Hydroxychloroquine improves pregnancy outcomes of women with positive antinuclear antibody spectrum test results

Background:Empirical use of Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in patients with positive antinuclear antibody spectrum (ANAs) test result is controversial regarding its impact on improving perinatal outcomes. This study aimed to investigate the effect of HCQ on adverse pregnancy outcomes associated with placental dysfunction in ANAs-positive patients.Methods:The study included pregnant women with positive ANAs test result from 2016 to 2020 in our center, and divided into a weakly positive and a positive group in just ANA positive patients among them. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to determine the effect of HCQ on pregnancy outcomes in each subgroup. Stratified and interactive analyses were performed to assess the value of HCQ in improving pregnancy outcomes.Results:(i) A total of 261 cases were included, accounting for 30.60% of pregnancy complicated with autoimmune abnormalities, and 65.12% of them used HCQ during pregnancy. (ii) The application of HCQ significantly reduced the incidence of early-onset preeclampsia (1.18% vs. 12.09%, p = 0.040) and small-for-gestational-age infants (10.06% vs. 25.84%, p = 0.003) in the ANAs-positive population, increased birth weight (3075.87 ± 603.91 g vs. 2847.53 ± 773.73 g, p = 0.025), and prolonged gestation (38.43 ± 2.31 vs. 36.34 ± 5.45 weeks, p < 0.001). (iii) A total of 185 just ANA-positive patients were stratified according to titers. Among them, the rate of HCQ usage was significantly higher than that in the weakly positive group (81.03% vs. 58.27%, p = 0.003). (vi) Stratified univariate analysis showed that HCQ usage in the ANA-positive group could reduce the incidence of preeclampsia (2.13% vs. 27.27%, p = 0.019) and prolong gestation (38.29 ± 2.54 vs. 34.48 ± 7.68 weeks, p = 0.006). In the ANA-weakly positive group, HCQ significantly reduced the incidence of preeclampsia (6.76% vs. 28.30%, p = 0.002), early-onset preeclampsia (1.35% vs. 13.21%, p = 0.027), and small-for-gestational-age infants (7.89% vs. 35.19%, p < 0.001). Multivariate regression analysis showed that HCQ significantly reduced the incidence of preeclampsia in both groups. Intergroup interaction analysis showed no significant difference in the value of HCQ in reducing the incidence of preeclampsia between the two groups.Conclusion:ANAs positivity is an important abnormal autoimmunity type in pregnancy. HCQ can be considered as a choice for improving adverse pregnancy outcomes related to placental dysfunction, such as preeclampsia, in this population

再酯化甘油三酯型鱼油中不同结构酯的 含量及稳定性分析

再酯化甘油三酯（rTG）型鱼油是甘油三酯(TG)、甘油二酯(DG)、甘油一酯(MG)和乙酯(EE)的混合物。为了解rTG型鱼油不同结构酯的组成及其对产品稳定性的影响，采用高效液相色谱-示差折光检测器检测了来自国内外10个厂家的18个批次rTG型鱼油中不同结构油脂的含量，与天然TG型鱼油和EE型鱼油进行比较，并考察了TG含量对rTG型鱼油产品稳定性的影响。结果表明：rTG型鱼油中TG含量在52.17%~94.80%，其中只有4个批次样品高于90%，偏甘酯含量在4.96%~38.97%，EE含量在0.28%~13.10%，其中有7个批次样品EE含量超过了5%，不符合欧洲药典（EP10.3）要求；天然TG型鱼油的TG含量在97%以上，EE型鱼油的EE含量在99%以上；与TG含量低( 64.09%）的rTG型鱼油产品相比，TG含量高（90.80%）的rTG型鱼油产品酸值和过氧化值相对原料变化较小；加速氧化过程中，TG含量高的rTG型鱼油产品的酸值稳定,但TG含量低的rTG型鱼油产品酸值明显增高。rTG型鱼油产品的稳定性可能与TG含量有关，TG含量高的rTG型鱼油的稳定性比TG含量低的更好。Abstract：Re-esterified triglyceride (rTG) type fish oil is a mixture of triglycerides (TG), diglycerides (DG), monoglycerides (MG) and ethyl esters (EE). In order to learn about the distribution of different structural esters in rTG type fish oil and their effects on product stability, 18 batches of rTG type fish oil from 10 factories in domestic and abroad were collected, the contents of different structure esters were determined by HPLC-differential refractive index detector and compared to nature TG type fish oil and EE type fish oil, and effect of TG content on the stability of fish oil product was investigated. The results showed that the TG content in rTG type fish oil was 52.17%-94.80%, among which only 4 batches samples were higher than 90%. The content of partial glycerides ranged from 4.96% to 38.97%, and the EE content ranged from 028% to 13.10%, with 7 batches samples exceeding 5%, which did not meet the requirements of European Pharmacopoeia(EP10.3). The TG content in natural TG type fish oil was above 97%, and the EE content in EE type fish oil was above 99%. Compared with rTG type fish oil products with low TG content (64.09%), rTG type fish oil products with high TG content (90.80%) had relatively small changes in acid value and peroxide value compared to raw materials. During the accelerated oxidation process, the acid value of rTG type fish oil products with high TG content was stable, while the acid value of rTG type fish oil products with low TG content significantly increased. TG content may be related to the stability of rTG type fish oil, and rTG type fish oil with high TG content has better stability than rTG type fish oil with low TG content

Lack of Trehalose Accelerates H2O2-Induced Candida albicans Apoptosis through Regulating Ca2+ Signaling Pathway and Caspase Activity

Trehalose is a non-reducing disaccharide and can be accumulated in response to heat or oxidative stresses in Candida albicans. Here we showed that a C. albicans tps1Δ mutant, which is deficient in trehalose synthesis, exhibited increased apoptosis rate upon H2O2 treatment together with an increase of intracellular Ca2+ level and caspase activity. When the intracellular Ca2+ level was stimulated by adding CaCl2 or A23187, both the apoptosis rate and caspase activity were increased. In contrast, the presence of two calcium chelators, EGTA and BAPTA, could attenuate these effects. Moreover, we investigated the role of Ca2+ pathway in C. albicans apoptosis and found that both calcineurin and the calcineurin-dependent transcription factor, Crz1p, mutants showed decreased apoptosis and caspase activity upon H2O2 treatment compared to the wild-type cells. Expression of CaMCA1, the only gene found encoding a C. albicans metacaspase, in calcineurin-deleted or Crz1p-deleted cells restored the cell sensitivity to H2O2. Our results suggest that Ca2+ and its downstream calcineurin/Crz1p/CaMCA1 pathway are involved in H2O2 -induced C. albicans apoptosis. Inhibition of this pathway might be the mechanism for the protective role of trehalose in C. albicans

Optimal Cable Tension Distribution of the High-Speed Redundant Driven Camera Robots Considering Cable Sag and Inertia Effects

Camera robots are high-speed redundantly cable-driven parallel manipulators that realize the aerial panoramic photographing. When long-span cables and high maneuverability are involved, the effects of cable sags and inertias on the dynamics must be carefully dealt with. This paper is devoted to the optimal cable tension distribution (OCTD for short) of the camera robots. Firstly, each fast varying-length cable is discretized into some nodes for computing the cable inertias. Secondly, the dynamic equation integrated with the cable inertias is set up regarding the large-span cables as catenaries. Thirdly, an iterative optimization algorithm is introduced for the cable tension distribution by using the dynamic equation and sag-to-span ratios as constraint conditions. Finally, numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the effects of cable sags and inertias on determining tensions. The results justify the convergence and effectiveness of the algorithm. In addition, the results show that it is necessary to take the cable sags and inertias into consideration for the large-span manipulators

Advanced Flexible Skin-Like Pressure and Strain Sensors for Human Health Monitoring

Recently, owing to their excellent flexibility and adaptability, skin-like pressure and strain sensors integrated with the human body have the potential for great prospects in healthcare. This review mainly focuses on the representative advances of the flexible pressure and strain sensors for health monitoring in recent years. The review consists of five sections. Firstly, we give a brief introduction of flexible skin-like sensors and their primary demands, and we comprehensively outline the two categories of design strategies for flexible sensors. Secondly, combining the typical sensor structures and their applications in human body monitoring, we summarize the recent development of flexible pressure sensors based on perceptual mechanism, the sensing component, elastic substrate, sensitivity and detection range. Thirdly, the main structure principles and performance characteristic parameters of noteworthy flexible strain sensors are summed up, namely the sensing mechanism, sensitive element, substrate, gauge factor, stretchability, and representative applications for human monitoring. Furthermore, the representations of flexible sensors with the favorable biocompatibility and self-driven properties are introduced. Finally, in conclusion, besides continuously researching how to enhance the flexibility and sensitivity of flexible sensors, their biocompatibility, versatility and durability should also be given sufficient attention, especially for implantable bioelectronics. In addition, the discussion emphasizes the challenges and opportunities of the above highlighted characteristics of novel flexible skin-like sensors

Digital Camouflage Pattern Design Based on the Biased Random Walk

Digital camouflage is a common countermeasure against military reconnaissance. In the face of high-tech imaging reconnaissance, battlefield detection means tend to be automated and refined. In order to adapt to the concealment requirements under various environmental backgrounds, combined with the camouflage performance of digital camouflage and its feedback mechanism in camouflage pattern design, this paper proposed a digital camouflage pattern design method based on biased random walk. Firstly, the original background is preprocessed, and the background texture’s direction, corner, step length, and pixel intensity difference are statistically analyzed, and the boundary probability between pixel nodes is estimated. Then, a biased random walk is used to outline the camouflage patches. The edge scatter is enriched according to the density of the patches, and the camouflage patches are filled according to the proportion of the main color of the background. Finally, a digital camouflage pattern is obtained. The quantitative analysis results show that the mean heart rate of the digital camouflage pattern based on multiscene design is at least 31.0% higher than that of the original background segmentation texture, and the standard deviation index of equivalent diameter is increased by 14.9% on average. In addition, the results of simulation camouflage image detection in multiple scenes show that the proposed method can effectively deal with camouflage target detection on the basis of fully retaining the original background texture information and has strong camouflage concealment effect in the scene

Evaluation method for the hyperspectral image camouflage effect based on multifeature description and grayscale clustering

Abstract Hyperspectral images have a special attribute with both spectral and spatial information, which is of great significance for the evaluation of the stealth performance of camouflaged targets. Aiming at the problems of a single evaluation index and the low credibility of traditional optical camouflage evaluation methods, this paper proposes a grayscale clustering camouflage effect evaluation method based on multifeature descriptions of hyperspectral images using similarity indicators that reflect different spectral characteristics of the target and background. From the perspective of spectrum and human visual contrast, a comprehensive evaluation index system including spectral distance feature, spectral derivative feature, curve shape feature and spatial texture feature is constructed by combining spatial–spectral multi-feature constraints. At the same time, an improved Delphi method is proposed to simulate the expert decision-making process, and better evaluation weights are obtained by comparison and screening. The comprehensive evaluation of camouflage effect based on whitening function gray clustering is realized. The proposed method can not only give the “excellent” and “bad” of camouflage effect qualitatively, but also calculate the comprehensive score of camouflage effect by model

Isolation, purification and effects of hypoglycemic functional polysaccharides from Inonotus obliquus

Inonotus obliquus is generally used for the treatment of diseases such as cancers, angiocardiopathy and diabetes. However, few studies are available on its functional components. The objective of this study was to isolate and purify hypoglycemic functional polysaccharides from I. obliquus (HPIO) and study their hypoglycemic activities. I. obliquus powder was used to obtain crude polysaccharides at room temperature (HPIO-R) and at high temperature (HPIO-H) using diethylaminoethyl cellulose (DEAE) cellulose -52 column chromatography for purification. Streptozotocin (STZ)-induced hyperglycemic mice were used to evaluate the in vivo antihyperglycemic and antilipidperoxidative effects of HPIOs at each eluted level. The results show that HPIO was a uniform compound and HPIO (0.2 mol/L NaCl) had antihyperglycemic effects and regulated lipid metabolism.Keywords: Hypoglycemic activity, polysaccharides, Inonotus obliquus, isolation, purification