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We introduced a random symmetric Gauss-Seidel (RSGS) method, which was designed to handle large scale linear least squares problems involving tall coefficient matrices. This RSGS method projected the approximate residual onto the subspace spanned by two symmetric columns at each iteration. These columns were sampled from the coefficient matrix based on an effective probability criterion. Our theoretical analysis indicated that RSGS converged when the coefficient matrix had full column rank. Furthermore, numerical experiments demonstrated that RSGS outperformed the baseline algorithms in terms of iteration steps and CPU time.

Background The high prevalence of multimorbidity among middle-aged and older adults has become a serious issue needing to be addressed by China's healthcare system. The number of chronic diseases is related to health service utilization and medical costs, but there is still a lack of relevant national surveys in China. Objective To understand the prevalence and features of multimorbidity and to examine its associations with health service utilization and medical costs among middle-aged and older Chinese adults. Methods Data were collected from the 2018 wave of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) during April to October 2021, involving 16 674 Chinese adults (≥45 years old) . Multimorbidity was defined as the coexistence of two or more of the self-reported 14 chronic conditions. Health service utilization was measured using inpatient service utilization in the past year and outpatient service utilization in the past month. Medical costs were measured using total inpatient cost and out-of-pocket (OOP) cost for inpatient care in the past one year, total outpatient costs and OOP cost for outpatient care in the past one month. Logistic regression was used to estimate the association between the number of chronic diseases and health service utilization. Quantile regression was adopted to estimate the association between the number of chronic diseases and medical costs. Results Of all participants, 9 561 (57.34%) had multimorbidity. 2 624 (15.74%) had utilized inpatient services in the past year, and 2 588 (15.52%) used outpatient services in the past one month. Inpatient service utilization, outpatient service utilization, total inpatient cost, OOP cost for inpatient care, total outpatient cost, and OOP cost for outpatient care varied significantly by the number of chronic diseases (P

This paper examines the impact of income expectations and the extent to which these expectations are met, on subjective well‐being. For the Indonesian sample, expectations had asymmetric effects on well‐being, with pessimistic expectations having a strong adverse effect compared with a weak positive effect of optimism. Optimism improves only females' and not males' well‐being while pessimism has the reverse effect on both genders' well‐being. Although unmet expectations reduced well‐being for all subgroups, the mediating role of social capital to negate this was limited to some subgroups. Results point toward a gendered policy agenda and the rural–urban divide to improve well‐being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silicon-based anode materials are considered one of the highly promising anode materials due to their high theoretical energy density; however, problems such as volume effects and solid electrolyte interface film (SEI) instability limit the practical applications. Herein, silicon nanoparticles (SiNPs) are used as the nucleus and anatase titanium dioxide (TiO2) is used as the buffer layer to form a core-shell structure to adapt to the volume change of the silicon-based material and improve the overall interfacial stability of the electrode. In addition, silver nanowires (AgNWs) doping makes it possible to form a conductive network structure to improve the conductivity of the material. We used the core-shell structure SiNPs@TiO2/AgNWs composite as an anode material for high-efficiency Li-ion batteries. Compared with the pure SiNPs electrode, the SiNPs@TiO2/AgNWs electrode exhibits excellent electrochemical performance with a first discharge specific capacity of 3524.2 mAh·g−1 at a current density of 400 mA·g−1, which provides a new idea for the preparation of silicon-based anode materials for high-performance lithium-ion batteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the distributed fusion estimation issue with the dimensionality reduction strategy under DoS attacks and deception attacks is investigated for a class of stochastic uncertain systems with fading measurements. The stochastic uncertainties existed in the system and measurement equations are represented by state-dependent noises. The fading measurements are depicted by stochastic variables with known statistics. Then, a novel attack and compensation model is proposed to display the randomly occurring behaviors of the DoS attacks and the deception attacks within a unified framework. Furthermore, a distributed multisensor fusion estimation (DMSFE) algorithm is presented. An explicit form of dimensionality reduction is designed against attacks. Stability conditions are derived such that the mean square errors (MSEs) of the proposed DMSFE are bounded. A sequential covariance intersection fusion estimator (SCIFE) is designed to prevent the cross fusion covariance matrices calculating, which owns lower accuracy by smaller computation cost than DMSFE. An illustrative example is provided to show the effectiveness and merits of the proposed algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International student education in China is an important aspect of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) construction, as well as a beginning point for enhancing the internationalization level of education. China has become the world's top ten recipients of international students, and its worldwide influence on education is increasing. This research investigates the factors that influence the scale of international students in China and the impact of the BRI on education by employing the "Push-Pull Theory". In particular, we find that joining the BRI will significantly increase a country's student scale in China, both for degree and non-degree education. This effect is especially noticeable in the African region, as well as in middle- and low-income countries. These empirical findings support policy implications for international student education in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the stability analysis of networked control systems (NCSs) under Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks is studied. Firstly, the stability analysis for NCSs free of DoS attacks is investigated. Considering the DoS attacks, the game theory is introduced to establish the non-cooperative game between defender and attacker of NCSs. At the same time, the stability of NCSs is analysed in frequency domain, and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) expression is given by using spectral decomposition technique and Nash equilibrium (NE) strategy. The packet dropout phenomenon caused by DoS attacks is described by Bernoulli distribution. By virtue of the NE strategy, the stability of NCSs can be optimised. In the obtained results, the influence of the traditional constraints and DoS attacks is illustrated. Finally, some numerical examples are given to show the effectiveness of the derived theoretical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: A new type of fast distributed Kalman consensus filtering algorithm based on local information feedback is presented to tackle filtering problems in wireless sensor networks. First, this fast filtering issues are transformed into a stochastic stability problem of the dynamic estimation errors, which can be solved by Lyapunov's second method and matrix theory. Then, two sufficient conditions about the proportional‐like feedback (double gains regulation) method and incremental Proportional‐Integral‐Derivative (PID) feedback method for the asymptotical stability of the systems are presented, respectively. Moreover, to achieve a faster convergence rate, a novel optimal method is given by combing a genetic algorithm and incremental PID. Finally, an illustrative example is presented to give a comparison of the convergence speed between the three filtering algorithms in the same condition, and verify the effectiveness and advantage of the proposed theoretical results in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two novel fast consensus algorithms based on local information of first-order discrete multi-agent systems under a directed network are proposed in this paper. By applying matrix theory and the frequency-domain analysis methods, two sufficient conditions about the convergence rate of the systems are presented, respectively, where the proportional-like gain feedback and incremental proportional–integral–differential gains feedback only with local information are added. Finally, a numerical example is given to show the double gains regulation algorithm proposed in this paper has much faster consensus rate compared with the classical consensus algorithm in the same condition for its two-degree freedom parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The price of anarchy (POA) is a quite powerful tool to characterize the efficiency loss of competition on networks. In this paper, we derive a bound for POA for the case that the cost function is linear but asymmetric. The result is a generalization of that of Han et. al. in the sense that the involved matrix is only assumed to be positive semidefinite, but not positive definite. Consequently, the range of application of the result is widened. We give two simple examples to illustrate our result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ankyrin repeat domain 49 (ANKRD49) is an evolutionarily conserved protein highly expressed in testes. However, the function of ANKRD49 in spermatogenesis is unknown. In this study, we found that ANKRD49 resides primarily in nucleus of spermatogonia, spermatocytes and round spermatids. ANKRD49 overexpression augments starvation-induced autophagy in male germ GC-1 cells whereas shRNA knockdown of ANKRD49 attenuates the autophagy. Inhibition of NF-κB pathway by its inhibitors or p65 siRNA prevents the ANKRD49-dependent autophagy augmentation, demonstrating that ANKRD49 enhances autophagy via NF-κB pathway. Our findings suggest that ANKRD49 plays an important role in spermatogenesis via promotion of autophagy-dependent survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The higher level of Glucose-6-phosphate isomerase (G6PI) has been found in both synovial tissue and synovial fluid of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, while the function of G6PI in RA remains unclear. Herein we found the enrichment of G6PI in microvascular endothelial cells of synovial tissue in RA patients, where a 3% O2 hypoxia environment has been identified. In order to determine the correlation between the high G6PI level and the low oxygen concentration in RA, a hypoxia condition (~3% O2) in vitro was applied to mimic the RA environment in vivo. Hypoxia promoted cellular proliferation of rheumatoid arthritis synovial fibroblasts (RASFs), and induced cell migration and angiogenic tube formation of human dermal microvascular endothelial cells (HDMECs), which were accompanied with the increased expression of G6PI and HIF-1α. Through application of G6PI loss-of-function assays, we confirmed the requirement of G6PI expression for those hypoxia-induced phenotype in RA. In addition, we demonstrated for the first time that G6PI plays key roles in regulating VEGF secretion from RASFs to regulate the hypoxia-induced angiogenesis in RA. Taken together, we demonstrated a novel pathway regulating hypoxia-induced angiogenesis in RA mediated by G6PI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Unplanned extubation is a common adverse event and an important indicator of quality and safety of care. It is well recognized that the incidence of unplanned extubation of nasogastric/nasoenteric tubes is higher than that of other devices. Theory and previous research have suggested that cognitive bias in conscious patients with nasogastric/nasoenteric tubes may lead to unplanned extubation, and that social support, anxiety, and hope are influencing factors of cognitive bias. Therefore, the objective of this study was to investigate the effects of social support, anxiety, and hope levels on cognitive bias in patients with nasogastric/nasoenteric tubes., Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 438 patients with nasogastric/nasoenteric tubes were selected from 16 hospitals in Suzhou from December 2019 to March 2022 by convenience sampling method. The participants were assessed using the General Information Questionnaire, Perceived Social Support Scale, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, Herth Hope Index, and Cognitive Bias Questionnaire for patients with nasogastric/nasoenteric tubes. The structural equation model was established with AMOS 22.0 software., Results: The cognitive bias score of patients with nasogastric/nasoenteric tubes was 2.82±0.61. Patients' perceived levels of social support and hope were negatively correlated with their cognitive bias (r=-0.395 and -0.427, respectively, P<0.05), and anxiety was positively correlated with cognitive bias (r=0.446, P<0.05). Structural equation model analysis showed that anxiety had a direct positive effect on cognitive bias, with an effect value of 0.35 (P<0.001), and hope level had a direct negative effect on cognitive bias with an effect value of -0.33 (P<0.001). Social support had a direct negative effect on cognitive bias and was also shown to indirectly affect cognitive bias through anxiety and hope levels. The effect values were -0.22, -0.12, and -0.19 (P<0.001), for social support, anxiety, and hope, respectively. Social support, anxiety, and hope explained 46.2% of the total variation in cognitive bias., Conclusions: Moderate cognitive bias is noted in patients with nasogastric/nasoenteric tubes, and social support significantly affects cognitive bias. Anxiety and hope level play a mediating role in social support and cognitive bias. Positive psychological intervention and the obtention of positive support could improve the cognitive bias of patients with nasogastric/nasoenteric tubes.

Large-scale epidemiological studies have found that hyperhomocysteinemia is a powerful, independent risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. Trillium tschonoskii maxim is a traditional Chinese medicine that is used to promote memory. However, scientific understanding of its mechanism of action is limited. This report studied the potential neuroprotective effects of Trillium tschonoskii maxim extract against homocysteine-induced cognitive deficits. Rats were intravenously injected with homocysteine (400 μg/kg) for 14 days to induce a model of Alzheimer's disease. These rats were then intragastrically treated with Trillium tschonoskii maxim extract (0.125 or 0.25 g/kg) for 7 consecutive days. Open field test and Morris water maze test were conducted to measure spontaneous activity and learning and memory abilities. Western blot assay was used to detect the levels of Tau protein and other factors involved in Tau phosphorylation in the hippocampus. Immunohistochemical staining was used to examine Tau protein in the hippocampus. Golgi staining was applied to measure hippocampal dendritic spines. Our results demonstrated that homocysteine produced learning and memory deficits and increased levels of Tau phosphorylation, and diminished the activity of catalytic protein phosphatase 2A. The total number of hippocampal dendritic spines was also decreased. Trillium tschonoskii maxim extract treatment reversed the homocysteine-induced changes. The above results suggest that Trillium tschonoskii maxim extract can lessen homocysteine-induced abnormal Tau phosphorylation and improve cognitive deterioration such as that present in Alzheimer's disease., Competing Interests: None declared

The present study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic and prognostic value of Tat-interacting protein 30 (HTATIP2/TIP30) levels alone and in combination with α-fetoprotein (AFP) for the evaluation of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. ELISA and immunohistochemical measurements on the serum and tissue of HTATIP2/TIP30 protein from HCC patients and normal controls were made. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses of AFP and HTATIP2/TIP30 were performed, as well as logistic regression analysis of APF combined with HTATIP2/TIP30. Log-rank analysis was used to correlate the prognosis with various levels of HTATIP2/TIP30. HTATIP2/TIP30 levels were significantly lower in the HCC group compared with the control group (4.50±2.63 vs. 9.50±2.04 ng/ml, P<0.001). ROC analysis revealed an optimal cut-off point at 7.27 ng/ml HTATIP2/TIP30 for separating the HCC from the control groups. The sensitivity and specificity were 84.6 and 93.7% (P<0.001), respectively. ROC areas of HTATIP2/TIP30 (0.928, P<0.001) were significantly higher than those for AFP (P<0.001). The area under the curve of the HTATIP2/TIP30 and AFP combination was 0.950 (P<0.001). Log-rank tests revealed that the recurrence-free survival time of the group with HTATIP2/TIP30>5.71 ng/ml was significantly higher than that of the control group (P<0.001). This is the first study to demonstrate that HTATIP2/TIP30 levels in serum may be an effective biomarker for the diagnosis and prognosis of HCC.

Objectives: To investigate the effect of decreased alpha-enolase (ENO1) expression on rheumatoid arthritis fibroblasts-like synoviocytes (RA-FLSs) proliferation in response to hypoxia, and elucidate the possible mechanisms involved., Methods: RA-FLSs and osteoarthritis fibroblasts-like synoviocytes (OA-FLSs) were cultured in tri-gas incubators with different oxygen concentrations (3% O2, 7% O2, and 21% O2). 3% O2 (hypoxia) and 7% O2 conditions simulated intra-articular oxygen concentrations as observed in RA and healthy individual, respectively. 21% O2 represented oxygen condition for normal cell culture. ENO1-knockdown FLSs were established using ENO1-siRNA. The expression level of ENO1 was detected using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction or RT-PCR and Western blot. Proliferation and apoptosis of RA-FLSs and OA-FLSs were assessed using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5-(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2 H-tetrazolium or MTS assay and flow cytometry, respectively. Western blot analysis was used to detect key proteins involved in apoptosis., Results: ENO1 gene expression was remarkably upregulated, as well as its translation into protein, in RA-FLSs and OA-FLSs that were cultured in 3% O2 concentration. RA-FLSs and OA-FLSs that were cultured under hypoxic conditions hyperproliferated compared with similar cells under normaxic conditions. Neither 7% O2 nor 21% O2 condition had any significant effect on ENO1 expression. ENO1-siRNA-transfected FLSs, but not control-siRNA FLSs, showed markedly decreased proliferation. Additionally, ENO1 expression was found to promote significantly higher expression levels of the anti-apoptotic proteins Bcl-2, surviving, and cyclinB1, but inhibited the expression of cleaved caspase3., Conclusion: ENO1 may be crucial in the regulation of the proliferation and survival of synovial fibroblasts.