Gut Dysbiosis Promotes Preeclampsia by Regulating Macrophages and Trophoblasts.

BACKGROUND: Preeclampsia is one of the leading causes of maternal and perinatal morbidity and is characterized by hypertension, inflammation, and placental dysfunction. Gut microbiota plays key roles in inflammation and hypertension. However, its roles and mechanisms in preeclampsia have not been fully elucidated. METHODS: 16S rRNA gene sequencing and targeted metabolomics were conducted on stool samples from 92 preeclamptic patients and 86 normal late-pregnant women. Then, fecal microbiota transplantation and in vitro and in vivo functional experiments were performed to explore the roles and mechanisms of gut microbiota in preeclampsia development. RESULTS: We revealed the gut microbiota dysbiosis in preeclamptic patients, including significant reductions in short-chain fatty acid-producing bacteria and short-chain fatty acids. The gut microbiota of preeclamptic patients significantly exacerbated pathologies and symptoms of preeclamptic rats, whereas the gut microbiota of healthy pregnant women had significant protective effects. Akkermansia muciniphila, propionate, or butyrate significantly alleviated the symptoms of preeclamptic rats. Mechanistically, they significantly promoted autophagy and M2 polarization of macrophages in placental bed, thereby suppressing inflammation. Propionate also significantly promoted trophoblast invasion, thereby improved spiral arterial remodeling. Additionally, we identified a marker set consisting of Akkermansia, Oscillibacter, and short-chain fatty acids that could accurately diagnose preeclampsia. CONCLUSIONS: Our study revealed that gut microbiota dysbiosis is an important etiology of preeclampsia. Gut microbiota and their active metabolites have great potential for the treatment and diagnosis of preeclampsia. Our findings enrich the gut-placenta axis theory and contribute to the development of microecological products for preeclampsia.

Epidemiological investigation and intergenerational clinical characteristics of 24 coronavirus disease patients associated with a supermarket cluster: a retrospective study.

BACKGROUND: In view of the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, it remains unclear whether the severity of illness and time interval from symptom onset to release from quarantine differ between cases that originated from clusters and cases reported in other areas. This study aimed to assess epidemiological and intergenerational clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients associated with cluster outbreaks to provide valuable data for the prevention and control of COVID-19. METHODS: We identified the first employee with COVID-19 at a supermarket and screened the close contacts of this index patient. Confirmed cases were divided into two groups according to the generation (first generation comprising supermarket employees [group A] and second or third generations comprising family members or friends of the supermarket employees [group B]). The epidemiological and clinical characteristics of the two groups were retrospectively compared. RESULTS: A total of 8437 people were screened, and 24 COVID-19 patients were identified. Seven patients (29.2%) were asymptomatic; three patients were responsible for six symptomatic cases. The interval from the confirmation of the first case to symptom onset in symptomatic patients was 5-11 days. The clinical manifestations of symptomatic patients upon admission were non-specific. All patients (including the seven asymptomatic patients) were admitted based on chest computed tomography features indicative of pneumonia. There were 11 cases in group A (first generation) and 13 cases in group B (second generation, 11 cases; third generation, 2 cases), with no significant differences in clinical and epidemiological characteristics between the two groups, except for sex, duration from symptom onset to hospitalization, and underlying disease (P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: For cluster outbreaks, it is important to comprehensively screen close the contacts of the index patient. Special attention should be paid to asymptomatic cases. The clinical management of cluster patients is similar to that of other COVID-19 patients.

Chitosan Hydrogel Enhances the Therapeutic Efficacy of Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells for Myocardial Infarction by Alleviating Vascular Endothelial Cell Pyroptosis.

Myocardial infarction (MI) is one of the higher mortality rates, and current treatment can only delay the progression of the disease. Experiments have shown that cell therapy could improve cardiac function and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs)-based therapies provide a great promising approach in the treatment of MI. However, low cell survival and engraftment restricts the successful application of MSCs for treating MI. Here, we explored whether co-transplantation of a chitosan (CS) thermosensitive hydrogel with bone marrow-derived MSCs (BMSCs) could optimize and maximize the therapeutic of BMSCs in a mouse model of MI. The fate of transplanted BMSCs was monitored by bioluminescence imaging, and the recovery of cardiac function was detected by echocardiogram. Our results proved that CS hydrogel enhanced the BMSCs' survival and the recovery of cardiac function by protecting the vascular endothelial cells. Further studies revealed that the increased number of vascular endothelial cells was due to the fact that transplanted BMSCs inhibited the inflammatory response and alleviated the pyroptosis of vascular endothelial cells. In conclusions, CS hydrogel improved the engraftment of transplanted BMSCs, ameliorated inflammatory responses, and further promoted functional recovery of heart by alleviating vascular endothelial cell pyroptosis.

Upregulation of microRNA-351 exerts protective effects during sepsis by ameliorating skeletal muscle wasting through the Tead-4-mediated blockade of the Hippo signaling pathway.

Sepsis-induced skeletal muscle wasting may lead to various severe clinical consequences. Understanding molecular mechanisms of the regulation of the loss of skeletal muscle mass in septic patients remains a significant clinical challenge. The current study was conducted to establish septic mice models to explore the relationship between microRNA (miR)-351 and the transcription element apical (TEA) domain transcription factor (Tead)-4 gene and to investigate its effects on the skeletal muscle through mediating the Hippo signaling pathway in mice with acute sepsis. A total of 60 mice were collected to establish mouse models of acute sepsis. The positive expression rate of Tead-4 and the apoptotic index (AI) were measured. A dual-luciferase reporter gene assay was conducted to verify the targeting relationship between miR-351 and Tead-4. Furthermore, the muscle fiber diameter (MFD) and area (MFA) and the content of 3-methylhistidine (3-MH) and tyrosine (Tyr) were assessed. The expression levels of miR-351, p38-MAPK, Yes-associated protein, Tead-4, B-cell lymphoma X protein (Bax), and Caspase-3 were determined with quantitative RT-PCR and Western blot analysis. Finally, cell viability, apoptosis, and levels of inflammatory factors, including IL-1ß, IL-6, IGF-1, TNF-α, and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 were detected by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2- yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay, flow cytometry, and ELISA. Initially, Tead-4 protein expression was higher in skeletal muscle tissues of mice with acute sepsis. Tead-4 was identified to negatively regulate miR-351. Upregulation of miR-351 increased MFA and MFD, muscle weight water content, Bcl-2 expression levels, and cell viability. Up-regulation of miR-351 reduced AI; 3-MH and Tyr content; positive expression of Tead-4 protein; the expression levels of p38-MAPK, Yap, Tead-4, Bax, and Caspase-3; apoptosis; and inflammatory responses. The current study demonstrated that up-regulation of miR-351 inhibits the degradation of skeletal muscle protein and the atrophy of skeletal muscle in mice with acute sepsis by targeting Tead-4 through suppression of the Hippo signaling pathway. Thus, miR-351 overexpression may be a future therapeutic strategy for acute sepsis.-Zhang, L.-N., Tian, H., Zhou, X.-L., Tian, S.-C., Zhang, X.-H., Wu, T.-J. Upregulation of microRNA-351 exerts protective effects during sepsis by ameliorating skeletal muscle wasting through the Tead-4-mediated blockade of the Hippo signaling pathway.

Secure output containment of heterogeneous multi-agent systems against hybrid attacks.

In this paper, the secure containment control issue for heterogeneous multi-agent systems subject to hybrid attacks is studied. In the network channels among agents, adversaries launch replay attacks such that the followers can only retrieve the previous information of their neighbors. To characterize the effects of replay attacks, a distributed auxiliary system with heterogeneous time-varying delay is constructed to estimate the convex hull of the leaders' state. The control input of each follower may be contaminated by the malicious false data injection (FDI) attacks with unknown bounded time-varying signals, which are intended to compromise the containment performance of the whole system. A local adaptive compensator is designed for each follower to eliminate the adverse effects of the FDI attacks. Based on the distributed auxiliary system and the local adaptive compensator, a secure distributed control protocol is proposed to ensure that the output trajectories of each follower can converge to the dynamic convex hull spanned by the leader outputs. Finally, two illustrative examples are provided to show the feasibility of the proposed secure control scheme.

Expression and clinical significance of tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor 1 in peripheral blood of patients with advanced lung cancer.

BACKGROUND: To assess the serum level of tumor necrosis factor receptor related factor 1 (TRAF1) in advanced lung cancer patients and its clinical significance. METHODS: In this retrospective study, the serum level of TRAF1 in 50 patients with stage III-IV lung cancer and 50 healthy people who received physical examination during the same period were detected and compared. The differences in serum TRAF1 level in patients with lung cancer in terms of gender, age, smoking status, pathological type, tumor location, TNM stage and other clinicopathological features were analyzed. The 50 patients with lung cancer were treated with conventional chemotherapy for 2 cycles, and serum TRAF1 level was tested. The area under the curve (AUC) was calculated to evaluate the diagnostic value of serum TRAF1 for advanced lung cancer. RESULTS: The serum level of TRAF1 in lung cancer patients was significantly higher than that of healthy controls (P < 0.05). The serum level of TRAF1 in patients with stage IV lung cancer was significantly higher than that in patients with stage III lung cancer (P < 0.05). Serum level of TRAF1 in lung adenocarcinoma and lung squamous cell carcinoma group after chemotherapy was significantly lower than that before chemotherapy (P < 0.05); However, the serum level of TRAF1 in small cell lung cancer group after chemotherapy had no significant change compared with that before chemotherapy (P > 0.05). The AUC of serum TRAF1 for the diagnosis of lung cancer was 0.903, and the yoden index was 0.668. The best cut-off value of serum TRAF1 for the diagnosis of lung cancer was 113.87 pg/ml, with a sensitivity of 90.6% and a specificity of 78.57%. CONCLUSION: Serum level of TRAF1 has potential diagnostic value for advanced lung cancer. TRAF1 could assist clinicians to diagnose lung cancer patient and assess patient's condition.

Cloning, Identification, and Functional Analysis of the Foxl2 Gene in Procambarus clarkii.

Procambarus clarkii is the most widely distributed freshwater shrimp in China, with important economic value and great potential for development. The forkheadboxL2 (Foxl2) gene has been found to be involved in the reproductive development of many crustaceans. To understand the role of the Foxl2 gene in the gonad development of P. clarkii, we designed CDS-specific primers for the P. clarkii Foxl2 (PcFoxl2) gene and cloned its CDS sequence using RT-PCR. The nucleotide and protein sequence information was then analyzed through bioinformatics analysis. The expression and subcellular localization of PcFoxl2 in various tissues were detected using qRT-PCR and in situ hybridization. The effects of PcFoxl2 knockdown on gonad development were investigated using RNA interference. The results showed that the CDS length of the PcFoxl2 gene was 1614 bp and encoded 537 amino acids. Protein sequence comparison and phylogenetic analysis showed that PcFoxl2 was the closest relative to Crayfish. qRT-PCR analysis indicated that the expression level of PcFoxl2 in the testis was significantly higher (>40 fold) than that in the ovary (p < 0.01). The in situ hybridization results showed that PcFoxl2 was expressed in both the cytoplasm and the nucleus of egg cells, and that the expression was strongest in egg cells at the early stage of yolk synthesis, while weak in the secondary oocytes. The positive signal was strongest in the spermatocyte nucleolus, while only a trace signal was observed in the cytoplasm. After interfering with the PcFoxl2 gene using dsRNA, the expression of PcFoxl2 in the RNA interference group was significantly lower than that in the control group, and this interference effect lasted for one week. Moreover, the gonad index of the experimental group was significantly lower than that of the control group (p < 0.05) after 10 days of P. clarkii cultivation following PcFoxl2 knockdown. The expression levels of the nanos and S3a genes, which are related to gonad development, decreased significantly after PcFoxl2 gene interference. The results suggest that the Foxl2 gene is involved in the growth and development of gonads, particularly in the development of testis, and is related to the early development of oocytes. This study provides a theoretical basis for the artificial breeding of P. clarkii.

[Analysis of disease composition and outcome of patients in intensive care department of 3A hospitals: analysis of 3 249 cases in the department of Liaocheng People's Hospital from 2019 to 2021].

OBJECTIVE: To provide the basis and direction for the establishment of the database of severe patients by analyizing of the disease composition and outcome of patients in the department of critical care medicine of the 3A hospital. METHODS: The clinical data of 3 249 patients admitted to the department of critical care medicine of Liaocheng People's Hospital from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2021 were retrospectively analyzed, including gender, age, admission time, admission route, diagnosis, acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE II) score 24 hours after admission, outcome and other information. RESULTS: The mean age of 3 249 patients was (61.99±18.29) years old, and the proportion of young and old patients aged 60-74 years accounted the largest (34.01%). There were more males (1 800 cases) than females (1 449 cases). The most patients were admitted in January (119 cases) and the least in March (75 cases). The top eight diseases in the department of critical care medicine were respiratory system diseases (21.88%), multiple injuries (12.65%), cardiovascular system diseases (11.48%), gastrointestinal surgery diseases (9.42%), pathological obstetrics (7.76%), digestive system diseases (7.63%), urinary system diseases (5.69%) and nervous system diseases (5.23%). Among 3 249 critically ill patients, 54.36% (1 766 cases) were transferred to the general ward for treatment after improvement, with APACHE II score was 17.99±5.51. 15.91% (517 cases) returned to local hospital for further treatment after improvement, APACHE II score was 22.48±6.57. 1.51% (49 cases) were transferred to superior hospitals, APACHE II score was 21.71±5.18. 24.22% (787 cases) were discharged automatically, APACHE II score was 25.64±5.45. 4.00% (130 cases) died in intensive care unit (ICU), APACHE II score was 29.08±8.10. The APACHE II score of patients who died in ICU was higher than that of patients who were transferred to another department, another hospital or discharged automatically after their condition improved, and the differences were statistically significant (all P < 0.001). Among 3 249 patients, a total of 1 265 patients were admitted to ICU for sepsis caused by aggravated infection, and 44.43% (562 cases) of the 1 265 patients improved to the general ward after treatment, with APACHE II score was 18.99±5.46. 19.21% (243 cases) returned to local hospital after treatment with APACHE II score was 22.79±6.74. 1.50% (19 cases) were transferred to superior hospitals for further treatment with APACHE II score was 21.21±4.81. 31.54% (399 cases) were discharged automatically with APACHE II score was 25.55±4.84; 3.32% (42 cases) died in ICU with APACHE II score was 27.69±7.92. The APACHE II score of patients who died in ICU was higher than that of patients who were transferred to another department, another hospital or discharged automatically after their condition improved, and the difference was statistically significant (all P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Among the patient admitted to ICU 2019-2021 in Liaocheng People's Hospital, respiratory system diseases accounted for the first, multiple injuries accounted for the second place, followed by cardiovascular system diseases, gastrointestinal surgery diseases, pathological obstetrics, etc. Males and elderly patients aged 60-74 years have a higher proportion of severe cases. APACHE II scores were associated with patients' prognosis.

[Impact of completion rates of 3-hour and 6-hour bundle on the prognosis of septic shock patients].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the impact of completion rates of 3-hour and 6-hour sepsis bundle therapy on prognosis of patients with septic shock in Prefecture-level grade A hospitals, and analyze the risk factors for prognosis. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted to patients with septic shock in the intensive care unit (ICU) of Liaocheng People's Hospital, Shandong Province from January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2021. The data of gender, age, acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II (APACHE II), sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA), sites of infection, pathogenic microorganisms, completion rates of 3-hour and 6-hour sepsis bundle therapy, 28-day prognosis were collected. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify risk factors for patients' mortality at 28-day. RESULTS: (1) Among 159 patients with septic shock, 93 survived and 66 died with 28-day. There were no significant differences in gender and age between the survival group and death group. Compared with the survival group, APACHE II score and SOFA score were significantly higher in the death group [APACHE II score: 26.85±5.04 vs. 20.67±4.29, SOFA score: 12.86±3.02 vs. 9.37±2.51, both P < 0.05]. (2) Sites of infection in the 159 patients: 47 cases were abdominal infection (29.6%), 36 case were bloodstream infection (22.6%), 31 cases were pulmonary infection (19.5%), 16 cases were soft tissue infection (10.1%), 13 cases were urinary tract infection (8.2%), 12 cases were biliary tract infection (7.5%), and 4 cases were other sites infection (2.5%). Pathogens were found in 128 cases and the positive rate was 80.5%, including 90 cases of Gram-negative (G-) bacilli (56.6%), 27 cases of Gram-positive (G+) cocci (17.0%) and 11 cases of fungi (6.9%). The top three pathogenic bacteria were Escherichia coli (49 cases, 30.8%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (21 cases, 13.2%) and Staphylococcus aureus (15 cases, 9.4%). The differences were not statistically significant. (3) Among the 159 patients, 101 cases completed 3-hour sepsis bundle therapy (63.5%), including 67 cases (72.0%) in survival group and 34 cases (51.5%) in death group; 106 cases completed 6-hour sepsis bundle therapy (66.7%), including 70 cases (75.3%) in survival group and 36 cases (54.5%) in death group. The differences between the two groups were statistically significant (all P < 0.05). (4) The factors (APACHE II score, SOFA score and completion rate of 3-hour and 6-hour sepsis bundle therapy) affecting the prognosis in the univariate analysis were included in the binary Logistic regression analysis, and the results showed that the APACHE II score, SOFA score, completion rate of 3-hour sepsis bundle therapy were independent risk factors affecting mortality within 28-day [odds ratio (OR) was 1.216, 1.303, 0.402, all P < 0.05]. CONCLUSIONS: The higher APACHE II score and SOFA score in septic shock, the worse the prognosis. Improving the completion rates of 3-hour and 6-hour bundle therapy especially the completion rate of 3-hour bundle therapy can reduce the mortality of patients and improve the prognosis.

Field programmable gate array based parallel strapdown algorithm design for strapdown inertial navigation systems.

A new generalized optimum strapdown algorithm with coning and sculling compensation is presented, in which the position, velocity and attitude updating operations are carried out based on the single-speed structure in which all computations are executed at a single updating rate that is sufficiently high to accurately account for high frequency angular rate and acceleration rectification effects. Different from existing algorithms, the updating rates of the coning and sculling compensations are unrelated with the number of the gyro incremental angle samples and the number of the accelerometer incremental velocity samples. When the output sampling rate of inertial sensors remains constant, this algorithm allows increasing the updating rate of the coning and sculling compensation, yet with more numbers of gyro incremental angle and accelerometer incremental velocity in order to improve the accuracy of system. Then, in order to implement the new strapdown algorithm in a single FPGA chip, the parallelization of the algorithm is designed and its computational complexity is analyzed. The performance of the proposed parallel strapdown algorithm is tested on the Xilinx ISE 12.3 software platform and the FPGA device XC6VLX550T hardware platform on the basis of some fighter data. It is shown that this parallel strapdown algorithm on the FPGA platform can greatly decrease the execution time of algorithm to meet the real-time and high precision requirements of system on the high dynamic environment, relative to the existing implemented on the DSP platform.

Multiorder boundaries among discrete domains: relative fractal dimension and others.

In nature and society, most of competitions take place on the boundaries among a group of domains where different individuals or colonies share common resources; therefore, it is widely believed that domain boundaries play important roles in the evolution of many complex systems. Here, we first give a definition for multiorder boundaries among discrete domains and then propose a general method to calculate their relative fractal dimension, i.e., the ratio of the fractal dimension of the boundaries versus that of the domains themselves. Through analyzing three types of real-world discrete domains, several interesting results are revealed. For example, the limitation on the number of domains that an individual can join in may produce longer boundaries indicating more cruel competitions among the domains. Besides, the individuals with more social links are always considered more important in social networks, and it is found that these individuals as valuable resources of social domains are always centralized on the boundaries of higher order.

[Water quality analysis by three-dimensional fluorescence spectra based on selective model combination].

A selective model combination method is proposed in this paper to improve the precision of water quality analysis with three dimensional fluorescence spectra. A correlation coefficient criterion was designed to select effective excitation wavelengths for sub-models building, based on which the ridge regression method was adopted to combine the selected sub-models to get the stacked model. Thirty two samples from surface water and urban wastewater were used as research objects with total organic carbon (TOC) index from 3.41 to 125.35 mg x L(-1), and chemical oxygen demand (COD) index from 22.80 to 330.60 mg x L(-1), and 10 excitation wavelengths in the range of 220-400 nm were adopted to generate three dimensional fluorescence spectra. Following the proposed correlation coefficient criterion, the excitation wavelengths of 260, 280 and 400 nm, and the excitation wavelengths of 220, 280 and 400 nm were selected respectively for TOC analysis and COD analysis, based on which two stacked models were built by using partial least square regression method for sub-models building and ridge regression method for sub-models combination. The experimental results show that, compared with the sub-models with the best prediction precision, the root mean square errors of prediction (RMSEP) of the stacked models decreased by 15.4% for TOC analysis, and 17.5% for COD analysis; and compared with the models without sub-models selection, the RMSEP of the stacked models decreased by 6.1% for TOC analysis and 10.9% for COD analysis.

[Development of a multi-spectra based portable water quality analyzer].

A novel portable multi-parameter water quality analyzer was developed based on the multi-spectra information fusion theory. The analysis method, hardware structures, working principles and software functions are described in the present paper. As a small size, rapid testing and outdoor green instrument, this analyzer can be used to measure six water organic pollution indicators, including TOC, COD, etc., through analyzing the spectra of a small amount of water sample without any chemical reagent. The practical water analysis experiments showed that the multi-spectra fusion method used by this analyzer possesses a higher measurement precision than that of the UV spectral analysis method, which is popularly used by the water quality analyzers in the market.

[Low temperature affects airway mucin secretion and promotes acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease].

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has a high incidence, and leads to irreversible lung dysfunction. Preventing COPD acute exacerbation (AECOPD) and delaying the progression of the disease are the focus of treatment. However, there is still a lack of precise and effective preventive measures. A significant feature of AECOPD is the high incidence in winter. The traditional concept is that cold air in winter can be accompanied by increased virus replication, environmental pollution, and reduced air humidity. Various confounding factors intertwine to promote the occurrence of AECOPD, and the impact of low temperature itself has been neglected. In recent years, with the development of molecular biology, more and more studies have found that abnormal secretion of airway mucin can lead to obstruction of mucus clearance, increase the chance of infection, and participate in the development of COPD. Low temperature can affect mucin secretion through various mechanisms. This article summarizes the particularity of COPD airway temperature and the related ways of low temperature leading to mucin changes. It draws people's attention to low temperature in order to carry out basic research and provide new intervention methods for predicting and preventing the occurrence of AECOPD.

Case Report: Clinical Treatment of the First Critical Patient With Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) in Liaocheng, Shandong Province.

This paper reports the clinical characteristics, diagnosis, and treatment of the first critical COVID-19 patient in Liaocheng City, who was admitted to the intensive care unit isolation ward of Liaocheng People's Hospital on February 11, 2020. On admission, the patient had difficulty breathing, the oxygenation index was 135 mmHg, and the blood lactate was 5.6 mmol/L. After comprehensive treatment including high-flow nasal cannula oxygen therapy, plasma exchange, antiviral and anti-infection therapies, immune regulation, liquid volume management, glucocorticoid, enteral nutrition support, analgesia and sedation, blood glucose control, anticoagulation and thrombus prevention, and electrolyte balance maintenance, the patient was finally cured, and discharged. The purpose of this case report is to provide a reference for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of critical COVID-19 patients.

Clinical Characteristics and Reasons for Differences in Duration From Symptom Onset to Release From Quarantine Among Patients With COVID-19 in Liaocheng, China.

Objective: This study aimed to identify additional characteristics and features of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) by assessing the clinical courses among COVID-19 patients in a region outside Hubei province. Methods: We analyzed retrospective data regarding general characteristics, epidemiologic history, underlying chronic diseases, clinical symptoms and complications, chest computed tomography findings, biochemical monitoring, disease severity, treatments, and outcomes among 37 adult patients with COVID-19. According to the duration from symptom onset to release from quarantine, the patients were divided into the ≤20 and >20-day groups, and the similarities and differences between them were compared. Results: Among the 37 patients, five had mild disease, 30 had moderate disease, one had severe disease, and one was critically ill. All of the patients were released from quarantine, and no mortality was observed. The average duration from symptom onset to release from quarantine was 20.2 ± 6.6 days. The average duration from symptom onset to hospitalization was 4.1 ± 3.7 days, and the patients were hospitalized for an average of 16.1 ± 6.2 days. The average age was 44.3 ± 1.67 years, and 78.4% of cases were caused by exposure to a patient with confirmed disease or the workplace of a patient with confirmed disease. The main symptoms were cough (67.6%), fever (62.2%), shortness of breath (32.4%), fatigue (24.3%), sore throat (21.6%), vomiting, and diarrhea (21.6%). White blood cell count was decreased in 27.0% of patients, and lymphocyte count was decreased in 62.2% of the patients, among whom 43.5% patients had counts of ≤0.6 × 109/L. On admission, 86.5% of patients showed pneumonia in chest CT scans, including some asymptomatic patients, while 68.8% of patients showed bilateral infiltration. In the >20-day group, the average age was 49.9 ± 1.38 years, and the average duration from symptom onset to hospitalization was 5.5 ± 3.9 days. Compared with the ≤20-day group, patients in the >20-day group were older and the duration was longer (P < 0.05). All of the seven asymptomatic patients belonged to the ≤20-day group. When the 37 patients were released from quarantine, the white blood cell count of 16.2% of the patients was <4.0 × 109/L, the lymphocyte count of 59.5% of the patients was <1.1 × 109/L, and the absolute counts of white blood cells and lymphocytes were 5.02 ± 1.34 × 109/L and 1.03 ± 0.34 × 109/L, respectively, compared with those recorded on admission (P > 0.05). Conclusion: The majority of COVID-19 cases in the study area were mild and moderate, with good clinical outcomes. There were some special characteristics in the clinical course. The reasons for differences in the duration from symptom onset to release from quarantine were complex. There was no significant change in the number of granulocytes at the time of release from quarantine compared to that at the time of admission.

Intravenous infusion of human umbilical cord Wharton's jelly-derived mesenchymal stem cells as a potential treatment for patients with COVID-19 pneumonia.

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has grown to be a global public health emergency since patients were first detected in Wuhan, China. Thus far, no specific drugs or vaccines are available to cure the patients with COVID-19 infection. The immune system and inflammation are proposed to play a central role in COVID-19 pathogenesis. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been shown to possess a comprehensive powerful immunomodulatory function. Intravenous infusion of MSCs has shown promising results in COVID-19 treatment. Here, we report a case of a severe COVID-19 patient treated with human umbilical cord Wharton's jelly-derived MSCs (hWJCs) from a healthy donor in Liaocheng People's Hospital, China, from February 24, 2020. The pulmonary function and symptoms of the patient with COVID-19 pneumonia was significantly improved in 2 days after hWJC transplantation, and recovered and discharged in 7 days after treatment. After treatment, the percentage and counts of lymphocyte subsets (CD3+, CD4+, and CD8+ T cell) were increased, and the level of IL-6, TNF-α, and C-reactive protein is significantly decreased after hWJC treatment. Thus, the intravenous transplantation of hWJCs was safe and effective for the treatment of patients with COVID-19 pneumonia, especially for the patients in a critically severe condition. This report highlights the potential of hWJC infusions as an effective treatment for COVID-19 pneumonia.

Country neighborhood network on territory and its geometrical model.

The country neighborhood network, where nodes represent countries and two nodes are considered linked if the corresponding countries are neighbors on territory, is created and its giant component, the Asia, Europe, and Africa (AEA) cluster, is carefully studied in this paper. It is found that, as common, the degree distribution and the clustering function of the AEA cluster are both compatible with scale-free property, besides, the AEA cluster presents a little disassortativity, and its near power-law country area-degree relationship with the exponent close to 1.7 may imply a fractal dimension close to 1.2 of country borderlines in the AEA continent. It is also revealed that the average difference of population density between two countries obeys an approximately increasing function of the shortest path length between them, which may suggest a gradual consensus of population density in the AEA cluster. A simple unity rule is then adopted to model the AEA cluster and such model explains the AEA cluster very well in most aspects, e.g., power-law domain area distribution and fractal domain borderlines, etc., except that the network derived by the model has stronger disassortativity, which may be explained by the fact that, in the evolution history of countries, unbalanced neighbors are more likely to be united as one than balanced neighbors. Additionally, the network evolving process can be divided into three periods, defined as formation period, growth period, and combination period, and there are indications that the AEA cluster is in its third period.

Node matching between complex networks.

Revealing corresponding identities of a dedicated individual in several different complex systems is a common task in many areas, and this task is transferred to a node matching problem among complex networks in this paper. A feasible node matching algorithm based on network structure is proposed. Through solving node matching problems on different types of networks by our algorithm, it is revealed that the structure of the networks under study may significantly influence the final matching results. For example, it is found that higher matching precision can be obtained on random networks with moderate density of links, and the results on small-world networks are always better than those on random or regular networks. Moreover, in scale-free networks, it seems that hub nodes play dominant roles, i.e., better matching results can be expected by selecting nodes with larger degrees as the revealed matched nodes. These findings will help us design more efficient node matching algorithm in the future.

Empirical analysis of Internet telephone network: from user ID to phone.

In order to study the interaction between different communication networks, in this paper, personal computer (PC)-to-phone log data in the year of 2007 are collected from UUCALL database and described as an ID-to-phone bipartite network (ItPBN). The ItPBN contains one giant component (GC) and a large number of satellitic components (SCs), both of which are carefully analyzed. It is found that the ItPBN has power-law incoming/outgoing degree distributions as well as a power-law clustering function (by proposing a new definition of clustering coefficient) indicating a hierarchical and modular structure of the ItPBN. Furthermore, the fact that most of the weak links always surrounding those ID nodes of large degree in the GC suggests that weak links may be more important to keep the structure of the GC than those strong ones. More interestingly, it is also revealed that there is strong correlation between many statistical properties of different SCs and their size, these extra information may be very useful in modeling the ItPBN in the future.