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The increased availability of quantitative historical datasets has provided new research opportunities for multiple disciplines in social science. In this article, we work closely with the constructors of a new dataset, CGED-Q (China Government Employee Database-Qing), that records the career trajectories of over 340,000 government officials in the Qing bureaucracy in China from 1760 to 1912. We use these data to study career mobility from a historical perspective and understand social mobility and inequality. However, existing statistical approaches are inadequate for analyzing career mobility in this historical dataset with its fine-grained attributes and long time span, since they are mostly hypothesis-driven and require substantial effort. We propose CareerLens, an interactive visual analytics system for assisting experts in exploring, understanding, and reasoning from historical career data. With CareerLens, experts examine mobility patterns in three levels-of-detail, namely, the macro-level providing a summary of overall mobility, the meso-level extracting latent group mobility patterns, and the micro-level revealing social relationships of individuals. We demonstrate the effectiveness and usability of CareerLens through two case studies and receive encouraging feedback from follow-up interviews with domain experts.

The atomic force microscope (AFM) is widely used in many fields such as biology, materials, and physics due to its advantages of simple sample preparation, high-resolution topography measurement and wide range of applications. However, the low scanning speed of traditional AFM limits its dynamics process monitoring and other further application. Therefore, the improvement of AFM scanning speed has become more and more important. In this review, the working principle of AFM is first proposed. Then, we introduce the improvements of cantilever, drive mechanism, and control method of the high-speed atomic force microscope (HS-AFM). Finally, we provide the next developments of HS-AFM.

Dynamic ridesharing refers to services that arrange one-time shared rides on short notice. It underpins various real-world intelligent transportation applications such as car-pooling, food delivery and last-mile logistics. A core operation in dynamic ridesharing is the "insertion operator". Given a worker and a feasible route which contains a sequence of origin-destination pairs from previous requests, the insertion operator inserts a new origin-destination pair from a newly arrived request into the current route such that certain objective is optimized. Common optimization objectives include minimizing the \rev{maximum/sum} flow time of all requests and minimizing the total travel time of the worker. Despite its frequent usage, the insertion operator has a time complexity of $O(n^3)$ , where $n$ is the number of all requests assigned to the worker. The cubic running time of insertion fundamentally limits the efficiency of urban-scale dynamic ridesharing based applications. In this paper, we propose a novel partition framework and a dynamic programming based insertion with a time complexity of $O(n^2)$ . We further improve the time efficiency of the insertion operator to $O(n)$ harnessing efficient index structures, such as fenwick tree. Evaluations on two real-world large-scale datasets show that our methods can accelerate insertion by 1.5 to 998.1 times.

In this paper, we uncover a new off-path TCP hijacking attack that can be used to terminate victim TCP connections or inject forged data into victim TCP connections by manipulating the new mixed IPID assignment method, which is widely used in Linux kernel version 4.18 and beyond. Our attack has three steps. First, an off-path attacker can downgrade the IPID assignment for TCP packets from the more secure per-socket-based policy to the less secure hash-based policy, thus building a shared IPID counter that forms a side channel in the victim. Second, the attacker detects the presence of TCP connections by observing the side channel of the shared IPID counter. Third, the attacker infers sequence and acknowledgment numbers of the detected connection by observing the side channel. Consequently, the attacker can completely hijack the connection, e.g., resetting the connection or poisoning the data stream. We evaluate the impacts of our attack in the real world, and we uncover that more than 20% of Alexa top 100k websites are vulnerable to our attack. Our case studies of SSH DoS, manipulating web traffic, and poisoning BGP routing tables show its threat on a wide range of applications. Moreover, we demonstrate that our attack can be further extended to exploit IPv4/IPv6 dual-stack networks on increasing the hash collisions and enlarging vulnerable populations. Finally, we analyze the root cause and develop a new IPID assignment method to defeat this attack. We prototype our defense in Linux 4.18 and confirm its effectiveness in the real world.

Urban-rural integrated development has been widely conducted in China, and plenty of resource consumption and environmental problems have arisen during this process. Meanwhile, the importance of environmental governance has been emphasized in social collaborative governance. Although existing studies have focused on the governance policies on urban and rural development, the residents’ participation willingness toward collaborative governance should not be neglected, especially in environmental governance. Accordingly, this study identified the determinants influencing the participation intention toward the collaborative environmental governance of residents in the Yangtze River Delta Region by a combined theoretical model, which added three decisive predictors from the theory of planned behavior to the norm-activation model. We collected 312 valid questionnaires and employed structural equation modeling for analysis. Results implied that, in order of significance, personal norm, behavioral attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control presented positive influences on behavioral intention. Personal norm was significantly underlain by awareness of consequence and ascription of responsibility, and the significant influence of awareness of consequence on behavioral intention was not demonstrated. This study proposes related managerial implications to improve public participation willingness regarding collaborative environmental governance during urban-rural integrated development processes in the Yangtze River Delta Region.

We have proposed and experimentally demonstrated a four-channel wavelength-tunable in-series DFB laser array with 100-GHz channel spacing. Compared to the in-parallel laser array, the optical combiner is not utilized and the extra power loss induced by the combiner is avoided. A linearly chirped Bragg grating with multiple phase shifts implemented in the laser cavity is utilized to reduce the grating interference among different lasers. Besides, the reflector sections are inserted at two ends to provide grating feedback for two side channels. With the feedback, all the channels work with low threshold currents. The linearly chirped Bragg grating requires precise control of grating phase variation, which is quite difficult for traditional e-beam-lithography-based method. Here we used the reconstruction-equivalent-chirp technique to fabricate the grating, and precise control of the grating phase is achieved. From the experimental results, the laser arrays work with high output power (>10 mW), relative intensity noise near the relaxation oscillation frequency of below -130 dB/Hz, stable single-mode operation, and high-uniform channel spacing. Fast channel switchings (

Gait recognition aims to identify a human through a walking sequence. It is a challenging task in computer vision since monocular camera loses most of the 3D information. Previous works described gait features with the contours of shape or the global geometrical characters of skeleton. So little work is researched on the local patterns of gait skeleton. In this paper, to resist the dress changes and speed changes, a Local Graphical Skeleton Descriptor (LGSD) is proposed to describe both the inner and intra local graphical patterns of a human gait skeleton. The gait features from the same or different identities are paired up and a Pairwise Similarity Network (PSN) is proposed to maximize the similarity of True matched pairs and minimize the similarity of false matched pairs. The contributions of our method are: 1) LGSD is proposed to describe human gait by computing four novel local geometrical patterns of skeleton sequences, which makes use of the intuitive cognition of gait based on the prior knowledge of mankind. 2) PSN is implemented by a two-stream CNN structure to encode the features and train the gait model, which fused two popular gait recognition strategies. 3) The robustness of our method to dress changes and speed changes is proved on the public datasets. We have also achieved some state-of-the-art results on these datasets. The proposed method is examined on three public gait datasets which have RGB or infrared frames for evaluation: the CASIA-B dataset, the NLPR gait database, and the CASIA-C dataset. The performers in these datasets are walking under different views, speeds or dresses. The results are further compared with previous approaches to confirm the effectiveness and the advantages of our method.

SiCN ceramics show large potential in high temperature pressure sensors with excellent stability up to 1000 °C, as it is changeling for the most of the existing pressure sensors to work stably at a temperature above 600 °C. However, bulk SiCN ceramics are not compatible to microelectronic processing and exhibit slow response due to viscoelasticity, it is necessary to propose alternative method to prepare SiCN functional structures. In this work, SiCN piezoresistive thin films are prepared by magnetron sputtering, and the influence of sputtering power on their piezoresistive properties and interfacial strengths are studied. The gauge factors of SiCN films range from 2786 to 4714 at various sputtering powers, which are significantly higher than the range from 46 to 1105 for existing piezoresistive thin films. Upon an optimal sputtering power of 75 W for silicon nitride target, the obtained SiCN sample show the largest gauge factors in a large range from 0.5 to 3.4 MPa. Furthermore, the SiCN thin films present high critical loads up to 36.5 N in scratch tests and indicate strong interfacial adhesion with substrate. This work provides an important reference for developing SiCN-based MEMS pressure sensors.

Global issues pertaining to climate change have necessitated the rapid deployment of new energy sources, such as photovoltaic (PV) generation. In smart grids, accurate forecasting is essential to ensure the reliability and economy of the power system. However, PV generation is severely affected by meteorological factors, which hinders accurate forecasting. Various types of data, such as local measurement data, numerical weather prediction, and satellite images, can reflect meteorological dynamics over different time scales. This paper proposes a novel data-driven forecasting framework based on deep learning, which integrates an advanced U-net and an encoder-decoder architecture to cooperatively process multi-source (time series recording and satellite image) data. The adaption of the neural networks to the data sources and the collaborative learning of both spatial and temporal features boost the model accuracy. The experimental results for 50 real-world PV power stations indicate that the proposed framework features a higher accuracy than that of other baseline models.

Differences in culprit lesion characteristics remain unclear between premenopausal and postmenopausal women with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Optical coherence tomography (OCT) enables high-resolution in vivo identification of plaques. We investigated potential differences in culprit lesions between premenopausal and postmenopausal women with ACS by means of OCT.We included 191 ACS patients who had undergone preinterventional OCT and stratified them into 2 groups according to their menopausal status: premenopausal (n = 97) and postmenopausal (n = 94). The characteristics of culprit lesions were compared between the 2 groups.Multivessel lesions were more commonly noted on angiography in the postmenopausal group than in the premenopausal group (40.21% vs 72.34%; P0.0001). On OCT, the most common type of culprit plaque was the fibrous plaque in the premenopausal group and the lipid plaque in the postmenopausal group. Compared with the premenopausal group, plaque rupture was more common in the postmenopausal group (39.18% vs 55.32%; P = 0.0254); culprit lesions had more vulnerable features, including macrophage accumulation (58.76% vs 87.23%; P0.0001), microchannel (38.14% vs 84.04%; P0.0001), cholesterol crystals (30.93% vs 62.77%; P0.0001), lipid-rich plaque (32.99% vs 58.51%; P0.0001), thin-cap fibroatheroma (3.09% vs 21.28%; P = 0.0001), and calcium (20.62% vs 44.68%; P = 0.0004); maximum lipid arc was larger (121.06 ± 110.99° vs 220.12 ± 115.47°, P0.0001); and lipid length was longer (5.78 ± 5.29 mm vs 12.90 ± 8.97 mm; P 0.0001).Compared with premenopausal women with ACS, postmenopausal women with ACS had more vulnerable culprit lesions. These finding suggest potential optimised lipid-lowering therapy for postmenopausal women with ACS.

Deep-ultraviolet (Deep-UV) micro light-emitting diodes (Micro-LEDs) array greatly benefits various future applications. In this letter, we fabricated Deep-UV Micro-LEDs with different geometries from 10×10 µm2 to 200× 200 µm2, and investigated its application on tristimulus quantum dots converted display. As the Micro-LEDs scaling, the smaller-sized devices provided higher brightness under the same injection current density due to the enhanced current spreading uniformity and heat dissipation. For a 10×10 µm2 device, the maximal optical power density was up to 185 W/cm2 at 5 kA/cm2, and the peak external quantum efficiency reached 3.43 % at 30 A/cm2. The device exhibited a minor blue shift phenomenon as the current density increased. Deep-UV Micro-LED stimulated quantum dots display obtained 121% of the Rec. 2020 standard in the CIE 1931 color space. This ultra-wide color gamut indicated it as a competitive candidate for future display technology.

The shared nature of the wireless medium induces contention between data transport and backward signaling, such as acknowledgment. The current way of TCP acknowledgment induces control overhead which is counter-productive for TCP performance especially in wireless local area network (WLAN) scenarios. In this paper, we present a new acknowledgment called TACK (``Tame ACK''), as well as its TCP implementation TCP-TACK. TACK seeks to minimize ACK frequency, which is exactly what is required by transport. TCP-TACK works on top of commodity WLAN, delivering high wireless transport goodput with minimal control overhead in the form of ACKs, without any hardware modification. Evaluation results show that TCP-TACK achieves significant advantages over legacy TCP in WLAN scenarios due to less contention between data packets and ACKs. Specifically, TCP-TACK reduces over 90% of ACKs and also obtains an improvement of up to 28% on goodput. A TACK-based protocol is a good replacement of the legacy TCP to compensate for scenarios where the acknowledgment overhead is non-negligible.

Carbon black (CB) has been demonstrated to have adverse effects on the lung tissue. Few studies explored the effects of CB on the cerebellum, widely recognized to contribute to gait and balance coordination and timing in the motor domain. Some studies have reported that inflammatory response and damaged autophagy are important mechanisms of CB toxicity and can be repaired after the recovery. The present study aimed to determine whether long-term CB exposure could induce the inflammation and damaged autophagy of the cerebellum. The rats were randomly divided into four groups. The control group received the filtered air for 90 days; the carbon black (CB) group received CB particles for 90 days; the recovery (R) group received CB for 90 days and recovered for another 14 days; the recovery control (RC) group received filtered air for 104 days. The purpose of the R group was to test whether neuroinflammation and autophagy could be repaired after short-term recovery. The western blot and immunohistochemistry revealed that long-term CB exposure induced augmented level of pro-inflammatory cytokines (Interleukin-1β, IL-1β; Interleukin-6, IL-6; and Tumor Necrosis Factor-α, TNF-α) and anti-inflammatory cytokine (Interleukin-10, IL-10). The autophagic markers (Beclin1 and LC3) were increased in both CB group and R group. These findings clearly demonstrated that long-term CB exposure induced inflammation and autophagy in the cerebellum, which were not obviously improved after short-term recovery.

Background Ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD) are 2 subtypes of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Several studies have reported brain abnormalities in IBD patients. This study aims to identify differences of gray matter volume (GMV) between patients with UC and healthy controls (HCs). Methods Fifty-seven patients with UC and 40 HCs underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging. Voxel-based morphometry method was used to detect GMV differences. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was applied to investigate reliable biomarkers for identifying patients with UC from HCs. Regression analysis was used to examine relationships between the structure alternations and clinical symptoms. Results Compared with HCs, patients with UC showed decreased GMV in the insula, thalamus, pregenual anterior cingulate cortex, hippocampus/parahippocampus, amygdala, and temporal pole; they showed increased GMV in the putamen, supplementary motor area, periaqueductal gray, hypothalamus, and precentral gyrus. Receiver operating characteristic analysis showed the highest classification power of thalamus. The inclusion of anxiety and depression as covariates eliminated the differences in the right insula, pregenual anterior cingulate cortex, supplementary motor area, and precentral gyrus. Most of the GMV changes were found in active patients with UC, with few changes in patients with UC in remission. We also found significantly negative correlation between UC duration and GMV in several regions. Conclusion The current neuroimaging findings were involved in visceral sensory pathways and were partially associated with the levels of anxiety and depression and clinical stage of patients with UC. This study might provide evidence for possible neuromechanisms of UC.

Our society is experiencing more stress than ever before, leading to both negative psychiatric and physical outcomes. Chronic stress is linked to negative long-term health consequences, raising the possibility that stress is related to accelerated aging. In this study, we examine whether resilience factors affect stress-associated biological age acceleration. Recently developed “epigenetic clocks” such as GrimAge have shown utility in predicting biological age and mortality. Here, we assessed the impact of cumulative stress, stress physiology, and resilience on accelerated aging in a community sample (N = 444). Cumulative stress was associated with accelerated GrimAge (P = 0.0388) and stress-related physiologic measures of adrenal sensitivity (Cortisol/ACTH ratio) and insulin resistance (HOMA). After controlling for demographic and behavioral factors, HOMA correlated with accelerated GrimAge (P = 0.0186). Remarkably, psychological resilience factors of emotion regulation and self-control moderated these relationships. Emotion regulation moderated the association between stress and aging (P = 8.82e−4) such that with worse emotion regulation, there was greater stress-related age acceleration, while stronger emotion regulation prevented any significant effect of stress on GrimAge. Self-control moderated the relationship between stress and insulin resistance (P = 0.00732), with high self-control blunting this relationship. In the final model, in those with poor emotion regulation, cumulative stress continued to predict additional GrimAge Acceleration even while accounting for demographic, physiologic, and behavioral covariates. These results demonstrate that cumulative stress is associated with epigenetic aging in a healthy population, and these associations are modified by biobehavioral resilience factors.

The optimal INR target in patients with mechanical heart valves is unclear. Higher INR targets are often used in Western compared with East Asian countries. The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to summarize the evidence for the efficacy and safety of lower versus higher INR targets in Western and East Asian left-sided mechanical heart valve patients. We searched Western databases including Cochrane CENTRAL, Medline, and Embase as well as Chinese databases including SinoMed, CNKI, and Wanfang Data in addition to grey literature for Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) and observational studies. We pooled risk ratios (RRs) using random-effects model. Low and high INR targets were defined by the individual studies. We identified nine RCTs, including six Western (n = 5496) and three East Asian (n = 209) trials, and 17 observational studies, including two Western (n = 3199) and 15 East Asian (n = 5485) studies. In the RCTs, lower compared with higher targets were associated with similar rates of thromboembolism (2.4 vs. 2.3%; RR: 1.14, 95% CI 0.82, 1.60, I2 = 0%) and lower rates of both total bleeding (21.9 vs. 40.9%, RR: 0.46, 95% CI 0.28, 0.78, I2 = 88%) and major bleeding. RCT data showed no statistical heterogeneity by region. These effects were consistent in the observational data. We downgraded the quality of evidence due to serious risk of bias and imprecision. In patients with left-sided contemporary mechanical heart valves, low quality evidence suggests lower INR targets are associated with similar rates of thromboembolism and moderate quality evidence suggests lower rates of bleeding.

Mode-division multiplexing is an enabling technique for large-capacity on-chip optical interconnects. Multimode power splitter becomes the subject of interests which is highly desirable. However, challenges still exist for multimode splitter with arbitrary power ratio. Inspired by geometric optics, we demonstrate a series of power splitters based on T-branch waveguide mirrors which consist of subwavelength nanoholes. Arbitrary split ratio can be achieved by modifying the transmittance and reflectance of the waveguide mirrors. The devices can support up to 9 modes from TE0-TE8. For a proof-of-concept demonstration, we fabricate dual-mode splitters with power ratios of 40:60, 30:70 and 20:80. For both TE0 and TE1 modes, the measured excess losses are lower than 0.92 dB, and the crosstalk are all below –14.42 dB within the wavelength range from 1540 to 1580 nm.

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the associations of maternal prepregnancy body mass index (pp-BMI) and gestational weight gain (GWG) with the childhood BMI z-score (BMI-z) trajectories from birth to 2 years old and the risk of overweight/obesity (OWO) at 2 years of age. SUBJECTS/METHODS Mother-child dyads (23,617) were involved in the analysis. They were followed up from early pregnancy to 2 years postpartum with their healthcare data recorded in the Wuhan Maternal and Child Health Management Information System (WMCHMIS). The OWO in children was defined as BMI-z > 1. Linear mixed models (LMM) and unconditional logistic regression were used to evaluate the independent and joint associations of pp-BMI and GWG with the BMI-z trajectory of children per their anthropometric measurements at 0, 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, and 24 months old and the risk of OWO at 2 years of age. RESULTS Maternal overweight/obesity and excessive GWG independently and jointly increased the risks of their offspring falling into high BMI-z trajectories of birth to 2 years (p

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is one kind of severe trauma for central nervous system. Myelin debris clearance and axon regeneration are essential for nerve regeneration after SCI. Metformin, a glucose-lowering drug, has been demonstrated to promote the locomotor functional recovery after SCI. In this study, we investigated the role and molecular mechanism of metformin on myelin preservation in a rat SCI model. SCI was induced in rats by compression at T9 level using a vascular clip. We showed that administration of metformin (50 mg·kg(−1)·d(−1), ip) for 28 days significantly improved locomotor function in SCI rats. Metformin also ameliorated SCI-induced neuronal apoptosis and promoted axon regeneration in the spinal cord. Using co-immunofluorescence of IBa-1 and MBP, and luxol fasting blue (LFB) staining, we demonstrated that metformin promoted the transformation of M1 to M2 phenotype polarization of microglial cells, then greatly facilitated myelin debris clearance and protected the myelin in SCI rats. Furthermore, metformin ameliorated SCI-induced blockade of autophagic flux in the spinal cord, and enhanced the fusion of autophagosome and lysosome by inhibiting the AMPK-mTOR signaling pathway. Moreover, metformin significantly attenuated inflammatory responses in the spinal cord. In LPS-treated BV2 cells, pretreatment with metformin (2 mM) significantly enhanced autophagy level, suppressed inflammation and cell apoptosis. The protective effects were blocked in the presence of an autophagy inhibitor 3-methyladenine (3-MA, 5 mM), suggesting that the effect of metformin on autophagy in microglial cells is essential for the myelin preservation during nerve recovery. This study reveals a novel therapeutic effect of metformin in SCI recovery by regulating the activation of microglial cells and enhancing its autophagy level.

Purpose The purpose of the multi-institutional retrospective study was to evaluate whether intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) has advantages in the treatment of patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC) compared with concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT). Patients and methods A total of 103 patients with LAPC whom was treated with IORT (Arm A; n = 50) or CCRT (Arm B; n = 53) from 2015.6 to 2016.7 were retrospectively identified. Data on feasibility, toxicity, and overall survival (OS) were evaluated. Results Most factors of the two cohorts were similar. The severe adverse events (grade 3 and 4) patients in Arm B were higher than patients in Arm A (34% vs 0%). Disease progression was noted in 38 patients (76%) in Arm A and 37 patients (69.8%) in Arm B. The median survival of patients in Arm A and B were 15.3 months (95% CI, 13.0–17.6 months) and 13.8 months (95% CI, 11.0–16.6 months), respectively. The 1-year survival rate were 66.3% in Arm A (95% CI, 52.3%–80.2%) and 60.9% in Arm B (95% CI, 46.4%–75.4%). There was no significant difference in OS between patients treated with IORT and with CCRT (p = 0.458). Conclusion Our results demonstrated that patients with LAPC treated with IORT showed fewer adverse events, less treatment time, and high feasibility compared to CCRT. Although, IORT has no advantages in survival and tumor control compared with CCRT.

Polarization and mode division multiplexing are powerful tools for large-capacity parallel optical communications. Dual-polarization and mode-division multiplexed silicon photonic integrated circuit with ultra-small footprint is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The circuits consist of a mode multiplexer, 3-dB power splitter and two demultiplexers which can simultaneously handle TE0, TE1, TM0 and TM1 mode. Compared with conventional device structure, the device footprint is scaled down via pixelated waveguide meta-structure. The mode multiplexer and the splitter have a footprint of only 6.8 μm × 6 μm and 6 μm × 5.25 μm, respectively. The fabrication tolerance on the nanohole size variations are studied, and the fabricated devices are systematically characterized. The measured insertion losses of the multiplexer and 3-dB power splitter are below 1.4 dB and 4.5 dB for all four modes within the wavelength range from 1530 nm-1570 nm. In the meantime, the measured maximum inter-mode cross talk is below -15 dB over a 30 nm bandwidth. The experimental results also indicate the power imbalance of the splitter is within 0.4 dB from 1530 nm-1570 nm. Since the demonstrated polarization and mode handling devices via pixelated meta-structures occupy significantly smaller chip area than conventional wisdoms, this work shows the potential for large scale and dense integration of polarization and mode division multiplexing system on photonic chip.

Purpose Ocular albinism type I (OA1) is caused by mutations in the GPR143 gene. The purpose of this study was to describe the clinical and genetic findings in 13 patients from 12 unrelated Chinese pedigrees with a pathogenic variant of the GPR143 gene. Methods Most patients underwent clinical examination, including best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), slit-lamp biomicroscopy, fundus examination, spectral domain optical coherence tomography, and full-field electroretinograms (ERG). A combination of molecular screening procedures, consisting of Sanger-DNA sequencing of GPR143 and targeted next-generation sequencing, was performed to identify each mutation. In silico programs were utilized to evaluate the pathogenicity of all the variants. Results The 13 patients (mean age 21.75 ± 16.63 years, range 1-54 years) all presented with congenital nystagmus, different extents of visual impairment, and severe foveal hypoplasia. Their BCVA was between 0.05 and 0.3 (decimal notation). The patients and obligate carriers exhibited different extents of mild depigmentation of the iris and fundus. We detected 11 distinct mutations in this patient cohort, including 7 novel mutations. Most (82%) were null mutations and included frameshift indel, nonsense, splicing effect, and large genomic DNA deletions, while missense mutations only accounted for 18%. Conclusions Patients with GPR143 mutations all have congenital nystagmus, visual impairment, and foveal hypoplasia, whereas hypopigmentation in their iris and fundus is mild. They exhibit no evident genotype-phenotype correlations. GPR143 mutation screening is very important for establishing a precise diagnosis and for providing genetic counseling for patients and their families.

Silicon is widely used as anode for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). However, its application is limited due to some problems such as large volume expansion. In this work, silicon waste from wafer slicing via diamond wire saw technology in photovoltaic industry is used as raw materials. A submicron core-shell structure Si@C intertwined with CNWs and graphene nanosheet, is prepared as anode for LIBs by hydrothermal process. The anode retains a specific capacity of 2514.8 mAh g−1 with capacity retention of 75.8% after 360 cycles under a current of 0.1 C and 1548.9 mAh g−1 after 1000 cycles under 0.2 C. In addition, it maintains 1596.9 mAh g−1 (1.0 C), 925.3 mAh g−1 (2.0 C) after several rate testing of 0.1 C to 2.0 C. A COMSOL Multiphysics and MD simulation are performed to examine the lithiation-induced volume expansion of silicon. The results demonstrate that, the lamellar micron silicon can achieve a stable lithium intercalating capacity larger than 2100 mAh g−1, which agrees well with our experimental results. It is demonstrated that the submicron Si from the kerf waste in the photovoltaic slicing process via diamond wire saw technology are available as direct raw materials for high performance anode of LIBs.

Previous studies have reported that the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of SAMM50-rs738491, PARVB-rs5764455 and PNPLA3-rs738409 are associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, no studies have examined the effect of interactions between these three genotypes to affect liver disease severity. We assessed the effect of these three SNPs on nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and also examined the gene-gene interactions in a Chinese population with biopsy-confirmed NAFLD.

Pathological states in the early life environment of mammalian offspring, including maternal obesity and intrauterine overnutrition, can induce obesity and metabolic disorder later in life. Leptin resistance caused by upregulation of Socs3 in the hypothalamus of offspring was believed to be the main mechanism of this effect. In this study, obese mother (OM) and lean mother (LM) models were generated by feeding C57BL/6N female mice a high-fat diet or standard lean diet, respectively. Additionally, an obese mother with intervention (OMI) model was generated by injecting the high-fat diet group with Socs3-shRNA lentivirus during early pregnancy. The offspring of the groups was correspondingly named OM-F1 , LM-F1 , and OMI-F1 , representing progeny mouse models of different early life environments. The offspring were fed a high-fat diet to test their propensity for obesity. The body weight, food intake and fat accumulation were higher, while glucose intolerance and insulin resistance were worse in the OM-F1 group than LM-F1 group. By contrast, the obesity phenotype, hyperphagia and metabolic disorder were alleviated in the OMI-F1 group compared with the OM-F1 group. The mechanism was identified that downregulation of hypothalamic SOCS3 resulted in an increased level of p-STAT3 and p-JAK2, which ameliorated the leptin resistance and restored the lean expression of appetite regulatory genes (Pomc and Agrp) in hypothalamus of OMI-F1 group. Taken together, these results indicate that reducing maternal Socs3 expression during pregnancy can attenuate obesity caused by the early life environment in mice, which may inspire therapies that enable obese mothers to bear metabolically healthy children.

Background An earlier meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies in Asian populations detected five novel body mass index-associated single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), including potassium voltage-gated channel subfamily Q member 1 (KCNQ1) (rs2237892), ALDH2/MYL2 (rs671, rs12229654), ITIH4 (rs2535633), and NT5C2 (rs11191580). Whether these SNPs take effect in early life, for example, affect infant rapid weight gain (RWG), is unclear. Methods We obtained genomic DNA from 460 term infants with normal birth weight. RWG was defined as the change of weight-for-age standardized Z-score, calculated according to the Children Growth Standard released by the World Health Organization, from birth to 3 months of age >0.67. Using genetic models, associations between the candidate SNPs and infant RWG were examined, along with the interaction between the SNPs and the potential risk factors. Results RWG was presented in 225 of 460 infants. SNP rs2535633 and rs2237892 were associated with the risk of RWG. Both additive and multiplicative interaction effects were found between infant delivery mode and rs2237892. The negative association between the rs2237892 T allele and infant RWG was only observed in vaginally delivered infants. Conclusions Obesity-related loci rs2535633 and rs2237892 are associated with infant RWG in the first 3 months of infancy. The relationship between rs2237892 and infant RGW might be moderated by cesarean delivery. Impact Genetic predisposition is an essential aspect to understand infant weight gain. Obesity-related SNPs, rs2535633 and rs2237892, are associated with RWG in very early years of life. The negative association between rs2237892 T allele and RWG is only observed in infants delivered vaginally instead of cesarean section.

Two-dimensional organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites (OIHPs) have gained attention as a result of their flexibility and adjustability of the structure. However, the large band gap of two-dimensional perovskites limits their application in the photoelectric field. In the present work, we report a two-dimensional organic-inorganic hybrid compound of (C7H18N2)PbI4 (1) with a narrow band gap, which consists of [PbI4]2-n layers and N-(2-aminoethyl)piperidinium cations. 1 exhibits semiconducting properties with a narrow optical band gap of ∼2.02 eV and a photoelectric response with a ratio of photocurrent to dark current of ∼100. In addition, it exhibits a reversible solid-state phase transition at 228 K. This finding should inspire research into more 2D layered OIHPs with the combination of phase transition and semiconductor properties.

This study aimed to compare incidence and impact of measured prosthesis-patient mismatch (PPMTAVR studies have used measured effective orifice area indexed (EOAi) to body surface area (BSA) to define PPM, but most SAVR series have used predicted EOAi. This difference may contribute to discrepancies in incidence and outcomes of PPM between series.The study analyzed SAVR patients from the PARTNER (Placement of Aortic Transcatheter Valves) 2A trial and TAVR patients from the PARTNER 2 SAPIEN 3 Intermediate Risk registry. PPM was classified as moderate if EOAi ≤0.85 cmThe incidence of moderate and severe PPMEOAi measured by echocardiography results in a higher incidence of PPM following SAVR or TAVR than PPM based on predicted EOAi. Severe PPM

In recent years, magnetic micro- and nanorobots have been developed and extensively used in many fields. Actuated by magnetic fields, micro- and nanorobots can achieve controllable motion, targeted transportation of cargo, and energy transmission. The proper use of magnetic fields is essential for the further research and development of micro- and nanorobotics. In this article, recent progress in magnetic applications in the field of micro- and nanorobots is reviewed. First, the achievements of manufacturing micro- and nanorobots by incorporating different magnetic nanoparticles, such as diamagnetic, paramagnetic, and ferromagnetic materials, are discussed in detail, highlighting the importance of a rational use of magnetic materials. Then the innovative breakthroughs of using different magnetoelectric devices and magnetic drive structures to improve the micro- and nanorobots are reviewed. Finally, based on the biofriendliness and the precise and stable performance of magnetic micro- and nanorobots in microbial environments, some future challenges are outlined, and the prospects of magnetic applications for micro- and nanorobots are presented.

Background Lung cancer patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are considered a high-risk population to receive radical surgical treatment due to the high incidence of cardiopulmonary complications. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical factors associated with postoperative complications in primary lung cancer patients with moderate to extremely severe grades of COPD. Methods From December 2015 to June 2020, 138 patients with moderate to extremely severe COPD who underwent video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) lung cancer resection (lobectomy or sublobar resection) were retrospectively reviewed. Patients' postoperative complications were collected from clinical records. Clinical factors (such as COPD severity or surgical approaches, etc.) were evaluated to investigate the association with postoperative complications. Results Of the 138 patients included in the study, the mean age was 67 (63-74) years, the mean preoperative forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) was 1.33±0.39 L, the mean FEV1% was 51.23% (41.43-60.00%). 33% patients (46/138) had postoperative complications, and no mortality occurred. Univariate analysis revealed that incidence of overall complications (OCs) and respiratory complications (RCs) was markedly higher in extremely severe COPD patients compared to moderate (OCs, P=0.033; RCs, P=0.050) and severe (OCs, P=0.015; RCs, P=0.008) COPD patients, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that COPD grade was an independent risk factor of RCs (P=0.024). Furthermore, the grades of COPD (moderate, P=0.029; severe, P=0.028; extremely severe, P=0.019) and the surgical procedure (lobectomy or sublobar resection, P=0.043) were independent risk factors for atelectasis, which was the most common postoperative complication. Conclusions The aggravation of COPD was accompanied by an increase in the incidence of respiratory system complications postoperatively, especially atelectasis. For patients with moderate to extremely severe grades of COPD, careful perioperative evaluation should be performed to identify the indicators that influence the surgical choice between lobectomy and sublobar resection.

In this work, we designed and fabricated a dual-mode switch based on triple-waveguide couplers and two thermal phase shifters, and demonstrated the first silicon-integrated mode division multiplexing (MDM) switching network for $2-\mu \text{m}$ waveband. The proposed dual-mode switch shows $\mu \text{s}$ rising time and $13.2-\mu \text{s}$ falling time, with switching power of 19.2 mW. High speed on-chip MDM routing of $2\times 60$ Gbps signal was experimentally demonstrated using the proposed 2- $\mu \text{m}$ MDM switching network, drawing the promising prospect for the future photonic integration and high-speed MDM networking at 2- $\mu \text{m}$ waveband.

Background. Chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) is one of the most common diseases in urology, but its pathogenesis remains unclear. As a kind of chronic pain which the patients suffered for more than 3 months, we investigated the influence on patients’ brain functional connectivity in resting state. Methods. We recruited a cohort of 18 right-handed male patients with CP/CPPS and 21 healthy male right-handed age-matched controls. Their resting-state fMRI data and structural MRI data were preprocessed and processed by RESTPlus V1.22. To assess the integrity of the default mode network (DMN), we utilized the voxel-wised analysis that we set medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and posterior cingulate gyrus (PCC) as seed points to compare the global functional connectivity (FC) strength. Results. Compared with healthy control, the FC strength between left mPFC and posterior DMN decreased in the group of CP/CPPS ( P < 0.05 , GFR correction, voxel P < 0.01 , cluster P < 0.05 ), and the FC strength between the left anterior cerebellar lobe and posterior DMN increased ( P < 0.05 , GFR correction, voxel P < 0.01 , cluster P < 0.05 ). In the patient group, there was a positive correlation between the increased FC strength and the score of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) anxiety subscale ( r = 0.5509 , P = 0.0178 ) in the left anterior cerebellar lobe, a negative correlation between the decreased FC strength and the score of the National Institutes of Health Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index ( r = − 0.6281 , P = 0.0053 ) in the area of left mPFC, and a negative correlation between the decreased FC strength and the score of HADS anxiety subscale ( r = − 0.5252 , P = 0.0252 ). Conclusion. Patients with CP/CPPS had alterations in brain function, which consisted of the default mode network’s compromised integrity. These alterations might play a crucial role in the pathogenesis and development of CP/CPPS.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Consumption (AUDIT-C) questionnaire screens for harmful drinking using a 12-month timeframe. A score of 0 is assigned to individuals who report abstaining from alcohol in the past year. However, many middle-age individuals reporting current abstinence are former drinkers (FDs). Because FDs may be more genetically prone to harmful alcohol use than lifelong abstainers (LAs) and are often combined with LAs, we evaluated the impact of differentiating them on the identification of genetic association. DESIGN AND SETTING: The United Kingdom Biobank (UKBB) includes AUDIT-C and alcohol drinker status. PARTICIPANTS: 131 510 Europeans, including 5135 FDs. MEASUREMENTS: We compared three genome-wide association (GWAS) analyses to explore the effects of removing FDs: the full AUDIT-C data, AUDIT-C data without FDs, and data from a random sample numerically matched to the data without FDs. Because prior studies show a consistent association of the ADH1B polymorphism rs1229984 with both alcohol consumption and alcohol use disorder, we compared allele frequencies for rs1229984 stratified by AUDIT-C value and FD versus LA status. Additionally, we calculated polygenic risk scores (PRS) of related diseases. FINDINGS: The rs1229984 allele frequencies among FDs were numerically comparable to those with high AUDIT-C scores and very different from those of LAs. Removing FDs from GWAS yielded a stronger association with rs1229984 (P value after removal: 1.9 × 10(−70) vs 1.7 × 10(−65) and 2.5 × 10(−62)), more statistically significant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (after removal: 11 vs 9 and 8), and genomic loci (after removal: 11 vs 9 and 7). Additional independent SNPs were identified after removal of FDs: rs2817866 (PTGER3), rs7105867 (ANO3), and rs17601612 (DRD2). For PRS of alcohol use disorder and major depressive disorder, there are statistically significant differences between FDs and LAs. CONCLUSIONS: Differentiating between former drinkers and lifelong abstainers can improve Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test-Consumption (AUDIT-C) genome-wide association results.

Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shun (TIPS) is an effective procedure for the treatment of portal hypertension complications such as esophagogastric variceal bleeding and refractory ascites. To date, its use by many experts and scholars at home and abroad has benefitted countless patients. In order to further promote the development and innovation of TIPS in China, this paper briefly reviews the development process of TIPS at home and abroad, objectively analyzes the bottlenecks and breakthrough achievements in the development of TIPS, and discusses the application status and research progress of TIPS technology for different indications. Finally, we provide an outlook about the development and application of TIPS in China.

The development of video steganography has put forward a higher demand for video steganalysis. This paper presents a novel steganalysis against discrete cosine/sine transform (DCT/DST)-based steganography for high efficiency video coding (HEVC) videos. The new steganalysis employs special frames extraction (SFE) and accordion unfolding (AU) transformation to target the latest DCT/DST domain HEVC video steganography algorithms by merging temporal and spatial correlation. In this article, the distortion process of DCT/DST-based HEVC steganography is firstly analyzed. Then, based on the analysis, two kinds of distortion, the intra-frame distortion and the inter-frame distortion, are mainly caused by DCT/DST-based steganography. Finally, to effectively detect these distortions, an innovative method of HEVC steganalysis is proposed, which gives a combination feature of SFE and a temporal to spatial transformation, AU. The experiment results show that the proposed steganalysis performs better than other methods.

Background Localization of small pulmonary nodules (SPNs) is challenging in minimally invasive pulmonary resection, and it is unknown whether computer tomography (CT) guided by indocyanine green (ICG) can provide accurate localization with minimal complications. Methods We performed a retrospective study of patients who underwent thoracoscopic resection of pulmonary nodules after CT-guided preoperative localization with ICG from May 2019 to May 2020. Demographics, procedural data, postoperative complications, and pathologic information, were collected, and an analysis of the accuracy and complications after surgery was conducted. Results In 471 patients, there was a total of 512 peripheral pulmonary nodules that were ≤2 cm in size. The average time for CT-guided percutaneous ICG injection for localization was 18 minutes, and 98.4% (504/512) of the nodules were successfully localized. The average size of the nodules was 9.1 mm, and the average depth from the pleural surface was 8.9 mm. Overall, 5.9% (28/471) of the patients had asymptomatic pneumothorax after localization, but none needed a tube thoracostomy. All the nodules were resected using video-assisted thoracoscopy technique. Conclusions Preoperative CT-guided transthoracic ICG injection is safe and feasible for localization of small lung nodules for minimally invasive pulmonary resection. This technique should be considered for preoperative CT-guided localization of small lung nodules.

PURPOSE We aimed to evaluate the feasibility of three-dimensional ultrasound imaging (3DUS) in assessing the therapeutic effect of moderate-intensity statin therapy on carotid atherosclerotic plaques. METHODS Patients with carotid plaques were recruited to the study from January 2016 to September 2018, and were divided into two groups based on whether or not they were taking statins. All participants underwent 3DUS of their carotid plaques at baseline, then 3 months and 2 years after initial examination. The changes of the carotid plaques were compared between the two groups. RESULTS Were included 97 patients (57 males and 40 females), 65.26 ± 9.53 year-old with 67 into the statin group and 30 in the control group. The baseline levels of total cholesterol (TC) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) were lower in the statin group than in the control group (3.79 ± 0.78 mmol/L vs 4.50 ± 1.12 mmol/L; 2.01 ± 0.62 mmol/L vs 2.58 ± 0.91 mmol/L, P

The aim of the present study was to explore the clinical effect and to predict the prognosis of severe craniocerebral injury patients with decompressive craniectomy by combining transcranial Doppler (TCD) and invasive intracranial pressure (ICP).A total of 60 severe craniocerebral injury patients with decompressive craniectomy, who were admitted to Shantou Central Hospital from June 2017 to March 2019, were enrolled in this retrospective study. Of these, 25 patients who had a Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score no greater 8 and no less than 6 underwent transcranial Doppler (TCD) before decompressive craniectomy, as well as ICP, after removing the skull and suturing the dura mater. The 60 patients were divided into 2 groups according to the following standards: (I) GCS score ≥8 on the 7th day postoperatively; (II) ICP continuously lower than 25 mmHg for the entire 7-day duration postoperatively; and (III) brain tissue consistently offset from the skull surface by 5 mm. The clinical outcome was determined based on the Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS) 1, 3, and 6 months postoperatively. The TCD value, ICP, and prognosis were compared between the 2 groups.The average postoperative ICP19 mmHg in the first 24 h, mean blood flow velocity56.33 cm/s, end-diastolic blood flow velocity40.28 cm/s, and resistance index0.57 were statistically significant indicators to predict good prognosis .The use of TCD can predict the prognosis of severe craniocerebral injury patients.

BACKGROUND: Mediastinal neuroblastoma (NB) can invade the spinal canal and result in spinal cord compression. Some patients go on to develop severe spinal deformities after decompression of the spinal cord. The optimal therapeutic strategy for mediastinal NB with intraspinal extension is still unclear. Our study is to assess the therapeutic strategies for such patients. METHODS: A total of 77 patients suffered mediastinal tumors with intraspinal extension between March 2015 and Aug 2019 were enrolled in the study. According to the primary therapy, NB were classified into 4 groups: chemotherapy, video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS)/thoracotomy, neurosurgical decompression, and a combined thoracic-neurosurgical approach. Clinical features, including patient demographics, neurologic recovery and survival rate, were assessed. RESULTS: Among the 77 patients suffered mediastinal tumors with intraspinal extension, neurological symptoms were present in 44 patients. Neurological deficits improved in 76.5% of patients who underwent neurosurgical intervention and 50% of the other patients (P=0.094). Compression manifestations of ≤4 weeks duration showed an improved outcome compared to a longer compression time, with complete recovery of neurological function in 60% of patients versus 28.6% for patients with a longer symptom duration (P=0.04). NB constituted 49.4% of the 77 patients. An overall survival rate of 90.0%±9.5% was achieved for patients in the combined thoracic-neurosurgical group, 59.5%±15.0% in the thoracotomy group, 40.0%±29.7% in laminectomy group, and 37.0%±20.2% in the chemotherapy group. Complete regression of the tumor was demonstrated in 80% of combined group, which was greater than that of patients in the other groups (P=0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Neurological recovery was correlated with the type of initial treatment and the duration of neurological symptoms. Mediastinal NB with intraspinal extension can be effectively managed with a combined neurosurgical and thoracic surgical approach.

Multi-wavelength distributed feedback laser array (DFB-MLA) based tunable semiconductor lasers have been widely used owing to the high mode stability and simple wavelength tuning scheme. In this paper, we proposed and experimentally demonstrated a matrix-grating tunable DFB laser array. And the reconstruction-equivalent-chirp (REC) technique is utilized to simplify grating fabrication and realize precise control of the grating phase. Traditionally, the laser is tuned by thermal-electric cooler (TEC), with large power consumption, slow wavelength tuning capability, and added device. To improve the wavelength tuning speed of laser, we varied laser’s injection current instead of adjusting TEC’s temperature. In addition, we analyzed the thermal influence of submount on the laser and then chose the SiO2 as the submount material for its low thermal conductivity and poor heat dissipation, resulting in wide wavelength tuning range via injection current. The DFB-MLA chip achieves a better tunable effect as the lasers can be tuned at 3.5–3.7 nm per channel from 50 to 120 mA with stable output power of over 3 mw as contrasted with the laser on the AlN submount being tuned at 1.4–1.5 nm per channel. And the chip has a side-mode suppressing ratio (SMSR) of over 35 dB and strong stability of wavelength in the repeated experiments. The proposed method may give a new way to realize the wide tuning range tunable DFB laser with a simple wavelength tuning mechanism in the future, especially for the applications of uncooled low-cost tunable lasers.

Silicon photonic optical phased arrays are promising solutions for solid-state LIDAR. But the nonlinear absorption significantly saturates the optical power in the waveguides at 1.5-μm wavelengths. Besides, the high refractive index contrast of silicon grating exhibits a strong diffraction strength of the antenna, which results in a limited aperture of the device. These ultimately place a limit on the detection accuracy and reach. Here, a shallow etched two-dimensional subwavelength grating structure is proposed to improve the efficiency and aperture of the waveguide antenna. A reduction of diffraction strength is achieved via nanohole structure instead of conventional grating lines. Thus, a millimeter-long optical antenna is demonstrated with a peak efficiency of 71%. The far-field diffracted beam width of 0.035° and vertical field-of-view of 17.5° are achieved within 100 nm wavelengths range from 1.95 μm to 2.05 μm. The operation at 2-μm waveband also guarantees better eye-safety and significantly reduces the nonlinear absorption in silicon waveguide compared with conventional 1.5-μm band.

The ability to expertly control different fingers contributes to hand dexterity during object manipulation in daily life activities. The macroscopic spatial patterns of muscle activations during finger movements using global surface electromyography (sEMG) have been widely researched. However, the spatial activation patterns of microscopic motor units (MUs) under different finger movements have not been well investigated. The present work aims to quantify MU spatial activation patterns during movement of distinct fingers (index, middle, ring and little finger). Specifically, we focused on extensor muscles during extension contractions. Motor unit action potentials (MUAPs) during movement of each finger were obtained through decomposition of high-density sEMG (HD-sEMG). First, we quantified the spatial activation patterns of MUs for each finger based on 2-dimension (2-D) root-mean-square (RMS) maps of MUAP grids after spike-triggered averaging. We found that these activation patterns under different finger movements are distinct along the distal-proximal direction, but with partial overlap. Second, to further evaluate MU separability, we classified the spatial activation pattern of each individual MU under distinct finger movement and associated each MU with its corresponding finger with Regularized Uncorrelated Multilinear Discriminant Analysis (RUMLDA). A high accuracy of MU-finger classification tested on 12 subjects with a mean of 88.98% was achieved. The quantification of MU spatial activation patterns could be beneficial to studies of neural mechanisms of the hand. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work which manages to quantify MU behaviors under different finger movements.

In adults, yolk sac tumors (YSTs) in the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses are very rare. To date, only six cases have been reported in the English literature. YSTs in adults are often accompanied by cancer, teratocarcinosarcoma, and other malignant components. Here, we have reported a case of nasal tumor in a 55-year-old man with nasal obstruction and epistaxis. Morphologically, the tumor showed histological characteristics of pure YST. Immunohistochemical staining showed diffuse expression of SALL4, CDX2, and GPC-3 accompanied by sporadic expression of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) and CD117. After 20 and 40 days of operation, the serum AFP level was 220.30 and 43.60 ng/mL (normal

Background The present study aimed to evaluate and compare the efficacy of toric intraocular lens (IOL) implantation and aspheric IOL implantation with steep-axis incision for correcting mild to moderate corneal astigmatism in cataract patients. Methods A prospective, single-center, open label, randomized, two-arm study was designed. Cataract patients with corneal astigmatism of 1.0-2.0D were enrolled and divided into test and control groups. The test group had the AcrySof® IQ Toric IOL implanted and the control group had the AcrySof® IQ IOL implanted with a steep-axis corneal incision. All patients underwent examinations of uncorrected distance visual acuity (UCDVA), corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA), subjective refraction, and corneal astigmatism before surgery and at the 1-day, 1-month, and 3-month follow-ups. Vector astigmatism analysis was evaluated using the Alpins method. Results We enrolled 26 eyes of 20 patients in the study, with 13 eyes in each group. The test group had better vision than the control group at the 3-month follow-up and had more cases with a UCDVA of 20/20 (10/13 vs. 4/13). The surgically induced astigmatism (SIA) vector of the test group was higher than that of the control group (1.22±0.64 vs. 0.84±0.45). The correction index of the test group was closer to 1 compared to that of the control group (0.7 vs. 0.46). Approximately 85% of patients in the test group had an angle of error within -15° to 15°. However, only 23% of patients in the control group were within that range. Conclusions Though steep-axis corneal incision was cost-saving and easy-to perform, its astigmatismcorrecting efficacy was not as good as the Toric IOL implantation for cataract patients with low to moderate corneal astigmatism.