No effective drug and definitive "gold standard" treatment for Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) infection has been available so far, though some medicines have been commonly used in the treatment of T. ...gondii infection, such as spiramycin, azithromycin, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), pyrimethamine- sulfadiazine (P-S), trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP-SMX), and pyrimethamine-clindamycin (P-C). A systematic review and meta-analysis were performed to compare the efficacies of these conventional medicines in the treatment. Cohort studies for the treatment of acute T. gondii infection were searched from PubMed, Google Scholar, ect. All the cases number for different group extracted from each included literature were input to meta-analysis 3.13 software to calculate the pooled negative conversion rate (NCR), cure rate (CR) or vertical transmission rate based on their sample size and weight. The pooled NCR with 95% confidence intervals (CI) was used to evaluate the overall rate of a diagnosis positive result conversion to a negative result after treatment, which of spiramycin, azithromycin and TCM were 83.4% (95%CI, 72.1%-90.8%), 82.5% (95%CI, 75.9%-87.6%), and 85.5% (95%CI, 71.3%-93.3%) respectively, with no statistical difference between them. The pooled CR with 95% CI was used to evaluate the overall rate of complete disappearance of clinical symptoms for toxoplasmic encephalitis after therapy, which of P-S, TMP-SMX, and P-C were 49.8% (95%CI, 38. 8% -60.8%), 59.9% (95%CI, 48.9%-70.0%), and 47.6% (95%CI, 24.8%-71.4%) respectively, with no statistical difference between them. Primary T. gondii infection in pregnancy was treated mainly with spiramycin alone or combined with other drugs, and the pooled rate of vertical transmission was about 9.9% (95%CI, 5.9%-16.2%) after therapy. Toxoplasmic encephalitis in AIDS patients was usually treated with sulfonamides combined with other drugs and the pooled CR was 49.4% (95%CI, 37.9%-60.9%).
Developing cost‐efficient multifunctional electrocatalysts is highly critical for the integrated electrochemical energy‐conversion systems such as water electrolysis based on hydrogen/oxygen ...evolution reactions (HER/OER) and metal‐air batteries based on OER/oxygen reduction reactions (ORR). The core–shell structured materials with transition metal phosphide as the core and nitrogen‐doped carbon (NC) as the shell have been known as promising HER electrocatalysts. However, their oxygen‐related electrocatalytic activities still remain unsatisfactory, which severely limits their further applications. Herein an effective strategy to improve the core and shell performances of core–shell Co2P@NC electrocatalysts through secondary metal (e.g., Fe, Ni, Mo, Al, Mn) doping (termed M‐Co2P@M‐N‐C) is reported. The as‐synthesized M‐Co2P@M‐N‐C electrocatalysts show multifunctional HER/OER/ORR activities and good integrated capabilities for overall water splitting and Zn‐air batteries. Among the M‐Co2P@M‐N‐C catalysts, Fe‐Co2P@Fe‐N‐C electrocatalyst exhibits the best catalytic activities, which is closely related to the configuration of highly active species (Fe‐doping Co2P core and Fe‐N‐C shell) and their subtle synergy, and a stable carbon shell for outstanding durability. Combination of electrochemical‐based in situ Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy with extensive experimental investigation provides deep insights into the origin of the activity and the underlying electrocatalytic mechanisms at the molecular level.
By incorporating various secondary metals (e.g., Fe, Ni, Mo, Mn, and Al) into core–shell Co2P@NC system, the trifunctional catalytic activities of core and shell of Co2P@NC toward HER/OER/ORR is enhanced simultaneously, leading to an advanced catalytic system (Fe‐Co2P@Fe‐N‐C) with high catalytic efficiency and remarkable stability for efficient water electrolysis and rechargeable liquid/all‐solid‐state Zn‐air batteries.
Transition metal dichalcogenide materials have been explored extensively as catalysts to negotiate the hydrogen evolution reaction, but they often run at a large excess thermodynamic cost. Although ...activating strategies, such as defects and composition engineering, have led to remarkable activity gains, there remains the requirement for better performance that aims for real device applications. We report here a phosphorus-doping-induced phase transition from cubic to orthorhombic phases in CoSe
. It has been found that the achieved orthorhombic CoSe
with appropriate phosphorus dopant (8 wt%) needs the lowest overpotential of 104 mV at 10 mA cm
in 1 M KOH, with onset potential as small as -31 mV. This catalyst demonstrates negligible activity decay after 20 h of operation. The striking catalysis performance can be attributed to the favorable electronic structure and local coordination environment created by this doping-induced structural phase transition strategy.
Rodent virus communities (viromes) are overrepresented with zoonotic viruses, and as such are a key host system for the study of zoonotic viruses. However, the extent of viral diversity beyond ...characterized zoonotic viruses, and the factors that modulate the viromes of rodents remain opaque. In this issue of Molecular Ecology, Raghwani et al. (2023) use rodents as a model to understand the role of seasonality in dictating virome abundance and composition—a factor known to play an important role in most animal one‐host, one‐pathogen systems. These data are not only highly relevant to rodents, but have broad applications across understanding and disentangling animal virome ecology.
Lightweight magnesium alloys are attractive as structural materials for improving energy efficiency in applications such as weight reduction of transportation vehicles. One major obstacle for ...widespread applications is the limited ductility of magnesium, which has been attributed to Formula: see text dislocations failing to accommodate plastic strain. We demonstrate, using in situ transmission electron microscope mechanical testing, that Formula: see text dislocations of various characters can accommodate considerable plasticity through gliding on pyramidal planes. We found that submicrometer-size magnesium samples exhibit high plasticity that is far greater than for their bulk counterparts. Small crystal size usually brings high stress, which in turn activates more Formula: see text dislocations in magnesium to accommodate plasticity, leading to both high strength and good plasticity.
Network home has become a research hotspot in today’s society, and it can improve the comfort, safety, and convenience of people’s lives. The traditional network home model only makes certain actions ...to the home system according to people’s instructions, and it is difficult to realize the intelligence of network home. This also limits the security and convenience of an online home. This study makes full use of the advantages of big data technology in processing nonlinear data, and applies the convolutional neural network (CNN) method and long and short-term memory (LSTM) neural network method to the network home system. CNN can be used to extract people’s behavior information, and LSTM can be used to extract people’s speech features. CNN method can establish the relationship between people’s behavior information, speech information, and network home management system. At the same time, this research mainly analyzes the lighting system, home appliance system, security system, and floor heating system in the network home system. The results show that the CNN-LSTM method has high accuracy in predicting the four systems of network home. The largest prediction error is only 2.78%, and this part of the error comes from the prediction of the home appliance system. The smallest prediction error is only 0.98%.
Diabetic macular ischaemia (DMI) is traditionally defined and graded based on the angiographic evidence of an enlarged and irregular foveal avascular zone. However, these anatomical changes are not ...surrogate markers for visual impairment. We postulate that there are vascular phenotypes of DMI based on the relative perfusion deficits of various retinal capillary plexuses and choriocapillaris. This review highlights several mechanistic pathways, including the role of hypoxia and the complex relation between neurons, glia, and microvasculature. The current animal models are reviewed, with shortcomings noted. Therefore, utilising the advancing technology of optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) to identify the reversible DMI phenotypes may be the key to successful therapeutic interventions for DMI. However, there is a need to standardise the nomenclature of OCTA perfusion status. Visual acuity is not an ideal endpoint for DMI clinical trials. New trial endpoints that represent disease progression need to be developed before irreversible vision loss in patients with DMI. Natural history studies are required to determine the course of each vascular and neuronal parameter to define the DMI phenotypes. These DMI phenotypes may also partly explain the development and recurrence of diabetic macular oedema. It is also currently unclear where and how DMI fits into the diabetic retinopathy severity scales, further highlighting the need to better define the progression of diabetic retinopathy and DMI based on both multimodal imaging and visual function. Finally, we discuss a complete set of proposed therapeutic pathways for DMI, including cell-based therapies that may provide restorative potential.
•Diabetic macular ischaemia (DMI) may result in irreversible functional impairment.•Standardisation of optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) nomenclature is required.•Mechanistic pathways result in both vascular and neuronal changes in DMI.•Novel DMI trial endpoints that go beyond standard visual acuity are required.•Potential therapies need to prevent both neuronal and vascular changes in DMI.
Background： Nontraumatic osteonecrosis of the femoral head （NONFH） is a debilitating disease that represents a significant financial burden for both individuals and healthcare systems. Despite its ...significance, however, its prevalence in the Chinese general population remains unknown. This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of NONFH and its associated risk factors in the Chinese population. Methods： A nationally representative survey of 30,030 respondents was undertaken from June 2012 to August 2013. All participants underwent a questionnaire investigation, physical examination of hip, and bilateral hip joint X-ray and/or magnetic resonance imaging exalnination. Blood samples were taken after overnight fasting to test serum total cholesterol, triglyceride, and high-density lipoprotein （HDL） and low-density lipoprotein （LDL） levels. We then used multivariate logistic regression analysis to investigate the associations between various metabolic, demographic, and lifestyle-related variables and NONFH. Results： NONFH was diagnosed in 218 subjects （0.725%） and the estimated NONFH cases were 8.12 million among Chinesepeople aged 15 years and over. The prevalence of NONFH was significantly higher in males than in females （1.02% vs. 0.51%, x^2 = 24.997, P 〈 0.001 ）. Among NONFH patients, North residents were subjected to higher prevalence of NONFH than that of South residents （0.85% vs. 0.61%,x^2= 5.847, P = 0.016）. Our multivariate regression analysis showed that high blood levels oftriglycerides, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, and non-H DL-cholesterol, male, urban residence, family history of osteonecrosis of the femoral head. heavy smoking, alcohol abuse and glucocorticoid intake, overweight, and obesity were all significantly associated with an increased risk of NONFH. Conclusions： Our findings highlight that NONFH is a significantpublic health challenge in China and underscore the need for policy measures on the national level. Furthermore, NONFH shares a number of risk factors with atherosclerosis.
The repair of damaged Ni‐based superalloy single‐crystal turbine blades has been a long‐standing challenge. Additive manufacturing by an electron beam is promising to this end, but there is a ...formidable obstacle: either the residual stress and γ/γ ′ microstructure in the single‐crystalline fusion zone after e‐beam melting are unacceptable (e.g., prone to cracking), or, after solutionizing heat treatment, recrystallization occurs, bringing forth new grains that degrade the high‐temperature creep properties. Here, a post‐3D printing recovery protocol is designed that eliminates the driving force for recrystallization, namely, the stored energy associated with the high retained dislocation density, prior to standard solution treatment and aging. The post‐electron‐beam‐melting, pre‐solutionizing recovery via sub‐solvus annealing is rendered possible by the rafting (i.e., directional coarsening) of γ ′ particles that facilitates dislocation rearrangement and annihilation. The rafted microstructure is removed in subsequent solution treatment, leaving behind a damage‐free and residual‐stress‐free single crystal with uniform γ ′ precipitates indistinguishable from the rest of the turbine blade. This discovery offers a practical means to keep 3D‐printed single crystals from cracking due to unrelieved residual stress, or stress‐relieved but recrystallizing into a polycrystalline microstructure, paving the way for additive manufacturing to repair, restore, and reshape any superalloy single‐crystal product.
A post‐3D‐printing recovery protocol is designed to eliminate the driving force for recrystallization prior to standard solution treatment and aging. After heat treatment, a damage‐free single crystal, with uniform γ ′ precipitates indistinguishable from the rest of the turbine blade, is generated. This discovery paves the way for additive manufacturing to repair, restore, and reshape any superalloy single‐crystal product.
The symbiosis of host and intestinal microbiota constitutes a microecosystem and plays an important role in maintaining intestinal homeostasis and regulating the host's immune system. Eimeria ...tenella, an obligate intracellular apicomplexan parasite, can cause coccidiosis, a serious intestinal disease. In this study, the effects of E. tenella infection on development parameters (villus height, crypt depth, mucosa thickness, muscularis thickness, and serosa thickness) and microbiota in chicken cecum were investigated. Fourteen-day-old male Hy-Line Variety Brown layer chickens were inoculated with sporulated oocysts of E. tenella. Cecal tissues were collected 7 d after inoculation. Relative density of goblet cells and glycoproteins were determined by Alcian blue periodic acid-Schiff staining and periodic acid-Schiff staining, respectively. Intestinal development parameters were also evaluated. Cecal contents were extracted, and the composition of cecal microflora was examined by Illumine sequencing in the V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene. Results indicated that E. tenella infection destroyed the structure of cecal tissue and reduced the relative density of goblet cells and glycoproteins. Sequencing analysis indicated that E. tenella infection altered the diversity and composition of cecal microbiota. The populations of Proteobacteria, Enterococcus, Incertae, and Escherichia-Shigella decreased, and those of Bacteroidales and Rikenella significantly increased in the infected group compared with those in the control group. Hence, the pathological damage caused by E. tenella infection is associated with cecal microbiota dysbiosis, and this finding may be used to develop an alternative measure for alleviating the effect of coccidiosis on the poultry industry.
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