The differential diagnosis between tuberculous meningitis (TBM) and bacterial meningitis (BM) remains challenging in clinical practice. This study aimed to establish a diagnostic model that could ...accurately distinguish TBM from BM.
Patients with TBM or BM were recruited between January 2017 and January 2021 at Tongji Hospital (Qiaokou cohort) and Sino-French New City Hospital (Caidian cohort). The detection for indicators involved in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and T-SPOT assay were performed simultaneously. Multivariate logistic regression was used to create a diagnostic model.
A total of 174 patients (76 TBM and 98 BM) and another 105 cases (39 TBM and 66 BM) were enrolled from Qiaokou cohort and Caidian cohort, respectively. Significantly higher level of CSF lymphocyte proportion while significantly lower levels of CSF chlorine, nucleated cell count, and neutrophil proportion were observed in TBM group when comparing with those in BM group. However, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that the areas under the ROC curve (AUCs) produced by these indicators were all under 0.8. Meanwhile, tuberculosis-specific antigen/phytohemagglutinin (TBAg/PHA) ratio yielded an AUC of 0.889 (95% CI, 0.840-0.938) in distinguishing TBM from BM, with a sensitivity of 68.42% (95% CI, 57.30%-77.77%) and a specificity of 92.86% (95% CI, 85.98%-96.50%) when a cutoff value of 0.163 was used. Consequently, we successfully established a diagnostic model based on the combination of TBAg/PHA ratio, CSF chlorine, CSF nucleated cell count, and CSF lymphocyte proportion for discrimination between TBM and BM. The established model showed good performance in differentiating TBM from BM (AUC: 0.949; 95% CI, 0.921-0.978), with 81.58% (95% CI, 71.42%-88.70%) sensitivity and 91.84% (95% CI, 84.71%-95.81%) specificity. The performance of the diagnostic model obtained in Qiaokou cohort was further validated in Caidian cohort. The diagnostic model in Caidian cohort produced an AUC of 0.923 (95% CI, 0.867-0.980) with 79.49% (95% CI, 64.47%-89.22%) sensitivity and 90.91% (95% CI, 81.55%-95.77%) specificity.
The diagnostic model established based on the combination of four indicators had excellent utility in the discrimination between TBM and BM.
The fuel booster pump is one of the most vulnerable physical assets in an operating engine due to the harsh environmental and operational conditions. However, because of its high structural ...complexity and extreme operational conditions, the reliability design of the fuel booster pump becomes especially difficult, particularly by means of experiments. Thus, to overcome such a problem, advanced simulation techniques have become adequate solutions for the reliability assessment and analysis of a fuel booster pump at the design stage. In this paper, by considering the effects of the uncertainties of multiple design parameters, fatigue life distributions of the four key components (which are the sealing bolt, spline shaft, graphite ring, and inducer, respectively) in a fuel booster pump were first predicted by PoF-based reliability simulations. Then, through further sensitivity analysis on each key component, the design parameters most sensitive to the component mean fatigue life were detected from a total of 25 candidate parameters. These parameters include the "nominal diameter" and "preload" for the sealing bolt, "major and minor diameters of the small spline" for the spline shaft, "inside diameter" for the graphite ring, and "fuel pressure on the blade front surface" for the inducer, respectively. These sensitivity results were found to be in good agreement with the results from the qualitative cause analysis on each key component.
Online monitoring of the contamination condition of power transmission line is important to prevent insulation from flashover. The conventional online monitoring methods are easily disturbed by the ...strong electromagnetic interference around the high voltage line. In this letter, Bragg wavelength of polyimide coated fiber Bragg grating (FBG) is found to be slightly restrained by the salt deposited on the polyimide surface. Based on the effect, a special designed FBG sensor is proposed for detecting equivalent salt deposit density (ESDD) on insulators of power transmission line. To improve the sensor sensitivity, multiple polyimide layers are coated on the naked FBG, and in the curing process a 0.15-N force is applied on the free end of FBG to form uniform layers. Experiment results show the restrain wavelength varies with the ESDD. The resolution can be improved with multiple polyimide layers.
Autoimmune glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) astrocytopathy, a newly defined autoimmune encephalitis, is an antibody-mediated meningoencephalomyelitis. The pathogenesis of the disease is still ...unclear. Nod-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome is a complex composed of a variety of proteins that recognizes a variety of ligands and ultimately leads to the development of inflammatory responses. This is important for infectious, inflammatory, and immune diseases. The aims of this study were to detect levels of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) NLRP3 inflammasome and inflammatory factors in autoimmune GFAP astrocytopathy patients and to study the relationships between these profiles. Twenty autoimmune GFAP astrocytopathy patients, 17 viral meningoencephalitis (VM) patients, and 16 controls (CTLs) were recruited. The levels of NLRP3 inflammasomes, interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, and IL-17 were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score was used to assess the severity of clinical manifestations. The results showed that the levels of NLRP3 inflammasome and inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, IL-17) were significantly more elevated in CSF of patients with autoimmune GFAP astrocytopathy than that in CTLs. When compared with VM patients, significantly elevated NLRP3 inflammasome was found in GFAP astrocytopathy patients, while the levels of IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-17 were not different between the two groups. Significant positive correlations were found between NLRP3 inflammasome and inflammatory cytokines and they were all positively related to the severity of the disease. Moreover, we found that patients with positive anti-GFAP antibodies had higher levels of NLRP3 and inflammatory factors. And the severity of the disease was positively correlated with GFAP antibody titers. Taken together, the results suggested that NLRP3 inflammasome was involved in the pathogenesis of autoimmune GFAP astrocytopathy. It can be used to assess the severity of the disease or act as a new target for the therapy.
Efficient multi-wavelength sources are essential to realize sub-pJ/bit modulated silicon photonic links for multi-TB/s interconnect applications. From a complete link perspective, we discuss the ...efficiency requirement for silicon WDM on-chip sources. A waveguide-coupled wall-plug efficiency (WPE) better than 10% is important to complement ultra-low power silicon photonic components for practical implementations. We propose a non-invasive hybrid, flip-chip integration approach using surface-normal coupling of an un-cooled III/V gain medium with a tunable wavelength selective silicon reflector. We show that a tunable, external-cavity WDM laser using such a hybrid integration approach can achieve high waveguide-coupled WPE when optimized. A proof-of-concept demonstration achieved a C-band tunable laser with an output power of more than 6 mW in the silicon waveguide, a tuning range of 15 nm, and a WPE of over 4.5%.
The prognosis for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains suboptimal, characterized by high recurrence and metastasis rates. Although metalloimmunotherapy has shown potential in combating tumor ...proliferation, recurrence and metastasis, current apoptosis-based metalloimmunotherapy fails to elicit sufficient immune response for HCC.
A smart responsive bimetallic nanovaccine was constructed to induce immunogenic cell death (ICD) through pyroptosis and enhance the efficacy of the cGAS-STING pathway. The nanovaccine was composed of manganese-doped mesoporous silica as a carrier, loaded with sorafenib (SOR) and modified with MIL-100 (Fe), where Fe
, SOR, and Mn
were synchronized and released into the tumor with the help of the tumor microenvironment (TME). Afterward, Fe
worked synergistically with SOR-induced immunogenic pyroptosis (via both the classical and nonclassical signaling pathways), causing the outflow of abundant immunogenic factors, which contributes to dendritic cell (DC) maturation, and the exposure of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA). Subsequently, the exposed dsDNA and Mn
jointly activated the cGAS-STING pathway and induced the release of type I interferons, which further led to DC maturation. Moreover, Mn
-related T1 magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to visually evaluate the smart response functionality of the nanovaccine.
The utilization of metallic nanovaccines to induce pyroptosis-mediated immune activation provides a promising paradigm for HCC treatment.
Highlights • We developed discriminant function equations and stature prediction equations from scapula. • The 3D CT images were collected for analysis from contemporary Chinese. • Our research ...indicated the scapula could be effectively used as alternatives for sex diagnosis. • The equations presented for stature estimation in this study should be used as alternatives.
Due to iron's essential role in cellular metabolism, most organisms must maintain their homeostasis. In this regard, the fission yeast
(sp) uses two transcription factors to regulate intracellular ...iron levels: spFep1 under iron-rich conditions and spPhp4 under iron-deficient conditions, which are controlled by spGrx4. However, bioinformatics analysis to understand the role of the spGrx4/spFep1/spPhp4 axis in maintaining iron homeostasis in
is still lacking. Our study aimed to perform bioinformatics analysis on
proteins and their sequence homologs in
(af),
(sc), and
(hs) to understand the role of spGrx4, spFep1, and spPhp4 in maintaining iron homeostasis. The three genes' expression patterns were also examined at various iron concentrations. A multiple sequence alignment analysis of spGrx4 and its sequence homologs revealed a conserved cysteine residue in each PF00085 domain. Blast results showed that hsGLRX3 is most similar to spGrx4. In addition, spFep1 is most closely related in sequence to scDal80, whereas scHap4 is most similar to spFep1. We also found two highly conserved motifs in spFep1 and its sequence homologs that are significant for iron transport systems because they contain residues involved in iron homeostasis. The scHap4 is most similar to spPhp4. Using STRING to analyze protein-protein interactions, we found that spGrx4 interacts strongly with spPhp4 and spFep1. Furthermore, spGrx4, spPhp4, and spFep1 interact with spPhp2, spPhp3, and spPhp5, indicating that the three proteins play cooperative roles in iron homeostasis. At the highest level of Fe,
had the highest expression, followed by
, while
had the lowest expression; a contrast occurred at the lowest level of Fe, where
expression remained constant. Our findings support the notion that organisms develop diverse strategies to maintain iron homeostasis.
This paper introduces a novel reconstruction method of high-resolution range profile (HRRP) using sparse frequency-stepped chirp signal (FSCS). In the method, Compressed Sensing (CS) theory is ...utilized to reconstruct the moving target's HRRP. With this method even if the subpulses number of FSCS is incomplete, the HRRP can still be reconstructed successfully, and the final reconstructed ISAR image is clear enough for identification and classification of the target. Furthermore, the effect of noise is also analyzed by corrupting the data via an uncorrelated additive white Gaussian process.
•Chitosan 3,6-bis(arylcarbamate)-2-(amide)s (CACAs) were prepared and reported.•Appropriate substituents combination results in high enantioseparation capability.•The CACAs with suitable molecular ...weight (Mw) can bear a high eluents tolerability.•Substituents combination and Mw are key factors for the performances of the CACAs.•Structure-optimized CACAs are powerful for enantioseparation and eluents tolerance.
In order to comprehensively understand the influence of coordination of the substituent at 2-position with those at 3- and 6-positions on the properties of chitosan derivatives, a series of chitosan 3,6-bis(arylcarbamate)-2-(amide)s (CACAs) and the related chiral stationary phases (CSPs) were prepared and reported in the present study. Specifically, chitosan was N-acylated with carboxylic acid anhydrides, and then further derivatized with various aryl isocyanates to afford CACAs, from which a class of coated-type CSPs were prepared. When the substituent introduced on the acyl group at 2-position and those on the phenyl group of the carbamates at 3- and 6-positions were fittingly combined, these prepared CACAs based CSPs would exhibit powerful chiral recognition ability, further resulting in a class of promising chiral separation materials with excellent enantioseparation performance. Meanwhile, these newly developed materials with suitable molecular weight also bear a high tolerability towards organic solvents, even including pure tetrahydrofuran, thus broadening their application in enantiomeric separation.
PDF
