Vaccaria hypaphorine alleviates lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammation via inactivation of NFκB and ERK pathways in Raw 264.7 cells

10.1186/s12906-017-1635-1BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine17112

Fusing Two Kinds of Virtual Samples for Small Sample Face Recognition

Face recognition has become a very active field of biometrics. Different pictures of the same face might include various changes of expressions, poses, and illumination. However, a face recognition system usually suffers from the problem that nonsufficient training samples cannot convey these possible changes effectively. The main reason is that a system has only limited storage space and limited time to capture training samples. Many previous literatures ignored the problem of nonsufficient training samples. In this paper, we overcome the insufficiency of training sample size problem by fusing two kinds of virtual samples and the original samples to perform small sample face recognition. The two used kinds of virtual samples are mirror faces and symmetrical faces. Firstly, we transform the original face image to obtain mirror faces and symmetrical faces. Secondly, we fuse these two kinds of virtual samples to achieve the matching scores between the test sample and each class. Finally, we integrate the matching scores to get the final classification results. We compare the proposed method with the single virtual sample augment methods and the original representation-based classification. The experiments on various face databases show that the proposed scheme achieves the best accuracy among the representation-based classification methods

Correction to: Emergence of robust anthropogenic increase of heat stress-related variables projected from CORDEX-CORE climate simulations

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The utilization of nanopore targeted sequencing proves to be advantageous in the identification of infections present in deceased donors

BackgroundNanopore Target Sequencing (NTS) represents a novel iteration of gene sequencing technology; however, its potential utility in the detection of infection in deceased donors has yet to be documented. The present study endeavors to assess the applicability of NTS in this domain.MethodsThis retrospective study comprised a cohort of 71 patients who were under intensive care at Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University between June 2020 and January 2022. The specimens were subjected to microbiological tests utilizing NTS, culture, and other techniques, and subsequently, the diagnostic accuracy of NTS was compared with conventional methods.ResultsBlood NTS exhibited a better agreement rate of 52.11% and a greater positive rate of pathogen detection than blood culture (50.70% vs. 5.63%, p < 0.001). In NTS of deceased donors, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, and Acinetobacter baumannii were the most frequently found bacteria, and Candida was the most frequently found fungus. Blood NTS had a considerably better sensitivity for detecting clinical bloodstream infection than blood culture (62.50%: 7.14%, p < 0.001). These findings were supported by comparisons between blood NTS and conventional microbial detection methods (such as blood culture, glucan testing, galactomannan testing, T cell spot testing for tuberculosis infection, smear, etc.).ConclusionThe pathogen detection technology NTS has a high sensitivity and positive rate. It can more accurately and earlier detect infection in deceased donors, which could be very important for raising the donation conversion rate

Three Generic Nevirapine-Based Antiretroviral Treatments in Chinese HIV/AIDS Patients: Multicentric Observation Cohort

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of three nevirapine-based antiretroviral treatments for adult antiretroviral-naïve Chinese patients with HIV-1 infection.This was a prospective, multicenter study. 198 antiretroviral-naïve HIV-1 positive subjects with CD4 lymphocyte counts between 100/ul and 350/ul and plasma HIV-1 RNA levels more than 500 copies/ml were randomized to start three NVP-based antiretroviral treatments: group A, NVP+AZT+ddI; group B, NVP+3TC+d4T; group C, NVP+AZT+3TC. Viral responses, immunologic responses, adverse events and drug resistance were monitored at baseline and the end of week 4, 12, 24, 36, 52. Viralogical response and immunological response were also compared in different strata of baseline CD4 T lymphocyte counts and plasma HIV-1 RNA concentrations. At baseline, the plasma HIV-1 RNA was 4.44+/-0.68, 4.52+/-0.71 and 4.41+/-0.63 lg copies/ml in group A, B and C respectively (p = 0.628). At the end of the study, the plasma viral load reached 2.54+/-1.11, 1.89+/-0.46 and 1.92+/-0.58 lg copies/ml in group A, B and C respectively (p<0.001). At week 52, suppression of plasma HIV-1 RNA to less than 50 copies/ml was achieved in more patients in group B and C than in group A (68.2%, 69% vs. 39.7%; p<0.001). In planned subgroup analyses, the decrease of viral response rate was seen in group A when CD4 cell count >200/ul (subgroup H). But in subgroup L, viral response rate of three groups has no significant statistic difference. There were no statistically significant differences among three groups in immunological response within any of the CD4 or pVL strata. 3 out of 193 patients with available genotype at baseline showed primary drug resistant. Of 26 patients with virologic failure, 17 patients showed secondary drug resistant, 16 subjects in group A and 1 subject in group B. Logistic regression analysis indicated that presence of hepatotoxicity was associated with HCV-Ab positive (OR = 2.096, 95%CI: 1.106-3.973, P = 0.023) and higher CD4 baseline (CD4 count >250/ul) (OR = 2.096, 95%CI: 1.07-4.107, P = 0.031).Our findings strongly support the use of 3TC+d4T and 3TC+AZT as the nucleoside analogue combination in NVP-based antiretroviral therapy. The regimen of AZT+ddI+NVP produced poor virological response especially in the stratum of CD4 count more than 200/ul. More patients showed secondary drug resistant in this arm too. Patients with HCV-Ab+ and CD4 count >250/ul appear to have significantly high risk of hepatoxicity.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00618176

The survey of serum retinol of the children aged 0~4 years in Zhejiang Province, China

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Vitamin A can have a positive impact on growth and development of children, but vitamin A deficiency (VAD) was found to be a public health problem in Zhejiang Province, China in 1998. There have been no studies on this topic in Zhejiang Province recently. This study was designed to evaluate the serum retinol levels of children aged 0~4 years in Zhejiang Province, southeast China. This epidemiological data will help design supplementation strategies for vitamin A in high-risk groups and improve their vitamin A status.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Children were randomly recruited for this study using a stratified sampling method. A blood sample was collected from each child. Assessment included C-reactive protein (CRP), serum retinol measured with HPLC and a questionnaire completed providing for family information and nutritional status. Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the risk factors for VAD in children.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A group of 357 subjects aged 1 day to 4 years were recruited. The mean plasma retinol concentration was 1.653 (sd 0.47) μmol/L. There were 3.08% (11/357) of children affected with VAD, and 7.28% (26/357) of children had low vitamin A status, but none of the children showed any clinical symptoms of VAD. There was no significant difference in the levels of plasma retinol and the incidence rate of VAD between male and female children. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that living in urban region, having parents with good education and taking vitamin A capsule regularly prevented children from VAD, whereas being young (less than 2 years old) was a risk factor.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Low vitamin A status remains a nutritional problem in Zhejiang Province. The high-risk group in this study were young, dwelled in rural regions, had parents with poor education and did not take a regular vitamin A containing supplement.</p

Added value of high-resolution climate projections over South Korea on the scaling of precipitation with temperature

This study evaluates the resolution dependency of scaling precipitation with temperature from the perspective of the added value of high-resolution (5 km) dynamical downscaling using various kinds of long-term climate change projections over South Korea. Three Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (global climate models (GCMs) with different climate sensitivities, and one pseudo global warming (PGW) experiment, are downscaled by Weather Research and Forecasting one-way double nested modeling system with convective parameterization for the reference (1976–2005) and future (2071–2100) periods under RCP8.5 scenario. A detailed comparison of the driving GCM/PGW, 20 km mother simulation, and 5 km nested simulation demonstrates improved representation of precipitation with increasing resolution not only in the spatial pattern and magnitude for both the mean and the extremes, but also in a more realistic representation of extreme precipitation’s sensitivities to temperature. According to the projected precipitation changes downscaled from both GCM ensemble and PGW, there will be intensified precipitation, particularly for the extremes, over South Korea under the warming, which is primarily contributed by convective precipitation increase that shows higher temperature sensitivity. This study also compares the extreme precipitation-temperature scaling relations within-epoch (apparent scaling) and between-epoch (climate scaling). It confirms that the magnitude and spatial pattern of the two scaling rates can be quite different, and the precipitation change over Korea under global warming is mainly controlled by thermodynamic factors

Evolutionary Game Analysis of Participations in Museum Public–Private Partnership Projects Based on System Dynamics

In China, the number of public–private partnership (PPP) projects in the museum field is relatively small, and the success rate is quite low, which highlights the drawback of an insufficient depth of overall promotion. To break through this dilemma, this paper objectively analyzes the interest demands and behavior-oriented conflicts between two stakeholders and constructs a game model based on limited rationality for the evolution of participation behaviors in museum PPP projects. In addition, different levels of government incentives are introduced along with the modeling and simulation of system dynamics (SD) to further clarify the dynamic evolution process of participants’ behavioral strategies. There are multiple complex scenarios associated with the system evolution according to the study. In a museum PPP project, the strategic choices of social forces and museums may have a mutual effect under different scenarios. Under the premise of guaranteeing the benefits of both sides of the game, there are two evolutionary stability strategies. Incentives from the government have a significant impact on the evolution of the game system at different stages of implementation. This paper hopes to provide reference and guidance to facilitate the formation of an appropriate action mechanism for participants and then ensure the sustainable promotion and development of the projects