Hepatitis E virus (HEV) is a RNA virus transmitted enterically. A study of anti-HEV antibodies in 145 human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infected subjects found that 14.4% of them were reactive to anti-HEV antibodies. Anti-HEV IgG and anti-HEV IgM was detected in 10.3% and 4.1% of the subjects respectively. Prevalence of anti-HEV (either IgG or IgM) was similar across all adult ages (p = 0.154), between the three ethnic groups (p = 0.378), and across risk groups (p = 0.120). The results showed that HEV infection in subjects recruited in this study was most likely transmitted via faecal-route.
Hema-Strip HIV-1/2 is a one-step rapid test for the detection of anti-HIV-1/2 antibodies in whole blood. The test requires no expensive equipment and the results are available within 10-15 min. Using 72 known HIV-1 positive samples and 780 high-risk prisoners, the sensitivity and specificity of Hema-Strip HIV-1/2 was found to be comparable to microparticle enzyme immunoassay (MEIA). The data also indicated that Hema-Strip HIV-1/2 is an effective alternate testing system to conventional ELISA where the use of ELISA is not suitable and the result of the HIV testing is needed urgently.
Undernourishment is a big challenge for humanity across the world. Considering the significance of reducing undernourishment, the current study focuses on exploring the macroeconomic determinants of undernourishment in the South Asian panel. The study employed econometric models that are more robust to underpin cross-sectional dependency and heterogeneity in a panel data set. The overall findings reveal that an increase in food production increases undernourishment and infer that food availability at the national level is insufficient to reduce undernourishment unless poor people also had economic and physical access to food. In the case of economic growth and governance, the results are negatively significant in some countries. The results infer that GDP and quality of governance are nuanced in declining the rate of undernourishment in some countries, while in other countries where the results are found insignificant, the government should seek other interventions to curtail the prevalence of undernourishment. Unexpectedly, an increase in food prices lessens the undernourishment in developing countries that reflect that food prices might transform the dietary patterns of poor people from nutrient-rich foods to nutrient-poor staples, thus lead to undernourishment reduction but trigger overweight and obesity alongside. In conclusion, the results depict that policymakers should devise strategies keeping in view fundamental aspects of the country to reduce undernourishment.
Studying coevolutionary systems in the context of simplified models (i.e., games with pairwise interactions between coevolving solutions modeled as self plays) remains an open challenge since the rich underlying structures associated with pairwise-comparison-based fitness measures are often not taken fully into account. Although cyclic dynamics have been demonstrated in several contexts (such as intransitivity in coevolutionary problems), there is no complete characterization of cycle structures and their effects on coevolutionary search. We develop a new framework to address this issue. At the core of our approach is the directed graph (digraph) representation of coevolutionary problems that fully captures structures in the relations between candidate solutions. Coevolutionary processes are modeled as a specific type of Markov chains-random walks on digraphs. Using this framework, we show that coevolutionary problems admit a qualitative characterization: a coevolutionary problem is either solvable (there is a subset of solutions that dominates the remaining candidate solutions) or not. This has an implication on coevolutionary search. We further develop our framework that provides the means to construct quantitative tools for analysis of coevolutionary processes and demonstrate their applications through case studies. We show that coevolution of solvable problems corresponds to an absorbing Markov chain for which we can compute the expected hitting time of the absorbing class. Otherwise, coevolution will cycle indefinitely and the quantity of interest will be the limiting invariant distribution of the Markov chain. We also provide an index for characterizing complexity in coevolutionary problems and show how they can be generated in a controlled manner.
In order to explore the relationship of social support, self-efficacy, and subjective well-being of special education teachers in China, 496 teachers from 67 special education schools were surveyed by questionnaire. We found that (1) the subjective well-being of special education teachers in China was in the medial level. (2) There were significant differences in subjective well-being level among teachers of different genders, teacher position, education background, and teaching age. Male teachers were of higher subjective well-being; subjective well-being of head teachers was lower than those were not head teachers; teachers with the educational background of postgraduate were of higher relaxation and tension than those with junior college educational background; the control scores of emotion and behavior of teachers with teaching age of 3 years and below were significantly lower than those of teachers with teaching age of more than 10 years. (3) Self-efficacy played a partially mediating role in the relationship between social support and subjective well-being of special education teachers. Suggestions to improve the subjective well-being of special education teachers were discussed in the article.
The distribution of Candida species was examined using 1114 yeasts isolated from various clinical specimens. The isolates were identified by germ tube test, hyphal/pseudohyphae and chlamydoconidia production and carbohydrate assimilation test using ten carbohydrates (glucose, sucrose, trehalose, cellobiose, arabinose, galactose, mannitol, raffinose, lactose and maltose). Among the 1114 isolates studied, 9 species of Candida were identified and the relative frequency of isolation was C. albicans (44.2%), C. parapsilosis (26.0%), C. tropicalis (17.7%), C. glabrata (9.6%), C. krusei (1.2%), C. rugosa (0.6%), C. guilliermondii (0.2%), C. lusitaniae (0.08%) and C. kefyr (0.08%). Non-C. albicans was the most common Candida species isolated from blood, respiratory system, urine and skin. The isolate from vaginal swabs was predominantly C. albicans. 82.2% of C. glabrata and 64.2% of C. krusei isolated in this study were from vaginal swabs.
Scale-up in droplet microfluidics achieved by increasing the number of devices running in parallel or increasing the droplet makers in the same device can compromise the narrow droplet-size distribution, or requires high fabrication cost, when glass- or polymer-based microdevices are used. This paper reports a novel way using parallelization of needle-based microfluidic systems to form highly monodispersed droplets with enhanced production rates yet in cost-effective way, even when forming higher order emulsions with complex inner structure. Parallelization of multiple needle-based devices could be realized by applying commercially available two-way connecters and 3D-printed four-way connectors. The production rates of droplets could be enhanced around fourfold (over 660 droplets/min) to eightfold (over 1300 droplets/min) by two-way connecters and four-way connectors, respectively, for the production of the same kind of droplets than a single droplet maker (160 droplets/min). Additionally, parallelization of four-needle sets with each needle specification ranging from 34G to 20G allows for simultaneous generation of four groups of PDMS microdroplets with each group having distinct size yet high monodispersity (CV < 3%). Up to six cores can be encapsulated in double emulsion using two parallelly connected devices via tuning the capillary number of middle phase in a range of 1.31 × 10-4 to 4.64 × 10-4 . This study leads to enhanced production yields of droplets and enables the formation of groups of droplets simultaneously to meet extensive needs of biomedical and environmental applications, such as microcapsules with variable dosages for drug delivery or drug screening, or microcapsules with wide range of absorbent loadings for water treatment.
Effective regulation of p-phenylenediamine (PPD), a widely used precursor of hair dye that is harmful to human health in large concentration, relies upon an accurate yet simple detection of PPD. In this context, amperometric electrode sensor based on perovskite oxide becomes attractive given its portability, low cost, high sensitivity, and rapid processing time. This work reports the systematic characterization of a series of Sr-doped PrCoO3-δ perovskite oxides with composition of Pr1-xSrxCoO3-δ(x = 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1) for PPD detection in an alkaline solution. PSC82 deposited onto glassy carbon electrode (PSC82/GCE) generates the highest redox currents which correlates with the highest hydrogen peroxide intermediates (HO2-) yield and the σ*-orbital (eg) filling of Co that is closest to unity for PSC82. PSC82/GCE provides the highest sensitivities of 655 and 308 μA mM-1 cm-2 in PPD concentration range of 0.5-2,900 and 2,900-10,400 μM, respectively, with a limit of detection of 0.17 μM. PSC82/GCE additionally demonstrates high selectivity to PPD and long term stability during 50 consecutive cyclic voltammetry scans and over 1-month storage period. The potential applicability of PSC82/GCE was also demonstrated by confirming the presence of very low concentration of PPD of below 0.5% in real hair dyes.
Global climate change has led to an increase in both the frequency and magnitude of extreme events around the world, the risk of which is especially imminent in tropical regions. Developing hydrological models with better capabilities to simulate streamflow, especially peak flow, is urgently needed to facilitate water resource planning and management as well as climate change mitigation efforts in the tropics. In view of the need, this paper explores the feasibility of improving streamflow simulation performance in the tropical Kelantan River Basin (KRB) of Peninsular Malaysia through coupling a conceptual process-based hydrological model - Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) with a deep learning model - Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (Bi-LSTM) in two ways. All SWAT parameters were set as their default values in one hybrid model (SWAT-D-LSTM), whereas three most sensitive SWAT parameters were calibrated in the other hybrid model (SWAT-T-LSTM). Comparison of daily streamflow simulation results have shown that SWAT-T-LSTM consistently performs better than SWAT-D-LSTM as well as the stand-alone SWAT and Bi-LSTM model throughout the simulation period. Particularly, SWAT-T-LSTM performs considerably better than the other three models in simulating daily peak flow. Based on the latest projection results of five GCMs from the Sixth Phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) under three emission scenarios (SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, SSP5-8.5), the best-performed SWAT-T-LSTM was run to assess the potential impacts of climate change on streamflow in the KRB. Ensemble assessment results have concluded that both average and extreme streamflow is much likely to increase considerably in the already wet northeast monsoon season from November to January, which has surely raised the alarm for more frequent flood occurrence in the KRB.
Mosquitoes are capable of carrying complex pathogens, and their feeding habits on the mammalian blood can easily mediate the spread of viruses. Surveillance of mosquito-based arbovirus enables the early prevention and control of mosquito-borne arboviral diseases. The climate and geography of Yunnan Province in China are ideal for mosquitoes. Yunnan shares borders with several other countries; therefore, there exists a high risk of international transmission of mosquito-mediated infectious diseases. Previous studies have focused more on the Sino-Laos and Sino-Myanmar borders. Therefore, we focused on the neighborhoods of Malipo and Funing counties in Wenshan Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China, which are located along the Sino-Vietnam border, to investigate the species of mosquitoes and mosquito-borne viruses in the residential areas of this region. This study collected 10,800 mosquitoes from 29 species of 8 genera and grouped to isolate mosquito-borne viruses. In total, 62 isolates were isolated and classified into 11 viral categories. We demonstrated a new distribution of mosquito-borne viruses among mosquitoes in border areas, including Tembusu and Getah viruses, which can cause animal outbreaks. In addition, Dak Nong and Sarawak viruses originating from Vietnam and Malaysia, respectively, were identified for the first time in China, highlighting the complexity of mosquito-borne viruses in the Sino-Vietnam border region. The awareness of the importance of viral surveillance and prevention measures in border areas should be further encouraged to prevent future outbreaks of potentially infectious diseases.
In order to explore the characteristic aroma flavor and its formation mechanism of old ducks, two ages (30 days and 60 days) of young ducks and three ages of old ducks (300 days, 900 days, and 1500 days) were selected and studied. An electronic nose was applied to evaluate the overall aroma flavor, and the result showed significant differences between the five duck samples. By gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), forty-eight volatile flavor compounds were detected, including seven aldehydes, six esters, five alcohols, five nitrogen compounds, twenty-one hydrocarbons, and four others. Among these compounds, twelve components, such as hexanal and dimethyl anthranilate, were considered as the characteristic flavor compounds along with duck aging. Furthermore, correlation analysis indicated that meat's unsaturated free fatty acids, especially linoleic acid (C18:2), were responsible for the duck's characteristic flavor formation. These data contribute to the flavor research and identification of old ducks.
Silicon nitride (Si3N4) is a bioceramic material with potential applications. Customization and high reliability are the foundation for the widespread application of Si3N4 bioceramics. This study constructed a new microwave heating structure and successfully prepared 3D printed dense Si3N4 materials, overcoming the adverse effects of a large amount of 3D printed organic forming agents on degreasing and sintering processes, further improving the comprehensive performance of Si3N4 materials. Compared with control materials, the 3D printed Si3N4 materials by microwave sintering have the best mechanical performance: bending strength is 928 MPa, fracture toughness is 9.61 MPa·m1/2. Meanwhile, it has the best biocompatibility and antibacterial properties, and cells exhibit the best activity on the material surface. Research has shown that the excellent mechanical performance and biological activity of materials are mainly related to the high-quality degreasing, high cleanliness sintering environment, and high-quality liquid-phase sintering of materials in microwave environments.
Plasma-activated water (PAW) contains multiple active species that alter the structure of myofibrillar protein (MP) to enhance their gel properties. This work investigated the impact of PAW on the oxidation of cysteine in MP by label-free quantitative proteomics. PAW treatment caused the oxidation of 8241 cysteine sites on 2815 proteins, and structural proteins such as nebulin, myosin XVIIIB, myosin XVIIIA, and myosin heavy chain were susceptible to oxidation by PAW. Bioinformatics analysis, including Gene Ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway, subcellular localization, and STRING analysis, indicated that these proteins with differential oxidation sites were mainly derived from the cytoplasm and membrane, and were involved in multiple GO terms and KEGG pathways. This is one of the first reports of the redox proteomic changes induced by PAW treatment, and the results are useful for understanding the possible mechanism of PAW-induced oxidation of MP.
This study investigated the effects of plasma-activated water (PAW) generated with argon at discharge times of 0, 4, 8, 12, and 16 min on the gel properties and structures of chicken myofibrillar protein (MP). Under treatments of 8, 12, and 16 min, both the gel strength and water retention capacity of MP significantly improved, with the gel strength (0.53 N) peaking at 16 min and the lowest cooking loss（30.38 %）. As the treatment time increased from 0 to 16 min, the storage modulus also gradually increased. Results from low-field nuclear magnetic resonance indicated a slowing of water proton mobility, with the proportion of bound water rising from 0.26 % (0 min) to 0.52 % at 16 min. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, endogenous fluorescence spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy confirmed PAW's alteration of MP's secondary and tertiary structures and gel microstructure. Additionally, this study explored the influence of argon PAW's primary active species on MP from a molecular docking perspective·H2O2 could form hydrogen bonds with MP, while O3 and NO2‾could interact via both hydrogen bonds and electrostatic interactions. Thus, PAW can alter protein structure and enhance MP's functional properties, providing insights for applying cold plasma in processing chicken gel products.
OBJECTIVES: Dendritic cell immunoreceptor (DCIR) has been implicated in development of autoimmune disorders in rodent and DCIR polymorphisms were associated with anti-citrullinated proteins antibodies (ACPA)-negative rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in Swedish Caucasians. This study was undertaken to further investigate whether DCIR polymorphisms are also risk factors for the development of RA in four Asian populations originated from China and Malaysia.
METHODS: We genotyped two DCIR SNPs rs2377422 and rs10840759 in Han Chinese population (1,193 cases, 1,278 controls), to assess their association with RA. Subsequently, rs2377422 was further genotyped in three independent cohorts of Malaysian-Chinese subjects (MY_Chinese, 254 cases, 206 controls), Malay subjects (MY_ Malay, 515 cases, 986 controls), and Malaysian-Indian subjects (MY_Indian, 378 cases, 285 controls), to seek confirmation of association in various ethnic groups. Meta-analysis was preformed to evaluate the contribution of rs2377422 polymorphisms to the development of ACPA-negative RA in distinct ethnic groups. Finally, we carried out association analysis of rs2377422 polymorphisms with DCIR mRNA expression levels.
RESULTS: DCIR rs2377422 was found to be significantly associated with ACPA -negative RA in Han Chinese (OR 1.92, 95% CI 1.27-2.90, P=0.0020). Meta-analysis confirms DCIR rs2377422 as a risk factor for ACPA-negative RA across distinct ethnic groups (OR(overall) =1.17, 95% CI 1.06-1.30, P=0.003). The SNP rs2377422 polymorphism showed significant association with DCIR mRNA expression level, i.e. RA-risk CC genotype exhibit a significant increase in the expression of DCIR (P=0.0023, Kruskal-Wallis).
CONCLUSIONS: Our data provide evidence for association between DCIR rs2377422 and RA in non-Caucasian populations and confirm the influence of DCIR polymorphisms on RA susceptibility, especially on ACPA-negative RA.
BACKGROUND: Extracted proteins of alternative animal origin tend to present strong off-flavor perception due to physicochemical interactions of coextracted off-flavor compounds with proteins. To investigate the relationship between absorption behaviors of volatile aromas and the processes-induced variations in protein microstructures and molecular conformations, duck liver protein isolate (DLp) was subjected to heating (65/100 °C, 15 min) and ultra-high pressure (UHP, 100-500 MPa/10 min, 28 °C) treatments to obtain differential unfolded protein states.
RESULTS: Heat and UHP treatments induced the unfolding of DLp to varied degrees, as revealed by fluorescence spectroscopy, ultraviolet-visible absorption, circular dichroism spectra and surface hydrophobicity measurements. Two types of heating-denatured states with varied unfolding degrees were obtained, while UHP at both levels of 100/500 MPa caused partial unfolding of DLp and the presence of a molten-globule state, which significantly enhanced the binding affinity between DLp and (E,E)-2,4-heptadienal. In particular, significantly modified secondary structures of DLp were observed in heating-denatured samples. Excessive denaturing and unfolding degrees resulted in no significant changes in the absorption behavior of the volatile ligand, as characterized by observations of fluorescence quenching and analysis of headspace concentrations.
The potential of ultrasonication-driven molecular self-assembly of whey protein isolate (WPI) with chitosan (CS)/chitooligosaccharide (COS) to stabilize Pickering emulsions was examined, based on CS/COS ligands-induced partial unfolding in remodeling the Pickering particles features. Multi-spectral analysis suggested obvious changes in conformational structures of WPI due to interaction with CS/COS, with significantly higher unfolding degrees of WPI induced by COS. Non-covalent interactions were identified as the major forces for WPI-CS/COS conjugates. Ultrasonication enhanced electrostatic interaction between CS's -NH3 groups and WPI's -COO- groups which improved emulsification activity and storability of WPI-COS stabilized Pickering emulsion. This was attributed to increased surface hydrophobicity and decreased particle size compared to WPI-CS associated with differential unfolding degrees induced by different saccharide ligands. CLSM and SEM consistently observed smaller emulsion droplets in WPI-COS complexes than WPI-CS/COS particles tightly adsorbed at the oil-water interface. The electrostatic self-assembly of WPI with CS/COS greatly enhanced the encapsulation efficiency of quercetin than those stabilized by WPI alone and ultrasound further improved encapsulation efficiency. This corresponded well with the quantitative affinity parameters between quercetin and WPI-CS/COS complexes. This investigation revealed the great potential of glycan ligands-induced conformational transitions of extrinsic physical disruption in tuning Pickering particle features.
Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus are the most prevalent pathogenic bacteria, often resulting in the foodborne disease outbreaks through food spoilage and foodborne infections. To prevent and control food spoilage and foodborne infections induced by Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, the antibacterial hydrogels were fabricated using fibrinogen hydrolysate-carrageenan (AHs-C) and flavonoids (apigenin and quercetin), and the antibacterial effect of the composite hydrogels against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus was further investigated. The results of mechanical property exhibited that the composite hydrogels with 0.2 % of apigenin and quercetin (AHs-C-Ap/Que) showed the highest hardness and swelling property compared with the separate addition of apigenin or quercetin. Scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy showed that the dense networks were formed in the hydrogels of AHs-C-Ap/Que., and the average roughness of AHs-C-Ap/Que. significantly increased to 30.70 nm compared with AHs-C. 1H NMR and FTIR spectra demonstrated that apigenin and quercetin were bound to AHs-C by hydrogen bond, hydrophobic interaction and Schiff base, where the interactions between Ap/Que. and AHs-C was stronger compared with the separate addition of apigenin or quercetin. The hydrogels of AHs-C-Ap/Que. showed the highest antibacterial capacity and antibacterial adhesion against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. The antibacterial adhesion assay showed that 99 % removal ratios for E. coli and S. aureus were observed in AHs-C-Ap/Que. hydrogels, which showed a great potential to prevent food spoilage and foodborne infections.
Background: COVID-19 developed into a global pandemic in 2020 and poses challenges regarding the prevention and control capabilities of countries. A large number of inbound travelers from other regions could lead to a renewed outbreak of COVID-19 in the local regions. Globally, as a result of the imbalance in the control of the epidemic, all countries are facing the risk of a renewed COVID-19 outbreak brought about by travelers from epidemic areas. Therefore, studies on a proper management of the inbound travelers are urgent. Methods: We collected a total of 4,733,414 inbound travelers and 174 COVID-19 diagnosed patients in Yunnan province from 21 January 2020 to 20 February 2020. Data on place of origin, travel history, age, and gender, as well as whether they had suspected clinical manifestations for inbound travelers in Yunnan were collected. The impact of inbound travelers on the local epidemic was analyzed with a collinear statistical analysis and the effect of the control measures on the epidemic was evaluated with a sophisticated modeling approach. Results: Of the 174 COVID-19 patients, 60.9% were not from Yunnan, and 76.4% had a history of travel in Hubei. The amount of new daily cases in Yunnan was significant correlated with the number of inbound travelers from Hubei and suspected cases among them. Using Susceptible-Exposed-Infectious-Recovered (SEIR) model analysis, we found that the prevention and control measures dropped the local R0 down to 1.07 in Yunnan province. Conclusions: Our preliminary analysis showed that the proper management of inbound travelers from outbreak areas has a significantly positive effect on the prevention and control of the virus. In the process of resettlement, some effective measures taken by Yunnan province may provide an important reference for preventing the renewed COVID-19 outbreak in other regions.