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In recent years, the development of high‐speed railways in China has been rapid. High‐speed railway bridges play an essential role whenever the railway intersects with existing facilities in three dimensions. With the increasing speed of high‐speed railways and increasingly complex geographical locations, the span of bridges is constantly increasing. Based on their advantages, steel structures in large‐span bridges are beginning to replace traditional concrete structures. Taking the steel cover beam technology applied in the Fuqiangbao Tremendous Bridge as a starting point, this paper uses Rhino parameterized modeling and Abaqus software to conduct finite element analysis on the stress of steel cover beams. It compares and analyzes stress under different conditions. The results show that the steel cover beam's most unfavorable and unstable position in this paper is at the support on the stress side. This provides a reference for monitoring the steel cover beam after its application in the Fuqiangbao Tremendous Bridge and technical accumulation for the application of steel cover beam technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the 2023 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR). The article presents a list of award recipients as well as all abstracts of all research presented at the meeting. Research topics include bone mineral density, osteoporosis and osteoclasts. [Extracted from the article]

The GaN industry always demands further improvement in the power transport capability of GaN-based high-energy mobility transistors (HEMT). This paper presents a novel enhancement-type GaN HEMT with high power transmission capability, which utilizes a coherent channel that can form a three-dimensional electron sea. The proposed device is investigated using the Silvaco simulation tool, which has been calibrated against experimental data. Numerical simulations prove that the proposed device has a very high on-state current above 3 A/mm, while the breakdown voltage (above 800 V) is not significantly affected. The calculated Johnson's and Baliga's figure-of-merits highlight the promise of using such a coherent channel for enhancing the performance of GaN HEMTs in power electronics applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, deep learning techniques have excelled in video action recognition. However, currently commonly used video action recognition models minimize the importance of different video frames and spatial regions within some specific frames when performing action recognition, which makes it difficult for the models to adequately extract spatiotemporal features from the video data. In this paper, an action recognition method based on improved residual convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for video frames and spatial attention modules is proposed to address this problem. The network can guide what and where to emphasize or suppress with essentially little computational cost using the video frame attention module and the spatial attention module. It also employs a two-level attention module to emphasize feature information along the temporal and spatial dimensions, respectively, highlighting the more important frames in the overall video sequence and the more important spatial regions in some specific frames. Specifically, we create the video frame and spatial attention map by successively adding the video frame attention module and the spatial attention module to aggregate the spatial and temporal dimensions of the intermediate feature maps of the CNNs to obtain different feature descriptors, thus directing the network to focus more on important video frames and more contributing spatial regions. The experimental results further show that the network performs well on the UCF-101 and HMDB-51 datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional unsupervised domain adaptation (UDA) usually assumes that the source domain has labels and the target domain has no labels. In a real environment, labelled source domain data usually comes from multiple different distributions. To handle this problem, multi‐source unsupervised domain adaptation (MUDA) is proposed. Multi‐source unsupervised domain adaptation aims to adapt the model trained on multi‐labelled source domains to the unlabelled target domain. In this paper, a novel MUDA method by domain‐specific feature recalibration and alignment (FRA) is proposed. Specifically, to achieve feature recalibration, the authors leverage channel attention to pick out significant channels and spatial attention to focus on important features in different channels. Such integration of channel and spatial attention can lead to effective domain‐specific feature recalibration that may be of great importance to MUDA. In addition, to achieve better MUDA, the authors propose domain‐specific feature alignment which consists of Maximum Mean Discrepancy and JS‐divergence loss. Maximum Mean Discrepancy can reduce the difference between the source domain and target domain. Meanwhile, JS‐divergence loss may ensure the prediction consistency of different classifiers in the source domains. Four experiments have proved that FRA can achieve significantly better results in popular benchmarks for MUDA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immune checkpoint blockade therapies targeting the PD-L1/PD-1 axis have demonstrated clear clinical benefits. Improved understanding of the underlying regulatory mechanisms might contribute new insights into immunotherapy. Here, we identify transmembrane and ubiquitin-like domain-containing protein 1 (TMUB1) as a modulator of PD-L1 post-translational modifications in tumor cells. Mechanistically, TMUB1 competes with HECT, UBA and WWE domain-containing protein 1 (HUWE1), a E3 ubiquitin ligase, to interact with PD-L1 and inhibit its polyubiquitination at K281 in the endoplasmic reticulum. Moreover, TMUB1 enhances PD-L1 N-glycosylation and stability by recruiting STT3A, thereby promoting PD-L1 maturation and tumor immune evasion. TMUB1 protein levels correlate with PD-L1 expression in human tumor tissue, with high expression being associated with poor patient survival rates. A synthetic peptide engineered to compete with TMUB1 significantly promotes antitumor immunity and suppresses tumor growth in mice. These findings identify TMUB1 as a promising immunotherapeutic target. Cancer cells exploit immune checkpoint pathways, such as PD-1/PD-L1, to evade elimination by the immune system. Here, the authors demonstrate that TMUB1 regulates post-translational modifications of PD-L1 and that targeting the TMUB1/PD-L1 interaction promotes anti-tumour T cells responses [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High repetition rates are considered essential to meet the anticipated new demands of the free-electron laser (FEL) facility. To offer precise beam handling for high-repetition-rate FEL facilities operating in a multi-bunch mode, an ultralow quality factor ($Q$) cavity beam position monitor (CBPM) is studied to distinguish nanosecond spaced electron bunches, enabling the independent position measurement of each bunch and reducing the contamination between bunch signals. The low- $\!Q$ CBPM consists of two cavities: a reference cavity and a position cavity. The reference cavity is mainly used for bunch charge normalization, and the position cavity can measure the beam position vertically and horizontally. This article studies the method to attain a low loaded quality factor for the CBPM and presents the design and preliminary test results. The test results show that both the loaded quality factors of the reference cavity and the position cavity can reach 13, which enables bunch position monitoring for those high repetition rate FEL facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yao Wang,* Xun Li,* Qian Chen, Fangzhou Jiao, Chunxia Shi, Maohua Pei, Luwen Wang, Zuojiong Gong Department of Infectious Diseases, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430060, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Zuojiong Gong; Luwen WangDepartment of Infectious Diseases, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, 238 Jiefang Road, Wuhan, 430060, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail zjgong@163.com; wangluw8253@163.comBackground: The glycolysis pathway of M1 macrophages is a key factor affecting the inflammatory response. The aim of this article is to investigate the role of histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) in the M1 macrophage glycolysis pathway during acute liver failure (ALF).Methodology: Targeted metabolomics for quantitative analysis of energy metabolites technology was used to detect the characteristics of energy metabolism for 8 ALF patients and 8 normal volunteers. The ALF mice model was intervened with HDAC6 inhibitor ACY-1215. iTRAQ/TMT quantitative proteomics was used to detect protein expression in livers in different mice groups. The liver function, energy metabolites, M1 macrophages, cytokines, and pathological structure, DDX3X, NLRP3 and DNMT1 in liver tissue were detected. The changes of the above molecules were verified in cell groups.Results: ALF patients and mice have significant energy metabolism disorders, accompanied by activation of M1 macrophages. After the intervention of ACY-1215, the activated M1 macrophages and cytokines levels in the mouse liver were reduced. The levels of IDH1, MDH1, and ATP were significantly increased. The expression of DDX3X increased, while the expression of NLRP3 and DNMT1 decreased. ACY-1215 could reduce the model cell apoptosis level and inflammatory response, and improve energy metabolism. It could also promote the expression of DDX3X, and inhibit the expression of NLRP3 and DNMT1.Conclusion: ACY-1215 could inhibit the activation of M1 macrophages by improving the glycolytic pathway through regulating DNMT1 and DDX3X/NLRP3 signals to alleviate ALF.Keywords: HDAC6, M1 macrophage, metabolic reprogramming, acute liver failure

This study aimed to quantitatively assess the physicochemical properties and antioxidant activities of seven jujube cultivars (NYDZ, MZ, TZ, HZ, HTDZ, GTZ, and JSXZ) before and after the blackening process and to select the most suitable cultivar for blackening. Red jujubes were blackened by aging at high temperature (75°C) and humidity (80%) conditions for 6 days. The contents of soluble solids, total phenolics, total flavonoids, polysaccharides, cyclic adenosine monophosphate, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, and antioxidant activities were analyzed using the spectrophotometric method and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Results showed that the antioxidant activities of all cultivars were significantly enhanced (p <.05) and the contents of selected bioactive compounds in all cultivars increased after blackening, indicating that blackened jujube had higher nutritional value than red jujube. Correlation analysis showed that the total phenolic compounds were the primary source of jujube antioxidant activities. The heat map showed that HTDZ could be selected as the most suitable cultivar for future production of blackened jujube. Red jujube cultivar with high total phenolic content was the best choice for blackening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between liver pathological inflammation degree and pyroptosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB). One hundred and twenty CHB patients' liver tissue samples, including A0–A3 inflammatory grades, were selected. Six tissue sections were selected for each indicator in each inflammation grade. The results of immunohistochemical analysis on the pyroptosis‐related molecules (NLRP3, GSDMD, caspase1, interleukin [IL]‐1β, and IL‐18) were determined. The correlation between the pyroptosis‐related molecules and liver inflammatory activities was analyzed. The expression of NLRP3, GSDMD, caspase1, IL‐18, and IL‐1β was respectively significantly positively correlated with the grade of inflammatory activity (rs = 0.690, p < 0.01; rs = 0.681, p < 0.01; rs = 0.540, p < 0.01; rs = 0.725, p < 0.01; rs = 0.663, p < 0.01) and linear relationship (χ2 = 56.763, p < 0.01; χ2 = 55.350, p < 0.01; χ2 = 34.776, p < 0.01; χ2 = 62.523, p < 0.01; χ2 = 52.521, p < 0.01) in liver tissue. The high expression of NLRP3, GSDMD, caspase1, IL‐1β, and IL‐18 may be involved in the process of liver tissue inflammation and damage, which is positively correlated with liver tissue inflammation in patients with CHB. Highlights: It illustrates a significant mechanistic finding given the fact that with the aggravation of liver inflammation, the expression levels of pyroptosis related molecules (NLRP3, GSDMD, caspase1, IL‐1β and IL‐18) gradually increased. It revealed the novel tissues indicators during pyroptosis of HBV liver inflammatory cascade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immunological adjuvants are essential for successful cancer vaccination. However, traditional adjuvants have some limitations, such as lack of controllability and induction of systemic toxicity, which restrict their broad application. Here, we present a light-activable immunological adjuvant (LIA), which is composed of a hypoxia-responsive amphiphilic dendrimer nanoparticle loaded with chlorin e6. Under irradiation with near-infrared light, the LIA not only induces tumour cell lysis and tumour antigen release, but also promotes the structural transformation of 2-nitroimidazole containing dendrimer to 2-aminoimidazole containing dendrimer which can activate dendritic cells via the Toll-like receptor 7-mediated signaling pathway. The LIA efficiently inhibits both primary and abscopal tumour growth and induces strong antigen-specific immune memory effect to prevent tumour metastasis and recurrence in vivo. Furthermore, LIA localizes the immunological adjuvant effect at the tumour site. We demonstrate this light-activable immunological adjuvant offers a safe and potent platform for in situ cancer vaccination. Immunological adjuvants are a crucial component of cancer vaccines. Here the authors design a light-activable immunological adjuvant, based on hypoxia-responsive amphiphilic dendrimer nanoparticles loaded with a photodynamic agent, promoting anti-tumor immune responses in preclinical cancer models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biochar has been applied widely as an amendment in the remediation of contaminated soil to immobilize the heavy metals. However, the role of ultraviolet (UV) irradiation modified biochar derived from the residues of phytoremediation plants in the contaminated soil not investigated yet. In this study, the UV-modified biochars were obtained from Brassica napus L. and Lolium perenne L. by pyrolysis at 600 °C. They were applied in a pot experiment to investigate their effect on Cd bioavailability and uptake in Coriandrum sativum L. in a Cd-contaminated soil at four addition rate (0%, 0.2%, 0.4%, and 0.6%). The results showed that the Cd was effectively stabilized in the biochar with environmentally acceptable leaching toxicity. The specific surface area and carboxyl functional group of biochar were greatly increased after UV modification. The application of biochar progressively increased the soil pH and electrical conductivity (EC). Furthermore, the CaCl2-extractable Cd was significantly reduced by 18.4–51.4% with biochar amendments. The concentration of Cd in shoots and roots was significantly reduced by biochars. In conclusion, the UV-modified biochar obtained from phytoremediation residue could effectively deal with hazardous waste and repair Cd-contaminated soil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Folate receptor (FR) is a typical tumor-associated antigen that has been widely used as a biomarker for the determination of cancer. A biosensing platform functionalized with folic acid (FA) is essential to FR detection because FA specifically binds FR. We demonstrate an MgZnO dual-gate thin-film transistor (MZO DGTFT) based biosensor for the sensitive determination of FA derivative, hexadecyl alkynated folic acid (HAFA). The receptor is an MZO nanostructure (MZO $_{\mathrm {nano}}$) modified sensing pad which electrically connects to the top gate of DGTFT. The bottom gate of DGTFT is used to bias the device to its optimum operation point, enabling high sensitivity. First, 11-azidoundecanoic acid (AA) was bond onto the MZO $_{\mathrm {nano}}$ surface as the linker layer, resulting in negative charges to MZO $_{\mathrm {nano}}$ due to carboxylic acid binding chemistry. HAFA was then immobilized on MZO $_{\mathrm {nano}}$ via click reaction with AA. HAFA is a polar molecule with the positive end adjacent to AA/MZO $_{\mathrm {nano}}$ , and therefore, the electrostatic condition of MZO $_{\mathrm {nano}}$ is impacted again. Such changes were detected by DGTFT that displayed significant drain current variations. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) imaging confirms such successful chemical processes. This MZO DGTFT biosensor with HAFA is promising for potential applications in the detection of FR overexpressed cancer cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For future wireless networks, enormous numbers of interconnections are required, creating a multi-hop topology and leading to a great challenge on data aggregation. Instead of collecting data individually, a more efficient technique, computation over multi-access channels (CoMAC), has emerged to compute functions by exploiting the signal-superposition property of wireless channels. However, it is still an open problem on the implementation of CoMAC in multi-hop wireless networks considering fading channel and resource allocation. In this paper, we propose multi-layer CoMAC (ML-CoMAC) by combining CoMAC and orthogonal communication to compute functions in the multi-hop network. Firstly, to make the multi-hop network more tractable, we reorganize it into a hierarchical network with multiple layers that consists of subgroups and groups. Then, in the hierarchical network, the implementation of ML-CoMAC is given by computing and communicating subgroup and group functions over layers, where CoMAC is applied to compute each subgroup function and orthogonal communication is adopted for each group to obtain the group function. The general computation rate is derived and the performance is further improved through time allocation and power control. The closed-form solutions to optimization problems are obtained, which suggests that orthogonal communication and existing CoMAC schemes are generalized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common complication of acute liver failure (ALF). Pyroptosis is a necrosis type related to inflammation. This study aimed to investigate the role of TNF‐α/HMGB1 pathway in pyroptosis during ALF and AKI. Methods: An ALF and AKI mouse model was generated using LPS/D‐Gal, and a TNF‐α inhibitor, CC‐5013, was used to treat the mice. THP‐1 cells were induced to differentiate into M1 macrophages, then challenged with either CC‐5013 or an HMGB1 inhibitor, glycyrrhizin. pLVX‐mCMVZsGreen‐PGK‐Puros plasmids containing TNF‐α wild‐type (WT), mutation A94T of TNF‐α and mutation P84L of TNF‐α were transfected into M1 macrophages. Results: Treatment with CC‐5013 decreased the activation of TNF‐α/HMGB1 pathway and pyroptosis in the treated mice and cells compared with the control mice and cells. CC‐5013 also ameliorated liver and kidney pathological changes and improved liver and renal functions in treated mice, and the number of M1 macrophages in the liver and kidney tissues also decreased. The activation of TNF‐α/HMGB1 pathway and pyroptosis increased in the M1 macrophage group compared with the normal group. Similarly, the activation of TNF‐α/HMGB1 pathway and pyroptosis in the LPS + WT group also increased. By contrast, the activation of the TNF‐α/HMGB1 pathway and pyroptosis decreased in the LPS + A94T and LPS + P84L groups. Moreover, glycyrrhizin inhibited pyroptosis. Conclusion: The TNF‐α/HMGB1 inflammation signalling pathway plays an important role in pyroptosis during ALF and AKI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering is the property of Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

A novel trench insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) with emitter dual injection (EDI-IGBT) is proposed and investigated. The device features the hybrid gate electrode and the tiny P-base. The hybrid gate is a combination of the conventional trench gate (TG) and the accumulation gate (AG). The TG contacts the P-base region and the N-drift region, while the AG contacts the N-drift region only. In the ON-state, the accumulation layer formed by the AG makes an additional accumulation injection in the emitter side, leading to the EDI phenomenon, and hence a low forward voltage drop (${V}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}$). Simultaneously, the tiny P-base region reduces holes extracted by the reverse-biased p-base/n-drift junction, which also contributes to the reduction in ${V}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}$. The simulation results show that the EDI-IGBT delivers comparable breakdown voltage and safe operating area (SOA) while featuring a 28% lower ${V}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}$ , resulting in a reduction in total energy loss. Moreover, the existence of the AG suppresses the gate self-charging effect during the turn-on transient, leading to an improved turn-on performance. The excellent device performance, coupled with industry-standard IGBT-compatible fabrication process, makes the proposed EDI-IGBT a promising candidate for power switching applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smog causes low visibility on the road and it can impact the safety of traffic. Modeling traffic in smog will have a significant impact on realistic traffic simulations. Most existing traffic models assume that drivers have optimal vision in the simulations, making these simulations are not suitable for modeling smog weather conditions. In this article, we introduce the Smog Full Velocity Difference Model (SMOG-FVDM) for a realistic simulation of traffic in smog weather conditions. In this model, we present a stadia model for drivers in smog conditions. We introduce it into a car-following traffic model using both psychological force and body force concepts, and then we introduce the SMOG-FVDM. Considering that there are lots of parameters in the SMOG-FVDM, we design a visual verification system based on SMOG-FVDM to arrive at an adequate solution which can show visual simulation results under different road scenarios and different degrees of smog by reconciling the parameters. Experimental results show that our model can give a realistic and efficient traffic simulation of smog weather conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel insulated-gate bipolar transistor with self-regulated potential (SRP) for extreme low electro-magnetic interference (EMI) noise is proposed. The device features the superjunction (SJ) structure in the drift region and the integrated PN diode at the emitter side. In the turn-on transient, the lateral electric field brought by the SJ structure raises the potential under the gate oxide, which suppresses the hole accumulation at this region. The holes in the P-pillar are conducted to the emitter through the integrated PN diode between them. This could be effective in reducing the reverse displacement current that charges the gate capacitance, thus contributing to high dV/dt controllability and low EMI noise. Moreover, the PN diode clamps the potential of the P-pillar to provide a lower forward voltage drop (${V}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}$) and higher short-circuit ruggedness. When compared with the Fin-P IGBT, the simulation results show that the proposed SRP-IGBT delivers a comparable breakdown voltage while featuring a 65% lower dV $_{\textsf {KA}}$ /dt, 25% lower ${V}_{ \mathrm{\scriptscriptstyle ON}}$ , and 46% longer short-circuit duration time simultaneously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Topological insulators are an emerging class of materials that host highly robust in-gap surface or interface states while maintaining an insulating bulk1,2. Most advances in this field have focused on topological insulators and related topological crystalline insulators3 in two dimensions4-6 and three dimensions7-10, but more recent theoretical work has predicted the existence of one-dimensional symmetry-protected topological phases in graphene nanoribbons (GNRs)11. The topological phase of these laterally confined, semiconducting strips of graphene is determined by their width, edge shape and terminating crystallographic unit cell and is characterized by a Z2 invariant12 (that is, an index of either 0 or 1, indicating two topological classes—similar to quasi-one-dimensional solitonic systems13-16). Interfaces between topologically distinct GNRs characterized by different values of Z2 are predicted to support half-filled, in-gap localized electronic states that could, in principle, be used as a tool for material engineering11. Here we present the rational design and experimental realization of a topologically engineered GNR superlattice that hosts a one-dimensional array of such states, thus generating otherwise inaccessible electronic structures. This strategy also enables new end states to be engineered directly into the termini of the one-dimensional GNR superlattice. Atomically precise topological GNR superlattices were synthesized from molecular precursors on a gold surface, Au(111), under ultrahigh-vacuum conditions and characterized by low-temperature scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy. Our experimental results and first-principles calculations reveal that the frontier band structure (the bands bracketing filled and empty states) of these GNR superlattices is defined purely by the coupling between adjacent topological interface states. This manifestation of non-trivial one-dimensional topological phases presents a route to band engineering in one-dimensional materials based on precise control of their electronic topology, and is a promising platform for studies of one-dimensional quantum spin physics. A topologically engineered graphene nanoribbon superlattice is presented that hosts a one-dimensional array of half-filled, in-gap localized electronic states, enabling band engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a novel GaN-based reverse blocking metal–insulator–semiconductor high electron mobility transistor (RB-MISHEMT) with enhancement mode (E-mode) is investigated by the TCAD simulation. To enable the device with capability of blocking reverse current, a MIS field-effect drain consisting of electrically shorted ohmic and recessed MIS structure is adopted. The proposed GaN E-mode RB-MISHEMT features a low reverse current of 10 μA at − 900 V and a low turn-on voltage of drain electrode of 0.38 V at 10 mA. On-state power loss of the bidirectional switch based on proposed GaN E-mode RB-MISHEMT shows a 34% reduction compared with that of the bidirectional switch based on GaN E-mode reverse conducting MISHEMT. And the proposed E-mode RB-MISHEMT is also compatible with standard E-mode MISHEMT. The high performance and processing compatibility of the proposed GaN RB-MISHEMT show that the device is promising for future power applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents a summary of the articles presented in this issue of the publication. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Data-driven intelligent transportation systems utilize data resources generated within intelligent systems to improve the performance of transportation systems and provide convenient and reliable services. Traffic data refer to datasets generated and collected on moving vehicles and objects. Data visualization is an efficient means to represent distributions and structures of datasets and reveal hidden patterns in the data. This paper introduces the basic concept and pipeline of traffic data visualization, provides an overview of related data processing techniques, and summarizes existing methods for depicting the temporal, spatial, numerical, and categorical properties of traffic data. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents abstracts on studies related to molecular imaging including gold nanoclusters as targeted contrast agent for computed tomography imaging of angiogenesis, vascular contrast enhanced microCT imaging of "radiators" in the Brazilian free-tailed bat and time-course characterization of micro-CT enhancement of newly developed contrast agents.

Background: Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) is a major etiological agent of porcine epidemic diarrhea around the world. Point-of-care testing in the field is lacking owing to the requirement for a simple, robust field applicable test that does not require professional laboratory equipment. The aim of this study was to establish a novel reverse transcription polymerase spiral reaction (RT-PSR) assay for the rapid detection of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV). For the assay, a specific RT-PSR primer pair was designed against a conserved region in PEDV ORF3. Results: The RT-PSR was optimized, and PEDV could be detected after a 50 min incubation at 62 °C, in addition to the 15 min required for reverse transcription. No cross-reaction with other porcine infectious viruses was observed. This new method for PEDV detection was 10 times more sensitive than the conventional reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay. The positive rates for 65 clinical samples using the new RT-PSR assay and the conventional RT-PCR assay were 58.46% (38/65) and 53.84% (35/65), respectively. In the RT-PSR assay, the addition of a mixture of dyes allowed a positive reaction to be directly observed by the naked eye. Conclusions: These results indicate that this RT-PSR assay is capable of accurately detecting PEDV, and has the advantages of high specificity and sensitivity for the detection of PEDV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]