Seroprevalence Survey of Avian influenza A (H5) in wild migratory birds in Yunnan Province, Southwestern China

BACKGROUND: Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) is a highly contagious disease which is a zoonotic pathogen of significant economic and public health concern. The outbreaks caused by HPAIV H5N1 of Asian origin have caused animal and human disease and mortality in several countries of Southeast Asia, such as Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam. For the first time since 1961, this HPAIV has also caused extensive mortality in wild birds and has sparked debate of the role wild birds have played in the spread of this virus. Other than confirmed mortality events, little is known of this virus in wild birds. There is no report on the seroprevalence of avian influenza H5 infection in wild migratory birds in Yunnan Province. In this study we examined live wild birds in Yunnan Province for H5 specific antibody to better understand the occurrence of this disease in free living birds. METHODS: Sera from 440 wild birds were collected from in Kunming and Northern Ailaoshan of Yunnan Province, Southwestern China, and assayed for H5 antibodies using the hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assays. RESULTS: The investigation revealed that the seroprevalence of avian influenza H5 was as following: Ciconiiformes 2.6%, Strigiformes 13.04%, Passeriformes 20%, Cuculiformes 21.74%, Gruiformes 0%, Columbiformes 0%, Charadriiformes 0% and Coraciiformes 0%. Statistical analyses showed that there was a significant difference of prevalence between the orders (P < 0.01). Specific avian influenza H5 antibodies were detected in 23 of 440 (5.23%) sera. Mean HI titer 23 positive sera against H5 were 5.4 log(2). CONCLUSIONS: The results of the present survey indicated that the proportion of wild birds had previously infected AIV H5 at other times of the year. To our knowledge, this is the first seroprevalence report of avian influenza H5 infection in wild migratory birds in China’ s southwestern Yunnan Province. The results of the present survey have significant public health concerns

STUDY ON THE SETTLEMENT OF TUNNEL BOTTOM AND PRESSURE OF ROCK MASS BASED ON CURVED BEAM ON ELASTIC FOUNDATION THEORY

Tunnel invert is a weak section of curved beam on tunnel foundation, and it is easy to break down. Based on the curved beam theory on elastic foundation, the curved beam model of tunnel invert was established, the displacement equation of tunnel invert under external load was deduced, and the formula of settlement of tunnel bottom and the pressure of rock mass was presented. By means of the calculating formula, the distribution law of settlement of tunnel bottom and pressure of rock mass were obtained when tunnel bottom was strengthened and not strengthened by high pressure jet grouting pile. The final formula in the paper is precise to predict the settlement of tunnel bottom and pressure of rock mass, so it is of great value for tunnel design and construction

Unsupervised Domain Adaptation for Automated Knee Osteoarthritis Phenotype Classification

Purpose: The aim of this study was to demonstrate the utility of unsupervised domain adaptation (UDA) in automated knee osteoarthritis (OA) phenotype classification using a small dataset (n=50). Materials and Methods: For this retrospective study, we collected 3,166 three-dimensional (3D) double-echo steady-state magnetic resonance (MR) images from the Osteoarthritis Initiative dataset and 50 3D turbo/fast spin-echo MR images from our institute (in 2020 and 2021) as the source and target datasets, respectively. For each patient, the degree of knee OA was initially graded according to the MRI Osteoarthritis Knee Score (MOAKS) before being converted to binary OA phenotype labels. The proposed UDA pipeline included (a) pre-processing, which involved automatic segmentation and region-of-interest cropping; (b) source classifier training, which involved pre-training phenotype classifiers on the source dataset; (c) target encoder adaptation, which involved unsupervised adaption of the source encoder to the target encoder and (d) target classifier validation, which involved statistical analysis of the target classification performance evaluated by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC), sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. Additionally, a classifier was trained without UDA for comparison. Results: The target classifier trained with UDA achieved improved AUROC, sensitivity, specificity and accuracy for both knee OA phenotypes compared with the classifier trained without UDA. Conclusion: The proposed UDA approach improves the performance of automated knee OA phenotype classification for small target datasets by utilising a large, high-quality source dataset for training. The results successfully demonstrated the advantages of the UDA approach in classification on small datasets.Comment: Junru Zhong and Yongcheng Yao share the same contribution. 17 pages, 4 figures, 4 table

Incidence and influencing factors of fertility concerns in breast cancer in young women: a systematic review and meta-analysis

ObjectiveThis systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the prevalence and influencing factors of fertility concerns in breast cancer in young women.MethodsA literature search on PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases was conducted up to February 2023 and was analyzed (Revman 5.4 software) in this study. The papers were chosen based on inclusion standards, and two researchers independently extracted the data. The included studies’ quality was evaluated using criteria set out by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. To identify significant variations among the risk factors, odds ratios (ORs) and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were utilized.ResultsA total of 7 studies that included 1579 breast cancer in young women were enrolled in the study. The results showed that for breast cancer in young women, the incidence of fertility concerns 53%(95%CI [0.45,0.58]). The results showed that education (2.65, 95% CI 1.65–5.63), full-time work (0.12, 95% CI 1.03–1.93), fertility intentions (7.84, 95% CI 1.50–37.4), depression level (1.25, 95% CI 1.03–1.5), and endocrine therapy (1.32, 95% CI 1.08–1.62) were risk factors for fertility concerns in young women with BC. Having a partner (0.41, 95% CI 0.33–0.5), ≥1 child (0.3, 95% CI 0.22–0.4) were identified as protective factors against fertility concerns in young women with BC.ConclusionsThe incidence of fertility concerns in breast cancer in young women is at a moderately high level. We should pay more attention to the risk factors of fertility concerns to help breast cancer in young women cope with their fertility concerns and promote their psychological well-being

Methane explosion accidents of tunnels in SW China

This Express Letter reports three methane explosion accidents during tunnel construction in Southwest China. In recent years, tunnel construction of China is developing rapidly. The geological conditions of the tunnel passing through are extremely complex, especially, tunnels in coal strata increase rapidly, what’s worse, many methane explosions occur during the tunnel construction. The backgrounds, causes and rescue operation of three methane explosion accidents situation are studied. Furthermore, we proposed relevant measures to prevent methane explosions of tunnels

Threshold Recognition of Water Turbidity for Clogging Prevention during Groundwater Recharge Using Secondary Effluent from Wastewater Treatment Plant

The recharge efficiency during artificial groundwater recharge (AGR) is reduced primarily by clogging that is triggered by suspended particles. However, there are loopholes in the current standards of recharge-water quality for clogging control during AGR, and the threshold values of turbidity to prevent clogging have not been reasonably determined. In this study, secondary effluents from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) were injected into saturated sand columns to simulate the process of AGR. Batch experiments under different turbidity conditions were conducted, and the numerical modeling of particle transport and deposition was performed to assess the clogging processes. Theories of single-collector contact and interfacial interaction energy were applied to elucidate possible microcosmic mechanisms. The results showed that the diluted secondary effluent (SE) with turbidities of 0.540 &plusmn; 0.050, 1.09 &plusmn; 0.050, and 1.84 &plusmn; 0.060 NTU caused considerable clogging in the porous media, which decreased the relative hydraulic conductivities (K/K0) by 13.2%, 17.6%, and 83.6%, respectively. The filtered SE with a turbidity of 0.160 NTU did not cause clogging, and K/K0 was reduced by only 1.70%. The clogging was attributed to the deposition of suspended particles in the sand matrix because they have a high collision efficiency (0.007&ndash;1.98) and attachment efficiency (0.029&ndash;0.589 kBT). Finally, this paper recommends that the turbidity of the recharge water should not exceed 0.500 NTU during AGR practices

Hydrogen Evolution Reaction Property of Molybdenum Disulfide/Nickel Phosphide Hybrids in Alkaline Solution

The hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) property of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is undesirable because of the insufficient active edge sites and the poor conductivity. To enhance HER performance of MoS2, nickel phosphide (Ni2P) was combined with this catalyst and three MoS2/Ni2P hybrids (38 wt % Ni2P addition for MoS2/Ni2P-38, 50 wt % Ni2P addition for MoS2/Ni2P-50, and 58 wt % Ni2P addition for MoS2/Ni2P-58) were fabricated via a hydrothermal synthesis process. Morphologies, crystallinities, chemical components, specific surface areas, and HER properties of the fabricated MoS2/Ni2P samples in an alkaline electrolyte were characterized and tested. In addition, the insight into the HER properties of as-prepared catalysts were revealed by the density functional theory (DFT) calculation. Additionally, the stabilities of pure MoS2, Ni2P, and MoS2/Ni2P-50 samples were evaluated. The results show that the addition of Ni2P can enhance the HER property of the MoS2 catalyst. Although HER properties of the above-mentioned three MoS2/Ni2P hybrids are inferior to that of pure Ni2P, they are much higher than that of MoS2. Among as-prepared three hybrids, MoS2/Ni2P-50 exhibits the best HER performance, which may be due to its uniform morphology, large specific surface area, and excellent stability. The MoS2/Ni2P-50 hybrid shows a high cathodic current density (70 mA/cm2 at &minus;0.48 V), small Tafel slope (~58 mV/decade), and a low charge transfer resistance (0.83 k&Omega;&middot;cm2)

Spatial and Temporal Distribution Characteristics and Potential Risks of Sulfonamides in the Shaanxi Section of the Weihe River

The hazards of antibiotics as emerging contaminants to aquatic ecosystems and human health have received global attention. This study investigates the presence, concentration levels, spatial and temporal distribution patterns, and their potential risks to aquatic organisms and human health of sulfonamides (SAs) in the Shaanxi section of the Weihe River. The SA pollution in the Weihe River was relatively less than that in other rivers in China and abroad. The spatial and temporal distribution showed that the total concentrations of SAs in the Weihe River were highest in the main stream (ND&ndash;35.296 ng/L), followed by the south tributary (3.718&ndash;34.354 ng/L) and north tributary (5.476&ndash;9.302 ng/L) during the wet water period. Similarly, the order of concentration from highest to lowest during the flat water period was main stream (ND&ndash;3 ng/L), north tributary (ND&ndash;2.095 ng/L), and south tributary (ND&ndash;1.3 ng/L). In addition, the ecological risk assessment showed that the SAs other than sulfadiazine (SDZ) and sulfamethoxazole (SMZ) posed no significant risk (RQS &lt; 0.01) to the corresponding sensitive species during both periods, with no significant risk to human health for different age groups, as suggested by the health risk assessment. The risk of the six SAs to both aquatic organisms and human health decreased significantly from 2016 to 2021

Risk factors of incontinence-associated dermatitis in older adults: a protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

Introduction Due to their ageing skin, older adults are more likely to develop incontinence-associated dermatitis (IAD). Although previous attempts to look at the risk factors for IAD in older adults were done, methodological barriers hindered an in-depth understanding. By investigating risk factors for IAD in the ageing population, the development of precise clinical interventions and guidance could be facilitated, which in turn would enhance patient care standards for incontinence management in this target group. To address this knowledge gap, this systematic review with meta-analysis aims to explore the major risk elements linked to IAD among older adults.Methods and analysis The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Protocols are adhered to in this systematic review and meta-analysis. To achieve its objectives, a comprehensive search strategy PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Medline, Chinese Scientific Journal Database (VIP database), WanFang Data Knowledge Service Platform, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, along with other relevant sources published until 18 July 2023 in both English and Chinese languages will be performed. The screening of articles, data abstraction and risk of bias evaluation will be done by two impartial reviewers. RevMan V.5.3 software will be used for data synthesis. The quality of the included study will be assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Quality Assessment tool and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The I2 test will identify the heterogeneity.Ethics and dissemination There is no need for ethical approval. Individual patient information or the rights of participants will not be compromised by this protocol. The findings will either be published in a peer-reviewed journal.PROSPERO registration number CRD42023442585