Risk Assessment and Prediction of Aflatoxin in Agro-Products

Aflatoxin (AFT), highly toxic and carcinogenic to humans, seriously threatens consumption safety of agro-products. It is necessary to conduct risk assessment of aflatoxin contamination in agro-food products to find out critical control points (CCPs) and develop prediction, prevention and control theories and technologies. In this chapter, risk assessment and prediction of aflatoxin contamination in peanut were taken as an example. The values under the limit of detection (LOD) were replaced by zero, 1/2 LOD or LOD according to their respective proportion, and the distribution of values higher than the LOD was fitted by @RISK software. AFB1 dietary exposure was evaluated based on non-parametric probability risk assessment and margin of exposure (MOE). A risk ranking method was adopted for mycotoxins based on food risk expectation ranking. Spatial analysis of AFB1 contamination was conducted using geographic information system (GIS). Average climatic conditions were calculated by Thiessen polygon method and the relationship between AFB1 concentration and average pre-harvest climatic conditions was obtained through multiple regression. To fulfill the purposes of reducing cost, increasing efficiency, maximizing the role of risk assessment and prediction, and improving the quality and safety of agricultural products, we will continuously focus on developing advanced and integrated technologies and solutions

Spontaneous splenic rupture as the initial symptom of splenic angiosarcoma: case report and literature review

Spontaneous splenic rupture is an extremely rare occurrence, often attributed to tumorous pathologies. Among these, primary splenic angiosarcoma stands as a malignancy arising from the endothelial cells within the spleen. While sporadic cases have been reported globally, there remains a lack of comprehensive consensus on standardized approaches for diagnosis and treatment. We report a case of an 83-year-old male who underwent emergency enhanced CT due to sudden shock, revealing significant intra-abdominal fluid accumulation. Emergency surgery revealed splenic rupture necessitating splenectomy. Histopathological examination confirmed the diagnosis of splenic angiosarcoma. Despite successful surgery, the patient succumbed to severe complications two weeks postoperatively

An Enhanced Erasure Code-Based Security Mechanism for Cloud Storage

Cloud computing offers a wide range of luxuries, such as high performance, rapid elasticity, on-demand self-service, and low cost. However, data security continues to be a significant impediment in the promotion and popularization of cloud computing. To address the problem of data leakage caused by unreliable service providers and external cyber attacks, an enhanced erasure code-based security mechanism is proposed and elaborated in terms of four aspects: data encoding, data transmission, data placement, and data reconstruction, which ensure data security throughout the whole traversing into cloud storage. Based on the mechanism, we implement a secure cloud storage system (SCSS). The key design issues, including data division, construction of generator matrix, data encoding, fragment naming, and data decoding, are also described in detail. Finally, we conduct an analysis of data availability and security and performance evaluation. Experimental results and analysis demonstrate that SCSS achieves high availability, strong security, and excellent performance

Object Detection for Caries or Pit and Fissure Sealing Requirement in Children's First Permanent Molars

Dental caries is one of the most common oral diseases that, if left untreated, can lead to a variety of oral problems. It mainly occurs inside the pits and fissures on the occlusal/buccal/palatal surfaces of molars and children are a high-risk group for pit and fissure caries in permanent molars. Pit and fissure sealing is one of the most effective methods that is widely used in prevention of pit and fissure caries. However, current detection of pits and fissures or caries depends primarily on the experienced dentists, which ordinary parents do not have, and children may miss the remedial treatment without timely detection. To address this issue, we present a method to autodetect caries and pit and fissure sealing requirements using oral photos taken by smartphones. We use the YOLOv5 and YOLOX models and adopt a tiling strategy to reduce information loss during image pre-processing. The best result for YOLOXs model with tiling strategy is 72.3 mAP.5, while the best result without tiling strategy is 71.2. YOLOv5s6 model with/without tiling attains 70.9/67.9 mAP.5, respectively. We deploy the pre-trained network to mobile devices as a WeChat applet, allowing in-home detection by parents or children guardian

Changes in target setting for major epidemic emergency response in China before and after COVID-19 epidemic: an official documents analysis

ObjectiveTo analyze changes in target setting for emergency response to major disease epidemics in China before and after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, summarize strengths and weaknesses in target setting, and provide a basis for improving target setting for emergency response to major disease epidemics in China. MethodsWe systematically retrieved a total of 3 864 policy documents (including plans, laws and regulations, and work programs) related to the prevention and control of major epidemics issued by government agencies of 31 provincial-level administrative divisions (PLADs) in Chinese mainland from 2000 to 2020. Relevant target content was extracted and the degree of consistency between emergency response targets for major diseases and public demand was calculated (the newly added targets are calculated on a cumulative basis from the precious year, and no value is assigned for duplicates). Paired rank sum tests were used to statistically test for differences in indicators before and after the epidemic. ResultsThe consistency between the overall goal of emergency response to major disease epidemics and public needs in China increased from 79.7% by 2019 (before COVID-19) to 91.3% in by 2020 (after COVID-19), with an increase of 14.6%, and the region-specific consistency increased from 81.2% to 93% for the eastern region and from 78.3% to 90.1% for the western region, with an increase of 14.5% and 15.1%, respectively, and a significant difference between the regions (P < 0.05). National consistency between the primary prevention goal of emergency response to major disease epidemics and public needs increased from 36.9% to 46.4%, with a significant difference between the periods before and after the COVID-19 epidemic (P < 0.05); there were no significant differences between periods in consistency between the secondary and tertiary prevention goals of emergency response to major disease epidemics and public needs at either the national or regional level. ConclusionConsistency between emergency response goals for major disease epidemics and public needs in China has increased, either at the national or regional level, especially for primary prevention goals

The mycotox charter: Increasing awareness of, and concerted action for, minimizing mycotoxin exposure worldwide

Mycotoxins are major food contaminants affecting global food security, especially in low and middle-income countries. The European Union (EU) funded project, MycoKey, focuses on “Integrated and innovative key actions for mycotoxin management in the food and feed chains” and the right to safe food through mycotoxin management strategies and regulation, which are fundamental to minimizing the unequal access to safe and sufficient food worldwide. As part of the MycoKey project, a Mycotoxin Charter (charter.mycokey.eu) was launched to share the need for global harmonization of mycotoxin legislation and policies and to minimize human and animal exposure worldwide, with particular attention to less developed countries that lack effective legislation. This document is in response to a demand that has built through previous European Framework Projects—MycoGlobe and MycoRed—in the previous decade to control and reduce mycotoxin contamination worldwide. All suppliers, participants and beneficiaries of the food supply chain, for example, farmers, consumers, stakeholders, researchers, members of civil society and government and so forth, are invited to sign this charter and to support this initiative