SUMMARY OBJECTIVES To evaluate the epidemiological characteristics of acute pancreatitis (AP) and explore potential relationships between these factors and severity. METHODOLOGY Data-sets of 5,659 patients with AP from health statistics and the Information Center of Jiangsu province, between 2014 and 2016, were analyzed. A self-organizing map (SOM) neural network was used for data clustering. RESULTS Biliary acute pancreatitis (BAP) (86.7%) was the most frequent etiological factor. A total of 804 (14.2%) patients had severe acute pancreatitis (SAP). The mean age of patients was 53.7 + 17.3 (range 12~94y). Most of the AP patients were married (75.4%); 6% of mild /moderately severe AP (MAP/MASP) patients were unmarried, which was less than SAP patients (P=0.016). AP patients with blood type AB in the general population (8.8%) was significantly lower than that of AP cases (13.9%) (P=0.019) and SAP cases(18.7%) (P=0.007). The number of AP patients in southern Jiangsu was much higher than that in northern Jiangsu province, especially in Nanjing (1229, 21.7%). The proportion of acute alcoholic pancreatitis (AAP) in the north of Jiangsu (Xuzhou 18.4%) was much higher than that in southern Jiangsu (Suzhou 2.6%). The whole sample was divided into five classes by SOM neural network. If BAP patients were male, old, divorced, and blood type AB or B, they were more likely to develop SAP. Middle-age, unmarried or divorced male patients with blood type B/AB who suffered from HAP or AAP were also more likely to develop SAP. CONCLUSIONS The number of unmarried patients with MAP/MASP was smaller than that of SAP. Blood types AB and B were more frequent in AP, especially in SAP. The differences between southern Jiangsu and northern Jiangsu, in number of AP patients and the proportion of AAP, were significant. In class I and class IV, the ratio of SAP was much higher than in other classes and the whole sample.

Microstructures of CuCr25 and CuCr50 alloys treated by high current pulsed electron beam (HCPEB) were investigated in this work. The microstructure and solidification behavior of the Cr-rich phases were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Results show that a remelting layer of 3~5 μm is formed on the surface of Cu-Cr alloys. The microstructure of the remelting layer reveals that both the fine dispersion of Cr-rich spheroids and the craters appear after HCPEB treatment. This means that metastable liquid phase separation occurs during rapid solidification under HCPEB treatment. In addition, the appearance of relatively large craters in the subsurface of Cr-rich particles with the distance about 5-10 μm provides direct evidences supporting results reported by other researchers in terms of numerical simulation temperature field of HCPEB treatments.