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Understanding ecological niches of major tick species and prevalent tick-borne pathogens is crucial for efficient surveillance and control of tick-borne diseases. Here we provide an up-to-date review on the spatial distributions of ticks and tick-borne pathogens in China. We map at the county level 124 tick species, 103 tick-borne agents, and human cases infected with 29 species (subspecies) of tick-borne pathogens that were reported in China during 1950−2018. Haemaphysalis longicornis is found to harbor the highest variety of tick-borne agents, followed by Ixodes persulcatus , Dermacentor nutalli and Rhipicephalus microplus . Using a machine learning algorithm, we assess ecoclimatic and socioenvironmental drivers for the distributions of 19 predominant vector ticks and two tick-borne pathogens associated with the highest disease burden. The model-predicted suitable habitats for the 19 tick species are 14‒476% larger in size than the geographic areas where these species were detected, indicating severe under-detection. Tick species harboring pathogens of imminent threats to public health should be prioritized for more active field surveillance. Ticks are an important vector of disease in China, posing threats to humans, livestock and wild animals. Here, Zhao et al. compile a database of the distributions of the 124 tick species known in China and 103 tick-borne pathogens and predict the additional suitable habitats for the predominant vector species.

The geographic expansion of mosquitos is associated with a rising frequency of outbreaks of mosquito-borne diseases (MBD) worldwide. We collected occurrence locations and times of mosquito species, mosquito-borne arboviruses, and MBDs in the mainland of China in 1954−2020. We mapped the spatial distributions of mosquitoes and arboviruses at the county level, and we used machine learning algorithms to assess contributions of ecoclimatic, socioenvironmental, and biological factors to the spatial distributions of 26 predominant mosquito species and two MBDs associated with high disease burden. Altogether, 339 mosquito species and 35 arboviruses were mapped at the county level. Culex tritaeniorhynchus is found to harbor the highest variety of arboviruses (19 species), followed by Anopheles sinensis (11) and Culex pipiens quinquefasciatus (9). Temperature seasonality, annual precipitation, and mammalian richness were the three most important contributors to the spatial distributions of most of the 26 predominant mosquito species. The model-predicted suitable habitats are 60–664% larger in size than what have been observed, indicating the possibility of severe under-detection. The spatial distribution of major mosquito species in China is likely to be under-estimated by current field observations. More active surveillance is needed to investigate the mosquito species in specific areas where investigation is missing but model-predicted probability is high.

Mite-borne diseases, such as scrub typhus and hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, present an increasing global public health concern. Most of the mite-borne diseases are caused by the blood-sucking mites. To present a comprehensive understanding of the distributions and diversity of blood-sucking mites in China, we derived information from peer-reviewed journal articles, thesis publications and books related to mites in both Chinese and English between 1978 and 2020. Geographic information of blood-sucking mites’ occurrence and mite species were extracted and georeferenced at the county level. Standard operating procedures were applied to remove duplicates and ensure accuracy of the data. This dataset contains 6,443 records of mite species occurrences at the county level in China. This geographical dataset provides an overview of the species diversity and wide distributions of blood-sucking mites, and can potentially be used in distribution prediction of mite species and risk assessment of mite-borne diseases in China. Measurement(s) Distribution Technology Type(s) digital curation • Geographic Information System Factor Type(s) genus • species • province • city • county • GPS Sample Characteristic - Organism mite • Acari Sample Characteristic - Location China Machine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.14459055

Healthcare workers (HCWs) worldwide are putting themselves at high risks of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) by treating a large number of patients while lacking protective equipment. We aim to provide a scientific basis for preventing and controlling the COVID-19 infection among HCWs. We used data on COVID-19 cases in the city of Wuhan to compare epidemiological characteristics between HCWs and non-HCWs and explored the risk factors for infection and deterioration among HCWs based on hospital settings. The attack rate (AR) of HCWs in the hospital can reach up to 11.9% in Wuhan. The time interval from symptom onset to diagnosis in HCWs and non-HCWs dropped rapidly over time. From mid-January, the median time interval of HCW cases was significantly shorter than in non-HCW cases. Cases of HCWs and non-HCWs both clustered in northwestern urban districts rather than in rural districts. HCWs working in county-level hospitals in high-risk areas were more vulnerable to COVID-19. HCW cases working in general, ophthalmology, and respiratory departments were prone to deteriorate compared with cases working in the infection department. The AR of COVID-19 in HCWs are higher than in non-HCWs. Multiple factors in hospital settings may play important roles in the transmission of COVID-19. Effective measures should be enhanced to prevent HCWs from COVID-19 infection.

Bacillus megaterium, a Gram-positive, aerobic, spore-forming, rod-shaped bacterium, has been found in widely diverse habitats and has been widely used as a source of recombinant protein in the industry. With a cell length of up to 4 lain and a diameter of 1.5 μm, B. megaterium belongs to one of the largest known bacteria.

Background：The crush and the culotte stenting were both reported to be effective for complex bifurcation lesion treatment.However,their comparative performance remains elusive.Methods：A total of 300 patients with coronary bifurcation lesions were randomly assigned to crush （n =150） and culotte （n =150） treatment.The primary endpoint was the occurrence of major adverse cardiac events （MACEs） at 12 months including cardiac death,myocardial infarction,stent thrombosis,and target vessel revascularization.Index lesion restenosis at 12 months was a secondary endpoint.The surface integrals of time-averaged wall shear stress at bifurcation sites were also be quantified.Results：There were no significant differences in MACE rates between the two groups at 12-month follow-up：Crush 6.7%,culotte 5.3% （P =0.48）.The rates of index lesion restenosis were 12.7% versus 6.0% （P =0.047） in the crush and the culotte groups,respectively.At 12-month follow-up,the surface integrals of time-averaged wall shear stress at bifurcation sites in the crush group were significantly lower than the culotte group （[5.01 ± 0.95] × 10^-4 Newton and [6.08 ± 1.16] × 10^-4 Newton,respectively;P =0.003）.Conclusions：Both the crush and the culotte bifurcation stenting techniques showed satisfying clinical and angiographic results at 12-month follow-up.Bifurcation lesions treated with the culotte technique tended to have lower restenosis rates and more favorable flow patterns.

Vision localization methods have been widely used in the motion estimation of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The noise of the vision location result is usually modeled as a white Gaussian noise so that this location result could be utilized as the observation vector in the Kalman filter to estimate the motion of the vehicle. Since the noise of the vision location result is affected by external environment, the variance of the noise is uncertain. However, in previous researches, the variance is usually set as a fixed empirical value, which will lower the accuracy of the motion estimation. The main contribution of this paper is that we proposed a novel adaptive noise variance identification (ANVI) method, which utilizes the special kinematic properties of the UAV for frequency analysis and then adaptively identifies the variance of the noise. The adaptively identified variance is used in the Kalman filter for more accurate motion estimation. The performance of the proposed method is assessed by simulations and field experiments on a quadrotor system. The results illustrate the effectiveness of the method.

Asymmetric hydrogenation of α-keto Weinreb amides has been realized with [Ru(( S )-Sunphos)(benzene)Cl]Cl as the catalyst and CeCl 3 ·7H 2 O as the additive. A series of enantiopure α-hydroxy Weinreb amides (up to 97% ee) have been obtained. Catalytic amount of CeCl 3 ·7H 2 O is essential for the high reactivity and enantioselectivity and the ratio of CeCl 3 ·7H 2 O to [Ru(( S )-Sunphos)(benzene)Cl]Cl plays an important role in the hydrogenation reaction.

Current research on vanadium oxides in lithium ion batteries （LIBs） considers them as cathode materials, whereas they are rarely studied for use as anodes in LIBs because of their low electrical conductivity and rapid capacity fading. In this work, hydrogenated vanadium oxide nanoneedles were prepared and incorporated into freeze-dried graphene foam. The hydrogenated vanadium oxides show greatly improved charge-transfer kinetics, which lead to excellent electrochemical properties. When tested as anode materials （0.005-3.0 V vs. Li/Li＋） in LIBs, the sample activated at 600℃ exhibits high specific capacity （-941 mA-h-g-1 at 100 mA.g-1） and high-rate capability （-504 mA·h·g-1 at 5 A·g-1）, as well as excellent cycling performance （-285 mA.h.g-1 in the 1,000th cycle at 5A-g-1）. These results demonstrate the promising application of vanadium oxides as anodes in LIBs.

Bacteria preferentially accumulating in tumor microenvironments can be utilized as natural vehicles for tumor targeting. However, neither current chemical nor genetic approaches alone can fully satisfy the requirements on both stability and high efficiency. Here, we propose a strategy of “charging” bacteria with a nano-photocatalyst to strengthen their metabolic activities. Carbon nitride (C 3 N 4 ) is combined with Escherichia coli ( E. coli ) carrying nitric oxide (NO) generation enzymes for photo-controlled bacterial metabolite therapy (PMT). Under light irradiation, photoelectrons produced by C 3 N 4 can be transferred to E. coli to promote the enzymatic reduction of endogenous NO 3 – to cytotoxic NO with a 37-fold increase. In a mouse model, C 3 N 4 loaded bacteria are perfectly accumulated throughout the tumor and the PMT treatment results in around 80% inhibition of tumor growth. Thus, synthetic materials-remodeled microorganism may be used to regulate focal microenvironments and increase therapeutic efficiency. Targeting tumors with bacteria as vehicles for metabolite therapy suffers from low efficiency and robustness. Here, the authors combine carbon nitride with nitric oxide generation enzyme-positive E. coli for photo-controlled metabolite therapy (PMT) and observe increased effects both in vitro and in tumor-bearing mice.