The effects of monolaurin (ML) on the health of piglets infected with porcine epidemic diarrhoea virus (PEDV) have not been fully understood. This study aimed to investigate its role in blood biochemical profile, intestinal barrier function, antioxidant function and the expression of antiviral genes in piglets infected with PEDV. Thirty-two piglets were randomly divided into four groups: control group, ML group, PEDV group and ML + PEDV group. Piglets were orally administrated with ML at a dose of 100 mg/kg·BW for 7 d before PEDV infection. Results showed that PEDV infection significantly decreased D-xylose content and increased intestinal fatty acid-binding protein content, indicating that PEDV infection destroyed intestinal barrier and absorption function. While it could be repaired by ML administration. Moreover, ML administration significantly decreased plasma blood urea nitrogen and total protein content upon PEDV infection. These results suggested ML may increase protein utilisation efficiency. ML administration significantly decreased the number of large unstained cells and Hb and increased the number of leucocytes and eosinophils in the blood of PEDV-infected piglets, indicating ML could improve the immune defense function of the body. In the presence of PEDV infection, ML administration significantly increased superoxide dismutase and catalase activities in blood and colon, respectively, indicating ML could improve antioxidant capacity. Besides, ML administration reversed the expression of ISG15, IFIT3 and IL-29 throughout the small intestine and Mx1 in jejunum and ileum, indicating the body was in recovery from PEDV infection. This study suggests that ML could be used as a kind of feed additive to promote swine health upon PEDV infection.

Objectives: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a major concern for hospitalized patients in Singapore. Hospital-onset (HO) MRSA bacteremia is monitored at the national level as an indicator of hospital quality. Patients who have colonized with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) are more likely to develop an MRSA infection in the future. A topical antiseptic solution or cloth called chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) is effective against several gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, including MRSA. Methods: The following control measures were present before and throughout the study period: (1) active screening of MRSA upon admission; (2) initiation of contact precaution once MRSA is detected; and (3) emphasis on strict hand hygiene. In January 2021, an intervention was for routine application of CHG bathing as follows: (1) training materials were developed; (2) train-the-trainer sessions were organized; (3) compliance regarding the application of CHG baths was monitored; and (4) the postimplementation process was reviewed. Results: There was no change of hand hygiene rate before and after implementation. In 2020, 17 cases of MRSA bacteremia occurred in the hospital, with an infection incidence of 0.54 per 10,000 patient days. In 2021, there were 10 cases of HO-MRSA bacteremia infection, with an overall rate of was 0.30 per 10,000 patient days. Conclusions: Daily bathing with chlorhexidine reduced the risk of MRSA acquisition and of hospital-acquired bacteremia.

Automatically extracting knowledge from small datasets with a valid causal ordering is a challenge for current state-of-the-art methods in machine learning. Extracting other type of knowledge is important but challenging for multiple engineering fields where data are scarce and difficult to collect. This research aims to address this problem by presenting a machine learning-based modeling framework leveraging the knowledge available in fundamental units of the variables recorded from data samples, to develop parsimonious, explainable, and graph-based simulation models during the early design stages. The developed approach is exemplified using an engineering design case study of a spherical body moving in a fluid. For the system of interest, two types of intricated models are generated by (1) using an automated selection of variables from datasets and (2) combining the automated extraction with supplementary knowledge about functions and dimensional homogeneity associated with the variables of the system. The effect of design, data, model, and simulation specifications on model fidelity are investigated. The study discusses the interrelationships between fidelity levels, variables, functions, and the available knowledge. The research contributes to the development of a fidelity measurement theory by presenting the premises of a standardized, modeling approach for transforming data into measurable level of fidelities for the produced models. This research shows that structured model building with a focus on model fidelity can support early design reasoning and decision making using for example the dimensional analysis conceptual modeling (DACM) framework.

Metamorphic robots are a new type of unmanned vehicle that can reconfigure and morph between a car mode and a biped walking machine mode. Such a vehicle is superior in trafficability because it can drive at high speeds on its wheels on structured pavement and walk on its legs on unstructured pavement. An engineering prototype of a metamorphic robot was proposed and designed based on the characteristics of wheeled–legged hybrid motion, and reconfiguration planning of the robot was conducted. A kinematics model of the reconfiguration process was established using the screw theory for metamorphic robots. To avoid component impact during the rapid global reconfiguration and achieve smoothness of the reconfiguration process, a rotation rule for each rotating joint was designed and the kinematics model was used to simulate and validate the motion of the system’s end mechanism (front frame) and the entire robot system. Based on the kinematics model and the rotation rules of the rotating joints, a zero-moment point (ZMP) calculation model of the entire robot mechanism in the reconfiguration process was established, and the stability of the reconfiguration motions was evaluated based on the ZMP motion trajectory. The foot landing position was optimized to improve the robot’s stability during the reconfiguration. Finally, the smoothness and stability of the reconfiguration motion were further validated by testing the prototype of the metamorphic robot.

Recently, the collisionless pitch-angle scattering for relativistic runaway electrons (REs) in toroidal geometries such as tokamaks was discovered through a full orbit simulation approach (Liu et al., Nucl. Fusion, vol. 56, 2016, p. 064002), and it was then theoretically investigated that a new expression for the magnetic moment, including the second-order corrections, could essentially reproduce the so-called collisionless pitch-angle scattering process (Liu et al., Nucl. Fusion, vol. 58, 2018, p. 106018). In this paper, with synchrotron radiation, extensive numerical verification of the validity of the high-order guiding-centre theory is given for simulations involving REs by incorporating such an expression for the magnetic moment into our particle tracing code. A high-order guiding-centre simulation approach with synchrotron radiation (HGSA) is applied. Synchrotron radiation plays an essential role in the life cycle of REs. The energy of REs first increases and then becomes saturated until the electric field acceleration is balanced by the radiation dissipation. Unfortunately, the process cannot be simulated accurately with the standard guiding-centre model, i.e. the first-order guiding-centre model. Remarkably, it is found that the HGSA can effectively produce the fundamental process of REs. Since the time scale of the energy saturation of REs is close to seconds, the computational cost becomes significant. In order to save costs, it is necessary to estimate the time of energy saturation. An analytical estimate is derived for the time it takes for synchrotron drag to balance an accelerating electric field and the provided formula has been numerically verified. Test calculations reveal that HGSA is favourable for exploiting the dynamics of REs in tokamak plasmas.

The pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 is sweeping the world, threatening millions of lives and drastically altering our ways of living. According to current studies, failure to either activate or eliminate inflammatory responses timely and properly at certain stages could result in the progression of the disease. In other words, robust immune responses to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are critical. However, they do not theoretically present in some special groups of people, including the young, the aged, patients with autoimmunity or cancer. Differences also do occur between men and women. Our immune system evolves to ensure delicate coordination at different stages of life. The innate immune cells mainly consisted of myeloid lineage cells, including neutrophils, basophils, eosinophils, dendritic cells and mast cells; they possess phagocytic capacity to different degrees at different stages of life. They are firstly recruited upon infection and may activate the adaptive immunity when needed. The adaptive immune cells, on the other way, are comprised mainly of lymphoid lineages. As one grows up, the adaptive immunity matures and expands its memory repertoire, accompanied by an adjustment in quantity and quality. In this review, we would summarise and analyse the immunological characteristics of these groups from the perspective of the immune system ‘evolution’ as well as ‘revolution’ that has been studied and speculated so far, which would aid the comprehensive understanding of COVID-19 and personalised-treatment strategy.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between prenatal and neonatal period exposures and the risk of childhood and adolescent nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). From January 2009 to January 2016, a total of 46 patients with childhood and adolescent NPC (i.e., less than 18 years of age) who were treated at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center were screened as cases, and a total of 45 cancer-free patients who were treated at Sun Yat-sen University Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center were selected as controls. The association between maternal exposures during pregnancy and obstetric variables and the risk of childhood and adolescent NPC was evaluated using logistic regression analysis. Univariate analysis revealed that compared to children and adolescents without a family history of cancer, those with a family history of cancer had a significantly higher risk of childhood and adolescent NPC [odds ratios (OR) = 3.15, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.02–9.75, P = 0.046], and the maternal use of folic acid and/or multivitamins during pregnancy was associated with a reduced risk of childhood and adolescent NPC in the offspring (OR = 0.07, 95% CI = 0.02–0.25, P < 0.001). After multivariate analysis, only the maternal use of folic acid and/or multivitamins during pregnancy remained statistically significant. These findings suggest that maternal consumption of folic acid and/or multivitamins during pregnancy is associated with a decreased risk of childhood and adolescent NPC in the offspring.

In this paper we study a normalized anisotropic Gauss curvature flow of strictly convex, closed hypersurfaces in the Euclidean space. We prove that the flow exists for all time and converges smoothly to the unique, strictly convex solution of a Monge-Ampère type equation and we obtain a new existence result of solutions to the Dual Orlicz-Minkowski problem for smooth measures, especially for even smooth measures.

Geopolymers can be transformed into zeolites under certain synthesis conditions. However, zeolite formation is not frequently reported in KOH-activated geopolymers. This study attempted to explore zeolite synthesis through geopolymerization for a curing time of 24 h using mixed NaOH/KOH alkaline solution as an activator, and then applying the geopolymer-supported zeolites to immobilize Cd(II) in paddy soil. The K2O/M2O–H2O/SiO2 and K2O/M2O–OH–/SiO2 binary zeolite crystallization phase diagrams were obtained. Zeolite A, faujasite and sodalite formed at lower K2O/M2O molar ratios (0–0.2), ferrierite formation was favoured at a K2O/M2O molar ratio of 0.2–0.4 and zeolite K-I and zeolite F-K (both K-zeolites) were observed at a K2O/M2O molar ratio of 0.6. The geopolymer-supported zeolites had micropores and mesopores and specific surface area values of 44.2–74.8 m2 g–1. The material displayed a considerable Cd(II) immobilization efficiency (55.6–58.7% at 4–6 wt.% addition of zeolite).

Echinococcus granulosus sensu lato has complex defence mechanisms that protect it from the anti-parasitic immune response for long periods. Echinococcus granulosus cyst fluid (EgCF) is involved in the immune escape. Nevertheless, whether and how EgCF modulates the inflammatory response in macrophages remains poorly understood. Here, real-time polymerase chain reaction and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay revealed that EgCF could markedly attenuate the lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced production of pro-inflammatory factors including tumour necrosis factor-α, interleukin (IL)-12 and IL-6 but increase the expression of IL-10 at mRNA and protein levels in mouse peritoneal macrophages and RAW 264.7 cells. Mechanically, western blotting and immunofluorescence assay showed that EgCF abolished the activation of nuclear factor (NF)-κB p65, p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and ERK1/2 signalling pathways by LPS stimulation in mouse macrophages. EgCF's anti-inflammatory role was at least partly contributed by promoting proteasomal degradation of the critical adaptor TRAF6. Moreover, the EgCF-promoted anti-inflammatory response and TRAF6 proteasomal degradation were conserved in human THP-1 macrophages. These findings collectively reveal a novel mechanism by which EgCF suppresses inflammatory responses by inhibiting TRAF6 and the downstream activation of NF-κB and MAPK signalling in both human and mouse macrophages, providing new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying the E. granulosus-induced immune evasion.

We investigated the effects of botulinum toxin on gait in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients with foot dystonia. Six patients underwent onabotulinum toxin A injection and were assessed by Burke–Fahn–Marsden Dystonia Rating Scale (BFMDRS), visual analog scale (VAS) of pain, Timed Up and Go (TUG), Berg Balance Test (BBT), and 3D gait analysis at baseline, 1 month, and 3 months. BFMDRS (p = 0.002), VAS (p = 0.024), TUG (p = 0.028), and BBT (p = 0.034) were improved. Foot pressures at Toe 1 (p = 0.028) and Midfoot (p = 0.018) were reduced, indicating botulinum toxin’s effects in alleviating the dystonia severity and pain and improving foot pressures during walking in PD.

The dependence of fishbone cycle on energetic particle intensity has been investigated in EAST low-magnetic-shear plasmas. It is observed that the fishbone mode growth rate, saturation amplitude as well as fishbone cycle frequency clearly increase with increasing neutral beam injection (NBI) power. Moreover, enhanced electron density and temperature perturbations as well as energetic particle loss were observed with greater injected NBI power. Simulation results using M3D-K code show that as the NBI power increases, the resonant frequency and the energy of the resonant particles become higher, and the saturation amplitude of the mode also changes, due to the non-perturbative energetic particle contribution. The relationship between the calculated energetic particle pressure ratio and fishbone cycle frequency is obtained as ${f_{\textrm{FC}}} = 2.2{(1000{\beta _{\textrm{ep,calc}}} - 0.1)^{5.9 \pm 0.5}}$. Results consistent with the experimental observations have been achieved based on a predator–prey model.

A novel g-C3N4 nanoparticle@porous g-C3N4 (CNNP@PCN) composite has been successfully fabricated by loading g-C3N4 nanoparticles on the porous g-C3N4 matrix via a simply electrostatic self-assembly method. The composition, morphological structure, optical property, and photocatalytic performance of the composite were evaluated by various measurements, including XRD, SEM, TEM, Zeta potential, DRS, PL, FTIR, and XPS. The results prove that the nanolization of g-C3N4 leads to an apparent blueshift of the absorption edge, and the energy band gap is increased from 2.84 eV of porous g-C3N4 to 3.40 eV of g-C3N4 nanoparticle (Fig. 6). Moreover, the valence band position of the g-C3N4 nanoparticle is about 0.7 eV lower than that of porous g-C3N4. Therefore, the photo-generated holes and electrons in porous g-C3N4 can transfer to the conduction band of g-C3N4 nanoparticle, thereby obtaining higher separation efficiency of photo-generated carriers as well as longer carrier lifetime. Under visible-light irradiation, 6CNNP@PCN exhibits the highest photocatalytic performance (Fig. 8) on MB, which is approximately 3.4 times as that of bulk g-C3N4.

The experimental study on thermocapillary convection in liquid bridges of large Prandtl number has been carried out on Tiangong-2 in space. The purpose of these experiments is to study the oscillation instability of thermocapillary convection, and to discover and recognize the mechanism of destabilization of thermocapillary convection in the microgravity environment in space. In this paper, the geometry of a half-floating-zone liquid bridge is featured by the aspect ratio Ar and volume ratio Vr, and its influence on critical conditions of oscillatory thermocapillary convection is studied. More than 700 sets of space experiments have been finished. The critical conditions and oscillation characteristics of thermocapillary convection instability in the Ar–Vr parameter space have been fully obtained under microgravity conditions for the first time. It is found that the Ar–Vr parameter space can be divided into two regions of different critical conditions and oscillation characteristics: the region of low frequency oscillation, and the region of high frequency oscillation. More importantly, we obtain the complete configuration of these two stability neutral curves, and find that the low frequency mode is a ‘’ type curve. Based on this, we discuss the influence of heating rate on the oscillation mode. It is found that the heating rate affects the selection of critical mode, which results in a jump change of critical temperature difference. The findings of this study are helpful to better understand the critical modes and transition processes of thermocapillary convection in liquid bridges with different configurations.

This mini review summarizes recent advances in experimental thermodynamics of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs). Taking advantage of the development in mechanochemistry, near-room temperature solution calorimetry, and low-temperature heat capacity measurements, the energetic landscape, entropy trends, and Gibbs free energy evolutions of MOFs with true polymorphism [Zn(MeIm)2, Zn(EtIm)2, and Zn(CF3Im)2] as framework topology varies were thoroughly explored by integrated calorimetric and computational methodologies. In addition, the formation enthalpies of MOFs with ultrahigh porosity (MOF-177 and UMCM-1) and the simplest structure (metal formates) have been determined. The studies summarized below highlight the complex interplays among interrelated compositional, chemical, and topological (structural) factors in the determination of the thermodynamic parameters of MOFs.

Using ethanol adsorption calorimetry, the surface energetics of two carbon substrates and two products in microwave-assisted carbon nanotube (CNT) growth was studied. In this study, the ethanol adsorption enthalpies of the two graphene-based samples at 25 °C were measured successfully. Specifically, the near-zero differential enthalpies of ethanol adsorption are −75.7 kJ/mol for graphene and −63.4 kJ/mol for CNT-grafted graphene. Subsequently, the differential enthalpy curve of each sample becomes less exothermic until reaching a plateau, −55.8 kJ/mol for graphene and −49.7 kJ/mol for CNT-grafted graphene, suggesting favorable adsorbate–adsorbent binding. Moreover, the authors interpreted and discussed the partial molar entropy and chemical potential of adsorption as the ethanol surface coverage (loading) increases. Due to the low surface areas of carbon black–based samples, adsorption calorimetry could not be performed. This model study demonstrates that using adsorption calorimetry as a fundamental tool and ethanol as the molecular probe, the overall surface energetics of high–surface area carbon materials can be estimated.

A reliable quantitative analysis in electron tomography, which depends on the segmentation of the three-dimensional reconstruction, is challenging because of constraints during tilt-series acquisition (missing wedge) and reconstruction artifacts introduced by reconstruction algorithms such as the Simultaneous Iterative Reconstruction Technique (SIRT) and Discrete Algebraic Reconstruction Technique (DART). We have carefully evaluated the fidelity of segmented reconstructions analyzing a disordered mesoporous carbon used as support in catalysis. Using experimental scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) tomography data as well as realistic phantoms, we have quantitatively analyzed the effect on the morphological description as well as on diffusion properties (based on a random-walk particle-tracking simulation) to understand the role of porosity in catalysis. The morphological description of the pore structure can be obtained reliably both using SIRT and DART reconstructions even in the presence of a limited missing wedge. However, the measured pore volume is sensitive to the threshold settings, which are difficult to define globally for SIRT reconstructions. This leads to noticeable variations of the diffusion coefficients in the case of SIRT reconstructions, whereas DART reconstructions resulted in more reliable data. In addition, the anisotropy of the determined diffusion properties was evaluated, which was significant in the presence of a limited missing wedge for SIRT and strongly reduced for DART.