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Nick K. Jones1,2*, Lucy Rivett1,2*, Chris Workman3, Mark Ferris3, Ashley Shaw1, Cambridge COVID-19 Collaboration1,4, Paul J. Lehner1,4, Rob Howes5, Giles Wright3, Nicholas J. Matheson1,4,6¶, Michael P. Weekes1,7¶1 Cambridge University NHS Hospitals Foundation Trust, Cambridge, UK2 Clinical Microbiology & Public Health Laboratory, Public Health England, Cambridge, UK3 Occupational Health and Wellbeing, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, UK4 Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology & Infectious Disease, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK5 Cambridge COVID-19 Testing Centre and AstraZeneca, Anne Mclaren Building, Cambridge, UK6 NHS Blood and Transplant, Cambridge, UK7 Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK*Joint first authorship¶Joint last authorshipCorrespondence: mpw1001@cam.ac.ukThe UK has initiated mass COVID-19 immunisation, with healthcare workers (HCWs) given early priority because of the potential for workplace exposure and risk of onward transmission to patients. The UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has recommended maximising the number of people vaccinated with first doses at the expense of early booster vaccinations, based on single dose efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19 disease.1-3At the time of writing, three COVID-19 vaccines have been granted emergency use authorisation in the UK, including the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech). A vital outstanding question is whether this vaccine prevents or promotes asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection, rather than symptomatic COVID-19 disease, because sub-clinical infection following vaccination could continue to drive transmission. This is especially important because many UK HCWs have received this vaccine, and nosocomial COVID-19 infection has been a persistent problem.Through the implementation of a 24 h-turnaround PCR-based comprehensive HCW screening programme at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUHNFT), we previously demonstrated the frequent presence of pauci- and asymptomatic infection amongst HCWs during the UK’s first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.4 Here, we evaluate the effect of first-dose BNT162b2 vaccination on test positivity rates and cycle threshold (Ct) values in the asymptomatic arm of our programme, which now offers weekly screening to all staff.Vaccination of HCWs at CUHNFT began on 8th December 2020, with mass vaccination from 8th January 2021. Here, we analyse data from the two weeks spanning 18thto 31st January 2021, during which: (a) the prevalence of COVID-19 amongst HCWs remained approximately constant; and (b) we screened comparable numbers of vaccinated and unvaccinated HCWs. Over this period, 4,408 (week 1) and 4,411 (week 2) PCR tests were performed from individuals reporting well to work. We stratified HCWs <12 days or > 12 days post-vaccination because this was the point at which protection against symptomatic infection began to appear in phase III clinical trial.226/3,252 (0·80%) tests from unvaccinated HCWs were positive (Ct<36), compared to 13/3,535 (0·37%) from HCWs <12 days post-vaccination and 4/1,989 (0·20%) tests from HCWs ≥12 days post-vaccination (p=0·023 and p=0·004, respectively; Fisher’s exact test, Figure). This suggests a four-fold decrease in the risk of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection amongst HCWs ≥12 days post-vaccination, compared to unvaccinated HCWs, with an intermediate effect amongst HCWs <12 days post-vaccination.A marked reduction in infections was also seen when analyses were repeated with: (a) inclusion of HCWs testing positive through both the symptomatic and asymptomatic arms of the programme (56/3,282 (1·71%) unvaccinated vs 8/1,997 (0·40%) ≥12 days post-vaccination, 4·3-fold reduction, p=0·00001); (b) inclusion of PCR tests which were positive at the limit of detection (Ct>36, 42/3,268 (1·29%) vs 15/2,000 (0·75%), 1·7-fold reduction, p=0·075); and (c) extension of the period of analysis to include six weeks from December 28th to February 7th 2021 (113/14,083 (0·80%) vs 5/4,872 (0·10%), 7·8-fold reduction, p=1x10-9). In addition, the median Ct value of positive tests showed a non-significant trend towards increase between unvaccinated HCWs and HCWs > 12 days post-vaccination (23·3 to 30·3, Figure), suggesting that samples from vaccinated individuals had lower viral loads.We therefore provide real-world evidence for a high level of protection against asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection after a single dose of BNT162b2 vaccine, at a time of predominant transmission of the UK COVID-19 variant of concern 202012/01 (lineage B.1.1.7), and amongst a population with a relatively low frequency of prior infection (7.2% antibody positive).5This work was funded by a Wellcome Senior Clinical Research Fellowship to MPW (108070/Z/15/Z), a Wellcome Principal Research Fellowship to PJL (210688/Z/18/Z), and an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship (MR/P008801/1) and NHSBT workpackage (WPA15-02) to NJM. Funding was also received from Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust and the Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre. We also acknowledge contributions from all staff at CUHNFT Occupational Health and Wellbeing and the Cambridge COVID-19 Testing Centre.

Scene flow tracks the three-dimensional (3D) motion of each point in adjacent point clouds. It provides fundamental 3D motion perception for autonomous driving and server robot. Although the Red Green Blue Depth (RGBD) camera or Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) capture discrete 3D points in space, the objects and motions usually are continuous in the macro world. That is, the objects keep themselves consistent as they flow from the current frame to the next frame. Based on this insight, the Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) is utilized to self-learn 3D scene flow with no need for ground truth. The fake point cloud of the second frame is synthesized from the predicted scene flow and the point cloud of the first frame. The adversarial training of the generator and discriminator is realized through synthesizing indistinguishable fake point cloud and discriminating the real point cloud and the synthesized fake point cloud. The experiments on Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Toyota Technological Institute (KITTI) scene flow dataset show that our method realizes promising results without ground truth. Just as human, the proposed method can identify the similar local structures of two adjacent frames even without knowing the ground truth scene flow. Then, the local correspondence can be correctly estimated, and further the scene flow is correctly estimated.   Corresponding author(s) Email: wanghesheng@sjtu.edu.cn

Leukocyte differential test is a widely performed clinical procedure for screening infectious diseases. Existing hematology analyzers require labor-intensive work and a panel of expensive reagents. Here we report an artificial-intelligence enabled reagent-free imaging hematology analyzer (AIRFIHA) modality that can accurately classify subpopulations of leukocytes with minimal sample preparation. AIRFIHA is realized through training a two-step residual neural network using label-free images of isolated leukocytes acquired from a custom-built quantitative phase microscope. By leveraging the rich information contained in quantitative phase images, we not only achieved high accuracy in differentiating B and T lymphocytes, but also classified CD4 and CD8 cells, therefore outperforming the classification accuracy of most current hematology analyzers. We validated the performance of AIRFIHA in a randomly selected test set and cross-validated it across all blood donors. Owing to its easy operation, low cost, and accurate discerning capability of complex leukocyte subpopulations, we envision AIRFIHA is clinically translatable and can also be deployed in resource-limited settings, e.g., during pandemic situations for the rapid screening of infectious diseases.  Corresponding author(s) Email:    rjzhou@cuhk.edu.hk,  rishikesh.pandey@uconn.edu

Tam Hunt [1], Jonathan SchoolerUniversity of California Santa Barbara Synchronization, harmonization, vibrations, or simply resonance in its most general sense seems to have an integral relationship with consciousness itself. One of the possible “neural correlates of consciousness” in mammalian brains is a combination of gamma, beta and theta synchrony. More broadly, we see similar kinds of resonance patterns in living and non-living structures of many types. What clues can resonance provide about the nature of consciousness more generally? This paper provides an overview of resonating structures in the fields of neuroscience, biology and physics and attempts to coalesce these data into a solution to what we see as the “easy part” of the Hard Problem, which is generally known as the “combination problem” or the “binding problem.” The combination problem asks: how do micro-conscious entities combine into a higher-level macro-consciousness? The proposed solution in the context of mammalian consciousness suggests that a shared resonance is what allows different parts of the brain to achieve a phase transition in the speed and bandwidth of information flows between the constituent parts. This phase transition allows for richer varieties of consciousness to arise, with the character and content of that consciousness in each moment determined by the particular set of constituent neurons. We also offer more general insights into the ontology of consciousness and suggest that consciousness manifests as a relatively smooth continuum of increasing richness in all physical processes, distinguishing our view from emergentist materialism. We refer to this approach as a (general) resonance theory of consciousness and offer some responses to Chalmers’ questions about the different kinds of “combination problem.”  At the heart of the universe is a steady, insistent beat: the sound of cycles in sync…. [T]hese feats of synchrony occur spontaneously, almost as if nature has an eerie yearning for order. Steven Strogatz, Sync: How Order Emerges From Chaos in the Universe, Nature and Daily Life (2003) If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.Nikola Tesla (1942) I.               Introduction Is there an “easy part” and a “hard part” to the Hard Problem of consciousness? In this paper, we suggest that there is. The harder part is arriving at a philosophical position with respect to the relationship of matter and mind. This paper is about the “easy part” of the Hard Problem but we address the “hard part” briefly in this introduction.  We have both arrived, after much deliberation, at the position of panpsychism or panexperientialism (all matter has at least some associated mind/experience and vice versa). This is the view that all things and processes have both mental and physical aspects. Matter and mind are two sides of the same coin.  Panpsychism is one of many possible approaches that addresses the “hard part” of the Hard Problem. We adopt this position for all the reasons various authors have listed (Chalmers 1996, Griffin 1997, Hunt 2011, Goff 2017). This first step is particularly powerful if we adopt the Whiteheadian version of panpsychism (Whitehead 1929).  Reaching a position on this fundamental question of how mind relates to matter must be based on a “weight of plausibility” approach, rather than on definitive evidence, because establishing definitive evidence with respect to the presence of mind/experience is difficult. We must generally rely on examining various “behavioral correlates of consciousness” in judging whether entities other than ourselves are conscious – even with respect to other humans—since the only consciousness we can know with certainty is our own. Positing that matter and mind are two sides of the same coin explains the problem of consciousness insofar as it avoids the problems of emergence because under this approach consciousness doesn’t emerge. Consciousness is, rather, always present, at some level, even in the simplest of processes, but it “complexifies” as matter complexifies, and vice versa. Consciousness starts very simple and becomes more complex and rich under the right conditions, which in our proposed framework rely on resonance mechanisms. Matter and mind are two sides of the coin. Neither is primary; they are coequal.  We acknowledge the challenges of adopting this perspective, but encourage readers to consider the many compelling reasons to consider it that are reviewed elsewhere (Chalmers 1996, Griffin 1998, Hunt 2011, Goff 2017, Schooler, Schooler, & Hunt, 2011; Schooler, 2015).  Taking a position on the overarching ontology is the first step in addressing the Hard Problem. But this leads to the related questions: at what level of organization does consciousness reside in any particular process? Is a rock conscious? A chair? An ant? A bacterium? Or are only the smaller constituents, such as atoms or molecules, of these entities conscious? And if there is some degree of consciousness even in atoms and molecules, as panpsychism suggests (albeit of a very rudimentary nature, an important point to remember), how do these micro-conscious entities combine into the higher-level and obvious consciousness we witness in entities like humans and other mammals?  This set of questions is known as the “combination problem,” another now-classic problem in the philosophy of mind, and is what we describe here as the “easy part” of the Hard Problem. Our characterization of this part of the problem as “easy”[2] is, of course, more than a little tongue in cheek. The authors have discussed frequently with each other what part of the Hard Problem should be labeled the easier part and which the harder part. Regardless of the labels we choose, however, this paper focuses on our suggested solution to the combination problem.  Various solutions to the combination problem have been proposed but none have gained widespread acceptance. This paper further elaborates a proposed solution to the combination problem that we first described in Hunt 2011 and Schooler, Hunt, and Schooler 2011. The proposed solution rests on the idea of resonance, a shared vibratory frequency, which can also be called synchrony or field coherence. We will generally use resonance and “sync,” short for synchrony, interchangeably in this paper. We describe the approach as a general resonance theory of consciousness or just “general resonance theory” (GRT). GRT is a field theory of consciousness wherein the various specific fields associated with matter and energy are the seat of conscious awareness.  A summary of our approach appears in Appendix 1.  All things in our universe are constantly in motion, in process. Even objects that appear to be stationary are in fact vibrating, oscillating, resonating, at specific frequencies. So all things are actually processes. Resonance is a specific type of motion, characterized by synchronized oscillation between two states.  An interesting phenomenon occurs when different vibrating processes come into proximity: they will often start vibrating together at the same frequency. They “sync up,” sometimes in ways that can seem mysterious, and allow for richer and faster information and energy flows (Figure 1 offers a schematic). Examining this phenomenon leads to potentially deep insights about the nature of consciousness in both the human/mammalian context but also at a deeper ontological level.

Cannabis sativa is an extraordinarily versatile species. Hemp and its cousin marijuana, both C. sativa, have been used for millennia as a source of fibre, oil and for medicinal, spiritual and recreational purposes. Because the consumption of Cannabis can have psychoactive effects, the plant has been widely banned throughout the last century. In the past decade, evidence of its medicinal properties did lead to the relaxation of legislation in many countries around the world. Consequently, the genetics and development of Cannabis as well as Cannabis-derived products are the subject of renewed attention.Here, we review the biology of C. sativa, including recent insights from taxonomy, morphology and genomics, with an emphasis on the genetics of cannabinoid synthesis. Because the female Cannabis flower is of special interest as the site of cannabinoid synthesis, we explore flower development, flowering time well as the species’ unique sex determination system in detail. Furthermore, we outline the tremendous medicinal, engineering, and environmental opportunities that Cannabis bears. Together, the picture emerges that our understanding of Cannabis biology currently progresses at an unusual speed. A future challenge will be to preserve the multi-purpose nature of Cannabis, and to harness its medicinal properties and sustainability advantages simultaneously.

Quantum chemistry must evolve if it wants to fully leverage the benefits of the internet age, where the world wide web offers a vast tapestry of tools that enable users to communicate and interact with complex data at the speed and convenience of a button press. The Open Chemistry project has developed an open source framework that offers an end-to-end solution for producing, sharing, and visualizing quantum chemical data interactively on the web using an array of modern tools and approaches. These tools build on some of the best open source community projects such as Jupyter for interactive online notebooks, coupled with 3D accelerated visualization, state-of-the-art computational chemistry codes including NWChem and Psi4 and emerging machine learning and data mining tools such as ChemML and ANI. They offer flexible formats to import and export data, along with approaches to compare computational and experimental data.

This paper responds to one by Graham Martin and colleagues, who offered a critique of my previous publications on masks for the lay public in the Covid-19 pandemic. I address their charges that my co-authors and I had misapplied the precautionary principle; drawn conclusions that were not supported by empirical research; and failed to take account of potential harms. But before that, I remind Martin et al that the evidence on mask wearing goes beyond the contested trials and observational studies they place centre stage. I set out some key findings from basic science, epidemiology, mathematical modelling, case studies and natural experiments, and use this rich and diverse body of evidence as the backdrop for my rebuttal of their narrowly-framed objections. I challenge my critics’ apparent assumption that a particular kind of systematic review should be valorised over narrative and real-world evidence, since stories are crucial to both our scientific understanding and our moral imagination. I conclude by thanking my academic adversaries for the intellectual sparring match, but exhort them to remember our professional accountability to a society in crisis. It is time to lay straw men to rest and engage, scientifically and morally, with the dreadful tragedy that is unfolding across the world.

This Supporting information includes interactive plots, videos, and data captured while performing evaluation and validation experiments for our paper. 

The construct of wellbeing has been criticised as a neoliberal construction of western individualism that ignores wider systemic issues including increasing burden of chronic disease, widening inequality, concerns over environmental degradation and anthropogenic climate change. While these criticisms overlook recent developments, there remains a need for biopsychosocial models that extend theoretical grounding beyond individual wellbeing, incorporating overlapping contextual issues relating to community and environment. Our first GENIAL model \cite{Kemp_2017} provided a more expansive view of pathways to longevity in the context of individual health and wellbeing, emphasising bidirectional links to positive social ties and the impact of sociocultural factors. In this paper, we build on these ideas and propose GENIAL 2.0, focusing on intersecting individual-community-environmental contributions to health and wellbeing, and laying an evidence-based, theoretical framework on which future research and innovative therapeutic innovations could be based. We suggest that our transdisciplinary model of wellbeing - focusing on individual, community and environmental contributions to personal wellbeing - will help to move the research field forward. In reconceptualising wellbeing, GENIAL 2.0 bridges the gap between psychological science and population health health systems, and presents opportunities for enhancing the health and wellbeing of people living with chronic conditions. Implications for future generations including the very survival of our species are discussed.  

Floral plantings are promoted to foster ecological intensification of agriculture through provisioning of ecosystem services. However, a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of different floral plantings, their characteristics and consequences for crop yield across global regions is lacking. Here we quantified the impacts of flower strips and hedgerows on pest control and pollination services in adjacent crops using a global dataset of 529 sites. Flower strips, but not hedgerows, enhanced pest control services in adjacent fields by 16% on average. However, effects on crop pollination and yield were more variable. Our synthesis identifies several important drivers of variability in effectiveness of plantings: pollination services declined exponentially with distance from plantings, and perennial and older flower strips with higher flowering plant diversity enhanced pollination more effectively. These findings provide promising pathways to optimize floral plantings to more effectively contribute to ecosystem service delivery and ecological intensification of agriculture in the future.

Researchers' ability to accurately screen fossil and subfossil specimens for preservation of DNA and protein sequences remains limited. Thermal exposure and geologic age are usable proxies for sequence preservation on a broad scale but are of nominal use for specimens of similar depositional environments. Cell and tissue biomolecular histology is thus proposed as a novel proxy for determining sequence preservation potential of ancient specimens with improved accuracy. Biomolecular histology as a proxy is hypothesized to elucidate why fossils/subfossils of some depositional environments preserve sequences while others do not and to facilitate selection of ancient specimens for use in molecular studies.

IntroductionConsistent with World Health Organization (WHO) advice [1], UK Infection Protection Control guidance recommends that healthcare workers (HCWs) caring for patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) should use fluid resistant surgical masks type IIR (FRSMs) as respiratory protective equipment (RPE), unless aerosol generating procedures (AGPs) are being undertaken or are likely, when a filtering face piece 3 (FFP3) respirator should be used [2]. In a recent update, an FFP3 respirator is recommended if “an unacceptable risk of transmission remains following rigorous application of the hierarchy of control” [3]. Conversely, guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that HCWs caring for patients with COVID-19 should use an N95 or higher level respirator [4]. WHO guidance suggests that a respirator, such as FFP3, may be used for HCWs in the absence of AGPs if availability or cost is not an issue [1].A recent systematic review undertaken for PHE concluded that: “patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection who are breathing, talking or coughing generate both respiratory droplets and aerosols, but FRSM (and where required, eye protection) are considered to provide adequate staff protection” [5]. Nevertheless, FFP3 respirators are more effective in preventing aerosol transmission than FRSMs, and observational data suggests that they may improve protection for HCWs [6]. It has therefore been suggested that respirators should be considered as a means of affording the best available protection [7], and some organisations have decided to provide FFP3 (or equivalent) respirators to HCWs caring for COVID-19 patients, despite a lack of mandate from local or national guidelines [8].Data from the HCW testing programme at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUHNFT) during the first wave of the UK severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic indicated a higher incidence of infection amongst HCWs caring for patients with COVID-19, compared with those who did not [9]. Subsequent studies have confirmed this observation [10, 11]. This disparity persisted at CUHNFT in December 2020, despite control measures consistent with PHE guidance and audits indicating good compliance. The CUHNFT infection control committee therefore implemented a change of RPE for staff on “red” (COVID-19) wards from FRSMs to FFP3 respirators. In this study, we analyse the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in HCWs before and after this transition.

Population genomics applied to game species conservation can help delineate management units, ensure appropriate harvest levels, and identify populations needing genetic rescue to safeguard their adaptive potential. The ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) is rapidly declining in much of the eastern USA due to a combination of forest maturation and habitat fragmentation. More recently, mortality from West Nile Virus may have affected connectivity of local populations; however, genetic approaches have never explicitly investigated this issue. In this study, we sequenced 54 individual low-coverage (~5X) grouse genomes to characterize population structure and assess migration rates across the landscape to identify potential barriers to gene flow. Surprisingly, we identified two genomic clusters with no clear geographic correlation, with large blocks of genomic differentiation associated with chromosomes 4 and 20, likely due to chromosomal inversions. After excluding these putative inversions from the data set, we found weak but non-significant signals of population subdivision. Estimated gene flow revealed reduced rates of migration in areas with extensive habitat fragmentation, while areas with more habitat continuity showed higher rates of genetic connectivity. Our findings provide a benchmark for wildlife managers to compare and scale the genetic diversity and structure of ruffed grouse populations in Pennsylvania and across the eastern USA, as well as reveal unexpected structural variation in the grouse genome that requires further study to understand its possible effects on individual fitness and population distribution.

Organic photovoltaics (OPV) has attracted tremendous attention as a promising alternative to silicon wafer-based technologies for building integration. While significant progress has been achieved on the power conversion efficiency of OPV technologies, their field stability is rarely studied. This work investigates the field performance and reliability of a large-area OPV module designed for BIPV application in the tropical region of Singapore for 4.5 years. The device suffered more than 14% degradation in power at the standard testing conditions from the initial performance, largely due to losses in fill factor (-12% relative). During the monitoring period, it exhibited comparable performance to more conventional silicon PV technologies, with an average specific energy yield of about 4 kWh/kWp/day and an average performance ratio of 0.96. Excellent performance at low light conditions was also observed. However, its field performance was heavily impacted by soiling, which typically led to a 5 to 10% loss in the current output after several months. Further, the device’s outdoor performance also showed a three-stage degradation process, including (1) an initial slow degradation in the first two years (about -1%/year), (2) a stable period with negligible performance loss from year 2 to year 3.5 and (3) a rapid degradation in the last year (about -5%/year).

The fault diagnosis with one single sensor cannot comprehensively use the multi-sensor correlation information of fault signals for underwater thruster entanglement. To solve the real-time fault diagnosis problem that in the case of entanglement, a kind of fault diagnosis method based on the combination of current and rotational speed signal correlation analysis and Fuzzy C-means clustering (FCM) is proposed. Firstly, the collected current and speed signals of underwater thrusters under different states are normalized; Secondly, the correlation of normalized current and speed signals is calculated, and the correlation matrix is formed, and the sliding window of sampling series is adopted to calculate the correlation coefficient change over time between current and speed. Then a kind of Fuzzy C-means clustering method based on improved distance index is used to diagnose fault with correlation matrix elements. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, the sampling data in the case of propeller entanglement is used to verify the proposed fault detection method. The results show that the proposed method can fully extract the multi-sensor correlation information of underwater thrusters compared with the fault diagnosis method using only one signal using Support Vector Machine, and the feature extraction is more sufficient, effectively improving the accuracy of underwater thruster fault diagnosis.

Objectives: To explore roles of NKG2D in interactions of CD4 + T cells and dendritic cells (DCs) in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) patients Methods: Peripheral blood from active JIA patients and healthy controls were used for flow cytometry assessments of NKG2D +CD4 + T cells and expressions of MICA and MICB on DCs. NKG2D genetically modified CD4 + T cells resulted from transfection with lentiviral vectors harboring NKG2D and NKG2D siRNA. ELISA measured supernatant cytokines in co-cultured CD4 + T cells and DCs. CD4 + T cell subgroups, MICA and MICB expression on DCs was determined by flow cytometry and transcription factors by real-time PCR. Results: All JIA patients had significantly higher content of CD4 +NKG2D + T cells compared to healthy controls (P < 0.01). Expression of NKG2D on CD4 + T cells, and MICA and MICB on DCs were significantly greater in articular JIA than systemic JIA (P < 0.05). NKG2D induced IL-12 and suppressed IL-10 and TGF-β from CD4 + T cells, increased IFN-γ + CD4+ T and IL-17 + CD4 + T cells, RORc and T-bet, but reduced CD25 + Foxp3 + CD4 + T cells, IL-4 + CD4 + T cells, Foxp3, and GATA3 in JIA patients (P<0.05). NKG2D increased IL-12 and T-bet by CD4 + T cells in healthy controls (P<0.05). NKG2D decreased IL-10 and increased CD83, MICA, and MICB of DCs via interaction with CD4 + T cells in JIA and control patients (P<0.05). Conclusions: NKG2D regulates differentiation of CD4 + T cells directly and the maturation of DCs indirectly. Targeting NKG2D may be a potential therapy for JIA.

Splenic infarction is a rare and likely underdiagnosed complication of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) associated infectious mononucleosis (IM). Here we describe an 18-year-old male with persistent severe left-sided abdominal pain found to be EBV positive and have a large splenic infarct, along with a transient decrease in protein C, protein S, and antithrombin III activity levels. He was treated with supportive care, and anticoagulated with heparin and apixaban. We review prior reports and perspectives on underlying pathophysiology, diagnosis, and the management of these cases which likely does not require anticoagulation although may be considered on a per case basis.

Epilepsy is one of the most common neurologic diseases affecting people of all ages, races, sex, social classes, and geographic locations. Cardiac arrhythmias have been associated with patients with seizure disorders and can be a common sudden unexpected death in epilepsy. We present a case of a 74-year-old woman with altered level of consciousness and agitation who was found to have non-convulsive status epilepticus and complete AV block. She was successfully managed only with dual antiepileptic medications. Diagnosis is best made with EEG and ECG. In general, management is made by seizure medications, while pacemakers are still a point of debate.

HIV is a serious disease that threatens and affects capital stock, population composition and economic growth. This research paper aims to study the mathematical modeling and disease dynamics of HIV/AIDS with memory effect. We propose two fractional models in the Caputo sense for HIV/AIDS with and without migration. First, we prove the existence and positivity of both models and calculate the basic reproduction number R 0 using the next generation method. Then, we study the local and global stability of the obtained equilibria. In addition, numerical simulations are provided for different values of the fractional order ρ using the Adams-Bashforth-Moulton fractional scheme, to verify the theoretical results. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis of the parameters for the model with migration is carried out.

Control of plant virus diseases largely depends on the induced plant defense achieved by the external application of synthetic chemical inducers with the ability to modify defense-signaling pathways. However, most of the molecular mechanisms underlying these chemical inducers remain unknown. Here, we developed a lentinan-loaded hydrogel with a core-shell structure and discovered how it protects plants from different virus infections. The hydrogel was synthesized by adding a chitosan shell on the surface of the polyanion sodium alginate-Ca 2+-lentinan (LNT) hydrogel (SL-gel) to form a CSL-gel. CSL-gels exhibit the capacity to prolong the stable release of lentinan and promote Ca 2+ release. Application of CSL-gels on the root of plants induces broad-spectrum resistance against TMV, TRV, PVX and TuMV). RNA-seq analysis identified that the calmodulin-like protein 19 gene ( NbCML19) is upregulated by the sustained release of Ca 2+ from the CSL-gel, and silencing and overexpression of NbCML19 alter the susceptibility and resistance of tobacco to TMV. Our findings provide evidence that this novel and synthetic CSL-gel strongly inhibits the infection of plant viruses by the sustainable release of LNT and Ca 2+. This study uncovers a novel mode of action by which CSL-gels trigger NbCML19 expression through the stable and sustained release of Ca 2+.

Vegetative insecticidal proteins (Vips) are widely used in pest management, but Vip resistance is a big threat. DNA methylation plays important roles in regulating the response of biological organisms to environmental stress. In this study, DNA methylation map was developed for fall armyworm (FAW, Spodoptera frugiperda), and its function in regulating FAW Vip3Aa resistance was explored. FAW was screened by Vip3Aa for 10 generations, and bioassays indicated that Vip3Aa resistance increased trans-generationally. Based on the comparison of DNA methylation maps between Vip3Aa-resistant and -susceptible strains showed that gene body methylation was positively correlated with its expression. Moreover, the study demonstrated that a reduction in the methylation density within the gene body of a 3’5’-cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase gene resulted in decreased expression and increased resistance of FAW to Vip3Aa, which was validated through RNAi experiments. The mechanism of Vip3Aa resistance will improve the understanding of DNA methylation and its function in lepidoptera and provide a new perspective for making strategies to pest management.

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between personality characteristics and psychological health of hospitals’ frontline medical staff and provide a basis and reference for targeted psychological health education for frontline medical staff and for the staff of related departments to formulate relevant policies. The self-evaluation scale of symptoms (SCL-90) was used to investigate the mental health status of 150 first-line medical staff in Zhejiang Province in response to the new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pneumonia.The average scores of SCL-90 and somatization, obsessive-compulsive, depression, anxiety, hostility, terror, and psychotic factors were significantly higher than those of the normal sample in the first-aid medical staff of Aihu Hubei. The degree of influence on the mental health status of the frontline medical staff in service in Hubei is as follows, from high to low: the degree of suspicion that they may have been infected when new coronavirus pneumonia-related symptoms occur, the degree of fear of being infected and thus bring the infection to their families, and whether they have received a medical check-up recently, as well as a high level of education (both P<0.05).The psychological health level of the frontline medical staff is lower than the national norm. In the context of the increasing number of confirmed cases and the new type of coronavirus pneumonia in the absence of any specific curative treatments, the frontline medical staff is under great psychological pressure. It is necessary to institute targeted mental health promotion to relieve the psychological pressure endured by the frontline medical staff, promote their physical and mental health, and better respond to the pandemic in China.

Although IE incidence has increased due to the gradual increase of survival rate in congenital heart disease (CHD) children, the mitral and aortic valves are the most commonly involved, while tricuspid valve infection is rare, and pulmonary valve involvement is extremely rare. To improve the diagnosis in echocardiography, we described two cases of right-sided infective endocarditis (RSIE), explained the ideas of ultrasonic diagnosis, analyzed the differential diagnosis, and demonstrated the important role of echocardiography in diagnosing and treating children.

The objective of this study was to estimate the variance components and genetic parameters as well as to predict breeding values for resistance to endoparasite in Anglo Nubian goats, with repeatability model in single-trait analysis, with inclusion of genomic information. Records of body condition score (BCS), FAMACHA, eggs per gram of feces (EPG) treated by the logarithmic transformations scale L 1EPG = log (EPG + 1), and resistance to worms (RW) were used as traits associated with resistance to worms. A total of 89 animals were genotyped with Bead Chip Goats SNP50. There was little variation in variance component estimates and in heritability and repeatability values with the inclusion of the genomic information. The use of genomic information provided increased accuracy for all traits, providing gains in accuracy of up to 50% for the trait EPG. The use of genomic information improved the predictive ability of the models and, consequently, more reliable genetic parameters were estimated for traits associated with resistance to infections caused by endoparasites in Anglo Nubian goats.