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This study aimed to characterise antibiotic prescribing and dispensing patterns in rural health facilities in China and determine the community prevalence of antibiotic resistance. We investigated patterns and drivers of antibiotic use for common respiratory and urinary tract infections (RTI/UTI) in community settings, examined relationships between presenting symptoms, clinical diagnosis and microbiological results in rural outpatient clinics, and assessed potential for using patient records to monitor antibiotic use. This interdisciplinary mixed methods study included: (i) Observations and exit interviews in eight village clinics and township health centres and 15 retail pharmacies; (ii) Urine, throat swab and sputum samples from patients to identify potential pathogens and test susceptibility; (iii) 103 semi-structured interviews with doctors, patients, pharmacy workers and antibiotic-purchasing customers; (iv) Assessment of completeness and accuracy of electronic patient records through comparison with observational data. 87.9% of 1123 recruited clinic patients were prescribed antibiotics (of which 35.5% contained antibiotic combinations and >40% were for intravenous administration), most of whom had RTIs. Antibiotic prescribing for RTIs was not associated with presence of bacterial pathogens but was correlated with longer duration of infection (OR = 3.33) and presence of sore throat (OR = 1.64). Fever strongly predicted prescription of intravenous antibiotics (OR = 2.87). Resistance rates in bacterial pathogens isolated were low compared with national data. 25.8% of patients reported antibiotics use prior to their clinic visit, but only 56.2% of clinic patients and 53% of pharmacy customers could confirm their prescription or purchase included antibiotics. Diagnostic uncertainty, financial incentives, understanding of antibiotics as anti-inflammatory and limited doctor-patient communication were identified as key drivers of antibiotic use. Completion and accuracy of electronic patient records were highly variable. Prevalence of antibiotic resistance in this rural population is relatively low despite high levels of antibiotic prescribing and self-medication. More systematic use of e-records and in-service training could improve antibiotic surveillance and stewardship in rural facilities. Combining qualitative and observational anthropological methods and concepts with microbiological and epidemiological investigation of antibiotic resistance at both research design and analytic synthesis stages substantially increases the validity of research findings and their utility in informing future intervention development.

To improve ‘bench-to-bedside’ translation, it is integral that knowledge flows bidirectionally—from animal models to humans, and vice versa. This requires common analytical frameworks, as well as open software and data sharing practices. We share a new pipeline (and test dataset) for the preprocessing of wide-field optical fluorescence imaging data—an emerging mode applicable in animal models—as well as results from a functional connectivity and graph theory analysis inspired by recent work in the human neuroimaging field. The approach is demonstrated using a dataset comprised of two test-cases: (1) data from animals imaged during awake and anesthetized conditions with excitatory neurons labeled, and (2) data from awake animals with different genetically encoded fluorescent labels that target either excitatory neurons or inhibitory interneuron subtypes. Both seed-based connectivity and graph theory measures (global efficiency, transitivity, modularity, and characteristic path-length) are shown to be useful in quantifying differences between wakefulness states and cell populations. Wakefulness state and cell type show widespread effects on canonical network connectivity with variable frequency band dependence. Differences between excitatory neurons and inhibitory interneurons are observed, with somatostatin expressing inhibitory interneurons emerging as notably dissimilar from parvalbumin and vasoactive polypeptide expressing cells. In sum, we demonstrate that our pipeline can be used to examine brain state and cell-type differences in mesoscale imaging data, aiding translational neuroscience efforts. In line with open science practices, we freely release the pipeline and data to encourage other efforts in the community.

ABSTRACT The melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) gene plays a key role in controlling the deposition of melanin. In mammals, the MC1Rgene is regarded as a major candidate gene in the control of melanin formation. In domestic animals, the MC1R gene mainly controls the expression of coat, skin, and plumage color in mammals and birds. In order to breed chickens with dark-green shank faster, we screened the molecular markers for shank color in a HS chicken population by exploring the relationship between polymorphism of the MC1R gene and three different shank colors (light green, dark green and yellow). Two primer pairs for code region of the MC1R gene were designed in the basic of chicken genomic sequence. DNA sequencing was performed to detect the polymorphisms and PCR was used to amplify DNA fragment. Sequences analysis indicated that 7 SNPs were predominant the three HS chicken populations with different shank color, including g.18,287,945C>T, g.18,288,088T>C, g.18,288,150G>A, g.18,288,303A>G, g.18,288,512G>A, g.18,288,513T>C, and g.18,288,520A>C. Association analysis revealed that the dark-green shank population showed moderate polymorphism, whereas the light-green shank population showed low polymorphism among overall 7 SNPs and that SNP6 (g.18,288,513T>C) may be significantly associated with three different shank colors in HS chickens. The haplotype CTGGACA had the largest haplotype frequencies, accounting for 56.22%, and the haplotype combination H1H1 is mainly distributed in the dark-green shank population, and may be used as molecular maker for marker-assisted selection of shank color in HS chickens.

ABSTRACTThis study aimed at examining the effect of overfeeding on the activity of the mTOR pathway in the liver and muscle tissues of Gang geese. Eighty healthy male Gang geese were reared under the same feeding conditions, and were divided at 14 weeks of age into a control group and an overfed group. All birds were slaughtered after three weeks of over feeding. Gene expression and protein content of several genes involved in the mTOR pathway were evaluated. The results showed that the gene expression of mTOR, raptor, and rictor, and the protein contents of mTOR and PI3K were higher in liver, breast muscle, and leg muscle of the overfed group than that of control group. However, the S6K expression level was clearly lower in the liver of the overfed group than that of control group, and there was no evident difference in both breast muscle and leg muscle between the control group and the overfed group. These results suggest that overfeeding induces the activity of raptor, rictor, and mTOR, and that mTOR signaling pathway was closely linked with PI3K pathway in the evaluated geese.

Electron–phonon coupling processes determine electronic transport properties of materials and are responsible for the transfer of electronic excess energy to the lattice. With decreasing device dimensions an understanding of these processes in nanoscale materials is becoming increasingly important. Here we use time-resolved electron diffraction to directly study energy relaxation in thin bismuth films after optical excitation. Precise measurements of the transient Debye–Waller-effect for various film thicknesses and over an extended range of excitation fluences allow to separate different contributions to the incoherent lattice response. While phonon softening in the electronically excited state is responsible for an immediate increase of the r.m.s. atomic displacement within a few hundred fs, ‘ordinary’ electron–phonon coupling leads to subsequent heating of the material on a few ps time-scale. The data reveal distinct changes in the energy transfer dynamics which becomes faster for stronger excitation and smaller film thickness, respectively. The latter effect is attributed to a cross-interfacial coupling of excited electrons to phonons in the substrate.

In this communication, we present the exposure of agricultural lands to the flooding caused by extreme precipitation in western Europe from 12 to 15 July 2021. Overlaying the flood inundation maps derived from the near-real-time RAdar-Produced Inundation Diary (RAPID) system on the Coordination of information on the environment (CORINE) Land Cover map we estimate a 1920 km2 area affected by the flooding, with 64 % representing agricultural land. Among the inundated agricultural land, 36 % of the area is pastures while 34 % is arable land. Most agricultural flood exposure is found in eastern France along the Rhône River, the southern Netherlands along the Meuse River, and western Germany along the Rhine River.

The reduction of both energy consumption and production/maintenance costs in the industry requires the use of advanced engineering materials with remarkable features, including lightweight and long-term service life. As one of the advanced engineering materials, composites are widely applied in industry and civilian daily life. Nevertheless, there are some mechanical factors such as tensile strength restricting the application of such a material. To this end, this study is aimed to comprehensively review the recent research on the effects of fabrication characteristics on the tensile resistance of GFRP, CFRP, and AFRP composites. As revealed by recent progress, the epoxy resin is an advisable option for the production of high-performance polymeric composites due to the remarkable tensility, compression, and corrosion resistance. However, the high cost of epoxy resin is not favorable for mass production. In hybrid composites, stacking sequence is a vital factor that determines the ultimate tensile strength. In terms of higher mechanical performance, some researchers suggested using Kevlar fibers with woven orientation alongside the Carbon as axial fibers. At the same time, it is essential to carefully establish the value of fiber volume fraction. Otherwise, this can lead to dramatic internal defects such as agglomeration. In general, this review article was performed to investigate the impacts of composite fabrication characteristics such as fabrication method, reinforcing fibers orientation, fiber type, matrix phase type, and volume fraction of reinforcing phase on the tensile properties of composites used in aerospace, military, civil constructions, and automotive applications. In addition, the authors tried their best to make this research a credible source in the field of mechanical properties of CFRP, GFRP, and AFRP composites for future studies of other researchers.

Abstract Using e + e − annihilation data corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 6.32 fb −1 collected at the center-of-mass energies between 4.178 and 4.226 GeV with the BESIII detector, we perform an amplitude analysis of the decay D s + $$ {D}_s^{+} $$ → K − K + π + π + π − and determine the relative fractions and phases of different intermediate processes. Absolute branching fraction of D s + $$ {D}_s^{+} $$ → K − K + π + π + π − decay is measured to be (6.60 ± 0.47stat. ± 0.38syst. ) × 10 −3. The dominant intermediate process is D s + $$ {D}_s^{+} $$ → a 1(1260)+ ϕ, ϕ → K − K + , a 1(1260)+ → ρπ + , ρ → π + π − , with a branching fraction of (5.15 ± 0.41stat. ± 0.32syst. ) × 10 −3.

This paper investigates consumed power minimization and robust beamforming designs in the base station (BTS) in Device to Device (D2D) communications underlying the 5G cellular network. It is supposed that BTS is not aware of the channel state information (CSI), and only an approximation of their covariance is available. Therefore, based on the estimation error of CSI covariance matrices two optimization models are presented to minimize the power consumption and robust beamforming designs. The first model assumes that the upper bound of the estimation errors is limited to their Frobenius norms. So, the main objective of the first model is to calculate the beamforming at the BTS in such a way that the power consumption of the base station is minimized under the constraint that the SINR (signal-to-interference plus noise ratio) of all cellular users is guaranteed to be above a specified predetermined threshold. The second model considers the statistical distribution of the estimation error is known, and a probabilistic model is considered for the uncertainty of CSI covariance matrices. In this sense, the power consumption of the BTS is minimized in such a way that the non-outage probabilities of users are guaranteed to be above a certain predefined threshold. Although these optimization problems are non-convex, it is shown that they can be reformulated to a convex form using a semi-definite relaxation technique to obtain their lower bounds. The simulation results verify that the proposed methods perform much better than the Hybrid MRT-ZF, ZFBF and MRT beamforming methods.

Abstract Using data collected with the BESIII detector in e + e − collisions at center-of-mass energies between 4.178 and 4.226 GeV and corresponding to 6.32 fb −1 of integrated luminosity, we report the amplitude analysis and branching-fraction measurement of the D s + $$ {D}_s^{+} $$ → π + π 0 η′ decay. We find that the dominant intermediate process is D s + $$ {D}_s^{+} $$ → ρ + η′ and the significances of other resonant and nonresonant processes are all less than 3σ. The upper limits on the branching fractions of S-wave and P-wave nonresonant components are set to 0.10% and 0.74% at the 90% confidence level, respectively. In addition, the branching fraction of the D s + $$ {D}_s^{+} $$ → π + π 0 η′ decay is measured to be (6.15 ± 0.25(stat.) ± 0.18(syst.))%, which receives significant contribution only from D s + $$ {D}_s^{+} $$ → ρ + η′ according to the amplitude analysis.

Land surface temperature (LST) is a key variable for high temperature and drought monitoring and climate and ecological environment research. Due to the sparse distribution of ground observation stations, thermal infrared remote sensing technology has become an important means of quickly obtaining ground temperature over large areas. However, there are many missing and low-quality values in satellite-based LST data because clouds cover more than 60 % of the global surface every day. This article presents a unique LST dataset with a monthly temporal resolution for China from 2003 to 2017 that makes full use of the advantages of MODIS data and meteorological station data to overcome the defects of cloud influence via a reconstruction model. We specifically describe the reconstruction model, which uses a combination of MODIS daily data, monthly data and meteorological station data to reconstruct the LST in areas with cloud coverage and for grid cells with elevated LST error, and the data performance is then further improved by establishing a regression analysis model. The validation indicates that the new LST dataset is highly consistent with in situ observations. For the six natural subregions with different climatic conditions in China, verification using ground observation data shows that the root mean square error (RMSE) ranges from 1.24 to 1.58 ∘C, the mean absolute error (MAE) varies from 1.23 to 1.37 ∘C and the Pearson coefficient (R2) ranges from 0.93 to 0.99. The new dataset adequately captures the spatiotemporal variations in LST at annual, seasonal and monthly scales. From 2003 to 2017, the overall annual mean LST in China showed a weak increase. Moreover, the positive trend was remarkably unevenly distributed across China. The most significant warming occurred in the central and western areas of the Inner Mongolia Plateau in the Northwest Region, and the average annual temperature change is greater than 0.1 K (R>0.71, P<0.05), and a strong negative trend was observed in some parts of the Northeast Region and South China Region. Seasonally, there was significant warming in western China in winter, which was most pronounced in December. The reconstructed dataset exhibits significant improvements and can be used for the spatiotemporal evaluation of LST in high-temperature and drought-monitoring studies. The data are available through Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3528024 (Zhao et al., 2019).

Earthquakes may disturb the lower ionosphere through various coupling mechanisms during the seismogenic and coseismic periods. The VLF (very low-frequency) signal radiated from ground-based transmitters will be affected when it penetrates the disturbed ionosphere above the epicenter area, and this anomaly can be recorded by low-Earth orbit satellites under certain conditions. In this paper, the temporal and spatial variation of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the VLF transmitter signal in the ionosphere over the epicenter of 2010 Yushu Ms 7.1 earthquake in China is analyzed using DEMETER (Detection of Electro-Magnetic Emission Transmitted from Earthquake Regions) satellite observation. The results show that SNR over the epicenter of the Yushu earthquake especially in the southwestern region decreased (or dropped) before the main shock, and a GPS–TEC (Global Positioning System; total electron content) anomaly accompanied, which implies that the decrease in SNR might be caused by the enhancement of TEC. A full-wave method is used to study the mechanism of the change in SNR before the earthquake. The simulated results show SNR does not always decrease before an earthquake. When the electron density in the lower ionosphere increases by 3 times, the electric field will decrease about 2 dB, indicating that the disturbed-electric-field decrease of 20 % compared with the original electric field and vice versa. It can be concluded that the variation of electron density before earthquakes may be one of the important factors influencing the variation of SNR.

Abstract We measure the branching fractions for seven D s + $$ {D}_s^{+} $$ two-body decays to pseudo-scalar mesons, by analyzing data collected at s $$ \sqrt{s} $$ = 4.178 ∼ 4.226 GeV with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII collider. The branching fractions are determined to be B D s + → K + η ' = 2.68 ± 0.17 ± 0.17 ± 0.08 × 10 − 3 , B D s + → η ' π + = 37.8 ± 0.4 ± 2.1 ± 1.2 × 10 − 3 , B D s + → K + η = 1.62 ± 0.10 ± 0.03 ± 0.05 × 10 − 3 , B D s + → η π + = 17.41 ± 0.18 ± 0.27 ± 0.54 × 10 − 3 , B D s + → K + K S 0 = 15.02 ± 0.10 ± 0.27 ± 0.47 × 10 − 3 , B D s + → K S 0 π + = 1.109 ± 0.034 ± 0.023 ± 0.035 × 10 − 3 , B D s + → K + π 0 = 0.748 ± 0.049 ± 0.018 ± 0.035 × 10 − 3 , $$ {\displaystyle \begin{array}{c}\mathcal{B}\left({D}_s^{+}\to {K}^{+}\eta \hbox{'}\right)=\left(2.68\pm 0.17\pm 0.17\pm 0.08\right)\times {10}^{-3},\\ {}\mathcal{B}\left({D}_s^{+}\to \eta \hbox{'}{\pi}^{+}\right)=\left(37.8\pm 0.4\pm 2.1\pm 1.2\right)\times {10}^{-3},\\ {}\mathcal{B}\left({D}_s^{+}\to {K}^{+}\eta \right)=\left(1.62\pm 0.10\pm 0.03\pm 0.05\right)\times {10}^{-3},\\ {}\mathcal{B}\left({D}_s^{+}\to \eta {\pi}^{+}\right)=\left(17.41\pm 0.18\pm 0.27\pm 0.54\right)\times {10}^{-3},\\ {}\mathcal{B}\left({D}_s^{+}\to {K}^{+}{K}_S^0\right)=\left(15.02\pm 0.10\pm 0.27\pm 0.47\right)\times {10}^{-3},\\ {}\mathcal{B}\left({D}_s^{+}\to {K}_S^0{\pi}^{+}\right)=\left(1.109\pm 0.034\pm 0.023\pm 0.035\right)\times {10}^{-3},\\ {}\mathcal{B}\left({D}_s^{+}\to {K}^{+}{\pi}^0\right)=\left(0.748\pm 0.049\pm 0.018\pm 0.035\right)\times {10}^{-3},\end{array}} $$ where the first uncertainties are statistical, the second are systematic, and the third are from external input branching fraction of the normalization mode D s + $$ {D}_s^{+} $$ → K + K − π +. Precision of our measurements is significantly improved compared with that of the current world average values.

In this communication, we present application of the automated near-real-time (NRT) system called RAdar-Produced Inundation Diary (RAPID) to European Space Agency Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images to produce flooding maps for Hurricane Dorian in the northern Bahamas. RAPID maps, released 2 d after the event, show that coastal flooding in the Bahamas reached areas located more than 10 km inland, covering more than 3000 km2 of continental area. RAPID flood estimates from subsequent SAR images show the recession of the flood across the islands and present high agreement scores when compared to Copernicus Emergency Management Service (Copernicus EMS) estimates.

For addressing the present challenges in tandem catalysts, an artificial reactor capable of self-controlled tandem catalytic-ability was reported in this study. Inspired from the polymeric properties and divisional isolation for tandem processes in natural biological systems, this reactor was fabricated with polymeric bilayer architectures. The first layer was made of a reactive shape memory polymer that contained thermosensitive polymeric networks, acting as a molecular switch for the occurrence of the precedent hydrolysis of bis(4-nitrophenyl)carbonate. The second layer consisted of a molecularly-imprinted polymer and encapsulated Ag nanoparticles, allowing access to the succeeding reduction of the intermediate 4-nitrophenol. In a cooperative way, the polymeric bilayer architectures planted in this artificial reactor led to the formation of self-controlled tandem catalytic-ability. The suggested design for this artificial reactor shares a promising prospect with the struggling tandem catalysts, which leads to opportunities to develop controllable tandem processes.

This research studied the spatiotemporal variation in methane in the middle to upper troposphere during the Wenchuan earthquake (12 May 2008) using AIRS retrieval data and discussed the methane anomaly mechanism. Three indices were proposed and used for analysis. Our results show that the methane concentration increased significantly in 2008, with an average increase of 5.12×10-8, compared to the average increase of 1.18×10-8 in the previous 5 years. The absolute local index of change of the environment (ALICE) and differential value (diff) indices can be used to identify methane concentration anomalies. The two indices showed that the methane concentration distribution before and after the earthquake broke the distribution features of the background field. As the earthquake approached, areas of high methane concentration gradually converged towards the west side of the epicenter from both ends of the Longmenshan fault zone. Moreover, a large anomalous area was centered at the epicenter 8 d before the earthquake occurred, and a trend of strengthening, weakening and strengthening appeared over time. The gradient index showed that the vertical direction obviously increased before the main earthquake and that the value was positive. The gradient value is negative during coseismic or post-seismic events. The gradient index reflects the gas emission characteristics to some extent. We also determined that the methane release was connected with the deep crust–mantle stress state, as well as micro-fracture generation and expansion. However, due to the lack of any technical means to accurately identify the source and content of methane in the atmosphere before the earthquake, an in-depth discussion has not been conducted, and further studies on this issue may be needed.

Chemical composition, size distributions, and degree of oligomerization of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) from α-pinene (C10H16) ozonolysis were investigated for low-temperature conditions (223 K). Two types of experiments were performed using two simulation chambers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology: the Aerosol Preparation and Characterization (APC) chamber, and the Aerosol Interaction and Dynamics in the Atmosphere (AIDA) chamber. Experiment type 1 simulated SOA formation at upper tropospheric conditions: SOA was generated in the AIDA chamber directly at 223 K at 61 % relative humidity (RH; experiment termed cold humid, CH) and for comparison at 6 % RH (experiment termed cold dry, CD) conditions. Experiment type 2 simulated SOA uplifting: SOA was formed in the APC chamber at room temperature (296 K) and warm dry, WD) or 21 % RH (experiment termed warm humid, WH) conditions, and then partially transferred to the AIDA chamber kept at 223 K, and 61 % RH (WDtoCH) or 30 % RH (WHtoCH), respectively. Precursor concentrations varied between 0.7 and 2.2 ppm α-pinene, and between 2.3 and 1.8 ppm ozone for type 1 and type 2 experiments, respectively. Among other instrumentation, a chemical ionization mass spectrometer (CIMS) coupled to a filter inlet for gases and aerosols (FIGAERO), deploying I− as reagent ion, was used for SOA chemical composition analysis. For type 1 experiments with lower α-pinene concentrations and cold SOA formation temperature (223 K), smaller particles of 100–300 nm vacuum aerodynamic diameter (dva) and higher mass fractions (> 40 %) of adducts (molecules with more than 10 carbon atoms) of α-pinene oxidation products were observed. For type 2 experiments with higher α-pinene concentrations and warm SOA formation temperature (296 K), larger particles ( ∼ 500 nm dva) with smaller mass fractions of adducts ( We also observed differences (up to 20 °C) in maximum desorption temperature (Tmax) of individual compounds desorbing from the particles deposited on the FIGAERO Teflon filter for different experiments, indicating that Tmax is not purely a function of a compound's vapor pressure or volatility, but is also influenced by diffusion limitations within the particles (particle viscosity), interactions between particles deposited on the filter (particle matrix), and/or particle mass on the filter. Highest Tmax were observed for SOA under dry conditions and with higher adduct mass fraction; lowest Tmax were observed for SOA under humid conditions and with lower adduct mass fraction. The observations indicate that particle viscosity may be influenced by intra- and inter-molecular hydrogen bonding between oligomers, and particle water uptake, even under such low-temperature conditions. Our results suggest that particle physicochemical properties such as viscosity and oligomer content mutually influence each other, and that variation in Tmax of particle desorptions may have implications for particle viscosity and particle matrix effects. The differences in particle physicochemical properties observed between our different experiments demonstrate the importance of taking experimental conditions into consideration when interpreting data from laboratory studies or using them as input in climate models.

Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is a major concern for the pharmaceutical industry and constitutes one of the most important reasons for the termination of promising drug development projects. Reliable prediction of DILI liability in preclinical stages is difficult, as current experimental model systems do not accurately reflect the molecular phenotype and functionality of the human liver. As a result, multiple drugs that passed preclinical safety evaluations failed due to liver toxicity in clinical trials or postmarketing stages in recent years. To improve the selection of molecules that are taken forward into the clinics, the development of more predictive in vitro systems that enable high-throughput screening of hepatotoxic liabilities and allow for investigative studies into DILI mechanisms has gained growing interest. Specifically, it became increasingly clear that the choice of cell types and culture method both constitute important parameters that affect the predictive power of test systems. In this review, we present current 3D culture paradigms for hepatotoxicity tests and critically evaluate their utility and performance for DILI prediction. In addition, we highlight possibilities of these emerging platforms for mechanistic evaluations of selected drug candidates and present current research directions towards the further improvement of preclinical liver safety tests. We conclude that organotypic and microphysiological liver systems have provided an important step towards more reliable DILI prediction. Furthermore, we expect that the increasing availability of comprehensive benchmarking studies will facilitate model dissemination that might eventually result in their regulatory acceptance.