The effect of a temperature-sensitive prophage on the evolution of virulence in an opportunistic bacterial pathogen.

Viruses are key actors of ecosystems and have major impacts on global biogeochemical cycles. Prophages deserve particular attention as they are ubiquitous in bacterial genomes and can enter a lytic cycle when triggered by environmental conditions. We explored how temperature affects the interactions between prophages and other biological levels using an opportunistic pathogen, the bacterium Serratia marcescens, which harbours several prophages and that had undergone an evolution experiment under several temperature regimes. We found that the release of one of the prophages was temperature-sensitive and malleable to evolutionary changes. We further discovered that the virulence of the bacterium in an insect model also evolved and was positively correlated with phage release rates. We determined through analysis of genetic and epigenetic data that changes in the bacterial outer cell wall structure possibly explain this phenomenon. We hypothezise that the temperature-dependent phage release rate acted as a selection pressure on S. marcescens and that it resulted in modified bacterial virulence in the insect host. Our study system illustrates how viruses can mediate the influence of abiotic environmental changes to other biological levels and thus be involved in ecosystem feedback loops.

The performance of Mobile Cabin Hospital in combatting COVID-19 in China

BackgroundSince the end of 2019 to the present day, the outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had an immense impact on China and on other countries worldwide. This outbreak represents a serious threat to the lives and health of people all around the world. The epidemic first broke out in Wuhan, where the Chinese government was unable to prevent the spread of the disease by implementing home quarantine measures. Mobile cabin hospitals were used to relieve pressure on hospitals due to the need for beds while also isolating the sources of the infection through a centralized quarantine and treatment of mild cases. MethodThis paper reviewed and summarized the treatment of patients with mild illness and symptoms during the period from the construction to the closing of the Hanyang Mobile Cabin Hospital in Wuhan, China, and presented the operational elements and possible improvements of running this hospital. ResultsMobile cabin hospitals helped China to curb the epidemic in only 2 incubation periods in 28 days.The basic conditions required for a normal operation of mobile cabin hospitals included the selection of the environment, medical staff to patient ratio, organizational structure, management model, admission criteria, treatment approaches, discharge process, livelihood guarantee, security, and other safeguarding measures. All of these components were performed carefully in Wuhan Hanyang Mobile Cabin Hospital, without medical staff being infected. ConclusionThe mobile cabin hospital compulsory quarantine for mild patients was an alternative method to combat COVID-19. It is hoped that the presented work in this manuscript can serve as a reference for the emergency prevention and control measures for global epidemic outbreaks.

Analysis of basic medical insurance and disease burden of the disabled people under the background of health poverty alleviation / 公共卫生与预防医学

Objective To explore the problems of health poverty faced by a special group of people with disabilities and the difficulties in the practice of health poverty alleviation, so as to provide a scientific basis for the health poverty alleviation of the disabled. Methods A self-made questionnaire was used for one-to-one survey, and a database was established by Excel. SPSS was used for descriptive analysis and horizontal comparison. Results The participation rate of basic medical insurance for the disabled was relatively high (93.40%), and the medical insurance payment was mainly paid by individuals (70.13%). The satisfaction of medical insurance was low (43.12%), and 84.64% of the disabled thought that their medical expenses were high. 45.22% of the families of disabled patients met the universal standard of catastrophic health expenditure. Compared with Shandong Province, the basic medical insurance coverage rate of the disabled in Hubei Province was slightly lower, the satisfaction rate of medical insurance was higher, and the proportion of catastrophic health expenditure of families was larger. The analysis of the results showed that the disabled people with a lower disability level, children and middle-aged with disabilities, the disabled people with less or more family members, and the disabled people without the minimum living subsistence allowances were not satisfied with the medical insurance. Conclusion The basic medical insurance in the two places has alleviated the difficulty of medical treatment for the disabled to a certain extent, but the family burden of diseases of the disabled was still heavy. The level of medical security for people with disabilities should be improved, and their economic burden of disease should be reduced, so as to improve the satisfaction of medical insurance.

Development and Testing of Multi-mode Elbow Joint Muscle Strength Training Device / 中国医疗器械杂志

Muscle strength training plays an important role in improving limb movement function, preventing muscle atrophy and promoting muscle function recovery in patients with various bone and joint diseases. The sports function of elbow joint is closely related to people's daily life activity ability. At present, Chinese muscle strength training devices are depended on import. Therefore, it is of great significance to develop muscle strength training devices. Based on the concepts and characteristics of isometric training, isotonic training, passive training and isokinetic training, in the upper computer, the servo driver and servo motor are controlled through the LabView interface, and the real-time torque is detected by the torque sensor, realizing four training modes. The main parameters of the multi-mode elbow joint muscle strength training device meet the requirements, and the trainers have a good experience.