Effect of different exit-site care dressings on preventing peritoneal dialysis related infection from nontropical area: a systematic review and network meta-analysis.

OBJECT: This study aims to conduct a systematic review and network meta-analysis to comprehensively evaluate the efficacy of various dressings in preventing exit-site infection (ESI) and peritonitis. METHODS: We searched PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, CINAHL Plus with Full Text (EBSCO), Sino Med, Wan Fang Data, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) from 1 January 1999 to 10 July 2023. The language restrictions were Chinese and English. Randomized controlled trials, non-randomized controlled trials, and self-controlled trials were included in this study. We used ROB 2 tool to evaluate the quality of the included literature. Two authors independently extracted the data according to the Cochrane Handbook. A Frequentist network meta-analysis was performed using Stata17.0 according to PRISAMA with a random effects model. RESULTS: From 2092 potentially eligible studies, thirteen studies were selected for analysis, including nine randomized controlled studies, three quasi-experimental studies and one self-controlled trial. A total of 1229 patients were included to compare five types of exit site care dressings, named disinfection dressings, antibacterial dressings, non-antibacterial occlusive dressings, sterile gauze, and no-particular dressings. The outcome of prevention ESI is antibacterial dressings (SUCRA = 97.6) >non-antibacterial occlusive dressings (SUCRA = 68.3) >disinfection dressings (SUCRA = 50.6) >no-particular dressings (SUCRA = 23.9) >sterile gauze (SUCRA = 9.5). The antibacterial dressings were more effective than sterile gauze (OR = 0.13, 95%CI 0.04∼0.44), and no-particular dressing (OR = 0.18, 95%CI 0.07∼0.50) in preventing ESI; the non-antibacterial occlusive dressings were effective than sterile gauze (OR:0.30, 95%CI 0.16∼0.57). There is no statistical significance between no-particular dressings and other types of dressings in preventing the mature ESI. There is no statistical significance in the effectiveness of five types of dressings in preventing peritonitis. CONCLUSIONS: The no-particular dressings maybe more cost-effective for preventing mature ESI. None of the dressings was more effective than another in preventing peritonitis. Then, none of the different types of dressing is strongly recommended for preventing ESI or peritonitis.RegistrationCRD42022366756.

Pathogen resistance was negatively regulated by the NAC transcription factor ScATAF1 in sugarcane.

The NAC (NAM, ATAF, and CUC) is one of the largest transcription factor gene families in plants. In this study, 180, 141, and 131 NAC family members were identified from Saccharum complex, including S. officinarum, S. spontaneum, and Erianthus rufipilus. The Ka/Ks ratio of ATAF subfamily was all less than 1. Besides, 52 ATAF members from 12 representative plants were divided into three clades and there was only a significant expansion in maize. Surprisingly, ABA and JA cis-elements were abundant in hormonal response factor, followed by transcriptional regulator and abiotic stressor. The ATAF subfamily was differentially expressed in various tissues, under low temperature and smut pathogen treatments. Further, the ScATAF1 gene, with high expression in leaves, stem epidermis, and buds, was isolated. The encoded protein, lack of self-activation activity, was situated in the cell nucleus. Moreover, SA and JA stresses down-regulated the expression of this gene, while ABA, NaCl, and 4°C treatments led to its up-regulation. Interestingly, its expression in the smut susceptible sugarcane cultivars was much higher than the smut resistant ones. Notably, the colors presented slight brown in tobacco transiently overexpressing ScATAF1 at 1 d after DAB staining, while the symptoms were more obvious at 3 d after inoculation with Ralstonia solanacearum, with ROS, JA, and SA signaling pathway genes significantly up-regulated. We thus speculated ScATAF1 gene could negatively mediate hypersensitive reactions and produce ROS by JA and SA signaling pathways. These findings lay the groundwork for in-depth investigation on the biological roles of ATAF subfamily in sugarcane.

Differential Diagnostic Value of Two-dimensional Ultrasound Combined with Three-dimensional Ultrasound Imaging Technology for Cesarean Scar Pregnancy.

BACKGROUND: Cesarean scar pregnancy (CSP) refers to the phenomenon in which a fertilized egg implants and develops in the scar of the uterus in a woman with a history of cesarean section. OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to explore the differential diagnostic value of two-dimensional ultrasound (2D US) combined with three-dimensional ultrasound (3D US) for CSP. METHODS: Clinical data of 89 patients with CSP admitted to our hospital from January 2022 to January 2023 were retrospectively analyzed. Of them, 65 patients met the inclusion criteria. Patients underwent 2D US, 3D US, and combined 2D and 3D US imaging. Using the clinical pathological diagnosis as the "gold standard", the differential diagnostic value of 2D US, 3D US, and 2D US combined with 3D US for CSP was compared. RESULTS: The detection rate of CSP using a combined 2D US and 3D US was 98.46%, which was higher than 84.62% and 89.23% achieved with 2D US and 3D US alone, respectively (P<0.05). The pathological results showed that among 65 patients, CSP type I accounted for 24.62%, type II accounted for 55.38%, and type III accounted for 20.00%. The coincidence rate of 2D US combined with 3D US was 98.46%, which was higher than that of 2D US (83.08%) and 3D US 89.23%) alone (P<0.05). The accuracy, specificity, and sensitivity of 2D US combined with 3D US in diagnosing CSP were higher compared to the two methods alone (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The combination of 2D US and 3D US can accurately detect and classify CSP, further improving diagnostic efficiency.

A novel PDPN antagonist peptide CY12-RP2 inhibits melanoma growth via Wnt/ß-catenin and modulates the immune cells.

BACKGROUND: Podoplanin (PDPN) is a highly conserved, mucin-type protein specific to the lymphatic system. Overexpression of PDPN is associated with the progression of various solid tumors, and plays an important roles in the tumor microenvironment by regulating the immune system. However, the role of PDPN-mediated signal activation in the progression of melanoma is still unknown. METHODS: PDPN expression was first analyzed in 112 human melanoma tissue microarrays and melanoma cell lines. Functional experiments including proliferation, clone formation, migration, and metastasis were utilized to identify the suppressive effects of PDPN. The Ph.D.TM-12 Phage Display Peptide Library was used to obtain a PDPN antagonist peptide, named CY12-RP2. The immunofluorescence, SPR assay, and flow cytometry were used to identify the binding specificity of CY12-RP2 with PDPN in melanoma cells. Functional and mechanistic assays in vivo and in vitro were performed for discriminating the antitumor and immune activation effects of CY12-RP2. RESULTS: PDPN was overexpressed in melanoma tissue and cells, and inhibited melanoma cells proliferation, migration, and metastasis by blocking the EMT and Wnt/ß-catenin pathway. PDPN antagonistic peptide, CY12-RP2, could specifically bind with PDPN, suppressing melanoma various functions inducing apoptosis in both melanoma cells and 3D spheroids. CY12-RP2 also enhanced the anti-tumor capacity of PBMC, and inhibited melanoma cells growth both in xenografts and allogeneic mice model. Moreover, CY12-RP2 could inhibit melanoma lung metastasis, and abrogated the immunosuppressive effects of PDPN by increasing the proportion of CD3 + CD4 + T cells, CD3 + CD8 + T cells, CD49b + Granzyme B + NK cells, and CD11b + CD86 + M1-like macrophages and the levels of IL-1ß, TNF-α, and IFN-γ. CONCLUSIONS: This study has demonstrated the important role of PDPN in the progression of melanoma and formation of immunosuppressive environment, and provided a potential approach of treating melanoma using the novel CY12-RP2 peptide. In melanoma, PDPN is overexpressed in the cancer cells, and promotes melanoma cells growth and metastasis through activating the Wnt/ß-catenin pathway. Treatment with the PDPN antagonistic peptide CY12-RP2 could not only inhibit the melanoma growth and metastasis both in vitro and in vivo through Wnt/ß-catenin pathway blockade, but also abrogate the immunosuppressive effects of PDPN through modulating immune cells.

Effect of Slow-Release Urea Partial Replacement of Soybean Meal on Lactation Performance, Heat Shock Signal Molecules, and Rumen Fermentation in Heat-Stressed Mid-Lactation Dairy Cows.

This study aimed to assess the effects of partially substituting soybean meal in the diet with slow-release urea (SRU) on the lactation performance, heat shock signal molecules, and environmental sustainability of heat-stressed lactating cows in the middle stage of lactation. In this study, 30 healthy Holstein lactating dairy cattle with a similar milk yield of 22.8 ± 3.3 kg, days in milk of 191.14 ± 27.24 days, and 2.2 ± 1.5 parity were selected and randomly allocated into two groups. The constituents of the two treatments were (1) basic diet plus 500 g soybean meal (SM) for the SM group and (2) basic diet plus 100 g slow-release urea and 400 g corn silage for the SRU group. The average temperature humidity index (THI) during the experiment was 84.47, with an average THI of >78 from day 1 to day 28, indicating the cow experienced moderate heat stress conditions. Compared with the SM group, the SRU group showed decreasing body temperature and respiratory rate trends at 20:00 (p < 0.1). The substitution of SM with SRU resulted in an increasing trend in milk yield, with a significant increase of 7.36% compared to the SM group (p < 0.1). Compared to the SM group, AST, ALT, and γ-GT content levels were significantly increased (p < 0.05). Notably, the levels of HSP-70 and HSP-90α were significantly reduced (p < 0.05). The SRU group showed significantly increased acetate and isovalerate concentrations compared with the SM group (p < 0.05). The prediction results indicate that the SRU group exhibits a significant decrease in methane (CH4) emissions when producing 1 L of milk compared to the SM group (p < 0.05). In summary, dietary supplementation with SRU tended to increase the milk yield and rumen fermentation and reduce plasma heat shock molecules in mid-lactation, heat-stressed dairy cows. In the hot summer, using SRU instead of some soybean meal in the diet alleviates the heat stress of dairy cows and reduces the production of CH4.

Lean management of nursing human resources during COVID-19 pandemic.

AIM: To find a rapid, scientific, rational and accurate method of allocating nursing human resources during the COVID-19 pandemic. DESIGN: A longitudinal prospective study. METHODS: Lean management tool is used to implement four-level scheduling of nursing human resources, which is departmental level, district level, hospital level and city level, according to the daily reporting data of the whole hospital, such as Lianfan scheduling data, Dingding sensitive data and Hospital Information System daily report data. RESULTS: Fifty batches of nursing manpower, 294 nurses and 3813 working days were deployed during the pandemic, and the nursing human resources allocation mathematical models of the hospital and all departments were constructed. Since COVID-19 occurred, the infection rate of nurses with novel coronavirus and the mortality rate of critical patients have been keeping 0%, and the cure rate of common patients has been 100%. CONCLUSION: The use of lean management tool to allocate nursing human resources plays a positive role in ensuring zero infection of nurses, improving the cure rate of common patients and reducing the mortality rate of critically ill patients with COVID-19.

NIR-IIb fluorescence-image guided synergistic surgery/starvation/chemodynamic therapy: an innovative treatment paradigm for malignant non-small cell lung cancers.

Background: Currently, the prognosis and survival rate for patients bearing non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is still quite poor, mainly due to lack of efficient theranostic paradigms to exert in time diagnostics and therapeutics. Methods: Herein, for NSCLC treatment, we offer a customized theranostic paradigm, termed NIR-IIb fluorescence diagnosis and synergistic surgery/starvation/chemodynamic therapeutics, with a newly designed theranostic nanoplatform PEG/MnCuDCNPs@GOx. The nanoplatform is composed of brightly NIR-II emissive downconversion nanoparticles (DCNPs)-core and Mn/Cu-silica shell loaded with glucose oxidase (GOx) to achieve synergistic starvation and chemodynamic therapy (CDT). Results: It is found that 10% Ce3+ doped in the core and 100% Yb3+ doped in the middle shell greatly improves the NIR-IIb emission up to even 20.3 times as compared to the core-shell DCNPs without Ce3+ doping and middle shell. The bright NIR-IIb emission of the nanoplatform contributes to sensitive margin delineation of early-stage NSCLC (diameter < 1 mm) with a signal-to-background ratio (SBR) of 2.18, and further assists in visualizing drug distribution and guiding surgery/starvation/chemodynamic therapy. Notably, the starvation therapy mediated by GOx-driven oxidation reaction efficiently depletes intratumoral glucose, and supplies H2O2 to boost the CDT mediated by the Mn2+ and Cu2+, which consequently realized a highly effective synergistic treatment for NSCLC. Conclusion: This research demonstrates an efficient treatment paradigm for NSCLC with NIR-IIb fluorescence diganosis and image-guided synergistic surgery/starvation/chemodynamic therapeutics.

A Novel Fibromodulin Antagonist Peptide RP4 Exerts Antitumor Effects on Colorectal Cancer.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Fibromodulin (FMOD) is the main proteoglycan that contributes to extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling by binding to matrix molecules, thereby playing an essential role in tumor growth and metastasis. There are still no useful drugs that target FMOD for CRC treatment in clinics. Here, we first used public whole-genome expression datasets to analyze the expression level of FMOD in CRC and found that FMOD was upregulated in CRC and associated with poor patient prognosis. We then used the Ph.D.-12 phage display peptide library to obtain a novel FMOD antagonist peptide, named RP4, and tested its anti-cancer effects of RP4 in vitro and in vivo. These results showed that RP4 inhibited CRC cell growth and metastasis, and promoted apoptosis both in vitro and in vivo by binding to FMOD. In addition, RP4 treatment affected the CRC-associated immune microenvironment in a tumor model by promoting cytotoxic CD8+ T and NKT (natural killer T) cells and inhibiting CD25+ Foxp3+ Treg cells. Mechanistically, RP4 exerted anti-tumor effects by blocking the Akt and Wnt/ß-catenin signaling pathways. This study implies that FMOD is a potential target for CRC treatment, and the novel FMOD antagonist peptide RP4 can be developed as a clinical drug for CRC treatment.

Nano-LYTACs for Degradation of Membrane Proteins and Inhibition of CD24/Siglec-10 Signaling Pathway.

Lysosome-targeting chimeras (LYTACs) are an emerging therapeutic modality that effectively degrade cancer cell membranes and extracellular target proteins. In this study, a nanosphere-based LYTAC degradation system is developed. The amphiphilic peptide-modified N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc) can self-assemble into nanospheres with a strong affinity for asialoglycoprotein receptor targets. They can degrade different membranes and extracellular proteins by linking with the relevant antibodies. CD24, a heavily glycosylated glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored surface protein, interacts with Siglec-10 to modulate the tumor immune response. The novel Nanosphere-AntiCD24, synthesized by linking nanospheres with CD24 antibody, accurately regulates the degradation of CD24 protein and partially restores the phagocytic function of macrophages toward tumor cells by blocking the CD24/Siglec-10 signaling pathway. When Nanosphere-AntiCD24 is combined with glucose oxidase, an enzyme promoting the oxidative decomposition of glucose, the combination not only effectively restores the function of macrophages in vitro but also suppresses tumor growth in xenograft mouse models without detectable toxicity to normal tissues. The results indicate that GalNAc-modified nanospheres, as a part of LYTACs, can be successfully internalized and are an effective drug-loading platform and a modular degradation strategy for the lysosomal degradation of cell membrane and extracellular proteins, which can be broadly applied in the fields of biochemistry and tumor therapeutics.

Joint design of ordered QR precoding and SIC detection for MIMO VLC systems.

Ordered successive interference cancellation (OSIC) detection has been investigated to mitigate the high spatial correlation for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) visible light communication (VLC) systems. However, existing OSIC schemes have to perform reordering and matrix inversion for each detected symbol, which may lead to high complexity when a large number of symbols are transmitted. In this work, a joint design of ordered QR decomposition precoding and SIC detection (OQR-SIC) is proposed for MIMO VLC systems. This work jointly investigates OQR precoding and SIC detection to reduce the detection complexity while alleviating spatial correlation issue for MIMO VLC systems. In OQR-SIC, with the upper triangular matrix obtained by QR decomposition, the SIC detector can detect the symbol sequentially without reordering and matrix inversion calculations. To improve the system data rate, we further optimize the ordering of the columns of the channel matrix before QR decomposition and the power allocation of transmitted signals under the constraints of dimming control, total electrical power and reliable SIC detection. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed OQR-SIC achieves 2 dB and 9.8 dB signal-to-noise ratio gains compared to conventional QR-SIC in 4 × 4 and 9 × 9 MIMO VLC systems, respectively, when the bit error rate is 10-3.

Peptide-based PROTAC degrader of FOXM1 suppresses cancer and decreases GLUT1 and PD-L1 expression.

BACKGROUND: Peptide proteolysis-targeting chimeras (p-PROTACs) with advantages of high specificity and low toxicity have emerged as a powerful technology of targeted protein degradation for biomedical applications. FOXM1, a proliferation-associated transcription factor, is overexpressed in a variety of human tumors as a key driver of tumorigenesis and cancer progression, and is a potential anticancer therapeutic target. However, FOXM1-targeting p-PROTACs has not been researched. METHODS: Here, we first analyzed the expression of FOXM1, GLUT1 and PD-L1 in liver cancer through database and clinical samples of patients. FOXM1-targeting peptides, selected by screening phage display library, are verified its targeting effect by immunofluorescence and CCK-8 test. The novel p-PROTAC degrader of FOXM1 is chemically synthesis, named FOXM1-PROTAC, by linking a FOXM1-binding antagonistic peptide, with the E3 ubiquitin ligase recruitment ligand Pomalidomide and with the cell membrane penetrating peptide TAT. Its degradation effect on FOXM1 was detected by Western blotting, qPCR, and we verified its effect on the behavior of cancer cells by flow cytometry, scratch assay, and Transwell in vitro. The tumor xenografted mice model was used for evaluating FOXM1-PROTAC therapeutic response in vivo. Finally, we detected the expression of GLUT1 and PD-L1 after FOXM1-PROTAC degraded FOXM1 by using Western Blotting and hippocampal detectors and dual immunofluorescence. RESULTS: We found that the novel FOXM1-PROTAC efficiently entered cells and induced degradation of FOXM1 protein, which strongly inhibits viability as well as migration and invasion in various cancer cell lines, and suppressed tumor growth in HepG2 and MDA-MB-231 cells xenograft mouse models, without detected toxicity in normal tissues. Meanwhile, FOXM1-PROTAC decreased the cancer cells glucose metabolism via downregulating the protein expression levels of glucose transporter GLUT1 and the immune checkpoint PD-L1, which suggests involvement of FOXM1 in cancer cell metabolism and immune regulation. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that biologically targeted degradation of FOXM1 is an attractive therapeutic strategy, and antagonist peptide-containing FOXM1-PROTACs as both degrader and inhibitor of FOXM1 could be developed as a safe and promising drug for FOXM1-overexpressed cancer therapy.

Targeted Co-Delivery of Gefitinib and Rapamycin by Aptamer-Modified Nanoparticles Overcomes EGFR-TKI Resistance in NSCLC via Promoting Autophagy.

Acquired drug resistance decreases the efficacy of gefitinib after approximately 1 year of treatment in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Autophagy is a process that could lead to cell death when it is prolonged. Thus, we investigated a drug combination therapy of gefitinib with rapamycin-a cell autophagy activator-in gefitinib-resistant NSCLC cell line H1975 to improve the therapeutic efficacy of gefitinib in advanced NSCLC cells through acute cell autophagy induction. Cell viability and tumor formation assays indicated that rapamycin is strongly synergistic with gefitinib inhibition, both in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistic studies demonstrated that EGFR expression and cell autophagy decreased under gefitinib treatment and were restored after the drug combination therapy, indicating a potential cell autophagy-EGFR positive feedback regulation. To further optimize the delivery efficiency of the combinational agents, we constructed an anti-EGFR aptamer-functionalized nanoparticle (NP-Apt) carrier system. The microscopic observation and cell proliferation assays suggested that NP-Apt achieved remarkably targeted delivery and cytotoxicity in the cancer cells. Taken together, our results suggest that combining rapamycin and gefitinib can be an efficacious therapy to overcome gefitinib resistance in NSCLC, and targeted delivery of the drugs using the aptamer-nanoparticle carrier system further enhances the therapeutic efficacy of gefitinib.

Mussel-inspired collagen-hyaluronic acid composite scaffold with excellent antioxidant properties and sustained release of a growth factor for enhancing diabetic wound healing.

Long-term non-healing diabetic wounds are always a serious challenge and a global healthcare burden that needs to be resolved urgently in the clinic. Prolonged inflammation and impaired angiogenesis are the main direct causes of diabetic wounds. With the development of polymer biomaterials, various wound dressings have been created, but a few of them have been applied to the clinical management of diabetic wounds. Here, we developed a mussel-inspired bioactive scaffold consisting mainly of collagen and hyaluronic acid, which are natural biopolymer materials contained in human tissues. First, we fabricated different polydopamine modified lyophilized collagen hyaluronic acid scaffolds under different concentrations of dopamine alkaline solutions, 0.5, 1, 2 â€‹mg/mL, so named CHS-PDA-0.5, CHS-PDA-1, CHS-PDA-2. After testing their physical and chemical properties, antioxidant effect, inflammation regulation, as well as drug loading and release capabilities, we obtained a bioactive endothelial growth factor (EGF)-loaded wound dressing, CHS-PDA-2@EGF, which can resist reactive oxygen species (ROS) and promote the regeneration of chronic wounds in diabetic rats by reducing inflammation. In addition, the scaffold showed excellent swelling ability, a certain coagulation effect and reasonable degradation. Therefore, the scaffold has great potential to be used in clinical diabetic wound treatment as a low-cost and easily available wound dressing to accelerate chronic wound healing.

Cryo-TEM and rheological study on shear-thickening wormlike micelles of zwitterionic/anionic (AHSB/SDS) surfactants.

HYPOTHESIS: Shear-thickening micelles were mostly made of cationic surfactants, but shear-thickening was rarely reported in the zwitterionic/anionic surfactants. Since wormlike micelles were essential in shear-thickening systems, it should be common for the hybrid wormlike micelles formed by zwitterionic/anionic surfactants, and their fundamental features need to be clarified. EXPERIMENTS: The micellization of zwitterionic surfactant homologies alkyl dimethyl amidopropyl hydroxyl sulfobetaine (AHSB) and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) in brine was studied, and various environmental factors were considered systematically. Light scattering, rheology, zeta potential, 1H NMR and cryo-TEM techniques were employed to characterize the AHSB/SDS wormlike micelles. FINDINGS: AHSB/SDS hybrid wormlike micelles were formed in a wide xSDS region to endow them with apparent viscosities, in which the electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions between AHSB and SDS molecules were critical. AHSB with the longer tail, the higher cAHSB and cNaCl were advantageous to enhance the viscosity because of the longitudinal growth of wormlike micelles. The shear-thickening AHSB/SDS samples were commonly composed of unbranched wormlike micelles with various length, and the shear-induced alignment of wormlike micelles was the major cause as verified by cryo-TEM. Moreover, the quantitative relationships on the critical shear rate ɣ̇c were established, and the activation energies were obtained from the temperature-dependent ɣ̇c.

Wireless Network Optimization for Federated Learning with Model Compression in Hybrid VLC/RF Systems.

In this paper, the optimization of network performance to support the deployment of federated learning (FL) is investigated. In particular, in the considered model, each user owns a machine learning (ML) model by training through its own dataset, and then transmits its ML parameters to a base station (BS) which aggregates the ML parameters to obtain a global ML model and transmits it to each user. Due to limited radio frequency (RF) resources, the number of users that participate in FL is restricted. Meanwhile, each user uploading and downloading the FL parameters may increase communication costs thus reducing the number of participating users. To this end, we propose to introduce visible light communication (VLC) as a supplement to RF and use compression methods to reduce the resources needed to transmit FL parameters over wireless links so as to further improve the communication efficiency and simultaneously optimize wireless network through user selection and resource allocation. This user selection and bandwidth allocation problem is formulated as an optimization problem whose goal is to minimize the training loss of FL. We first use a model compression method to reduce the size of FL model parameters that are transmitted over wireless links. Then, the optimization problem is separated into two subproblems. The first subproblem is a user selection problem with a given bandwidth allocation, which is solved by a traversal algorithm. The second subproblem is a bandwidth allocation problem with a given user selection, which is solved by a numerical method. The ultimate user selection and bandwidth allocation are obtained by iteratively compressing the model and solving these two subproblems. Simulation results show that the proposed FL algorithm can improve the accuracy of object recognition by up to 16.7% and improve the number of selected users by up to 68.7%, compared to a conventional FL algorithm using only RF.

Safety and immunogenicity of a recombinant interferon-armed RBD dimer vaccine (V-01) for COVID-19 in healthy adults: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, Phase I trial.

Safe and effective vaccines are still urgently needed to cope with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, we developed a recombinant COVID-19 vaccine (V-01) containing fusion protein (IFN-PADRE-RBD-Fc dimer) as antigen verified to induce protective immunity against SARS-CoV-2 challenge in pre-clinical study, which supported progression to Phase I clinical trials in humans. A Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase I clinical trial was initiated at the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Gaozhou, China) in February 2021. Healthy adults aged between 18 and 59 years and over 60 years were sequentially enrolled and randomly allocated into three subgroups (1:1:1) either to receive the vaccine (10, 25, and 50 µg) or placebo (V-01: Placebo = 4:1) intramuscularly with a 21-day interval by a sentinel and dose escalation design. The data showed a promising safety profile with approximately 25% vaccine-related overall adverse events (AEs) within 30 days and no grade 3 or worse AEs. Besides, V-01 provoked rapid and strong immune responses, elicited substantially high-titre neutralizing antibodies and anti-RBD IgG peaked at day 35 or 49 after first dose, presented with encouraging immunogenicity at low dose (10 µg) subgroup and elderly participants, which showed great promise to be used as all-aged (18 and above) vaccine against COVID-19. Taken together, our preliminary findings indicate that V-01 is safe and well tolerated, capable of inducing rapid and strong immune responses, and warrants further testing in Phase II/III clinical trials.

Morphology and molecular phylogeny of two new soil ciliates, Hemiurosomoida warreni nov. spec. and Hemiurosoma clampi nov. spec. (Ciliophora, Hypotrichia) from Tibet.

Two novel hypotrichous ciliates, Hemiurosomoida warreni nov. spec. and Hemiurosoma clampi nov. spec., isolated from soil in the Lhalu Wetland and Motuo Virgin Forest in Tibet, respectively, were investigated using live observation and protargol staining. Hemiurosomoida warreni nov. spec. strongly resembles the type species H. longa but can be distinguished by its body size in vivo (110-145 × 30-40 µm vs. 50-100 × 18-40 µm), number of adoral membranelles (25-38 vs. 15-22), and numbers of right (29-39 vs. 14-23) and left (26-35 vs. 13-23) marginal cirri, transverse cirri (3 vs. 4 or 5) and macronuclear nodules (4-8 vs. 2). Hemiurosoma clampi nov. spec. is characterized by its vermiform body shape, colourless cortical granules distributed in irregular rows, two macronuclear nodules, three frontal cirri, one buccal cirrus, four frontoventral cirri ranged in a line, two transverse cirri, lacking postoral ventral and pretransverse ventral cirri, and marginal rows that are not posteriorly confluent. Phylogenetic analyses based on SSU rDNA gene sequences suggest that Hemiurosomoida is not monophyletic. A close relationship is revealed between Hemiurosomoida warreni nov. spec., Parakahilella macrostoma, Hemiurosoma clampi nov. spec., and the type species Hemiurosoma terricola. As expected, all these species are classified within the "non-oxytrichid Dorsomarginalia".

Power efficient LED placement algorithm for indoor visible light communication.

This paper proposes a novel power-efficient light-emitting diode (LED) placement algorithm for indoor visible light communication (VLC). In the considered model, the LEDs can be designedly placed for high power efficiency while satisfying the indoor communication and illumination requirements. This design problem is formulated as a power minimization problem under both communication and illumination level constraints. Due to the interactions among LEDs and the illumination uniformity constraint, the formulated problem is complex and non-convex. To solve the problem, we first transform the complex uniformity constraint into a series of linear constraints. Then an iterative algorithm is proposed to decouple the interactions among LEDs and transforms the original problem into a series of convex sub-problems. Then, we use Lagrange dual method to solve the sub-problem and obtain a convergent solution of the original problem. Simulation results show that the proposed LED placement algorithm can harvest 14% power consumption gain when compared with the baseline scheme with centrally placed LEDs.

Received signal strength assisted perspective-three-point algorithm for indoor visible light positioning.

In this paper, a received signal strength assisted perspective-three-point positioning algorithm (R-P3P) is proposed for visible light positioning (VLP) systems. Due to the directional propagation of visible light, the orientations of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and receivers can affect the positioning accuracy seriously. To circumvent this challenge, R-P3P is proposed to mitigate the limitation on LEDs' and receiver's orientation in VLP systems. The basic idea of R-P3P is to jointly utilize visual and strength information to estimate the receiver position using 3 LEDs regardless of the orientations of LEDs and receivers. Simulation results show that R-P3P can achieve positioning accuracy within 10 cm over 70% of an indoor area with low complexity.