Abstract
Currently, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has been reported in almost all countries globally. No effective ...therapy has been documented for COVID-19, and the role of convalescent plasma therapy is unknown. In the current study, 6 patients with COVID-19 and respiratory failure received convalescent plasma a median of 21.5 days after viral shedding was first detected, all tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 RNA within 3 days after infusion, and 5 eventually died. In conclusion, convalescent plasma treatment can end SARS-CoV-2 shedding but cannot reduce the mortality rate in critically ill patients with end-stage COVID-19, and treatment should be initiated earlier.
Six patients with coronavirus 2019 disease and respiratory failure received convalescent plasma a median of 21.5 days after first detected viral shedding, all tested negative for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 within 3 days after infusion, and 5 eventually died.
Social responsibility fulfilment is an important part of the operation management (OM) and competitiveness of the construction industry (CIC). This study investigates the mechanisms through which ...social responsibility fulfilment in the construction industry affects industry competitiveness and the mediating role of industry operations management. From the intra-organizational stakeholder perspective, social responsibility fulfilment (SR) is divided into two dimensions: shareholder-dimensional (SH) and employee-dimensional social responsibility fulfilment (EM). By analysing a panel of the construction industry in 12 provinces of China from 2015 to 2020, an inverted U-shaped relationship between social responsibility fulfilment and construction industry competitiveness and between shareholder-dimensional social responsibility fulfilment and construction industry competitiveness was found, while a U-shaped relationship between employee-dimensional social responsibility fulfilment and construction industry competitiveness was found. Furthermore, social responsibility fulfilment and shareholder-dimensional social responsibility fulfilment had significant effects on operation management. Additionally, the study concludes that operation management is positively related to construction industry competitiveness and plays a partially mediating role between social responsibility fulfilment and construction industry competitiveness. The findings enrich the theoretical basis of the relationship between social responsibility fulfilment and competitiveness and demonstrates important management significance for the construction industry in managing its social responsibility behaviour and improving industry competitiveness, thus promoting high-quality development of the construction industry.
In this paper, the distributed fuzzy resilient tracking problem for a class of second-order nonlinear multi-agent systems (MASs) under denial-of-service (DoS) attacks is addressed. Compared with the ...existing distributed fuzzy tracking results, a more general class of second-order MASs with DoS attacks under combined output observable situation are considered in this paper. Under DoS attacks, the second-order derivative of the traditional distributed observer does not exist, while this signal is necessary to solve the distributed fuzzy tracking problem for second-order MASs when using the backstepping method. To solve the problem, a hierarchical control method that consists of a cooperative resilient observer and a distributed controller is proposed. Specifically, a new distributed resilient observer state with a second-order derivative and also the function of defending network attacks is designed based on a combined output observable condition. By using the backstepping technique, decentralized fuzzy adaptive resilient controllers are designed to achieve distributed tracking under DoS attacks. It is shown that the distributed fuzzy resilient tracking problem can be solved under our designed method. Finally, second-order nonlinear MASs are provided to verify the effectiveness of our method.
Despite advances in understanding the pathophysiology of Fragile X syndrome (FXS), its molecular basis is still poorly understood. Whole brain tissue expression profiles have proved surprisingly ...uninformative, therefore we applied single cell RNA sequencing to profile an FMRP deficient mouse model with higher resolution. We found that the absence of FMRP results in highly cell type specific gene expression changes that are strongest among specific neuronal types, where FMRP-bound mRNAs were prominently downregulated. Metabolic pathways including translation and respiration are significantly upregulated across most cell types with the notable exception of excitatory neurons. These effects point to a potential difference in the activity of mTOR pathways, and together with other dysregulated pathways, suggest an excitatory-inhibitory imbalance in the Fmr1-knock out cortex that is exacerbated by astrocytes. Our data demonstrate that FMRP loss affects abundance of key cellular communication genes that potentially affect neuronal synapses and provide a resource for interrogating the biological basis of this disorder.
With the proliferation of vehicles in households, people are spending more and more time in their cars, so it is important to ensure the air quality and safety of the car. In this research, ...environmentally friendly, green PET@PDA@MIL-101(Fe) (PPM) was prepared by in-situ solvothermal growth and acid etching methods, which was categorized by SEM, FTIR, XRD, XPS, and BET. PPM was used to adsorb benzene, toluene, and m-xylene at low concentrations. The maximum amount of adsorption of PET@PDA@MIL-101(Fe) (PPM) for benzene, toluene, and m-xylene was 68.72 mg/g, 91.63 mg/g, and 78.47 mg/g respectively. The adsorption process of PPM is well fitted by the pseudo-first-order kinetic model and Langmuir isothermal adsorption model. Furthermore, PPM exhibited excellent toluene removal performance in simulated vehicles and excellent cycling capability in adsorption-desorption experiments. As a result, PPM can be used to treat and manage toluene volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at low concentrations.
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•An environment-friendly, the latest recycle discard-PET plastics method was devised.•Loading of MIL-101(Fe) onto PET@PDA surface using in situ growth method.•Composite material exhibits excellent adsorption performance of benzene, toluene, and m-xylene at low concentrations.•PPM shows good VOC removal capability and excellent recyclability in simulated in-car environments.
DNA methylation (DNAm) profiles in central airway epithelial cells (AECs) may play a key role in pathological processes in asthma. The goal of the current study is to compare the diagnostic ...performance of DNAm markers across three tissues: AECs, nasal epithelial cells (NECs), and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). Additionally, we focused on the results using the machine learning algorithm in the context of multi-locus effects to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the optimal subset of CpG sites. We obtained 74 subjects with asthma and 41 controls from AECs, 15 subjects with asthma and 14 controls from NECs, 697 subjects with asthma and 97 controls from PBMCs. Epigenome-wide DNA methylation levels in AECs, NECs and PBMCs were measured using the Infinium Human Methylation 450 K BeadChip. Overlap analysis across the three different sample sources at the locus and pathway levels were studied to investigate shared or unique pathophysiological processes of asthma across tissues. Using the top 100 asthma-associated methylation markers as classifiers from each dataset, we found that both AEC- and NEC-based DNAm signatures exerted a lower classification error than the PBMC-based DNAm markers (p-value = 0.0002). The area-under-the-curve (AUC) analysis based on out-of-bag errors using the random forest classification algorithm revealed that PBMC-, NEC-, and AEC-based methylation data yielded 31 loci (AUC: 0.87), 8 loci (AUC: 0.99), and 4 loci (AUC: 0.97) from each optimal subset of tissue-specific markers, respectively. We also discovered the locus-locus interaction of DNAm levels of the CDH6 gene and RAPGEF3 gene might interact with each other to jointly predict the risk of asthma - which suggests the pivotal role of cell-cell junction in the pathological changes of asthma. Both AECs and NECs might provide better diagnostic accuracy and efficacy levels than PBMCs. Further research is warranted to evaluate how these tissue-specific DNAm markers classify and predict asthma risk.
Musical composition is difficult for people due to the complicated composition theories and the combination of artistic conception with emotion-based ideas. A 2-D emotional plane which can define the ...valence and arousal coordinate has been developed. With the proposed algorithmic composition, it is possible to perform the mapping technique between music and emotion based on a song’s segment emotion retrieval. The proposed emotion-based algorithmic music composition uses song lyrics’ emotion retrieval to classify several music idea segments and also uses the mapping technology between musical and emotional aesthetics. To analyze the lyrics, the system automatically segments the sentences, then calculates various feature values via emotional vocabulary, and finally conducts Support Vector Machine (SVM) assortments based on the lyrics emotion dataset. The proposed Algorithmic Composition Based on Lyrics Emotion (ACBLE) for pop songs study composes songs using the lyrics that have been released. According to survey feedback, satisfaction with the songs is 3.33. The system can enable anyone who has no knowledge of music theory, easily compose a song. Some demos finally demonstrate the results. Therefore, the proposed method can be applied to fields including pop music composition, background music, musical health, and educational music.
Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is caused by inactivation of the FMR1 gene and loss of encoded FMRP, an RNA binding protein that represses translation of some of its target transcripts. Here we use ribosome ...profiling and RNA sequencing to investigate the dysregulation of translation in the mouse brain cortex. We find that most changes in ribosome occupancy on hundreds of mRNAs are largely driven by dysregulation in transcript abundance. Many down-regulated mRNAs, which are mostly responsible for neuronal and synaptic functions, are highly enriched for FMRP binding targets. RNA metabolic labeling demonstrates that, in FMRP-deficient cortical neurons, mRNA down-regulation is caused by elevated degradation and is correlated with codon optimality. Moreover, FMRP preferentially binds mRNAs with optimal codons, suggesting that it stabilizes such transcripts through direct interactions via the translational machinery. Finally, we show that the paradigm of genetic rescue of FXS-like phenotypes in FMRP-deficient mice by deletion of the Cpeb1 gene is mediated by restoration of steady-state RNA levels and consequent rebalancing of translational homeostasis. Our data establish an essential role of FMRP in codon optimality-dependent mRNA stability as an important factor in FXS.
We present a facile method for the preparation of red-emitting and water-soluble silver nanoclusters (Ag NCs) using dihydrolipoic acid and sodium borohydride as the template and reducing agent. ...Ethanol solvent is demonstrated to endow Ag NCs with dramatically enhanced fluorescence; therefore, the Ag NCs are synthesized in ethanol/water solution (e/w-Ag NCs) instead of aqueous solution. Specific trivalent chromium (Cr
3+
) recognition capability of the e/w-Ag NCs can thus be obtained on the basis of its fluorescence quenching. The mechanisms for fluorescence enhancement and quenching of the e/w-Ag NCs triggered by ethanol and Cr
3+
, respectively, are investigated in detail. Next, a fluorescence method for detection of Cr
3+
is established and its analytical performance is evaluated: the detection limit for Cr
3+
is 0.71 μM and the linear range is from 2 to 40 μM. The fluorescent probe exhibits sufficient sensitivity and good selectivity toward Cr
3+
, illustrating that it has great promise for practical application in Cr
3+
detection.
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