir of AMR genes and IncI2 plasmid may be an important factor affecting mcr-1 transfer in poultry.

The PAINTS Score for Predicting Severe COVID-19: A Multi-Center Study in Zhejiang, China

Background: To develop and validate a risk-scoring model for predicting severe COVID-19 at presentation. Methods: Entire patients with COVID-19 in three cities in Zhejiang, China from December 2019 to February 2020 were analyzed retrospectively. The risk-scoring model was developed with nomogram using multivariate logistic regression and externally validated by the patients from two other cities near Wenzhou. Findings: Severe COVID-19 was detected 58 out of 488 (11·9%) eligible patients in the primary cohort and 24 out of 153 (15·7%) in the validation cohort. The sex (OR 4·11, 95% CI 1·38 to 14·05), body mass index >25 kg/m2 (OR 6·14, 95% CI 2·05 to 21·29), hypertension (OR 4·97, 95% CI 1·73 to 15·37), neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (3-6) (OR 8·04, 95% CI 2·51 to 29·52), albumin (35-40) g/L (OR 37·96, 95% CI 5·49 to 825·34) and platelets >300×109/L (OR 6·76, 95% CI 1·55 to 32·47) were independent predictors of severe COVID-19. The risk-scoring model-PAINTS performed excellent discrimination with AUC 0·98, 95% CI 0·96 to 1·00 in the primary cohort and AUC 0·78 (95% CI, 0·67 to 0·89) in the validation cohort. Interpretation: PAINTS score may guide clinical decision-making efficiently and allocate limited medical resources reasonably. Funding: The National Key New Drug Creation and Manufacturing Program, Ministry of Science and Technology (CN) [2020ZX09201002]; Wenzhou Science and Technology Key Problem Program [ZY2020001]; The Primary Research and Development Plan of Zhejiang Province [2019C03011] and the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province [LQ20H150002].Declaration of Interest: None to declare. Ethical Approval: The study was conducted under the amended Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Wenzhou Medical University (No.2020-002). The written consent was waived by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Wenzhou Medical University (No.2020-002)

The impact of institutions on forestland transfer rents: The case of Zhejiang province in China

Since initiating the new round of collective forest tenure reform in China, the development of the forestland transfer market has been of considerable interest to the academic and policy communities. Our theoretical analysis posited that formal institutions—tenure certificate and written contract—are positively associated with the rents, while informal institutions, as reflected in the social relationships, can reduce transfer rents. Based on a spatial econometric model and survey data from four cities in Zhejiang, our empirical results show that in addition to the formal institutions, the informal institutions have played a key role in facilitating the transfers and determining the rents. The rent between acquaintances is lower than those between strangers. Mutual trust between acquaintances has not only alleviated farmers' dependence on tenure certificates, but also served as a guarantee for fulfilling the contractual terms. Nonetheless, China's forestland transfer market is not well developed yet. More efforts are needed to strengthen the formal institutions and improve the policy setting in facilitating farmers' participation in forestland transfers. China's experience is relevant to many developing and emerging economics.

Extending synthetic control method for multiple treated units: an application to environmental intervention

Taking the environmental interventions on air quality at G20 Hangzhou Summit as a natural experiment, this paper innovatively establishes an extended synthetic control method with multiple units to evaluate the dynamic treatment effects on air quality improvement at the Summit. The method constructs data-driven weights according to the fluctuation of urban air quality to obtain a more robust and stable estimation with smaller root mean squared prediction error (RMSPE). By minimising RMSPE for pre-intervention model fitting, the study takes nine cities under policy intervention in Zhejiang as treatment cities, and 45 key cities without policy intervention as control cities during 201501–201706 as the final improved experimental scheme. The policy effect of environmental regulations on the average monthly air quality composite index of treated cities in Zhejiang is -0.84 during 201607–201702; while no significant treatment effect is observed since 201702. The results indicate that the environmental policy for the G20 Hangzhou Summit lasted a relatively short period, and it had a significant short-term improvement effect while losing its long-term improving effect on air quality in treated cities. The identification validates the extended synthetic control method with multiple units could also be applied to the policy effect evaluation in other areas.

Description of COVID-19 cases along with the measures taken on prevention and control in Zhejiang, China.

Under the outbreak of COVID‐19, it was urgent to analyze the cases from clinical features and epidemiological factors, as well as understand the effectiveness of measures taken on disease prevent and control. A retrospective study was applied for descriptive analysis of clinical features and epidemiological factors of confirmed cases in four cities of Zhejiang. The Onset‐admission interval was calculated and plotted as well. The provincial measures regarding the response of COVID‐19 were summed up and sorted out. The distribution and sex and age were under normality distribution, and the age of 20 to 80 were all in risk of developing the disease. Clinical features of fever and cough were found mostly happen on patients. More than half of the patients had image changed on chest from reported data. The factor of closely contacted with confirmed cases was the most cause to the disease. The median onset‐admission interval was 6 days in Zhejiang province. As of the efficient health system, COVID‐19 had been successfully prevented and controlled in Zhejiang. Males and females were all vulnerable to COVID‐19. Preventing contact with confirmed cases could largely avoid the disease to happen. The government should take emergent and effective measures to prevent and treatment of the pandemic disease.

A regression discontinuity evaluation of the policy effects of environmental regulations

A regression discontinuity design was applied to measure the short- and long-term policy effects of the air quality improvement plan implemented for the G20 Hangzhou summit. The analysis considered the effects across 11 prefecture-level cities in Zhejiang, China. Five meteorological indicators (temperature, humidity, pressure, wind speed and rainfall) were employed as control variables. Using these control variables, the short- and long-term policy effects were measured in terms of the changes in the air quality index (AQI) and pollutant concentrations (PM2.5, PM10, CO, SO2, NO2 and O3) 1 year and 2.5 years after policy implementation. The results reveal significant short- and long-term effects of the environmental plan on air quality improvement in cities in Zhejiang. The policy effects of the plan for the G20 summit were stronger in Hangzhou than in other prefecture-level cities. In Hangzhou, the short-term policy effects were stronger than the long-term effects, especially in terms of the decreasing AQI, PM2.5 and PM10 levels. Similar regulations should continue to be implemented for lasting improvements in regional air quality.

Application of Fuzzy Optimization Model Based on Entropy Weight Method in Atmospheric Quality Evaluation: A Case Study of Zhejiang Province, China

A fuzzy optimization model based on the entropy weight method for investigating air pollution problems in various cities of Zhejiang Province, China has been proposed in this paper. Meanwhile, the air quality comprehensive evaluation system has been constructed based on the six major pollutants (SO2, NO2, CO, PM10, PM2.5 and O3) involved in China’s current air quality national standards. After analyzing the monthly data of six pollutants in 11 cities of Zhejiang Province from January 2015 to April 2018 by the above method, the authors found that, although the air quality of cities in Zhejiang Province did not reach the long-term serious pollution of Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei, the air quality changes in the northern cities of Zhejiang were worse than those in southern Zhejiang. For example, the air quality of Shaoxing in northern Zhejiang has dropped by 14.85% in the last study period when compared with that of the beginning period, and Hangzhou, the provincial capital of Zhejiang, has also seen a decrease of 6.69% in air quality. The air quality of Lishui, Zhoushan and Wenzhou in southern Zhejiang has improved by 8.04%, 4.67% and 4.22% respectively. Apart from the geographical influence, the industrial structure of these cities is also an important cause for worse air quality. From the local areas in southern Zhejiang, cities have developed targeted air pollution control measures according to their own characteristics, including adjusting the industrial structure, changing the current energy consumption structure that heavily relies on coal, and improving laws and regulations on air pollution control, etc. In the four cities in central Zhejiang, the air quality at the end of the period (April 2018) has decreased from the beginning of the period (January 2015), given that there were no fundamental changes in their industrial structure and energy pattern.

Multicenter evaluation of the biochip assay for rapid detection of mycobacterial isolates in smear-positive specimens

ObjectivesThe objective of this study was to conduct a multicentre evaluation of the performance of the biochip assay in the rapid identification of mycobacteria in smear-positive sputum specimens. MethodsA total of 1751 sputum specimens were obtained from 7 cities in Zhejiang, China. All of the specimens were used for the discrimination of Mycobacterium species using the biochip assay, and the results were compared to the golden standard method of culture, hsp65, 16S rRNA and rpoB sequence analysis. ResultsIn the 1751 sputum specimens, 1685 samples were cultured successfully; among these samples, 1361 were Mycobacterium tuberculosis, 323 were NTM and 1 was Nocadia farcinica. Of the 323 NTM, most of them were Mycobacterium intracellulare(52.5%) followed by Mycobacterium abscessus (20.7%), Mycobacterium avium (11.7%), Mycobacterium kansasii (9.6%) and Mycobacterium fortuitum (1.9%). The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of the biochip assay to differentiate TB and NTM from AFB positive specimens were 99.8%, 99.7%, 99.9%, 99.1%, 98.8%, 1, 1, and 99.7%, respectively. The concordance between the biochip assay and mycobacterial culture for the identification of NTM species was 95.4%. ConclusionsThe biochip assay is a reliable tool for the rapid identification of most mycobacteria in clinical sputum specimens. This assay can be helpful for physicians in the early diagnosis and treatment of mycobacterium infections.