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Great achievements have been made regarding the stress field in the two-dimensional state, however the study of three-dimensional stress field visualization has still not been comprehensively examined. The model with internal cracks was prepared by the laser-medium interaction (3D-ILC), and with the aid of the photoelastic test technology, it visually showed the distribution characteristics of the stress field inside the rock with defects under the three-point bending test method. Primarily, based on the two-dimensional and three-dimensional stress optics law, the isometric fringes were converted into phase differences or optical path differences to visualize the stress field. Moreover, transparent glass, which had better transparency and brittleness closer to real rock was selected as the specimen material. Internal cracks changed the stress fringe distribution of the specimen, and the combination of 3D-ILC technology and photoelasticity provided a new way to visualize the three-dimensional stress field of brittle materials with internal cracks. Through the secondary development and utilization of ABAQUS finite element analysis software, the internal stress fields of brittle solid materials with horizontal internal cracks were visualized. Accurate characterization of the three-dimensional stress field of brittle solid materials has been a long-term goal pursued by researchers in the field of fracture, and it is also the basis and key to solving many practical engineering problems such as design, safety analysis and evaluation.

The capabilities of mining equipment and technology in China have been improving rapidly in recent years. Correspondingly, in the western part of the country, the mining heights of longwall faces in shallow-buried coal seams have shown an increasing trend, resulting in enhanced mining efficiency. However, the problems associated with the possible failure of the coal wall then increase and remain a serious difficulty, restricting safe and efficient mining operations. In the present study, the 12401 longwall face of the Shangwan Coal Mine, Inner Mongolia, China, with a mining height of 8.8 m, is taken as an example to study the mechanisms underlying failure phenomena of coal walls and their control methods. Our results show that the failure region inward of the longwall face is small in shallow-buried coal seams, and the damage degree of the exposed coal wall is low. The medium and higher sections of the coal wall display a dynamic failure mode, while the broken coal blocks, given their initial speed, threaten the safety of coal miners. A mechanical model was developed, from which the conditions for tensile failure and structural instability are deduced. Horizontal displacement in the lower part of the coal wall is small, where no tensile stress emerges. On the other hand, in the intermediate and higher parts of the coal wall, horizontal displacement is relatively large. In addition, tensile stress increases first with increasing distance from the floor and then decreases to zero. Experiments using physical models representing different mining heights have been carried out and showed that the horizontal displacement increases from 6 to 12 mm and load-bearing capacity decreases from 20 to 7.9 kN when the coal wall increases in height from 3 to 9 m. Furthermore, failure depth and failure height show an increasing trend. It is therefore proposed that a large initial support force, large maximum support force, large support stiffness, and large support height of a coal wall-protecting guard are required for the improved stability of high coal walls, which operate well in the Shangwan coal mine.

BackgroundFunctional imaging especially the SPECT bone scintigraphy has been accepted as the effective clinical tool for diagnosis, treatment, evaluation, and prevention of various diseases including metastasis. However, SPECT imaging is brightly characterized by poor resolution, low signal-to-noise ratio, as well as the high sensitivity and low specificity because of the visually similar characteristics of lesions between diseases on imaging findings.MethodsFocusing on the automated diagnosis of diseases with whole-body SPECT scintigraphic images, in this work, a self-defined convolutional neural network is developed to survey the presence or absence of diseases of concern. The data preprocessing mainly including data augmentation is first conducted to cope with the problem of limited samples of SPECT images by applying the geometric transformation operations and generative adversarial network techniques on the original SPECT imaging data. An end-to-end deep SPECT image classification network named dSPIC is developed to extract the optimal features from images and then to classify these images into classes, including metastasis, arthritis, and normal, where there may be multiple diseases existing in a single image.ResultsA group of real-world data of whole-body SPECT images is used to evaluate the self-defined network, obtaining a best (worst) value of 0.7747 (0.6910), 0.7883 (0.7407), 0.7863 (0.6956), 0.8820 (0.8273) and 0.7860 (0.7230) for accuracy, precision, sensitivity, specificity, and F-1 score, respectively, on the testing samples from the original and augmented datasets.ConclusionsThe prominent classification performance in contrast to other related deep classifiers including the classical AlexNet network demonstrates that the built deep network dSPIC is workable and promising for the multi-disease, multi-lesion classification task of whole-body SPECT bone scintigraphy images.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Little is known about the associations between perinatal exposure to maternal smoking and cardiovascular disease (CVD) incidence in offspring, and whether such associations are modified by adulthood and genetically determined smoking behaviors. METHODS: A total of 414,588 participants without CVD at baseline were included from the UK Biobank in 2006–2010 and followed up through 2018. Cox-proportional hazard models were used to examine the association of perinatal maternal smoking with CVD, and both multiplicative and additive interaction analyses were performed to investigate the modification effects of own smoking behaviors. RESULTS: During a median follow-up of 8.93 years, we observed 10,860 incident CVD events, including 7006 myocardial infarction (MI) and 4147 stroke. We found that perinatal exposure to maternal smoking was associated with increased risks of CVD (HR: 1.10; 95% CI: 1.05–1.14), MI (1.10; 1.05–1.16) and stroke (1.10; 1.03–1.18). In addition, we observed significant interactions between perinatal exposure to maternal smoking and adulthood exposure to own smoking on CVD and MI on both the multiplicative and additive scales (all p

The heterogeneous cloud radio access network (H-CRAN) is considered a promising solution to expand the coverage and capacity required by fifth-generation (5G) networks. UAV, also known as wireless aerial platforms, can be employed to improve both the network coverage and capacity. In this paper, we integrate small drone cells into a H-CRAN. However, new complications and challenges, including 3D drone deployment, user association, admission control, and power allocation, emerge. In order to address these issues, we formulate the problem by maximizing the network throughput through jointly optimizing UAV 3D positions, user association, admission control, and power allocation in H-CRAN networks. However, the formulated problem is a mixed integer nonlinear problem (MINLP), which is NP-hard. In this regard, we propose an algorithm that combines the genetic convex optimization algorithm (GCOA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) approach to obtain an accurate solution. Simulation results validate the feasibility of our proposed algorithm, and it outperforms the traditional genetic and K-means algorithms.

The application of 3D printing in planning endoscopic endonasal transsphenoidal surgery is illustrated based on the analysis of patients with intracranial skull base diseases who received treatment in our department. Cranial computed tomography/magnetic resonance imaging data are attained preoperatively, and three-dimensional reconstruction is performed using MIMICS (Materialise, Leuven, Belgium). Models of intracranial skull base diseases are printed using a 3D printer before surgery. The models clearly demonstrate the morphologies of the intracranial skull base diseases and the spatial relationship with adjacent large vessels and bones. The printing time of each model is 12.52–15.32 h, and the cost ranges from 900 to 1500 RMB. The operative approach was planned in vitro, and patients recovered postoperatively well without severe complications or death. In a questionnaire about the application of 3D printing, experienced neurosurgeons achieved scores of 7.8–8.8 out of 10, while unexperienced neurosurgeons achieved scores of 9.2–9.8. Resection of intracranial skull base lesions is demonstrated to be well assisted by 3D printing technique, which has great potential in disclosing adjacent anatomical relationships and providing the required help to clinical doctors in preoperative planning.

This paper studies voucher sale as an operational method to raise working capital for a supply chain, which consists of a supplier and a capital-constrained retailer. The retailer takes advantage of an online platform to sell vouchers and to get access to borrowing from a bank. By formulating a Stackelberg game model, we show the retailer’s possible order quantities in the cases without and with bank loan and analyze the impact of voucher sale on the retailer’s optimal choice of order quantity and the supplier’s optimal wholesale price. We find that a smaller voucher’s price induces the retailer to be more likely to order with loan from a bank while a larger voucher’s value induces an order quantity with the loan more difficult to be repaid. In addition, if voucher’s price is large, the supplier decides a wholesale price which leads the retailer not to borrow from a bank; and if voucher’s price is small, the supplier’s optimal decision is obtained by anticipating the retailer to borrow from a bank. We also analyze the impact of voucher sale in the presence of trade credit financing on the firms’ decisions. The results show that the voucher’s price should be small so that the large; otherwise, the retailer either does not borrow from the supplier or may not repay the supplier. Besides, the supplier decides a wholesale price so that the retailer does not borrow or can repay the supplier, except that the voucher’s value is large and the voucher’s price is medium.

This study examined the relationship between the level of logistics service quality, relationship quality, and repurchase intention in the e-retail sector of Pakistan. Logistics service quality LSQ was integrated into the step-by-step purchasing process including pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase factors. This research is unique from existing research work as it validated a holistic model by examining the role of customer’s perception of LSQ in strengthening their RQ and subsequent purchase intentions in the e-retail logistics sector of Pakistan and draw important suggestions to enhance the competitiveness of logistics services of domestic e-retail logistic firms. A survey strategy using self-administered questionnaires was employed from customers of departmental stores, large discount stores, shopping malls & retail outlets. A total of n=241 based on a cluster of conventional retail consumers across Pakistan was drawn. The study results provide a quality framework for the management of logistics service providers working in Pakistan's e-retail industry to evaluate the strengths and limitations of their service provision and then identify areas where improvements might be needed.

Background: Social media has gained significant popularity over the last decade. We now have the opportunity to digitally enhance our physical appearance using a variety of applications in the palm...

Machine learning assisted diagnosis of acromegaly from facial photographs has been proved feasible in recent years. According to our previous research, facial and limb changes exist in patients with acromegaly at early stage. We aimed to facilitate the process of early self-screening for acromegaly from hand photographs by using a deep-learning approach. In this study, a dataset containing hand photographs of 635 acromegaly patients and 192 normal people were used to train a Deep Convolution Neural Network (DCNN). We augmented these images with tailed raw data. The prediction is performed in an end-to-end paradigm without manual pre-processing, from the input photograph to the final prediction. The trained models were evaluated on a separate dataset to validate the effectiveness. Different kinds of advanced DCNN architecture were explored in this novel task and they showed significant performance compared with the results from human doctors specialized in pituitary adenoma. We further used heat-map to provide visual explanations to illustrate how the DCNN diagnosed the acromegaly. The final result of our experiment showed a sensitivity of 0.983, a specificity of 0.920, a PPV of 0.966, a NPV of 0.958 and a F1-score of 0.974. In our method, the sensitivity was higher than doctors' predictions, which indicates that our method could effectively help people detect acromegaly by themselves. Furthermore, our algorithm paid more attention to fingers and joints on which human doctors focused. This is the first study to investigate whether it is possible to detect acromegaly by machine learning from hand photographs and compare the result with human doctors specialized in pituitary adenoma. This study provided an easy-to-use tool for early self-screening of acromegaly for people without medical knowledge, so that acromegaly patients can get more timely treatment.

The innovation ecosystem advocates both enterprise value and social value. How to make the most beneficial decisions to promote the development of enterprise and system while fulfilling social responsibilities? From the perspective of the paradox of social responsibility, a differential game model of innovation research and development among enterprises in the innovation ecosystem is constructed. The paper analyses the impact of multiple factors on innovation ability and revenue. Including: the subsidy from government, the cost of enterprise and additional benefits from social effect. The conclusions are as follows:(1) Moderate implementation of social responsibility can improve the technical level, social effect and income of innovation system. To achieve the goal of symbiotic evolution of innovation ecosystem, it is recommended that the proportion of core corporate earnings should be higher than one third. (2)For the government, moderate subsidies are very helpful to improve the enthusiasm of technological innovation and social responsibility practice of enterprises. Moreover, the influence on the supporting enterprises (which is in the weak position) is more significant. But the rate needs to be kept within the range of (0, 2/3). Otherwise it will encourage “free rider” behavior and cause the system to evolve into a parasitic imbalance; (3) The social effect is a positive circular effect. It will increase overall revenue with RD(4) In the symbiotic innovation ecosystem, the profit ratio of core enterprises decreases, but the overall profit value increases.

Solar water splitting for hydrogen production using semiconductors is widely accepted as one of the most promising routes to relieve the energy crisis and environmental issues caused by the excessi...

In high power laser facility, irreversible damage on fused silica optics, induced by laser irradiation or processing, seriously affects the service life of optics. Therefore, the work of inhibiting damage growth has been carried out in various countries. In our work, an integrated multi-station system is designed to detect and mitigate surface damage on fused silica. The process of processing fused silica optics include UV laser conditioning, surface damage detection and surface damage mitigation with CO2 laser. UV laser conditioning pre-initiates surface damage on fused silica optics with the laser flux less than Laser-Induced Damage Threshold (LIDT). Images of surface damage acquired from camera are processed by improved global threshold segmentation algorithm to extract damage information. Finally, CO2 laser is applied to process the damage with specific morphology to enhance the laser damage resistance. This integrated multi-station system saves the repeated optics installation time between the workstations with the positioning accuracy of 20 μm. Furthermore, the damage with diameter of 10 μm is mitigated to prolong service life of processed fused silica optics. The efficient and accurate integrated multi-station system is of great significance for off-line detecting and mitigating surface damage of fused silica optics in high power laser facility.

Background The Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative is generally considered an effective way to promote breastfeeding. Although China has the largest number of baby-friendly hospitals in the world, research on baby-friendly practices in China is limited, and the rate of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) at 6 months, 20.7%, compared to the 2025 global goal of 50% is low. It is, therefore, important to determine the factors that remain significant barriers to EBF in China. To explore how the key baby-friendly practices affect EBF duration in China, we used a case-control study to compare the effects of baby-friendly-related practices on both EBF and non-breastfeeding (NBF) mothers at 3 months and to investigate the effects of both single and comprehensive baby-friendly practices in promoting EBF duration at 3 months, which is one step toward EBF at 6 months. Methods Participants were recruited from four maternal and child health hospitals in western (Chongqing), eastern (Qingdao), southern (Liuzhou), and central China (Maanshan). A total of 421 mothers (245 in the EBF group, 176 in the NBF group) of infants aged 3 months were surveyed through a self-reported questionnaire from April 2018 to March 2019. The experience of baby-friendly practices and breastfeeding during hospitalization were assessed with yes/no questions. Socio-demographic factors that influenced breastfeeding at 3 months were analyzed using bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. Results Of mothers in the EBF group, 65.57% reported engaging in at least seven baby-friendly practices compared to 47.72% of mothers in the NBF group. Significantly more mothers in the EBF group engaged in baby-friendly practices than in the NBF group. These practices included “breastfeeding within one hour after birth” (74.29% vs. 59.09%), “breastfeeding on demand” (86.48% vs. 75.00%), and “never use a pacifier” (46.53% vs. 31.25%). After adjusting for confounding variables, we found that the mothers who engaged in fewer than seven baby-friendly practices were about 1.7 times less likely to breastfeed than were those who engaged in seven or more baby-friendly practices (odds ratio [OR] 1.720, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.106, 2.667). Further, the mothers who did not breastfeed on demand were as likely to not breastfeed up to 3 months (OR 2.263, 95% CI 1.265, 4.049), as were mothers who did not breastfeed during hospitalization (OR 4.379, 95% CI 1.815, 10.563). Conclusions These data from hospitals in China suggest that higher compliance with baby-friendly practices may have a positive impact on EBF at 3 months, particularly in terms of promoting the implementation of breastfeeding on demand and breastfeeding during hospitalization in China.

Rhinoplasty is known to increase attractiveness; however, the influence of observer age and gender are largely undetermined. This retrospective cross-sectional study included 20 women who underwent cosmetic rhinoplasty between January 1st, 2012, and December 31st, 2019. A total of 4 surveys were constructed with 10 sets of photographs each (5 preoperative and 5 postoperative). Surveys were designed such that photographs of the same patient were not placed in the same survey to avoid recall bias. Each of these surveys were then sent to at least 30 lay people via a web-based survey tool. Anonymous blinded respondents used a 7-point Likert scale to rate their perception of each patient’s aggressiveness, likeability, sociability, trustworthiness, attractiveness, femininity, intelligence and confidence. A multivariate linear mixed effect model was applied to analyze the overall patient trait data as well as to assess age and gender differences. This survey study included photographs of 20 women (mean age, 28.2 years) before and after cosmetic rhinoplasty. A total of 174 respondents (mean age range, 25–34 years [41%]; 108 [62%] were female) completed the survey. Overall, postoperative photographs were perceived as significantly more sociable (0.13; 95% CI, 0.01–0.25), attractive (0.21; 95% CI, 0.09–0.34), feminine (0.18; 95% CI, 0.05–0.30), and confident (0.15; 95% CI, 0.02–0.27). When analyzed by sex, men rated women as less aggressive (−0.42, 95% CI, −0.65,−0.17) and more likeable (+0.45, 95% CI, 0.21–0.69), sociable (+0.38, 95% CI, 0.14–0.62), trustworthy (+0.37, 95% CI, 0.13–0.61), attractive (+0.60, 95% CI, 0.35–0.84), feminine (+0.23, 95% CI, 0.07–0.41) and intelligent (+0.29, 95% CI, 0.04–0.53). In contrast, female respondents indicated an increase in perceived attractiveness (+0.16, 95% CI, 0.06–0.22) and femininity (+0.18, 95% CI, 0.03–0.32) for women after rhinoplasty. Raters aged 25–34 indicated improvements across all traits analyzed. Almost all age ranges rated post-operative photographs as more attractive (18–24: +0.32, 95% CI, 0.19–0.46; 25–34: +0.52, 95% CI, 0.33–0.72; 35–44: +0.29, 95% CI, 0.12–0.51; 45–54: +0.50, 95% CI, 0.11–0.89) while individuals over age 55 only indicated increased trustworthiness (+0.51, 95% CI, 0.03–0.99). These findings suggest that cosmetic rhinoplasty improves perceptions of personality and physical traits of women with males and individuals aged 25–34 indicating the greatest benefit. Level IV.

Aquaporin-4 (AQP4) is a major water channel of the central nervous system. The present study was designed to determine whether AQP4 deletion could ameliorate enterovirus (EV) 71 infection‑induced hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) by inhibiting inflammation and apoptosis in mice. EV 71 strains were injected into neonatal BALB/c mice to induce HFMD. Western blotting and ELISA were used to measure the protein expression and cytokine levels. The levels of AQP4 mRNA and protein in the brain were increased in EV 71‑infected mice, while the survival rate and health score were improved in AQP4‑knockout (KO) mice with EV 71 infection. The EV 71 infection‑induced increases of tumor necrosis factor‑α, interleukin (IL)‑1β, IL‑6, monocyte chemotactic protein‑1, interferon (IFN)‑α and IFN‑γ in plasma and brain were inhibited in AQP4‑KO mice. AQP4 deletion reversed the decreased levels of Bcl2 and Bcl2/Bax, and the increased levels of Bax induced by EV 71 infection in the brain. These results demonstrated that AQP4 deletion ameliorated EV 71 induced‑HFMD via inhibiting inflammation and apoptosis in mice.

The realization of high-efficiency carrier separation is of great meaning and challenge, which is crucial to boost the photocatalytic activity. Herein, we tackle this bottleneck by fabricating a {110}/{001} facet junction to effectively facilitate the separation of charge carriers. In this study, two different BiOCl nanoplates (BiOCl-H1 and BiOCl-H2) with coexposed {110} and {001} facets were synthesized under different pH conditions. The ratio of these facets could be adjusted by the pH value of the precursor. It was discovered that the photocatalytic performance of the obtained sample for pollutant removal is dependent on the facet ratio of these facets. Theoretical calculation results show the difference in the electronic structure and staggered alignment of these facets, thus endowing BiOCl with the possibility to fabricate a facet junction. Based on our logical analyses, the Z-scheme charge-transfer mechanism was accordingly put forward. Our work opens a new avenue for the construction of a Z-scheme facet heterojunction to enhance charge separation.

Background Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a global pandemic, affecting millions of people. However, clinical research on its neurological manifestations is thus far limited. In this study, we aimed to systematically collect and investigate the clinical manifestations and evidence of neurological involvement in COVID-19. Methods Three medical (Medline, Embase, and Scopus) and two preprints (BioRxiv and MedRxiv) databases were systematically searched for all published articles on neurological involvement in COVID-19 since the outbreak. All included studies were systematically reviewed, and selected clinical data were collected for meta-analysis via random-effects. Results A total of 41 articles were eligible and included in this review, showing a wide spectrum of neurological manifestations in COVID-19. The meta-analysis for unspecific neurological symptoms revealed that the most common manifestations were fatigue (33.2% [23.1–43.3]), anorexia (30.0% [23.2–36.9]), dyspnea/shortness of breath (26.9% [19.2–34.6]), and malaise (26.7% [13.3–40.1]). The common specific neurological symptoms included olfactory (35.7–85.6%) and gustatory (33.3–88.8%) disorders, especially in mild cases. Guillain–Barré syndrome and acute inflammation of the brain, spinal cord, and meninges were repeatedly reported after COVID-19. Laboratory, electrophysiological, radiological, and pathological evidence supported neurologic involvement of COVID-19. Conclusions Neurological manifestations are various and prevalent in COVID-19. Emerging clinical evidence suggests neurological involvement is an important aspect of the disease. The underlying mechanisms can include both direct invasion and maladaptive inflammatory responses. More studies should be conducted to explore the role of neurological manifestations in COVID-19 progression and to verify their underlying mechanisms. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s00415-020-09974-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background and aim A novel coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) caused pneumonia, Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), broke out in Wuhan, China in December 2019, and spread all over the world. Patients with COVID-19 showed huge differences in the hospital stay, progression, and prognosis. As reported, the comorbidities may play an important role in COVID-19. Here, we aim to address the role of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the progression and prognosis of COVID-19. Methods and results Eighty-three confirmed COVID-19 patients were divided into CVD (n = 42) and non-CVD (n = 41) group according to their medical history. Medical records including demographic data, medical history, clinical characteristics, laboratory examinations, chest computed tomography (CT), and treatment measures were collected, analyzed, and compared between the two groups. COVID-19 patients with CVD showed (1) more severe pathological changes in the lungs, (2) elevated injury-related enzymes including α-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase (HDBH), lactic dehydrogenase (LDH), γ-glutamyltransferase (GGT), creatine kinase (CK), and alanine aminotransferase (ALT), (3) significantly increased uncontrolled inflammation related markers, such as c-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin (IL)-6, serum ferritin, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and serum amyloid A (SAA), (4) serious hypercoagulable status reflected by increased D-dimer and serum fibrinogen (FIB), and (5) higher mortality, compared to COVID-19 patients without CVD. Conclusions Our data indicated that CVD is a strong risk factor for rapid progression and bad prognosis of COVID-19. More intensive medical care should be applied to patients with CVD to prevent rapid deterioration of the disease.

The 2nd annual Health Equity Summer Research Summit organized by the Center of Excellence (COE) in Health Equity, Training and Research, Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), was a forum to catalyze the fertilization and exchange of cutting-edge ideas in the area of disparity research in medicine. The summit fosters understanding of current health equity research, training, clinical care, and outreach initiatives, in addition to offering an opportunity for connecting with allies and partners working in the field of health equity and health disparities. The summit provides opportunities for our COE Scholars (undergraduate/post-baccalaureate students and Baylor medical students, clinical fellows and junior faculty) to showcase their research findings which are reflective of their past year's endeavor as scholars at the center. Abstracts in this Book of Abstracts represent a summary of these research efforts. With this summit, BCM continues to build on its long history of educational outreach initiatives to promote diversity in medicine by focusing on programs aimed at increasing the number of diverse and highly qualified medical professionals ready to introduce effective and innovative approaches to reduce or eliminate health disparities. These programs will improve information resources, clinical education, curricula, research and cultural competence as they relate to minority health issues and social determinants of health.

In recent years, correlation filter based trackers have seen widespread success because of their high efficiency and robustness. However, a single feature based tracker cannot deal with complex scenes such as serious occlusion, motion blur and illumination variation. In this paper, we develop a novel tracking method combining color feature, Hog feature and motion feature. The motion feature is estimated between adjacent frames by large displacement optical flow. Besides, in order to cope with boundary effect existing in traditional correlation filter based trackers, an adaptive cosine window is introduced in our method, which can highlight the target region, suppress the background region and enlarge search region. Meanwhile, a novel judge scheme combining Hog correlation response and color response is adopted to evaluate the reliability of tracking result. Finally, inverse sparse representation is presented to locate coarse positions of target in case of tracking failures. Extensive experiments on five famous tracking benchmarks including OTB100, TColor-128, UAVDT, UAV123 and VOT2016 demonstrate our proposed method outperform other sate-of-the-art methods in terms of robustness and accuracy.

An enduring challenge of soaring market complexity has significant impact on global manufacturing firms. The purpose of this paper is to explore a product modularity-based routine that enables global manufacturing firms to leverage product innovation, particularly in an open challenging environment through the collaborative innovation network. Based on an analysis of the effects of product modularity on collaborative innovation, this paper develops a collaborative innovation network model featuring customer-driven, module as innovation carrier and sustainability, in which the modular product architecture (MPA) plays a role in linking customers, the core firm, and heterogeneous external partners. Next, two kinds of generic partnership management mechanisms are designed. Results in conjunction with an explorative case study show that the positive impact of product modularity on collaborative innovation is verified, which not only facilitates interactions among participants in the collaborative innovation network, but also provides an effective way for the global manufacturing firm to manage external partners.

An aerobic, gram-negative-staining, motile and rod-shaped bacterium, designated strain 3-BNT, was isolated from sewage sediment collected from Baiyangdian, located in Xiongan New Area of China. This heterotrophic bacterium grows on glucose, yeast extract and a limited range of defined organic acids including lactic and propionic acids. The major isoprenoid quinone is ubiquinone Q-8. Major polar lipids are phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylglycerol (PG), diphosphatidyl glycerol (DPG) and three unidentified glycolipids. The major fatty acids are C16:0 (30.9%), C18:1ω7c (18.3%), C17:0 cyclo (16.1%) and C14:0 (7.9%). Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences revealed that strain 3-BNT belongs to the family Burkholderiaceae, and its closest phylogenetic neighbors are members of the genera Burkholderia and Caballeronia. However, strain 3-BNT did not make a coherent clade with members of the currently recognized genera. Based on phylogenetic and chemotaxonomic characteristics of this bacterium, a novel genus and species, Caenibaculum baiyandianus gen. nov., sp. nov., is proposed. The type strain is 3-BNT (=ACCC 60082T=KCTC 62431T).

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to focus on the influences of dynamic capability on breakthrough innovation and explores the essential mechanisms related to such influence. The impact of breakthrough innovation on organizational performance is also examined in conjunction with the manufacturing industry samples in China. Design/methodology/approach This paper follows an empirical design. Data are collected from a survey administered to manufacturing samples in China. Regression analysis is used to test the hypothesis. Findings Results show that the positive impact of breakthrough innovation on organization performance is verified. Technological breakthrough innovation affects both the organization’s financial performance and growth performance in a linear and positive way, while market breakthrough innovation affects organization performance positively with marginal increments. Research limitations/implications This paper uses data of manufacturing industry of China, hence, an extended survey in depth and width is worthy of future investigation. In addition, more unique predisposing factors on breakthrough innovation should be considered in the context of China. Practical implications The research enriches the understanding of how the dynamic capability affects the enterprise’s breakthrough innovation, which helps entrepreneurs understand how to strategize to build dynamic capability during breakthrough innovation decisions and implementations. Originality/value Dynamic capability is uniquely viewed as a multi-dimensional concept from a perspective of modularity, while breakthrough innovation is composed of two constructs. It not only enriches the understanding of how dynamic capability affects breakthrough innovation but also discovers the non-linear impact of breakthrough innovation on enterprise’s organizational performance in the context of China’s manufacturing industry.

The construction of the urban ecological network has a comprehensive effect on urban aesthetics, society and economy, and provides the driving force for urban sustainable development. However, we found few studies on constructing and optimizing urban ecological networks in cities with the highest human density. In this paper, landscape pattern indexes were applied to analyze the landscape characteristics and morphological pattern analysis (MSPA) to identify the ecological source, the landscape connectivity and the region attributes revised the ecological resistance surface, and urban ecological network was constructed by MCR model. The results show that: (1) many ecological land types mainly distributed in the tributaries of the Yangtze River, while only forest land and water areas occupied in the northwest are. (2) Compared with 1995 and 2005, the number of ecological corridors in 2015 was decreasing. Although the ecological connectivity was improved, which of the Yangtze River was limited. (3) The coordinated development and the ecological protection ecological network optimization plan would promote the connectivity of the urban ecological functioning stability. This study provides recommendations for the optimization of the urban ecological network, which are of great significance for protecting biodiversity, improving ecosystem functions, and maintaining the regional ecological security pattern.

PURPOSE A self-defined convolutional neural network is developed to automatically classify whole-body scintigraphic images of concern (i.e., the normal, metastasis, arthritis, and thyroid carcinoma), automatically detecting diseases with whole-body bone scintigraphy. METHODS A set of parameter transformation operations are first used to augment the original dataset of whole-body bone scintigraphic images. A hybrid attention mechanism including the spatial and channel attention module is then introduced to develop a deep classification network, Dscint, which consists of eight weight layers, one hybrid attention module, two normalization modules, two fully connected layers, and one softmax layer. RESULTS Experimental evaluations conducted on a set of whole-body scintigraphic images show that the proposed deep classification network, Dscint, performs well for automated detection of diseases by classifying the images of concerns, achieving the accuracy, precision, recall, specificity, and F-1 score of 0.9801, 0.9795, 0.9791, 0.9933, and 0.9792, respectively, on the test data in the augmented dataset. A comparative analysis of Dscint and several classical deep classification networks (i.e., AlexNet, ResNet, VGGNet, DenseNet, and Inception-v4) reveals that our self-defined network, Dscint, performs best on classifying whole-body scintigraphic images on the same dataset. CONCLUSIONS The self-defined deep classification network, Dscint, can be utilized to automatically determine whether a whole-body scintigraphic image is either normal or contains diseases of concern. Specifically, better performance of Dscint is obtained on images with lesions that are present in relatively fixed locations like thyroid carcinoma than those with lesions occurring in nonfixed locations of bone tissue.

Background: A growing number of evidences suggest that TMZ applications can generate impressive benefits for APT and PC patients. However, the definite role of TMZ for individuals remains unclarified due to the variation between studies. And the predictive factors to alter its efficacy remain debatable.Objective: To evaluate the long-term effectiveness and safety profile of TMZ in the treatment of pituitary malignancies, and delineate the predictors during its clinical employment.Results: A literature retrieval was conducted from online databases for studies published up to December 31, 2020. Twenty one studies involving 429 patients were identified. TMZ exhibited 41% radiological overall response rate (rORR). The biochemical response rate was determinate in 53% of the functioning subset. Two-year and 4-year survival rate were 79 and 61%, respectively. TMZ prolonged the median PFS and OS as 20.18 and 40.24 months. TMZ-related adverse events occurred in 19% of patients. Regarding predictors of TMZ response, rORR was dramatically improved in patients with low/intermediate MGMT expression than those with high-MGMT (>50%) (p < 0.001). The benefit of TMZ varied according to functioning subtype of patients, with greater antitumor activities in functioning subgroups and fewer activities in non-functioning sets (p < 0.001). Notably, the concomitant therapy of radiotherapy and TMZ significantly increased the rORR (p = 0.007).Conclusion: TMZ elicits clinical benefits with moderate adverse events in APT and PC patients. MGMT expression and clinical subtype of secreting function might be vital predictors of TMZ efficacy. In the future, the combination of radiotherapy with TMZ may further improve the clinical outcomes than TMZ monotherapy.

INTRODUCTION Global estimates suggest 2.6 million stillbirths and 2.5 million neonatal deaths occur annually worldwide. The majority of these deaths occur in low resource settings where analysis of health metrics and outcomes measurements may be challenging. We examined the misclassification of documented intrapartum stillbirth and factors associated with misclassification. MATERIAL AND METHODS A prospective observational study was performed in 12 public hospitals in Nepal. Data were extracted from the medical records of all births that occurred during the 6-month period of the study. For the study purpose, we classified birth outcome based on the presence of fetal heart sound (FHS) at admission and use of neonatal resuscitation. The health worker-documented intrapartum stillbirths were considered potentially misclassified when there were FHS present at admission and no resuscitation initiated after birth. The association between potentially misclassified intrapartum stillbirth and complications during labor, birthweight and gestational age was assessed using Pearson's chi-square test, bivariate and multivariate logistic regression. RESULTS A total of 39 562 mother-infant dyads were enrolled in the study, all of whom had FHS at admission. Among the 391 intrapartum stillbirths recorded during the study, 180 (46.0%) of them had FHS at admission with no resuscitation initiated after birth and were considered potentially misclassified intrapartum stillbirths. Among these potentially misclassified intrapartum stillbirths, 170 (43.5%) had FHS present 15 minutes before birth and 10 had no FHS 15 minutes before birth Among the potentially misclassified intrapartum stillbirths, 23.3% had complications during labor, 93.3% had birthweight less than 2500 g and 90.0% were born preterm. The risk of intrapartum misclassification was nearly four times higher among low birthweight babies (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 3.5, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.8 to 7.0, P

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which firms in the Sri Lankan apparel industry practice supply-chain-resilience (SCRes) capabilities and examine whether SCRes practices affect the performance and competitive advantage of those firms.Design/methodology/approachUses a conceptual framework to assess SCRes capabilities and to investigate their impact on firm performance and competitive advantage. Uses partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to quantitatively analyze questionnaire data collected from 89 Sri Lankan apparel manufacturers.FindingsIn the presence of SCRes capabilities in the apparel industry, this study finds that supply-chain risk-management culture positively affects SCRes capabilities, namely re-engineering, agility and collaboration. Agility shows the greatest influence on firm performance and competitive advantage.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is limited to the apparel industry sector (a manufacturing sector) in Sri Lanka to maintain the uniformity of the research constructs.Practical implicationsResults imply that management should pay more attention to enhancing SCRMC and prioritizing their SCRes capabilities.Originality/valueThis study is the first to assess SCRes capabilities in the apparel-manufacturing sector and examine the impact of SCRes capabilities on firm performance and competitive advantage.

Background The objectives of this study were to examine nutrient intakes of tuberculosis (TB) patients and to identify their associated factors. Methods In this cross-sectional study, 300 adult TB patients were surveyed in two impoverished counties in China. Nutrient intakes were evaluated through two consecutive 24-h dietary recalls and compared with the Chinese Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) 2013. The potential socio-demographic and behavioral factors were analyzed using multivariate logistic model to identify strong influential factors. Results We found that mean daily energy intake was 1655.0 kcal (SD: 619.3 kcal) and 1360.3 kcal (SD: 552.1 kcal) for male and female patients, respectively. The mean daily energy intake was significantly lower than that has been recommended by DRI (i.e., 2250 and 1800 kcal for males and females, respectively), with 87.4% of the male patients and 59.9% of female patients failed to consume adequate energy. The protein intakes were 44.6 g (SD: 18.2 g) and 35.9 g (SD: 12.3 g) for male and female patients, respectively, which were lower than the recommended values by DRI (i.e., 65 and 55 g for males and females, respectively). Most male (90.8%) and female (58.4%) TB patients had insufficient daily protein intake. Further analyses suggested that mean daily intakes of many micronutrients, were insufficient, while for most of patients, intakes of vitamin E and sodium were sufficient. We identified that unemployment was a risk factor for low energy intake (p p Conclusions In impoverished areas in China, intakes of macronutrients and most micronutrients in TB patients were inadequate compared with DRIs, especially for unemployed patients and patients eating at home. These findings suggested that public health actions are needed to promote education on TB patients about significance of nutritional support, and, further interventions in TB patients’ nutritional intakes are also required.

Alzheimer’s disease is the world’s most common dementing illness. It is pathologically characterized by β-amyloid accumulation, extracellular senile plaques and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles formation, and neuronal necrosis and apoptosis. Neuroinflammation has been widely recognized as a crucial process that participates in AD pathogenesis. In this review, we briefly summarized the involvement of microglia in the neuroinflammatory process of Alzheimer’s disease. Its roles in the AD onset and progression are also discussed. Numerous molecules, including interleukins, tumor necrosis factor alpha, chemokines, inflammasomes, participate in the complex process of AD-related neuroinflammation and they are selectively discussed in this review. In the end of this paper from an inflammation- related perspective, we discussed some potential therapeutic choices.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES It is clinically essential, but sometimes challenging, to distinguish pituitary tissue from pituitary adenomas (PAs). It is helpful to avoid damage of pituitary tissue during management. We evaluated the ability of 13N-ammonia positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) to locate and distinguish pituitary tissue from PAs. MATERIALS AND METHODS Forty-eight patients (four with prolactinoma, 10 with Cushing's disease, 12 with acromegaly, and 22 with nonfunctional PAs) prospectively underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), 13N-ammonia PET/CT, 18F-FDG PET/CT, prior to surgery. RESULTS Pituitary position could be determined in 31 (64.5%) patients by 13N-ammonia PET/CT, and by MRI in 26 (54.2%) patients. It was detected by 13N-ammonia PET/CT and MRI in eight of eight patients (100%) with pituitary microadenoma, tumor maximum diameter (TMD)

Background: This study aimed to compare the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Zung Self-Rating Anxiety/Depression Scale (SAS/SDS) in evaluating anxiety and depression in psoriatic arthritis (PsA) patients. Methods: A total of 70 PsA patients were enrolled. Demographic and clinical characteristics were collected after enrollment. HADS-A and SAS were used to evaluate the anxiety of PsA patients, while HADS-D and SDS were used to evaluate the depression of PsA patients. Results: Similar results were observed in detecting the rate of anxiety by HADS-A and SAS (27.1 vs. 21.4%, p = 0.424), and there was no difference in classifying the severity of anxiety by HADS-A and SAS (p = 0.347). The Spearman test also disclosed that HADS-A score was positively associated with SAS score (p <0.001). The rates of depression were similar by HADS-D and SDS (27.1 vs. 40.0%; p = 0.108). However, different results were observed in grading the severity of anxiety by HADS-D and SDS (p = 0.009), and no correlation was observed between HADS-D and SDS scores (p = 0.138). The consumption of time for HADS assessment was shorter than that for SAS/SDS assessment (p < 0.001). In addition, a positive correlation of HADS-A score with patients’ global assessment (PGA) (p = 0.022) and fatigue scores (p = 0.028) was discovered, and HADS-D score was positively associated with PGA score (p = 0.019). SAS or SDS score presented less correlation with clinical features of PsA patients, which illuminated that only SAS score was positively associated with duration of psoriasis (p = 0.030). Conclusion: HADS seems to be a better option for anxiety and depression assessment than SAS/SDS in PsA patients.

Here, we fabricated a novel photoelectrochemical (PEC) aptasensor based on Br,N-codoped TiO2/CdS quantum dots (QDs) sensitization structure with excellent energy level arrangement for supersensitiv...

Prolactinoma is a common subtype of pituitary tumors. Dopamine receptor agonists are the preferred treatment for prolactinoma; however, with this therapy, drug resistance often occurs. In our previous work, we found that partial resistant prolactinomas showed increased fibrosis and that the transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1/Smad3 signaling pathway mediated fibrosis and was involved in drug resistance. Additionally, the success of surgery is known to be heavily influenced by the consistency of the pituitary adenoma. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to clarify the mechanisms of fibrosis in prolactinoma. Using high-throughput sequencing for analysis of microRNAs, we found that miR-93-5p was significantly upregulated in prolactinoma samples with a high degree of fibrosis compared with that in samples without fibrosis. Furthermore, we found that miR-93-5p was negatively correlated with the relative expression of Smad7 and positively correlated with the relative expression of TGF-β1 in clinical prolactinoma samples. In addition, luciferase reporter assays showed that miR-93-5p could downregulate the Smad7 gene, an important inhibitor of the TGF-β1/Smad3 signaling pathway, and activate TGF-β1/Smad3 signaling-mediated fibrosis in a feed-forward loop. Moreover, miR-93-5p could enhance the drug resistance of prolactinoma cells by regulation of TGF-β1/Smad3-dependent fibrosis. Taken together, our findings demonstrated that miR-93-5p may be a potential therapeutic target for inhibiting fibrosis and reducing drug resistance in prolactinoma cells.

There is a paucity of data on the burden of insurance limitations for patients undergoing patch testing.To characterize the burden of insurance limitations and its impact on differences in management and execution of patch testing.A retrospective chart review was performed on patients with a diagnosis of contact dermatitis (International Classification of Disease [ICD], Ninth Edition, code ICD 692) who received patch testing (Current Procedural Terminology code 95044) at the George Washington Medical Faculty Associates Dermatology Clinic between January 1, 2015 and June 30, 2017. Variables including allergen limitations were compared between government-sponsored insurance and private insurance providers (eg, Insurers A, B, C, and D).A total of 371 records were identified. Government-sponsored insurance patients encountered allergen limitations more frequently than private insurance patients (86.8% vs 14.2%, P.0001). Insurer C and D patients were least likely to encounter allergen limitations (1.2% vs 0%, P.0001) and were tested to the most allergens (mean = 146 vs 152, P.0001). Insurer A patients had the least allergens tested among those privately insured.Considering modification of insurance policies to allow patch testing with a larger number of allergens without restrictions is needed, with the goal of improving quality of life of these patients while saving costs from chronic use of topical corticosteroids.

Recently, convolutional neural network (CNN) model based on correlation filter has achieved great success in object tracking. However, most of these methods relying on correlation filter train many classifiers individually, and fail to cope with significant appearance change of targets and complex challenging environment. In this paper, we propose a robust and fast object tracking method by training only two discriminative classifiers jointly. It poses a Tikhonov regularization on the ridge regression where each tracker tries to correct the other one during tracking. In addition, an online detector is adopted to re-detect objects in case of tracking failures and a target pyramid is builded to estimate the optimal scale of target. Extensive experiments on OTB-2013, OTB-2015 and VOT-2016 demonstrate that our method outperforms other state-of-the-art trackers with fast speed.

At present, the search content and results of common multimedia search engines have gradually failed to meet the personalized search requirements of users. The paper focuses on personalized cloud search engines for multimedia. First, the binary ant colony algorithm is optimized by the cloud model. Then, the binary ant colony algorithm is used to improve the multimedia search engine. Detailedly, a binary directed graph for ant colony traversal is designed in which each ant traverses its own path, and the solution traverses by each ant is integrated to solve the problem. Experiments show that the proposed method effectively improves the query speed of personalized multimedia search engines, reduces redundant information, and improves the user search experience.

This paper investigates the manufacturer’s optimal channel configuration strategy when it provides a pay-on-delivery service directly to consumers through its on-line selling channel. Due to the delivery lead time, we assume that consumers will discount their future utility from the online channel. In particular, the pay-on-delivery service through the direct channel can induce a retailer to lower its price (pricing induction) and/or segment consumers by regulating their valuations of buying products through different channels (consumers segmentation). Furthermore, the firms’ equilibrium strategies are determined by the consumer’s sensitivity to the delivery time, delivery cost and marginal cost of the indirect channel. When selling through an indirect channel is much more costly, the manufacturer’s encroachment on the retail market can achieve Pareto improvement. Compared with the payment scheme of pay-before-delivery, the results show that the manufacturer’s encroachment is more aggressive in the pay-on-delivery scheme. Finally, we extend the pay-on-delivery scheme to different pricing sequences and consider the case in which consumers and the manufacturer have different discount factors.

As a rapid and efficient processing technology, CO2 laser processing has been applied to remove fused silica materials. However, thermal effect caused by CO2 laser would lead to thermal modification layer, thermal deformation and residual stress in processed fused silica optics. To reduce the thermal effect, high power and short pulse CO2 laser is applied to remove the surface material of fused silica. In this work, a model coupling the physical processes of heat transfer and phase transition was established to simulate the complex interaction of CO2 laser with fused silica. Then, the model was applied to investigate the evolutions of temperature distribution and surface morphology involved in the laser ablating and melting processes. The results indicate that with the increase of laser power and decrease of pulse width, positive effect would take place that the radius-depth ratio of ablating area increases and the heat-affected area becomes smaller. For the application of CO2 laser with 0.2 μs pulse width and 800 kW peak power, fused silica material would quickly reach the ablation state. The ablation depth is less than 1 μm, and the thickness of heat-affected area is about 80 nm. It means that the high power and short pulse CO2 laser is equivalent to a hot grinding ball head, which can remove the material rapidly with small heat-affected area on fused silica surface. The simulation results of line scanning processing with CO2 laser were finally compared with the experiment ones, which verified the feasibility of the established model. The suggestions and prospective for improving the model were put forward as well. Keywords: CO2 laser, Fused silica, Heat-affected area, Laser processing

Background: There is a concern for higher rates of wound complications and a potentially increased periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) risk after total hip arthroplasty (THA) with the direct anterior approach (DAA) compared to the posterolateral approach (PLA). Our purpose was to compare PJI risk after THA with the DAA or the PLA and to identify risk factors for PJI after primary THA. Methods: Clinical characteristics of patients treated in our institution with primary DAA or PLA THA between 1/2010 and 12/2015 were retrospectively reviewed. The respective deep PJI rates were calculated. A logistic regression model was constructed to determine a potential difference in the PJI risk between the 2 groups, and risk factors for hip PJI in all patients. Results: During the period studied, there were 1,182 DAA THAs and 18,853 PLA THAs. The PJI rate was 0.25% for the DAA group and 0.31% for the PLA group ( p = 1.0). The DAA was not associated with a significantly increased risk for PJI compared to the PLA. Compared to younger patients, older patients had lower PJI risk; patient discharge to home was also associated with lower PJI risk compared to other discharge disposition; longer length of stay was associated with higher PJI risk compared to shorter length of stay. Conclusion: The DAA is equally safe compared the PLA with respect to PJI risk. Younger age, discharge to facilities other than home and increased length of stay increase the risk for deep PJI after primary THA.

Zhiyong Chen,1,2,* Bin Hu,1,* Yajuan Feng,3 Zongming Wang,1 Xiaobing Jiang,4 Yunjiu Cheng,5 Dongsheng He,1 Dimin Zhu,1 Zheng Xiao,1 Haijun Wang,1 Zhigang Mao1 1Department of Neurosurgery and Pituitary Tumor Center, The First Affiliated Hospital, SunYat-sen University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Neurosurgery, The First Affiliated Hospital, Jinan University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Histology and Embryology, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Neurosurgery, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 5Department of Cardiology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China *These authors contributed equally to this work Purpose: To investigate the incidence and risk factors for early repolarization (ER) in patients with growth hormone (GH)-secreting pituitary adenomas. Methods: From August 2014 to August 2016, patients with GH-secreting pituitary adenomas and non-functioning pituitary adenomas admitted to the First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, were prospectively enrolled. Logistic regression analysis was used to investigate risk factors for ER development. Results: A total of 118 patients with GH-secreting pituitary adenomas (41 with concomitant ER) and 103 patients with non-functioning pituitary adenomas were included. Compared with the non-functioning adenoma group GH and IGF-1 levels, left ventricular mass index (LVMI), and incidence of ER were significantly higher in the GH-secreting pituitary adenoma group (all P