An animal model of SARS produced by infection of Macaca mulatta with SARS coronavirus.

A new SARS animal model was established by inoculating SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) into rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) through the nasal cavity. Pathological pulmonary changes were successively detected on days 5-60 after virus inoculation. All eight animals showed a transient fever 2-3 days after inoculation. Immunological, molecular biological, and pathological studies support the establishment of this SARS animal model. Firstly, SARS-CoV-specific IgGs were detected in the sera of macaques from 11 to 60 days after inoculation. Secondly, SARS-CoV RNA could be detected in pharyngeal swab samples using nested RT-PCR in all infected animals from 5 days after virus inoculation. Finally, histopathological changes of interstitial pneumonia were found in the lungs during the 60 days after viral inoculation: these changes were less marked at later time points, indicating that an active healing process together with resolution of an acute inflammatory response was taking place in these animals. This animal model should provide insight into the mechanisms of SARS-CoV-related pulmonary disease and greatly facilitate the development of vaccines and therapeutics against SARS

Effect of Ice Temperature Storage Combined with Bio-preservatives on the Quality Characteristics of Rainbow Trout Meat

Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) is a popular commercial fish in China owing to its delicious and nutritious meat. However, it is extremely prone to spoilage and deterioration during storage, transportation, and sale, which affects its edible value. To study the efficient preservation proposal for rainbow trout during storage and extend its shelf life, this study uses 4 ℃-cold storage as control and studies the effects of the ice temperature (0 ℃) storage combined with composite bio-preservatives (the mass concentration of chitosan, tea polyphenols, and lemon juice are 1.75%, 0.25%, and 4.98%, respectively) on the quality of rainbow trout by measuring the drip loss, pH, and total volatile base nitrogen (TVB-N) of meat samples under different experimental conditions. The results show that the various indicators and their increasing amplitudes over time of the 0 ℃ ice temperature storage group are better than those of the 4 ℃ storage group, which can effectively slow down the spoilage process of rainbow trout meat. On the 12th day, the pH and TVB-N values of the 4 ℃ and 0 ℃ groups are 6.86 and 51.89 mg/100g, and 6.56 and 31.82 mg/100g, respectively, whereas those of the 0 ℃ with bio-preservative group are only 6.32 and 16.96 mg/100g, respectively. This scheme has a better preservation effect on rainbow trout meat and can effectively extend its shelf life

Damage of shotcrete under freeze-thaw loading

The freeze-thaw durability of shotcrete can be improved by adding an air-entraining agent in cold areas. The main focus of this paper is to investigate the changes in the internal pore structure of C25 ordinary shotcrete and shot­crete mixed with a RM-YQ air-entraining agent using computed tomography (CT) scanning technique during freeze-thaw cycles. The macroscopic tests were conducted, including mass loss, dynamic modulus of elasticity and ultrasonic wave velocity tests. Results were compared, and the freeze-thaw durability characteristics of shotcrete mixed with the air-entraining agent were revealed. Adding an air-entraining agent could reduce the number of pores largely that ranged mainly from 0.01 mm2 to 1.00 mm2 (excluding the pores or bubbles < 0.01 mm2 because of the precision of the CT scan­ning system), and could therefore improve the initial pore structure of the formed shotcrete. During first few freeze-thaw cycles, just few small pores formed. After cement mortar fragmentations appeared, the number of small pores (0.01 mm2 to 0.50 mm2) in ordinary shotcrete increased significantly. The pore structure deteriorated largely. However, this could be prevented effectively by adding an air-entraining agent. Therefore, the freeze–thaw durability of shotcrete was improved

Severe lower limb infection by Kerstersia gyiorum: clinical and genomic insights into an underestimated pathogen

Since Kerstersia gyiorum was first described and named in 2003, reports of human infections caused by this organism have gradually increased. Here, we present a detailed report of a severe case of lower right limb infection caused by K. gyiorum that was characterized by rapid disease progression and multidrug resistance. We also present the complete genome sequence of the isolate, WCHKG1. A systematic analysis of the clinical features of our case patient and previous K. gyiorum-infected patients revealed that the most common site of infection was the lungs (48%), and that the organism showed the lowest sensitivity to commonly used quinolones among the major antibiotic classes. Clinical infections caused by K. gyiorum may be underestimated, thus the use of quinolones in treating such infections should be avoided. Genomic and phylogenetic analyses of K. gyiorum identified conservation of antibiotic efflux pump systems and virulence factors, which may play critical roles in its antibiotic resistance and pathogenicity. Furthermore, evidence of clonal transmission in animals suggests a need for vigilance regarding potential clonal spread in clinical settings. Our study contributes to the current understanding of K. gyiorum and offers useful insights to support its clinical management and infection control

A Systematic Approach and Analysis of Key Mismatch Attacks on Lattice-Based NIST Candidate KEMs

The research on the key mismatch attacks against the lattice-based KEMs is an important part of the cryptographic assessment of the ongoing NIST standardization. There have been a number of these attacks. However, a unified method to evaluate these KEMs\u27 resilience under key mismatch attacks is still missing. Since the key index of the efficiency of these attacks is the number of queries needed to successfully mount such an attack, in this paper, we propose and develop a systematic approach to find the lower bounds on the minimum average number of queries needed for such attacks. Our basic idea is to transform the problem of finding the lower bound of queries into finding an optimal binary recovery tree (BRT), where the computations of the lower bounds become essentially the computations of a certain Shannon entropy. The introduction of the optimal BRT approach also enables us to understand why, for some lattice-based NIST candidate KEMs, there is a big gap between the theoretical bounds and practical attacks, in terms of the number of queries needed. This further leads us to propose a generic improvement method for these existing attacks, which are confirmed by our experiments. Moreover, our proposed method could be directly used to improve the side-channel attacks against CCA-secure NIST candidate KEMs

Light the Signal: Optimization of Signal Leakage Attacks against LWE-Based Key Exchange

Key exchange protocols from the learning with errors (LWE) problem share many similarities with the Diffie–Hellman–Merkle (DHM) protocol, which plays a central role in securing our Internet. Therefore, there has been a long time effort in designing authenticated key exchange directly from LWE to mirror the advantages of DHM-based protocols. In this paper, we revisit signal leakage attacks and show that the severity of these attacks against LWE-based (authenticated) key exchange is still underestimated. In particular, by converting the problem of launching a signal leakage attack into a coding problem, we can significantly reduce the needed number of queries to reveal the secret key. Specifically, for DXL-KE we reduce the queries from 1,266 to only 29, while for DBS-KE, we need only 748 queries, a great improvement over the previous 1,074,434 queries. Moreover, our new view of signals as binary codes enables recognizing vulnerable schemes more easily. As such we completely recover the secret key of a password-based authenticated key exchange scheme by Dabra et al. with only 757 queries and partially reveal the secret used in a two-factor authentication by Wang et al. with only one query. The experimental evaluation supports our theoretical analysis and demonstrates the efficiency and effectiveness of our attacks. Our results caution against underestimating the power of signal leakage attacks as they are applicable even in settings with a very restricted number of interactions between adversary and victim

Effects of Extraction Methods on Volatile Components of Indocalamus latifolia Leaves

This study investigated the effects of different extraction methods, namely steam distillation (SD), simultaneous distillation extraction (SDE), supercritical fluid extraction (SFE), solid-phase microextraction (SPME), and dynamic headspace (DHS) on the composition and flavor characteristics of volatile components in Indocalamus latifolia leaves. The volatile components were systematically analyzed using a combination of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), principal component analysis (PCA) and relative odor activity value (ROAV). The results demonstrated that different extraction methods significantly influenced the composition and relative content of volatile compounds in broad-leaved I. latifolius leaves. A total of 84 volatile components were identified, mainly including aldehydes, alcohols, ketones, esters and alkanes. Among these methods, DHS and SPME resulted in the highest enrichment of heat-sensitive aldehydes (64.17% and 42.82%, respectively) and alcohols (26.40% and 29.25%, respectively), while SFE showed the highest selectivity to alkanes (56.50%) and terpenoids (20.97%). The results of PCA revealed that the first (PC1, 32.16%) and second (PC2, 26.03%) principal components were capable of effectively discriminating the specificity of different extraction methods. Based on ROAV, β-ionone was identified as the key shared flavor compound, which played the predominant role in the overall flavor profile. In conjunction with other critical flavor substances such as 3-hexen-1-ol (leaf alcohol), 1-octen-3-ol, and β-cyclocitral, it contributed to the rich and distinctive flavor characteristics of broad-leaved I. latifolius leaves. This study provides a theoretical foundation for the high-value utilization of I. latifolius leaves in the food and medicinal industries

Injectable cinnamaldehyde–loaded ZIF-8/Gallic Acid–Grafted gelatin hydrogel for enhanced angiogenesis and skin regeneration in diabetic wound healing

BackgroundChronic diabetic wounds remain a major clinical challenge due to persistent ischemia, oxidative stress, and impaired angiogenesis. Injectable hydrogels capable of adapting to irregular wound beds and delivering bioactive cues offer promising therapeutic potential for enhancing tissue regeneration.MethodsWe developed a multifunctional injectable hydrogel by incorporating cinnamaldehyde-loaded ZIF-8 nanoparticles (CA@ZIF-8) into a gallic acid–grafted gelatin (GGA) matrix, followed by transglutaminase-mediated crosslinking. The physicochemical characteristics, drug release behavior, and mechanical performance of the CA@ZIF-8/GGA hydrogel were systematically evaluated. In vitro assays using human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were conducted to assess cytocompatibility and angiogenic activity. A full-thickness skin wound model in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats was employed to evaluate in vivo wound healing efficacy and biocompatibility.ResultsThe CA@ZIF-8/GGA hydrogel exhibited favorable injectability, enhanced mechanical strength, and sustained release of both cinnamaldehyde and Zn2+. In vitro, the hydrogel significantly promoted HUVEC proliferation, migration, and tube formation, accompanied by upregulated expression of CD31 and VEGF. In vivo, CA(0.6)@ZIF-8/GGA-treated wounds demonstrated accelerated closure, enhanced granulation tissue formation, increased neovascularization, and re-epithelialization compared with control groups. No histological abnormalities were observed in major organs, indicating good systemic biocompatibility.ConclusionThis study presents an injectable CA@ZIF-8/GGA composite hydrogel that effectively promotes angiogenesis and diabetic wound regeneration. The synergistic integration of MOF-based controlled release and polyphenol-enhanced bioactivity highlights its potential as a clinically translatable platform for chronic wound management

Integration of sequence-similarity and functional association information can overcome intrinsic problems in orthology mapping across bacterial genomes

Existing methods for orthologous gene mapping suffer from two general problems: (i) they are computationally too slow and their results are difficult to interpret for automated large-scale applications when based on phylogenetic analyses; or (ii) they are too prone to making mistakes in dealing with complex situations involving horizontal gene transfers and gene fusion due to the lack of a sound basis when based on sequence similarity information. We present a novel algorithm, Global Optimization Strategy (GOST), for orthologous gene mapping through combining sequence similarity and contextual (working partners) information, using a combinatorial optimization framework. Genome-scale applications of GOST show substantial improvements over the predictions by three popular sequence similarity-based orthology mapping programs. Our analysis indicates that our algorithm overcomes the intrinsic issues faced by sequence similarity-based methods, when orthology mapping involves gene fusions and horizontal gene transfers. Our program runs as efficiently as the most efficient sequence similarity-based algorithm in the public domain. GOST is freely downloadable at http://csbl.bmb.uga.edu/~maqin/GOST