Construction health and safety: A topic landscape study

We aim to draw in-depth insights into the current literature in construction health and safety and provide perspectives for future research efforts. The existing literature on construction health and safety is not only diverse and rich in sight, but also complex and fragmented in structure. It is essential for the construction industry and research community to understand the overall development and existing challenges of construction health and safety to adapt to future new code of practice and challenges in this field. We mapped the topic landscape followed by identifying the salient development trajectories of this research area over time. We used the topic modeling algorithm to extract 10 distinct topics from 662 abstracts (filtered from a total of 895) of articles published between 1991 and 2020. In addition, we provided the most cited references and the most popular journal per topic as well. The results from a time series analysis suggested that the construction health and safety would maintain its popularity in the next 5 years. Research efforts would be devoted to the topics including “Physical health and disease”, “Migrant and race”, “Vocational ability and training”, and “Smart devices.” Among these topics, “Smart devices” would be the most promising one

Lipid alternations in the plasma of COVID-19 patients with various clinical presentations.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 is a highly infectious respiratory disease that can manifest in various clinical presentations. Although many studies have reported the lipidomic signature of COVID-19, the molecular changes in asymptomatic severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)-infected individuals remain elusive. METHODS: This study combined a comprehensive lipidomic analysis of 220 plasma samples from 166 subjects: 62 healthy controls, 16 asymptomatic infections, and 88 COVID-19 patients. We quantified 732 lipids separately in this cohort. We performed a difference analysis, validated with machine learning models, and also performed GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis using differential lipids from different control groups. RESULTS: We found 175 differentially expressed lipids associated with SASR-CoV-2 infection, disease severity, and viral persistence in patients with COVID-19. PC (O-20:1/20:1), PC (O-20:1/20:0), and PC (O-18:0/18:1) better distinguished asymptomatic infected individuals from normal individuals. Furthermore, some patients tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid by RT-PCR but did not become negative for a longer period of time (≥60 days, designated here as long-term nucleic acid test positive, LTNP), whereas other patients became negative for viral nucleic acid in a shorter period of time (≤45 days, designated as short-term nucleic acid test positive, STNP). We have found that TG (14:1/14:1/18:2) and FFA (4:0) were differentially expressed in LTNP and STNP. CONCLUSION: In summary, the integration of lipid information can help us discover novel biomarkers to identify asymptomatic individuals and further deepen our understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of COVID-19

Interaural Level Difference-Dependent Gain Control and Synaptic Scaling Underlying Binaural Computation

SummaryBinaural integration in the central nucleus of inferior colliculus (ICC) plays a critical role in sound localization. However, its arithmetic nature and underlying synaptic mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we showed in mouse ICC neurons that the contralateral dominance is created by a “push-pull”-like mechanism, with contralaterally dominant excitation and more bilaterally balanced inhibition. Importantly, binaural spiking response is generated apparently from an ipsilaterally mediated scaling of contralateral response, leaving frequency tuning unchanged. This scaling effect is attributed to a divisive attenuation of contralaterally evoked synaptic excitation onto ICC neurons with their inhibition largely unaffected. Thus, a gain control mediates the linear transformation from monaural to binaural spike responses. The gain value is modulated by interaural level difference (ILD) primarily through scaling excitation to different levels. The ILD-dependent synaptic scaling and gain adjustment allow ICC neurons to dynamically encode interaural sound localization cues while maintaining an invariant representation of other independent sound attributes

Transcriptome analysis to identify candidate genes related to mammary gland development of Bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus)

IntroductionThe demand for camel milk, which has unique therapeutic properties, is increasing. The mammary gland is the organ in mammals responsible for the production and quality of milk. However, few studies have investigated the genes or pathways related to mammary gland growth and development in Bactrian camels. This study aimed to compare the morphological changes in mammary gland tissue and transcriptome expression profiles between young and adult female Bactrian camels and to explore the potential candidate genes and signaling pathways related to mammary gland development.MethodsThree 2  years-old female camels and three 5  years-old adult female camels were maintained in the same environment. The parenchyma of the mammary gland tissue was sampled from the camels using percutaneous needle biopsy. Morphological changes were observed using hematoxylin-eosin staining. High-throughput RNA sequencing was performed using the Illumina HiSeq platform to analyze changes in the transcriptome between young and adult camels. Functional enrichment, pathway enrichment, and protein–protein interaction networks were also analyzed. Gene expression was verified using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR).ResultsHistomorphological analysis showed that the mammary ducts and mammary epithelial cells in adult female camels were greatly developed and differentiated from those in young camels. Transcriptome analysis showed that 2,851 differentially expressed genes were obtained in the adult camel group compared to the young camel group, of which 1,420 were upregulated, 1,431 were downregulated, and 2,419 encoded proteins. Functional enrichment analysis revealed that the upregulated genes were significantly enriched for 24 pathways, including the Hedgehog signaling pathway which is closely related to mammary gland development. The downregulated genes were significantly enriched for seven pathways, among these the Wnt signaling pathway was significantly related to mammary gland development. The protein–protein interaction network sorted the nodes according to the degree of gene interaction and identified nine candidate genes: PRKAB2, PRKAG3, PLCB4, BTRC, GLI1, WIF1, DKK2, FZD3, and WNT4. The expression of fifteen genes randomly detected by qRT-PCR showed results consistent with those of the transcriptome analysis.DiscussionPreliminary findings indicate that the Hedgehog, Wnt, oxytocin, insulin, and steroid biosynthesis signaling pathways have important effects on mammary gland development in dairy camels. Given the importance of these pathways and the interconnections of the involved genes, the genes in these pathways should be considered potential candidate genes. This study provides a theoretical basis for elucidating the molecular mechanisms associated with mammary gland development and milk production in Bactrian camels

Structural analysis and blood-enriching effects comparison based on biological potency of Angelica sinensis polysaccharides

Angelica sinensis is a long-standing medicine used by Chinese medical practitioners and well-known for its blood-tonic and blood-activating effects. Ferulic acid, ligustilide, and eugenol in Angelica sinensis activate the blood circulation; however, the material basis of their blood-tonic effects needs to be further investigated. In this study, five homogeneous Angelica sinensis polysaccharides were isolated, and their sugar content, molecular weight, monosaccharide composition, and infrared characteristics determined. Acetylphenylhydrazine (APH) and cyclophosphamide (CTX) were used as inducers to establish a blood deficiency model in mice, and organ indices, haematological and biochemical parameters were measured in mice. Results of in vivo hematopoietic activity showed that Angelica sinensis polysaccharide (APS) could elevate erythropoietin (EPO), granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), and interleukin-3 (IL-3) serum levels, reduce tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) level in mice, and promote hematopoiesis in the body by regulating cytokine levels. Biological potency test results of the in vitro blood supplementation indicated strongest tonic activity for APS-H2O, and APS-0.4 has the weakest haemopoietic activity. The structures of APS-H2O and APS-0.4 were characterized, and the results showed that APS-H2O is an arabinogalactan glycan with a main chain consisting of α-1,3,5-Ara(f), α-1,5- Ara(f), β-1,4-Gal(p), and β-1,4-Gal(p)A, and two branched chains of β-t-Gal(p) and α-t-Glc(p) connected to each other in a (1→3) linkage to α-1,3,5-Ara(f) on the main chain. APS-0.4 is an acidic polysaccharide with galacturonic acid as the main chain, consisting of α-1,4-GalA, α-1,2-GalA, α-1,4-Gal, and β-1,4-Rha. In conclusion, APS-H2O can be used as a potential drug for blood replenishment in patients with blood deficiency, providing a basis for APS application in clinical treatment and health foods, as well as research and development of new polysaccharide-based drugs

Simulation Design of Surface Acoustic Wave Sensor Based on Langasite Coplanar Integration with Multiple Parameters

In the harsh environment of high temperature and high rotation, a single parameter is difficult to satisfy the multi-parameter test requirements of aerospace metallurgy. Therefore, a multi-parameter coplanar integrated surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensor based on Langasite (LGS) is proposed. In this paper, the optimal cut for different measurement parameters is analyzed, and the optimal cut to temperature, pressure and vibration are obtained. The simulation results show that (0°, 138.5°, 25°) LGS has superior second-order temperature sensitivity, the edge of the rectangular sealed cavity is more suitable for pressure sensors, and the optimal cut is (0°, 138.5°, 30°). The stress of the vibration sensor cantilever beam is mainly concentrated on the edge of the fixed end, and the optimal cut is (0°, 138.5°, 35°). Based on the optimal sensitive tangential direction of each sensitive element and the symmetry of the Langasite wafer, the reasonable layout of the coplanar integrated structure with the three parameters of temperature, pressure and vibration is determined. Moreover, according to the optimal orientation selection and reasonable structure layout of each parameter, combined with frequency separation rules, the parameters of interdigital electrode were determined, and the idea of multi-parameter integrated design was simulated and verified

Scientific Ranking over Heterogeneous Academic Hypernetwork

Ranking is an important way of retrieving authoritative papers from a large scientific literature database. Current state-of-the-art exploits the flat structure of the heterogeneous academic network to achieve a better ranking of scientific articles, however, ignores the multinomial nature of the multidimensional relationships between different types of academic entities. This paper proposes a novel mutual ranking algorithm based on the multinomial heterogeneous academic hypernetwork, which serves as a generalized model of a scientific literature database. The proposed algorithm is demonstrated effective through extensive evaluation against well-known IR metrics on a well-established benchmarking environment based on the ACL Anthology Network