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The present research aimed to examine the effect of time pressure and reward-punishment pressure on attention control in two distinct processes: attentional engagement and attentional disengagement. Study 1 employed a dart-throw task to explore the effects of time pressure (Experiment 1) and reward-punishment pressure (Experiment 2) on attention control. The findings revealed that (a) time pressure did not significantly impact attentional engagement or attentional disengagement toward either task-relevant nor task-irrelevant targets; (b) reward/punishment pressure resulted in reduced attentional engagement towards task-irrelevant targets; and (c) compared to punishment pressure, reward pressure led to longer attentional disengagement from task-irrelevant targets. In Study 2, two virtual reality shooting tasks (Experiment 3 and Experiment 4) were conducted using the same design as Study 1, with a repetition rate of 50%. The findings showed that (a) time pressure did not impact attentional engagement, but led longer attentional disengagement; (b) attentional disengagement from the scoreboard was longer in the TP condition than in the NTP condition, while attentional disengagement from the target was shorter; (c) reward pressure induced attentional disengagement from both task-relevant and task-irrelevant targets. Through a mini meta-analysis that synthesized the results, it was determined that the impairment of attention control was primarily manifested through attentional disengagement. This study provides empirical support for attention control theory in the field of sports and offers a direct measurement method for assessing attention in sporting contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An online majorized semi-proximal alternating direction method of multiplier (Online-mspADMM) is proposed for a broad class of online linearly constrained composite optimization problems. A majorized technique is adopted to produce subproblems which can be easily solved. Under mild assumptions, we establish O (N) objective regret and O (N) constraint violation regret at round N. We apply the Online-mspADMM to solve different types of online regularized logistic regression problems. The numerical results on synthetic data sets verify the theoretical result about regrets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common gastrointestinal malignancy with a high incidence and poor prognosis. The subunits of the integrator complex (INTS1-14) play a crucial role in regulating genes dependent on RNA Polymerase II, which may be associated with cancer. However, the role of INTSs in HCC remains unclear. This study aims to comprehensively analyze the clinical value and potential role of INTS family genes in HCC through systematic bioinformatics analysis. Methods: We employed various public databases, including UALCAN, HPA, Kaplan–Meier Plotter, GEPIA2, TNMplot, STRING, TIMER, and TISIDB, to investigate the expression levels, clinicopathological correlations, diagnostic and prognostic value, genetic alterations, co-expression network, molecular targets, and immune infiltration of INTSs in HCC. Additionally, Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) were utilized to investigate the biological functions of genes associated with INTSs. Furthermore, Western blot, real-time fluorescence quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR), and immunohistochemistry techniques were employed to assess the expression of relevant proteins and genes. The proliferation of HCC cells was evaluated using the CCK8 assay. Results: We found that in HCC, there was a significant upregulation of INTSs at the transcriptional level, particularly INTS1, INTS4, INTS7, and INTS8. Additionally, the protein levels of INTS1 and INTS8 were notably elevated. The overexpression of these INTSs was strongly correlated with tumor stages in HCC patients. INTS1, INTS4, INTS7, and INTS8 exhibited significant diagnostic and prognostic value in HCC. Moreover, their expression was associated with immune infiltrations and activated status, including B cells, CD8 + T cells, CD4 + T cells, NK cells, macrophages, and dendritic cells. Functional predictions indicated that INTS1, INTS4, INTS7, and INTS8 were involved in various cancer-related signaling pathways, such as TRAIL, IFN-gamma, mTOR, CDC42, Apoptosis, and the p53 pathway. Furthermore, we observed a significant upregulation of INTS1, INTS4, INTS7, and INTS8 expression in HCC cell lines compared to normal liver cell lines. The level of INTS1 protein was higher in cancerous tissues compared to adjacent non-cancerous tissues (n = 16), and the suppression of INTS1 resulted in a significant decrease in the proliferation of Huh7 cells. Conclusion: These findings indicate the potential of INTS family genes as diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets in HCC. Further research is needed to understand the underlying mechanisms and explore clinical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is a category of cardiovascular disease with a high fatality rate. Aims: We searched the differential expressed miRNAs (DEmiRNAs) in ACS based on bioinformatic analysis and investigated the diagnostic value of plasma miR-140-3p in patients with ACS and its potential functional role in ACS. Methods: The miRNAs (GSE94605, GSE49823, and GSE185729) microarray datasets of ACS were downloaded from the GEO datasets. After integrating the miRNA and mRNA interaction, a protein–protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed with 36 overlapped target mRNAs using STRING database. The plasma levels of miR-140-3p were detected by RT-qPCR, and its clinical diagnostic value was evaluated using the ROC curve. The potential effects of the miR-140-3p/RHOA axis in ACS were explored using human coronary endothelial cells (HCAECs). Results: After overlapping the GEO datasets, miR-140-3p was identified in the microarray datasets of ACS. The plasma miR-140-3p expression levels were highly expressed in ACS patients than in healthy control and had diagnostic significance. The target mRNAs of miR-140-3p were predicted using TargetScan, miRWalk, TarBase, and miRDB databases. The PPI network identified ten hub genes. miR-140-3p could decrease the HCAECs' cell viability, while RHOA reversed the inhibition effect of miR-140-3p. Conclusions: The plasma expression of miR-140-3p was upregulated in ACS patients. miR-140-3p could decrease the HCAECs' cell viability, while RHOA reversed the inhibition effect of miR-140-3p. The miR-140-3p may be a potential diagnostic biomarker for the early detection of ACS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared to academic impacts (e.g., the citation advancement) brought by Open Access (OA), societal impacts of scientific studies have not been well elaborated in prior studies. In this article, we explore different OA routes (i.e., gold OA, hybrid OA, and bronze OA) and their varying effects on multiple types of societal impacts (i.e., social media and web) by using the case of four biological journals founded by the Royal Society. The results show that (1) gold OA is significantly and positively related to social media indicators (Twitter counts and Facebook counts), but significantly and negatively associated with web indicators (Blog counts and News counts); (2) hybrid OA has a significant and positive effect on both social media and web indicators; and (3) bronze OA is significantly and positively associated with social media indicators, but it turns to be negative albeit nonsignificant for web indicators. The findings suggest that OA policies could increase the societal impact on the public by varying degrees. Specifically, OA policies could amplify the societal impacts of research articles on social media, but the effects are inconsistent for societal impacts on the web. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To investigate the value of diffusion MRI (dMRI) in H3K27M genotyping of brainstem glioma (BSG). Methods: A primary cohort of BSG patients with dMRI data (b = 0, 1000 and 2000 s/mm2) and H3K27M mutation information were included. A total of 13 diffusion tensor and kurtosis imaging (DTI; DKI) metrics were calculated, then 17 whole-tumor histogram features and 29 along-tract white matter (WM) microstructural measurements were extracted from each metric and assessed within genotypes. After feature selection through univariate analysis and the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator method, multivariate logistic regression was used to build dMRI-derived genotyping models based on retained tumor and WM features separately and jointly. Model performances were tested using ROC curves and compared by the DeLong approach. A nomogram incorporating the best-performing dMRI model and clinical variables was generated by multivariate logistic regression and validated in an independent cohort of 27 BSG patients. Results: At total of 117 patients (80 H3K27M-mutant) were included in the primary cohort. In total, 29 tumor histogram features and 41 WM tract measurements were selected for subsequent genotyping model construction. Incorporating WM tract measurements significantly improved diagnostic performances (p < 0.05). The model incorporating tumor and WM features from both DKI and DTI metrics showed the best performance (AUC = 0.9311). The nomogram combining this dMRI model and clinical variables achieved AUCs of 0.9321 and 0.8951 in the primary and validation cohort respectively. Conclusions: dMRI is valuable in BSG genotyping. Tumor diffusion histogram features are useful in genotyping, and WM tract measurements are more valuable in improving genotyping performance. Clinical relevance statement: This study found that diffusion MRI is valuable in predicting H3K27M mutation in brainstem gliomas, which is helpful to realize the noninvasive detection of brainstem glioma genotypes and improve the diagnosis of brainstem glioma. Key Points: • Diffusion MRI has significant value in brainstem glioma H3K27M genotyping, and models with satisfactory performances were built. • Whole-tumor diffusion histogram features are useful in H3K27M genotyping, and quantitative measurements of white matter tracts are valuable as they have the potential to improve model performance. • The model combining the most discriminative diffusion MRI model and clinical variables can help make clinical decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on distributed consensus optimization problems with coupled constraints over time-varying multi-agent networks, where the global objective is the finite sum of all agents' private local objective functions, and decision variables of agents are subject to coupled equality and inequality constraints and a compact convex subset. Each agent exchanges information with its neighbors and processes local data. They cooperate to agree on a consensual decision vector that is an optimal solution to the considered optimization problems. We integrate ideas behind dynamic average consensus and primal-dual methods to develop a distributed algorithm and establish its sublinear convergence rate. In numerical simulations, to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, we compare it with some related methods by the Neyman–Pearson classification problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Euclidean distance matrices have lately received increasing attention in applications such as multidimensional scaling and molecular conformation from nuclear magnetic resonance data in computational chemistry. In this paper, we focus on the perturbation analysis of the Euclidean distance matrix optimization problem (EDMOP). Under Robinson's constraint qualification, we establish a number of equivalent characterizations of strong regularity and strong stability at a locally optimal solution of EDMOP. Those results extend the corresponding characterizations in Semidefinite Programming and are tailored to the special structure in EDMOP. As an application, we demonstrate a numerical implication of the established results on an alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) to a stress minimization problem, which is an important instance of EDMOP. The implication is that the ADMM method converges to a strongly stable solution under reasonable assumptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antimony pollution and sewage sludge disposal have become global environmental protection issues. In this study, through the resource utilization of iron manganese mud (IMM) generated during the backwash of water supply plants, a new type of composite gel ball adsorbent for antimony removal (CAAR) was prepared. The characterization results demonstrated that CAAR's adsorption effect was mainly through ion exchange between -OH and Sb(III). The chemical adsorption of functional group exchange and the physical adsorption of electrostatic gravity were jointly controlled. The adsorption process could be described by the quasi-secondary kinetic model and the Freundlich model. Through the exploration of the influencing factors, we found that CAAR has a wide range of pH applications and can maintain a removal rate of over 92% in the range of pH 2.0 to 8.0. When the pH is 4.0, the dosage is 3.0 g/L, at 30 ℃ and 12 h, the removal rate of CAAR to Sb(III) is 95.95%, and the adsorption amount is 6.36 mg/g. The CAAR regeneration research experiments have shown that after four regenerations, the removal rate of Sb(III) could be maintained at more than 50%, and the mechanical strength of the regenerated CAAR is preferable. In summary, CAAR is an adsorbent for removing Sb(III) from water, which has broad application prospects and further research value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Object: Pediatric diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) is a radiologically heterogeneous disease entity, here we aim to establish a multimodal imaging-based radiological classification and evaluate the outcome of different treatment strategies under this classification frame. Methods: This retrospective study included 103 children diagnosed with DIPGs between January 2015 and August 2018 in Beijing Tiantan Hospital (Beijing, China). Multimodal radiological characteristics, including conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), diffuse tensor imaging/diffuse tensor tractography (DTI/DTT), and positron emission tomography (PET) were reviewed to construct the classification. The outcome of different treatment strategies was compared in each DIPG subgroup using Kaplan–Meier method (log-rank test) to determine the optimal treatment for specific DIPGs. Results: Four radiological DIPG types were identified: Type A (“homocentric”, n=13), Type B (“ventral”, n=41), Type C (“eccentric”, n=37), and Type D (“dorsal”, n=12). Their treatment modalities were grouped as observation (43.7%), cytoreductive surgery (CRS) plus radiotherapy (RT) (24.3%), RT alone (11.7%), and CRS alone (20.4%). CRS+RT mainly fell into type C (29.7%), followed by type B1 (21.9%) and type D (50%). Overall, CRS+RT exhibited a potential survival advantage compared to RT alone, which was more pronounced in specific type, but this did not reach statistical significance, due to limited sample size and unbalanced distribution. Conclusion: We proposed a multimodality imaging-based radiological classification for pediatric DIPG, which was useful for selecting optimal treatment strategies, especially for identifying candidates who may benefit from CRS plus RT. This classification opened a window into image-guided integrated treatment for pediatric DIPG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To explore the application value of CT-guided localization using a coil in combination with medical adhesive in sublobar resection. Methods: The clinical data of 90 patients who had small pulmonary nodules and received thoracoscopic sublobar resection during the period from September 2021 to October 2022 in the Department of Thoracic Surgery, Juxian People's Hospital, Shandong Province, were retrospectively analyzed. Results: The diameters of 95 pulmonary nodules in the 90 patients in the whole group ranged from 0.40 to 1.24 cm, and their distances from the visceral pleura ranged from 0.51 to 2.15 cm. In these patients, percutaneous lung puncture was successfully performed under local anesthesia, through which coils were implanted in the nodules and medical adhesive was injected around the nodules, with a success rate of localization of 100%. Localization complications included 10 cases of asymptomatic pneumothorax, 9 cases of intrapulmonary hemorrhage, 5 cases of severe pain, and 1 case of pleural reaction, all of which required no special treatment. After preoperative localization, the success rate of resection of pulmonary nodules was 100%, and sufficient surgical margins were obtained. Conclusion: CT-guided localization using a coil in combination with medical adhesive is a safe, effective, and simple localization method that can meet the requirements of thoracic surgeons for intraoperative localization; for small pulmonary nodules, especially those small-sized and deep-located ground-glass nodules containing few solid mass, this method has important clinical application value, which is a preoperative localization technique worthy of wide application in clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Primary intracranial histiocytic sarcomas (PIHSs) are extremely rare with limited reported cases, making their prognostic factors and management uncertain. This study aims to describe the clinical characteristics of PIHSs and propose a treatment protocol for this entity. Methods: Clinical data were collected from six patients diagnosed with PIHSs at Beijing Tiantan Hospital between March 2011 and October 2022. Additionally, a comprehensive search of the PubMed database was conducted using the keywords "primary intracranial" or "primary central nervous system" combined with "histiocytic sarcoma" or "histiocytic sarcomas" between 1996 and 2022, identifying 24 cases. A pooled analysis of individual patient data was performed to assess risk factors for overall survival (OS). Results: The six cases included four males and two females, with a mean age of 42.2 ± 13.3 years. In total, 24 cases of PIHSs were identified from previous studies. Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that gross total resection (GTR) was the only factor predicting a longer OS (p = 0.027). Kaplan–Meier analysis demonstrated that GTR (p = 0.0013), solitary lesions (p = 0.0048), and radiotherapy (p = 0.0492) were associated with a longer OS. Conclusion: PIHSs are rare brain tumors with poor clinical prognosis. Patients with solitary lesions have a longer OS than those with multifocal lesions. Gross total resection must be the first choice. Radiotherapy may bring benefits for these patients, but chemotherapy may not be useful. Further studies involving larger cohorts are necessary to validate these findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Primary intracranial angiosarcomas (PIAs) are exceedingly uncommon, with the literature predominantly comprising case reports. The clinical characteristics and prognosis of this condition remain elusive. Our objective is to describe the clinical characteristics and surgical prognosis of this rare disease while offering insights into the most effective contemporary treatment strategy. Methods: The authors of this article incorporated a cohort of 28 cases of PIAs, consisting of 3 from our institution and 25 from previously documented literature sources. Subsequently, we conducted both Cox univariate and multivariate analyses to assess the potential risk factors influencing overall survival (OS). Results: The cohort include 19 males and 9 females with a mean age of 39.6 ± 23.5 years (range: 0.03-73 years). Radiologically, 24 cases were located at supratentorial area, while only 4 cases were located at infratentorial area. 17 cases underwent gross total resection (GTR), and 11 cases underwent Non-GTR. Postoperative radiotherapy was administered to 17 cases, and postoperative chemotherapy was administered to 6 cases. After a mean follow-up time of 21.5 ± 26.4 months, 19 (67.9%) patients died. The 1-year, 2-year, 5-year OS is 55.3%, 50.7% and 24.6%, respectively. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that Non-GTR was the sole factor predicting a shorter OS (p = 0.004). Conclusion: In this study, we found that PIAs have a higher incidence in males than in females, and most cases show evidence of old hemorrhage on preoperative MRI. Through our statistical analysis, GTR plays a crucial role in for treating this rare disease. Further clinical data are needed to validate our conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A norm cone in a finite dimensional Euclidean space is the epigraph of a norm. Many important practical optimization problems are formulated as norm conic optimization problems, a typical example is the second-order conic optimization problem. This paper is devoted to the study of variational analysis of norm cones. For a general norm cone, formulas for the tangent cone, normal cone and second-order tangent set are derived. The projection on the norm cone and its differentiability properties are developed, including formulas for derivatives, directional derivatives and B-subdifferentials. All these results are specified to the l p -norm, p ∈ (1 , ∞) . Additionally, variational geometries of l 1 -norm cone and l ∞ -norm cone are characterized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Food safety risk management is an important cross-boundary issue around the world from both theoretical and practical perspectives. Public–public collaboration is the most basic form of cross-boundary governance. This study investigates the main factors affecting the governance effectiveness in public–public collaboration for food safety risk management through a questionnaire survey in Jiangsu Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, using a multivariable linear regression model based on principal component analysis. The results show that although the governance effectiveness in public–public collaboration is affected by many factors, the most important of which are the behavior and capabilities of legislative, administrative regulation and enforcement, and environmental improvement government (public) agencies, professionalism of government agencies, and laws and regulations as the basis for government agencies to perform their responsibilities. This research provides a case study for the academic community to better understand the main problems facing public–public collaboration for food safety risk management in China. It also provides insights into promoting public–public collaboration in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malaria is a terrible illness that has killed about 600,000 people annually over the past 3 years. Early diagnosis of malaria is essential to enabling treatment and lowering fatality rates. A biosensor to detect malaria in the short wavelength infrared band is created using Tamm plasmon resonance among a photonic band gap in this study. The proposed biosensor is made up of a cavity layer situated between a one-dimensional photonic crystal and a metallic layer of Ag grown on a prism. A blood sample is placed within the cavity layer. The reflection spectra of the proposed biosensor for electromagnetic waves are computed using the transfer matrix method. A healthy blood sample has a different wavelength position for the Tamm plasmon resonant dip than does a blood sample that has been infected with malaria. The proposed biosensor works through quantifying the movement in the wavelength location of the Tamm plasmon resonant dip, which can be used to identify several phases of malaria infection. Under various incident angles, the proposed biosensor's performance is optimized by modifying the Ag layer and blood sample thicknesses. The best performance is achieved at an incident angle of 42.7° with a sensitivity of 26,000 nm/RIU, a figure of merit of 3.88 × 104 RIU−1, and a detection limit of 2.87 × 10−6 RIU. The high performance and simple structure make the proposed biosensor a competitive device for malaria diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lung adenocarcinoma is the most common and aggressive type of lung cancer with the highest incidence of bone metastasis. Epidermal growth factor-like domain multiple 6 (EGFL6) is an exocrine protein, and the expression of EGFL6 is correlated with survival of patient with lung adenocarcinoma. However, the association between EGFL6 expression in lung adenocarcinoma and bone metastasis has not been investigated. In this study, we found that EGFL6 levels in lung adenocarcinoma tissues correlate with bone metastasis and TNM stages in surgical patients. In vitro, overexpression of EGFL6 in lung adenocarcinoma cells promoted their proliferation, migration, and invasion ability compared with control by enhancing EMT process and activating Wnt/β-catenin and PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathways. In the nude mouse model, overexpression of EGFL6 enhanced tumor growth and caused greater bone destruction. Moreover, the exocrine EGFL6 of human lung adenocarcinoma cells increased osteoclast differentiation of bone marrow mononuclear macrophages (BMMs) of mice via the NF-κB and c-Fos/NFATc1 signaling pathways. However, exocrine EGFL6 had no effect on osteoblast differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs). In conclusion, high expression of EGFL6 in lung adenocarcinomas is associated with bone metastasis in surgical patients. The underlying mechanism may be the increased metastatic properties of lung adenocarcinoma cells with high EGFL6 level and the enhanced osteoclast differentiation and bone resorption by exocrine EGFL6 from tumors. Therefore, EGFL6 is a potential therapeutic target to reduce the ability of lung adenocarcinomas to grow and metastasize and to preserve bone mass in patients with bone metastases from lung adenocarcinomas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A facile method is reported to develop glass-based analytical devices (GADs) based on immobilizing nanomaterials on a glass substrate with fluorescent glue. The fluorescent glue was first prepared by coupling bovine serum albumin (BSA)-protected Au nanoclusters (NCs) and sugars (i.e., ascorbic acid, AA). The glue was then used to immobilize carbon dots (C-dots) on glass substrates to fabricate the portable GADs. The liquid glue-C-dots mixture and probable GADs were developed for Hg2+ detection. Under 365-nm excitation wavelength, the emission at 652 nm from the glue is gradually quenched with increasing concentrations of Hg2+. This quenching is explained in terms of the Stern-Volmer equation and is ascribed to static quenching. The fluorescent color of the glue and GADs gradually changes from pink to blue, with increasing concentrations of Hg2+. The limits of detection (LODs) for Hg2+ determination by bare eyes are 1 nM both for the glue and GADs, suggesting an uncompromised sensing capability even after immobilization. The detection sensitivity of GADs shows a significant improvement compared with the same material-based papers (5 μM). A linear relationship is observed between the total Euclidean distances (EDs) and Hg2+ concentration in the range 0–100 nM, providing the potential for Hg2+ quantification using GADs. The LOD is estimated to be 0.84 nM. To show a potentially practical application, the GADs were used to detect Hg2+ in certified reference material and lake water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobile phone addiction (MPA) is a widespread problem in China, and college students face an especially high risk of its associated consequences. This study aimed to examine the interactions between level of mobile phone addiction and duration of mobile phone use and their impacts on psychological health, physical health, and sleep status of Chinese college students. Our study was a cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey which applied stratified random sampling method to recruit 946 participants. The level of mobile phone addiction was measured by Mobile Phone Addiction Index Scale. Sleep status was assessed by Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index. Designed questions were asked to evaluate the psychological and physical health status of the previous month of participants. The prevalence of MPA among Chinese undergraduates was estimated to be 36.6%. Severe MPA was significantly associated with psychological problems (anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, loneliness, social anxiety, impaired concentration, and sad or hopeless), physical problems (palpitation, nausea, and asphyxia), and sleep problems (sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep disturbances, sleep duration, and sleep dysfunctions). Interaction analysis indicated that college students with severe MPA who used their phones for more than 4 hours everyday were more likely to develop above problems. The findings reveal that relieving the MPA and controlling duration of phone use can ameliorate the psychological, physical, and sleep-related issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are many important practical optimization problems whose feasible regions are not known to be nonempty or not, and optimizers of the objective function with the least constraint violation prefer to be found. A natural way for dealing with these problems is to extend the nonlinear optimization problem as the one optimizing the objective function over the set of points with the least constraint violation. This leads to the study of the shifted problem. This paper focuses on the constrained convex optimization problem. The sufficient condition for the closedness of the set of feasible shifts is presented and the continuity properties of the optimal value function and the solution mapping for the shifted problem are studied. Properties of the conjugate dual of the shifted problem are discussed through the relations between the dual function and the optimal value function. The solvability of the dual of the optimization problem with the least constraint violation is investigated. It is shown that, if the least violated shift is in the domain of the subdifferential of the optimal value function, then this dual problem has an unbounded solution set. Under this condition, the optimality conditions for the problem with the least constraint violation are established in term of the augmented Lagrangian. It is shown that the augmented Lagrangian method has the properties that the sequence of shifts converges to the least violated shift and the sequence of multipliers is unbounded. Moreover, it is proved that the augmented Lagrangian method is able to find an approximate solution to the problem with the least constraint violation and it has linear rate of convergence under an error bound condition. The augmented Lagrangian method is applied to an illustrative convex second-order cone constrained optimization problem with least constraint violation and numerical results verify our theoretical results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Positive parenting behaviors such as parental monitoring and support can protect adolescents from alcohol use, either directly or through buffering risk factors such as perceived peer alcohol use. However, it is unclear whether such moderating effects vary as a function of race, ethnicity, and gender. This study addressed the knowledge gap by exploring racial, ethnic, and gender differences in the potential moderating effects of perceived positive parenting on the association between perceived peer alcohol use and adolescent alcohol use. Using data from the U.S. Heath Behavior in School-Aged Children study collected in 2009–2010, this study focused on 6744 adolescents from Grades 7 to 10 and five racial and ethnic groups (White, Black, Asian American, Latinx, and multiracial). Multiple regression analyses with three-way interaction effects were conducted. All three perceived positive parenting measures (i.e., maternal monitoring, paternal monitoring, and parental support) moderated the influence of perceived peer alcohol use on adolescent alcohol use among White girls and boys, but the moderating effects were inconsistent for boys and girls of color. Racial, ethnic and gender differences exist among the moderating effects of perceived positive parenting. Parenting programs designed for White adolescents need to be tailored for adolescent boys and girls of color. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To assess the effectiveness and safety of continuous lavage with 1% voriconazole (CL) for moderate and severe fungal keratitis. Methods: Thirty-one patients were randomized to receive topical eye drops either alone (T) or combined with continuous 1% voriconazole lavage (CL-T). The primary outcome was the cure rate at 3 months. The secondary outcomes were the 6-day efficacy, 3-day infiltration size and depth, hypopyon height, central corneal thickness (CCT), epithelial defect size, and subject feelings and clinical signs assessment scores. Results: At 3 months, the cure rate was comparable between the groups in patients with moderate fungal keratitis (66.7% vs. 62.5%, P = 0.60). However, among severe cases, 4 cases (44.4%) in the CL-T group healed successfully, while none in the T group; this difference was not significant (P = 0.08), although it was very close to 0.05. This may be related to the small sample size. After 6 days, the percentage of patients with "worsened" ulcers in the CL-T group was lower than that in the T group (0% vs. 31%, P = 0.043). The infiltration size, infiltration depth, and hypopyon height in the CL-T group were smaller than those in the T group after 3 days (all P < 0.05). There was no difference in CCT, epithelial defect size, subject feelings scores, or clinical signs scores between groups. Conclusion: These outcomes suggest that CL is an effective and safe adjuvant method for controlling the progression of moderate and severe fungal keratitis. Trial registration number: ChiCTR2100050565. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quantum correlation and entanglement of an atomic ensemble under the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) mechanism are investigated through measurement-induced disturbance (MID) and concurrence, respectively. These quantities are dependent on the Rabi frequency of the driving field, the excitation mode, and the photon and atom numbers of the ensemble. A quantitative relation between MID and concurrence is obtained when the information of the probe field is entirely transferred into the atomic ensemble. In three decoherence channels, sudden vanishing phenomenon of MID do not exist in all decoherence time. Furthermore, MID in the amplitude damping channel shows a stronger survivability than those in the other two decoherence channels. The comparison results of the survivability of MID in the phase damping channel and depolarizing channel are as follows: when the initial value of MID is less than 0.5, then it has stronger survivability in the phase damping channel. Otherwise, it has stronger survivability in the depolarizing channel. However, the sudden death of concurrence in three decoherence channels appears easily. The concurrence generated by the half excited and the low excited modes has the longest and shortest survival time in the amplitude damping channel and the depolarization channel, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linear hyperspectral unmixing (LHU) is a class of important problems in remote sensing. It can be modelled by a linearly constrained convex optimization problem with a coupled objective function. This paper proposes an alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) for solving this LHU model. The special structure of the LHU model allows explicit solutions to the subproblems in the ADMM and hence the ADMM is easily implementable. The global convergence of the ADMM is established despite the existence of a coupled term in the objective function. Our numerical experiments with four data sets demonstrated that the proposed ADMM is effective for solving the LHU model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Diffuse midline glioma, H3 K27-altered (DMG) is a lethal pediatric brainstem tumor. Despite numerous efforts to improve survival benefits, its prognosis remains poor. This study aimed to design and synthesize a novel CDK4/6 inhibitor YF-PRJ8-1011, which exhibited more potent antitumor activity against a panel of patient-derived DMG tumor cells in vitro and in vivo compared with palbociclib. Methods: Patient-derived DMG cells were used to assess the antitumor efficacy of YF-PRJ8-1011 in vitro. The liquid chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry method was used to measure the activity of YF-PRJ8-1011 passing through the blood–brain barrier. DMG patient-derived xenograft models were established to detect the antitumor efficacy of YF-PRJ8-1011. Results: The results showed that YF-PRJ8-1011 could inhibit the growth of DMG cells both in vitro and in vivo. YF-PRJ8-1011 could well penetrate the blood–brain barrier. It also significantly inhibited the growth of DMG tumors and prolonged the overall survival of mice compared with vehicle or palbociclib. Most notably, it exerted potent antitumor efficacy in DMG in vitro and in vivo compared with palbociclib. In addition, we also found that YF-PRJ8-1011 combined with radiotherapy also showed more significant inhibition of DMG xenograft tumor growth than radiotherapy alone. Conclusion: Collectively, YF-PRJ8-1011 is a novel, safe, and selective CDK4/6 inhibitor for DMG treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key message: KLW1 was localized to a 0.6 cM interval near the centromere of chromosome 4B and found to be dominant in conditioning longer kernels and higher kernel weight. Kernel weight is a major wheat yield component and affected by kernel dimensions, filling process and kernel density. Because of this complexity, the mechanism underlying kernel weight is still far from clear. Qtgw.nau-4B or KLW1 was a major kernel weight QTL identified in the Nanda2419 × Wangshuibai population. We showed that introduction of the Nanda2419 allele into elite cultivar Wenmai6 resulted in longer kernels as well as higher kernel weight, without affecting other traits such as spike number per plant, plant height, spike length, spikelet number per spike, and kernel number per spike. KLW1 was dominant in conditioning higher kernel weight and functioned mainly through affecting kernel length. Using F2 plants derived from KLW1 NIL, a high-density genetic map covering the QTL was constructed. KLW1 was consequently confined to the 0.6 cM Xwgrc4219-Xwgrc4067 interval by evaluating the recombinant lines in three field trials. KLW1 is complementary to KT1, the QTL on chromosome 5A of Nanda2419 for thicker and heavier kernels, in producing larger kernels with higher commercial value, augmenting its usefulness in wheat breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aimed to describe 11C-methionine (11C-MET) PET imaging characteristics in patients with paediatric diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) and correlate them with survival and H3 K27M mutation status. Methods: We retrospectively analysed 98 children newly diagnosed with DIPG who underwent 11C-MET PET. PET imaging characteristics evaluated included uptake intensity, uniformity, metabolic tumour volume (MTV), and total lesion methionine uptake (TLMU). The maximum, mean, and peak of the tumour-to-background ratio (TBR), calculated as the corresponding standardised uptake values (SUV) divided by the mean reference value, were also recorded. The associations between the PET imaging characteristics and clinical outcomes in terms of progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) and H3 K27M mutation status were assessed, respectively. Results: In univariate analysis, imaging characteristics significantly associated with shorter PFS and OS included a higher uniformity grade, higher TBRs, larger MTV, and higher TLMU. In multivariate analysis, larger MTV at diagnosis, shorter symptom duration, and no treatment were significantly correlated with shorter PFS and OS. The PET imaging features were not correlated with H3 K27M mutation status. Conclusion: Although several imaging features were significantly associated with PFS and OS, only MTV, indicating the size of the active tumour, was identified as a strong independent prognostic factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data sharing is an important part of open science (OS), and more and more institutions and journals have been enforcing open data (OD) policies. OD is advocated to help increase academic influences and promote scientific discovery and development, but such a proposition has not been elaborated on well. This study explores the nuanced effects of the OD policies on the citation pattern of articles by using the case of Chinese economics journals. China Industrial Economics (CIE) is the first and only Chinese social science journal so far to adopt a compulsory OD policy, requiring all published articles to share original data and processing codes. We use the article-level data and difference-in-differences (DID) approach to compare the citation performance of articles published in CIE and 36 comparable journals. Firstly, we find that the OD policy quickly increased the number of citations, and each article on average received 0.25, 1.19, 0.86, and 0.44 more citations in the first four years after publication respectively. Furthermore, we also found that the citation benefit of the OD policy rapidly decreased over time, and even became negative in the fifth year after publication. In conclusion, this changing citation pattern suggests that an OD policy can be double edged sword, which can quickly increase citation performance but simultaneously accelerate the aging of articles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we study stochastic regularized Newton methods to find zeros of nonlinear equations, whose exact function information is normally expensive to calculate but approximations can be easily accessed via calls to stochastic oracles. To handle the potential singularity of Jacobian approximations, we compute a regularized Newton step at each iteration. Then we take a unit step if it can be accepted by an inexact line search condition, and a preset step otherwise. We investigate the global convergence properties and the convergence rate of the proposed algorithm with high probability. We also propose a stochastic regularized Newton method incorporating a variance reduction technique and establishing the corresponding sample complexities in terms of total numbers of stochastic oracle calls to find an approximate solution. Finally, we report some numerical results and demonstrate the promising performances of the two proposed algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report the coordination assembly of the ferrocene-diphenylalanine (Fc-FF) with divalent copper ions (Cu2+) into metal-peptide assemblies (MPAs) with hierarchical spiral architectures. The MPA particles are composed of helically organized nanofibers which can be correlated to the logarithmic spirals. The MPAs are hierarchically porous with abundant Fc and Cu2+ active sites and show much higher catalytic activity than natural laccase toward the decolorization reaction. Moreover, a series of hierarchical structures of the MPAs can be synthesized by controlling the temperature and enantiomeric excess (ee). The peptide enantiomers with higher ee values will self-assemble into highly complex and ordered structures, which show higher surface area and porosity and thus enhanced catalytic activity compared with those assembled by peptides with lower ee values. The results provide new insights into the vital role of chirality in directing the self-assembly of biomolecules into highly ordered complex functional structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The online optimization problem with non-convex loss functions over a closed convex set, coupled with a set of inequality (possibly non-convex) constraints is a challenging online learning problem. A proximal method of multipliers with quadratic approximations (named as OPMM) is presented to solve this online non-convex optimization with long term constraints. Regrets of the violation of Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions of OPMM for solving online non-convex optimization problems are analyzed. Under mild conditions, it is shown that this algorithm exhibits O (T - 1 / 8) Lagrangian gradient violation regret, O (T - 1 / 8) constraint violation regret and O (T - 1 / 4) complementarity residual regret if parameters in the algorithm are properly chosen, where T denotes the number of time periods. For the case that the objective is a convex quadratic function, we demonstrate that the regret of the objective reduction can be established even the feasible set is non-convex. For the case when the constraint functions are convex, if the solution of the subproblem in OPMM is obtained by solving its dual, OPMM is proved to be an implementable projection method for solving the online non-convex optimization problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neointimal hyperplasia is a persistent complication after vascular interventions, and it is also the leading cause of vascular graft restenosis and failure after arterial interventions, so novel treatment methods are needed to treat this complication. We hypothesized that adventitial injection of HA/SA hydrogel loaded with PLGA rapamycin nanoparticle (hydrogel-PLGA-rapamycin) could inhibit neointimal hyperplasia in a rat aortic wire injury model. The HA/SA hydrogel was fabricated by the interaction of hyaluronic acid (HA), sodium alginate (SA), and CaCO3; and loaded with PLGA rapamycin nanoparticle or rhodamine uniformly. A SD rat aortic wire injury induced neointimal hyperplasia model was developed, the control group only received wire injury, the adventitial application group received 10 μL hydrogel-PLGA-rapamycin after wire injury, and the adventitial injection group received 10 μL hydrogel-PLGA-rapamycin injected into the aortic adventitia after wire injury. Tissues were harvested at day 21 and analyzed by histology and immunohistochemical staining. Hydrogel loaded with rhodamine can be successfully injected into the aortic adventitia and was encapsuled by the adventitia. The hydrogel could be seen beneath the adventitia after adventitial injection but was almost degraded at day 21. There was a significantly thinner neointima in the adventitial application group and adventitial injection group compared to the control group (p = 0.0009). There were also significantly fewer CD68+ (macrophages) cells (p = 0.0012), CD3+ (lymphocytes) cells (p = 0.0011), p-mTOR+ cells (p = 0.0019), PCNA+ cells (p = 0.0028) in the adventitial application and adventitial injection groups compared to the control group. The endothelial cells expressed arterial identity markers (Ephrin-B2 and dll-4) in all these three groups. Adventitial injection of hydrogel-PLGA-rapamycin can effectively inhibit neointimal hyperplasia after rat aortic wire injury. This may be a promising drug delivery method and therapeutic choice to inhibit neointimal hyperplasia after vascular interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cyclic dinucleotides (CDNs) are ubiquitous signalling molecules in all domains of life1,2. Mammalian cells produce one CDN, 2′3′-cGAMP, through cyclic GMP–AMP synthase after detecting cytosolic DNA signals3–7. 2′3′-cGAMP, as well as bacterial and synthetic CDN analogues, can act as second messengers to activate stimulator of interferon genes (STING) and elicit broad downstream responses8–21. Extracellular CDNs must traverse the cell membrane to activate STING, a process that is dependent on the solute carrier SLC19A122,23. Moreover, SLC19A1 represents the major transporter for folate nutrients and antifolate therapeutics24,25, thereby placing SLC19A1 as a key factor in multiple physiological and pathological processes. How SLC19A1 recognizes and transports CDNs, folate and antifolate is unclear. Here we report cryo-electron microscopy structures of human SLC19A1 (hSLC19A1) in a substrate-free state and in complexes with multiple CDNs from different sources, a predominant natural folate and a new-generation antifolate drug. The structural and mutagenesis results demonstrate that hSLC19A1 uses unique yet divergent mechanisms to recognize CDN- and folate-type substrates. Two CDN molecules bind within the hSLC19A1 cavity as a compact dual-molecule unit, whereas folate and antifolate bind as a monomer and occupy a distinct pocket of the cavity. Moreover, the structures enable accurate mapping and potential mechanistic interpretation of hSLC19A1 with loss-of-activity and disease-related mutations. Our research provides a framework for understanding the mechanism of SLC19-family transporters and is a foundation for the development of potential therapeutics.Two cyclic dinucleotide molecules bind within the cavity of human SLC19A1 as a compact dual-molecule unit, whereas folate and antifolate bind to SLC19A1 as a monomer and occupy a distinct pocket of the cavity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: It remains unclear as to whether patients with brainstem tumor experience complex neuropsychiatric problems. In this cohort study, we specifically investigated behavioral, emotional and cognitive symptoms in pediatric patients with brainstem glioma and healthy individuals. Methods: A total of 146 patients with pediatric brainstem tumors (aged 4–18 years old) and 46 age-matched healthy children were recruited to assess their behaviors and emotions examined by the Child Behavior Checklist. A variety of clinical factors were also analyzed. Results: There were significant differences in most behavioral and emotional symptoms between pediatric patients and healthy subjects. Moreover, patients with pons tumors exhibited significantly higher scores than patients with medulla oblongata tumors (p = 0.012), particularly in concerning the syndrome categories of Withdrawn (p = 0.043), Anxious/depressed symptoms (p = 0.046), Thought Problems (p = 0.004), Attention deficits (p = 0.008), Externalizing problems (p = 0.013), and Aggressive behavior (p = 0.004). A tumor body located in the pontine (p = 0.01, OR = 4.5, 95% CI = 1.4–14.059) or DIPG in the midbrain (p = 0.002, OR = 3.818, 95% CI = 1.629–8.948) appears to act as a risk factor that is associated with more problems in patients with neuropsychiatric symptoms. Conclusions: Pediatric patients with brainstem tumors exhibit severe behavioral and emotional problems. Tumor invades the pontine and midbrain act a risk factor with more problems. It suggests that structural and functional abnormalities in the brainstem will cause prolonged behavioral problems and emotional-cognitive dysfunctions in young children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hormonal homeostasis is essential in bone remodeling. Recent studies have shown that the treatment of intestinal inflammation can result in the regulation of bone resorption in distant bones. Increased intestinal permeability may lead to systemic inflammation and bone loss, also known as gut-bone axis. However, the underlying mechanism remains to be elucidated. Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is a component of gram-negative bacteria that can increase osteoclastic differentiation in vitro. Acyloxyacyl hydrolase (AOAH) is a specific degrading enzyme of LPS, but little is known about the role of AOAH in bone metabolism. In this study, adult Aoah−/− mice showed a chronic inflammatory state and osteopenic phenotype analyzed by micro-CT and HE staining. Tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) staining of femurs showed an increase in TRAP-positive cells from Aoah−/− mice. AOAH depletion enhanced the osteoclast differentiation and bone resorption capacity of bone marrow-derived macrophages (BMMs). The enhanced osteoclast differentiation and bone resorption capacity of Aoah−/− BMMs were reversed by rAOAH. In conclusion, the chronic inflammatory state of adult Aoah−/− mice promotes bone resorption. AOAH participates in bone metabolism, which is mainly mediated by inhibiting osteoclast differentiation. LPS may be a key mediator of the gut-bone axis, and targeting AOAH may represent a feasible strategy for the treatment of chronic inflammatory bone resorption. Key messages: AOAH knockout mice exhibited chronic inflammation mediated by LPS, and LPS may also serve as an important mediator in the regulation of bone metabolism in the gut-bone axis. AOAH regulated bone resorption by blocking the osteoclast differentiation via classical ERK and JNK pathways. rAOAH could rescue the enhanced osteoclast differentiation caused by AOAH deficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of generalized equation 0 ∈ T(z), for maximal monotone operator T : H ⇉ H , covers many important optimization problems. The solution trajectory uλ(t) of the classical Yosida-regularization based differential equation system together with numerical approximation trajectories u λ α (t) , for finding solutions to the generalized equation, is investigated in this paper. The uniform convergence of the approximate trajectories u λ α (t) → u λ (t) on interval [ 0 , + ∞) is proved, as α tends to 0. Importantly, it is proved that the solution trajectory uλ(t) has the exponential convergence rate under the upper Lipschitz continuity of T− 1 at the origin. Moreover, the proposed differential equation approach is applied to the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker system for a smooth convex optimization problem. A numerical algorithm for getting an approximate solution trajectories of Yosida-regularization based differential equation of nonlinear programming is presented and an illustrative example is implemented by the numerical algorithm to verify the theory developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MicroRNA-365 (miR-365) has been revealed to be a vital regulator in tumorigenesis of multiple cancers, while there is a large gap in the knowledge about miR-365 expression and gastric cancer (GC). This research focused on the effects of miR-365 and paired box 6 (PAX6) on GC development. Levels of miR-365 and PAX6 in GC tissues and cell lines were determined, followed by the screening of the AGS and NCI-N87 cells. Gain- or loss-of-function assays were used to analyze the effect of miR-365, PAX6 on AGS and NCI-N87 cell behaviors. The effects of altered miR-365 and PAX6 on animal models were observed. Moreover, to assess the interaction between miR-365 and PAX6, we implemented the bioinformatic method and dual luciferase reporter gene assay. MiR-365 was decreased while PAX6 was increased in GC tissues and cell lines. There existed a negative association between miR-365 and PAX6. The promoted miR-365 could repress oncogenicity in vivo and malignant transformation in vitro of GC. PAX6 was the target gene of miR-365. Overexpression of PAX6 reversed the inhibitory effect of up-regulated miR-365 on malignant behavior of gastric cancer cells. Our research displays that the amplification of miR-365 could suppress the malignant behaviors of GC cells via inhibiting PAX6, which may be helpful for GC treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Due to respiratory motion, precise tracking of lung nodule movement is a persistent challenge for guiding percutaneous lung biopsy during image-guided intervention. We developed an automated image-guided system incorporating effective and robust tracking algorithms to address this challenge. Accurate lung motion prediction and personalized image-guided intervention are the key technological contributions of this work. Methods: A patient-specific respiratory motion model is developed to predict pulmonary movements of individual patients. It is based on the relation between the artificial 4D CT and corresponding positions tracked by position sensors attached on the chest using an electromagnetic (EM) tracking system. The 4D CT image of the thorax during breathing is calculated through deformable registration of two 3D CT scans acquired at inspiratory and expiratory breath-hold. The robustness and accuracy of the image-guided intervention system were assessed on a static thorax phantom under different clinical parametric combinations. Results: Real 4D CT images of ten patients were used to evaluate the accuracy of the respiratory motion model. The mean error of the model in different breathing phases was 1.59 ± 0.66 mm. Using a static thorax phantom, we achieved an average targeting accuracy of 3.18 ± 1.2 mm across 50 independent tests with different intervention parameters. The positive results demonstrate the robustness and accuracy of our system for personalized lung cancer intervention. Conclusions: The proposed system integrates a patient-specific respiratory motion compensation model to reduce the effect of respiratory motion during percutaneous lung biopsy and help interventional radiologists target the lesion efficiently. Our preclinical studies indicate that the image-guided system has the ability to accurately predict and track lung nodules of individual patients and has the potential for use in the diagnosis and treatment of early stage lung cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article adopts the fire extinguishing of tunnels as the engineering background, considers limestone as the research object, uses dry ice to quickly cool the limestone after high-temperature treatment at different temperatures (25–700 °C), and applies the microscopic magnifying glass, nuclear magnetic resonance, and permeability tester for studying the surface characteristics, porosity, and permeability of limestones. The research reports the following characteristics. (1) The color of the sample surface becomes lighter and whiter with an increase in the heating temperature. When the temperature above 400℃, the cracks appear on the surface of the rock and the micropores (0 ms < T2 < 10 ms), the number of mesopores (10 ms < T2 < 100 ms) began to develop. (2) The permeability of limestone increases with the increase of heat treatment temperature. When the heat treatment temperature above 400℃, the roughness of the rock surface becomes larger, and the permeability of the sample increases sharply. (3) The rapid cooling of dry ice aggravates the thermal damage effect of limestone, when the heating temperature above 400 °C, the porosity and permeability of limestone increase greatly, and the damage becomes more severe at 600 °C. Compared with natural cooling, dry ice cooling increases the permeability of limestone more significantly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a scheme to construct predictive models for Hamiltonian matrices in atomic orbital representation from ab initio data as a function of atomic and bond environments. The scheme goes beyond conventional tight binding descriptions as it represents the ab initio model to full order, rather than in two-centre or three-centre approximations. We achieve this by introducing an extension to the atomic cluster expansion (ACE) descriptor that represents Hamiltonian matrix blocks that transform equivariantly with respect to the full rotation group. The approach produces analytical linear models for the Hamiltonian and overlap matrices. Through an application to aluminium, we demonstrate that it is possible to train models from a handful of structures computed with density functional theory, and apply them to produce accurate predictions for the electronic structure. The model generalises well and is able to predict defects accurately from only bulk training data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose : To summarize the predictive value of MRI for H3 K27M-mutant in midline gliomas using meta-analysis. Methods: Systematic electronic searches of the PubMed, Embase, ISI Web of Science, and Cochrane Library up to Jun 31, 2021, were conducted by two experienced neuroradiologists with the keywords of "MRI," "Glioma," and "H3 K27M." The hierarchical summary receiver-operating characteristic (HSROC) model was used to calculate the pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (LR +), negative likelihood ratio (LR −), and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR). Coupled forest plots were used to evaluate the heterogeneity of the included studies. Results: Of seven original studies with a total of 593 patients, 240 glioma patients were included, with 45.5–70.6% H3 K27M-mutant gliomas. Using MRI, a pooled sensitivity of 0.78 (95% CI, 0.66–0.87), specificity of 0.85 (95% CI, 0.76–0.91), LR + of 5.07 (95% CI, 3.19–8.08), LR − of 0.26 (95% CI, 0.16–0.42), and DOR of 19.80 (95% CI, 9.28–42.28) were achieved for H3 K27M-mutant prediction. Significant heterogeneity was observed among the studies in terms of sensitivity (Q = 16.83, df = 7, p = 0.02; I2 = 58.40 [95% CI, 25.83–90.97]), LR − (Q = 16.61, df = 7, p = 0.02; I2 = 57.87 [95% CI, 24.81–90.93]), and DOR (Q = 14.05, df = 7, p = 0.05; I2 = 50.18 [95% CI, 10.06–90.31]). Conclusions: This meta-analysis demonstrated a clinical value of MRI to predict H3 K27M-mutant in midline gliomas with a pooled sensitivity of 0.78 and specificity of 0.85. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global urbanization has led to drastic land use change, interfering the ecosystem services (ES) supply-demand balance, in turn threatening the well-being of humans. However, existing studies mainly stranded at the historical and current analysis, and the effects of urban spatial expansion on the relationship between ES supply and demand in the future are less clear, in particular at an urban agglomeration scale. This study was constructed with a framework of assessing the effects of urban spatial expansion on ES supply-demand mismatching under different future scenarios in the Guanzhong Plain Urban Agglomeration (GPUA) by using the Future Land Use Simulation (FLUS) model and expert-based Land-Use and Land-Cover Change (LUCC) matrix. The results showed that: (1) Urban expansion is significant in the natural development (ND) scenario, mainly manifesting the great transfer of dry land to construction land. (2) The gap between total ES supply and demand is narrowed from 2000 to 2030 and the mismatch between ES supply and demand is mainly reflected in the spatial distribution pattern in the GPUA. The ES budgets were in high surplus in Northern Qinling Mountains and northeast mountain areas, while they were in severe deficit in urban center areas. The budgets deficit under the ND scenario in 2030 is the most severe. (3) The gradient differences of ES budgets of the GPUA between urban centers and suburbs increase from 2000 to 2030 under two scenarios. The deficit region expands largest under ND scenario. The findings revealed that ES declining and supply-demand mismatching were triggered by the drastic land-use change driven by rapid urban expansion. The expansion has brought about an increasing material demand and growing industries, threatening the sustainability of ecosystems. Scenarios setting could contribute to coordinating the relationship between future urban development and ecological protection, and the policy strategies proposed in the study could inform ecological management and urban planning in the regions facing the similar urbanization situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Birth Cohort in the United States (N ≈ 10,700), this study examines the relationship between precarious parental work characteristics and families' poverty status during the early childhood years. We focus on four aspects of parental work—occupational prestige, hourly wages, weekly work hours, and nonstandard work schedules—and three dimensions of familial poverty: poverty depth, volatility in family income, and poverty duration. The longitudinal latent class analysis identified five distinct maternal work profiles and three distinct paternal work profiles. Regression results then suggest that children in families whose mothers and fathers held jobs with precarious work characteristics had significantly higher probabilities of experiencing (1) near-poor conditions or falling into poverty, if not deep poverty; (2) volatility in family income; and (3) longer duration of poverty. Results in this study shed new light on the sensitivity of families' economic status to the precarious work conditions that have been on the rise in a society increasingly characterized by income inequality. Highlights: Almost half of the American families with young children were at risk of falling into poverty during the most crucial period of their child's life, before entering kindergarten. Longitudinal latent class analysis using four indicators of parental work was used to identify latent groups of precarious parental work characteristics. Precarious parental work increased the probability of families experiencing poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cerebellar liponeurocytomas (CLPNs) are very rare, with very few studies on this disease. Their treatment protocol also remains unclear. To better understand the disease, we reviewed the clinical features and outcomes, and proposed a treatment protocol based on previously reported cases as well as cases from our institute. The clinical data were obtained from seven patients with pathologically confirmed CLPNs, who underwent surgical treatment at our institute between November 2011 and June 2021. We also reviewed the relevant literature and 75 patients with CLPNs were identified between September 1993 and June 2021. Risk factors for progression-free survival (PFS) were evaluated in the pooled cohort. Our cohort included four males and three females, with a mean age of 43.9 ± 14.5 years (range: 29–64 years). CLPNs were located in the lateral ventricle in three cases and in the cerebellum in four cases. All seven cases achieved gross total resection (GTR) and radiotherapy was administered to two cases. After a mean follow-up of 44.9 ± 44.4 months, all patients remained well, with no recurrence or death. Among the 75 patients reported in the literature, 35 were males and 40 were females, with a mean age of 46.2 ± 13.6 years (range: 6–77 years). Biopsy, GTR, and non-GTR were achieved in one (1.3%), 50 (66.7%), and 24 (32%) patients, respectively. Radiotherapy was administered to 16 cases and chemotherapy was administered to only one case. After a mean follow-up of 47.5 ± 51.5 months, three patients died and tumor recurrence occurred in 17 patients. Multivariate Cox analysis revealed that non-GTR predicted a poor PFS (p = 0.020), and postoperative radiotherapy could not prolong PFS (p = 0.708). Kaplan–Meier analysis also showed that GTR was significantly associated with longer PFS (p = 0.008), and postoperative radiotherapy could not prolong PFS (p = 0.707). PFS rates at 1, 5, 10 years were 92.7%, 78.0%, 23.8% respectively. CLPNs are very rare brain tumors. Although they have favorable clinical prognosis, the recurrence is relatively high. GTR should be the first choice for treatment and close follow-up is necessary. Postoperative radiotherapy could not improve PFS in this study. A larger cohort is needed to verify our findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The original article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02033-x.Correction to: Humanities and Social Sciences Communicationshttps://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02033-x, published online 24 August 2023.In this article, the author name in the citation was incorrectly given as Pena and Rodriguez, and it should have been Noguera and Rodriguez.In the reference section, it was incorrectly given as Pena NA and it should have been Noguera Pena A. The original article has now been corrected.By Linhai Wu; Liwei Zhang and Yufeng LiReported by Author; Author; Author [Extracted from the article]

By means of glass bottle sampling followed by solid-phase microextraction gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (SPME-GC-MS) technique, the change characteristics of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in breaths, between before gargling and after gargling, were investigated, respectively, in 41 healthy subjects and 50 esophageal cancer patients. Using an untargeted strategy, 143 VOC chromatographic peaks were enrolled in the statistical analysis. Based on the orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), the VOC variations after gargling for each breath test group were obtained according to the combined criteria of variable importance in projection (VIP > 1.5), Wilcoxon signed-rank test (P < 0.05), and fold change (FC > 2.0). When gargled, the levels of indole, phenol, 1-propanol, and p-cresol in the breath of healthy people decreased; meanwhile, for esophageal cancer patients, the declined VOCs in breath were indole, phenol, dimethyl disulfide, and p-cresol. Particularly, these substances were previously reported as breath biomarkers in some diseases such as esophageal, gastric, thyroid, breast, oral, and lung cancers, as well as certain non-cancer disorders. The present work indicates that expiratory VOCs involve the prominent oral cavity source, and in the breath biomarkers study, the potential impact that originates from oral volatiles should be considered. In view of the present results, it is also proposed that gargle pretreatment could eliminate possible interference from the oral cavity VOCs that might benefit breath biomarker investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Streams and rivers emit substantial amounts of nitrous oxide (N2O) and are therefore an essential component of global nitrogen (N) cycle. Permafrost soils store a large reservoir of dormant N that, upon thawing, can enter fluvial networks and partly degrade to N2O, yet the role of waterborne release of N2O in permafrost regions is unclear. Here we report N2O concentrations and fluxes during different seasons between 2016 and 2018 in four watersheds on the East Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Thawing permafrost soils are known to emit N2O at a high rate, but permafrost rivers draining the East Qinghai-Tibet Plateau behave as unexpectedly minor sources of atmospheric N2O. Such low N2O fluxes are associated with low riverine dissolved inorganic N (DIN) after terrestrial plant uptake, unfavorable conditions for N2O generation via denitrification, and low N2O yield due to a small ratio of nitrite reductase: nitrous oxide reductase in these rivers. We estimate fluvial N2O emissions of 0.432 − 0.463 Gg N2O-N yr−1 from permafrost landscapes on the entire Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which is marginal (~0.15%) given their areal contribution to global streams and rivers (0.7%). However, we suggest that these permafrost-affected rivers can shift from minor sources to strong emitters in the warmer future, likely giving rise to the permafrost non-carbon feedback that intensifies warming. Permafrost soils can be substantial sources of nitrous oxide (N2O) to the atmosphere, but no data exist on the N2O footprints of permafrost rivers. Here, the authors show that alpine permafrost rivers are unexpectedly small sources of atmospheric N2O at present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The double random phase encoding techniques have received considerable attention from researchers in recent years because of their advantages of parallel and high-speed processing capability. Meanwhile, the security of the cryptosystem is also one of the major concerns. We experimentally showed the ciphertext redundancy vulnerability of the coherent double random phase encryption (DRPE) system. Based on the statistical ergodicity of speckles and the consistency of the energy spectral density (ESD), we have proved that the method can retrieve the most plaintext information from partial ciphertext alone. We performed the simulation and experimental results to verify whether the algorithm is effective. The ciphertext redundancy of the DRPE system is analyzed from the results of the ciphertext occlusion test. There is a risk of plaintext leakage in this scheme, as long as the average ESD can be estimated from the sub-images. The results will further our understanding of the limitation of current optical security techniques. The DRPE system has potential redundancy risk. This vulnerability allows a cryptanalyst to estimate the plaintext information with only a half or less ciphertext. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]