Search

Mild‐heat photothermal antibacterial therapy avoids heat‐induced damage to normal tissues but causes bacterial tolerance. The use of photothermal therapy in synergy with chemodynamic therapy is expected to address this issue. Herein, two pseudo‐conjugated polymers PM123 with photothermal units and PFc with ferrocene (Fc) units are designed to co‐assemble with DSPE‐mPEG2000 into nanoparticle NPM123/Fc. NPM123/Fc under 1064 nm laser irradiation (NPM123/Fc+NIR‐II) generates mild heat and additionally more toxic ∙OH from endogenous H2O2, displaying a strong synergistic photothermal and chemodynamic effect. NPM123/Fc+NIR‐II gives >90% inhibition rates against MDR ESKAPE pathogens in vitro. Metabolomics analysis unveils that NPM123/Fc+NIR‐II induces bacterial metabolic dysregulation including inhibited nucleic acid synthesis, disordered energy metabolism, enhanced oxidative stress, and elevated DNA damage. Further, NPM123/Fc+NIR‐II possesses >90% bacteriostatic rates at infected wounds in mice, resulting in almost full recovery of infected wounds. Immunodetection and transcriptomics assays disclose that the therapeutic effect is mainly dependent on the inhibition of inflammatory reactions and the promotion of wound healing. What is more, thioketal bonds in NPM123/Fc are susceptible to ROS, making it degradable with highly favorable biosafety in vitro and in vivo. NPM123/Fc+NIR‐II with a unique synergistic antibacterial strategy would be much less prone to select bacterial resistance and represent a promising antibiotics‐alternative anti‐infective measure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rotaviruses are rising as zoonotic viruses worldwide, causing the lethal dehydrating diarrhea in children, piglets, and other livestock of economic importance. A simple, swift, cost-effective, highly specific, and sensitive antigen-capture enzyme–linked immunosorbent assay (AC-ELISA) was developed for detection of porcine rotavirus-A (PoRVA) by employing rabbit (capture antibody) and murine polyclonal antibodies (detector antibody) produced against VP6 of PoRVA (RVA/Pig-tc/CHN/TM-a/2009/G9P23). Reactivity of the both polyclonal antibodies was confirmed by using an indirect ELISA, western-blot analysis and indirect fluorescence assay against rVP6 protein and PoRVA. The detection limit of AC-ELISA was found 50 ng/ml of PoRVA protein. The relative sensitivity and specificity of this in-house AC-ELISA were evaluated for detection of PoRVA from 295 porcine diarrhea samples, and results were compared with that of RT-PCR and TaqMan RT-qPCR. The relative sensitivity and specificity of AC-ELISA compared with those of TaqMan RT-qPCR were found as 94.4 and 99.2%, respectively, with the strong agreement (κ −0.58) between these two techniques. Furthermore, AC-ELISA could not detect any cross-reactivity with porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, transmissible gastro-enteritis virus, pseudo rabies virus and porcine circovirus-2. This in-house AC-ELISA efficiently detected PoRVA from clinical samples, which suggests that this technique can be used for large-scale surveillance and timely detection of rotavirus infection in the porcine farms. In this study, we used a Chinese porcine rotavirus-A (PoRVA) strain containing the I5, a dominant VP6-genotype in pigs, for production of VP6 (most conserved) protein based polyclonal antibodies (pAb) in rabbits (as capture Ab) and mouse (as detector Ab) for development of simple, cost effective, highly specific and sensitive AC-ELISA for detection of PoRVA. Furthermore, there is no any previous published report on application of rabbit and mouse pAb against VP6 for developing an AC-ELISA against PoRVA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the residual stresses with a nanoscale depth resolution at TSV-Cu/TiW/SiO2/Si interfaces under different thermal loadings are characterized using the ion-beam layer removal (ILR) method. Moreover, the correlations of residual stress, microstructure, and the failure modes of the interfaces are discussed. The residual stresses at the interfaces of TSV-Cu/TiW, TiW/SiO2, and SiO2/Si are in the form of small compressive stress at room temperature, then turn into high-tensile stress after thermal cycling or annealing. In addition, the maximum residual stress inside the TSV-Cu is 478.54 MPa at room temperature, then decreases to 216.75 MPa and 90.45 MPa, respectively, after thermal cycling and annealing. The microstructural analysis indicates that thermal cycling causes an increase in the dislocation density and a decrease in the grain diameter of TSV-Cu. Thus, residual stress accumulates constantly in the TSV-Cu/TiW interface, resulting in the cracking of the interface. Furthermore, annealing leads to the cracking of more interfaces, relieving the residual stress as well as increasing the grain diameter of TSV-Cu. Besides this, the applicability of the ILR method is verified by finite element modeling (FEM). The influence of the geometric errors of the micro-cantilever beam and the damage to the materials introduced by the focused ion beam (FIB) in the experimental results are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The numerical technique—finite difference method (FDM) is one well‐known computational method requiring a delicate meshing algorithm used to optimize the simulation accuracy of complicated electromagnetic (EM) structures. The widely used Yee's staggered lattices discretize the EM field components and require the structured cubic meshing data. The structured mesh has intrinsic limitations on simulating irregular formations and objects. By applying a reliable numerical material‐mixing method to calculate the effective properties of mesh cells, the 2.5D FDM solver, with this numerical method implemented, can observe the inclined layers and the thin fracture in the formation without extra grids on interfaces. The tool responses from the practical complex formation with and without fracture showing up a distinguished difference in tool responses can be observed, verifying the validity of the proposed analysis strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Speaker recognition with short utterances is a challenging research topic in the natural language processing (NLP) field. Previous convolutional neural network (CNN) based models for speaker recognition usually utilize very deep or wide layers, resulting in many parameters and high computational cost. Besides, great training difficulty and inefficiency exist in the triplet loss, which is widely used in speaker recognition. In this work, we propose to combine the residual network (ResNet) with the self-attention mechanism to achieve better performance in text-independent speaker recognition with fewer parameters and lower computational cost. In addition, the Cluster-Range Loss based on a well-designed online exemplar mining is proposed to directly shrink the intra-class variation and to enlarge the inter-class distance. Experiments on Voxceleb dataset are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. The proposed approach achieves a Top-1 accuracy of 89.1% for speaker identification by jointly training the network with the Cluster-Range Loss and softmax cross entropy loss. For speaker verification, we achieve a competitive EER of 5.5% without any heavy-tailed backend, compared with the state-of-the-art i-vector system, as well as the x-vector system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Porcine Pegivirus (PPgV) and Atypical Porcine Pestivirus (APPV) are two recently identified porcine viruses. In this study, the identification of two viruses by metagenomic sequencing, and a duplex semi‐quantitative RT‐PCR was developed to detect these pathogens simultaneously. The PPgV strain Minnesota‐1/2016 had a 95.5%–96.3% nucleotide identity and clustered with the recently identified US PPgV strains, which is a distant clade from the German PPgV strains. The APPV strain Minnesota‐1/2016 shared an 87.3%–92.0% nucleotide identity with the other global APPV strains identity but only shared an 82.8%–83.0% nucleotide identity with clade II consisting of strain identified in China. Detection of both PPgV and APPV was 9.0% of the diagnostic cases. Co‐infection of PPgV and APPV was identified in 7.5% of the diagnostic cases. The occurrence and genetic characterization of PPgV and APPV further enhance our knowledge regarding these new pathogens in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence of antibiotic-resistant Aeromonas strains in clinical settings has presented an escalating burden on human and public health. The dissemination of antibiotic resistance in Aeromonas is predominantly facilitated by chromosome-borne accessory genetic elements, although the existing literature on this subject remains limited. Hence, the primary objective of this study is to comprehensively investigate the genomic characteristics of chromosome-borne accessory genetic elements in Aeromonas. Moreover, the study aims to uncover novel genetic environments associated with antibiotic resistance on these elements. Aeromonas were screened from nonduplicated strains collected from two tertiary hospitals in China. Complete sequencing and population genetics analysis were performed. BLAST analysis was employed to identify related elements. All newly identified elements were subjected to detailed sequence annotation, dissection, and comparison. We identified and newly designated 19 chromosomal elements, including 18 integrative and mobilizable elements (IMEs) that could be classified into four categories: Tn6737-related, Tn6836-related, Tn6840-related, and Tn6844a-related IMEs. Each class exhibited a distinct pattern in the types of resistance genes carried by the IMEs. Several novel antibiotic resistance genetic environments were uncovered in these elements. Notably, we report the first identification of the bla OXA-10 gene and bla VEB-1 gene in clinical A. veronii genome, the first presence of a tetA(E)–tetR(E) resistance gene environment within the backbone region in IMEs, and a new mcr-3.15 resistance gene environment. The implications of these findings are substantial, as they provide new insights into the evolution, structure, and dissemination of chromosomal-borne accessory elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to develop a method to model 3D resistivity well logging problems in 2D formation with anisotropy, known as 2.5D modeling. The traditional 1D forward modeling extensively used in practice lacks the capability of modeling 2D formation. A 2.5D finite difference method (FDM) solving all the electric and magnetic field components simultaneously is proposed. Compared to other previous 2.5D FDM schemes, this method is more straightforward in modeling fully anisotropic media and easy to be implemented. Fourier transform is essential to this FDM scheme, and by employing Gauss-Legendre (GL) quadrature rule the computational time of this step can be greatly reduced. In the numerical examples, we first demonstrate the validity of the FDM scheme with GL rule by comparing with 1D forward modeling for layered anisotropic problems, and then we model a complicated 2D formation case and find that the proposed 2.5D FD scheme is much more efficient than 3D numerical methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since October 2010, porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) caused by variant porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) has led great economic losses to the global pig industry, especially in China. To study the genetic characteristics of PEDV strains in Chinese mainland, a total of 603 clinical samples from nine provinces/districts of Chinese mainland from January 2014 to December 2015 were collected for RT-PCR detection and 1-1323 bp of S gene of 91 isolates and ORF3 gene of 46 isolates were sequenced. The results showed that the variant PEDV were the dominant pathogens of viral diarrhea diseases in these areas. Six novel variant PEDV strains (FJAX1, FJAX2, HeNPDS1, HeNPDS2, HeNPY3, and HeNPY4) with two amino acids (aa) deletion at the 56–57 aa of S protein were identified. A total of 405 Chinese PEDV strains were subjected to phylogenetic and phylogeographic analysis. The results revealed that the subgroup Va in variant PEDV group were the dominant subgroup and the spread trend of variant PEDV strains seemed to be from the southeast coastal districts to other coastal districts and interior districts. The N-terminal of S gene (1–750 bp), to some extent, could represent S1 or full length S gene for phylogenetic, similarity, antigen index, hydrophilicity plot, and differentiation analyses. The 404–472 bp of S gene contained the three genetic markers, i.e., “TAA” insertion at 404–405 bp, “ACAGGT” deletion at 430–435 bp, and “ATA” deletion at 455–457 bp can be used to differentiate the classical and variant virulent parental/attenuated PEDV strains and help us to learn the infectious and genetic characteristics of PEDV strains more convenient and cheaper. This study has important implication for understanding the infectious, genetic, and evolutionary aspects of PEDV strains in Chinese mainland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider secret key generation by a pair of mobile nodes utilizing observations of their relative locations in the presence of a mobile eavesdropper. In our proposed algorithm, the legitimate node pair makes noisy observations of the relative locations of each other. Based on these observations, the nodes generate secret key bits via information reconciliation, data compression, and privacy amplification. We characterize a theoretically achievable secret key bit rate in terms of the observation noise variance at the legitimate nodes and the eavesdropper and show that the performance of our algorithm is comparable to the theoretical bounds. We also test our algorithm in a vehicular setting based on observations made using wireless beacon exchange between the legitimate nodes. To achieve this, we used TelosB wireless radios mounted on the sides of the vehicles on local roads and freeways. Note that our approach relies solely on distance reciprocity, and thus, it is not restricted to the use of wireless radios and can be used with other localization systems (e.g., infrared and ultrasound systems) as well. Overall, this study proves, via both information theoretic and practical analysis, that localization information provides a significant additional resource for secret key generation in mobile networks. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Synthetically designed antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) present the potential of replacing antibiotics in the treatment of bacterial infections. However, microbial resistance to AMPs has been reported and little is known regarding the underlying mechanism of such resistance. The naturally occurring AMP cecropin B (CB) disrupts the anionic cell membranes of Gram-negative bacteria. In this study, CB resistance (CBR) was induced in Haemophilusparasuis SH0165 by exposing it to a series of CB concentrations. The CB-resistant H.parasuis strains CBR30 and CBR30-50 were obtained. The growth curves of SH0165 and CBR30 showed that CBR30 displayed lower growth rates than SH0165. The result of transmission electron microscopy showed cell membranes of the CB-resistant CBR30 and CBR30-50 were smoother than SH0165. Microarrays detected 257 upregulated and 254 downregulated genes covering 20 clusters of orthologous groups (COGs) of the CB-resistant CBR30 compared with SH0165 (>1.5-fold change, p < 0.05). Sixty genes were affected in CBR30-50 covering 18 COGs, with 28 upregulated and 32 downregulated genes. Under the COG function classification, the majority of affected genes in the CB-resistant CBR30 and CBR30-50 belong to the category of inorganic ion transport, amino acid transport, and metabolism. The microarray results were validated by real-time quantitative reverse transcription PCR. This study may provide useful guidance for understanding the molecular mechanism underlying H.parasuis resistance to CB. © 2014 S. Karger AG, Basel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Traditional nondestructive failure localization techniques are increasingly difficult to meet the requirements of high density and integration of system in package (SIP) devices in terms of resolution and accuracy. Time domain reflection (TDR) is recognized as a novel positioning analysis technology gradually being used in the electronics industry because of the good compatibility, high accuracy and high efficiency. However, there are limited reports focus on the application of TDR technology to SiP devices. Design/methodology/approach: In this study, the authors used the TDR technique to locate the failure of SiP devices, and the results showed that the TDR technique can accurately locate the cracking of internal solder joints of SiP devices. Findings: The measured transmission rate of electromagnetic wave signal was 9.56 × 107 m/s in the experimental SiP devices. In addition, the TDR technique successfully located the failure point, which was mainly caused by the cracking of the solder joint at the edge of the SiP device after 1,500 thermal cycles. Originality/value: TDR technology is creatively applied to SiP device failure location, and quantitative analysis is realized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The PRE ecological status was "poor" on average (microgAMBI = 3.82). • The microgAMBI index could represent both eutrophication and fecal pollution levels. • 57 genus level bio-indicators for the PRE eutrophication or hypoxia were identified. Microbial assemblages, as fundamental components of the ecosystem, are largely neglected in current ecological monitoring. In this study, we employed a microbial community-based index (microgAMBI) to assess the ecological status of the Pearl River estuary (PRE) in China. Microorganisms of different water layers and size fractions were collected. The assessment results showed that the PRE ecological status was "poor" on average (microgAMBI = 3.82). The index values decreased from the upper estuary to offshore areas and showed positive correlations with nutrients, and fecal indicator bacteria, suggesting that the index could represent both eutrophication and fecal pollution levels. In addition, using a machine learning analysis (LEfSe), we identified hgcI clade , Ottowia , Marinobacterium, and 54 more taxa at the genus level as eutrophication or hypoxia bio-indicators, which could supplement the database of the microgAMBI to improve assessment accuracy. Further monitoring programs should consider incorporating this microbial community-based index to achieve a higher level of integrative assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lifetime is a key performance parameter of storage rings. DC current transformers (DCCT) are common employed to measure beam lifetime, which can only be applied to measure average lifetime. However, the physical lifetime formula is only strictly established for a single bunch. In order to provides a toolkit for complete and accurate representation of the behavior of all electron bunches, a bunch-by-bunch beam lifetime measurement system has been developed at the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility. A beam-position-monitor was used as the detector of beam-charge-monitor. Several effective techniques have been introduced to improve the resolution and data refresh rate of the single bunch charge measurement. Resolution of the new bunch-by-bunch charge monitor is better than 0.02% and data refresh rate is 140 Hz. A dedicated algorithm has been developed to extract lifetime of single bunch. Resolution of bunch-by-bunch vacuum lifetime measurement is 1 h. System setup, experiments and data analysis are presented in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nickel base superalloys are widely used to manufacture turbine blades, and overheating poses a serious threat to the safe service of turbine blades. In this study, a second-generation nickel base single crystal superalloy was taken as the research object, and we carried out the overheating treatment at 1100 °C and 1300 °C, and then tested the creep properties at 1000 °C/300 MPa and 1100 °C/130 MPa. Through systematic analysis of creep properties, γ/γ' phases, and creep voids, the effects of overheating on the microstructures and creep properties of the experimental superalloy were revealed. The results demonstrate that the effect of overheating at 1100 °C on the microstructure of the experimental superalloy can be ignored, and the effect on the creep property is limited. The degree of γ' dissolution is gradually increased and the creep property is reduced with overheating time extending at the overheating temperature of 1300 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The principle of invariance is a mandatory methodological requirement for the psychological measures, even when items such as self-concept measures frequently present asymmetric heavy-tailed distributions. Few validated self-concept instruments can be applied in Eastern–Western cross-cultural studies. The Five-Factor Self-Concept Questionnaire (AF5) is one of the few psychometrically sound instruments used to assess multidimensional self-concept in Spanish-speaking samples. The availability of the AF5 in Spanish and Chinese would facilitate cross-cultural research. To validate the Chinese version of the AF5, we used multisample confirmatory factor analysis with transformed dichotomous scales from the median to compare four alternative theoretical models. The sample consisted of 2507 participants (52.3% women) from China (n = 1298) and Spain (n = 1209), ranging in age from 19 to 35. Analyses confirmed the five-factor structure of the Chinese AF5 (i.e., academic, social, emotional, family, and physical) compared to the Spanish sample. Moreover, the Chinese version of the AF5 was found to be invariant in terms of item-factor weights, factor variance, and between-factor covariance, compared to the original Spanish version. The findings from this first validation study indicate that the Chinese version of the AF5 is an acceptable measure for use with Chinese-speaking adolescents and young adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oxide matrix red-emitting phosphors are deemed as excellent color converters for white light emitting diodes (WLEDs) and laser diodes (LDs). Manganese-doped MgAl2O4 powder was synthesized by a solid-state reaction method at different sintering temperatures. Microstructure shows that grain size is mainly in the range of 0.2–5 μm, and grain agglomeration occurs with increased sintering temperature. XPS analysis indicates that the doped Mn ion exhibits a valence state of + 4 within the MgAl2O4 matrix. The diffraction peak of the phosphors is shifted by the sintering temperature, which affects lattice constant. Upon excitation by 300 nm ultraviolet light, the samples emit asymmetric broadband red light within the range of 620–720 nm, attributed to Mn4+ ion’s transition from 2Eg to 4A2g states. With the increasing temperature, the main emission peak shifts from 677 nm to 650 nm, ascribed to the change in energy level (2Eg) resulting from the reduction of Al2O3 phase. Crystal field theory confirmed that Mn4+ ions are within a strong crystal field environment created by MgAl2O4 matrix. By affecting particle size and crystallinity, the sintering temperature influences the fluorescence lifetime of the Mn4+ ion. Notably, these red-emitting phosphors exhibits remarkable thermal stability as their emission intensity remains approximately at 58% of initial intensity even at elevated temperature (435 K). Consequently, Mn4+: MgAl2O4 red-emitting phosphors with high thermal stability render them promising candidates for WLED applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The method can identify PEDV variant strains, classical wild and vaccine strains. • The multiplex RT-PCR has high consistency compared with the conventional RT-PCR. • It was successfully applied to clinical detection and identification of PEDV strain. • It revealed the prevalence of different PEDV strains in China. Due to outbreaks of porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) and the wide use of attenuated live vaccine, both wild-type and vaccine strains (CV777) are believed to circulate in Chinese pig farms. Thus, identification of different PEDV strains is of epidemiological importance. In this study, a multiplex RT-PCR method was established based on the sequence features of spike (S) gene and ORF3 gene of PEDVs. The method could identify PEDV variant strains, classical wild-type strains and classical vaccine strains. The limit of detection of the RT-PCR was 1.51 × 104 copies/uL for plasmids and 1 × 101.7 TCID 50 /100 u L for PEDV, respectively. There were no cross-detections among three different PEDVs and no false detections among six swine pathogens. This assay was used to test 940 samples from China of which 303 samples were PEDV positive, and 289, 5, 10 were positive for variant, classical wild, classical vaccine, respectively. One sample was positive for both variant and classical vaccine PEDV. The variant PEDVs could be detected in samples from 13 provinces, while classical PEDVs were detected from nine provinces, supporting the prevalence of variant PEDV in China. In summary, this multiplex RT-PCR was a useful tool for the clinical detection and epidemiological survey of PEDV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The epidemiology and genetic diversity of transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) in the United States (US) was investigated by testing clinical cases for TGEV by real time RT-PCR between January 2008 and November 2016. Prevalence of TGEV ranged between 3.8-6.8% and peaked during cold months until March 2013, in which prevalence decreased to < 0.1%. Nineteen complete TGEV genomes and a single strain of porcine respiratory coronavirus (PRCV) from the US were generated and compared to historical strains to investigate the evolution of these endemic coronaviruses. Sixteen of our TGEV strains share 8 unique deletions and 119 distinct amino acid changes, which might greatly affect the biological characteristics of the variant TGEV, and resulted in a "variant" genotype of TGEV. The "variant" genotype shared similar unique deletions and amino acid changes with the recent PRCV strain identified in this study, suggesting a recombination event occurred between the "variant" TGEV and PRCV. Moreover, the results indicate the "variant" genotype is the dominant genotype circulating in the US. Therefore, this study provides insight into the occurrence, origin, genetic characteristics, and evolution of TGEV and PRCV circulating in the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porcine rotavirus-A (PoRVA) is one of the common causes of mild to severe dehydrating diarrhea, leading to losses in weaning and postweaning piglets. A rapid, highly specific, and sensitive antigen-capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (AC-ELISA) was developed for detection of PoRVA, by using VP6 (a highly conserved and antigenic protein of group-A rotavirus)-directed rabbit polyclonal antibodies (capture antibody) and murine monoclonal antibodies (detector antibody). The detection limit of AC-ELISA was found to be equal to that of conventional reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR; about 102.5 TCID50/mL). For validation of the in-house AC-ELISA, 295 porcine fecal/diarrhea samples, collected from different provinces of China, were evaluated and compared with conventional RT-PCR and TaqMan RT-quantitative PCR (qPCR). The sensitivity and specificity of this in-house AC-ELISA relative to RT-qPCR were found to be 91.67% and 100%, respectively, with the strong agreement (kappa = 0.972) between these two techniques. Total detection rate with AC-ELISA, conventional RT-PCR, and RT-qPCR were found to be 11.2%, 11.5%, and 12.2%, respectively, without any statistical significant difference. Moreover, AC-ELISA failed to detect any cross-reactivity with porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, transmissible gastroenteritis virus, pseudorabies virus, and porcine circovirus-2. These results suggested that our developed method was rapid, highly specific, and sensitive, which may help in large-scale surveillance, timely detection, and preventive control of rotavirus infection in porcine farms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The re-emerging porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) variant related diarrhea has been documented in China since late 2010 and now with global distribution. Currently, a virulent PEDV CH/YNKM-8/2013 and a CV777 vaccine strain-like AH-M have been successfully isolated from the clinical samples. To dissect out the underlying pathogenic mechanism of virulent PEDV and clarify the differences between virulent and CV777 vaccine strain-like PEDV infections, we performed an iTRAQ-based comparative quantitative proteomic study of Vero cells infected with both PEDV strains. A total of 661 and 474 differentially expressed proteins were identified upon virulent and CV777 vaccine strain-like isolates infection, respectively. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis was employed to investigate the canonical pathways and functional networks involved in both PEDV infections. Comprehensive studies have revealed that the PEDV virulent strain suppressed protein synthesis of Vero cells through down-regulating mTOR as well as its downstream targets 4EBP1 and p70S6K activities, which were validated by immunoblotting. In addition, the virulent strain could activate NF-κB pathway more intensively than the CV777 vaccine strain-like isolate, and elicit stronger inflammatory cascades as well. These data might provide new insights for elucidating the specific pathogenesis of PEDV infection, and pave the way for the development of effective therapeutic strategies. Biological significance Porcine epidemic diarrhea is now worldwide distributed and causing huge economic losses to swine industry. The immunomodulation and pathogenesis between PEDV and host, as well as the difference between virulent and attenuated strains of PEDV infections are still largely unknown. In this study, we presented for the first application of proteomic analysis to compare whole cellular protein alterations induced by virulent and CV777 vaccine strain-like PEDV infections, which might contribute to understand the pathogenesis of PEDV and anti-viral strategy development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One-step catalytic gasification is an emerging technology for the production of synthetic natural gas (SNG). However, limited information is available regarding the process simulation and system analysis of the entire process from the system level. In this study, an entire process model of catalytic gasification for SNG production was developed, and the corresponding process optimization and energy and exergy analyses were conducted. To achieve high methane production, the gasifier should be operated at a gasification temperature ≤1023.15 K, gasification pressure ≥30 atm, and water-bagasse ratio ≈0.35. Under the typical catalytic gasification conditions (973.15 K and 35 atm), the molar fraction of methane and the high heat value of the final SNG were 87.7% and 36.44 MJ/Nm3, respectively. The highest energy and exergy inputs, 50.72% and 50.03%, respectively, were derived from the methanol employed in gas purification. The second highest energy and exergy inputs, 38.31% and 40.63%, respectively, were derived from bagasse. The total irreversible exergy loss accounted for 8.22% of the total exergy output, which was mainly consumed in catalytic gasification and gas purification at proportions of 69.0% and 29.02%, respectively. The total energy and exergy efficiencies of the entire process were 34.64% and 33.91%, respectively. [Display omitted] • Methanol and bagasse carry 50.72% and 38.31% of total energy inputs, respectively. • Total energy and exergy efficiencies are 34.64% and 33.91%, respectively. • Total irreversible exergy loss accounts for 8.22% of total exergy output. • Gasifier contributes 69% of total exergy loss followed by gas purification (29.02%). • Strategies to improve the energy and exergy efficiencies are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Clinical therapy of multidrug resistant (MDR) bacteria‐induced deep‐tissue infections such as pneumonia is highly challenging. Ultrasound (US)‐induced sonodynamic therapy (SDT) is a promising strategy for treatment of deep‐tissue diseases given the strong tissue penetration of US. Here, ZIF‐8‐derived carbon@TiO2 nanoparticles (ZTNs) are developed as inhalable sonosensitizers for bacterial pneumonia. ZTNs upon US irradiation exhibit an excellent efficacy to produce reactive oxygen species (ROS) and thereby to kill Gram‐negative MDR bacteria in vitro. Taking advantage of aerosolized intratracheal inoculation, ZTNs can be precisely delivered to lung infection sites, and display an effective SDT‐based elimination of Gram‐negative MDR bacteria in the lung infection models of immunocompetent or immunodeficient mice. Particularly, ZTNs upon US irradiation give a 100% survival rate in the severely immunodeficient NOD/SCID mice with a lethal bacterial pneumonia. In addition, ZTNs have no obvious toxicity at both cellular and animal levels. Metal–organic‐framework‐derived nanoparticles as safe and efficient inhalable sonosensitizer have a great potential to be used for the clinical antibiotics‐alternative treatment of MDR bacterial pneumonia. This study presents a new paradigm for SDT‐based treatment of deep‐tissue bacterial infections, and will expand the nanomedicine application of inorganic sonosensitizers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photothermal therapy based on conjugated polymers represents a promising antibacterial strategy but still possesses notable limitations. Herein, degradable pseudo conjugated polymers (PCPs) containing photothermal molecular backbones and reactive oxygen species (ROS)‐sensitive thioketal bonds are designed. Triphenylphosphine (PPh3) is introduced into PCPs to generate phosphonium‐based PCPs (pPCPs), which further assembled with hyaluronic acid into pPCP nanoparticles (pPCP‐NPs). pPCP‐NPs with quaternary phosphonium cations selectively anchor on and destroy bacterial cell membranes through electrostatic action. Under 1064 nm laser irradiation, pPCP‐NPs (pPCP‐NPs/+L) produce near‐infrared‐II (NIR‐II) photothermal antibacterial effect, thereby killing bacteria in a sustained manner. pPCP‐NPs are readily degraded upon ROS abundant at infection sites, therefore exhibiting enough biosafety. pPCP‐NPs/+L display an almost 100% bacterial inhibition rate in vitro and resultin a nearly complete recovery of bacteria‐induced mouse wounds. A further metabolomics analysis denotes that pPCP‐NPs/+L work in a concerted way to induce bacterial DNA damage, inhibit bacterial carbon/nitrogen utilization and amino acid/nucleotide synthesis. Taken together, degradable pPCP‐NPs with both NIR‐II photothermal effect and cationic phosphonium structural bacteriostasis provide a new avenue for antibiotics‐alternative anti‐infection therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The successful implementation of the low-carbonization strategy is heavily reliant on the development of low-loss and high-efficiency green antenna technology. However, long-term exposure to high heat and oxygen leads to the degradation of antenna materials and the release of harmful substances. Studies on the aging behavior and mechanism of the antenna materials are of essence to realize the low-carbonization strategy. To address this issue, an unplasticized polyvinyl chloride filled with calcium carbonate (uPVC/CaCO 3) has been successfully prepared using the injection molding technique. After that, the aging behavior, mechanism, and working lifetime were comprehensively explored under thermal and oxidative conditions. It is found that the composite maintains a high level of functionality for up to 24 years at 60 ℃ and 4.5 years at 70 ℃ on the impact strength failure criterion. The simultaneous oxidation and dehydrochlorination reaction, cross-linking reaction, and deterioration of the interaction between components are responsible for the aging of the uPVC/CaCO 3 composite. These findings provide valuable insights into the development of radome materials for achieving low-loss and high-efficiency green antenna technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the improvement and safety of intrathecal meropenem and vancomycin in the treatment of postoperative intracranial infection in patients with severe traumatic brain injury (STBI). A retrospective analysis was performed on 86 patients with intracranial infections after cranial trauma operation in Tai'an Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital and Affiliated Hospital of Taishan Medical University from May 2004 to June 2017. The patients were divided into the control group (43 patients) and the experimental group (43 patients) according to the treatment. Patients in the control group were intravenously infused with vancomycin hydrochloride (1.0 g, Q12H) and meropenem (2.0 g, Q8H). After lumbar cistern drainage was performed for the release of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), patients in the experimental group were slowly given vancomycin 20 mg. After the tube was flushed with 2 ml of 0.9% sodium chloride injection, the patients were slowly given meropenem 20 mg, bid. The clinical efficacy, cure time and treatment cost of patients in the two groups were observed. The adverse reactions and sequelae after 6 months of treatment were recorded. The response rate (RR) of patients in the experimental group was significantly higher than that in the control group (P<0.05). The cure time of patients in the experimental group was significantly lower than that in the control group (P<0.05). The treatment cost of patients in the experimental group was significantly lower than that in the control group (P<0.05). The incidence of adverse reactions of patients, incidence of sequelae of patients in the experimental group was significantly lower than that in the control group (P<0.05). Intrathecal meropenem and vancomycin is more effective than intravenous administration in the treatment of intracranial infection after craniotomy. It can significantly shorten the treatment time and reduce the treatment cost, with better safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high-gain Free Electron Lasers (FEL) have promised scientists for new scientific discoveries in many frontier research areas. For that purpose, this kind of facilities have been installed or will be installed worldwide. As to FELs, high repetition is the future development trend. Herein, wire scanner provides a measurement of beam profile which realizes real-time and non-intercepting for the FELs. The simulation of key parameters of wire scanner for the FELs is discussed in this paper. Since wire scanner for FELs mainly use tungsten wires, then empirical formula for optimum installation position of Beam Loss Monitor (BLM) and empirical formula for the maximum temperature of tungsten wires are given based on theoretical analysis and numerical simulation. These formulas can provide a reference for high repetition and high-gain FELs that will be installed with wire scanners in the future. In recent years, the Shanghai HIgh repetition rate XFEL aNd Extreme light facility (SHINE), a quasi-continuous wave hard X-ray free electron laser facility, is under construction in China. Upon its completion, the linear accelerator will accelerate electrons with bunch charge of 10–300 p C to 8 G e V , at a maximum repetition frequency of 1 M H z. We calculate key parameters of the wire scanner for SHINE with these empirical formulas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bacterial diseases of swine are a kind of multifactorial and uncontrollable diseases that commonly exist in pig farms all over the world and will lead to huge economic losses every year. In this study, a detailed and overall survey was carried out to better understand the prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibilities of bacterial diseases from 2013 to 2017 in China. A total of 19673 bacterial strains were isolated from 44175 samples collected from 9661 pig farms that distributed in 16 Chinese major pig breeding provinces. The results showed that the average isolation rates of Streptococcus suis (SS), Haemophilus parasuis (HPS), Escherichia coli (E. coli), Pasteurella multocida (Pm), Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (APP), Brodetella bronchiseptica (Bb), Salmonella enteria (SE), Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae (E. rhusiopathiae) were 16.9%, 9.7%, 6.3%, 3.4%, 0.3%, 1.5%, 2.3% and 0.9%, respectively. The isolate rates of E. coli, APP and SE showed an increasing trend from 2013 to 2017. The seasonal prevalence characteristics of SS, HPS and Pm were obviously higher from April to August for first two bacteria and higher at February, March, April, and October for Pm. The dominant serotypes for SS, HPS were serotype 2 and serotype 5 (changed from serotype 4), respectively. The SS, HPS, and Pm showed very high antibiotic resistance rates to almost 8 common antibiotics (β-lactam, aminoglycoside, macrolides, lincomycin, tetracycline, quinolone, polymyxin, and sulfonamide) and an obvious increasing trend of antibiotic resistance rates from 2013 to 2017. In conclusion, the study provides detailed information on the prevalence and antimicrobial susceptibilities of different bacterial pathogens of swine from 2013 to 2017 in China. These data can provide a foundation for monitoring epidemiological patterns of bacterial diseases in the Chinese swine herds, as well as provide insight into potential antibiotic resistance profiles in these pathogens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]