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To compare clinical characteristics and survival outcomes of patients with multiple renal cell carcinoma versus single renal cell carcinoma. Develop a prognostic model for predicting prognosis in patients with multiple tumors and analyze prognostic factors. Patients with primary multiple renal cell carcinoma were selected from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database (2004–2015). They were divided into single-tumor and multiple-tumor groups. Survival analysis was conducted using the Kaplan–Meier method and log-rank test. A Cox regression model was used to identify potential prognostic factors. A total of 19,489 renal cell carcinoma cases were included, with 947 in the multiple-tumor group and 18,542 in the single-tumor group. The multiple-tumor group had lower cancer-specific survival (P = 0.03, HR = 1.431). Cox regression identified risk factors for the multiple-tumor group including number of tumors, gender, combined summary stage, T stage, N stage, tumor size, and type of surgery. The predicted probabilities showed acceptable agreement with the actual observations at 3-, 5-, and 8-years area under the curve values in both the training and validation cohorts (0.831 vs. 0.605; 0.775 vs. 0.672; and 0.797 vs. 0.699, respectively). Compared with single renal cell carcinoma, multiple renal cell carcinoma is associated with decreased cancer-specific survival. Additionally, we identified several prognostic factors including the number of tumors, T stage, tumor size, and type of surgery. These findings offer valuable insights for selecting appropriate treatment strategies for patients diagnosed with multiple renal cell carcinomas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Central South University is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Accurate and cost-effective quantification of the carbon cycle for agroecosystems at decision-relevant scales is critical to mitigating climate change and ensuring sustainable food production. However, conventional process-based or data-driven modeling approaches alone have large prediction uncertainties due to the complex biogeochemical processes to model and the lack of observations to constrain many key state and flux variables. Here we propose a Knowledge-Guided Machine Learning (KGML) framework that addresses the above challenges by integrating knowledge embedded in a process-based model, high-resolution remote sensing observations, and machine learning (ML) techniques. Using the U.S. Corn Belt as a testbed, we demonstrate that KGML can outperform conventional process-based and black-box ML models in quantifying carbon cycle dynamics. Our high-resolution approach quantitatively reveals 86% more spatial detail of soil organic carbon changes than conventional coarse-resolution approaches. Moreover, we outline a protocol for improving KGML via various paths, which can be generalized to develop hybrid models to better predict complex earth system dynamics. Existing models to estimate agroecosystem C cycle have large uncertainties. Here, the authors propose a knowledge-guided machine learning framework that improves C cycle quantification in agroecosystems by integrating process-based and machine learning models, and multi-source high-resolution data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low temperatures severely impair the performance of lithium-ion batteries, which demand powerful electrolytes with wide liquidity ranges, facilitated ion diffusion, and lower desolvation energy. The keys lie in establishing mild interactions between Li+ and solvent molecules internally, which are hard to achieve in commercial ethylene-carbonate based electrolytes. Herein, we tailor the solvation structure with low-ε solvent-dominated coordination, and unlock ethylene-carbonate via electronegativity regulation of carbonyl oxygen. The modified electrolyte exhibits high ion conductivity (1.46 mS·cm−1) at −90 °C, and remains liquid at −110 °C. Consequently, 4.5 V graphite-based pouch cells achieve ~98% capacity over 200 cycles at −10 °C without lithium dendrite. These cells also retain ~60% of their room-temperature discharge capacity at −70 °C, and miraculously retain discharge functionality even at ~−100 °C after being fully charged at 25 °C. This strategy of disrupting solvation dominance of ethylene-carbonate through molecular charge engineering, opens new avenues for advanced electrolyte design. Low-temperature operation remains challenging for batteries. Here, the authors report an electrolyte solvation structure design strategy to break solvation dominance of ethylene carbonate to facilitate the desolvation process that improves the low-temperature performance of lithium-ion batteries even below −100 °C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

d-dimer is a biomarker of coagulation and fibrinolytic system activation in response to the body's hypercoagulable state. The study aims to investigate the usefulness of d-dimer in diagnosing and assessing the risk of intracardiac thrombus in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Consecutively enrolled in this study were patients with DCM who were admitted to our center for the first time. The diagnostic value was evaluated using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Additionally, we used univariate and multivariate logistic regression to investigate the association between d-dimer and intracardiac thrombus. We also performed smooth curve fitting, threshold saturation effect analysis, and subgroup analysis. In total, 534 patients were enrolled in the study, and among them, 65 patients had intracardiac thrombus. Mural thrombus was the predominant type of thrombus, which was mainly located in the left ventricular apex. The optimal cut-off value of d-dimer for the diagnosis of intracardiac thrombus was 484 ng/mL, with a sensitivity and specificity of 0.769 and 0.646, respectively. In both unadjusted and adjusted logistic regression models, a positive association was found between d-dimer and intracardiac thrombus. Curve fitting and threshold effect analysis revealed two inflection points in the relationship between d-dimer and intracardiac thrombus (non-linear test: P = 0.032). When d-dimer was equal to 362 ng/mL, the odds ratio (OR) was 1, and the risk of thrombus gradually increased until it reached 4096 ng/mL, after which the trend no longer increased. Within this range, a twofold increase in d-dimer was associated with a 103.2% increased risk (OR = 2.032; 95% CI 1.293–3.193; P < 0.01). In the subgroup analysis, there was a significant interaction between d-dimer and BMI on intracardiac thrombus (P value for interaction was 0.013), and the risk was higher in patients with a BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2 (OR = 3.44; 95% CI 1.86–6.36; P < 0.01). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deep Hashing methods have been widely used for large-scale image retrieval due to its advantages in retrieval efficiency and accuracy. Recent methods cannot effectively capture the scale variation and complex distribution of image features in the feature extraction process. As a result, these methods were easily affected by the environment and the retrieval accuracy is not high. In this regard, we propose multi-scale and multi-direction pooling for deep hashing (MMDH). Specifically, the proposed method uses a multi-direction strip pooling module (MSPM) so that it can also fuse the features in the diagonal direction. Also, we combine MSPM with pyramid pooling which capture multi-scale features to build a hybrid pooling module. The input image is subjected to the hybrid pooling operation to extract multi-scale and multi-direction image features which can help the network improve its feature extraction ability. The atrous spatial pyramid pooling operation is used to retain the multi-scale features further to help the model analyze the image structure flexibly and effectively. The experimental results show that the proposed method can perform well on two public datasets. In addition, to verify the generality of the results, we also conducted experiments on the cloth dataset Fabric. The results prove that the proposed method can better extract multi-scale and multi-direction image feature information in various situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is to give a novel Jackknife Empirical Likelihood for both smooth and unsmooth statistical functionals. Specifically, we consider the estimation of unknown statistical functionals under the framework of general delete-d jackknife and a usage of the subsampling method which can reduce the computational burden. Moreover, the corresponding statistical inference issues and asymptotic properties of the proposed method are also investigated. Several related application examples are carefully conducted to check the superiority of our new proposed method. Finally, the finite sample simulation studies are also included. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Central South University is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Subclassification of tumors based on molecular features may facilitate therapeutic choice and increase the response rate of cancer patients. However, the highly complex cell origin involved in osteosarcoma (OS) limits the utility of traditional bulk RNA sequencing for OS subclassification. Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) holds great promise for identifying cell heterogeneity. However, this technique has rarely been used in the study of tumor subclassification. By analyzing scRNA-seq data for six conventional OS and nine cancellous bone (CB) samples, we identified 29 clusters in OS and CB samples and discovered three differentiation trajectories from the cancer stem cell (CSC)-like subset, which allowed us to classify OS samples into three groups. The classification model was further examined using the TARGET dataset. Each subgroup of OS had different prognoses and possible drug sensitivities, and OS cells in the three differentiation branches showed distinct interactions with other clusters in the OS microenvironment. In addition, we verified the classification model through IHC staining in 138 OS samples, revealing a worse prognosis for Group B patients. Furthermore, we describe the novel transcriptional program of CSCs and highlight the activation of EZH2 in CSCs of OS. These findings provide a novel subclassification method based on scRNA-seq and shed new light on the molecular features of CSCs in OS and may serve as valuable references for precision treatment for and therapeutic development in OS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Central South University is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Studies have found that oxygen-rich-containing functional groups in carbon-based materials can be used as active sites for the storage performance of K+, but the basic storage mechanism is still unclear. Herein, we construct and optimize 3D honeycomb-like carbon grafted with plentiful COOH/C = O functional groups (OFGC) as anodes for potassium ion batteries. The OFGC electrode with steady structure and rich functional groups can effectively contribute to the capacity enhancement and the formation of stable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) film, achieving a high reversible capacity of 230 mAh g−1 at 3000 mA g−1 after 10,000 cycles (almost no capacity decay) and an ultra-long cycle time over 18 months at 100 mA g−1. The study results revealed the reversible storage mechanism between K+ and COOH/C = O functional groups by forming C-O-K compounds. Meanwhile, the in situ electrochemical impedance spectroscopy proved the highly reversible and rapid de/intercalation kinetics of K+ in the OFGC electrode, and the growth process of SEI films. In particular, the full cells assembled by Prussian blue cathode exhibit a high energy density of 113 Wh kg−1 after 800 cycles (calculated by the total mass of anode and cathode), and get the light-emitting diodes lamp and ear thermometer running. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Central South University is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Central South University is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Central South University is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this paper, we propose a new statistical inference method for massive data sets, which is very simple and efficient by combining divide-and-conquer method and empirical likelihood. Compared with two popular methods (the bag of little bootstrap and the subsampled double bootstrap), we make full use of data sets, and reduce the computation burden. Extensive numerical studies and real data analysis demonstrate the effectiveness and flexibility of our proposed method. Furthermore, the asymptotic property of our method is derived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bending-torsional distortion buckling is one of the most critical buckling modes of steel–concrete composite beams when they are working under hogging moment. The rotational and lateral restraint stiffness provided by the steel web to the steel bottom flange are the key factors to determine this form of buckling. Firstly, the formula for solving the elastic rotational restraint stiffness of the composite flange of steel beam upper flange and concrete slab to the steel web is derived. Then, the equivalent lateral and rotational restraint stiffness of the steel bottom flange subjected to hogging moment are thoroughly studied. Considering the rotation restraint effect of the composite flange, this paper provides the calculation formula for the critical bending moment of I-steel concrete composite beams (I-SCCB) under hogging moment. Fifteen examples are considered to calculate the critical bending moment of the I-SCCB under hogging moment with the simplified analytical method introduced in this paper. The results are compared with the ones derived by ANSYS numerical analyses and relevant research of other scholars. The influence of the arrangement of the shear studs on the critical bending moment of the I-SCCB is investigated. It is concluded that the results given by the simplified analytical method are in good agreement with the ones obtained by the ANSYS finite element numerical method. Both methods show that the critical load of the distortional buckling of the I-SCCB under hogging moment is less affected by the member's length. The critical bending moment of distortional buckling of the I-SCCB significantly increases with the presence of shear studs. However, once shear studs are used, it tends to be stable with the increase of equivalent restrained torsional rotational stiffness at the top edge of the steel web. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a flexible ZnO-based gas sensor is developed for room-temperature detection of nitrogen oxide (NO2). The sensor is fabricated on polyimide (PI) substrate by highly efficient and scalable laser micro-processing techniques, including laser direct writing of carbonized electrode on PI and laser-localized hydrothermal synthesis of ZnO on the electrode. The gas sensing characteristics of the device, such as response, stability, and repeatability, are systematically investigated. The ZnO-based sensor shows a response of 0.71% for NO2 in room temperature, a good stability (30 days), and repeatability with the substrate curvatures bent from 22.34 to 4.16 mm in 1000 ppm NO2 at room temperature (25 °C). Unlike the traditional ZnO-based gas sensor, the device we made presents the characteristics of p-type semiconductor through gas sensing tests, which could be attributed to the possible doping of C and low performing temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is already certificated that collaborative filtering algorithms could alleviate such data sparsity and long tail distribution problems and provide high performance in item recommendation. However, high computational complexity and insufficient samples may lead to low convergence and inaccuracy in traditional recommender approaches. In this article, a novel deep neural network-based collaborative filtering recommender engine referred to as NtCF is proposed, which resorts to a neural architecture for preference learning and user representation. With the powerful capability of neural network, NtCF is able to deep exploit interactions within social network for each user. More specifically, the trust-aware attention layer is designed to indicate the social influence to each user; furthermore, NtCF performs item clustering via k-means++ and conducts item recommendation within each generated item cluster, and accordingly, NtCF can achieve significant improvement in recommendation performance and provide hierarchical recommendation services. In practice, experimental comparison over three real-world datasets also demonstrates the superiority of NtCF in contrast to state-of-the-art recommender approaches, which can achieve high performance in top-N recommendation and provide much better user experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: Oxygen functional groups improve rate capability as well as long-term cycling stability of graphite oxide. The adsorption-intercalation hybrid K+ storage mechanism of graphite oxide (GO) is elucidated by in situ Raman spectroscopy and systematic electrochemical characterization. It is unraveled that the C = O and COOH rather than C-O-C and OH groups contribute to the formation of highly conductive, intact and robust solid electrolyte interphase.Oxygen-containing functional groups were found to effectively boost the K+ storage performance of carbonaceous materials, however, the mechanism behind the performance enhancement remains unclear. Herein, we report higher rate capability and better long-term cycle performance employing oxygen-doped graphite oxide (GO) as the anode material for potassium ion batteries (PIBs), compared to the raw graphite. The in situ Raman spectroscopy elucidates the adsorption-intercalation hybrid K+ storage mechanism, assigning the capacity enhancement to be mainly correlated with reversible K+ adsorption/desorption at the newly introduced oxygen sites. It is unraveled that the C=O and COOH rather than C-O-C and OH groups contribute to the capacity enhancement. Based on in situ Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra and in situ electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), it is found that the oxygen-containing functional groups regulate the components of solid electrolyte interphase (SEI), leading to the formation of highly conductive, intact and robust SEI. Through the systematic investigations, we hereby uncover the K+ storage mechanism of GO-based PIB, and establish a clear relationship between the types/contents of oxygen functional groups and the regulated composition of SEI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consider the sample covariance matrices of form W = n - 1 C C ⊤ , where C is a k × n matrix with real-valued, independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) mean zero entries. When the squares of the i.i.d. entries have finite exponential moments, the moderate deviations for the extreme eigenvalues of W are investigated as n → ∞ and either k is fixed or k → ∞ with some suitable growth conditions. The moderate deviation rate function reveals that the right (left) tail of λ max is more like Gaussian rather than the Tracy–Widom type distribution when k goes to infinity slowly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Key message: Whereas cold temperatures and artificial smoke pollution (during World War II) cause negative pointer years in northern Fennoscandian downy birches, mass outbreaks of Epirrita autumnata L. and Operophtera brumata Bkh. are the strongest growth-influencing and -synchronizing factor. Variations in radial tree growth of downy birch can be affected by short-term environmental changes. Here we examine the tree-ring width of downy birch trees for signals caused by three different disturbance factors: climatic extremes, insect outbreaks, and artificial smoke employed to hide the German battleship Tirpitz during World War II at the Kåfjord in northern Norway. Besides growth/climate response analysis using gridded climate data and a tree ring width-chronology of the studied birch trees, we analyze missing rings, pointer years, and the ability of recovery after severe disturbances on an individual tree basis using the percent change of the trees' basal area increment with respect to a reference period. The downy birches reveal (1) a significant positive correlation with May and June temperatures, (2) a high growth sensitivity to moth epidemics (Epirrita autumnata L. and Operophtera brumata Bkh.), and (3) a distinct growth deviation in the year of intense but short-term artificial smoke pollution. We conclude that downy birches are not exclusively sensitive to unusual cold temperatures, but short-term artificial pollution and insect outbreaks cause similar growth declines in the year of occurrence. Whereas for temperature and pollution, the growth response is less coherent among trees, and fades within 2 years, the insect outbreaks synchronize growth among all downy birches. Growth declines during years of mass insect outbreaks can further be amplified by cold May and June temperatures. Our findings thereby improve the understanding of competing disturbance factors on single birch trees but also on the growth of a whole site in Fennoscandia and facilitates the detection of disturbances in birch chronologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on similar theory, a model test scheme of low-buried and unsymmetrical pressure tunnels with rubber shock absorber layer was designed. The shaking table test was used to study the seismic response of low-buried and unsymmetrical pressure tunnels under different seismic waves and the intensity of excitation. The results show that: (1) Under the action of different seismic waves, the acceleration and strain at the corresponding measurement points on both sides of the tunnel are different. As the seismic intensity increases, the strain of the tunnel lining gradually increases. (2) At the same measuring point and the same excitation intensity, the influence of Kobe seismic wave on the acceleration and strain of tunnel lining is greater than that of EI seismic wave. (3) The amplification factor of the horizontal acceleration of the tunnel lining is less affected by the intensity of the Kobe and EI seismic waves. (4) The horizontal acceleration amplification factor of the tunnel lining is smaller than that in the vertical direction. The vertical acceleration response of the tunnel lining is stronger on the right than on the left. (5) The acceleration response of the arch shoulder and right arch foot of the tunnel lining is strong. The strain value of the arch shoulder and right arch foot of the tunnel lining is also large. The results can provide a reference for the seismic design of tunnels with rubber shock absorber layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exosomes play an important role in cell-to-cell communication as they can transfer functional molecules such as microRNAs (miRNAs) from one cell to another, exerting biological and immunological functions. Here, we investigated the impact of HIV infection and/or heroin use on the expression of the miRNAs in plasma exosomes. We found that HIV infection or heroin use upregulated the majority (98%) of a panel of plasma exosomal miRNAs associated with immune regulation and inflammation. We also observed the enhanced effect of HIV infection and heroin use on some of these upregulated miRNAs. Our further investigation showed that the levels of four of neuro-inflammation-related miRNAs (146a, 126, 21, and let-7a) were higher in HIV-infected heroin users as compared with the control subjects. These findings indicate that the dysregulations of the plasma exosomal miRNAs support further studies to determine the role of the miRNAs in HIV and/or heroin use-mediated immune modulation and neuro-inflammation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The extracellular matrix has been critically associated with the tumorigenesis and progression of Ewing sarcoma (ES). However, the regulatory and prognostic roles of tenascin-C (TNC) in ES remain unclear.Methods: TNC expression was examined in specimens by immunohistochemistry, and the association of TNC expression with ES patient survival was also analysed. TNC-knockout cell lines were constructed using CRISPR/Cas9 methods. In vitro experiments and in vivo bioluminescent imaging using BALB/c nude mice were conducted to evaluate the effect of TNC on ES tumour progression. RNA sequencing was performed, and the underlying mechanism of TNC was further explored.Results: TNC was overexpressed in ES tissue and cell lines, and TNC overexpression was associated with poor survival in ES patients. TNC enhanced cell proliferation, migration and angiogenesis in vitro and promoted ES metastasis in vivo. The oncoprotein EWS-FLI1 profoundly increased TNC expression by directly binding to the TNC promoter region. Metastasis-associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1) upregulation induced by Yes-associated protein (YAP) activation was responsible for TNC-regulated ES tumour progression. Activated integrin α5β1 signalling might be correlated with YAP dephosphorylation and nuclear translocation.Conclusions: TNC may promote ES tumour progression by targeting MALAT1 through integrin α5β1-mediated YAP activation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Central South University is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Given a finitely connected region Ω of the Riemann sphere whose complement consists of m mutually disjoint closed disks U ¯ j , the random homeomorphism h j on the boundary component ∂ U j is constructed using the exponential Gaussian free field. The existence and uniqueness of random conformal welding of Ω with h j is established by investigating a non-uniformly elliptic Beltrami equation with a random complex dilatation. This generalizes the result of Astala, Jones, Kupiainen and Saksman to multiply connected domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recommender systems have been comprehensively applied in many industries, such as social Web sites, e-commerce, tourism service and so on, although suffering from the data sparsity and cold start problems. Currently, due to the advantage of online social networking, many social network-based recommendation scenarios have been developed to improve the recommendation accuracy, via exploring hidden social relations between users from the social network. In this article, focusing on addressing these problems, a novel social network and preference-based recommendation method—SRMP, is proposed, which incorporates the social network information and user’s preference in matrix factorization for recommendation. In contrast to previous approaches, to improve the recommendation accuracy, SRMP performs recommendation in each independent sub-community, which is derived from the initial social community according to different category tags. The experimental analysis on large real-world datasets demonstrates that the proposed method SRMP outperforms state-of-the-art approaches, especially in recommendation accuracy and solving the cold start problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High pressure die casting (HPDC) is a kind of near net shape manufacturing method. However, air entrapment in HPDC parts has serious effects upon the casting quality. In order to reduce the air entrapment defects in a AlSi10MnMg alloy thin-wall longitudinal load-bearing beam produced by HPDC, different gating systems were designed and simulated by software Flow-3D to evaluate the entrapped air. Simulation results showed that when the beam is produced by the original designed gating system with a middle ingate, there exist obvious air entrapments in the critical area; the volume of air entrapment was reduced by replacing the middle ingate to an overflow well, and the filling of molten metal became more stable. When the middle ingate was removed for further improvement, the volume of air entrapment was decreased drastically. The parts with glossy surface and good microstructure have been successfully produced by using the final optimized gating system based on simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acute kidney injury (AKI) is one of the important complications of the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), occurring in 0.5-7% of cases and in 2.9-23% of ICU patients [[1]-[3]]. To deduce the underlying mechanism of AKI during the COVID-19 outbreak, we performed single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) analysis to identify candidate kidney host cells in the present study. [Extracted from the article]

Protected areas have become important tourism products that promoted as attractions by the tourism industry. Taking the Changbai Mountain Biosphere Reserve in Northeast China as a case, this study addresses visitor needs as a basis for developing a tourism strategy aimed at enhancing tourist opportunities at this reserve. A factor-cluster approach was employed to identify visitor segment profiles based on their visit motivations. Through random sampling, a pencil-and-paper questionnaire in Chinese language was collected from 637 domestic tourists in the study area. A principal components analysis of motivations revealed eight motivational factors, and four distinct groups of tourists-Nature travelers, Cultural landscape tourists, Food & shopping enthusiasts, and Eclectic adventurers-were identified. Understanding the differences in these visitor segments will help the management authority effectively analyze nature reserve attributes and provide alternative activities and services to tourists. Finally, within the dual framework of market segmentation and destination management some management recommendations and marketing implications are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigate the two sample U-statistics by jackknife empirical likelihood (JEL), a versatile nonparametric approach. More precisely, we propose the method of balanced augmented jackknife empirical likelihood (BAJEL) by adding two articial points to the original pseudo-value dataset, and we prove that the log likelihood ratio based on the expanded dataset tends to the χ2 distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Spinal solitary fibrous tumor/hemangiopericytoma (SFT/HPC), a rare mesenchymal tumor that arises from pericytes of Zimmerman, comprises only 0.08% of all primary bone tumors and 0.1% of primary malignant bone tumor and rarely occurs in the spine. We attempt to correlate the clinical factors and different treatment options with the recurrence rate and overall survival of SFT/HPC over time.Methods: A retrospective study of 20 patients with spinal osseous SFT/HPCs who were surgically treated in our center between 2003 and 2015 was performed. Kaplan-Meier curves and log-rank tests were used to compare the survival probability or recurrence-free probability between groups, and P values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant.Results: Three surgical management strategies, including subtotal resection, piecemeal total resection, and total en bloc spondylectomy (TES) were applied. Postoperative radiotherapy was carried out in 14 cases. The mean follow-up period was 38.3 (median 35, range 7-93) months, and 6 patients passed away with the mean follow-up time of 47.7 (median 41, range 24-77) months. Relapse was detected in 9 patients (45%) with the mean time from surgery to recurrence being 36.6 (median 28, range 12-73) months. Our results indicate that grade III is an adverse prognostic factor for both recurrence and over survival (OS) for spinal osseous SFT/HPC, while total resection, especially TES, is a positive prognostic factor.Conclusions: Spinal osseous SFT/HPC is a challenging clinical entity given its high local recurrence rate. Surgical management plays a crucial role in the whole treatment of spinal SFT/HPCs and total excision, especially TES, should be strived for whenever possible. Postoperative radiotherapy is recommended to lower the recurrent rate. This study also confirms that pathology grade III is an adverse prognostic factor for spinal osseous SFT/HPCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Spinal metastatic paraganglioma (MPG) is rare and only reported in individual case reports. The low incidence makes it difficult to define appropriate therapy and prognosis. Our study illustrated the largest series to discuss the possible treatment and outcomes of patients with spinal MPG.Methods: A retrospective study of 15 patients with spinal MPG who were surgically treated between 2005 and 2014 was performed. Three surgical modalities were applied, and radiotherapy and chemotherapy were utilized as adjuvant therapy.Results: The mean patients age was 40.9 (range 23-58) years. The period between primary surgery and spinal metastasis averaged 8.2 (0.5-15) years. Lesions were mainly located in cervical spine (2), thoracic spine (8), lumbar spine (3), and sacrum (2). The mean follow-up period was 35.0 months. Lesion progression was detected in nine patients, whereas five patients (33.3%) passed away. For solitary spine, multiple bone and both bone and nonosseous metastasis cases, the mean progression-free survival was 41 (range 9-56), 22.5 (range 12-38) and 8.3 (range 3-18) months, respectively.Conclusions: The cases presented in the current study highlight the crucial role of surgery. Total en bloc for solitary spinal MPG could result in a satisfying prognosis and piecemeal total resection with postoperative radiotherapy could be an alternative therapy. Radiotherapy and chemotherapy were advocated, especially for the multiple metastasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-harmonic generation from gases produces attosecond bursts and enables highharmonic spectroscopy to explore electron dynamics in atoms and molecules. Recently, highharmonic generation from solids has been reported, resulting in novel phenomena and unique control of the emission, absent in gas-phase media. Here we investigate high harmonics from semiconductors with controllable induced photo-carrier densities, as well as the driving wavelengths. We demonstrate that the dominant generation mechanism can be identified by monitoring the variation of the harmonic spectra with the carrier density. Moreover, the harmonic spectral dependence on the driving wavelength is reported and a different dependence from the well-known one in gas-phase media is observed. Our study provides distinct control of the harmonic process from semiconductors, sheds light on the underlying mechanism and helps optimize the harmonic properties for future solid-state attosecond light sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the help of the Wilson's numerical renormalization group technique, we study the dynamical and magnetic properties for a parallel triple dot system with five different dot geometries in the strong correlation limit. We reveal that when the dot configuration changes, several kinds of Kondo effect could be found, i.e., the partially screened spin − 3/2, the totally screened spin − 1, the spin − 1/2, and the spin − 0 Kondo effects, implying numerically that the manners in which the dots and leads are organized play important roles in the Kondo behaviors. To understand these quantum phenomena, the local density of states, the transmission coefficient, the spin-spin correlation function, and the temperature-dependent magnetic moment for each configuration are shown, and necessary theoretical discussions are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-energy phase-stable sub-cycle mid-infrared pulses can provide unique opportunities to explore phase-sensitive strong-field light–matter interactions in atoms, molecules and solids. At the mid-infrared wavelength, the Keldysh parameter could be much smaller than unity even at relatively modest laser intensities, enabling the study of the strong-field sub-cycle electron dynamics in solids without damage. Here we report a high-energy sub-cycle pulse synthesiser based on a mid-infrared optical parametric amplifier and its application to high-harmonic generation in solids. The signal and idler combined spectrum spans from 2.5 to 9.0 μm. We coherently synthesise the passively carrier-envelope phase-stable signal and idler pulses to generate 33 μJ, 0.88-cycle, multi-gigawatt pulses centred at ~4.2 μm, which is further energy scalable. The mid-infrared sub-cycle pulse is used for driving high-harmonic generation in thin silicon samples, producing harmonics up to ~19th order with a continuous spectral coverage due to the isolated emission by the sub-cycle driver. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the transport property and the phase transition for a triple quantum dot system in a triangular geometry with one centered dot and two side dots by adopting the Wilson's numerical renormalization group method. When three dots are decoupled with no coupling, the Kondo peak turns to reach the unitary limit, and the spin-1/2 Kondo effect is found. When the hopping between the centered dot and two side dots increases, two side dots form a local spin triplet due to the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida interaction mediated by the centered dot, and the Kondo peak is suppressed. As the hopping between two side dots increases, a first order quantum phase transition occurs. In this case, two side dots form a spin singlet and the Kondo peak is recovered. When the inter-dot Coulomb repulsion between two side dots is taken into account and the hopping between two side dots is small, the charge on each side dot drops to 0.5 through a first-order quantum phase transition. As a result, one of the side dots is singly occupied, while the other one is empty. The linear conductance is suppressed due to the strong coupling between the centered dot and the singly occupied side dot. When the hopping between two side dots is large enough, the charge on each side dot decreases to 0.5 continuously and a crossover is found, for in this case the symmetry of spin configurations within two side dots is broken. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sure independence screening procedure by ranking the marginal Pearson correlation is well documented in literatures and works satisfactorily in the ultra-high dimensional case. However, this marginal Person correlation learning would easily miss the variable that is marginally uncorrelated with the response but correlated with the response jointly with some other variables. This failure in missing an important variable is due to the fact that the marginal Pearson correlation does not use the joint information of the response and a set of covariates. In this paper, we introduce a new screening method which leaves a variable into the active set if it jointly with some other variables has a high canonical correlation with the response. This is accomplished via ranking canonical correlations between the response and all possible sets of k variables. Our results show that the procedure has the sure screening property and substantially reduces the dimensionality to a moderate size against the sample size. Extensive simulations demonstrate that our new method performs substantially better than the existing sure independence screening approaches based on the marginal Pearson correlation or Kental's tau rank correlation. A real data set is also analyzed by implementing our approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the most classic fields in computer vision, image categorization has attracted widespread interests. Numerous algorithms have been proposed in the community, and many of them have advanced the state-of-the-art. However, most existing algorithms are designed without consideration for the supply of computing resources. Therefore, when dealing with resource constrained tasks, these algorithms will fail to give satisfactory results. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive and in-depth introduction of recent developments of the research in image categorization with resource constraints. While a large portion is based on our own work, we will also give a brief description of other elegant algorithms. Furthermore, we make an investigation into the recent developments of deep neural networks, with a focus on resource constrained deep nets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this note, we consider the fluctuation theorem for $$X_{f_n}^{(n)}:=\sum _{i=1}^n f(\lambda _i)I(\lambda _i\ge \theta _n)$$ , where $$\lambda _i, i=1,\ldots ,n$$ are eigenvalues from a Wigner matrix and $$\theta _n\rightarrow 2^-$$ . We prove that in the edge case $$X_{f_n}^{(n)}$$ behaves like the counting function of Wigner matrix. Our results can be viewed as a complement of Bao et al. (J Stat Phys 150(1):88-129, 2013). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigated the non-isothermal crystallization kinetics of the spinel crystals in vanadium slags containing high CaO content. Experiments were performed in combination with theoretical calculation to address this issue, and statistical analyses based on the Crystal Size Distribution theory. The results indicate that low cooling rate and high CaO content benefit the growth of spinel crystals. The growth mechanism is revealed to be controlled by interface reactions and diffusion at the cooling rates of 5 K/min and 15 K/min, respectively. However, at higher temperatures (>1673 K), the growth of spinel crystals is controlled by nucleation. While the temperature is decreased to 1523 K at the cooling rate of 5 K/min, the mean diameter of spinel crystals could reach 36.44 μm. Experimental results combining with theoretical reveal that low cooling rate benefits spinels growth, especially for the interval of 1523 K-1200 K. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]