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In this paper, we established some sufficient conditions for the boundedness of the Hardy–Littlewood maximal operators and the Hausdorff operators on $ p $-adic Herz spaces and $ p $-adic local block spaces with variable exponents. In particular, the boundedness of the $ p $-adic maximal commutator operators, the $ p $-adic Hardy–Littlewood average operators, and the $ p $-adic Hardy-Hilbert operators on such spaces was also discussed.

Abstract In this work, a two-dimensional computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model is developed to describe the drying process of a packed bed made of spherical particles. The volumetrical evaporation rate inside the bed is computed from the pressure difference between the particle surface and the airflow. By using the thermal equilibrium assumption, the heat conservation equation is derived. The CFD model is solved in the COMSOL Multiphysics environment. The obtained results indicate remarkable maldistributions of temperature and moisture content. These maldistributions can be explained by the impact of lateral edges on thermo-hydraulic behavior. Additionally, the impact of particle diameter, air velocity, and bed width on the spatial-temporal moisture content and temperature distribution is investigated. It shows that the CFD model can be simplified to the receding front drying model for a bed made of small particles. Furthermore, by changing the thermal boundary conditions at the lateral edges, the influence of the heating mode at the lateral edges on the drying behavior is explored. The results indicate that contact heating at the bed wall can help to accelerate the drying process significantly.

This paper proposes a novel backscatter-enabled partial non-orthogonal multiple access (part-NOMA) system design with imperfect successive interference cancellation. By exploiting part-NOMA combined with backscatter deployments, the considered system can flexibly control the overlap signal of two vehicles via either NOMA and orthogonal multiple access (OMA) to deal with the variation of channel conditions and their priorities while achieving spectral efficiency improvement and efficient interference reduction. On that basis, we first derive closed-form approximations for the outage probability of vehicles and then carry out the respective asymptotic in high signal-to-noise regions. This enables us to gain the diversity and coding gain of vehicles on the one hand and directly show how the considered system effectiveness compared to conventional NOMA and OMA counterparts by mathematical perspectives on the other hand. Moreover, we also provide guidance on how to achieve the approximate and asymptotic ergodic capacity in closed-form expressions, which is beneficial for pointing out the vehicles’ ergodic slope and demonstrating the effectiveness of part-NOMA over classical NOMA. Finally, we provide some illustrative simulations to verify our developed theoretical analyses.

This paper proposes the performance of a novel ambient-backscatter communication (AmBC)-assisted mobility vehicle system with partial non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) systems, where a jointly composite signal of NOMA and orthogonal multiple access (OMA) transmission is investigated to enhance the performance of the vehicle with high mobility and weak channel conditions in light of imperfect channel state information (CSI) and imperfect successive interference cancellation (SIC). Following that, we first derive exact closed-form expressions for the outage probability (OP) and ergodic capacity (EC) of vehicles and then conduct an asymptotic analysis in case of high signal-to-noise (SNR), gaining value information related to diversity order, modulation and coding gains, and ergodic slope. Through these mathematical frameworks, we clarify trade-offs in channel estimation procedure and vehicle performance, the advantages of partial NOMA in speeding up transmission rate operation area of weak vehicles compared to conventional NOMA, and the impact of imperfect SIC on the system outage performance. Monte-Carlo simulation examples validate the theoretical frameworks, along with several performance comparisons of the proposed partial NOMA and conventional NOMA. Moreover, it also shows that increasing the exploited portion bandwidth coefficient for individually serving vehicles with a weak channel condition enhances the operating target significantly without an outage event. Furthermore, exploiting partial NOMA for vehicles with a weak channel condition can save the transmit SNR of over 5 dB compared to using conventional NOMA while ensuring the performance of the rest vehicle.

Abstract Vietnam has high rates of antibiotic use and resistance. Measuring resistance in commensal bacteria could provide an objective indicator for evaluating the impact of interventions to reduce antibiotic use and resistance. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and bacterial recovery for different sampling strategies. We conducted a cross-sectional mixed methods study in a rural community in Ha Nam Province, northern Vietnam, and collected structured interviews, samples, and in-depth interviews from households. Out of 389 households invited, 324 participated (83%), representing 1502 individuals. Samples were collected from these individuals (1498 stool, 1002 self-administered nasal swabs, and 496 HW-administered nasopharyngeal swabs). Pneumococci were recovered from 11.1% (128/1149) of the total population and 26.2% (48/183) of those under 5-years. Recovery was higher for health-worker (HW)-administered swabs (13.7%, 48/350) than self-administered swabs (10.0%, 80/799) (OR 2.06, 95% CI 1.07–3.96). Cost per swab was cheaper for self-administered ($7.26) than HW-administered ($8.63) swabs, but the overall cost for 100 positive samples was higher ($7260 and $6300 respectively). Qualitative interviews revealed that HW-administered nasopharyngeal swabs took longer to collect, caused more discomfort, and were more difficult to take from children. Factors affecting participation included sense of contribution, perceived trade-offs between benefits and effort, and peer influence. Reluctance was related to stool sampling and negative perceptions of research. This study provides important evidence for planning community-based carriage studies, including cost, logistics, and acceptability. Self-administered swabs had lower recovery, and though cheaper and quicker, this would translate to higher costs for large population-based studies. Recovery might be improved by swab-type, transport medium, and better cold-chain to lab.

The aim of this paper is to establish some sufficient conditions for the boundedness of commutators of Hardy-Cesàro operators with symbols in central BMO spaces with variable exponent on some function spaces such as the local central Morrey, Herz, and Morrey-Herz spaces with variable exponents.

In Vietnam, Macrosolen tricolor is used for the treatment of bloating, broken bones, cough, diarrhea, diuretic, rheumatism, and laxative effects. The study aimed to identify the in vitro antiproliferation and anti-inflammation of all fractions and purified compounds from the M. tricolor whole plants, as well as the in silico molecular docking of the potentially cytotoxic compounds. As the results, fractions (MTH.I, MTH.II, MTE.I, and MTE.II) strongly demonstrated antiproliferative properties against three tested cells, MDA-MB-231, RD, and HepG2 (IC50 values ranged from 4.00 ± 0.20 to 70.60 ± 1.44 μg/mL), as well as anti-inflammatory effects (IC50 values ranged from 4.45 ± 0.08 to 23.00 ± 1.18 μg/mL), whereas other fractions meaningfully evidenced selective cytotoxicity and/or anti-inflammation. Therefore, the phytochemical compositions of the active fractions were illuminated, leading to the characterization of eighteen compounds. Compounds (3–5) revealed the most cytotoxic effects towards all examined cells (IC50 values ranged from 6.88 ± 0.12 to 71.64 ± 1.17 μM) and the strongest anti-inflammatory properties (IC50 values of 16.30 ± 0.92, 7.31 ± 0.55, and 9.23 ± 0.60 μM, respectively). Compound 11 showed potential cytotoxicity against MDA-MB-231, RD, and HepG2 cells (IC50 values of 24.42 ± 0.28, 20.60 ± 0.25, and 3.20 ± 0.02 μM, respectively). Furthermore, compounds (4, 5, and 11) interacted with the active site of the apoptosis regulator Bcl-2 protein (PDB ID: 2O2F), were comparable to PAC, and were compatible with their anticancer activity. This project suggests that M. tricolor is a good source of natural antiproliferative and anti-inflammatory agents and contributes to understanding the biological activities of Macrosolen species in traditional Vietnamese medicine.

This study investigated experimentally and numerically the influence of ultrasound pre-treatment on the drying kinetics of sliced carrot samples. Drying experiments were performed under different conditions, including scenarios with and without ultrasound pre-treatment at drying temperatures of 30 °C, 40 °C, and 50 °C. A diffusion-based-drying model was developed to study the impact of ultrasound pre-treatment on drying kinetics. The effective moisture diffusivity of carrots was expressed as a function of moisture content and temperature. Given the complexity of the dehydration process in carrot slices, which depends on the spatiotemporal variations in moisture content and temperature, and is challenging to monitor experimentally, the effective moisture diffusivity is computed by minimizing the discrepancy between numerical predictions and experimental moisture-content changes over time. This study revealed that ultrasound pre-treatment significantly enhanced the moisture diffusivity of the samples, increasing it by 43% to 90% at drying temperatures of 40 °C and 50 °C, respectively. To apply this analysis of ultrasound pre-treatment in large-scale dryers where thousands of slices may be involved, the proposed diffusion model was simplified to a characteristic drying-curve model. Afterwards, this characteristic drying-curve model was incorporated into a belt-dryer model. The results indicated a 12% reduction in the length of the belt dryer when ultrasound pre-treatment was applied. Additionally, the color of carrot samples was preserved better with ultrasound pre-treatment. On the basis of these results, the application of ultrasound pre-treatment in the hot-air drying of carrot slices was favored, both in terms of improved drying kinetics and quality aspects.

A high-performance non-volatile memory with low power consumption for long battery life and for large data storage is one of the key requirements of the wearable and other electronic Internet of Things (IoT) devices. In this study, we have fabricated and investigated the resistive switching behavior of an RRAM device using the nanocomposite of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and graphene oxide (GO) as the switching layer in a hybrid Ag/PVA–GO/FTO structure. The resistive switching behavior of the hybrid Ag/PVA–GO/FTO device depends on the GO amount in the PVA–GO matrix. The optical analysis depicts the good interaction through the hydrogen bonds between the hydroxyl group (–OH) of PVA and CO of GO which play an important role in lowering the power consumption (sweeping voltage −0.5 V to +0.5 V, VSET = −0.28 V, VRESET = 0.34 V, switching ratio ION/IOFF = 104) and switching mechanism of the hybrid Ag/PVA–0.5 wt% GO/FTO device compared to the Ag/PVA/FTO, Ag/GO/FTO and Ag/PVA–1.0 wt% GO/FTO devices. The electrical conduction mechanism is found dominant by the SCLC and the Ohm's law corresponding to the high and low resistance states in which the combination of the trap filling and the delocalization of electrons within π bonding rings switch the device from the high to the low resistance state.

ABSTRACT A challenging task that has hampered the fully automatic processing of the digital image correlation (DIC) technique is the initial guess when large deformation and rotation are present. In this paper, a robust scheme combining the concepts of a scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) algorithm and an improved random sample consensus (iRANSAC) algorithm is employed to conduct an automated fast initial guess for the DIC technique. The scale-invariant feature transform algorithm can detect a certain number of matching points from two images even though the corresponding deformation and rotation are large or the images have periodic and identical patterns. After removing the wrong matches with the improved random sample consensus algorithm, the three pairs of closest and non-collinear matching points serve for the purpose of initial guess calculation. The validity of the technique is demonstrated by both computer simulation and real experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction Nutritional intervention and prevention of malnutrition is significantly important for patients with upper gastrointestinal oesophageal, pancreatic and gastric cancer. However, there is limited information regarding nutritional status, and perioperative nutritional interventions that patients receive when undergoing curative surgery.Methods and analysis Patients diagnosed with upper gastrointestinal cancer, planned for curative intent resection across 27 Australian hospitals will be eligible to participate in this point prevalence study. The primary aim is to determine the prevalence of malnutrition in patients with upper gastrointestinal cancer at the time of surgery using subjective global assessment. Secondary aims are to determine the type and frequency of perioperative nutritional intervention received, the prevalence of clinically important weight loss and low muscle strength, and to investigate associations between the use of an evidence-based nutrition care pathway or protocol for the nutritional management of upper gastrointestinal surgical oncology patients and malnutrition prevalence. Data collection will be completed using a purpose-built data collection tool.Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval was granted in May 2019 (LNR/51107/PMCC-2019). The design and reporting of this study comply with the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology checklist for reporting of observational cohort studies. Findings will be published in peer-reviewed scholarly journals and presented at relevant conferences. Results will assist in defining priority areas for research to improve patient outcomes.

Abstract—Vietnam launched methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) in 2008 with donor funding. To expand and ensure sustainability of the program, Vietnam shifted the responsibility for financing portions of MMT to provinces and, in 2015, some provinces started collecting user fees for MMT. This study assesses the association between user fees and patient dropout using a one-year observational cohort of 1,021 MMT patients in which three of seven provinces included in the study implemented user fees. We also estimate the catastrophic payments—payments of 40% or more of nonsubsistence expenditures—associated with MMT. Box-Cox proportional hazard models were used to assess the association between user fees and patient dropout. About 85% of the cohort was actively on MMT at the end of the observation period. Of those who stopped MMT care, about 8% dropped out, 3.5% were incarcerated, 1.5% died, and 2% stopped for other reasons. The dropout hazard ratio for paying user fees compared to not paying user fees ranged from 0.70 (unadjusted, p = 0.26) to 0.29 (adjusted, p = 0.33). However, 29% of patients in provinces implementing user fees incurred catastrophic payments for MMT associated user fees and transportation, compared with 11% of patients in provinces not implementing user fees (p < 0.001). In one year of follow-up, we do not find evidence that user fees increased dropout from MMT. However, catastrophic payment rates remain a concern. This study represents an example of one type of monitoring of financial transitions; further and longer-term evaluation of user fees is needed.

In this work, Pr2-xNdxFe17 (x = 0 - 2) ribbons with thickness of about 15 μm were prepared by melt-spinning method. The alloy ribbons were then annealed at different temperatures (900 - 1100°C) for various time (0.25 - 2 h). The formation of the (Pr,Nd)2Fe17 (2:17) crystalline phase in the alloys strongly depends on the Pr/Nd ratio and annealing conditions. Annealing time for the completed formation of the 2:17 phase in the rapidly quenched ribbons is greatly reduced in comparison with that of bulk alloys. Curie temperature, TC, of the alloys can be controlled in room temperature region by changing Pr/Nd ratio. Maximum magnetic entropy change (|ΔSm|max) and full width at haft the maximum peak (FWHM) of the magnetic entropy change of the alloys were respectively found to be larger than 1.5 J.kg−1K−1 and 40 K in room temperature region with magetic field change ΔH = 12 kOe.

Magnetic phase transition, magnetocaloric effect and critical parameters of Ni50-xCoxMn50-yAly (x = 5 and 10; y = 17, 18 and 19) rapidly quenched ribbons have been studied. X-ray diffraction patterns exhibit a coexistence of the L21 and 10M crystalline phases of the ribbons. Magnetization measurements show that all the samples behave as soft magnetic materials with a low coercive force less than 60 Oe. The shape of thermomagnetization curves considerably depends on Co and Al concentrations. The Curie temperature (TC) of the alloy ribbons strongly increases with increasing the Co concentration and slightly decreases with increasing the Al concentration. The Ni45Co5Mn31Al19 and Ni40Co10Mn33Al17 ribbons reveal both the positive and negative magnetocaloric effects. Under magnetic field change (ΔGH) of 13.5 kOe, the maximum magnetic entropy change (|ΔSm|max) of the Ni45Co5Mn31Al19 ribbon is about 2 and -1 J·kg−1·K−1 for negative and positive magnetocaloric effects, respectively. Basing on Arrott - Noakes and Kouvel - Fisher methods, critical parameters of the Ni45Co5Mn31Al19 ribbon were determined to be TC ≈ 290 K, β ≈ 0.58, γ ≈ 0.92 and δ ≈ 2.59. The obtained values of the critical exponents indicate that the magnetic order of the alloy ribbon is close to the mean-field model.

Background: To evaluate the treatment outcomes of lateral interbody bone graft surgery and posterior percutaneous screws for lumbar spinal stenosis Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study. There were 27 patients with 30 segments of surgery diagnosed with lumbar spinal stenosis that were surgically treated with the XLIF method. Clinical outcomes measured included VAS scores for lower back pain and leg pain, ODI, and JOA scores. Magnetic resonance imaging of the lumbar spine after surgery was used to evaluate indirect decompression. X-ray or CT scan to evaluate bone fusion after 6 months of surgery. Differences were determined by independent T-test., Results: There were 27 patients with 30 segments of surgery. They were 12 males and 15 females with an average age of 58.81±8.1. There was significant improvement in VAS for lower back pain from 7.11±1.31 to 3.67±1.3, VAS for leg pain from 6.81±2.19 to 1.59±1.89, ODI from 26.41±8.95 to 13.69±8.34, and JOA score from 7.63±2.87 to 13.5±1.73. A-P diameter increased 134%, lateral diameter increased 120%, lateral recess depth increased 166%, disc height increased 126%, foraminal height increased 124%, spinal canal area increased 30%. The p-values were all <0.001. The average hospital stay was 6.79±3.01 days. Complications included 1 pedicle screw malformation, 1 ALL avulsion fracture, 1 abdominal herniation, 1 venous damage, 1 failure., Conclusion: XLIF surgery presents a favorable option for patients with lumbar spinal stenosis. This is a minimally invasive surgical method that reduces pain, reduces bleeding, and is effective in indirectly decompressing the spinal canal both clinal and imaging.

Purpose We investigated the impact of intravascular ultrasound guidance on reducing the incidence of contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI) in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Methods Ninety-nine patients were enrolled in this prospective cohort who were not randomly assigned to angiography-guided percutaneous coronary intervention or intravascular ultrasound-guided percutaneous coronary intervention. The patients were hospitalized at the Vietnam National Heart Institute - Bach Mai Hospital between 2019 and 2020. Acute kidney injury incidence during hospitalization was the primary endpoint. Results A total of 99 patients were divided into two groups: the intravascular ultrasound-guided group (33 participants) and the angiography-guided group (66 participants). The mean ± SD contrast volume of each group was 95.2 ± 37.1 mL and 133.0 ± 36.0 mL for the ultrasound-guided and angiography-guided groups, with P < 0.0001. Intravascular imaging-guided percutaneous coronary intervention (IVUS-guided PCI) was associated with reduced acute kidney injury incidence during hospitalization: 0.0% vs. 12.12% and P = 0.049. Conclusions Intravascular ultrasound is a safe imaging tool that guides percutaneous coronary intervention and significantly reduces the rate of acute kidney injury compared to angiography alone. Patients who have a high chance of experiencing acute kidney injury benefit from using intravascular ultrasound., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright © 2024, Tran Duc et al.)

Treatment of people with HIV (PWH) with antiretroviral therapy (ART) results in sustained suppression of viremia, but HIV persists indefinitely as integrated provirus in CD4-expressing cells. Intact persistent provirus, the "rebound competent viral reservoir" (RCVR), is the primary obstacle to achieving a cure. Most variants of HIV enter CD4 + T cells by binding to the chemokine receptor, CCR5. The RCVR has been successfully depleted only in a handful of PWH following cytotoxic chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation from donors with a mutation in CCR5 . Here we show that long-term SIV remission and apparent cure can be achieved for infant macaques via targeted depletion of potential reservoir cells that express CCR5. Neonatal rhesus macaques were infected with virulent SIVmac251, then treated with ART beginning one week after infection, followed by treatment with either a CCR5/CD3-bispecific or a CD4-specific antibody, both of which depleted target cells and increased the rate of plasma viremia decrease. Upon subsequent cessation of ART, three of seven animals treated with CCR5/CD3-bispecific antibody rebounded quickly and two rebounded 3 or 6 months later. Remarkably, the other two animals remained aviremic and efforts to detect replication-competent virus were unsuccessful. Our results show that bispecific antibody treatment can achieve meaningful SIV reservoir depletion and suggest that functional HIV cure might be achievable for recently infected individuals having a restricted reservoir.

Investigation of canine T cell immunophenotypes in canine melanomas as prognostic biomarkers for disease progression or predictive biomarkers for targeted immunotherapeutics remains in preliminary stages. We aimed to examine T cell phenotypes and function in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and baseline tumor samples by flow cytometry, and to compare patient ( n = 11-20) T cell phenotypes with healthy controls dogs ( n = 10-20). CD3, CD4, CD8, CD25, FoxP3, Ki67, granzyme B, and interferon-γ (IFN-γ) were used to classify T cell subsets in resting and mitogen stimulated PBMCs. In a separate patient cohort ( n = 11), T cells were classified using CD3, CD4, CD8, FoxP3, and granzyme B in paired PBMC and single cell suspensions of tumor samples. Analysis of flow cytometric data of individual T cell phenotypes in PBMC revealed specific T cell phenotypes including FoxP3+ and CD25+FoxP3- populations that distinguished patients from healthy controls. Frequencies of IFN-γ+ cells after ConA stimulation identified two different patient phenotypic responses, including a normal/exaggerated IFN-γ response and a lower response suggesting dysfunction. Principle component analysis of selected T cell immunophenotypes also distinguished patients and controls for T cell phenotype and revealed a clustering of patients based on metastasis detected at diagnosis. Findings supported the overall hypothesis that canine melanoma patients display a T cell immunophenotype profile that is unique from healthy pet dogs and will guide future studies designed with larger patient cohorts necessary to further characterize prognostic T cell immunophenotypes., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Sparger, Chang, Chin, Rebhun, Withers, Kieu, Canter, Monjazeb and Kent.)

Breastfeeding is the gold standard for feeding infants because of its long-term benefits to health and development, but most infants in the United States are not exclusively breastfed in the first six months. We enrolled 24 infants who were either exclusively breastfed or supplemented with formula by the age of one month. We collected diet information, stool samples for evaluation of microbiotas by 16S rRNA sequencing, and blood samples for assessment of immune development by flow cytometry from birth to 6 months of age. We further typed the Bifidobacterium strains in stool samples whose 16S rRNA sequencing showed the presence of Bifidobacteriaceae. Supplementation with formula during breastfeeding transiently changed the composition of the gut microbiome, but the impact dissipated by six months of age. For example, Bifidobacterium longum , a bacterial species highly correlated with human milk consumption, was found to be significantly different only at 1 month of age but not at later time points. No immunologic differences were found to be associated with supplementation, including the development of T-cell subsets, B cells, or monocytes. These data suggest that early formula supplementation, given in addition to breast milk, has minimal lasting impact on the gut microbiome or immunity.

Presented in this paper is an effective technique to acquire the three-dimensional (3D) digital images of the human face without the use of active lighting and artificial patterns. The technique is based on binocular stereo imaging and digital image correlation, and it includes two key steps: camera calibration and image matching. The camera calibration involves a pinhole model and a bundle-adjustment approach, and the governing equations of the 3D digitization process are described. For reliable pixel-to-pixel image matching, the skin pores and freckles or lentigines on the human face serve as the required pattern features to facilitate the process. It employs feature-matching-based initial guess, multiple subsets, iterative optimization algorithm, and reliability-guided computation path to achieve fast and accurate image matching. Experiments have been conducted to demonstrate the validity of the proposed technique. The simplicity of the approach and the affordable cost of the implementation show its practicability in scientific and engineering applications.

Background: A dengue outbreak in an ecotourism destination spot in Vietnam, from September to November 2013, impacted a floating village of fishermen on the coastal island of Cat Ba. The outbreak raises questions about how tourism may impact disease spread in rural areas., Methods: Epidemiological data were obtained from the Hai Phong Preventive Medical Center (PMC), including case histories and residential location from all notified dengue cases from this outbreak. All household addresses were geo-located. Knox test, a spatio-temporal analysis that enables inference dengue clustering constrained by space and time, was performed on the geocoded locations. From the plasma available from two patients, positive for Dengue serotype 3 virus (DENV3), the Envelope (E) gene was sequenced, and their genetic relationships compared to other E sequences in the region., Results: Of 192 dengue cases, the odds ratio of contracting dengue infections for people living in the floating villages compared to those living on the island was 4.9 (95 % CI: 3.6-6.7). The space-time analyses on 111 geocoded dengue residences found the risk of dengue infection to be the highest within 4 days and a radius of 20 m of a given case. Of the total of ten detected clusters with an excess risk greater than 2, the cluster with the highest number of cases was in the floating village area (24 patients for a total duration of 31 days). Phylogenetic analysis revealed a high homology of the two DENV3 strains (genotype III) from Cat Ba with DENV3 viruses circulating in Hanoi in the same year (99.1 %)., Conclusions: Our study showed that dengue transmission is unlikely to be sustained on Cat Ba Island and that the 2013 epidemic likely originated through introduction of viruses from the mainland, potentially Hanoi. These findings suggest that prevention efforts should be focused on mainland rather than on the island.

In spite of the recent advances in 3D shape measurement and geometry reconstruction, simultaneously achieving fast-speed and high-accuracy performance remains a big challenge in practice. In this paper, a 3D imaging and shape measurement system is presented to tackle such a challenge. The fringe-projection-profilometry-based system employs a number of advanced approaches, such as: composition of phase-shifted fringe patterns, externally triggered synchronization of system components, generalized system setup, ultrafast phase-unwrapping algorithm, flexible system calibration method, robust gamma correction scheme, multithread computation and processing, and graphics-processing-unit-based image display. Experiments have shown that the proposed system can acquire and display high-quality 3D reconstructed images and/or video stream at a speed of 45 frames per second with relative accuracy of 0.04% or at a reduced speed of 22.5 frames per second with enhanced accuracy of 0.01%. The 3D imaging and shape measurement system shows great promise of satisfying the ever-increasing demands of scientific and engineering applications.

Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) DNA vaccine approaches that included a vif-deleted FIV provirus (FIV-pPPRDeltavif) and feline cytokine expression plasmids were tested for immunogenicity and efficacy by immunization of specific pathogen free cats. Vaccine protocols included FIV-pPPRDeltavif plasmid alone; a combination of FIV-pPPRDeltavif DNA and feline granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha expression plasmids; or a combination of FIV-pPPRDeltavif and feline interleukin (IL)-15 plasmids. Cats immunized with FIV-pPPRDeltavif, GM-CSF and TNF-alpha plasmids demonstrated an increased frequency of FIV-specific T cell proliferation responses compared to other vaccine groups. Immunization with FIV-pPPRDeltavif and IL-15 plasmids was distinguished from other vaccine protocols by the induction of antiviral antibodies. Suppression of virus loads was not observed for any of the FIV-pPPRDeltavif DNA vaccine protocols after challenge with the FIV-PPR isolate. However, prior immunization with FIV-pPPRDeltavif, GM-CSF, and TNF-alpha plasmids resulted in preservation of CD4 T cell functions, including mitogen-induced cytokine expression and antigen-specific proliferation upon infection with FIV. These findings justify further examination of cytokine combinations as adjuvants for lentiviral DNA vaccines.