Wildlife parasite communities are important for an OneHealth approach. The external environment impacts host-associated communities directly and via the hosts. Hosts in poor body condition are more susceptible to infection and parasite mode of transmission will affect occurrence: rural environments with better availability of intermediate hosts favour trophic transmission, while urban environments, often with dense host populations, favour direct transmission. We here study helminth communities within their synanthropic red fox (Vulpes vulpes) hosts (155 intestinal samples) using DNA metabarcoding of multiple marker genes (18S rRNA, 28S rRNA, COI). Controlling for sampling bias by incorporating DNA quantity and quality into models, we analysed the effect of environmental (urbanisation, seasonality) and host-intrinsic (weight, age, sex) variables on helminth communities. Helminth diversity was increased in younger hosts, in foxes with lower body weight and in those found in winter and spring. Host intrinsic drivers had smaller effects on the composition of the community, which was impacted by urbanisation, dependent on parasite transmission mode: surprisingly, transmission in two-host lifecycles was more pronounced in urban Berlin than in rural Brandenburg. Our results disagree with the prevailing hypothesis that trophically transmitted helminths are less prevalent in urban areas than in rural areas. Environmental drivers, i.e. urbanisation, affected each helminth species in the community differently, and we cannot generalise from helminth traits to their occurrences in urbanised areas. Finding co-infestations with multiple helminths and high infection intensity associated with poor body condition, however, might be relevant for a OneHealth approach.

Northeast China is experiencing severe soil erosion, resulting in land degradation and nutrient loss. Among them, hydraulic erosion poses the greatest threat to food security. Combining various multi-source data, we applied the modified soil erosion equation (RUSLE) to evaluate hydraulic erosion modulus in Northeast China’s black soil region(1985–2021). We used the threshold segmentation and residual analysis method to quantify the relative roles of climate change and human activities on hydraulic erosion. The outcomes were presented below: (1) The yearly mean hydraulic erosion modulus was 804.78 t·km -2·a -1 and decreases significantly with a slope of -11.114 t·km -2·a -1. The area with significant growth in erosion modulus covered 23.77% of the overall area and was mainly spread in grassland and farmland. The areas with a significant decrease in erosion modulus covered 19.82% and were mainly spread in natural forests. (2) In areas with significant increases in erosion, 20.39% of the total area was attributed to anthropogenic factors and 3.38% of the total area was attributed to natural factors. In areas where soil erosion was significantly reduced, 17.67% and 2.15% were attributed to ecological restoration and natural factors, respectively. (3) Deforestation, grassland degradation, and unreasonable farming still exist. The area of sloping cropland (≥6°) increased by 133.9 km 2 per year, and sloping land erosion increased by 0.187 · 10 10 t per year. The focus of soil erosion prevention and control in northeast China is ecological restoration of grasslands, sloping land management, and conservation tillage.

A model-free control (MFC) method based on iterative learning law combined with adaptive super-twisting is proposed to realize the synchronous coordination control of multi-lift overhead cranes system for the problems of inaccurate modeling, system parameter variation and disturbance uncertainty that exist in multi-lift overhead cranes system. Firstly, a load coupling model of the double-container overhead crane considering the deformation tangential force in the interlocking mode is established. Secondly, a time-varying sliding mode surface designed by using nonlinear functions effectively improves the convergence speed of the system state. The method of iterative learning control (ILC) is introduced to compensate the system dynamics to achieve model-free control, and the dynamic learning rate is designed instead of the constant learning rate to improve the convergence speed of the error of the system and the steady-state performance. In order to suppress uncertainty disturbances and avoid control gain overestimation, an adaptive gain is added to the generalized super-twisting algorithm, which has the advantages of both finite-time convergence and chattering suppression, and improves the robustness and tracking performance of the multi-lift overhead cranes system. The stability of the controlled system is analyzed by using Lyapunov stability theory. The simulation experiments illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed synchronization control scheme.

Pregnant individuals are known to be at increased risk of worse outcomes from COVID-19 infection. Recent data suggests that they are also more likely to exhibit milder symptoms and have higher rates of asymptomatic infection. The health impacts of milder disease are less well-described but may include adverse perinatal outcomes. Serosurveillance can help describe accurately background rates of seropositivity in populations with high rates of asymptomatic infection. The seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection prior to vaccine availability was assessed in two large maternity centres. Of 437 pregnant individuals, seven were positive on initial screening, with one false positive identified on subsequent confirmatory testing. An overall seropositivity rate of 1.4% was found. No adverse pregnancy outcomes were identified. Confirmatory testing was performed with four commercial antibody-based assays and an in-house microneutralisation assay. Wantai SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding-domain total antibody performed best, similar to previous reports. Serological surveillance can estimate infection rates not captured by acute PCR testing, and may assist with contact tracing, estimation of immunity rates and inform public health policy in at-risk groups. Evaluation of serological assays should be integrated into serosurveillance initiatives.

Regional land use change and ecological security have received considerable attention in recent years. The rapid economic development of Kunming and Fuzhou has resulted in environmental damage. It is important to conduct a comparative analysis of the ecological security response to land use/land cover change (LUCC) in different natural zones. With the support of Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform, the random forest and support vector machine methods were used to classify land cover types in the study area, then the ArcGIS platform was used to analyze LUCC. The driving force-pressure-state-impact-response (DPSIR) model and entropy weight method was used to construct an ecological security evaluation system, and gray correlation was used to compare the ecological security responses to LUCC in Kunming and Fuzhou. The findings revealed that: (1) The average dynamic degrees of comprehensive land use in Kunming and Fuzhou from 1995 to 2020 were 1.05% and 0.55%, respectively; (2) From 1995 to 2020, the ecological security index values for Kunming and Fuzhou increased from 0.42 to 0.52 and from 0.36 to 0.68, respectively, indicating that Fuzhou’s index is rising more quickly; and (3) The response of ecological security to LUCC varies across regions; increases in the woodland area had a positive effect on the ecological security of Kunming and Fuzhou, whereas the expansion of construction land significantly impeded the improvement of ecological security in Fuzhou, and the status of water resources had a significant impact on the ecological security of Kunming.

Scientists have not always had freely accessible high-quality and high-resolution datasets relevant to their study systems. Today, early career researchers routinely confront a deluge of data that is relevant to their research questions. Young scientists face the combined challenges of using accessible yet powerful models, under high publication pressure, and with mixed guidance from scientists trained under an earlier era. There exists a temptation to reach for black-box analytical approaches to offer guidance through this wilderness of data. New complex models consisting of artificial intelligence and machine learning tools are poised to be co-opted by large numbers of early career researchers due to their modelling strength and easy, out-of-the-box usage. Just because we can use these new tools, does not mean we always should. I argue we should reconsider the role of complexity in the construction of our ecological models when we test ideas of our understanding of the natural world.

A document by Mihiro Kaga. Click on the document to view its contents.

1. IntroductionPancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has a poor prognosis, with a 5-year survival rate of approximately 10% 1. Unfortunately, surgical resection is indicated in < 20% of patients 2. Many of these patients have distant metastases, which decreases the median overall survival time to < 1 year, and most die within 2 years 3. PDAC most frequently metastasizes to the liver (76%), followed by the lungs (19.9%). The brain (0.6%) is extremely rare site of metastasis4. However, in a few cases, long-term survival has been achieved via multidisciplinary treatment including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and local excision, even after distant metastasis, such as lung and brain metastases, was observed 5,6. Herein, we report the case of a patient with PDAC who achieved long-term survival after pylorus-preserving pancreaticoduodenectomy (PpPD) despite metachronous lung and brain metastases.

”A Case of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome and Cranial Nerve Palsy secondary to Scrub Typhus: A Rare Presentation from Western Nepal”.SK Lamichhane1, Eliz Achhami2, Satyam Mahaju3, Rabin Gautam 4, Amrit Adhikari51 Bir Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal(email:- lamichhaneak1312@gmail.com )2 Sukraraj Tropical & Infectious Disease Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal(email:- eliz0917@gmail.com )3 Sukraraj Tropical & Infectious Disease Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal(email:- mahaju.satyam1@gmail.com )4 Bir Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal(email:- rabingautam1@gmail.com )5 Bir Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal(email:- a1amrit12@gmail.com )*Corresponding author.Eliz Achhami, MBBSSukraraj Tropical & Infectious Disease Hospital, Kathmandu, NepalMobile no. : - 977-9846710319E-mail: eliz0917@gmail.com

A document by Yun Zhao. Click on the document to view its contents.

In the present study, Microalgal flora of various sites of district Jhelum was assessed to explore diversity of algal species. Different species of algae were investigated through microscopic observations on the basis of characteristics such as cell shape, size, chloroplast shape, presence or absence of pyrenoid and its number within chloroplast, presence or absence of cell wall ornamentations and presence of unique features like flagella, barite vacuole etc. Overall, thirty species were recorded on the basis of morphology and investigated species were belonged to 21 genera, 19 families, 16 orders and 5 divisions. Among these two species were assigned to phylum Cyanophyta, two to Volvophyta, two to Euglenophyta, ten to Bacillariophyta and fourteen species to phylum Chlorophyta were investigated.

Extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP) has proven effective in the treatment of several diseases, including acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. In its standard version, ECP requires leukapheresis to obtain a fraction of mononuclear cells. The possibility of using leukapheresis is limited by the requirements for vascular access and the somatic status of the patient. We have developed a new ECP method that does not require leukapheresis. This paper presents a description of two clinical cases of severe refractory GVHD treated by micro-ECP.

The beamforming algorithm obtains the azimuth estimation of the target by extracting the information from the data covariance matrix. Many studies have shown muchunextracted information in the covariance matrix. This paper proposes the Estimate Parameter via Projecting a Subspace onto a Dictionary(EPPSD) algorithm that may further extract information from the covariance matrix. Through the regularization constraint, we limit the spatial power distribution to the signal subspace to ensure the correctness of the target estimation. In addition, we use the weighted 1-norm to constrain the spatial power distribution vector to ensure that the targets in the space remain sparse. In the case of the above two constraints, the beamforming results are fitted by a dictionary, and the azimuth estimation of the target is obtained by quadratic programming. The experimental results show that the algorithm can estimate the target azimuth despite the inaccurate sparse constraint.

We model the projection of a triangle onto another triangle when viewed from a given viewpoint in 3D space. The motivation arises from the need to calculate the viewshed of a viewpoint on a triangulated terrain. A triangulated terrain (TIN) is a representation of a real terrain, where the surface of the TIN is composed of triangles. Calculating the viewshed involves finding the invisible region on a triangle caused by the terrain surface. To this end, some studies either projected the vertices of the horizon of the terrain or projected the vertices of a triangle directly onto the supporting plane of the triangle of interest, and then connected the projections to find the invisible region on the target triangle. Such a projection involves sending a ray from the viewpoint that passes through the vertex of the horizon or the vertex of the triangle, and finding out where this ray hits on the supporting plane of the target triangle. These studies assumed that such a ray hits the supporting plane of the triangle in front of the viewpoint. Our key contribution is to show, by a counter example, that the ray may hit the plane behind the viewpoint. Taking into account this fact, we show that the projection of a triangle onto another triangle is characterized by a system of nonlinear equations, which are linearized to obtain a polyhedron. Our approach can be extended to projecting objects of general shapes.

A document by Sava Petrov. Click on the document to view its contents.

We investigate fourth order equations with Dirichlet type boundary conditions with perturbation unbounded from above making the problem non-potential. We apply variational method to some auxiliary problem and conclude about the existence and uniqueness to the original one. Multiple solutions are also considered. We conclude our note with the result pertaining to the continuous dependence on parameters.

Pregnant women with their infants are considered at higher risk for influenza-associated complications, and the WHO recommends influenza vaccination during pregnancy to protect them, including their infants (0-6 months). There are limited data on the influenza burden among pregnant women and their infants (0-6 months), and there is no routine influenza vaccination in Bangladesh. Five annual cohorts (2013-2017) of pregnant women were enrolled from 8 sub-districts of Bangladesh before the influenza season (May-September); contacted weekly to identify new onset of influenza-like illness (ILI) (subjective or measured fever and cough) and acute respiratory illness (ARI) (at least two of: cough, rhinorrhea, or difficulty breathing) among their infants from birth to 6 months of age. We collected nasopharyngeal swabs from ILI and ARI cases, tested by rRT-PCR for influenza virus (including types and subtypes) and estimated influenza incidence (95% CI) /10,000 pregnancy-months or infant-months, respectively. We enrolled 9,020 pregnant women, followed for 26,709 pregnancy-months and detected 1,241 ILI episodes. We also followed 8,963 infants for 51,518 infant-months and identified 5,116 ARI episodes. Influenza positivity was 23% for ILI and 3% for ARI cases. The overall incidence (2013-2017) of influenza among pregnant women was 158.5/10,000 pregnancy-months (95% CI: 141.4-177.6), and that among infants was 21.9/10,000 infant-months (95% CI: 18.2-26.5). Although the data was collected more than five years ago, as the only baseline data, our findings illustrate evidence of influenza burden among pregnant women and infants (0-6 months) which may support preventive policy decisions in Bangladesh.

A document by Albara Almawazreh. Click on the document to view its contents.

The extended Kawahara (Gardner Kawahara) equation is the improved form of the KdV equation which is one of the important nonlinear evolution equations in mathematical physics. In that research, the analytical solutions of the conformable fractional extended Kawahara equation are obtained by utilizing the Jacobi elliptic function expansion method. This expansion method has been applied to the different fractional forms of the extended Kawahara equation such as the fractionality occurs in time, space or both time and space by using the suitable change of variables. Besides, various types of fractional problems are exhibited to expose the realistic application of the given method and some of the obtained solutions have been illustrated by two- or three-dimensional graphics as the proof of the visualisation.

Objective: To summarize the best evidence on the management of aerosol inhalation in children, and to provide reference for clinical practice. Methods: According to the ‘6S’ model of evidence resources, systematically searched British Medical Journal Best Practice (BMJ Best Practice), PubMed, American Clinical Guidelines Network (AHRQ), Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network Guidelines Library (SIGN), and international guideline books. Library (GIN), Canadian Medical Association Clinical Practice Guidelines Repository (CMACPG), National Health and Medical Research Council Australia Guidelines Repository (NHMRC), National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence Guidelines Repository (NICE), Evidence-Based Medicine Library (Cochrane Library), Netherlands Medical Abstracts Database (Embase), Ovid-Medline, EBSCO-CINAHL, JBI, Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, European Society of Respiratory Therapy, American Society of Respiratory Therapy, Wanfang, VIP, CNKI, Medlive(Yi Mai Tong), and Sino Med. The literature resources include clinical practice guidelines, expert consensus, evidence summary, and systematic review of children’s aerosol inhalation. Two researchers independently conducted quality evaluation, evidence extraction, and evidence integration of the literature. Results: A total of 11 papers were included, including 2 guidelines, 6 expert consensus papers, 1 systematic review, and 2 evidence summaries; finally, 6 evidence themes were formed: principles of aerosol drug use, selection of aerosol devices, effects of aerosolization factors of nebulization effect, management during nebulization treatment, infection control; a total of 34 evidence opinions. Conclusion: The summarized evidence on children’s aerosol inhalation can be applied to clinical practice according to the actual clinical situation, promote the standardized management of children’s aerosol inhalation, and improve the therapeutic effect of aerosolization.

Pharmacometrics, the mathematical approaches to describe the transfer of drug through different biological compartments, are essential tools in clinical pharmacology research. The ethical necessity to study drugs accurately in the populations where they are to be used is increasingly recognized. To maximise the value of clinical data, study design and analysis must be appropriate. Historically, many datasets have been sent from African countries to better-resourced settings for analysis, but in recent years it has been demonstrated that capacity can be built and sustained within low and middle-income countries (LMIC)3. We report the establishment of the Uganda Chapter of Pharmacometrics Africa, to share learning with other countries seeking to build similar capabilities.

A wave of SARS-CoV-2 infection speedily emerged in Shanghai, China, since late February 2022. Paxlovid is a therapeutic hybrid of different compounds and a novel SARS-CoV-2 protease inhibitor by blocking an enzyme required for viral protein synthesis. It could reduce the risk of hospitalization or death by 89% as well as being benefit for immunocompromised and severe COVID-19 patients. Our registry study indicated that the days of viral elimination and inflammation factors, such as IL-6, IL-10 and interferon-α levels could be lowered by paxlovid. Days of viral elimination may be associated with fasting blood glucose, NK cells count, interferon-α levels. Lipids profiles should be monitored before and after treatment of paxlovid, especially for those who have uncontrolled lipid disorder.

Electrochemical nitrate reduction reaction (NtrRR) towards ammonia, as an emerging and appealing technology alternative to the energy-intensive Haber-Bosch process and inefficient nitrogen reduction reaction, has recently aroused wide concern and research. However, the current research of the NtrRR towards ammonia lacks the overall performance comparison of various electrocatalysts. Given this, we here make a comparison of 12 common transition metal oxide catalysts for the NtrRR under a high cathodic current density of 0.25 A cm-2, wherein Co3O4 catalyst displays the best NtrRR selectivity towards ammonia with a highest Faradaic efficiency (85.15%) and a moderate NtrRR activity. Other external factors, such as nitrate concentrations in the electrolyte and applied potential ranges, have also been specifically investigated for the NtrRR. This work can provide constructive guidance to engineer the NtrRR electrocatalysts with higher activity, selectivity and stability in the future.

The exploration of efficient and environmentally friendly oxidation method is highly desirable to overcome the critical problems of poor selectivity and heavy metal contamination for the fine chemicals industry. Herein, a self-supported 3D Se-Ni5P4 nanosheet electrocatalyst was rationally designed and fabricated. Benefiting from the synergistic effect of aminoxyl radical and mesoporous Se-Ni5P4/GF, an excellent performance of ≥98% selectivity and 33.12 kg/(m3·h) space-time yield was obtained for sterol intermediate oxidation with the enhanced mass transfer effect of the continuous flow system. The doping of anionic selenium and phosphorus modulated the electronic structure of Se-Ni5P4, and the oxyhydroxides generated by surface reconstruction accelerated the turnover of TEMPO, thereby enhancing the intrinsic electrocatalytic activity. A scale-up experiment was conducted with stacked-flow electrolyzer demonstrated the application potential. This work provided an efficient synergistic electrocatalytic strategy to facilitate rapid electron and mass transfer for electrochemical alcohol oxidation and highlighted the potential for practical electrosynthesis applications.