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The influences of the geometrical parameters of interrupted annular groove fin mainly including the annular groove diameter, the groove arc length, and the fin spacing, on the fin side thermal-hydraulic characteristics of a finned circular tube exchanger were numerically investigated by actualizing the custom FORTRAN programing with SIMPLE algorithm in a non-orthogonal curvilinear co-ordinate system, and the regression formulas of average Nusselt number and friction factor with flow parameters and geometrical parameters were obtained. Compared with the referential plain fin, interrupted annular groove fin could significantly improve thermal performance under the same pumping power constraint, and Nusselt number is closely germane to the secondary flow, which implies that the fin side heat transfer is depended entirely on the secondary flow strength. For Nusselt number, the annular groove diameter and the groove arc length have positive effect, while the fin pitch, the groove circumferential and radial locations have negative effect. The dominant parameters influencing on friction factor in turn are the fin pitch, the groove radial location, and the annular groove diameter. The optimal annular groove diameter is screened, and found that the optimal annular groove diameter is closely related with Reynolds number under the same pumping power constraint, while under the same mass-flow rate constraint that is scarcely related with Reynolds number.

The thermal-hydraulic characteristics of a novel fin punched with curve trapezoidal vortex generators (CTVG) are investigated numerically. The effects of multi-parameters including the geometry of CTVG, the location of CTVG, and working condition on thermal performance are considered. On one hand, CTVG can availably lessen the size of tube wake zone, decrease the mechanical energy consumption and heighten the fin heat transfer ability in this area. On the other hand, the secondary flow strength is strengthened because the longitudinal vortices generated by CTVG, which efficiently enhances the heat transfer on the fin downstream CTVG. Close relationship exists between the volume-averaged secondary flow strength and the mean Nusselt number. For studied cases, the optimal circumferential location angle of ? = 90? is found, while the optimal radial location Dg is about 1.8 times the tube outside diameter. The smaller is the height or base length of CTVG, the better the thermal performance of the enhanced fin punched with CTVG. Better thermal performance is achieved as the fin spacing is about 0.24 times the tube outside diameter.

Exploring the spatial and temporal evolution characteristics of land use and its driving force can provide scientific basis for the construction of regional ecological civilization. Based on the remote sensing cloud computing platform of Google Earth Engine (GEE), the study took the remote sensing images of the three periods of 2000, 2010 and 2020 as the basic data and interpreted them to obtain the basic land use data of Putian city and its five districts and counties. The land-use change characteristics of Putian city in those periods were systematically analyzed by using the methods of single land-use dynamics and Geo-informatic Tupu, so as to reveal the Tupu characteristics of land-use transfer and the spatial-temporal evolution pattern in the past 20 years. Then social and economic development indicators were selected to further explore the key driving force of land-use evolution in the study area by canonical correspondence analysis. The results showed that: 1) the land use structure of Putian city was mainly composed of cultivated land and forest land, and the other land types were embedded in them and the built-up land continued to expand outward. 2) The spatial distribution of Tupu units of land use transfer in Putian city was significantly different, change types of land use were diversified and the areas of cultivated land and grassland transferred out were the most obvious. Different degrees of cultivated land abandonment had occurred in various regions. Putian city was facing great challenges in ensuring food security and curbing the non-agricultural and non grain of cultivated land. 3) The macro-economic development in a specific period, especially the urban expansion and the development of the secondary industry caused by the merger of cities and counties, were the key factors driving the spatial and temporal evolution of land use and the differential distribution pattern in Putian city. The author suggested that land resources should be used efficiently in addition to optimizing the layout of land use and carrying out the renovation of abandoned land. Therefore, the study proposed to strengthen the scientific planning and effective regulation of land use, combine spatial and temporal resources of cultivated land with agriculture, culture and tourism, and build ecological barriers and ecological corridors to ensure the coordinated and sustainable development of regional ecology and economy.

The formation of underground stem bulblets in lilies is a complex biological process which is key in their micropropagation. Generally, it involves a stem-to-bulblet transition; however, the underlying mechanism remains elusive. It is important to understand the regulatory mechanism of bulblet formation for the reproductive efficiency of Lilium. In this study, we investigated the regulatory mechanism of underground stem bulblet formation under different conditions regarding the gravity point angle of the stem, i.e., vertical (control), horizontal, and slanting. The horizontal and slanting group displayed better formation of bulblets in terms of quality and quantity compared with the control group. A transcriptome analysis revealed that sucrose and starch were key energy sources for bulblet formation, auxin and cytokinin likely promoted bulblet formation, and gibberellin inhibited bulblet formation. Based on transcriptome analysis, we identified the LoLOB18 gene, a homolog to AtLOB18, which has been proven to be related to embryogenic development. We established the stem bud growth tissue culture system of Lilium and silenced the LoLOb18 gene using the VIGS system. The results showed that the bulblet induction was reduced with down-regulation of LoLOb18, indicating the involvement of LoLOb18 in stem bulblet formation in lilies. Our research lays a solid foundation for further molecular studies on stem bulblet formation of lilies.

A new phosphatidylinositol transporter gene was isolated from the T-DNA insertion mutant libraries of rice. The RT-PCR and GUS staining showed that it belonged to embryo specific expression gene. The phonotype of growth and development revealed that the growth was slower and leaf yellowing than that of wild type before 5-leaf stage in rice seedlings, and it was completely restored until to 5-leaf stage. Further, the transcriptome sequencing results showed that the gene affected the nitrogen metabolism signal pathway between mutant and wild type. In addition, our study revealed an important phosphatidylinositol transporter protein which can control the growth development and promote nitrate transporter and absorption in rice seedling stage.

Background. Since 2020 COVID-19 pandemic became an emergent public sanitary incident. The epidemiology data and the impact on prognosis of secondary infection in severe and critical COVID-19 patients in China remained largely unclear.Methods. We retrospectively reviewed medical records of all adult patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 who were admitted to ICUs from January 18th 2020 to April 26th 2020 at two hospitals in Wuhan, China and one hospital in Guangzhou, China. We measured the frequency of bacteria and fungi cultured from respiratory tract, blood and other body fluid specimens. The risk factors for and impact of secondary infection on clinical outcomes were also assessed. Results. Secondary infections were very common (86.6%) when patients were admitted to ICU for >72 hours. The majority of infections were respiratory, with the most common organisms being Klebsiella pneumoniae (24.5%), Acinetobacter baumannii (21.8%), Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (9.9%), Candida albicans (6.8%), and Pseudomonas spp. (4.8%). Furthermore, the proportions of multidrug resistant (MDR) bacteria and carbapenem resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) were high. We also found that age ≥60 years and mechanical ventilation ≥13days independently increased the likelihood of secondary infection. Finally, patients with positive cultures had reduced ventilator free days in 28 days and patients with CRE and/or MDR bacteria positivity showed lower 28 day survival rate.Conclusions. In a retrospective cohort of severe and critical COVID-19 patients admitted to ICUs in China, the prevalence of secondary infection was high, especially with CRE and MDR bacteria, resulting in poor clinical outcomes.

To investigate the effect of EGFR-TKI targeted therapy in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).Eighty-four cases of NSCLC were retrospectively assigned into an observation group (OG, n=42) and a control group (CG, n=42) according to the treatment methods. The CG received conventional chemotherapy, and the OG received icotinib hydrochloride EGFR-TKI targeted therapy. The clinical efficacy, cellular immunity, humoral immunity, quality of life, adverse reactions and survival time were compared between the two groups. Cox regression analysis was used to analyze the factors influencing the prognosis of advanced NSCLC.The total response rate was substantially higher, and the incidence of adverse reactions was considerably lower in the OG than those in the CG (all P0.05). The post-treatment SF-36 score was increased in both groups with significantly higher score in the OG than the CG (all P0.001). The post-treatment CD4EGFR-TKI targeted therapy can relieve clinical symptoms, and improve immune function and quality of life of patients with advanced NSCLC, which is worthy of clinical application.

The bulb formation of Lilium is affected by many physiological and biochemical phenomena, including flower bud differentiation, starch and sucrose accumulation, photoperiod, carbon fixation, plant hormone transduction, etc. The transcriptome analysis of flower buds of Lilium hybrid ‘Siberia’ at different maturity stages showed that floral bud formation is associated with the accumulation of anthocyanins. The results of HPLC-MS showed that cyanidin is the major anthocyanin found in Lilium ‘Siberia’. Transcriptome KEGG enrichment analysis and qRT-PCR validation showed that two genes related to flavonoid biosynthesis (LhANS-rr1 and LhDFR) were significantly up-regulated. The functional analysis of differential genes revealed that LhMYB114 was directly related to anthocyanin accumulation among 19 MYB transcription factors. Furthermore, the qRT-PCR results suggested that their expression patterns were very similar at different developmental stages of the lily bulbs. Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) revealed that down-regulation of LhANS-rr1, LhDFR, and LhMYB114 could directly lead to a decrease in anthocyanin accumulation, turning the purple phenotype into a white color. Moreover, this is the first report to reveal that LhMYB114 can regulate anthocyanin accumulation at the mature stage of lily bulbs. The accumulation of anthocyanins is an important sign of lily maturity. Therefore, these findings have laid a solid theoretical foundation for further discussion on lily bulb development in the future.

Legume/cereal intercropping has been widely studied within ecosystem function, owing to its overyield potential, predominantly by dinitrogen (N

Flavonoids play a key role as a secondary antioxidant defense system against different biotic and abiotic stresses, and also act as coloring compounds in various fruiting plants. In this study, fruit samples of purple (Passiflora edulis f. edulis) and yellow (Passiflora edulis f. flavicarpa) passion fruit were collected at five developmental stages (i.e., fruitlet, green, veraison, maturation, and ripening stage) from an orchard located at Nanping, Fujian, China. The contents of flavonoid, anthocyanin, proanthocyanin, and their metabolites were determined using ultra-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS), activities of key enzymes involved in flavonoid metabolism were measured, and expression profiling of related genes was done using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). The results revealed that total flavonoids, anthocyanins, and procyanidins were found to be increased in the fruit peel of both cultivars with fruit maturity. Total flavonoids, anthocyanins, procyanidins, flavonoid metabolites (i.e., rutin, luteolin, and quercetin), and anthocyanin metabolites (i.e., cyanidin-3-O-glucoside chloride, peonidin-3-O-glucoside, and pelargonidin-3-O-glucoside) were found abundant in the peel of purple passion fruit, as compared to yellow passion fruit. Principle component analysis showed that the enzymes, i.e., C4H, 4CL, UFGT, and GST were maybe involved in the regulation of flavonoids metabolism in the peel of passion fruit cultivars. Meanwhile, PePAL4, Pe4CL2,3, PeCHS2, and PeGST7 may play an important role in flavonoid metabolism in fruit peel of the passion fruit. This study provides new insights for future elucidation of key mechanisms regulating flavonoids biosynthesis in passion fruit.

The aim of the current study was to establish a simple method for effectively inducing memory T lymphocytes by the intraperitoneal injection of spleen lymphocytes into mice. In total, 75 mice were divided into the following groups: an injection group administered three doses of spleen lymphocytes (1 × 106 , 5 × 106 , and 1 × 107 cells), a transplantation group in which a 0.25-cm2 skin section from C57BL/6 mice was transplanted onto the back of the recipient, and a control group in which an equal volume of phosphate-buffered saline was injected. At 1, 2, or 3 months following transplantation, the following parameters were evaluated: quantity of T lymphocytes, percentage of cluster of differentiation 8+ (CD8+ ) memory T cells, and proliferation index of purified CD8+ memory T cells. No significant differences among groups were detected at 1 month (p > .05). However, the injection group administered 1 × 106 cells exhibited the highest proportion of CD8+ memory T cells among all groups at 2 months, and the proportions of CD8+ T cells were higher in the three injection groups than in the skin transplantation and control groups at 3 months. The proportions of memory T cells were higher in the injection groups administered 5 × 106 or 1 × 107 cells than in the skin transplantation and control groups at 3 months. The newly established method effectively induces memory T lymphocytes via the intraperitoneal injection of spleen lymphocytes in vivo and has potential applications in the field of immunotherapy.

BACKGROUND: Mechanical ventilation (MV) is an important lifesaving method in intensive care unit (ICU). Prolonged MV is associated with ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) and other complications. However, premature weaning from MV may lead to higher risk of reintubation or mortality. Therefore, timely and safe weaning from MV is important. In addition, identification of the right patient and performing a suitable weaning process is necessary. Although several guidelines about weaning have been reported, compliance with these guidelines is unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore the variation of weaning in China, associations between initial MV reason and clinical outcomes, and factors associated with weaning strategies using a multicenter cohort. METHODS: This multicenter retrospective cohort study will be conducted at 17 adult ICUs in China, that included patients who were admitted in this 17 ICUs between October 2020 and February 2021. Patients under 18 years of age and patients without the possibility for weaning will be excluded. The questionnaire information will be registered by a specific clinician in each center who has been evaluated and qualified to carry out the study. DISCUSSION: In a previous observational study of weaning in 17 ICUs in China, weaning practices varies nationally. Therefore, a multicenter retrospective cohort study is necessary to be conducted to explore the present weaning methods used in China. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR) (No. ChiCTR2100044634).

To compare the difference of low-level assisted ventilation and T-piece method on respiratory mechanics of patients with invasive mechanical ventilation during spontaneous breathing trial (SBT) within 3 days before extubation.A retrospective observational study was conducted. Twenty-five patients with difficulty in weaning or delayed weaning from invasive mechanical ventilation who were admitted to department of critical care medicine of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University from December 2018 to June 2020, and were in stable condition and entered the weaning stage after more than 72 hours of invasive mechanical ventilation were studied. A total of 119 cases of respiratory mechanical indexes were collected, which were divided into the low-level assisted ventilation group and the T-piece group according to the ventilator method and parameters used during the data collection. The different ventilation modes related respiratory mechanics indexes such as the esophageal pressure (Pes), the gastric pressure (Pga), the transdiaphragmatic pressure (Pdi), the maximum Pdi (Pdimax), Pdi/Pdimax ratio, the esophageal pressure-time product (PTPes), the gastric pressure-time product (PTPga), the transdiaphragmatic pressure-time product (PTPdi), the diaphragmatic electromyography (EMGdi), the maximum diaphragmatic electromyography (EMGdimax), PTPdi/PTPes ratio, Pes/Pdi ratio, the inspiratory time (Ti), the expiratory time (Te) and the total time respiratory cycle (Ttot) at the end of monitoring were recorded and compared between the two groups.Compared with the T-piece group, Pes, PTPes, PTPdi/PTPes ratio, Pes/Pdi ratio and Te were higher in low-level assisted ventilation group [Pes (cmHWhen mechanically ventilated patients undergo SBT, the use of T-piece method increases the work of breathing compared with low-level assisted ventilation method. Therefore, long-term use of T-piece should be avoided during SBT.

The aim of the current study was to establish a simple method for effectively inducing memory T lymphocytes by the intraperitoneal injection of spleen lymphocytes into mice. In total, 75 mice were divided into the following groups: an injection group administered three doses of spleen lymphocytes (1 × 106, 5 × 106, and 1 × 107 cells), a transplantation group in which a 0.25‐cm2 skin section from C57BL/6 mice was transplanted onto the back of the recipient, and a control group in which an equal volume of phosphate‐buffered saline was injected. At 1, 2, or 3 months following transplantation, the following parameters were evaluated: quantity of T lymphocytes, percentage of cluster of differentiation 8+ (CD8+) memory T cells, and proliferation index of purified CD8+ memory T cells. No significant differences among groups were detected at 1 month (p > .05). However, the injection group administered 1 × 106 cells exhibited the highest proportion of CD8+ memory T cells among all groups at 2 months, and the proportions of CD8+ T cells were higher in the three injection groups than in the skin transplantation and control groups at 3 months. The proportions of memory T cells were higher in the injection groups administered 5 × 106 or 1 × 107 cells than in the skin transplantation and control groups at 3 months. The newly established method effectively induces memory T lymphocytes via the intraperitoneal injection of spleen lymphocytes in vivo and has potential applications in the field of immunotherapy., Processing of donor samples: The details of the memory T‐cell induction strategy are shown in Figure 1. All mice underwent aseptic surgery. The donor C57BL/6 mice were sacrificed by neck dislocation, and the skin grafts were cut into sections of 0.25 cm2 followed by disinfection by soaking in 75% alcohol for 5 min. The spleens of donor mice were aseptically excised and used to make lymphocyte suspensions. The lymphocytes were counted using a hemocytometer, diluted to 1 × 106, 5 × 106, and 1 × 107, resuspended in 0.2 ml of phosphate‐buffered saline (PBS), and used for intraperitoneal injections. Skin transplantation and injections: The mice in the skin transplantation group were anesthetized using 0.1 ml/10 g 1% sodium pentobarbital following systemic disinfection. A 0.25‐cm2 section of skin on the back of each mouse was replaced with the donor skin and sutured around the edge of the section. Mice in the injection groups were injected with three doses (1 × 106, 5 × 106, or 1 × 107 cells) of the prepared lymphocyte suspensions, taking care to avoid puncturing the internal organs, and the same volume of PBS was injected into control mice. Following surgery, mice in the skin transplantation group were disinfected with 75% alcohol daily to avoid infection. The donor skin that was sutured onto the back of the recipients became necrotic and was shed ~8 days postoperation, with gradual wound healing. Collection of T lymphocytes: After the mice were sacrificed by cervical dislocation, they were placed in the right lateral position, the skin surface was disinfected with 75% alcohol, the skin was cut with sterile surgical instruments, and the spleen was removed. The spleen was placed in a vessel containing PBS, and cells in the spleen were carefully collected with syringes and fully suspended in PBS. An autoclaved filter was used to filter the cell suspension. Centrifugation was performed and the supernatant was discarded. Red cells in the pellet were lysed by the addition of red blood cells lysate buffer. Cells were washed with PBS three times and centrifuged to obtain PBMCs, which were ready for subsequent experiments.

BACKGROUND: Patients with difficult weaning who undergo mechanical ventilation are more likely to be at risk of reintubation and the sequential use of oxygen therapy after extubation is a concern for clinicians. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to compare the effects of transnasal high-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) oxygen therapy and non-invasive positive-pressure ventilation (NIV) on respiratory mechanics in patients with difficult weaning. METHODS: The present study was a single-center, retrospective, observational study. Twenty-nine patients with difficult weaning off invasive mechanical ventilation from the Department of Critical Care Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, from December 2018 to April 2021, were included. Within 48 h after extubation, alternate respiratory support with HFNC and NIV was provided. Relevant indicators were recorded after each support mode had been maintained for at least 60 min. These included esophageal pressure (Pes), gastric pressure (Pga), transdiaphragmatic pressure (Pdi), pressure-time product of Pes (PTPes), pressure-time product of Pga (PTPga), pressure-time product of Pdi (PTPdi), ratio of the PTPdi to the PTPes (PTPdi/PTPes), and ratio of the Pes to the Pdi (Pes/Pdi), diaphragmatic electromyogram (EMGdi), percentage of esophageal pressure coefficient of variation (CVes%),diaphragmatic electromyogram coefficient of variation (CVEMG),inspiratory time (Ti), expiratory time (Te) and respiratory cycle time (Ttot). RESULTS: Of the 29 patients included, 22 were males and 7 were females [age: 63.97±15.34 years, Acute Physiological and Chronic Health Estimation II (APACHE II) score: 18.00±5.63]. The CVes% and the Pes/Pdi were significantly higher in patients with NIV than HFNC using 40 L/min, CVes%: 9 (−6, 20) vs. −7 (−23, 6) and Pes/Pdi: 0.17 (−0.1, 0.53), vs. −0.12 (−0.43, 0.08) (P

Micro-explosion characteristics of soybean oil droplet were investigated using high speed backlight imaging technique at ambient temperature 873 K, 923 K and 973 K. Experimental results indicate that soybean oil droplet underwent transient heating phase, micro-explosion evaporation phase, equilibrium evaporation phase, and residue evaporation phase at all the studied temperatures. The evaporation rate of equilibrium evaporation phase is increased when the temperature increased. However, a decrease for the evaporation rate of residue evaporation phase. Homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation are observed at all temperatures, homogeneous nucleation lead to strong micro-explosion and heterogeneous nucleation lead to weak micro-explosion. Moreover, micro-explosion strength increased when the ambient increased. It was found that the micro-explosion occurred at the end of droplet evaporation, this is one of the reasons for the poor atomization characteristics of bio-oil in the engine. More importantly, the evaporation induced vapor cloud is observed at 973 K, this is mainly due to the non-isothermal condensation caused by Stefan outflow.

In this paper, a detailed experimental study was carried out to investigate the two phase flow patterns of R600a in a smooth horizontal tube with an inner diameter of 6 mm. The experiments were performed at conditions covering saturation pressures from 0.215 to 0.415 MPa, mass fluxes from 67 to 194 kg m−2 s−1 and heat fluxes from 10.6 to 75.0 kW m−2. Based on high speed camera, four main flow regimes can be identified: plug flow, stratified-wavy flow, slug flow and annular flow. Intermittent flow (include plug and slug flow) to annular flow transition was detected and plotted on flow pattern map. Comparisons between available intermittent/annular (I/A) transition lines in the literature and the experimental data have been made. The result shows that no transition equations can fit the experimental transition curve well. By taking the surface tension, gravity force, heat flux, viscosity and density into account, four dimensionless number were introduced into the transition equation. Finally, a transition equation of intermittent/annular flow for R600a was proposed and shows good agreements with the experimental data.

Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) is a functional radiation-free imaging technique that measures regional lung ventilation distribution by calculating the impedance changes in the corresponding regions. The aim of the present review was to summarize the current literature concerning the methodologies and applications of EIT in lung diseases with flow limitation and hyperinflation. PubMed was searched up to May 2020 to identify studies investigating the use of EIT in patients with asthma, bronchiectasis, bronchitis, bronchiolitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cystic fibrosis. The extracted data included study design, EIT methodologies, interventions, validation and comparators, population characteristics, and key findings. Of the 44 included studies, seven were related to simulation, animal experimentation, or reconstruction algorithm development with evaluation on patients; 27 studies had the primary objective of validating EIT technique and measures including regional ventilation distribution, regional EIT-spirometry parameters, end-expiratory lung impedance, and regional time constants; and 10 studies had the primary objective of applying EIT to monitor the response to therapeutic interventions, including various ventilation supports, patient repositioning, and airway suctioning. In pediatric and adult patients, EIT has been successfully validated for assessing spatial and temporal ventilation distribution, measuring changes in lung volume and flow, and studying regional respiratory mechanics. EIT has also demonstrated potential as an alternative or supplement to well-established measurement modalities (e.g., conventional pulmonary function testing) to monitor the progression of obstructive lung diseases, although the existing literature lacks prediction values as references and lacks clinical outcome evidence.

Distributed stream processing frameworks (DSPFs) are the vital engine, which can handle real-time data processing and analytics for IoT applications. How to prioritize DSPFs and select the most suitable one for special IoT applications is an open issue. To help developers of IoT applications to solve this complex issue, a novel probabilistic hesitant fuzzy multicriteria decision making (MCDM) model is put forward in this paper. To characterize the requirements for large-scale IoT data stream processing, a novel evaluation criteria system including qualitative and quantitative criteria is established. To accurately model the collective opinions from skilled developers and consider their psychological distance, the definition of probabilistic hesitant fuzzy sets (PHFSs) is used. To derive the importance degrees of criteria, a novel probabilistic hesitant fuzzy best-worst (PHFBW) method is proposed based on the score value. To prioritize the DSPFs and choose the most suitable one, a novel probabilistic hesitant fuzzy MULTIMOORA method is put forward. Finally, a practical case composed of four Apache stream processing frameworks, namely, Storm, Flink, Spark, and Samza, is studied. The obtained results indicate that throughput, latency, and reliability are considered to be the three most important criteria, and Flink is the most suitable stream framework.

Background: Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing (mNGS) has gradually shown its advantages in pathogen identification for clinical infectious disease. However, few studies were conducted on the evaluation between this technique and conventional methods like culture and PCR and the prognosis of patients with infectious diseases on mechanical ventilation in ICUMethods: We conducted this retrospective study from March 2018 to May 2020 in the first Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, a total of 228 patients with suspected infectious diseases on mechanical ventilation were included, including 104 cases of mNGS group and 124 cases of non-mNGS. Statistical analyses were performed between the two groups and subgroup of whether were immunocompromised. The concordance between mNGS, culture and PCR was also assessed.Results: The 28-day mortality rate of the patients in the mNGS group was lower after the baseline difference correction (19.23% vs. 29.03%，p=0.039), indicating that mNGS may improve the prognosis of patients in ICU. And subgroup analysis showed that mNGS could improve the 28-day mortality of nonimmunosuppressive patients（14.06% vs. 29.82%, p=0.018）. According to the analysis of Logistic Regression, not performing mNGS, high APACHE II score and hypertension were independent risk factors for 28-day mortality, which strongly suggested that mNGS was one of the key factors affecting prognosis. A total of 157 samples performed mNGS, 116 of them received both mNGS and culture. mNGS presented advantages of positivity (69.8% double positive and 25.0% mNGS positive only) and concordance (79.0%, match and partly match).Conclusions: mNGS may improve the prognosis and reduce the 28-day mortality rate of patients with infectious diseases on mechanical ventilation in ICU. This technique has shown its advantages comparing with conventional methods, and will be wildly used as a promising technology for infectious disease.

Social media popularity estimation refers to predict the post's popularity using multimodal contents. The prediction performance heavily relies on the feature extraction part and fully leveraging multimodal heterogeneous data is of a great challenge in the practical settings. Despite remarkable progress have been made, most of the previous attempts are restrained from the essentially limited property of the employed single modality. Inspired by the recent success of multimodal learning, we propose a novel multimodal deep learning framework for the popularity prediction task, which aims to leverage the complementary knowledge from different modalities. Moreover, an attention mechanism is introduced in our framework, with the goal to assign large weights to specified modalities during the training and inference phases. To empirically investigate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed approach, we conduct extensive experiments on the 2020 SMP challenge. The obtained results show that the proposed framework outperforms related approaches.

Background: Information about critically ill patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in China but outside of Wuhan is scarce. We aimed to describe the clinical features, treatment, and outcomes of patients with COVID-19 admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) in Guangdong Province. Methods: In this multicenter, retrospective, observational study, we enrolled consecutive patients with COVID-19 who were admitted to seven ICUs in Guangdong Province. Demographic data, symptoms, laboratory findings, comorbidities, treatment, and outcomes were collected. Data were compared between patients with and without intubation. Results: A total of 45 COVID-19 patients required ICU admission in the study hospitals [mean age 56.7 ± 15.4 years, 29 males (64.4%)]. The most common symptoms at onset were fever and cough. Most patients presented with lymphopenia and elevated lactate dehydrogenase. Treatment with antiviral drugs was initiated in all patients. Thirty-six patients (80%) developed acute respiratory distress syndrome at ICU admission, and 15 (33.3%) septic shock. Twenty patients (44.4%) were intubated, and 10 (22.2%) received extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. The 60-day mortality was 4.4% (2 of 45). Conclusion: COVID-19 patients admitted to ICU were characterized by fever, lymphopenia, acute respiratory failure, and multiple organ dysfunction. The mortality of ICU patients in Guangdong Province was relatively low with a small sample size.

Background The mechanism of eucalyptus volatile oil application on the prevention and treatment of burn infections caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) was need to examined.Methods The effect of eucalyptus volatile oil on bacterial biofilm was investigated using a PA biofilm model. The expression of LasI mRNA in PA was detected by RT-PCR. Results The minimum inhibitory concentration test showed that the volatile oil of Eucalyptus urophylla in 20% concentration or more could exert an antibacterial effect. However, neither high nor low concentration of the eucalyptus volatile oil had a zone of inhibition. In scanning electron microscopy, the volatile oil group exhibited a significant delay compared with the control group. The volatile oil group also had a significantly lower LasI mRNA expression than the control group. Conclusion As a Chinese medicine, the volatile oil of E. urophylla can affect PA proliferation and biofilm formation by interfering with the expression of LasI, thereby successfully preventing and treating burn infection caused by PA.

Objective To investigate working mechanism of Eucalyptus volatile oil on the prevention and treatment of burn wound infections. Methods P.a biofilm model was used to investigate the effect of Eucalyptus volatile oil on bacterial biofilm. The expression of LasI mRNA in P.a was detected by RT-PCR. Results MIC test showed that the volatile oil of Eucalyptus Urophylla in a concentration of 20% or more could exert anti-bacterial effect. However, no zone of inhibition could be observed in the neither high nor low concentration of the Eucalyptus volatile oil. Scanning electron microscopy results showed a significant delay in volatile oil groups when compared with the control group. The expression of LasI mRNA in the volatile oil group was significantly lower than that in the control group. Conclusion As Chinese medicine, the volatile oil of Eucalyptus Urophylla can affect the proliferation of P.a and biofilm formation by interfering with the expression of LasI, thus achieving the purpose of preventing and treating infection of burn patients.

BackgroundIn December 2019, human infection with a novel coronavirus, known as SARS-CoV-2, was identified in Wuhan, China. The mortality of critical illness was high in Wuhan. Information about critically ill patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection outside of Wuhan is scarce. We aimed to provide the clinical features, treatment, and prognosis of the critically ill patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection in Guangdong Province.MethodsIn this multi-centered, retrospective, observational study, we enrolled critically ill patients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia who were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) in Guangdong Province. Demographic data, symptoms, laboratory findings, comorbidities, treatments, and prognosis were collected. Data were compared between patients with and without intubation.ResultsForty-five critically ill patients with SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia were identified in 7 ICUs in Guangdong Province. The mean age was 56.7 years, and 29 patients (64.4%) were men. The most common symptoms at the onset of illness were high fever and cough. Majority of patients presented with lymphopenia and elevated lactate dehydrogenase. Treatment with antiviral drugs was initiated in all the patients. Thirty-seven patients (82.2%) had developed acute respiratory distress syndrome, and 13 (28.9%) septic shock. A total of 20 (44.4%) patients required intubation and 9 (20%) required extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. As of February 28th 2020, only one patient (2.2%) had died and half of them had discharged of ICU.ConclusionsInfection with SARS-CoV-2 in critical illness is characterized by fever, lymphopenia, acute respiratory failure and multiple organ dysfunction. Compared with critically ill patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan, the mortality of critically ill patients in Guangdong Province was relatively low. These data provide some general understandings and experience for the critical patients with SARS-CoV-2 outside of Wuhan.

BackgroundAdministration of convalescent plasma may be of clinical benefit for treatment of severe acute viral respiratory infections. However, no clear evidence exists to support or oppose convalescent plasma use in clinical practice. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the evidence of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in the convalescent plasma for the treatment of severe influenza.MethodsHealthcare databases were searched in February 2020. All records were screened against the eligibility criteria. Data extraction and risk of bias assessments were undertaken. The primary outcome was case-fatality rates by influenza.ResultsWe identified 5 RCTs of severe influenza. The pooled analyses showed no evidence for a reduction in mortality (Odds Ratio (OR) 1.06; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.51–2.23; p = 0.87; I2 = 35%). We also found non-significant reductions in days in ICU and hospital, and days on mechanical ventilation. There seemed to have a biological benefit of increasing HAI titer levels and decreasing influenza B virus loads and cytokines after convalescent plasma treatment. No serious adverse events was reported between two groups. Studies were commonly of low risk of bias with high quality.ConclusionsConvalescent plasma appears safe but may not reduce mortality in severe influenza. This therapy should be studied within the context of a well-designed clinical trial for treatment of SARS-Cov-2 infection.

In five years, Xi Jinping transformed both domestic and external policies of China to become the only leader after Deng Xiaoping to radically alter internal political landscape and external relatio...

Aluminum-activated malate transporters (ALMTs) have multiple potential roles in plant metabolism such as regulation of organic acids in fruits, movement of guard cells and inducing tolerance against aluminum stress. However, the systematic characterization of ALMT genes in loquat is yet to be performed. In the current study, 24 putative ALMT genes were identified in the genome of Eriobotrya japonica Lindl. To further investigate the role of those ALMT genes, comprehensive bioinformatics and expression analysis were performed. In bioinformatics analysis, the physiochemical properties, conserved domains, gene structure, conserved motif, phylogenetic and syntenic analysis of EjALMT genes were conducted. The result revealed that the ALMT superfamily domain was conserved in all EjALMT proteins. EjALMT proteins were predicted to be localized in the plasma membrane. Genomic structural and motif analysis showed that the exon and motif number of each EjALMT gene ranged dramatically, from 5 to 7, and 6 to 10, respectively. Syntenic analysis indicated that the segmental or whole-genome duplication played a vital role in extension of the EjALMT gene family. The Ka and Ks values of duplicated genes depicted that EjALMT genes have undergone a strong purifying selection. Furthermore, the expression analysis of EjALMT genes was performed in the root, mature leaf, stem, full-bloom flower and ripened fruit of loquat. Some genes were expressed differentially in examined loquat tissues, signifying their differential role in plant growth and development. This study provides the first genome-wide identification, characterization, and relative expression of the ALMT gene family in loquat and provides the foundation for further functional analysis.

Transgene flow form a genetically engineered (GE) crop to its wild relatives may result in unwanted environmental consequences. Mitigating transgenes via introducing a gene that is disadvantageous to wild relatives but beneficial to crops, and is tightly-linked with the target transgenes, may provide a promising solution to limit the spread of transgenes in wild/weedy populations. Here we demonstrate a novel system with significantly reduced seed shattering in crop-weed hybrid descendants by partially silenced expression of the seed-shattering gene SH4 in cultivated rice, using artificial microRNA and antisense RNA techniques. Accordingly, fewer seeds were found in the soil of the field plots where transgenic hybrid lineages were grown. However, no differences in productivity-related traits were detected between GE and non-GE cultivated rice. To silence seed-shattering genes provides a useful strategy to reduce the potential environmental impacts caused by transgene flow from commercial GE rice to weedy rice, in addition to the control of weedy rice.

Characterization of green tissue-specific promoters helps facilitate genetic improvement in crops. Here, we isolated a novel green tissue-specific expression gene Psak encoding photosystem I protein in rice through RT-PCR analysis. The 5′ flanking region from −635 to +60 (transcription start site of Psak as +1) covering parts of Psak gene and its promoter Ppsak was identified as be critical for green tissue-specific expression (including leaves and stems) in rice. Further promoter deletion analyses demonstrated that the promoter region from −559 to −232 was necessary and sufficient for green tissue-specific expression of Psak gene. Histochemical assays showed that the GUS expression of this 267-bp region was highly presented in leaves and stems, but reduced or absent in other tissues examined. The GUS expression level of this core promoter region could be 14.6- to 21.6-fold higher than that of the full-length region of Ppsak promoter in leaves and stems. These results combined with cis-acting elements prediction in Ppsak promoter suggested that the TCT motif located in this promoter played a key role in strong green tissue-specific expression.

Target image detection based on a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) paradigm is a typical brain-computer interface system with various applications, such as image retrieval. In an RSVP paradigm, a P300 component is detected to determine target images. This strategy requires high-precision single-trial P300 detection methods. However, the performance of single-trial detection methods is relatively lower than that of multitrial P300 detection methods. Image retrieval based on multitrial P300 is a new research direction. In this paper, we propose a triple-RSVP paradigm with three images being presented simultaneously and a target image appearing three times. Thus, multitrial P300 classification methods can be used to improve detection accuracy. In this study, these mechanisms were extended and validated, and the characteristics of the multi-RSVP framework were further explored. Two different P300 detection algorithms were also utilized in multi-RSVP to demonstrate that the scheme is universally applicable. Results revealed that the detection accuracy of the multi-RSVP paradigm was higher than that of the standard RSVP paradigm. The results validate the effectiveness of the proposed method, and this method can provide a whole new idea in the field of EEG-based target detection.

Any discussion of the thaw in U.S.-Cuban relations must address China’s key role in Cuba’s political and economic structure. Today, China is not only a longtime supporter of the regime but also Cuba’s largest trading partner. Perhaps more importantly, the thaw in Sino-U.S. relations and subsequent shift in Chinese economic policy offers a potential model to the Cuban communist regime, a “moral inspiration” that encourages openness to the international economy, while maintaining internal control. This chapter examines the ways China’s direct economic and political interactions with the Cuban government facilitate further economic opening, while maintaining state control over key political and economic sectors. The chapter also examines the limits of the Chinese model and its implications for Cuba’s future.

As a typical representative of anonymous network applications, Freenet system has so many advantages in sharing, privacy, anonymity as well as uploading and downloading convenience that it adequately realizes expression freedom. So it’s widely used in different fields. For Freenet system, academia and system designers have been conducting research and improvement which mainly on following points: structure, topology, routing algorithm and the Darknet mechanism which proposed by new version. The purpose of these efforts is to increase the system network utilization, enhance the reliability of transmission and improve the safety and robustness of the system. This paper reviews and summarizes the research progress of Freenet system by collating and analyzing relevant articles. We also analyze and compare the main ideas, the algorithm application as well as pros and cons of different articles surrounding different topics. In addition, we also tease out the development and the evolution trends of Freenet system in time order, and combined with current network situation, we made reasonable proposals and prospects and draw scientific conclusions.

Rationale Many factors contribute to a complicated postoperative course following difficult weaning off a ventilator after lung transplantation. Patient concerns A female patient underwent a successful surgery but received a size-mismatched lung graft. The graft had been pruned before transplantation. She experienced delayed ventilator weaning 3 days after lung transplantation. Diagnoses A postoperative X-ray revealed a normal mediastinal structure and diaphragm position. Diaphragmatic function was assessed by diaphragm electromyography (EMGdi) via esophageal and surface electrodes. EMGdi showed decreased left compound motor action potentials (CMAPs), prolonged left phrenic nerve conduction time (PNCT), failure to induce right CMAPs and PNCT under bilateral magnetic stimulation, and right phrenic nerve injury. Interventions She was treated with neural nutritional support and prescribed rehabilitation measures such as strengthening limb activities on the bed. Outcomes The patient finally achieved satisfactory outcomes after an early diagnosis and medical interventions. Lessons Lung size mismatch before transplantation and phrenic nerve injury during surgery should be avoided wherever possible.

A brain–computer interface (BCI) is an advanced human–machine interaction technology. The BCI speller is a typical application that detects the stimulated source-induced EEG signal to identify the expected characters of the subjects. The current mainstream matrix-based BCI speller involves two problems that remain unsolved, namely, gaze-dependent and space-dependent problems. Some scholars have designed gaze-independent and space-independent spelling systems. However, this system still cannot achieve a satisfactory information transfer rate (ITR). In this paper, we propose a novel triple RSVP speller with gaze-independent and space-independent characteristics and higher ITR. The triple RSVP speller uses rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) paradigm, each time presents three different characters, and each character is presented three times to increase the ITR. The results of the experiments show the triple RSVP speller online average accuracy of 0.790 and average online ITR of 20.259 bit/min, where the system spelled at a speed of 10 s per character, and the stimulus presentation interface is a 90 × 195 pixel rectangle. Thus, the triple RSVP speller can be integrated into mobile smart devices (such as smartphones, smart watches, and others).

Background International consensus guidelines to guide management of intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMN) were revised in Fukuoka and published in 2012. However, despite widespread acceptance of the Fukuoka Consensus Guidelines (FCG), the utility of these guidelines have not been well-validated. This systematic review was performed to evaluate the clinical utility of the FCG. Design A computerized search of the PubMed and Scopus databases was performed to identify all studies evaluating the utility of the FCG in surgically resected IPMN. IPMN were stratified according to the FCG as high risk (HR), worrisome risk (WR), and low risk (LR). HR and WR IPMN were termed FCG+ve and LR IPMN were termed FCG-ve. Results Seven studies analyzing 1,382 patients were included. There were 402 malignant neoplasms (29%), including 242 invasive IPMNs. There were 1,000 IPMN classified as FCG+ve. The FCG+ve group had a positive predictive value (PPV) ranging from 27 to 62% and the FCG-ve group had negative predictive value ranging from 82 to 100%. Pooled analysis demonstrated that there was 362 of 1,000 (36%) malignant FCG+ve IPMN and 342 of 382 (90%) benign FCG-ve IPMN. PPV of the HR group and the WR groups alone were 104 of 158 (66%) and 75 of 261 (29%), respectively. Forty of 382 (11%), including 22 (6%) invasive FCG-ve IPMN, were malignant. Twenty-six malignant including 18 invasive FCG-ve IPMN were reported from a single study. When the results from this study were excluded, there were only 14 of 241 malignant neoplasms (6%), including 4 of 241 (2%) invasive FCG-ve IPMN in the remaining 6 studies. Conclusion The FCG+ve criteria had a similarly low PPV compared with the 2006 consensus criteria. Stratification of IPMN into HR and WR groups resulted in a higher PPV in the HR group. Some malignant and even invasive IPMN may be missed by the FCG criteria.