Background
The expression of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is multidimensional. Disease heterogeneity in patients with CRS remains poorly understood. This study aimed to identify endotypes of CRS ...using cluster analysis by integrating multidimensional characteristics and to explore their association with treatment outcomes.
Methods
A total of 28 clinical variables and 39 mucosal cellular and molecular variables were analyzed using principal component analysis. Cluster analysis was performed on 246 prospectively recruited Chinese CRS patients with at least 1‐year postoperative follow‐up. Difficult‐to‐treat CRS was characterized in each generated cluster.
Results
Seven subject clusters were identified. Cluster 1 (13.01%) was comparable to the classic well‐defined eosinophilic CRS with polyps, having severe disease and the highest proportion of difficult‐to‐treat CRS. Patients in cluster 2 (16.26%) and cluster 4 (13.82%) had relatively lower proportions of presence of polyps and presented mild inflammation with moderate proportions of difficult‐to‐treat cases. Subjects in cluster 2 were highly atopic. Cluster 3 (7.31%) and cluster 6 (21.14%) were characterized by severe or moderate neutrophilic inflammation, respectively, and with elevated levels of IL‐8 and high proportions of difficult‐to‐treat CRS. Cluster 5 (4.07%) was a unique group characterized by the highest levels of IL‐10 and lacked difficult‐to‐treat cases. Cluster 7 (24.39%) demonstrated the lowest symptom severity, a low proportion of difficult‐to‐treat CRS, and low inflammation load. Finally, we found that difficult‐to‐treat CRS was associated with distinct clinical features and biomarkers in the different clusters.
Conclusions
Distinct clinicopathobiologic clusters of CRS display differences in clinical response to treatments and characteristics of difficult‐to‐treat CRS.
Background
The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of epidemiologic and physician‐diagnosed pollen‐induced AR (PiAR) in the grasslands of northern China and to study the impact of the ...intensity and time of pollen exposure on PiAR prevalence.
Methods
A multistage, clustered and proportionately stratified random sampling with a field interviewer‐administered survey study was performed together with skin prick tests (SPT) and measurements of the daily pollen count.
Results
A total of 6043 subjects completed the study, with a proportion of 32.4% epidemiologic AR and 18.5% PiAR. The prevalence was higher in males than females (19.6% vs 17.4%, P = .024), but no difference between the two major residential and ethnic groups (Han and Mongolian) was observed. Subjects from urban areas showed higher prevalence of PiAR than rural areas (23.1% vs 14.0%, P < .001). Most PiAR patients were sensitized to two or more pollens (79.4%) with artemisia, chenopodium, and humulus scandens being the most common pollen types, which were similarly found as the top three sensitizing pollen allergens by SPT. There were significant regional differences in the prevalence of epidemiologic AR (from 18.6% to 52.9%) and PiAR (from 10.5% to 31.4%) among the six areas investigated. PiAR symptoms were positively associated with pollen counts, temperature, and precipitation (P < .05), but negatively with wind speed and pressure P < .05).
Conclusion
Pollen‐induced AR (PiAR) prevalence in the investigated region is extremely high due to high seasonal pollen exposure, which was influenced by local environmental and climate conditions.
ABSTRACT
High time resolution and accuracy are of critical importance in the studies of timing analysis and time delay localization of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) and ...pulsars. The Gravitational wave high-energy Electromagnetic Counterpart All-sky Monitor (GECAM) consisting of two micro-satellites, GECAM-A and GECAM-B, launched on 2020 December 10, is aimed at monitoring and locating X-ray and GRBs all over the sky. To achieve its scientific goals, GECAM is designed to have the highest time resolution (0.1 $\mu {\rm s}$) among all GRB detectors ever flown. Here, we make a comprehensive time calibration campaign including both on-ground and on-orbit tests to derive not only the relative time accuracy of GECAM satellites and detectors, but also the absolute time accuracy of GECAM-B. Using the on-ground calibration with a $\rm ^{22}Na$ radioactive source, we find that the relative time accuracy between GECAM-A and GECAM-B is about 0.15 $\mu {\rm s}$ (1σ). To measure the relative time accuracy between all detectors of a single GECAM satellite, cosmic-ray events detected on orbit are utilized since they could produce many secondary particles simultaneously record by multiple detectors. We find that the relative time accuracy among all detectors onboard GECAM-B is about 0.12 $\mu {\rm s}$ (1σ). Finally, we use the novel Li-CCF method to perform the absolute time calibration with Crab pulsar and SGR J1935+2154, both of which were jointly observed by GECAM-B and Fermi/GBM, and obtain that the time difference between GECAM-B and Fermi/GBM is 3.06 ± 6.04 $\mu {\rm s}$ (1σ).
The mechanical properties and fracture characteristics of stainless steel clad plates by vacuum hot rolling at different rolling temperature of 1100°C (S1), 1200°C (S2) and 1300°C (S3) are ...investigated in detail. The carburized layer thickness and grain size is gradually increased with the increasing rolling temperature. The sufficient alloy element diffusion, recovery and recrystallization at the bonding temperature of 1300°C lead to the highest interfacial shear strength and the lowest longitudinal tensile strength among the three clad plates. However, the tensile ductility is increased with the increasing rolling temperature, which is attributed to the increased interfacial bonding strength. The strong interface can effectively delay the formation of interfacial delamination crack and premature localized necking, resulting into a prolong uniform plastic deformation stage with a low stress triaxiality. In addition, there are many intergranular tunnel cracks with the length of 50–150µm presented in the carburized layer due to Cr23C6 carbides on the grain boundary, which can effectively toughen the stainless steel clad plates.
β‐hydroxybutyric acid (BHBA) has recently been shown to regulate hormone synthesis and secretion in the hypothalamus. However, little is known about the effects of BHBA‐mediated hormone regulation or ...the detailed mechanisms by which BHBA regulates growth hormone‐releasing hormone (GHRH) synthesis and secretion. In the present study, we examined the expression of the BHBA receptor GPR109A in primary hypothalamic cell cultures. We hypothesised that BHBA regulates GHRH via GPR109A and its downstream signals. Initial in vivo studies conducted in rats demonstrated that GHRH mRNA expression in the hypothalamus was strongly inversely correlated with BHBA levels in the cerebrospinal fluid during postnatal development (r = −0.89, P < 0.01). Furthermore, i.c.v. administration of BHBA acutely decreased GHRH mRNA expression in rats. Further in vitro studies revealed a decrease in GHRH synthesis and secretion in primary hypothalamic cells after treatment with BHBA; this effect was inhibited when hypothalamic cells were pretreated with pertussis toxin (PTX). BHBA had no effect on GHRH synthesis and secretion in GT1‐7 cells, which do not exhibit cell surface expression of GPR109A. Furthermore, BHBA acutely decreased the transcription of the homeobox gene for Gsh‐1 in the hypothalamus in both in vivo and in vitro, and this effect was also inhibited by PTX in vitro. In primary hypothalamic cells, BHBA activated the extracellular signal‐regulated kinase (ERK)1/2, p38 and c‐Jun N‐terminal kinase mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) kinases, as shown by western blot analysis. Moreover, inhibition of ERK1/2 with U0126 attenuated the BHBA‐mediated reduction in Gsh‐1 expression and GHRH synthesis and secretion. These results strongly suggest that BHBA directly regulates GHRH synthesis and secretion via the GPR109A/ERK1/2 MAPK pathway, and also that Gsh‐1 is essential for this function.
Quantum sensing based on exotic quantum states is appealing for practical metrology applications and fundamental studies. However, these quantum states are vulnerable to noise and the resulting ...quantum enhancement is weakened in practice. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a quantum-enhanced sensing scheme with a bosonic probe, by exploring the large Hilbert space of the bosonic mode and developing both the approximate quantum error correction and the quantum jump tracking approaches. In a practical radiometry scenario, we attain a 5.3 dB enhancement of sensitivity, which reaches 9.1 × 10
Hz
when measuring the excitation population of a receiver mode. Our results demonstrate the potential of quantum sensing with near-term quantum technologies, not only shedding new light on the quantum advantage of sensing, but also stimulating further efforts on bosonic quantum technologies.
Since the 1980s, vacuum hot rolling has been developed to fabricate the stainless steel clad plates by the Iron and Steel Institute of Japan. Herein, hot rolling is a widely used solid-state bonding ...process to join the carbon steel substrate and stainless steel cladding. In this paper, we provide a brief overview of the vacuum hot rolling process and effective parameters on the interface characteristics and shear strength of stainless steel clad plate. The effects of surface preparation condition, atmosphere condition, vacuum degree, rolling temperature, rolling reduction ratio, interlayer, heat treatment on the microstructure, interface characteristics and mechanical properties of stainless steel clad plate have been analyzed in detail. It is shown that the interface transition zone is formed due to the carbon diffusion, and the strong interface bonding is attributed to the sufficient alloy elements diffusion of Fe, Cr and Ni. Moreover, the interface shear strength and toughness are also affected by interfacial precipitation phase and multiple oxides. Finally, the present work concluded the bonding mechanism of hot-rolled stainless steel clad based on the oxide film theory, diffusion theory, recrystallization theory and three stage theory.
PDF
