Bronchial hyperresponsiveness (BHR) is a typical feature of asthma, and is, at least in part, related to the chronic inflammation. Allergen exposure is a major trigger and cause of allergic inflammation. The possible relationship between the degree of bronchial reactivity and the number of positive skin test was studied. One hundred and one patients with allergic asthma (and rhinitis) underwent skin-prick tests and methacholine bronchial challenge according to standard protocols. No significant relation was found between the degree of BHR and age or sex. Conversely, it was found that the number of positive skin tests correlated well with the degree of BHR (p = 0.046); in particular, those patients with three or more sensitivities showed greater bronchial reactivity. The present data support the hypothesis that allergic polysensitized patients may exhibit greater bronchial hyperresponsiveness, possibly due to an enhanced inflammatory component related to the exposure to multiple allergens.
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Viruses
December 2024
Foundation Plant Services, University of California-Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
Among the cultivated crop species, the economically and culturally important grapevine plays host to the greatest number of distinctly characterized viruses. A critical component of the management and containment of these viral diseases in grapevine is both the identification of infected vines and the characterization of new pathogens. Next-generation high-throughput sequencing technologies, i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough the highlands of East Africa lack the geo-ecological landmarks of Rift Valley fever (RVF) disease hotspots to participate in cyclic RVF epidemics, they have recently reported growing numbers of small RVF clusters. Here, we investigated whether RVF cycling occurred among livestock and humans in the central highlands of Kenya during inter-epidemic periods. A 2-year prospective hospital-based study among febrile patients (March 2022-February 2024) in Murang'a County of Kenya was followed by a cross-sectional human-animal survey.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSensors (Basel)
December 2024
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T 5V6, Canada.
This paper presents a lens-free imaging approach utilizing an array of light sources, capable of measuring the dielectric properties of many particles simultaneously. This method employs coplanar electrodes to induce velocity changes in flowing particles through dielectrophoretic forces, allowing the inference of individual particle properties from differential velocity changes. Both positive and negative forces are detectable.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSensors (Basel)
December 2024
School of Computing Sciences, University of East Anglia (UEA), Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK.
Monitoring animal populations is crucial for assessing the health of ecosystems. Traditional methods, which require extensive fieldwork, are increasingly being supplemented by time-lapse camera-trap imagery combined with an automatic analysis of the image data. The latter usually involves some object detector aimed at detecting relevant targets (commonly animals) in each image, followed by some postprocessing to gather activity and population data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlants (Basel)
December 2024
College of Life Sciences, Xinjiang Normal University, Urumqi 830017, China.
Exploring the elevation distribution characteristics, biomass allocation strategies, and the effects of elevation, soil factors, and functional traits on the biomass of (Gand.) Holub is of great significance for the production, development, utilization, and protection of the medicinal material resources. In this study, we investigated the biomass and functional traits of the root, stem, leaf, and flower of , analyzing their elevation distribution patterns, allometric growth trajectories, and their correlations.
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