Fungi are far more complex organisms than viruses or bacteria and can develop numerous diseases in plants that cause loss of a substantial portion of the crop every year. Plants have developed ...various mechanisms to defend themselves against these fungi which include the production of low-molecular-weight secondary metabolites and proteins and peptides with antifungal activity. In this review, families of plant antifungal proteins (AFPs) including defensins, lectins, and several others will be summarized. Moreover, the application of AFPs in agriculture will also be analyzed.
Little study has investigated the differences between Talatomyces marneffei (T. marneffei) respiratory infection and tuberculosis and the prognostic factors of such infection. This study investigated ...the characteristics and prognostic factors of T. marneffei infections with respiratory lesions and the causes of misdiagnosis.
Clinical characteristics and prognoses of patients with T. marneffei infections with respiratory system lesion were investigated. T. marneffei diagnosis followed isolation from clinical specimens using standard culture, cytology, and histopathology. Survival curves were estimated by using Kaplan-Meier analysis, with log-rank test to compare differences in survival rates between groups. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were also performed to assess significant differences in clinical characteristics of overall survival.
Of 126 patients diagnosed with T. marneffei infections, 63 (50.0%) had T. marneffei respiratory system infections; 38.1% (24/63) were misdiagnosed as having tuberculosis. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, CD4/CD8 < 0.5, percentage of CD4 T cells <42.8%, and length of time from onset to confirmation of diagnosis >105 days were potential risk factors for poor prognoses. Length of time from onset to confirmation of diagnosis persisted as an independent predictor of all-cause mortality in multivariate analysis (odds ratio: 0.083, 95.0% confidence interval: 0.021-0.326, P < 0.001). However, the size of the lung lesions, dyspnea, thoracalgia, mediastinal lymphadenopathy, and pleural effusion did not significantly predict overall survival. There was no significant difference in prognosis according to the type of treatment.
T. marneffei infections involving the respiratory system are common. The critical determinants of prognosis are HIV infection, CD4/CD8, percentage of CD4 T cells, type of treatment, and the time range from onset to confirmation of diagnosis. Rapid and accurate diagnosis is crucial for improving prognosis.
Abstract
In this paper, we propose a novel method for distinguishing extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) signals from radio frequency interference (RFI) by leveraging polarization features. We ...exploit the sinusoidal variation of the linearly polarized components of Stokes parameters with the parallactic angle as a characteristic signature of ETI signals, while such linearly polarized components remain relatively stable for terrestrial RFI. Typically, a minimum of 4–8 hr of observation time is required to detect these sinusoidal variations. The polarization approach in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence also enables us to study the radio stellar bursts emitted by M-type stars as ancillary science, which is relevant to assessing the habitability of exoplanets. Compared to the frequency drift method, the polarization method effectively reduces the required observation time for signal identification while improving the signal identification process.
Cobalt-chromium-molybdenum alloy (CoCrMo) and ceramic are the two most common materials for the femoral head in hip joint prostheses, and the acetabular liner is typically made from ultra-high ...molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), highly cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE), or highly cross-linked polyethylene blended with Vitamin E (VEXLPE). The selection of suitable materials should consider both wear performance and cost-effectiveness. This study compared the wear rate between different friction pairs using a hip joint simulator and then recommended a suitable prosthesis based on the corresponding processing technology and cost. All wear simulations were performed in accordance with ISO 14242, using the same hip joint simulator and same test conditions. This study found that when using the same material for the femoral head, the XLPE and VEXLPE liners had a lower wear rate than the UHMWPE liners, and the wear rate of the XLPE liners increased after blending with Vitamin E (VEXLPE). There was no significant difference in the wear rate of XLPE when using a CoCrMo or ceramic head. Considering the wear rate and cost-effectiveness, a CoCrMo femoral head with an accompanying XLPE liner is recommended as the more suitable combination for hip prostheses.
Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) was discovered in 1962 and has unique characteristics compared to the characteristics of other enteroviruses. There were few documented cases before the epidemic in the ...United States in 2014. The Taiwan Centers for Diseases Control also confirmed that EV-D68 has been endemic, and some cases of acute flaccid myelitis were reported in Taiwan. To understand the current EV-D68 serostatus, we performed an EV-D68 seroepidemiology study in Taiwan in 2017.
After informed consent was obtained, we enrolled preschool children, 6- to 15-year-old students and 16- to 49-year-old people. The participants underwent a questionnaire investigation and blood sampling to measure the EV-D68 neutralization antibody.
In total, 920 subjects were enrolled from the northern, central, southern and eastern parts of Taiwan with a male-to-female ratio of 1.03. The EV-D68 seropositive rate was 32% (26/82) in infants, 18% (27/153) in 1-year-old children, 43% (36/83) in 2-year-old children, 60% (94/156) in 3- to 5-year-old children, 89% (108/122) in 6- to 11-year-old primary school students, 98% (118/121) in 12- to 15-year-old high school students, 100% (122/122) in 16- to 49-year-old women and 100% (81/81) in 16- to 49-year-old males in 2017. Among preschool children, EV-D68 seropositivity was related to age (p for trend <0.0001), size of household ≧4 members (p = 0.037) and kindergarten attendance (p = 0.027). The seropositive rate varied among different geographic regions.
EV-D68 infection was prevalent, and its seropositive rates increased with age, larger household size and kindergarten attendance among preschool children.
It is generally supposed that a transition from the normal decay phase (decay slope ∼−1) to a steeper phase (decay slope ∼−2) could be suggested as a jet break. The jet opening angle θjet is then ...calculated from the jet break time of the afterglow light curve. This allows the derivation of the collimation-corrected energy Ejet of those gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). We extensively searched for the GRBs with jet break features from multiwavelength afterglow light curves, and 138 GRBs with significant breaks were collected. The jet break times of those GRBs mainly range from 1000 to 106 s, and the distribution of the collimation-corrected energy Ejet peaks at ∼1050 erg. We also confirmed the Eγ,iso−Ep,i, Ejet−Ep,i and Eγ,iso−θjet relations, and found Eγ,iso−Tj,z−Ep,i relation remains tight with more multiwavelength data. This tight Eγ,iso−Tj,z−Ep,i relation is also conformed by different groups of our selected GRBs in the paper. In addition, another two new and tighter correlations among Ejet−Tj,z−Ep,i are well confirmed for different circumburst mediums in this paper. We suggest that those tight three-parameter correlations are more physical, and could be widely applied to constrain the cosmological parameters.
•The rotating detonation waves fueled by kerosene/air mixture are simulated.•Quasi-2D simulations of rotating detonation engine (RDE) with discrete injection model are performed.•Detonation cellular ...structure of rotating detonation waves is discussed.•The influence of discrete reactants on rotating detonation cellular structure is studied.•The deflagration zone in triangle gas layers is studied and compared with experimental result.
The propagation of multiple detonation waves in the two-dimensional modeled rotating detonation combustor fueled by premixed kerosene/air mixtures is numerically investigated with a reduced two-step global chemical mechanism. Discrete fuel injection model is adopted to simulate the discontinuous distribution of reactants in Rotating Detonation Engine (RDE) experiments. A parameter inlet-area ratio (ψ) is proposed to obtain the reactants with different dispersion degree. This work focuses on the effect of discontinuous reactants on detonation cells and overall flow-field structure of rotating detonation waves. The results show that with full-area injection model (ψ=1.0), the reactants distribute continuously in triangular gas layers. Rotating detonation waves propagate stably with regular detonation cellular structure. When ψ is less than 1.0, the injection reactants are distributed in strips. At the position far away from the head-end wall of combustor, the fresh reactants and combustion products are mixing with each other which causes the deflagration zones in triangle gas layers. The reactants remaining after deflagration process in deflagration zones cannot support the propagation of detonation leading to the partially decouple of detonation front. The large area of deflagration zones distorts the flow-field structure and reduces the propulsion performance of combustor.
To investigate the underlying resistance mechanisms of Saccharomyces cerevisiae against Ag-NPs with different particle sizes and coatings, transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) technology was used to ...characterize the transcriptomes from S. cerevisiae exposed to 20-PVP-Ag, 100-PVP-Ag, 20-CIT-Ag and 100-CIT-Ag, respectively. The steroid biosynthesis was found as a general pathway for Ag-NPs stress responding, in which ERG6 and ERG3 were inhibited and ERG11, ERG25 and ERG5 were significantly up-regulated to resist the stress by supporting the later mutation and resistance and modulate drug efflux indirectly. The resistance mechanism of S. cerevisiae to 20-PVP-Ag seems different from that of 100-PVP-Ag, 20-CIT-Ag and 100-CIT-Ag. Under the 20-PVP-Ag, transmembrane transporter activity, transition metal ion homeostasis and oxidative phosphorylation pathway were main resistance pathways to enhance cell transport processes. While 100-PVP-Ag, 20-CIT-Ag and 100-CIT-Ag mainly impacted RNA binding, structural constituent of ribosome and ribosome pathway which can provide more energy to maintain the number and function of protein in cells. This study reveals the differences in resistance mechanisms of S. cerevisiae to Ag-NPs with different particle sizes and coatings, and explains several main regulatory mechanisms used to respond to silver stress. It will provide theoretical basis for the study of chemical risk assessment.
An enzymatic process for the efficient asymmetric reduction of 3H‐indoles as well as 3H‐indole iodides was developed for the first time. Using a new imine reductase identified from Paenibacillus ...lactis (PlSIR), various chiral indolines were facilely synthesized in good yields and excellent enantiopurities (up to >99% ee) under mild reaction conditions.
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