Survey of laboratory practices for diagnosis of fungal infection in seven Asian countries: An Asia Fungal Working Group (AFWG) initiative

An online survey of mycology laboratories in seven Asian countries was conducted to assess the status, competence, and services available. Country representatives from the Asia Fungal Working Group (AFWG) contacted as many laboratories performing mycology diagnosis as possible in their respective countries, requesting that the laboratory heads complete the online survey. In total, 241 laboratories responded, including 71 in China, 104 in India, 11 in Indonesia, 26 in the Philippines, four in Singapore, 18 in Taiwan, and seven in Thailand. Overall, 129/241 (53.5%) surveyed mycology laboratories operate as separate designated mycology laboratories, 75/241 (31.1%) conduct regular formal staff training, 103/241 (42.7%) are accredited, and 88/157 (56.1%) participate in external quality assurance scheme (EQAS) programs. Microscopy and culture methods are available in nearly all laboratories, although few perform DNA sequencing (37/219; 16.9%) or use matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectroscopy (MALDI-TOF MS) (27/219; 12.3%) for isolate identification. Antifungal susceptibility testing is performed in 142/241 (58.9%) laboratories, mainly for yeasts. The most commonly performed nonculture diagnostic is cryptococcal antigen testing (66 laboratories), followed by galactomannan testing (55), polymerase chain reaction (PCR) diagnosis (37), and beta-D-glucan testing (24). Therapeutic drug monitoring is conducted in 21 laboratories. There is almost no access to advanced diagnostic tests, like galactomannan, β-D-glucan, and PCR, in the surveyed laboratories in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand. These results highlight the need for development of quality laboratories, accreditation and training of manpower in existing laboratories, and access to advanced non–culture-based diagnostic tests to facilitate the diagnosis of fungal infections in Asia

Global epidemiology and clinical outcomes of carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa and associated carbapenemases (POP): a prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: Carbapenem-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (CRPA) is a global threat, but the distribution and clinical significance of carbapenemases are unclear. The aim of this study was to define characteristics and outcomes of CRPA infections and the global frequency and clinical impact of carbapenemases harboured by CRPA. METHODS: We conducted an observational, prospective cohort study of CRPA isolated from bloodstream, respiratory, urine, or wound cultures of patients at 44 hospitals (10 countries) between Dec 1, 2018, and Nov 30, 2019. Clinical data were abstracted from health records and CRPA isolates were whole-genome sequenced. The primary outcome was 30-day mortality from the day the index culture was collected. We compared outcomes of patients with CRPA infections by infection type and across geographic regions and performed an inverse probability weighted analysis to assess the association between carbapenemase production and 30-day mortality. FINDINGS: We enrolled 972 patients (USA n=527, China n=171, south and central America n=127, Middle East n=91, Australia and Singapore n=56), of whom 581 (60%) had CRPA infections. 30-day mortality differed by infection type (bloodstream 21 [30%] of 69, respiratory 69 [19%] of 358, wound nine [14%] of 66, urine six [7%] of 88; p=0·0012) and geographical region (Middle East 15 [29%] of 52, south and central America 20 [27%] of 73, USA 60 [19%] of 308, Australia and Singapore three [11%] of 28, China seven [6%] of 120; p=0·0002). Prevalence of carbapenemase genes among CRPA isolates also varied by region (south and central America 88 [69%] of 127, Australia and Singapore 32 [57%] of 56, China 54 [32%] of 171, Middle East 27 [30%] of 91, USA ten [2%] of 527; p\u3c0·0001). KPC-2 (n=103 [49%]) and VIM-2 (n=75 [36%]) were the most common carbapenemases in 211 carbapenemase-producing isolates. After excluding USA patients, because few US isolates had carbapenemases, patients with carbapenemase-producing CRPA infections had higher 30-day mortality than those with non-carbapenemase-producing CRPA infections in both unadjusted (26 [22%] of 120 vs 19 [12%] of 153; difference 9%, 95% CI 3-16) and adjusted (difference 7%, 95% CI 1-14) analyses. INTERPRETATION: The emergence of different carbapenemases among CRPA isolates in different geographical regions and the increased mortality associated with carbapenemase-producing CRPA infections highlight the therapeutic challenges posed by these organisms. FUNDING: National Institutes of Health

A Study of the Impact of Mobile Payment on the Enhancement of Consumption Structure and Pattern of Chinese Rural Households

Amidst China’s economic transition towards high-quality development, the latent potential of the rural consumer market has been significantly unlocked, rendering the evolution of rural household consumption patterns a pivotal area of research. In this paper, we empirically investigate the influence of mobile payment on the transformation of consumption patterns within Chinese rural households, utilizing data from the China Household Finance Survey 2017 and China Household Finance Survey 2019. This study’s findings reveal the following key points: Firstly, mobile payment significantly contributes to the enhancement of the consumption structure within rural households. Secondly, the mechanistic analysis demonstrates that mobile payment plays a pivotal role in alleviating mobility constraints and optimizing the consumption environment, thereby facilitating the improvement of rural households’ consumption patterns. Lastly, the heterogeneity analysis indicates that mobile payment has a more pronounced effect on the upgrading of consumption structures among rural households with older household heads and higher education levels. In light of these findings, this paper suggests advancing the development of mobile payment infrastructure in rural areas, enhancing the proliferation of smartphones in rural regions, and bolstering financial education initiatives within rural communities

Effect of Initial State of Air-launch on Payload of Launch Vehicle

At present, the research on air launch technology at home and abroad focuses on the numerical simulation and aerodynamic characteristics in the process of rocket separation, while the research on the impact of air launch on the payload of launch vehicle is rarely involved. The influence of the initial state of air-launch on the payload of the launch vehicle is studied. By simplifying the model of the flight orbit, the mathematical model of the rocket flight is first established and then the influence of the launch height and the launch velocity on the payload of the rocket after entering the orbit is quantitatively analyzed. The results show that increasing the launch height can effectively increase the payload, but if the launch height is increased beyond 10 km, the increase in payload is not as significant as before. Increasing the launch velocity can significantly increase the payload, and the launch velocity is more significant for the payload increase. Therefore, considering the economics of air-launch, it is more appropriate to set an initial launch height of 10 km and to increase the initial launch speed as much as possible

Research on the Three-phase Voltage Aviation Rectifier Based on Neural Network PID Control

Aimed to the selection of the PID parameters are very difficult in the rectifier design, and can’t realize the online self-turning function of the PID parameters, the three phase voltage source PWM aviation rectifier based on neural network PID control is designed in this paper. This paper analyzes the principle of the voltage source PWM rectifier based on traditional SVPWM, and improves the control algorithm, and completes the hardware design. In addition, the control algorithm, and the circuit are verified through actual experiments. In this rectifier, the PID parameters can realize the function of the online self-turning. The experimental results show that the three-phase PWM rectifier based on neural network control can decrease the harmonic distortion and the power factor reaches to 0.991, which can supply help for the design of the three-phase voltage high power factor aviation rectifier

Unsteady Aerodynamic Modeling Based on POD-ARX

The lack of stability is a problem encountered when applying the classical POD-Galerkin method to problems of unsteady compressible flows around a moving structure. To solve this problem, a hybrid reduced-order model named POD-ARX is constructed in this paper. The construction of this model involves two steps, including first extracting the fluid modes with the POD technique and then identifying the modal coefficients with the ARX model. The POD modes with the block of all modified primitive variables are extracted from the system response to the training signal. Once the POD modes are obtained, the snapshots are projected on these modes to determine the time history of modal coefficients and the resulting modal coefficients are used to identify the parameters of ARX model. Then, the ARX model is used to predict the modal coefficients of the system response to the validation signal. Sample two-dimensional aerodynamic force calculations are conducted to demonstrate this method. Results show that this method can produce a stable and accurate prediction to the aerodynamic response with significant improvement of computational efficiency for linear and even some nonlinear aerodynamic problems. In addition, this method also shows good wide-band characteristics by using the “3211” multistep signal as the training signal