Peste des Petits Ruminants Virus in Heilongjiang Province, China, 2014

During March 25–May 5, 2014, we investigated 11 outbreaks of peste des petits ruminants in Heilongjiang Province, China. We found that the most likely source of the outbreaks was animals from livestock markets in Shandong. Peste des petits ruminants viruses belonging to lineages II and IV were detected in sick animals

Au@h-Al2O3 Analogic Yolk–Shell Nanocatalyst for Highly Selective Synthesis of Biomass-Derived D-xylonic Acid via Regulation of Structure Effects

Selective oxidation of biomass-based monosaccharides into value-added sugar acids is highly desired, but limited success of producing D-xylonic acid has been achieved. Herein, we report an efficient catalyst system, viz., Au nanoparticles anchored on the inner walls of hollow Al2O3 nanospheres (Au@h- Al2O3), which could catalyze the selective oxidation of D-xylose into D-xylonic acid under base-free conditions. The mesoporous Al2O3 shell as the adsorbent first adsorbed D-xylose. Then, the interface of Au nanoparticles and Al2O3 as active sites spontaneously dissociated O2, and the exposed Au nanoparticle surface as the catalytic site drove the transformation. With this catalyst system, the valuable D-xylonic acid was produced with excellent yields in the aerobic oxidation of D-xylose. Extensive investigation showed that Au@h- Al2O3 is an efficient catalyst with high stability and recyclability

Two Rapid Power Iterative DOA Estimators for UAV Emitter Using Massive/Ultra-massive Receive Array

To provide rapid direction finding (DF) for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) emitter in future wireless networks, a low-complexity direction of arrival (DOA) estimation architecture for massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) receiver arrays is constructed. In this paper, we propose two strategies to address the extremely high complexity caused by eigenvalue decomposition of the received signal covariance matrix. Firstly, a rapid power-iterative rotational invariance (RPI-RI) method is proposed, which adopts the signal subspace generated by power iteration to gets the final direction estimation through rotational invariance between subarrays. RPI-RI makes a significant complexity reduction at the cost of a substantial performance loss. In order to further reduce the complexity and provide a good directional measurement result, a rapid power-iterative Polynomial rooting (RPI-PR) method is proposed, which utilizes the noise subspace combined with polynomial solution method to get the optimal direction estimation. In addition, the influence of initial vector selection on convergence in the power iteration is analyzed, especially when the initial vector is orthogonal to the incident wave. Simulation results show that the two proposed methods outperform the conventional DOA estimation methods in terms of computational complexity. In particular, the RPIPR method achieves more than two orders of magnitude lower complexity than conventional methods and achieves performance close to CRLB. Moreover, it is verified that the initial vector and the relative error have a significant impact on the performance of the computational complexity

Application of the ISNT rules on retinal nerve fibre layer thickness and neuroretinal rim area in healthy myopic eyes

PurposeWe determined the applicability of inferior>superior>nasal>temporal (ISNT) rules on retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) thickness and rim area and evaluated the impact of various ocular factors on the performance of the ISNT rules in healthy myopic eyes. MethodsA total of 138 eyes from 138 healthy myopic subjects were included in this cross-sectional observational study. The peripapillary RNFL and optic disc in each eye were imaged with Cirrus HD optical coherence tomography (OCT) and Heidelberg Retina Tomograph II (HRT2), respectively. The performance of the inferior>superior (IS), inferior>superior>nasal>temporal (IST) and ISNT rules on RNFL thickness and rim area was determined and compared between low-to-moderate myopia and high myopia. The effects of ocular factors [including axial length, disc area, disc tilt, disc torsion, disc-fovea angle (DFA) and retina artery angle] on the performance of ISNT rules were evaluated with logistic regression analysis. ResultsThe mean axial length and refractive error were 25.571.09mm (range, 22.52-28.77mm) and -5.12 +/- 2.30D [range, -9.63 to -0.50dioptres (D)], respectively. Sixty-three per cent of the healthy eyes were compliant with the ISNT rule on rim area, while ISNT rule on RNFL thickness was followed in only 11.6% of the included eyes. For rim area, smaller disc area was significantly associated with increased compliance of the IS rule (odds ratio: 0.46, p=0.039), IST rule (odds ratio: 0.46, p=0.037) and ISNT rule (odds ratio: 0.44, p=0.030). For RNFL thickness, greater DFA was significantly associated with increased compliance of the IS and IST rules (odds ratio: 1.30, p ConclusionIn healthy myopic subjects, 88.4% and 37% of eyes did not comply with the ISNT rule on RNFL thickness and rim area, respectively. Due to significant low compliance in healthy eyes, the ISNT rule and its variants have limited potential utility in diagnosing glaucoma in myopic subjects

Association between per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and risk of hypertension: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BackgroundExisting evidence indicates that exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) may increase the risk of hypertension, but the findings are inconsistent. Therefore, we aimed to explore the relationship between PFASs and hypertension through this systematic review and meta-analysis.MethodsWe searched PubMed, Embase, and the Web of Science databases for articles published in English that examined the relationship between PFASs and hypertension before 13 August 2022. The random effects model was used to aggregate the evaluation using Stata 15.0 for Windows. We also conducted subgroup analyses by region and hypertension definition. In addition, a sensitivity analysis was carried out to determine the robustness of the findings.ResultsThe meta-analysis comprised 15 studies in total with 69,949 individuals. The risk of hypertension was substantially and positively correlated with exposure to perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) (OR = 1.31, 95% CI: 1.14, 1.51), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) (OR = 1.16, 95% CI: 1.07, 1.26), and perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS) (OR = 1.04, 95% CI: 1.00, 1.09). However, perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) exposure and hypertension were not significantly associated (OR = 1.08, 95% CI: 0.99, 1.17).ConclusionWe evaluated the link between PFASs exposure and hypertension and discovered that higher levels of PFOS, PFOA, and PFHxS were correlated with an increased risk of hypertension. However, further high-quality population-based and pathophysiological investigations are required to shed light on the possible mechanism and demonstrate causation because of the considerable variability.Systematic review registrationhttps://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/ PROSPERO, registration number: CRD 42022358142

Simulation of Spatters Sticking Phenomenon in Laser Powder Bed Fusion Process Using the Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics Method

In this work, a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method is developed to simulate the spattering phenomenon in the laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) process. First, an experiment using the high-speed synchrotron X-ray full-field imaging is conducted to acquire in-situ images during the L-PBF process. Then, a scenario is selected from the X-ray image as a case study of the SPH model. In the case study, a particle is ejected and melted by the metal vapor, impacts with another particle, solidifies, and sticks to the other particle to form a rigid body. As a result, the trajectories of the two particles match well with the experimental observation. The evolution of velocity and temperature of the particle is extracted from the simulation for analysis. The SPH model can be a useful alternative to computational models of simulating the spattering phenomenon of L-PBF