We report that receipt of polymyxin B endotracheal tube suction catheter flushes did not reduce the incidence of pediatric ventilator-associated events (PedVAE) in infants weighing <1,000 g in this retrospective study. Incidence of PedVAE in our group of extremely low birth-weight infants was 6 per 1,000 ventilator days.

The building of online atomic and molecular databases for astrophysics and for other research fields started with the beginning of the internet. These databases have encompassed different forms: databases of individual research groups exposing their own data, databases providing collected data from the refereed literature, databases providing evaluated compilations, databases providing repositories for individuals to deposit their data, and so on. They were, and are, the replacement for literature compilations with the goal of providing more complete and in particular easily accessible data services to the users communities. Such initiatives involve not only scientific work on the data, but also the characterization of data, which comes with the “standardization” of metadata and of the relations between metadata, as recently developed in different communities. This contribution aims at providing a representative overview of the atomic and molecular databases ecosystem, which is available to the astrophysical community and addresses different issues linked to the use and management of data and databases. The information provided in this paper is related to the keynote lecture “Atomic and Molecular Databases: Open Science for better science and a sustainable world” whose slides can be found at DOI : doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6979352 on the Zenodo repository connected to the “cb5-labastro” Zenodo Community (https://zenodo.org/communities/cb5-labastro).

Deep learning (DL) from various representations have succeeded in many fields. However, we know little about the machine learnability of distinct design representations when using DL to predict design performance. This paper proposes a graph representation for designs and compares it to the common image representation. We employ graph neural networks (GNNs) and convolutional neural networks (CNNs) respectively to learn them to predict drone performance. GCNs outperform CNNs by 2.6-8.1% in predictive validity. We argue that graph learning is a powerful and generalizable method for such tasks.

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Diffusion basis spectrum imaging (DBSI) allows for detailed evaluation of white matter microstructural changes present in cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM). Our goal is to utilize multidimensional clinical and quantitative imaging data to characterize disease severity and predict long-term outcomes in CSM patients undergoing surgery. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: A single-center prospective cohort study enrolled fifty CSM patients who underwent surgical decompression and twenty healthy controls from 2018-2021. All patients underwent diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), DBSI, and complete clinical evaluations at baseline and 2-years follow-up. Primary outcome measures were the modified Japanese Orthopedic Association score (mild [mJOA 15-17], moderate [mJOA 12-14], severe [mJOA 0-11]) and SF-36 Physical and Mental Component Summaries (PCS and MCS). At 2-years follow-up, improvement was assessed via established MCID thresholds. A supervised machine learning classification model was used to predict treatment outcomes. The highest-performing algorithm was a linear support vector machine. Leave-one-out cross-validation was utilized to test model performance. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: A total of 70 patients – 20 controls, 25 mild, and 25 moderate/severe CSM patients – were enrolled. Baseline clinical and DTI/DBSI measures were significantly different between groups. DBSI Axial and Radial Diffusivity were significantly correlated with baseline mJOA and mJOA recovery, respectively (r=-0.33, p<0.01; r=-0.36, p=0.02). When predicting baseline disease severity (mJOA classification), DTI metrics alone performed with 38.7% accuracy (AUC: 72.2), compared to 95.2% accuracy (AUC: 98.9) with DBSI metrics alone. When predicting improvement after surgery (change in mJOA), clinical variables alone performed with 33.3% accuracy (AUC: 0.40). When combining DTI or DBSI parameters with key clinical covariates, model accuracy improved to 66.7% (AUC: 0.65) and 88.1% (AUC: 0.95) accuracy, respectively. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: DBSI metrics correlate with baseline disease severity and outcome measures at 2-years follow-up. Our results suggest that DBSI may serve as a valid non-invasive imaging biomarker for CSM disease severity and potential for postoperative improvement.

As the state has shifted its priorities towards social harmony and poverty alleviation, this study finds rhetorical resonance, combined with strong lineage solidarity, as an emerging strategy for villages to compete for government resources and investments. By articulating grassroots needs as being in line with local cadres’ performance goals, villages have successfully converted their needs into development proposals and mobilized lineage solidarity to persuade local cadres of the feasibility of such proposals. Drawing on three villages’ school-saving efforts in Fujian province, our fieldwork illustrates how one village retained its school by mobilizing lineage solidarity and converting education into a “model” village project to boost cultural tourism. Others failed to do so and lost their schools. Under the target-based cadre management system, the bottom-up competition for government support is largely shaped by the villages’ pre-existing development and resource structures, which may maximize management efficiency but may also reinforce socioeconomic inequalities between villages.

An acute gastroenteritis (AGE) outbreak caused by a norovirus occurred at a hospital in Shanghai, China, was studied for molecular epidemiology, host susceptibility and serological roles. Rectal and environmental swabs, paired serum samples and saliva specimens were collected. Pathogens were detected by real-time polymerase chain reaction and DNA sequencing. Histo-blood group antigens (HBGA) phenotypes of saliva samples and their binding to norovirus protruding proteins were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The HBGA-binding interfaces and the surrounding region were analysed by the MegAlign program of DNAstar 7.1. Twenty-seven individuals in two care units were attacked with AGE at attack rates of 9.02 and 11.68%. Eighteen (78.2%) symptomatic and five (38.4%) asymptomatic individuals were GII.6/b norovirus positive. Saliva-based HBGA phenotyping showed that all symptomatic and asymptomatic cases belonged to A, B, AB or O secretors. Only four (16.7%) out of the 24 tested serum samples showed low blockade activity against HBGA-norovirus binding at the acute phase, whereas 11 (45.8%) samples at the convalescence stage showed seroconversion of such blockade. Specific blockade antibody in the population played an essential role in this norovirus epidemic. A wide HBGA-binding spectrum of GII.6 supports a need for continuous health attention and surveillance in different settings.

Due to the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus disease in 2019 (COVID-19), Wuhan was on lockdown for more than 60 days by the state government. This study investigated the perceptions and attitudes of the public on quarantine as a practical approach to halting the spread of COVID-19. An online survey was conducted via WeChat between 10 January 2020 and 10 March 2020 on the general population in Hubei province at the height of the COVID-19 outbreak. In total, 549 respondents participated in the survey. Results revealed that the public displayed significantly strong support towards quarantine throughout the outbreak period, apart from locking people up and using imprisonment legal sanctions against those who failed to comply with the stringent regulations. The support exerted by the public stemmed from the execution of authorised officers to protect the public interest and provision of psychosocial support for those affected. In situations where quarantine could not be imposed, public health policy-makers and government officials should implement an extensive system of psychosocial support to safeguard, instruct and inform frontline public health workers. The public should also be enlisted in an open conversation concerning the ethical utility of restrictive values during the COVID-19 outbreak.

We describe system verification tests and early science results from the pulsar processor (PTUSE) developed for the newly commissioned 64-dish SARAO MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa. MeerKAT is a high-gain (${\sim}2.8\,\mbox{K Jy}^{-1}$) low-system temperature (${\sim}18\,\mbox{K at }20\,\mbox{cm}$) radio array that currently operates at 580–1 670 MHz and can produce tied-array beams suitable for pulsar observations. This paper presents results from the MeerTime Large Survey Project and commissioning tests with PTUSE. Highlights include observations of the double pulsar $\mbox{J}0737{-}3039\mbox{A}$, pulse profiles from 34 millisecond pulsars (MSPs) from a single 2.5-h observation of the Globular cluster Terzan 5, the rotation measure of Ter5O, a 420-sigma giant pulse from the Large Magellanic Cloud pulsar PSR $\mbox{J}0540{-}6919$, and nulling identified in the slow pulsar PSR J0633–2015. One of the key design specifications for MeerKAT was absolute timing errors of less than 5 ns using their novel precise time system. Our timing of two bright MSPs confirm that MeerKAT delivers exceptional timing. PSR $\mbox{J}2241{-}5236$ exhibits a jitter limit of $<4\,\mbox{ns h}^{-1}$ whilst timing of PSR $\mbox{J}1909{-}3744$ over almost 11 months yields an rms residual of 66 ns with only 4 min integrations. Our results confirm that the MeerKAT is an exceptional pulsar telescope. The array can be split into four separate sub-arrays to time over 1 000 pulsars per day and the future deployment of S-band (1 750–3 500 MHz) receivers will further enhance its capabilities.

Human-computer hybrid teams can meet challenges in designing complex engineered systems. However, the understanding of interaction in the hybrid teams is lacking. We review the literature and identify four key attributes to construct design research platforms that support multi-phase design, hybrid teams, multiple design scenarios, and data logging. Then, we introduce a platform for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) design embodying these attributes. With the platform, experiments can be conducted to study how designers and intelligent computational agents interact, support, and impact each other.

Accretionary orogens contain key evidence for the conversion of oceanic to continental crust. The late tectonic history and closure time of the Palaeo-Asian Ocean are recorded in the Mazongshan subduction–accretion complex in the southern Beishan margin of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt. We present new data on the structure, petrology, geochemistry and zircon U–Pb isotope ages of the Mazongshan subduction–accretion complex, which is a tectonic mélange with a block-in-matrix structure. The blocks are of serpentinized peridotite, basalt, gabbro, basaltic andesite, chert and seamount sediments within a matrix that is mainly composed of fore-arc-trench turbidites. U–Pb zircon ages of two gabbros are 454.6 ± 2.5 Ma and 434.1 ± 3.6 Ma, an andesite has a U–Pb zircon age of 451.3 ± 3.5 Ma and a tuffaceous slate has the youngest U–Pb zircon age of 353.6 ± 5.1 Ma. These new isotopic ages, combined with published data on ophiolitic mélanges from central Beishan, indicate that the subduction–accretion of Beishan in the southernmost Central Asian Orogenic Belt lasted until Late Ordovician – Early Carboniferous time. Structure and age data demonstrate that the younging direction of accretion was southwards and that the subduction zone dipped continuously to the north. Accordingly, these results record the conversion of oceanic to continental crust in the southern Beishan accretionary collage.

In recent years, the aviation industry has taken a leading role in the integration of composite structures to develop lighter and more fuel efficient aircraft. Among the leading concepts to achieve this goal is the Pultruded Rod Stitched Efficient Unitized Structure (PRSEUS) concept. The focus of most PRSEUS studies has been on developing an hybrid wing body structure, with only a few discussing the application of PRSEUS to a tube-wing fuselage structure. Additionally, the majority of investigations for PRSEUS have focused on experimental validation of anticipated benefits rather than developing a methodology to capture the behavior of stitched structure analytically. This paper presents an overview of a numerical methodology capable of accurately describing PRSEUS’ construction and how it may be implemented in a barrel fuselage platform resorting to high-fidelity mesoscale modeling techniques. The methodology benefits from fresh user defined strategies developed in a commercially available finite element analysis environment. It further proposes a new approach for improving the ability to predict deformation in stitched composites, allowing for a better understanding of the intricate behavior and subtleties of stitched aerospace structures.

The six LIGO detections of merging black holes (BHs) allowed to infer slow spin values for the two pre-merging BHs. The three cases where the spins of the BHs can be determined in high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) show that those BHs have high spin values. We discuss here scenarios explaining these differences in spin properties in these two classes of object.

Northern China has been identified as an independent centre of domestication for various types of millet and other plant species, but tracing the earliest evidence for the exploitation of wild cereals and thus the actual domestication process has proven challenging. Evidence from microscopic analyses of stone tools, including use-wear, starch and phytolith analyses, however, show that in the Shizitan region of north China, various plants have been exploited as far back as 28000 years ago, and wild millets have been harvested and processed by the time of the Last Glacial Maximum, 24000 years ago. This is some 18000–14000 years before the earliest evidence for domesticated millet in this region.

It is important to identify molecular candidates involved in morphological and functional changes in the female reproductive system. We have discovered several candidate genes that were significantly altered in chick oviducts by exogenous estrogen and those candidates included dexamethasone (DEX)-induced RAS-related protein 1 (RASD1). RAS-related protein 1, a member of the Ras family of monomeric G proteins, is involved in various cellular processes including cell growth, proliferation and differentiation, as well as a cell-signaling protein regulating hormonal actions. Although the RASD1 gene was first identified as a DEX (a corticosteroid) inducible gene, there is evidence that it is also an estrogen-responsive gene. However, hormone-mediated expression and biological functions of RASD1 in the avian female reproductive system are poorly understood. Therefore, we tested the hypothesis that RASD1 may be involved in the development and remodeling of the chicken reproductive system as an estrogen-responsive gene. Here we demonstrate differential expression of RASD1 gene and candidate microRNAs (miRNAs) targeting chicken RASD1 transcripts in chicken oviducts in response to diesthylstilbestrol (DES, a synthetic non-steroidal estrogen) and the estrogen-mediated molting process. Result of the present study indicated that expression of RASD1 messenger RNA (mRNA) increased in the developing oviducts of chicks treated with DES, particularly in the glandular (GE) and luminal (LE) epithelia of the magnum and the shell gland. Also, during induced molting by zinc feeding, RASD1 expression changed in concert with changes in concentrations of estrogen in blood of laying hens. Our results revealed that expression of RASD1 mRNA decreased as the oviduct regressed and then increased as the oviduct underwent re-growth and recrudescence in hens. Furthermore, RASD1 mRNA was expressed predominantly in GE and LE of the oviduct of laying hens during regeneration of the oviduct after induced molting, but not during the period of regression of the oviduct during molting. In addition, the relative expression of candidate miRNAs (miR-30a-5p, miR-30b-5p, miR-30c-5p and miR-30d) regulating RASD1 transcripts changed in response to estrogen stimulation of chick oviducts. These results indicate that transcription of the RASD1 gene and miRNAs regulating post-transcriptional aspects of expression of RASD1 are modulated by estrogen which is critical for growth, development, remodeling and maintenance of function of the chicken oviduct.

For 2D elastic-plastic flows with the hypo-elastic constitutive model and von Mises’ yielding condition, the non-conservative character of the hypo-elastic constitutive model and the von Mises’ yielding condition make the construction of the solution to the Riemann problem a challenging task. In this paper, we first analyze the wave structure of the Riemann problem and develop accordingly a Four-Rarefaction wave approximate Riemann Solver with Elastic waves (FRRSE). In the construction of FRRSE one needs to use an iterative method. A direct iteration procedure for four variables is complex and computationally expensive. In order to simplify the solution procedure we develop an iteration based on two nested iterations upon two variables, and our iteration method is simple in implementation and efficient. Based on FRRSE as a building block, we propose a 2nd-order cell-centered Lagrangian numerical scheme. Numerical results with smooth solutions show that the scheme is of second-order accuracy. Moreover, a number of numerical experiments with shock and rarefaction waves demonstrate the scheme is essentially non-oscillatory and appears to be convergent. For shock waves the present scheme has comparable accuracy to that of the scheme developed by Maire et al., while it is more accurate in resolving rarefaction waves.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is one of the leading causes of death and morbidity associated with liver disease. Risk factors identified for the transmission of HCV include contaminated blood products, intravenous drug use, body piercing, an infected mother at birth, sexual activity, and dental therapy, among others. However, the exact diversity of the HCV genotype and genetic variation among patients with low-risk factors is still unknown. In this study, we briefly described and analysed the genotype distribution and genetic variation of HCV infections with low-risk factors using molecular biology techniques. The results suggested that genotype 1b was predominant, followed by genotypes 2a and 1a. Genetic variations in the 5′ UTR sequences of HCV were identified, including point mutations, deletions, and insertions. The frequency of genetic variations in 1b was higher than in 2a. This study provides considerable value for the prevention and treatment of liver disease caused by HCV among patients with low-risk factors and for the development of HCV diagnostic reagents and vaccines.