BackgroundSeveral COVID-19 vaccines are in widespread use in China. Few data exist on comparative immunogenicity of different COVID-19 vaccines given as booster doses. We aimed to assess neutralizing antibody levels raised by injectable and inhaled aerosolized recombinant adenovirus type 5 (Ad5)-vectored COVID-19 vaccine as a heterologous booster after an inactivated COVID-19 vaccine two-dose primary series.MethodsUsing an open-label prospective cohort design, we recruited 136 individuals who had received inactivated vaccine primary series followed by either injectable or inhaled Ad5-vectored vaccine and measured neutralizing antibody titers against ancestral SARS-CoV-2 virus and Omicron BA.1 and BA.5 variants. We also measured neutralizing antibody levels in convalescent sera from 39 patients who recovered from Omicron BA.2 infection.ResultsSix months after primary series vaccination, neutralizing immunity against ancestral SARS-CoV-2 was low and neutralizing immunity against Omicron (B.1.1.529) was lower. Boosting with Ad5-vectored vaccines induced a high immune response against ancestral SARS-CoV-2. Neutralizing responses against Omicron BA.5 were ≥ 80% lower than against ancestral SARS-CoV-2 in sera from prime-boost subjects and in convalescent sera from survivors of Omicron BA.2 infection. Inhaled aerosolized Ad5-vectored vaccine was associated with greater neutralizing titers than injectable Ad5-vectored vaccine against ancestral and Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variants.ConclusionsThese findings support the current strategy of heterologous boosting with injectable or inhaled Ad5-vectored SARS-CoV-2 vaccination of individuals primed with inactivated COVID-19 vaccine.

A theoretical scheme is proposed to generate significant amount of photon-phonon entanglement and asymmetric steering in a cavity magnomechanical system, which is constituted by trapping a yttrium iron garnet sphere in a microwave cavity. By applying a blue-detuned microwave driving field, we obtain an effective Hamiltonian where the magnon mode acting as an engineered resevoir cools the Bogoliubov modes of microwave cavity mode and mechanical mode via a beam-splitter-like interaction. By this means, the microwave cavity mode and mechanical mode can be driven to a two-mode squeezed state in the stationary limit. Particularly, strong two-way and one-way photon-phonon asymmetric quantum steering can be obtained with even equal dissipation. It is widely divergent with the conventional proposal, where additional unbalanced losses or noises should be imposed on the two subsystems. Our finding may be significant to expand our understanding of the essential physics of asymmetric steering and extend the potential application of the cavity spintronics to device-independent quantum key distribution.

PurposeTo observe long-term prognosis of anterior segment ischemia (ASI) following hyaluronic acid (HA) injection, propose a severity grading system for ASI and a predictive model for phthisis bulbi (PB) based on long-term secretion dysfunction of ciliary process.MethodsThis is a retrospective case–control study. All enrolled 20 patients were divided into two groups and followed for at least 6 months to observe the formation and transformation characteristics of ASI and long-term prognosis based on the degrees of ciliary function damage.ResultsThe severity of ASI following HA injection could be subdivided into 4 grades according to the degrees of ciliary function damage, comprising ASI grades 0, 1, 2 and 3. In 20 patients, ophthalmoplegia at 1-month follow-up, ASI within 1 month, ASI at 1-month follow-up, hypotony within 6 months were all significantly more common in study group than in control group (60% vs. 0%, P = 0.011; 100% vs. 20%, P = 0.001; 100% vs. 0%, P < 0.001; 80% vs. 0%, P = 0.001, respectively). Sensitivity, specificity and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for predicting subsequent PB at 2-year follow-up through the co-occurrence of ophthalmoplegia at 1-month follow-up and hypotony within 6 months was 100%, 100% and 1.00, respectively.ConclusionsThe new grading system for ASI and novel predictive model for PB we proposed could predict the long-term prognosis and probability of subsequent PB due to ASI following HA injection through several dynamic assessments within 6 months.Level of EvidenceLevel IV, observational prognostic study.

Nonlinear electric conductance of reinforced insulation can homogenize electric field distribution and suppress local electric field distortion inside high-voltage direct current cable accessories. To achieve a significant nonlinear electric conductance in ethylene–propylene–diene misch–polymere (EPDM) used for reinforced insulation of cable accessories, the inorganic micron crystal powder of calcium copper titanate (CCTO) is synthesized by the sol–gel method, which is filled into EPDM to prepare 5∼15 wt% CCTO/EPDM composites by melting blend and hot-press molding methods. Microscopic structure, electric conductivity, direct current (DC) dielectric breakdown strength, and charge trap characteristics of CCTO/EPDM composites are tested to reveal the underlying derivation of electric conduction nonlinearity. Scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD) demonstrate that CCTO micron fillers are uniformly dispersed in the EPDM matrix. Dielectric breakdown strength of CCTO/EPDM composites gradually decreases with the increase in CCTO content while persisting qualified for electrical insulation of DC cable accessories. CCTO crystal macron fillers introduce shallower charge traps than the intrinsic charge traps derived from the structural defect EPDM matrix, which initiates the percolating conductive channels between charge traps under high electric fields, accounting for the significant nonlinearity in the profile of electric current density versus electric field strength. Finite-element simulations and analyses on the electrostatic field in DC cable terminals prove that employing 15 wt% CCTO/EPDM composite as reinforced insulation can efficiently homogenize the electric field at the interface between the main insulation and accessory insulation of power cables, which is of great interest to develop insulation materials used for DC cable accessories in severe environments.