A type of predator-prey model with refuge and nonlinear pulse feedback control is established. First, we construct the Poincaré map of the model and analyse its main properties. Then based on the Poincaré map, we explore the existence, uniqueness and global stability of the order-1 periodic solution, and also the existence of order-k(k ≥2) periodic solutions of the system. These theoretical analysis gives the relationship between pesticide dosage and spraying cycle and economic threshold, and the relationship between the pesticide dose D and threshold ET. The results show that choosing the appropriate spraying period and finding the corresponding pesticide dose under the certain economic threshold can control the number of pests and the healthy growth of crops could be controlled. Moreover, we study the influence of refuge on population density. The results show that with the increase of refuge intensity, the population of predators decreases or even becomes extinct. The parameter sensitivity analysis shows that the change of control parameters and pesticide dosage is very sensitive to the critical condition of the stability of the boundary periodic solution.

Electronic and photocatalytic properties of single-layer Bismuthene nanosheets have been investigated as a function of their sizes. It is shown that Bismuthene nanosheet photocatalytic characteristics are comparable with the currently available high-ranked photocatalysts. The mentioned characteristics are enhanced by the extension of nanosheet along both edges. The nonlinear optics (NLO) analysis for a variety of nanosheet sizes displays a wide range of absorption on the solar spectrum. This would be another fascinating characteristic of water-splitting. The stability of the Bismuthene nanosheet falls by widening the nanosheet from both sides of Armchair and Zigzag edges. The variation of the energy gap between HOMO and LUMO levels concerning the nanosheet width along both Armchair and Zigzag directions has been explored up to 388 atoms. Regions of chemical activity in Bismuthene are mainly focused in the middle of nanosheets. This means that either of Armchair and Zigzag edges in Bismuthene nanosheet demonstrate a negligible chemically activity.

Shading stress has become a worldwide phenomenon and can lead to rice (Oryza sativa L.) yield loss by decreasing the seed setting rate, which, in rice, depends primarily on spikelet fertility. However, little is known about the effect of shading stress on rice pollination and fertilisation processes. Here, a field experiment, spanning two years, was conducted using two rice varieties grown under full sunlight and 53% shading stress. Shading stress at the heading stage significantly decreased the anther dehiscence rate, and a mass of pollen grains remained in the anthers. Together with a reduction in the in vitro pollen germination rate and stigma exsertion rate, shading stress reduced both the number of pollen grains and the number of germinated pollen grains per stigma by 29.44–71.16% and 9.82–63.16%, respectively. This ultimately resulted in yield loss due to reduction in the fertilisation and seed setting rates. We assert that shading stress decreased the seed setting rate by inhibiting the pollination and fertilisation processes of rice, particularly anther dehiscence and pollen grain release. Therefore, future studies should focus on the mechanisms behind anther dehiscence reduction under shading stress.

The present study spotlights the fundamental insights about the systematic and comparative analysis of four famous hybrid classes of density functional theory (DFT) methods and their efficacy to calculate the linear and nonlinear optical (NLO) polarizabilities. For this study, urea and para-nitroaniline (p-NA) molecular geometries are used as prototype to calculate their linear and NLO properties. For comparative purpose, these molecules are often used as reference organic molecules for determination of NLO response properties and there is a dire need of such benchmark database to be utilized by the researchers. We report systematically a range of functionals including hybrid (B3LYP, PBE1PBE, BHandHLYP), meta-hybrid (M06, M06-2X, M06-HF, M06-L), long-range corrected (CAM-B3LYP, LC-BLYP, LC-B97D, LC-B97D3) and functional with dispersion correction (ωB97, ωB97X, ωB97XD, HSEH1PBE). These groups are evaluated and their efficiency to calculate linear and NLO properties is graphically compared with each other. Overall, there is less deviations among different functionals for calculating dipole moments of p-NA and urea while these deviations enhance as one moves from dipole moment to linear polarizability and nonlinear hyperpolarizabilities. In general, if we look at the trends, the polarizability values of B3LYP, M06-L, CAM-B3LYP and HSEH1PBE are relatively large and can be compared with each other. The dispersion corrected and long-range corrected functional show more systematic deviations. For instance, among dispersion corrected functionals, the amplitudes of dipole moments, linear polarizability and NLO polarizabilities show an increasing trend as ωB97 < ωB97X < ωB97XD < HSEH1PBE. It is also important to note that LC-B97D and LC-B97D3 of long-range corrected functional have observed exactly the same values of all the calculated parameters. Thus, we believe that the current investigation will provide the benchmark data of reference NLO molecules at different methods for theoretical community and molecular level insights for experimental community to design better NLO materials for hi-tech NLO applications.

In this article, we analyze the existence of the solutions of coupled KdV and BBM equations in a weighted Sobolev space ( wSs-BBM) with initial data u_t- u_xxt-av_xxt+a_1 u_x+a_2 v^p v_x+u^p u_x+a_3 〖(u^p v)〗_x=0 v_t- v_xxt-au_xxt+a_1 v_x+a_2 u^p u_x+v^p v_x+a_3 〖(uv^p)〗_x=0 We use the theory of the semigroups of linear operators and Lax-Milgram lemma for the existence for the Korteweg de Vries equations (wSs-KdV).

A number of topological indices based on vertex eccentricity are already subject to various studies. In this paper, we obtain several upper and lower bounds for inverse connective eccentricity index of graphs in terms of other graph parameters

Optimization of a redundancy allocation problem designed specifically for systems with k-out-of-n subsystems has been the motive of this work. The main motive is to select the components and redundancy levels to maximize system reliability given system-level constraints. With cost and weight as constraints as 3 out of 5 subsystems has been optimized in the present study for maximizing the reliability of a mechanical system. Component reliabilities in every stage are treated as unknowns in this model. Evolutionary and Generalised Reduced Gradient method (GRG nonlinear Solver) in Excel has been applied here to determine the component reliabilities, stage reliabilities to maximize system reliability. A comparative study has been done using the methodology in the present paper with the methods already used by the other authors for the similar systems.

Background: Coronary artery in-stent restenosis is the negative response caused by the decrease in the artery diameters. Prolidase is an enzyme, whichplays a role in the formation of new matrix, collagen metabolism and cell development. There is no study evaluating the serum levels of prolidase enzyme in patients developing in-stent restenosis. Therefore, the objective of our study was to reveal the relationship between serum prolidase levels and in-stent restenosis. Methods: A total of 70 patients who were at medium-to-high risk based on non-invasive tests or clinical evaluation, and who underwent a coronary angiography in the cardiology and emergency polyclinics of our hospital from 2013 through 2014 were included in the study. In-stent restenosis was identified in 40 patients. In the other 30 patients, there was no angiographically determined critical lesion. Serum prolidase levels were measured in all patients. Results: The mean serum level of prolidase was found to be statistically significantly higher in the in-stent restenosis group compared to restenosis free group (p=0.02). The mean serum level of prolidase level was significantly higher in smokers compared to the non-smoker patients (p=0.04). It was observed that serum prolidase levels statistically significantly increased proportionally to the in-stent restenosis percentage (p=0.04). Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that, prolidase enzyme levels may enable timely and and correct assessment of in-stent restenosis, and may contribute to the decision for changing the treatment or timing to increase intensity of the treatment in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with coronary stenting.

Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) are a heterogeneous population of immature myeloid cells that increase in tumor-bearing hosts and suppress anti-tumor immunity to promote tumor growth and development. Thus, reducing the number or inhibiting the function of MDSCs may enhance anti-tumor immunity. Total flavonoids of Astragalus (TFA) are the main active components of Astragalus. The immunoregulatory effects of TFA have recently been extensively studied. However, the effect of TFA on MDSCs still remaines unknown. In the present study, we found that TFA treatment significantly alleviated the inhibitory effect of MDSCs on T cell proliferation in 4T1 mammary tumor mice. TFA decreased MDSCs accumulation in the bone marrow(BM), circulating blood, spleen, and tumor bed, whereas increased the percentage and activation of T cells in 4T1 mammary tumor mouse model. In addition, TFA treatment significantly reduced the number of MDSCs in BM cells induced by GM-CSF or the tumor burden in vitro. Mechanistically, the reduction of MDSCs was partially caused by increasing intracellular ROS level, which increased the apoptosis of Gr-1+ cells. In addition,TFA reduced the expression of iNOS and Arg-1 in both protein and transcription level. In conclusion,TFA could activate systemic T cell immunity by inducing apoptosis and inhibiting the function of MDSCs, suggesting that TFA has potential clinical benefits as it selectively attenuates MDSC-induced immunosuppression.

This study describes a patient with fibroid who underwent a hysterectomy and it was complicated by the adhesion of one the patient's ureters to the fibroid. The adhesion of may substantially distort the normal appearance of the ureter. Careful attention to the ureter is necessary for large retroperitoneal fibroid surgery

While numerous studies have examined either initial prey responses to an approaching predator (flight initiation distance, FID), or subsequent hiding behavior (e.g. latency to resume activity), to our knowledge, no previous studies have repeatedly tested multiple individuals in nature, to quantify whether both FIDs and latencies to resume activity are repeatable, and whether these two stages of the antipredator response are positively correlated. This correlation is ecologically important in that opportunity costs of predator avoidance are particularly large if the same individuals tend to both escape more readily and hide longer. Here, we examined California ground squirrels’ (Otospermophilus beecheyi) responses to human approach, and provided the first example showing that, as predicted: FIDs, latencies to resume activity, and other aspects of prey responses post-FID were repeatable and positively correlated. Interestingly, we also found that across a gradient of human activity, squirrels in areas with higher human activity were generally bolder.

The construction of a model that is capable to describe and explain plant diversity is a key in community ecology, which is of great significance in facilitating the analysis and protection of biodiversity.In this paper, the evolutionary stability theory of community water resources allocation is studied in ecologically stable plant communities in water-limited environments, the water consumption of individual biomass growth is used to quantify the hydrological niche of the species, and the arithmetic mean and harmonic mean ratio of hydrological niche of species in the community as a new diversity index is used to measure the community hydrological niche differentiation. An new hydrological niche plant diversity model was established, and the species abundance curve and species area curve including the community hydrological niche differentiation factor were obtained. Through our model derivation and verification, we discovered that the distribution of species abundance in water-limited ecosystems was close to Fisher log series distribution, which unified and expanded the classical diversity theories and discovered quantitative relationship: the larger the degree of community hydrological niche differentiation is, the greater the number of species is with the same abundance. This paper also provides an example for the application of the theory of evolutionary stability to community diversity research.

Chronic active Epstein-Barr virus (CAEBV) infection is a complex and heterogeneous disease with features of both immunodeficiency and malignant neoplasms. 10 patients aged 14～62 years with confirmed CAEBV infection were collected. The clinical features included splenomegaly(10/10), hepatomegaly(9/10), abnormal liver function(9/10) and CD8+T lymphopenia(3/3). Whole exon sequencing of peripheral blood showed a total of 410 immune genes were screened in 10 patients. They were primarily enriched in ‘Human papillomavirus infection’ and ‘Complement and coagulation cascades’. HE also showed lymphocytic infiltration in liver tissue of the CAEBV group. Immunohistochemistry showed the positive score of CD8+ T cells in the CAEBV patients was higher than that of controls (p<0.05). But there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of other immune cells (p>0.05). Based on the findings, we further investigated the CD8+ T lymphocyte-related hepatitis pathogenesis caused by CAEBV infection. Granzyme B and perforin in liver tissue showed no significant difference between the two groups (p>0.05). Fas, FasL and Caspase-8, were a higher expression in CAEBV patients than controls (p<0.05). C1q of liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSECs) and Glisson’s capsule (GC), as well as C3d of LSECs, were a higher expression in CAEBV patients than controls both (p<0.05). C4d of LSECs and GC and C3d of GC showed no significant difference between the two groups (p>0.05). Therefore, Fas/FasL and complement may involve the immune-related mechanism in CAEBV infection.

A document by Jun Yao. Click on the document to view its contents.

The physical field, furnace tube heat intensity and NO production of different heating furnaces were studied through numerical simulation. Firstly, by studying the heating furnaces of different shapes, namely triangle furnace, square furnace and cylindrical furnace, it was found that the heat intensity of the cylindrical furnace tubes was evenly distributed, but the NOX emission at the outlet of the cylindrical one was relatively higher than that of the square one. By studying the cylindrical furnaces with different dip angles of 95°, 93°, 90°, 87° and 85°, it was found that the NOX emission at the outlet has been effectively reduced with the decrease of the dip angle, but the heat intensity of furnace tubes was more unevenly distributed, which led to more serious tube coking.

Letter to the Editor in reference to: “Eustachian tube dysfunction: Consensus statement on definition, types, clinical presentation and diagnosis”Dear Editor,After reading the editorial comment article entitled, “Eustachian tube dysfunction: Consensus statement on definition, types, clinical presentation and diagnosis” published in Clinical Otolaryngology (2015;40 (5): 407–411), I would like to congratulate the authors for their successful consensus, and I wish to make some contributions to the discussion.In the editorial comment article, alternobaric vertigo (ABV) was left off the consensus statement, even though baro-challenge-induced Eustachian tube dysfunction (ETD) was mentioned. I believe ABV deserves wider recognition, even in 2021. ABV was first defined by Dr. Lundgren in 1965 to describe vertigo in deep-sea divers.1 It is also used to describe vertigo experienced by aviators.2 In both instances, ABV is defined as dizziness which occurs as a result of asymmetrical middle ear pressures.2 The definition is practical because it is often unfeasible to clearly distinguish between unilateral ETD and bilateral ETD.In 1942, Dr. Merica declared that vertigo caused by Eustachian tube obstruction is a distinct clinical entity and mentioned that it is caused in most (and perhaps all) instances by unilateral Eustachian tube obstruction, or by more complete obstruction one side than the other.3 Eustachian tube obstruction may cause unilateral or bilateral vestibulopathy. The patient-reported Eustachian Tube Dysfunction Questionnaire (ETDQ-7)4 system for quantitative ETD-related symptoms assessment omits vertigo, so it does not provide the crucial information needed to assess ETD. Merica also mentions that cases of insidious ABV onset are most likely to be overlooked because gastrointestinal symptoms are predominant.3 One of the most important reasons for assessing Eustachian tube function is the need to make a differential diagnosis in patients with intact tympanic membrane without evidence of otitis media, but with symptoms potentially related to ETD (including vertigo).2 In a review article, Mallen and Roberts conclude that ABV should be differentiated from peripheral causes such as Menière’s disease, benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, and vertebrogenic dizziness, as well as central disorders.5In 2012, Dr. Bluestone observed that persistent ABV at ground level is associated with abnormal vestibular function. He demonstrated that normalizing bilateral middle ear pressure returns vestibular function to normal which completely resolves vertigo.2 In fact, the condition can often be completely resolved by Eustachian tube catheterization.2,3I would like to propose that ABV be included in the ETD Consensus Statement as an official symptom of ETD, and that Eustachian tube catheterization also be recommended as a method for diagnosis and management of ETD.References1. Lundgren C. Alternobaric vertigo—a diving hazard. Brit Med J 1965; 2:511–513.2. Bluestone C. Eustachian tube: Structure, function, and role in Middle Ear Disease. 2nd ed. Raleigh, North Carolina: People Medical Publishing House USA; 2018.3. Merica F. Vertigo due to obstruction of the Eustachian tubes. JAMA 1942; 118(15):1282–1284.4. McCoul E, Anand V, Christos P.Validating the clinical assessment of eustachian tube dysfunction: the Eustachian Tube Dysfunction Questionnaire (ETDQ-7). Laryngoscope 2012; 122, 1137–11415. Mallen J, Roberts D. SCUBA Medicine for Otolaryngologists: Part II. Diagnostic, Treatment, and Dive Fitness Recommendations. Laryngoscope 2019; 9999:1–6.

Severe bleeding after preauricular fistula with dyspnea is very rare, and serious cases can be life-threatening, so it should be detected in time and treated correctly.

Objectives: To determine the accuracy of Non-Echo-Planar Diffusion Weighed Magnetic Resonance Imaging (non-EPI DW MRI) in diagnosing cholesteatoma in routine clinical healthcare - a comparison to otosurgery outcome. Method: A retrospective diagnostic study including all subjects examined with middle ear non-EPI DW MRI in two regions in northern Sweden between October 2010, when the use of non-EPI DW MRI began, and March 2019 when the search was made. Examinations not performed as non-EPI DW MRI were excluded. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predicative value, and likelihood ratios were calculated using non-EPI DW MRI as the index test and diagnosis from otosurgery as the reference standard. Results: Fifty-two subjects with suspicion of cholesteatoma underwent non-EPI DW MRI and subsequent otosurgery after examination. Non-EPI DW MRI had a sensitivity of 0.50, specificity of 0.75, positive predictive value of 0.74, negative predictive value of 0.52, positive likelihood ratio of 2.0, and negative likelihood ratio of 0.67. Discussion: The diagnostic accuracy of non-EPI DW MRI does not reach acceptable levels to be reliable in the existing everyday clinical setting. The accuracy of the examination increases when interpreted by an experienced radiologist and when using the definition of cholesteatoma recommended by The European Academy of Otology and Neurotology and The Japanese Otological Society.

Background: COVID-19 is an acute infectious respiratory disease caused by SARS-CoV-2. It has caused many deaths worldwide. Asymptomatic patients may be as infectious as symptomatic patients, but they are harder to identify. It is difficult for asymptomatic patients to realize that they have been infected and seek medical treatment in a timely manner, which poses challenges to virus prevention and control measures. Methods: This study reports 30 asymptomatic Chinese COVID-19 patients from the same road engineering company who worked in Sudan during the epidemic. Our team listed their symptoms after admission, various monitoring indicators and disease course to provide more information on asymptomatic COVID-19 patients. Results: 30 asymptomatic Chinese COVID-19 patients’ throat swab tests for SARS-CoV-2 were positive. Through further genetic testing, we found that these 30 Chinese individuals were infected with the European strain of SARS-CoV-2 circulating in Africa. In this study, the infection events occurred across three continents and suggested that the European strain could be brought to Asia via Africa by asymptomatic infected individuals and that the incubation and infection periods may be long; these points should be considered in epidemic prevention and epidemiological investigations. Fourteen days of quarantine may not be enough. After having negative results on at least 5 consecutive nucleic acid tests spanning 30 days, a patient may subsequently have a positive test result. Conclusions: We present our diagnosis and treatment process to provide useful reference information for colleagues during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Increased intestinal permeability, either due to the exposure to antigens in asthmatic patients or due to a barrier defect, play a critical role in susceptibility to environmental allergens. House dust mites allergy occurs more commonly than any other allergens among Egyptian asthmatic patients. Aim: To assess the relation between serum zonulin level as a marker of increased intestinal permeability and the severity of house dust mites allergic asthma. Methods: A case control study which included 96 subjects attending the allergy and immunology unit, microbiology and immunology department, Faculty of medicine, Zagazig University. They were divided into 48 house dust mites allergic asthma and 48 healthy control subjects. Results: On comparing the 2 studied groups, there was a statistically significant difference between the 2 groups concerning serum IgE and serum zonulin levels ( p=0.000, 0.000 respectively)The mean serum zonulin was equal to 258.3±153.01 ng/ml in the asthmatic group and 80±13 ng/ml in the control group. Serum zonulin level significantly increased with the increase of asthma severity (p˂0.001). The cut off value of serum zonulin was ≥ 198 ng/ml, and the area under the curve was 0.76. It displayed sensitivity equal to 80% and specificity equal to 71.4%. Its negative predictive value was equal to 83.3%. Conclusion: Intestinal barrier dysfunction contributes in the pathogenesis of allergic asthma. Serum zonulin level reflects an increase in intestinal permeability and acts as prognostic factor of severity in Asthma. Correction of the gut barrier defect may be an additional novel approach for Asthma.

Background: DOCK8 deficiency is an autosomal recessive form of hyperimmunoglobulinemia E syndrome (HIES). Severe atopic dermatitis (AD) shares with DOCK8 deficiency some clinical symptoms, including eczema, eosinophilia, and increased serum IgE levels. The deficiency of DOCK8 protein is potentially a life-threatening autosomal recessive HIES and only curable with bone marrow transplantation. Despite identified metabolomics and cytokine biomarkers, novel proteomics biomarkers need to be identified, as the connecting networks are critical to our understanding of this disease. Hence we performed serum proteomic profiling using LC-MSE. Method: Label-free untargeted proteomics analysis was used to identify potentially reliable, sensitive, and specific protein biomarkers in serum collected from DOCK8 (n=10), AD (n=9) patients compared to healthy control groups (n=5). Results: From a total of 275 quantifiable proteins, binary comparisons between AD vs. Ctrl, DOCK8 vs. Ctrl, and DOCK8 vs. AD revealed 109,105 and 85 dysregulated proteins, respectively. 24 of the 85 proteins were specific potential biomarkers among the DOCK8 and AD groups. The sensitivity and specificity of some proteins, including Claspin, Immunoglobulin kappa, and heavy complement components as potential biomarkers to distinguish between DOCK8 and AD patients, were evaluated using the receiver operating characteristic curve. DOCK8 deficiency and AD groups’ profiling revealed a shared role of ERK1/2 among the commonly dysregulated proteins. Conclusion: Herein, we have identified potential proteomics biomarkers and profile to distinguish between DOCK8 and AD, with possible diagnostic and therapeutic applications to help create effective interventions for managing these diseases. Further studies to confirm these associations in prospective cohorts are warranted

Cholera is an ancient and widespread infectious disease, mainly manifested as severe vomiting, diarrhea, water loss, and high mortality. It belongs to the group of international quarantine infectious diseases, and Vibrio cholerae is the pathogen of human cholera. Since 1817, there have been seven global cholera pandemics, which have caused hundreds of millions of human deaths. The cause of these cholera epidemics is highly complex; how it spreads globally and the reason for seasonal epidemic peaks in epidemic areas remains unclear. Most sporadic outbreaks of cholera are related to aquatic products or related water bodies.

There has always been high interest in the use of traditional medicines for COVID-19 from early in the course of the pandemic. Significant advances in the science of ethnopharmacology has helped to introduce chemical entities identified from natural sources into modern medicine. However, the wider integration of natural products into the modern drug discovery process will require enhanced collaboration among different stakeholders including the pharmaceutical industry, academic research units, regulatory bodies, ethics review committees, local, regional, continental and international organizations. Revisiting this topic holds promise of benefit for both the current and future pandemics.

ChTI (Cocculus hirsutus trypsin inhibitor), a plant serine protease inhibitor, is a natural plant defense protein effective against phytophagous insects by inhibiting digestive proteases in guts. We modified the ChTI gene by codon optimization and expressed it in E. coli, purified it, and performed insect bioassay, where significant weight loss with reduced larval growth was observed in both the insect pests; Helicoverpa armigera and Spodoptera litura. Further, we expressed the ChTI protein in Arabidopsis thaliana and Solanum lycopersicum, either individually or pyramided with Bt-Cry1Ab toxin and quantified the toxicity of the expressed proteins against both insects in the transgenic plants. We also performed transcriptomic analysis of transgenic Arabidopsis and tomato plants expressing ChTI protein, where the enhancement of different pathogenesis-related proteins was observed. Earlier reports say that insects gradually develop resistance against toxins, so we developed transgenic plants, co-expressing the two different toxins from diverse origin, achieving resistance against insects, and reducing the tendency of insects to develop resistance against the toxins. Comparative analysis of all the expressed gene constructs viz. pChTI, pcry1Ab, and pChAb was completed by molecular and insect biassays. Complete mortality against both insects was observed without compromising the yield.