Corticosteroid therapy and delayed NAI treatment were associated with prolonged A(H7N9) RNA shedding. NAI combination therapy and double-dose oseltamivir treatment were not associated with a reduced A(H7N9) shedding duration as compared to standard-dose oseltamivir.

Electroless metal deposition is a simple and convenient technique to fabricate metallic films and to provide isotropic metal functionalization of 3D structures with complex geometries. In this work, we describe the synthesis of silver coatings by means of a modified Tollens reaction and their use as optical coating. The chemical composition of the metallization bath is here addressed to optimize the metal coating deposition. The synthesis parameters have been tailored in order to deposit very smooth films which were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and optical spectroscopy. 2D diffraction gratings and sinusoidal plasmonic gratings were produced with the proposed method. Optical characterization confirmed the plasmonic activities of the resultant structures, proving the efficiency of the described method for optical applications. Thermal annealing was found to improve the surface roughness of the coating and therefore the optical properties of the plasmonic gratings

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In China, there are an estimated 30 million people with asthma, a condition that remains poorly controlled in many patients. The INITIAL study (NCT02143739) was a 12-week, multicentre, prospective, observational study comprising 45 centres across Northern and Southern China that aimed to assess asthma severity among newly diagnosed patients as well as their prescribed medications and response to treatment. The primary objective was to evaluate asthma severity using Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) 2006 research criteria. Secondary objectives included the distribution of asthma medication by GINA severity category and evaluation of GINA 2012-defined control levels. Medications were prescribed as per usual clinical practice. At baseline, among 4491 patients, 3.9%, 12.0%, 22.6% and 61.6% had intermittent, mild persistent, moderate persistent and severe persistent asthma, respectively. Inhaled corticosteroid/long-acting β2 agonist was the most common initial therapy in 90.2% of patients. GINA 2012-defined controlled asthma levels increased in all groups, rising from 6.1% at baseline to 43.0%, 53.8% and 67.8% at Weeks 4, 8 and 12, respectively. Most patients presented with severe persistent asthma. Newly diagnosed patients with asthma could benefit from at least 3 months of regular treatment followed by long-term pharmacological management.

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Chemical synthetic pharmaceutical wastewater has characteristics of high concentration, high toxicity and poor biodegradability, so it is difficult to directly biodegrade. We used acid modified attapulgite (ATP) supported Fe-Mn-Cu polymetallic oxide as catalyst for multi-phase Fenton-like ultraviolet photocatalytic oxidation (photo-Fenton) treatment with actual chemical synthetic pharmaceutical wastewater as the treatment object. The results showed that at the initial pH of 2.0, light distance of 20 cm, and catalyst dosage and hydrogen peroxide concentration of 10.0 g/L and 0.5 mol/L respectively, the COD removal rate of wastewater reached 65% and BOD5/COD increased to 0.387 when the reaction lasted for 180 min. The results of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) indicated that Fenton-like reaction with Fe-Mn-Cu@ATP had good catalytic potential and significant synergistic effect, and could remove almost all heterocycle compounds well. 3D-EEM (3D electron microscope) fluorescence spectra showed that the fluorescence intensity decreased significantly during catalytic degradation, and the UV humus-like and fulvic acid were effectively removed. The degradation efficiency of the nanocomposite only decreased by 5.8% after repeated use for 6 cycles. It seems appropriate to use this process as a pre-treatment for actual pharmaceutical wastewater to facilitate further biological treatment.

BACKGROUND: Signs and symptoms of asthma are well established; however, no study has been performed to rank them. Therefore, we performed this systematic review and meta-analysis to determine the pooled frequencies of different signs and symptoms of asthma in subjects age > 14 y to develop a patient-specific questionnaire. METHODS: Specific search queries were developed to include records published in Embase, PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar, until November 2016. We planned to include randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and observational studies for determining the pooled proportions of signs and symptoms and association between combination of symptoms and asthma severity in subjects age > 14 y. The quality assessment was performed using 3 parameters: reported number or percentage of subjects with asthma symptoms, respiratory disorder history, and method for data collection. RESULTS: Of the 4,939 records retrieved, 67 observational studies (N ‫؍‬ 57,033 subjects; age > 14 y) were considered eligible for inclusion in the analysis. A total of 10 symptoms were reported across the studies, with pooled proportions of nasal congestion, sleep disturbances, breathlessness, chest tightness, and wheezing being 61.57%, 56.56%, 50.31%, 50.41%, and 46.97%, respectively. In records of medical history, the pooled proportion of rhinitis was 76.37%, followed by allergy/atopy at 63.53%. The pooled proportion of asthma medication use was 83.27%. In terms of the symptom combinations, the combination of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and cough was reported in 71.26% of subjects from 4 studies (n ‫؍‬ 12,014 subjects). Nasal congestion, sleep disturbance, and chest tightness were the most common symptoms of asthma, followed by wheezing and breathlessness with a combination of symptoms (ie, wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and cough) affecting the highest proportion of subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Asthma severity was dependent on variety of symptoms, consisting mostly of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and cough. On the basis of our analysis, we recommend a combination of symptoms be included in diagnostic-based questionnaires to aid early diagnosis.