BackgroundThe coronavirus infection is rapidly spreading putting a strain on healthcare services across the globe. Oral cancer patients are susceptible often immunosuppressed due to the disease and/or the treatment received.MethodsWe performed a simulationof the currently available data using a multi state and hazards model to provide an objective model for counseling and decision making for healthcare workers.ResultsStage IV oral cancer patients that did not receive treatment had progression of disease and an increased mortality rate than patients that receive treatment but did not contract COVID-19. The patients that received treatment and got affected with COVID-19 had a far worse impact and higher mortality rate than all other groups.ConclusionIsolation and deferring treatment for stage IV oral cancer patients, so as to avoid hospital visits and contration of COVID-19, is an advisable strategy based on this model.

American Oil Chemists’ Society (AOCS)’s Official Method Cd 18-90 for p-Anisidine Value (pAV) is commonly used to evaluate secondary oxidation in fish oils. Flavoring agents in fish oil products may interfere with pAV and lead to inaccurate results. The Global Organization for EPA and DHA (GOED) recommends a protocol for calculating pAV of flavored fish oils, based on the assumption that flavors’ contribution to the pAV does not change over the course of oxidation. The objective of this study was to test this assumption. All fourteen flavors evaluated increased the pAV when added to fresh fish oil; chocolate-vanilla and lemon flavors generated the largest increase. Under accelerated oxidation conditions, both chocolate-vanilla and lemon flavors had a similar effect; oxidized flavored fish oils had lower pAV than oxidized fish oils with newly added flavors. This was due to either an antioxidant effect of the flavor or degradation of the flavor during oxidation. Following the GOED recommendation, we would have underestimated the oxidation in the flavored oils. For this reason, pAV of flavored fish oils should be considered with caution and used in combination with other secondary oxidation markers when possible.

A document by Jing Liu. Click on the document to view its contents.

Under proper loading conditions, micro-to-nanoscale heterogeneities (i.e., the bond system) that are commonly found within the materials of a system can coalesce until causing macroscopic alterations of the system properties. The bond system is responsible for atypical and invariant-scale non-linear elastic processes in granular media, from laboratory-tested materials (mm) to the Earth’s crust (km). The unusual observed behavior involves slow recovery, or relaxation, of the elastic properties after dynamic loading. Several models have been designed to explain non-linear elasticity, although their physics is still partially unknown. Here, we show that recovery processes are also observed at intermediary scales (m) in civil engineering structures, and that they might be related to structural health due to the healing of cracks. For Japanese buildings subjected to earthquakes, we observe rapid co-seismic reductions of their resonance frequency, followed by fascinating recoveries over different time-scales: over short times (i.e. seconds) for a single earthquake; over intermediate times (i.e. months) for a sequence of aftershocks; and over long times (i.e. years) for a series of earthquakes. By comparing two buildings with different damage levels after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, we show how relaxation models can characterize the level of cracking caused by damaging events. Our results bridge the gap between the laboratory and seismological observation scales, verifying in this way the universality of recovery processes, and demonstrating their value for the detection and characterization of damage.

The superfamily of metallo-β-lactamases (MBL) comprises an ancient group of proteins found in all domains of life, sharing a characteristic αββα fold and a histidine-rich motif for binding of transition metal ions, with the ability to catalyze a variety of hydrolysis and redox reactions. Herein, structural homology and sequence similarity network (SSN) analysis are used to assist the phylogenetic reconstruction of the MBL superfamily, introducing tanglegrams to evaluate structure-function relationships. SSN neighborhood connectivity is applied for spotting protein families within SSN clusters, showing that 98 % of the superfamily remains to be explored experimentally. Further SSN research is suggested in order to determine their topological properties, which will be instrumental for the improvement of automated sequence annotation methods.

Objective During the epidemic of COVID-19, efficient ward management is an important part of preventing nosocomial infection while ensuring the medical works properly without any Covid-19 case. Method Ward management practice was updated, including optimizing the personnel access processes and strengthening infection control procedures in the gastrointestinal surgery ward during Jan. 23 to Mar. 15, 2020. Results With 43 beds open, 192 patients were treated, 72 were operated on, 89 received chemotherapy after surgery, and 187 were discharged from hospital. All patients achieved the expected recovery, and none of these patients, their families,or medical staff were infected. Conclusion Ward management based on low and guidelines during the COVID-19 epidemic is an effective measure to limit infection spread within the hospital and to healthcare workers.

To systemically review the literature about the use of bisphosphonates (BP) as adjuvant to periodontal treatment. Three databased were searched for randomized clinical trials that used any BP adjuvant to periodontal treatment. Meta-analyses were performed for clinical attachment level (CAL) and probing pocket depth (PPD). Subgroup analyses were considering diabetes and smoking exposure. Thirteen studies were included. It was showed mean difference (MD) of 1.52 mm (95%CI: 0.97–2.07) and 1.44 mm (95%CI: 1.08–1.79) for PPD reduction and CAL gain, respectively, when BP was locally delivered. Regarding the subgroup analysis, BP did not provide significant improvement in smokers for PPD (MD: 1.35; 95%CI: -0.13–2.83) and CAL (MD: 1.37; 95%CI: -0.17–2.91). The MD for systemically administered BP was 0.40 mm (95%CI: 0.21–0.60) and 0.51 (95%CI: 0.19–0.83) for PPD and CAL, respectively. Additional clinical effects of BP may be expected when administered with periodontal therapy.

Rationale, Aims and Objectives: Guidelines recommend inviting family members of intensive care unit (ICU) patients to rounds. We aimed to create a toolkit to support family participation in ICU bedside rounds, based upon evidence from research and in collaboration with ICU family member representatives and healthcare providers. Methods: A multi-method qualitative research program was conducted to provide an evidence-base. Ethnographic observations of rounds and interviews and focus groups with family members and ICU healthcare providers were analyzed for key themes, barriers and facilitators of participation, and suggestions. A full day workshop with family representatives and providers (physicians, nurses, social workers, and unit managers) from a diverse range of adult ICUs in Western Canada, including several community ICUs and a majority of large, urban ICUs enabled the collaborative development of key toolkit elements. Results: We have developed an evidence-informed approach to patient-and-family-centered rounds that highlights the importance of 6 key elements foundational to patient and family centered rounds: Invitation, Orientation, Engagement, Summary, Questions, and Communication Follow-Up. We describe strategies, techniques, and templates to optimize these elements and interactions so that communication is more meaningful, and to facilitate the ability of family members to adopt a meaningful role as contributing members of the care team. Conclusion: There is consensus on general strategies for facilitating family participation in rounds and meaningful communication between family and the healthcare team during rounds as an important element of the continuum of communication in the ICU. The incorporation of these elements should be standardized, though tailored to user needs.

Gastrodia elata, a fully mycoheterotrophic orchid without photosynthetic ability, only grows symbiotically with the fungus Armillaria. The mechanism of carbon distribution in this mycoheterotrophy is unknown. We detected high sucrose concentrations in all stages of Gastrodia tubers, suggesting sucrose may be the major sugar transported between fungus and orchid. Thick symplasm-isolated wall interfaces in colonized and adjacent large cells implied involvement of sucrose importers. Two sucrose transporter (SUT)-like genes, GeSUT4 and GeSUT3, were identified that are highly expressed in young Armillaria-colonized tubers. Yeast complementation and radio tracer experiments confirmed that GeSUT4 functioned as a high-affinity sucrose-specific proton-dependent importer. Plasma-membrane/tonoplast localization of GeSUT4-GFP fusions, and high RNA expression of GeSUT4 in symbiotic and large cells indicated that GeSUT4 likely functions in active sucrose transport for intercellular allocation and intracellular homeostasis. Transgenic Arabidopsis overexpressing GeSUT4 had larger leaves but sensitive to excess sucrose and roots were colonized with fewer mutualistic Bacillus, supporting the role of GeSUT4 in regulating sugar allocation. This is not only the first documented carbon import system in a mycoheterotrophic interaction, but also highlights the evolutionary importance of sucrose transporters for regulation of carbon flow in all types of plant-microbe interactions.

Manual assessment of flower abundance of different flowering plant species in grasslands is a time consuming process. We present an automated approach to determine the flower abundance in grasslands from drone images using a deep learning (Faster R-CNN) object detection approach, which is trained and evaluated on data of five flights and two sites. Our deep learning network is able to identify and classify individual flowers. The novel method allows generating spatially explicit maps of flower abundance that meets or exceeds the accuracy of the manually counted extrapolation method and is less labor intensive. The results are very good for some types of flowers with precision and recall being close to or higher than $90\ \%$. Other flowers are detected poorly due to reasons such as lack of enough training data, appearance changes due to phenology or flowers being too small to be reliably distinguishable on the aerial images. The method is able to give precise estimates of the abundance of many flowering plant species. The collection of more training data will allow better predictions in the future for the flowers that are not well predicted yet. The developed pipeline can be applied to any sort of aerial object detection problems.

Objectives: The primary goal was to evaluate the effect of stimulus-duration on Electrogustometry (EGM) Thrasholds, to evaluate any gender-related influences and compare the above results to those after application of Taste-Strips. Design: Electrogustometry (EGM) thresholds of various stimulus duration (0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 s) were measured in 212 non-smokers (age range: 10 – 80 years, divided into 8 age groups) without self-reported gustatory impairment. Furthermore, taste strips chemogustometry measurements in 132 participants were performed. Setting: Tertiary referral medical centre. Participants: 212 non-smokers, divided in 8 age-groups participated in the study. Main outcome measures: EGM-Thresholds and taste-strips, duration of stimuli Results: EGM-thresholds increased progressively with age and with increase in stimulus duration from 0.5 sec up to 2 sec. This pattern was consistent at all 6 anatomic areas, irrespective from gender. In contrast, in chemogustometry no differences related either to age or to gender were found. Conclusions: Age-related electrophysiological and functional gustatory decline can be better documented by EGM than using chemogustometry. This superiority of EGM was not influenced by stimulus duration; nonetheless, stimulus duration should be clearly documented in future quantitative EGM-threshold recordings, given that it may significantly influence EGM amplitude threshold measurements.

The host-pathogen combinations - Malus domestica (apple)/ ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma mali´, Prunus persica (peach)/‘Ca. P. prunorum´ and Pyrus communis (pear)/‘Ca. P. pyri´ show different courses of diseases although the phytoplasma strains belong to the same 16SrX group. While infected apple trees can survive for decades, peach and pear trees die within some weeks or years. To this date, neither morphological nor physiological differences caused by phytoplasmas have been studied in these host plants. In this study, phytoplasma-induced morphological changes of the vascular system as well as physiological changes of the phloem sap and leaf phytohormones were analysed and compared with non-infected plants. Unlike peach and pear, infected apple trees showed substantial reductions in leaf and vascular morphology, affecting phloem mass flow. In contrast, in pear mass flow and physicochemical characteristics of phloem sap increased. No changes in phytohormone levels were detected in pear but in apple and peach trees, where defence- and stress-related phytohormones increased. Compared with peach and pear trees, data from apple suggest that the long-lasting morphological adaptations in the vascular system, which likely cause reduced sap flow, triggers the ability of apple trees to survive phytoplasma infection. Some phytohormone-mediated defences might support the tolerance.

BSD (mammalian BTF2-like transcription factors, Drosophila synapse-associated proteins and yeast DOS2-like proteins) is a domain existing in a variety of organisms but its function has not been well studied. In this study, we identified a novel BSD domain-containing protein (SlBSD1) in tomato. Biochemical and subcellular assay indicated SlBSD1 is a functional transcription factor and predominantly localized in the nucleus. The genetic analyses suggested that SlBSD1 is a novel negative regulator of vegetative growth and leaf senescence in tomato. The SlBSD1-knockdown tomato plants exhibited retarded vegetative growth and precocious leaf senescence, whereas SlBSD1-overexpression tomato plants displayed the opposite phenotypes. The negative role of SlBSD1 in leaf senescence was also supported by RNA-Seq analysis on the SlBSD1-knockdown tomato leaf in comparison with the wild type tomato leaf. Moreover, altered soluble solids contents in fruits were detected in the SlBSD1-knockdown and SlBSD1-overexpression tomato plants. Taken together, our data suggested that the novel transcription factor SlBSD1 plays important roles in controlling fruit quality and other physiological processes in tomato, including vegetative growth and leaf senescence.

Iron (Fe) is an essential element for plant growth, development, and metabolism. Due to its lack of solubility and low bioavailability in soil, Fe levels are usually far below the optimum amount for most plants’ growth and development. In apple production, excessive use of nitrogen fertilizer may cause iron chlorosis symptoms in the newly growing leaves, but the regulatory mechanism is unclear. In this study, it was found that low nitrate (NO3-, LN) application could alleviate the symptoms of Fe deficiency, LN treatment promoted lower the rhizosphere pH, which was beneficial for root Fe acquisition, meanwhile, LN treatment increased citrate and abscisic acid (ABA) accumulation in root, which promoted Fe transport from root to shoot and maintained Fe homeostasis. Moreover, RNA-Seq and qRT-PCR analysis showed that nitrate application caused differential expression of genes that were related to Fe uptake and transport as well as transcriptional regulators. In summary, our data reveal that low nitrate alleviated Fe deficiency through multiple pathway, which exhibits a new option for attenuating Fe deprivation by regulating the balance between nutrients.

A document by Qi Liu. Click on the document to view its contents.

Infestation by herbivorous pests can change plant volatile profiles leading to increased foraging by natural enemies and reduced attack by the pests. Eight rice bioactive volatiles (semiochemicals) were identified by GC-EAG. The quantitative differences in the production of these volatiles between susceptible and resistant rice varieties to the rice pest Nilaparvata lugens (BPH) were then determined. There was no clear correlation in the production of these volatiles with the rice resistance levels against BPH. The total amount of these volatiles and the expression of genes associated with the biosynthesis of these volatiles were significantly higher in susceptible varieties than in resistant varieties, and as expected further upregulated upon BPH-infestation. In behavioural experiments, the un-infested rice volatiles (UIRVs) were more attractive to BPHs. Interestingly, the attractiveness of UIRVs was significantly reduced by the addition of the blend that mimics the natural composition of these volatiles in the infested rice plants (IRVs). Furthermore, the 1:1 molar mixture of these volatiles identified from IRVs repelled BPHs. These results demonstrate as expected that UIRVs initially serve as attractive signals to rice insect pests. The pest-infestation changes the rice volatile profile to be less attractive, which pushes further colonization to un-infested plants nearby.

Methods: We systemically and comprehensively retrieved the eligible study evaluating clinical difference between severe versus non-severe Covid-19. Main effect sizes were demography characteristics, comorbidities, signs and symptoms, laboratory findings as well as radiological features in chest CT. Results: 14 studies with a total of 2,566 individuals (771 in Severe group and 1,795 in Non-severe group) were eligible for this meta-analysis. It was demonstrated that older and male person was more susceptible to severe Covid-19. Patients with underlying comorbidity, such as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and COPD were associated with significantly increased susceptibility of severe Covid-19. Patients with dyspnea were more likely to be severe illness. Depressed total lymphocytes were observed in this article. Meanwhile, although reticulation (30.8%), intrathoracic lymph node enlargement (56.4%) and pleural effusions (30.8%) were relatively rarely seen, meta-analysis revealed that patients with these presentations in chest CT were associated with increased risks of severe Covid-19. Conclusions: There are significant differences in clinical characteristic between the severe and non-severe Covid-19 patients. Many factors are related to the severity of the disease, which can help clinicians to differentiate severe patient from non-severe patient.

I have some comments on TBED recently published paper titled “Serological survey of SARS-CoV-2 for experimental, domestic, companion and wild animals excludes intermediate hosts of 35 different species of animals” by Deng JH, et al.

While much research addresses soil erosion rates and erosion control costs under different land use conditions, few studies address the issue of the impact due to land consumption. The study presents results from the national assessment of ecosystem services carried out by ISPRA in the framework of land consumption monitoring. The purpose is to provide information on the impact of land consumption and loss of benefits for the community to support land protection policies. The study is based on the high-resolution land cover products for Italy produced by ISPRA using data from the Copernicus-Land Monitoring Services programme. Accordingly with main research on the topic, RUSLE formula and transport function is adopted, applying InVEST model. The avoided erosion change between two reference years is assumed to represent the loss in erosion control service due to land consumption. The economic dimension is evaluated by cost of service replacement, with values available in literature applied to biophysical results. Inputs to the model are the two different land cover scenario for 2012 and 2018 available from ISPRA, while other parameters are derived from JRC studies. Results indicate that the land consumption growth in Italy between 2012 and 2018, evaluated in 31.500 ha is associated to an economic loss that is over 2,4 billion \euro/year, with erosion control accounting for an average value over 135 M\euro/year. The study demonstrates the importance of valuing erosion control to support a sustainable decision-making upon land use.

Aim: A worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) which emerged in China in December 2019 affects the world very seriously. We aimed to evaluate the benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) patients who were admitted and treated to our hospital due to COVID-19. Methods: Between March 18, 2020 and April 5, 2020 , 18 patients admitted with COVID-19 who has BPH and are using medication for this were included in the study and analyzed retrospectively. Diagnosis was confirmed by COVID-19 nucleic acid test by sampling sputum or nasopharyngeal swab. Standard COVID-19 treatment protocol determined by our Ministry of Health was applied to all patients according to their risk groups. Epidemiological, clinical, radiological features, additional diseases, laboratory tests, complications and outcome data of all patients were recorded. Results: Mean age of patients was 59.6 (range: 56-73). As the mode of transmission, 10 (55.5%) of patients were infected in hospital, 5 (27.7%) patients had a relative with COVID-19 and 3 (16,6%) was unknown. During follow-up, 2 (11.1%) patients were transferred to intensive care unit (ICU). One of these patients dramatically progressed and died. Patients who survived and were not transferred to ICU had lesser comorbidities and were relatively young. Mean duration of hospitalization was 14.2 days (range 12-19). Conclusion: We think that COVID-19 patients with BPH had a low mortality rate and did not have a poor prognosis in this patient group. It is crucial to take comprehensive preventive measures to control COVID-19 transmission via hospital route.

Thyroid nodules are often incidentally noted on imaging studies with an estimated incidence of 25% on neck CT scan. The presence of a PET-avid thyroid nodule, especially in a patient with a history of malignancy, should prompt evaluation with fine-needle aspiration to evaluate for malignancy given the high probability.

Soil resources in East Africa are being rapidly depleted by erosion, threatening food-, water- and livelihood security in the region. Here we demonstrate how integration of evidence from natural and social sciences has supported community-led change in land management in an agro-pastoral community in northern Tanzania impacted by soil erosion. Drone survey data and geospatial analysis of erosion extent and risk, supported by communication of ‘process’ and ‘structural’ hydrological connectivity, was integrated with local environmental knowledge within participatory community workshops. Rill density data were compared between cultivated plots that had been converted from pastoral land recently and more established plots where slow-forming terrace boundaries were more established. Slope length and connectivity between plots were key factors in development of rill networks. At the two extremes, recently converted land had a rill density ca 14 times greater than equivalent established slow forming terraces. Direction of cultivation, regardless of plot boundary orientation with contours, also enhanced rill development. Evidence of this critical time window of hillslope-scale rill erosion risk during early phases of slow-forming terrace development successfully underpinned and catalysed a community-led tree planting and grass seed sowing programme to mitigate soil erosion by water. This was grounded in an implicit community understanding of the need for effective governance mechanisms at both community and District levels, to enable community-led actions to be implemented effectively. The study demonstrates the wide-reaching impact of integrated and interdisciplinary ‘upslope-downslope’ thinking to tackle global soil erosion challenges.

This is the first report of a case of COVID-19 after allogeneic stem cell transplantation. Our case suggests that COVID-19 may exist without characteristic CT images, especially in immunocompromised hosts, such as patients after transplantation.

Soil erosion is a challenging natural environmental hazard which is not possible to stop yet, can be reduced by conservation practices. Here, for these issues, we have applied Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) and Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model to assess soil erosion in Ghaghara river basin. We have estimated morphometric parameter to understand susceptibility of sub-basin for soil loss. The result of soil erosion estimated by RUSLE is 287.13 t〖h_a〗^(-1) yr^(-1) and by SWAT is 338.65 t〖h_a〗^(-1) yr^(-1) in study area. Water retention curve of soil using hydrous model and hypsometry of basin using QGIS were estimated to know water holding capacity of soil and geomorphic age of basin respectively. The results of water retention curve showed that Clay_Loam (Bd29-3c-3661) Loam (I-Bh-U-c-3717) and Clay_Loam (Rd30-2b-3851) were showing highest water holding capacity as (0.317 m^3/m^3), (0.311 m^3/m^3) and (0.271 m^3/m^3) in the study area respectively. The final prioritized map generated by integration of SWAT, RULSE, water holding capacity and morphometric results showed that upper and middle portion of basin need higher conservation measures to control soil erosion compared to lower portion of basin. The hypsometry of basin indicates the sub-basins age from young to mature stage due to subsequent soil erosion in upper and middle portion in basin.