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ContextThe melanocortin 3 receptor (MC3R) has recently emerged as a critical regulator of pubertal timing, linear growth and the acquisition of lean mass in humans and mice. In population-based studies, heterozygous carriers of deleterious variants in MC3R report a later onset of puberty than non-carriers. However, the frequency of such variants in patients who present with clinical disorders of pubertal development is currently unknown.ObjectiveTo determine whether deleterious MC3R variants are more frequently found in patients clinically presenting with constitutional delay of growth and puberty (CDGP) or normosmic idiopathic hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (nIHH).Design, Setting and ParticipantsWe examined the sequence of MC3R in 362 adolescents with a clinical diagnosis of CDGP and 657 patients with nIHH, experimentally characterised the signalling properties of all non-synonymous variants found and compared their frequency to that in 5774 controls from a population-based cohort. Additionally, we established the relative frequency of predicted deleterious variants in individuals with self-reported delayed vs normally timed menarche/voice breaking in the UK Biobank cohort.ResultsMC3R loss-of-function variants were infrequent but overrepresented in patients with CDGP (8/362 (2.2%), OR = 4.17, p = 0.001). There was no strong evidence of overrepresentation in patients with nIHH (4/657 (0.6%), OR = 1.15, p = 0.779). In 246,328 women from UK Biobank, predicted deleterious variants were more frequently found in those self-reporting delayed (≥16 years) vs normal age at menarche (OR = 1.66, p = 3.90E-07).ConclusionsWe have found evidence that functionally damaging variants in MC3R are overrepresented in individuals with CDGP but are not a common cause of this phenotype.

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In this paper, we study the overdetermined problem for the $p$-Laplacian equation on complete noncompact Riemannian manifolds with nonnegative Ricci curvature. We prove that the regularity results of weak solutions of the $p$-Laplacian equation and obtain some integral identities. As their applications, we give the proof of the $p$-Laplacian overdetermined problem and obtain some well known results such as the Heintze-Karcher inequality and the Soap Bubble Theorem.

Supplemental Material for Disrupted resting-state brain functional network properties in non-neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus patients Approach by Xiangliang Tan Xiaojin Liu Kai Han Ling Zhao Meiqi Niu Qiaoli Yao Qin Huang Miao Zhong Yingjie Mei Ruiwang Huang and Yikai Xu in Lupus

Supplementary Material 1

Triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells (TREM) like transcript-1 (TLT-1) is a membrane protein receptor found in α-granules of megakaryocytes and platelets. Upon platelet activation TLT-1 is rapidly relocated to the surface of platelets. In plasma, a soluble form of TLT-1 (sTLT-1) is present. Plasma levels of sTLT-1 are significantly elevated in thrombotic diseases. In the present study, we investigated to whether TLT-1 reflects platelet activation in pregnant women with preeclampsia. We studied 30 preeclamptic patients who were matched with 30 normotensive pregnant women and 30 non-pregnant controls. Basal TLT-1, P-selectin, and CD63 expressions on platelets were analyzed with the use of flow-cytometry (FCM). Platelet reactivity was induced by thrombin receptor activation peptide and determined by FCM. Plasma concentrations of sTLT-1 and soluble P-selectin (sP-selectin) were measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results show that basal platelet expression of TLT-1, P-selectin and CD63 were increased in women with preeclampsia (PE) compared with normotensive pregnant women (NP). Platelets from PE women and NP women were more responsive compared to from nonpregnant women controls (NC), and which was demonstrated by increased expression of TLT-1, P-selectin, and CD63 upon stimulation in vitro. Plasma concentration of sTLT-1 was greater in PE women compared to NP women and NC women. Plasma sP-selectin level was higher in pregnant women than in nonpregnant women, but there were no significant differences between PE and NP women. In summary, our results revealed that platelet activation is prominent in preeclampsia, TLT-1 reflects platelet activation and may be a useful indicator for preeclampsia.

The lack of understanding about the brain's reaction processes in perceiving touch and separation between skin and object surfaces is a barrier to the development of existing brain-computer interface technologies and virtual haptics. These technologies are limited in their ability to advance. It leaves prosthesis users with a limited amount of tactile information that they can feel. This study aims to determine whether distinct surface aspects of various items trigger different reactions from the brain when friction is removed from the surface.When friction is suddenly removed from the surface of an item, a technique called event-related potential,or ERP, is used to study the features of people's EEGs. It is done after the subject has actively explored the object's surface. A Neuroscan 64-conductor event-related potential device was utilized to acquire EEG data from the individuals. The event-related potentials for friction removal were generated using the Oddball paradigm, and the samples consisted of sandpaper with three distinct degrees of roughness. We utilized a total of 20 participants, 10 of whom were male, and 10 of whom were female, with a mean age of 21 years.It was discovered that the P3 component of event-related potentials, which is essential for cognition, was noticeably absent in the friction withdrawal response for various roughnesses. It was the case regardless of whether the surface was smooth or rough. Moreover, there was no statistically significant difference between the P1 andP2 components, which suggests that the brain could not recognize the surface properties of objects with varying roughness as the friction withdrawal was being performed.It has been demonstrated that tactile recognition does not occur after friction withdrawal. The findings of this paper could have significant repercussions for future research involving the study of haptic perception and brain-computer interaction in prosthetic hands. It is a step toward future research on the mechanisms underlying human tactile perception, so think of it as preparation.

This paper considers an affine frequency division multiplexing (AFDM)-based integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) system, where the AFDM waveform is used to simultaneously carry communications information and sense targets. To realize AFDM-based sensing functionality, two parameter estimation methods are designed to process echoes in the time domain and the discrete affine Fourier transform (DAFT) domain, respectively. It allows us to decouple delay and Doppler shift in the fast time axis and can maintain good sensing performance even in large Doppler shift scenarios. Numerical results verify the effectiveness of our proposed AFDM-based system in high mobility scenarios.

Metabolism-related genes (MRGs) have been confirmed to play an important role in the occurrence and development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We obtained 88 differentially expressed MRGs according to ROC analysis. The prognostic risk score was then calculated based on 12 MRGs via LASSO regression, and patients were divided into high- and low-risk group. Furthermore, the survival prognostic value of this model was further confirmed in Kaplan–Meier and ROC analysis. Mutations in 12 MRGs were analyzed using cBioPortal. Further analysis showed that MRGs copy number variations (CNVs) in the model were correlated with immune checkpoints (LSECtin and PD-L1) and immune cells. Furthermore, this predictive model was found to be sensitive to immune infiltration and had good predictive value for the expression of immune checkpoints. In conclusion, an MRGs-based HCC prediction model for HCC was established and its effectiveness was verified.

Hypersplenism (HS) is a concomitant symptom of liver or blood disease. Not only does the treatment of HS face challenges, but the transcriptome of individual cells is also unknown. Here, the transcriptional profiles of 43,037 cells from four HS tissues and one control tissue were generated by the single-cell RNA sequencing and nine major cell types, including T-cells, B-cells, NK cells, hematopoietic stem cells, neutrophil cells, mast cells, endothelial cells, erythrocytes, and dendritic cells were identified. Strikingly, the main features were the lack of CCL5+ B-cells in HS and the presence of SESN1+ B cells in HS with hepatocellular carcinoma (HS-HCC). In cell-cell interaction analysis, CD74-COPA and CD94-HLA-E in HS were found to be up-regulated. We further explored HS-specifically enriched genes (such as FKBP5, ADAR, and RPS4Y1) and found that FKBP5 was highly expressed in HCC-HS, leading to immunosuppression. Taken together, this research provides new insights into the genetic characteristics of HS via comprehensive single-cell transcriptome analysis.

Renming Chen, Qin Huang, Lihua Chen Department of Nephropathy and Rheumatology,The Central Hospital of Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Enshi, 445000, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Lihua Chen, Department of Nephropathy and Rheumatology,The Central Hospital of Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, 158 Wuyang County Street, Enshi, Hubei, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 0718-8263471, Email clh133374920762022@163.comObjective: Fracture is a critical unfavorable prognostic factor in patients with rheumatoid arthritis(RA) and osteoporosis. At present, models involving clinical indices that accurately predict fracture are still uncommon. We addressed this gap by developing machine learning (ML)-based predictive models to individualize the risk of fracture in elderly patients with RA and osteoporosis and to identify a high-risk group for fracture.Methods: 487 patients diagnosed with RA and osteoporosis at the Central Hospital of Enshi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture were randomly divided into a training cohort (used for building the model) and a validation cohort (used for validating the model). Five ML-assisted models were developed from candidate clinical features using two-step estimation methods. The receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC), decision curve analysis (DCA), and clinical impact curve (CIC) were performed to evaluate the robustness and clinical practicability of each model.Results: A total of twenty-two candidate variables were included, and the prediction model was established by an ML-based algorithm. The areas under the ROC curve (AUCs) of the random forest classifier (RFC) model, artificial neural network (ANN), support vector machine (SVM), eXtreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), decision tree (DT), probability of major osteoporotic fractures (PMOF), and probability of hip fracture (PHF) ranged from 0.695 to 0.878. Among them, RFC obtained the optimal prediction efficiency via adding serum selenium and clinical indices, that is, glucocorticoid, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR).Conclusion: Based on the classic clinical parameters, the fracture risk of RA patients with osteoporosis can be accurately predicted. In particular, RFC prediction model shows good discrimination ability in identifying high-risk patients with fracture.Keywords: rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, fracture, machine learning algorithm, risk factor, predictive model

Starch nanoparticles (SNPs) was produced from type-A, B and C native starches (corn, potato and Trichosanthes kirilowii pulp starches respectively), via the nanoprecipitation method. The SNPs showed different amylose contents, water contact angles, surface morphologies and urea clearance performances. In this work, to examine the parameters of SNPs that may change the urea adsorption capacity, urea adsorption performance in adsorption environments with different pH values, urea concentrations, and adsorption times was examined. Thereafter, the characteristics of SNPs were tested by water contact angle measurements (WCA), transmission electron microscopy, specific surface area measurements, gel permeation chromatography, and zeta potential analysis. The results showed that the Trichosanthes kirilowii pulp (C) SNPs show better adsorption than the corn (A) and potato (B) SNPs. The hydrophobicity of SNPs promotes the urea adsorption of the SNPs. Using grey relational analysis, it was found that WCA and Mn are the critical parameter affecting the adsorption performance, with WCA and Mn within the ranges of 31-33° and 1900-2100 kDa, respectively, were found to be the conditions for optimal urea adsorption.

This article reports, for the first time, the application of Nb4C3Tx in the MXene series satisfying the formula of M4C3Tx in the field of hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). New etching parameters are proposed to obtain Nb4C3Tx with the largest c-lattice constant (3.165 nm) to date. Notably, Nb4C3Tx shows higher catalytic activity under the alkaline condition. Consequently, Nb4C3Tx has an overpotential of 398 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm−2, which is considerably less than that of other reported MXenes. Moreover, Nb4C3Tx has superior cycling performance and long-term stability in both acidic and alkaline environments. After 1000 cycles of CV, the overpotential of Nb4C3Tx clearly decreased by approximately 30 mV, and the current density significantly increased after the timing current test up to 50 h. This work demonstrates the excellent electrochemical performance that Nb4C3Tx can provide to benefit broad application prospects in energy fields.

Lung cancer remains the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of death from cancer. Recent research shows that the human eye can provide useful information about one’s health status, but few studies have revealed that the eye’s features are associated with the risk of cancer. The aims of this paper are to explore the association between scleral features and lung neoplasms and develop a non-invasive artificial intelligence (AI) method for detecting lung neoplasms based on scleral images. A novel instrument was specially developed to take the reflection-free scleral images. Then, various algorithms and different strategies were applied to find the most effective deep learning algorithm. Ultimately, the detection method based on scleral images and the multi-instance learning (MIL) model was developed to predict benign or malignant lung neoplasms. From March 2017 to January 2019, 3923 subjects were recruited for the experiment. Using the pathological diagnosis of bronchoscopy as the gold standard, 95 participants were enrolled to take scleral image screens, and 950 scleral images were fed to AI analysis. Our non-invasive AI method had an AUC of 0.897 ± 0.041(95% CI), a sensitivity of 0.836 ± 0.048 (95% CI), and a specificity of 0.828 ± 0.095 (95% CI) for distinguishing between benign and malignant lung nodules. This study suggested that scleral features such as blood vessels may be associated with lung cancer, and the non-invasive AI method based on scleral images can assist in lung neoplasm detection. This technique may hold promise for evaluating the risk of lung cancer in an asymptomatic population in areas with a shortage of medical resources and as a cost-effective adjunctive tool for LDCT screening at hospitals.

Kernel moisture content is an important factor in mechanized corn harvesting. However, the rapid and nondestructive in situ detection of the kernel moisture content within an intact corn ear in the field remains challenging. In this work, we designed a novel handheld device with a double-ring sensing probe for nondestructive and convenient kernel moisture detection in intact corn ears based on an active reflection bridge operating in the radio frequency range. By proposing an equivalent first-order resistor–capacitor impedance model for a load composed of a corn ear and the double-ring sensing probe, we found that the reflection coefficient’s phase angle $\theta $ was monotonic with the moisture content and also found that the measurement signal frequency affected the corn grain moisture measurement sensitivity. Before using the handheld device in the field, we investigated its optimal signal frequency range and the effects of temperature variations on the measurement results. In the frequency range of 140–165 MHz, the measured voltages from the device showed a good linear relationship and high sensitivity with respect to both the dielectric constants and the corn ear temperature (9 °C–22 °C). Using this device at a signal frequency of 160 MHz, we conducted corn ear moisture measurements in a total of 73 samples and then established a linear model. The results showed that, for corn ear moisture contents in the range of 15.7%–31.5%, the R values of the training set and the prediction set were 0.7027 and 0.8317, respectively, with a prediction error of 3.54% at the 95% confidence interval.

The occurrence of cirrus clouds in the tropics (24 °S–24 °N) is analyzed using the 2007–2015 monthly data from the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) and the fifth generation reanalysis product (ERA5) of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. In most cirrus clouds, the specific humidity (SPH) is larger than in cloud-free air and/or the temperature is smaller than in cloud-free air. Both positive SPH perturbations and negative temperature perturbations increase the relative humidity, resulting in favorable conditions for the formation and maintenance of clouds. The clouds in which there are positive SPH perturbations are considered to originate from convection. This is because, in the free troposphere, positive SPH anomalies are largely produced by the upward transport of moisture by convection followed by detrainment of the convective plumes. The remaining clouds that are not directly influenced by convection are driven by negative temperature perturbations. These temperature-driven clouds are formed and maintained in the cold phases of gravity waves and/or by the adiabatic cooling associated with the upwelling branch of the Brewer–Dobson circulation. Averaged over all altitudes of the tropical atmosphere, there are about three times more convective cirrus than non-convective ones. The level of maximum convective cirrus occurrence is at 14 km, i.e., the bottom of the tropical tropopause layer (TTL). Non-convective cirrus obtain their maximum frequency of occurrence at about 16 km, which is below the cold point tropopause (CPT). The seasonal cycle of convective cirrus is consistent with that of tropical convection, while the seasonal cycle of non-convective cirrus in the TTL is consistent with that of the CPT. There are two maxima in the frequency of occurrence of convective cirrus, one at around 10 °S in the austral summer, and the other at around 10 °N in the boreal summer. In contrast, non-convective cirrus occur most frequently near the equator in the boreal winter. The ice water content (IWC) in both convective and non-convective cirrus increases with increasing temperature (decreasing altitude). Thus, non-convective cirrus—which on average occur at lower temperatures (higher altitudes)—tend to have lower IWCs than convective cirrus.

Ovarian pregnancy (OP) coupled with tubal ectopic pregnancy is rare. We present a case of coexistent ovarian and tubal ectopic pregnancies in the same adnexa resulting from in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET) for tubal occlusion. The patient presented with mild vaginal bleeding without abdominal pain. OP was diagnosed via sonographic findings of an ectopic gestational sac (GS) and yolk sac that seemed to be inside her left ovary. Laparoscopic exploration confirmed this diagnosis, and ipsilateral tubal ectopic pregnancy was suspected during surgery. The patient underwent left salpingectomy and resection of the ovarian lesion. A subsequent histopathological examination verified the diagnosis of coexistent ovarian and tubal ectopic pregnancy. Though the mechanism underlying concurrent OP and tubal ectopic pregnancy is still unclear, clinicians should be cautious of potential combined ectopic pregnancy when dealing with patients who have received more than one embryo transfer.

Supplemental Material for Association between serum uric acid level and systemic lupus erythematosus kidney outcome: An observational study in Southern Chinese population and a meta-analysis by Yipeng Han, Xiaoxi Lu, Shibai Xiao, Jiayu Qin, Lijuan Zheng, Yi Feng, Yujie Cai, Rong Qiu, Qin Huang, and Min Yang in Lupus

Data and codes

Supplemental Material, sj-pdf-1-lup-10.1177_09612033211069853 for Elevated serum free IL-18 in neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus patients with seizure disorders by Renge Liang, Lijuan Zheng, Tingting Ji, Jiaman Zheng, Jiayi Liu, Chao Yuan, Qin Huang, and Min Yang in Lupus

This paper examines inverse Cauchy problems that are governed by a kind of elliptic partial differential equation. The inverse problems involve recovering the missing data on an inaccessible boundary from the measured data on an accessible boundary, which is severely ill-posed. By using the coupled complex boundary method (CCBM), which integrates both Dirichlet and Neumann data into a single Robin boundary condition, we reformulate the underlying problem into an operator equation. Based on this new formulation, we study the solution existence issue of the reduced problem with noisy data. A Golub-Kahan bidiagonalization (GKB) process together with Givens rotation is employed for iteratively solving the proposed operator equation. The regularizing property of the developed method, called CCBM-GKB, and its convergence rate results are proved under a posteriori stopping rule. Finally, a linear finite element method is used for the numerical realization of CCBM-GKB. Various numerical experiments demonstrate that CCBM-GKB is a kind of accelerated iterative regularization method, as it is much faster than the classic Landweber method.

In this study, a series of cobalt-free Sn-doped cathode materials of Li1.15Ni0.27Mn0.58-xSnxO2 are prepared by the solvothermal method for the first time. The structural characterization of the material reveals that all the samples consist of hexagonal layered structural LiMO2 (M = Mn/Ni), monoclinic-layered structural Li2MnO3, and cubic spinel structural LiMn2O4. Moreover, the interplanar spacing of the layered structure increases in the material, and the electrochemical impedance of the material declines by Sn doping. As a result, all Sn-doped samples exhibit better electrochemical performance than pristine Li1.15Ni0.27Mn0.58O2 materials. Among them, Li1.15Ni0.27Mn0.56Sn0.02O2 delivers comprehensively improved electrochemical performance. The initial coulombic efficiency of the Li1.15Ni0.27Mn0.56Sn0.02O2 sample is 84.4%, which is nearly 10% higher than the pristine material, and Li1.15Ni0.27Mn0.56Sn0.02O2 exhibits an initial discharge specific capacity of 260.8 mAh/g at a current density of 0.1 C, and the capacity retention after first 100 cycles at 1 C reached 94.67%. Rate capability of Li1.15Ni0.27Mn0.58-xSnxO2 is significantly improved by Sn doping. The specific discharge capacity of the Li1.15Ni0.27Mn0.56Sn0.02O2 sample at 5 C is two times higher than that of Li1.15Ni0.27Mn0.58O2. Moreover, the Li1.15Ni0.27Mn0.56Sn0.02O2 material can still maintain a discharge capacity of 220 mAh/g when the current density returns to 0.1 C after a large current density cycling process. These results show that the proper amount of Sn doping can effectively improve the electrochemical performance of Li1.15Ni0.27Mn0.58O2, due to the fact that Sn ions have larger ionic radii than the transition metal (Mn/Ni) ions and Sn can partially replace the transition metal element ions in the layered structure, thereby expanding the lithium ion diffusion channel and inhibiting instability of the material structure during the cycle. However, an excessive amount of Sn (x > 0.03) generates a Li2SnO3 impurity in the material, resulting in deterioration of material properties.

In this work, a Zr702 sheet was subjected to β air cooling and then rolled to 15% reduction at room temperature, with their detailed microstructural characteristics characterized by electron channeling contrast imaging and electron backscatter diffraction techniques. Results show that after the β air cooling, the prior equiaxed grains in the as-received material are completely transformed into Widmanstatten structures featured by coarse plates with typical phase transformation misorientations between them. The subsequent 15% rolling allows both slip and twinning (especially the {10–12} type) to be activated readily, leading to significant grain refinement and the appearance of misorientation angle peaks around 3°–5° and 85°. Analyses on kernel average misorientations reveal that there exist very low residual strains in the β-air-cooled specimen while they are markedly increased after the 15% rolling and preferably distributed near low-angle and twin boundaries. Hardness measurements show that the specimen hardness is evidently decreased from ~ 199 to ~ 170 HV after the β air cooling, which can be attributed to grain coarsening and the scattered orientations associated with the slow β → α transformation. For the 15%-rolled specimen, however, effective grain refinement by twinning and denser low-angle boundaries jointly lead to ~ 35% hardness increment to ~ 228 HV.

This paper reports a longitudinal study on the retrospective evaluation of perceived usability. We propose a retest method based on SUS questionnaires to reduce the multiple-observation effects typically present in longitudinal research. We designed different forms of the SUS questionnaire to eliminate memory effects and distributed duplicate SUS copies to subjects. We first measured the alternative-form reliability of duplicate in Experiment I ($\textbf{r =0.814}$). We then found that the duplicates we designed significantly reduce memory effects compared to the standard SUS questionnaire. Experiment II involved tests on the retrospective evaluation of perceived usability at five measurement points after initial use. The retrospective evaluation of perceived usability changes over time. After 5 min (at point ${\mathrm{T}}_2$), we found that each subject’s retrospective evaluation changed significantly regardless of whether the task had higher or lower usability levels. Moreover, the `directions’of this change tended to differ. This indicates that time is an important factor in perceived usability evaluation. Our results altogether indicate that time affects the retrospective evaluation of perceived usability as well as the accuracy of perceived usability evaluation, which suggests that the process of perceived usability assessment requires strict time constraints.

Unlike animals, few vascular plants are known to spontaneously generate rhythmic electrical signals. In plants electrical signals triggered in response to external environmental changes are of physiological significance. However, plant electrical signals require experimental skill to measure, are stimulus-pattern dependent, and show poor quantitative reproducibility, thus their existence has been largely ignored by researchers. We developed a non-invasive and high-throughput light-induced in situ method to mine the information conveyed by reproducible bioelectrical activity in plants. Stable periodic electrical potential changes in wheat leaves induced by illumination–darkness cycles enabled selection of wave features and specific classification algorithms were used to enable rapid distinction of salt-tolerant and salt-sensitive cultivars. Chlorophyll fluorescence data also strongly supported the association of rhythmic electrical potential with salt sensitivity in wheat leaves. The results show that the electrophysiological phenotype represented by plant rhythmic electrical potential is a novel candidate for phenotypic analyses. The method will also enable rapid assessment of the response and resistance to abiotic stresses of crop seedlings.

Trichosanthin (root of Trichosanthes kirilowii Maxim.) has received much attention, but T. kirilowii has received little systematic analysis. A comprehensive evaluation of flavones and triterpenes in nine different parts of T. kirilowii would, thus, be of value to fully understand the potential medicinal properties of T. kirilowii. A hierarchical extraction—simultaneous determination method was established, which based on different types of components had different response on the MS detector. The hierarchical extraction method extracted 3, 29-dibenzoyl rarounitriol solely, which response lowly on the MS detector in the mixture of one step extract, in order to obtain accurate results in the next UHPLC-MS/MS assay. By this method, ten flavones, three tetracyclic triterpenoids, and one pentacyclic triterpenoid in the extracts of T. kirilowii were determined. The results showed the level of flavonoids in leaves was higher than those in the other samples, tetracyclic triterpenoids mainly existed in root and root bark, and pentacyclic triterpenoid, especially 3, 29-dibenzoyl rarounitriol was concentrated in the seed kernel. According to principal component analysis, the F values of the leaves of all varieties were generally greater than those in other parts. The leaves might provide a supplementary source of flavonoids, and the root and root bark could be a good choice for tetracyclic triterpenoids. The analysis results revealed the distribution of flavones and triterpenes in different parts of T. kirilowii and provided reference for the research and rational utilization of T. kirilowii.

The paper proposes to decode Reed-Muller (RM) codes by projecting onto only a few subspaces such that the number of projections is significantly reduced. It reveals that the probability that error pairs are canceled simultaneously in two different projections is determined by their intersection size. Then, correlation coefficient which indicates the intersection size of two subspaces in a collection is introduced for collecting subspaces. Simulation results show that our proposed approach with a small number of projections onto collected subspaces performs close to the original approach.

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-2-tar-10.1177_17534666211049739 for The predictive role of lymphocyte subsets and laboratory measurements in COVID-19 disease: a retrospective study by Lin Wang, Jun Chen, Jun Zhao, Feng Li, Shuihua Lu, Ping Liu, Xu-hui Liu, Qin Huang, He Wang, Qing nian Xu, Xiaomin Liu, Shijun Yu, Li Liu and Hongzhou Lu in Therapeutic Advances in Respiratory Disease

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-npx-10.1177_1934578X211046072 for Alkaloids From the Marine Fungus Lecanicillium fusisporum Using an Amino Acid-Directed Strategy by Qin Huang, Hou-Jin Li, Chang-Bai Huang, Zi-Han Wang, Wen-Jian Lan and Lai-You Wang in Natural Product Communications

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-tar-10.1177_17534666211049739 for The predictive role of lymphocyte subsets and laboratory measurements in COVID-19 disease: a retrospective study by Lin Wang, Jun Chen, Jun Zhao, Feng Li, Shuihua Lu, Ping Liu, Xu-hui Liu, Qin Huang, He Wang, Qing nian Xu, Xiaomin Liu, Shijun Yu, Li Liu and Hongzhou Lu in Therapeutic Advances in Respiratory Disease

Additional file 1: Figure 1. Flow diagram for the patients in this study. Figure 2. The endoscopic submucosal dissection for early gastric cardiac cancer. Figure 3. Patient treatment flow chart. Table 1. Disease specific survival at 3 and 5 years among BEI patients with or without additional surgery after ESD for EGCC which were divided into three risk categories according to the eCura system.

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-2-tar-10.1177_17534666211049739 for The predictive role of lymphocyte subsets and laboratory measurements in COVID-19 disease: a retrospective study by Lin Wang, Jun Chen, Jun Zhao, Feng Li, Shuihua Lu, Ping Liu, Xu-hui Liu, Qin Huang, He Wang, Qing nian Xu, Xiaomin Liu, Shijun Yu, Li Liu and Hongzhou Lu in Therapeutic Advances in Respiratory Disease

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-tar-10.1177_17534666211049739 for The predictive role of lymphocyte subsets and laboratory measurements in COVID-19 disease: a retrospective study by Lin Wang, Jun Chen, Jun Zhao, Feng Li, Shuihua Lu, Ping Liu, Xu-hui Liu, Qin Huang, He Wang, Qing nian Xu, Xiaomin Liu, Shijun Yu, Li Liu and Hongzhou Lu in Therapeutic Advances in Respiratory Disease

Starch nanoparticles (SNPs) with different morphology and particle size can be prepared by modulating the reaction conditions over SNPs preparation. This study was to synthesize various SNPs by using ultrasound assisted nanoprecipitation method, and characterized by particle size analysis, SEM and XRD performing. SNPs were successfully produced via nanoprecipitation and the particle size were controlled in the range of 95 to 150 nm. Moreover, variously different morphologies were obtained when using corn, potato or Trichosanthes kirilowii pulp (TKP) starch to produce nanoparticles, including fiber, flake and film. Results shown film TKP SNPs demonstrated an improved urea adsorption rate to 135.60 mg/g with the highest qm at 1.00 mg/mL. SNPs can be developed using ultrasound assisted nanoprecipitation method and the particle size together with surface morphology can be varied according to the source of starch and preparation method, while surface morphology is the key factor in altering adsorption performance.

Most loci identified by GWASs have been found in populations of European ancestry (EUR). In trans-ethnic meta-analyses for 15 hematological traits in 746,667 participants, including 184,535 non-EUR individuals, we identified 5,552 trait-variant associations at p< 5× 10-9, including 71 novel associations not found in EUR populations. We also identified 28 additional novel variants in ancestry-specific, non-EUR meta-analyses, including an IL7 missense variant in South Asians associated with lymphocyte count invivo and IL-7 secretion levels invitro. Fine-mapping prioritized variants annotated as functional and generated 95% credible sets that were 30% smaller when using the trans-ethnic as opposed to the EUR-only results. We explored the clinical significance and predictive value of trans-ethnic variants in multiple populations and compared genetic architecture and the effect of natural selection on these blood phenotypes between populations. Altogether, our results for hematological traits highlight the value of a more global representation of populations in genetic studies.

This paper investigates a velocity-free finite-time attitude control scheme for rigid spacecrafts with unknown boundary external disturbance. By using the quadratic Lyapunov function (QLF) method, a finite-time observer is designed to estimate unknown angular velocity and boundary of external disturbance. Combining adaptive control technique with adding a power integrator (AAPI), a finite-time controller is proposed. Rigorous Lyapunov-based analysis shows that both the observation errors and tracking errors can converge to the equilibrium point in finite time under the designed control law. Numerical simulation results illustrate the performance of the proposed control scheme.

The current research study aims at inspecting various levels of apprehension and anxiety faced by university postgraduates in Pakistan and China when learning a foreign language (FL). The target population of this research was the university postgraduates from a Chinese university in Wuhan, and a public sector university in Lahore, Pakistan. The sample of this study was 206 postgraduates, out of which 106 (male =28, female= 78) from a Chinese university and 100 (male=53, female= 47) from a Pakistani university in Lahore. The sample was selected randomly and aged (21-30), and all participants belonged to the postgraduate level. Horwitz’s foreign language classroom anxiety scale (known as FLCAS) was used as a survey model, a theoretical framework for collecting data from both universities. The Statistical Package of a Social Sciences (SPSS version23) was used to get quantitative results. Descriptive statistics were used to investigate the anxiety level. Mean score and standard deviation were computed of both groups, besides it, the independent samples t-test was run to compare the mean score of both groups and infer if there existed any difference in the target language anxiety level. The results revealed that Chinese postgraduates face more anxiety than Pakistani postgraduates, and there existed significant differences in foreign language anxiety levels of both groups. Based on the results, it can be implicated that combined efforts of mentors and students can pave the way in tackling anxiety among university postgraduates.

In this thesis, we study the evolution of qubits evolving according to the Schr��dinger equation with a Hamiltonian containing noise terms, modeled by random diagonal and off-diagonal matrix elements. For a single qubit exposed to such noise, we show that the noise-averaged qubit density matrix converges to a specific final state, in the limit of large time t. We find that the convergence speed is polynomial in 1=t, with a power that depends on the regularity and the low frequency behaviour of the noise probability density. We evaluate the final state explicitly in the regimes of weak and strong off-diagonal noise. We show that the process implements the well-known dephasing channel in the localized and delocalized basis, respectively. Furthermore, we consider the evolution of the entanglement of two (or more) qubits subject to Gaussian noises with varying means and variances. We consider two different cases: individual noise where each qubit feels an independent noise, and common noise where all qubits are subjected to the same noise. We find the following characteristics of entanglement, measured by the concurrence of qubits. Initially entangled states lose their amount of entanglement in time due to the presence of the noise. The decay of entanglement happens more quickly for common noise than for individual noise. We also detect creation of entanglement due to the common noise: for some initially disentangled states, entanglement is created for intermediate times and then decays to zero in the long time again.

We propose a new (theoretical) computational model for the study of massive data processing with limited computational resources. Our model measures the complexity of reading the very large data sets in terms of the data size N and analyzes the computational cost in terms of a parameter k that characterizes the computational power provided by limited local computing resources. We develop new algorithmic techniques that implement algorithms for solving well-known computational problems on the proposed model. In particular, we present an algorithm that finds a k-matching in a general unweighted graph in time O(N + k^{2.5}) and an algorithm that constructs a maximum weighted k-matching in a general weighted graph in time O(N + k^3 log k). Both algorithms have their space complexity bounded by O(k^2).