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The emergency management of biosafety for laboratory animals in Hunan Province is an essential component of the province’s implementation of the national biosafety strategy. To strengthen the prevention and control of biosafety risks in laboratory animals and to ensure a quick and effective response to laboratory animal biosafety emergencies, Hunan Province has formulated the "Emergency Response Plan for Laboratory Animal Biosafety Emergencies in Hunan Province". This plan aims to minimize damages caused to practitioners, public health, and laboratory animal industry, protect lives and property, and safeguard public safety and social stability. This paper analyzes the necessity, guiding ideology, principles, and basis for formulating the plan. It details the main contents of the plan, which includes scope of application, incident classification, organizational structure and responsibilities, monitoring and early warning mechanisms, emergency reporting and response, post-incident assessment, and safeguard measures. Moreover, this paper provides a summary and outlook on the emergency management of biosafety laboratory animals in Hunan Province in recent years.

ObjectiveThis study aimed to investigate the current status of biosafety management in laboratory animal institutions in Hunan Province, identify management shortcomings, and provide targeted recommendations for improvement.MethodsA questionnaire survey was conducted in July 2023 among 40 laboratory animal institutions in Hunan Province, covering topics such as the establishment of laboratory management system and its overall operation status, emergency management for incidents, medical waste disposal, animal transportation, personnel practitioner management, environmental disinfection, and equipment maintenance. The awareness of biosafety, animal bite incidents, and vaccination history was surveyed from at least one animal feeder or experimental operation practitioner from each institution, totaling 50 practitioners. Through literature review and comparative analysis, this paper analyzed the current status of biosafety management in production, transportation, and use of laboratory animals in Hunan Province from aspects such as biosafety management systems, personnel training, disinfection of environmental facilities and waste disposal, and provided recommendations.ResultsAmong the 40 laboratory animal institutions in Hunan Province,39 institutions (97.5%) had established laboratory management systems, 37 (92.5%) had emergency response plans for incidents of to transport laboratory animals, 15 (37.5%) had complete records of emergency drills for laboratory animal biosafety, and 39 (97.5%) had established protocols for carcass and waste management. Moreover, 26 institutions (65.0%) had laboratory biosafety risk assessment reports. 4 out of 8 (50.0%) production units had emergency plans for animal transportation, with 7 (87.5%) using special vehicles to transport laboratory animals. 2 (4.0%) of the 50 practitioners were unaware of emergency response plans, 6 participants (12.0%) did not consistently wear personal protective equipment, and 38 participants (76.0%) had been bitten or scratched by laboratory animals. The results of the survey showed that emergency management, transportation management and personnel management of laboratory animal incidents still need improvement in Hunan Province. Relevant functional departments should strengthen supervision and management efforts, establish local regulations for the transportation management of laboratory animals, ensure strict compliance with relevant documents, conduct emergency drills in all units, and strengthen training for practitioners.ConclusionWhile daily management practices in the 40 laboratory animal institutions in Hunan Province are generally satisfactory, there remains a need for further improvement in emergency management, transportation management, personnel management, etc. Gradually enhancing the level of laboratory animal safety management is essential to collectively safeguard public health safety.

Abstract Aiming at the problem of multi-object detection such as target occlusion and tiny targets in road scenes, this paper proposes an improved YOLOv5 multi-object detection model based on ML-AFP (multi-level aggregation feature perception) mechanism. Since tiny targets such as non-motor vehicle and pedestrians are not easily detected, this paper adds a micro target detection layer and a double head mechanism to improve the detection ability of tiny targets. Varifocal loss is used to achieve a more accurate ranking in the process of non-maximum suppression to solve the problem of target occlusion, and this paper also proposes a ML-AFP mechanism. The adaptive fusion of spatial feature information at different scales improves the expression ability of network model features, and improves the detection accuracy of the model as a whole. Our experimental results on multiple challenging datasets such as KITTI, BDD100K, and show that the accuracy, recall rate and mAP value of the proposed model are greatly improved, which solves the problem of multi-object detection in crowded road scenes.

Groundwater resources are closely related to climate change. Evaluating the groundwater deficit and its variation characteristics under climate change is necessary to understand the risk associated with enhanced groundwater recovery solutions and to provide supporting information for choosing the best technology and risk-reducing measures to implement. In this study, by using the CROPWAT model and copula theory, (1) we developed a groundwater deficit index (Gsci) for agricultural requirements that assesses the risk to groundwater resources imposed by precipitation changes on the North China Plain (NCP), and the four grades of Gsci were high deficit, moderate deficit, low deficit, and no deficit. (2) We estimated Gsci on the NCP for the period 1971–2020 by applying the climatic, soil, crop phenological, and hydrogeology data to the developed index. (3) The occurrence probability of each Gsci grade was evaluated. In the years with abundant precipitation, the occurrence probabilities of no-deficit events were 1, 0, 0, 0, 0.36, 0.56, and 0 on the Yanshan Plain, Taihang-Hebei Plain, Taihang-Henan Plain, Central-Hebei Plain, Central-Shandong Plain, Central-Henan Plain, and Coastal Plain, respectively. (4) The effective precipitation threshold for the occurrence of each Gsci grade was calculated, and the effective precipitation thresholds for the occurrence of no-deficit events were 495 mm, 595 mm, 525 mm, 400 mm, 455 mm, and 555 mm on the Taihang-Hebei Plain, Taihang-Henan Plain, Central-Hebei Plain, Central-Henan Plain, Central-Shandong Plain, and Coastal Plain, respectively. Our findings are useful for assessing the impacts of precipitation changes on groundwater resources and provide a further basis for the design of groundwater resource management strategies with respect to climate change, especially in water‐limited arid agricultural regions.

Abstract Mitochondrial dysfunctions play major roles in ageing. How mitochondrial stresses invoke downstream responses and how specificity of the signaling is achieved, however, remains unclear. We have previously discovered that the RNA component of Telomerase TERC is imported into mitochondria, processed to a shorter form TERC-53, and then exported back to the cytosol. Cytosolic TERC-53 levels respond to mitochondrial functions, but have no direct effect on these functions, suggesting that cytosolic TERC-53 functions downstream of mitochondria as a signal of mitochondrial functions. Here, we show that cytosolic TERC-53 plays a regulatory role on cellular senescence and is involved in cognition decline in 10 months old mice, independent of its telomerase function. Manipulation of cytosolic TERC-53 levels affects cellular senescence and cognition decline in 10 months old mouse hippocampi without affecting telomerase activity, and most importantly, affects cellular senescence in terc −/− cells. These findings uncover a senescence-related regulatory pathway with a non-coding RNA as the signal in mammals.

BackgroundiPLEDGE is the mandatory regulatory program for isotretinoin in the United States, aimed to prevent isotretinoin-related teratogenicity. However, little is known about potential unintended impact of the program, including delay in isotretinoin initiation, course interruption, and premature termination, which may vary across sex and racial domains.ObjectiveTo determine whether differences in isotretinoin start, interruption, and completion exist across sex and racial domains and whether iPLEDGE regulations contribute to such differences.MethodsRetrospective review of isotretinoin courses of patients prescribed isotretinoin for acne at the Brigham & Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital from 2008-2016.Results418 patients were included in analysis after being tightly matched across age and gender. 43.5% of non-white patients ended their course early compared to 30.1% of white patients (p = 0.010). iPLEDGE -related barriers were the most commonly specified reasons for delayed starting and interruption.ConclusioniPLEDGE may disproportionately contribute to access barriers for non-white patients. Continued evaluation of iPLEDGE is needed to minimize unintended barriers to access.

Introduction: Little is known about emergency department (ED) utilization for herpes simplex viruses (HSV) types 1 and 2 in the United States. Our goal was to determine the utilization and cost burden associated with HSV infection visits to U.S. EDs in recent years from 2006–2013. Methods: We analyzed the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS) database, the largest national database of hospital-based ED visits in the U.S., to determine the number of visits and the cost associated with HSV visits from 2006–2013. We also analyzed trends across years. Results: From 2006–2013, there were 704,728 ED visits with a primary diagnosis of HSV infection. Of these, 658,805 (93.5%) resulted in routine discharges without inpatient admission, amounting to a total ED charge of $543.0 million. After adjusting for inflation, there was a doubling of total ED spending for HSV from 2006 to 2013 ($45.0 million to $90.7 million) and a 24% increase in number of visits (73,227 visits in 2006, vs. 90,627 visits in 2013). ED visits for genital herpes have increased while visits for herpes gingivostomatitis have decreased. Conclusion: HSV-associated ED use and associated costs have increased between 2006–2013. Most of these cases could likely be managed in non-emergent outpatient settings as 93.5% of visits resulted in routine discharges without admission. Our findings add to knowledge regarding HSV utilization and epidemiology in the U.S. and highlight the need for continued prevention, patient education, and emphasis of care in non-emergency settings to prevent unnecessary ED utilization.

BACKGROUND:Alopecia areata (AA) is an autoimmune disease characterized by non-scarring hair loss. The lack of a definitive biomarker or formal diagnostic criteria for AA limits our ability to define the epidemiology of the disease. In this study, we developed and tested the Alopecia Areata Assessment Tool (ALTO) in an academic medical center to validate the ability of this questionnaire in identifying AA cases. METHODS:The ALTO is a novel, self-administered questionnaire consisting of 8 closed-ended questions derived by the Delphi method. This prospective pilot study was administered during a 1-year period in outpatient dermatology clinics. Eligible patients (18 years or older with chief concern of hair loss) were recruited consecutively. No patients declined to participate. The patient's hair loss diagnosis was determined by a board-certified dermatologist. Nine scoring algorithms were created and used to evaluate the accuracy of the ALTO in identifying AA. RESULTS:239 patients (59 AA cases and 180 non-AA cases) completed the ALTO and were included for analysis. Algorithm 5 demonstrated the highest sensitivity (89.8%) while algorithm 3 demonstrated the highest specificity (97.8%). Select questions were also effective in clarifying disease phenotype. CONCLUSION:In this study. we have successfully demonstrated that ALTO is a simple tool capable of discriminating AA from other types of hair loss. The ALTO may be useful to identify individuals with AA within large populations.

Variations in treatment modalities for skin growths contribute substantially to overall healthcare spending within dermatology. However, little is known regarding factors impacting patient decision-making when choosing a treatment modality. In this survey-based, cross-sectional study (n = 375, 81.9% response rate), we asked patients to rate the importance of different treatment parameters for a nonfacial skin growth, further classified into five domains: efficacy, appearance, financial impact, visit duration, and productivity. Although patients generally prioritized treatment efficacy when selecting a treatment modality, they emphasized different aspects of the treatment experience as a function of age, gender, race, insurance status, and history of malignancy. Patients over age 50 were less likely to consider treatment impact on finances as being “important”, but more so efficacy and visit duration. Women were more likely to value efficacy and appearance. Patients without private insurance were more likely to cite efficacy and impact on productivity as being “important”. While the underlying reasons for these variations differ across patients, these findings help explain variations in treatment selection among patients choosing between treatments for skin growths and may ultimately lead to improved shared decision-making.

Array erasure coding technology is one of the most desirable methods to enhance the reliability of storage systems, but fault tolerance is always the bottleneck to the use of array codes. There are several improvement schemes for fault tolerance of array codes now, such as graph theory method, hybrid layout method, and so on. But improvement of the fault tolerance is pretty small, and always cost too much. In view of this, the paper presents a new method to improve fault tolerant ability of array erasure codes. The new method has a highly computing efficiency because all calculations are binary XOR operations, and it is convenient to implement because of its simple construction. Using this new method, we can model a horizontal array code with the optimal updating expenses. Although MDS array codes cannot be modeled by the new method, but storage efficiency can be improved by increasing the strip size. The most important contribution of this paper is that, this new method can construct an array erasure code which has the unconstrained fault tolerant ability in theory.