From January 2021 to June 2022, CDC required pre-departure SARS-CoV-2 testing for all air passengers arriving into the United States. Using data collected during a pilot surveillance program, this manuscript describes pre-departure testing behavior among a convenience sample of international air passengers entering the United States from July to September 2021 at six US ports of entry. We analyzed pairwise relationships between self-reported test type, test timing, demographic and travel characteristics, and COVID-19 vaccination status. We found that test type was significantly associated with departure region, likely reflecting the regional disparities in the availability of tests at the time of the activity.

A new species in genus Inocybe is described and illustrated from Himalayan Moist Temperate forests of Pakistan. It is characterized by fibrillose, conical to convex, umbonate, brown to dark brown pileus, non-pruinose, fibrillose stipe with whitish tomentum at base, basidiospores smooth and comparatively larger (9 × 5.2 µm) and thicker caulocystidia (upto 21 m). Phylogenetic analyses of nuc rDNA region encompassing the internal transcribed spacers 1 and 2 along with 5.8S rDNA (ITS) and nuc 28S rDNA D1-D2 domains (28S) also confirmed its novelty.

Tanacetum isfahanicum Sonboli and Naderifar sp. nov. (Asteraceae-Anthemideae) is described from Isfahan Province, Iran. It is morphologically belonging to T. sect. Xanthoglossa and distinguishing from the closest relative, T. polycephalum, by shape of basal and cauline leaves, shape of capitula, length and width of involucre and color of achene ribs. The phylogenetic position of the new species is reconstructed based on nrDNA ITS sequences variation and its close relationship with T. polycephalum is corroborated.

Flexible sodium-ion batteries are considered as the most promising flexible energy storage devices due to their bendability, low cost and high safety. However, the development of anode materials with high rate and long cycle stability is a key step in the development and application of flexible sodium ion batteries. Here, a simple vacuum filtration method is reported to obtain a bimetallic heterojunction structure. The heterojunction exhibits better performance than any single-phase material in sodium ion diffusion and storage. The results show that the electron rich Se site and the internal electric field generated by the electron transfer between cobalt selenide and nickel selenide in the heterojunction structure can provide abundant electrochemically active sites and effectively promote the electron transport in the process of sodiation/desodiation. The reversible capacity of NiCoSex/CG electrode obtained by heterojunction design is up to 338 mAh·g-1 at 0.1 A·g-1, and the capacity attenuation is ignorable at 2 A·g-1 for 2000 cycles. In addition, the assembled flexible full battery shows very good reversibility and output stability under bending and crimping. This idea of obtaining high performance anode of sodium ion battery by designing heterojunction structure can provide a new vision for the design and synthesis of other materials.

An intentional alteration of data stored in a computer through the use of malicious code is a cyber-attack, that exploits networks and computer systems. The data may be compromised and this may have disruptive implications. The proposed system makes use of steganographic method along with visual cryptography for hiding data in images and provide better security. Even though extensive research has been done previously, but most of the research gives no robust security for the image that has been encrypted. The method proposed in this paper is capable of hiding some secret message in least significant bits of the original image, thereby hiding the secret message in way to make its detection difficult. The secret image is then under went to visual cryptography algorithm. Thereby, creating shares of the secret image, which are noise like structures. Further, the method proposes to hide these shares in least significant bits of different images so as to create three levels of security for the message. The main objective of the proposed method is to combine the use of data hiding techniques, steganography and visual cryptography algorithms for designing a secure algorithm so that security, reliability and efficiency of secret message can be improved.

Comparison of surface characteristics and dispersion properties of titanium dioxide base particles by sulfate and chloride processesYuanxia Quan a, Quanjin Xiang a, Xuejun Quan a, Lianghui Ke b, Li lia *, Qibin Jiang a

Background: Rhinitis, allergic rhinitis in particular, and urticaria are both common atopic problems globally. However, there is controversy regarding the correlation between rhinits and urticaria. Objectives: To examine the accurate association between rhinitis and urticaria. Methods: Three medical databases (PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science) were searched from database inception until January 11, 2022. The prevalence and association between rhinitis and urticaria were estimated by meta-analysis. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses guidelines were followed, and quality assessment was performed using the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale. Pooled odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) and pooled prevalence were calculated using random-effects models. Results: Urticaria prevalence in patients with rhinitis was 17.6% (95% CI, 13.2%–21.9%). The pooled prevalence of rhinitis was 31.3% (95% CI, 24.2%–38.4%) in patients with urticaria, and rhinitis prevalence in patients with acute urticaria and chronic urticaria was 31.6% (95% CI, 7.4%–55.8%) and 28.7% (95% CI, 20.4%–36.9%), respectively. Rhinitis occurence was significantly associated with urticaria (OR, 2.67; 95% CI, 2.625–2.715). Limitations: Urticaria and rhinitis were diagnosed based on different criteria possibly resulting in a potential misclassification of these two diseases. Conclusion: Rhinitis and urticaria were significantly correlated. Physicians should be cognizant regarding this relationship and address nasal or skin symptoms in patients.

Heat stroke is a life-threatening disease with high mortality rate and unexpected complications. Vascular endothelial glycocalyx is essential for maintaining endothelial cell structure and function as well as preventing adhesion of inflammatory cells. Potential relationship that underlays the imbalance in inflammation and coagulation remains elusive. Moreover, the role of endothelial glycocalyx in heat stroke-induced organ injury remained unclear. Heat stress and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) are employed to construct in vitro models to study the change of glycocalyx structure and function in human pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells (HPMEC), as well as levels of heparansulfate proteoglycan (HSPG), syndecans-1, heparansulfate, TNF-α, IL-6, vWF, ET-1, Occludin, E-selectin, vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1), and reactive oxygen species (ROS). Here, we showed that heat stress and LPS devastated endothelial glycocalyx structure, activated endothelial glycocalyx degradation, and triggered oxidative damage in addition to apoptosis in HPMEC. Stimulation of heat stress and LPS increased HSPG, syndecans-1 (SDC-1), and heparansulfate levels, and promoted the ability to produce and release pro-inflammation cytokines (TNF-α, IL-6,) and coagulative factor (vWF, ET-1) in HPMEC. Furthermore, E-selectin, VCAM-1, and ROS expression were upregulated in contrast to Occludin downregulation. These changes could be deteriorated by Heparanase, whereas could be ameliorated by unfractionated heparin. This study highlights that heat stroke-induced endothelial glycocalyx degradation can trigger oxidative and apoptosis in HPMEC, in addition to dysfunction of inhibition of inflammatory response and protection in vascular permeability.

All forms of data are meant to be secured. The rise in cyber-crime since beginning of the pandemic and the emergence of a variety of techniques and tactics utilized by malware authors has made identification and recovery difficult. LockBit ransom-ware has been in news in recent times. The APT behind deployment of this ransom-ware virus has compromised several organizations and the impacts are, worth more than millions, lives of people by stealing their personal identifiable information. It is important to understand the behavior of such malware, to block it and to identify the anti-analysis stuff it performs. The challenges here were a packed sample, a rebooting command-line trigger and encryption of several files that can possess high trouble to operations of any workplace.

Background Plasma metabolomic analysis can provide a great deal of information on potential diagnostic biomarkers, pathogenesis and personalized treatment. Psoriasis is a chronic, multi-system skin disease that can be influenced by immunological, environmental, and genetic factors. However, the role of metabolites in psoriasis is unknown. Objective To deepen the understanding of the pathogenesis of psoriasis in metabolites and to screen potential biomarkers and therapeutic target proteins for auxiliary diagnosis and treatment of the disease. Methods We performed an untargeted metabolomic analysis of plasma based on high-resolution liquid chromatography mass spectrometry from 10 plaque psoriasis patients and 10 healthy controls. Results A total of 301 differential metabolites were detected, of which 10 metabolites were potential biomarkers, including vitamins, amino acids, and lipids. At the same time, KEGG pathway enrichment analysis was performed for all detected differential metabolites, and it was found that protein digestion and absorption, amino acid metabolism and lipid metabolism may be jointly involved in regulating the pathogenesis of psoriasis. In addition, the proteins ESR1, OPRM1 and HSD11B1 were identified as potential topical therapeutic targets for psoriasis through analysis of the metabolite-protein interaction network. Conclusions In this study, we identified 10 differential metabolites as potential combinatorial biomarkers for the diagnosis of psoriasis. 12 metabolic pathways were significantly enriched that may be closely related to the occurrence and development of psoriasis. Three proteins, ESR1, OPRM1, and HSD11B1, were identified as potential therapeutic targets for psoriasis.

An ongoing debate on the association of numerical cognition and phonological processing concerns the extent to which they influence each other during number acquisitions. The current study aims at establishing the direction of the developmental relationship between these two kinds of abilities at an early age. Eighty-two Chinese kindergarten children were followed from 5 to 6 years old with a one-year interval. We investigated three phonological processing skills (phonological awareness, phonological memory, and rapid automatized naming) and two kinds of basic number knowledge (number identification and number comparison) at time 1 and time 2. Cross-lagged panel analyses revealed that the association between phonological awareness and number comparison was bidirectional. Moreover, early phonological awareness at time 1 could predict later number identification, and early number comparison at time 1 was a significant predictor of later phonological memory. In contrast, rapid automatized naming had no such predictive relations with other variables. The present findings are the first to provide longitudinal evidence that basic number knowledge could predict later phonological processing in kindergarten children.

Access control in the Internet of Things plays an important role in keeping resources and services secure. As IoT is expanding, centralized access control will not be able to provide service to the entire network in a timely manner. Along with increasing communication overhead, Centralized access control is not suitable for resource-constrained devices. So, in this paper, we have introduced a Decentralized Context-Aware Access Control (DCAAC) mechanism, which reduces communication overhead, provides fast response, and increases battery life by 41.67 \%. The proposed decentralized access control eliminates all intermediary attacks such as Eavesdropping, snooping, interception, and modification attack, which are usually present in a centralized system.

This mixed-method study examines how different home literacy environments shape gender differences in Chinese-Canadian first graders’ (N=76) bilingual lexical attainment and literacy engagement. Quantitative analyses indicate that Chinese-Canadian girls outperform boys in both L1 and L2 vocabulary. Gender differences were not associated with quantity of language exposure at home in either language but rather with quality of home language input. Quality was found to be differentially associated by gender with boys having quality input in both languages at home. Results reveal that parents engage in more quality home literacy practices with girls than boys. Parental expectations and belief in gender differences, particularly girls’ superiority in language learning and self-regulation, shaped gendered home literacy engagement.

— As there is a substantial increase in the automation industry, Security is the major concern among the vehicles. Software and hardware are combined to provide better drivability and comfort in vehicles. Information such as safety and nonsafety are interchanged among the vehicles through messages in an intelligent transport system. VANET an intelligent transportation system plays a vital role in enhancing the security and safety of passengers as well as drivers by equipping the vehicle with RSU (Road Side Unit) and OBU (On-Board Unit). Production of an extensive amount of data in VANET communication needs an intelligent storage system. For this Fog Computing has a vital role in the storage and computation of data. In this paper, we present a study on various authentication attacks, authentication protocols and their mechanism. Open issues, Future scope of VANET using Fog, Survey on authentication protocols in VANET using fog computing are discussed. Taxonomy of authentication attacks with their summary and insights are presented.

Eight new diterpenoids (1-8) characterized as halimane-type and labdane-type skeletons, and four known (9-12) compounds, were isolated from Leucas zeylanica. Their structures were determined by comprehensive spectroscopic analysis, X-ray crystal diffraction and computational calculations. Compounds 1 and 2 represent structurally unique 6/6/6-fused tricyclic halimane-type diterpenoids. Compounds 8 and 12 exhibit nontoxic effects for zebrafish embryo, while they display efficient reduction against NO production in a dose-dependent manner and strongly suppress the secretion of LPS-induced TNF-α and IL-6 cytokines in RAW264.7 macrophages. In addition, marked reductions of iNOS and COX-2 in protein were observed. Molecular docking analysis indicated that both 8 and 12 have high affinities with the target amino acid residues on protein-binding sites, which may be a possible mechanism contributing to the anti-inflammatory potential of these molecules.

Children construct their social preferences and behaviors based on their social interactions and beliefs about other’s behavior. Most studies that evaluate the influence of social norms on children’s sharing behavior has focused on sharing decisions, while no previous study has evaluated whether norms about generosity could change beliefs about other’s sharing behavior. In the current study, 4–10-year-old children (N = 101) played two dictator games; one as baseline and the other after being exposed to either a generous or a selfish descriptive norm. Our results showed that, after being exposed to descriptive norms, all children changed their beliefs about others’ sharing behavior. However, these norms did not influence children’s sharing decisions. These results suggest that children´s beliefs about sharing behavior could be more malleable than their actual sharing decisions. These insights might help to design interventions aimed to change beliefs and, in turn, to model prosocial behaviors in children.

Although the emergence of immunotherapy has broken the deadlock of extensive stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC), the study of markers for predicting efficacy is the key to the breakthrough of immunotherapy, and exploring more innovative, efficient and safe treatment models is also an important research direction of ES-SCLC. As an important part of inherent immunity, natural killer (NK) cells have become a hot spot because activated NK cells can directly kill tumor cells and may also influence tumor microenvironment (TME) immunomodulation. To date, emerging experimental research about NK cells in tumor therapy and immuno-regulation has been published, but specific reviews of its role in ES-SCLC were limited. Hence, in this review, we briefly summarized the current status of immunotherapy and the exploration of biomarker in ES-SCLCs, with focus on the potential value of efficacy prediction and treatment of NK cells, and finally discuss the limitations and development prospects of NK cells in ES-SCLC immunotherapy research.

Brucella canis is pathogenic for dogs and humans. Serological diagnosis is a cost-effective approach for disease surveillance, but a major drawback of current serological tests is the cross-reactivity with other bacteria that results in false positive reactions, and development of indirect tests with improved sensitivity and specificity remain a priority. A western blotting assay was developed to define the serum antibody patterns associated to infection using a panel of positive and negative dog sera. B. canis positive sera recognized immunogenic bands ranging from 7 to 30 kDa that were then submitted to ESI–LC-MS/MS and analyzed by bioinformatics tools. A total of 398 B. canis proteins were identified.. Bioinformatics tools identified 16 non cytoplasmic immunogenic proteins predicted as non-homologous with the most important Brucella cross-reactive bacteria and 9 B. canis proteins non-homologous to B. ovis; among the latter, one resulted non-homologous to B. melitensis. The western blotting test developed was able to distinguish between infected and non-infected animals and may serve as confirmatory test for the serological diagnosis of B. canis. The mass spectrometry and in silico results lead to the identification of specific candidate antigens that pave the way for the development of more accurate indirect diagnostic tests.

Stachys is one of the most diverse genera of the family Lamiaceae and currently consists of 360 species. Stachys species exhibit high morphological variability and are distinguished using indumentum, calyx and corolla length, tooth-to-calyx ratio and verticillaster arrangement. Here, based on morphological and micromorphological studies, Stachys cuhacioglui Yıldırım & Ö.Güner (Lamiaceae) described as a new species. The new species was collected from İzmir province in SW Anatolia, Turkey. Stachys cuhacioglui differs from S. annua complex in cordate basal leaves, campanulate calyx, recurved calyx teeth, shorter calyx (6–7 mm long) and shorter corolla (8–9 mm long). Description, etymology, phenology, geographical distribution, IUCN threat category and ecology of the new species are given.

Male urethral stricture disease (USD) is characterized by scar formation, and the molecular mechanism is still lack. In this study, we performed comprehensive proteomic landscape of USD with 12 scar tissues and 5 matched normal adjacent tissues (NATs). Comparative analysis disclosed the ECM signaling and complement cascade were overrepresented in the scar tissues, in which COL11A1, CNN2, and CD248 would play positive impacts. In addition, we revealed the diverse molecular mechanism of scar formation of USD with different ages, and proposed the potential effects of PXK in the Age 1 (< 45) patients. Furthermore, the immune infiltration of USD indicated the medicative of inhibition of complement system (C4A, C4B) in the Age 2 (≥ 45) patients. Collectively, this study provides insight into understanding the molecular mechanism of scar formation, and delivered a valuable resource for the development of therapeutic targets for USD.

The polymorphisms of IFNL3 associated with the outcomes of primary HBV infection remains controversial, the susceptibility has not been investigated across cohorts. So two cohorts, including 3874 participants, were enrolled to detect the association of IFNL3 genetic variants (rs12979860, rs12980275, and rs809917) with outcomes of primary HBV infection between groups of chronic HBV infection (CHB), Natural clearance (NC), Health control (HC), and a false-positive report probability (FPRP) test was applied to assess positive results, and function prediction of significant polymorphism was evaluated. Polymorphism of rs12979860 demonstrated a correlation to the outcomes of primary infection. In comparison between NC and CHB, the rs12979860-C significantly decreased the risk of CHB as compared to T allele in Hubei, Hainan and combined two cohorts, and in HC vs. NC comparison, the allele of rs12979860-C also refers immunity establishment against HBV in comparison to T allele in Hubei, Hainan, and combined two cohorts. In comparison between NC and CHB, the rs12979860-TT genotypes significantly increased the risk of CHB in Hubei, Hainan and combined two cohort. After adjusting the influence of age and sex, the results remain significant. FPRP test confirms the significance of rs12979860, moreover, rs12979860-C/T alteration brings the minimum free energy change in the centroid secondary structure. The polymorphism of rs12979860 in IFNL3 is associated with primary outcomes of HBV infection, and rs12979860-CC is associated with immunity establishment in primary HBV infection, serving as potential predictors against virus infection.

Using artificial intelligence for text extraction can often require handling privacy-sensitive text. To avoid revealing confidential information, data owners and practitioners can use differential privacy, a definition of privacy with provable guarantees. In this work, we show how differential privacy can be applied to feature hashing. Feature hashing is a common technique for handling out-of-dictionary vocabulary, and for creating a lookup table to find feature weights in constant time. One of the special qualities of feature hashing is that all possible features are mapped to a discrete, finite output space. Our proposed technique takes advantage of this fact, and makes hashed feature sets Renyi-differentially private. The technique enables data owners to privatize any model that stores the data-dependent weights in a hash table, and provides protection against inference attacks on the model output. As a case study, we show how we have implemented our technique in commercial software that enables users to train text sequence classifiers on their own documents, and share the classifiers with other users without leaking training data. Results show that even common words can be protected with 0.06, 10^-5)-differential privacy, with only a 1% average reduction in Recall and no change in Precision.

Introduction: Vaccination plays a fundamental role in mastering the COVID-19 pandemic and protecting vulnerable groups. Persons with autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic diseases (AIIRD), on immunosuppressive therapies, are prioritized for vaccination. However, data concerning immunogenicity and safety of the BBIBP-CorV vaccine in immunosuppressed patients are not found. This study presents data on the efficacy and safety of the BBIBP-CorV vaccine in immunosuppressed patients compared to healthy controls. Methods: Study population consisted of 100 healthy controls and 100 patients with AIIRD. Vaccination was performed according to national guidelines with the BBIBP-CorV vaccine. SARS-CoV2 neutralizing antibody titers were quantified by ELISA before initial vaccination and 1–3 months after secondary vaccination. Adverse events were assessed before study initiation and 7 days after the second dose. Disease activity was studied before entering the study and 3-8 weeks after the second dose. Results: Vaccination-induced positive immunogenic response rates and SARS-CoV2 neutralizing antibody titers were significantly lower in the AIIRD patients than healthy subjects (P<0.05). There are significant differences in neutralizing antibody titers among patients suffering from RA, SLE, SSc, and AS (P<0.01-0.05). The rates of seropositive vaccine responses were similarly distributed across all diseases. Healthy and AIIRD individuals had a similar profile in adverse events. No significant difference was observed in SARSCoV2 antibody titers between subjects suffering from side effects and those who did not have. SARS-CoV2 neutralizing antibody levels were significantly higher in SARS-CoV2-infected persons than noninfected subjects (P<0.01-0.05). Seropositive subjects had a significant increase in the percentage of vaccine-related adverse events compared to seronegative persons (P<0.05). Despite a minor change in the disease activity of patients with RA and SLE, disease activity indices were overall stable in the AIIRD patients. Conclusion: The BBIBP-CorV vaccine is effective in the development of neutralizing antibody in immunosuppressed patients without considerable reactogenicity or induction of disease flares.

ABSTRACT The leaf epidermal structure of thirteen taxa from the genera Rosa L. and Rubus L. (Rosaceae family), which grow obviously within the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, is investigated via light microscopy. All taxa have the type of anomocytic stomata on the abaxial surface, and no stomata are present on the adaxial surface. Within the genus Rubus, R. sanctus can be distinguished from R. caesuis by the anticlinal wall patterns on the adaxial and abaxial surfaces and the shape of the epidermal cells on the abaxial side. In Rosa, the shape of the epidermal cells on the abaxial surface varies from polygonal and polygonal-slightly irregular to irregular. R. canina var. deseglsei can be recognized by the abaxial surface’s anticlinal wall pattern and the epidermal cells’ shape. Although R. foetida had larger epidermal cell densities on all surfaces, it lacked the necessary taxonomical support to distinguish our Rosa genus taxa. Stomatal density as a range and stomata index could be valuable two diagnostic features for separating R. hemispharica from the remaining taxa of the genus Rosa. The taxa of Section: Pimpinellifoliae can be separate by the patterns of anticlinal walls of the abaxial surface from the remaining taxa of Sections: Caninae and Gallicanae within Subgenus: Rosa under study. According to our findings, some leaf epidermal characteristics and stomata are advantageous for distinguishing the various taxonomic ranks of the genera Rosa and Rubus family Rosaceae.