Mucormycosis affects most commonly immunocompromised patients. We report two cases: a 61-year old female with diabetes whose the upper gastrointestinal endoscopy showed a budding greyish process which corresponded with an invasive mycormucosis in histology and a 59-year old man who presented with worsening of general state. No patients survived.

Cone-beam computed tomography and clinical examinations including pulp vital testing and pocket probing depth showed a cemental tear with a severe labial alveolar bony defect, but no endodontic lesions in #25, which had a sinus tract at the labial site, in a 75-year-old woman.

We present a 15-year-old female with syndromic intellectual disability whose exome reanalysis identified paternal pathogenic BRCA1 and BRCA2 variants. We highlight the significant challenges posed by this finding in genetic counseling and cancer risk management of an adolescent with nonverbal intellectual disability.

Magnesium alloy materials are often affected by cyclic stress, resulting in fatigue fracture due to changes in mechanical properties. In this study, external cyclic loads were introduced to simulate the loading of AZ91D(Mg-9Al-0.5Zn) parts. Tensile tests under static and external circulation loads were performed on the same specimens, and the effect of loading conditions on the mechanical properties of the specimens (tensile strength, yield strength and elongation) were studied. The internal microstructure of the test specimens was analyzed, and the influence of cyclic loading on the microstructure change of the specimens was discussed. Compared with static load, under the condition of cyclic loading, the tensile strength and yield strength of the specimens are increased by more than 15%, and the elongation rate is increased by 3 times. In addition, the microstructure images showed that many twins and the second phase β-Mg 17Al 12 were generated inside the AZ91D microstructure under cyclic loading. The former results in specimens crack initiation and it is the root cause of fatigue fracture. And the latter accounts for the strengthening of the mechanical properties of specimens.

Conducting large-scale phylogeographic studies to understand processes affecting population structure and genetic diversity across multiple species is difficult because the key genetic (NCBI) and spatial (GBIF) repositories are disconnected. In this issue of Molecular Ecology Resources, Pelletier et al. (2022) demonstrate the power of connecting these in the program phylogatR. This program assembled 87,852 species and 102,268 sequence alignments in a taxonomic hierarchy, yielding multiple sequence alignments per species, mainly for animals (88%), composed mostly of mtDNA data. The authors discuss several caveats with these alignments and provide flags identifying particular problems associating locality and genetic data with certain taxa (e.g., multiple localities per individuals). They provide a test that nucleotide diversity should increase with area, but find a significant relationship in only 32% of taxa with no clear taxonomic or ecological factors accounting for this. To examine the potential of this program, I tested the idea that the degree of population expansion should increase with latitude given potential environmental stability in the tropics and instability in temperate regions. In under two hours, I downloaded all squamates (lizards and snakes) and regressed Tajima’s D on latitude and found a weak but significant negative relationship, indicating a potential association between latitude and population expansion. The phylogatR database is a powerful resource for researchers wanting to test the relationship between genetic diversity and some aspect of space or environment.

Vegetation restoration in ecologically fragile areas has a significant carbon sequestration effect, and the driving factors affecting it are complex. In particular, it is usually difficult to achieve quantitative assessment at the regional scale for this part of human activity intervention in the ecological environment. The Chinese government’s ex-situ poverty alleviation and relocation project has relocated approximately 10 million people from areas with a fragile ecological environment to urban centralized resettlement, which is a typical case of weakened environmental intervention by human activities. Guizhou Province, an ecologically fragile region in southwest China, was selected as the study area, with a relocated population of 1.92 million, accounting for approximately 20% of the total relocated population in China. The carbon sequestration (CS) model of vegetation photosynthesis and spatial analysis of geographic information were used to quantify the contribution of human activities to the natural restoration of vegetation carbon sequestration at the regional scale caused by the weakening of environmental interventions, based on the data of net primary productivity (NPP) of vegetation from 2000 to 2020. The results show that the implementation of the ex-situ poverty alleviation and relocation project acts as an external force to drive vegetation restoration and carbon sequestration, which increases the slope of the carbon density change trend (from k=30.9 to k=57.41), resulting in an overall carbon density increase of 26.51 tCkm -2. The results of the regional spatial analysis showed that the correlation coefficients between carbon density and relocation intensity in the 5-year and 10-year change intervals before and after relocation were r=0.976 (p<0.01) and r=0.949 (p<0.05), respectively, indicating a significant positive correlation between vegetation carbon sequestration and relocation intensity. Based on this, the carbon sequestration contribution of vegetation in 84 counties (districts) in Guizhou Province that implemented ex-situ poverty alleviation and relocation projects was calculated, showing that 79 counties (districts) contributed positively, accounting for 94%. The average contribution of carbon sequestration by vegetation restoration in each county (district) was 0.0556 Tg, and the CO 2 emissions during the emission reduction period were 0.2059 Tg. The other five counties (districts) with a negative contribution to carbon sequestration were distributed in regions with relatively stable ecosystems and mature forests. This shows that human intervention in the environment changes significantly in fragile ecological areas.

Discussion of the bioethics of human stem cell research has transitioned from controversies over the source of human em-bryonic stem cells to concerns about the ethical use of stem cells in basic and clinical research. Key areas in this evolving ethical discourse include the derivation and use of another human embryonic stem cell-like stem cells that have the capacity to differentiate into all types of human tissue and the use of all types of stem cells in clinical research. Each of these issues is discussed as I summarize the past, present, and future bioethical issues in stem cell research. The main bioethical issues associated with human stem cells involve their derivation and use for research. Although there are interesting ethical issues surrounding the collection and use of somatic (adult) stem cells from aborted fetuses and umbilical cord blood, the most intense controversy to date has focused on the source of human embryonic stem (hES) cells. At present, new ethical issues are beginning to emerge around the derivation and use of other hES cell-like stem cells that have the capacity to differentiate into all types of human tissue. In the near future, as the stem cell field progresses closer to the clinic, additional ethical issues are likely to arise concerning the clinical translation of basic stem cell knowledge into reasonably safe, effective, and accessible patient therapies. This Review summarizes these and other bioethical issues of the past, present, and future of stem cell research.

Drug discovery and development involve the utilization of in vitro and in vivo experimental models. Different models, ranging from test tube experiments to cell cultures, animals, healthy human subjects, and even small numbers of patients that are involved in clinical trials, are used at different stages of drug discovery and development for determination of efficacy and safety. The proper selection and applications of correct models, as well as appropriate data interpretation, are critically important in decision making and successful advancement of drug candidates. In this review, we discuss strategies in the applications of both in vitro and in vivo experimental models of drug metabolism and disposition.

The cocktail party problem refers to a challenging process when the human sensory system tries to separate a specific voice from a loud mixture of background sound sources. The problem is much more demanding for machines and has become the holy grail in robotic hearing. Despite the many advances in noise suppression, the intrinsic information from the contaminated acoustic channel remains difficult to recover. Here we show a simple-yet-powerful laser-assisted audio system termed REAL (Robot Ear Accomplished by Laser) to probe the vibrations of sound-carrying surfaces (mask, throat and other nearby surfaces) in optical channel, which is intrinsically immune to acoustic background noises. Our results demonstrate that REAL can directly obtain the audio-frequency content from the laser without acoustic channel interference. The signals can be further transcribed into human-recognizable audio by exploiting the internal time and frequency correlations through memory-enabled neural networks. The REAL system would enable a new way in human-robot interaction. Xiaoping Hong  Email:    hongxp@sustech.edu.cn

A document by Nina Navakumar. Click on the document to view its contents.

Some of the key steps in adenomyosis (AM) are the migration and invasion of adenomyosis derived cells (AMDC); these processes require rearrangement of the cytoskeleton which Rho/ROCK signaling pathway is involved. The aim of the current study was to verify AMDC characterization and the effect of Trans-Cinnamaldehyde (TC) on the expression of the cell viability and cytotoxicity, cytoskeleton, invasion, migration, RhoA, RhoB, RhoC, ROCK1, ROCK2 in AMDC, which by immunofluorescence, CCK-8, immunofluorescence, cell wound scratch assay, transwell invasion assay and western blot analysis. Human endometrium tissues were obtained from AM patients who underwent total hysterectomy for AM in the Linyi Central Hospital from September 2019 to May 2021 with the first patient 41 years old and second one 45 years old. AMDC was characterized with strongly positive staining for Vimentin and almost negative for CK7, VWF, E-cadherin, SMA, and the patient samples were in secretory phases. IC50 = 28.93±0.44 μg/mL at 48 h with first patient, and IC50 = 27.67±0.72 μg/mL with second one. The final concentrations of TC (0, 6, 12μg/mL) were selected of the cell cytotoxicity. The T-text test group >0.05, so there was no difference between the two patients. These experiments were significantly downregulated and in dose-dependent fashion after treatment with TC. The data suggest that TC can inhibition the viability of cell, regulate cytoskeleton-induced invasion and migration may related to Rho/ROCK signaling pathway are involved in the pathophysiology of adenomyosis. Keyword: Cytoskeleton, Invasion, Migration, Rho/ROCK pathway, Trans-Cinnamaldehyde, Adenomyosis

Objective: Many women desire optimal pain management during labour and delivery. However, evidence on labour pain management in developing countries, is scarce. This study explores knowledge and perspectives of postnatal mothers and healthcare providers on pain management during labour and delivery. Design: A cross-sectional study. Setting: Maternal and Child clinics. Population or sample: Mothers and healthcare professionals. Main outcome measures: Labour Pain Survey. Results: Over 50% mothers reported severe to excruciatingly unbearable labour pain during recent labour. Age and education level were important predictors on pain relief information and preferences. Health professionals preferred third trimester to hold first discussion regarding preferences of labour pain relief, however not much support was received. Conclusions: This study highlights the need for health professionals in clinics and hospitals to equally provide informed choices on methods of labour pain relief and consider social media as a platform to educate expectant mothers regarding labour pain and its management.

This paper is concerned with the formation control problem for a class of large-scale mobile sensor networks. The dynamic of mobile sensors are modeled by class of semilinear parabolic system, which is a class of partial differential equation(PDE) and has rich geometric family. In this model, the communication topology of agents is a chain graph and fixed. Leader feedback laws which designed in a manner to the boundary control of semilinear parabolic system allow the mobile sensors stable deployment onto planar curves. By constructing appropriate Lyapunov functional and using linear matrix inequality, several sufficient criteria are derived ensuring the mobile sensor networks to be globally asymptotically stable at the equilibrium. A simulation example is provided to demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed formation control scheme.

This proof-of-concept investigation reports the results of eight patients who, after declining mesh midurethral slings, were treated for stress urinary incontinence with levator ani midurethral support, a single vaginal incision technique. Seven patients had good subjective outcomes at 22 to 33 months. One patient had good subjective outcome for 14 months, followed by stress urinary incontinence recurrence. The peri-operative complications were temporary urinary retention at hospital discharge and urinary tract infection. Patients reported having no long-term complications. Results of this preliminary investigation suggest that this technique may be a reasonable alternative to other surgical procedures for stress urinary incontinence.

Objective: Lifestyle factors including education, coffee intake, tea consumption, dietary fat intake, obesity, physical activities, smoking and alcohol drinking, sleep duration, and insomnia, have been linked to Ovarian Cancer (OC) in observational studies. We assessed whether the concerning factors are causally associated with the risk of OC by histological subtypes. Design: Mendelian Randomization (MR) study. Setting: Independent genetic instruments associated with thirteen lifestyle behaviors were selected from ten genome-wide association studies. Summary-level data for OC subtypes were obtained from the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium. Population: Exposures population were including 375,833 to 1,232,091 European individuals, outcomes population were including up to 25,509 cases and 40,941 controls. Methods: Two-sample and multivariable MR study, and multiple complementary sensitivity analyses were conducted. Main Outcome Measures: Histological subtypes of OC. Results: We provided unconfounded genetic evidence of inverse associations of genetically predicted years of education and fat intake with specific OC subtypes, which are independent of BMI. Whereas consumption of coffee or tea was positively associated with endometroid OC, which may be partly mediated by BMI. Although physical activity and sleep characteristics have been reported to be the risk factors for OC, no causal associations were observed in our study. Conclusions: Our study clarified the protective and independent role of high level education and relative fat intake in particularly OC subtypes. We also showed detrimental effects of higher coffee or tea consumption on OC histotypes. Our results may provide insight into the corresponding interventions as lifestyle factors can easily be modified.

Tracer-aided studies to understand source water partitioning in tropical ecosystems are limited. Here we report dry season source water partitioning in five unique ecosystems distributed across Costa Rica in altitudinal (<150-3,400 m asl) and latitudinal (Caribbean and Pacific slopes) gradients: evergreen and seasonal rainforests, cloud forest, Páramo, and dry forest. Soil and plant samples were collected during the dry season (2021). Plant and soil water extractions (triplicates) were conducted using controlled centrifugation. Stem water extraction efficiency and stem water content were calculated via gravimetric measurements. Water source contributions were estimated using a Bayesian mixing model. Isotope ratios in soil and stems exhibited a strong meteoric origin. Enrichment trends were detected mainly in stems and cactus samples within the dry forest ecosystem. Soil profiles revealed nearly uniform isotopic profiles; however, a depletion trend was observed in the Páramo ecosystem below 25 cm depth. More enriched compositions were reported in cactus samples for extracted water volumes above ~20% ( Adj. r2=0.34, p<0.01). The most prominent dry season water source in the evergreen rainforest (74.0%), seasonal rainforest (86.4%), and cloud forest (66.0%) corresponded with soil water. In the Páramo ecosystem, recent rainfall produced by trade wind incursions resulted in the most significant water source (61.9%), whereas in the dry forest, mean annual precipitation (38.6%) and baseflow (33.1%) were the dominant sources. The latter highlights the prevalence of distinct water uptake sources between recent cold front’s rainfall to more well-mixed soil moisture during the dry season.

Background A core outcome set could address inconsistent outcome reporting and improve evidence for stillbirth care research, which has been identified as an important research priority. Objectives To identify outcomes and outcome measurement instruments reported by studies evaluating interventions after the diagnosis of a stillbirth. Search strategy Amed, BNI, CINAHL, ClinicalTrials.gov, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Embase, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and WHO ICTRP from 1998 to August 2021. Selection criteria Randomised and non-randomised comparative or non-comparative studies reporting a stillbirth care intervention. Data collection and analysis Interventions, outcomes reported, definitions and outcome measurement tools were extracted. Main results 40 randomised and 200 non-randomised studies were included. 58 different interventions were reported, labour and birth care (52 studies), hospital bereavement care (28 studies), clinical investigations (116 studies), care in a multiple pregnancy (2 studies), psychosocial support (28 studies) and care in a subsequent pregnancy (14 studies). 391 unique outcomes were reported and organised into 14 outcome domains: labour and birth; postpartum; delivery of care; investigations; multiple pregnancy; mental health; emotional functioning; grief and bereavement; social functioning; relationship; whole person; subsequent pregnancy; subsequent children and siblings and economic. 242 outcome measurement instruments were used, with 0-22 tools per outcome. Conclusions Heterogeneity in outcome reporting, outcome definition and measurement tools in care after stillbirth exists. Considerable research gaps on specific intervention types in stillbirth care were identified. A core outcome set is needed to standardise outcome collection and reporting for stillbirth care research.

In this paper, we consider an initial value problem for the 2 − D compressible Navier-Stokes equations without heat conductivity. We prove the global existence of strong solution when the initial perturbation is small in H2 and its L1 norm is bounded. Moreover, we derive some decay estimate for such a solution.

Insect sex pheromones are important chemical signals in sexual communication, they are traditionally thought to be inactive to larvae. However, it was found that some lepidopteran larvae can be significantly attracted by sex pheromones of the same species in a food context. Here we reported that the host-feeding choice of early-instar Mythimna separata larvae can be effectively regulated by the sex pheromone component (Z)-11-hexadecenal (Z11-16: Ald). Further exploration revealed that two olfactory proteins, M. separata general odorant binding protein 2 (MsGOBP2) and olfactory receptor 3 (MsOR3), were molecular basis of the host-feeding choice regulation mediated by Z11-16: Ald. Silencing either MsGOBP2 or MsOR3 led to a sharply reduced preference for Z11-16: Ald-spiked hosts. It is possible that the Z11-16: Ald-based preference of the M. separata larvae for host is governed by the interplay between MsGOBP2 and MsOR3. In the present research, the interactions between MsGOBP2 and Z11-16: Ald were also discussed using molecular dynamics-based approaches. Our research explored insight into the Z11-16: Ald-mediated host-feeding choice regulation of M. separata larvae, all the results would aid in developing olfaction-based methods for controlling pests in larval stage.

The Darboux theorem, one of the fundamental results in analysis, states that the derivative of a real (not necessarily continuously) differentiable function defined on a compact interval has the intermediate value property, i.e. attains each value between the derivatives at the endpoints. The Bolzano intermediate value theorem, which implies Darboux’s theorem when the derivative is continuous, states that a continuous real-valued function $f$ defined on $[-1,1]$ satisfying $f(-1)<0$ and $f(1)>0$ 0, has a zero, i.e. $f(x) = 0$ for at least one number $-1

Introduction: Mitral annulus (MA) assessment is of utmost importance for the management of patients with mitral valve (MV) abnormalities and Three-dimensional transesophageal echocardiography (3D-TOE) has been the only reliable echocardiographic method for the evaluation of the mitral annulus by now. However, newer transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) probes have enabled to provide accurate measurements when TOE is contraindicated. The aim of this study is to assess the feasibility of 3D-TTE analysis of MA and the level of agreement with 3D-TOE measurements. Methods: A total of 121 consecutive patients were assessed with 3D-TTE and TOE. All MA parameters were retrospectively analyzed with the dedicated 4D-autoMVQ application. Bland-Altman analysis and intraclass correlation coefficient were used for the comparison and agreement between the two methods. Half of our patients had normal mitral valves and served as control group, while the other half had various mitral valve pathologies. Results: AutoMVQ analysis was not feasible in 11 out of 121 TTE examinations (91% feasibility) and in 4 out of 121 TOE examinations (96% feasibility). MA area and perimeter were slightly larger in TTE than those measured by TOE (12.7±3.6 vs 12.4±3.2cm2 for area and 12.7±1.7 vs 12.5±1.6cm for perimeter), however still showing strong correlation (r=0.942 and r=0.922 respectively). The majority of MV measurements were similar between the two methods with strong correlation (r>0.80). Conclusions: Assessment of the MV with 3D TTE with dedicated MVQ software is feasible and accurate, showing strong correlation and agreement with TOE measurements.

The abundance ratio [HNC]/[HCN] in upper atmosphere is known to vary depending on the various conditions, like the presence of UV radiation, the temperature of the region of abundance, etc. There have been attempts to justify the related observations from kinetic as well as thermodynamic considerations. In the present work we consider the dissociation of HCNH, right after its formation from electron capture of HCNH+, as the primary source of HNC and HCN in upper atmosphere. Few years back, from our group, a study [J.Phys.Chem.A, 2013, 117, 8680-8690] of nonadiabatic effect on low-lying excited states of HCNH was undertaken to understand the formation of HNC. Present study is to explore the nonadiabatic effects on the various dissociation channels of HCNH leading to the formation of HCN and thus to justify the abundance ratio [HNC]/[HCN] in upper atmosphere. We present here the first ever exploration of the presence of conical intersection around the transition state geometries along the intrinsic reaction coordinate for the dissociation of HCNH into HCN and HNC.

The existing researches have shown that internal degradation processes and external shocks may simultaneously interfere with the reliability of dynamic systems in uncertain random environments. Assume that failure processes are dependent, that is, shocks may accelerate degradation processes by additional degradations. Wear and additional degradations are uncertain, while shocks are considered to be random. As a natural consideration, it is necessary to maximize the reliability of multi-stage uncertain random systems. In this paper, a maximizing reliability problem is presented, and recurrence equations are provided by Bellman's principle. These are successfully applied to maximize reliability index in two special cases with linear and quadratic state equations. In addition, two effective algorithms are developed to achieve optimal solutions. Finally, a numerical example of a metallized film pulse capacitor is proposed which aims to indicate that optimization method is beneficial to maximize the reliability of multi-stage systems.

Chronic spontaneous urticaria and dermographism following COVID-19 booster vaccination: a case series To the Editor,To date, more than 3.6 million persons in Denmark have received booster doses of COVID-vaccine, of which the majority have been the Pfizer-BioNTech’s “Comirnaty” (86.5%) and Moderna’s “Spikevax” (13.5%) vaccines (1). While adverse events following vaccination with the first two doses of COVID-vaccine have been reported, only a handful of cases documenting adverse events after receiving a booster vaccination have been published (2-5). In private dermatology practice, we have noticed an increasing number of patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria and dermographism.This case series is based on 15 consecutive patients cared for in a single private dermatology practice having a catchment area of 90000 patients. Clinical and demographic data are presented in Table 1. Twelve patients had no previous medical history of urticaria and developed inducible urticaria post vaccination (Figure 1) and seven of these patients also had coexisting spontaneous urticaria. The remaining three patients developed an exacerbation of their preexisting urticaria with newly developed dermographism in two patients. All patients developed symptoms within one day to three weeks following vaccination with a median time of 14 days. Most patients had severe symptoms with six requiring acute doctor visits and two being admitted to the emergency department. All patients were treated with high-dose antihistamines, and three patients received oral prednisolone. Three patients received further treatment with omalizumab due to lack of response to high dose antihistamines/oral steroids. In all cases the most likely provoking factor of the chronic spontaneous urticaria and dermographism was believed to be the COVID-vaccine, as no other plausible cause was found, despite a thorough medical history and routine blood tests following international EAACI/GA2LEN/EUROGuiDerm/APAAACI guideline.We performed a literature research and found four other case studies reporting chronic spontaneous urticaria or dermographism following booster vaccination with COVID mRNA-vaccines (2-5). The mechanism is not elucidated, but it does not appear to be consistent with a true type I allergic reaction. We hypothesize that the generation of interleukins or other factors, in addition to T-cell activation, may lead to a non-IgE-mediated mast cell degranulation. A delayed hypersensitivity reaction against vaccine excipients or the mRNA component has already been suggested as the cause of localized injection-site reactions to the Spikevax vaccine (6). Most of our patients (73.3%) received a booster vaccination with Spikevax. Out of a total of 3.629.799 Danes who have received booster vaccinations, only 489.037 (13.5%) were vaccinated with Spikevax (1). It may be possible that Spikevax is more likely to stimulate an immunologic response leading to urticaria. Due to different booster dosages of Comirnaty (0.3 mL containing 30 micrograms of mRNA) and Spikevax (0.25 mL containing 50 micrograms of mRNA), Spikevax contains more mRNA, which could support this hypothesis, but more research is needed.It is important to identify and distinguish between different hypersensitivity reactions, which can include anaphylaxis, angioedema or acute urticaria, and delayed reactions, which consists of delayed urticarial reactions, late local reactions, and injection site reactions (“COVID-arm”). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that patients who experience immediate hypersensitivity reactions within 4 hours of receiving a COVID vaccine postpone the subsequent dose until after consulting with a specialist (6).This study describes booster vaccinations with COVID mRNA-vaccine leading to the development of chronic spontaneous urticaria and dermographism, which is a distinct clinical picture. These symptoms can be treated similar to chronic spontaneous urticaria and are not a contraindication to future vaccination. As many countries now are administrating a third or even fourth dose of COVID-vaccine, we hope this letter makes clinicians aware of this potential adverse effect, especially following booster vaccination with Spikevax.Jakob Lillemoen Drivenes1Aleena Banerji2Anette Bygum31Vestfold Hospital Trust, Tønsberg, Norway2Division of Rheumatology, Allergy, and Immunology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston3Department of Clinical Genetics, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark & Clinical Institute, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark