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Primary pancreatic lymphoma (PPL) is an extremely rare malignant tumor that accounts for less than 2% of extranodal malignant lymphomas and 0.5% of pancreatic tumors. The most common symptoms of PPL are abdominal pain (83%), abdominal mass (58%), and weight loss (50%). The final diagnosis of PPL is based on cell histology, and the most common histological subtype is diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). The number of reported cases of primary pancreatic mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma is limited. The conversion rate of MALT lymphoma varies between 3% and 12%. However, the transformation of primary pancreatic MALT lymphoma to DLBCL has not been reported. We present a case of a 58-year-old man whose main symptoms were nausea and vomiting. Magnetic resonance imaging of the abdomen showed space-occupying lesions in the neck and body of the pancreas. Histopathological examination after surgical resection was diagnosed as primary pancreatic MALT lymphoma. Local radiotherapy was recommended and rejected by the patient's family. The disease progressed in a short time. Left supraclavicular lymph node resection biopsy and pathological examination showed DLBCL. After the initiation of chemotherapy, glaucoma appeared in the right eye during treatment, and chemotherapy was suspended. The disease progressed rapidly and the patient eventually died.

Background There is a lack of targeted therapeutic options for squamous cell lung cancer (SCC). Accelerated hypertension is an issue with many targeted therapies for lung cancer. This study aimed to analyze the efficacy of anlotinib, based on progression‐free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in patients with SCC, stratified by hypertension and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) score. Methods This was a post hoc analysis of a multicenter, double‐blind, phase III ALTER0303 randomized controlled trial. Only patients with SCC were included. The occurrence of hypertension during the study period was defined according to CTCAE 4.03. OS and PFS were the primary and secondary endpoints, respectively. The patients were stratified according to hypertension and ECOG score, respectively. Results The median PFS in the patients who developed hypertension was longer than in those who did not (7.2 (95% CI: 3.5–11.0) versus 3.2 (95% CI: 1.2–5.3) months, p = 0.001; HR (95% CI), 0.4 (0.2–0.8)). In the ECOG 0 patients, the median PFS in the patients who developed hypertension versus those who did not was 5.6 vs. 1.8 months, respectively (Figure 2(d)). In the ECOG 1 patients, the median PFS in the patients who developed hypertension versus those who did not was 7.0 (95% CI: 3.0–11.0) vs. 4.8 (95% CI: 1.2–8.5) months (p = 0.043). No statistically significant differences were found in OS in the stratified analyses. Conclusions The occurrence of hypertension might be a clinical indicator predicting the efficacy of third‐line anlotinib treatment in patients with SCC., In SCC patients who received third‐line anlotinib treatment, the median PFS was longer in patients who developed hypertension than in those who did not. Our results suggest that the occurrence of hypertension during treatment might be a clinical indicator predicting the efficacy of third‐line anlotinib in patients with SCC.

Although energy-based methods have advantages over the Newtonian methods for kinetostatic modeling, the geometric nonlinearities inherent in deflections of compliant mechanisms preclude most of the energy-based theorems. Castigliano's first theorem and the Crotti-Engesser theorem, which don't require the problem being solved to be linear, are selected to construct the energy-based kinetostatic modeling framework for compliant mechanisms in this work. Utilization of these two theorems requires explicitly formulating the strain energy in terms of deflections and the complementary strain energy in terms of loads, which are derived based on the beam constraint model. The kinetostatic modeling of two compliant mechanisms are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the explicit formulations in this framework derived from Castigliano's first theorem and the Crotti-Engesser theorem.

Prior literature has suggested a decreased prevalence of pelvic organ prolapse (POP) in Black women. We sought to describe POP rates by race, investigate whether specific types of prolapse differ based on race, and investigate the role of uterine weight and fibroids on POP.We conducted a retrospective cohort study of new patients seen between April 2017 and April 2019 at a tertiary urogynecology clinic. Variables collected included POP quantification, race, age, smoking history, medical history, gravity, parity, vaginal delivery, hysterectomy, fibroids, and uterine weight. χ2 tests were used to compare the proportions of types of POP between Black and non-Black women. Binary and ordinal logistic regression tested the association between types of prolapse and race, adjusting for covariates.Nine hundred thirty-six patients were identified by ICD codes, 768 met inclusion criteria. There were 85.3% of the women identified as non-Black and 14.7% identified as Black. There were 39.8% of the Black women that had a fibroid diagnosis compared with 20.8% of non-Black women (P0.001). Black women had a higher median uterine weight, 112.2 g versus 56 g (P = 0.002), and median fibroid size, 3.4 cm versus 1.92 cm (P = 0.0001). 56.9% of women presented with anterior prolapse. No difference was found in POP type between Black and non-Black women after adjusting for age, body mass index, parity, and delivery route (P = 0.45).Black women had increased body mass index, rates of comorbidities (diabetes and hypertension), higher uterine weight and fibroid size than non-Black women in our study. However, there was no significant difference in POP type based on race.

Summary Background & Aims The rise in the prevalence of childhood obesity has increased the demand for accurately evaluating body fatness in pediatric population. The aim of this study was to provide a series of sex- and age-specific body fat reference centiles for evaluating total body fat development and fat distribution in Chinese children and adolescents using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Methods A nationwide sample of Chinese children and adolescents aged 3-18 years (n=12,790) was drawn from a cross-sectional survey of the China Child and Adolescent Cardiovascular Health study (2013-2019). Fat measurements, including total fat mass index (FMI), total body fat percentage (BF%), regional FMI, trunk to leg (T/L) fat ratio and android to gynoid (A/G) fat ratio, were derived from whole body DXA scans. Sex- and age-specific centiles were estimated using the lambda-mu-sigma method and then compared with values derived from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999-2004) and Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2008-2011). Results During early childhood, almost all body fat parameters decreased with age, except an increase in A/G ratio. After 7 years onward, drastic upward trends of total FMI and BF% were exhibited in boys till 10 years, followed by opposite downward trends during 11-14 years; while sustained increase of FMI was shown in girls across ages accompanied by relatively constant BF% levels. Meanwhile, steady increases were noticed for A/G ratio and T/L ratio, which were more pronounced in boys. In addition, the proposed body fat references were much lower than the US but similar to Koreans despite of subtle differences. Conclusions This is the first study to present a set of DXA-based body fat reference for Chinese children and adolescents aged 3-18 years. The new reference provides clinicians and researchers a useful tool for assessing body fat development and distribution patterns across the periods from early childhood to adolescence.

Theoretical studies on the MgCl2-KCl eutectic heavily rely on ab initio calculations based on density functional theory (DFT). However, neither large-scale nor long-time calculations are feasible in the framework of the ab initio method, which makes it challenging to accurately predict some properties. To address this issue, a scheme based on ab initio calculation, deep neural networks, and machine learning is introduced. By training on high-quality data sets generated by ab initio calculations, a deep potential (DP) is constructed to describe the interaction between atoms. This work shows that the DP enables higher efficiency and similar accuracy relative to DFT. By performing molecular dynamics simulations with DP, the microstructure and thermophysical properties of the MgCl2-KCl eutectic (32:68 mol %) are investigated. The structural evolution with temperature is analyzed through partial radial distribution functions, coordination numbers, angular distribution functions, and structural factors. Meanwhile, the estimated thermophysical properties are discussed, including density, thermal expansion coefficient, shear viscosity, self-diffusion coefficient, and specific heat capacity. It reveals that the Mg2+ ions in this system have a distorted tetrahedral geometry rather than an octahedral one (with vacancies). The microstructure of the MgCl2-KCl eutectic shows the feature of medium-range order, and this feature will be enhanced at a higher temperature. All predicted thermophysical properties are in good agreement with the experimental results. The hydrodynamic radius determined from the shear viscosity and self-diffusion coefficient shows that the Mg2+ ions have a strong local structure and diffuse as if with an intact coordination shell. Overall, this work provides a thorough understanding of the microstructure and enriches the data of the thermophysical properties of the MgCl2-KCl eutectic.

Sentiment Analysis is an important research direction of natural language processing, and it is widely used in politics, news and other fields. Word embeddings play a significant role in sentiment analysis. The existing sentiment embeddings methods directly embed the sentiment lexicons into traditional word representation. This sentiment representation methods can only differentiate the sentiment information of different words, not the same word in different contexts, so it cannot provide accurate sentiment information for word in different contexts. This paper proposes sentiment concept to solve the problem. First, we found the optimal sentiment concept of words in Microsoft Concept Graph according to the context of words. Then we obtained the sentiment information of words under optimal sentiment concept from the multi-semantics sentiment intensity lexicon which we constructed in this paper to achieve accurate embedding of sentiment information and provide more accurate semantics and sentiment representation for words. Finally, we combined two refined word embeddings methods to achieve a more comprehensive word representation. Compared with traditional and sentiment embeddings methods on six representative datasets, the validity of the word embeddings method based on sentiment concept proposed in this paper is verified.

Background Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) is a rare genetic disease which leads to formation of benign tumors in the brain and other organs of the body. Ultrasound (US) can detect the location, quantity, size and internal echo of TSC-associated renal diseases, liver angiomyolipoma (AML), and co-existing lesions, providing important diagnostic basis for clinical diagnosis. The aim of the present study was to investigate the abdominal ultrasonographic features of pediatric TSC and explore the advantages of abdominal ultrasonography in clinical practice. Methods Data of children with TSC, who presented to the Second Affiliated Hospital and Yuying Children's Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University, between January 2016 and November 2018, were analyzed by a retrospective chart review. The cases were identified from electronic medical records (EMR) system and underwent ultrasonography, we yielded a total of 12 patients. Results The 12 pediatric patients, including 5 boys and 7 girls, ranged in age from 9 months to 13 years old. And they all had a history of epilepsy. All the patients underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT) examination, which revealed a scattered distribution of multiple hyperintense nodules. Of the 12 patients, 10 had TSC-associated bilateral renal AMLs, 5 had hepatic AML, and 4 had renal cysts. Conclusions US is a useful and non-invasive tool for the detection of TSC-associated renal and liver lesions and for clinical follow-up among pediatric patients.

Pectate lyase treatment can be an alternative strategy of the chemical processing, which causes severe environmental pollution, and has been broadly studied and applied for diverse industrial applications including textile industry, beverage industry, pulp processing, pectic wastewater pretreatment, and oil extraction. This review gave a brief description of the origins, enzymatic characterizations, structure, and applications of pectate lyases (Pels). Most of the reported pectate lyases are originated from microorganisms with a small number of them from plants and animals. Due to the diverse environments that these microorganisms exist, Pels present diversified features, especially for the range of optimal pH and temperature. The diversified biochemical properties of Pels define their applications in different industries, and the applications of alkaline Pels on cotton bioscouring and ramie degumming in textile industry were focused in this review. This review also discussed the perspectives of the development and applications of Pels. KEY POINTS: • The first review on pectate lyase focusing on biotechnological applications. • Origins, features, structures, applications of pectate lyases reviewed. • Applications of alkaline Pels in textile industry demonstrated. • Perspectives on future development and applications of Pels discussed.

Due to the fact that coverless information hiding can effectively resist the detection of steganalysis tools, it has attracted more attention in the field of information hiding. At present, most coverless information hiding schemes select text and image as transmission carriers, while there are few studies on emerging popular media such as video, which has more abundant contents. Taking the natural video as the carrier is more secure and can avoid the attention of attackers. In this paper, we propose a coverless video steganography algorithm based on semantic segmentation. Specifically, to establish the mapping relationship between secret information and video files effectively, this paper introduces the deep learning based on semantic segmentation network to calculate the statistical histogram of semantic information. To quickly index the sender’s secret message to the corresponding video frame, we build a three-digit index structure. The receiver can extract the valid video frame from the three-digit index information and restore the secret information. On the one hand, the neural network is trained through the original image and the noisy image in this scheme; therefore, it can not only effectively resist the interference of noises, but also accurately extract the robust deep features of the image. The frames of video generate the robust mapping to the secret information after the semantic information statistics. On the other hand, semantic segmentation belongs to pixel-level segmentation, which has high requirements for network parameters, so it is difficult for attackers to decrypt and recover secret information. Since this scheme does not modify the primitiveness of video data, it can effectively resist steganalysis tools. The experimental results and analysis show that the video coverless information hiding scheme has a large capacity and a certain resistance to noise attack.

A large number of salt caverns by solution mining are abandoned widely. After reasonable reformation, some of these caverns are expected to store energies, such as petroleum, natural gas, and compressed air energy. Different from other countries, salt formations of China are mainly bedded with lower thickness. In order to improve the mining efficiency of bedded salt formations, solution mining with double-well convection is widely adopted, which brings more horizontal caverns with larger dimensions and also larger roofs. When these horizontal caverns are transformed into underground energy storage, the layered roofs are easily suffered from unbalanced deformation and failure, and then become the channels of oil or gas leakage. Therefore, a series of theoretical analysis and numerical simulation were carried out to reveal the failure mechanism and stability of the bedded roof, and then some meaningful conclusions are acquired. Firstly, in the overlying strata, the argillaceous anhydrite layer is the key roof in the selection of the abandoned horizontal cavern for energy storage. Secondly, according to plate theory, the invalid of the bedded key roof needs to be treated into failure and instability respectively. Thirdly, the analysis on the vertical and horizontal stress in the key roof shows that it does experience a second type of instability. Finally, in order to maintain the stability of bedded key roof, the main influence factors require careful and comprehensive consideration, including the length of the long side, the thickness of the protective salt layer, and the internal pressure.

Multi-label classification methods aim to a class of application problems where each individual contains a single instance while associates with a set of labels simultaneously. In this paper, we formulate a novel multi-label classification method based on extreme learning machine framework, named ELM-MC algorithm. The essence of ELM-MC algorithm is to convert the multi-label classification problem into some single-label classifications, and fully considers the relationship among different labels. After the classification of one label, the associations with next label are applied to update the learning parameters in ELM-MC algorithm. In addition, we design a backup pool for the hidden nodes. It can help to select relatively suitable hidden nodes to the corresponding label classification case. In the simulation part, six famous databases are applied to demonstrate the satisfied classification accuracy of the proposed method.

To predict the cleaning performance of rice combine harvesters, numerical simulations of the air-and-screen cleaning unit using coupled computational fluid dynamics and discrete element method were used to study the gas–solid two-phase flow behaviour of the threshed mixture. The calculation methods investigated the centroid velocities of three particle classes: grains, stems and light impurities, and the degree of dispersion of all particles. It was found that the centroid velocity of the grain particles was the least affected by different working conditions at the same cleaning time, and the movement of grain particles did not reflect the varying cleaning performances. The degree of dispersion of all particles at each working condition reached a relatively stable state with cleaning times 1.3 s–2.0 s, and this period was taken as the analysis period. Cleaning performance experiments were carried out on the developed air-and-screen cleaning test-bed under corresponding conditions. The mathematical relationships between the centroid velocity of each particle class, the degrees of dispersion of all particles and the cleaning performance were studied. After comparison and analysis, it was concluded that the prediction model between the degree of dispersion of all particles and the cleaning loss ratio had an error less than 9.4%. The centroid velocity of short stem particles in X direction and the grain impurity ratio had an error less than 11.7%. This simulation method therefore had relatively good accuracy and can be used make up for the shortcomings caused by the seasonality of field testing and also save costs in designing cleaning units.

Internet of Things (IoT) terminals have firmware with heterogeneous, closed-source, and heavy business but light security characteristics, whereas on the edge, there are limited resources and a high code reuse rate. Once there are security risks at the firmware level, these risks are difficult to detect and discover, and the resulting impact quickly spreads over a wide range. Therefore, a similarity and homology analysis of firmware codes in an IoT terminal will be helpful for further research on firmware malicious code detection, vulnerability mining, backdoor discovery and copyright protection. Inspired by biological genes, this paper attempts to break away from the traditional feature-centered approach and focuses on code classification and the qualitative description of code features to discuss the idea of code similarity and homology analysis. Additionally, the proposed approach is information-centric, focusing on the informativeness (essentiality, stability, antivariability, and heritability) of the firmware code genes and the quantitative analysis of firmware code similarity and homology by discussing common methods and mechanisms. This paper presents security detection technology for IoT terminal firmware by measuring the gene distance between the codes. A prototype firmware security detection system (FSDS) for IoT terminals based on firmware code genes is designed and implemented. The experimental results show that this method has a good search matching effect and has certain advantages over traditional firmware security detection methods based on similarity theory.

Face recognition is one of the hottest issues in the field of computer vision and pattern recognition. Deep learning-based recognition models already have more exceptional recognition ability than the human being on open datasets, but still cannot fully undertake the identity recognition task in real scenarios without human assistance. In this paper, we mainly analyze two obstacles, i.e., domain gap and training data shortage. We propose the unpaired Domain Transfer Generative Adversarial Network (DT-GAN) to relieve these two obstacles. We improve the GAN baseline to bridge the domain gap among datasets by generating images conforming to the style of a target domain by learning the mapping between the source domain and target domain. The generator could synthesize face with an arbitrary viewpoint at the same time. The model is trained with a combination of style transfer loss, identity loss, and pose loss, which ensures the successive domain transfer and data augment. We conduct experiments to testify the effectiveness and reasonability of DT-GAN. Experimental results demonstrate the recognition performance is dramatically boosted after domain transfer and data augment.

Background: Despite the abundance of data documenting the consequences of poor sleep quality on blood pressure (BP), no previous study to our knowledge has addressed the impact of sleep improvement on resistant hypertension among patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Methods: The aim of this pilot study was to determine whether improved sleep quality and duration will improve BP control in patients with resistant hypertension and CKD. It was a prospective single-center cohort study that involved 30 hypertensive subjects with CKD presenting with primary resistant hypertension and poor sleep quality or duration Results: African American patients represented 50% of the cohort. All patients had evidence of CKD with GFR ≤60 mL/min and were obese with 40% having type 2 diabetes mellitus. The primary endpoint of change in clinic SBP and DBP was significantly reduced at 3 months, baseline 156 ± 15/88 ± 8 vs. 3 months 125 ± 14/73 ± 7 (p < 0.0001). This difference persisted at 6 months. However, there was no further reduction in-home or clinic BPs between the 3- and 6-month periods. Home and clinic average delta SBP change at 3 months from baseline was –34.4 ± 15 and –30.8 ± 19 mm Hg respectively. Delta SBP change was associated with sleep improvement of >6 h/night, that is, gaining an extra 3–4 h’ sleep duration, home; R2 = 0.66, p < 0.0001 and clinic; R2 = 0.49, p < 0.0001. Conclusion: Optimizing sleep quality and duration to >6 h/night improved BP control and was associated with a significant delta change in SBP within 3 months of follow-up. Physicians should obtain a sleep history in patients with CKD who present with resistant hypertension.

Synovial hyperplasia is the main cause of chronic rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but the mechanism of synovial hyperplasia is still unclear. Etodolac (ETD) is a selective COX-2 inhibitor for relieving pain and stiffness in RA, but the disease modifying effect is still lack of evidence. Proteomics method was used to study the differential proteome of synovial tissue in collagen induced arthritis (CIA) in rats. With the help of STRING analysis, the upregulated proteins enriched in the cluster of complement and coagulation cascades and platelet degranulation were highlighted, these proteins with fibrogenic factors Lum, CIV, CXI and Tgfbi participated in the synovial inflammation, fibrosis and hyperplasia in CIA. Based on KOG function class analysis, the proteins involved in the events of the central dogma was explored. They might be hyperplasia related proteins for most of them are related to the proliferation of cancer. ETD significantly attenuated synovial inflammation, fibrosis and hyperplasia in CIA rats by downregulating these proteins. Several proteins have not been observed in RA so far, such as Tmsb4x, Pura, Nfic, Ruvbl1, Snrpd3, U2af2, Srrm2, Srsf7, Elavl1, Hnrnph1, Wars, Yars, Bzw2, Mcts1, Eif4b, Ctsh, Lamp1, Dpp7, Ptges3, Cdc37 and Septin9, they might be potentials targets for RA. Blood biochemistry tests showed the safety of 7 months use of ETD on rats. In conclusion, present study displayed a comprehensive mechanism of synovial hyperplasia in CIA rats, on this basis, the clinical value of ETD in the treatment of RA was well confirmed. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s43556-021-00052-1.

Bushen-Tiaojing-Fang (BSTJF) is commonly used to treat infertility. This study investigated the effects of BSTJF on the pregnancy outcomes of patients with repeated controlled ovarian stimulation (COS), on mitochondrial function, and on oxidative stress in ovarian granulosa cells (GCs) and follicular fluid (FF). The samples and clinical data of 97 patients, including 35 in the control group, 29 in the placebo group and 33 in the BSTJF group, were collected for this study. The mitochondrial ultrastructure, ATP content, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) number, 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), Mn-superoxide dismutase (Mn-SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity levels, and mRNA expression levels of Mn-SOD, GSH-Px, and nuclear factor erythroid-derived factor 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) were analyzed. The high-grade embryo (P P = 0.033), and clinical pregnancy (P = 0.031) rates, as well as the ATP content (P = 0.014), mtDNA number (P = 0.035), GSH-Px activity (P = 0.004 in GCs and P = 0.008 in FF) and mRNA expression levels (P = 0.019), were significantly lower in the placebo group than in the control group, whereas the 8-OHdG content was significantly (P = 0.006 in FF) higher in the placebo group than in the control group. Compared with those in the placebo group, the high-grade embryo rate (P = 0.007), antioxidant enzyme activity (P = 0.037 and 0.036 in Mn-SOD; P = 0.047 and 0.030 in GSH-Px) and mRNA level (P P = 0.039 in Mn-SOD and P = 0.002 in GSH-Px) were significantly higher in the BSTJF group, as were changes in mitochondrial ultrastructure, ATP (P = 0.040) and mtDNA number (P = 0.013). In conclusion, BSTJF can improve oxidative stress in patients with repeated COS and pregnancy outcomes.

BackgroundWith the development of embryo freezing and warming technology, frozen-thawed embryo transfer (FET) has been widely utilized. However, studies investigating the association between cryopreservation duration and FET outcomes are limited and controversial, and previous studies did not conduct stratification analyses based on demographic or clinical characteristics.MethodsThis multicenter retrospective study included 17,826 women who underwent their first FET following the freeze-all strategy during the period from January 2014 to December 2018. Duration of cryopreservation was categorized into five groups: 3–8 weeks, 8–12 weeks, 12–26 weeks, 26–52 weeks, and >52 weeks. Modified Poisson regression and multivariate logistic regression were used to assess the association between cryostorage time of vitrified embryos and transfer outcomes. Moreover, further stratification analyses were performed according to variables with p <0.05 in multivariate models.ResultsIn this large multicenter study, we observed that storage duration was inversely associated with the possibility of pregnancy and live birth (p <0.001), but not with the risk of ectopic pregnancy and miscarriage. Stratification analyses based on maternal age, the number of oocytes retrieved, and condition of embryo transferred indicated that the inverse correlation was significant in the subpopulation with characteristics: (1) less than 40 years old, (2) more than 3 oocytes retrieved, and (3) only high-quality blastocysts transferred.ConclusionThe results of this large, multicenter, retrospective study suggested that prolonged cryopreservation was inversely associated with the probability of pregnancy and live birth. Therefore, for patients who adopt a freeze-all strategy, early FET might achieve a better outcome.

Background: Early-life exposure to the Chinese famine has been related to the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease later in life. Nevertheless, the long-term impact of famine exposure on metabolic associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD), a recently proposed term to describe liver disease associated with known metabolic dysfunction, remains unknown. The aim of our study was to explore the relationship between early famine exposure and MAFLD in adulthood. Methods: A total of 26,821 participants (10,994 men, 15,827 women) were recruited from a cohort study of Chinese adults in Shanghai. We categorized participants into four famine exposure subgroups based on the birth year as nonexposed (1963–1967), fetal-exposed (1959–1962), childhood-exposed (1949–1958), and adolescence-exposed (1941–1948). MAFLD was defined as liver steatosis detected by ultrasound plus one of the following three criteria: overweight/obesity, type 2 diabetes, or evidence of metabolic dysregulation. Multivariable logistic regression models were performed to examine the association between famine exposure and MAFLD. Results: The mean ± standard deviation age of the participants was 60.8 ± 6.8 years. The age-adjusted prevalence of MAFLD was 38.3, 40.8, 40.1, and 36.5% for the nonexposed, fetal-exposed, childhood-exposed, and adolescence-exposed subgroups, respectively. Compared with nonexposed participants, fetal-exposed participants showed an increased risk of adulthood MAFLD (OR = 1.10, 95% CI 1.00–1.21). The significant association between fetal famine exposure and MAFLD was observed in women (OR = 1.22, 95% CI 1.08–1.37), but not in men (OR = 0.88, 95% CI 0.75–1.03). In age-balanced analyses combining pre-famine and post-famine births as the reference, women exposed to famine in the fetal stage still had an increased risk of MAFLD (OR = 1.15, 95% CI 1.05–1.26). Conclusions: Prenatal exposure to famine showed a sex-specific association with the risk of MAFLD in adulthood.

Objective. To observe the effect of Shou Hui Tong Bian capsule (polygonum multiflorum and aloe-based herbal capsule for cathartic effect) in rapid rehabilitation of joint surgery. Methods. A total of 98 patients undergoing perioperative joint surgery in our hospital from July 2019 to March 2020 were included in the study. According to the situation of arthroscopy and joint replacement therapy, the patients were randomly divided into a control group and an observation group, with 49 cases in each group. The control group was treated with conventional therapy. On the basis of the control group, the patients in the observation group were orally administrated with Shou Hui Tong Bian capsule, 2 capsules/time, 3 times/day. Both groups received continuous treatment for 14 days. The clinical effects, awakening time, postoperative exhaust time, and the number of patients with different degrees of abdominal distension in the four groups before and after treatment were observed and compared. Results. After treatment, the total effective rate of arthroscopy in the control group was 66.7%, which was significantly lower than 83.3% in the observation group ( P < 0.05 ). The total effective rate of joint replacement in the control group was 64.0%, which was significantly lower than 84.0% in the observation group ( P < 0.05 ). After arthroscopic treatment and joint replacement treatment, the recovery time and postoperative exhaust time of borborygmus in the observation group were significantly lower than those in the control group (both P < 0.05 ). After the treatment, the number of patients with different degrees of abdominal distension in the arthroscopic and joint replacement treatment group and the control group was significantly improved ( P < 0.05 ), and the observation group was significantly better than the control group ( P < 0.05 ). Conclusion. The curative effect of Shou Hui Tong Bian capsule on patients undergoing arthroscopic joint surgery and joint replacement during perioperative period is obviously superior to that of conventional treatment. It can effectively improve the total effective rate, shorten the first exhaust time, and increase the number of patients without abdominal distension after treatment. It was safe and effective, and worthy of clinical promotion.

Piezo actuators and giant magnetostrictive actuators are widely used in micropositioning and micromanipulating devices. Due to their limited output stroke, flexure-based displacement amplifiers are usually employed to meet the large-stroke requirements. Although amplifiers increase the stroke of the actuators, they lower the resolution of the motion, making it difficult to obtain positioning of nanometer or even sub-nanometer resolution. To achive very high resolution from these actuators, a compact flexure-based displacement reducer, which shows the capability of obtaining very large reduction ratio, is proposed in this work. The reducer contains two bridge-type flexure mechanisms connected in a way that the output of the reducer equals the difference of the outputs of the two mechanisms (thus is called the bridge-type differential displacement reducer). If the two bridge-type flexure mechanisms are identical, no matter how large the input is, the output will always be 0, indicating an infinite reduction ratio theoretically. Therefore, introducing a slight difference between the two mechanisms can yield a very large reduction ratio. A kinetostatic model for the reducer is developed, base on which a reducer exhibiting a reduction ratio of 100 is designed and prototyped. The results of the kinetostatic model, the finite element model and the experiment agree well with each other, validating the effectiveness of the proposed reducer and the correctness of kinetostatic model.

Background Intrauterine devices (IUD) are widely used all over the world. One of the most serious complications is uterine perforation, and it is very rare for the IUD to penetrate the bladder after perforation. Here we report two cases of IUD migration into the bladder, and review the literature to analyze the possible causes and solutions of such complications. Case presentation Case NO. 1 is a 37-year-old female who presented lower urinary tract symptoms for a year. Cystoscopy showed that a strip of metal penetrated into the bladder, and the surface was covered with stones. The patient underwent cystotomy and foreign body removal under general anesthesia. Case NO. 2 is a 46-year-old woman who previously inserted an IUD in 1998, but she had an unexpected pregnancy in 1999. Her doctor believed that "the IUD had spontaneously expulsed" and a new IUD was inserted after her pregnancy was terminated. Her CT scan showed an IUD on the left side of the bladder and another IUD in the uterus. Her foreign body was removed by cystotomy. Conclusion Patients with IUD should be suggested to check the device regularly, and those who with a missed IUD have to rule out the possibility of IUD migration. For patients with IUD combined with lower urinary tract symptoms, it is necessary to be aware of whether IUD perforation affects the bladder.

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated the embryotoxicity and fetotoxicity of thallium (Tl). However, the effects of prenatal exposure to Tl on birth weight and placental weight and the mediating role of placental weight in the association of Tl with birth weight remain unclear.Methods: We recruited 2,748 participants from the ongoing Prenatal Environment and Offspring Health Cohort (PEOH Cohort) study, which was initiated in 2016 in Guangzhou, China. The Tl concentrations in maternal urine samples collected during the first and third trimester were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Birth weight and placental weight were extracted from maternal medical records.Results: Pregnant women exposed to the highest tertile of Tl in the first trimester (β = −42.7 g, 95% CI: −82.3, −3.1 g) and third trimester (β = −50.6 g, 95% CI: −99.0, −2.3 g) had babies with lower birth weights than those exposed to the lowest tertile. We also found significant negative associations of exposure to Tl concentrations in the first and third trimester with placental weight. Mediation analyses showed that 50.3% (95% CI: 15.9, 79.2%) and 33.5% (95% CI: 1.3, 80.3%) of the effects of Tl exposure in the first and third trimester on birth weight were mediated by decreased placental weight.Conclusion: Our results suggest that prenatal exposure to Tl is negatively associated with birth weight and that this association may be mediated by decreased placental weight.

Background The effects of COVID-19 lockdown measures on maternal and fetal health remain unclear. We examined the associations of COVID-19 lockdown with gestational length and preterm birth (PTB) in a Chinese population. Methods We obtained medical records of 595,396 singleton live infants born between 2015 and 2020 in 5 cities in Guangdong Province, South China. The exposed group (N = 101,900) included women who experienced the COVID-19 Level I lockdown (1/23–2/24/2020) during pregnancy, while the unexposed group (N = 493,496) included women who were pregnant during the same calendar months in 2015–2019. Cumulative exposure was calculated based on days exposed to different levels of emergency responses with different weighting. Generalized linear regression models were applied to estimate the associations of lockdown exposure with gestational length and risk of PTB ( Results The exposed group had a shorter mean gestational length than the unexposed group (38.66 vs 38.74 weeks: adjusted β = − 0.06 week [95%CI, − 0.07, − 0.05 week]). The exposed group also had a higher risk of PTB (5.7% vs 5.3%; adjusted OR = 1.08 [95%CI, 1.05, 1.11]). These associations seemed to be stronger when exposure occurred before or during the 23rd gestational week (GW) than during or after the 24th GW. Similarly, higher cumulative lockdown exposure was associated with a shorter gestational length and a higher risk of PTB. Conclusions The COVID-19 lockdown measures were associated with a slightly shorter gestational length and a moderately higher risk of PTB. Early and middle pregnancy periods may be a more susceptible exposure window.

Letrozole, an aromatase inhibitor that blocks estrogen synthesis by inhibiting the final step of the estrogen biosynthetic pathway, has been used in the applications of a wide range of infertility settings. It has been more than 20 years since the initial clinical trial of letrozole for ovulation induction. In light of the accumulating clinical and basic evidence, the efficacy and safety of letrozole have been identified. This mini review focuses on our current knowledge of the applications and mechanisms of letrozole for female infertility and various questions are put forward about how letrozole could be more effectively used.

Objective To investigate the associations of fat mass in specific regions with cardiometabolic risk factors in Chinese children and adolescents. Patients and Methods This cross-sectional study consisted of 8460 children and adolescents aged 6 to 18 years from Chinese urban areas who underwent dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry for regional fat masses and had cardiometabolic risk factors measured between January 1, 2013, and December 31, 2015. Results In the multivariate model containing arm fat mass, leg fat mass, and trunk fat mass, after adjustment for region, family income, age, puberty development, physical activity, and smoking, higher trunk fat mass was independently associated with greater odds of clustered cardiometabolic risk (odds ratio [OR], 2.21; 95% CI, 1.80-2.72), higher leg fat mass was associated with lower odds of clustered risk (OR, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.59-0.87), and arm fat mass was not significantly associated with clustered risk (OR, 1.22; 95% CI, 0.97-1.55). In the multivariate model including android fat mass, gynoid fat mass, and other covariates, higher android fat mass was positively associated with clustered risk (OR, 2.23; 95% CI, 1.88-2.64), but gynoid fat mass was not associated with clustered risk (OR, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.72-1.03). Analyses for individual risk factors demonstrated similar results. Conclusion Fat stored in different regions has differential influences on cardiometabolic risk in youth. Prospective studies are warranted to evaluate the long-term impacts of regional fat masses in childhood on cardiovascular risk in adulthood.

Beam stability is a critical figure of merit of synchrotron light sources and free electron lasers [1–5]. Beam stability is also an active topic [6] for next-generation storage ring light sources; ...

Modeling the nonlinear load-displacement relations for flexible beams has been a key objective in compliant mechanisms research. There have been several practically useful methods for modeling planar deflections, but less work has been done in modeling spatial deflections. This work proposes the load-displacement relations for rectangular beams by solving the nonlinear governing differential equations of the beams using the power series method and then simplifying the solution by Taylor series expansion and truncation. The solution is validated to be accurate by comparing with two commercial finite element software packages, ANSYS and Abaqus. This comparison shows that this approach is capable of capturing the relevant geometric nonlinearities in the intermediate deflection range defined as 10% of the beam length. The load-displacement relation offers a useful and parameterized tool for understanding the constraint (i.e. stiffness and motion) behavior of rectangular cross-section beams and generating compliant mechanism designs with nonlinear kinetostatic behaviors.

Background Tobacco smoking is a recognized risk factor for many chronic diseases and previous study evidences have indicated that smokers receive smoking cessation service after the diagnosis of chronic diseases increases successful rate in quitting. But the prevalence of tobacco related chronic diseases (TCD) among smokers, as well as the role of TCD diagnosis in smoking cessation is still unclear in China. Methods From June 2016 to December 2017, we sampled 36, 698 residents aged over 18 years by a three stage sampling in Songjiang district, Shanghai. We conducted a cross-sectional study to understand the prevalence of TCD among smokers, and the role of TCD diagnosis in smoking cessation among ex-smokers as well as the smoking cessation attempt among current smokers. Results Over all, the prevalence of current smoking is 19.78% (48.36% for male and 0.22% for female). 15.93% of smokers have stopped smoking successfully (1, 376/8, 636). The prevalence of ten selected TCDs among smokers range from 0.63% (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, COPD) to 36.31% (hypertension). All of 1, 376 ex-smokers had at least one kind of TCD, and 52.33% of them stop smoking after the diagnosis of TCD, the time interval between TCD diagnosis and smoking cessation ranges from 0 to 65 years, with a median of 9 years. Smokers with TCD had higher prevalence of quit smoking, and current smokers with TCD had higher smoking cessation attempt proportion. Conclusions The prevalence of current smoking is still very high among male residents in rural area of Shanghai, and the occurrence of TCD even non-lethal one could provide an opportunity for doctors to assist the smoking cessation among smokers.

Day by day huge amounts data are produced, and evaluation of these data becomes more difficult. The data obtained should provide meaningful, correct, and accurate information. Therefore, all data must be separated into clusters correctly, and the right information from these clusters must be obtained. Having the correct clusters depends on the clustering algorithm that is used. There are many clustering algorithms. The density-based methods are very important among the groups of clustering methods, as they can find arbitrary shapes. An advanced model of the density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) algorithm, called fuzzy neighborhood DBSCAN Gaussian means (FN-DBSCAN-GM), is offered in this study. The main contribution of FN-DBSCAN-GM is to find the parameters automatically and to divide the data into clusters robustly. The effectiveness of FN-DBSCAN-GM has been demonstrated on overlapping datasets (six artificial and two real-life datasets). The performances of these datasets are compared with the percentage of correct classification and validity index. Our experiments showed that this new algorithm was a preferable and robust algorithm.

Intelligent skinlike materials have recently attracted tremendous research interests for employing in electronic skin, soft robotics, and wearable devices. Because the traditional soft matters are ...

In recent years, non-control data attacks have become a popular topic in the field of network security. These attacks, such as data-oriented programming (DOP), do not aim to circumvent the control-flow integrity (CFI) protections; rather, they need corrupt only the security-critical non-control data of the target program. Non-control data attacks have been shown to achieve Turing-complete computation. In this paper, we build a non-control data attack description model and analyse feasible defence strategies. We present a new program behaviour model, i.e., the data-aware finite-state automaton (dFSA). Based on the dFSA, we propose the DOPdefender method, which is a method of defending against non-control data attacks. DOPdefender monitors the target process and is aware of the security-critical non-control data that are expected to be operated at runtime, thus validating the legality of the operation on the security-critical non-control data. DOPdefender can prevent adversaries from corrupting the security-critical non-control data of the target program and defend against existing non-control data attacks. We evaluate our method on a Linux operating system. An effectiveness test and a performance test indicate the effectiveness of DOPdefender in thwarting non-control data attacks with a 28.4% runtime overhead on average for CPU-intensive programs and a 13.5% runtime overhead on average for I/O-intensive programs. In the Limitations Section, we discuss a solution to making our method scalable for large-scale programs under some guiding information.

Summary Background Elective single embryo transfer (eSET) has been increasingly advocated, but concerns about the lower pregnancy rate after reducing the number of embryos transferred have encouraged transfer of multiple embryos. Extended embryo culture combined with electively freezing all embryos and undertaking a deferred frozen embryo transfer might increase pregnancy rate after eSET. We aimed to establish whether elective frozen single blastocyst transfer improved singleton livebirth rate compared with fresh single blastocyst transfer. Methods This multicentre, non-blinded, randomised controlled trial was undertaken in 21 academic fertility centres in China. 1650 women with regular menstrual cycles undergoing their first cycle of in-vitro fertilisation were enrolled from Aug 1, 2016, to June 3, 2017. Eligible women were randomly assigned to either fresh or frozen single blastocyst transfer. The randomisation sequence was computer generated, with block sizes of two, four, or six, stratified by study site. For those assigned to frozen blastocyst transfer, all blastocysts were cryopreserved and a delayed frozen-thawed single blastocyst transfer was done. The primary outcome was singleton livebirth rate. Analysis was by intention to treat. This trial is registered at the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, number ChiCTR-IOR-14005405. Findings 825 women were assigned to each group and included in analyses. Frozen single blastocyst transfer resulted in higher rates of singleton livebirth than did fresh single blastocyst transfer (416 [50%] vs 329 [40%]; relative risk [RR] 1·26, 95% CI 1·14–1·41, p vs nine of 825 [1·1%] in fresh single blastocyst transfer; p=0·16), pregnancy loss (134 of 583 [23·0%] vs 124 of 481 [25·8%]; p=0·29), other obstetric complications, and neonatal morbidity were similar between the two groups. Frozen single blastocyst transfer was associated with a higher risk of pre-eclampsia (16 of 512 [3·1%] vs four of 401 [1·0%]; RR 3·13, 95% CI 1·06–9·30, p=0·029). Interpretation Frozen single blastocyst transfer resulted in a higher singleton livebirth rate than did fresh single blastocyst transfer in ovulatory women with good prognosis. The increased risk of pre-eclampsia after frozen blastocyst transfer warrants further studies. Funding The National Key Research and Development Program of China.

An optimized, thermally activated delayed fluorescence-(TADF)-sensitized fluorescence (TSF) strategy is proposed to boost the electroluminescence efficiency of solution-processed deep blue organic light-emitting diodes (OLED). The TADF sensitizer and the fluorescent emitter with a core-dendron structure emit mostly by a Forster energy transfer process while the Dexter energy transfer is suppressed by spatial separation. In addition, the high-bandgap carbazole terminal substituents are introduced to protect the hyper-fluorescent core by a cascade energy transfer channel. Fluorescent OLEDs based on a core-dendron system achieved a deep-blue emission with Commission Internationale de L’Eclairage (CIE) coordinates of (0.15,0.14) and a high external quantum efficiency of 10.16%. This new TSF system can be used in high efficiency fluorescent OLEDs with 100% exciton utilization, thereby promoting the development of solution-processed blue OLEDs.

With the development of research on noncontrol data attacks and defense, the threat of data-oriented programming (DOP) attacks has attracted increasing attention from the security research community. DOP attacks can manipulate security-critical noncontrol data to alter program behavior without violating control-flow integrity (CFI) and can circumvent the most effective defenses against control-data attacks. Among DOP attacks, the misuse of user input data is a major contributor. Moreover, existing defense methods, e.g., DOPdefender, currently lack security protection for user input data. To effectively defend against DOP attacks, we propose a novel technique, DOPdefenderPlus, which draws on the idea of divide-and-conquer and uses the modular authentication technique to make DOPdefender scalable for complex software that is designed modularly, as well as introduce the Inputguard technique to protect the program input data. The DOPdefenderPlus is an enhanced version of DOPdefender, which overcomes some limitations of DOPdefender. We implement DOPdefenderPlus on a Linux operating system and use it to defend against multiple realistic DOP attacks. We also evaluate the performance of our method, and all the results show that DOPdefenderPlus can overcome the two limitations of DOPdefender while introducing a moderate runtime overhead.

There are fewer researches on the effect of functional group position change on device performance for highly efficient perovskite solar cell. In this work, we take pyridinesulfonic acid as an example, and study the effect of the isomeride: 2- and 3-pyridinesulfonic acid self-assembled monolayer on device performance for highly efficient perovskite solar cell. The efficiency of control device is 14.65% (Hysteresis Index = 0.31) under illumination of a simulated sunlight (AM 1.5G, 100 mW cm−2). Through use of the 3-pyridinesulfonic acid self-assembled monolayer, the device exhibits striking improvements to reach the efficiency of 16.88% (Hysteresis Index = 0.02), which constitutes an enhancement compared to those of 2-pyridinesulfonic acid self-assembled monolayer modified device (16.54%, Hysteresis Index = 0.02). The enhanced photovoltaic performances can be attributed to the larger perovskite grain sizes, and easier passivation of electron transporting layer/perovskite interface, which promote the charge separation, transport and collection.

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and NASA technical reports indicate that the misunderstanding in radiotelephony communications is a primary causal factor associated with operation errors, and a sizable proportion of operation errors lead to read-back errors. We introduce deep learning method to solve this problem and propose a new semantic checking model based on Long Short-Time Memory network (LSTM) for intelligent read-back error checking. A mean-pooling layer is added to the traditional LSTM, so as to utilize the information obtained by all the hidden activation vectors, and also to improve the robustness of the semantic vector extracted by LSTM. A MultiLayer Perceptron (MLP) layer, which can maintain the information of different regions in the concatenated vectors obtained by the mean-pooling layer, is applied instead of traditional similarity function in the new model to express the semantic similarity of the read-back pairs quantitatively. The K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) classifier is used to verify whether the read-back pairs are consistent in semantics according to the output of MLP layer. Extensive experiments are conducted and the results show that the proposed model is more effective and more robust than the traditional checking model to verify the semantic consistency of read-backs automatically. Keywords: Air traffic control, Chinese radiotelephony read-backs, LSTM, Mean pooling, MLP, Semantic checking

ObjectiveTo investigate the factors that influence luteal phase short-acting gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRH-a) long protocol and GnRH-antagonist (GnRH-ant) protocol on pregnancy outcome and quantify the influence. About the statistical analysis, it is not correct for the number of gravidities.MethodsInfertile patients (n = 4,631) with fresh in-vitro fertilization/intracytoplasmic sperm injection (IVF/ICSI) and embryo transfer were divided into GnRH-a long protocol (n =3,104) and GnRH-ant (n =1,527) protocol groups and subgroups G1 (EMT ≤7mm), G2 (7 mm 10 mm) according to EMT on the trigger day. The data were analyzed.ResultsThe GnRH-ant and the GnRH-a long protocols had comparable clinical outcomes in the clinical pregnancy, live birth, and miscarriage rate after propensity score matching. In the medium endometrial thickness of 7–10 mm, the clinical pregnancy rate (61.81 vs 55.58%, P < 0.05) and miscarriage rate (19.43 vs 12.83%, P < 0.05) of the GnRH-ant regime were significantly higher than those of the GnRH-a regime. The EMT threshold for clinical pregnancy rate in the GnRH-ant group was 12 mm, with the maximal clinical pregnancy rate of less than 75% and the maximal live birth rate of 70%. In the GnRH-a long protocol, the optimal range of EMT was >10 mm for the clinical pregnancy rate and >9.5 mm for the live birth rate for favorable clinical outcomes, and the clinical pregnancy and live birth rates increased linearly with increase of EMT. In the GnRH-ant protocol, the EMT thresholds were 9–6 mm for the clinical pregnancy rate and 9.5–15.5 mm for the live birth rate.ConclusionsThe GnRH-ant protocol has better clinical pregnancy outcomes when the endometrial thickness is in the medium thickness range of 7–10 mm. The optimal threshold interval for better clinical pregnancy outcomes of the GnRH-ant protocol is significantly narrower than that of the GnRH-a protocol. When the endometrial thickness exceeds 12 mm, the clinical pregnancy rate and live birth rate of the GnRH-ant protocol show a significant downward trend, probably indicating some negative effects of GnRH-ant on the endometrial receptivity to cause a decrease of the clinical pregnancy rate and live birth rate if the endometrial thickness exceeds 12 mm.

Early detection of influenza-like symptoms can prevent widespread flu viruses and enable timely treatments, particularly in the post-pandemic era. Mobile sensing leverages an increasingly diverse set of embedded sensors to capture fine-grained information of human behaviors and ambient contexts, and can serve as a promising solution for influenza-like symptom recognition. Traditionally, handcrafted and high level features of mobile sensing data are extracted by manual feature engineering and convolutional/recurrent neural network respectively. In this work, we apply graph representation to encode the dynamics of state transitions and internal dependencies in human behaviors, leverage graph embeddings to automatically extract the topological and spatial features from graph inputs, and propose an end-to-end graph neural network (GNN) model with multi-channel mobile sensing input for influenzalike symptom recognition based on people's daily mobility, social interactions, and physical activities. Using data generated from 448 participants, we show that GNN with GraphSAGE convolutional layers significantly outperforms baseline models with handcrafted features. Furthermore, we use GNN interpretability method to generate insights (e.g., important nodes and graph structures) about the importance of mobile sensing for recognizing Influenza-like symptoms. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work that applies graph representation and graph neural network on mobile sensing data for graph-based human behavior modeling and health symptoms prediction.

Purpose It is of obvious interest to identify clinical prognosis-related oncogenes in HNSCC (head and neck squamous cell carcinoma). Methods Based on the available datasets within the TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas) and the GEO (Gene Expression Omnibus) databases, the potential mechanism of action of the SEC61G (SEC61 translocon subunit gamma) gene in HNSCC tumorigenesis was explored by several bioinformatics approaches. Results There was a higher expression level of SEC61G in primary HNSCC tumor tissues than in normal tissues. Moreover, highly expressed SEC61G was statistically associated with the poor survival prognosis of HNSCC patients. When HPV (human papilloma virus) was considered, we also observed a relatively lower proportion of “arm-level gain” and “high amplification” types of CNA (copy-number alteration) in the HNSCC-HPV (+) group than in the HNSCC-HPV (−) group. Additionally, we identified SEC61G CAN-correlated genes, such as CCT6A (chaperonin-containing TCP1 subunit 6A) and HUS1 (HUS1 checkpoint clamp component), and found a correlation between SEC61G copy-number segments and prognosis related to overall and progression-free survival intervals of HNSCC patients. Moreover, the molecular regulation mechanisms of the spliceosome, ribosome, proteasome degradation, cell adhesion, and immune infiltration of B and CD8+ T cells may contribute to the involvement of SEC61G in the pathogenesis of HNSCC. Conclusions The SEC61G gene was identified for the first time as a prognostic biomarker of HNSCC. The detailed underlying mechanism merits further research.

Background: Male infertility (MI) affects almost 5% adult men worldwide, and 75% of these cases are unexplained idiopathic. There are limitations in the current treatment due to the unclear mechanism of MI, which highlight the urgent need for a more effective strategy or drug. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) prescriptions have been used to treat MI for thousands of years, but their molecular mechanism is not well defined. Methods: Aiming at revealing the molecular mechanism of TCM prescriptions on MI, a comprehensive strategy integrating data mining, network pharmacology, and molecular docking verification was performed. Firstly, we collected 289 TCM prescriptions for treating MI from National Institute of TCM Constitution and Preventive Medicine for 6 years. Then, Core Chinese Materia Medica (CCMM), the crucial combination of TCM prescriptions, was obtained by the TCM Inheritance Support System from China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. Next, the components and targets of CCMM in TCM prescriptions and MI-related targets were collected and analyzed through network pharmacology approach.Results: The results showed that the molecular mechanism of TCM prescriptions for treating MI are regulating hormone, inhibiting apoptosis, oxidant stress and inflammatory. Estrogen signaling pathway, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, HIF-1 signaling pathway, and TNF signaling pathway are the most important signaling pathways. Molecular docking experiments were used to further validate network pharmacology results. Conclusions: This study not only discovers CCMM and the molecular mechanism of TCM prescriptions for treating MI, but may be helpful for the popularization and application of TCM treatment.

Context Obesity management prior to infertility treatment remains a challenge. To date, results from randomized clinical trials involving weight loss by lifestyle interventions have shown no evidence of improved live birth rate. Objective This work aimed to determine whether pharmacologic weight-loss intervention before in vitro fertilization and embryo transfer (IVF-ET) can improve live birth rate among overweight or obese women. Methods We conducted a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial across 19 reproductive medical centers in China, from July 2017 to January 2019. A total of 877 infertile women scheduled for IVF who had a body mass index of 25 or greater were randomly assigned to receive orlistat (n = 439) or placebo (n = 438) treatment for 4 to 12 weeks. The main outcome measurement was the live birth rate after fresh ET. Results The live birth rate was not significantly different between the 2 groups (112 of 439 [25.5%] with orlistat and 112 of 438 [25.6%] with placebo; P = .984). No significant differences existed between the groups as to the rates of conception, clinical pregnancy, or pregnancy loss. A statistically significant increase in singleton birth weight was observed after orlistat treatment (3487.50 g vs 3285.17 g in the placebo group; P = .039). The mean change in body weight during the intervention was −2.49 kg in the orlistat group, as compared to −1.22 kg in the placebo group, with a significant difference (P = .005). Conclusion Orlistat treatment, prior to IVF-ET, did not improve the live birth rate among overweight or obese women, although it was beneficial for weight reduction.

With the development of cloud computing, more and more video service providers use services from cloud providers. A video service provider can construct a scalable video streaming platform with high availability by the cloud services. Typically, a video service provider uploads its video data to a cloud data center. Then, the cloud data center distributes the video data to its edge cloud CDN nodes. Usually, the cloud data center links with its edge cloud CDN nodes by high-capacity links, spanning different geographical regions. Video traffic across the cloud data center and the edge cloud CDN nodes of a cloud provider, brings on large operational cost to the cloud provider. How to reduce the video traffic cost is important for a cloud provider. Therefore, to reduce the video traffic cost, we propose a set of algorithms based on network maximum flow and minimum cut, called Netcut-way. The proposed Netcut-way, charged by the peak-bandwidth billing model, consists of three parts. The first is peak bandwidth calculation. The second is video segment segmentation. The third is video distribution route. Through extensive simulations, we demonstrate that Netcut-way can effectively reduce the operational cost of cloud providers in video traffic across data centers.

It is popular that neural graph-based models are applied in existing aspect-based sentiment analysis (ABSA) studies for utilizing word relations through dependency parses to facilitate the task with better semantic guidance for analyzing context and aspect words. However, most of these studies only leverage dependency relations without considering their dependency types, and are limited in lacking efficient mechanisms to distinguish the important relations as well as learn from different layers of graph based models. To address such limitations, in this paper, we propose an approach to explicitly utilize dependency types for ABSA with type-aware graph convolutional networks (T-GCN), where attention is used in T-GCN to distinguish different edges (relations) in the graph and attentive layer ensemble is proposed to comprehensively learn from different layers of T-GCN. The validity and effectiveness of our approach are demonstrated in the experimental results, where state-of-the-art performance is achieved on six English benchmark datasets. Further experiments are conducted to analyze the contributions of each component in our approach and illustrate how different layers in T-GCN help ABSA with quantitative and qualitative analysis.