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Maritime accidents frequently lead to severe property damage and casualties, and an accurate and reliable risk prediction model is necessary to help maritime stakeholders assess the current risk situation. Therefore, the present study proposes a hybrid methodology to develop an explainable prediction model for maritime accident types. Based on the advantages of selective ensemble learning method, this study pioneers to introduce a two-stage model selection method, aiming to enhance the predictive accuracy and stability of the model. Then, SHAP (Shapley Additive Explanations) method is integrated to identify effective mapping associations of seafarers’ unsafe acts and their risk factors with the prediction results. The results demonstrate that the model developed achieves good prediction performance with an accuracy of 87.50 % and an F1-score of 84.98 %, which benefits stakeholders in assessing the type of maritime accident in advance, so as to make proactive intervention measures.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the extent to which universities actively encourage students to participate in study abroad at an international branch campus (IBC) owned by the university. We suggest that the quality of information on study abroad provided by an institution in its website may be a good indicator of the institution's ambition (or not) to have students moving from the home university to a branch campus for study abroad. The selected institution websites were subjected to mixed-method data analysis, which included a content analysis procedure. It was found that some universities appear motivated to achieve IBC-based study abroad and demonstrate the required marketing communication competencies required, while other institutions possibly lack motivation and/or marketing competency. To effectively promote IBC-based study abroad, we advise universities to address the student decision-making process, as suggested by the hierarchy of effects model.

Seafarers’ unsafe acts as the direct causes of maritime accidents are considered to be the result of the interaction between complex and dynamic influencing factors. Identifying the risk evolution characteristics and paths of seafarers’ unsafe acts has always been a challenge in maritime safety management. For this purpose, the present study introduces association rule technique into complex network to develop a directed weighted interaction network of seafarers’ unsafe acts and their influencing factors. Through global network topology analysis and local network community detection, the risk evolution characteristics of seafarers’ unsafe acts in maritime accidents are analyzed from a multidimensional perspective. The results indicate that the developed network has small-world characteristics, and the top 10 critical nodes all belong to seafarers’ unsafe acts, of which failure to make proper sound and light signals achieves the highest PageRank value. Results from this study would help maritime stakeholders to understand the evolution mechanism of seafarers’ unsafe acts and develop safety management strategies for interrupting the risk propagation of seafarers’ unsafe acts.

Objective To evaluate the clinical significance of biomarkers of cartilage synthesis and degradation for early diagnosis and prognosis of knee osteoarthritis (OA). Methods Two hundred and twenty-seven knee OA outpatients and inpatients in Shenmu Hospital were collected as the knee OA group, while 178 healthy physical examiners as the control group during the same period. Serum pro-collagen ⅡA N-teminal peptide (PⅡANP),cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP), matrix metalloproteinase (MMP-3), and urinary cross-linked C-telopeptide (CTX-Ⅱ)were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The degree of knee OA involvement and quality of life were assessed by antero-posterior and lateral radiographs of both knees and the SF-36 brief health questionnaire, respectively. Results 1)Compared with the control group, the serum PⅡANP level decreased and serum COMP, MMP-3 as well as urinary CTX-Ⅱ increased in the knee OA group (P＜0.05). 2)Serum PⅡANP was lower (P＜0.05), serum COMP, MMP-3(P＜0.05) and urinary CTX-Ⅱ levels were higher in mid-late stage knee OA group than early knee OA group and control group. 3)Serum PⅡANP levels were inversely correlated with K-L grade (P＜0.05), serum COMP and MMP-3 levels were positively correlated with K-L grade (P＜0.05), and serum COMP level was positively correlated with age (P＜0.05). Serum PⅡANP level was negatively correlated with mental health dimension in the SF-36 scale (P＜0.05); serum COMP level was negatively correlated with physical function dimension (P＜0.05) but positively correlated with mental health dimension (P＜0.05). Conclusions The expression of PⅡANP, COMP, MMP-3 and CTX-Ⅱ is abnormal in knee OA and related to the progress of the severity of the disease, so is a potential reference index for the diagnosis and prognosis of knee OA.

Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are instrumental in maintaining immune tolerance and preventing destructive autoimmunity, but how heterogeneous Treg populations are established remains largely unknown. Here, we show that Zfp335 deletion in Tregs failed to differentiate into effector Tregs (eTregs) and lose Treg-suppressive function and that KO mice exhibited early-onset lethal autoimmune inflammation with unrestricted activation of conventional T cells. Single-cell RNASeq analyses revealed that Zfp335-deficient Tregs lacked a eTreg population and showed dramatic accumulation of a dysfunctional Treg subset. Mechanistically, Zfp335-deficient Tregs displayed reduced oxidative phosphorylation and dysfunctional mitochondrial activity. Further studies revealed that Zfp335 controlled eTreg differentiation by regulating fatty acid oxidation (FAO) through direct targeting of the FAO enzyme Hadha. Importantly, we demonstrate a positive correlation between ZNF335 and HADHA expression in human eTregs. Our findings reveal that Zfp335 controls FAO-driven eTreg differentiation to establish immune tolerance., Introduction Regulatory T cells (Tregs) expressing forkhead box P3 (Foxp3) play a key role in the establishment and maintenance of peripheral immune tolerance through the prevention and suppression of autoimmunity [...]