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Abstract BackgroundDepression represents a pressing global public health concern, impacting the physical and mental well-being of hundreds of millions worldwide. Notwithstanding advances in clinical practice, an alarming number of individuals at risk for depression continue to face significant barriers to timely diagnosis and effective treatment, thereby exacerbating a burgeoning social health crisis. ObjectiveThis study seeks to develop a novel online depression risk detection method using natural language processing technology to identify individuals at risk of depression on the Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo. MethodsFirst, we collected approximately 527,333 posts publicly shared over 1 year from 1600 individuals with depression and 1600 individuals without depression on the Sina Weibo platform. We then developed a hierarchical transformer network for learning user-level semantic representations, which consists of 3 primary components: a word-level encoder, a post-level encoder, and a semantic aggregation encoder. The word-level encoder learns semantic embeddings from individual posts, while the post-level encoder explores features in user post sequences. The semantic aggregation encoder aggregates post sequence semantics to generate a user-level semantic representation that can be classified as depressed or nondepressed. Next, a classifier is employed to predict the risk of depression. Finally, we conducted statistical and linguistic analyses of the post content from individuals with and without depression using the Chinese Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count. ResultsWe divided the original data set into training, validation, and test sets. The training set consisted of 1000 individuals with depression and 1000 individuals without depression. Similarly, each validation and test set comprised 600 users, with 300 individuals from both cohorts (depression and nondepression). Our method achieved an accuracy of 84.62%, precision of 84.43%, recall of 84.50%, and F1F1 ConclusionsThe research results indicate the feasibility and effectiveness of using deep learning methods to detect the risk of depression. These findings provide insights into the potential for large-scale, automated, and noninvasive prediction of depression among online social media users.

Neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) provides a way to probe physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. The upcoming nEXO experiment will search for 0νββ decay in 136Xe with a projected half-life sensitivity exceeding 1028 years at the 90% confidence level using a liquid xenon (LXe) Time Projection Chamber (TPC) filled with 5 tonnes of Xe enriched to ∼90% in the ββ-decaying isotope 136Xe. In parallel, a potential future upgrade to nEXO is being investigated with the aim to further suppress radioactive backgrounds and to confirm ββ-decay events. This technique, known as Ba-tagging, comprises extracting and identifying the ββ-decay daughter 136Ba ion. One tagging approach being pursued involves extracting a small volume of LXe in the vicinity of a potential ββ-decay using a capillary tube and facilitating a liquid-to-gas phase transition by heating the capillary exit. The Ba ion is then separated from the accompanying Xe gas using a radio-frequency (RF) carpet and RF funnel, conclusively identifying the ion as 136Ba via laser-fluorescence spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. Simultaneously, an accelerator-driven Ba ion source is being developed to validate and optimize this technique. The motivation for the project, the development of the different aspects, along with the current status and results, are discussed here.

Introduction: Although inguinal hernia (IH) is prevalent in elderly males, research on its specific diagnostic biomarkers is limited. Protein N-glycosylation is one of the most important and ubiquitous post-translational modifications and often results in a remarkable heterogeneity of protein glycoforms. Protein N-glycosylation often changes in a disease and holds great potential for discovering non-invasive biomarkers. This study aimed to gain insights into total serum protein N-glycosylation of IH to identify candidate non-invasive biomarkers for diagnosis and subtype classification of IH. Methods: Linkage-specific sialylation derivatization combined with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry detection was used to analyze serum protein N-glycosylation patterns in IH patients and healthy controls. Results: IH patients had abnormal glycan fucosylation and sialylation compared to healthy controls (HC), of which two glycan traits representing linkage-specific sialylation within monoantennary glycans showed high potential as diagnostic biomarkers for IH with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.75. Additionally, serum N-glycans were different between indirect IH and direct IH in glycosylation features, namely complexity, fucosylation, galactosylation, sialylation, and α2,6‐linked sialylation. Four distinctive glycans between the two subtypes showed good performance with AUC >0.8, suggesting that these glycan traits have potential as biomarkers for subtype classification. Conclusions: We first reported the serum N-glycomic features of IH patients. Furthermore, we identified several potential biomarkers for the diagnosis and subtype classification of IH. These findings can deepen the understanding of IH.

Summary: Prioritizing electric power system decarbonization is crucial for meeting global carbon neutrality targets. However, the role of energy technology cost reduction driven by innovation in advancing carbon neutrality in the electric power system has not been well studied. To fill this gap, an integrated investment planning and operation model is developed to simulate the carbon neutral pathway in the electric power system over a 30-year period from 2020 to 2050. The learning curves with different learning rates are incorporated into the model to represent different energy technology innovation scenarios. According to our results, the advanced innovation scenario is projected to achieve carbon neutrality in the electric power system five years earlier compared with the conservative innovation scenario, with a cost savings of 465 billion CNY. In addition, both inter-regional and intra-regional collaboration facilitate the achievement of carbon neutrality in the electric power system at a reduced cost. Science for society: Reducing carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality is a critical global challenge. Previous studies have formulated pathways for energy transition in the electric power system to meet carbon reduction targets. However, many of them overlook the role of energy technology cost reduction driven by innovation in advancing carbon neutrality in the electric power system. In this study, an integrated investment planning and operation model is developed to simulate the transition pathway in the electric power system from 2020 to 2050 toward carbon neutrality under different innovation scenarios. Our results reveal that carbon neutrality can be achieved earlier and more cost effectively in the advanced energy technology innovation scenario. Furthermore, expanding both inter-regional and intra-regional transmission capacities can facilitate the achievement of carbon neutrality in the electric power system at a reduced cost.

In power systems, failures of vulnerable lines can trigger large-scale cascading failures, and vulnerability assessment is dedicated to locating these lines and reducing the risks of such failures. Based on a structure and attribute network embedding (SANE) algorithm, a novel quantitative vulnerability analysis method is proposed to identify vulnerable lines in this research. First, a two-layered random walk network with topological and electrical properties of transmission lines is established. Subsequently, based on the weighted degree of nodes in the two-layered network, the inter-layer and intra-layer walking transition probabilities are developed to obtain walk sequences. Then, a Word2Vec algorithm is applied to obtain low-dimension vectors representing transmission lines, according to obtained walk sequences for calculating the vulnerability index of transmissions lines. Finally, the proposed method is compared with three widely used methods in two test systems. Results show the network embedding based method is superior to those comparison methods and can provide guidance for identifying vulnerable lines.

Abstract Osteoporosis is a progressive bone disease caused by impaired function of endogenous bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs). Herein, we investigated the mechanism of lncRNA SNHG14 in osteoporosis progression. BMSCs were isolated from BALB/c mice. The osteogenic ability of BMSCs was assessed by Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and Alizarin Red S Staining (ARS) staining. The interaction between miR-493-5p and SNHG14 or myocyte enhancer factor 2 C (Mef2c) was confirmed by dual-luciferase reporter assay. Bone histomorphometry changes were evaluated to analyze SNHG14’roles in osteoporosis in vivo. Our results illustrated SNHG14 and Mef2c levels were increased in a time-dependent manner in BMSCs, and miR-493-5p expression was decreased. SNHG14 knockdown inhibited osteogenic differentiation of BMSCs, and SNHG14 upregulation had the opposite effect. SNHG14 overexpression elevated bone mineral density and bone trabecular number, and alleviated osteoporosis progression in vivo. Mechanically, miR-493-5p was a target of SNHG14, and miR-493-5p targeted the Mef2c gene directly. SNHG14 overexpression reversed the inhibition of miR-493-5p on the osteogenic ability of BMSCs, and miR-493-5p silencing accelerated BMSCs osteogenesis by activating Mef2c-mediated autophagy to accelerate BMSCs osteogenesis. In short, SNHG14 activated autophagy via regulating miR-493-5p/Mef2c axis to alleviate osteoporosis progression, which might provide a new molecular target for osteoporosis treatment.

To investigate the recovery effect of natural self-healing of freeze-thaw damage of cementitious material-poor hydraulic concrete, we carried out a natural self-healing test for hydraulic concrete damaged by up to 200 rapid freeze-thaw cycles. The self-healing effect of macro-mechanical properties of hydraulic concrete damaged by freeze-thaw cycles was quantitatively characterized by the recovery rate of the specimens which underwent different numbers of freeze-thaw cycles then continued the standard curing to 28 days. Next, the microscopic properties of damaged hydraulic concrete after self-healing were further investigated by combining XRD, SEM and nitrogen adsorption tests. Finally, a prediction model of the recovery rate of macro-mechanical properties was established by using the microscopic pore test results. The results showed that, when the hydraulic concrete undergoes the damage of different freeze-thaw cycles and continues to standard curing for 28 days, the concrete specimens manifest natural self-healing to some extent even if damaged by up to 200 freeze-thaw cycles.

Change in pH in growth conditions is the primary stress for most neutralophilic bacteria, including model microorganism Escherichia coli. However, different survival capacities under acid stress in different bacteria are ubiquitous. Research on different acid-tolerance mechanisms in microorganisms is important for the field of combating harmful gut bacteria and promoting fermentation performance of industrial strains. Therefore, this study aimed to carry out a narrative review of acid-stress response mechanism of E. coli discovered so far, including six AR systems, cell membrane protection, and macromolecular repair. In addition, the application of acid-tolerant E. coli in industry was illustrated, such as production of industrial organic acid and developing bioprocessing for industrial wastes. Identifying these aspects will open the opportunity for discussing development aspects for subsequent research of acid-tolerant mechanisms and application in E. coli.

In the existing electric excavators, the energy efficiency of the hydraulic system is less than 30% due to a large amount of throttling loss and waste of potential energy. In order to improve excavator energy efficiency, an electric excavator scheme using a hydraulic-electric dual-power drive boom system is proposed. A linear actuator, including electro-mechanical unit and hydraulic unit, was adopted in the boom system. The boom velocity is controlled by the electro-mechanical unit instead of hydraulic valve to reduce throttling loss. The non-rod chamber of the linear actuator is connected to a hydraulic accumulator to reutilize boom gravitational potential energy. In addition, when the boom and other devices are operated together, the throttling loss caused by load difference of multi-actuators can be reduced because the linear actuator can compensate for the pump pressure. The working principle, control strategy, and characteristics of the proposed electric excavator were analyzed through theory and experiments. The results show that the proposed system can reduce throttling loss and efficiently reutilize the boom gravitational potential energy. During boom lifting and lowering process, the reutilization rate of the boom gravitational potential energy is 67.6%, and the energy consumption is reduced by 66.1%. During land levelling process, the throttling loss of the electric excavator is reduced by 49.6% and the energy consumption is reduced by 38.1%. The research results will provide new methods for the electrification of construction machinery.

Abstract Main goal of the JUNO experiment is to determine the neutrino mass ordering using a 20 kt liquid-scintillator detector. Its key feature is an excellent energy resolution of at least 3% at 1 MeV, for which its instruments need to meet a certain quality and thus have to be fully characterized. More than 20,000 20-inch PMTs have been received and assessed by JUNO after a detailed testing program which began in 2017 and elapsed for about four years. Based on this mass characterization and a set of specific requirements, a good quality of all accepted PMTs could be ascertained. This paper presents the performed testing procedure with the designed testing systems as well as the statistical characteristics of all 20-inch PMTs intended to be used in the JUNO experiment, covering more than fifteen performance parameters including the photocathode uniformity. This constitutes the largest sample of 20-inch PMTs ever produced and studied in detail to date, i.e. 15,000 of the newly developed 20-inch MCP-PMTs from Northern Night Vision Technology Co. (NNVT) and 5000 of dynode PMTs from Hamamatsu Photonics K. K.(HPK).

A fall k-coloring of a graph G is a proper k-coloring of G such that each vertex has at least one neighbor in each of the other color classes. A graph G which has a fall k-coloring is equivalent to having a partition of the vertex set V(G) in k independent dominating sets. In this paper, we first prove that for any fall k-colorable graph G with order n, the number of edges of G is at least (n(k−1)+r(k−r))/2, where r≡n(modk) and 0≤r≤k−1, and the bound is tight. Then, we obtain that if G is k-colorable (k≥2) and the minimum degree of G is at least k−2k−1n, then G is fall k-colorable and this condition of minimum degree is the best possible. Moreover, we give a simple proof for an NP-hard result of determining whether a graph is fall k-colorable, where k≥3. Finally, we show that there exist an infinite family of fall k-colorable planar graphs for k∈{5,6}.

BackgroundAberrant N-glycosylation and its involvement in pathogenesis have been reported in endometrial cancer (EC). Nevertheless, the serum N-glycomic signature of EC remains unknown. Here, we investigated serum N-glycome patterns of EC to identify candidate biomarkers.MethodsThis study enrolled 34 untreated EC patients and 34 matched healthy controls (HC) from Peking Union Medical College Hospital. State-of-the-art MS-based methods were employed for N-glycans profiling. Multivariate and univariate statistical analyses were used to identify discriminative N-glycans driving classification. Receiver operating characteristic analyses were performed to evaluate classification accuracy.ResultsEC patients displayed distinct differences in serum N-glycome and had abnormal high-mannose and hybrid-type N-glycans, fucosylation, galactosylation, and linkage‐specific sialylation compared with HC. The glycan panel built with the four most discriminative and biologically important derived N-glycan traits could accurately identify EC (random forest model, the area under the curve [AUC]=0.993 [95%CI 0.955-1]). The performance was validated by two other models. Total hybrid-type N-glycans significantly associated with the differentiation types of EC could effectively stratify EC into well- or poorly-differentiated subgroups (AUC>0.8).ConclusionThis study provides the initial evidence supporting the utility of serum N-glycomic signature as potential markers for the diagnosis and phenotyping of EC.

Objectives: Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of renal tubular epithelial cells (RTECs) is a pathogenic factor for renal interstitial fibrosis (RIF). Interleukin-33 (IL-33) is related to the occurrence and development of RIF, but the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Here, we investigated whether IL-33 mediates the EMT of RTECs by activating the NF-κB/Twist1 signalling pathway. Methods: In vivo, the RIF animal model induced by unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) was established. The effects of exogenous IL-33 and anti-IL-33 antibodies were evaluated. In vitro, the EMT of RTECs was induced by IL-33. The inhibition of the nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-κB) by the pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (PDTC) and the knockdown of the suppression of tumorigenicity 2 (ST2) by small interference RNA were used to observe whether IL-33 mediates the EMT of RTECs through the NF-κB/Twist1 signaling pathway. Results: In vivo, exogenous IL-33 significantly aggravated UUO-induced pathological damage and collagen deposition, down-regulated E-cadherin expression, and up-regulated α-smooth muscle actin and Vimentin expressions. Moreover, exogenous IL-33 increased the levels of phospho-IκB-α (p-IκB-α) and phospho-NF-κB p65 (p-NF-κB p65), NF-κB p65 nuclear translocation, and Twist1 nuclear expression. However, these effects were reversed by the anti-IL-33 antibody. In vitro , the increases in the levels of p-IκB-α, p-NF-κB p65, NF-κB p65 nuclear translocation, and Twist1 nuclear expression induced by IL-33 were inhibited by the knockdown of PDTC or ST2. IL-33-mediated EMT of RTECs was also significantly reversed. However, NF-κB inhibitor PDTC had no significant effect on ST2 expression. Conclusions: The IL-33/ST2 axis may up-regulate the expression of Twist1 through the NF-κB signalling pathway, thereby inducing the EMT of RTECs and leading to RIF.

Non-invasive biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of papillary thyroid microcarcinoma (PTMC) are still urgently needed. We aimed to characterize the N-glycome of PTMC, and establish nomograms for the diagnosis of PTMC and the prediction of lymph node metastasis (LNM). N-glycome of PTMC (LNM vs. non-LNM, capsular invasion (CI) vs. non-CI (NCI)) and matched healthy controls (HC) were quantitatively analyzed based on mass spectrometry. N-glycan traits associated with PTMC/LNM were used to create binomial logistic regression models and were visualized as nomograms. We found serum N-glycome differed between PTMC and HC in high-mannose, complexity, fucosylation, and bisection, of which, four N-glycan traits (TM, CA1, CA4, and A2Fa) were significantly associated with PTMC. The nomogram based on four traits achieved good performance for the identification of PTMC. Two N-glycan traits (CA4 and A2F0S0G) showed strong associations with LNM. The nomogram based on two traits showed relatively good performance in predicting LNM. We also found differences between CI and NCI in several N-glycan traits, which were not the same as that associated with LNM. This study reported serum N-glycosylation signatures of PTMC for the first time. Nomograms constructed from aberrant glycans could be useful tools for PTMC diagnosis and stratification.

The physics potential of detecting ^8 B solar neutrinos will be exploited at the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory (JUNO), in a model-independent manner by using three distinct channels of the charged current (CC), neutral current (NC), and elastic scattering (ES) interactions. Due to the largest-ever mass of ^13 C nuclei in the liquid scintillator detectors and the expected low background level, ^8 B solar neutrinos are observable in the CC and NC interactions on ^13 C for the first time. By virtue of optimized event selections and muon veto strategies, backgrounds from the accidental coincidence, muon-induced isotopes, and external backgrounds can be greatly suppressed. Excellent signal-to-background ratios can be achieved in the CC, NC, and ES channels to guarantee the observation of the ^8 B solar neutrinos. From the sensitivity studies performed in this work, we show that JUNO, with 10 yr of data, can reach the 1 σ precision levels of 5%, 8%, and 20% for the ^8 B neutrino flux, ${\sin }^{2}{\theta }_{12}$ , and ${\rm{\Delta }}{m}_{21}^{2}$ , respectively. Probing the details of both solar physics and neutrino physics would be unique and helpful. In addition, when combined with the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory measurement, the world's best precision of 3% is expected for the measurement of the ^8 B neutrino flux.

BackgroundAnxiety disorder has become a major clinical and public health problem, causing a significant economic burden worldwide. Public attitudes toward anxiety can impact the psychological state, help-seeking behavior, and social activities of people with anxiety disorder. ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to explore public attitudes toward anxiety disorders and the changing trends of these attitudes by analyzing the posts related to anxiety disorders on Sina Weibo, a Chinese social media platform that has about 582 million users, as well as the psycholinguistic and topical features in the text content of the posts. MethodsFrom April 2018 to March 2022, 325,807 Sina Weibo posts with the keyword “anxiety disorder” were collected and analyzed. First, we analyzed the changing trends in the number and total length of posts every month. Second, a Chinese Linguistic Psychological Text Analysis System (TextMind) was used to analyze the changing trends in the language features of the posts, in which 20 linguistic features were selected and presented. Third, a topic model (biterm topic model) was used for semantic content analysis to identify specific themes in Weibo users’ attitudes toward anxiety. ResultsThe changing trends in the number and the total length of posts indicated that anxiety-related posts significantly increased from April 2018 to March 2022 (R2=0.6512; P

BackgroundProgrammed cell death protein-1/programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-1/PD-L1) inhibitors works by reactivating immune cells. Considering the accessibility of noninvasive liquid biopsies, it is advisable to employ peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets to predict immunotherapy outcomes.MethodsWe retrospectively enrolled 87 patients with available baseline circulating lymphocyte subset data who received first-line PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors at Peking Union Medical College Hospital between May 2018 and April 2022. Immune cell counts were determined by flow cytometry.ResultsPatients who responded to PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors had significantly higher circulating CD8+CD28+ T-cell counts (median [range] count: 236 [30-536] versus 138 [36-460]/μL, p < 0.001). Using 190/μL as the cutoff value, the sensitivity and specificity of CD8+CD28+ T cells for predicting immunotherapy response were 0.689 and 0.714, respectively. Furthermore, the median progression-free survival (PFS, not reached versus 8.7 months, p < 0.001) and overall survival (OS, not reached versus 16.2 months, p < 0.001) were significantly longer in the patients with higher CD8+CD28+ T-cell counts. However, the CD8+CD28+ T-cell level was also associated with the incidence of grade 3-4 immune-related adverse events (irAEs). The sensitivity and specificity of CD8+CD28+ T cells for predicting irAEs of grade 3-4 were 0.846 and 0.667, respectively, at the threshold of CD8+CD28+ T cells ≥ 309/μL.ConclusionsHigh circulating CD8+CD28+ T-cell levels is a potential biomarker for immunotherapy response and better prognosis, while excessive CD8+CD28+ T cells (≥ 309/μL) may also indicate the emergence of severe irAEs.

IntroductionShellfish play an important role in ecological restoration and as carbon (C) sinks, but studies on their ecological carrying capacity (ECC) and C sequestration potential are sparse.MethodsIn this study, we selected a 57-hectare artificial oyster reef in a typical marine ranching in Bohai Bay, China, to evaluate the ECC and their C sequestration potential of bivalve shellfish, and projecting their impact on functional groups in the system, with an Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) food web model. We conducted four biological surveys to obtain the biomass measurements, with one conducted in each of the summer, autumn, and winter of 2019 and one in the spring of 2020; and the functional groups included in the surveys comprised fish, cephalopods, crustaceans, snails, bivalve shellfish, annelids, other macrobenthos, meiobenthos, starfish, sea cucumbers, zooplankton, phytoplankton, and detritus.Results and DiscussionThe EwE model prediction results showed that the ECC of bivalve shellfish was established to be 282.66 t/km2, far more than the existing quantity of 187.76 t/km2. Therefore, at present, the ecosystem of the study marine ranching is not yet mature. Moreover, our ecological network analysis parameters indicated that the marine ranching ecosystem will be mature and stable when the bivalve shellfish population reaches its ECC. However, the increase in bivalve shellfish biomass will result in a decrease in the population sizes of species competing for food resources with bivalve shellfish, mainly gobiid fish such as Tridentiger bifasciatus, Tridentiger trigonocephalus, Tridentiger barbatus. Simultaneously, when the bivalve shellfish reach their ECC, 29.23 t of CO2 can be sequestrated by bivalve shellfish, comprising 14.32 t being removed from the ecosystem as prey and 14.91 t being stored on the seafloor through biodeposition.ConclusionTherefore, the research demonstrated that, within the scope of ECC, the increasing bivalve shellfish can improve the C sequestration capacity of the marine ranch ecosystem, and effective management of bivalve shellfish in marine ranching can improve the economic benefits and C sink service functions of marine ranching.

A low voltage all silicon microdisplay is presented based on MOS-like gate-control all-Silicon light-emitting diode (LED) in standard 0.18 μm complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology. The MOS-like LED is designed under a PN alternate structure with polysilicon gate control electrode for high luminous intensity and low operating voltage. The microdisplay device is fabricated based on the LED as pixel units. The size of the proposed microdisplay device is 6.2 mm × 5.0 mm with a about 368 mW/mm2 luminous intensity at the stable operating voltage of 1.8 V.

Background: Opioid-reduced multimodal analgesia has been used clinically for many years to decrease the perioperative complications associated with opioid drugs. We aimed to assess the clinical effects of opioid-reduced anesthesia during thoracoscopic sympathectomy. Methods: Surgical patients (n = 151) with palmar hyperhidrosis were randomly divided into control (Group C, 73 patients) and test (Group T, 78 patients) groups. All patients were administered general anesthesia using a laryngeal mask. In Group C, patients received propofol, fentanyl, and cisatracurium for anesthesia induction, and maintenance was achieved with propofol and remifentanil, along with mechanical ventilation during the operation. In Group T, anesthesia was induced with propofol, dezocine, and dexmedetomidine (DEX) and maintained with propofol, DEX, and an intercostal nerve block, along with spontaneous breathing throughout the operation. Perioperative complications related to opioid use include hypotension, bradycardia, hypertension, tachycardia, hypoxemia, nausea, vomiting, urine retention, itching, and dizziness were observed. To assess the impact of these complications, we recorded and compared vital signs, blood gas indices, visual analogue scale (VAS) scores, adverse events, and patient satisfaction between the two groups. Results: Perioperative complications related to opioid use were similar between groups. There were no significant differences in the type of perioperative sedation, analgesia index, respiratory and circulatory indicators, blood gas analysis, postoperative VAS scores, adverse reactions, propofol dosage, postoperative recovery time, and patient satisfaction. Conclusions: In minimally invasive surgeries such as thoracoscopic sympathectomy, opioid-reduced anesthesia was found to be safe and effective; however, this method did not demonstrate clinical advantages. Trial registration: Chinese Clinical Trial Register: ChiCTR2100055005, on December 30, 2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Let $G$ be a graph and $f: V(G) \rightarrow \{0,1,2\}$ be a mapping. $f$ is said to be a Roman dominating function of $G$ if every vertex $u$ for which $f(u) = 0$ is adjacent to at least one vertex $v$ for which $f(v)=2$. The weight $w(f)$ of a Roman dominating function $f$ is the value $w(f) = \sum_{u \in V(G)}f(u)$, and the minimum weight of a Roman dominating function is the Roman domination number $\gamma_R(G)$. $f$ is said to be a Roman $\{2\}$-dominating function of $G$ if $\sum_{v\in N(u)}f(v)\geq 2$ for every vertex $u$ with $f(u)= 0$, where $N(u)$ is the set of neighbors of $u$ in $G$. The weight of a Roman \{2\}-dominating function $f$ is the sum $\sum_{v\in V}f(v)$ and the minimum weight of a Roman \{2\}-dominating function is the Roman \{2\}-domination number $\gamma_{\{R2\}}(G)$. Chellali et al. (2016) proved that $\gamma_{R}(G)\geq\frac{\Delta+1}{\Delta}\gamma(G)$ for every nontrivial connected graph $G$ with maximum degree $\Delta$. In this paper, we generalize this result on nontrivial connected graph $G$ with maximum degree $\Delta$ and minimum degree $\delta$. We prove that $\gamma_{R}(G)\geq\frac{\Delta+2\delta}{\Delta+\delta}\gamma(G)$, which also implies that $\frac{3}{2}\gamma(G)\leq\gamma_{R}(G)\leq 2\gamma(G)$ for any nontrivial regular graph. Moreover, we prove that $\gamma_{R}(G)\leq2\gamma_{\{R2\}}(G)-1$ for every graph $G$ and there exists a graph $I_k$ such that $\gamma_{\{R2\}}(I_k)=k$ and $\gamma_{R}(I_k)=2k-1$ for any integer $k\geq2$.

Here the authors characterize a monoclonal antibody from a COVID-19 convalescent patient that interferes with SARS-CoV-2 spike binding to ACE2 and has prophylactic and therapeutic activity in non-human primates. Antibody-dependent enhancement of infection is prevented by mutating the Fc region of the antibody.

Considering the appointments that teachers plan to teach some courses for specific classes, the problem is to schedule the curriculum such that the time for each teacher is consecutive. In this work, we propose an integer linear programming model to solve consecutive interval edge-coloring of a graph. By using the proposed method, we give the interval edge colorability of some small complete multipartite graphs. Moreover, we find some new classes of complete multipartite graphs that have interval edge-colorings and disprove a conjecture proposed by Grzesik and Khachatrian (2014).

Combined with sol-gel method and co-precipitation method, Ce-Cu is used to modify iron-based biochar, and the mercury adsorption performance of modified biochar is investigated with a fixed bed adsorption device. The mercury adsorption capacity and regeneration capacity of iron-based modified biochar under different Ce-Cu loading are explored. Pore structure and surface element valence of Ce-Cu modified iron-based biochar are investigated by BET and XPS. H2-TPR and N2-TPD are used to study the reaction path of metal active substances on the surface of modified biochar and the form of mercury on the biochar surface. The microscopic morphology of the biochar is explored by scanning electron microscope (SEM). At the same time, KOH and concentrated hydrochloric acid are used to study the effects of physical adsorption and chemical adsorption on mercury adsorption. The experimental results show that 4 % Ce2 % Cu-FeBC sample has the best mercury removal performance. The cumulative mercury adsorption per unit is 18025 ng•g−1 in 3 hours, and the mercury removal efficiency remains above 90 %. The Ce-Cu modified biochar is mainly mesoporous, and the types of surface-active metals are abundant, which is conducive to the adsorption and oxidation of elemental mercury.11 Corresponding author: Yongqiang Zhang. E-mail addresses: 18810927758@163.com The main valence states of mercury on biochar surface are Hg2+, Hg-OM, HgCl2 and HgO are the main forms of existence. The regeneration performance of Ce-Cu modified iron-based biochar is superior, and the mercury removal performance does not decrease after regenerations twice. The rate-controlling step of mercury adsorption on biochar is chemical adsorption.

BackgroundAlthough papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) could remain indolent, the recurrence rates after thyroidectomy are approximately 20%. There are currently no accurate serum biomarkers that can monitor and predict recurrence of PTC after thyroidectomy. This study aimed to explore novel serum biomarkers that are relevant to the monitoring and prediction of recurrence in PTC using N-glycomics.MethodsA high-throughput quantitative strategy based on matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry was used to obtain serum protein N-glycomes of well-differentiated PTC, postoperative surveillance (PS), postoperative recurrence (PR), and matched healthy controls (HC) including linkage-specific sialylation information.ResultsSerum N-glycan traits were found to differ among PTC, PS, PR, and HC. The differentially expressed N-glycan traits consisting of sixteen directly detected glycan traits and seven derived glycan traits indicated the response to surgical resection therapy and the potential for monitoring the PTC. Two glycan traits representing the levels of linkage-specific sialylation (H4N3F1L1 and H4N6F1E1) which were down-regulated in PS and up-regulated in PR showed high potential as biomarkers for predicting the recurrence after thyroidectomy.ConclusionsTo the best of our knowledge, this study provides comprehensive evaluations of the serum N-glycomic changes in patients with PS or PR for the first time. Several candidate serum N-glycan biomarkers including the linkage-specific sialylation have been determined, some of which have potential in the prediction of recurrence in PTC, and others of which can help to explore and monitor the response to initial surgical resection therapy. The findings enhanced the comprehension of PTC.

The common mycotoxins in polluted grains are aflatoxin B1(AFB1), zearalenone (ZEN) and deoxynivalenol (DON). Because of the potential threat to humans and animals, it is necessary to detect mycotoxin contaminants rapidly. At present, later flow immunoassay (LFIA) is one of the most frequently used methods for rapid analysis. However, multistep sample pretreatment processes and organic solvents are also required to extract mycotoxins from grains. In this study, we developed a one-step and “green” sample pretreatment method without using organic solvents. By combining with LFIA test strips and a handheld detection device, an on-site method for the rapid detection of AFB1, ZEN and DON was developed. The LODs for AFB1, ZEN and DON in corn are 0.90 μg/kg, 7.11 μg/kg and 10.6 μg/kg, respectively, and the working ranges are from 1.25 μg/kg to 40 μg/kg, 20 μg/kg to 2000 μg/kg and 35 μg/kg to 1500 μg/kg, respectively. This method has been successfully applied to the detection of AFB1, ZEN and DON in corn, rice and peanut, with recoveries of 89 ± 3%–106 ± 3%, 86 ± 2%–108 ± 7% and 90 ± 2%–106 ± 10%, respectively. The detection results for the AFB1, ZEN and DON residues in certified reference materials by this method were in good agreement with their certificate values.

Fabrication of unimolecular micelles with uniform sizes and well-controlled structure is currently a big challenge. Herein, we report an easy-to-handle protocol for the preparation of nearly monodisperse unimolecular micelles via atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) mediated by chloroacetylated initiator and chloride catalyst (Cl-ATRP). In contrast to Br-ATRP employing bromoacetylated initiator and CuBr as catalyst, Cl-ATRP can significantly suppress chain coupling during the synthesis of unimolecular micelles and result in well-defined polymers with low molar mass dispersity (Ð < 1.10) even at high monomer conversions (e.g. ~80%) and extended reaction times. In addition, effort was made to inhibit the formation of linear polymer side products (typical for ATRP of unimolecular micelles). With the optimized protocol, no linear polymer could be detected by size exclusion chromatography (SEC). The obtained nearly monodisperse unimolecular micelles may find application in, e.g. cargo delivery and bio-imaging as also demonstrated in this report. Considering its superior control in ATRP, the easily utilized Cl-ATRP protocol could be extended to the ATRP of, e.g. brush polymers and comb-like polymers where high local radical concentration needs to be avoided.

BackgroundBiomarkers are needed for patient stratification between benign thyroid nodules (BTN) and thyroid cancer (TC) and identifying metastasis in TC. Though plasma N-glycome profiling has shown potential in the discovery of biomarkers and can provide new insight into the mechanisms involved, little is known about it in TC and BTN. Besides, several studies have indicated associations between abnormal glycosylation and TC. Here, we aimed to explore plasma protein N-glycome of a TC cohort with regard to their applicability to serve as biomarkers.MethodsPlasma protein N-glycomes of TC, BTN, and matched healthy controls (HC) were obtained using a robust quantitative strategy based on MALDI-TOF MS and included linkage-specific sialylation information.ResultsPlasma N-glycans were found to differ between BTN, TC, and HC in main glycosylation features, namely complexity, galactosylation, fucosylation, and sialylation. Four altered glycan traits, which were consecutively decreased in BTN and TC, and classification models based on them showed high potential as biomarkers for discrimination between BTN and TC (“moderately accurate” to “accurate”). Additionally, strong associations were found between plasma N-glycans and lymph node metastasis in TC, which added the accuracy of predicting metastasis before surgery to the existing method.ConclusionsWe comprehensively evaluated the plasma N-glycomic changes in patients with TC or BTN for the first time. We determined several N-glycan biomarkers, some of them have potential in the differential diagnosis of TC, and the others can help to stratify TC patients to low or high risk of lymph node metastasis. The findings enhanced the understanding of TC.

As a serious worldwide problem, suicide often causes huge and irreversible losses to families and society. Therefore, it is necessary to detect and help individuals with suicidal ideation in time. In recent years, the prosperous development of social media has provided new perspectives on suicide detection, but related research still faces some difficulties, such as data imbalance and expression implicitness. In this paper, we propose a Deep Hierarchical Ensemble model for Suicide Detection (DHE-SD) based on a hierarchical ensemble strategy, and construct a dataset based on Sina Weibo, which contains more than 550 thousand posts from 4521 users. To verify the effectiveness of the model, we also conduct experiments on a public Weibo dataset containing 7329 users’ posts. The proposed model achieves the best performance on both the constructed dataset and the public dataset. In addition, in order to make the model applicable to a wider population, we use the proposed sentence-level mask mechanism to delete user posts with strong suicidal ideation. Experiments show that the proposed model can still effectively identify social media users with suicidal ideation even when the performance of the baseline models decrease significantly.

An outer-independent total dominating set (OITDS) of a graph G is a set D of vertices of G such that every vertex of G has a neighbor in D, and the set V (G) \ D is independent. The outer-independent total domination number of a graph G, denoted by γoit(G), is the minimum cardinality of an OITDS of G. An outer-independent total Roman dominating function (OITRDF) on a graph G is a function f : V(G) → {0, 1, 2} satisfying the conditions that every vertex u with f (u) = 0 is adjacent to at least one vertex v with f (v) = 2, every vertex x with f (x) ≥ 1 is adjacent to at least one vertex y with f (y) ≥ 1, and any two different vertices a, b with f (a) = f (b) = 0 are not adjacent. The minimum weight ω( f) = Σv∈V(G) f (v) of any OITRDF f for G is the outer-independent total Roman domination number of G, denoted by γoitR(G). A graph G is called an outer-independent total Roman graph (OIT-Roman graph) if γoitR(G) = 2γoit(G). In this paper, we propose dynamic programming algorithms to compute the outer-independent total domination number and the outer-independent total Roman domination number of a tree, respectively. Moreover, we characterize all OIT-Roman graphs and give a linear time algorithm for recognizing an OIT-Roman graph.

The discharging method is most well-known for its central role in the proof of the Four Color Theorem. This proof technique was extensively applied to study various graph coloring problems, in particular on planar graphs. In this paper, we show that suitably altered discharging technique can also be used on domination-type problems. The general discharging approach for domination-type problems is illustrated on a specific domination-type problem, the double Roman domination on some generalized Petersen graphs. By applying this approach, we first prove that γdR(G)≥(3n/Δ(G) + 1) for any connected graph G with n≥2 vertices. As examples, we also determine the exact values of the double Roman domination numbers of the generalized Petersen graphs P(n, 1) and the double generalized Petersen graphs DP(n, 1). The obtained results imply that P(n, 1) is double Roman if and only if n ≠ 2 (mod 4) and DP(n, 1) is double Roman if and only if n ≡ 0 (mod 4).

Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) transplantation has attracted attention for the treatment of liver cirrhosis and end-stage liver diseases. Therefore, in this study, we evaluated the effect of different methods of BMSCs transplantation in the treatment of liver cirrhosis in rats. Seventy-two male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into 7 groups: 10 were used to extract BMSCs, 10 were used as normal group, and the remaining 52 rats were randomly divided into five groups for testing: control group, BMSCs group, BMSCs+granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) group, and BMSCs+Jisheng Shenqi decoction (JSSQ) group. After the end of the intervention course, liver tissue sections of rats were subjected to hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and Masson staining, and pathological grades were scored. Liver function [aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), albumin (ALB)] and hepatic fibrosis markers [hyaluronidase (HA), laminin (LN), type III procollagen (PCIII), type IV collagen (CIV)] were measured. BMSCs+JSSQ group had the best effect of reducing ALT and increasing ALB after intervention therapy (P0.05). The effect of JSSQ on improving stem cell transplantation in rats with liver cirrhosis was confirmed. JSSQ combined with BMSCs could significantly improve liver function and liver pathology scores of rats with liver cirrhosis.

A graph G is uniquely k-colorable if the chromatic number of G is k and G has only one k-coloring up to the permutation of the colors. For a plane graph G, two faces f 1 and f 2 of G are adjacent ( i , j )-faces if d ( f 1 ) = i, d ( f 2 ) = j, and f 1 and f 2 have a common edge, where d ( f ) is the degree of a face f. In this paper, we prove that every uniquely three-colorable plane graph has adjacent ( 3 , k )-faces, where k ≤ 5. The bound of five for k is the best possible. Furthermore, we prove that there exists a class of uniquely three-colorable plane graphs having neither adjacent ( 3 , i )-faces nor adjacent ( 3 , j )-faces, where i , j are fixed in { 3 , 4 , 5 } and i ≠ j. One of our constructions implies that there exists an infinite family of edge-critical uniquely three-colorable plane graphs with n vertices and 7 3 n - 14 3 edges, where n ( ≥ 11 ) is odd and n ≡ 2 ( mod 3 ).

Objectives: An immunoglobulin G4 (IgG4) level above 1350 mg/L is one of the comprehensive criteria for the diagnosis of IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the differences in IgG4 levels determined using reagents from two main manufacturers and their concordance with clinical diagnosis. Methods: IgG4 levels were measured in 309 patients, including 146, 40, 42, 41, and 40 patients with untreated IgG4-RD, pancreatic cancer, primary Sjogren syndrome, systemic lupus erythematosus, and idiopathic retroperitoneal fibrosis, respectively, and 141 healthy controls. The results obtained using the Binding Site and Siemens reagents were compared in patients with IgG4-RD. Results: The serum IgG4 level measured using the Siemens reagent was almost two times that measured using the Binding Site reagent. The rate of IgG4-negative patients, which was 19.9% based on measurement using the Binding Site reagent, was only 4.8% based on measurement using the Siemens reagent (푝 < .001). Conclusions: There were significant differences in serum IgG4 levels based on commonly used reagents from different manufacturers. The IgG4 cut-off level of 1350 mg/L was not suitable for all detection reagents. Clinicians and patients should be cognizant of these differences associated with the specific detection reagents when evaluating the test results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Robot milling has become an important means of machining large structural parts, and the dynamic compliance of the robot end is the key factor affecting machining quality and efficiency. The dynamic characteristics of the milling robot end are different in movement state and static state and have significant pose dependence. In order to effectively evaluate the dynamic compliance of the robot end in the workspace under the movement state, the operational impact excitation method for robot joint relative frequency response function (FRF) identification based on operational modal analysis (OMA) used in machine tool is established, the inertial force generated by the joint acceleration and deceleration movements is used as the excitation force, the robot end relative dynamic compliance index (RERDCI) is proposed to evaluate the dynamic compliance of robot end in different poses, and verified by cutting experiments. Based on RERDCI, the effect of the robot pose on end dynamic compliance is analyzed, and some theoretical guidance for improvement of dynamic performance to resist vibration in milling is given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Day-length is important for regulating the transition to reproductive development (flowering) in plants. In the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, the transcription factor CONSTANS (CO) promotes expression of the florigen FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT), constituting a key flowering pathway under long-day photoperiods. Recent studies have revealed that FT expression is regulated by changes of histone modification marks of the FT chromatin, but the epigenetic regulators that directly interact with the CO protein have not been identified. Here, we show that the Arabidopsis Morf Related Gene (MRG) group proteins MRG1 and MRG2 act as H3K4me3/H3K36me3 readers and physically interact with CO to activate FT expression. In vitro binding analyses indicated that the chromodomains of MRG1 and MRG2 preferentially bind H3K4me3/H3K36me3 peptides. The mrg1 mrg2 double mutant exhibits reduced mRNA levels of FT, but not of CO, and shows a late-flowering phenotype under the long-day but not short-day photoperiod growth conditions. MRG2 associates with the chromatin of FT promoter in a way dependent of both CO and H3K4me3/H3K36me3. Vice versa, loss of MRG1 and MRG2 also impairs CO binding at the FT promoter. Crystal structure analyses of MRG2 bound with H3K4me3/H3K36me3 peptides together with mutagenesis analysis in planta further demonstrated that MRG2 function relies on its H3K4me3/H3K36me3-binding activity. Collectively, our results unravel a novel chromatin regulatory mechanism, linking functions of MRG1 and MRG2 proteins, H3K4/H3K36 methylations, and CO in FT activation in the photoperiodic regulation of flowering time in plants.

In aviation and navigation, complicated parts are milled with high-speed low-feed-per-tooth milling to decrease tool vibration for high quality. Because the nonlinearity of the cutting force coefficient (CFC) is more evident with the relatively smaller instantaneous uncut chip thickness, the stable critical cutting depth and its distribution against different tool postures are affected. Considering the nonlinearity, a nonlinear dynamic CFC model that reveals the effect of the dynamic instantaneous uncut chip thickness on the dynamic cutting force is derived based on the Taylor expansion. A five-axis bull-nose end milling dynamics model is established with the nonlinear dynamic CFC model. The stable critical cutting depth distribution with respect to tool posture is analyzed. The stability results predicted with the dynamic CFC model are compared with those from the static CFC model and the constant CFC model. The effects of tool posture and feed per tooth on stable critical cutting depth were also analyzed, and the proposed model was validated by cutting experiments. The maximal stable critical cutting depths that can be achieved under different tool postures by feed per tooth adjustment were calculated, and corresponding distribution diagrams are proposed for milling parameter optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]