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Background: Human listeriosis is a severe foodborne infection caused by Listeria monocytogenes and the data of patients with this infection are largely limited for the Hefei population. Purpose: This is a retrospective study that evaluated the clinical and laboratory data of patients with listeriosis at a tertiary hospital in Hefei City. Patients and Methods: A total of 24 listeriosis patients were admitted to the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University from January 2003 to July 2021. Data from all patients were collected from the hospital's electronic medical records. Results: The most common symptom of all patients was fever (91.7%), followed by altered consciousness (50.0%), rashes (45.8%), respiratory distress symptoms (37.5%), nuchal rigidity (29.2%), and headaches (20.8%). Laboratory results also indicated elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) (79.1%), hypoproteinemia (75.0%), anemia (62.5%), leukocytosis (45.8%), and neutrophilia (45.8%). The mean value of 5.1 μg/mL (SD, 3.8) for D‐dimer (D‐D) was significantly higher than the normal value ((0.00– 0.50) μg/mL), while both altered consciousness (6 vs 4, P = 0.034) and headaches (4 vs 1, P = 0.036) occurred more frequently in the neurolisteriosis group compared with the bacteremia one. Additionally, the mean maximal body temperature (°C) (40.5 ± 0.7) as well as white blood cell (WBC) (15.3 vs 7.5 × 109/L, P = 0.014) and neutrophil (NEUT#) (13.2 vs 6.1 × 109/L, P = 0.026) counts of neurolisteriosis patients were higher than those of bacteremia (39.4 ± 0.4) (P = 0.001). Of all patients, four (50%) from the maternal-neonatal group remained uncured. Conclusion: Listeriosis is a rare disease with extremely variable clinical characteristics in Hefei City. Our data indicated that unexplained fever, altered consciousness, hypoproteinemia, anemia, elevated CRP and DD should be considered to assist diagnosis of listeriosis for early treatment interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared with the PV electricity generation, the hybrid Photovoltaic-thermoelectric (PV-TE) can generate more electricity due to its ability to utilize a wider solar spectrum than the PV. The PV-TE employing micro-channel heat pipe array is a novel PV-TE-MCHP system which is capable of providing high cost performance compared to the traditional PV-TE due to the use of the micro-channel heat pipe array. In this paper, the experimental investigation of this new system in summer in Hefei city, China is presented for the first time. The comparison between this system and PV alone is made, and the details are presented. The power output, PV temperature, and the hot and cold sides temperatures of the TE are all tested. The results show that the novel system has a higher electrical output than the PV alone. The electrical efficiencies of this system during the test are all higher than 14.0% and the PV temperatures are about 20 °C higher than the ambient temperature. Based on this experiment, the results also verify the feasibility of the new system, which will give a valuable reference for the PV-TE design. • Experiment on a novel Photovoltaic-thermoelectric system in summer was made. • The comparison between the PV-TE system and PV alone was indicated. • The PV temperature in PV-TE was about 20 °C higher than the ambient temperature. • The maximum electrical efficiency of the PV-TE WAS about 14.3%. • The PV-TE has a higher electrical output than the PV alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]