Epidemiology of urticaria in China:a population-based study

Background:Urticaria is a common skin disease characterized by episodes of wheals,and it has a negative effect on patients’quality of life.Large-scale population-based epidemiological studies of urticaria are scarce in China.The aim of this survey was to determine the prevalence,clinical forms,and risk factors of urticaria in the Chinese population.Methods:This survey was conducted in 35 cities from 31 provinces,autonomous regions,and municipalities of China.Two to three communities in each city were selected in this investigation.Participants completed questionnaires and received dermatological examinations.We analyzed the prevalence,clinical forms,and risk factors of urticaria.Results:In total,44,875 questionnaires were distributed and 41,041 valid questionnaires were collected(17,563 male and 23,478 female participants).The lifetime prevalence of urticaria was 7.30%,with 8.26%in female and 6.34%in male individuals(P<0.05).The point prevalence of urticaria was 0.75%,with 0.79%in female and 0.71%in male individuals(P<0.05).Concomitant angioedema was found in 6.16%of patients.Adults had a higher prevalence of urticaria than adolescents and children.Living in urban areas,exposure to pollutants,an anxious or depressed psychological status,a personal and family history of allergy,thyroid diseases,and Helicobacter pylori infection were associated with a higher prevalence of urticaria.Smoking was correlated with a reduced risk of urticaria.Conclusion:This study demonstrated that the lifetime prevalence of urticaria was 7.30%and the point prevalence was 0.75%in the Chinese population;women had a higher prevalence of urticaria than men.Various factors were correlated with urticaria.

Overview and preliminary idea for building Digital Earth with Grid computing technology

Digital Earth is an important field of information technology and a research frontier of geosciences in the 21st century.So far,the Grid computing technique is one of the best solutions for Digital Earth infrastructure.Digital Earth can only be realised through the interaction of people,heterogeneous computing resources,information systems,and instruments,all of which are geographically and organisationally dispersed.Earth observation(EO)includes information acquisition,processing and applications.Information acquisition provides a vast amount of spatial data for building the fabric resource infrastructure.Information processing means that spatial information processing middleware is used with large amounts of secure Grid computing resources for real-time processing of all kinds of spatial data.We are currently working on the development of coremiddleware for EO data processing and applications for the Digital Earth Prototype System,which is available in the Institute of Remote Sensing Applications(IRSA),Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS)The further results will be available soon.