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Objective: This study investigated the clinical characteristics and pregnancy outcomes of acute pancreatitis during pregnancy (APIP). Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 20 cases of APIP admitted to Hubei Maternal and Child Health Hospital from January 2017 to September 2021. The etiology, clinical manifestations, and perinatal outcomes of APIP were analyzed using descriptive statistical analysis of the collected data. Results: The incidence of APIP in our hospital was 20 (0.02%) cases, all of which occurred in the late stage of pregnancy. Hypertriglyceridemic acute pancreatitis (HTG‐AP) was the primary cause of APIP in 10 (50.0%) patients. A total of 11 (55.0%), seven (35.0%) and two (10.0%) patients had mild acute pancreatitis (MAP), moderately severe acute pancreatitis (MSAP) and severe acute pancreatitis (SAP), respectively. Pregnant women with HTG‐AP had significantly elevated serum triglyceride levels, had higher prepregnancy body mass indices, were more prone to developing diabetes and were more likely to progress to SAP. With a multidisciplinary approach and individualized treatment plans, there were no maternal deaths, and fetal death only occurred in one (5.0%) case. Conclusion: HTG‐AP is prone to advancing to more severe states, and it is becoming more common every year. Therefore, blood lipid management during pregnancy should be emphasized. Pregnant women with digestive symptoms or severe hyperlipidaemia should be screened for APIP in a timely manner and receive clinical intervention to improve maternal and fetal outcomes during the perinatal period. Synopsis: Hypertriglyceridemic acute pancreatitis is the primary cause of acute pancreatitis during pregnancy, and blood lipid management during pregnancy should be emphasized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Demyelinating disorders are among the most common and debilitating diseases in neurology. Canavan disease (CD) is a lethal demyelinating disease caused by mutation of the aspartoacylase (ASPA) gene, which leads to the accumulation of its substrate N‐acetyl‐l‐aspartate (NAA), and consequently demyelination and vacuolation in the brain. In this study, hypoimmunogenic human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)‐derived oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPC) are developed from a healthy donor as an "off‐the‐shelf" cell therapy. Hypoimmunogenic iPSCs are generated through CRISPR/Cas9 editing of the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) molecules in healthy donor‐derived iPSCs and differentiated into OPCs. The OPCs are engrafted into the brains of CD (nur7) mice and exhibit widespread distribution in the brain. The engrafted OPCs mature into oligodendrocytes that express the endogenous wildtype ASPA gene. Consequently, the transplanted mice exhibit elevated human ASPA expression and enzymatic activity and reduced NAA level in the brain. The transplanted OPCs are able to rescue major pathological features of CD, including defective myelination, extensive vacuolation, and motor function deficits. Moreover, the hypoimmunogenic OPCs exhibit low immunogenicity both in vitro and in vivo. The hypoimmunogenic OPCs can be used as "off‐the‐shelf" universal donor cells to treat various CD patients and many other demyelinating disorders, especially autoimmune demyelinating diseases, such as multiple sclerosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To evaluate the association between patterns of gestational weight gain (GWG) and allergic diseases in offspring. Design: Prospective cohort study. Setting: Prenatal clinics in Wuhan, China. Population: A cohort of 2546 mother and offspring pairs were enrolled before 16 weeks of gestation and followed up to 24 months postpartum. Methods: Maternal body weights were measured regularly during pregnancy, and their GWG patterns were estimated using the growth mixture model. Robust Poisson models were used to evaluate relative risk (RR) and 95% CI after multivariable adjustment. Main outcome measures: Offspring atopic allergy and allergic contact dermatitis were defined according to a physician's diagnosis reported by the mother, and food allergy was reported by the mother. Results: Three GWG patterns were identified: 18.1% (461) of the women were described as pattern 1, characterised by rapid GWG earlier in pregnancy; 56.6% (1442) of the women were described as pattern 2, with steady GWG throughout pregnancy; and 25.3% (643) of the women was described as pattern 3, with rapid GWG later in pregnancy. By the age of 24 months, 360 (14.1%), 109 (4.3%) and 757 (29.7%) offspring had atopic allergy, allergic contact dermatitis or food allergy, respectively. Compared with women in GWG pattern 2, the RRs (95% CIs) among women in pattern 1 were 0.74 (0.55–0.99) for atopic allergy, 0.64 (0.36–1.15) for allergic contact dermatitis and 0.95 (0.81–1.12) for food allergy. Conclusions: Maternal GWG pattern characterised by rapid GWG earlier in pregnancy was associated with a lower risk of atopic allergy in offspring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The popularity of renewable energy distributed generation has increased for environmental and convenient concerns. However, the occurrence of the above situation will cause the communication resources of the microgrid to be rapidly consumed to maintain the frequency stability of the system. In this work, a novel event‐triggered scheme is developed to ameliorate the present communication networks of island microgrid with communication delay. Combining the newly constructed Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional and the convex combinatorial method, the asymptotic stability of a typical microgrid is demonstrated. Moreover, taking dynamic switching system into account, the two‐part proof is completed independently. Then, a positive inter‐execution time lower bound is implemented to guarantee that there is no Zeno behaviour. Finally, the numerical simulation results are compared with other sampling methods in different scenarios. It indicates that the proposed scheme is superior to other types of scheme in frequency response performance and communication burden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: We prospectively evaluated the association between low‐carbohydrate‐diet (LCD) score during pregnancy and the risk of allergic diseases in infants up to 2 years. Methods: Participants were from a prospective mother‐offspring cohort study in Wuhan, China. LCD score was calculated according to the percentage of dietary energy intake from carbohydrate, protein, and fat assessed in late pregnancy using validated food frequency questionnaires. Allergic diseases, including immunoglobulin E (IgE)‐mediated allergic diseases, allergic contact dermatitis, and food allergy, were recorded at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months postpartum follow‐up. Poisson regression models were used to calculate relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: Among 1636 mother–infant pairs included in the present analysis, 230 infants (14.1%) with IgE‐mediated allergic diseases, 77 (4.7%) with allergic contact dermatitis, and 488 (29.8%) with food allergy were, respectively, reported. Independent of total energy intake and other potential confounders, both the lowest quintile (RR, 1.77; 95% CI, 1.13–2.77) and the highest quintile (RR, 1.72; 95% CI, 1.22–2.63), were associated with the risk of IgE‐mediated allergic diseases compared with the middle quintile. Among high‐carbohydrate‐diet pregnant women, substituting 5% of energy from either protein or fat for carbohydrate was associated with a lower risk of IgE‐mediated allergic diseases. While among low‐carbohydrate‐diet pregnant women, substituting 5% of energy from carbohydrate, especially high‐quality carbohydrate, for fat was associated with a lower risk of IgE‐mediated allergic diseases. Conclusion: Maternal low carbohydrate‐high protein and fat, and high carbohydrate‐low protein and fat diet were both associated with an increased risk of allergic diseases in the infants up to 2 years. This study may provide an intervention strategy for allergy prevention in early childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objectives of this study were to investigate the relationship between the in vitro ruminal ammonia nitrogen (NH3‐N) concentration and the Cornell Net Carbohydrate and Protein System (CNCPS) N‐fractions of feeds for cattle and further compare the performance of developing multiple linear regression (MLR) and artificial neural network (ANN) models in estimating the NH3‐N concentration in rumen fermentation. Two data sets were established, of which the training data set containing forty‐five rations for cattle with concentrate/roughage ratios of 50:50, 40:60, 30:70, 20:80 and 10:90 used for developing models and the test data set containing ten other rations with the same concentrate/roughage ratios with the training data set were used for validating of models. The NH3‐N concentrations of feed samples were measured using an in vitro incubation technique. The CNCPS N‐fractions (g), for example PB1 (rapidly degraded true protein), PB2 (neutral detergent soluble nitrogen), PB3 (acid detergent soluble nitrogen) of rations, were calculated based on chemical analysis. Statistical analysis indicated that the NH3‐N concentration (mg) was significantly correlated with the CNCPS N‐fractions (g) PB1, PB2 and PB3 in a multiple linear pattern: NH3‐N = (130.70±33.80) PB1 + (155.83±17.89) PB2 ‐ (85.44±37.69) PB3 + (42.43±1.05), R2 = 0.77, p < 0.0001, n = 45. The results indicated that both MLR and ANN models were suitable for predicting in vitro NH3‐N concentration of rations using CNCPS N‐fractions PB1, PB2, and PB3 as independent variables while the neural network model showed better performance in terms of greater r2, CCC and lower RMSPE between the observed and predicted values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The evidence on the relationship between diet diversity in early life and allergic outcomes was few and inconsistent. We sought to determine the association of food diversity in the first year of life with allergic outcomes in the second year. Methods: Two thousand two hundred fifty‐one mother‐infant pairs from Tongji Maternal and Child Health Cohort (TMCHC) were involved in the study. Information on complementary foods introduction was obtained by telephone interview at 6‐ and 12‐month postpartum follow‐up. Any doctor‐diagnosed allergic diseases in the second year were recorded at 2‐year postpartum follow‐up. Food allergies in infancy were assessed and self‐reported by mothers at each postpartum follow‐up. Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine the effect of food diversity at 6 and 12 months of age on later allergic diseases and food allergy. Results: A total of 135 (6.0%) infants reported allergic diseases at between 1 and 2 years of age. Independent of food allergy history of infants and other potential confounders, less food diversity at 6 months of age was associated with increased risk of later allergic diseases (OR 2.17, 95% CI 1.04–4.50 for 0 vs. 3–6 food groups). By 12 months of age, significant inverse associations with later allergic diseases (OR 2.35, 95% CI 1.03–5.32 for 1–5 vs. 8–11 food groups, and OR 1.98, 95% CI 1.16–3.37 for 6–7 vs. 8–11 food groups) and food allergy (OR 2.10, 95% CI 1.29–3.42 for 1–5 vs. 8–11 food groups) were observed. Children with higher food diversity in both periods had the lowest risk of allergic diseases during the second year of life. Conclusions: A more diverse diet within the first year of life was associated with reduced risk of allergic diseases at 1–2 years of age. Introducing higher diversity of foods from 6 to 12 months of age might be an effective strategy to improve the allergy outcomes of infants in later life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease with no cure. Huge efforts have been made to develop anti‐AD drugs in the past decades. However, all drug development programs for disease‐modifying therapies have failed. Possible reasons for the high failure rate include incomplete understanding of complex pathophysiology of AD, especially sporadic AD (sAD), and species difference between humans and animal models used in preclinical studies. In this study, sAD is modeled using human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)‐derived 3D brain organoids. Because the blood–brain barrier (BBB) leakage is a well‐known risk factor for AD, brain organoids are exposed to human serum to mimic the serum exposure consequence of BBB breakdown in AD patient brains. The serum‐exposed brain organoids are able to recapitulate AD‐like pathologies, including increased amyloid beta (Aβ) aggregates and phosphorylated microtubule‐associated tau protein (p‐Tau) level, synaptic loss, and impaired neural network. Serum exposure increases Aβ and p‐Tau levels through inducing beta‐secretase 1 (BACE) and glycogen synthase kinase‐3 alpha / beta (GSK3α/β) levels, respectively. In addition, single‐cell transcriptomic analysis of brain organoids reveals that serum exposure reduced synaptic function in both neurons and astrocytes and induced immune response in astrocytes. The human brain organoid‐based sAD model established in this study can provide a powerful platform for both mechanistic study and therapeutic development in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flexible aqueous rechargeable batteries that integrate excellent mechanical flexibility and reliable safety hold a great promise for next‐generation wearable electronics. Unfortunately, currently available options are unsatisfactory due to their low specific capacity, limited energy density, and unstable voltage output. Herein, to overcome these challenges, high theoretical specific capacity zinc and sulfur as the anode and cathode are selected, respectively. Furthermore, a strategy is proposed, that decoupling charge carriers in anolyte and catholyte to simultaneously endow the zinc anode and sulfur cathode with optimal redox chemistry, maximizes the energy storage of flexible aqueous batteries. The new zinc–sulfur hybrid battery possesses merits of ultrahigh theoretical specific capacity (3350 mAh gS−1) and volumetric energy density (3868 Wh L−1), low cost, ecofriendliness, and ease of fabrication and is a promising next‐generation aqueous energy storage system. The fabricated flexible aqueous zinc–sulfur hybrid battery delivers a stable output voltage (release 92% of its full capacity within a small voltage drop of 0.15 V) and an ultrahigh reversible capacity of 2063 mAh gS−1 at 100 mA gS−1, thus setting a new benchmark for flexible aqueous batteries and is promising to play a part in future flexible electronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim is to evaluate pregnant women infected with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) and provide help for clinical prevention and treatment. All five cases of pregnant women confirmed COVID‐19 were collected among patients who admitted to the Maternal and Child Hospital of Hubei Province between January 20 and February 10, 2020. All patients, aging from 25 to 31 years old, had the gestational week from 38th weeks to 41st weeks. All pregnant women did not have an antepartum fever but developed a low‐grade fever (37.5℃‐38.5℃) within 24 hours after delivery. All patients had normal liver and renal function, two patients had elevated plasma levels of the myocardial enzyme. Unusual chest imaging manifestations, featured with ground‐grass opacity, were frequently observed in bilateral (three cases) or unilateral lobe (two cases) by computed tomography (CT) scan. All labors smoothly processed, the Apgar scores were 10 points 1 and 5 minutes after delivery, no complications were observed in the newborn. Pregnancy and perinatal outcomes of patients with COVID‐19 should receive more attention. It is probable that pregnant women diagnosed with COVID‐19 have no fever before delivery. Their primary initial manifestations were merely low‐grade postpartum fever or mild respiratory symptoms. Therefore, the protective measures are necessary on admission; the instant CT scan and real‐time reverse‐transcriptase polymerase‐chain‐reaction assay should be helpful in early diagnosis and avoid cross‐infection on the occasion that patients have fever and other respiratory signs. Highlights: Pregnant woman with COVID‐19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Benefiting from unique excellent physical and chemical characteristics, graphene has attracted widespread attention in the application of electrocatalysis. As a promising candidate, graphene is usually regulated with surface defects, heteroatoms, metal atoms and other active materials through covalent or non‐covalent bonds to substitute for noble metal catalysts, which has not been targeted in a report yet. In this review, we summarize the recent advances of approaches for engineering graphene‐based electrocatalysts and emphasize the corresponding electrocatalytic active sites in various electrocatalysis circumstances, such as electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), etc. The opportunities and challenges in the future development of graphene‐based catalysts are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emerging flexible electronic devices have stimulated the development of flexible batteries, in which flexible electrodes are indispensable components. Graphene, known for its excellent electrical conductivity and mechanical stability, can be used as an ideal flexible substrate. Recently, many efforts have been devoted to graphene‐based electrodes for flexible batteries. Herein, this review summarizes recent advances in the development of graphene‐based electrodes for various flexible batteries, including metal‐ion batteries (ions of Li, Na, Zn, Al, etc.), lithium‐sulfur batteries, and metal‐air batteries (Li‐ and Zn‐air batteries). Besides, major challenges and future developments of flexible batteries are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a distributed hierarchical consensus algorithm is proposed to solve the economic dispatch problem in smart grid. In the proposed hierarchical control strategy, the upper level is the leader level, which contains the feedback elements of power difference mismatch and plays a dominant role in the whole algorithm. The lower level is the follower level, which receives information from the leader level and realises self‐adjustment based on the received information. Besides, the constraint conditions of generator nodes are considered to ensure that all of the generator nodes could operate within their limitations. With the increase of the number of leader nodes, the high convergence rate could be illustrated by the comparison between single‐leader node and multi‐leader nodes. Finally, simulation results based on 5‐node network topology and IEEE‐57 bus systems are presented to verify the validity of the proposed algorithm, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The integration of distributed energy resources into a virtual power plant (VPP) can realise the scale merit. This study presents a novel approach for determining the optimal offering strategy of a VPP participating in the day‐ahead (DA), the spinning reserve (SR), and the real‐time (RT) markets. To hedge against multi‐stage uncertainties, the authors propose a robust mixed integer linear programming optimisation model that comprises four levels: (i) the optimal DA energy and reserve dispatch; (ii) the worst‐case realisation of uncertainties involved in DA market energy prices, SR market capacity prices, stochastic power production, and called balancing power; (iii) the optimal RT energy re‐dispatch; and (iv) the worst‐case realisation of uncertain RT market energy prices. Moreover, a tractable solution method based on strong duality theory and the column‐and‐constraint generation algorithm to solve the proposed four‐level formulation was developed. Finally, numerical results for a realistic case study demonstrate the efficiency and applicability of the proposed approach. The commercial benefits of this strategy are also evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Aim: To compare perinatal outcomes of dinoprostone for induced labor in pregnancies with a borderline versus normal amniotic fluid index (AFI) at term, and to investigate the related factors affecting outcomes of cesarean section. Methods: The retrospective study was carried out in Hubei Maternal and Child Health Hospital with singleton pregnancies of 37–42 weeks’ gestation from January to August 2016. A total of 992 subjects were divided into two groups: borderline AFI group (n =125) with 5 < AFI ≤ 8 and normal AFI group (n = 867) with 8 < AFI ≤ 24. Results: Time to delivery (P =0.004) and use of oxytocin augmentation (P = 0.011) were significantly lower in pregnancies with borderline AFI. There were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of delivery mode, time to onset of labor, fetal distress, Apgar scores, meconium‐stained amniotic fluid, birth weight, or incidences of admission to neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Gestational hypertension and birth weight were the major factors affecting outcomes of cesarean section in the borderline group (odds ratio [OR] = 13.61, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.96–94.49, P =0.008 and OR = 1.003, 95% CI 1.001–1.005, P =0.001, respectively). Maternal age (OR = 1.12, 95% CI 1.06–1.19, P < 0.001), parity (OR = 7.57, 95% CI 3.05–18.76, P < 0.001), biparietal diameter (OR = 0.55, 95% CI 0.33–0.91, P = 0.021), and meconium‐stained amniotic fluid (OR = 1.56, 95% CI 1.12–2.17, P = 0.009) were related factors in the normal group. Conclusion: The perinatal outcomes of dinoprostone for induced labor are comparable between the two groups. Gestational hypertension and birth weight are factors related to outcomes of cesarean section in the borderline group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing interdependence between electric power and natural‐gas systems requires integrated simulation tools applicable to the coupled system. Therefore, this study proposes steady‐state and transient simulation tools for electricity‐gas integrated energy systems (IESs) by using convex optimisation. Steady‐state IES simulation is designed for long‐term planning studies while transient IES simulation, which includes line‐pack storage, is designed for real‐time operational research. The proposed convex steady‐state gas flow model introduces binary variables to represent gas flow directions, and employs the second‐order cone (SOC) to relax non‐convex pipeline gas flow equations. As a result, steady‐state gas flow analysis is formulated as a mixed integer SOC programming problem. The proposed transient gas flow model employs the implicit finite difference method to transform partial differential equations into algebraic difference equations. Moreover, the short‐term gas flow directions are specified and SOC relaxations are used. Simulation results on an integrated IEEE 24‐node system and Belgian 20‐node gas system verify the effectiveness of the proposed SOC models. The impacts of wind power forecast errors on multi‐period gas network operations are also investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the extended Kalman filtering problem is discussed for fractional‐order non‐linear discrete system with Lévy noises. Two different approximating methods are proposed, respectively, one is to obtain the approximated system measurement noise firstly, then calculates the iterative state vector and measurement vector, the other one is to approximate state vector and measurement vector directly, which seems to be more efficient. Based on the proposed approximating methods, two novel fractional extended Kalman filter designing strategies are developed for fractional‐order non‐linear discrete system with Lévy noises, some detailed comparisons and discussions are presented to show that the obtained results are more general. Finally, some simulation results with necessary comparisons and discussions are given to illustrate the validity and correctness of the proposed methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts on geological topics which include the 2010 earthquake in Yushu, Tibet, the crustal flow beneath the Tibetan Plateau, and slip-rates at the Karakorum fault.

Zn-S Hybrid Batteries: Maximizing Energy Storage of Flexible Aqueous Batteries through Decoupling Charge Carriers (Adv. Decoupling charge carriers, flexible aqueous batteries, ultrahigh capacity, zinc-sulfur hybrid batteries Keywords: decoupling charge carriers; flexible aqueous batteries; ultrahigh capacity; zinc-sulfur hybrid batteries EN decoupling charge carriers flexible aqueous batteries ultrahigh capacity zinc-sulfur hybrid batteries 1 1 1 04/19/21 20210415 NES 210415 In article number 2003982, Zhipan Zhang, Liangti Qu, and co-workers decouple charge carriers in opposite electrodes to construct a new flexible aqueous Zn-S hybrid battery with ultrahigh specific capacity. [Extracted from the article]

Objective: To evaluate the association between patterns of gestational weight gain (GWG) and allergic diseases in offspring., Design: Prospective cohort study., Setting: Prenatal clinics in Wuhan, China., Population: A cohort of 2546 mother and offspring pairs were enrolled before 16 weeks of gestation and followed up to 24 months postpartum., Methods: Maternal body weights were measured regularly during pregnancy, and their GWG patterns were estimated using the growth mixture model. Robust Poisson models were used to evaluate relative risk (RR) and 95% CI after multivariable adjustment., Main Outcome Measures: Offspring atopic allergy and allergic contact dermatitis were defined according to a physician's diagnosis reported by the mother, and food allergy was reported by the mother., Results: Three GWG patterns were identified: 18.1% (461) of the women were described as pattern 1, characterised by rapid GWG earlier in pregnancy; 56.6% (1442) of the women were described as pattern 2, with steady GWG throughout pregnancy; and 25.3% (643) of the women was described as pattern 3, with rapid GWG later in pregnancy. By the age of 24 months, 360 (14.1%), 109 (4.3%) and 757 (29.7%) offspring had atopic allergy, allergic contact dermatitis or food allergy, respectively. Compared with women in GWG pattern 2, the RRs (95% CIs) among women in pattern 1 were 0.74 (0.55-0.99) for atopic allergy, 0.64 (0.36-1.15) for allergic contact dermatitis and 0.95 (0.81-1.12) for food allergy., Conclusions: Maternal GWG pattern characterised by rapid GWG earlier in pregnancy was associated with a lower risk of atopic allergy in offspring., (© 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)