Terms Of Geographic Region Research Articles

Trends in Geographic Distribution of Visual Disability – United States, 2010-2019

ABSTRACT Purpose We aimed to describe changes in the geographic distribution of self-reported visual impairment (VI) over the last decade (2010–2019) in the U.S. Methods Our study was an analysis of publicly available data collected between 2010 and 2019 from the Census Bureau American Community Survey. Results The mean overall prevalence of self-reported VI from 2010 to 2019 was 2.31% in the United States, and there was a significant increase in VI over the past decade from 2.25% in 2010–2014 to 2.37% in 2015–2019 (p < .001). VI was significantly higher in rural counties (3.58%), compared to urban (3.10%) or metropolitan counties (2.18%) (p < .001). In terms of geographic region, the South of the United States had the highest rate of VI (2.63%) (p < .001). For age groups > 17-years-old in the 2010–2019 data, women had higher rates of VI compared to men. Conclusions Prevalence of self-reported visual impairment has risen and disproportionately affects certain communities. This includes individuals living in the South, in rural counties, and women.

Sustaining Area Agency on Aging Services During a Pandemic: Innovation Through Community-Based Partnerships.

Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) have funded, coordinated, and provided services since the 1960s, evolving in response to changes in policy, funding, and the political arena. Many of their usual service delivery programs and processes were severely disrupted with the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Increasing evidence suggests the importance of partnerships in AAA's capacity to adapt services; however, specific examples of adaptations have been limited. We sought to understand how partnerships may have supported adaptation during the pandemic, from the perspectives of both AAAs and their partners. We conducted a secondary analysis of qualitative data from an explanatory sequential mixed-methods parent study. Data were collected from 12 AAAs diverse in terms of geographic region, governance structure and size, as well as a range of partner organizations. We completed 105 in-depth interviews from July 2020 to April 2021. A 5-member multidisciplinary team coded the data using a constant comparative method of analysis, supported by ATLAS.ti Scientific Software. AAAs and their partners described strategies and provided examples of ways to rapidly transform service delivery including reducing isolation, alleviating food insecurity, adapting program design and delivery, and leveraging partnerships and repurposing resources. AAAs and partner organizations are uniquely positioned to innovate during times of disruption. Findings may enhance AAA and partner portfolios of evidence-based and evidence-supported programs.

Why are Suicides With Unknown Cause the Most Important Reason for Suicide? A Retrospective Study.

This study will help in determining national suicide prevention strategies. Moreover, understanding the reasons for the lack of awareness about completed suicide will strengthen the measures to be taken in this regard. It was determined that the most important rate among the causes 48 419 completed suicide in Turkey in the years 2004 to 2019 was the 22 645 (46.76%) suicides of unknown cause and there was not enough information about the underlying causes. Suicide statistics data of the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) between 2004 and 2019 were analyzed retrospectively in terms of geographical regions, gender, age groups and seasonality. Statistical analyses of the study were performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences for Windows (IBM SPSS version 25.0, Armonk, NY, USA) software. It was determined that the highest crude rate of suicide during 16 years was in the Eastern Anatolia region, the lowest rate was in the Marmara region, and the ratio of the number of female suicides with unknown cause to the number of male suicides was higher in Eastern Anatolia than in other regions, the rate of unknown crude suicide in both genders was highest in the under 15 age group, this rate decreased as the age progressed, the lowest rate was in women with unknown age, the effect of the season was observed in women with unknown cause, but not in men. Between 2004 and 2019, suicides with unknown cause were the most important reason for suicide. We think that there may be geographical, gender, age, seasonal, sociocultural and economic factors that may affect this, national suicide prevention and planning strategies will be insufficient unless this issue is adequately examined, and institutional structures should be established, including psychiatrists, where deep forensic investigations can be carried out.

The use of virtual interviews and new trends in orthopedic surgery residency match.

This retrospective cross-sectional study sought to determine if there was a change in geographical trends in the orthopedic surgery residency match with the use of virtual interviews. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, visiting rotations at outside institutions were restricted and all residency interviews were conducted virtually for the 2021 match. Given these restrictions, it was hypothesized that applicants would match at a higher rate to their medical school-affiliated residency programs, or geographically nearby their medical school. Data was collected from residency program website and social media accounts to determine if the use of virtual interviews correlated with a decreased rate of matching at outside institutions. During the 2021 match, applicants who applied to orthopedic surgery in 2021 were more likely to match at their medical school-affiliated institution (OR, 1.46; 95% CI, 1.18-1.80; p < 0.01) compared to applicants during previous years. However, match rates were not different in terms of geographical regions. Virtual interviews are more cost-effective for both applicants and programs, however, this study demonstrates there are associated changes with this new interview structure. The utility of virtual interviews as a standard method in the future should take this change in trend into consideration.

Women's Footprint in Anti-Doping Sciences: A Bibliometric Approach to Research Impact.

Bibliometrics, via the exploitation of large-scale publication data, is a facile approach to explore gender-related trends, especially gender equality in academic publishing and authorship. For the first time, this study aims to investigate the gender-related trends in anti-doping sciences to (1) explore the relational structure of gender aspects of authorial, topical, and methodological features, (2) give recognition to women's contribution to anti-doping research, and (3) identify unique “gendered” potentials for advancing anti-doping research. To deliver on these aims, we employed bibliometric tools to publication records in anti-doping. After constructing a database containing academic publications on any aspect of anti-doping with at least one woman among the authors, we applied state-of-the-art methods from bibliometric science mapping and network analysis. The Lotka distribution model showed that the anti-doping research is a closed community with only 70 authors appearing more than once. Male authors being the majority (66.2%), women are under-represented in this field. The most important authorship position in the academic articles is mainly occupied by men, publications with male corresponding authors were in 774 out of 991 anti-doping related papers. The close connection of the top twenty most influential authors, men and women, to the World Anti-Doping Agency in some professional capacity suggest that the Agency have an influence on the anti-doping research beyond directly providing funding. In terms of geographical regions, publications with female authors were dominated anti-doping research in Italy, Romania, and Spain. In research networks to date, women have outperformed male authors in information centrality, which means that women in anti-doping research have had higher level of control over the information flow in the field than their male counterparts. The results of this study confirm the potential of bibliometric approach in the identification of emerging research topics and quantifying gender differentiation in the field of anti-doping. Due to their higher information centrality, women are better positioned for problem-focused multidisciplinary research both within anti-doping community, and with researchers in cognate fields. Bibliometric analyses have proved to be a powerful tool for monitoring and advancing anti-doping research impact via identifying new avenues for multidisciplinary work, better gender representation, and diversity.

Prevalence and effect of Plasmodium spp. and hookworm co-infection on malaria parasite density and haemoglobin level: a meta-analysis

The dual effects of co-infection of Plasmodium spp. and hookworm on malaria remain under debate. This study investigated prevalence, prevalence odds ratio (POR) of co-infection and impact of co-infection on malaria parasite density and haemoglobin levels in comparison to Plasmodium mono-infection. The protocol for this systematic review and meta-analysis is registered at PROPERO under ID: CRD42020202156. Relevant literatures were obtained from PubMed, ISI Web of Science, and Scopus on 25 December 2020. Mean difference (MD) and confidence interval (CI) of malaria parasite density and haemoglobin were compared using a random effect model. Heterogeneity was assessed using Cochrane Q and I2 statistics. Publication bias was determined by visualising funnel plot asymmetry. Of 1756 articles examined, 22,191 malaria cases across 37 studies included 6096 cases of co-infection of Plasmodium spp. and hookworm. The pooled prevalence was 20% (95% CI 15–26%, I2 99.6%, 37 studies) and was varied in terms of geographical region. Co-infection occurred by chance (OR 0.97, p 0.97, 95% CI 0.73–1.27, I2 95%, 30 studies). The mean malaria parasite density for co-infection (478 cases) was similar to Plasmodium mono-infection (920 cases) (p 0.24, MD 0.86, 95% CI − 0.58–2.29, I2 100%, 7 studies). The mean haemoglobin level for co-infection (90 cases) was similar to Plasmodium mono-infection (415 cases) (p 0.15, MD − 0.63, 95% CI − 1.49–0.23, I2 98%, 4 studies). Co-infection was common and occurred by chance but varied by geographic region. Further studies are required to investigate the mechanism of hookworm infection on malaria severity. Additionally, detection of hookworm infections among patients with malaria in endemic areas of both diseases is recommended to prevent severe malaria.

SPATIAL EFFECT OF MARKET SENTIMENT ON HOUSING PRICE: EVIDENCE FROM SOCIAL MEDIA DATA IN CHINA

Market sentiment has become more easily spread between cities through social media. This study investigates the spatial effect of market sentiment on housing price in a social media environment. In order to extract home-buyer sentiment from social media, we use text sentiment analysis techniques and build a novel housing market sentiment index. A spatial econometric model of housing price volatility is subsequently constructed and the housing market sentiment index is included as an independent variable in the model. Using panel data from 30 large and medium-sized cities in China for 20 quarters from 2016 to 2020, the spatial effect of market sentiment on housing price is empirically analyzed by calculating direct and indirect effects. The results show that market sentiment had a significant positive effect on housing prices in the local and neighboring cities over the research period. However, the impact of market sentiment on housing price was heterogeneous in terms of geographical region; the direct effect was stronger in the eastern region than in the central and western regions, and the indirect effect was significant only in the eastern region. These findings can provide references for government to formulate housing market regulation policies and measures based on market sentiment.

Diversity in Psychological Research Activities: Quantitative Approach With Topic Modeling.

Recent cultural studies have discussed universality and diversity in human behavior using numerous samples investigated worldwide. We aimed to quantitatively extend this discussion to various research activities in psychology in terms of geographic regions and time trends. Most psychology departments have specialists in various fields of psychology. Further, research institutions in all regions typically aim to provide systematic and balanced research education. Nevertheless, most researchers recognize universal features and patterns of diversity in research activities in psychology in terms of regional differences and time trends. However, these arguments remain intuitive and vague, and no studies have conducted quantitative analyses. To this end, we conducted topic modeling for the abstracts of psychological articles with the regions of author affiliations and publication periods as covariates. The results showed that the topic proportions related to basic research were high in North-Central America, whereas those related to clinical research were high in Europe. Interestingly, the regional differences shown by topic modeling were not observed in the frequency analysis of keywords, indicating that topic modeling revealed implicit characteristics. Moreover, we observed an increasing trend of neuroscience topics across publication periods. However, this trend was not valid for the psychology journal Psychological Science. Taken together, our results suggest diversity of geographic regions and periods in research activities in psychology. More importantly, our findings indicate that universality holds neither for human behavior nor research activities on human mental processes.

Ratio of asymptomatic COVID-19 cases among ascertained SARS-CoV-2 infections in different regions and population groups in 2020: a systematic review and meta-analysis including 130 123 infections from 241 studies

IntroductionAsymptomatic infection of SARS-CoV-2 may lead to silent community transmission and compromise the COVID-19 pandemic control measures. We aimed to estimate the rate of asymptomatic COVID-19 from published studies and...

Clinical characteristics of 93 cases of isolated macrodactyly of the foot in children

BackgroundThe purpose of this study was to describe the clinical characteristics of macrodactyly of the foot through a large cohort of cases to further understand this rare entity.MethodsMedical records, clinical photographs, plain radiographs, pathological findings, and intraoperative photographs of 95 feet of 93 patients were reviewed. Data including age; sex; laterality; ethnicity; birthplace; family history; and history of gestation, environment, whether smoking, or drinking during pregnancy were collected and analyzed.ResultsFemale patients (60%), left foot (56%), and static overgrowth (63%) were more prominent in the study cohort. Southern provinces (74%) and Han Chinese ethnicity (95%) predominated in terms of geographical region and demographic distribution, respectively. Multiple-toe involvement was 2.01-times more frequent than single-toe involvement. All five toes were involved with midline toes being most frequently affected overall and a medial distribution being more common than a lateral one. The forefoot was affected in 90 feet. The affected areas (toes and forefeet) were mostly located in the innervation of the affected medial plantar nerve (91%). The nerves showed enlargement in 49 feet, fatty infiltration in 25, a tortuous course in one, and were normal in 10 feet. Only six feet involved the musculature. Enlargement of phalanges and metatarsals were observed in 92 and 57 feet, respectively, and advanced bone maturation was seen in 63 feet. Twenty-two cases had syndactyly.ConclusionsMacrodactyly of the foot is a rare congenital malformation with diverse clinical manifestations and multiple elements’ involvement.It also presents the characteristics of nerve-mediated overgrowth and “nerve territory-oriented” deformity similar to that of macrodactyly of the hand.

Biosztratigráfiai és gerinctelen őslénytani kutatások a kárpát-pannon térségben

A Kárpát–Pannon-térség makroszkópikus méretű gerinctelen ősmaradványainak kutatása gazdag tudományos ismeretanyagot szolgáltatott az elmúlt mintegy másfél évszázadban. A legtöbbet tanulmányozott ősmaradványcsoport a puhatestűek voltak, a mezozoikumban leginkább az ammoniteszek, a kainozoikumban pedig a kagylók és a csigák. A legjobban megkutatott terület a Dunántúli-középhegység, azon belül pedig a Bakony, amely bizonyos korokban és ősmaradványcsoportokban világviszonylatban is kiemelkedő gazdagságú anyagot adott. A magyarországi őslénytani kutatást számos kiemelkedő egyéni teljesítmény: sokat forgatott és idézett monográfiák, rétegtani értelmezések, az adott terület geológiai fejlődését és az adott kor élővilágának fejlődését új megvilágításba helyező tanulmányok fémjelzik. Ezek mellett voltak olyan kutatócsoportok és többgenerációs tudományos iskolák, amelyek tartósan vagy ismétlődően kiemelkedően magas színvonalú, külföldön is elismert eredményeket produkáltak bizonyos kutatási területeken. Ilyen volt a Balaton-felvidéki triász kutatása, a dunántúli-középhegységi és mecseki jura kutatása, a Paratethys-tenger oligocénjének, azaz a kiscelli és egri emeletnek az őslénytani kutatása, és a késő miocén–pliocén Pannon-tó élővilágának és üledékeinek, azaz a pannóniai emeletnek a kutatása. Dolgozatunk a 150 éves fennállását ünneplő Földtani Közlöny ünnepi évfolyamában megjelenő cikkek sorához kapcsolódva, geológiai időrend szerint veszi leltárba – a teljesség igénye nélkül – a Kárpát–Pannon-térségben született legfontosabb gerinctelen őslénytani eredményeket – amelyeknek egy jelentős része éppen ebben a folyóiratban jelent meg.

Modeling global and regional potentials for building-integrated solar energy generation

With the Paris Agreement coming into force, global efforts will need to maximize opportunities through energy efficiency and renewable energy generation. Zero energy/carbon initiatives are mushrooming worldwide, but it has not been fully understood which building types in which climates and under which conditions can potentially be built to net zero energy standards. In order to inform these efforts, a new model was developed to estimate the technical potential for building—integrated solar energy (BISE, the name of the model) generation in a high resolution regional, climate and building typology breakdown., The BISE model also evaluates the opportunities for potential net zero energy buildings based on the BISE findigns, combining these with the findings of two global low-energy building models. The BISE model has a very high resolution in terms of geographic regions, climate types, building types and vintages. Moreover, the model combines methods for bottom-up energy modeling and geospatial analysis. The thermal building energy demand estimation is based on the 3CSEP-HEB model and the plug load scenarios are based on the BUENAS model. Results are wide, due to intrinsic limitationso of the model detailed in the paper, but it is shown that there is a substantial potential for building-integrated solar energy generation in all world regions, and that the Deep Efficiency Scenario allows significantly more building types to meet net zero energy levels by 2050 in contrast to a scenario when only moderate energy efficiency improvements are implemented.

Influence of regional differences in substance use disorders

Objective: In this study, it was planned to determine regional differences in terms of sociodemographic and clinical features of patients with substance use disorder. Methods: The files of 557 patients diagnosed with substance dependence between January 2016 and June 2016 were retrospectively reviewed. Age, education, marital status, number of hospital admissions, type of substance used, duration of substance use, province and geographical region of the patients were evaluated. Results: The mean age of 557 patients was 27.73±8.33 and 97.1% were male, 65.7% were primary school graduates and 42.4% were single. Of the patients, 63.2% were living in the Western Black Sea (WBS), 15.4% in the Central Anatolia (CA), 13.1% in the Marmara region (MR) and 8.3% in other regions. The most common multiple substance was used mostly cannabis (Cn) except CA. The age at onset of substance was the lowest on MR (8-15 years). In all regions, a request for voluntary treatment was more than the other forms of referral. The rate of detainees/convicts is lower in the WBS compared to other regions. There was no significant difference between the mean duration of substance use, age and number of applications in terms of geographical regions. Discussion: When the results of this study were evaluated together with the previous studies, it indicates that the substance used and the age of onset differed not only between the regions experienced but also within the same region over the years. Regional differences may require the use of different strategies to combat substance abuse. Therefore, such studies should be repeated at regular intervals and new monitoring tools should be used.

Prospective Teachers’ Attitudes Towards CAI: Manisa Celal Bayar University Sample

This study analyses the attitudes of prospective teachers attending Manisa Celal Bayar University Faculty of Education during 2014-2015 academic year towards computer-aided instruction (CAI) in terms of some demographical variables. For this purpose, CAI attitude scale was conducted on 1432 prospective teachers, and it was found that the attitudes are positive in average. It is also found that the attitudes towards CAI in terms of geographical region, program attended, and internet access are not statistically different, whereas the attitudes towards CAI in terms of gender, grade and personal computer ownership are statistically different.

High-Performing Local Health Departments Relate Their Experiences at Community Engagement in Emergency Preparedness.

Local health departments (LHDs) are implementing a national mandate to engage community partners, including individuals, businesses, and community- and faith-based organizations in the larger public health emergency preparedness (PHEP) enterprise. Investigate how LHDs of varying size and resource levels successfully engage the community in PHEP to help uncover "best practices" that aspiring agencies can replicate, particularly in low-resource environments. In-depth, semistructured qualitative interviews with practitioners from 9 highly performing LHDs. Participating agencies comprised equal amounts of small (serving <50 000 residents), medium (serving 50 000-500 000 residents), and large (serving >500 000 residents) LHDs and were diverse in terms of geographic region, rural-urban environment, and governance structure. A cross section of LHD staff (n = 34) including agency leaders, preparedness coordinators, public information officers, and health educators/promoters. Local health department performance at community engagement as determined by top scores in 2 national LHD surveys (2012, 2015) regarding community engagement in PHEP. Based on key informant accounts, high-performing LHDs show a holistic, organization-wide commitment to, rather than discrete focus on, community engagement. Best practices clustered around 5 domains: administration (eg, top executive who models collaborative behavior), organizational culture (eg, solicitous rather than prescriptive posture regarding community needs), social capital (eg, mining preexisting community connections held by other LHD programs), workforce skills (eg, cultural competence), and methods/tactics (eg, visibility in community events unrelated to PHEP). For LHDs that wish to enhance their performance at community engagement in PHEP, change will entail adoption of evidence-based interventions (the technical "what") as well as evidence-based administrative approaches (the managerial "how"). Smaller, rural LHDs should be encouraged that, in the case of PHEP community engagement, they have unique social assets that may help offset advantages that larger, more materially resourced metropolitan health departments may have.

Prevalence of Toxoplasma gondii in pet dogs in mainland China: A meta-analysis

Toxoplasmosis, caused by Toxoplasma gondii, is one of the most common zoonosis in the world, and can cause severe adverse consequences in pregnant women and immunosuppressed people. Throughout the world dogs are popular companion animals, however they are also important intermediate host of T. gondii and may play an instrumental role in mechanically transmitting Toxoplasma infection to humans. Therefore, an assessment of the level of T. gondii infection in pet dogs is of public health importance. To estimate the overall serological prevalence of toxoplasmosis in pet dogs in mainland China, we performed a meta-analysis using five bibliographic databases: CNKI, WanFang, VIP Chinese Journal Databases, PubMed and Google Scholar. A total of 60 articles, including data on 78719 pet dogs, published between 1998 and 2016 fulfilled the final eligibility criteria. The overall seroprevalence of T. gondii infection in pet dogs was 11.1% (95% CI: 10.1% to 12.1%). The seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis in >one-year-old dogs was 1.59 times more than that in ≤one-year-old group (RR=1.59, 95%CI=1.15, 2.21). There was no significant difference observed in pooled seroprevalence between male and female dogs (RR=1.02, 95%CI=0.91, 1.16). In terms of geographical regions, the lowest seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis infection (5.8%) was in North China and the highest (16.8%) was in Southwest of China. Results from this study showed that toxoplasmosis is common in pet dogs in mainland China, indicating that control measures by owners may reduce human exposure to T. gondii via dog contacts.

Development of a food safety information database for Greater China

Food safety in China has become a major research interest and popular social issue in recent years. We have constructed a database-website-advanced search engine system for continuous collection online food safety information and efficient mass literature analysis. This paper will introduce the methods used for data extraction, processing, search and intelligent result analyses. Over 1,300,000 pieces of entry have been collected, including the information from the websites of government agencies, the abstracts of academic papers and news in credible online media. This system can catalog the search results automatically in terms of geographic region, time period, original sources and food-related keywords. An application is shown through comparing the differences between food-borne disease data in governmental documents and media reports. The number of food poisoning incidents reported by the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) decreased gradually from 2006 to 2012 whereas the number of food poisoning news items increased simultaneously with the food safety news. The media prefer to report the food safety incidents caused by man-made hazards or those which occur in the public domain.

Epidemiology and Pathophysiology of &amp;lt;i&amp;gt;Helicobacter Pylori&amp;lt;/i&amp;gt; Infections in Korea

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) commonly infects humans worldwide. However, only limited proportions of infected populations develop clinical manifestations ranging from asymptomatic gastritis to gastric cancer. A Korean nationwide survey revealed that the overall H. pylori seroprevalence was 66.9% in 1998, and significantly decreased in later years in all age groups to 59.6% in 2005 and 54.4% in 2011. In terms of geographical regions, the seroprevalence trended significantly downward in most areas over time, except in Kyungsang and Kangwon. The various outcomes of H. pylori infection are caused by imbalances between bacterial virulence factors, host factors including genetic diversity, and environmental influences. H. pylori infection triggers responses by almost all forms of innate and acquired immunity. In the present review, we describe the epidemiology and pathophysiology of H. pylori infection in Korea. A better understanding of the prevalence trend and the mechanisms of immune responses to H. pylori infection will allow public health authorities to develop novel therapeutic strategies. (Korean J Med 2015,89:133-141)

Modelling of nutrient concentrations in roundwood based on diameter and tissue proportion: Evidence for an additional site-age effect in the case of Fagus sylvatica

Climate-mitigation strategies encourage the use of forest products and wood energy. This will likely increase the risk of soil depletion through nutrient exportation. Given the high variability in nutrient concentrations within and between trees, it is crucial to better understand the biochemical patterns of nutrient distribution and the related driving factors. Thus, predictions of nutrient concentrations can be improved, and used for assessing nutrient exportation through roundwood exploitation and for developing forest-management rules to maintain soil fertility. Our aims were to better determine (1) the shapes of the relationships between the total concentrations of different nutrients (N, S, P, K, Ca, Mg, Mn) in roundwood and roundwood diameter; (2) the variation of these relationships between different tissues (wood, bark); and (3) potential effects of site conditions and/or stand age on nutrient concentrations. We therefore developed a new modelling approach that relied on empirical and mechanistic relationships, and allowed for sound predictions of both concentrations in individual tissues and in total. We applied the approach to Fagus sylvatica using 134 trees from 11 plots that covered large ranges of ecological conditions in terms of geographic region (from the northwest to the northeast of France), site index (from <25m to >35m), stand age (form 10years to 159years), and roundwood diameter with nutrient concentrations being measured separately for wood and bark tissues partly up to a minimum diameter of 1cm. Relationships between total nutrient concentrations and roundwood diameter showed several different shapes: a reverse-J-shape for N, S and P; a U-shape for K; and no clear, more complex shapes for Ca, Mg and Mn. These shapes were related to concentration changes with roundwood diameter in both wood and bark for N, S and P (but with low goodness of fit for the models of N and S in the bark), while they were only related to concentration change in the wood for K, and in the bark for Ca and Mn (but with low goodness of fit for the model of Mn in the bark). Moreover, shifts of concentration-diameter curves (additive effect) were likely related to site conditions (chemical fertility), as assessed based on foliar nutrient concentrations. An additional effect of stand age could not be excluded, but so far it appeared difficult to clearly distinguish between influences of site and age. We argue that our modelling approach is particularly suitable to further tackle the issue of site and age effects, by combing data from several studies on the same species and/or on other species (genericness). Comprehensive forest-management rules based on silvicultural scenario simulation and assessment may finally be developed by coupling nutrient, biomass and site-sensitive tree-growth models.

A systematic review of genetic skeletal disorders reported in Chinese biomedical journals between 1978 and 2012

Little information is available on the prevalence, geographic distribution and mutation spectrum of genetic skeletal disorders (GSDs) in China. This study systematically reviewed GSDs as defined in “Nosology and Classification of genetic skeletal disorders (2010 version)” using Chinese biomedical literature published over the past 34 years from 1978 to 2012. In total, 16,099 GSDs have been reported. The most frequently reported disorders were Marfan syndrome, osteogenesis imperfecta, fibrous dysplasia, mucopolysaccharidosis, multiple cartilaginous exostoses, neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), osteopetrosis, achondroplasia, enchondromatosis (Ollier), and osteopoikilosis, accounting for 76.5% (12,312 cases) of the total cases. Five groups (group 8, 12, 14, 18, 21) defined by “Nosology and Classification of genetic skeletal disorders” have not been reported in the Chinese biomedical literature. Gene mutation testing was performed in only a minor portion of the 16,099 cases of GSDs (187 cases, 1.16%). In total, 37 genes for 41 different GSDs were reported in Chinese biomedical literature, including 43 novel mutations. This review revealed a significant imbalance in rare disease identification in terms of geographic regions and hospital levels, suggesting the need to create a national multi-level network to meet the specific challenge of care for rare diseases in China.