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Background: Stroke is the second most common cause of morbidity and mortality. Even mild stroke survivors have an increased risk of cognitive impairment. Studies have been conducted on the relationship between glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and cognitive decline, but the findings have been inconsistent. Therefore, this study examined the link between HbA1c levels and cognitive impairment following acute mild ischemic stroke. Methods: Data from 311 patients with acute mild ischemic stroke admitted to Suining Central Hospital, Sichuan Province, China, from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2018, were evaluated. Fasting venous blood was taken to assess HbA1c levels on the day after admission. Cognitive function was assessed using the Chinese version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Scale (MoCA) 3–6 months after stroke onset. We used a generalized additive model and smooth curve fitting (penalty spline method) to assess the nonlinear relationship between HbA1c and poststroke cognitive impairment (PSCI). Results: This study included 311 patients aged 23 to 96 years old (mean age: 67.37 ± 11.92 years), of whom 198 (63.67%) were men. Among the 311 stroke patients, 120 (38.59%) had PSCI. After adjusting for potential confounders, there was a nonlinear relationship between HbA1c and PSCI, with an inflection point of 8.2. To the left of the inflection point, the effect size, 95% confidence interval, and P value were 0.87, 0.58 to 1.31, and 0.5095, respectively; however, to the right of the inflection point, these numbers were 1.96, 1.08 to 3.58, and 0.0280. Conclusion: We found a nonlinear relationship between HbA1c and PSCI. When HbA1c was greater than 8.2%, HbA1c was positively correlated with PSCI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porcine transmissible gastroenteritis virus is the major pathogen that causes fatal diarrhea in newborn piglets. In this study, a TGEV strain was isolated from the small intestine of diarrhea piglets in Sichuan Province, China, and designated SC2021. The complete genomic sequence of TGEV SC2021 was 28561 bp, revealing a new natural deletion TGEV strain. Based on phylogenetic analyses, TGEV SC2021 belonged to the Miller cluster and was closely related to CN strains. The newborn piglets orally challenged with TGEV SC2021 showed typical watery diarrhea. In addition, macro and micropathological changes in the lungs and intestines were observed. In conclusion, we isolated a new natural deletion virus strain and confirmed that the virus strain has high pathogenicity in newborn piglets. Moreover, macroscopic and microscopic lesions were observed in the lungs and intestines of all TGEV SC2021-infected piglets. In summary, we isolated a new natural deletion TGEV strain and demonstrated that the natural deletion strain showed high pathogenicity in newborn piglets. These data enrich the diversity of TGEV strains and help us to understand the genetic evolution and molecular pathogenesis of TGEV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: PRRSV is one of the important pathogens that seriously affects the pig industry. Sichuan is a major pig breeding province in China and lacks long-term continuous surveillance of PRRSV infection in pigs. In this study, the prevalence of PRRSV in Sichuan was investigated based on a total of 539 samples of tissues, blood and aborted fetuses from 13 pig breeding areas in Sichuan. The genetic diversity of the virus currently circulating in Sichuan during 2012–2020 was studied by analyzing the genetic variation of Nsp2 and ORF5 genes. The detection results indicated that PRRSV was ubiquitous in the swine production in Sichuan, with 52.32% positive rate. Phylogenetic analysis of ORF5s showed that the PRRSV strains sequenced in this study belonged to PRRSV-1 and PRRSV-2 (lineage 1.5, 1.8, 3.5, 5.1 and 8.7). The data available in this study suggested that the genomes of prevalent PRRSV strains were complex and diverse. Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) is an important pathogen that poses a serious threat to the global pig industry. Sichuan Province is one of the largest pig breeding provinces in China. There is a lack of reports on the continuous surveillance and systematic analysis of prevalent strains of PRRSV in Sichuan Province in recent years. To fill this gap, a total of 539 samples were collected from 13 breeding regions in Sichuan during 2012–2020. The detection result showed that the positive rate of PRRSV was 52.32% (282/539). The ORF5s and Nsp2 were obtained and further analyzed, with Chinese reference strains downloaded from the GenBank. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the PRRSV strains sequenced in this study belonged to PRRSV-1 and PRRSV-2 (lineage 1, 3, 5 and 8). In total, 168 PRRSV-2 strains were selected for ORF5 analyses, and these strains were classified into sub-lineage 8.7 (HP-PRRSV), sub-lineage 5.1 (classical PRRSV), sub-lineage 1.8 (NADC30-like), sub-lineage 1.5 (NADC34-like) and sub-lineage 3.5 (QYYZ-like), accounting for 60.71% (102/168), 11.31% (19/168), 18.45% (31/168), 2.97% (5/168) and 6.55% (11/168) of the total analyzed strains, respectively. The Nsp2 of identified PRRSV strains exhibited a nucleotide identity of 44.5–100%, and an amino acid identity of 46.82–100%. The ORF5 of the identified PRRSV strains exhibited a nucleotide identity of 81.3–100%, and an amino acid identity of 78.5–100%. A sequence analysis of ORF5 revealed that the mutation sites of GP5 were mainly concentrated in HVR1 and HVR2 and the virulence sites. In summary, the HP-PRRSV, NADC30-like PRRSV, Classic-PRRSV, QYYZ-like PRRSV, NADC34-like PRRSV and PRRSV-1 strains exist simultaneously in pigs in Sichuan. NADC30-like PRRSV was gradually becoming the most prevalent genotype currently in Sichuan province. This study suggested that PRRSV strains in Sichuan were undergoing genomic divergence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is one of the most economically devastating viral diseases in the global pig industry. Recently, we isolated and plaque-purified porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) strain SC2020-1 from "aborted piglets" on a farm in Sichuan, China. To investigate the molecular biological characteristics of this strain, it was subjected to genome sequencing and analysis. The full-length genome sequence of strain SC2020-1 was 87.7% identical to that of the Lelystad strain (PRRSV type I protoype strain) and 82.2-84.8% identical to PRRSV type I isolates from China. NSP2, ORF3, and ORF4 were the most variable regions and contained discontinuous deletions or insertions when compared to other PRRSV type I strains. Phylogenetic analysis of the complete genome sequence showed that SC2020-1 clustered with PRRSV type I but outside of the three previously described branches (Lelystad virus-like, Amervac PRRS-like, and BJEU06-1-like). The Nsp2 gene was in the same branch with EUGDHD strains from China. This is the first report of PRRSV type I infection associated with abortion in sows in southwest China. Close attention should be paid to the prevention and control of this evolving virus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is one of the most economically devastating viral diseases in the global pig industry, including China. Recently, we successfully isolated a porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) from lung tissue and peripheral blood of piglets at a farm from Dujiangyan in Sichuan, China, and named it the DJY‐19 strain. The full‐length genome sequence of DJY‐19 shared 86.8%–94.1% nucleotide similarity with NADC30‐like and NADC30 PRRSV strains. We compared the open reading frame (ORF) 5 gene of DJY‐19 with 34 PRRSV strains from Genbank. Phylogenetic analysis showed that DJY‐19 clustered with NADC30 strains, characterized by a predicted 131‐amino‐acid deletion in the nonstructural protein (NSP) 2. The results of homology analysis showed that the homology between DJY‐19 and NADC30 (JN654459.1) strains was the highest (95.9%), whereas homology with other domestic strains was lower (80.9%–92.6%). Furthermore, we identified four recombination breakpoints in the DJY‐19 genome; they separated the DJY‐19 genome into four regions. The 8106–9128 nucleotide (nt) region of DIY‐19 was highly similar to the TJ strain, and the 12106–12580 nt region of DIY‐19 was highly similar to the JXA1‐R strain. Our findings demonstrate that DJY‐19 arose from the recombination of North America NADC30 strain and TJ strain and JXA1‐R in China. The application of multiple attenuated vaccine strains has led to complex recombination of PRRSV strains in China. This study provides a theoretical basis for making a more reasonable PRRS virus control and prevention strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Yangtze River Basin has periodically been subject to torrential rains and floods. It is of great significance to characterize the extreme precipitation patterns to learn about frequent flood characteristics in the Yangtze River Basin. Commonly, spatiotemporal characteristics of extreme precipitation was studied by regional frequency analysis method with site data. Spatial sparse site data may cause imprecise divisions of homogeneous regions. In this paper, the spatiotemporal characteristics of extreme precipitation was studied by regional frequency analysis with corrected satellite‐based grid precipitation data (Global Land Data Assimilation System, GLDAS) rather than site data. The results show that: (1) The corrected GLDAS daily precipitation data had greatly improved its ability to capture extreme precipitation events in Yangtze River Basin, as the data average accuracy increased from 0.215 before correction to 0.849 after correction. It is feasible to use satellite‐based grid precipitation data to replace the site data for the regional frequency analysis of extreme precipitation. (2) The Yangtze River Basin was categorized into seven homogeneous regions for the annual maximum 1‐day (RX1DAY) index with an automatic subjective adjustment method. (3) The regional growth curves and quantiles of the Yangtze River Basin were drawn for the return period for 2–100 years. (4) Spatial patterns of extreme daily precipitation series with a return period of 100 years indicated that the precipitation amount increases gradually from the upper to the lower Yangtze River Basin, from the "arid zone" to the "wet zone" and then to the "special wet zone", and the 100‐year return level of RX1DAY varied from 30.3 to 301.8 mm. There were three main precipitation centres, the Sichuan Basin, Dongting Lake Basin, and a great triangle area covering the Poyang Lake Basin and the south foot of Dabie Mountain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fate of the arsenic (As) under neutral hydrogeochemical conditions in the mining ecosystem has attracted increasing concern, as the ecological restoration of As provides a possibility for safe use of mine water. However, successful cases are still inadequately reported worldwide. Therefore, to investigate the As-behavior in the mine tailings ecosystem, a study of the Wanniangou tailings pond (regional largest V-Ti-Fe mine tailings pond, Sichuan province, China) and the downstream (Rehe River) was conducted. It involves hydro-geochemistry, mineralogy, biogeochemistry, and the Geographically Weighted Regression model (GWR). The results reveal that: (1) the pH range of the mine water is 6.32 to 7.21. The chemical weathering of tailings resulted in an abnormal As concentration in water (e.g., transport pipe wastewater 76.5 μg L−1, the outlet of tailings pond 28.4 μg L−1), and it declines to the national water quality guideline (<10 μg L−1) after 2.59 km from the pond outlet. (2) Although sulfide oxidation boosts As migration in the tailings, As ecological refixation is promoted by tailings particle percolation, river sediment absorption, and aquatic plant uptake. The As refixation behaviors vary spatially, corresponding with the diversity of precipitation and absorption. Besides, Manganese (oxides or/and hydroxides) is conducive to As coprecipitation in the neutral hydrogeochemical environment. (3) The site selection of the V-Ti-Fe mine tailings pond with a downstream longer than 3 km creates a toxic metals self-restoration buffer zone, which could relieve the contamination probability and make the mining wastewater re-utilization feasible. [Display omitted] • Sulfide oxidation of V-Ti-Fe mine tailings waste triggers the arsenic release. • Under neutral hydrogeochemical conditions, manganese is more conducive to arsenic fixation than iron. • The GWR model was adopted to identify water's spatial physicochemical changes that influence the arsenic fixation from sediments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]