This study aims to understand the epidemiological characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the paediatric population during the outbreak of the Omicron variant in Shanghai. We retrospectively analysed the population-based epidemiological characteristics and clinical outcome of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant infection in children in Minhang District, Shanghai, based on the citywide surveillance system during the outbreak period in 2022 (March to May). During this time, a total of 63,969 cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection were notified in Minhang District, out of which 4,652 (7.3%) were children and adolescents <18 years. The incidence rate of SARS-CoV-2 infections in children was 153 per 10,000. Of all paediatric cases, 50% reported to be clinically symptomatic within 1–3 days after PCR confirmation by parents or themselves, with 36.3% and 18.9% of paediatric cases reporting fever and cough. Also, 58.4% of paediatric cases had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 52.1% had received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccination. Our findings are informative for the implementation of appropriate measures to protect children from the threat of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Although gut fungi have been implicated in the immunopathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease, the fungal microbiome has not been deeply explored across endo-histologic activity and treatment-exposure in ulcerative colitis. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Our retrospective cohort was derived from the Study of a Prospective Adult Research Cohort with Inflammatory Bowel Disease. We evaluated the fungal composition of fecal samples from 98 ulcerative colitis patients across endoscopic activity (n=43), endo-histologic activity (n=41), and biologic-exposure (n=98). Across all subgroups, we assessed fungal diversity and differential abundance of specific taxonomic groups. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: We identified 504 unique fungal amplicon sequence variants across the cohort of 98 patients, dominated by phylum Ascomycota. Compared to endoscopic remission, patients with endoscopic activity had an increased global fungus load (p DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Endoscopic inflammation in ulcerative colitis is associated with altered fungal diversity driven by expansion of Saccharomyces and Candida compared to remission. The role of these fungal taxa as potential biomarkers and targets for personalized approaches to therapeutics in ulcerative colitis should be evaluated.

Coastal eutrophication and hypoxia remain a persistent environmental crisis despite the great efforts to reduce nutrient loading and mitigate associated environmental damages. Symptoms of this crisis have appeared to spread rapidly, reaching developing countries in Asia with emergences in Southern America and Africa. The pace of changes and the underlying drivers remain not so clear. To address the gap, we review the up-to-date status and mechanisms of eutrophication and hypoxia in global coastal oceans, upon which we examine the trajectories of changes over the 40 years or longer in six model coastal systems with varying socio-economic development statuses and different levels and histories of eutrophication. Although these coastal systems share common features of eutrophication, site-specific characteristics are also substantial, depending on the regional environmental setting and level of social-economic development along with policy implementation and management. Nevertheless, ecosystem recovery generally needs greater reduction in pressures compared to that initiated degradation and becomes less feasible to achieve past norms with a longer time anthropogenic pressures on the ecosystems. While the qualitative causality between drivers and consequences is well established, quantitative attribution of these drivers to eutrophication and hypoxia remains difficult especially when we consider the social economic drivers because the changes in coastal ecosystems are subject to multiple influences and the cause–effect relationship is often non-linear. Such relationships are further complicated by climate changes that have been accelerating over the past few decades. The knowledge gaps that limit our quantitative and mechanistic understanding of the human-coastal ocean nexus are identified, which is essential for science-based policy making. Recognizing lessons from past management practices, we advocate for a better, more efficient indexing system of coastal eutrophication and an advanced regional earth system modeling framework with optimal modules of human dimensions to facilitate the development and evaluation of effective policy and restoration actions.

Recently, Scholten and Read (2014) found new violations of dominance in intertemporal choice. Although adding a small receipt before a delayed payment or adding a small delayed receipt after an immediate receipt makes the prospect objectively better, it decreases the preference for that prospect (better is worse). Conversely, although adding a small payment before a delayed receipt or adding a small delayed payment after an immediate payment makes the prospect objectively worse, it increases the preference for that prospect (worse is better). Scholten and Read explained these violations in terms of a preference for improvement. However, to produce violations such as these, we find that the temporal sequences need not be constructed as Scholten and Read suggested. In this study, adding a small receipt before a dated receipt (thus constructed as improving) or adding a receipt after a dated payment (thus constructed as improving) decreases preferences for those prospects. Conversely, adding a small payment after a dated receipt (thus constructed as deteriorating) or adding a small payment before a delayed payment (thus constructed as deteriorating) increases preferences for those prospects.

We firstly report a 2-μm all-fiber nonlinear pulse compressor based on two pieces of normal dispersion fiber (NDF), which enables a high-power scaling ability of watt-level and a high pulse compression ratio of 13.7. With the NDF-based all-fiber nonlinear pulse compressor, the 450-fs laser pulses with a repetition rate of 101.4 MHz are compressed to 35.1 fs, corresponding to a 5.2 optical oscillation cycle at the 2-μm wavelength region. The output average power reaches 1.28 W, which is believed to be the highest value never achieved from the previous 2-μm all-fiber nonlinear pulse compressors with a high pulse repetition rate above 100 MHz. The dynamic evolution of the ultrafast pulse inside the all-fiber nonlinear pulse compressor is numerically analyzed, matching well with the experimental results.

Hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) is one of the rate-determining enzymes in the hydrolysis of TAG, playing a crucial role in lipid metabolism. However, the role of HSL-mediated lipolysis in systemic nutrient homoeostasis has not been intensively understood. Therefore, we used CRISPR/Cas9 technique and Hsl inhibitor (HSL-IN-1) to establish hsla-deficient (hsla -/-) and Hsl-inhibited zebrafish models, respectively. As a result, the hsla -/- zebrafish showed retarded growth and reduced oxygen consumption rate, accompanied with higher mRNA expression of the genes related to inflammation and apoptosis in liver and muscle. Furthermore, hsla -/- and HSL-IN-1-treated zebrafish both exhibited severe fat deposition, whereas their expressions of the genes related to lipolysis and fatty acid oxidation were markedly reduced. The TLC results also showed that the dysfunction of Hsl changed the whole-body lipid profile, including increasing the content of TG and decreasing the proportion of phospholipids. In addition, the systemic metabolic pattern was remodelled in hsla -/- and HSL-IN-1-treated zebrafish. The dysfunction of Hsl lowered the glycogen content in liver and muscle and enhanced the utilisation of glucose plus the expressions of glucose transporter and glycolysis genes. Besides, the whole-body protein content had significantly decreased in the hsla -/- and HSL-IN-1-treated zebrafish, accompanied with the lower activation of the mTOR pathway and enhanced protein and amino acid catabolism. Taken together, Hsl plays an essential role in energy homoeostasis, and its dysfunction would cause the disturbance of lipid catabolism but enhanced breakdown of glycogen and protein for energy compensation.

Bathymetric simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) methods yield accurate navigation results for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and can construct consistent seabed terrain maps. Multiple independently working vehicles can complete tasks like surveying and mapping efficiently, which means cooperative bathymetric SLAM using multiple AUVs is suitable for large-scale seabed mapping. However, the transmission of bathymetric measurements collected using a multi-beam echo sounder over a low bandwidth, noisy, and unreliable acoustic channel is difficult, making cooperative bathymetric SLAM very challenging. This paper develops a graph-based cooperative bathymetric SLAM system that can compress many bathymetric measurements into small-scale acoustic packets and yield accurate navigation results with a 10% loss of acoustic packets caused by unreliable acoustic communication. According to the simulation conducted using the field data, the new algorithm is shown to be robust and capable of providing accurate location and mapping results over a low bandwidth, noisy, and unreliable acoustic channel.

A high-frequency short-pulsed stroboscopic micro-visual system was employed to capture the transient image sequences of a periodically in-plane working micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) devices. To demodulate the motion parameters of the devices from the images, we developed the feature point matching (FPM) algorithm based on Speeded-Up Robust Features (SURF). A MEMS gyroscope, vibrating at a frequency of 8.189 kHz, was used as a testing sample to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm. Within the same processing time, the SURF-based FPM method demodulated the velocity of the in-plane motion with a precision of 10−5 pixels of the image, which was two orders of magnitude higher than the template-matching and frame-difference algorithms.

Carbon nanotube foams (CNFs) have been successfully used as near-critical-density targets in the laser-driven acceleration of high-energy ions and electrons. Here we report the recent advances in the fabrication technique of such targets. With the further developed floating catalyst chemical vapor deposition (FCCVD) method, large-area ($>25\kern0.5em {\mathrm{cm}}^2$) and highly uniform CNFs are successfully deposited on nanometer-thin metal or plastic foils as double-layer targets. The density and thickness of the CNF can be controlled in the range of $1{-}13\kern0.5em \mathrm{mg}/{\mathrm{cm}}^3$ and $10{-}200\kern0.5em \mu \mathrm{m}$, respectively, by varying the synthesis parameters. The dependence of the target properties on the synthesis parameters and the details of the target characterization methods are presented for the first time.

In minimally invasive surgery, surgical instruments with a wrist joint have better flexibility. However, the bending motion of the wrist joint causes a coupling motion between the end-effector and wrist joint, affecting the accuracy of the movement of the surgical instrument. Aiming at this problem, a new gear train decoupling method is proposed in the paper, which can automatically compensate for the coupled motion in real-time. Based on the performance tests of the instrument prototype, a series of decoupling effects tests are carried out. The test results show that the surgical instrument has excellent decoupling ability and stable performance.

Poor utilisation efficiency of carbohydrate always leads to metabolic phenotypes in fish. The intestinal microbiota plays an important role in carbohydrate degradation. Whether the intestinal bacteria could alleviate high-carbohydrate diet (HCD)-induced metabolic phenotypes in fish remains unknown. Here, a strain affiliated to Bacillus amyloliquefaciens was isolated from the intestine of Nile tilapia. A basal diet (CON), HCD or HCD supplemented with B. amy SS1 (HCB) was used to feed fish for 10 weeks. The beneficial effects of B. amy SS1 on weight gain and protein accumulation were observed. Fasting glucose and lipid deposition were decreased in the HCB group compared with the HCD group. High-throughput sequencing showed that the abundance of acetate-producing bacteria was increased in the HCB group relative to the HCD group. Gas chromatographic analysis indicated that the concentration of intestinal acetate was increased dramatically in the HCB group compared with that in the HCD group. Glucagon-like peptide-1 was also increased in the intestine and serum of the HCB group. Thus, fish were fed with HCD, HCD supplemented with sodium acetate at 900 mg/kg (HLA), 1800 mg/kg (HMA) or 3600 mg/kg (HHA) diet for 8 weeks, and the HMA and HHA groups mirrored the effects of B. amy SS1. This study revealed that B. amy SS1 could alleviate the metabolic phenotypes caused by HCD by enriching acetate-producing bacteria in fish intestines. Regulating the intestinal microbiota and their metabolites might represent a powerful strategy for fish nutrition modulation and health maintenance in future.

Toxoplasma gondii can infect almost all warm-blooded vertebrates with pathogensis being largely influenced by the host immune status. As important epidemiological hosts, rodents are globally distributed and are also commonly found infected with haemoflagellates, such as those in the genus Trypanosoma. We here address whether and how co-infection with trypanosomes can influence T. gondii infection in laboratory models. Rats of five strains, co-infected with T. lewisi and mice of four strains, co-infected with T. musculi, were found to be more or less susceptible to T. gondii infection, respectively, with corresponding increased or decreased brain cyst burdens. Downregulation of iNOS expression and decreased NO production or reverse were observed in the peritoneal macrophages of rats or mice, infected with trypanosomes, respectively. Trypanosoma lewisi and T. musculi can modulate host immune responses, either by enhancement or suppression and influence the outcome of Toxoplasma infection.

Single-shot laser-induced damage threshold (LIDT) measurements of multi-type free-standing ultrathin foils were performed in a vacuum environment for 800 nm laser pulses with durations τ ranging from 50 fs to 200 ps. The results show that the laser damage threshold fluences (DTFs) of the ultrathin foils are significantly lower than those of corresponding bulk materials. Wide band gap dielectric targets such as SiN and formvar have larger DTFs than semiconductive and conductive targets by 1–3 orders of magnitude depending on the pulse duration. The damage mechanisms for different types of targets are studied. Based on the measurement, the constrain of the LIDTs on the laser contrast is discussed.