Background and purpose
Previous studies suggested that the overall burden of prior infections contributes to cardiovascular diseases and stroke. In the present study, the association between ...infectious burden (IB) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) was examined.
Methods
Antibody titers to common infectious pathogens including cytomegalovirus (CMV), herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV‐1), Borrelia burgdorferi, Chlamydophila pneumoniae and Helicobacter pylori were measured by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay in 128 AD patients and 135 healthy controls. IB was defined as a composite serological measure of exposure to these common pathogens.
Results
Seropositivities toward zero−two, three and four−five of these pathogens were found in 44%, 40% and 16% of healthy controls but in 20%, 44% and 36% of AD patients, respectively. IB, bacterial burden and viral burden were independently associated with AD after adjusting for age, gender, education, APOE genotype and various comorbidities. Mini‐Mental State Examination scores were negatively correlated with IB in all cases. Serum beta‐amyloid protein (Aβ) levels (i.e. Aβ40, Aβ42 and total Aβ) and inflammatory cytokines (i.e. interferon‐γ, tumor necrosis factor α, interleukin‐1β and interleukin‐6) in individuals exposed to four−five infectious pathogens were significantly higher than those exposed to zero−two or three pathogens.
Conclusions
IB consisting of CMV, HSV‐1, B. burgdorferi, C. pneumoniae and H. pylori is associated with AD. This study supports the role of infection/inflammation in the etiopathogenesis of AD.
Click here to view the accompanying paper in this issue. Videocasts of this article are available in: English: http://player.polyv.net/videos/player.swf?vid=f6ee5715d9808c7a481b7ae727da00dd_f Mandarin: http://player.polyv.net/videos/f6ee5715d98ae743a9b0509d0900c91f_f.swf
► The integrated modeling system proved to be a useful approach for studying the effects of urbanization on runoff and flood. ► Smaller flood event is more affected by urbanization than larger flood. ...► Floods discharges are more affected by urbanization than annual runoff. ► At daily time step modeling, flood volume is more affected by urbanization than flood peak.
This study developed and used an integrated modeling system, coupling a distributed hydrologic and a dynamic land-use change model, to examine effects of urbanization on annual runoff and flood events of the Qinhuai River watershed in Jiangsu Province, China. The Hydrologic Engineering Center’s Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC-HMS) was used to calculate runoff generation and the integrated Markov Chain and Cellular Automata model (CA-Markov model) was used to develop future land use maps. The model was calibrated and validated using observed daily streamflow data collected at the two outlets of watershed. Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) images from 1988, 1994, 2006, Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) images from 2001, 2003 and a China–Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS) image from 2009 were used to obtain historical land use maps. These imageries revealed that the watershed experienced conversion of approximately 17% non-urban area to urban area between 1988 and 2009. The urbanization scenarios for various years were developed by overlaying impervious surfaces of different land use maps to 1988 (as a reference year) map sequentially. The simulation results of HEC-HMS model for the various urbanization scenarios indicate that annual runoff, daily peak flow, and flood volume have increased to different degrees due to urban expansion during the study period (1988–2009), and will continue to increase as urban areas increase in the future. When impervious ratios change from 3% (1988) to 31% (2018), the mean annual runoff would increase slightly and the annual runoff in the dry year would increase more than that in the wet year. The daily peak discharge of eight selected floods would increase from 2.3% to 13.9%. The change trend of flood volumes is similar with that of peak discharge, but with larger percentage changes than that of daily peak flows in all scenarios. Sensitivity analysis revealed that the potential changes in peak discharge and flood volume with increasing impervious surface showed a linear relationship, and the changes of small floods were larger than those of large floods with the same impervious increase, indicating that the small floods were more sensitive than large floods to urbanization. These results suggest that integrating distributed land use change model and distributed hydrological model can be a good approach to evaluate the hydrologic impacts of urbanization, which are essential for watershed management, water resources planning, and flood management for sustainable development.
With the aim of gathering temporal trends on bacterial epidemiology and resistance from multiple laboratories in China, the CHINET surveillance system was organized in 2005. Antimicrobial ...susceptibility testing was carried out according to a unified protocol using the Kirby-Bauer method or automated systems. Results were analyzed according to Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) 2014 definitions. Between 2005 and 2014, the number of bacterial isolates ranged between 22 774 and 84 572 annually. Rates of extended-spectrum β-lactamase production among Escherichia coli isolates were stable, between 51.7 and 55.8%. Resistance of E. coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae to amikacin, ciprofloxacin, piperacillin/tazobactam and cefoperazone/sulbactam decreased with time. Carbapenem resistance among K. pneumoniae isolates increased from 2.4 to 13.4%. Resistance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains against all of antimicrobial agents tested including imipenem and meropenem decreased with time. On the contrary, resistance of Acinetobacter baumannii strains to carbapenems increased from 31 to 66.7%. A marked decrease of methicillin resistance from 69% in 2005 to 44.6% in 2014 was observed for Staphylococcus aureus. Carbapenem resistance rates in K. pneumoniae and A. baumannii in China are high. Our results indicate the importance of bacterial surveillance studies.
Background
The aim of this study was to evaluate whether adjuvant chemotherapy is associated with improved survival in patients with resectable gastric neuroendocrine carcinomas (G‐NECs) or mixed ...adenoneuroendocrine carcinomas (G‐MANECs).
Methods
The study included patients with G‐NECs or G‐MANECs who underwent surgery in one of 21 centres in China between 2004 and 2016. Propensity score matching analysis was used to reduce selection bias, and overall survival (OS) in different treatment groups was estimated by the Kaplan–Meier method.
Results
In total, 804 patients with resectable G‐NECs or G‐MANECs were included, of whom 490 (60·9 per cent) received adjuvant chemotherapy. After propensity score matching, OS in the chemotherapy group was similar to that in the no‐chemotherapy group. Among patients with G‐NECs, survival in the fluorouracil (5‐FU)‐based chemotherapy group and the non‐5‐FU‐based chemotherapy group was similar to that in the no‐chemotherapy group. Similarly, etoposide plus cisplatin or irinotecan plus cisplatin was not associated with better OS in patients with G‐NECs. Among patients with G‐MANECs, OS in the non‐5‐FU‐based chemotherapy group was worse than that in the no‐chemotherapy group. Patients with G‐MANECs did not have better OS when platinum‐based chemotherapy was
used.
Conclusion
There was no survival benefit in patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy for G‐NECs or G‐MANECs.
Antecedentes
El objetivo de este estudio fue evaluar si la quimioterapia adyuvante mejoraba la supervivencia en pacientes con carcinomas gástricos resecables neuroendocrinos (gastric neuroendocrine carcinomas, G‐NECs) y carcinomas adenoneuroendocrinos mixtos (mixed adenoneuroendocrine carcinomas, G‐MANECs).
Métodos
Se incluyeron pacientes con G‐NECs y G‐MANECs tratados quirúrgicamente en 21 centros en China entre 2004 y 2016. Se utilizó un análisis de emparejamiento por puntaje de propensión para reducir el sesgo de selección y el método de Kaplan‐Meier para estimar la supervivencia global (overall survival, OS) de los pacientes en los diferentes grupos de tratamiento.
Resultados
En total, se incluyeron en el estudio 804 pacientes con G‐NECs y G‐MANECs resecables y 490 pacientes (60,9%) recibieron quimioterapia adyuvante. Después del emparejamiento por puntaje de propensión, la OS del grupo con quimioterapia fue similar a la del grupo sin quimioterapia. En los pacientes con G‐NECs, la supervivencia en los grupos con quimioterapia basada en 5‐FU (fluorouracilo) y de quimioterapia sin 5‐FU fue similar a la del grupo sin quimioterapia. Asimismo, la combinación de etopósido y cisplatino o de irinotecán y cisplatino no se asoció con una mejor OS en pacientes con G‐NECs. En pacientes con G‐MANECs, la OS del grupo con quimioterapia sin 5‐FU fue peor que la del grupo sin quimioterapia. Los pacientes con G‐MANECs no presentaron una mejor OS cuando se administró quimioterapia basada en platinos.
Conclusión
La administración de quimioterapia adyuvante en pacientes con G‐NECs y G‐MANECs no mejoró la supervivencia.
This multicentre study enrolled 804 patients with resectable gastric neuroendocrine carcinomas and gastric mixed adenoneuroendocrine carcinomas. In propensity score matching analysis, there were no associations between the use of adjuvant chemotherapy and improved overall survival. Similar results were obtained in stratified analysis according to different chemotherapy regimens.
No benefit
Anyons are exotic quasiparticles obeying fractional statistics, whose behavior can be emulated in artificially designed spin systems. Here we present an experimental emulation of creating anyonic ...excitations in a superconducting circuit that consists of four qubits, achieved by dynamically generating the ground and excited states of the toric code model, i.e., four-qubit Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states. The anyonic braiding is implemented via single-qubit rotations: a phase shift of π related to braiding, the hallmark of Abelian 1/2 anyons, has been observed through a Ramsey-type interference measurement.
AIMS: The aim of this study was to characterize anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) community in sediments of the Dongjiang River, a drinking water source of Hong Kong. METHODS AND RESULTS: The ...diversity and distribution of the anammox community were investigated based on a comparative analyses of 16S rRNA and hydrazine oxidation (hzo) genes of anammox bacteria. Candidatus Brocadia and two new anammox bacterial clusters were detected based on phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA genes. In contrast, the targeting of hzo genes indicated the presence of only Candidatus Jettenia with four different clusters. It was found that the sequence diversities of hzo genes were higher than those of the 16S rRNA genes. The abundance of anammox bacteria varied significantly among the sediment samples based on qPCR. Pearson correlation analysis indicated that nitrite concentration was the key factor influencing the abundance of anammox bacteria. The redundance analysis (RDA) confirmed that the combination of the contents of nitrite and nitrate, and the ratio of total nitrogen vs total carbon (TN/TC) had significant impact on the anammox bacterial community structure. CONCLUSIONS: The results revealed that the diverse anammox bacteria were present in sediments of the Dongjiang River, and the community structures were associated with varied environmental factors caused by urban pollutant invasion. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: This is the first report about the distribution of anammox bacterial community in sediments of the Dongjiang River, which provides helpful information of anammox niche specificity and influencing factors in the river ecosystem.
► We conducted the case study on the hydrologic response to urbanization using SWAT model. ► Hydrological responses were different in different seasons and hydrological years. ► Urbanization and its ...impacts were more sensitive in the suburban basin close to city. ► Urbanization had a more remarkable impact on surface runoff than on total streamflow. ► Urbanization tended to increase peak discharge and flood volume.
The Main objective of the study is to understand and quantify the hydrological responses of land use and land cover changes. The Yangtze River Delta is one of the most developed regions in China with the rapid development of urbanization which serves as an excellent case study site for understanding the hydrological response to urbanization and land use change. The Xitiaoxi River basin, one of the main upstream rivers to the Taihu Lake in the Yangtze River Delta, was selected to perform the study. The urban area in the basin increased from 37.8km2 in 1985 to 105km2 in 2008. SWAT model, which makes direct use of land cover and land use data in simulating streamflow, provides as a useful tool for performing such studies and is therefore used in this study. The results showed that (1) the expansion of urban areas had a slight influence on the simulated annual streamflow and evapotranspiration (ET) as far as the whole catchment is concerned; (2) surface runoff and baseflow were found more sensitive to urbanization, which had increased by 11.3% and declined by 11.2%, respectively; (3) changes in streamflow, evapotranspiration and surface runoff were more pronounced during the wet season (from May to August), while baseflow and lateral flow had a slight seasonal variation; (4) the model simulated peak discharge increased 1.6–4.3% and flood volume increased 0.7–2.3% for the selected storm rainfall events at the entire basin level, and the change rate was larger for smaller flood events than for larger events; (5) spatially, changes of hydrological fluxes were more remarkable in the suburban basin which had a relative larger increase in urbanization than in rural sub-basins; and (6) analysis of future scenarios showed the impacts of urbanization on hydrological fluxes would be more obvious with growth in impervious areas from 15% to 30%. In conclusion, the urbanization would have a slight impact on annual water yield, but a remarkable impact was found on surface runoff, peak discharge and flood volume especially in suburban basins in the study area. The study suggested that more attention must be paid for flood mitigation and water resources management in planning future urban development in the region.
We present improved germanium-based constraints on sub-GeV dark matter via dark matter-electron (χ-e) scattering using the 205.4 kg·day dataset from the CDEX-10 experiment. Using a novel calculation ...technique, we attain predicted χ-e scattering spectra observable in high-purity germanium detectors. In the heavy mediator scenario, our results achieve 3 orders of magnitude of improvement for m_{χ} larger than 80 MeV/c^{2} compared to previous germanium-based χ-e results. We also present the most stringent χ-e cross-section limit to date among experiments using solid-state detectors for m_{χ} larger than 90 MeV/c^{2} with heavy mediators and m_{χ} larger than 100 MeV/c^{2} with electric dipole coupling. The result proves the feasibility and demonstrates the vast potential of a new χ-e detection method with high-purity germanium detectors in ultralow radioactive background.
Three evapotranspiration models using the complementary relationship approach for estimating areal actual evapotranspiration were evaluated and compared in three study regions representing a large ...geographic and climatic diversity: NOPEX region in Central Sweden (cool temperate, humid), Baixi catchment in Eastern China (subtropical, humid), and the Potamos tou Pyrgou River catchment in Northwestern Cyprus (semiarid to arid). The models are the CRAE model of Morton, the advection–aridity (AA) model of Brutsaert and Stricker, and the GG model proposed by Granger and Gray using the concept of relative evapotranspiration (the ratio of actual to potential evapotranspiration). The calculation was made on a daily basis and comparison was made on monthly and annual bases. The study was performed in two steps: First, the three evapotranspiration models with their original parameter values were applied to the three regions in order to test their general applicability. Second, the parameter values were locally calibrated based on the water balance study. The results showed that (1) using the original parameter values all three complementary relationship models worked reasonably well for the temperate humid region, while the predictive power decreases in moving toward regions of increased soil moisture control, i.e. increased aridity. In such regions, the parameters need to be calibrated. (2) Using the locally calibrated parameter values all three models produced the annual values correctly. For the monthly values there was a time shift for the appearance of maximum monthly values between the evapotranspiration model estimations and water balance calculations, and the drier the region, the larger the difference. Further examination of the water balance components showed that while the actual evapotranspiration is controlled by several hydrometeorological factors in warmer and drier months the soil moisture is the dominating factor.
Heat stable antifungal factor (HSAF) is considered to be a potential biological pesticide due to its broad antifungal activity and novel mode of action. However, few studies have reported on HSAF ...production during fermentation. Thus, this work was executed to optimize the medium composition to maximize HSAF production by Lysobacter enzymogenes OH11, with soybean flour, glucose and CaCl2 identified as suitable nutrients with concentrations of 8·00, 7·89 and 0·72 g l−1 respectively. Simultaneously, the quantitative analysis of HSAF production was established by eliminating the emulsification problem, and the highest HSAF production was determined to be 356·34 ± 13·86 mg l−1 using the optimized medium, 12‐fold higher than when using the 10% TSB medium (29·34 ± 2·57 mg l−1). Furthermore, the cost of this medium was assessed and nearly 31‐fold lower than that of 10% TSB. This study suggests that the optimized medium is not only effective but also economical for HSAF production.
Significance and Impact of the Study
Significance and Impact of the Study: Heat stable antifungal factor (HSAF) exhibits a potent and broad antifungal activity with a novel mode of action. Increased production and reduced cost of raw materials are particularly important for the future production of HSAF, however, no report was involved in these studies. This study aimed to improve the production of HSAF with cheap raw materials through the medium optimization, which would lay the foundation for the application of HSAF in biological control.
Significance and Impact of the Study: Heat stable antifungal factor (HSAF) exhibits a potent and broad antifungal activity with a novel mode of action. Increased production and reduced cost of raw materials are particularly important for the future production of HSAF, however, no report was involved in these studies. This study aimed to improve the production of HSAF with cheap raw materials through the medium optimization, which would lay the foundation for the application of HSAF in biological control.
PDF
