The Pandemic situation caused due to SARS-CoV-2 causing Coronavirus Disease (CoVID-19) around globe. Recent, COVID-19 main protease complex (M pro), highly modulating enzyme in SARS-CoV-2 was reported for viral replication and transcription. This multifunctionality of M pro attracts for identi cation of potential drug target. Considering impact, In silico analysis was performed for Palmatine alkaloid against M pro. Naturally, present in Tinospora cordifolia, found effective against Cancer, HIV, viral infections, diabetics. In methods, physico-chemical analysis by ProtParam tool and Structure of M pro was predicted by SWISS-MODEL Workspace homology modeling server. Superimposition Structure and signi cant equal QMQE, QSQE values were found for eight highly similar templates. Structural assessment validation by Ramachandran plot (97.67% favoured), Local Quality estimate ratio (>0.6) and higher QMEAN score (y-axis). Further, docking was performed with validated M pro model by SwissDock server. Interaction with-8.281919 ΔG indicates reliable Interaction. Also, comparative docking reveals, most favoured Palmatine interaction. Thus, an attempt was made to nd potent inhibitor for SARS-CoV-2, as there is no promising and speci c anti-viral drug or vaccine available for prevention and treatment of infections. However, In Vitro studies are required. Toxicity studies reported against Palmatine for acute effect (135 mg/kg body weight) on mouse model LD 50.

Individual data, laboratory indices, imaging characteristics, and clinical data were collected, and statistical analysis was performed. Based on clinical typing results, the patients were divided into a progression group or an improvement/stabilization group. Continuous variables were analyzed using independent samples t-test or Mann-Whitney U test. Categorical variables were analyzed using Chi-squared test or Fisher's exact test. Logistic regression analysis was performed to explore the risk factors for disease progression. Results: Seventy-eight patients with COVID-19-induced pneumonia met the inclusion criteria and were included in this study. Efficacy evaluation at 2 weeks after hospitalization indicated that 11 patients (14.1%) had deteriorated, and 67 patients (85.9%) had improved/stabilized. The patients in the progression group were significantly older than those in the disease improvement/ stabilization group (66 [51, 70] vs. 37 [32, 41] years, U = 4.932, P = 0.001). The progression group had a significantly higher proportion of patients with a history of smoking than the improvement/stabilization group (27.3% vs. 3.0%, x 2 = 9.291, P = 0.018). For all the 78 patients, fever was the most common initial symptom, and the maximum body temperature at admission was significantly higher in the progression group than in the improvement/stabilization group (38.2 [37.8, 38.6] vs. 37.5 [37.0, 38.4]°C, U = 2.057, P = 0.027). Moreover, the proportion of patients with respiratory failure (54.5% vs. 20.9%, x 2 = 5.611, P = 0.028) and respiratory rate (34 [18, 48] vs. 24 [16, 60] breaths/min, U = 4.030, P = 0.004) were significantly higher in the progression group than in the improvement/stabilization group. C-reactive protein was significantly elevated in the progression group compared to the improvement/stabilization group (38.9 [14.3, 64.8] vs. 10.6 [1.9, 33.1] mg/L, U = 1.315, P = 0.024). Albumin was significantly lower in the progression group than in the improvement/stabilization group (36.62 ± 6.60 vs. 41.27 ± 4.55 g/L, U = 2.843, P = 0.006). Patients in the progression group were more likely to receive high-level respiratory support than in the improvement/stabilization group (x 2 = 16.01, P = 0.001). Multivariate logistic analysis indicated that age (odds ratio [OR], 8.546; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.628-44.864; P = 0.011), history of smoking (OR, 14.285; 95% CI: 1.577-25.000; P = 0.018), maximum body temperature at admission (OR, 8.999; 95% CI: 1.036-78.147, P = 0.046), respiratory failure (OR, 8.772, 95% CI: 1.942-40.000; P = 0.016), albumin (OR, 7.353, 95% CI: 1.098-50.000; P = 0.003), and C-reactive protein (OR, 10.530; 95% CI: 1.224À34.701, P = 0.028) were risk factors for disease progression. Conclusions: Several factors that led to the progression of COVID-19 pneumonia were identified, including age, history of smoking, maximum body temperature at admission, respiratory failure, albumin, C-reactive protein. These results can be used to further enhance the ability of management of COVID-19 pneumon...

Many individual studies on oat β-glucan (OBG) confirmed its functionality in improving type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), but disagreements were identified among those results. To derive a pooled estimate of these results, relevant articles, published before 5 September 2015, were collected from four electronic databases (Pubmed, Cochrane Library, Scopus, and Web of Science) and subjected to meta-analysis in the present work. In total, four articles, dealing with 350 T2DM patients combined, met the inclusion criteria. Compared to control, T2DM patients administrated OBG from 2.5 to 3.5 g/day for 3 to 8 weeks presented significantly lowered concentrations in fasting plasma glucose (FPG) by −0.52 (95% CI: −0.94, −0.10) mmol/L (p = 0.01) and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) by −0.21% (95% CI: −0.40, −0.02) (p = 0.03). However, OBG intake did not significantly lower the fasting plasma insulin (FPI) concentration. In conclusion, mediate-term OBG intake (3–8 weeks) favored the glycaemic control of T2DM patients but did not improve their insulin sensitivity. Regrettably, data upon the effects of long-term OBG intake on glycaemic control and insulin sensitivity were scarce, which is of much importance and should be addressed in future research.

A facile method of preparing highly folded cross-linked polymeric microparticles has been developed via one-pot suspension polymerization under high-speed homogenization. The wrinkles result from the evaporation of solvent in the cross-linked microparticles. The effects of microparticle cross-linking density and solvent on the polymer have been studied in detail. It was found that a medium cross-linking density (DVB/St = 0.5 by weight) is optimal for producing the most folded surface and the higher the solvent content, the deeper the surface wrinkles. This method is very simple and in principle can be applied to produce wrinkled microparticles with other chemical compositions.

In order to research the influence of homogeneity on the rockburst tendency and on AE characteristics of coal-rock combination body, uniaxial compressive tests of inhomogeneous coal-rock combination bodies obeyed by the Weibull distribution were simulated using particle flow code (PFC2D). Macromechanical properties, energy evolution law, and AE characteristics were analyzed. The results show that (1) the elastic modulus homogeneitymEhas an exponential relation with macroscopic modulusE, and the bonding strength homogeneitymσhas an exponential relation with uniaxial compressive strengthσc; (2) the rockburst tendency of the coal-rock combination body will increase with the increase ofmEormσ, andmσis the leading factor influencing this tendency; and (3) both the change law of AE hits and lasting time in different periods of AE characteristics are influenced bymσ, butmEjust influences the lasting time. The more inhomogeneous the coal-rock combination body is, the shorter the lasting time in booming period of AE characteristics will be. This phenomenon can be used to predict the rockburst tendency of the coal-rock combination body.

In recent years, due to the rapidly growing capacities of physical layer, device-free passive detection holds great importance for a broad range of application. Most recent works focus on motion detection, intrusion detection, and vital sign with commodity WiFi devices in the indoor environment. Conventional device-free motion detection techniques, which utilize received signal strength (RSS), may suffer from coarse granularity and high variability problems. In resorting to the finer-grained channel state information (CSI), we propose PhaseMode, a novel approach for device-free motion detection leveraging CSI phase difference data between adjacent antenna pairs. We implement our approach on commercial WiFi devices and validate its performance. We conduct experiments in different test periods of three indoor environments; the results show that the proposed scheme achieves an average accuracy over 99.4% of motion detection in different scenarios.

Liquid-phase selective oxidation of alcohols using molecular oxygen as an oxidant is a promising and sustainable strategy for the manufacture of aldehydes or ketones. The supported noble metal nanoparticles have...

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