Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) represent a public health problem due to their high prevalence worldwide and the emergence of multidrug resistance of responsible microorganisms. Medical laboratory diagnosis of ...Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) represent a public health problem due to their high prevalence worldwide and the emergence of multidrug resistance of responsible microorganisms. Medical laboratory diagnosis of sexually transmitted genital infections by traditional methods as culture remains extremely delicate, difficult or impossible (to find extremely fragile organisms that can be cultured). Thus, molecular techniques constitute an alternative to improve accurate diagnostic, personalized patient treatment, and public health. A total of 83 clinical samples including urethral discharge and urine samples from individual patients with symptoms of urethritis received were analyzed using traditional methods and a commercial real-time PCR (qPCR) method. Out of 83 urethritis patients, n = 55 (66.26%) were positive for at least one of the STI pathogens detected by qPCR. qPCR assay was more sensitive (50/83, positive cases) compared to culture (15/83, positive cases) and light microscopy (28/83, positive cases). The most prevalent NTD pathogen in the suspected patients was N. gonorrhoeae with 60.24% (50/83) based on real-time PCR diagnosis. Among the positive cases of STI pathogens, Neisseria gonorrhoeae had the highest frequency 49/55 (89.01%) followed by low frequencies of Trichomonas vaginalis 4/55 (7.27%) and Chlamydia trachomatis 1/55 (1.82%). This highlights the high prevalence of N. gonorrhoeae infection in male urethritis patients and a very important misdiagnosis using traditional routine methods in Burkina Faso by medical laboratories. Thus, this situation may negatively impact patients’ personalized treatment and care and public health with the possible rapid emergence of multidrug-resistant strains. This study also highlights the urgent need to optimize culture for the diagnosis of NTD pathogens in Burkina Faso and the usefulness and the need for the introduction of molecular diagnostic methods in routine diagnosis for the detection of NTD pathogens in the medical laboratories in Burkina Faso.展开更多
This study primarily aimed to investigate the prevalence of human papillomavirus(HPV)and other common pathogens of sexually transmitted infections(STIs)in spermatozoa of infertile men and their effects on semen parame...This study primarily aimed to investigate the prevalence of human papillomavirus(HPV)and other common pathogens of sexually transmitted infections(STIs)in spermatozoa of infertile men and their effects on semen parameters.These pathogens included Ureaplasma urealyticum,Ureaplasma parvum,Chlamydia trachomatis,Mycoplasma genitalium,herpes simplex virus 2,Neisseria gonorrhoeae,Enterococcus faecalis,Streptococcus agalactiae,Pseudomonas aeruginosa,and Staphylococcus aureus.A total of 1951 men of infertile couples were recruited between 23 March 2023,and 17 May 2023,at the Department of Reproductive Medicine of The First People’s Hospital of Yunnan Province(Kunming,China).Multiplex polymerase chain reaction and capillary electrophoresis were used for HPV genotyping.Polymerase chain reaction and electrophoresis were also used to detect the presence of other STIs.The overall prevalence of HPV infection was 12.4%.The top five prevalent HPV subtypes were types 56,52,43,16,and 53 among those tested positive for HPV.Other common infections with high prevalence rates were Ureaplasma urealyticum(28.3%),Ureaplasma parvum(20.4%),and Enterococcus faecalis(9.5%).The prevalence rates of HPV coinfection with Ureaplasma urealyticum,Ureaplasma parvum,Chlamydia trachomatis,Mycoplasma genitalium,herpes simplex virus 2,Neisseria gonorrhoeae,Enterococcus faecalis,Streptococcus agalactiae,and Staphylococcus aureus were 24.8%,25.4%,10.6%,6.4%,2.4%,7.9%,5.9%,0.9%,and 1.3%,respectively.The semen volume and total sperm count were greatly decreased by HPV infection alone.Coinfection with HPV and Ureaplasma urealyticum significantly reduced sperm motility and viability.Our study shows that coinfection with STIs is highly prevalent in the semen of infertile men and that coinfection with pathogens can seriously affect semen parameters,emphasizing the necessity of semen screening for STIs.展开更多
A two-dimensional rectangular solenoid transmitting coil is proposed to address the problem that the three-dimensional receiving coil occupies excessive space inside the capsule robot.The transmitting coil consists of...A two-dimensional rectangular solenoid transmitting coil is proposed to address the problem that the three-dimensional receiving coil occupies excessive space inside the capsule robot.The transmitting coil consists of two pairs of rectangular solenoid coils distributed radially along the human body.By changing the direction of current flow,it can generate a two-dimensional magnetic field covering the whole central plane.Firstly,the working mechanism of the wireless power transfer system is introduced,and then the spatial electromagnetic field generated by the transmitting coil is analyzed through both mathematical calculations and finite element simulations.Finally,an experimental platform is built to determine the optimal resonant frequency of the system and validate its feasibility based on the power transfer efficiency and the receiving power.The experimental results demonstrate that when the receiving coil is located at the center of the coil pair,the receiving power is 1416 mW and the power transfer efficiency is 3.96%.Additionally,when the receiving coil operates in the central plane,it can receive sufficient energy regardless of the orientation.展开更多
The flexibility of unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)allows them to be quickly deployed to support ground users.Intelligent reflecting surface(IRS)can reflect the incident signal and form passive beamforming to enhance th...The flexibility of unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)allows them to be quickly deployed to support ground users.Intelligent reflecting surface(IRS)can reflect the incident signal and form passive beamforming to enhance the signal in the specific direction.Motivated by the promising benefits of both technologies,we consider a new scenario in this paper where a UAV uses non-orthogonal multiple access to serve multiple users with IRS.According to their distance to the UAV,the users are divided into the close users and remote users.The UAV hovers above the close users due to their higher rate requirement,while the IRS is deployed near the remote users to enhance their received power.We aim at minimizing the transmit power of UAV by jointly optimizing the beamforming of UAV and the phase shift of IRS while ensuring the decoding requirement.However,the problem is non-convex.Therefore,we decompose it into two sub-problems,including the transmit beamforming optimization and phase shift optimization,which are transformed into second-order cone programming and semidefinite programming,respectively.We propose an iterative algorithm to solve the two sub-problems alternatively.Simulation results prove the effectiveness of the proposed scheme in minimizing the transmit power of UAV.展开更多
Electric towers of high voltage transmission lines are more exposed to natural lightning phenomena thanks to their high heights. These lines are crossed by powerful current sources to dissipate in the ground, which ca...Electric towers of high voltage transmission lines are more exposed to natural lightning phenomena thanks to their high heights. These lines are crossed by powerful current sources to dissipate in the ground, which can, at one time or another, create disturbances or other phenomena can be generated. This is why we have set ourselves the objective of studying the FDTD modeling of the influence of direct lightning strikes on the power transmitted by a High-Voltage power line. To do this, we have implemented Kirchhoff’s laws to model the power transmitted by a High-Voltage power line in a steady state. Calculating the electromagnetic field generated by lightning requires the lightning current along the channel and its spatiotemporal distribution, the bi-exponential models and that of engineers were chosen and used to reproduce the physical phenomena best. Several works have been published in the literature and various mathematical models are proposed, to study the filamentous nature of power lines which has led to a more flexible modelling, based on the transmission line model, associated with the field theory developed from Maxwell’s equations, which explain the interaction between a lightning wave and a power transmission line. The resolution of the line equations in the lightning shock regime was the subject of the FDTD method to obtain the results in the spatio-temporal domain. Through this research, we are interested in the study of the spatiotemporal distribution of the lightning current wave to model the radiated electromagnetic field and to examine the influence of the overvoltage induced by the atmospheric discharge on the transportable power of a High Voltage AC Transmission line, for good selective protection to illuminate the parasites. 2D simulations based on proposed models were developed as well as the verification of the consistency of the different models, by comparing the fractal dimensions of the results of our program with those of the figures obtained experimentally. The aspects developed in this article could have direct implications in practical applications in the engineering and design of high-voltage transmission systems.展开更多
To obtain good trade-offs between complexity and performance onpeak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) reduction in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)using partial transmitting sequence (PTS) schemes, a trel...To obtain good trade-offs between complexity and performance onpeak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) reduction in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)using partial transmitting sequence (PTS) schemes, a trellis structure based PTS factor searchmethod is proposed. The trellis search is with a variant constraint length L_C, 1 ≤ L_C ≤ V-1,where V is the number of PTS subblocks. The method is to decide a PTS factor by searching all thepossible paths obtained by varying L_C consecutive factors. The trellis search can be viewed as ageneral PTS factor search model. If L_C = V-1, it is a full search, and if L_C = 1, it is aniterative search. Using different constraint lengths, trellis factor search PTS exhibits differentPAPR reduction performances. A larger L_C results in a better performance and L_C = V-1 results inthe optimum. However, a larger L_C requires more computation. This helps to choose a good trade-offbetween complexity and performance.展开更多
The finite element artificial transmitting boundary method is employed here to treat the near field scattering of a cylindrical wave from an irregular cylinder. A comparison is made between this method and the analy...The finite element artificial transmitting boundary method is employed here to treat the near field scattering of a cylindrical wave from an irregular cylinder. A comparison is made between this method and the analytical one. And then examples are given to demonstrate the solution of several problems of the irregular object scattering. The method can not only produce clear physical pictures, but can efficiently handle many complicated scattering problems.展开更多
<strong>Background:</strong> Sexually transmitted diseases are one of the several major public health concerns, the burden of which is borne by low- and middle-income countries like India.<strong> Pu...<strong>Background:</strong> Sexually transmitted diseases are one of the several major public health concerns, the burden of which is borne by low- and middle-income countries like India.<strong> Purpose:</strong> The purpose is to evaluate the relationship between menstrual and sanitary hygiene and sexually transmitted diseases (STD) based on syndromic diagnosis<strong> Methods:</strong> An out-patient department (OPD) based cross sectional survey to determine these associations, if any exist, which would help critically analyze syndromic management. STD was reported by the presence of vaginal/cervical/urethral discharge with or without irritation and itching, lower abdominal pain and ulcer. <strong>Results:</strong> The prevalence of STD was 66.84% with the most commonly reported symptoms being discharged (31.18%), followed by abdominal pain (17.92%) and itching/irritation (12.90%), with ulcer (4.83%) being the least reported symptom. Perimenopausal age ((AOR: 0.420 [CI: 0.189 - 0.915];p = 0.030), higher grades of education ((AOR: 0.228 [CI: 0.119 - 0.424];p < 0.001) for secondary), urban residency (AOR: 0.435 [CI: 0.686 - 2.733];p < 0.001), and contraception use (AOR: 0.531 [CI: 0.308 - 0.887];p = 0.018) were associated with lesser odds of presenting with an STD symptom. Belonging to a minority religious community (AOR: 7.20 [CI: 1.866 - 48.251];p < 0.012) or backward castes (AOR: 3.753 [CI: 1.587 - 10.144];p < 0.001), having similar illness (AOR: 4.205 [CI: 2.795 - 6.439];p < 0.001) or having an invasive gynecological procedure done in the past one year (AOR: 1.953 [CI: 1.184 - 3.295];p = 0.010) and washing the reusable sanitary material only with water (AOR: 4.900 [CI: 2.701 - 9.116];p < 0.001) as compared to washing it with water and soap, had a higher association with presenting with STD symptoms. Stratified analysis also showed that women presenting discharge (AOR: 2.049 [CI: 1.343 - 3.146] for vaginal and cervical;AOR: 1.426 [CI: 0.826 - 2.482] for urethral) were more likely to not have a toilet facility in an accessible condition. Women with sanitary napkin use had lesser odds (AOR: 0.780 [CI: 0.516 - 1.180];p = 0.293) of presentation for STD in OPD than women who used other material.<strong> Conclusion:</strong> To better manage the group of diseases that may present with symptoms of STD under syndromic approach, we propose interventions such as menstrual hygiene education and promotion of the use of sanitary napkins among women especially those belonging to lower socio-economic sections of the society.展开更多
Objectives： To understand trends and epidemiology of STDs in Chongqing from 1998 to 2003 and to provide scientific evidence for developing preventive strategies and distributing government health resources effectivel...Objectives： To understand trends and epidemiology of STDs in Chongqing from 1998 to 2003 and to provide scientific evidence for developing preventive strategies and distributing government health resources effectively. Methods： STD case-reporting data collected from 43 counties and districts in Chongqing from 1998 to 2003 were analyzed with STD Data Management Software and Excel Software. Results： A total of 133,323 cases of eight different STDs were reported from 1998-2003. The annual incidence of all eight STDs combined was 71.89/10^5.Generally, reported cases and incidence have decreased since 2001. Although gonorrhoea diagnoses made up a significant proportion of the STD burden, this proportion decreased annually. The proportion of the STD burden attributed to Condyloma accuminatum （CA） was always above 30 percent. The proportions of non-gonoccocal urethritis, genital herpes and syphilis within the combinedSTD burden increased gradually from 1998 to 2003.Reported cases of HIV increased rapidly over this time. A total of 214 HIV cases were reported from 1998 to 2003,the majority of which were among men. For HIV, the maleto-female ratio was 1.17, but CA was found among more women than men. Incidence for all STDs was highest among 20-39 year olds, who accounted for 72.2% of reported infections. The majority of STDs were transmitted through extra-marital intercourse,accounting for 55.3%. Conclusion： The STD epidemic in Chongqing changed from 1998-2003. STD incidence declined, as a result of various factors. The epidemiology of STDs has changed.HIV incidence has increased rapidly. This indicates that the AIDS epidemic has reached a critical period. The results of this study suggest a need for readjusting control measures and redistributing health resources.展开更多
Transmitted ultrasonic wave simulation （TUWS） in a digital core is one of the important elements of digital rock physics and is used to study wave propagation in porous cores and calculate equivalent velocity. When ...Transmitted ultrasonic wave simulation （TUWS） in a digital core is one of the important elements of digital rock physics and is used to study wave propagation in porous cores and calculate equivalent velocity. When simulating wave propagates in a 3D digital core, two additional layers are attached to its two surfaces vertical to the wave-direction and one planar wave source and two receiver-arrays are properly installed. After source excitation, the two receivers then record incident and transmitted waves of the digital rock. Wave propagating velocity, which is the velocity of the digital core, is computed by the picked peak-time difference between the two recorded waves. To evaluate the accuracy of TUWS, a digital core is fully saturated with gas, oil, and water to calculate the corresponding velocities. The velocities increase with decreasing wave frequencies in the simulation frequency band, and this is considered to be the result of scattering. When the pore fluids are varied from gas to oil and finally to water, the velocity-variation characteristics between the different frequencies are similar, thereby approximately following the variation law of velocities obtained from linear elastic statics simulation （LESS）, although their absolute values are different. However, LESS has been widely used. The results of this paper show that the transmission ultrasonic simulation has high relative precision.展开更多
Sexually transmitted diseases （STDs） are among the first ten causes of unpleasant diseases in young adult males in developing countries and the second major cause of unpleasant diseases in young adult women. Adolesc...Sexually transmitted diseases （STDs） are among the first ten causes of unpleasant diseases in young adult males in developing countries and the second major cause of unpleasant diseases in young adult women. Adolescents and young adults （15-24 years old） make up only 25% of the sexually active population, but represent almost 50% of all new acquired STDs. In general, STDs are epidemics and present an enormous health and economic consequences. An adequate screening for STDs should be done on a routine basis in every part of the world. Many STDs are asymptomatic and therefore can difficult to control. The purpose of reporting of STDs is to ensure that persons who are infected will be quickly diagnosed and appropriately treated to control the spread of infection and also so that partners are notified, tested and appropriately treated. It is estimated that reported cases of STDs represent only 50%-80% of reportable STD infections in the United States, reflecting limited screening and low disease reporting. High-risk sexual behavior is a highly contributive factor of this process as it often leads to teenage pregnancies and HIV/AIDS. One possible explanation for this behavior is that people do not have enough information about the transmission of STDs or ignore the precautions required for safe sex. Approximately 60% of new HIV infections worldwide occur in young people. The frequency of high-risk behaviors among youths may also be influenced by opportunity to engage in them, particularly the amount of time that they are unsupervised by adults. However, in diagnosing and treating these patients, we can effectively prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. Individuals infected with STDs are 5-10 times more likely than uninfected individuals to acquire or transmit HIV through sexual contact. The breaking of the genital tract lining or skin creates a portal of entry for HIV and, hence, HIV-infected individuals with other STDs are more likely to shed HIV in their genital secretions. To date, the condom is the most effective method available for males for protection against STDs. It is important to control STDs, and prevention can be the key of this process. Prevention can be achieved through education of the population, identification of symptomatic and asymptomatic people, and effective diagnosis and treatment of these patients and their partners.展开更多
INIRODUCIIONA newly discovered DNA virus,transfusiontransmitted virus (TTV),was reported as a cause ofpost-transfusion hepatitis of unknown etiology inJapan.In order to investigate TTV prevalence insouthern China,a st...INIRODUCIIONA newly discovered DNA virus,transfusiontransmitted virus (TTV),was reported as a cause ofpost-transfusion hepatitis of unknown etiology inJapan.In order to investigate TTV prevalence insouthern China,a study was carried out amongblood donors,patients with liver diseases andhemodialysis to determine the epidemiologicalcharateristics.展开更多
Surface or submerged horizontal or vertical plate can be considered as a new concept breakwater. This paper investigates the wave-plate interaction of this type of breakwater by use of the boundary element method. The...Surface or submerged horizontal or vertical plate can be considered as a new concept breakwater. This paper investigates the wave-plate interaction of this type of breakwater by use of the boundary element method. The relationships of wave transmitted and reflected among plate thickness, submergence and length are carefully studied by numerical simulation. It is shown that： （1） The transmitted coefficients of submerged horizontal plate or vertical plate will become larger with the increase of plate thickness and reduce rapidly with the decrease of plate submergence. （2） Both surface horizontal and vertical plate are efficient for intermediate and short wave elimination, but vertical plate is more effective. （3） Submerged horizontal plate can act more effectively than submerged vertical plate does. With all wave frequencies, the vertical plate almost has no wave elimination effect.展开更多
Cancers in solid organ recipients may be classified as donor transmitted,donor derived,de novo or recurrent.The risk of donor-transmitted cancer is very low and can be reduced by careful screening of the donor but can...Cancers in solid organ recipients may be classified as donor transmitted,donor derived,de novo or recurrent.The risk of donor-transmitted cancer is very low and can be reduced by careful screening of the donor but cannot be abolished and,in the United Kingdom series is less than 0.03%.For donors with a known history of cancer,the risks will depend on the nature of the cancer,the interventions given and the interval between diagnosis and organ donation.The risks of cancer transmission must be balanced against the risks of death awaiting a new graft and strict adherence to current guidelines may result increased patient death.Organs from selected patients,even with high-grade central nervous system(CNS)malignancy and after a shunt,can,in some circumstances,be considered.Of potential donors with non-CNS cancers,whether organs may be safely used again depends on the nature of the cancer,the treatment and interval.Data are scarce about the most appropriate treatment when donor transmitted cancer is diagnosed:sometimes substitution of agents and reduction of the immunosuppressive load may be adequate and the impact of graft removal should be considered but not always indicated.Liver al-lograft recipients are at increased risk of some de novo cancers,especially those grafted for alcohol-related liver disease and hepatitis C virus infection.The risk of lymphoproliferative disease and cancers of the skin,upper airway and bowel are increased but not breast.Recipients should be advised to avoid risk behavior and monitored appropriately.展开更多
In this paper,a sexually transmitted disease model is proposed on complex networks,where contacts between humans are treated as a scale-free social network.There are three groups in our model,which are dangerous male,...In this paper,a sexually transmitted disease model is proposed on complex networks,where contacts between humans are treated as a scale-free social network.There are three groups in our model,which are dangerous male,non-dangerous male,and female.By mathematical analysis,we obtain the basic reproduction number for the existence of endemic equilibrium and study the effects of various immunization schemes about different groups.Furthermore,numerical simulations are undertaken to verify more conclusions.展开更多
Distributed transmit beamforming(DTB) is very efficient for extending the communication distance between a swarm of UAVs and the base,particularly when considering the constraints in weight and battery life for payloa...Distributed transmit beamforming(DTB) is very efficient for extending the communication distance between a swarm of UAVs and the base,particularly when considering the constraints in weight and battery life for payloads on UAVs.In this paper,we review major function modules and potential solutions in realizing DTB in UAV systems,such as timing and carrier synchronization,phase drift tracking and compensation,and beamforming vector generation and updating.We then focus on beamforming vector generation and updating,and introduce a concatenated training scheme,together with a recursive channel estimation and updating algorithm.We also propose three approaches for tracking the variation of channels and updating the vectors.The effectiveness of these approaches is validated by simulation results.展开更多
Space-time spreading (STS) and orthogonal transmit diversity (OTD) are towtransmit diversity schemes proposed by cdma2000 standard. In this paper, performance comparisonanalysis of the two transmits diversity schemes ...Space-time spreading (STS) and orthogonal transmit diversity (OTD) are towtransmit diversity schemes proposed by cdma2000 standard. In this paper, performance comparisonanalysis of the two transmits diversity schemes in multipath channel under multiuser situation arecarried out. Link level simulation in forward link cdma2000 is performed in IMT-2000 channel.Performance analysis and simulation results show that the performance improvement provided STS overOTD decreases as the increase of propagation path number and decrease of the user number.展开更多
Space time coding can provide high data rate and performance gain for wireless communication system. Performance comparison of space time trellis codes and space time transmit diversity is carried out under the sam...Space time coding can provide high data rate and performance gain for wireless communication system. Performance comparison of space time trellis codes and space time transmit diversity is carried out under the same bandwidth efficiency in this paper. We also propose some optimum low rate space time trellis codes in quasi static Rayleigh fading chan￣nel. Performance analysis and simulation show that the low rate space time trellis codes outperform space time transmit diversity at the same bandwidth efficiency, and are more suitable for the power limited wireless communication system which has no strict requirement on bandwidth efficiency.展开更多
The gradient preconditioning approach based on seismic wave energy can effectively avoid the huge memory consumption of the gradient preconditioning algorithms based on the Hessian matrix. However, the accuracy of thi...The gradient preconditioning approach based on seismic wave energy can effectively avoid the huge memory consumption of the gradient preconditioning algorithms based on the Hessian matrix. However, the accuracy of this approach is prone to be influ- enced by the energy of reflected waves. To tackle this problem, the paper proposes a new gradient preconditioning method based on the energy of transmitted waves. The approach scales the gradient through a precondition factor, which is calculated by the ‘ap- proximate transmission wavefield’ simulation based on the nonreflecting acoustic wave equation. The method requires no computing nor storing of the Hessian matrix and its inverse matrix. Furthermore, the proposed method can effectively eliminate the effects of geometric spreading and disproportionality in the gradient illumination. The results of model experiments show that the time-domain full waveform inversion (FWI) using the gradient preconditioning based on transmitted wave energy can achieve higher inversion accuracy for deep high-velocity bodies and their underlying strata in comparison with the one using the gradient preconditioning based on seismic wave energy. The field marine seismic data test shows that our proposed method is also highly applicable to the FWI of field marine seismic data.展开更多
Objective To carry out national surveys for ascertaining the current status and trends of soil-transmitted nematode infections in China, providing scientific basis for further developing control strategies. Methods In...Objective To carry out national surveys for ascertaining the current status and trends of soil-transmitted nematode infections in China, providing scientific basis for further developing control strategies. Methods In 1988-1992 （hereinafter abbreriated as ＂survey in 1990＂）, a stratified cluster random sampling method was used in the survey. In 2001-2004 （hereinafter abbreriated as ＂survey in 2003＂）, in order to compare with the survey in 1990, two-characteristic stratified cluster random sampling method was used and 687 investigation spots were sampled from the 2848 spots selected in the survey in 1990. Kato-Katz thick smear method was used to examine the eggs of soil-transmitted nematodes in fecal samples. Results The prevalence rates were 53.6% and 19.6% for soil-transmitted nematodes, 14.6% and 6.120% for hookworms, 44.6% and 12.7% for Ascaris lumbricoides, 17.4% and 4.630% for Trichuris trichiura in survey 1990 and survey 2003, respectively. The prevalence rates of soil-transmitted nematodes were higher in 13 provinces than the average level in China in the survey in 1990, and higher in 8 provinces than the average level in the survey in 2003. The prevalence of hookworms, Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura and the overall prevalence of soil-transmitted nematodes were higher in females than in males. It is estimated from the results of survey in 2003 that the number of persons with soil-transmitted nematode infections in the country is about 129 million, less than that in the survey in 1990. Conclusion The prevalence of soil-transmitted nematodes has declined considerably but is still relatively high in some provinces and autonomous regions. Control activities and socioeconomic development may have contributed to the decreased prevalence.展开更多
文摘Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) represent a public health problem due to their high prevalence worldwide and the emergence of multidrug resistance of responsible microorganisms. Medical laboratory diagnosis of sexually transmitted genital infections by traditional methods as culture remains extremely delicate, difficult or impossible (to find extremely fragile organisms that can be cultured). Thus, molecular techniques constitute an alternative to improve accurate diagnostic, personalized patient treatment, and public health. A total of 83 clinical samples including urethral discharge and urine samples from individual patients with symptoms of urethritis received were analyzed using traditional methods and a commercial real-time PCR (qPCR) method. Out of 83 urethritis patients, n = 55 (66.26%) were positive for at least one of the STI pathogens detected by qPCR. qPCR assay was more sensitive (50/83, positive cases) compared to culture (15/83, positive cases) and light microscopy (28/83, positive cases). The most prevalent NTD pathogen in the suspected patients was N. gonorrhoeae with 60.24% (50/83) based on real-time PCR diagnosis. Among the positive cases of STI pathogens, Neisseria gonorrhoeae had the highest frequency 49/55 (89.01%) followed by low frequencies of Trichomonas vaginalis 4/55 (7.27%) and Chlamydia trachomatis 1/55 (1.82%). This highlights the high prevalence of N. gonorrhoeae infection in male urethritis patients and a very important misdiagnosis using traditional routine methods in Burkina Faso by medical laboratories. Thus, this situation may negatively impact patients’ personalized treatment and care and public health with the possible rapid emergence of multidrug-resistant strains. This study also highlights the urgent need to optimize culture for the diagnosis of NTD pathogens in Burkina Faso and the usefulness and the need for the introduction of molecular diagnostic methods in routine diagnosis for the detection of NTD pathogens in the medical laboratories in Burkina Faso.
基金supported by the Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory of Clinical Virology(No.202002AG070062)the Key Projects of Yunnan Province Science and Technology Department(No.202302AA310044)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.82060664).
文摘This study primarily aimed to investigate the prevalence of human papillomavirus(HPV)and other common pathogens of sexually transmitted infections(STIs)in spermatozoa of infertile men and their effects on semen parameters.These pathogens included Ureaplasma urealyticum,Ureaplasma parvum,Chlamydia trachomatis,Mycoplasma genitalium,herpes simplex virus 2,Neisseria gonorrhoeae,Enterococcus faecalis,Streptococcus agalactiae,Pseudomonas aeruginosa,and Staphylococcus aureus.A total of 1951 men of infertile couples were recruited between 23 March 2023,and 17 May 2023,at the Department of Reproductive Medicine of The First People’s Hospital of Yunnan Province(Kunming,China).Multiplex polymerase chain reaction and capillary electrophoresis were used for HPV genotyping.Polymerase chain reaction and electrophoresis were also used to detect the presence of other STIs.The overall prevalence of HPV infection was 12.4%.The top five prevalent HPV subtypes were types 56,52,43,16,and 53 among those tested positive for HPV.Other common infections with high prevalence rates were Ureaplasma urealyticum(28.3%),Ureaplasma parvum(20.4%),and Enterococcus faecalis(9.5%).The prevalence rates of HPV coinfection with Ureaplasma urealyticum,Ureaplasma parvum,Chlamydia trachomatis,Mycoplasma genitalium,herpes simplex virus 2,Neisseria gonorrhoeae,Enterococcus faecalis,Streptococcus agalactiae,and Staphylococcus aureus were 24.8%,25.4%,10.6%,6.4%,2.4%,7.9%,5.9%,0.9%,and 1.3%,respectively.The semen volume and total sperm count were greatly decreased by HPV infection alone.Coinfection with HPV and Ureaplasma urealyticum significantly reduced sperm motility and viability.Our study shows that coinfection with STIs is highly prevalent in the semen of infertile men and that coinfection with pathogens can seriously affect semen parameters,emphasizing the necessity of semen screening for STIs.
基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Nos.62273225,81971767,62103267 and 62103263)。
文摘A two-dimensional rectangular solenoid transmitting coil is proposed to address the problem that the three-dimensional receiving coil occupies excessive space inside the capsule robot.The transmitting coil consists of two pairs of rectangular solenoid coils distributed radially along the human body.By changing the direction of current flow,it can generate a two-dimensional magnetic field covering the whole central plane.Firstly,the working mechanism of the wireless power transfer system is introduced,and then the spatial electromagnetic field generated by the transmitting coil is analyzed through both mathematical calculations and finite element simulations.Finally,an experimental platform is built to determine the optimal resonant frequency of the system and validate its feasibility based on the power transfer efficiency and the receiving power.The experimental results demonstrate that when the receiving coil is located at the center of the coil pair,the receiving power is 1416 mW and the power transfer efficiency is 3.96%.Additionally,when the receiving coil operates in the central plane,it can receive sufficient energy regardless of the orientation.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC)under Grant 62271099。
文摘The flexibility of unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)allows them to be quickly deployed to support ground users.Intelligent reflecting surface(IRS)can reflect the incident signal and form passive beamforming to enhance the signal in the specific direction.Motivated by the promising benefits of both technologies,we consider a new scenario in this paper where a UAV uses non-orthogonal multiple access to serve multiple users with IRS.According to their distance to the UAV,the users are divided into the close users and remote users.The UAV hovers above the close users due to their higher rate requirement,while the IRS is deployed near the remote users to enhance their received power.We aim at minimizing the transmit power of UAV by jointly optimizing the beamforming of UAV and the phase shift of IRS while ensuring the decoding requirement.However,the problem is non-convex.Therefore,we decompose it into two sub-problems,including the transmit beamforming optimization and phase shift optimization,which are transformed into second-order cone programming and semidefinite programming,respectively.We propose an iterative algorithm to solve the two sub-problems alternatively.Simulation results prove the effectiveness of the proposed scheme in minimizing the transmit power of UAV.
文摘Electric towers of high voltage transmission lines are more exposed to natural lightning phenomena thanks to their high heights. These lines are crossed by powerful current sources to dissipate in the ground, which can, at one time or another, create disturbances or other phenomena can be generated. This is why we have set ourselves the objective of studying the FDTD modeling of the influence of direct lightning strikes on the power transmitted by a High-Voltage power line. To do this, we have implemented Kirchhoff’s laws to model the power transmitted by a High-Voltage power line in a steady state. Calculating the electromagnetic field generated by lightning requires the lightning current along the channel and its spatiotemporal distribution, the bi-exponential models and that of engineers were chosen and used to reproduce the physical phenomena best. Several works have been published in the literature and various mathematical models are proposed, to study the filamentous nature of power lines which has led to a more flexible modelling, based on the transmission line model, associated with the field theory developed from Maxwell’s equations, which explain the interaction between a lightning wave and a power transmission line. The resolution of the line equations in the lightning shock regime was the subject of the FDTD method to obtain the results in the spatio-temporal domain. Through this research, we are interested in the study of the spatiotemporal distribution of the lightning current wave to model the radiated electromagnetic field and to examine the influence of the overvoltage induced by the atmospheric discharge on the transportable power of a High Voltage AC Transmission line, for good selective protection to illuminate the parasites. 2D simulations based on proposed models were developed as well as the verification of the consistency of the different models, by comparing the fractal dimensions of the results of our program with those of the figures obtained experimentally. The aspects developed in this article could have direct implications in practical applications in the engineering and design of high-voltage transmission systems.
文摘To obtain good trade-offs between complexity and performance onpeak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) reduction in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)using partial transmitting sequence (PTS) schemes, a trellis structure based PTS factor searchmethod is proposed. The trellis search is with a variant constraint length L_C, 1 ≤ L_C ≤ V-1,where V is the number of PTS subblocks. The method is to decide a PTS factor by searching all thepossible paths obtained by varying L_C consecutive factors. The trellis search can be viewed as ageneral PTS factor search model. If L_C = V-1, it is a full search, and if L_C = 1, it is aniterative search. Using different constraint lengths, trellis factor search PTS exhibits differentPAPR reduction performances. A larger L_C results in a better performance and L_C = V-1 results inthe optimum. However, a larger L_C requires more computation. This helps to choose a good trade-offbetween complexity and performance.
文摘The finite element artificial transmitting boundary method is employed here to treat the near field scattering of a cylindrical wave from an irregular cylinder. A comparison is made between this method and the analytical one. And then examples are given to demonstrate the solution of several problems of the irregular object scattering. The method can not only produce clear physical pictures, but can efficiently handle many complicated scattering problems.
文摘<strong>Background:</strong> Sexually transmitted diseases are one of the several major public health concerns, the burden of which is borne by low- and middle-income countries like India.<strong> Purpose:</strong> The purpose is to evaluate the relationship between menstrual and sanitary hygiene and sexually transmitted diseases (STD) based on syndromic diagnosis<strong> Methods:</strong> An out-patient department (OPD) based cross sectional survey to determine these associations, if any exist, which would help critically analyze syndromic management. STD was reported by the presence of vaginal/cervical/urethral discharge with or without irritation and itching, lower abdominal pain and ulcer. <strong>Results:</strong> The prevalence of STD was 66.84% with the most commonly reported symptoms being discharged (31.18%), followed by abdominal pain (17.92%) and itching/irritation (12.90%), with ulcer (4.83%) being the least reported symptom. Perimenopausal age ((AOR: 0.420 [CI: 0.189 - 0.915];p = 0.030), higher grades of education ((AOR: 0.228 [CI: 0.119 - 0.424];p < 0.001) for secondary), urban residency (AOR: 0.435 [CI: 0.686 - 2.733];p < 0.001), and contraception use (AOR: 0.531 [CI: 0.308 - 0.887];p = 0.018) were associated with lesser odds of presenting with an STD symptom. Belonging to a minority religious community (AOR: 7.20 [CI: 1.866 - 48.251];p < 0.012) or backward castes (AOR: 3.753 [CI: 1.587 - 10.144];p < 0.001), having similar illness (AOR: 4.205 [CI: 2.795 - 6.439];p < 0.001) or having an invasive gynecological procedure done in the past one year (AOR: 1.953 [CI: 1.184 - 3.295];p = 0.010) and washing the reusable sanitary material only with water (AOR: 4.900 [CI: 2.701 - 9.116];p < 0.001) as compared to washing it with water and soap, had a higher association with presenting with STD symptoms. Stratified analysis also showed that women presenting discharge (AOR: 2.049 [CI: 1.343 - 3.146] for vaginal and cervical;AOR: 1.426 [CI: 0.826 - 2.482] for urethral) were more likely to not have a toilet facility in an accessible condition. Women with sanitary napkin use had lesser odds (AOR: 0.780 [CI: 0.516 - 1.180];p = 0.293) of presentation for STD in OPD than women who used other material.<strong> Conclusion:</strong> To better manage the group of diseases that may present with symptoms of STD under syndromic approach, we propose interventions such as menstrual hygiene education and promotion of the use of sanitary napkins among women especially those belonging to lower socio-economic sections of the society.
文摘Objectives： To understand trends and epidemiology of STDs in Chongqing from 1998 to 2003 and to provide scientific evidence for developing preventive strategies and distributing government health resources effectively. Methods： STD case-reporting data collected from 43 counties and districts in Chongqing from 1998 to 2003 were analyzed with STD Data Management Software and Excel Software. Results： A total of 133,323 cases of eight different STDs were reported from 1998-2003. The annual incidence of all eight STDs combined was 71.89/10^5.Generally, reported cases and incidence have decreased since 2001. Although gonorrhoea diagnoses made up a significant proportion of the STD burden, this proportion decreased annually. The proportion of the STD burden attributed to Condyloma accuminatum （CA） was always above 30 percent. The proportions of non-gonoccocal urethritis, genital herpes and syphilis within the combinedSTD burden increased gradually from 1998 to 2003.Reported cases of HIV increased rapidly over this time. A total of 214 HIV cases were reported from 1998 to 2003,the majority of which were among men. For HIV, the maleto-female ratio was 1.17, but CA was found among more women than men. Incidence for all STDs was highest among 20-39 year olds, who accounted for 72.2% of reported infections. The majority of STDs were transmitted through extra-marital intercourse,accounting for 55.3%. Conclusion： The STD epidemic in Chongqing changed from 1998-2003. STD incidence declined, as a result of various factors. The epidemiology of STDs has changed.HIV incidence has increased rapidly. This indicates that the AIDS epidemic has reached a critical period. The results of this study suggest a need for readjusting control measures and redistributing health resources.
基金supported by the Open Fund of the Key Laboratory of Exploration Technologies for Oil and Gas Resources(Yangtze University)the Ministry of Education(No.K2014-06)the Reservoir Geophysical Research Center at Yangtze University
文摘Transmitted ultrasonic wave simulation （TUWS） in a digital core is one of the important elements of digital rock physics and is used to study wave propagation in porous cores and calculate equivalent velocity. When simulating wave propagates in a 3D digital core, two additional layers are attached to its two surfaces vertical to the wave-direction and one planar wave source and two receiver-arrays are properly installed. After source excitation, the two receivers then record incident and transmitted waves of the digital rock. Wave propagating velocity, which is the velocity of the digital core, is computed by the picked peak-time difference between the two recorded waves. To evaluate the accuracy of TUWS, a digital core is fully saturated with gas, oil, and water to calculate the corresponding velocities. The velocities increase with decreasing wave frequencies in the simulation frequency band, and this is considered to be the result of scattering. When the pore fluids are varied from gas to oil and finally to water, the velocity-variation characteristics between the different frequencies are similar, thereby approximately following the variation law of velocities obtained from linear elastic statics simulation （LESS）, although their absolute values are different. However, LESS has been widely used. The results of this paper show that the transmission ultrasonic simulation has high relative precision.
文摘Sexually transmitted diseases （STDs） are among the first ten causes of unpleasant diseases in young adult males in developing countries and the second major cause of unpleasant diseases in young adult women. Adolescents and young adults （15-24 years old） make up only 25% of the sexually active population, but represent almost 50% of all new acquired STDs. In general, STDs are epidemics and present an enormous health and economic consequences. An adequate screening for STDs should be done on a routine basis in every part of the world. Many STDs are asymptomatic and therefore can difficult to control. The purpose of reporting of STDs is to ensure that persons who are infected will be quickly diagnosed and appropriately treated to control the spread of infection and also so that partners are notified, tested and appropriately treated. It is estimated that reported cases of STDs represent only 50%-80% of reportable STD infections in the United States, reflecting limited screening and low disease reporting. High-risk sexual behavior is a highly contributive factor of this process as it often leads to teenage pregnancies and HIV/AIDS. One possible explanation for this behavior is that people do not have enough information about the transmission of STDs or ignore the precautions required for safe sex. Approximately 60% of new HIV infections worldwide occur in young people. The frequency of high-risk behaviors among youths may also be influenced by opportunity to engage in them, particularly the amount of time that they are unsupervised by adults. However, in diagnosing and treating these patients, we can effectively prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. Individuals infected with STDs are 5-10 times more likely than uninfected individuals to acquire or transmit HIV through sexual contact. The breaking of the genital tract lining or skin creates a portal of entry for HIV and, hence, HIV-infected individuals with other STDs are more likely to shed HIV in their genital secretions. To date, the condom is the most effective method available for males for protection against STDs. It is important to control STDs, and prevention can be the key of this process. Prevention can be achieved through education of the population, identification of symptomatic and asymptomatic people, and effective diagnosis and treatment of these patients and their partners.
文摘INIRODUCIIONA newly discovered DNA virus,transfusiontransmitted virus (TTV),was reported as a cause ofpost-transfusion hepatitis of unknown etiology inJapan.In order to investigate TTV prevalence insouthern China,a study was carried out amongblood donors,patients with liver diseases andhemodialysis to determine the epidemiologicalcharateristics.
基金supported by the Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, Ministry of Education of China (Grant No. 2007[24])supported by Science and Technology Project of Dalian (Grant No. 2008A16GX248)
文摘Surface or submerged horizontal or vertical plate can be considered as a new concept breakwater. This paper investigates the wave-plate interaction of this type of breakwater by use of the boundary element method. The relationships of wave transmitted and reflected among plate thickness, submergence and length are carefully studied by numerical simulation. It is shown that： （1） The transmitted coefficients of submerged horizontal plate or vertical plate will become larger with the increase of plate thickness and reduce rapidly with the decrease of plate submergence. （2） Both surface horizontal and vertical plate are efficient for intermediate and short wave elimination, but vertical plate is more effective. （3） Submerged horizontal plate can act more effectively than submerged vertical plate does. With all wave frequencies, the vertical plate almost has no wave elimination effect.
文摘Cancers in solid organ recipients may be classified as donor transmitted,donor derived,de novo or recurrent.The risk of donor-transmitted cancer is very low and can be reduced by careful screening of the donor but cannot be abolished and,in the United Kingdom series is less than 0.03%.For donors with a known history of cancer,the risks will depend on the nature of the cancer,the interventions given and the interval between diagnosis and organ donation.The risks of cancer transmission must be balanced against the risks of death awaiting a new graft and strict adherence to current guidelines may result increased patient death.Organs from selected patients,even with high-grade central nervous system(CNS)malignancy and after a shunt,can,in some circumstances,be considered.Of potential donors with non-CNS cancers,whether organs may be safely used again depends on the nature of the cancer,the treatment and interval.Data are scarce about the most appropriate treatment when donor transmitted cancer is diagnosed:sometimes substitution of agents and reduction of the immunosuppressive load may be adequate and the impact of graft removal should be considered but not always indicated.Liver al-lograft recipients are at increased risk of some de novo cancers,especially those grafted for alcohol-related liver disease and hepatitis C virus infection.The risk of lymphoproliferative disease and cancers of the skin,upper airway and bowel are increased but not breast.Recipients should be advised to avoid risk behavior and monitored appropriately.
基金Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 10901145)the Natural Science Foundation of Shanxi Province,China(Grant Nos. 2009011005-1 and 2012011002-1)the Top Young Academic Leaders of Higher Learning Institutions of Shanxi Province,China
文摘In this paper,a sexually transmitted disease model is proposed on complex networks,where contacts between humans are treated as a scale-free social network.There are three groups in our model,which are dangerous male,non-dangerous male,and female.By mathematical analysis,we obtain the basic reproduction number for the existence of endemic equilibrium and study the effects of various immunization schemes about different groups.Furthermore,numerical simulations are undertaken to verify more conclusions.
基金supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.61271236)Major Projects of Natural Science Research of Jiangsu Provincial Universities(No.17KJA510004)Postgraduate Research&Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province(No.KYCX17_0763)
文摘Distributed transmit beamforming(DTB) is very efficient for extending the communication distance between a swarm of UAVs and the base,particularly when considering the constraints in weight and battery life for payloads on UAVs.In this paper,we review major function modules and potential solutions in realizing DTB in UAV systems,such as timing and carrier synchronization,phase drift tracking and compensation,and beamforming vector generation and updating.We then focus on beamforming vector generation and updating,and introduce a concatenated training scheme,together with a recursive channel estimation and updating algorithm.We also propose three approaches for tracking the variation of channels and updating the vectors.The effectiveness of these approaches is validated by simulation results.
文摘Space-time spreading (STS) and orthogonal transmit diversity (OTD) are towtransmit diversity schemes proposed by cdma2000 standard. In this paper, performance comparisonanalysis of the two transmits diversity schemes in multipath channel under multiuser situation arecarried out. Link level simulation in forward link cdma2000 is performed in IMT-2000 channel.Performance analysis and simulation results show that the performance improvement provided STS overOTD decreases as the increase of propagation path number and decrease of the user number.
文摘Space time coding can provide high data rate and performance gain for wireless communication system. Performance comparison of space time trellis codes and space time transmit diversity is carried out under the same bandwidth efficiency in this paper. We also propose some optimum low rate space time trellis codes in quasi static Rayleigh fading chan￣nel. Performance analysis and simulation show that the low rate space time trellis codes outperform space time transmit diversity at the same bandwidth efficiency, and are more suitable for the power limited wireless communication system which has no strict requirement on bandwidth efficiency.
基金support of the NSFCShandong Joint Fund for Marine Science Research Centers (No. U1606401)the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41574105 and 41704114)+1 种基金the National Science and Technology Major Project of China (No.2016ZX05027-002)Taishan Scholar Project Funding (No. tspd20161007)
文摘The gradient preconditioning approach based on seismic wave energy can effectively avoid the huge memory consumption of the gradient preconditioning algorithms based on the Hessian matrix. However, the accuracy of this approach is prone to be influ- enced by the energy of reflected waves. To tackle this problem, the paper proposes a new gradient preconditioning method based on the energy of transmitted waves. The approach scales the gradient through a precondition factor, which is calculated by the ‘ap- proximate transmission wavefield’ simulation based on the nonreflecting acoustic wave equation. The method requires no computing nor storing of the Hessian matrix and its inverse matrix. Furthermore, the proposed method can effectively eliminate the effects of geometric spreading and disproportionality in the gradient illumination. The results of model experiments show that the time-domain full waveform inversion (FWI) using the gradient preconditioning based on transmitted wave energy can achieve higher inversion accuracy for deep high-velocity bodies and their underlying strata in comparison with the one using the gradient preconditioning based on seismic wave energy. The field marine seismic data test shows that our proposed method is also highly applicable to the FWI of field marine seismic data.
文摘Objective To carry out national surveys for ascertaining the current status and trends of soil-transmitted nematode infections in China, providing scientific basis for further developing control strategies. Methods In 1988-1992 （hereinafter abbreriated as ＂survey in 1990＂）, a stratified cluster random sampling method was used in the survey. In 2001-2004 （hereinafter abbreriated as ＂survey in 2003＂）, in order to compare with the survey in 1990, two-characteristic stratified cluster random sampling method was used and 687 investigation spots were sampled from the 2848 spots selected in the survey in 1990. Kato-Katz thick smear method was used to examine the eggs of soil-transmitted nematodes in fecal samples. Results The prevalence rates were 53.6% and 19.6% for soil-transmitted nematodes, 14.6% and 6.120% for hookworms, 44.6% and 12.7% for Ascaris lumbricoides, 17.4% and 4.630% for Trichuris trichiura in survey 1990 and survey 2003, respectively. The prevalence rates of soil-transmitted nematodes were higher in 13 provinces than the average level in China in the survey in 1990, and higher in 8 provinces than the average level in the survey in 2003. The prevalence of hookworms, Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura and the overall prevalence of soil-transmitted nematodes were higher in females than in males. It is estimated from the results of survey in 2003 that the number of persons with soil-transmitted nematode infections in the country is about 129 million, less than that in the survey in 1990. Conclusion The prevalence of soil-transmitted nematodes has declined considerably but is still relatively high in some provinces and autonomous regions. Control activities and socioeconomic development may have contributed to the decreased prevalence.
