A new framework for host-pathogen interaction research

COVID-19 often manifests with different outcomes in different patients, highlighting the complexity of the host-pathogen interactions involved in manifestations of the disease at the molecular and cellular levels. In this paper, we propose a set of postulates and a framework for systematically understanding complex molecular host-pathogen interaction networks. Specifically, we first propose four host-pathogen interaction (HPI) postulates as the basis for understanding molecular and cellular host-pathogen interactions and their relations to disease outcomes. These four postulates cover the evolutionary dispositions involved in HPIs, the dynamic nature of HPI outcomes, roles that HPI components may occupy leading to such outcomes, and HPI checkpoints that are critical for specific disease outcomes. Based on these postulates, an HPI Postulate and Ontology (HPIPO) framework is proposed to apply interoperable ontologies to systematically model and represent various granular details and knowledge within the scope of the HPI postulates, in a way that will support AI-ready data standardization, sharing, integration, and analysis. As a demonstration, the HPI postulates and the HPIPO framework were applied to study COVID-19 with the Coronavirus Infectious Disease Ontology (CIDO), leading to a novel approach to rational design of drug/vaccine cocktails aimed at interrupting processes occurring at critical host-coronavirus interaction checkpoints. Furthermore, the host-coronavirus protein-protein interactions (PPIs) relevant to COVID-19 were predicted and evaluated based on prior knowledge of curated PPIs and domain-domain interactions, and how such studies can be further explored with the HPI postulates and the HPIPO framework is discussed

Control strategy analysis of multistage speed compressor for vehicle air conditioning based on particle swarm optimization

For electric vehicles (EVs), there is an urgent need to reduce the energy consumption of the air conditioning (AC) system while ensuring the cabin's comfort. This paper proposes a particle swarm optimization-based multistage compressor speed (PSO-MCS) control strategy to reduce compressor energy consumption. The multistage compressor speed (MCS) allows the compressor speed to be as near to the high-efficiency cooling zone as possible, outputting different speeds in different temperature zones to achieve temperature control. The particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is used to reduce the compressor energy consumption by searching for the optimal compressor speed. The AC system mathematical model based on PSO-MCS is built and compared with the conventional proportional-integral-differential (PID) control. The results show that PSO-MCS control can improve the coefficient of performance (COP) by 2.41% and 2.71%, respectively, compared to PID control at 35 °C and 40 °C. And PSO-MCS control can reduce 4.07% and 3.89% energy consumption, respectively

Risk factors responsible for atrial fibrillation development between symptomatic patients with concealed or manifest atrioventricular accessory pathways

Patients with manifest atrioventricular accessory pathways (mAPs) have a greater tendency to develop atrial fibrillation (AF) compared with patients with concealed atrioventricular accessory pathways (cAPs). However, the risk factors of developing AF in patients with various atrioventricular accessory pathways (APs) are not clear. This retrospective study included 460 symptomatic patients with either cAPs (n = 246) or mAPs (n = 214) who underwent electrophysiological study and successful radiofrequency catheter ablation of APs. Clinical and electrophysiological characteristics were compared between cAPs and mAPs and between AF and non-AF groups with cAPs or mAPs. Independent risk factors of AF were analyzed using multivariate logistic regression. AF was more frequent in mAPs group than in cAPs group (23.4% vs 9.8%, p < 0.01). Clinical features were similar between cAPs and mAPs. Anterograde conduction properties served as the major electrophysiological feature of mAPs. Multivariate analysis indicated that mAPs, hypertension, post-ablation P wave dispersion (Pd), N-terminal proB-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and creatinine were independent risk factors of AF in the complete cohort. Hypertension, post-ablation Pd and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) were independent risk factors of AF in cAPs group. Post-ablation Pd, NT-proBNP, creatinine and shorter effective refractory period of anterograde accessory pathways (AAP ERP) were independent risk factors of AF in mAPs group. Results from this study demonstrate that the risk factors of AF are not homogenous between concealed and manifest APs, which might suggest heterogeneous pathogenesis of AF in these two types of APs

Design, Synthesis and Adsorption Evaluation of Bio-Based Lignin/Chitosan Beads for Congo Red Removal

The morphology and intermolecular interaction are two of the most important factors in the design of highly efficient dye adsorbent in the industry. Millimeter-sized, bead-type, bio-based lignin/chitosan (Lig/CS) adsorbent was designed for the removal of Congo red (CR), based on the electrostatic attraction, &pi;-&pi; stacking, and hydrogen bonding, which were synthesized through the emulsification of the chitosan/lignin mixture followed by chemical cross-linking. The effects of the lignin/chitosan mass ratio, initial pH, temperature, concentration, and contact time on the adsorption were thoroughly investigated. The highest adsorption capacity (173 mg/g) was obtained for the 20 wt% Lig/CS beads, with a removal rate of 86.5%. To investigate the adsorption mechanism and recyclability, an evaluation of the kinetic model and an adsorption/desorption experiment were conducted. The adsorption of CR on Lig/CS beads followed the type 1 pseudo-second-order model, and the removal rate for CR was still above 90% at five cycles

Risk factors responsible for atrial fibrillation development between symptomatic patients with concealed or manifest atrioventricular accessory pathways

Background: Patients with manifest atrioventricular accessory pathways (mAPs) have a greater tendency to develop atrial fibrillation (AF) compared with patients with concealed atrioventricular accessory pathways (cAPs). However, the risk factors of developing AF in patients with various atrioventricular accessory pathways (APs) are not clear. Methods: This retrospective study included 460 symptomatic patients with either cAPs (n = 246) or mAPs (n = 214) who underwent electrophysiological study and successful radiofrequency catheter ablation of APs. Clinical and electrophysiological characteristics were compared between cAPs and mAPs and between AF and non-AF groups with cAPs or mAPs. Independent risk factors of AF were analyzed using multivariate logistic regression. Results: AF was more frequent in mAPs group than in cAPs group (23.4% vs 9.8%, p < 0.01). Clinical features were similar between cAPs and mAPs. Anterograde conduction properties served as the major electrophysiological feature of mAPs. Multivariate analysis indicated that mAPs, hypertension, post-ablation P wave dispersion (Pd), N-terminal proB-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and creatinine were independent risk factors of AF in the complete cohort. Hypertension, post-ablation Pd and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) were independent risk factors of AF in cAPs group. Post-ablation Pd, NT-proBNP, creatinine and shorter effective refractory period of anterograde accessory pathways (AAP ERP) were independent risk factors of AF in mAPs group. Conclusions: Results from this study demonstrate that the risk factors of AF are not homogenous between concealed and manifest APs, which might suggest heterogeneous pathogenesis of AF in these two types of APs