Experiments were conducted to measure the suction volume of silver carp and bighead carp of age I + with respiratory chamber, and to calculate the suction volume and the filtering efficiency with respect to changes in concentrations of food particles.Suction volume (B, ml/mouth) and filtering efficiency (E, %) were calculated using the following formula:where C,,and C,were theconcentrationsofspecific food particlesat the beginningandattheendof experiment, respectively, Vwas thevolume (ml) ofexperimental water, and n was the total number of observation of suction made during the experimental period.The relationships between suction volume (ml/mouth) of age I + silver carp (Bh) and bighead carp (B,) and their standard lengths (L, cm) were: Bh=0.561L -8.94, Bn = 0'627L-7.48, while those of the fingerlings were: Bh =O. l70L -0.837, Ba =O. I57L -0.418.The suction volume of the fingerlings was mainly affected by fish size, the function of temperature between 15 and 25" C being negligible. However, temperature affected filtering rate (filtered volume per unit time) through its effect on filtering frequency. The filtering efficiency of the fishes for rotifers (Brachionus caliciflorus) was 100 per cent. The relationships between filtering efficiency and sizes of food particles smaller than or equal to that of a rotifer were:Eh=25.1 1nE.S.D-13.6, Eu=22.21n E.S.D.-33-1, where Eh and Ea were filtering efficiency of silver carp and bighead carp, respectively, and E.S.D. was the equivalent spherical diameter (pm) of food particles.

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ObjectivesTo investigate the associations between the overall burden of comorbidity, inflammatory indicators in plasma and Ct values among the elderly with COVID-19.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective observational study. The results of each nucleic acid test of during hospitalization were obtained. Linear regression models assessed the associations between the overall burden of comorbidity, inflammatory indicators in plasma and Ct values among the elderly. A causal mediation analysis was performed to assess the mediation effects of inflammatory indicators on the association between the overall burden of comorbidity and Ct values.ResultsA total of 767 COVID-19 patients aged ≥ 60 years were included between April 2022 and May 2022. Patients with a high burden of comorbidity had significantly lower Ct values of the ORF gene than subjects with a low burden of comorbidity (median, 24.81 VS 26.58, P < 0.05). Linear regression models showed that a high burden of comorbidity was significantly associated with higher inflammatory responses, including white blood cell count, neutrophil count and C-reactive protein. Also, white blood cell count, neutrophil count, C-reactive protein and the overall burden of comorbidity assessed by age-adjusted Charlson comorbidity index were independent risk factors for the Ct values. A mediation analysis detected the mediation effect of white blood cells on the association between the burden of comorbidity and Ct values, with the indirect effect estimates of 0.381 (95% CI: 0.166, 0.632, P < 0.001). Similarly, the indirect effect of C-reactive protein was -0.307 (95% CI: -0.645, -0.064, P = 0.034). White blood cells and C-reactive protein significantly mediated the relationship between the burden of comorbidity and Ct values by 29.56% and 18.13% of the total effect size, respectively.ConclusionsInflammation mediated the association between the overall burden of comorbidity and Ct values among elderly with COVID-19, which suggests that combined immunomodulatory therapies could reduce the Ct values for such patients with a high burden of comorbidity.