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An acute gastroenteritis (AGE) outbreak caused by a norovirus occurred at a hospital in Shanghai, China, was studied for molecular epidemiology, host susceptibility and serological roles. Rectal and environmental swabs, paired serum samples and saliva specimens were collected. Pathogens were detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction and DNA sequencing. Histo-blood group antigens (HBGA) phenotypes of saliva samples and their binding to norovirus protruding proteins were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The HBGA-binding interfaces and the surrounding region were analysed by the MegAlign program of DNAstar 7.1. Twenty-seven individuals in two care units were attacked with AGE at attack rates of 9.02 and 11.68%. Eighteen (78.2%) symptomatic and five (38.4%) asymptomatic individuals were GII.6/b norovirus positive. Saliva-based HBGA phenotyping showed that all symptomatic and asymptomatic cases belonged to A, B, AB or O secretors. Only four (16.7%) out of the 24 tested serum samples showed low blockade activity against HBGA-norovirus binding at the acute phase, whereas 11 (45.8%) samples at the convalescence stage showed seroconversion of such blockade. Specific blockade antibody in the population played an essential role in this norovirus epidemic. A wide HBGA-binding spectrum of GII.6 supports a need for continuous health attention and surveillance in different settings.
We describe system verification tests and early science results from the pulsar processor (PTUSE) developed for the newly commissioned 64-dish SARAO MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa. MeerKAT is a high-gain (
${\sim}2.8\,\mbox{K Jy}^{-1}$
) low-system temperature (
${\sim}18\,\mbox{K at }20\,\mbox{cm}$
) radio array that currently operates at 580–1 670 MHz and can produce tied-array beams suitable for pulsar observations. This paper presents results from the MeerTime Large Survey Project and commissioning tests with PTUSE. Highlights include observations of the double pulsar
$\mbox{J}0737{-}3039\mbox{A}$
, pulse profiles from 34 millisecond pulsars (MSPs) from a single 2.5-h observation of the Globular cluster Terzan 5, the rotation measure of Ter5O, a 420-sigma giant pulse from the Large Magellanic Cloud pulsar PSR
$\mbox{J}0540{-}6919$
, and nulling identified in the slow pulsar PSR J0633–2015. One of the key design specifications for MeerKAT was absolute timing errors of less than 5 ns using their novel precise time system. Our timing of two bright MSPs confirm that MeerKAT delivers exceptional timing. PSR
$\mbox{J}2241{-}5236$
exhibits a jitter limit of
$<4\,\mbox{ns h}^{-1}$
whilst timing of PSR
$\mbox{J}1909{-}3744$
over almost 11 months yields an rms residual of 66 ns with only 4 min integrations. Our results confirm that the MeerKAT is an exceptional pulsar telescope. The array can be split into four separate sub-arrays to time over 1 000 pulsars per day and the future deployment of S-band (1 750–3 500 MHz) receivers will further enhance its capabilities.
Future transport will change drastically with the introduction of automated vehicles. Here, Autonomous Mobility on Demand (AMoD) will play a major role, requiring a radical change of vehicle design, with many different conceivable concepts. This technology shift holds high potentials and high risks. Uncertainties about future usage profiles, operator and customer requirements have to be dealt with. An approach to elicit initial requirements for future vehicle concepts considering the entire ecosystem is introduced. The applicability is shown for a specific urban mobility scenario.
The aim of this study was to evaluate theprevalence of night eating syndrome (NES) and its correlates in schizophrenicoutpatients.
Methods
The 14 items of self-reported night eatingquestionnaire (NEQ) was administered to 201 schizophrenic patients in psychiatricoutpatient clinic. We examined demographic and clinical characteristics, bodymass index (BMI), subjective measures of mood, sleep, binge eating, andweight-related quality of life using Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI),Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Binge Eating Scale (BES) and Koreanversion of Obesity-Related Quality of Life Scale (KOQoL), respectively.
Results
The prevalence of night eaters in schizophrenicoutpatients was 10.4% (21 of 201). Comparisons between NES group and non-NES grouprevealed no significant differences in sociodemographic characteristics, clinical status and BMI. Compared to non-NES, patients with NES reportedsignificantly greater depressed mood and sleep disturbance, more binge eatingpattern, and decreased weight-related quality of life. While 'morning anorexia'and 'delayed morning meal' (2 of 5 NES core components in NEQ) were notdiffered between groups, 'nocturnal ingestions', 'evening hyperphagia', and'mood/sleep' were more impaired in NES group.
Conclusion
These findings are the first to describe theprevalence and its correlates of night eaters in schizophrenic outpatients. These results suggest that NES has negative mental health implications, although it was not associated with obesity. Further study to generalize theseresults is required.
Thisstudy was to assess the prevalence and its correlates of restless legs syndrome(RLS) in outpatients with bipolar disorder.
Method
A total of 100clinical stabilized bipolar outpatients were examined. The presence of RLS andits severity were assessed using the International Restless Legs Sydrome StudyGroup (IRLSSG) diagnostic criteria. Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI), Spielberg's StateAnxiety Inventory (STAI-X-1), Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Koreanversion Drug Attitude Inventory (KDAI-10), Subjective Well-Beings under NeurolepticTreatment Scale-Short Form(SWN-K) and Barnes Akathisia Rating Scale (BARS) wereused to evaluate the depressive symptomatology, level of anxiety, subjectivequality of sleep, subjective feeling of well-being, drug attitude, presence ofakathisia, respectively.
Results
Of the 100 bipolar outpatients,7 (7%) were met to full criteria of IRLSSG and 36 (36%) have at least one ofthe 4 IRLSSG criterion. Because of relatively small sample size, non-parametricanalysis were done to compare the characteristics among 3 groups (full-RLS, 1≥positiveRLS-symptom and Non-RLS). There were no significant differences in sex, age, and other sociodemographic and clinical data among 3 groups. BDI, STAI-X-1 andPSQI are tended to be impaired in RLS and 1≥positive RLS-symptomgroups.
Conclusion
This is the first preliminarystudy for studying the prevalence and its correlates of RLS in bipolardisorder. The results shows that RLS was relatively smaller presentin bipolar disorder than schizophrenia. Sametendencies shown in schizophrenic patients were found that bipolar patientswith RLS had more depressive symptoms, state anxiety and poor subjective sleepquality.
Emerging evidences indicate that the alteration of interhemispheric functional coordination may be involved in the pathogenesis of major depressive disorder (MDD). In present study, we aim to explore the potential marker by using the voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) approach, which may be contributing to predict the clinical prognosis in MDD.
Methods
Eighty-two MDD patients and 50 normal control (NC) subjects participated in this study. We divided the MDD group into unremitted and remitted group according to the reduction rate of Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAMD) within 2 weeks.
Results
The study detected significantly decreased VMHC in bilateral precuneus (pCu), inferior temporal gyrus (ITG) and increased VMHC in middle frontal gyrus (MFG) and caudate nucleus when compared remitted depression (RD) group to unremitted depression (URD) group. Meanwhile, when compared with NC group, the URD group presented reduced VMHC in bilateral cerebellum anterior lobe, thalamus and postcentral gyrus. Furthermore, the VHMC in media frontal gyrus, postcentral gyrus and precentral gyrus were significantly decreased in RD group. Correlation analysis suggested that reduced VMHC in bilateral pCu was negatively correlated with the baseline HAMD score of URD (r = −0.325, P = 0.041). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve indicated that three regional VMHC changes could identify depressed patient with poorer treatment response: ITG [area under curve (AUC) = 0.699, P = 0.002, 95% CI = 0.586–0.812], MFG (AUC = 0.692, P = 0.003, 95% CI = 0.580–0.805), pCu (AUC = 0.714, P = 0.001, 95% CI = 0.603–0.825).
Conclusion
The current study combined with previous evidence indicates that the subdued intrinsic interhemispheric functional connectivity might represents a novel neural trait involved in the pathophysiology of MDD.
Disclosure of interest
The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
This article analyzes the transfer of tacit knowledge between countries and continents, based on a case from the shipbuilding industry. The South Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) was established in the early 1970s and had by the late 1980s become the world’s leading shipbuilder. Aided by foreign loan capital, HHI acquired technology through foreign licenses and imported equipment. However, shipbuilding is about more than hardware. This article presents and analyzes another important means of knowledge transfer: the acquisition of tacit knowledge in the form of shipbuilding skills, including shipyard processes and operations. This transfer was mainly accomplished through the “import” of foreign managers and the dispatch abroad of South Korean employees. One important element, which we investigate in detail, was the Korean personnel that HHI sent in 1972 to the Scott Lithgow shipyards in Scotland to observe and learn. Based on archival sources and interviews, we detail the manner in which tacit knowledge could be transferred across language and cultural barriers.
In recent years, the aviation industry has taken a leading role in the integration of composite structures to develop lighter and more fuel efficient aircraft. Among the leading concepts to achieve this goal is the Pultruded Rod Stitched Efficient Unitized Structure (PRSEUS) concept. The focus of most PRSEUS studies has been on developing an hybrid wing body structure, with only a few discussing the application of PRSEUS to a tube-wing fuselage structure. Additionally, the majority of investigations for PRSEUS have focused on experimental validation of anticipated benefits rather than developing a methodology to capture the behavior of stitched structure analytically. This paper presents an overview of a numerical methodology capable of accurately describing PRSEUS’ construction and how it may be implemented in a barrel fuselage platform resorting to high-fidelity mesoscale modeling techniques. The methodology benefits from fresh user defined strategies developed in a commercially available finite element analysis environment. It further proposes a new approach for improving the ability to predict deformation in stitched composites, allowing for a better understanding of the intricate behavior and subtleties of stitched aerospace structures.
Uninsured patients are more likely than the general population to use tobacco and less likely to quit.
Aims
To determine if the mode of delivering the PHS Guidelines influenced the effectiveness of smoking cessation among patients in a safety net setting.
Methods
Six free clinics were randomly assigned to a training program delivered by an academic physician or community partner plus video support. A repeated cross-sectional survey of patients was conducted at three waves to assess effectiveness to promote quitting.
Results
Tobacco use was triple the rate of the US population: 57.7% (Wave 1), 44.7% (Wave 2), and 48.9% (Wave 3). Patients were more likely to report receipt of at least one evidence-based strategy to promote quitting at Wave 2 (AOR = 2.33, 95% CI (1.18–4.58)). Patients treated in clinics trained by the community partner were significantly more likely to report receiving cessation assistance at Wave 2 (AOR 2.54, 95%CI 1.29–5.00) and the trend was similar, but not significant at Wave 3. Patients in the community partner-led arm were significantly less likely to report tobacco use at Wave 3 (AOR 0.59, 95% CI 0.35–0.99).
Conclusions
Implementation of the PHS Guidelines in free clinics demonstrates preliminary efficacy, with delivery by community partners offering greater scalability.
It is difficult to separate an age-dependent fall in nitrogen use efficiency (NUE; N balance/N intake) in growing ruminants from a progressively decrease in animal protein requirements over time. This study examined the effect of dietary protein content on N partitioning, digestibility and N isotopic discrimination between the animal and its diet (Δ15Nanimal-diet) evaluated at two different fattening periods (early v. late). Twenty-four male Romane lambs (age: 19 ± 4.0 days; BW: 8.3 ± 1.39 kg) were equally allocated to three dietary CP treatments (15%, 17% and 20% CP on a DM basis). Lambs were reared with their mothers until weaning, thereafter housed in individual pens until slaughter (45 kg BW). During the post-weaning period, lambs were allocated twice (early fattening (30 days post-weaning) and late fattening (60 days post-weaning)) to metabolic cages for digestibility and N balance study. When diet CP content increased, the average daily gain of lambs increased (P < 0.05) while the age at slaughter decreased (P = 0.01), but no effect was observed on feed efficiency (P > 0.10). Diet CP content had limited effect on lamb carcass traits. Higher fibre digestibility was observed at the early v. late fattening period (P < 0.001). The N intake and the urinary N excretion increased when diet CP content increased (P < 0.001) and when shifting from early to late fattening period (P < 0.001). Faecal N excretion (P = 0.14) and N balance (P > 0.10) were not affected by diet CP content. Nitrogen digestibility increased (P < 0.001) as the diet CP content increased and on average it was greater at late v. early fattening period (P = 0.02). The NUE decreased (P = 0.001) as the diet CP content increased and as the lamb became older (P < 0.001). However, the age-dependent fall in NUE observed was lower at high v. low dietary CP content (CP × age interaction; P = 0.04). The Δ15Nanimal-diet was positively correlated (P < 0.05) with N intake (r = 0.59), excretion of faecal N (r = 0.41), urinary N (r = 0.69) and total manure N (r = 0.64), while negatively correlated with NUE (r = −0.57). Overall, the experiment showed NUE was lower in older lambs and when lambs were fed high diet CP content, and that Δ15Nanimal-diet was a useful indicator not only for NUE but also for urinary N excretion, which is a major environmental pollution factor on farm.
Along many flight corridors, bodies of water serve as preferred emergency landing options. Thus, relevant scenarios must be investigated to improve aircraft crashworthiness in the event of an impact landing on water. Enhancing the damage tolerance of aircraft structures through repetitive experiments can, however, prove highly uneconomical. Such large-scale trials can be influenced by many factors of uncertainty adversely affecting the quality of the results. Therefore, the work presented in this study focuses in particular on evaluating a computational methodology perfected for aircraft water ditching using Coupled Lagrangian-Eulerian (CLE) that allows detailed prediction of structural response of a verified deformable fuselage section during such events. Validation of the fluid-structure interactive (FSI) strategy developed is conducted, thoroughly comparing the method against the analytical and experimental results of multiple wedge drop tests. Finally, the validated FSI strategy is applied to a high-fidelity fuselage section model impacting water to simulate and assess a realistic ditching scenario.
Crystal structure and electronic structure of YMnO3 were investigated by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy related techniques. According to the density of states (DOS), the individual interband transitions to energy loss peaks in the low energy loss spectrum were assigned. The hybridization of O 2p with Mn 3d and Y 4d analyzed by the partial DOS was critical to the ferroelectric nature of YMnO3. From the simulation of the energy loss near-edge structure, the fine structure of O K-edge was in good agreement with the experimental spectrum. The valence state of Mn (+3) in YMnO3 was determined by a comparison between experiment and calculations.
Experiments are presented on the deformation of free surface induced by water exit of axisymmetric bodies, particular at the moment before body detaching from water. A set of experimental apparatus is designed to provide driving force for the bodies. A high-speed camera is adopted to capture the motion and deformation of the free surface. Bodies of various shapes, including a stretched spheroid, a sphere, a circular cone and a combination of cylinder and circular cone, are lifted out of water with different velocities, by using a straight rod attached on the top of models. It is found that free-surface deformation is affected by the moving velocity a lot. Three wake flow or free-surface spike patterns are generated corresponding to different velocities. When the velocity is larger than a critical velocity, cavitation incepts and bubble is entrapped inside the water spike, which changes the flow pattern and shape of the spike. It is aimed to explore the spike phenomenon of free surface and explain the reasons behind it.
The oriental armyworm, Mythimna separata is an important crop pest in eastern Asia. Nocturnal insects, including nocturnal moths, have phototactic behavior to an artificial light source. Phototactic behavior in insects is species-specific in response to different wavelengths of light sources. Our previous study showed that green (520 nm) light emitting diode (LED) light resulted in a significantly higher phototactic behavior in M. separata moths compared to the other wavelength LED lights. The goal of the present study is to investigate the influence of green light illumination on biological characteristics of different developmental stages in M. separata. Our results revealed that when different developmental stages of M. separata were exposed to the green light illumination in a dark period, several biological characteristics in all developmental stages except for egg stage were positively changed, but those of F1 generation M. separata which are next generation of the adults exposed to the green light did not significantly change compared with the control level. These findings suggest that green light illumination at night (or dark period) has a positive effect on the development and longevity of M. separata.
The combustion instability characteristics in a model dump combustor with an exhaust nozzle were experimentally investigated. The first objective was to understand the effects of operating conditions and geometric conditions on combustion instability. The second objective was to examine more generalised parameters that affect the onset of combustion instability. Three different premixed gases consisting of air and hydrocarbon fuels (C2H4, C2H6, C3H8) were burnt in the dump combustor at various inlet velocity, equivalence ratio and combustion chamber length. Dynamic pressure transducer and photomultiplier tube with a bandpass filter were used to measure pressure fluctuation and CH* chemiluminescence data. Peak frequencies and their maximum power spectral densities of pressure fluctuations at same equivalence ratios showed different trends for each fuel. However, the dynamic combustion characteristics of pressure fluctuations displayed consistent results under similar characteristics chemistry times regardless of the used hydrocarbon fuels. The results showed that characteristic chemistry time and characteristic convection time influenced combustion instabilities. It was found that the convective-acoustic combustion instability could be prevented by increasing the characteristic chemistry time and characteristic convection time.
Latrophilin (LPH) is known as an adhesion G-protein-coupled receptor which involved in multiple physiological processes in organisms. Previous studies showed that lph not only involved the susceptibility to anticholinesterase insecticides but also affected fecundity in Tribolium castaneum. However, its regulatory mechanisms in these biological processes are still not clear. Here, we identified two potential downstream carboxylesterase (cce) genes of Tclph, esterase4 and esterase6, and further characterized their interactions with Tclph. After treatment of T. castaneum larvae with carbofuran or dichlorvos insecticides, the transcript levels of Tcest4 and Tcest6 were significantly induced from 12 to 72 h. RNAi against Tcest4 or Tcest6 led to the higher mortality compared with the controls after the insecticides treatment, suggesting that these two genes play a vital role in detoxification of insecticides in T. castaneum. Furthermore, with insecticides exposure to Tclph knockdown beetles, the expression of Tcest4 was upregulated but Tcest6 was downregulated, indicating that beetles existed a compensatory response against the insecticides. Additionally, RNAi of Tcest6 resulted in 43% reductions in female egg laying and completely inhibited egg hatching, which showed the similar phenotype as that of Tclph knockdown. These results indicated that Tclph affected fecundity by positively regulating Tcest6 expression. Our findings will provide a new insight into the molecular mechanisms of Tclph involved in physiological functions in T. castaneum.
The six LIGO detections of merging black holes (BHs) allowed to infer slow spin values for the two pre-merging BHs. The three cases where the spins of the BHs can be determined in high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) show that those BHs have high spin values. We discuss here scenarios explaining these differences in spin properties in these two classes of object.
The present study aimed to compare the anti-biofilm activities of four commonly available antiseptic eardrops against biofilms from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and quinolone-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa in vitro.
Methods
The anti-biofilm activities of 50 per cent Burow's solution, vinegar with water (1:1), 2 per cent acetic acid solution, and 4 per cent boric acid solution were evaluated using biofilm assays. Additionally, the anti-biofilm activities of the four antiseptic solutions against tympanostomy tube biofilms were compared using a scanning electron microscope.
Results
The inhibition of biofilm formation from methicillin-resistant S aureus and quinolone-resistant P aeruginosa occurred after treatment with 4 per cent boric acid solution, 2 per cent acetic acid solution, and vinegar with water (1:1). However, 50 per cent Burow's solution did not exhibit effective anti-biofilm activity.
Conclusion
The results indicate that 4 per cent boric acid solution and vinegar with water (1:1) are potent inhibitors of biofilms from methicillin-resistant S aureus and quinolone-resistant P aeruginosa, and provide safe pH levels for avoiding ototoxicity.