A novel dual-mode aptasensor based colorimetry and electrochemical detection of norovirus in fecal sample.

Norovirus is a leading cause of acute gastroenteritis in humans. This paper presents the development of a novel dual-mode aptasensor for detecting norovirus using colorimetry and electrochemical methods. The initial colorimetric method utilizes gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and sodium chloride to establish a positive correlation between the concentration of norovirus in a solution and the absorbance ratio A650/A520. The naked eye can detect concentrations as low as 0.1 µg/mL, corresponding to a Ct value of 33 (2.2 copies/µL, CT = 34.102-3.2185·lgX), allowing for qualitative and semi-quantitative analysis. For more accurate trace analysis, a gold electrode is modified with a thiol-modified aptamer and closed with 6-Mercapto-1-hexanol. After incubation with norovirus, the virus specifically binds to the aptamer, causing changes in its spatial structure and distance from the electrode surface. These changes can then be detected using electrochemical square wave voltammetry (SWV). Under optimal reaction conditions, the peak current from SWV exhibits a strong linear relationship with the logarithm of norovirus concentrations between 10-9 µg/mL and 10-2 µg/mL. The regression equation Y = 14.76789 + 1.03983·lgX, with an R2 value of 0.987, accurately represents this relationship. The limit of detection was determined to be 1.365 × 10-10 µg/mL. Furthermore, the aptasensor demonstrated high specificity for norovirus in fecal samples, making it a promising tool for detecting norovirus in various sample types.

Diverse amdoparvoviruses infection of farmed Asian badgers (Meles meles).

Amdoparvoviruses infect various carnivores, including mustelids, canids, skunks, and felids. Aleutian mink disease virus (AMDV) belongs to the prototypical species Amdoparvovirus carnivoran1. Here, we identified a novel amdoparvovirus in farmed Asian badgers (Meles meles), and we named this virus "Meles meles amdoparvovirus" (MMADV). A total of 146 clinical samples were collected from 134 individual badgers, and 30.6% (41/134) of the sampled badgers tested positive for amdoparvovirus by PCR. Viral DNA was detected in feces, blood, spleen, liver, lung, and adipose tissue from these animals. Viral sequences from eight samples were determined, five of which represented nearly full-length genome sequences (4,237-4,265 nt). Six serum samples tested positive by PCR, CIEP, and IAT, four of which had high antibody titers (> 512) against AMDV-G. Twenty-six of the 41 amdoparvovirus-positive badgers showed signs of illness, and necropsy revealed lesions in their organs. Sequence comparisons and phylogenetic analysis of the viral NS1 and VP2 genes of these badger amdoparvoviruses showed that their NS1 proteins shared 62.6%-88.8% sequence identity with known amdoparvoviruses, and they clustered phylogenetically into two related clades. The VP2 proteins shared 76.6%-97.2% identity and clustered into two clades, one of which included raccoon dog and arctic fox amdoparvovirus (RFAV), and the other of which did not include other known amdoparvoviruses. According to the NS1-protein-based criterion for parvovirus species demarcation, the MMADV isolate from farm YS should be classified as a member of a new species of the genus Amdoparvovirus. In summary, we have discovered a novel MMADV and other badger amdoparvoviruses that naturally infect Asian badgers and are possibly pathogenic in badgers.

Assessing the impact of circulating inflammatory cytokines and proteins as drivers and therapeutic targets in epilepsy: A Mendelian randomization study.

BACKGROUND: Previous research has demonstrated that neuroinflammation is a key element in the progress of epilepsy. Nevertheless, it is currently unidentified which inflammatory factors and proteins increase or decrease the risk of epilepsy. METHODS: We adopted Mendelian randomization techniques to explore the causal relationship between circulating inflammatory factors and proteins and various epilepsy. Our principal approach was inverse variance weighting, supplemented by several sensitivity analyses to guarantee the robustness of our findings. RESULTS: Studies have identified associations between epilepsy and specific inflammatory factors and proteins: three inflammatory factors and six proteins are linked to epilepsy in general; one inflammatory factor and four proteins are associated with focal epilepsy with no documented lesions; two inflammatory factors and three proteins are related to focal epilepsy, excluding cases with hippocampal sclerosis; two inflammatory factors and two proteins are connected to juvenile myoclonic epilepsy; two inflammatory factors and five proteins are linked to juvenile absence epilepsy; four inflammatory proteins are associated with childhood absence epilepsy; two inflammatory factors are related to focal epilepsy overall; two inflammatory factors and two proteins are connected to generalized epilepsy; and two inflammatory proteins are linked to generalized epilepsy with tonic-clonic seizures. Additionally, six inflammatory factors may play a downstream role in focal epilepsy. CONCLUSION: Our study uncovers various inflammatory factors and proteins that influence the risk of epilepsy, offering instructive insights to the diagnosis and therapy of the condition.

Elucidating the potential of chlorogenic acid for controlling Morganella psychrotolerans growth and histamine formation.

AIM: To investigate the inhibitory impact of chlorogenic acid (CGA) on the growth of Morganella psychrotolerans and its ability to form histamine. METHODS AND RESULTS: The antimicrobial effect of CGA on M. psychrotolerans was evaluated using the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) method, revealing an MIC value of 10 mg ml-1. The alkaline phosphatase (AKP) activity, cell membrane potential, and scanning electron microscopy images revealed that CGA treatment disrupted cell structure and cell membrane. Moreover, CGA treatment led to a dose-dependent decrease in crude histidine decarboxylase (HDC) activity and gene expression of histidine decarboxylase (hdc). Molecular docking analysis demonstrated that CGA interacted with HDC through hydrogen bonds. Furthermore, in situ investigation confirmed the efficacy of CGA in controlling the growth of M. psychrotolerans and significantly reducing histamine formation in raw tuna. CONCLUSION: CGA had good activity in controlling the growth of M. psychrotolerans and histamine formation.

Present status of scheduled vaccinations and vaccination-related bleeding in Chinese children with haemophilia.

AIM: Many countries have detailed recommendations for haemophilia patients to reduce the risk of vaccination-related bleeding. However, data from developing countries are lacking. We investigated scheduled vaccinations and vaccination-related bleeding complications in Chinese children with haemophilia and analysed issues related to vaccinations. METHODS: Children with haemophilia in the PUMCH Haemophilia Treatment Centre were contacted via telephone. We distributed a vaccination questionnaire to their parents. The severity of haemophilia, coagulation factor infusions before vaccination, injection mode, and vaccination-related complications were analysed. RESULTS: A total of 440 valid questionnaires were received from 27 of 34 provinces in China. 31.3% (138/440) of the children with haemophilia did not receive all of their vaccinations. Among the children who received vaccinations, 48.1% (197/409) experienced bleeding complications. In patients with severe haemophilia, those on regular prophylaxis had a lower incidence of local hematoma compared to those on intermittent or no prophylaxis (14.3% vs. 26.5% vs. 39.7%, P < 0.05). The incidence of local hematomas was lower by subcutaneous (SQ) injections than by intramuscular injections (24.6% vs. 35.3%, P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The vaccination rate is quite insufficient in Chinese children with haemophilia. Missed vaccinations are related to vaccination-related bleeding complications. Prophylaxis before vaccination and SQ injections would help reduce bleeding complications.

[Research progress in treatment of chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome with traditional Chinese medicine].

Chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome(CP/CPPS) is a common urological disease with complex etiology. The treatment effect of western medicine is not satisfactory, and the course of the disease is protracted, which brings great trouble to patients. Traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) has a variety of treatment methods based on syndrome differentiation and treatment, including internal treatment with TCM, acupuncture and massage, and other external treatment methods for comprehensive treatment, with significant effect. This study summarized the etiology and pathogenesis of CP/CPPS and found that western medicine cannot fully explain the etiology and pathogenesis of CP/CPPS. It was believed that CP/CPPS was mainly related to many factors such as special pathogen infection, voiding dysfunction, mental and psychological abnormalities, neuroendocrine abnormalities, immune abnormalities, excessive oxidative stress, pelvic diseases, and heredity. TCM believed that CP/CPPS was caused by damp heat, blood stasis, Qi stagnation, and poisoning and was closely related to the organs of the liver, spleen, kidney, lung, stomach, bladder, and meridians of Chong and Ren channels and three yin channels of the foot. In the treatment of TCM, multiple comprehensive treatment plans are currently used, including internal treatment with TCM(decoction, proprietary Chinese medicine, and unique therapies of famous doctors), acupuncture and massage treatment, and other external treatment methods(rectal administration, topical application of TCM, and ear acupoint pressure). Comprehensive regulation has significant clinical efficacy and prominent characteristics of TCM, and it is worth clinical promotion. This study aims to provide a reference for clinical prevention and treatment of CP/CPPS and points out potential directions for future research in this field.

[Role of NLRP3 inflammasome in prevention and treatment of cognitive impairment-related diseases and traditional Chinese medicine intervention: a review].

Alzheimer's disease(AD), vascular dementia(VD), and traumatic brain injury(TBI) are more common cognitive impairment diseases characterized by high disability and mortality rates, imposing a heavy burden on individuals and their families. Although AD, VD, and TBI have different specific mechanisms, their pathogenesis is closely related to the nucleotide-binding oligome-rization domain-like receptor protein 3(NLRP3). The NLRP3 inflammasome is involved in neuroinflammatory responses, mediating microglial polarization, regulating the reduction of amyloid ß-protein(Aß) deposition, neurofibrillary tangles(NFTs) formation, autophagy regulation, and maintaining brain homeostasis, and synaptic stability, thereby contributing to the development of AD, VD, and TBI. Previous studies have shown that traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) can alleviate neuroinflammation, promote microglial polarization towards the M2 phenotype, reduce Aß deposition and NFTs formation, regulate autophagy, and maintain brain homeostasis by intervening in NLRP3 inflammasome, hence exerting a role in preventing and treating cognitive impairment-related diseases, reducing psychological and economic pressure on patients, and improving their quality of life. Therefore, this article elucidated the role of NLRP3 inflammasome in AD, VS, and TBI, and provided a detailed summary of the latest research results on TCM intervention in NLRP3 inflammasome for the prevention and treatment of these diseases, aiming to inherit the essence of TCM and provide references and foundations for clinical prevention and treatment of cognitive impairment-related diseases with TCM. Meanwhile, this also offers insights and directions for further research in TCM for the prevention and treatment of cognitive impairment-related diseases.

Transforming the fermented fish landscape: Microbiota enable novel, safe, flavorful, and healthy products for modern consumers.

Regular consumption of fish promotes sustainable health while reducing negative environmental impacts. Fermentation has long been used for preserving perishable foods, including fish. Fermented fish products are popular consumer foods of historical and cultural significance owing to their abundant essential nutrients and distinct flavor. This review discusses the recent scientific progress on fermented fish, especially the involved flavor formation processes, microbial metabolic activities, and interconnected biochemical pathways (e.g., enzymatic/non-enzymatic reactions associated with lipids, proteins, and their interactions). The multiple roles of fermentation in preservation of fish, development of desirable flavors, and production of health-promoting nutrients and bioactive substances are also discussed. Finally, prospects for further studies on fermented fish are proposed, including the need of monitoring microorganisms, along with the precise control of a fermentation process to transform the traditional fermented fish to novel, flavorful, healthy, and affordable products for modern consumers. Microbial-enabled innovative fermented fish products that consider both flavor and health benefits are expected to become a significant segment in global food markets. The integration of multi-omics technologies, biotechnology-based approaches (including synthetic biology and metabolic engineering) and sensory and consumer sciences, is crucial for technological innovations related to fermented fish. The findings of this review will provide guidance on future development of new or improved fermented fish products through regulating microbial metabolic processes and enzymatic activities.

[Prediction of Coagulation Factor â § Level in Chinese Hemophilia A Patients by the Pharmacokinetic Management Tool myPKFiT].

Objective To evaluate the performance of myPKFiT,a tool guiding the dosing of antihemophilic factor (recombinant) plasma/albumin-free method (rAHF-PFM),in maintaining the coagulation factor Ⅷ (FⅧ) level above a target threshold at the steady state and estimating the pharmacokinetics (PK) parameters in hemophilia A patients in China. Methods The data of 9 patients with severe hemophilia A in a trial (CTR20140434) assessing the safety and efficacy of rAHF-PFM in the Chinese patients with hemophilia A were analyzed.The myPKFiT was used to predict the adequate dose to maintain a patient's FⅧ level above target threshold at the steady state.Furthermore,the performance of myPKFiT in estimating the pharmacokinetics parameters of individuals was evaluated. Results Twelve combinations of two dosing intervals and six sparse sampling schedules were investigated,and 57%-88% of the patients remained the FⅧ level above the target threshold of 1 U/dl (1%) for at least 80% of the dosing interval.The clearance and time to FⅧ level of 1% obtained from sparse sampling by myPKFiT were similar to those obtained from extensive sampling. Conclusions The myPKFiT can provide adequate dose estimates to maintain the FⅧ level above the target threshold at the steady state in Chinese patients with severe hemophilia A.Moreover,it demonstrates good performance for estimating key pharmacokinetics parameters,including clearance and time to FⅧ level of 1%.

Thrombocytopenia in primary antiphospholipid syndrome: association with prognosis and clinical implications.

OBJECTIVES: Thrombocytopenia, a frequent clinical manifestation in patients with APS, could be an independent predictor of recurrent thrombotic, obstetric and severe extracriteria events. METHODS: This single-centre prospective study enrolled 218 consecutive patients diagnosed with primary APS between 2010 and 2021. Thrombocytopenia was defined as a platelet count less than 100 × 109/L. RESULTS: Our cohort included 74 (33.94%) patients with thrombocytopenia and 144 patients with a continuous normal platelet count. Comparison of baseline characteristics indicated that patients with thrombocytopenia had more visceral venous thromboses [10 (13.51%) vs 5(3.47%); P = 0.009] and extracriteria manifestations [mainly haemolytic anaemia; 20 (27.03%) vs 17 (11.81%); P = 0.007]. Hypocomplementemia was more likely among patients with thrombocytopenia [19 (25.68%) vs 16 (11.11%); P = 0.01]. The presence of aCL-IgG/IgM, anti-ß2-glycoprotein I and lupus anticoagulant were more frequently detected in patients with thrombocytopenia. In survival analysis, thrombotic, obstetric and severe extracriteria survival rates were significantly worse in patients with thrombocytopenia. In multivariate Cox regression, thrombocytopenia was an independent risk factor for all endpoint events, including thrombotic events [hazard ratio (HR) 2.93 (95% CI 1.31, 6.56), P = 0.009], pregnancy morbidity [HR 8.00 (95% CI 2.43, 26.37), P = 0.0006] and severe extracriteria events [HR 15.27 (95% CI 1.85, 125.98), P = 0.01]. CONCLUSION: Thrombocytopenia could identify primary APS patients at high risk of developing thrombotic events, pregnancy morbidity and severe extracriteria events.

Structure-embedding network for predicting the transmission spectrum of a multilayer deep etched grating.

This Letter presents a structure-embedding network (SEmNet) to predict the transmission spectrum of a multilayer deep etched grating (MDEG). Spectral prediction is an important procedure in the MDEG design process. Existing approaches based on deep neural networks have been applied to spectral prediction to improve the design efficiency of similar devices, such as nanoparticles and metasurfaces. Due to a dimensionality mismatch between a structure parameter vector and the transmission spectrum vector, however, the prediction accuracy decreases. The proposed SEmNet can overcome the dimensionality mismatch problem of deep neural networks to increase the accuracy of predicting the transmission spectrum of an MDEG. SEmNet consists of a structure-embedding module and a deep neural network. The structure-embedding module increases the dimensionality of the structure parameter vector with a learnable matrix. The augmented structure parameter vector then becomes the input to the deep neural network to predict the transmission spectrum of the MDEG. Experiment results demonstrate that the proposed SEmNet improves the prediction accuracy of the transmission spectrum in comparison with the state-of-the-art approaches.

Humanized CD19 CAR-T cells in relapsed/refractory B-ALL patients who relapsed after or failed murine CD19 CAR-T therapy.

BACKGROUND: For CD19-positive relapsed/refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (r/r B-ALL) after treatment with murine CD19 (mCD19) CAR-T, the reinfusion of mCD19 CAR-T cells may be ineffective due to anti-mouse single-chain variable fragment (scFv) antibody caused by mCD19 CAR. To overcome this immunogenicity, we applied humanized CD19 (hCD19) CAR-T cells to treat r/r B-ALL patients with prior mCD19 CAR-T therapy. METHODS: Nineteen pediatric and adult patients were included, 16 relapsed after and 3 were primarily resistant to mCD19 CAR-T. All patients presented with more than 5% blasts in bone marrow and/or extramedullary disease, and still showed CD19 antigen expression. Humanized CD19-CARs were lentiviral vectors carrying a second generation CAR with 4-1-BB co-stimulatory and CD3ζ signaling domains. Patient-derived cells were collected for producing CAR-T cells, the median dose of infused hCD19 CAR-T cells was 2.4 × 105/kg (range, 1.0-18.0 × 105/kg). RESULTS: hCD19 CAR-T resulted in a complete remission (CR) rate of 68% (13/19). Among 13 remission patients, 11 underwent allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT) (3 were second HCT) and 10 remained in CR; the event-free survival rates at 12-18 months were 91% in 11 patients received following allo-HCT and 69% in all CR patients. Six cases had no response to hCD19 CAR-T, 3 died of disease progression; another 3 received salvage second transplantation, of them, 2 relapsed again (one died). Cytokine release syndrome (CRS) occurred in 95% (18/19) of patients, most CRS events were grade 1 and grade 2 (n = 17), there was only one grade 4 CRS. Two cases experienced grade 1 neurotoxicity. CONCLUSIONS: Humanized CD19 CAR-T cell therapy could be a treatment option for CD19-positive B-ALL patients who relapsed after or resisted prior murine CD19 CAR-T, hCD19 CAR-T followed by allo-HCT provided a longer remission in CR patients. Nevertheless, the prognosis of non-responders to hCD19 CAR-T remained dismal. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry/WHO International Clinical Trial Registry ( ChiCTR1900024456 , URL: www.chictr.org.cn ); registered on July 12, 2019.

Effects of ferric ammonium citrate on iron accumulation, bone turnover and bone density in ovariectomized rat models with osteoporosis.

To analyze the effect of ferric ammonium citrate on iron accumulation, bone turnover and bone density in ovariectomized rat models with osteoporosis, 40 female SD rats were randomized into four groups, that were, sham-operated, model, low and high-dose ferric ammonium citrate groups (i.e. low and high-dose groups) respectively, each of them had ten rats. Except for the sham-operated group, bilateral ovariectomy was performed in the other groups to establish models with osteoporosis; one week after the operation, those in the low and high-dose groups were given 90 mg/kg and 180 mg/kg ferric ammonium citrate, respectively. Those in the other two groups received isodose saline for nine weeks, with the frequency of twice per week. The changes in bone tissue morphology, serum ferritin concentration, tibial iron content, serum osteocalcin, carboxyl terminal peptide (ß - CTX), bone density, bone volume fraction and trabecular thickness were compared. Results showed that the rats in the low and high-dose groups contained a higher concentration of serum ferritin and tibial iron content compared to the other groups (P < 0.05). In contrast to the model group, the bone trabeculae in the low and high-dose groups were sparse in morphology and increased in spacing. It was obvious that the rats contained more osteocalcin and ß - CTX in the model group, the low and high-dose groups versus the sham-operated group (P < 0.05), and those had more ß - CTX in the high-dose group versus the model group and the low-dose group (P < 0.05). The bone density, bone volume fraction and trabecular thickness of the rats in the model group, the low and high-dose groups showed lower versus the sham-operated group (P < 0.05); those in the low and high-dose groups significantly presented lower bone density and bone volume fraction versus the model group (P < 0.05). Iron accumulation can aggravate osteoporosis in ovariectomized rats, and its mechanism may be associated with accelerating bone turnover, promoting bone absorption, reducing bone density and sparsely trabecular structure. Therefore, it is particularly important to understand iron accumulation in postmenopausal osteoporosis patients.

Folate receptor-positive circulating tumor cells in the preoperative diagnosis of indeterminate pulmonary nodules.

BACKGROUND: The use of FR + CTC to distinguish lung cancer from benign lung disease has been well studied. However, the effective method to differentiate precursor glandular lesions from benign/malignant pulmonary diseases is rare. METHODS: 380 patients with indeterminate pulmonary nodules were prospectively recruited. Peripheral blood samples were collected from all participants before surgery for analyzing FR + CTC levels. The performance of FR + CTC to identify lung precursor lesions were analyzed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. RESULTS: FR + CTC can effectively differentiate precursor from benign pulmonary diseases in all included patients (cutoff: 9.22 FU/3 ml, AUC = 0.807, (p < 0.0001, sensitivity: 69.17%, specificity: 82.46%) and patients with single pulmonary lesion (cutoff: 9.03 FU/3 ml, AUC = 0.842, p = 0.0001, sensitivity: 75.20%, specificity: 83.00%). However, FR + CTC cannot differentiate precursor from benign pulmonary diseases in multiple lesions patients (p = 0.110). FR + CTC neither differentiate precursor from malignant pulmonary lesions in all included patients (p = 0.715), single nor multiple lesions patients (p = 0.867, p = 0.692, respectively). Total number of pulmonary nodules, MTD, location (lower vs upper) were independent risk factors for malignancy (AOR, 95% CI: 3.104 (1.525, 6.316), 3.148 (1.722, 5.754), 2.098 (1.132, 3.888), respectively. CONCLUSION: Preoperative FR + CTC can be identified in precursor glandular lesions and utilized to differentiate from benign pulmonary diseases. Total number of pulmonary nodules, MTD, location (lower vs upper) were independent risk factors for malignancy.

A Modeling Study of a Patient-specific Safe Zone for THA: Calculation, Validation, and Key Factors Based on Standing and Sitting Sagittal Pelvic Tilt.

BACKGROUND: Lumbar-pelvic stiffness and sagittal imbalance have been reported to increase the risk of dislocation and wear after THA. One potential way to approach this concern is by identifying patient-specific safe zones for THA components based on the standing and sitting sagittal pelvic tilt. However, there is no algorithm to integrate the standing and sitting pelvic tilt into the surgical plan of component orientations. QUESTIONS/PURPOSES: We established a new mathematical algorithm for determining a patient-specific safe zone for THA by integrating the impingement-free ROM requirements of standing and sitting while preventing edge loading while standing. We aimed to determine (1) the accuracy of this new method for predicting the impingement-free ROM for a given component orientation, (2) the sensitivity and specificity of detecting an impingement-free acetabular cup position for standing and sitting, and (3) the influences of key factors including pelvic tilt while standing and pelvic tilt while sitting and implant parameters on patient-specific safe zones. METHODS: A strategy for calculating the intersection of standing and sitting impingement-free safe zones and the zone of a standing radiographic inclination of ≤ 45° was used to develop patient-specific safe zones. We conducted a computer simulation study including the pelvis and THA prosthesis to answer the three study questions. We enrolled 10 patients who underwent robot-assisted THA for avascular necrosis of the femoral head (mean age 49 ± 19 years; five were women) from October 2019 to December 2019. We used a prosthesis model with a conical stem neck and a non-hooded liner, with the femoral head diameter ranging between 28 mm and 40 mm, and the corresponding head-neck ratio ranging between 2.33 and 3.33. We tested 1680 movements for the accuracy of impingement-free ROM (Question 1), and 80 marginal points and 120 non-marginal points of the comprehensive impingement-free safe zone, which combines the standing and sitting postures (Question 2). For Question 3, we explored the influences of standing and sitting pelvic tilt, femoral head diameter, and ROM criteria on the size of the patient-specific safe zone. RESULTS: With the simulation method as a reference for detecting impingement, the mean absolute error (arithmetic mean of all the absolute errors) of the calculated impingement-free ROM was 1.4° ± 2.3°, and the limit of agreement of errors was between -3.6° and 3.7°. The sensitivity of detecting a safe cup orientation within the comprehensive impingement-free safe zone for a given ROM criterion was 98.9% (95% CI 93.6% to 99.9%), and specificity was 97.1% (95% CI 91.0% to 99.2%). There were no impingement-free safe zones for 29% (pelvic tilt combinations without an impingement-free safe zone and all tested combinations) and no patient-specific safe zones for 46% (pelvic tilt combinations without a patient-specific safe zone and all tested combinations) of the tested combinations of standing and sitting pelvic tilt. The patient-specific safe zone was sensitive to changes in standing and sitting pelvic tilt, femoral head diameter, stem version, and ROM criteria. Stem anteversions beyond 10° to 20° dramatically reduced the size of the patient-specific safe zone to 0 within a change of 10° to 20°. CONCLUSION: The patient-specific safe zone algorithm can be an accurate method for determining the optimal orientation for acetabular cups and femoral stems in THA. The patient-specific safe zone is sensitive to changes in standing and sitting pelvic tilt, stem version, ROM criteria, and the femoral head diameter. A narrow zone of 10° to 20° for stem anteversion is recommended to maximize the size of the patient-specific safe zone. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: This study suggests the potential of a mathematical algorithm to optimize the orientation of THA components and illustrates how key parameters affect the patient-specific safe zone.

Polarization image demosaicking using polarization channel difference prior.

This paper presents a simple, yet effective demosaicking technique using polarization channel difference prior for polarization images captured by division of focal plane imaging sensors. The polarization channel difference prior embodies that high frequency energy of difference between orthogonal channels tends to be larger than that between non-orthogonal channels. This paper theoretically proves that this prior is physical valid. For each missing polarization channel at a pixel position, three initial predictions are recovered using different channel differences. The missing polarization channel is estimated by the weighted fusion of the three initial predictions, where the weights are determined by the proposed polarization channel difference prior. The prior helps recover polarization information of the edges, fast and effectively. Experiment results on the polarization dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of the polarization channel difference prior for polarization image demosaicking. The proposed polarization demosaicking method consists of only 16 convolution operations, which makes it fast and parallelizable for GPU acceleration. An image of size 1024×1024 can be processed in 0.33 sec on Ryzen 7 3700X CPU and approximately 60 times faster with RTX 2700 SUPER GPU.

Polarization-guided road detection network for LWIR division-of-focal-plane camera.

A long-wave infrared polarization imaging technique recently has been applied in full-time road detection. However, the existing heuristic method has the limitation of fully using the polarization information of the road. In this Letter, we propose a polarization-guided road detection network collaborating with the distinguishable polarization characteristics of the road. A two-branch network is proposed to perform accurate road detection with infrared polarization images as inputs. A coarse road map obtained by thresholding the polarization images of the road guides the network to focus on the road regions through a polarization-guided branch. We also design a road-region-aware feature fusion module to fuse the features from two branches. This customized design of the network gives full play to the advantages of deep learning networks and polarization information. Experiments on a public infrared polarization dataset of road scenes demonstrate that the proposed road detection network outperforms state-of-the-art real-time segmentation networks with fewer parameters and faster speed.

Long-term joint outcomes of regular low-dose prophylaxis in Chinese children with severe haemophilia A.

OBJECTIVES: To explore the long-term joint outcomes of low-dose prophylaxis in Chinese children with severe haemophilia A and to analyse their related factors. METHODS: We retrospectively analysed follow-up data from 21 severe haemophilia A children on regular low-dose prophylaxis for 6-10 years. We used International Prophylaxis Study Group magnetic resonance imaging score (IPSG MRI score), Hemophilia Joint Health Score (HJHS), number of target joints, and Hemophilia-Specific Quality of Life Index (Haemo-QoL) to evaluate joint outcomes. Factors associated with these outcomes were evaluated by statistical analysis. RESULTS: (1) The children were 1.75 to 17 years age at prophylaxis initiation. Median prophylactic factor VIII dose was 22.9 IU/kg per week. (2) At the end of follow-up: (a) The total IPSG MRI scores were 2-24 with 90.5% children exhibiting moderate to severe joint involvement (score 7-24); (b) The HJHS ranged 2-27, with 0-10 for 46.7% children and >10 for 53.3% children. There was a positive correlation between the MRI score and HJHS (p < .05); (c) Compared to their on-demand treatment period before prophylaxis, target joints numbers decreased, and no child needed auxiliary devices to walk; (d) Joint outcomes were positively correlated with the age at initiation of low-dose prophylaxis (p < .05) and negatively correlated with the treatment dose. CONCLUSION: Long-term low-dose prophylaxis had positive effect on joint outcomes compared with on-demand treatment. However, a certain degree of joint damage remained in all children indicating the need for improving the current strategy of low-dose prophylaxis.

Image-matching enhancement using a polarized intensity-hue-saturation fusion method.

Atmospheric absorption and scattering (e.g., haze) cause degradation in the image quality of outdoor scenes, which affects the image-matching process. The scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) algorithm is not effective in haze. Edge information is required to enhance the matching process. Utilizing the polarization information expressed by the Stokes vector component S1 with its edge information can improve the keypoint localization in the matching process. In this paper, a novel, to the best of our knowledge, fusion method called polarized intensity-hue-saturation is proposed that uses polarization and depth information by fusion of a polarized haze-removed image with the estimated depth and by applying S1. The instant dehazing method uses polarized images to obtain a haze-removed image and its estimated depth map. The fused image has high spatial details required for enhancing the matching process. The experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms the existing image-matching schemes and improves the conventional SIFT matching method.

Nitrogen flow characteristics of solid waste in China.

The surge in solid waste (SW) has become major issues in the fields of public health and ecological environment fuelled by the rapid development of social economy. The fate of nitrogen contained in SW (SWN) varies with different treatment methods, which will affect the environment to varying degrees. It is of great practical and guiding significance to comprehensively evaluate the sources, fate and its cascading effects of SWN. Here, a systematic SWN flow evaluation of the generation, treatment and emissions in China from 2008 to 2017 was established. During this period, the SWN flow and the N pollution emissions from SW treatment increased by 19.7% and 27.6% respectively, with the domestic garbage being the largest contributor. This shows that it is particularly important to reinforce the classified of domestic garbage and resource recycling in China. Landfill was the main treatment, accounting for 51.8% of the total SWN. Landfill and incineration were the main sources of pollution N emissions, while compost treatment has the lowest contribution rate. It highlights the urgency of changing the waste treatment methods in China. About 92.3% of the N pollution emissions was lost to the atmosphere and 7.7% to the groundwater. NH3 and NOx were the main pollutants to the atmosphere. Special attention is paid to the reduction and control of NH3 in landfill, dumping and compost processes, while NOx in incineration. This study provides scientific basis for management and disposal of SW, so as to reduce its impact on the ecological environment and develop more sustainable policies for China and other developing countries.