Allergic rhinitis (AR) is an upper airway disease with high prevalence in the world, and therefore needs to be thoroughly investigated and treated accordingly. Although the mechanisms underlying the ...pathology and treatment of AR have been widely studied, many aspects of AR are still unclear and warrant further investigations. The purpose of the present review was therefore to report recently published papers, which highlight the novel mechanisms and treatments of AR. These include role of environment, important proteins and cells, and some other factors in the pathogenesis of AR; as well as the role of immunotherapy and biologics in the treatment of AR.
Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a disease with high prevalence all over the world and therefore needs to be thoroughly investigated and treated accordingly. The mechanisms underlying the pathology and ...treatment of AR have been widely studied, but many aspects remain unclear and warrant further investigations. This review presents an overview of recently published papers highlighting the risk factors, mechanisms, and treatment of AR. Additionally, recent studies discussing the role of single nucleotide polymorphism, DNA methylation, regulatory B cells, group 2 innate lymphoid cells, immunotherapy, and biologics in AR are also covered.
To confirm the relationship between sex and the progression of Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19), and its potential mechanism, among severe patients. For this retrospective study, we included 168 ...consecutive severe patients with pathogen-confirmed COVID-19 who were hospitalized between January 16th and February 4th, 2020, at Tongji Hospital in Wuhan, China. Clinical characteristics, laboratory parameters, and outcomes were compared and analyzed between males and females. In the present study, we analyzed 168 severe patients with COVID-19, including 86 males and 82 females, and 48 patients (28.6%) were diagnosed as critically ill. Of 86 male patients, 12.8% (11/86) died and 75.6% (65/86) were discharged; of 82 female patients, 7.3% (6/82) died and 86.6% (71/82) were discharged. Eleven laboratory parameters showed significant differences between male and female patients, and six of them were higher during the whole clinical course in patients who died than in patients who were discharged. In adjusted logistic regression analysis, males with comorbidities presented a higher risk of being critically ill than males without comorbidities (OR = 3.824, 95% CI = 1.279-11.435). However, this association attenuated to null in female patients (OR = 2.992, 95% CI = 0.937-9.558). A similar sex-specific trend was observed in the relation between age and critically ill conditions. We highlighted sex-specific differences in clinical characteristics and prognosis. Male patients appeared to be more susceptible to age and comorbidities. Sex is an important biological variable that should be considered in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.
The Industrial IoT is one of the key technologies to improve industrial production efficiency. The entire production process usually involves multiple production regions and numerous smart devices ...(sensors and actuators). The efficiency of the Industrial IoT is limited by this strong coupling relationship between the subsystem and the sensors and actuators. In this paper, to unleash the potential of Industrial IoT, a safe and reliable data sharing mechanism of sensors and actuators is proposed. We deployed distributed identity authentication and data proxy services in various regions. In the device authentication process, we used identity-based encryption algorithms, and we solved the trust problem between different regions by introducing a private blockchain. In addition, we designed the model of device capability (MDC) to describe the device, enabling it to be shared with a standard interface. Finally, we conducted many performance tests on the proposed mechanism. The test results verified the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed mechanism.
Real-time coal mine intelligent monitoring for pedestrian identifying and positioning is an important means to ensure safety in production. Traditional object detection models based on neural ...networks require significant computational and storage resources, which results in difficulty of deploying models on edge devices for real-time intelligent monitoring. To address the above problems, CAP-YOLO (Channel Attention based Pruning YOLO) and AEPSM (adaptive image enhancement parameter selection module) are proposed in this paper to achieve real-time intelligent analysis for coal mine surveillance videos. Firstly, DCAM (Deep Channel Attention Module) is proposed to evaluate the importance level of channels in YOLOv3. Secondly, the filters corresponding to the low importance channels are pruned to generate CAP-YOLO, which recovers the accuracy through fine-tuning. Finally, considering the lighting environments are varied in different coal mine fields, AEPSM is proposed to select parameters for CLAHE (Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization) under different fields. Experiment results show that the weight size of CAP-YOLO is 8.3× smaller than YOLOv3, but only 7% lower than mAP, and the inference speed of CAP-YOLO is three times faster than that of YOLOv3. On NVIDIA Jetson TX2, CAP-YOLO realizes 31 FPS inference speed.
In this study, a novel method for the direct coupling of metal probe microextraction (MPME) and a dielectric barrier discharge ionization (DBDI) source with mass spectrometry (MS) is reported. ...Analytes adsorbed on a tungsten needle were directly transferred to the DBDI source via rapid thermal desorption, which resulted in a limit of detection as low as 8 pg/mL. This is in part due to the “active capillary” configuration of the plasma ion source, where the efficiency of ion transfer to the MS is ∼100%. Specialty gases to maintain the plasma and carry analytes to the MS are not required. In contrast to direct one-step ionization of molecular adsorbates, the complete separation of the analyte desorption from the probe and the ionization event in our experimental setup greatly enhanced the sensitivity and detection reproducibility (RSD of 8.3%). We show detection of pyrimethamine, a first-line drug for the treatment and prevention of Plasmodium falciparum malaria all over the world, by this MPME/DBDI/MS method. The detection of drug residues in live fish and paramecium was achieved without the need for any sample pretreatment. The relative concentration of the drug in different organs of the fish was determined. This simple and convenient method has the potential for the analysis of chemicals even in single-cell organisms.
Objective The Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) Lower Extremity Guidelines Committee has composed a new threatened lower extremity classification system that reflects the three major factors that ...impact amputation risk and clinical management: Wound, Ischemia, and foot Infection (WIfI). Our goal was to evaluate the predictive ability of this scale following any infrapopliteal endovascular intervention for critical limb ischemia (CLI). Methods From 2004 to 2014, a single institution, retrospective chart review was performed at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center for all patients undergoing an infrapopliteal angioplasty for CLI. Throughout these years, 673 limbs underwent an infrapopliteal endovascular intervention for tissue loss (77%), rest pain (13%), stenosis of a previously treated vessel (5%), acute limb ischemia (3%), or claudication (2%). Limbs missing a grade in any WIfI component were excluded. Limbs were stratified into clinical stages 1 to 4 based on the SVS WIfI classification for 1-year amputation risk, as well as a novel WIfI composite score from 0 to 9. Outcomes included patient functional capacity, living status, wound healing, major amputation, major adverse limb events, reintervention, major amputation, or stenosis (RAS) events (> ×3.5 step-up by duplex), amputation-free survival, and mortality. Predictors were identified using Kaplan-Meier survival estimates and Cox regression models. Results Of the 596 limbs with CLI, 551 were classified in all three WIfI domains on a scale of 0 (least severe) to 3 (most severe). Of these 551, 84% were treated for tissue loss and 16% for rest pain. A Cox regression model illustrated that an increase in clinical stage increases the rate of major amputation (hazard ratio HR, 1.6; 95% confidence interval CI, 1.1-2.3). Separate regression models showed that a one-unit increase in the WIfI composite score is associated with a decrease in wound healing (HR, 1.2; 95% CI, 1.1-1.4) and an increase in the rate of RAS events (HR, 1.2; 95% CI, 1.1-1.4) and major amputations (HR, 1.4; 95% CI, 1.2-1.8). Conclusions This study supports the ability of the SVS WIfI classification system to predict 1-year amputation, RAS events, and wound healing in patients with CLI undergoing endovascular infrapopliteal revascularization procedures.
According to the manufacturers' information, both of the detergents were composed of more than 20 ingredients, with the anionic surfactant SDBS as the major active surfactant. Once the anionic ...surfactant or detergent was removed by washing, both TER and FITC results recovered gradually to baseline level within 72 hours (see Fig E6 in this article's Online Repository at www.jacionline.org). Because TJ proteins must be correctly assembled into TJ structures to efficiently contribute to the barrier function of cells, we investigated the distribution of the TJ molecule occludin after treatment with surfactants or detergents.
Chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) remains a challenging clinical entity with its propensity for recurrence. Tissue eosinophilia is a hallmark of CRSwNP, and its role in polyp ...recurrence is a subject of much investigation.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between clinical parameters, especially tissue eosinophilia and polyp recurrence, and to identify the optimal cutoff value of tissue eosinophilia as a predictor for polyp recurrence in Chinese subjects.
Overall, 387 patients with CRSwNP were enrolled in this retrospective analysis and postoperative follow-up for polyp recurrence was over a period that lasted >24 months (mean standard deviation, 34.03 ± 4.95 months). The baseline demographic and clinical features and the preoperative computed tomography were compared, and mucosal specimens obtained at endoscopic sinus surgery were assessed for inflammatory cells by using histocytologic staining. Predictive factors associated with polyp recurrence were analyzed by logistic regression analysis, and optimal cutoff points of the predictors were determined by receiver operating characteristic curves and the Youden index.
A total of 55.3% patients (214/387) experienced recurrence. Tissue eosinophilia markedly outweighed other parameters and correlated with polyp recurrence. Receiver operating characteristic curves indicated that a cutoff value of 27% tissue eosinophils predicted recurrence with 96.7% sensitivity and 92.5% specificity (area under the curve = 0.969; p < 0.001); and an absolute count of 55 eosinophils per high power field predicted recurrence with 87.4% sensitivity and 97.1% specificity (area under the curve = 0.969; p < 0.001).
A tissue eosinophil proportion of >27% of total cells or a tissue eosinophil absolute count of >55 eosinophils per high power field may act as a reliable prognostic indicator for nasal polyp recurrence within 2 years after surgery.
Although research on the effects of comorbidities on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients is increasing, the risk of cancer history has not been evaluated for the mortality of patients with ...COVID-19.
In this retrospective study, we included 3232 patients with pathogen-confirmed COVID-19 who were hospitalized between January 18th and March 27th, 2020, at Tongji Hospital in Wuhan, China. Propensity score matching was used to minimize selection bias.
In total, 2665 patients with complete clinical outcomes were analyzed. The impacts of age, sex, and comorbidities were evaluated separately using binary logistic regression analysis. The results showed that age, sex, and cancer history are independent risk factors for mortality in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. COVID-19 patients with cancer exhibited a significant increase in mortality rate (29.4% vs. 10.2%, P < 0.0001). Furthermore, the clinical outcomes of patients with hematological malignancies were worse, with a mortality rate twice that of patients with solid tumors (50% vs. 26.1%). Importantly, cancer patients with complications had a significantly higher risk of poor outcomes. One hundred nine cancer patients were matched to noncancer controls in a 1:3 ratio by propensity score matching. After propensity score matching, the cancer patients still had a higher risk of mortality than the matched noncancer patients (odds ratio (OR) 2.98, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.76-5.06). Additionally, elevations in ferritin, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, procalcitonin, prothrombin time, interleukin-2 (IL-2) receptor, and interleukin-6 (IL-6) were observed in cancer patients.
We evaluated prognostic factors with epidemiological analysis and highlighted a higher risk of mortality for cancer patients with COVID-19. Importantly, cancer history was the only independent risk factor for COVID-19 among common comorbidities, while other comorbidities may act through other factors. Moreover, several laboratory parameters were significantly different between cancer patients and matched noncancer patients, which may indicate specific immune and inflammatory reactions in COVID-19 patients with cancer.
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