Rodent models for experimental heat stroke research

Because of the aggressive threaten of heat stroke and a lack of understanding of the mechanism of action, mammal animal models for experimental heat stroke were well developed. During the past 5 decades, anesthetized mouse, rat, rabbit, dog, baboon and monkey were used as animal model for experimental heat stroke. However, anesthetized mammals models have some limitations, such as neuroprotective effect of anesthetic agents, possible disturbance on injury and recovery of stroke animals by anesthetic agents, difficulty of discussing animal behavior before and after heat stroke, it was also difficult for the models to evaluate cognitive function of animal under hot environment. Considering humanitarian, only awaked and unrestrained mouse heat stroke model was accepted so far. Therefore, we also developed an awaked and unrestrained rat heat stroke model, and found it was helpful to evaluate drug effectiveness for animal behavior and cognitive function under hot environment.

The Relative Prevalence of Typhoid and Malaria in Febrile Patients in Freetown, Sierra Leone

Malaria and typhoid fever are debilitating diseases responsible for the deaths of thousands of lives annually. Over the last decade both diseases have received increasing attention with particular focus on malaria. However, recent reports indicate an increasing co-infection rate between mala- ria and typhoid fever. Familiar signs and symptoms of both diseases have led to the belief in some communities that it’s a new disease. In this study, we investigated the relationship between mala- ria and typhi O and H antigens among patients reporting with fever. Patients reporting with fever from April 2013-March 2014 were recruited for the study. Our results showed that there was no association between having malaria and typhoid fever infection. However, having fever was asso- ciated with having both diseases. Also, fever among patients was more likely to be caused by Sal- monella typhi O and H antigens than plasmodium parasites. Infections of both diseases were higher in wet season than in dry season. The study recommends that malaria and typhoid fever intervention programs are increased in endemic areas. Also attention should be paid to typhoid fever infection rates in the country.

Myocardial Protective Effect of Gas Signal Molecule Hydrogen Sulfide on Cardiovascular Disease

Cardiovascular diseases increase continually in the worldwide scale,and its specific pathogenesis has not been completely clear.The gas signal molecule hydrogen sulfide(H2S)is a new type of neuroactive substance,which plays many biological roles in many systems such as cardiovascular system.In recent years,a lot of research has confirmed H2S has myocardial protective effect on cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis,ischemia-reperfusion injury,hypertension and heart failure.This paper reviews the research status of myocardial protective effect of H2S on cardiovascular diseases.

Active disturbance rejection distributed secondary control for DC microgrids

A novel control scheme is presented to eliminate the negative effects of communication disturbances,which introduces active disturbance rejection control(ADRC)in the control strategy design to achieve the objectives of the restoration of the bus voltage and the sharing of the power even in the presence of disturbances and delays in communication.Simultaneously,its dynamic disturbance decoupling feature is used to realise the decoupling between power and voltage,so that the proposed controller only exchanges power information with its neighbours,reducing the communication burden and simplifying control structure.The control performance of the strategy is verified by employing steady-state analysis.The impact of controller parameters is studied by establishing a small signal model.Finally,both simulation cases and experimental tests prove the feasibility of this scheme.

Risk factors for hemocoagulase-associated hypofibrinogenemia in patients with gastrointestinal bleeding

BACKGROUND With the widespread use of hemocoagulase in patients with gastrointestinal bleeding,clinicians have become increasingly concerned about coagulation dis-orders associated with this medication.Risk factors for hypofibrinogenemia asso-ciated with hemocoagulase are poorly understood.AIM To determine risk factors for hemocoagulase-associated hypofibrinogenemia in patients with gastrointestinal bleeding.METHODS We performed a retrospective analysis of the medical documentation of hospit-alized patients treated with hemocoagulase for gastrointestinal bleeding.Hypofib-rinogenemia was defined as a decrease in plasma fibrinogen concentration to less than 2.0 g/L.The included patients were divided into two groups:acquired hypofibrinogenemia group and non-hypofibrinogenemia group.We used logistic regression analysis to identify potential risk factors and established risk assess-RESULTS There were 36 patients in the acquired hypofibrinogenemia group and 73 patients in the non-hypofibrinogenemia group.The hypofibrinogenemia group showed higher rates of intensive care unit admissions(P=0.021),more female patients(P=0.005),higher in-hospital mortality(P=0.027),larger hemocoagulase doses(P=0.026),more Packed Red Cells transfusions(P=0.024),and lower baseline fibrinogen levels(P<0.000).Binary logistic regression was employed to examine the risk factors associated with acquired hypofibrinogenemia.The analysis revealed that baseline fibrinogen[odds ratio(OR)0.252,95%CI:0.137-0.464,P<0.000],total hemocoagulase doses(OR 1.074,95%CI:1.015-1.137,P=0.014),and female gender(OR 2.856,95%CI:1.015–8.037,P=0.047)were statist-ically significant risk factors.CONCLUSION Higher doses of total hemocoagulase,female gender,and a lower baseline fibrinogen level were risk factors for hemocoagulase-associated hypofibrinogenemia in patients with gastrointestinal bleeding.

Pay-it-forward gonorrhea and chlamydia testing among men who have sex with men in China:a study protocol for a three-arm cluster randomized controlled trial

Background:Gonorrhea and chlamydia testing rates are poor among Chinese men who have sex with men(MSM).A quasi-experimental study suggested that a pay-it-forward strategy increased dual gonorrhea/chlamydia testing among MSM.Pay-it-forward offers an individual a gift(e.g.,a free test)and then asks the same person if they would like to give a gift to another person.This article reports the protocol of a randomized controlled trial to evaluate dual gonorrhea/chlamydia test uptake and other outcomes among MSM in three arms-a pay-it-forward arm,a pay-what-you-want arm,and a standard of care arm.Methods:Three hundred MSM will be recruited at three HIV testing sites in Guangzhou and Beijing.Testing sites include two hospital-based MSM sexually transmitted diseases clinics and one MSM community-based organization.Eligible participants will be born biologically male,aged 16 years or older,reporting previous anal sex with another man,having never participated in the pay-it-forward program,without previous gonorrhea and chlamydia testing in the past 12 months,and residing in China.Following a cluster randomized design,every cluster of ten participants will be randomly allocated into one of three arms:(1)a pay-it-forward arm in which men are offered free gonorrhea and chlamydia testing and then asked whether they would like to donate("pay it forward")toward testing for future testers;(2)a pay-what-you-want arm in which men are offered free testing and told to decide how much to pay after receiving the test;(3)a standard of care arm in which men can pay the full price for dual gonorrhoea and chlamydia testing.The primary outcome is dual gonorrhoea/chlamydia testing as verified by administrative records.Secondary outcomes include incremental cost per test,incremental cost per diagnosis,community connectedness,and social cohesion.Primary outcome will be calculated for each arm using intention-to-treat and compared using one-sided 95%confidence intervals with a margin of 20%increase defined as superiority.Discussion:This study will examine the pay-it-forward strategy in comparison to the standard of care in improving test uptake for gonorrhea and chlamydia.We will leverage the cluster randomized controlled trial to provide scientific evidence on the potential effect of pay-it-forward.Findings from this study will shed light on novel intervention methods for increasing preventive health service utilization and innovate ways to finance it among communities.Trial registration:ClinicalTrials.gov,NCT03741725.Registered on 12 November 2018.

House dust mite disrupts the airway epithelial barrier by affecting the expression of thymic stromal lymphopoietin through inducing Atg5

To the Editor:Asthma is a complex chronic inflammatory lung disease,and its pathogenesis is not fully understood.It is believed that airway epithelium primarily acts as a defensive barrier to protect the lung from allergens,avoiding the asthma.The integrity of the airway epithelial barrier is dependent on tight junctions comprised of zona occludens(ZO)1 to 3,occludin,and claudin 1 to 5,and adherens junctions mainly formed by E-cadherin,b-catenin,and junctional adhesion molecule,which maintain apicobasal polarity of bronchial epithelial cells.

Time-Coordinated Path Following for Multiple Agile Fixed-Wing UAVs with End-Roll Expectations

This paper presents a control strategy for multiple unmanned aerial vehicle systems(multi-UAVs)time-coordinated path following with desired endpoint roll attitudes.It utilizes the strong maneuvering capabilities of agile fixed-wing UAVs and incorporates an end-roll expectation.The strategy consists of four steps:time-coordinated control,position control,roll angle planning and attitude control.The position and attitude controllers exhibit Lyapunov exponential stability.The time-coordinated controller addresses the synchronization problem by adjusting the speed based on the coordinated state to achieve progress adjustment.The position controller operates based on the cross-track error and altitude error in the Gravity-Referenced Moving frame.By employing an optimization approach and designing a penalty function,the roll angle sequence is computed.The attitude inner-loop control operates in the SO(3)space and allows for control of large deviations.High-fidelity simulation validates the effectiveness of the proposed method,with normalized coordination error and following error controlled within 2%and 1.2m.