Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Experimental Heat Transfer Investigation of Stationary and Orthogonally Rotating Asymmetric and Symmetric Heated Smooth and Turbulated Channels

An experimental investigation was conducted to determine the effects of variations in wall thermal boundary conditions on local heat transfer coefficients in stationary and orthogonally rotating smooth wall and two opposite-wall turbulated square channels. Results were obtained for three distributions of uniform wall heat flux: asymmetric, applied to the primary wall only; symmetric, applied to two opposite walls only; and fully-symmetric, applied to all four channel walls. Measured stationary and rotating smooth channel average heat transfer coefficients at channel location L/Dh = 9.53 were not significantly sensitive to wall heat flux distributions. Trailing side heat transfer generally increased with Rotation number whereas the leading wall results showed a decreasing trend at low Rotation numbers to a minimum and then an increasing trend with further increase in Rotation number. The stationary turbulated wall heat transfer coefficients did not vary markedly with the variations in wall heat flux distributions. Rotating leading wall heat transfer decreased with Rotation number and showed little sensitivity to heat flux distributions except for the fully-symmetric heated wall case at the highest Reynolds number tested. Trailing wall heat transfer coefficients were sensitive to the thermal wall distributions generally at all Reynolds numbers tested and particularly with increasing Rotation number. While the asymmetric case showed a slight deficit in trailing wall heat transfer coefficients due to rotation, the symmetric case indicated little change whereas the fully-symmetric case exhibited an enhancement.Copyright © 1992 by ASME
The association between caudal block and urethroplasty complications of distal tubularized incised plate repair: experience from a South China National Children’s Medical Center

Background The effect of caudal block (CB) on the incidence of urethroplasty complications in hypospadias repair remains controversial. The evidence is conflicting, and some confounding bias issues need to be addressed. We sought to study a more homogenous group of distal hypospadias patients undergoing primary tubularized incised plate (TIP) repair by a senior pediatric urology surgeon in the past 2 years to examine the relationship between urethroplasty complications and the use of CB. Methods We reviewed our database to identify consecutive patients who had undergone hypospadias repairs by a senior director surgeon at our Center between January 2018 and November 2020. To be eligible to participate in the study, patients had to meet the following inclusion criteria: (I) have distal hypospadias; (II) have undergone a primary TIP repair; and (III) have attended follow-up appointments for a minimum period of 6 months. The primary outcome was the development of urethroplasty complications during the follow-up period. The principal variable of interest was whether or not CB was used perioperatively. The patients were categorized into a CB group (general anesthesia combined with CB) or a control group (general anesthesia only). Other potential risk factors were analyzed, including patient age at operation, patient weight, glans width, and the length of the urethral plate defect. Results Thirty (12.2%) of the distal patients developed postoperative surgical complications. The postoperative surgical complication rates were similar between the different anesthesia groups. Weight, the length of the urethral plate length, and glans width did not contribute to the risk. Age was the only independent risk factor for postoperative surgical complications, and the complication rates increased in older patients. Conclusions Our data from consecutive TIP repairs in distal hypospadias patients indicated no association between the use of CB anesthesia and the postoperative urethroplasty complication rate. Patients who were older in age when they underwent surgery had a higher risk of complications.
Sexual dimorphism of the mandibular conformational changes in aging human adults: A multislice computed tomographic study by geometric morphometrics

The aging process has an impact on mandibular bone morphology and can therefore affect shape sexual dimorphism. Understanding the effect of senescence on mandibular shape changes is particularly important to correctly estimate the sex of an individual and predict age-related conformational modifications. The purpose of this study was to assess age-related changes in mandibular shape and sexual dimorphism. The study sample comprised 160 Multi Slice Computed Tomography examinations of individuals aged 40 to 79 years. Geometric morphometric analysis of fourteen osteometric landmarks was used to examine sexual dimorphism and patterns of mandibular shape variation with age. Results showed that mandibular sexual dimorphism of shape remained significant with aging. Conformational changes occurred between 50 and 70 years and were different for male and female individuals. Females presented earlier and more marked age-related shape changes than males. These observations suggest that mandibular senescence is a sexually dimorphic process since its onset, rate, and the areas subjected to conformational changes differ from male to female individuals. Senescence-related changes present substantial variability, and further investigation is required to determine precisely the age that marks their onset.
An Activatable Probe with Aggregation‐Induced Emission for Detecting and Imaging Herbal Medicine Induced Liver Injury with Optoacoustic Imaging and NIR‐II Fluorescence Imaging

Whilte herbal medicines are widely used for health promotion and therapy for chronic conditions, inappropriate use of them may cause adverse effects like liver injury, and accurately evaluating their hepatotoxicity is of great significance for public health. Herein, an activatable probe QY‐N for diagnosing herbal‐medicine‐induced liver injury by detecting hepatic NO with NIR‐II fluorescence and multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT) imaging is demonstrated. The probe includes a bismethoxyphenyl‐amine‐containing dihydroxanthene serving as electron donor, a quinolinium as electron acceptor, and a butylamine as recognition group and fluorescence quencher. The hepatic level of NO reacts with butylamine, thereby generating the activated probe QY‐NO which exhibits a red‐shifted absorption band (700–850 nm) for optoacoustic imaging and generates strong emission (910–1110 nm) for NIR‐II fluorescence imaging. QY‐NO is aggregation‐induced‐emission (AIE) active, which ensures strong emission in aggregated state. QY‐N is utilized in the triptolide‐induced liver injury mouse model, and experimental results demonstrate the QY‐N can be activated by hepatic NO and thus be used in detecting herbal‐medicine‐induced liver injury. The temporal and spatial information provided by three‐dimensional MSOT images well delineates the site and size of liver injury. Moreover, QY‐N has also been employed to monitor rehabilitation of liver injury during treatment process.
Tortuosity Determination of Battery Electrodes and Separators by Impedance Spectroscopy

Lithium ion battery performance at high charge/discharge rates is largely determined by the ionic resistivity of an electrode or separator which are filled with electrolyte. Key to understand and to model ohmic losses in porous battery components are porosity as well as tortuosity. In the first part, we use impedance spectroscopy measurements in a new experimental setup to obtain the tortuosities and MacMullin numbers of some commonly separators, demonstrating experimental errors of < 8%. In the second part, we present impedance measurements of electrodes in symmetric cells using a blocking electrode configuration, which is obtained by using a non-intercalating electrolyte. The effective ionic resistivity of the electrode can be fit with a transmission-line model, allowing us to quantify the porosity dependent MacMullin numbers and tortuosities of electrodes with different active materials and different conductive carbon content. Best agreement between the transmission-line model and the impedance data is found when constant-phase elements rather than simple capacitors are used.
The daily effect is more important than the diurnal effect when shaping Photosynthetic picoeukaryotes (PPEs) communities in Lake Taihu at a small temporal scale.

As major primary producers in aquatic systems, the diversity and community composition dynamics of photosynthetic picoeukaryotes (PPEs) have been investigated in recent years. Here, we explored the three-day diurnal succession of the PPE community in a highly eutrophic lake in early spring using a combination of flow cytometric sorting and high-throughput sequencing. Our results showed that the PPEs were the dominant group of autotrophic picophytoplankton, although they had relatively low diversity and were dominated by the Stephanodiscaceae family in early spring in Lake Taihu. Furthermore, PPE abundance was significantly higher at night than during the day, probably due to their high specific rate of carbon uptake during the day and rapid proliferation at night. Several environmental variables had a significant influence on the PPE community composition, and the daily effect was more important than the diurnal effect when shaping the PPE community in Lake Taihu at a temporal scale of three days. Furthermore, based on the variation partitioning analysis (VPA), the relative importance of abiotic factors (deterministic processes) to short-term succession was low, explaining only 20.44%of the PPE community variation. We therefore conclude that stochastic processes determined PPE community assembly over a short temporal scale based on a neutral community model (NCM).
EFFECTIVENESS AND SAFETY OF CERVICAL CATHETER TIP PLACEMENT IN INTRATHECAL BACLOFEN TREATMENT OF SPASTICITY: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Objective To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of intrathecal baclofen treatment of spasticity, administered via a cervical catheter tip. Design A review of PubMed and the Cochrane Library up to September 2020. No restriction in study design. Two reviewers independently evaluated eligibility, extracted data and evaluated risk of bias. Studies were included in which patients were treated with intrathecal baclofen for spasticity, with the catheter tip at or above the first thoracic level, independent of diagnosis and age. Results Thirteen studies were eligible, with a moderate to critical risk of bias. Improvement in spasticity was seen only in the upper extremity in 6% of subjects, only in the lower extremity in 2%, in both upper and lower extremities in 50% and without specification of location in 41%. Upper extremity function improved in 88% of cases. Neither drug-related (1%) nor technical (21%) complications occurred more often than in lower placement of the tip. Effects on respiratory function and sleep apnoea were not investigated. Conclusion Cervically administered intrathecal baclofen seems to improve upper extremity spasticity and function, without causing more complications than thoracolumbar intrathecal baclofen. However, the mainly drug-related complications have not been thoroughly investigated and the available literature is of poor methodological quality. Further research is needed to confirm the efficacy and safety of this procedure. LAY ABSTRACT Spasticity is a common complication in central neurological disorders. It can lead to discomfort and functional limitations. To reduce spasticity, administration of baclofen via a catheter into the spinal canal has been used successfully for several years. However, this treatment often has limited effects on the upper limbs. The catheter tip is often situated in the thoracolumbar region. This review suggests that baclofen treatment via a cervically located catheter tip reduces spasticity of both arms and legs. Also, arm function improved in patients with a cervical catheter tip. Neither drug-related nor technical complications occurred more often than in lower placement of the cervical catheter tip. Few studies were found on this subject, and the available literature is of poor quality. Therefore, more research is needed to confirm the positive effect of this procedure on spasticity of the arms and to monitor for complications.
FLDS: An Intelligent Feature Learning Detection System for Visualizing Medical Images Supporting Fetal Four-Chamber Views

Fetal congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common type of fatal congenital malformation. Fetal four-chamber (FC) view is a significant and easily accessible ultrasound (US) image among fetal echocardiography images. Automatic detection of four fetal heart chambers considerably contributes to the early diagnosis of fetal CHD. Furthermore, robust and discriminative features are essential for detecting crucial visualizing medical images, especially fetal FC views. However, it is an incredibly challenging task due to several key factors, such as numerous speckles in US images, the fetal four chambers with small size and unfixed positions, and category confusion caused by the similarity of cardiac chambers. These factors hinder the process of capturing robust and discriminative features, hence destroying the fetal four chambers’ precise detection. Therefore, we propose an intelligent feature learning detection system (FLDS) for FC views to detect the four chambers. A multistage residual hybrid attention module (MRHAM) presented in this paper is incorporated in the FLDS for learning powerful and robust features, helping FLDS accurately locate the four chambers in the fetal FC views. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our proposed FLDS outperforms the current state-of-the-art, including the precision of 0.919, the recall of 0.971, the $F_{1}$ score of 0.944, the mAP of 0.953, and the frames per second (FPS) of 43. In addition, our proposed FLDS is also validated on other visualizing nature images such as the PASCAL VOC dataset, achieving a higher mAP of 0.878 while input size is 608 × 608.
Sulfatase 1 and sulfatase 2 as novel regulators of macrophage antigen presentation and phagocytosis

Background Sulfation of heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) is critical for the binding and signaling of ligands that mediate inflammation. Extracellular 6-O-endosulfatases regulate posttranslational sulfation levels and patterns of HSPGs. In this study, extracellular 6-O-endosulfatases, sulfatase (Sulf)-1 and Sulf-2, were evaluated for their expression and function in inflammatory cells and tissues. Methods Harvested human peripheral blood mononuclear cells were treated with phytohemagglutinin and lipopolysaccharide, and murine peritoneal macrophages were stimulated with interleukin (IL)-1β for the evaluation of Sulf-1 and Sulf-2 expression. Sulf expression in inflammatory cells was examined in the human rheumatoid arthritis (RA) synovium by immunofluorescence staining. The antigen presentation and phagocytic activities of macrophages were compared according to the expression state of Sulfs. Sulfs-knockdown macrophages and Sulfs-overexpressing macrophages were generated using small interfering RNAs and pcDNA3.1 plasmids for Sulf-1 and Sulf-2, respectively. Results Lymphocytes and monocytes showed weak Sulf expression, which remained unaffected by IL-1β. However, peritoneal macrophages showed increased expression of Sulfs upon stimulation with IL-1β. In human RA synovium, two-colored double immunofluorescent staining of Sulfs and CD68 revealed active upregulation of Sulfs in macrophages of inflamed tissues, but not in lymphocytes of lymphoid follicles. Macrophages are professional antigen-presenting cells. The antigen presentation and phagocytic activities of macrophages were dependent on the level of Sulf expression, suppressed in Sulfs-knockdown macrophages, and enhanced in Sulfs-overexpressing macrophages. Conclusion The results demonstrate that upregulation of Sulfs in macrophages occurs in response to inflammation, and Sulfs actively regulate the antigen presentation and phagocytic activities of macrophages as novel immune regulators.
Human immune response against salivary antigens of Simulium damnosum s.l.: A new epidemiological marker for exposure to blackfly bites in onchocerciasis endemic areas

Background Simulium damnosum sensu lato (s.l.) blackflies transmit Onchocerca volvulus, a filarial nematode that causes human onchocerciasis. Human landing catches (HLCs) is currently the sole method used to estimate blackfly biting rates but is labour-intensive and questionable on ethical grounds. A potential alternative is to measure host antibodies to vector saliva deposited during bloodfeeding. In this study, immunoassays to quantify human antibody responses to S. damnosum s.l. saliva were developed, and the salivary proteome of S. damnosum s.l. was investigated. Methodology/Principal findings Blood samples from people living in onchocerciasis-endemic areas in Ghana were collected during the wet season; samples from people living in Accra, a blackfly-free area, were considered negative controls and compared to samples from blackfly-free locations in Sudan. Blackflies were collected by HLCs and dissected to extract their salivary glands. An ELISA measuring anti-S. damnosum s.l. salivary IgG and IgM was optimized and used to quantify the humoral immune response of 958 individuals. Both immunoassays differentiated negative controls from endemic participants. Salivary proteins were separated by gel-electrophoresis, and antigenic proteins visualized by immunoblot. Liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) was performed to characterize the proteome of S. damnosum s.l. salivary glands. Several antigenic proteins were recognized, with the major ones located around 15 and 40 kDa. LC–MS/MS identified the presence of antigen 5-related protein, apyrase/nucleotidase, and hyaluronidase. Conclusions/Significance This study validated for the first time human immunoassays that quantify humoral immune responses as potential markers of exposure to blackfly bites. These assays have the potential to facilitate understanding patterns of exposure as well as evaluating the impact of vector control on biting rates. Future studies need to investigate seasonal fluctuations of these antibody responses, potential cross-reactions with other bloodsucking arthropods, and thoroughly identify the most immunogenic proteins.
Successive determination of copper and zinc in schisandra, arimillaria mellea by single sweep oscillopolarography

A method for the determination of copper and zinc successively in schisandra and arimillaria mellea by single sweep oscillopolarography with HCl-KSCN as base solution is described. In this base solution, two well-defined quadratic derivative waves at -0.42 V (vs. SCE) and -1.03 V (vs. SCE) are observed. The detection limits are 0.005 μg/mL for copper and 0.01 (μg/mL) for zinc. The peak heights are linearly proportional to the concentration over the range of 0.01～8 μg/mL for copper and 0.01～10 μg/mL for zinc. The method has been applied to the determination of copper and zinc in schisandra and Arimillaria mellea with recoveries in the range of 96.5%～101.8%. This method is accurate,simple and fast with high selectivity.
CyTOF Profiling of Zika and Dengue Virus-Infected Human Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells Identifies Phenotypic Signatures of Monotype Subsets and Upregulation of the Interferon-Inducible Protein CD169

Zika and dengue viruses are emergent arboviruses of great public health impact. Both viruses are responsible for important diseases, yet there is currently no vaccine or specific treatment available. ABSTRACT Zika and dengue virus (ZIKV and DENV) are two flaviviruses responsible for important vector-borne emerging infectious diseases. While there have been multiple DENV epidemics in the last decades, there have been fewer documented epidemics caused by ZIKV until recent years. Thus, our current knowledge about the biology of ZIKV, the disease, and the immune responses in humans is limited. Here, we used mass cytometry (CyTOF) to perform a detailed characterization of the innate immune responses elicited by ZIKV and DENV in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from healthy donors infected ex vivo. We found that ZIKV and DENV exposure of human PBMCs induces global phenotypic changes in myeloid cells, characterized mainly by upregulation of costimulatory molecules (CD86 and CD40), CD38, and the type I interferon-inducible protein CD169, a marker for phagocytic function and cross-priming potential in myeloid cells. We also found that ZIKV induces expansion of nonclassical monocytes in cell culture. The analysis of the phenotype of the three monocyte subtypes (classical, intermediate, and nonclassical) at the single-cell level identified differences in their expression of CD86, CD38, CXCL8, and CXCL10 during ZIKV and DENV infection. Overall, using CyTOF, we found that ex vivo infections of PBMCs with ZIKV and DENV reproduced many aspects of the profile found in blood from patients in previously described cohort studies, which highlights the suitability of this system for the study of the human host responses to these viruses. IMPORTANCE Zika and dengue viruses are emergent arboviruses of great public health impact. Both viruses are responsible for important diseases, yet there is currently no vaccine or specific treatment available. Immune cells play critical roles in the virus cycle as well as in the innate and adaptive immune response elicited in the host; therefore, it is critical to understand the changes induced by virus infection in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). In this study, we used a model of ex vivo infection of PBMCs and CyTOF technology to profile the early innate immune changes induced by Zika virus and dengue virus in blood.
Fatal donor-derived Kaposi sarcoma following liver transplantation

Human herpesvirus-8 (HHV8) is a recognised precursor for a number of neoplastic and non-neoplastic processes. Immunosuppressed recipients of both solid organ and haematopoietic stem cell transplants are at risk of life-threatening lytic reactivations of HHV8-infected B-lymphocytes, primary infections after receiving grafts from HHV8-seropositive donors and more rarely by the direct transplantation of malignant Kaposi sarcoma cells seeded within graft tissue. We describe the case of an HHV8-seronegative patient with confirmed, post-orthotopic liver transplant transmission of HHV8 from a seropositive donor with quantitative evidence of viraemia and subsequent development of disseminated visceral and cutaneous Kaposi sarcoma with a rapidly fatal outcome.