A document by Prodromos Daoutidis. Click on the document to view its contents.

Chaotic flow inside porous media accelerates the transport, mixing, and reaction of molecules and particles in widespread natural and factitious processes. Current macroscopic models based on the average pore-scale variations show obvious limitations in the prediction of many chemical processes. In this paper, we reconstruct microscopic foam structures using Micro Computed Tomography to simulate fluid flow in structured ZSM-5@SiC foam catalyst. Moreover, we propose a conceptual model based on the microscopic mean square displacement theory to characterize the effective dispersion inside an open-cell foam. This model will explain the flow characteristics of confined fluid inside the porous media from fluid elements perspective. Particularly, dispersion factor and structure factor, as key parts of this model, perfectly interpret the driving characteristics of pressure drop, velocity different, and reaction in continuous foam media flow. This work also provides a unique means of predicting reaction kinetics of confined fluid in structured foam catalyst.

Radar-based human motion recognition has received extensive attention in recent years. Most current recognition methods generate a heat map of features through simple signal processing and then feed into a classification-based neural network for recognition. Such an approach can only identify a single action. When a set of data contains information about multiple movements it can also only be recognized as a single movement. Therefore, in order to solve the problem that continuous human motion cannot be recognized, we propose a continuous action recognition method based on micro-Doppler features and Transformer, which translates the micro-Doppler features of continuous actions into machine translation tasks, and uses the idea of natural language processing (NLP) to identify continuous action.

Nowadays, the copper nitride (Cu 3N) is of great interest as a new solar absorber material, flexible and lightweight thin film solar cells. This material is a metastable semiconductor, non-toxic, composed of earth-abundant elements, and its band gap energy can be easily tunable in the range 1.4 to 1.8 eV. For this reason, it has been proposed for many applications in the solar energy conversion field. The main aim of this work is to evaluate the properties of the Cu 3N thin films fabricated by reactive radio-frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering at different RF power values to determine its potential as light absorber. The Cu 3N films were fabricated at room temperature (RT) from a Cu metallic target at the RF power ranged from 25 to 200 W on different substrates (silicon and glass). The pure nitrogen flux was set to 20 sccm, and the working pressures were set to 3.5 Pa and 5 Pa. The XRD results showed a transition from (100) to (111) preferred orientations when RF power increased; the AFM images revealed a granular morphology, while FTIR and Raman spectra exhibited the characteristics peaks related to Cu-N bonds, which became narrower when the RF power increased. Finally, to stablish the suitability of these films as absorber, the band gap energy was calculated from transmission spectra.

Cynanchum pingtaoi sp. nov. (Apocynaceae), from Yunnan Province, China, is described and illustrated based on molecular and morphological evidence. Its deeply cordate to reniform leaves, campanulate and large flowers show that it is a member of former Raphistemma which has been included in Cynanchum now. It is different from the all former Raphistemma species (C. hooperianum,C. longhushanense and C. pulchellum) by the broadly ovate corolla lobe, purple-red corolla, and connivent corona tip slightly exceeding corolla throat. Its detailed morphological description and illustrations are provided. Meanwhile, Cynanchum longhushanense (Y. Wan) G.D.Tang & Miao Liao nom. nov. is proposed as the replacement name of Raphistemma brevipedunculatum Y. Wan which is reinstated from a synonym of C. hooperianum (Blume) Decne because of their significant morphological differences.

Cancer causes the second highest mortality rate after the cardiac diseases in humans. In addition to death rates, cancer morbidity paints a rather grim picture. Despite the advances in treatment modalities, cancer management still remains as a challenging task. In vitro biological evaluations use cytotoxicity as one of the most essential indications. In vitro, cytotoxic drugs cause cell membrane disintegration, protein synthesis inhibition, and irreversible receptor binding, among other things. To identify cell death caused by these insults, a number of short-term cytotoxic effects and cell proliferation assays have been developed and employed. Chemical carcinogenesis and xenograft models for imitating human malignancies are among the in vivo models that have been developed. This article discusses the current in-vitro and animal models used in the discovery and therapeutic efficacy assessment of anti-cancer drugs.

Aims: Nusinersen is administered intrathecally for treating spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Procedural sedation is common with intrathecal treatment in children. This retrospective study presents our experience with procedural sedation during the intrathecal treatment of pediatric patients with SMA I, II, and III. Methods: Data were collected the from the anesthesia charts and electronic medical records of 14 pediatric patients with SMA types I, II, and III who underwent procedural sedation for repeated intrathecal treatments for SMA. Intravenous induction was performed, and patients were oxygenated with a face mask or nasal cannula while spontaneous breathing continued. Results: Fourteen patients were included in the study: one SMA I, eight SMA II, and five SMA III. They underwent 88 intrathecal nusinersen injections totally. In the one SMA I patient, of eight months, the procedure was performed under local anesthesia. In all other patients, the treatments were performed under procedural sedation. Different combinations of midazolam, ketamine, propofol, fentanyl, and remifentanil were used. The mean doses of the agents used were 0.03 mg/kg, 0.97 mg/kg, 2.71 mg/kg, 0.84 mcg/kg and 0.5 mcg/kg respectively. There were no intraoperative or postoperative complications. Conclusion: We found the procedural sedation to be sufficient, effective, and safe in SMA II and III pediatric patients who underwent nusinersen treatment intrathecally, provided anesthetic agents are titrated.and administered carefully.

Objective: To establish a reasonable incentive mechanism for FDs and increase their work motivation, it is necessary to evaluate the incentive status of FDs. At present, there is no scale evaluating motivating factors for FDs. This study aims to develop and validate an instrument to evaluate the status of FD incentives. Methods: We used literature review and panel discussion to form the initial evaluation tool of family doctor motivating factor. Then a questionnaire survey was conducted among 4988 medical staff in 8 districts of Beijing. The data were analyzed by item analysis, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and reliability evaluation of the data, and the developed scale was used for empirical research to evaluate the incentive level of FDs in Beijing. Results: The scale included 18 items in 4 dimensions: incentive payment, individual development, work values, and the organizational environment. The variance explained by the four common factors was 83.78%. The results of the EFA and the CFA proved that the questionnaire had good validity. The Cronbach’s alpha for the total scale was 0.979. There were differences in FD incentive levels by region, age, educational level, professional title, working years, and employment method. Conclusions: The family doctor motivating factor evaluation scale has good reliability and validity. The scale evaluation results show that the motivation of FDs with different demographic characteristics in Beijing is different in terms of incentive levels.

Introduction: Preeclampsia (PE) is a hypertensive disorder of pregnancy (HDP). DLX5 plays an important role in the migration and differentiation of subglobus pallidus precursor cells. Material and methods: We established a zebrafish line expressing high levels of DLX5 and investigated changes in behavior and development of the nervous system. Results: The ratios of brain volume area to whole body area at 96 hpf zebrafish in the experimental group (gRNA+CasRx) were significantly lower than the WT group and the negative control group (casRx)(P<0.01). Behavioral trajectory distances and movement speeds exhibited by the 6th day of development in zebrafish in the experimental group (gRNA+CasRx) were significantly shorter (P<0.01) and lower (P<0.05) than the negative control group (gRNA+CasRx), respectively. Conclusions: Data suggested that the increased expression levels of DLX5 can inhibit brain volume development and behavioral activities in zebrafish. Maybe the high expression levels of DLX5 in the pathological state of PE can inhibit the development of the nervous system in offspring.

The literature, infective endocarditis in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is virtually limited to isolated reported cases or groups of cases, therefore the risk of infective endocarditis during HCM remains poorly defined. It is considered low and mostly limited to patients with a subaortic obstruction or with an intrinsic mitral defect

Arrhythmia ablation in patients status post valve replacement is difficult due to distorted anatomy caused by the underlying disease and the prosthetic material overlying the arrhythmic substrate. Here we report a case of AVNRT ablation resistant to ablation with a conventional non-irrigated catheter after tricuspid valve replacement.

Recombination generates new combination of alleles, whereby it maintains haplotype diversity and enhances the efficacy of selection. Despite the apparent stasis in positioning recombination events in birds, recombination rates differ widely across the genome and within species. The causes of recombination rate variation and its evolutionary impact on natural populations remain poorly understood. We used whole-genome resequencing data of 167 individuals of the Eurasian blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) to characterise the historical recombination landscape variation at broad and fine scales among populations with distinct migratory phenotypes. We additionally evaluated the interplay between recombination rates with patterns of genetic diversity, population divergence (based on Fst and dxy), and potential signs of selection. Our comparative analyses revealed: i) Lower divergence of recombination maps at the broad scale and higher variability at fine scales. Resident island populations showed higher variability in recombination patterns among them and with continental populations. Recombination rates were more conserved in continental populations regardless of the migratory phenotype. ii) The degree of divergence between recombination maps correlated with population differentiation. It could also recapitulate population-specific demographic history and genetic structure. iii) Recombination rates correlated negatively with Fst and positively with nucleotide diversity and dxy, suggesting that recombination may reduce the effect of linked selection over the loss of neutral diversity. We identified chromosomal regions with potential signs of linked selection. This study evidences that recombination is a variable trait that shapes the diversity and evolution of population differentiation in the blackcap.

The connecting rod of high-power marine diesel engine fractured near the bolt hole before reaching the life expectancy, in which the typical fatigue fracture characteristics were found. The study improved the traditional simulation method of connecting rod to simulate the diesel engine more realistically. On the basis of the crank train model, various relevant boundary conditions are considered by introducing membrane mesh. The simulation results are consistent with the failure analysis of diesel engine, which verifies the correctness of simulation method proposed in this research. The material used for the connecting rod is 42CrMoA, which fatigue performance can only be obtained through fatigue testing. The yield limit of the material is 950MPa and an exact S-N curve is obtained by the fatigue test. This paper combined the material fatigue property with dynamics simulation, and found that the minimum safety factor of connecting rod occurs 5°CA after the TDC and is 1.33, which is satisfied but not sufficient. Meanwhile, the relationship between the bolt preload force and the stress level was investigated as the damage of connecting rod appears in the bolt hole region. Various preload forces were analyzed and the safety factor increased from 1.33 to 1.97 when the preload force is set to 80kN, which increased by 43%. In addition, the influence law between preload force and stress as well the empirical formula between them were summarized. This research not only provides a new method for the selection of preload force, but also allows rapid analysis of the connecting rod stress without complex finite element models in the conceptual design stage.

Comment on: Effects of COVID-19 vaccination on platelet counts and bleeding in children, adolescents, and young adults with immune thrombocytopenia

Background:There are limited data on etiology of viral pneumonia under the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to investigate the changes of viral pneumonia before and after COVID-19 pandemic among patients diagnosed with pneumonia. Methods:This is a single-center retrospective study. Patients hospitalized with pneumonia during January 1,2016 and Dec 31,2021 in West China Hospital were included and divided into pre- and post-COVID-19 groups according to the point of COVID-19 outbreak in China which was December 8,2019. Results of the 13 viral nucleic acid tests were compared between the two groups. Results:5,928 patients were analyzed,3,945 in the pre-COVID-19 group while 1,983 in the post-COVID-19. Respiratory viral nucleic acid screening proportion was riseing after COVID-19 (14.8％ VS 22.8％).But the positive rate of post-COVID-19 total virus and Influenza virus had decreased 23.3% and 18.3%, respectively,p＜0.05. The top three viral pneumonia were InfAH1N1(2009),Human Rhinovirus,Human Adenovirus before COVID-19, while HRV, Human Parainfluenza virus, Human Respiratory Syncytial virus after COVID-19 pandemic. Notebly,InfAH1N1(2009) pneumonia decreased to 0％ after the pandemic. Conclusions:Proportion of viral pneumonia has significantly decreased under the impact of COVID-19 pneumonia and the incidence of InfAH1N1(2009) pneumonia is almost 0.

LEO satellite networks have risen to the forefront of study with the dynamic topology changes, varying service requirements and intermittent inter-satellite links (ISLs). Resource scheduling mechanism is the key to determining communication efficiency. However, the state-of-the-art cannot achieve high resource efficiency under both heavy and burst traffic loads, and the applicability of parameters design is insufficient under intermittent ISLs. Considering this, we propose a dynamic even distribution mechanism combined with network coding DENC. This novel mechanism obtains the service requirements and allocates resources dynamically through the even distribution algorithm to balance between network maintenance overhead and idle resources waste, and improves the success probability of transmission based on network coding to balance between retransmission and redundancy. In this paper, we establish performance analysis and resource efficiency optimization models to optimize the parameters such as maintenance frequency and coding coefficient. Besides, we construct a system-level simulation platform. Mathematical and simulation results indicate that the DENC performs better than SAHN-MAC, ICSMA, CSMA-TDMA and HTM under dynamic service requirements and intermittent ISLs, and the resource efficiency can be improved by about 130%.

Zero-fluoroscopy procedures have recently become feasible in catheter ablations, and transseptal puncture (TSP) is the key step of this procedure. With use of the TSP method, zero-fluoroscopy method can be performed in three ways, with transesophageal echocardiography, intracardiac echocardiography or total 3-dimensional technique. However, each method has its own shortcomings. Here, we documented, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, that carried out zero-fluoroscopy TSP guided by right atrial high dense precision mapping using a PentaRay multipolar mapping catheter combined with ConfiDense intelligent high-precision mapping technology, which avoid the shortness of previous method.

There is a strong scientific rationale to use nebulised unfractionated heparin (UFH) in COVID-19. This pilot study investigated whether nebulised UFH was safe and had any impact on mortality, length of hospitalisation and clinical progression, in the treatment of hospitalised patients with COVID-19. This parallel group, open label, randomised trial included adult patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection admitted hospital in Brazil. One hundred patients were planned to be randomised to either “standard of care” (SOC) or SOC plus nebulized UFH. The trial was stopped after randomisation of 75 patients due to falling COVID-19 hospitalisation rates. Significance tests were 1-sided test (10% significance level). The key analysis populations were intention to treat (ITT) and modified ITT (mITT) which excluded (from both arms) subjects admitted to ITU or who died within 24 hrs of randomisation. In the ITT population (n=75), mortality was numerically lower for nebulised UFH (6 out of 38 patients; 15.8%) versus SOC (10 out of 37 patients; 27.0%), but not statistically significant; odds ratio (OR) 0.51, p=0.24. In the mITT population, nebulised UFH reduced mortality (OR 0.2, p=0.035).

Background: A T263P mutation is one of the rare EGFR mutation, located in 7p11.2, a change in the amino acid residue at position 263 in the epidermal growth factor receptor protein where L-threonine has been replaced by L-proline. This missense mutation in the EGFR extracellular (EC) domain is poor-known about EGFR EC domain mutations in lung cancer. Purpose: In this study, we firstly reported a patient with advanced lung adenocarcinoma haboring a rare EGFR mutations of T263P alone who benefited from first-line treatment with afatinib in Vietnam. Results: This patient achieved a partial response and had a progression-free survival of 5 months. After disease progression, this patient was subsequently administered several chemotherapy regimens and had an overall survival of 17 months. Conclusion: NSCLCs with rare T263P mutation reveal the response to afatinib, however prognosis is often poor.

During litter decomposition, part of the water-soluble components of the material dissolve (leach) rapidly into available water in the environment. Studies on litter decomposition that quantify mass-loss from litterbags integrate leaching and mineralization. In contrast to Lind et al. (2022), we believe that correcting for leaching in (terrestrial) litterbags studies such as the Tea Bag Index will result in more uncertainties than it resolves. This is mainly because leaching is a continuous process and because leached material can still be mineralized after leaching. Further, amount of material that potentially leaches from tea is comparable to other litter types. When correcting for leaching, it is key to be specific about the employed method, just like being specific about the study specific definition of decomposition.

In previous research on the construction of ecological security patterns (ESPs), the positioning characteristics of urban development were rarely considered, resulting in the identification of key conservation areas that are insufficiently thorough to support the ecological security of the entire region and the overall development of urban functions. To solve this problem, this research created a “quality-importance-connectivity-balance” framework to identify ESPs, and chose Liaocheng City (LC), a typical main agricultural production area in China’s Shandong Province’s western plain, as the study area. The swat model was used to determine security levels from a watershed perspective using an integrated resistance assessment method that accounts for topography, human activities, distance, and agricultural environmental impacts. Then, the minimal cumulative resistance (MCR) and gravity models were used to identify and categorize corridors, while pinch points and barrier points were obtained by circuit theory. Finally, the comprehensive quality of cultivated land and the pattern of coordination between agriculture and ecology were divided. The results demonstrated that, as a result of the fragmentation of cultivated land, LC exhibited plain resistance characteristics and identified 181.16 km2 of sources and 174 potential corridors. A “six cores-seven belts-three zones” optimization pattern was constructed based on the components of ESPs and the distribution of cultivated land comprehensive quality. This study presents a novel approach for measuring ESPs and is an essential resource for ecological conservation and regional development planning in agroecologically complex regions.

A document by Rishab Jain. Click on the document to view its contents.

Many membraneless organelles, or biological condensates, that play key roles in signal sensing and transcriptional regulation form through phase separation. While the functional importance of these condensates has inspired many studies to characterize their stability and spatial organization, the underlying principles that dictate these emergent properties are still being uncovered. In this review, we examine recent work on biological condensates, especially multicomponent systems. We focus on connecting molecular factors such as binding energy, valency, and stoichiometry with the interfacial tension, explaining the nontrivial interior organization in many condensates. We further discuss mechanisms that arrest condensate coalescence by lowering the surface tension or introducing kinetic barriers to stabilize the multidroplet state.

Oilseeds need to be exploited not only for the oil but also as a source of functional protein-rich ingredients for food. This work evaluated the physicochemical properties of the colloidal fraction resulting from wet milling of rapeseed, used as model oilseed. The extraction was conducted either at natural pH (5.7) or at alkaline pH (8.5), with or without addition of a commercial pectinase. The slurry was mixed for 4 h at room temperature, and then pressed at the same pH or after shifting to alkaline/acidic pH. The resulting extract, rich in oil and protein particles, showed differences in particle size, microstructure and composition. The oil and protein yields in the extract (in relation to the amount originally in the oilseed) ranged between 60 and 70 %, with a significant increase in protein recoveries with addition of pectinase, regardless of the pH. A protein concentrate, containing between 25 and 42 % protein on dry matter, depending on the treatment was obtained after centrifugation, together with a fiber precipitate and an oil fraction. The composition of the concentrates varied, with the highest purity found for extracts at pH 5.7, showing a nearly complete physical separation of the oleosomes by low speed centrifugation. All concentrates showed similar protein composition, as analyzed by gel electrophoresis. The amino acid composition was also similar amongst the treatments. This work evidences the critical role played by biopolymers’ interactions in forming different colloidal structures, with clear consequences on the functionality of the final ingredient.