According to reports, gut microbiota and metabolites regulate intestinal immune microenvironment. In recent years, an increasing number of studies reported that bile acids (BAs) of intestinal flora origin affects T helper cells and Treg cells. Th17 cells play a pro-inflammatory role and Treg cells usually act an immunosuppressive role. In this review, we emphatically summarized the influence and corresponding mechanism of different configurations of the LCA and DCA on intestinal Th17 cells, Treg cells and intestinal immune microenvironment. The regulation of BAs receptors G protein-coupled bile acid receptor 1 (GPBAR1/TGR5) and farnesoid X receptor (FXR) on immune cells and intestinal environment are elaborated. Furthermore, the potential clinical applications above were also concluded in three aspects. These above will help researchers better understand the effects of gut flora on the intestinal immune microenvironment via BAs and contribute to the development of new targeted drugs.

Palaeolimnological records provide valuable information about how phytoplankton respond to long-term drivers of environmental change. Traditional palaeolimnological tools such as microfossils and pigments are restricted to taxa that leave sub-fossil remains, and a method that can be applied to the wider community is required. Sedimentary DNA (sedDNA), extracted from lake sediment cores, shows promise in palaeolimnology, but validation against data from long-term monitoring of lake water is necessary to enable its development as a reliable record of past phytoplankton communities. To address this need, 18S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing was carried out on lake sediments from a core collected from Esthwaite Water (English Lake District) spanning ~105 years. This sedDNA record was compared with concurrent long-term microscopy-based monitoring of phytoplankton in the surface water. Broadly comparable trends were observed between the datasets, with respect to the diversity and relative abundance and occurrence of chlorophytes, dinoflagellates, ochrophytes and bacillariophytes. Up to 20% of genera identified in the microscopy record were also detected using sedDNA, and sedDNA revealed a previously undetected community of phytoplankton. However, a substantial proportion of genera identified by microscopy were not detected using sedDNA, highlighting the current limitations of the technique that require further development such as reference database coverage. These results suggest that sedDNA can be used as an effective record of past phytoplankton communities, at least over timescales of less than 100 years, but the taphonomic processes which may affect its reliability, such as the extent and rate of deposition and DNA degradation, require further research.

Northeast China is experiencing severe soil erosion, resulting in land degradation and nutrient loss. Among them, hydraulic erosion poses the greatest threat to food security. Combining various multi-source data, we applied the modified soil erosion equation (RUSLE) to evaluate hydraulic erosion modulus in Northeast China’s black soil region(1985–2021). We used the threshold segmentation and residual analysis method to quantify the relative roles of climate change and human activities on hydraulic erosion. The outcomes were presented below: (1) The yearly mean hydraulic erosion modulus was 804.78 t·km -2·a -1 and decreases significantly with a slope of -11.114 t·km -2·a -1. The area with significant growth in erosion modulus covered 23.77% of the overall area and was mainly spread in grassland and farmland. The areas with a significant decrease in erosion modulus covered 19.82% and were mainly spread in natural forests. (2) In areas with significant increases in erosion, 20.39% of the total area was attributed to anthropogenic factors and 3.38% of the total area was attributed to natural factors. In areas where soil erosion was significantly reduced, 17.67% and 2.15% were attributed to ecological restoration and natural factors, respectively. (3) Deforestation, grassland degradation, and unreasonable farming still exist. The area of sloping cropland (≥6°) increased by 133.9 km 2 per year, and sloping land erosion increased by 0.187 · 10 10 t per year. The focus of soil erosion prevention and control in northeast China is ecological restoration of grasslands, sloping land management, and conservation tillage.

A document by Mihiro Kaga. Click on the document to view its contents.

”A Case of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome and Cranial Nerve Palsy secondary to Scrub Typhus: A Rare Presentation from Western Nepal”.SK Lamichhane1, Eliz Achhami2, Satyam Mahaju3, Rabin Gautam 4, Amrit Adhikari51 Bir Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal(email:- [email protected] )2 Sukraraj Tropical & Infectious Disease Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal(email:- [email protected] )3 Sukraraj Tropical & Infectious Disease Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal(email:- [email protected] )4 Bir Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal(email:- [email protected] )5 Bir Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal(email:- [email protected] )*Corresponding author.Eliz Achhami, MBBSSukraraj Tropical & Infectious Disease Hospital, Kathmandu, NepalMobile no. : - 977-9846710319E-mail: [email protected]

A document by Yun Zhao. Click on the document to view its contents.

A document by Sava Petrov. Click on the document to view its contents.

We investigate fourth order equations with Dirichlet type boundary conditions with perturbation unbounded from above making the problem non-potential. We apply variational method to some auxiliary problem and conclude about the existence and uniqueness to the original one. Multiple solutions are also considered. We conclude our note with the result pertaining to the continuous dependence on parameters.

Pregnant women with their infants are considered at higher risk for influenza-associated complications, and the WHO recommends influenza vaccination during pregnancy to protect them, including their infants (0-6 months). There are limited data on the influenza burden among pregnant women and their infants (0-6 months), and there is no routine influenza vaccination in Bangladesh. Five annual cohorts (2013-2017) of pregnant women were enrolled from 8 sub-districts of Bangladesh before the influenza season (May-September); contacted weekly to identify new onset of influenza-like illness (ILI) (subjective or measured fever and cough) and acute respiratory illness (ARI) (at least two of: cough, rhinorrhea, or difficulty breathing) among their infants from birth to 6 months of age. We collected nasopharyngeal swabs from ILI and ARI cases, tested by rRT-PCR for influenza virus (including types and subtypes) and estimated influenza incidence (95% CI) /10,000 pregnancy-months or infant-months, respectively. We enrolled 9,020 pregnant women, followed for 26,709 pregnancy-months and detected 1,241 ILI episodes. We also followed 8,963 infants for 51,518 infant-months and identified 5,116 ARI episodes. Influenza positivity was 23% for ILI and 3% for ARI cases. The overall incidence (2013-2017) of influenza among pregnant women was 158.5/10,000 pregnancy-months (95% CI: 141.4-177.6), and that among infants was 21.9/10,000 infant-months (95% CI: 18.2-26.5). Although the data was collected more than five years ago, as the only baseline data, our findings illustrate evidence of influenza burden among pregnant women and infants (0-6 months) which may support preventive policy decisions in Bangladesh.

Pharmacometrics, the mathematical approaches to describe the transfer of drug through different biological compartments, are essential tools in clinical pharmacology research. The ethical necessity to study drugs accurately in the populations where they are to be used is increasingly recognized. To maximise the value of clinical data, study design and analysis must be appropriate. Historically, many datasets have been sent from African countries to better-resourced settings for analysis, but in recent years it has been demonstrated that capacity can be built and sustained within low and middle-income countries (LMIC)3. We report the establishment of the Uganda Chapter of Pharmacometrics Africa, to share learning with other countries seeking to build similar capabilities.

The exploration of efficient and environmentally friendly oxidation method is highly desirable to overcome the critical problems of poor selectivity and heavy metal contamination for the fine chemicals industry. Herein, a self-supported 3D Se-Ni5P4 nanosheet electrocatalyst was rationally designed and fabricated. Benefiting from the synergistic effect of aminoxyl radical and mesoporous Se-Ni5P4/GF, an excellent performance of ≥98% selectivity and 33.12 kg/(m3·h) space-time yield was obtained for sterol intermediate oxidation with the enhanced mass transfer effect of the continuous flow system. The doping of anionic selenium and phosphorus modulated the electronic structure of Se-Ni5P4, and the oxyhydroxides generated by surface reconstruction accelerated the turnover of TEMPO, thereby enhancing the intrinsic electrocatalytic activity. A scale-up experiment was conducted with stacked-flow electrolyzer demonstrated the application potential. This work provided an efficient synergistic electrocatalytic strategy to facilitate rapid electron and mass transfer for electrochemical alcohol oxidation and highlighted the potential for practical electrosynthesis applications.

To design D-amino acid dehydrogenase (DAADH) for enhanced stability, the interactions of the subunit interfaces of DAADH were analyzed. Interaction network analysis of DAADH indicated that there are only weak interactions between the A and B subunits. Several co-evolved residue pairs were selected for mutation to enhance interfacial interactions of subunits, and 11 designed MDHs were obtained. DA06 and DA11 were selected for experimental verification for their salt bridges are 1.4 and 1.2-fold of that of DAwild, respectively. DA11 can maintain 93% activity in 80℃, while it was only 40% for DAwild. Thermostabiliy study indicated the half-life of DA11 was 2-fold of DAwild. Molecular dynamics simulations revealed that the extraordinary stability of the DA11 was due to the formation of extra interfacial salt bridges. The paper provided a strategy of mutations outside the active site of enzyme by co-evolutionary analysis which can reduce the effect of the activity-thermostability trade-off.

Practical lab skills are rarely directly assessed. To improve constructive alignment between described learning outcomes of practical skills and assessment, we developed and tested a certification procedure for microscopy skills. The procedure was embedded into the ordinary learning activity, so no additional time was needed. Three slightly different protocols were developed within the framework of sociocultural learning theory and built like a skill ladder including direct peer assessment and elements of gamified learning. The protocols varied slightly in the way students were prepared for the certification, the number of steps/levels of achievement, and the consequences of failing. We tested the protocols at three different academic institutions and within 11 courses of varying sizes and academic levels in biology or geology. Feedback were collected through online surveys (n = 207) or orally after sessions. One protocol provided instruction videos as preparation material. Instruction videos provided increased understanding of the task, but tactile training was most important for learning. Regardless of institution, type of preparation, and level of former experience, the certification procedure made students clearly more engaged in the exercise. The majority reported that the certification procedure increased their motivation to learn, increased their learning outcome, and was appropriate for assessing practical skills. Students with no or little experience in microscopy before the exercise were more positive about the certification procedure compared to skilled students, and the level of engagement and preparation was higher when there were some consequences of failing. Most students felt comfortable being certified by peers, but some students expressed concern about peers making mistakes. The presented certification procedure can easily be adapted to assess other practical skills, and with some adjustments be an efficient method for assessment-as-learning, merging formative- and summative assessment.

In this paper, 3D reconstruction of the leading edge of wind turbine blades from images, also known as photogrammetry, is investigated. The technique was applied to a decommissioned blade with an eroded leading edge, with images captured by a smartphone. The reconstructed 3D surface was accurate, when compared to the captured images, despite the small number of images used. A solid model was then created and imported into a finite element modelling software for rain-droplet impact simulations. Photogrammetry is relatively cheap, when compared to other surface scanning techniques, and provides means of monitoring erosion damage when combined with drone imaging. Further investigations of the parameters which control the accuracy of the reconstructed surface must be performed, to fully explore the potential of photogrammetry for 3D reconstruction of leading edge erosion damage.

In this article, we propose a fast 3D-IC floorplanning method for hard macro-blocks that includes a thermal management scheme. It applies a genetic algorithm constituted by an optimal combination of crossover and mutation operations to identify the optimal solution for design variables, namely, total wire length, number of through-silicon vias (TSVs), and maximum average layer power density. The proposed method additionally makes use of a unique TSV placement scheme that arranges TSVs next to their respective functional blocks. To enable efficient heat transmission to the ambient environment, layers with higher power densities are placed closer to the heat sink. The proposed 3D-IC floorplanning approach provides the fewest TSVs, the lowest peak temperature, and promising values of wire length within the least amount of computation time. Compared to the recent fast thermal analysis for fixed-outline 3D-floorplanning, it generates 13.14% shorter wire length, 39.27% lower peak temperature, and 34.35% lesser number of TSVs on average with significant improvement in computation time, while analyzing GSRC thermal benchmark circuits.

It is well-known that DC-DC boost converters are cascaded with DC-AC inverters for grid connection of the photovoltaic (PV) systems. In the traditional control approaches, the mentioned DC-DC and DC-AC converters are controlled separately to facilitate the controller design problem. However, from the controller design viewpoint, the overall structure of the grid connected PV generator is a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) system. The duty-cycle of the DC-DC converter and Inverter modulation index are the control inputs and on the other hand, generated photovoltaic DC power, and exported power to the grid are control outputs. Moreover, the inverter DC link voltage should be stabilized by the closed-loop controller as well as an internal control output. If controllers are designed separately, it means that the interaction between DC-DC and DC-AC controllers isn’t considered accurately and since the isolated models of DC-DC converter and DC-AC inverter are extracted based on some approximated assumptions, separate controller design cannot guarantee stability and robustness of the whole system in a wide range of operation. To cope with these problems, in this paper, a novel MIMO sliding mode controller (SMC) is developed for comprehensive closed-loop control of the DC-DC boost converter cascaded with a single-phase DC-AC grid connected photovoltaic inverter. In the proposed approach, the dynamic model of whole system is developed comprehensively at first and then a unique MIMO controller is designed to control both DC-to-AC and DC-to-DC converters together. To cope with the nonlinear characteristic of the system and uncertainty of model parameters in a wide range, a fixed-frequency SMC is developed using the comprehensive state space model of the closed loop system. In the proposed MIMO-SMC controller, the AC power (which is exported to the grid) and operating point of the PV source are controlled via inverter modulation index and duty cycle of the DC-DC boost converter respectively. Another major advantage of the proposed system is mitigating the non-minimum phase characteristic of the boost converter through the indirect control of inverter DC link capacitor. To evaluate the performance of the designed control system, simulation results are compared with a standard linear PI controller. It is shown that the developed system has zero steady-state error and enjoys faster dynamic response during the start-up and step changes of AC and DC current references. Moreover, it can maintain the stability of closed-loop systems in a wide range of operations.

Earthquakes, fire, and floods often cause structural collapses of buildings. The inspection of damaged buildings poses a high risk for emergency forces or is even impossible, though. We present three recent selected missions of the Robotics Task Force of the German Rescue Robotics Center, where both ground and aerial robots were used to explore destroyed buildings. We describe and reflect the missions as well as the lessons learned that have resulted from them. In order to make robots from research laboratories fit for real operations, realistic test environments were set up for outdoor and indoor use and tested in regular exercises by researchers and emergency forces. Based on this experience, the robots and their control software were significantly improved. Furthermore, top teams of researchers and first responders were formed, each with realistic assessments of the operational and practical suitability of robotic systems.

INTRODUCTIONParathyroid carcinoma (PC) is a rare endocrine cancer [1,3] and the most uncommon cause of primary hyperparathyroidism (pHPT). It usually induces elevated serum calcium and parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels and the clinical presentation is often characterized by severe symptoms of hypercalcaemia. The diagnosis is not always immediate, especially if there is no evidence of a neck mass which may suggest this kind of disease.The aim of this work is to describe the peculiar clinical presentation of a case of PC and to highlight the importance of suspecting a malignant parathyroid disease in the presence of a pHPT associated with peculiar biochemical and clinical features. The suspicion is essential to perform an adequate intervention at first surgical approach, as which affects the subsequent prognosis.