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Background and Objectives Materials and Methods Results Conclusion An extra health screening, including glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c), total cholesterol (TC) and low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL‐C), was initiated for regular donors aged over 40 in Taiwan in November 2015. This study aimed to determine its benefits on donor health management and retention.A stratified random mail survey was conducted among donors who received HbA1c, TC and LDL‐C screening between November 2015 and June 2017 to investigate their awareness of the screening, medical histories and post‐screening behaviours. Their subsequent screening results and donation records from 3 years before and after the initial screening were obtained up to December 2021.In total, 2070 donors participated in the mail survey, with participation rates ranging 15.7%–23.2% across study groups. The screening newly detected hyperglycaemia in 1.6% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.2%–2.0%) and hyperlipidaemia in 1.0% (95% CI: 0.7%–1.4%) of participants, with 42.7% (95% CI: 40.3%–45.2%) of participants unaware of the screening. Participants with initially abnormal or borderline TC or LDL‐C results showed significant decreases in the subsequent screening (all p values<0.05). No difference was found in participants' awareness of the screening. However, those who sought medical consultation or made specific lifestyle changes tended to show greater improvements. Awareness of the screening was associated with increased whole blood donations and donated units.The extra health screening has limited benefits for donor health management without additional interventions, but it may motivate donors to donate more frequently. Raising donors' awareness of the screening is also crucial to maximize its benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, Sato et al. proposed an public verifiable blind quantum computation (BQC) protocol by inserting a third-party arbiter. However, it is not true public verifiable in a sense, because the arbiter is determined in advance and participates in the whole process. In this paper, a public verifiable protocol for measurement-only BQC is proposed. The fidelity between arbitrary states and the graph states of 2-colorable graphs is estimated by measuring the entanglement witnesses of the graph states, so as to verify the correctness of the prepared graph states. Compared with the previous protocol, our protocol is public verifiable in the true sense by allowing other random clients to execute the public verification. It also has greater advantages in the efficiency, where the number of local measurements is O (n 3 log n) and graph states' copies is O (n 2 log n) . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The effects of age at HBsAg seroclearance on clinical outcomes and survival in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) have not been adequately assessed. We evaluated the impact of age at HBsAg seroclearance on long-term outcomes, along with how coexisting factors modified risks and life expectancy in CHB patients.We used multi-state modeling approach to examine transitions through the CHB continuum in a longitudinal cohort study of male civil servants recruited in 1989–1992. Hepatic outcomes and deaths were identified by clinical evaluation and linkage with national health databases. Four sets of risk factors (CHB-related, metabolic, lifestyle, and genetic factors) were assessed.Of 2551 HBsAg carriers, with follow-up until 2021 or death, 695 achieved HBsAg seroclearance, 490 developed cirrhosis (88 decompensated), 252 developed hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and 652 died. The cumulative rates for HCC were 1.1% and 1.5% at 10 years after HBsAg seroclearance, respectively, for patients achieving seroclearance at age 50 and 60; correspondingly, the rates for cirrhosis were 2.3% and 3.0%. Developing HBsAg seroclearance was associated with a reduced risk of cirrhosis (HR = 0.37, 95% CI 0.15–0.92) but not HCC. Patients experiencing HBsAg seroclearance lived longer years free of major liver diseases than HBsAg-persistent patients, and achieving seroclearance at age 50 (vs 60) led to a greater increase in the disease-free life expectancy. However, obesity and smoking were associated with adverse hepatic outcomes and loss of the disease-free life expectancy following HBsAg seroclearance.Our findings highlight the benefit of earlier HBsAg seroclearance for gains in disease-free life expectancy and the impact of obesity and smoking on loss of the life years free of major liver diseases following HBsAg seroclearance.Methods: The effects of age at HBsAg seroclearance on clinical outcomes and survival in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) have not been adequately assessed. We evaluated the impact of age at HBsAg seroclearance on long-term outcomes, along with how coexisting factors modified risks and life expectancy in CHB patients.We used multi-state modeling approach to examine transitions through the CHB continuum in a longitudinal cohort study of male civil servants recruited in 1989–1992. Hepatic outcomes and deaths were identified by clinical evaluation and linkage with national health databases. Four sets of risk factors (CHB-related, metabolic, lifestyle, and genetic factors) were assessed.Of 2551 HBsAg carriers, with follow-up until 2021 or death, 695 achieved HBsAg seroclearance, 490 developed cirrhosis (88 decompensated), 252 developed hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and 652 died. The cumulative rates for HCC were 1.1% and 1.5% at 10 years after HBsAg seroclearance, respectively, for patients achieving seroclearance at age 50 and 60; correspondingly, the rates for cirrhosis were 2.3% and 3.0%. Developing HBsAg seroclearance was associated with a reduced risk of cirrhosis (HR = 0.37, 95% CI 0.15–0.92) but not HCC. Patients experiencing HBsAg seroclearance lived longer years free of major liver diseases than HBsAg-persistent patients, and achieving seroclearance at age 50 (vs 60) led to a greater increase in the disease-free life expectancy. However, obesity and smoking were associated with adverse hepatic outcomes and loss of the disease-free life expectancy following HBsAg seroclearance.Our findings highlight the benefit of earlier HBsAg seroclearance for gains in disease-free life expectancy and the impact of obesity and smoking on loss of the life years free of major liver diseases following HBsAg seroclearance.Results: The effects of age at HBsAg seroclearance on clinical outcomes and survival in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) have not been adequately assessed. We evaluated the impact of age at HBsAg seroclearance on long-term outcomes, along with how coexisting factors modified risks and life expectancy in CHB patients.We used multi-state modeling approach to examine transitions through the CHB continuum in a longitudinal cohort study of male civil servants recruited in 1989–1992. Hepatic outcomes and deaths were identified by clinical evaluation and linkage with national health databases. Four sets of risk factors (CHB-related, metabolic, lifestyle, and genetic factors) were assessed.Of 2551 HBsAg carriers, with follow-up until 2021 or death, 695 achieved HBsAg seroclearance, 490 developed cirrhosis (88 decompensated), 252 developed hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and 652 died. The cumulative rates for HCC were 1.1% and 1.5% at 10 years after HBsAg seroclearance, respectively, for patients achieving seroclearance at age 50 and 60; correspondingly, the rates for cirrhosis were 2.3% and 3.0%. Developing HBsAg seroclearance was associated with a reduced risk of cirrhosis (HR = 0.37, 95% CI 0.15–0.92) but not HCC. Patients experiencing HBsAg seroclearance lived longer years free of major liver diseases than HBsAg-persistent patients, and achieving seroclearance at age 50 (vs 60) led to a greater increase in the disease-free life expectancy. However, obesity and smoking were associated with adverse hepatic outcomes and loss of the disease-free life expectancy following HBsAg seroclearance.Our findings highlight the benefit of earlier HBsAg seroclearance for gains in disease-free life expectancy and the impact of obesity and smoking on loss of the life years free of major liver diseases following HBsAg seroclearance.Conclusions: The effects of age at HBsAg seroclearance on clinical outcomes and survival in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) have not been adequately assessed. We evaluated the impact of age at HBsAg seroclearance on long-term outcomes, along with how coexisting factors modified risks and life expectancy in CHB patients.We used multi-state modeling approach to examine transitions through the CHB continuum in a longitudinal cohort study of male civil servants recruited in 1989–1992. Hepatic outcomes and deaths were identified by clinical evaluation and linkage with national health databases. Four sets of risk factors (CHB-related, metabolic, lifestyle, and genetic factors) were assessed.Of 2551 HBsAg carriers, with follow-up until 2021 or death, 695 achieved HBsAg seroclearance, 490 developed cirrhosis (88 decompensated), 252 developed hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and 652 died. The cumulative rates for HCC were 1.1% and 1.5% at 10 years after HBsAg seroclearance, respectively, for patients achieving seroclearance at age 50 and 60; correspondingly, the rates for cirrhosis were 2.3% and 3.0%. Developing HBsAg seroclearance was associated with a reduced risk of cirrhosis (HR = 0.37, 95% CI 0.15–0.92) but not HCC. Patients experiencing HBsAg seroclearance lived longer years free of major liver diseases than HBsAg-persistent patients, and achieving seroclearance at age 50 (vs 60) led to a greater increase in the disease-free life expectancy. However, obesity and smoking were associated with adverse hepatic outcomes and loss of the disease-free life expectancy following HBsAg seroclearance.Our findings highlight the benefit of earlier HBsAg seroclearance for gains in disease-free life expectancy and the impact of obesity and smoking on loss of the life years free of major liver diseases following HBsAg seroclearance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Applying deep learning, especially time series neural network, to stock market prediction, has become one of the important applications in the quantitative finance field. However, due to the multi-correlation and volatility of the stock market, how to timely and accurately predict it has become a challenging issue. In order to cope with this challenge, a news-driven stock market index prediction model based on TrellisNet and a sentiment attention mechanism (SA-TrellisNet) is proposed. A sentiment analysis model based on CNN and LSTM is presented to obtain the sentiment index of massive news crawled from authoritative financial websites. Furthermore, a sentiment attention mechanism is designed for data fusion of stock data and news sentiment index as the input of the simple and efficient TrellisNet network for model training and prediction. The performance of our model is systematically evaluated using seven major international stock market indices including S&P500, NYSE, DJI, NASDAQ, FTSE 100, Nikkei 225 and SSE, and comparative experiments demonstrate that SA-TrellisNet is competitive to the other state-of-the-art methods in predicting stock market indices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time series forecasting provides a vital basis for the control and management of various systems. The time series data in the real world are usually strongly nonstationary and nonlinear, which increases the difficulty of reliable forecasting. To fully utilize the learning capability of machine learning in time series forecasting, an adaptive broad echo state network (ABESN) is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the broad learning system (BLS) is used as a framework, and the reservoir pools in the echo state network (ESN) are introduced to form the broad echo state network (BESN). Secondly, for the problem of information redundancy in the reservoir structure in BESN, an adaptive optimization algorithm for the BESN structure based on the pruning algorithm is proposed. Thirdly, an adaptive optimization algorithm of hyperparameters based on the nonstationary test index is proposed. In brief, the structure and hyperparameter optimization algorithms are studied to form the ABESN based on the proposed BESN model in this paper. The ABESN is applied to the data forecasting of air humidity and electric load. The experiments show that the proposed ABESN has a better learning ability for nonstationary time series data and can achieve higher forecasting accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, Liu and Yin (Int. J. Theor. Phys. 60, 2074-2083 (2021)) proposed a two-party private set intersection protocol based on quantum Fourier transform. We find the participant can deduce the other party’s private information, which violates the security requirement of private set computation. In order to solve this problem, an improved private set intersection protocol based on Hadamard gate is proposed. Firstly, the more feasible Hadamard gates are used to perform on the original n qubits instead of the quantum Fourier transform, which may reduce the difficulty of implementation. In addition, through the exclusive OR calculation, the participant’s private information is randomly chosen and encoded on the additional n qubits, which prevents participants from obtaining the result of the difference set Sdiff, and then avoids the internal leakage of private information. Finally, the correctness and security analysis are conducted to show the proposed protocol can guarantee the correctness of computation result as well as resist outside attacks and participant internal attacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zebrafish models were used to study the bioactivity of compound B 1 b , which showed that this cyclopeptide had good angiogenic and antiepileptic effects. 2, compound B 1 b pretreatment of PTZ-induced seizures in zebrafish can reduce excessive movement, speed of movement, and total distance of movement. The isolated compounds were identified through NMR data analysis and high-resolution mass spectrometry as cyclo(L-Pro-D-Tyr) ( B 1 b ), lumichrome ( B 2 b ), 4-hydroxyphenylacetic acid ( B 3 b ), 3-indolcarbaldehyde ( B 4 b ), indole-3-carboxylic acid ( B 5 b ), indole-2,3-dione ( B 6 b ), I p i -hydroxybenzaldehyde ( B 7 b ), and I N i -(phenylmethyl)carbamic acid ( B 8 b ). Fraction 8 (128.2 mg) was similarly purified by HPLC (H SB 2 sb O-MeOH, 50:50) to obtain three fractions (Fr. 8-1 (13.3 mg), Fraction 8-2 (compound B 3 b , 36.0 mg), and Fr. 8-3 (21.2 mg). [Extracted from the article]

Privacy-preserving price e-negotiation (3PEN) is an important topic of secure multi-party computation (SMC) in the electronic commerce field, and the key point of its security is to guarantee the privacy of seller's and buyer's prices. In this study, a novel and efficient quantum solution to the 3PEN problem is proposed, where the oracle operation and the qubit comparator are utilized to obtain the comparative results of buyer's and seller's prices, and then quantum counting is executed to summarize the total number of products which meets the trading conditions. Analysis shows that our solution not only guarantees the correctness and the privacy of 3PEN, but also has lower communication complexity than those classical ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract A novel triple glazing vacuum-water flow window combining the advantages of water medium window and vacuum glazing is proposed in the current study. Its thermal performance as compared to double glazing water flow window was analyzed numerically under various climates. The application of an evacuated gap is proven quite effective in reducing heat flow through the window. In typical cities with cold, hot summer cold winter, and hot summer warm winter climates, room heat gains through the window can be reduced by 43%, 44% and 42% during cooling operation. The contribution is more significant under stronger solar radiation condition. In heating operation, warm water supply is beneficial in reducing room heat loss through the window. Heat loss to ambient from the warm water layer is lessened and heat transfer inward to room space can be enhanced with thermal insulation of the evacuated gap. The benefit of active heating with warm water and evacuated gap insulation is more significant in climate with lower ambient temperature and larger heating demand. Stabilizing the inner glazing temperature and improving the indoor thermal comfort level is another advantage of the evacuated gap insulation. Highlights • Evacuated gap is added to water flow window to enhance thermal insulation. • Its advantages in building energy saving were analyzed numerically. • Heat flow through the window is lessened and useful water heat gain can be increased. • The inner glazing temperature is more stable. • The proper warm water temperature should be determined in heating operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New thoughts are warranted to develop efficient diagnosis and optimal therapeutics to combat unstable angina (UA)/myocardial infarction (MI). Therefore, the gene data of patients with UA or MI were used in this study to identify the optimal pathways which can provide comprehensive information for UA/MI development. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between UA and MI were detected using LIMMA package, and pathway enrichment analysis was conducted for the DEGs, based on the DAVID tool, to detect the significant pathways. Then, differential co-expression network (DCN) and sub-DCN for the DEGs were constructed. Subsequently, informative pathways were extracted using guilt-by-association (GBA) principle relying on the area under the curve (AUC), and the pathway categories with AUC >0.8 were defined as the informative pathways. Finally, we selected the optimal pathways based on the traditional pathway analysis and the sub-DCN-based-GBA pathway prediction method. A total of 203 and 266 DEGs were identified from the expression profile of blood of MI samples comparing with UAs in the time-point 1 and time-point 2 groups. Moreover, 7 and 10 informative pathway terms were identified based on AUC>0.8. Significantly, cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, as well as MAPK signaling pathway were the common optimal pathways in the two groups. Calcium signaling pathway was unique to the whole blood of patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) taken at 30 days post-ACS. In conclusion, the optimal pathways (MAPK signaling pathway, cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, and calcium signaling pathway) might play important roles in the progression of UA/MI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The soil above the water table is considered as elastic superstrata, and the soil below the water is regarded as a multilayered saturated soil with anisotropic permeability. The analytical layer element method is applied to obtain the fundamental solution of the soils, and the finite element method is used to solve the Timoshenko or non-uniform beam. Taking a Laplace transformation for the global matrix equation of the beam, the coupling equations for the soil–beam interaction are derived in the Laplace transformed domain by considering the displacement harmony conditions. By solving the coupling equations, the solution in the transformed domain can be achieved. With the aid of Laplace inverse transformation, the solution in the physical domain is obtained. Finally, the influence of the consolidation time and the thickness of the elastic superstrata as well as the application of varying cross-sections on the quasi-static interaction between the beams and the soils are investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two quantum key agreement protocols using Bell states and Bell measurement were recently proposed by Shukla et al. (Quantum Inf. Process. 13(11), 2391-2405, 2014). However, Zhu et al. pointed out that there are some security flaws and proposed an improved version (Quantum Inf. Process. 14(11), 4245-4254, 2015). In this study, we will show Zhu et al.'s improvement still exists some security problems, and its efficiency is not high enough. For solving these problems, we utilize four Pauli operations { I, Z, X, Y} to encode two bits instead of the original two operations { I, X} to encode one bit, and then propose an efficient and secure arbitrary N-party quantum key agreement protocol. In the protocol, the channel checking with decoy single photons is introduced to avoid the eavesdropper's flip attack, and a post-measurement mechanism is used to prevent against the collusion attack. The security analysis shows the present protocol can guarantee the correctness, security, privacy and fairness of quantum key agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Neutrophils are important participants in the innate immune response. They rapidly and efficiently identify and clear infectious agents by expressing large numbers of membrane receptors. Upon tissue injury or pathogen invasion, neutrophils are the first immune cells to reach the site of injury and participate in the inflammatory response. Materials and methods: A thorough search on PubMed related to neutrophil death or clearance pathways was performed. Conclusion: Inflammatory response and tissue damage can be aggravated when neutrophils are not removed rapidly from the site of injury. Recent studies have shown that neutrophils can be cleared through a variety of pathways, including non-inflammatory and inflammatory death, as well as reverse migration. Non-inflammatory death pathways include apoptosis and autophagy. Inflammatory death pathways include necroptosis, pyroptosis and NETosis. This review highlights the basic properties of neutrophils and the impact of their clearance pathways on the inflammatory response. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A multi-party semi-quantum key agreement (SQKA) protocol based on delegating quantum computation (DQC) model is proposed by taking Bell states as quantum resources. In the proposed protocol, the participants only need the ability of accessing quantum channel and preparing single photons {|0〉, |1〉, |+〉, |−〉}, while the complicated quantum operations, such as the unitary operations and Bell measurement, will be delegated to the remote quantum center. Compared with previous quantum key agreement protocols, this client-server model is more feasible in the early days of the emergence of quantum computers. In order to prevent the attacks from outside eavesdroppers, inner participants and quantum center, two single photon sequences are randomly inserted into Bell states: the first sequence is used to perform the quantum channel detection, while the second is applied to disorder the positions of message qubits, which guarantees the security of the protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Protein-polysaccharide particles were fabricated by heating at acidic condition. • Amphiphilic dextrin was combined with particles by hydrophobic interactions. • Amphiphilic dextrin enhanced the compactness of protein particles. • The composite particles could effectively increase the stability of HIPEs. The pea protein isolate nanoparticles/octenyl succinic anhydride linear dextrin (PPINs/OSA-LD) composite particles were fabricated by heating at acidic condition. Heating treatment not only made OSA-LD dissolve, but also promoted the hydrophobic interactions between PPINs and OSA-LD. With the increase of OSA-LD content, the average diameter of composite particles decreased due to the avoidance of hydrophobic aggregation between PPINs during heating, and the composite particles became more compact and regular. The high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) stabilized by composite particles exhibited smaller droplet size, higher viscosity and modulus attributing to the formation of denser interfacial layer. The results of low field nuclear magnetic resonance proved that the HIPEs stabilized by composite particles showed more uniform distribution of water and oil. This work provided a facile method to fabricate composite particles, which had excellent capacity to stabilize the HIPEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • EHT/CMD mixtures with different ratios (8:1–1:2) were formed at pH 7.0. • Mixtures stabilized HIPEs had more adsorbed protein at the interface. • Oil droplets coated by the mixtures were more stable to environmental stresses. • HIPEs stabilized by mixtures delayed release of free fatty acids and curcumin. • HIPEs stabilized by mixtures helped to delivery of hydrophobic active compounds. The interaction between high-density lipoprotein hydrolysate hydrolyzed by trypsin (EHT) and carboxymethyl dextrin (CMD) at pH 7.0, and in vitro digestibility of high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) were studied. The particle size of EHT/CMD mixtures increased from 207.2 nm to 1229.6 nm with increase of the ratio of EHT to CMD from 8:1 to 1:2. The proportion of EHT adsorbed on the surface increased from 60.83 % to 80.81 %, forming thicker interfacial layer, exhibiting higher resistance to centrifugation and ionic strength. And more uniform proton density distribution and shorter relaxation time (T 2) were charactered in HIPEs formed by mixtures. Rheological analysis further proved that CMD could lead to high viscosity, high elasticity, excellent oscillation performance of HIPEs. The spatial and electrostatic repulsion forces reduced the aggregation of oil droplets and promoted the formation of more mixed micelles, improving the bioaccessibility of curcumin. These findings provided theoretical strategies for lipid-soluble nutrients delivery systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, a novel multiparty quantum sealed-bid auction protocol using the single photons as the message carrier of bids is proposed, followed by an example of three-party auction. Compared with those protocols based on the entangled states (GHZ state, EPR pairs, etc.), the present protocol is more economic and feasible within present technology. In order to guarantee the security and the fairness of the auction, the decoy photon checking technique and an improved post-confirmation mechanism with EPR pairs are introduced, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose to simulate the four-level stimulated Raman adiabatic passage in a four-waveguide array. We find that an Abelian geometric phase factor emerges in this adiabatic passage, and the transfer of light between the waveguides can solely depend on the geometric phase. The robustness of geometric phase may bring additional benefits for high-precision light manipulation in some all-optical devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, Bich et al. (Int. J. Theor. Phys. 51: 2272, 2012) proposed two deterministic joint remote state preparation (JRSP) protocols of an arbitrary single-qubit state: one is for two preparers to remotely prepare for a receiver by using two Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (ERP) pairs; the other is its generalized form in the case of arbitrary N ( N > 2) preparers via N ERP pairs. While examining these two protocols, we find that the success probability for the receiver achieving the desired state is not deterministic, i.e., $P^{N>2}_{suc}<1$, for N > 2 preparers in the second protocol. Through constructing two sets of adaptive projective measurement bases for both the real space and the complex space, an improved deterministic N-to-one JRSP protocol for an arbitrary single-qubit state is presented. Analysis shows our protocol can truly achieve the unit success probability, i.e., $P^{N\geq 2}_{suc}=1$. What is more, the receiver can be randomly assigned even after the distribution of the qubits of EPR pairs, so it is more flexible and applicable in the network situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To evaluate the effectiveness of preoperative shaving and postoperative shampooing on the infection rate in neurosurgery. Meta-analysis. We conducted a search of the Embase, CINAHL, Scopus and PubMed databases up until February 1, 2022. Comparative studies were included. No language restrictions were applied. Original articles that compared the infection rate of patients who had their hair shaved before neurosurgery to the infection rate of unshaven patients were included. Original articles comparing the infection rates of patients whose hair was early postoperative shampooing versus patients whose hair was not shampooed after neurosurgery were also included. The risk of bias was also evaluated using the Newcastle–Ottawa quality assessment scale by two authors independently. The meta-analyses were performed using Review Manager software (RevMan 5.3; Cochrane Collaboration). The odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were assessed for dichotomous data (infection rate). The heterogeneity of the included studies was assessed using the I2 statistic (ranging from 0 to 100%). A total of 3451 studies were identified by searching the PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL and Embase databases. Fourteen studies met the inclusion criteria, however two studies did not provide data suitable for meta-analysis. Twelve studies were included in the review. Two historical control studies, four prospective studies, one clinical trial and five retrospective studies were identified. There were 4583 patients whose hair was not shaved and 4295 patients whose hair was shaved. Among them, there were 3874 patients whose hair was unshaved and was early postoperative shampooing. No significant difference in the infection rate was found between the unshaved group and shaved group (OR: 0.86, 95% CI [0.62, 1.19], P = 0.85, I2 = 0%). A significant difference in the infection rates in shunt surgery patients was found between the unshaved group and shaved group (OR: 0.43, 95% CI [0.19, 0.99], P = 0.89, I2 = 0%). No significant difference was found between the unshaved with early shampooing group and the shaved group (OR: 0.82, 95% CI [0.48, 1.41], P = 0.80, I2 = 0%). Hair preservation before neurosurgery and early shampooing after neurosurgery did not increase the infection rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electron energy-loss spectroscopy is a powerful tool for identifying the chemical composition of materials. It relies mostly on the measurement of inelastic electrons, which carry specific atomic or molecular information. Inelastic electron scattering, however, has a very low intensity, often orders of magnitude weaker than that of elastically scattered electrons. Here, we report the observation of enhanced inelastic electron scattering from silver nanostructures, the intensity of which can reach up to 60% of its elastic counterpart. A home-made scanning probe electron energy-loss spectrometer was used to produce highly localized plasmonic excitations, significantly enhancing the strength of the local electric field of silver nanostructures. The intensity of inelastic electron scattering was found to increase nonlinearly with respect to the electric field generated by the tip-sample bias, providing direct evidence of nonlinear electron scattering processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, Liu et al. (Opt. Commun. 284:3160, ) proposed a protocol for quantum private comparison of equality (QPCE) based on symmetric W state. However, Li et al. (Eur. Phys. J. D 66:110, ) pointed out that there is a flaw of information leak, and they proposed a new protocol based on EPR pairs. While examining these two protocols, we find that there exists a same flaw: the third party (TP) can know the comparison result. In this paper, through introducing and constructing a special class of asymmetric W state, a secure QPCE protocol based on this asymmetric W state is presented. Analysis shows the present protocol can not only effectively avoid the information leak found by Li et al., but also ensure TP would not get any information about the comparison result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A quantum private comparison (QPC) protocol based on W states [W. Liu et al., Opt. Commun. 284, 3160 (2011)] has pointed out there is a flaw of information leak [Y. B. Li et al., Eur. Phys. J. D. 66, 110 (2012)]. In order to solve the problem, a special kind of W-class state is introduced, and its construction framework of quantum circuits is sketched. Based on this kind of W-class states, an improvement on Liu et al.'s protocol is presented. Analysis shows the improvement can not only hold the characteristics of original protocol, but also avoid the information leak that Li et al. pointed out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Yang et al.'s literatures (J. Phys. A: Math. 42, 055305, ; J. Phys. A: Math. 43, 209801, ), a quantum private comparison protocol based on Bell states and hash function is proposed, which aims to securely compare the equality of two participants' information with the help of a dishonest third party (TP). However, this study will point out their protocol cannot resist a special kind of attack, TP's same initial states attack, which is presented in this paper. That is, the dishonest TP can disturb the comparison result without being detected through preparing the same initial states. Finally, a simple improvement is given to avoid the attack. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A facile and efficient approach for the synthesis of chiral vinyl aziridines has been developed in moderate yields and high diastereoselectivities via Zn-promoted aza-Barbier–Darzen type reaction of (R)-N-tert-butanesulfinyl imines with 1,3-dibromoprop-1-ene. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The Permian–Triassic (P-Tr) transition marks a vital period in Earth's history, characterized by major environmental perturbations and the largest mass extinction event of the Phanerozoic, with volcanic activities playing a key role. Previous investigations of mercury (Hg) anomalies in over 50 marine and terrestrial sections spanning the P-Tr boundary (PTB) have suggested a predominant volcanogenic influence. However, there remains ongoing debate regarding the exact timing and primary sources of these anomalies in different regions. In this study, we present stratigraphically high-resolution (∼7× higher compared to the previous work in the same section) Hg records from the shallow marine strata of the Qubu section, located at the Himalayan Tethys Zone of southern Tibet, Southwest China. Our analysis reveals peak Hg concentrations of approximately 80 to 100 ng/g and Hg/TOC ratios of 111 to 263 (ppb/wt%) at the uppermost Permian. Notably, new measurements of Hg isotopes, characterized by ∼0‰ of Δ199Hg values, provide unambiguous evidence supporting the prevailing volcanic influence. Our results are consistent with similar observations of Hg anomalies in proximal shallow-marine sections around the Neo-Tethys Ocean, including those in northern India and western Australia. However, we found that relatively shallower marine settings (shelf, lagoon or inshore) tend to exhibit Hg spikes in the latest Permian, whereas deeper sections (outer-shelf or deep carbonate ramp) show peaks in the Early Triassic. Since Hg anomalies for all the sections have been verified to be volcanogenic based on their near-zero values of Δ199Hg, the discrepancies among them concerning timing and water depth may be attributed to prolonged volcanic influences extending into the Triassic period. Our findings underscore the complexity of sedimentary Hg records and further raise questions about the spatiotemporal consistency of Hg anomalies during the P-Tr transition. Additionally, the most negative Δ199Hg value (−0.20‰) in the uppermost black shale in the Qubu section likely resulted from photic zone euxinia consistent with globally developed P-Tr shallow-marine anoxic conditions, while other low values of Δ199Hg with low Hg concentrations were derived from some moderate terrestrial influx. • High-resolution Hg records from the Qubu section in Himalayan Tethys Zone. • Near-zero Δ199Hg values confirm the prevailing volcanic influence immediately below PTB. • Spatiotemporal disparities within different shallow marine sections in the Neo-Tethys Ocean. • Negative Δ199Hg values indicate photic zone euxinia and/or moderate terrestrial influx. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • HIPEs were successfully prepared by PPI nanoparticles induced by potassium metabisulfite. • A predominant elastic behavior was observed in gel-like Pickering HIPEs. • The Pickering HIPEs had excellent stability in storage and centrifugation. • The increase of ionic strength and temperature caused the reversible flocculation of emulsion. The oil-in-water high internal phase emulsions (HIPEs) could be stabilized by pea protein isolate nanoparticles (PPINs) induced by potassium metabisulfite (K 2 S 2 O 5). Confocal laser scanning microscope proved that PPINs were attached on the oil–water interface, indicating characteristic of Pickering HIPEs. The HIPEs stabilized by PPINs of higher concentration had smaller droplet size, better storage and centrifugal stability than that of PPINs of low concentration because there were enough particles to constitute the thick interface film. The storage modulus was higher than loss modulus indicating that HIPEs exhibited gel-like structure. At different temperatures and ionic strengths, HIPEs exhibited flocculation but still maintained a stable gel-like structure. The strain curve of HIPEs showed Type III nonlinear behavior due to the flocculation of emulsion droplets. HIPEs stabilized by PPINs might be a potential alternative to partially hydrogenated oils to reduce intake of trans fatty acids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Three kinds of enzymes were employed to hydrolyze high-density lipoprotein. • Enzymatic hydrolysis significantly improved the solubility of hydrolysates. • The enhancement of emulsifying properties was correlated with hydrolysis time. • The environmental stability of the emulsions prepared by hydrolysates was improved. High-density lipoprotein (HDL) was extracted from hen eggs and enzymatic hydrolysates were formed by neutral protease, trypsin and alkaline protease, which were named as EHN, EHT and EHA, respectively. The solubility of hydrolysates was significantly higher than that of HDL, especially that of EHA significantly increased from 7.69% to 27.54% when it was hydrolyzed for 1.5 h. The emulsifying properties of EHT, EHA and EHN exhibited an increase trend as a function of hydrolysis time and reached the peak values at 3.5, 1.5 and 3.5 h, respectively. This improvement was attributed to the generation of soluble peptides fragments and the exposure of ionizable residues. At different pH, temperatures and ionic strengths, the stability of emulsions stabilized by hydrolysates was higher than that of HDL, especially for emulsions prepared by EHT. These findings might indicate feasible guidance to broaden the application of HDL and enzymatic hydrolysates in emulsions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: To identify the possible sources of fog drip, samples of rainfall, fog drip, throughfall, stemflow, stream water, river water, pond water and soil water were collected for 3 years (2002–2004) for stable isotopic analysis, at a tropical seasonal rain forest site in Xishuangbanna, Southwest China. We found that radiation fog is produced mainly through evaporation from pond, river, and soil, and through forest evapotranspiration. The analyses suggest that evaporation from the stream is limited. In addition, radiation fog produced during the dry season (low absolute humidity) contained more terrestrially recycled water than fog produced during the rainy season (high absolute humidity). Forest evapotranspiration appears to be the largest fraction, but a more intense sampling scheme will be needed to assign the relative contribution of the different sources of fog. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Rain, fog drip, shallow soil water and groundwater were collected for two years (2002–2003) for stable isotopic analysis, at a tropical seasonal rain forest site in Xshuangbanna, Southwest China. The fog drip water ranged from −30 to +27‰ in δD and −6.2 to +1.9‰ in δ18O, conforms to the equation δD=7.64δ18O+14.32, and was thought to contain water that has been evaporated and recycled terrestrial meteoric water. The rain was isotopically more depleted, and ranged from −94 to −45‰ in δD, and −13.2 to −6.8‰ in δ18O. The shallow soil water had a composition usually between those of the rain and fog drip, and was assumed to be a mixture of the two waters. However, the soil water collected in dry season appeared to contain more fog drip water than that collected in rainy season. The groundwater in both seasons had an isotopic composition similar to rainwater, suggesting that fog drip water does not play a significant role as a source of recharge for the groundwater. This groundwater was thought to be recharged solely by rainwater. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

An new strategy that uses Ce2(SO4)3 as an effective catalyst for Friedel-Crafts alkylation of aromatic compounds with benzyl and allyl alcohols is presented. In the presence of 1 to 10 mol% of Ce2(SO4)3, Friedel-Crafts alkylation with both benzyl alcohols, including primary and secondary benzyl alcohols, and allyl alcohol were carried out smoothly and efficiently. Moreover, the catalyst was recovered and reused three times without significant loss of activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aberrant activation of dermal fibroblasts during wound healing often leads to debilitating fibrotic changes in the skin, such as scleroderma and keloids. However, the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms remain elusive. Here, we established a wound‐induced skin fibrosis (WISF) mouse model in mature adult mice, characterised by excessive deposition of collagen bundles, loss of dermal adipocytes, and enrichment of DPP4+Ly6A+THY1+ hypodermal interstitial adipocyte progenitors (HI‐APs) and pericytes, resembling human fibrotic skin diseases. This WISF model exhibited an age‐dependent gain of fibrotic characteristics, contrasting with the wound‐induced hair neogenesis observed in younger mice. Through comprehensive analyses of the WISF, we delineated a trajectory of fibroblast differentiation that originates from HI‐APs. These progenitors highly expressed several extracellular matrix (ECM) genes and exhibited a TGFβ pathway signature. TGFβ was identified as the key signal to inhibit the adipogenic potential and maintain the fibrogenic potential of dermal APs. Additionally, administering a TGFβ receptor inhibitor to wound scar reduced the abundance of ECM‐producing APs. Finally, analysis of human scleroderma skin tissues revealed a negative correlation between the expression of AP‐, ECM‐, and TGFβ pathway‐related genes and PPARG. Overall, this study establishes a wound‐induced skin fibrosis mouse model and demonstrates that TGFβ‐mediated blockage of HI‐AP differentiation is crucial for driving fibrotic pathology. Targeting HI‐APs and adipogenesis may provide novel avenues for developing disease‐modifying therapies for fibrotic skin diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Low-temperature Sn fusion bonding technique was proposed to fabricate GaN-based blue vertical light-emitting diodes (LEDs) on Si substrate. First, by studying photoluminescence (PL) spectra of GaN LED epilayers/Ag-based mirror/Si structures fabricated at different bonding temperatures, it was confirmed that the quality of Ag-based mirror was not degraded when the bonding temperature was 250°C. Then GaN-based blue vertical LEDs were fabricated at this bonding temperature. As compared with conventional GaN-based LEDs, the vertical LEDs revealed improved forward current–voltage characteristic, especially, the reverse current of the vertical LEDs was as low as 39nA at the reverse bias of −10V. In the mean time, vertical LEDs showed an increase in light output of about 127% at 200mA, and no saturation was observed as the driving current increased to 500mA. Further measurement revealed that vertical LEDs had a much lower junction temperature. These results indicate that the Sn fusion bonding technique is an effective way for fabrication of high-power GaN-based LEDs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Herein, we present a unified chemical synthesis of three subgroups of cephalotaxus diterpenoids. Key to the success lies in adopting a synthetic strategy that is inspired by biosynthesis but is opposite in nature. By employing selective one‐carbon introduction and ring expansion operations, we have successfully converted cephalotane‐type C18 dinorditerpenoids (using cephanolide B as a starting material) into troponoid‐type C19 norditerpenoids and intact cephalotane‐type C20 diterpenoids. This synthetic approach has enabled us to synthesize cephinoid H, 13‐oxo‐cephinoid H, 7‐oxo‐cephinoid H, fortalpinoid C, 7‐epi‐fortalpinoid C, cephanolide E, and 13‐epi‐cephanolide E. Furthermore, through the development of an intermolecular asymmetric Michael reaction between β‐oxo esters and β‐substituted enones, we have achieved the enantioselective synthesis of advanced intermediates within our synthetic sequence, thus formally realizing the asymmetric total synthesis of the cephalotaxus diterpenoids family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, we present a unified chemical synthesis of three subgroups of cephalotaxus diterpenoids. Key to the success lies in adopting a synthetic strategy that is inspired by biosynthesis but is opposite in nature. By employing selective one‐carbon introduction and ring expansion operations, we have successfully converted cephalotane‐type C18 dinorditerpenoids (using cephanolide B as a starting material) into troponoid‐type C19 norditerpenoids and intact cephalotane‐type C20 diterpenoids. This synthetic approach has enabled us to synthesize cephinoid H, 13‐oxo‐cephinoid H, 7‐oxo‐cephinoid H, fortalpinoid C, 7‐epi‐fortalpinoid C, cephanolide E, and 13‐epi‐cephanolide E. Furthermore, through the development of an intermolecular asymmetric Michael reaction between β‐oxo esters and β‐substituted enones, we have achieved the enantioselective synthesis of advanced intermediates within our synthetic sequence, thus formally realizing the asymmetric total synthesis of the cephalotaxus diterpenoids family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Herein, the electron–hole wave function overlaps as well as the carrier confinement are both improved by an inversely graded Al‐composition design in the multiple‐quantum‐well (MQW) active region of deep‐ultraviolet light‐emitting diodes (DUV–LEDs). Simulation results show that at a current of 250 mA, the light output power (LOP) of the DUV–LEDs with graded composition MQWs has achieved a remarkable enhancement of 38.7% as compared to that with conventional MQWs, and the efficiency droop is significantly reduced from 32.2% to 9.3%. The enhanced performance is attributed to the increased wave function overlap of the electrons and holes due to the alleviated polarization electric field. Furthermore, the depth of quantum wells (QWs) is increased by the increased polarization‐induced charges and results in a better carrier confinement in the well layers. In addition, the LOP is further enhanced by 20.5% and the efficiency droop is reduced to 6.2% by engineering the last quantum barrier in the graded MQWs, which is attributed to the further reduction in the electron leakage. The proposed structure provides a valuable guideline for the high‐efficiency DUV–LEDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposed an efficient method for analyzing the quasi-static interaction between the pipe pile and multilayered saturated soft soils. A pipe pile is simplified into a 1D compression bar and then discretized into a number of elements. The interaction forces on the inner and outer interfaces between the pipe pile and soft soils are integrated by the trapezoidal rule. Based on the precise integration solution of multilayered saturated soft soils with a fractional viscoelastic model, the flexibility matrix of the soil under a vertical annular load is formed. According to the force equilibrium and displacement compatibility on the pile–soil interfaces, the coupling interaction equations are established and solved. The correctness of the proposed method is verified by comparing the calculated results with those of the existing literature. Numerical examples are discussed to evaluate the effects of the viscoelasticity of soils, pipe wall thickness, pile length–radius ratio, pile–soil modulus ratio, and soil stratification on the interaction between pipe piles and soft soils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trichopodus leeriihas been given many popular names in the ornament market, such as pearl gourami, lace gourami and mosaic gourami, which causes confusion in species identification. This species belongs in the family Osphronemidae of Perciformes. This species and its congeners are characterized by a brownish-silver body, covered in a pearl-like pattern. In this study, we first determined and described the complete mitogenome sequence ofT. leerii, which is 16,472 bp in length. The overall base composition is 29.2%, 27.3%, 28.0% and 15.5% for A, C, T and G, respectively, with a slight bias in the AT content (57.2%). All protein-coding genes share the start codon ATG and most of them have TAA or TAG as the stop codon, exceptND4andND6use an incomplete stop codon T. Maximum likelihood tree and Bayesian analyses based on partitioned nucleotide sequences of 12 mitochondrial protein-coding genes were constructed, and both yielded identical topologies. These results are expected to provide useful molecular data for species identification and further phylogenetic studies of Osphronemidae and Perciformes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a fractional derivative modeling for axisymmetric consolidation of multilayered cross-anisotropic viscoelastic porous media. The elastic solution for multilayered porous media is acquired by the extended precise integration method. The flexibility coefficient of the fractional Merchant viscoelastic model is deduced in the Laplace transformed domain, and the viscoelastic solution of the problem is further obtained by the elastic–viscoelastic correspondence principle. The numerical results are compared with those of published literatures to verify the proposed method, and the influences of fractional derivative order, viscoelasticity of solid skeleton and layering of materials on the axisymmetric consolidation of multilayered viscoelastic porous media are investigated by several examples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relief algorithm is a feature selection algorithm used in binary classification proposed by Kira and Rendell, and its computational complexity remarkably increases with both the scale of samples and the number of features. In order to reduce the complexity, a quantum feature selection algorithm based on Relief algorithm, also called quantum Relief algorithm, is proposed. In the algorithm, all features of each sample are superposed by a certain quantum state through the CMP and rotation operations, then the swap test and measurement are applied on this state to get the similarity between two samples. After that, Near-hit and Near-miss are obtained by calculating the maximal similarity, and further applied to update the feature weight vector WT to get WT¯ that determine the relevant features with the threshold τ. In order to verify our algorithm, a simulation experiment based on IBM Q with a simple example is performed. Efficiency analysis shows the computational complexity of our proposed algorithm is O(M), while the complexity of the original Relief algorithm is O(NM), where N is the number of features for each sample, and M is the size of the sample set. Obviously, our quantum Relief algorithm has superior acceleration than the classical one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Privacy-preserving geometric intersection (PGI) is an important issue in Secure multiparty computation (SMC). The existing quantum PGI protocols are mainly based on grid coding, which requires a lot of computational complexity. The phase-encoded query method which has been used in some Quantum SMC protocols is suitable to solve the decision problem, but it needs to apply high dimensional Oracle operators. In this paper, we use the principle of phase-encoded query to solve an important PGI problem, namely privacy-preserving two-party circle intersection. We study the implementation of Oracle operator in detail, and achieve polynomial computational complexity by decompsing it into quantum arithmetic operations. Performance analysis shows that our protocol is correct and efficient, and can protect the privacy of all participants against internal and external attacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim. This systematic review aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of telerehabilitation on family caregivers of stroke survivors. Background. After discharge from the hospital, family caregivers of stroke survivors faced physical and psychological stress. Telerehabilitation seems crucial for family caregivers. However, the impact of telerehabilitation on family caregivers' health outcomes remains to be studied. Evaluation. Six databases (PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, CINAHL, and PsycINFO) were searched up to June 16th, 2022, without language restrictions. The Revised Cochrane Risk-of-bias Tool for Randomized Trials was used to assess the quality of included studies. The GRADEpro (Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation Profile) tools were applied to assess the synthesized evidence quality. The subgroup analysis was performed according to the intervention formats. Statistical analysis was conducted using Review Manager 5.3, and the publication bias was calculated by Stata 14.0. Key Issue(s). A total of 16 studies containing 992 caregivers were pooled in this systematic review. Telerehabilitation significantly improved the caregiver burden (SMD = −0.18, 95% CI = −0.35∼−0.02, P = 0.03 , moderate-quality evidence), knowledge (SMD = 0.75, 95% CI = 0.03∼1.47, P = 0.04 , very low-quality evidence), and competence (SMD = 1.35, 95% CI = 0.82∼1.88, P < 0.001 , very low-quality evidence) but not depression (SMD = −0.04, 95% CI = −0.3∼0.21, P = 0.74 , moderate-quality evidence), anxiety (MD = 0.68, 95% CI = −0.68∼2.04, P = 0.32 , low-quality evidence), and self-efficacy (SMD = −0.30, 95% CI = −1.22∼0.61, P = 0.52 , very low-quality evidence) in family caregivers of stroke survivors. The subgroup analysis demonstrated that multi-form telerehabilitation (SMD = 1.86, 95% CI = 1.32∼2.40, P < 0.001) was significantly effective in improving caregiving competence. Conclusion. Telerehabilitation can effectively reduce the caregiver burden as well as improve the knowledge and competence of stroke caregivers. Implications for Nursing Management. The emergence of telerehabilitation can help relieve caregivers' stress and provide a new form for nursing managers to make discharge plans for stroke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the mechanism of paclitaxel-induced lung injury and its amelioration by parecoxib sodium. In this study, rats were randomly divided into: the control group (Con); the paclitaxel chemotherapy group (Pac); the paclitaxel+ parecoxib sodium intervention group (Pac + Pare); and the parecoxib sodium group (Pare). We observed changes in alveolar ventilation function, alveolar-capillary membrane permeability, lung tissue pathology and measured the levels of inflammatory cytokines and cyclooxygenase-2 (Cox-2) in lung tissue, the expression of tight junction proteins (Zo-1 and Claudin-4). Compared with the Con group, the lung tissue of the Pac group showed significantly increased expression of Cox-2 protein (p < 0.01), significant lung tissue inflammatory changes, significantly increased expression of inflammatory cytokines, decreased expression of Zo-1 and Claudin-4 proteins (p < 0.01), increased alveolar-capillary membrane permeability (p < 0.01), and reduced ventilation function (p < 0.01). Notably, in Pac + Pare group, intraperitoneal injection of parecoxib sodium led to decreased Cox-2 and ICAM-1 levels and reduced inflammatory responses, the recovered expression of Zo-1 and Claudin-4, reduced level of indicators reflecting the high permeability state, and close-to-normal levels of ventilation function. Intervention by the Cox-2-specific inhibitor parecoxib sodium can block this damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In diffusion to blue light-emitting diode (LED) wafers is performed by the inductive coupled plasma (ICP) treatment of a covering layer of indium tin oxide (ITO) on the wafer surface. The electrical property of the p-type contact is improved and the redshift of photoluminescence (PL) from the InGaN quantum well of the wafer is found. Measurements by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) demonstrate that In atoms have diffused into p-GaN. Reflectance spectra of the sample surface reveal the variation caused by the ICP treatment. A model of compensation of the in-plane strain of the InGaN layer is used to explain the redshift of the PL data. Finally, LEDs are fabricated by using as-grown and ICP-treated wafers and their properties are compared. Under an injection current of 20 mA, LEDs with ICP-induced In doping show a decrease of 0.3V in the forward voltage and an increase of 23% in the light output, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, near-infrared Au-grating/MoS2/Au hot-electron photodetectors (HEPDs) with magnetic polaritons (MPs) beneath the top Au grating strips are designed and proposed. The MPs are formed by the near-field coupling between the grating and the bottom Au film, which achieves a light absorption greater than 99.5% at 1550 nm for the HEPDs. The simulations show that the absorption wavelength can be tuned independently and widely to cover the whole short wavelength infrared band by adjusting width of the grating strips, and the near-perfect absorption characteristics can be maintained. Then, dual-frequency HEPDs with two different grating strip widths in one cycle of the Au-grating are designed. Without external bias, the theoretical responsivities as high as 11.2 mA W−1 at 1200 nm and 6.2 mA W−1 at 1550 nm are achieved for the HEPDs by a three-step electrical model. In addition, a modulation distance between the two absorption peak positions of the HEPDs could be larger than 1100 nm. This provides a new idea for the realization of high-responsivity near-infrared HEPDs for arbitrary dual-band detection, which has great potential in modern optical communication systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of the home quarantine on pregnancy outcomes of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) patients during the COVID-19 outbreak. The complete electronic medical records of patients with GDM with home quarantine history were collected and classified into the home quarantine group from 24 February 2020 to 24 November 2020. The same period of patients with GDM without home quarantine history were included in the control group from 2018 to 2019. The pregnant outcomes of the home quarantine and control groups were systematically compared, such as neonatal weight, head circumference, body length, one-minute Apgar score, fetal macrosomia, and pre-term delivery. A total of 1358 patients with GDM were included in the analysis, including 484 in 2018, 468 in 2019, and 406 in 2020. Patients with GDM with home quarantine in 2020 had higher glycemic levels and adverse pregnancy outcomes than in 2018 and 2019, including higher cesarean section rates, lower Apgar scores, and higher incidence of macrosomia and umbilical cord around the neck. More importantly, the second trimester of home quarantine had brought a broader impact on pregnant women and fetuses. Home quarantine has aggravated the condition of GDM pregnant women and brought more adverse pregnancy outcomes during the COVID-19 outbreak. Therefore, we suggested governments and hospitals strengthen lifestyle guidance, glucose management, and antenatal care for patients with GDM with home quarantine during public health emergencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple protocol is described for the zinc promoted aza-Barbier-Darzen type reaction of imines (I) with dibromopropene (II) to give optically active trans-2-substituted vinyl aziridines in moderate yields and high diastereoselectivities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The information leakage problem in the efficient bidirectional quantum secure direct communication protocol with single photons in both polarization and spatial-mode degrees of freedom is pointed out. Next, a way to revise this protocol to a truly secure one is given. We hope people pay more attention to the information leakage problem in order to design truly secure quantum communication protocols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]