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Increased heme levels, anemia, and desaturation occur during infection. We aimed to compare the levels of heme, heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), ferritin, and bilirubin in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients at different saturation levels. Heme and HO-1 enzyme levels significantly increased in the low SpO2 group, but further studies are required.

“Round pneumonia” or “spherical pneumonia” is a well-characterized clinical entity that seems to be less addressed by pediatricians in Taiwan. We herein report the case of a 7-year-old boy who presented with prolonged fever, cough, and chest X-rays showing a well-demarcated round mass measuring 5.9 × 5.6 × 4.3 cm in the left lower lung field, findings which were typical for round pneumonia. The urinary pneumococcal antigen test was positive, and serum anti-Mycoplasma pneumoniae antibody titer measurement using a microparticle agglutination method was 1:160 (+). After oral administration of antibiotics including azithromycin and amoxicillin/clavulanate, which was subsequently replaced by ceftibuten due to moderate diarrhea, the fever subsided 2 days later and the round patch had completely resolved on the 18th day after the diagnosis. Recent evidence suggests treating classical round pneumonia with antibiotics first and waiving unwarranted advanced imaging studies, while alternative etiologies such as abscesses, tuberculosis, nonbacterial infections, congenital malformations, or neoplasms should still be considered in patients with atypical features or poor treatment response.

Academic studies concerning how climate influences Asian heritage are rare. The object of this study was to utilize the concept of heritage climatology together with a spatial analysis approach that includes respective climate parameter risks to cultural heritage sites. The study area, Tainan City, Taiwan, is in a subtropical zone south of the Tropic of Cancer. Tainan has nearly 300 hundred years of rich history and a multicultural background. This study used maps to gain information about potential climactic threats to Tainan's cultural-historical legacy. There are four kinds of map that use ArcGIS to analyse and demarcate regions not only by climate parameters but also by risk to heritage. These four types of map are climate maps, heritage climate maps, heritage maps and heritage risk maps. Climate maps give the short- to medium-term general status of the climate in Tainan City and thus served as the foundation of the other maps used in this study. Heritage climate maps give data concerning index factors that influence wood and stone materials. Heritage maps show locations of cultural heritage sites on an administrative map and categorize them according to their historic value. Heritage risk maps use accumulated calculations to superimpose the heritage climate map onto the heritage map in order to evaluate the risks to heritage sites in certain areas and categorize the levels of risk. Heritage sites in mountainous areas generally need to be protected from heavy rain, whereas downtown city environments, due to the urban heat island effect, require better protection against heat and cracking. By comparison of our field study results and climate risk maps, we found that in urban areas wooden materials have a higher risk of structural cracking, colour fading and bio-degradation, while coastal areas have a higher risk of weathering of stone materials.

Endostatin is a potent anti-angiogenic factor derived from the C-terminal region of collagen XVIII and is implicated in the regulation of physiological and pathological angiogenesis. In this study, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis of poly(A+) RNA demonstrated the presence of mRNA for collagen XVIII in human endothelial cells (EC) and pericytes, the very constituents of microvessels wherein angiogenesis takes place. Enzyme immunoassay revealed that both cell types liberated endostatin into culture media and that the endostatin levels were decreased by hypoxia, the principal cause of angiogenesis. Northern and Western blot analyses revealed that while the collagen XVIII/endostatin mRNA levels were invariant between hypoxic and normoxic conditions, the collagen XVIII protein levels in EC and pericytes decreased by hypoxia. Further, exogenously administered intact endostatin was significantly decreased when it was incubated with hypoxic conditioned media of endothelial cells or pericytes, but not with normoxic media. The results suggest that the reduction of autocrine endostatin may take an active part in hypoxia-driven angiogenesis.