Study of LED Radiation Effects on Insect Phototaxis Response for the Development of Light-Based Pest Trap

: Commercial agriculture is a resource intensive industry that employs significant amounts of agrochemicals to maintain a high yield output. Excessive application of insecticides has detrimental impacts on human health, environment and long-term sustainability. One particular area of interest is in exploring how insects are attracted to specific bands of the visible light spectrum. This paper details the study of several light conditions using Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) to determine its phototaxis response on the common grasshopper, garden moth and lava beetle. The results conclude that all three insects exhibit positive phototaxis response on wavelengths around 491nm and below, which encompasses ultraviolet, blue and green. The radiant intensity experiment revealed a threshold response of 2.8mW/m2, or 25m in reciprocal distance

Real-world Effectiveness and Tolerability of Interferon-free Direct-acting Antiviral for 15,849 Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C: A Multinational Cohort Study

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: As practice patterns and hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes (GT) vary geographically, a global real-world study from both East and West covering all GTs can help inform practice policy toward the 2030 HCV elimination goal. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness and tolerability of DAA treatment in routine clinical practice in a multinational cohort for patients infected with all HCV GTs, focusing on GT3 and GT6. METHODS: We analyzed the sustained virological response (SVR12) of 15,849 chronic hepatitis C patients from 39 Real-World Evidence from the Asia Liver Consortium for HCV clinical sites in Asia Pacific, North America, and Europe between 07/01/2014-07/01/2021. RESULTS: The mean age was 62±13 years, with 49.6% male. The demographic breakdown was 91.1% Asian (52.9% Japanese, 25.7% Chinese/Taiwanese, 5.4% Korean, 3.3% Malaysian, and 2.9% Vietnamese), 6.4% White, 1.3% Hispanic/Latino, and 1% Black/African-American. Additionally, 34.8% had cirrhosis, 8.6% had hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and 24.9% were treatment-experienced (20.7% with interferon, 4.3% with direct-acting antivirals). The largest group was GT1 (10,246 [64.6%]), followed by GT2 (3,686 [23.2%]), GT3 (1,151 [7.2%]), GT6 (457 [2.8%]), GT4 (47 [0.3%]), GT5 (1 [0.006%]), and untyped GTs (261 [1.6%]). The overall SVR12 was 96.9%, with rates over 95% for GT1/2/3/6 but 91.5% for GT4. SVR12 for GT3 was 95.1% overall, 98.2% for GT3a, and 94.0% for GT3b. SVR12 was 98.3% overall for GT6, lower for patients with cirrhosis and treatment-experienced (TE) (93.8%) but ≥97.5% for treatment-naive patients regardless of cirrhosis status. On multivariable analysis, advanced age, prior treatment failure, cirrhosis, active HCC, and GT3/4 were independent predictors of lower SVR12, while being Asian was a significant predictor of achieving SVR12. CONCLUSIONS: In this diverse multinational real-world cohort of patients with various GTs, the overall cure rate was 96.9%, despite large numbers of patients with cirrhosis, HCC, TE, and GT3/6. SVR12 for GT3/6 with cirrhosis and TE was lower but still excellent (\u3e91%)

13C NMR spectroscopy characterization of particle-size fractionated soil organic carbon in subalpine forest and grassland ecosystems

Abstract Background Soil organic carbon (SOC) and carbon (C) functional groups in different particle-size fractions are important indicators of microbial activity and soil decomposition stages under wildfire disturbances. This research investigated a natural Tsuga forest and a nearby fire-induced grassland along a sampling transect in Central Taiwan with the aim to better understand the effect of forest wildfires on the change of SOC in different soil particle scales. Soil samples were separated into six particle sizes and SOC was characterized by solid-state 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in each fraction. Results The SOC content was higher in forest than grassland soil in the particle-size fraction samples. The O-alkyl-C content (carbohydrate-derived structures) was higher in the grassland than the forest soils, but the alkyl-C content (recalcitrant substances) was higher in forest than grassland soils, for a higher humification degree (alkyl-C/O-alkyl-C ratio) in forest soils for all the soil particle-size fractions. Conclusions High humification degree was found in forest soils. The similar aromaticity between forest and grassland soils might be attributed to the fire-induced aromatic-C content in the grassland that offsets the original difference between the forest and grassland. High alkyl-C content and humification degree and low C/N ratios in the fine particle-size fractions implied that undecomposed recalcitrant substances tended to accumulate in the fine fractions of soils

Study of LED Radiation Effects on Insect Phototaxis Response for the Development of Light-Based Pest Trap

Commercial agriculture is a resource intensive industry that employs significant amounts of agrochemicals to maintain a high yield output. Excessive application of insecticides has detrimental impacts on human health, environment and long-term sustainability. One particular area of interest is in exploring how insects are attracted to specific bands of the visible light spectrum. This paper details the study of several light conditions using Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) to determine its phototaxis response on the common grasshopper, garden moth and lava beetle. The results conclude that all three insects exhibit positive phototaxis response on wavelengths around 491nm and below, which encompasses ultraviolet, blue and green. The radiant intensity experiment revealed a threshold response of 2.8mW/m2, or 25m in reciprocal distance

Risk analysis of colorectal cancer incidence by gene expression analysis

Background Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the leading cancers worldwide. Several studies have performed microarray data analyses for cancer classification and prognostic analyses. Microarray assays also enable the identification of gene signatures for molecular characterization and treatment prediction. Objective Microarray gene expression data from the online Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database were used to to distinguish colorectal cancer from normal colon tissue samples. Methods We collected microarray data from the GEO database to establish colorectal cancer microarray gene expression datasets for a combined analysis. Using the Prediction Analysis for Microarrays (PAM) method and the GSEA MSigDB resource, we analyzed the 14,698 genes that were identified through an examination of their expression values between normal and tumor tissues. Results Ten genes (ABCG2, AQP8, SPIB, CA7, CLDN8, SCNN1B, SLC30A10, CD177, PADI2, and TGFBI) were found to be good indicators of the candidate genes that correlate with CRC. From these selected genes, an average of six significant genes were obtained using the PAM method, with an accuracy rate of 95%. The results demonstrate the potential of utilizing a model with the PAM method for data mining. After a detailed review of the published reports, the results confirmed that the screened candidate genes are good indicators for cancer risk analysis using the PAM method. Conclusions Six genes were selected with 95% accuracy to effectively classify normal and colorectal cancer tissues. We hope that these results will provide the basis for new research projects in clinical practice that aim to rapidly assess colorectal cancer risk using microarray gene expression analysis

Impact of MCA stenosis on the early outcome in acute ischemic stroke patients.

BACKGROUND:Asians have higher frequency of intracranial arterial stenosis. The present study aimed to compare the clinical features and outcomes of ischemic stroke patients with and without middle cerebral artery (MCA) stenosis, assessed by transcranial sonography (TCS), based on the Taiwan Stroke Registry (TSR). METHODS:Patients with acute ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack registered in the TSR, and received both carotid duplex and TCS assessment were categorized into those with stenosis (≥50%) and without (<50%) in the extracranial internal carotid artery (ICA) and MCA, respectively. Logistic regression analysis, Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazard model were applied to assess relevant variables between groups. RESULTS:Of 6003 patients, 23.3% had MCA stenosis, 10.1% ICA stenosis, and 3.9% both MCA and ICA stenosis. Patients with MCA stenosis had greater initial NIHSS, higher likelihood of stroke-in-evolution, and more severe disability than those without (all p<0.001). Patients with MCA stenosis had higher prevalence of hypertension, diabetes and hypercholesterolemia. Patients with combined MCA and extracranial ICA stenosis had even higher NIHSS, worse functional outcome, higher risk of stroke recurrence or death (hazard ratio, 2.204; 95% confidence intervals, 1.440-3.374; p<0.001) at 3 months after stroke than those without MCA stenosis. CONCLUSIONS:In conclusion, MCA stenosis was more prevalent than extracranial ICA stenosis in ischemic stroke patients in Taiwan. Patients with MCA stenosis, especially combined extracranial ICA stenosis, had more severe neurological deficit and worse outcome