A document by Jianguo Ju. Click on the document to view its contents.

Coxsackie virus B1 (CVB1) is an enterovirus that presents as hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD), which may cause long-term symptoms in some patients. However, CVB1 animal models, detoxification cycles, and long-term tissue tropism have not been systematically characterized. In this study, a CVB1 respiratory infection model was established in rhesus macaques, and clinical symptoms, viral load, and immune marker levels were observed in the acute phase (0-14 days) and long-term recovery phase (15-30 days). We also quantified the distribution, replication, and pathology of CVB1 during the long-term recovery period using 35 postmortem rhesus macaques tissue samples at 30 days post infection (d.p.i), thus revealing the long-term tissue tropism of the virus. The results showed that the respiratory tract of rhesus macaques was susceptible to CVB1 and showed HFMD symptoms, detoxification phenomena, changes in cytokine levels, and neutralizing antibodies. Autopsy viral load results were positive in heart, spleen, pancreas, pharyngeal flat, and olfactory bulb tissues, and HE staining revealed pathological damage to the liver, spleen, lung, pharyngeal flat, palatal flat, and tracheal epithelium. Viral antigens were present in visceral, immune, respiratory, and muscle tissues but not detected in intestinal and neural tissues. Brain tissue was dissected and showed viral meningitis-like changes, and CVB1 antigen expression was observed in occipital, pontine, cerebellar, and spinal cord tissues. This study first provides a basis for elucidating CVB1 pathogenesis in a nonhuman primate HFMD model and then confirms the CVB1 tissue tropism pattern after long-term infection.

Introduction Teratoma is a rare tumor that is derived from germ cells. This tumor is composed of one or more than one types of tissue, such as sebaceous glands, hair, and teeth. Teratoma is commonly benign and presents in gonadal organs such as the testicles and ovaries, mostly. But, this type of tumor can be seen in other organs especially in the thoracic cavity (1, 2).Thoracic teratoma usually occurs in the mediastinum. In very rare cases, teratoma occurs in the lungs (3). Although pulmonary teratoma is very rare it was observed that this type of teratoma involves the upper lobes. The causes of the involvement are not defined until now (4).Pulmonary teratoma may be presented with cough, chest pain, or hemoptysis (3, 4). Based on our knowledge, all studies about intrapulmonary teratoma are case reports. In this study, we presented a 57-year-old man who was a known case of hypophosphataemic rickets for 16 years and was finally diagnosed with pulmonary teratoma.

INTRODUCTIONGranulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA) is a rare form of small vessel vasculitis characterized by multisystem necrotizing granulomatous lesions with different organs involvements such as the central nervous system, urinary tract, gastrointestinal tract, skin, and even eye (1-3). The main pathological characteristic of GPA is the positivity of autoantibodies against cytoplasmic components of neutrophil cells or C-ANCA as well as proteinase-3 (PR3) over-activation (4). Due to the multisystem involvement nature, the diagnosis of GPA is difficult. Additionally, GPA may overlap with other clinicopathological conditions such as infections, autoinflammatory disorders, connective tissue diseases, and even neoplasms (5,6). In this regard, the involvement of salivary glands is a very rare phenomenon. Herein, we described a case of GPA with submandibular salivary gland involvement followed by reviewing the literature on similar cases.

• Background And Purpose: Many oncology ADCs have failed to demonstrate efficacy in clinic because of dose-limiting toxicity. We developed an approach that harnesses ADC affinity to broaden the therapeutic index (TI). • Experimental Approach: Two anti-mesenchymal-epithelial transition factor (MET) monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) with high affinity (HAV) or low affinity (LAV) were studied. IVM studies were conducted in rats to visualize and identify the cellular disposition of the mAbs within the liver and kidney. A rat HT-29 xenograft model was used to evaluate the in vivo anti-tumor efficacy of the two mAbs conjugated to monomethyl auristatin E (MMAE). The pharmacokinetics (PK) and toxicity profiles were also evaluated in rats. Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT/CT) studies revealed the ADC tissue biodistribution, while mass spectroscopy measured free payload concentration in different organs. • Key Results: The estimated TI for LAV-ADC was at least 3 times greater than the HAV-ADC. The LAV- and HAV-ADCs showed similar levels of anti-tumor activity, while the 111In-DTPA studies showed simlar amounts of the ADCs in HT29 tumors. Although the LAV-ADC has slower blood clearance, higher liver toxicity was observed with HAV-ADC. While the SPECT/CT 111In- and 124I- DTPA findings showed HAV-ADC has higher accumulation and rapid clearance in normal tissues, the IVM studies confirmed HAV mAb accumulates within hepatic sinusoidal endothelial cells while the LAV mAb does not. • Conclusion And Implications: Lowering the MET binding affinity provides a larger TI for MET-ADC. Decreasing the affinity of the ADC reduces the TMDD to MET expressed in normal tissues while maintaining uptake/delivery to the tumor.

With the development of computer vision and target detection technology, real-time detection of dense scenes has become an important application requirement in various industries, which is of great significance for improving production efficiency and ensuring public safety. However, the current mainstream target detection algorithms have problems such as insufficient accuracy or inability to achieve real-time detection when detecting dense scenes, and to address this problem this paper improves the YOLOv7 model using attention mechanisms that can enhance critical information. After comparing the optimization results of three different attention mechanisms: CBAM, CA, and SimAM, the YOLOv7B-CBAM model is proposed, which effectively improves the accuracy of object detection in dense scenes. The results on VOC data sets show that the YOLOv7B-CBAM model has the highest accuracy, reaching 87.8%, 1.5% higher than that of the original model, and outperforms the original model as well as other models with improved attention mechanisms in the subsequent results of two other different dense scene practical application scenarios. The experiments show that the CBAM attention mechanism enables the model to have a higher detection rate and realize real-time monitoring, which improves the robustness of the model and ensures better accuracy than the current mainstream models.

A document by Hamid Mottaghi Golshan. Click on the document to view its contents.

Dendritic cells (DCs) play a key role in the development of the initiation and maintenance phases of psoriasis. Therefore, this study identified key dendritic cells related genes (DCRGs) for the diagnosis and treatment of psoriasis. Psoriasis-related expression datasets (GSE54456 and GSE13355) were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) was used to identify DC related genes (DCRGs). Then, differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between psoriasis and normal groups were identified in GSE54456, and DEGs were intersected with DCRGs to obtain dendritic cells related differentially expressed genes (DC DEGs). Next, the diagnostic genes were excavated through machine learning algorithms. Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) was used to explore the functional pathways of diagnostic genes. The lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA network was constructed. Finally, real time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) was carried out on blood samples from psoriasis and normal groups to validate these identified diagnostic genes. In total, 598 DCRGs and 4210 DEGs were intersected to obtain 112 DC DEGs. GZMB, MAL, PBXIP1, and CCR7 were potential diagnostic genes and they were significantly enriched to biological processes such as MHC protein complex assembly, T cell receptor complex, cytokine receptor activity, Th1 and Th2 cell differentiation. In the lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA regulatory network, EMX2OS could regulate PBXIP1 through hsa-miR-7154-3p. Finally, the results of RT-qPCR demonstrated that the expression trends of GZMB, MAL, and PBXIP1 were consistent with the public datasets. GZMB, MAL, PBXIP1and CCR7 might play key roles in psoriasis and could be used as potential diagnostic genes of psoriasis.

Every living organism requires a space for shelter, water and food to successfully complete their life history processes. Changes in foraging and roosting habitats have an impact on Grus nigricollis interaction with the ecosystem in which they live. The choice of habitats by these birds is mostly influenced by the availability of a variety of food sources and the security of the environment. Habitat alteration has endangered the food sources of cranes, leading to a decline in their population. For better action-based conservation management of cranes' habitat, it is critical to understand the population and its basis for nutritional composition. To study the dietary preferences of cranes, fecal samples were collected from their foraging and roosting sites, and the content of the feces was examined. Results revealed that paddy fields were the primary foraging areas and the fecal samples contained 79 identical species from domestic crops, herbaceous plants, and invertebrates. The dietary composition had no significant variation across months and sites, but differs significantly in three of the seven compared localities of roosting and foraging sites with small effect size. Similarly, fecal dried weight exhibited significant differences from December-February versus March, suggesting a decline in rice intake and an increase in invertebrate consumption leading to lower fecal weight. Dried content in rice feces decreased from December to March. The presence of domestic food grains after harvest, herbaceous plants, and invertebrates are crucial components of the habitat structure of cranes. The presence of domestic food grains after harvest, herbaceous plants and invertebrates forms critical food structure of cranes. Amongst arthropods, coleopteran appears to be an important nutritional food source. Agricultural practices by communities can have a significant impact on the availability of food sources which must be promoted those specific grains preferred by cranes.

Background: CD82/KAI-1 which is a member of the tetraspanin superfamily, has been proposed to exert its activity via the Tetraspanin Web. However, the mechanism of CD82 palmitoylation in this web has not been fully elucidated. The purpose of this study is to investigate cell migration and apoptosis by mutation of tetraspanin CD82 palmitoylation. Methods: This study elucidated the impact of various palmitoylation site mutations on apoptosis in breast cancer cells through a comprehensive approach involving RT-PCR, Western blotting, TUNEL assay, immunofluorescence, and tumor formation assay in athymic nude mice model. Results: We found that the mutation of CD82 palmitoylation at cys74 and cys83 or cys5 and cys74 and cys83 simultaneously increased apoptosis in breast cancer. However, the other forms of mutation of CD82 palmitoylation showed no effects on apoptosis. Conclusion: The study strongly implicate that CD82 palmitoylation at cys74 and cys83 are both closely related to maintain biological function.

Introduction: The adoption of telemedicine within the healthcare industry has experienced a surge in momentum as a result of the exceptional circumstances brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. The present study sought to explore the views of different stakeholders regarding the feasibility of introducing telemedicine for foot and ankle management delivered in a primary care context. Method: A mixed-methods approach was adopted, wherein the main source of data collected was quantitative, consisting of online questionnaires. Additionally, focus groups and interviews were conducted to corroborate the findings obtained from the questionnaires. Results: An agreement between patients, podiatrists, and senior healthcare management was reached regarding the introduction of a telemedicine service for foot and ankle management. Proposed measures entail the establishment of a comprehensive evidence-based framework and standard operating procedures for both users and providers, the provision of appropriate training and professional development opportunities for healthcare practitioners, and enhanced community education and outreach initiatives aimed at raising awareness about the scope, beneficiaries, and modalities of this service. Discussion: This research has highlighted the need for the introduction of telemedicine services for foot and ankle care management. Impromptu interventions due to the pandemic were executed without adequate evidence-based guidelines for healthcare professionals to follow. This unforeseen situation created a favourable opportunity for further research and to reconsider what measures are necessary to determine appropriate guidelines and training for the introduction of this service.

：Since the Covid-19 outbreak and widely spread, global attentions have been increasingly drawn to the epidemic spread and pandemic development. Many researchers focus on the modelling of the development of the COVID-19 and the effect of intervention on containment of the spread. We systematically reviewed the epidemic models of COVID-19 transmission and its public health interventions: a) COVID-19 epidemic models, including its hypothesis, key input epidemiological parameters, asymptomatic proportion and mortality; b) the impact of public health interventions, including social isolation, contact tracking, improving quarantine rate and reporting rate, travel restrictions, etc. To help the modelling researchers to calibrate the epidemiological model accurately based on the actual situation, the public health authorities should work out accurate epidemiology data. Different countries should take appropriate public health interventions to control the development of the epidemic. Although strict travel restrictions can significantly suppress the spread of COVID-19, while contact tracking, isolation and other measures can identify and control the infection source timely and effectively, which can cut off the transmission, but protective face mask is the intervention measure with the lowest economic cost and social cost. After the recession of the epidemic in Wuhan, the result of centralized nucleic acid detection on 9.97 million people showed that the asymptomatic infection ratio was very low and asymptomatic infection was not infectious, suggesting that the existing Covid-19 epidemiological models may overestimate the risk of epidemic. Excessive public preventive measures may do more harm than good, and hinder the recovery of normal economic life order.

Private health insurance is an important part of China’s multilevel medical security system, which is conducive to improving the medical security level of insured households. Based on Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) data, this study uses a logit model to estimate the impact of private health insurance on household catastrophic health expenditure. Our research results show that private health insurance can significantly reduce the incidence of catastrophic household health expenditure. Using the instrumental variable method to weaken the endogenous problem and the propensity score matching method to control the self-selection problem, the research conclusion is still valid. In terms of heterogeneity, private health insurance has a greater impact on reducing the incidence of catastrophic health expenditure in rural and non-elderly households. The mechanism test shows that health performance plays an intermediary role between private health insurance and catastrophic household health expenditure. This study suggests that the Chinese government should accelerate the development of private health insurance, expand its coverage of private health insurance, and reduce the incidence of catastrophic health expenditure in households.

Increasing health insurance has been a challenge during the pandemic in developing countries. For this reason, we analysed the regulations issued by the Peruvian government about health insurance and the health insurance affiliation at the national level during the pandemic. We carried out a cross-sectional study that included a review of national government regulations and an analysis of secondary data on people enrolled in health insurance. We identified eight national regulations oriented to foster health insurance from the last quarter of 2019 to the third quarter of 2021. We also found an increase in health insurance coverage at the national level, represented by insurer organisations: Comprehensive Health System (SIS) (72.5%), Social Security (ESSALUD) (27.6%), Private Insurers (2.7%), Armed Forces/Police’s insurer (1.9%), and other insurer companies (6.2%). The affiliation increased mainly in quintile 5 (23.4%) and quintile 4 (20.2%). During the pandemic, there have been developed and implemented regulations that have promoted health insurance at the national level; likewise, we found an increase in the number of enrolled people, with the greatest increase in the SIS.

Background: Medical equipment (ME) maintenance retains an asset’s original anticipated useful life and preserves its reliability and cost-effectiveness. This study developed and trialled a multi-component program to improve ME maintenance in nine Sri Lankan hospitals. Methods: This pre-post study involved an initial baseline assessment of existing ME maintenance systems in nine hospitals, the development and implementation of a multi-component improvement program, and a three-month post-evaluation. Five target ME were selected for the study: oxygen regulators, electrocardiogram (ECG) machines, suction apparatus, blood pressure (BP) apparatus and mini autoclaves. A validated questionnaire of randomly selected nursing officers (n=101) and healthcare assistants (n=120) was used to obtain baseline ME maintenance data. Six focus groups and 24 interviews were conducted with key stakeholders to co-design the multi-component interventions, which included: developing a standard operating procedure (SOP) targeting preventive maintenance activities; establishing focal points to provide technical and logistic support; staff training; and the introduction of institutional ME maintenance documents. Program effectiveness was assessed at three months post-implementation. Results: Baseline assessment identified no ME maintenance programs implemented in any of the hospitals. Following program implementation, improvements were noted in: the availability (p<0.05) and functional level (p<0.05) of all selected ME; equipment maintenance processes (p=0.000); as well as staff knowledge, skills, perceptions and satisfaction. Conclusions: The program improved the use and maintenance of ME and was widely supported by key stakeholders. The approach is likely relevant to other resource-poor hospital settings where inadequate ME maintenance causes health system inefficiencies.

Students who have not achieved an acceptable score (Grade C at the time of this project) must study and complete EGCSE Mathematics before being accepted into an undergraduate or graduate study program. Evidently, Students who repeatedly fail in mathematics have low self-confidence and tend to rely on rules they memorize incorrectly without understanding them. This paper evaluates the factors affecting the attitude and achievement of secondary school re seat student in mathematics at EGSC Examination. Mathematics Students and their respective teachers were randomly selected from 3 major centers EGCS Exam centers in Manzini region as a representation of the other three regions in Swaziland. A combination of simple random sampling and rating scale analysis was employed. Responses collected from questionnaires administered in the course of the work were thoroughly analyzed and interpreted. Some recommendations were also suggested.

Objective: The study aims to determine the effects of supine and prone positioning after extubation of preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) on the respiratory function. Design: The study was conducted 42 premature infants born before 37+6 weeks of gestation. Two groups premature infants, each consisting of 21 babies, were selected by randomization method and totally 42 babies were included in the study. Newborn Assessment Form was used to collect the data. Results: In the study, the median SpO2 of infants in the supine position were lower than the median SpO2 of preterm infants placed in the prone position in the measurements according to time. There was a significant difference between the median SpO2 and repeated measurements within the position groups (supine group <0.001; prone group <0.001). There was also significant difference between the distribution of respiratory rhythms in terms of time in the preterm infant group in the prone position (p=0.035). In the 120th minute, 95.2% of the respiratory rhythms were rhythmical. In the study, it can be understood that there is no statistically significant difference with the respiratory rate at different times in preterm infants in supine and prone positions. Conclusion: The result of the study showed that the supine and prone position after extubation had no effect on the median values of SpO2, respiratory rate, respiratory distress, and respiratory rhythm in preterm infants.

During the cyclic operation process of hydraulic excavators, based on manual experience, issues such as low work efficiency and high energy consumption can cause significantly high wearing of the joints of the excavator; this markedly affects the service life of the excavator. To solve such issues, we propose a secondary trajectory optimization method based on time–energy consumption that enables the excavator to conduct smooth, efficient, and low-energy-consumption work. Considering different weight coefficient values and obtaining the optimal time–energy trajectory, we compare the above-mentioned results with those obtained through skilled manual operation of hydraulic excavators. The experimental results demonstrate that through reasonable and effective planning of each joint movement, the large jerk that occurs during joint movement processes may be effectively avoided, the working efficiency of the excavator is improved, unnecessary energy consumption is reduced, and the excavator can operate autonomously under stable conditions. These results verify the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method.

Researchers and engineers came together in Lisbon at the 27 th Meeting of the European Society for Animal Cell Technology (ESACT 2022), to discuss the latest advances in technologies associated with protein-based biologics production, new modalities and cell, gene and tissue therapies. Main contributions focused on how the capabilities of production platforms can be enhanced, and how to leverage them to generate new products. Some of the advances that were presented are discussed below, including those related with cell line development, metabolic engineering, analytics, CHO and insect cells platforms engineering, vesicle and viral vector production, and gene and cell therapy, along with some concluding remarks on the future of this important field.

For many design applications in offshore engineering, including offshore wind turbine foundations, engineers need accurate statistics for kinematic and dynamic quantities, such as hydrodynamic forces, whose statistics depend on the stochastic sea surface elevation. Nonlinear phenomena in the wave--structure interaction require high-fidelity simulations to be analyzed accurately. However, accurate quantification of statistics requires a massive number of simulations, and the computational cost is prohibitively expensive. To avoid that cost, this study presents a machine learning framework to develop a reliable surrogate model that minimizes the need for computationally expensive numerical simulations, which is implemented for the monopile foundation of an offshore wind turbine. This framework consists of two parts. The first focuses on dimensionality reduction of stochastic irregular wave episodes and the resulting hydrodynamic force time series. The second of the framework focuses on the development of a Gaussian process regression surrogate model which learns a mapping between the wave episode and the force-on-structure. This surrogate uses a Bayesian active learning method that sequentially samples the wave episodes likely to contribute to the accurate prediction of extreme hydrodynamic forces in order to design subsequent CFD numerical simulations. Additionally, the study implements a spectrum transfer technique to combine CFD results from quiescent and extreme waves. The principal advantage of this framework is that the trained surrogate model is orders of magnitude faster to evaluate than the classical modeling methods, while built-in uncertainty quantification capabilities allows for efficient sampling of the parameter using with the CFD tools traditionally employed.

Purpose The objective is to develop a real-time Mitochondrial ATP contents and Response Against Inhibiting and Stimulating Substrates (MitoRAISE) assay and assess its potential to evaluate the mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation function. Methods MitoRAISE measures the total ATP contents, ATP synthesis capacity, and the response to inhibitory substrates. The measurements were all quantified with an ATP standard curve and validated with in vitro testing. MitoRAISE was then applied using peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from 35 healthy volunteers and 20 breast cancer patients. Result Results from isolated mitochondria, cells with different permeabilization percentages, and cells with damaged mitochondria demonstrated the ability of capturing ATP signals specifically from the mitochondria. Breast cancer PBMCs exhibited a significant increase in glutamic acid- and malic acid-induced mitochondrial ATP synthesis capacity yet a significant decrease in mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtDNA CN) compared to healthy PBMCs. Furthermore, breast cancer PBMCs mostly showed negative correlation between mtDNA CN and parameters from MitoRAISE but healthy individuals showed positive correlation. Conclusion We developed a quick and easy method to detect real-time mitochondrial activity in live cells. Monitoring mitochondrial ATP synthesis capacity and sensitivity to inhibitory substrates could aid in assessing the functional status of mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation.

Yutaka Iguchi*Laboratory of Biology, Yamashita-cho 1–10–6, Okaya City, Nagano Prefecture, 394–0005, Japan

A portable thermal energy storage (TES) system that can melt ice to generate water has been developed and tested. The core of the experiment was a PCM-filled TES container, with an Icebox placed inside. Stearic acid was used as the PCM, and its melting and solidification characteristics matched those of other research. Five trials were conducted to assess the effectiveness of the system. Each trial lasted 22, 88, 104, 188, and 78 minutes, with trials 1 and 2 having a high heat transmission rate. Trial 5 was terminated due to a lack of heat. The PCM required 408.34 KJ/kg of heat to melt, and it absorbed a total of 1226 KJ of heat. For each trial, 230 KJ of heat were needed to heat the water from -60°C to 250°C, and 450 KJ of heat were needed to heat one kilogram. The PCM had a charging efficiency of 34.05%, a discharging efficiency of 95.61%, and a total system efficiency of 32.56%. Modifying the charging procedure could increase the system’s overall efficiency.

The steady states of an antitone electric system are described by an antitone function with respect to the componentwise order. When this function is bounded from below by a positive vector, it has only one fixed point. This fixed point is attractive for the fixed point iteration method. In the general case, we find existence and uniqueness results of fixed points using the set of P-matrices.