The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic poses a current world-wide public health threat. However, little is known about its hallmarks compared to other infectious diseases. Here, we report ...the single-cell transcriptional landscape of longitudinally collected peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in both COVID-19- and influenza A virus (IAV)-infected patients. We observed increase of plasma cells in both COVID-19 and IAV patients and XIAP associated factor 1 (XAF1)-, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-, and FAS-induced T cell apoptosis in COVID-19 patients. Further analyses revealed distinct signaling pathways activated in COVID-19 (STAT1 and IRF3) versus IAV (STAT3 and NFκB) patients and substantial differences in the expression of key factors. These factors include relatively increase of interleukin (IL)6R and IL6ST expression in COVID-19 patients but similarly increased IL-6 concentrations compared to IAV patients, supporting the clinical observations of increased proinflammatory cytokines in COVID-19 patients. Thus, we provide the landscape of PBMCs and unveil distinct immune response pathways in COVID-19 and IAV patients.
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•We generated a single-cell atlas of PBMCs in both COVID-19 and influenza patients•Plasma cells increase significantly in both COVID-19 and influenza patients•COVID-19 is featured with XAF1-, TNF-, and FAS-induced T cell apoptosis•COVID-19 activates distinct pathway (STAT1/IRF3) versus influenza (STAT3/NFκB)
COVID-19 and influenza are both respiratory infections with cytokine release syndrome. Zhu et al. use single-cell RNA sequencing of longitudinally collected PBMCs in both patients to reveal distinct immune response landscapes of the two diseases and identify virus-specific cell composition and immune response pathways.
Path-following techniques of ships have received a lot of attention in recent years, to promote future autonomous ships and develop advanced autopilots. This paper deals with the path-following ...problem of underactuated ships without having prior knowledge regarding the hydrodynamic coefficients and ship parameters. A novel data-driven control strategy that combines Koopman operator theory and extended dynamic mode decomposition (EDMD) method and integrates with a model predictive control (MPC) framework is proposed. It makes use of data collected from experiments to learn the Koopman eigenfunctions of unknown ship dynamics via supervised learning, which are utilized as the lifting functions in the EDMD method to build a linear, lifted state-space model. The identified linear model acts as the predictor in the designed MPC controller, and a line-of-sight (LOS) algorithm is introduced as the guidance law for path-following. Simulation results show that the prediction model could provide sufficient prediction accuracy, and that it can be combined with MPC to achieve good path-following performance in a computationally efficient way.
Zn:Dy:
LiNbO
3
crystals with different Li/Nb ratios (Li/Nb = 0.946, 1.05, 1.20, 1.38) were grown by pulling method in air. Its structure and composition were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma ...atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES). It was found that the effective segregation coefficient of
Zn
2
+
decreases and that of
Dy
3
+
increases with the increase of lithium-niobium ratio. The anti-optical damage properties of Zn:Dy:
LiNbO
3
crystals were investigated by an exposure energy flow method. The results showed that the optical damage resistance ability of Zn:Dy:
LiNbO
3
crystals was improved with the increasing Li/Nb ratio. The optical uniformity of crystals was measured by birefringence gradient method. The results show that the optical uniformity is proportional to the Li/Nb ratio. This paper mainly reveals the effect of Li/Nb ratio on the defect structure of Zn:Dy:
LiNbO
3
crystals and on the partial optical properties.
Graphical abstract
To improve the aerodynamic performance and reduce the noise of multi-blade centrifugal fans used in air conditioners, a bionic groove structure was introduced into the blade tip design, inspired by ...the drag reduction characteristics of mantis shrimp. In this paper, the numerical method was used to investigate the effects of a blade tip bionic groove on the aerodynamic performance and noise characteristics of a multi-blade centrifugal fan. Firstly, the basic design parameters, such as groove width, groove depth, groove center distance, and groove number, were selected to define the shape of the blade tip bionic groove. Then, the effect of the design parameters on the aerodynamic performance of the multi-blade centrifugal fan was studied. Finally, the multi-blade centrifugal fan models with different groove shapes, such as rectangular bionic grooves, circular bionic grooves, and triangular bionic grooves, were established to compare the influence of blade tip groove structures on the aerodynamic performance of the multi-blade centrifugal fan. Through analysis of the aerodynamic performance and noise characteristics of the multi-blade centrifugal fan and the flow fields in the fan impeller, the flow control mechanism of the blade tip bionic groove was revealed. The results showed that the triangular bionic groove on the blade tip had a certain noise reduction effect, although the structural parameters of the bionic groove had little effect on the aerodynamic performance of the multi-blade centrifugal fan. This is because the triangular bionic groove structure can effectively inhibit the vortex shedding at the trailing edge of blade and reduce the flow separation in the impeller passages. As a result, the velocity distribution at the impeller tip became more uniform and the intensity of the tip vortex and the shedding vortex was weakened. Correspondingly, the noise of multi-blade centrifugal fan was also reduced to some extent.
As social animals, humans are unique to make the world function well by developing, maintaining, and enforcing social norms. As a prerequisite among these norm-related processes, learning social ...norms can act as a basis that helps us quickly coordinate with others, which is beneficial to social inclusion when people enter into a new environment or experience certain sociocultural changes. Given the positive effects of learning social norms on social order and sociocultural adaptability in daily life, there is an urgent need to understand the underlying mechanisms of social norm learning. In this article, we review a set of works regarding social norms and highlight the specificity of social norm learning. We then propose an integrated model of social norm learning containing three stages, i.e., pre-learning, reinforcement learning, and internalization, map a potential brain network in processing social norm learning, and further discuss the potential influencing factors that modulate social norm learning. Finally, we outline a couple of future directions along this line, including theoretical (i.e., societal and individual differences in social norm learning), methodological (i.e., longitudinal research, experimental methods, neuroimaging studies), and practical issues.
A large number of autologous melanocytes are required for surgical treatment of depigmentation diseases such as vitiligo. The purpose of this experiment is to explore the application of melanocytes ...induced by mesenchymal stem cells to clinical treatment. Therefore, we have induced mouse bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSCs) into melanocytes (miMels) in the previous experiment. This experiment continues the previous experiment to further study the biological functions of miMels and their application in tissue engineering.
We examined whether miMels can produce active tyrosinase, melanin, and response to α-MSH. The ability of miMels to produce melanin to keratinocytes was tested by co-culture. By applying miMels to tissue-engineered skin, the survival and function of miMels on the surface of nude mice were verified.
MiMels can produce active tyrosinase and melanin, and can pass melanin to the co-cultured keratinocytes. Under the stimulation of α-MSH, the active tyrosinase and melanin content of miMels increased. We tried to apply it to the establishment of tissue-engineered skin and obtained tissue-engineered skin containing miMels. Then we tried to transplant tissue-engineered skin on the back skin of nude mice and succeeded. The transplanted miMels survived in local tissues, synthesized active tyrosinase and melanin, and expressed the marker protein of melanocytes.
In short, miMels can be used as a cell source for tissue engineering skin. MiMels not only have a typical melanocyte morphology but also have the same biological functions as normal melanocytes. What's more important is its successful application in mouse tissue-engineered experiments.
The value of right atrial (RA) function in cardiovascular diseases is currently limited. This study was to explore the prognostic value of RA strain derived from fast long axis method by ...cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) in patients with non-ischemic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM).
We prospectively enrolled patients with DCM who underwent CMR from June 2012 to March 2019 and 120 age- and sex-matched healthy subjects. Fast long-axis strain method was performed to assess the RA phasic function including RA reservoir strain, conduit strain, and booster strain. The predefined primary endpoint was all-cause mortality. The composite heart failure (HF) endpoint included HF death, HF readmission, and heart transplantation. Cox regression analysis and Kaplan-Meier survival curve were performed to describe the association between RA strain and outcomes.
A total of 624 patients (444 men, mean 48 years) were studied. After a median follow-up of 32.5 months, 116 patients (18.6%) experienced all-cause mortality and 205 patients (32.9%) reached composite HF endpoint. RA function was impaired in DCM patients compared with healthy subjects (all P < 0.001). After adjustment for covariates, RA reservoir strain hazard ratio (HR) (per 5% decrease) 1.19, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.03-1.37, P = 0.022 and conduit strain HR (per 5% decrease) 1.37, 95% CI 1.03-1.84, P = 0.033 were independent predictors of all-cause mortality. Moreover, RA strain added incremental prognostic value for the prediction of adverse cardiac events over baseline clinical and CMR predictors (all P < 0.05).
RA strain by fast long-axis analysis is independently associated with adverse clinical outcomes in patients with DCM.
Trial registration number: ChiCTR1800017058; Date of registration: 2018-07-10 (Retrospective registration); URL: https://www.
gov.
Maritime autonomous surface ships (MASSs) have received increased attention in both academic research and industrial applications in the global shipping and shipbuilding industry in recent years. ...According to its definition, a MASS can independently operate without human interaction. This brings the problem of how to test and evaluate the capabilities of the autonomous navigation control system developed for MASS. This paper proposes the novel concept of a variable stability ship and the design of its control system. A variable stability ship consists of a model-scaled ship, a model-following controller, and a hardware and software platform to implement its functions. The variable stability ship can replicate the dynamic responses of different reference ships despite their dissimilarities in physical parameters and hydrodynamic characteristics with the design of the model-following controller. Therefore, it can be used to test the performance of different control strategies on various ship types such that the R&D costs of physical model-based tests can be reduced, as well as shortening the time spent in developing physical ship models. Preliminary simulations are carried out to show its effectiveness and applicability.
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