Combination Use of PFGE and Drug-resistant Analysis in the Epidemiological Investigation of Listeria Monocytogenes

Listeria monocytogenes is the pathogen of listeriosis and it causes severe infections like septicemia, encephalitis, and meningitis, especially in immunocompromised individuals, newborns, and pregnant women. Its wide distribution in the environment and ability to survive or even grow under adverse conditions has made L. monocytogenes an important public health concern and in food industry.

Predictors for Efficacy of Combination Therapy with a Nucleos(t)ide Analogue and Interferon for Chronic Hepatitis B

This study aims to explore the efficacy of interferon-α（IFN-α） combined with either entecavir（ETV） or adefovir（ADV） therapy versus IFN-α mono-therapy for chronic hepatitis B（CHB） patients, and to identify the factors associated with treatment outcomes. Totally, 159 CHB patients receiving interferon-based treatment for 48 weeks were enrolled in this retrospective study, including IFN-α mono-therapy group（group A, n=44）, IFN-α plus ADV group（group B, n=53） and IFN-α plus ETV group（group C, n=62）. The primary measures of efficacy assessments were the changes in HBs Ag. Cox regression analysis was used to identify the predictors of treatment outcomes. The predictive values of the factors were assessed by ROC analysis. For patients with baseline hepatitis B surface antigen（HBs Ag） level 〈1000 IU/m L, the reductions in mean HBs Ag levels at week 48 were greater in group C than that in group A（P〈0.05）. Higher rate of HBeAg seroconversion was achieved in the combined therapy group than in IFN-α mono-therapy group at week 48（P〈0.05）. Two factors were independently associated with HBeAg seroconversion： baseline HBeAg level 〈2.215 log10 index/m L and △HBeAg（decline in HBeAg from baseline） 〉0.175 log10 at week 12. In conclusion, interferon-α plus ETV therapy can accelerate HBs Ag decline as compared with interferon-α mono-therapy in CHB patients with lower baseline HBs Ag levels, and the combination therapy was superior to IFN-α mono-therapy in increasing the rate of HBeAg seroconversion. Baseline HBeAg and △HBeAg at week 12 can independently predict HBeAg seroconversion in patients subject to interferon-based therapy for 48 weeks.

FINITE ELEMENT METHOD COMBINED WITH DYNAMIC PHOTOELASTIC ANALYSIS TO DETERMINE DYNAMIC STRESS-INTENSITY FACTORS

The present paper is addressed to the finite element method combined with dynamic photoelastic analysis of propagating cracks, that is, on the basis of [1] by Chien Wei-zang, finite elements which incorporate the propagating crack-tip singularity intrinsic to two-dimensional elasticity are employed. THe relation between crack opening length and time step obtained from dynamic photoelaslie analysis is used as a definite condition for solving the dynamic equations and simulating the crack propagations as well As an example, the impact response of dynamie-bending-test specimen is investigated and the dynamic stress-intensity factor obtained from the mentioned finite element analysis and dynamic photoelasticity is in reasonable agreement with each other.

Atomic-Scale AES-EELS Analysis of Structure-Phase State and Growth Mechanism of Layered Nanostructures

A review of our experience in range of electron spectroscopy of the physical vapor-phase deposition and growth of single- and multilayer nanostructures with atomic scale interfaces is presented. The foundation of an innovative methodology for the combined AES-EELS analysis of layered nanostructures is developed. The methodology includes: 1) determination of the composition, thickness, and the mechanism of phase transitions in nanocoatings under the probing depth most appropriated for the range of film thickness 1 - 10 ML;2) quantitative iteration Auger-analysis of the composition, thickness and growth mechanism of nanocoating;3) structural and phase analysis of nanocoatings with use of the analysis of position, shape and energy of the plasmon EELS peak and with subtracting the contribution from the substrate;4) analysis of phase transitions with use of the shift of the plasmon Auger-satellite and 5) non-destructive profiling of the composition of nanocoatings over depth with use of a dependence of the intensity and energy of EELS peaks on the value of the primary electron energy.

Histologic analysis and long-term effect of acellular dermal matrix combined with autologous thin split-thickness skin graft

Objective To evaluate the long-term therapeutic effect and histologic result of ADM combined with autologous thin split-thickness skin graft.Methods 23 patients were treated with acellalar dermal matrix(ADM) combined with autoiogous

Optimization of energy consumption structure based on carbon emission reduction target:A case study in Shandong Province,China

It is urgent to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions to actively deal with global warming.This paper investigates Shandong Province,a typical province of energy consumption,as the research object,aiming to optimize total energy consumption and consumption structure in the future planning year.This paper constructs a methodological system to optimize energy consumption structure in Shandong Province,using a scenario combination of system dynamics(SD)prediction and analysis based on the coupling of key scenario elements affecting different energy consumption from different perspectives.Structural equation modeling and SD sensitivity analysis indicate an overlap between key factors restricting energy consumption.Pairing the key scenario factors can better reflect the internal mechanism of energy consumption development.Based on this,21 scenarios based on different combinations of the key elements are constructed.Through SD prediction and analysis,the most suitable scenario mode for optimizing energy consumption structure in Shandong Province is selected.This paper provides a suitable development range for the average gross domestic product growth rate,the proportion of secondary industry,energy consumption intensity of secondary industry,and the urbanization rate for Shandong Province.This paper can provide a reference for similar research and the government in formulating the optimization scheme of energy consumption structure.

DIRECT DIGITAL DESIGN AND SIMULATION OF MESHING IN WORM-GEAR DRIVE

A direct digital design method （DDDM） of worm-gear drive is proposed. It is directly based on the simulation of manufacturing process and completely different from the conventional modeling method. The loaded tooth contact analysis （LTCA） method is analyzed, in which the advanced surface to surface searching technique is included. The influence of misalignment errors and contact deformations on contact zone and transmission error （TE） is discussed. Combined modification approach on worm tooth surface is presented. By means of DDDM and LTCA, it is very conven- ient to verify the effect of worm-gear drive＇s modification approach. The analysis results show that, the modification in profile direction reduces the sensitivity of worm-gear drive to misalignment errors and the modification in longitudinal direction decreases the TE. Thus the optimization design of worm-gear drive can be achieved prior to the actual manufacturing process.

Study on a noninvasive method for rapid screening Human Serum albumin injectables by Raman spectroscopy

Human serum albumin(HSA)injectable product is a severely afflicted area on drug safety due to its high price and restricted supply.Raman spectroscopy performances high specificity on HSA detection and it is even possible to determine HSA injectable products noninvasively.In this study,we developed a noninvasive rapid screening method for of HSA injectable products by using portable Raman spectrometer.Qualitative models were established by using principal component analysis combined with classical least squares(PCA-CLS)algorithm,while quanti-tative model was established by using partial least squares(PLS)algorithm.Model transfer in different instruments of both the same and different apparatus modules was further discussed in this paper.A total of 34 HSA injectable samples collected from markets were used for verification.The identification results showed 100%accuracy and the predicted concentrations of those identified as true HSA were consistent with their labeled concentrations.The quantitative results also indicated that model transfer was excellent in the same apparatus modules of Raman spectrometer at all concentration levels,and still good enough in the different apparatus modules although the relative standard deviation(RSD)value showed a little increasing trend at low HSA concentration level.In conclusion,the method was proved to be feasible and efficient for screening HSA injections,especially on its screening speed and the consideration of glass containers.Moreover,with inspiring results on the model transfer,the method could be used as a universal screening mean to different Raman instruments.

Efficacy and safety analysis of the combination of cladribine,cytarabine,granulocyte colony stimulating factor( CLAG ) regime in patients with refractory or relapsed acute myeloid leukemia

Objective To analyze efficacy and safety of CLAG regimen in patients with refractory or relapsed acute myeloid leukemia(AML).Methods Efficacy and adverse events of patients with refractory or relapsed AML who were treated with one course of CLAG from April 1st,2014 through December 9th,2015 in our hospital were retrospectively reviewed.Results Thirty-three

SynergyFinder Plus:Toward Better Interpretation and Annotation of Drug Combination Screening Datasets

Combinatorial therapies have been recently proposed to improve the efficacy of anticancer treatment. The Synergy Finder R package is a software used to analyze pre-clinical drug combination datasets. Here, we report the major updates to the Synergy Finder R package for improved interpretation and annotation of drug combination screening results. Unlike the existing implementations, the updated Synergy Finder R package includes five main innovations. 1) We extend the mathematical models to higher-order drug combination data analysis and implement dimension reduction techniques for visualizing the synergy landscape. 2) We provide a statistical analysis of drug combination synergy and sensitivity with confidence intervals and P values. 3)We incorporate a synergy barometer to harmonize multiple synergy scoring methods to provide a consensus metric for synergy. 4) We evaluate drug combination synergy and sensitivity to provide an unbiased interpretation of the clinical potential. 5) We enable fast annotation of drugs and cell lines, including their chemical and target information. These annotations will improve the interpretation of the mechanisms of action of drug combinations. To facilitate the use of the R package within the drug discovery community, we also provide a web server at www.s ynergyfinderplus.org as a user-friendly interface to enable a more fexible and versatile analysis of drug combination data.

Multi-technique analysis of an ancient stratified glass eye bead by OCT, μ-XRF, and μ-Raman spectroscopy

In this Letter, we report a combination of non-invasive analysis of the cross-section structure, phase, and chemical composition combining optical coherence tomography(OCT) with spectroscopic methods such as X-ray analytical microscope(μ-XRF) and micro-Raman spectroscopy(μ-RS), which allow us to effectively and conveniently identify the colorants used for each color region and the glass-making process of an ancient multicolored stratified glass eye bead. The results reveal that the sophisticated colors of the glass bead arise from the transition metals and chemical compound crystals deliberately added in the same base glass and carefully adjusted by the glass maker to obtain four colors. We also propose and discuss the provenance of the glass bead.It was probably introduced to China through the Northern Silk Road from Egypt or the Eastern Mediterranean areas about 1400 years ago. The combined multi-analytical technique is the promising approach for precious cultural heritage research.

Efficient electro-magnetic analysis of a GPU bitsliced AES implementation

The advent of CUDA-enabled GPU makes it possible to provide cloud applications with high-performance data security services.Unfortunately,recent studies have shown that GPU-based applications are also susceptible to side-channel attacks.These published work studied the side-channel vulnerabilities of GPU-based AES implementations by taking the advantage of the cache sharing among multiple threads or high parallelism of GPUs.Therefore,for GPU-based bitsliced cryptographic implementations,which are immune to the cache-based attacks referred to above,only a power analysis method based on the high-parallelism of GPUs may be effective.However,the leakage model used in the power analysis is not efficient at all in practice.In light of this,we investigate electro-magnetic(EM)side-channel vulnerabilities of a GPU-based bitsliced AES implementation from the perspective of bit-level parallelism and thread-level parallelism in order to make the best of the localization effect of EM leakage with parallelism.Specifically,we propose efficient multi-bit and multi-thread combinational analysis techniques based on the intrinsic properties of bitsliced ciphers and the effect of multi-thread parallelism of GPUs,respectively.The experimental result shows that the proposed combinational analysis methods perform better than non-combinational and intuitive ones.Our research suggests that multi-thread leakages can be used to improve attacks if the multi-thread leakages are not synchronous in the time domain.

Efficient electro-magnetic analysis of a GPU bitsliced AES implementation

The advent of CUDA-enabled GPU makes it possible to provide cloud applications with high-performance data security services.Unfortunately,recent studies have shown that GPU-based applications are also susceptible to side-channel attacks.These published work studied the side-channel vulnerabilities of GPU-based AES implementations by taking the advantage of the cache sharing among multiple threads or high parallelism of GPUs.Therefore,for GPU-based bitsliced cryptographic implementations,which are immune to the cache-based attacks referred to above,only a power analysis method based on the high-parallelism of GPUs may be effective.However,the leakage model used in the power analysis is not efficient at all in practice.In light of this,we investigate electro-magnetic(EM)side-channel vulnerabilities of a GPU-based bitsliced AES implementation from the perspective of bit-level parallelism and thread-level parallelism in order to make the best of the localization effect of EM leakage with parallelism.Specifically,we propose efficient multi-bit and multi-thread combinational analysis techniques based on the intrinsic properties of bitsliced ciphers and the effect of multi-thread parallelism of GPUs,respectively.The experimental result shows that the proposed combinational analysis methods perform better than non-combinational and intuitive ones.Our research suggests that multi-thread leakages can be used to improve attacks if the multi-thread leakages are not synchronous in the time domain.

Vibrational power flow analysis on combined plates partially covered layer of discontinuous material

Vibrational power flow on combined plates with a change in mass and stiffness or with viscoelastic damping layer used widely in engineering is studied. The expressions of flexural displacement and other physical quantities are obtained using Laplace transformation and transfer matrix approach, then influences of changes in mass and stiffness of discontinuous material and the free damping layer on the input power flow and the transmitted power flow are discussed. The conclusions provide theory basis for structural optimization design and reducing noise and vibration