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There is an urgent need for new therapeutic strategies to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and to curtail its most severe complications. Severely ill patients experience pathologic manifestations of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), and clinical reports demonstrate striking neutrophilia, elevated levels of multiple cytokines, and an exaggerated inflammatory response in fatal COVID-19. Mechanical respirator devices are the most widely applied therapy for ARDS in COVID-19, yet mechanical ventilation achieves strikingly poor survival. Many patients, who recover, experience impaired cognition or physical disability. In this review, we argue the need to develop therapies aimed at inhibiting neutrophil recruitment, activation, degranulation, and neutrophil extracellular trap (NET) release. Moreover, we suggest that currently available pharmacologic approaches should be tested as treatments for ARDS in COVID-19. In our view, targeting host-mediated immunopathology holds promise to alleviate progressive pathologic complications of ARDS and reduce morbidities and mortalities in severely ill patients with COVID-19.

Maine's first cable-stayed bridge opened to traffic on December 30, 2006. Designed as an emergency replacement for the Waldo–Hancock Bridge, the new bridge uses an innovative cradle system to carry the stays from the bridge deck through the pylon and back to the bridge deck. Each strand is anchored independently; thus, strands may be removed, inspected, and replaced while the bridge carries traffic. This advantage, coupled with Maine Department of Transportation concerns for the premature loss of the Waldo–Hancock Bridge due to corrosion, created interest in an opportunity to install and monitor representative carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) strands in the cable stays of this bridge. CFRP strands were installed for the purposes of assessing their performance in a service condition and evaluating them for use on future bridges. Three representative stays in the bridge were designed to include two reference strands each, which may be removed and not replaced without change to the bridge's structural integrity. Six epoxy-coated steel strands were removed and successfully replaced with CFRP strands in June 2007. Data are being collected from the monitoring equipment installed on all of the strands (both traditional steel and CFRP strands) in the bridge to evaluate CFRP strand performance for future bridge cable stay and post-tensioning installations. The bridge location ensures that the test strands will be evaluated under a wide range of temperatures and variety of wind loads.

Host response biomarkers can accurately distinguish between influenza and bacterial infection. However, published biomarkers require the measurement of many genes, thereby making it difficult to implement them in clinical practice. This study aims to identify a single-gene biomarker with a high diagnostic accuracy equivalent to multi-gene biomarkers.In this study, we combined an integrated genomic analysis of 1071 individuals with

More than 150,000 publicly owned vehicular bridges in the United States are currently structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. The rate at which additional bridges become deficient or obsolete is anticipated to increase as traffic volumes and weights continue to increase and as more bridges across the country reach the end of their service life. New methods are needed to replace these substandard bridges quickly with long-lasting bridges while traffic flow is maintained. Bridge prefabrication is one method that can address this need. An international scan was conducted in April 2004 to learn how other countries are using prefabricated bridge components to minimize traffic disruption, improve work-zone safety, minimize environmental impact, improve constructability, improve quality, and lower life-cycle costs. Countries visited were Japan, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and France. The top implementation recommendation from the scan team is the use of self-propelled modular transporters to move bridges into position in hours rather than the typical months required for conventional bridge construction.

In April 2004, a scanning tour of Japan, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and France was made to obtain information about bridge construction methods being used to minimize traffic disruption, improve work zone safety, minimize environmental impact, improve constructibility, increase quality, and lower life-cycle costs. From information obtained from the tour, 10 technologies were identified for further consideration and possible implementation into U.S. practices. These included two technologies that allow bridges to be built off site and then moved to their final location in a short time, three superstructure systems and four deck systems that facilitate faster and safer construction, and one substructure system. The two technologies for moving bridges were self-propelled modular transporters and other moving systems, including skidding or sliding, incremental launching, floating, rotating, and lifting of bridges into place. The superstructure systems included a precast concrete deck system known as the Poutre Dalle system, the use of partial-depth concrete decks prefabricated on steel or concrete beams, and U-shaped precast concrete segments with transverse ribs. The deck systems involved full-depth prefabricated concrete decks, special cast-in-place closure joint details, hybrid steel–concrete deck systems, and a multiple-level corrosion protection system. The substructure system consisted of stay-in-place precast concrete panels that serve as both formwork and structural elements for solid and hollow bridge piers.