There is still a dramatic increase for using mathematical modelling in the study of epidemiology diseases. Mathematical models were developed to predict how infectious diseases advance to explain the potential outcome of an outbreak, and better facilitate initiatives in global policy. In this article, we present new insights of existence and uniqueness solutions of the novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV/SARS-CoV-2 model via fractional derivatives by using $(\varpi-F_{\mathcal{C}})$-contractions.

Caveolin-3 is protein on the membrane of cardiac myocytes correlated with a variety of cardiovascular diseases. The functional significance of the Cav-3 has been proved by the fact that Cav-3 overexpression or knockdown results in the occurrence and development of cardiovascular disease. Mutations in the gene encoding Cav-3 cause a broad spectrum of clinical phenotypes, ranging from isolated hyperCKemia to most cardiomyopathy and the effect of cav-3 mutations on current density parallels the effect on channel trafficking. Mutations in the Cav-3 gene, such as F97C and S141R, promote ventricular arrhythmogenesis in LQT9 by combined decrease in loss of IK1 and gain of Ina-L. Major changes in the T-tubule system by Cav-3 mutation, which contribute to the regulation of Ca2+ channels, result Cardiac hypertrophy. Furthermore, Cav-3 knockdown (KO) could induce apoptosis initiated by myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury and many materials, such as volatile anesthetic gas, facilitate cardioprotection by involving AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and cav-3 dependent cyclooxygenase-2 inhibition. This review highlights the overviews that the roles of Cav-3 play in cardiovascular disease, particularly on the arrhythmias and cardiomyopathy.

Introduction: Catheter ablation is a cornerstone of the therapy for the paroxysmal atrial fibrillation. The importance of effective lesion size formation during pulmonary vein isolation is gauged through conduction recovery and recurrence of arrhythmia. Therefore, lesion size index (LSI) It is designed to utilize traditional intraprocedural parameters and predict the procedural success. The impact of the optimal LSI index and the respective segments of the pulmonary veins has not been commonly evaluated. We aimed to assess whether higher and targeted LSI on the different segments of pulmonary veins could actually leads to better clinical outcomes of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation ablation. Methods: Retrospective analyses of drug-refractory paroxysmal atrial fibrillation patients who underwent first catheter ablation were conducted. Targeted LSI of 6.5 at the anterior wall and 5.2 at the posterior wall, roof and floor of pulmonary vein was applied. The primary endpoint was defined as arrhythmias recurrence assessed by routine electrocardiograms and 24 hours ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring at 3, 6, and 12 months postablation. Results: Among the included 39 patients, the single-procedure 12-months freedom from arrhythmias was reached in 92.3% patients. Interestingly, there was no tendency towards a increased number of adverse effects using higher LSI index. Conclusion: Atrial fibrillation ablation guided by targeted LSI value showed efficiency on the freedom from arrhythmias during 1-year follow up period without harmful effects.

Device Rounds

Background Analysis of the real-world data of low-dose spiral CT screening of healthy physical examination population in Southwest China from 2006 to 2017, discussed the standard of low-dose spiral CT screening for high-risk population of lung cancer in China. Methods Incorporate all team subjects who have undergone LDCT screenings at the Health Management Center of West China Hospital of Sichuan University between 2006 and 2017, and analyze the cumulative incidence and age-standardized (Segi population) incidence of lung cancer in the whole population; finally, analysis the age-specific, smoking and non-smokers’ lung cancer incidence. Results A total of 15,996 people who met the enrollment conditions and participated in the LDCT lung cancer screening were included. The average screening interval was 1.12±0.26 years, and the average follow-up time was 5.43±0.82 years; The cumulative number of lung cancer cases with negative baseline screening was 56 cases, and the cumulative incidence rate of lung cancer was 122.1/100,000 (the world standard rate is 60.6/100,000), of which males were 100.0/100,000 (the world standard rate is 45.3/100,000) and women were 156.6 /100,000 (the world standard rate is 94.7/100,000); the cumulative incidence of lung cancer in the smoking group is higher than that in the non-smoking group for both males and females, but the cumulative incidence of lung cancer in the non-smokers of the female population (146.3/100,000) is higher than that of the male population (86.5/10 Million). Conclusion In the real world study of lung cancer screening in Chinese population, we should consider setting different standards for high-risk groups of lung cancer by gender or smoking and non-smokers.

Once thought to be a unique capability of the Langerhans Islands in the pancreas of mammals, insulin production is now recognized as an evolutionarily ancient function going back to prokaryotes, ubiquitously present in unicellular eukaryotes, fungi, worm, Drosophila and of course human. While the functionality of the signaling pathway has been experimentally demonstrated in some of these organisms, it has not yet been exploited for pharmacological applications. To enable such applications, we need to understand the extent to which the structure and function of the insulin-insulin receptor system is conserved. To this end, we analyzed the insulin signaling pathway in corals through remote homology detection and modeling. By docking known insulin receptor ligands to a coral homology structure, we locate ligand binding pockets and demonstrate their conservation suggesting that it may be possible to exploit the structural conservation for pharmacological applications in non-model organisms. We also identified the coral homologues of the over 100 signaling proteins involved in insulin and its related signaling pathways, demonstrating their wide-spread conservation. Notable exceptions are glucagon and somatostatin. It is tempting to speculate that under high light conditions, when the algae synthetize excess sugars, the cnidarian host may experience insulin resistance, and that the cnidarian microbiome may be involved in manipulating the insulin signaling system.

Background and purpose: The development of new drugs or formulations for central nervous system (CNS) diseases is a complex pharmacologic and pharmacokinetic process, it is important to evaluate their access to the CNS through the blood−brain barrier (BBB) and their distribution once they have acceded to the brain in order to ensure that the drug will reach its target and it will do its effect successfully. The gold standard tool for obtaining this information is the microdialysis technique, but, according to 3Rs principles it would be better having an “animal-free” alternative technique able to give the same information. Because of that, the purpose of this work was to develop a new formulation to substitute the brain homogenate in the in vitro tests used for the prediction of drugs distribution in the brain. Experimental Approach: Fresh eggs has been used to prepare an emulsion with the same proportion in proteins and lipids that a human brain. Key Results: The emulsion has proved to be able to predict, both, the unbound fraction of drug in the brain (fu,brain) and the apparent volume of distribution in the brain (Vu,brain) when tested in in vitro permeability tests. Conclusion and Implications: The new formulation could be used as a screening tool and only the drugs with a proper in vitro distribution would pass to microdialysis studies, contributing to the refinement, reduction and replacement of animals in research.

Cadmium (Cd) remobilization in leaves is the major source of Cd accumulation in brown rice, which is affected by whether Cd is stored in nonlabile subcellular compartments. Silicon (Si) can improve mechanical and chemical properties of cell wall in plant, however its influence in Cd immobilization in cell wall hasn’t been entirely understood. In this research, we found the isolated foliar cell wall of a rice line YaHui2816 exhibited a lower capacity for Cd chemisorption but a higher desorption amount than a contrasting line C268A, which was resulted from its fewer relative peak areas of functional groups in cell wall, such as carboxyl C=O and OH stretching. Foliar Si application increased the Cd concentration in pectin and hemicellulose 1 of foliar cell wall in YaHui2816. Combined with RNA-seq analysis, this strengthening of Cd binding in the cell wall mainly resulted from i) depressing the metal transporter OsZIP7 and ii) promoting the cell wall polysaccharide metabolism under upregulation of OsCht1 (chitinase 1) and genes participating in UDP-glucose metabolism. Overall, we revealed the mechanism by which foliar Si fertilizer improves of Cd binding onto foliar cell walls in rice, inspiring further avenues to ensure food safety in rice grains.

This paper gives a study of various types of cone metric spaces and its topological characterizations, and considers some generalized contraction type of mappings on θ-complete cone metric like spaces, then generalizes some previous coupled fixed point theorems in this setting.

The role of exosomes and their applications in cancersYu-Ju Zhou, Ying Zhang, Huan Gong, Si-Qi Luo, Yan Cui *

As a promising biotechnology, fish germ cell transplantation shows potentials in conservation germplasm resource, propagation of elite species, and generation of transgenic individuals. In this study, we successfully transplanted the Japanese flounder (P. olivaceus), summer flounder (P. dentatus), and turbot (S. maximus) spermatogonia into triploid Japanese flounder larvae, and achieved high transplantation efficiency of 100%, 75-95% and 33-50% by fluorescence tracking and molecular analysis, respectively. Eventually, donor-derived spermatozoa produced offspring by artificial insemination. We only found male and intersex chimeras in inter-family transplantations, while male and female chimeras in both intra-species and intra-genus transplantations. Moreover, the intersex chimeras could mature and produce turbot functional spermatozoa. We firstly realized inter-family transplantation in marine fish species. These results demonstrated successful spermatogonial stem cells transplantation within Pleuronectiformes, suggesting the germ cells migration, incorporation and maturation within order were conserved across a wide range of teleost species.

Identifying the molecular mechanisms involved in rapid adaptation to novel environments and determining their predictability, are central questions in evolutionary biology and pressing issues due to rapid global changes. Complementary to genetic responses to selection, faster epigenetic variations such as modifications of DNA methylation may play a substantial role in rapid adaptation. In the context of rampant urbanization, joint examinations of genomic and epigenomic mechanisms are still lacking. Here, we investigated genomic (SNP) and epigenomic (CpG methylation) responses to urban life in a passerine bird, the Great tit (Parus major). To test whether urban evolution is predictable (i.e parallel) or involves mostly non-parallel molecular processes among cities, we analysed both SNP and CpG methylation variations across three distinct pairs of city and forest Great tit populations in Europe. Our analyses reveal a polygenic response to urban life, with both many genes putatively under weak divergent selection and multiple differentially methylated regions (DMRs) between forest and city great tits. DMRs mainly overlapped transcription start sites and promotor regions, suggesting their importance in modulating gene expression. Both genomic and epigenomic outliers were found in genomic regions enriched for genes with biological functions related to the nervous system, immunity, or behavioural, hormonal and stress responses. Interestingly, comparisons across the three pairs of city-forest populations suggested little parallelism in both genetic and epigenetic responses. Our results confirm, at both the genetic and epigenetic levels, hypotheses of polygenic and largely non-parallel mechanisms of rapid adaptation in novel environments such as urbanized areas.

Background: Chronic systemic diseases (CSD) and cancer are closely related to the clinical course, severity and mortality of COVID-19 due to the immunosuppressive conditions caused by these diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences between the effects of cancer and CSD on the clinical and laboratory parameters of patients with COVID-19. Methods: The study included patients who received inpatient treatment with the diagnosis of COVID-19 at Ondokuz Mayıs University between 16 March, 2020, and 1 December, 2020. The participants were divided into four groups as follows: those without comorbidities (Group 1), those with only CSD (Group 2), those with only cancer (Group 3), and those with both CSD and cancer (Group 4). Comparative statistical evaluation was performed in terms of clinical symptoms, biochemical parameters, admission to intensive care and survival. Results: In total, 750 patients were included: 242 patients in Group 1, 442 in Group 2, 27 in Group 3, and 39 in Group 4. The mean age of the patients was 57.1 ± 9.4 years, and 53.7% were male. Patients of Group 1 were significantly different from those of the other groups in terms of age, requirement for intensive care and intubation, complications, survival, white blood cell and lymphocyte count, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio and levels of haemoglobin, lactic acid dehydrogenase, ferritin, D-dimer and C-reactive protein (for each p < 0.001). Conclusion: No difference was observed among laboratory parameters, intensive care admission, intubation need, complication frequency and survival rates in patients with CSD or cancer.

Background There is limited data on the prevalence and outcome of prediabetes (PDM) and the incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in South Asia. We investigated these in a prospective, community-based study involving a cohort of urban adults in Sri Lanka, with a seven-year follow-up. Methods Participants were selected by age-stratified random sampling, and were initially screened in 2007 and reevaluated in 2014. To assess the participants, structured interviews, anthropometric measurements, liver ultrasound, biochemical, and serological tests were performed on both occasions. Results 2985 individuals were recruited in 2007 [54.8% women, median age (IQR) 53 (47-59)]; 737 had T2DM [baseline prevalence 24.7% (95% CI: 23.1–26.2)] and 525 had PDM [baseline prevalence 17.9% (95% CI: 16.2-19.6)]. 2148 (71.6%) attended follow-up in 2014 [57.5% women; median (IQR) 60 (54–66) years], which included 1650 who did not have T2DM in 2007. By 2014, 436/1650 (27.6%) had developed new T2DM [annual incidence 3.9% (95% CI:3.0-4.9)]. On logistic regression, PDM, central obesity, dyslipidemia, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) at baseline showed significant association with new-onset T2DM. Of 525 with PDM in 2007, 365 (69.5%) presented for follow-up in 2014; 147/365 (40.3%) remained in PDM, 201/365 (55.1%) had progressed to T2DM and 17/365 (4.6%) had reverted to normoglycemia. Annual conversion rate of PDM to T2DM was 7.9%. Increase in waist circumference and low HDL from baseline predicted progression to T2DM. Conclusions Presence of features of the metabolic syndrome at baseline predicted new-onset T2DM and conversion of PDM to T2DM. Targeted lifestyle interventions are essential for individuals with metabolic risk to prevent future T2DM.

Objectives: While the prevalence and severity of asthma influenced by environmental factors, the effect of parenteral smoking on asthma status of their children was examined. Methodology: 90 asthmatic children, 32 with smoker and 58 with non-smoker parents were studies in two sessions three years apart by evaluating respiratory symptoms (RS) prevalence and severity, various drugs used and pulmonary function tests (PFT) including forced vital capacity, forced volume in the first second, peak expiratory flow, and maximum expiratory low at 75, 50 and 25% of vital capacity (FVC, FEV1, PEF, MEF75, MEF50, MEF25 respectively). Results: The prevalence and severity of all RS were significantly increased in asthmatic children with smoking parents after 3 years except prevalence and severity of night wheeze and the prevalence of chest wheeze (p<0.05 to p<0.001) but PFT values were non-significantly reduced. In asthmatic children with non-smoking parents, the prevalence and severity of RS were decreased after 3 years which was significant for night and chest wheeze for prevalence and night cough and chest wheeze for severity (all, p<0.05) and PFT values were increased which were statistically significant for FVC, FEV1, MEF50 and MEF25 (p<0.05 to p<0.01). Drugs used by the group with smoking parents were increased and were significantly higher than their reduction in the groups with non-smoking parents at the end of the study (p<0.05 for fluticasone propionate 125/salmeterol and budesonide160/formoterol). Conclusion: Long-term parenteral smoking increased prevalence and severity of RS and drug used but decreased PFT values of their asthmatic children.

integrative and complementary health practices in differents forms. The evidence map was based on the 3iE evidence searched in the databases: LILACS, PubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane Library, seeking systematic and narrative reviews, analyzed in an excel characterization spreadsheet.The circles located at the intersections between the interventions and the outcomes represent the identified studies. The color of the circles represents the confidence level. In the period from October 2019 to January 2020, fifteen studies were found, five of which were systematic reviews and ten narrative reviews, published between 2006 and 2019, with different levels of confidence. The highlighted intervention was oral ozone therapy as a bacterial colony reduction and decontamination agent, with emphasis on topical oxygen-ozone gas mixtures, topical ozonized water. Oral ozone therapy can bring benefits to clinical practice and patients.

Background Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant (HSCT) is an established treatment for malignant and non-malignant conditions and pulmonary disease is a leading cause of late term morbidity and mortality. Accurate and early detection of pulmonary complications is a critical step in improving long term outcomes. Existing guidelines for surveillance of pulmonary complications post-HSCT contain conflicting recommendations. Objective To determine the breadth of current practice in monitoring for pulmonary complications of pediatric HSCT. Study Design An institutional review board approved, online, anonymous multiple-choice survey was distributed to HSCT and pulmonary physicians from the United States of America and Australasia using the REDcap platform. The survey was developed by members of the American Thoracic Society Working Group on Complications of Childhood Cancer, and was designed to assess patient management and service design. Results A total of 40 (34.8%) responses were received. The majority (62.5%) were pulmonologists, and 82.5% were from the United States of America. In all, 67.5% reported having a protocol for monitoring pulmonary complications and 50.0% reported adhering “well” or “very well” to protocols. Pulmonary function tests (PFTs) most commonly involved spirometry and diffusion capacity for carbon monoxide. The frequency of PFTs varied depending on time post-HSCT and presence of complications. In all, 55.0% reported a set threshold for a clinically significant change in PFT. Conclusions These results illustrate current variation in surveillance for pulmonary complications of pediatric HSCT. The results of this survey will inform development of future guidelines for monitoring of pulmonary complications after pediatric HSCT.

Understanding the growth mechanism of TiO2 nanorods is critical for producing high-performance materials with morphology and structure control. TiO2 nanorods on FTO glass were prepared by hydrothermal method in acidic solution. The structural and morphological characteristics of thin films were investigated for different temperatures and reaction times. By the hydrolysis and protonation, monomers Ti(OH)n(OH2)6-n](4-n)+ can be formed at ambient conditions. TNRs were formed through the bonding between these monomers by olation and oxolation reactions during hydrothermal process. During the hydrothermal growth of TiO2 nanorods on FTO glass, precursors of TiO2 nanorods and nanoflowers were observed in the reactive solution and on top of TiO2 nanorod thin films. The preferential deposition of precursors and TiO2 nanostructures on top of primary TiO2 nanorods from solution resulted in significant changes in their morphology, structure, and growth orientation. A new possible growth mechanism of TiO2 nanorods is proposed based on these experimental observations.

Neurotrophic human Astrovirus (HAstV) VA1/HMO can cause severe encephalitis in immunocompromised patients. Advanced diagnostic tools are often required for diagnosis. Previous studies have described cases of acute HAstV VA1/HMO encephalitis that developed after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) with a fatal outcome. Here, we describe a rare case of a patient that survived severe progressive HAstV VA1/HMO encephalitis following HCT. The halt in clinical deterioration coincided with recovery of lymphoid competence, which indicated that the neuroinvasive HAstV infection was controlled by the reconstituting immune system.

1 Insects recognition is crucial for taxonomy. It helps researchers to process tremendous and various ecology data. Most studies focus on fine-tuning the deep learning network or altering the algorithm to enhance the identification accuracy, and some useful tools have been generated with these methods. 2 This study focuses on the influence of image data on the recognition model. The data set source of the existing automated identification tools is relatively single, and the competition-based data set was released only focus on evaluating the model at present. For the first time, this article integrates butterfly image data sets from multiple sources, covered illustrated books, and butterfly popular science websites. The image types include standard specimen images, illustrated book scan images and camera shots. In addition, these images concluded not only fixed poses, but also various other images of butterflies in natural poses. The size of these images is also various. Testing data set is new data that is not belongs to the training set, which also verifies the generalizability of the model, indicating that in practical applications, this model can identify new images. 3 We designed different data sets using the ResNet18 network to train a classifier, which achieves a validation accuracy of 86 % in the end of analyze. By adjusting the data sets, the accuracy changes as well. This study provides a method to recognize hundreds of butterfly species and analyzes the testing progress from the point of view of data. 4 It is the first to combine butterflies from multiple countries in the world to a single data set, with a recognition accuracy that outperforms previous experiments, to the best of our knowledge. We further analyze the testing results of butterfly recognition at the family and genus level.

Dehydrated hereditary stomatocytosis (DHS) is characterized by alterations of ionic flux with increased cation permeability. Although the clinical presentation of DHS is commonly variable, all of them present hemolysis and anemia, which may range from mild to severe. Like all hemolytic anemias, jaundice, pallor, fatigue, splenomegaly, and gallstones are the key signs. The causative genes have been identified on ABCG5, ABCG8, PIEZO1, SLC2A1, ABCB6, KCNN4, and RHAG. In this case study, we report an 11-year-old male patient who had jaundice, hepatosplenomegaly, and chronic mild congenital non-autoimmune hemolytic anemia. In our patient, a novel homozygous missense mutation in the PIEZO1 gene was detected using a gene-targeted Next-Generation Sequencing panel: c.3364G>A (p.Glu1122Lys), confirming the diagnosis of hereditary dehydrated stomatocytosis. The reason we want to report this case is the detection of a new mutation due to hereditary stomatocytosis, which is a rare disease. Also, due to the limited number of research centers in developing countries and lack of financial resources, it is late to be diagnosed with rare diseases.

Objective: Patients with dizziness may present with symptoms of tilting, swaying, rocking, floating or with disequilibrium. This may be suggestive of an isolated otolithic dysfunction yet, there is little emphasis on this emerging clinical entity. To characterize and describe the prevalence of isolated otolith dysfunction in a local tertiary hospital and correlate them with clinical diagnosis. Design: Retrospective medical chart review of patients who presented with dizziness to the specialist outpatient Otolaryngology clinic, who required vestibular laboratory investigation. Results: Of the 206 patients, more than half of them (52.4%) fulfilled the criteria for either probable or definite isolated otolith dysfunction. When there are clinical symptoms of otolith dysfunction reported, there is a 1.62 odds of a remarkable laboratory otolith finding. The most common clinical finding was “no clear diagnosis” (65.5%) followed by Vestibular Migraine (13.6%). Conclusion: The prevalence of isolated otolith dysfunction is quite high. Laboratory tests of otolith function should be performed more routinely. This can be done in a sequential way to optimize cost effectiveness in countries with no insurance reimbursement. Prospective cohort studies on isolated otolith dysfunction, will lay the groundwork for achieving diagnostic consensus and formulating rehabilitation plans to aid this group of patients. Keywords: Vestibular disorders, balance, equilibrium, otolith dysfunction, vestibular-evoked myogenic potential.

We used causal forest machine learning to re-analyze data from a randomized study evaluating oseltamivir in hospitalized patients with lower respiratory tract infection. Influenza virus infected patients had 26% lower risk of clinical failure when treated with oseltamivir (95% CI 3.2% - 48.0%), suggesting it may be a useful intervention.

Mechanical valves in both aortic and mitral positions pose a challenge for left ventricular (LV) access during ventricular tachycardia (VT) ablation using the antegrade transseptal or the retrograde transaortic approach. A 57 year-old male with ischemic cardiomyopathy, mechanical aortic and mitral valves, and recurrent VT underwent a combined endocardial and epicardial ablation via direct ventricular puncture via mini-thoracotomy. Successful mapping with endocardial and epicardial ablation was performed, with no recurrent VT on follow up. We showcase the feasibility of VT ablation using an open transapical approach for patients with mechanical aortic and mitral valves.