Changing drought regimes is a rising threat to biodiversity, but reported drought impacts on species varied greatly. Acknowledging the factors associating with these impacts will bring novel understandings to species vulnerability to the changes of extreme climatic events, and facilitate effective mitigation of climate change risks. By compiling the responses of 172 bird species to droughts from global publications, we found bird abundance generally declined for severe droughts lasting over a year. Drought-induced declines in abundance were identified for species feeding on invertebrates, fruits or nectar. Species of a smaller range showed lower reproductive performance during or after droughts. In addition to these factors, a small clutch size also contributed to the reductions in bird abundance or reproductive performance under severe droughts. In the regions where the duration and/or intensity of severe droughts increase, bird species with above susceptible traits would confront greater risks to survival.

Subcutaneous panniculitis-like T-cell lymphoma (SPTCL) is a rare form of peripheral T-cell lymphomas (PTCL) and is extremely uncommon in the pediatric population. We present a case of a 15-year-old girl with SPTCL and an unusual involvement of the breast. The FDG-PET/CT showed avid uptake of 18F-FDG in the breast predominantly involving the subcutaneous tissue that improves post treatment. To our knowledge, this is the first case of breast SPTCL reported in pediatric patient. A study published by Goto-et-al in 2019 [(1)](#ref-0001), found only 27 cases of SPTCL under 15 years, including four infants and none of them shown breast involvement.

Background: To measure the quality of life by using the Standardized Pediatric Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire(PAQLQ(S)) in children with asthma and to determine the association of the Childhood Asthma Control Test(c-ACT) and Global Initiative for Asthma(GINA) criteria of asthma control with the PAQLQ(S) domains. Methods: This study was planned in a cross-sectional design. All consecutive children between the ages 7-11 years who had been followed up at least one year with a diagnosis of asthma were enrolled. Children filled out PAQLQ(S). The levels of asthma control were defined by c-ACT and GINA criteria of asthma control. Results: Of the total 120 children, the median(%25-75) PAQLQ(S) and c-ACT scores were 4.90(1.3) and 17.9(4.8). All children had quality of life impairments except four. According to c-ACT, 41.7% of children were controlled; 58.3% of them were uncontrolled. PAQLQ(S) scores were found to be correlated with both c-ACT scores(p<0.001, r=0.612). The c-ACT score was more significantly correlated with the symptom domain of PAQLQ(S)(r=0,667, p<0,001). A more significant positive correlation was found between c-ACT and the duet score of activity and emotional function(r=0.930; p<0.001). Conclusion: Asthma affects the quality of life in children. PAQLQ(S) scores decrease significantly when asthma is out of control. PAQLQ(S) is more significantly associated with c-ACT than GINA criteria. It would be useful in clinical practice if c-ACT or GINA criteria can be improved to cover quality of life, at least the part of the quality of life related to the symptoms or the activity limitations and emotional functions.

Enhancing the mechanical properties and cytocompatibility of decellularized heart valves is the key to promote the application of biological heart valves. In order to further improve the mechanical properties, the electrospinning and non-woven processing methods are combined to prepare the polylactic acid (PLA)/decellularized heart valve nanofiber-reinforced sandwich structure electrospun scaffold. The effect of electrospinning time on the performance of decellularized heart valve is investigated from the aspects of morphology, mechanical properties, softness, and biocompatibility of decellularized heart valve. Results of the mechanical tests show that compared with the pure decellularized heart valve, the mechanical properties of the composite heart valve were significantly improved with the tensile strength increasing by 108% and tensile strain increased by 571% when the electrospinning time exceeded 1 h. In addition, with this electrospinning time, the composite heart valve has a certain promoting effect on the human umbilical vein endothelial cells proliferation behavior. This work provides a promising foundation for tissue heart valve reendothelialization to lay the groundwork for organoid.

Two subsequent World Radiocommunication Conferences, held in 2015 and 2019, have concluded the frequency allocation in VHF bands for the two-way maritime VHF Data Exchange System (VDES) via terrestrial and satellite radio frequency links respectively. The modernization and digital evolution of maritime communications was initiated in 1990’s by adopting Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) for ship to shore, ship to ship and shore to ship communications for a variety of applications, targeting safety at sea. The frequency allocation for VDES has been a significant step forward towards achieving the same goal by facilitating solutions for enhanced navigation, broadcasting essential information and many other emerging applications.

Peripheral venous catheter fracture with cardiovascular embolization is a rare but potentially serious complication. Herein, we report a case of peripheral venous catheter fracture with embolization in the right ventricle in a preterm infant.The catheter fragment was successfully removed by surgical procedure via median sternotomy under cardiopulmonary bypass(CPB).We hope this case will increase awareness of this rare complication and improve the safety of catheterization.

Background Mitral regurgitation (MR) is the most common valvular heart disease. Since delaying severe MR treatment can lead to left ventricular dysfunction, early MR diagnosis is crucial. Echocardiography is the first-line diagnostic modality for evaluating MR severity. Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) and newer imaging modalities like cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) are growing to be used due to the pitfalls of transthoracic echocardiography (TTE). However, these newer modalities have disadvantages, such as high cost, requiring highly-skilled operators, and expensive devices, that make them not widely available in developing countries. We evaluated novel TTE-derived hemodynamic burden parameters of MR to estimate and classify MR severity more precisely. Methods We prospectively enrolled 93 patients with primary MR from April 2022 to August 2022. We obtained the baseline characteristics and the following TTE parameters: mitral valve (MV) velocity-time integral (VTI), left ventricular outlet (LVOT) diameter (D), LVOT VTI, and mitral valve annulus (MVA) diameter. The statistical analysis was performed using SPSS. Results A total of 93 MR patients with a median (interquartile range) age of 59.00 (50.50-65.00) were recruited, of whom 38 (40.9%) were female. Of the 93 patients, 29 (31.2%), 29 (31.2%), and 35 (37.6%) were classified into mild, moderate, and severe MR, respectively. The four parameters of MVVTI/LVOTVTI, MVAVTI-index (i), MVAVTI/LVOTDVTI, and E velocity-LA area-i were shown to be significantly different among mild, moderate, and severe MR groups (p-values <0.001). Spearman’s correlation test indicated that MVVTI/LVOTVTI, MVAVTI-i, MVAVTI/LVOTDVTI, and E velocity-LA area-i were highly and significantly correlated with MR severity classification with correlation coefficients of 0.776, 0.672, 0.822, and 0.698, respectively (p-values <0.001). The ROC-curve analysis demonstrated that all parameters were significantly accurate predictors of severe MR diagnosis. The area under curve (AUC) of the MVVTI/LVOTVTI, MVAVTI-i, MVAVTI/LVOTDVTI, and E velocity-LA area-i were 0.976, 0.975, 0.986, and 0.895, respectively (p-values <0.001) Conclusion We introduced novel TTE-derived MR hemodynamic burden indices. These indices were highly correlated with MR severity. Furthermore, they were significantly accurate predictors of severe MR. Proposing such new indices to older measures may improve their predictive value.

Background: Doppler echocardiographic parameters of the middle hepatic vein (MHV)in detecting PHTN. Methods: The study comprised 72 patients who were referred for right heart catheterization (RHC) to our department . All patients underwent conventional transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) the day after RHC and Doppler study of the MHV. Based on RHC and TTE results, Patients were divided in three groups 1: patients with PHTN without significant RV dysfunction (n=25), 2: patients with PHTN with significant RV dysfunction (n=22), 3: patients with normal PAP (n=25). Results: The analysis revealed a significant relationship between A velocity and PHTN among patients with significant RV dysfunction (p=0.033) and PHTN without significant RV dysfunction (p=0.020). At cut-off value of 39.5 cm/s, A velocity could detect PHTN in patient with significant RV dysfunction with sensitivity and specificity of 77.3% and 56.0%, respectively. At cut-off value of 38.5 cm/s, A velocity could detect PHTN without significant RV dysfunction with sensitivity and specificity of 76.0% and 51.0%, respectively. The ROC curve analysis was performed to assess the sensitivity of the hepatic venous systolic filling fraction in detecting normal SPAP in the study population. The area under curve was 0.718. Considering the cut-off value of 0.535 for the hepatic venous systolic filling fraction, the sensitivity and specificity of S/S+D for detecting normal SPAP were 80% and 64%, respectively . Discussion: Doppler echocardiographic parameters of the MHV could be helpful in detecting PHTN. A/S higher than 1 in PHTN was the main finding on HV Doppler assessment in PHT with and without significant RV dysfunction. HV systolic filling fraction more than 0.535 was a sensitive parameter in detecting normal PAP, therefore; HV systolic filling fraction can be used as a screening echocardiographic parameter in ruling out PHTN.

Cancer diagnosis using gene expression data is significant research for facilitating early treatment and prevention of cancer. The classification of gene expression data is challenging due to its high dimensionality and smaller number of samples that renders classification a difficult task. Creation of well-defined class boundaries is the aim of every classification algorithm. The Fuzzy min-max (FMM) neural network classifier is known to create good decision boundaries using hyperboxes constructed for each class. In this paper, we explore the General Fuzzy min-max (GFMM) and Enhanced Fuzzy min-max (EFMM) neural network architectures for the classification of lung cancer subtypes from microarray gene expression data. Both GFMM and EFMM are advanced versions of Simpson’s FMM neural network classifier. The GFMM is extremely efficient because it involves very simple operations for hyperbox manipulation, and can handle both labeled and unlabeled data. On the other hand, EFMM proposes three heuristic rules related to hyperbox expansion, contraction and the overlap test, which enhances the learning algorithm. We perform the classification of gene expression data using these two algorithms, then we analyze the performance by visualizing the hyperboxes obtained after training, and compare the accuracies of these classifiers. LASSO is used for selecting the important genes from the high-dimensional gene expression data. After the analysis of the results, we observe that EFMM with LASSO gives the best performance as compared to GFMM, FMM and other machine learning algorithms.

The investigations on hydrogen isotopic fractionation factor (ε) of plant leaf waxes not only benefit the understanding of hydrogen isotopic fractionation mechanism, but are also the fundamental issues of using hydrogen isotope (δD) of leaf waxes to trace environmental changes. Up to now, however, our knowledge on plant ε values is still limited, which greatly hampers the applications of leaf wax δD values in environmental tracing studies. In this work, we systematically investigated the δD compositions of terrestrial plant leaf waxes and their corresponding source water (precipitation and soil water) in different climatic zones of China, and continuously monitored δD compositions of leaf waxes and their corresponding source water (soil water and leaf water) in a field rainfall manipulation experiment. Then we compared the leaf wax ε values between terrestrial plants and submerged plants (ε precipitation, ε soil water, ε leaf water and ε lake water, representing the isotopic fractionation between plant n-alkanes δD and precipitation δD, soil water δD, leaf water δD and lake water δD, respectively). The results show that ε precipitation values of terrestrial plants have large variations (from –190‰ to –20‰) and become negative with the increasing of aridity index. This is possibly caused by the δD changes of source water (from precipitation to soil water and then to leaf water) during plant leaf wax synthesis under various evapo-transpiration conditions in different climatic zones. The rainfall manipulation experiment shows that leaf water δD values are generally higher than soil water δD values and the latter are higher than precipitation δD values, resulting in an order of ε leaf water < ε soil water < ε precipitation. This further demonstrates that the determination of source water δD affects the quantification of leaf wax ε values. As leaf wax δD values of submerged plants are less affected by evapo-transpiration, their ε lake water values may represent the biosynthetic ε of leaf waxes in higher plants. Compared with the ε precipitation values of terrestrial plants, the ε lake water values of submerged plants display a smaller range (–153 ± 5‰), which are close to the terrestrial ε precipitation values in humid areas. Therefore, we believe that the biosynthetic ε values of terrestrial plant leaf waxes should be a constant (ca. –153 ± 5‰), and the observed unstable apparent ε precipitation values are possibly caused by the varied degree of evapo-transpiration effect on the water that plant utilized in different climatic conditions. This effect should be taken into consideration when applying δD values of leaf waxes to trace environmental changes.

This report highlights about an infectious dissecting aortic aneurysm caused by a rare pathogen, Streptococcus pseudopneumoniae, which had to be initially diagnosed large vessel vasculitis (LVV). Even with the availability of FDG-PET, it may be difficult to distinguish between an infectious aortic aneurysm and LVV.

The interval G=(−1 ,1) turns into a Lie group under the group operation x ◦ y : = ( x + y ) ( 1 + x y ) − 1 , x , y ∈ G . This enables definition of the invariant measure d G ( x ) : = ( 1 − x 2 ) − 1 d x and the Fourier transformation F G on the interval G and, as a consequence, we can consider Fourier convolution operators W G , a 0 : = F G − 1 a F G on G. This class of convolutions includes celebrated Prandtl, Tricomi and Lavrentjev-Bitsadze equations and, also, differential equations of arbitrary order with the natural weighted derivative G u ( x ) = ( 1 − x 2 ) u ′ ( x ) , x∈ G. Equations are solved in the scale of Bessel potential H p s ( G , d G ( x ) ) , 1⩽ p⩽∞, and Hölder-Zygmound Z ν ( G ) , 0 ∞ spaces, adapted to the group G. Boundedness of convolution operators (the problem of multipliers) is discussed. The symbol a( ξ), ξ∈R, of a convolution equation W G , a 0 u = f defines solvability: the equation is uniquely solvable if and only if the symbol a is elliptic. The solution is written explicitly with the help of the inverse symbol. We touch shortly the multidimensional analogue-the Lie group G n .

Kimura disease (KD) is a rare condition with a challenging diagnosis because it may be misdiagnosed and not differentiated from other disorders. We reported a 13-year-old patient who presented with growing neck masses and was hospitalized due to the nephrotic syndrome relapse but was eventually diagnosed with KD.

Renal nutcracker syndrome ia a rare cause of chronic pain and hematuria. A literature search was conducted through PubMed. Forty studies and our own series were included in the review, for a total of 73 individual patient cases. NCS is an uncommon cause of hematuria, flank pain, abdominal symptoms

We use a virtual Couette rheometer to study the behaviour of dry and wet granular materials in aerated bed. A typical fluidization curve for dry powders exhibits fixed bed characterized by linear increase in pressure drop with increasing air velocity. This is followed by a fluidized bed at a constant pressure drop with further increase in air velocity. However, wet powders display different aeration behaviour due to the inhomogeneous gas flow through the bed. The fluidization behaviour of the powder upon addition of small amounts of silicon oil liquid has been tested for two different grain sizes. We distinguish different regimes of fluidization for wet powders with different saturation of silicon oil and different grain sizes. Further, we compare the hysteresis effects in fluidization and de-fluidization cycles of the materials. We also compare the shear stresses and study the rheology of the materials under different fluidized condition.

Plastic waste and debris have caused substantial environmental pollution globally. In this work, a new engineering concept of the mobile recycling platform for plastic waste is proposed. And a four-column distillation scheme for separating plastic pyrolysis oil was built for the mobile recycling platform. Firstly, a VOF CFD simulation was conducted to reveal the liquid flow characteristics along and inside the θ-ring, and then based on the CFD data and theoretical analysis, an optimization model for the packing ring was proposed to design the wavy ring. Secondly, the novel wavy rings were applied in the four-column distillation experiment, and acetophenone (99.68w%) and phenol (98.94w%) were separated from the pyrolysis oil. Finally, the heat integration of the four-column distillation scheme and the engineering economic analysis of the mobile recycling platform were carried out. The results indicate that the mobile recycling platform is feasible in terms of theory, technology, and economics.

It is of great significance to study the stability of foams in the petroleum industry. Therefore, the stability mechanism of Span 20, the fluorinated surfactant FCO-80 and their compound system FS in a CO2 oil-based foam system was studied by molecular simulation. The sandwich model of CO2 oil-based foam was constructed to reveal the stability of the foam system from the microscopic perspective. The result shows that the oil-CO2 distance of the FS foam system is 16.087 Å, and the coordination number of oil molecules is 2.65. The diffusion coefficient of CO2 in the FS foam system is 3.94×10-6 cm2/s. This shows that under the synergistic effect of Span 20 and FCO-80, the diffusion coefficients of CO2 molecules are small, and the surface tension is reduced, which can improve the stability of foam. The results can supplement previous experimental results on the stability of oil-based foam.

The management of sudden public crisis in super large residential communities has always been a difficulty in the field of emergency management. Through sorting out the emergency management mode and governance logic of China’s super large residential communities, combined with the analysis of typical public events, the paper sums up the four types of emergency barriers that currently exist in China’s super large residential communities, namely, “management black box”, “structure embedded”, “load overload” and “ownership decline”, and analyzes the reasons for their occurrence. On this basis, the paper puts forward the principles that should be followed by agile governance, such as principle traceability, subject coordination, structural advantages, etc., and explores the practical path to build the agile governance of public crisis in super large residential communities from the perspectives of system, technology, organization, culture, etc.

Background and Purpose: Adrenocortical cancer (ACC) is a rare malignant neoplasm with a dismal prognosis. The treatment includes mitotane and EDP chemotherapy (etoposide, doxorubicin, cisplatin). However, new therapeutic approaches for advanced ACC are needed, particularly targeting the metastatic process. Here, we deepen the role of progesterone as a new potential drug useful in ACC, in line with other studies that demonstrated its antitumoral effect in other cancers. Experimental Approach: NCI-H295R, MUC-1, and TVBF-7 ACC cell lines were used. Cell apoptosis and cell cycle were analyzed by flow cytometry. Cell migration and invasiveness were studied using transwell assays, and metalloprotease 2 activity by zymography. Cell xenografts in zebrafish embryos were performed by measuring both the tumor areas and the number of embryos with metastasis. Key Results: Progesterone exerted a long-lasting cytotoxic effect in metastatic cell lines, MUC-1 and TVBF-7. Progesterone caused apoptosis in NCI-H295R and MUC-1 cells, inducing changes in the cell cycle distribution, while autophagy was predominantly activated in TVBF-7 cells. In the zebrafish embryos, progesterone significantly reduced each ACC cell line’s xenograft tumor area and metastasis formation in embryos injected with metastatic cells. These results were confirmed in vitro, where the reduction of invasion was mediated, at least in part, by the decrease in MMP2 levels. Conclusion and Implications: Our results give support to the role of progesterone in ACC. The involvement of its analogous (megestrol acetate) in reducing ACC progression in ACC patients undergoing EDP-M therapy is now under investigation in the PESETA phase II clinical study.

Heightened impulsivity and compulsivity are often found in association with both dysfunctional everyday behavior as well as with psychopathology. Impulsivity and compulsivity are also linked to alterations in behavioral response inhibition and its electrophysiological correlates. However, they are rarely examined jointly and their effect outside of clinical samples is still disputed. This study assesses the influence and interaction of impulsivity and compulsivity as measured by questionnaires on behavioral performance and event-related potentials (N2, P3a and P3b) in a visual Go/Nogo task. Data from 250 participants from the general population (49% female; age M = 25.16, SD = 5.07; education level: 94% high school or higher; self-reported lifetime diagnosis of any mental disorder: 12%) were collected. We used robust linear regression as well as regression tree analyses, a type of machine learning algorithm, to uncover potential non-linear effects. We did not find any significant relationship between the self-report measures and behavioral or neural inhibition effects in either type of analysis, with the exception of a linear effect of the premeditation scale of the UPPS on behavioral performance. The current sample size was large enough to uncover even small effects. We discuss potential explanations for this current null finding. One possibility is that inhibitory performance was unimpaired in the current sample and that associations between inhibitory performance and self-report measures might only be seen in samples with mental disorders.

A document by Cynthia A Golembeski. Click on the document to view its contents.

RATIONALE: Obstructive sleep apnea is highly prevalent in children with asthma, particularly in obese children. The sleep related breathing disorder screening questionnaire has low screening accuracy for obstructive sleep apnea in children with asthma. Our goal was to identify the questions on the sleep related breathing disorder survey associated with obstructive sleep apnea in children with asthma. METHODS: Participants completed the survey, underwent polysomnography and their body mass index z-score was measured. Participants with survey scores above 0.33 were considered high risk for obstructive sleep apnea and those with an apnea hypopnea index ≥ 2 events/hour classified as having obstructive sleep apnea. Logistic regression was used to examine the association of each survey question and obstructive sleep apnea. Positive and negative predictive values were calculated to estimate screening accuracy. RESULTS: The prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea was 40% in our sample (n=136). Loud snoring, morning dry mouth and being overweight were the questions associated with obstructive sleep apnea. A combined model of loud snoring, morning dry mouth and being overweight had positive and negative predictive values of 57.4% and 81.0% respectively, while the composite survey score had positive and negative predictive values of 51.0% and 65.5%. Body mass index z-score had positive and negative predictive values of 76.3% and 72.2%. CONCLUSIONS: The body mass index z-score is useful for obstructive sleep apnea screening in children with asthma and should be applied routinely given its simplicity and concerns that obstructive sleep apnea may contribute to asthma morbidity.

Soil microbes are key players in wetland ecosystems. The biogeography of bacterial and fungal communities and their underlying mechanisms for generating and maintaining lakeshore wetlands are important in microbial ecology but remain unclear. Here we investigated the biogeographical patterns and the factors shaping bacterial and fungal communities in lakeshore wetland soils at a regional scale in northern China. Our results revealed that the diversity of soil bacterial and fungal communities in lakeshore wetlands had significant geographical distribution patterns in both longitude and latitude gradients; and notably the geographical distribution pattern of α-diversity is mainly manifested in species richness. Climate, edaphic properties, and plant diversity together determined the geographical distribution patterns of bacterial and fungal community diversity, contributing 66.05% and 49.66% of the diversity variation, respectively. As droughts intensify, the assembly of bacterial communities is gradually dominated by deterministic processes dominated of habitat filtration, while fungal communities are dominated by random processes of species dispersal. Structural equation modelling revealed that the differences in temperature and precipitation originating from geographical distances directly modulated the geographical distribution of fungal community diversity, while bacteria were indirectly regulated by influences of local soils and plants. Our findings highlight that different sensitivity of soil bacteria and fungi to climate change and different responses to soil communities in lakeshore wetlands may have profound implications for the stability and functioning of wetland ecosystems.

With the popularization of smart devices and the continuous development of wireless communication technology, a large amount of trajectory data is recorded in wireless networks, and frequent item mining for trajectory data has become a research hotspot. In order to rapid update frequent trajectory set when new data is added to the original trajectory database, and to solve the problem that trajectory database occupies a large amount of storage space, we propose a new dynamic PrefixSpan algorithm based on the confidence of suffix subsequence (CSS-PrefixSpan). This algorithm makes full use of the information of the frequent trajectory set and estimates the support of infrequent trajectory by using the confidence of infrequent trajectory suffix subsequence. When incremental trajectory data is added to the original trajectory database, CSS-PrefixSpan can dynamically update frequent trajectory set and no longer need to store the original trajectory data after mining frequent trajectories. Through two trajectory dataset mining experiments, the accuracy of the support estimation and the effectiveness of proposed algorithm are verified.