[Study on epidemic trend of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome in Zhejiang province, 2005-2020].

Objective: To analyze the epidemiological characteristics and spatiotemporal distribution of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) in Zhejiang province from 2005 to 2020, and provide scientific information for the precise prevention and control of HFRS. Methods: Data on HFRS cases in Zhejiang province during 2005-2020 were collected from the China National Notifiable Infectious Disease Reporting Information System (NNDS) for a descriptive analysis, and software ArcGIS 10.2 was used for global autocorrelation and local autocorrelation analyses. Spatiotemporal clusters were scanned with SaTScan 9.4.4 and visualized with ArcGIS 10.2. Results: A total of 7 724 HFRS cases were reported in Zhejiang province from 2005 to 2020, including 25 deaths. There were two incidence peaks each year, in late spring and early summer (May-June) and in winter (November-January). The top three areas with high cumulative cases were Ningbo (1 875, 24.27%), Taizhou (1 642, 21.25%), and Shaoxing (1 123, 14.54%). Among the reported cases, with a male to female ratio of 2.73∶1(5 656∶2 068). The majority of HFRS cases were middle-aged and elderly people, with cases aged 41-70 years accounting for 60.95%. Most HFRS cases were farmers, accounting for 69.89% (5 398/7 724). The spatial distribution of HFRS in most years was correlated. SaTScan was used for retrospective spatiotemporal scanning and three clusters were detected: the first type clusters were in 21 counties in eastern Zhejiang province and central Zhejiang province, among which 4 were in Ningbo, Shaoxing and Jinhua, 8 were in Taizhou, and 1 was in Lishui (RR=13.69, LLR=5 522.60, P<0.001); the second type clusters were in Longquan and Qingyuan counties (RR=31.20, LLR=1 232.46, P<0.001); the third types of clusters were in Changxing and Anji counties of Huzhou in northern Zhejiang province (RR=3.42, LLR=23.93, P<0.001). Conclusions: HFRS mainly occurred in middle-aged,elderly and male farmers in Zhejiang province. The incidence was high in late spring, early summer and winter in eastern Zhejiang province. Precise prevention and control measures are needed for populations at high risk before the epidemic season.

[Characteristics of rare diseases in Zhejiang province, 2007-2017].

Objective: To understand the characteristics of 24 388 inpatients with rare diseases in Zhejiang province during 2007-2017 and provide evidence for rare disease prevention and control. Methods: Inpatient data of rare diseases and the number of hospitalization in each year were collected in 10 hospitals of class Ⅲ (A) in Zhejiang province from 2007 to 2017, and descriptive statistical analysis was used. Results: A total of 24 388 cases of rare diseases were found, accounting for 2.69‰ (24 388/9 054 201) of total hospitalized cases. The top 3 types of rare diseases were "diseases of blood and blood-forming organs and certain disorders involving immune mechanism" (32.81%, 8 001/24 388), "congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities" (24.87%, 6 065/24 388) and "diseases of the nervous system" (19.01%, 4 635/24 388). The number of rare disease cases increased year by year from 2007 to 2017 with an average annual growth of 19.69%, however, the proportion of rare disease cases in the annual number of hospitalized cases only showed upward trend during 2016-2017, the time distribution of different types of rare diseases had different characteristics. The male to female ratio of rare diseases cases was 1.35∶1(13 990/10 398), "diseases of the digestive system" (4.45∶1, 1 180/265), "consequences of injury, poisoning and other external causes" (3.51∶1, 281/80) and "diseases of the nervous system" (2.26∶1, 3 213/1 422) had the highest male to female ratio. The distributions of rare disease types and diseases of different types in different age groups varied. The top 10 rare diseases accounted for 53.55% (13 060/24 388) of the total cases, and the top 3 diseases were adult idiopathic neutropenia (14.41%, 3 515/24 388), corticobasal degeneration (7.60%, 1 854/24 388) and henock-schoenlein purpura (6.01%, 1 466/24 388). Conclusion: The analysis on the characteristics of 24 388 rare disease cases in Zhejiang during 2007-2017 provided reference evidence for the promotion of rare disease research, monitoring, building registration database, and development of the prevention and control strategy for rare diseases in China.

AADS: Augmented autonomous driving simulation using data-driven algorithms.

Simulation systems have become essential to the development and validation of autonomous driving (AD) technologies. The prevailing state-of-the-art approach for simulation uses game engines or high-fidelity computer graphics (CG) models to create driving scenarios. However, creating CG models and vehicle movements (the assets for simulation) remain manual tasks that can be costly and time consuming. In addition, CG images still lack the richness and authenticity of real-world images, and using CG images for training leads to degraded performance. Here, we present our augmented autonomous driving simulation (AADS). Our formulation augmented real-world pictures with a simulated traffic flow to create photorealistic simulation images and renderings. More specifically, we used LiDAR and cameras to scan street scenes. From the acquired trajectory data, we generated plausible traffic flows for cars and pedestrians and composed them into the background. The composite images could be resynthesized with different viewpoints and sensor models (camera or LiDAR). The resulting images are photorealistic, fully annotated, and ready for training and testing of AD systems from perception to planning. We explain our system design and validate our algorithms with a number of AD tasks from detection to segmentation and predictions. Compared with traditional approaches, our method offers scalability and realism. Scalability is particularly important for AD simulations, and we believe that real-world complexity and diversity cannot be realistically captured in a virtual environment. Our augmented approach combines the flexibility of a virtual environment (e.g., vehicle movements) with the richness of the real world to allow effective simulation.

HCV-induced miR146a controls SOCS1/STAT3 and cytokine expression in monocytes to promote regulatory T-cell development.

Host innate and adaptive immune responses must be tightly regulated by an intricate balance between positive and negative signals to ensure their appropriate onset and termination while fighting pathogens and avoiding autoimmunity; persistent pathogens may usurp these regulatory machineries to dampen host immune responses for their persistence in vivo. Here, we demonstrate that miR146a is up-regulated in monocytes from hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected individuals compared to control subjects. Interestingly, miR146a expression in monocytes without HCV infection increased, whereas its level in monocytes with HCV infection decreased, following Toll-like receptor (TLR) stimulation. This miR146a induction by HCV infection and differential response to TLR stimulation were recapitulated in vitro in monocytes co-cultured with hepatocytes with or without HCV infection. Importantly, inhibition of miR146a in monocytes from HCV-infected patients led to a decrease in IL-23, IL-10 and TGF-ß expressions through the induction of suppressor of cytokine signalling 1 (SOCS1) and the inhibition of signal transducer and activator transcription 3 (STAT3), and this subsequently resulted in a decrease in regulatory T cells (Tregs) accumulated during HCV infection. These results suggest that miR146a may regulate SOCS1/STAT3 and cytokine signalling in monocytes, directing T-cell differentiation and balancing immune clearance and immune injury during chronic viral infection.

Determination of patellar ligament and anterior cruciate ligament geometry using MRI.

Ligament geometry is crucial to surgical treatment success in anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. This study aimed to optimize the MRI technique to elucidate the geometry of the patellar ligament (PL) and ACL in vivo. A 1.5-T superconducting MRI system with a special surface coil and fast spin echo was used to acquire high-resolution T1-weighted images (H-T1WI) of the ACL. The sagittal plane angle was 10° to 15° towards the inner side of the vertical line of the tangent line axis of the femoral intercondylar fossa. The H-T1WI images of the PL were centered at the lower margin of the patella and the center of the tibial tuberosity. The lengths of the PL and ACL were measured using a Radworks 5.1 workstation. ACL and PL lengths were compared between left and right knees and between genders, and left PL length measurements obtained separately by three doctors underwent correlation analysis. The quality of the images satisfied the clinical measurement requirements. The duration of sagittal image acquisition was 2 min and 25 s. The average PL length was 42.20 ± 4.21 and 40.15 ± 4.00 mm, and the average ACL length was 36.98 ± 4.12 and 35.80 ± 4.67 mm, in male and female subjects, respectively. The intraclass correlation coefficients of the PL lengths obtained by the three specialists were greater than 0.997. This MRI technique provides highly stable and repeatable in vivo data of PL and ACL geometry relevant to ACL reconstruction surgery with PL grafts.

A pediatric case of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome in Zhejiang Province, China.

This report describes a pediatric case of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS), which is an emerging disease that is caused by a novel bunyavirus. Interestingly, the previously reported SFTS cases typically involved elderly patients, while our case involved a 5-year-old child from Zhejiang Province, China. In this report, we describe our investigation of the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of this case, to improve our understanding of this emerging disease. Our principle finding was that the present case's clinical symptoms were milder than those that have been reported in adult cases of SFTS. Therefore, we recommend more careful screening of pediatric patients who present with mild symptoms that are consistent with SFTS.

Imaging, clinical and pathological features of salivary gland adenolymphoma.

OBJECTIVE: Adenolymphoma (Warthin's tumor) is a common salivary gland benign tumors with poor diagnosis and ranking second after the parotid tumors. Presently, a rising tendency of the incidence of adenolymphoma has been noted. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical, pathological and imaging features of this tumor. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 24 cases of confirmed adenolymphoma were retrospectively analyzed with clinical features, pathological data and CT imaging. RESULTS: Among 24 cases, 22 (91.7%) patients were male, two patients were female, 23 (95.8%) patients were more than 50 years old; 38 lesions were found in 24 patients including isolated lesions in 16 patients (66.7%), and multiple lesions in 8 patients (33.3%). 81.6% adenolymphoma lesions (31/38) were located in the posterior and inferior quadrant. The shapes of lesions were more oval or round, well-circumscribed, homogeneous (n=26) or inhomogeneous (n=12) with high density. 27 lesions were demonstrated with enhancement after contrast enhancement and 10 lesions showed small vessels penetrating through or surrounding the mass. CONCLUSIONS: Adenolymphoma of the parotid (Warthin tumor) should be first considered by the clinical data including age, gender, location and imaging manifestations of the lesions.

Control of Lepidopteran insect pests in transgenic Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa ssp. pekinensis) transformed with a synthetic Bacillus thuringiensis cry1C gene.

A synthetic Bacillus thuringiensis cry1C gene was transferred to three Korean cultivars of Chinese cabbage via Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation of hypocotyl explants. Hygromycin resistance served as an efficient selective marker. The transformation efficiency ranged from 5% to 9%. Transformation was confirmed by Southern blot analysis, PCR, Northern analysis, and progeny tests. Many transgenic plants of the closed-head types (lines Olympic and Samjin) flowered in vitro. Over 50 hygromycin-resistant plants were successfully transferred to soil. The transgenic plants and their progeny were resistant to diamondback moths (DBM, Plutella xylostella), the major insect pest of crucifers world-wide, as well as to cabbage loopers (Trichoplusia ni) and imported cabbage worms (Pieris rapae). Both susceptible Geneva DBM and a DBM population resistant to Cry1A protein were controlled by the Cry1C-transgenic plants. The efficient and reproducible transformation system described may be useful for the transfer of other agriculturally important genes into Chinese cabbage.

Overexpressed WAF1/Cip1 renders glioblastoma cells resistant to chemotherapy agents 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea and cisplatin.

Previous studies have shown that the negative cell cycle regulator WAF1/Cip1 is often overexpressed in human gliomas and that WAF1/Cip1 overexpression may be a factor in cancer chemoresistance. We established a doxycycline-inducible WAF1/Cip1 expression system in two glioblastoma cell lines and examined the role of WAF1/Cip1 in their response to the chemotherapy agents 1,3-bis(2-chloroethyl)-1-nitrosourea (BCNU) and cis-diamminedichloroplatinum (cisplatin), in an isogeneic background. Our results showed that the induction of WAF1/Cip1 expression rendered glioma cells resistant to cell death induced by BCNU and cisplatin. Using an in vivo host-cell reactivation DNA repair assay, we demonstrated that WAF1/Cip1 enhances the repair of BCNU-induced DNA damage. We conclude that WAF1/Cip1 allows repair of BCNU- and cisplatin-damaged DNA and protects glioma cells from chemotherapy agent-induced apoptosis. Thus, blocking WAF1/Cip1 production or function may serve as a useful chemosensitization regimen for glioma.

[The relation between changes of nitric oxide synthase in hippocampus and activities of excitatory amino acid receptor during epilepsy].

The time course of alteration in neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) and the influence of glutamate receptor antagonists on immunoreactivity of nNOS were investigated immunohistochemically in rat hippocampus during penicillin-induced epilepsy. It was found that nNOS-like immunoreactivity in hippocampus increased at 4 h after initiation of seizure and reached a peak at 24 h. When MK-801 (6 micrograms) and DNQX (4 micrograms) were injected respectively into hippocampus 20 min before administration of penicillin, seizure was reduced in strength. Meanwhile, the nNOS-like immunoreactivity in hippocampus was decreased, compared with the group which were administered penicillin alone. These results suggest that the increase of nitric oxide may be related to the injury of neurons during and after epilepsy; the changes' of nNOS may be related to the activity of NMDA and non-NMDA receptors. Neuron protective effect of MK-801 and DNQX may be in part mediated by nNOS.