Changes and prognosis of coupling between heart and brain in ischemic stroke rats

Objective To study the changes of heart-brain coupling indexes after cerebral ischemia in a rat model of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) and the relationship with prognosis in the early stage. Methods Twenty male SD rats(7~8 weeks old, body weight 290±25 g) were randomly divided into 2 groups (n=10): the cerebral ischemia group (MCAO group) and the control group (Sham group). Lead Ⅱ electrocardiography (ECG) and dual-channel electroencephalogram (EEG) were recorded at the baseline and 0~4 h after the surgery. Neurofunctional recovery was evaluated by neurological deficit score(NDS) via a series of behavior tests every 24 h and survival time was recorded. The heart rate variability (HRV) indicators were extracted by the collected ECG signals, including RR interval (RRI), low frequency (LF), high frequency (HF) and LF/HF ratio. The power spectrum of δ, θ, α and β waves were calculated from EEG signal. The heart-brain network was constructed based on the indicators mentioned, and the transfer entropy algorithm was used to quantify the coupling strength applied to the prognosis for survival which was analyzed and compared by the area under curve (AUC) among nodes of different networks. Results There was a bidirectional interaction between the brain and the heart, and the strength of two-way coupling increased after ischemia. There was obviously increased coupling between HRV LF and EEG δ wave. Transfer entropy (AUC=0.717, P=0.010) was superior to the HRV (AUC=0.571, P=0.404) and EEG power spectrum (AUC=0.583, P=0.329) in prognostication. Conclusion The low-frequency coupling between heart and brain enhanced after cerebral ischemia, and the coupling index of heart and brain can improve the prognostic performance

Passive Vibration Control of a Semi-Submersible Floating Offshore Wind Turbine

Floating offshore wind turbines have the potential to commercially convert the vast wind resource in deep-water area. Compared with fixed-bottom wind turbines, motions of the floating foundation complicate vibrations and loads of the wind turbine in offshore environment. To alleviate the responses of the wind turbine, this study investigates the use of fore–aft tuned mass damper (TMD) in nacelle/tower for passive control of a semi-submersible offshore wind turbine. A simplified structural model, considering the degree-of-freedom of platform pitch and surge, tower tilt and TMD translation, is proposed in the light of motion features of semi-submersible platform. After identifying ten unknown parameters, the correctness of the deterministic model is validated by pitch free decay responses. The mass, stiffness and damping of TMD are optimized using both method of exhaustion and genetic algorithm to avoid local minimum. Six optimized TMD devices are evaluated under three kinds of realistic environment conditions. The control effectiveness is assessed by the extreme and fatigue response reduction ratios. It is found that the high stiffness TMDs that directly dissipate the energy of tower oscillation exhibit an overall stable performance. Similar to the spar-type foundation, the TMDs in the nacelle/tower are capable of extending the service life of floating wind turbines

High prevalence of Enterocytozoon bieneusi zoonotic genotype D in captive golden snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus roxellanae) in zoos in China

Abstract Background Enterocytozoon bieneusi is the dominant specie of microsporidia which can infect both anthroponotic and zoonotic species. The golden snub-nosed monkey is an endangered primate which can also infect by E. bieneusi. To date, few genetic data on E. bieneusi from golden snub-nosed monkeys has been published. Therefore, to clarify the prevalence and genotypes of E. bieneusi in captive golden snub-nosed monkeys is necessary to assess the potential for zoonotic transmission. Result We examined 160 golden snub-nosed monkeys from six zoos in four cities in China, using PCR and comparative sequence analysis of the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS). The overall prevalence of E. bieneusi was 46.2% (74/160); while the prevalence was 26.7%, 69.1%, 69.4% and 33.3% in Shanghai Zoo, Shanghai Wild Animal Park, Tongling Zoo, and Taiyuan Zoo respectively (P = 0.006). A total of seven E. bieneusi genotypes were found that included four known (D, J, CHG1, and CHG14) and three new (CM19–CM 21) genotypes. The most common genotype was D (54/74, 73.0%), followed by J (14/74, 18.9%); other genotypes were restricted to one or two samples. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that genotype D belonged to the previously-characterized Group 1, with zoonotic potential; whereas genotypes J, CHG1, CHG14 and CM19–CM 21 clustered in the previously-characterized Group 2, the so-called cattle host specificity group. Conclusions The findings of high prevalence of zoonotic E. bieneusi genotypes D and J in golden snub-nosed monkeys suggest that golden snub-nosed monkeys may be the reservoir hosts for human microsporidiosis, and vice versa

Additional file 2: Table S2. of High prevalence of Enterocytozoon bieneusi zoonotic genotype D in captive golden snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus roxellanae) in zoos in China

Nucleotide substitutions among all sequences found in this study versus the reported genotype J (KU557671). (XLS 49 kb

Herpes zoster mRNA vaccine induces superior vaccine immunity over licensed vaccine in mice and rhesus macaques

ABSTRACTHerpes zoster remains an important global health issue and mainly occurs in aged and immunocompromised individuals with an early exposure history to Varicella Zoster Virus (VZV). Although the licensed vaccine Shingrix has remarkably high efficacy, undesired reactogenicity and increasing global demand causing vaccine shortage urged the development of improved or novel VZV vaccines. In this study, we developed a novel VZV mRNA vaccine candidate (named as ZOSAL) containing sequence-optimized mRNAs encoding full-length glycoprotein E encapsulated in an ionizable lipid nanoparticle. In mice and rhesus macaques, ZOSAL demonstrated superior immunogenicity and safety in multiple aspects over Shingrix, especially in the induction of strong T-cell immunity. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that both ZOSAL and Shingrix could robustly activate innate immune compartments, especially Type-I IFN signalling and antigen processing/presentation. Multivariate correlation analysis further identified several early factors of innate compartments that can predict the magnitude of T-cell responses, which further increased our understanding of the mode of action of two different VZV vaccine modalities. Collectively, our data demonstrated the superiority of VZV mRNA vaccine over licensed subunit vaccine. The mRNA platform therefore holds prospects for further investigations in next-generation VZV vaccine development