Seroprevalence of Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease Virus in Guangdong Cattle Farms during 2013-2017, China.

Epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) is an infectious viral disease caused by epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus (EHDV) and EHDV frequently circulates in wild and domestic ruminants. Sporadic outbreaks of EHD have caused thousands of deaths and stillbirths on cattle farms. However, not much is known about the circulating status of EHDV in Guangdong, southern China. To estimate the seroprevalence of EHDV in Guangdong province, 2886 cattle serum samples were collected from 2013 to 2017 and tested for antibodies against EHDV using a competitive ELISA. The overall seroprevalence of EHDV reached 57.87% and was highest in autumn (75.34%). A subset of positive samples were serotyped by a serum neutralization test, showing that EHDV serotypes 1 and 5-8 were circulating in Guangdong. In addition, EHDV prevalence always peaked in autumn, while eastern Guangdong had the highest EHDV seropositivity over the five-year period, displaying apparent temporal-spatial distribution of EHDV prevalence. A binary logistic model analysis indicated a significant association between cattle with BTV infections and seroprevalence of EHDV (OR = 1.70, p < 0.001). The co-infection of different serotypes of EHDV and BTV raises a high risk of potential genomic reassortment and is likely to pose a significant threat to cattle, thus urging more surveillance to monitor their circulating dynamics in China.

Model-free kinematic control of redundant manipulators with simultaneous joint-physical-limit and joint-angular-drift handling.

Model-free tracking control methods have been developed for redundant robotic manipulators with unknown kinematic or dynamic models. However, most existing works have not considered the problems of joint physical limits and joint angular drift. Joint angular drift refers to the phenomenon that the joint angles of a redundant manipulator are different from their initial state when the end-effector of the manipulator returns to its initial position. Therefore, this article proposes a model-free scheme for the tracking control of redundant manipulators as well as the avoidance of joint physical limits and joint angular drift. The proposed method aims to overcome these challenges by formulating the inverse kinematics problem as a constrained optimization problem, which incorporates the avoidance of joint angular drift into the optimization objective and takes the joint physical limits as a constraint. At the same time, an online Jacobian estimator is designed to observe the state of the manipulator. Specifically, it can estimate the Jacobian matrix of a redundant manipulator in real-time during the operation by fully exploiting the sensory data, without knowing the analytic robot model. Then, the optimization problem is integrated with the Jacobian estimator and solved by a discrete-time algorithm. Theoretical analysis is conducted to prove the stability and convergence of the proposed method. Moreover, the efficacy, practicability and superiority of the proposed method are supported by simulations and experiments based on different redundant manipulators.

Materialized Oppression in Medical Tools and Technologies.

It is well-known that racism is encoded into the social practices and institutions of medicine. Less well-known is that racism is encoded into the material artifacts of medicine. We argue that many medical devices are not merely biased, but materialize oppression. An oppressive device exhibits a harmful bias that reflects and perpetuates unjust power relations. Using pulse oximeters and spirometers as case studies, we show how medical devices can materialize oppression along various axes of social difference, including race, gender, class, and ability. Our account uses political philosophy and cognitive science to give a theoretical basis for understanding materialized oppression, explaining how artifacts encode and carry oppressive ideas from the past to the present and future. Oppressive medical devices present a moral aggregation problem. To remedy this problem, we suggest redundantly layered solutions that are coordinated to disrupt reciprocal causal connections between the attitudes, practices, and artifacts of oppressive systems.

Ancylostoma ceylanicum Infection in a Miniature Schnauzer Dog Breed.

PURPOSE: Canine hookworm disease is a global zoonotic parasitic disease caused by a variety of nematodes in families Ancylostomatidae, including Ancylostoma spp., Necator spp., and Uncinaria spp., in the small intestine (mainly the duodenum) of dogs. The disease is widely distributed in China. The purpose of this study is to systematically diagnose and treat canine hookworm disease through the case of miniaturization Schnauzer dog feed infected with A. ceylanicum, so as to provide experimental basis for subsequent prevention and control of canine hookworm disease. METHODS: In the current study, we isolated hookworm eggs from a diseased miniature schnauzer, then the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to amplify the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 gene sequence from genomic DNA extracted from hookworms. Phylogenetic analysis based on ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 gene sequence sequences was inferred using MEGA-X. After phylogenetic analysis, etiologic and symptomatic therapies were used to treat the canine hookworm disease. RESULTS: The sequencing results showed that the length of the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 gene sequence was approximately 960 bp, and ITS1 and ITS2 were extracted to analyze similarity with other hookworms to build a phylogenetic tree. After phylogenetic analysis, the results showed that the diseased miniature schnauzer was infected by A. ceylanicum. Using etiologic and symptomatic therapies, the sick dog with an A. ceylanicum infection was also treated for 5 days. CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this is the first report of diagnosis and treatment for canine hookworm disease in Guangzhou city. In addition, with the improvement of economic level, the scale of pet dog breeding is also increasing. The diagnostic methods and treatment schemes adopted in this report will help to standardize the prevention and control of canine hookworm disease.

Recurrent neural networks as kinematics estimator and controller for redundant manipulators subject to physical constraints.

Redundant manipulators could be efficient tools in industrial production as a result of their dexterity. However, existing kinematic control methods for redundant manipulators have two main disadvantages. On one hand, model uncertainties or unknown kinematic parameters may degrade the performance of existing model-based control methods subject to joint limits. On the other hand, existing model-free control methods ignore the existence of joint limits although they do not need to know kinematic models of redundant manipulators. In this paper, a quadratic programming (QP) scheme is elaborated to achieve the primary tracking control task of redundant manipulators as well as joint limits avoidance task. Besides, a gradient neurodynamics (GND) model is utilized to estimate the kinematics of redundant manipulators. Then, a primal dual neural network, which is employed to solve the QP problem, and the GND model are integrated towards developing a model-free control method constrained by joint angle and velocity limits for redundant manipulators. The visual sensory feedback is fed to the two neural networks. The efficacy of the proposed control method is demonstrated by extensive simulations and experiments, and the merits of the proposed method are also substantiated by comparisons.

Marinobacter shengliensis subsp. alexandrii Subsp. Nov., Isolated from Cultivable Phycosphere Microbiota of Highly Toxic Dinoflagellate Alexandrium catenella LZT09 and Description of Marinobacter shengliensis Subsp. shengliensis Subsp. Nov.

Phycosphere hosts the boundary of unique holobionts harboring dynamic algae-bacteria interactions. During our investigating the microbial consortia composition of phycosphere microbiota (PM) derived from diverse harmful algal blooms (HAB) dinoflagellates, a novel rod-shaped, motile and faint yellow-pigmented bacterium, designated as strain LZ-6 T, was isolated from HAB Alexandrium catenella LZT09 which produces high levels paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene and two housekeeping genes, rpoA and pheS sequences showed that the novel isolate shared the highest gene similarity with Marinobacter shengliensis CGMCC 1.12758 T (99.6%) with the similarity values of 99.6%, 99.9% and 98.5%, respectively. Further phylogenomic calculations of average nucleotide identity (ANI), average amino acid identity (AAI) and digital DNA-DNA hybridization (dDDH) values between strains LZ-6 T and the type strain of M. shengliensis were 95.9%, 96.4% and 68.5%, respectively. However, combined phenotypic and chemotaxonomic characterizations revealed that the new isolate was obviously different from the type strain of M. shengliensis. The obtained taxonomic evidences supported that strain LZ-6 T represents a novel subspecies of M. shengliensis, for which the name is proposed, Marinobacter shengliensis subsp. alexandrii subsp. nov. with the type strain LZ-6 T (= CCTCC AB 2018388TT = KCTC 72197 T). This proposal automatically creates Marinobacter shengliensis subsp. shengliensis for which the type strain is SL013A34A2T (= LMG 27740 T = CGMCC 1.12758 T).

The prevalence, predictors, and prognosis of tricuspid regurgitation in stage B and C heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.

AIMS: Previous studies have demonstrated that moderate/severe tricuspid regurgitation (TR) is associated with adverse outcome in patients with heart failure (HF) with reduced ejection fraction. Little is known about the prevalence and prognostic value of TR in patients of stage B HF and those with stage C HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). We aimed to investigate the prevalence and prognosis of TR in patients with HFpEF. METHODS AND RESULTS: From 2013 to 2017, 2014 patients with stage B (n = 1341) or C (n = 673) HFpEF were enrolled in the study. Detailed transthoracic echocardiogram was performed, and the severity of TR was graded as no, mild, moderate, and severe. The mean age of the study population was 66.7 ± 14.1 years old, and 46% were men. Mean left ventricular ejection fraction was 62.2 ± 5.5%. The prevalence of moderate/severe TR increased from stage B to C HF (8% to 16%, respectively, P < 0.01). Older age, hyperlipidaemia, atrial fibrillation, left ventricular mass, and right ventricular systolic pressure were independently associated with moderate/severe TR (P < 0.05 for all). With a median follow-up of 3.8 (2.9-4.7) years, 346 patients died and 234 developed HF requiring hospitalization. Kaplan-Meier curve revealed that the presence of moderate/severe TR was associated with all-cause mortality, HF requiring hospitalization and cardiovascular death (log-rank test P < 0.01). Multivariable analysis demonstrated that moderate (hazard ratio = 1.5; 95% confidence interval: 1.1-2.2; P < 0.05) and severe TR (hazard ratio = 2.1; 95% confidence interval: 1.3-3.3; P < 0.01) were independently associated with mortality, HF requiring hospitalization and cardiovascular death. CONCLUSIONS: The presence of moderate/severe TR is not uncommon in patients with stage B HF and stage C HFpEF. Importantly, moderate/severe TR was independently associated with mortality and HF requiring hospitalization.

Characterization of cattle-origin ticks from Southern China.

To characterize ticks in cattle from Guangdong Province and Guangxi Zhuang Nationality Autonomous Region, Southern China, 783 cattle in four localities were examined. Among them, 232 (29.63%) cattle were positive for tick infection. A total of 503 ticks collected in these cattle were further investigated. Two Rhipicephalus species, namely R. microplus and R. sanguineus, were firstly identified by morphological features. Thereinto, R. microplus is the prevalent species in cattle in southern China, with high prevalent in summer and autumn annually. Mixed infection of R. microplus and R. sanguineus was just found in yellow cattle. To further confirm the morphological identification of these cattle-origin ticks, a phylogeographic analysis inferred from the sequences of the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer-2 (ITS-2) was performed, and R. microplus and R. sanguineus were identified. However, the morphological taxonomy of R. microplus has been challenged in recent years. The mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) marker was then used to provide higher resolution of R. mircoplus complex. The re-constructed cox1 phylogenetic tree further identified these R. mircoplus tick samples as R. microplus Clade A. These findings illustrated the prevalence and characterization of cattle-origin ticks in Southern China for the first time, and provided base-line information for further control of tick and tick-borne disease in these areas.

Prognostic value of abnormally expressed lncRNAs in ovarian carcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Ovarian cancer (OC) is the most deadly gynecological cancer and it is urgently needed to find a new marker for the progress of OC. Many long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been reported to be aberrantly expressed in ovarian carcinoma, and may serve as prognostic markers. Therefore, we conducted this meta-analysis to gain a better understanding of the prognostic value of lncRNAs in patients with varian carcinoma. We systematically searched PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science. A total of 13 eligible studies, including 10 on clinicopathological features, 13 on prognosis were identified. Pooled hazard ratios (HRs) or odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were calculated using random- or fixed-effects models. Our results revealed that the increased expressions of 8 lncRNAs were associated with poor prognosis and the decreased expressions of 5 lncRNAs were related to poor prognosis in ovarian carcinoma. High HOTAIR expression was associated with shorter overall survival in ovarian cancer (pooled HR: 2.05, 95% CI: 1.51-2.77, P < 0.001). In conclusion, our meta-analysis suggested that LncRNAs could function as potential prognostic markers for ovarian cancer patients and high expression HOTAIR was associated with shorter overall survival in ovarian cancer.

Pretense and imagination.

Issues of pretense and imagination are of central interest to philosophers, psychologists, and researchers in allied fields. In this entry, we provide a roadmap of some of the central themes around which discussion has been focused. We begin with an overview of pretense, imagination, and the relationship between them. We then shift our attention to the four specific topics where the disciplines' research programs have intersected or where additional interactions could prove mutually beneficial: the psychological underpinnings of performing pretense and of recognizing pretense, the cognitive capacities involved in imaginative engagement with fictions, and the real-world impact of make-believe. In the final section, we discuss more briefly a number of other mental activities that arguably involve imagining, including counterfactual reasoning, delusions, and dreaming. WIREs Cogn Sci 2011 2 79-94 DOI: 10.1002/wcs.91 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.