Novel and predominant pathogen responsible for the enterovirus-associated encephalitis in eastern China

Enteroviruses (EV) have been increasingly identified as the causative agent for unknown etiological encephalitis in many parts of the world, but the long period surveillance for enterovirus-associated encephalitis (EAE) was not reported in China. From 2002-2012 in Zhejiang, Coxsackieviruses A9, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5; and echoviruses 3, 4, 6, 9, 14, 25, 30 were detected from the unknown etiological encephalitis cases, with coxsackievirus B4 been identified here for the first time. From 2002-2004 and 2010-2012, echovirus 30 was found to be the periodically predominant serotype for in the EAE. The molecular typing results showed that all the EV isolates from this study belonged to the human EV B (HEV B) family and were distributed in three clusters

100 essential questions for the future of agriculture

Publication history: Accepted - 8 March 2023; Published online - 11 April 2023.The world is at a crossroad when it comes to agriculture. The global population is growing, and the demand for food is increasing, putting a strain on our agricultural resources and practices. To address this challenge, innovative, sustainable, and inclusive approaches to agriculture are urgently required. In this paper, we launched a call for Essential Questions for the Future of Agriculture and identified a priority list of 100 questions. We focus on 10 primary themes: transforming agri-food systems, enhancing resilience of agriculture to climate change, mitigating climate change through agriculture, exploring resources and technologies for breeding, advancing cultivation methods, sustaining healthy agroecosystems, enabling smart and controlled-environment agriculture for food security, promoting health and nutrition-driven agriculture, exploring economic opportunities and addressing social challenges, and integrating one health and modern agriculture. We emphasise the critical importance of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research that integrates both basic and applied sciences and bridges the gaps among various stakeholders for achieving sustainable agriculture. Key points Growing demand and resource limitations pose a critical challenge for agriculture, necessitating innovative and sustainable approaches. The paper identifies 100 priority questions for the future of agriculture, indicating current and future research directions. Sustainable agriculture depends on interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research that harmonises basic and applied sciences and fosters collaboration among different stakeholders

Potential of Core-Collapse Supernova Neutrino Detection at JUNO

JUNO is an underground neutrino observatory under construction in Jiangmen, China. It uses 20kton liquid scintillator as target, which enables it to detect supernova burst neutrinos of a large statistics for the next galactic core-collapse supernova (CCSN) and also pre-supernova neutrinos from the nearby CCSN progenitors. All flavors of supernova burst neutrinos can be detected by JUNO via several interaction channels, including inverse beta decay, elastic scattering on electron and proton, interactions on C12 nuclei, etc. This retains the possibility for JUNO to reconstruct the energy spectra of supernova burst neutrinos of all flavors. The real time monitoring systems based on FPGA and DAQ are under development in JUNO, which allow prompt alert and trigger-less data acquisition of CCSN events. The alert performances of both monitoring systems have been thoroughly studied using simulations. Moreover, once a CCSN is tagged, the system can give fast characterizations, such as directionality and light curve

Detection of the Diffuse Supernova Neutrino Background with JUNO

As an underground multi-purpose neutrino detector with 20 kton liquid scintillator, Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO) is competitive with and complementary to the water-Cherenkov detectors on the search for the diffuse supernova neutrino background (DSNB). Typical supernova models predict 2-4 events per year within the optimal observation window in the JUNO detector. The dominant background is from the neutral-current (NC) interaction of atmospheric neutrinos with 12C nuclei, which surpasses the DSNB by more than one order of magnitude. We evaluated the systematic uncertainty of NC background from the spread of a variety of data-driven models and further developed a method to determine NC background within 15\% with {\it{in}} {\it{situ}} measurements after ten years of running. Besides, the NC-like backgrounds can be effectively suppressed by the intrinsic pulse-shape discrimination (PSD) capabilities of liquid scintillators. In this talk, I will present in detail the improvements on NC background uncertainty evaluation, PSD discriminator development, and finally, the potential of DSNB sensitivity in JUNO

Real-time Monitoring for the Next Core-Collapse Supernova in JUNO

Core-collapse supernova (CCSN) is one of the most energetic astrophysical events in the Universe. The early and prompt detection of neutrinos before (pre-SN) and during the SN burst is a unique opportunity to realize the multi-messenger observation of the CCSN events. In this work, we describe the monitoring concept and present the sensitivity of the system to the pre-SN and SN neutrinos at the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), which is a 20 kton liquid scintillator detector under construction in South China. The real-time monitoring system is designed with both the prompt monitors on the electronic board and online monitors at the data acquisition stage, in order to ensure both the alert speed and alert coverage of progenitor stars. By assuming a false alert rate of 1 per year, this monitoring system can be sensitive to the pre-SN neutrinos up to the distance of about 1.6 (0.9) kpc and SN neutrinos up to about 370 (360) kpc for a progenitor mass of 30$M_{\odot}$ for the case of normal (inverted) mass ordering. The pointing ability of the CCSN is evaluated by using the accumulated event anisotropy of the inverse beta decay interactions from pre-SN or SN neutrinos, which, along with the early alert, can play important roles for the followup multi-messenger observations of the next Galactic or nearby extragalactic CCSN.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure

A Novel Flexible Full-Cell Lithium Ion Battery Based on Electrospun Carbon Nanofibers Through a Simple Plastic Package

Abstract The paper reports a novel flexible full-cell lithium ion battery (LIB) through a simple plastic package method. Carbon nanofibers (CNFs) are synthesized by electrospinning technology and the subsequent carbonation process. The CNFs with three-dimensional interconnected fibrous nanostructure exhibit a stable reversible capacity of 412 mAh g−1 after 100 cycles in the half-cell testing. A full cell is assembled by using CNF anode and commercial LiCoO2 cathode, and it displays good flexibility and lighting LED ability. The aggregate thickness of the constructed full-cell LIB is approximately 500 μm, consisting of a CNFs/Cu film, a separator, a LiCoO2/Al film, electrolyte, and two polyvinyl chloride (PVC) films. The structure, morphology, and the electrochemical performances of electrospun CNFs and LiCoO2 electrodes are analyzed in details

Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Bacillary Dysentery from 2005 to 2017 in Zhejiang Province, China

Background: This study aimed to analyze the epidemiological and spatiotemporal characteristics of bacillary dysentery in Zhejiang Province and to provide the basis for its monitoring, prevention and control. Methods: This study included cases registered in China Information System for Diseases Control and Prevention from 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2017 in Zhejiang. Descriptive methods were employed to investigate the long trend of this disease: gender distribution, high-risk population, seasonality, and circular distribution was explored to detect the peak period; incidence maps were made to show the incidence trend of disease at county level; spatial autocorrelation was explored and the regions with autocorrelation were detected; and spatiotemporal scan was conducted to map out the high-risk regions of disease and how long they lasted. Statistical significance was assumed at p value of <0.05. Results: A total of 105,577 cases of bacillary dysentery were included, the incidence declining sharply from 45.84/100,000 to 3.44/100,000 with an obvious seasonal peak from July to October. Males were more predisposed to the infection than females. Pre-education children had the highest proportion among all occupation categories. Incidence in all age groups were negatively correlated with the year (p < 0.001), and the incidences were negatively correlated with the age groups in 2005–2008 (p = 0.022, 0.025, 0.044, and 0.047, respectively). Local autocorrelation showed that counties in Hangzhou were high-risk regions of bacillary dysentery. The spatiotemporal scan indicated that all clusters occurred before 2011, and the most likely cluster for disease was found in Hangzhou, Jiaxing and Huzhou. Conclusions: The incidence of bacillary dysentery in Zhejiang from 2005 to 2017 featured spatiotemporal clustering, and remained high in some areas and among the young population. Findings in this study serve as a panorama of bacillary dysentery in Zhejiang and provide useful information for better interventions and public health planning

The impact of EV71 vaccination program on hand, foot and mouth disease in Zhejiang Province, China: A negative control study

Objective: To estimate the potential causal impact of Enterovirus A71 (EV71) vaccination program on the reduction of EV71-infected hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) in Zhejiang Province. Methods: We utilized the longitudinal surveillance dataset of HFMD and EV71 vaccination in Zhejiang Province during 2010–2019. We estimated vaccine efficacy using a Bayesian structured time series (BSTS) model, and employed a negative control outcome (NCO) model to detect unmeasured confounding and reveal potential causal association. Results: We estimated that 20,132 EV71 cases (95% CI: 16,733, 23,532) were prevented by vaccination program during 2017–2019, corresponding to a reduction of 29% (95% CI: 24%, 34%). The effectiveness of vaccination increased annually, with reductions of 11% (95% CI: 6%, 16%) in 2017 and 66% (95% CI: 61%, 71%) in 2019. Children under 5 years old obtained greater benefits compared to those over 5 years. Cities with higher vaccination coverage experienced a sharper EV71 reduction compared to those with lower coverage. The NCO model detected no confounding factors in the association between vaccination and EV71 cases reduction. Conclusions: This study suggested a potential causal effect of the EV71 vaccination, highlighting the importance of achieving higher vaccine coverage to control the HFMD

Impact of a community-based health education intervention on awareness of influenza, pneumonia, and vaccination intention in chronic patients

The study aimed to examine the impact of a community-based health education intervention on the awareness and attitude of influenza and Streptococcus pneumoniae vaccination in patients with chronic diseases. We selected study participants from two counties in Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province. We conducted a household baseline survey with quarterly follow-up and health education for all chronic disease patients in the area. A total of 720 patients with chronic diseases were included in two rounds of questionnaire surveys before and after a year-long health education related to the influenza and Streptococcus pneumoniae vaccination. Before the community education, 59.9% and 59.6% of study participants self-report the awareness of the hazards of influenza and pneumonia, respectively; while only 17.7% and 6.0% study participants self-reported awareness of the influenza or pneumonia vaccination, respectively; the self-reported vaccination rates were 1.3% and 0% for influenza and pneumonia, respectively. One year after the intervention, all rates were increased significantly, but the influenza vaccination rate was still far below the WHO minimum target level (75%). The main reason for not getting vaccinated reported by study participants was that participants thought they were in good health and would not become sick easily. There was no statistically significant difference between the impacts of health care practitioners’ and general practitioners’ recommendations for vaccination. Continued and pertinent health education has a significant impact on influenza and pneumonia vaccination in patients with chronic diseases