Will ocean acidification affect the digestive physiology and gut microbiota of whelk *Brunneifusus ternatanus*?

To understand the physiological responses of the Brunneifusus ternatanus to future ocean acidification (OA), histology, enzyme activity and gut bacterial composition at different pH levels (Control : C group, pH 8.1; Exposure period : EP group, pH 7.3) for 28 days were studied under laboratory conditions. Microbiota composition was analyzed using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. Enzyme activities of trypsin (TRY), lipase (LPS), amylase (AMS), and lysozyme (LZM) were used as biochemical indicators, as well as weight gain rate (WGR), specific growth rate (SGR) as growth indicators. The stress caused by OA resulted in alterations to the intestine, including partially swollen and degranulated enterocytes and rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER). The relative abundance of the core phylum in the acidified group changed significantly, showing an increase in Tenericutes and a decrease in Proteobacteria. Firmicutes/Bacteroides ratio declined from 4.38 in the control group to 1.25 in the EP group. We found that the enzymes TRY, LPS, and AMS activities were inhibited at reduced pH, which was positively correlated with the dominant genera Mycoplasma and Bacteroides; while LZM activities showed a significant increment, but showing a strong negative correlation. Furthermore, both WG and SRG values showed a depression at low pH lever. These results suggest that if anthropogenic CO2 emissions continue to accelerate, OA could lead to a negative impact on the whelk health, also compromising their growth performance and even survival. These findings will benefit the future risk assessments of OA or other related emerging environmental issue

Current reversals and metastable states in the infinite Bose-Hubbard chain with local particle loss

We present an algorithm which combines the quantum trajectory approach to open quantum systems with a density-matrix renormalization group scheme for infinite one-dimensional lattice systems. We apply this method to investigate the long-time dynamics in the Bose-Hubbard model with local particle loss starting from a Mott-insulating initial state with one boson per site. While the short-time dynamics can be described even quantitatively by an equation of motion (EOM) approach at the mean-field level, many-body interactions lead to unexpected effects at intermediate and long times: local particle currents far away from the dissipative site start to reverse direction ultimately leading to a metastable state with a total particle current pointing away from the lossy site. An alternative EOM approach based on an effective fermion model shows that the reversal of currents can be understood qualitatively by the creation of holon-doublon pairs at the edge of the region of reduced particle density. The doublons are then able to escape while the holes move towards the dissipative site, a process reminiscent---in a loose sense---of Hawking radiation

Super-Resolution Imaging with Patchy Microspheres

The diffraction limit is a fundamental barrier in optical microscopy, which restricts the smallest resolvable feature size of a microscopic system. Microsphere-based microscopy has proven to be a promising tool for challenging the diffraction limit. Nevertheless, the microspheres have a low imaging contrast in air, which hinders the application of this technique. In this work, we demonstrate that this challenge can be effectively overcome by using partially Ag-plated microspheres. The deposited Ag film acts as an aperture stop that blocks a portion of the incident beam, forming a photonic hook and an oblique near-field illumination. Such a photonic hook significantly enhanced the imaging contrast of the system, as experimentally verified by imaging the Blu-ray disc surface and colloidal particle arrays

Does Serum Vitamin D Level Affect COVID-19 Infection and Its Severity?-A Case-Control Study

Background: As effective medication to treat COVID-19 is currently unavailable, preventive remedies may be particularly important. Objective: To examine the relationship between serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D (25(OH)D) level and COVID-19 infection, its severity, and its clinical case characteristics. Methods: This case-control study compared serum 25(OH)D levels and rates of vitamin D deficiency (VDD) between 80 healthy controls and 62 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 and admitted to Guangxi People’s Hospital, China, 2/16/2020–3/16/2020. Cases were categorized into asymptomatic, mild/moderate, and severe/critical disease. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to examine the associations between 25(OH)D level, or VDD, and case status/severity of COVID-19 while controlling for demographics and comorbidities. A threshold level of vitamin D for conveying COVID-19 risk was estimated. Results: Severe/critical COVID-19 cases were significantly older and had higher percentages of comorbidity (renal failure) compared to mild cases. The serum 25(OH)D concentration in COVID-19 patient was much lower than that in healthy control. And 25(OH)D level was the lowest in severe/ critical cases, compared with mild cases. In further, significantly higher rates of VDD were found in COVID-19 cases (41.9%) compared to healthy controls (11.1%). And VDD was the greatest in severe/critical cases (80%), compared with mild cases (36%). These statistically significant associations remained even after controlling for demographics and comorbidities. A potential threshold of 25(OH)D (41.19nmol/L) to protect against COVID-19 was identified. Conclusion: Elderly and people with comorbidities were susceptible to severe COVID-19 infection. VDD was a risk factor for COVID-19, especially for severe/critical cases. While further confirmation is needed, vitamin D supplementation may have prevention or treatment potential for COVID- 19 disease

Risk Assessment of Etanercept in Mice Chronically Infected With Toxoplasma gondii

Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is a zoonotic parasite that severely harms the health of the host. The cysts of T. gondii can reactivate from bradyzoites to tachyzoites, if the individual develops low or defective immunity, causing lethal toxoplasmosis. The host resists T. gondii infection by mediating Th1-type cellular immunity to generate pro-inflammatory cytokines. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) is an important pro-inflammatory cytokine, which can induce lysosomal fusion of parasitophorous vacuole (PV) to kill parasites. Etanercept is a soluble TNF receptor fusion protein, which is widely used clinically to cure autoimmune diseases. The effects and specific molecular mechanisms of etanercept treatment on patients co-infected with autoimmune diseases and chronic toxoplasmosis are rarely reported. In our study, a mouse model of chronic infection with T. gondii and murine macrophages RAW264.7 cells infected with T. gondii were employed to investigate the impact of etanercept on the status of chronic infection. The cytokines levels and a series of phenotypic experiments in vivo and in vitro were measured. In the present study, the expression levels of TNF, IL-1β, and IL-6 were decreased and the brain cysts number was increased in mice chronically infected with T. gondii after being treated with etanercept. In vivo experiments confirmed that etanercept caused a decrease in the immune levels of the mice and activated the brain cysts, which would lead to conversion from chronic infection to acute infection, causing severe clinical and pathological symptoms. Murine macrophages RAW264.7 cells were pretreated with etanercept, and then infected with T. gondii. In vitro experiments, the expression levels of cytokines were decreased, indicating that etanercept could also reduce the cells’ immunity and promote the transformation of bradyzoites to tachyzoites, but did not affect the intracellular replication of tachyzoites. In summary, etanercept treatment could activate the conversion of bradyzoites to tachyzoites through reducing host immunity in vivo and in vitro. The results obtained from this study suggest that the use of etanercept in patients co-infected with autoimmune diseases and chronic toxoplasmosis may lead to the risk of activation of chronic infection, resulting in severe acute toxoplasmosis

Efficacy and safety of the compound Chinese medicine SaiLuoTong in vascular dementia: A randomized clinical trial

Introduction: No licensed medications are available to treat vascular dementia (VaD). Methods: Patients were randomly assigned to experimental groups (SaiLuoTong [SLT] 360 or 240 mg for groups A and B for 52 weeks, respectively) or placebo group (SLT 360 mg and 240 mg for group C only from weeks 27 to 52, respectively). Results: Three hundred twenty-five patients were included in final analysis. At week 26, the difference in VaD Assessment Scale-cognitive subscale scores was 2.67 (95% confidence interval, 1.54 to 3.81) for groups A versus C, and 2.48 (1.34 to 3.62) for groups B versus C (both Discussion: This study suggests that SLT is effective for treatment of VaD, and this compound Chinese medicine may represent a better choice to treat VaD

Expert consensus on postoperative rehabilitation nursing of patients with head and neck cancer

The location and size of tumors, treatment methods and prognosis of patients with head and neck cancer can seriously affect their oral function and neck activity, thereby affecting daily activities such as eating, speech and upper limb movement. Early rehabilitation after head and neck cancer surgery can accelerate functional recovery, alleviate discomfort symptoms, improve quality of life, and reduce unnecessary rehabilitation or treatment measures. Developing a clinical rehabilitation nursing pathway for head and neck cancer, forming personalized rehabilitation plans, and conducting early and effective nursing interventions are currently one of the key points of clinical work for patients with head and neck cancer. At present, domestic and foreign guidelines or consensus pays less attention to the impairments of speech function, chewing and swallowing function, neck and shoulder function etc., and lacks a systematic and comprehensive rehabilitation nursing guide or consensus to provide practical guidance for the care of patients with head and neck cancer. Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine organized relevant experts from Beijing, Shanghai, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Zhejiang and Anhui to draft Expert consensus on postoperative rehabilitation nursing of patients with head and neck cancer basing on previous literature and clinical nursing skills and experiences, of which the aim is to provide guidance for those patients in the aspects of oral care, nutritional support, flap donor area care, care after tracheotomy, chewing and swallowing rehabilitation, speech function rehabilitation, neck and shoulder function rehabilitation, restricted mouth opening rehabilitation, risk identification and prevention and follow-up

Ultrasound measurement of vastus lateralis and vastus medialis muscle parameters to identify chronic thyrotoxic myopathy

Introduction: Chronic thyrotoxic myopathy (CTM) is a common, easily neglected complication of hyperthyroidism. There are currently no standard diagnostic criteria for CTM, and the ultrasonic characteristics of CTM-affected skeletal muscle remain unclear. Herein, we aimed to evaluate hyperthyroid patients for CTM by ultrasound and identify ultrasonic muscle parameter cutoffs for CTM diagnosis. Materials and methods: Each participant underwent ultrasonography. The original (muscle thickness (MT), pennation angle (PA), and cross-sectional area (CSA)) and corrected (MT/height (HT), MT/body mass index (BMI), CSA/HT, and CSA/BMI) parameters of the vastus lateralis and vastus medialis (VM) were evaluated. The diagnostic effectiveness of ultrasound for predicting CTM was determined using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Our study included 203 participants: 67 CTM patients (18 males, 49 females), 67 non-CTM patients (28 males, 39 females) and 69 healthy controls (20 males, 49 females). Results: The CTM group had lower muscular ultrasonic and anthropometric parameters, higher thyroid hormone and thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor antibody (TRAb) levels, and a longer duration of hyperthyroidism than the non-CTM group (P < 0.05). The VM-PA, VM-CSA, VM-CSA/HT, and VM-CSA/BMI were lower in females than in males (P < 0.05). Free thyroxine (FT4) and TRAb both showed significant negative correlations with VM-MT, VM-MT/HT, VM-CSA, and VM-CSA/HT (P < 0.05). VM-MT/BMI and VM-CSA/HT, respectively, best predicted male and female CTM (AUC = 0.84, 0.85; cutoff ≤ 0.07, < 4.01). Conclusion: Ultrasound measurement of muscular parameters, especially in the VM, is a valid and feasible way of diagnosing and characterizing possible CTM in hyperthyroidism