[Analysis of relationship between distribution of pathogenic microorganisms in olfactory cleft and olfactory disorders among patients with upper respiratory inflammation during the prevention and control of COVID-19].

Objective: To explore the relationship between pathogens in the olfactory cleft area and olfactory disorders in patients with upper respiratory inflammation (URI) during the prevention and control of 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Methods: A total of 234 URI patients including acute upper respiratory infection, chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS), allergic rhinitis (AR) were continuously selected from September 2020 to March 2021 in Beijing Anzhen Hospital and 98 healthy adults were enrolled as controls. The secretions from the olfactory cleft of all subjects were collected with nasal swabs under nasal endoscopy. Multiple real-time fluorescent quantitative polymerase chain reaction detection method was used to detect nucleic acids of 33 types of respiratory pathogenic microorganism. Sniffin' Sticks olfactory test was performed on all patients with URI. URI patients with olfactory dysfunction were followed up for 9 (8, 10) months (M (Q1, Q3)). SPSS 20.0 software was used for statistical analysis. Results: Among the 98 controls, 9 (9.18%) were positive for pathogenic microorganisms, including 1 (1.02%) rhinovirus, 1 (1.02%) parainfluenza virus type 3, 3 (3.06%) enterovirus, 1 (1.02%) staphylococcus aureus and 3 (3.06%) Moraxella catarrhalis. Among the 234 URI patients, 111 (47.44%) had olfactory disorders and 123 (52.56%) had normal sense of smell. In the olfactory disorder group (111 cases), 38 cases (34.23%) were positive for pathogenic microorganisms, and 4 cases (3.60%) were mixed infection, including 11 cases of rhinovirus (9.91%), 5 cases of coronavirus 229E (4.50%), 2 cases of coronavirus OC43/NL63 (1.80%), 3 cases of parainfluenza virus type 1 (2.70%), 2 cases of enterovirus (1.80%), 1 case of influenza B virus type BV (0.90%), 11 cases of Staphylococcus aureus (9.91%), 7 cases of Moraxella catarrhalis (6.31%), and 1 case of Klebsiella pneumoniae (0.90%). In the normal smell group (123 cases), 18 cases (14.63%) were positive for pathogenic microorganisms, and 1 case (0.81%) was mixed infection, including 3 cases of rhinovirus (2.44%), 4 cases of coronavirus 229E (3.25%), 1 case of Influenza virus type 3 (0.81%), 3 cases of enterovirus (2.44%), 3 cases of Staphylococcus aureus (2.44%), 4 cases of Moraxella catarrhalis (3.25%), and 1 case of Klebsiella pneumoniae (0.81%). Univariate analysis between the two groups found that there were significant differences in the detection rate of pathogenic microorganisms, rhinovirus and Staphylococcus aureus between the groups (all P<0.05). The detection rate of parainfluenza virus type 1, Staphylococcus aureus, and rhinovirus were different between the patients with olfactory disorder and normal olfactory function in the three subgroups of acute upper respiratory tract infection, CRS and AR, respectively (χ2 value was 3.88, 4.53 and 4.73, respectively, all P<0.05). During the follow-up period, among the 111 patients with olfactory disorder, 71 (63.96%) patients' olfactory function returned to normal, 32 (28.83%) patients' olfactory function improved but not completely returned to normal, 8 (7.21%) patients' olfactory function did not improve. Conclusions: During the prevention and control of COVID-19, rhinovirus or Staphylococcus aureus infection or colonization of URI patients is closely related to olfactory disorders. Parainfluenza virus type 1 infection can cause relatively persistent olfactory disorders in patients with acute upper respiratory tract infection. Staphylococcus aureus and rhinovirus colonization are related to the occurrence of olfactory dysfunction in CRS and AR patients respectively.

Interface induced enhancement of inverse spin Hall voltage in NiFe/Pt bilayers capped by MgO layer.

In ferromagnet/heavy metal bilayers, a spin current can be generated under the ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) condition, and then converted into a charge current in adjacent nonmagnetic metals through inverse spin Hall effect (ISHE). Here, we report an experimental observation of interface induced ISHE enhancement in NiFe/Pt bilayers covered by MgO layer. Compared to bare NiFe/Pt bilayers, Pt/MgO interface induces an enhancement of the spin-charge conversion in the NiFe/Pt/MgO trilayers with very thin Pt layers, in agreement with the corresponding trend of Gilbert damping enhancement. When the thickness of Pt is below 1.6 nm, the ISHE induced charge current has about 70% enhancement. These results open a new pathway to improve the spin-charge conversion efficiency by interface engineering.

Arsenate removal using a combination treatment of precipitation and nanofiltration.

A combination treatment of Ca-precipitation and nanofiltration membrane was studied to remove arsenate from water. The selected nanofiltration membrane was an amphoteric charged membrane, proved by the results of ATR-FTIR spectra and zeta potential. The arsenate and calcium removal efficiencies had the lowest values at the isoelectric point of the nanofiltration membrane, attributed to the loosest steric hindrance and the weakest electrostatic repulsion. Above the isoelectric point, arsenate precipitated with calcium ion to form the low solubility compound calcium arsenate, while steric hindrance was the main mechanism of arsenate removal. In contrast, below the isoelectric point, the nanofiltration membrane with positive charges rejected calcium ion by electrostatic repulsion. The high electrostatic shielding of calcium ion prevented arsenate from coming close to the NF membrane. Either high feed arsenate concentration or high calcium oxide dose improved the removal amount of arsenate during the nanofiltration membrane separation process. In addition, the arsenate removal efficiency approached the highest value at 200 µg/L of feed arsenate concentration. The optimal transmembrane pressure was in a range of 0.5-0.7 MPa to restrict the formation of fouling cake on the nanofiltration membrane surface.

Effects of neonatal 6-hydroxydopamine treatment upon morphological organization of the posteromedial barrel subfield in mouse somatosensory cortex.

While recent studies indicate that proposed regulation of visual cortex plasticity by norepinephrine (NE) probably involves 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) effects other than NE depletion, reports of diminished neuronal maturation and reduced postweaning sensitivity to environmental conditions in animals treated with anti-adrenergic compounds continue to suggest a role for NE in neocortical development. To assess its possible role in development of a highly organized neocortical structure, the effects of postnatal 6-OHDA administration upon development of the somatosensory cortical posteromedial barrel subfield (PMBSF), which subserves the large facial whiskers, were observed in mice with whiskers in the middle row of the face removed unilaterally. Treatment with 6-OHDA caused 96-98% depletion of NE in parietal cortex. There were no effects of (or lesion interactions with) 6-OHDA treatment on barrel size in measures of Nissl-stained neurons, and 6-OHDA effects on numerical measures of dendritic branching of Golgi-impregnated non-pyramidal neurons in PMBSF were negligible. There were, however, effects of 6-OHDA treatment upon the highly ordered arrangement of dendrites within barrels. In 6-OHDA-treated animals, the class I (spiny and sparsely spined) cell dendrites were less attracted to the barrel hollow. In controls, for class I cells with their somata within the barrel wall, there was a high correlation between the distance from the soma to the hollow and the amount of dendrite in the wall, reflecting the distance the dendrite traverses to the hollow. In 6-OHDA-treated animals, this correlation was absent, i.e., cells at any distance from the hollow tended to have a high percentage of dendrite in the wall.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Effects of amphotericin B with combination chemotherapy on response rates and on survival in non-small cell carcinoma of the lung.

Thirty-seven patients with non-small cell carcinoma of the lung were randomized to receive doxorubicin, lomustine, hexamethylmelamine, and methotrexate (ACHM) or ACHM plus amphotericin B (AMB). The complete plus partial response rate was 39% for ACHM plus AMB, compared to 23% for ACHM alone. However, the median duration of complete or partial response was only 3.0 months with ACHM plus AMB, compared to 7.0 months with ACHM. Most importantly, median survival was only 4.0 months with ACHM plus AMB, compared to 8.0 months with ACHM (P = 0.08; two-tail test). Myelosuppression was enhanced by the addition of AMB. Although AMB has biological and antitumor activity in certain clinical circumstances, it does not appear to have a meaningful role in palliative therapy of patients with non-small cell bronchogenic carcinoma.

Continuous five-day infusion of PALA and 5FU: a pilot phase II trial.

In order to determine whether a simultaneous infusion of N-(phospho-n-acetyl)-L-aspartic acid (PALA) was able to increase the rate of antitumor response to 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), a pilot study was conducted. Of 10 evaluable patients with previously drug-untreated colorectal carcinoma, there were only two partial responses, lasting 2.3 and 1.6 months. No partial responses were observed in three evaluable patients with soft tissue sarcomas. The dose-limiting toxicity was dermatitis. The simultaneous infusion of PALA and 5-FU is not likely to produce a high number of antitumor responses of long duration in patients with colorectal carcinoma.

Serum levels of carcinoembryonic antigen and a tumor-extracted carcinoembryonic antigen-related antigen in cancer patients.

Levels of carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and a tumor-extracted CEA-related antigen (TEX) were determined in sera from patients with carcinomas of the breast, colon, lung, head and neck, and a number of miscellaneous categories. The purpose of this study was to compare the levels of each antigen at various stages of malignant disease. Competitive radioimmunoassays developed in our laboratory were shown to be sufficiently specific to detect either of these two antigens independent of each other. The results indicate that: (a) with our specific assays, CEA was not significantly elevated in smoker controls, but TEX was elevated in 29% of smoker controls; (b) TEX was equivalent to CEA as a tumor marker for colonic cancer. TEX was better than CEA as a marker for lung cancer and, based on limited data, there is a possibility that TEX is a significantly better tumor marker than is CEA in early lung cancer; (c) TEX was superior to CEA as a tumor marker for breast and head and neck cancers; (d) there is a strong indication that serial determinations of TEX can be used as effectively as CEA in the monitoring of disease progress. These preliminary results must be confirmed by increasing the number of cancer patients and including nonmalignant disease controls.