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Abstract Hyperglycemia is prevalent and closely associated with pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB). This study aimed to investigate the effects of hyperglycemia on the outcomes of PTB treatment. This study comprised 791 patients with PTB in total. Patients with fasting plasma glucose levels of ≥ 6.1 mmol/L were diagnosed with hyperglycemia. Anthropometric and baseline demographic data were also collected. The treatment response was assessed based on clinical symptoms (sputum production, cough, chest pain, fever, hemoptysis, night sweats, loss of appetite, and fatigue), sputum smear, chest computed tomography (CT), and adverse gastrointestinal responses (vomiting, nausea, abdominal distension, diarrhea, and constipation). A generalized estimating equation (GEE) was used to evaluate these relationships. Hyperglycemia affected 266 (33.6%) of the 791 patients with PTB. In GEE analyses, patients with hyperglycemia exhibited a greater incidence of elevated tuberculosis (TB) scores (odds ratio (OR) 1.569; 95% CI 1.040–2.369), cough (OR 1.332; 95% CI 1.050–1.690), and night sweats (OR 1.694; 95% CI 1.288–2.335). Hyperglycemia was linked with a higher risk of positive sputum smears (OR 1.941; 95% CI 1.382–2.727). During therapy, hyperglycemia was also associated with an increased incidence of vomiting (OR 2.738; 95% CI 1.041–7.198), abdominal distension (OR 2.230; 95% CI 1.193–4.171), and constipation (OR 2.372; 95% CI 1.442–3.902). However, the CT results indicated that hyperglycemia did not affect pulmonary lesions in patients with TB. Patients with TB and hyperglycemia are at a higher risk of severe clinical manifestations, positive sputum smears, and adverse gastrointestinal effects and, therefore, the special situation of hyperglycemic patients should be considered in the prevention and treatment of TB.

Phosphorus (P) deficiency is one of the main reasons limiting plant production of Brassica napus L. Exploring the dynamics of leaf intracellular substances and the correlations with photosynthesis and growth helps to understand the response mechanisms of B. napus L. to P deficiency. This study conducted experiments on B. napus L. plants by measuring the leaf electrophysiological parameters, leaf structure, elastic modulus (Em), photosynthesis, and growth indices under different P treatment conditions. The dynamics of leaf intracellular water and nutrients of B. napus L. were calculated and analyzed by using the electrophysiological parameters, and the plant tolerance threshold to low-P stress was discovered. The results indicated that the status of the leaf intracellular water and nutrients remained stable when the P concentration was not lower than 0.250 mmol·L−1, but maximized the photosynthesis and growth at a P level of 0.250 mmol·L−1. The 0.125 mmol·L−1 P concentration significantly decreased the mesophyll cell volume, and the palisade–sponge ratio and tightness degree of leaf tissue structure were remarkably increased. This led to an increase in cell elastic modulus, and significantly improved the water retention capacity of leaf cells. At the same time, the intracellular water use efficiency and total nutrient transport capacity of leaves remained stable. As a result, the photosynthesis and growth of plants were maintained at the same level as that of the control group. However, photosynthesis and growth were clearly inhibited with a further decrease in P concentration. Therefore, 0.125 mmol·L−1 was the tolerance threshold of B. napus L. to low P. With the help of electrophysiological information, the effects of the dynamics of intracellular substances on photosynthesis and growth of B. napus L. under low-P stress can be investigated, and the plant's adaptive response can be revealed. However, the findings of the current hydroponic study are not directly applicable to field conditions with naturally P-deficient soils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, it is difficult to adjust the air flow at the outlet of the wind pipe dynamically by the total ventilation control method commonly used in the excavating face, resulting in insufficient air volume or unreasonable air flow distribution, and causing safety hazards such as gas and dust accumulation. Taking S1200-Ⅲexcavating face of Ningtiaota Mine as an example, by analyzing the problems of the original wind field and the requirements of wind flow control, the air flow control device is designed, which installed a mechanical structure driven by a pneumatic cylinder or a pneumatic motor. The device is able to realize the dynamic adjustment of outlet deflection angle, caliber size and front-back displacement. This paper introduces the design scheme of mechanical system, pneumatic actuation system and control system of the device. ANSYS Workbench software is used to conduct finite element analysis on the safety of the mechanical system. The results show that the maximum stress is 87.2 MPa, the safety factor is 2.69, the maximum deformation is 0.84 mm, and the average deformation is 0.42 mm. FluidSIM software is applied to simulate and analyze the pneumatic actuation system. The results show that the device can complete the predetermined action and run smoothly and reliably. Underground test results show that after adopting this device, the air flow distribution at the driver and pedestrian breathing zone height is more reasonable. When the air duct outlet is 5 m away from the working surface, the dust concentration at the driver and pedestrian breathing zone is reduced by 45.3% and 33.4% respectively compared with situation before the control. When the air outlet is 10 m away from the working face, the concentration is reduced by 40.4% and 34.3% respectively.

Owing to the rising demand for vegetable soybean products, there is an increasing need for high-yield soybean varieties. However, the complex correlation patterns among quantitative traits with genetic architecture pose a challenge for improving vegetable soybean through breeding. Herein, a genome-wide association study (GWAS) was applied to 6 yield-related traits in 188 vegetable soybean accessions. Using a BLINK model, a total of 116 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified for plant height, pod length, pod number, pod thickness, pod width, and fresh pod weight. Furthermore, a total of 220 genes were found in the 200 kb upstream and downstream regions of significant SNPs, including 11 genes encoding functional proteins. Among them, four candidate genes, Glyma.13G109100, Glyma.03G183200, Glyma.09G102200, and Glyma.09G102300 were analyzed for significant haplotype variations and to be in LD block, which encode MYB-related transcription factor, auxin-responsive protein, F-box protein, and CYP450, respectively. The relative expression of candidate genes in V030 and V071 vegetable soybean (for the plant height, pod number, and fresh pod weight of V030 were lower than those of the V071 strains) was significantly different, and these genes could be involved in plant growth and development via various pathways. Altogether, we identified four candidate genes for pod yield and plant height from vegetable soybean germplasm. This study provides insights into the genomic basis for improving soybean and crucial genomic resources that can facilitate genome-assisted high-yielding vegetable soybean breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Direct current potential drop (DCPD) technique is a crack growth monitoring technique widely used in the crack growth test of specimens in laboratory environment. Deformation of the specimen during test is one of the important factors that affect the accuracy and resolution. Because the effect of deformation on measurement is usually mixed with other factors, quantitative evaluation is difficult through experiments method only. In this work a novel quantitative estimation method combining experiment and finite element analysis has been proposed, and the effect of deformation on measurement for 316 L stainless steel compact tension specimen has been quantitatively evaluated. Through the tensile test and DCPD monitoring test of the non-cracked 316 L stainless steel plate-shaped specimen, the material mechanical property parameters and the change of potential drop caused by deformation were obtained. Then the slow tensile tests have been performed on compact tension specimens. Combined with the FE simulation of the experimental process, the effect of deformation on the potential drop under different crack length has been evaluated. The results show that the influence of deformation on the potential drop is a factor that must be considered for the crack growth monitoring experiment with high crack growth resolution. The proposed method can be used to quantitatively evaluate the influence of deformation, a factor that was usually ignored in the past, on the measurement of crack growth, which provides a method and basis for correction of crack measurement errors caused by deformation. In addition, the proposed method can be used to obtain a more accurate calibration function, which is of great significance to the improvement of the accuracy and resolution of crack growth monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Research on the Cap protein is highly significant in the diagnosis, prevention, and control of porcine circovirus 3. In this study, we identified a novel B cell epitope of Cap protein using monoclonal antibody, and an epitope-blocking enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was successfully developed to detect PCV3 antibodies in porcine sera. This established EB-ELISA has the advantages of being rapid, highly sensitive, re-producible, specific, and did not react with other porcine virus sera, which has great potential for the detection of PCV3 antiserum in porcine farms. Porcine circovirus type 3 (PCV3) is endemic in swine worldwide and causes reproductive disorders, dermatitis and nephrotic syndrome, and multi-organ inflammation. Currently, there is a growing need for rapid and accurate diagnostic methods in disease monitoring. In this study, four monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against PCV3 capsid proteins were prepared (mAbs 2F6, 2G8, 6E2, and 7E3). MAb 7E3, which had the highest binding affinity for the Cap protein, was chosen for further investigation. A novel B cell epitope 110DLDGAW115 was identified using mAb 7E3. An epitope-blocking (EB) enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was successfully developed using horseradish-peroxidase-labeled mAb 7E3 to detect PCV3 antibodies in porcine sera. Moreover, the EB-ELISA showed no specific reaction with other porcine disease sera, and the cut-off value was defined as 35%. Compared with the commercial ELISA, the percentage agreement was 95.59%. Overall, we have developed a novel EB-ELISA method that accurately and conveniently detects PCV3 in serum, making it a valuable tool for the clinical detection of PCV3 infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - There is a certain error in the satellite positioning of the vehicle. The error will cause the drift point of the positioning point, which makes the vehicle trajectory shift to the real road. This paper aims to solve this problem. Design/methodology/approach - The key technology to solve the problem is map matching (MM). The low sampling frequency of the vehicle is far from the distance between adjacent points, which weakens the correlation between the points, making MM more difficult. In this paper, an MM algorithm based on priority rules is designed for vehicle trajectory characteristics at low sampling frequencies. Findings - The experimental results show that the MM based on priority rule algorithm can effectively match the trajectory data of low sampling frequency with the actual road, and the matching accuracy is better than other similar algorithms, the processing speed reaches 73 per second. Research limitations/implications - In the algorithm verification of this paper, although the algorithm design and experimental verification are considered considering the diversity of GPS data sampling frequency, the experimental data used are still a single source. Originality/value - Based on the GPS trajectory data of the Ministry of Transport, the experimental results show that the accuracy of the priority-based weight-based algorithm is higher. The accuracy of this algorithm is over 98.1 per cent, which is better than other similar algorithms.