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Power substation equipment with multiple configurations use metallic blades to switch to different service configurations. When subjected to earthquakes, a closed blade can produce great coupling effects between two interconnected pieces of the equipment, which substantially affect their dynamic properties and seismic responses. However, knowledge of the coupling effects and their production mechanism is currently insufficient. To investigate coupling effect characteristics, an ultra-high voltage (UHV) disconnect switch with different configurations was tested on a full-scale shaking table. Test results proved that the main blade was a weak connection, which leads inconsistent resonance among different pieces. Furthermore, phase traces of the blade confirm its coupling effects are produced by a nonlinear mechanism. Combined testing results and a numerical calculation were employed to quantitatively estimate the interaction forces raised by the blade. Based on a frequency-domain characteristic analysis, it was found that the nonlinearity was contributed by by the unsteady connection of the blade. Furthermore, this study proved that the blade connection cannot be modeled by a single linear element with any physical parameters. • Full-scale shaking table testing on large equipment with multiple configurations. • Mass effect of the switchable blade varying with configurations of equipment. • Closed blade showing weakly-constraint effects on interconnected pieces. • Nonlinearity of the blade interactions produced by unsteady boundary condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil mechanics, sometimes, deals with the mixing of soil such as in deep mixing of soil and mixing of soil in tunnel boring machines, i.e., earth pressure balance (EPB-TBM) shields. The geometry of mixing apparatus such as size of stirring rods plays an important role to achieve higher degree of mixing. Moreover, the effect of gap-graded particles being mixed on degree of mixture should also be evaluated. It is important to estimate the extent of mixing of the soil to confirm the required performance of such phenomenon. This study aims to propose a simple method to quantify the degree of mixture of solid particles stirred by rotation of rods with varying diameters at different mixing rates. Discrete element method (DEM) is used to simulate the stirring process and evaluate the degree of mixture at each rotation based on the spatial distribution of different types of particles. To reduce complexity in the mixing process of particles, this study focuses on monodispersed (i.e., uniformly graded) and bidispersed (i.e., narrowly gap-graded) spherical particles where inter-particle cohesion is not considered. The DEM results reveal spatial variation of the degree of mixture (d m) in the given volume; however, its mean (d m ¯) increases with the rotation number of stirring rods. Besides, d m ¯ depends on the size of stirring rods whereas the mixing rate is less sensitive to d m ¯ for the non-cohesive sandy particles. The d m ¯ of narrowly gap-graded particles cases is slightly on the lower side as compared to that of uniformly graded particles. The results of the DEM simulations are validated through the model test. [Display omitted] • The mixing process for the chamber of shield tunnel machine is simulated using DEM. • Grid-based mixing index is presented for uniformly graded and gap-graded particles. • The mixing rate is less sensitive to the mean degree of mixture (d m ¯) of particles. • The ratio of diameters of stirring rods to cylinder shows an optimum value of 20. • The result of d m ¯ from DEM simulation is validated through model test. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies and studies a new security/privacy issue for automobile vehicles. Specifically, attackers can infer the engine speed of a vehicle by observing and analyzing the real-time scheduling sequences on the Engine Control Unit (ECU). First, we present the problem model of engine-triggered task executed on ECU. And then, we introduce two Engine-triggered Task Period Tracing methods (DFT-based ETPT and FRSP-based ETPT) to infer the period variation of engine-triggered task. Finally, simulation experiments are conducted to demonstrate the effect of this new timing side-channel information leakage with our proposed methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heavy aerosol pollution has occurred frequently over China during wintertime in recent years. Compared to source regions with relatively developed economy (e.g., eastern China), the pollution receptor regions with special topography, such as the Twain-Hu Basin (THB) over central China, have been less analyzed in terms of the main drivers of pollution episodes. In this study, we used the Weather Research and Forecasting model with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) with improved integrated process rate (IPR) analysis to evaluate the contributions of individual physical and chemical processes to PM 2.5 variation for a typical aerosol pollution episode in THB in January 2019, and quantified the effects of regional transport and basin terrain on chemical production of PM 2.5. Regional transport of air pollutants from the north was estimated to increase the PM 2.5 concentration in THB by 43.5%, attributed mainly to the elevated advection and chemical processes. Furthermore, regional transport enhanced the chemical production of PM 2.5 concentration by 110.2 μg m−3, and the number would decline to 7.1 without the effect of basin terrain. Our findings highlighted the critical roles of regional transport of gases precursors and basin terrain on chemical production of aerosols in THB, and emphasized the importance of regional joint controls of emissions for air quality improvement. • Advection and chemical process were major contributors to a PM 2.5 episode in THB. • Regional transport elevated the contribution of chemical reaction to PM 2.5 growth. • Basin terrain accelerated the secondary PM 2.5 formation via pollutant accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, exploring effective measures to reduce multiple toxic metals accumulation in rice grains is an urgent issue to be tackled. Pot experiments were thus conducted to explore the effects and mechanisms of foliar spraying with composite sols of silicon (Si) and selenium (Se) during tillering to booting stage on diminishing cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) translocation to rice grains and affiliated physiological and biochemical responses in rice seedlings grown in Cd + Pb-polluted soils (positive control). Results showed that Cd and Pb contents in leaves or grains were distinctly below the positive control by the sols. Compared to the positive control, transcriptions of Cd transporter-related genes including OsLCT1 , OsCCX2, OsHMA2 and OsPCR1 genes in leaves, and OsLCT1 , OsCCX2, TaCNR2 and OSPCR1 in peduncles were downregulated by the increasing sols. Meanwhile, Se-binding protein 1 was evidently upregulated, together to retard Cd and Pb translocation to rice grains. The sols not only upregulated transcriptions of Lhcb1, RbcL, and OsBTF3 genes and production of psbA, Lhcb1 and RbcL proteins, but also increased the chlorophylls contents and RuBP carboxylase activities in the leaves, improving photosynthesis. The sols restrained ROS production from NADPH oxidases, but activated glutathione peroxidase, alleviating oxidative stress and damage. Additionally, Se was significantly enriched and was existed as selenomethionine in the rice grains. However, Pb transporter-related genes remain to be specified. Thus, the composite sols have potential to reduce Cd and Pb accumulation, mitigate oxidative damage, and promote photosynthesis and organic Se enrichment in rice plants under Cd and Pb combined pollution. • Composite sols of Si and Se restrained ROS overproduction while activated GPx isozymes in rice plants exposed to Cd and Pb. • The composite sols controlled Cd transporter-related genes, reducing Cd translocation to rice leaves and grains. • Selenium-binding protein 1 was upregulated by the composite sols, retarding Cd and Pb transfer to rice grains. • The composite sols upregulated photosynthesis-related genes, proteins and RuBP carboxylase in rice leaves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The standby-sparing (SS) is a promising technique which deploys the dual-processor platform, i.e., one primary processor and one spare processor, to achieve fault tolerance for real-time systems. In the existing SS framework, all applications have their backup copies on the spare processor, but, in practice, not all applications on a system are equally important to the system. Some low critical tasks may be traded off for other system objectives. Motivated by this, in this paper, we integrate the concept of criticality into the SS framework. Such integration enables the SS framework to further reduce energy consumption. We propose an offline approach to determine an energy-efficient frequency for the primary processor. Additionally, as the cluster systems are emerging as the mainstream computing platform, we consider the SS technique on the cluster/island systems and propose an algorithm to determine the energy-efficient algorithm for such systems. We evaluate the proposed approach on synthetic tasks and real-platforms. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed framework in terms of energy efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the association between physical activity (PA) levels and quality of life (QOL) in elderly lung cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy in China., Methods: Two hundred eight elderly lung cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy were recruited by convenient sampling at two tertiary A hospitals in Guangxi from October 2023 to March 2024. The evaluation of PA Levels by the International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form (IPAQ-SF) was conducted, and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Lung (FACT-L) was utilized to measure the QOL. Multiple linear regression was used to identify factors correlated with QOL., Results: Out of 208 elderly patients with lung cancer who were undergoing chemotherapy, 119 (57.20%) had low-level PA, 79 (38.00%) had moderate-level PA, and 10 (4.80%) had high-level PA. The mean score of FACT-L was 95.41 ± 15.01, and FACT-L was correlated with age, residency, education level, and per capita monthly household income (P < 0.05). Moderate to high PA levels explained 19.4% of the variation in QOL among elderly patients undergoing chemotherapy for lung cancer., Conclusion: Elderly lung cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy exhibited lower levels of PA. The increase in PA levels was associated with better QOL. Treatment options for elderly lung cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy may involve PA plans to boost their QOL. It is vital to evaluate the patient's physical condition and functional level when creating these plans to ensure safety and effectiveness, thereby increasing patient engagement and maximizing enhancements in their QOL., Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethics approval: The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University’s Research Ethics Committee approved the study (2024-K035-01). The study followed the Declaration of Helsinki and related guidelines and protocols. After being informed of the risks and benefits of the study, each participant provided written consent. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Frailty is common among older adults with chronic pain, and early identification is crucial in preventing adverse outcomes like falls, disability, and dementia. However, effective tools for identifying frailty in this population remain limited. This study aimed to explore frailty risk factors in older adults with chronic pain and to develop 9 machine learning models for frailty identification. The Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP) method was used to explain the models. The Random Forest (RF) model performed best with 0.822 accuracy, 0.797 precision, and an AUC of 0.881. The variables in the RF model included: age, BMI, education level, pain duration, number of pain sites, pain level, depression, and Activity of Daily Living (ADL). Pain level, depression, and ADL were the 3 most important variables in the RF model. This model helps healthcare providers to identify frailty early, enabling timely interventions to improve patient outcomes and promote healthy aging., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None, (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Large language models (LLMs) have garnered substantial attention due to their promising applications in diverse domains. Nevertheless, the increasing size of LLMs comes with a significant surge in the computational requirements for training and deployment. Memristor crossbars have emerged as a promising solution, which demonstrated a small footprint and remarkably high energy efficiency in computer vision (CV) models. Memristors possess higher density compared to conventional memory technologies, making them highly suitable for effectively managing the extreme model size associated with LLMs. However, deploying LLMs on memristor crossbars faces three major challenges. Firstly, the size of LLMs increases rapidly, already surpassing the capabilities of state-of-the-art memristor chips. Secondly, LLMs often incorporate multi-head attention blocks, which involve non-weight stationary multiplications that traditional memristor crossbars cannot support. Third, while memristor crossbars excel at performing linear operations, they are not capable of executing complex nonlinear operations in LLM such as softmax and layer normalization. To address these challenges, we present a novel architecture for the memristor crossbar that enables the deployment of state-of-the-art LLM on a single chip or package, eliminating the energy and time inefficiencies associated with off-chip communication. Our testing on BERT Large showed negligible accuracy loss. Compared to traditional memristor crossbars, our architecture achieves enhancements of up to 39× in area overhead and 18× in energy consumption. Compared to modern TPU/GPU systems, our architecture demonstrates at least a 68× reduction in the area-delay product and a significant 69% energy consumption reduction.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine the changes in supportive care needs, quality of life and social support during different chemotherapy cycles among elderly colorectal cancer patients., Methods: This prospective longitudinal study recruited 160 elderly colorectal cancer patients using convenience sampling at a hospital in Guangxi between August 2023 and April 2024. To assess supportive care needs, quality of life, and social support, we used a short form of the Supportive Care Needs Survey (SCNS-SF34), a Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-colorectal (FACT-C), and a perceived social support scale (PSSS) prior to chemotherapy, as well as after the first, third, and sixth cycles. Repeated measures analysis of variance was used to validate the changes over time in supportive care needs, quality of life, and social support., Results: 155 participants completed all questionnaire sessions across the six cycles. From pre-chemotherapy until after the sixth cycle of chemotherapy, the extent of physical and daily living requirements among all respondents fluctuated between 47.23% and 88.26%, psychological needs ranged from 60.84% to 97.67%, patient care and support needs ranged from 83.75% to 99.35%, healthcare system and information needs varied from 85.98% to 99.00%, while the level of sexual needs decreased from 1.51% to 0.65%. The mean SCNS-SF34 scores for these participants ranged between 103.81 ± 2.28 and 144.10 ± 1.08. Significant increases over time were seen for all domains of SCNS-SF34 ( F =126.99, 347.41, 65.00, 72.34, 160.15, p <0.001), keeping a clear upward trend, except for sexual needs( F =0.712, p =0.546). The mean FACT-T scores dropped from 68.80 ± 1.00 to 51.24 ± 1.40, while the mean PSSS scores dropped from 55.77 ± 0.83 to 43.28 ± 1.05. The scores of FACT-T and PSSS showed statistically significant differences ( F =231.21, 112.28, p <0.001), maintaining clear downward trends., Conclusion: During chemotherapy, elderly colorectal cancer patients continue to require high levels of supportive care, while their quality of life and social support gradually decline. This study offers healthcare practitioners a foundational understanding to identify and address the supportive care needs of elderly colorectal cancer patients across various chemotherapy phases, which facilitates the development of tailored strategies aimed at enhancing patients' quality of life., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Lian, Hou, Liu, Li, Chen and Ling.)

Background: Incentive salience processes are important for the development and maintenance of addiction. Eye characteristics such as gaze fixation time, pupil diameter, and spontaneous eyeblink rate (EBR) are theorized to reflect incentive salience and may serve as useful biomarkers. However, conventional cue exposure paradigms have limitations that may impede accurate assessment of these markers., Objective: This study sought to evaluate the validity of these eye-tracking metrics as indicators of incentive salience within a virtual reality (VR) environment replicating real-world situations of nicotine and tobacco product (NTP) use., Methods: NTP users from the community were recruited and grouped by NTP use patterns: nondaily (n=33) and daily (n=75) use. Participants underwent the NTP cue VR paradigm and completed measures of nicotine craving, NTP use history, and VR-related assessments. Eye-gaze fixation time (attentional bias) and pupillometry in response to NTP versus control cues and EBR during the active and neutral VR scenes were recorded and analyzed using ANOVA and analysis of covariance models., Results: Greater subjective craving, as measured by the Tobacco Craving Questionnaire-Short Form, following active versus neutral scenes was observed (F1,106=47.95; P<.001). Greater mean eye-gaze fixation time (F1,106=48.34; P<.001) and pupil diameter (F1,102=5.99; P=.02) in response to NTP versus control cues were also detected. Evidence of NTP use group effects was observed in fixation time and pupillometry analyses, as well as correlations between these metrics, NTP use history, and nicotine craving. No significant associations were observed with EBR., Conclusions: This study provides additional evidence for attentional bias, as measured via eye-gaze fixation time, and pupillometry as useful biomarkers of incentive salience, and partially supports theories suggesting that incentive salience diminishes as nicotine dependence severity increases., (© Kelly Elizabeth Courtney, Weichen Liu, Gianna Andrade, Jurgen Schulze, Neal Doran. Originally published in JMIR Serious Games (https://games.jmir.org).)

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is commonly accompanied by learning and memory deficits. This study aimed to demonstrate the effects of probiotic Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis A6 (BAA6) on behaviour and memory function in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs). The results showed that BAA6 treatment ameliorated spatial working memory deficits and inhibited hippocampal neuron loss in SHRs. The levels of neurotransmitters such as acetylcholine, dopamine, and norepinephrine, and the brain derived neurotrophic factor increased and that of glutamate decreased in the brain tissue of SHRs after BAA6 administration. Moreover, BAA6 reduced the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α and IL-1β, and increased the levels of anti-inflammatory IL-10 and antioxidant glutathione in SHRs. 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing showed that BAA6 treatment changed the gut microbiota composition. BAA6 promoted beneficial Lactobacillus , Romboutsia , Blautia , and Turicibacter , and decreased the enrichment of bacterial genera such as Dietzia , Sporosarcina , Brevibacterium , NK4A214 &#95;group, Atopostipes , and Facklamia negatively associated with neurotransmitter release and anti-inflammatory effects in SHRs. Together, these results suggested that BAA6 improved memory function by ameliorating hippocampal damage, abnormal neurotransmitter release and cerebral inflammation by reshaping the gut microbiota in SHRs. This study provides a scientific basis for the development and application of BAA6 as a promising dietary intervention to reduce the risk of ADHD.

Fungal keratitis (FK) is a refractory keratitis caused by excessive inflammation and fungal damage. Excessive inflammation can lead to tissue damage and corneal opacity, resulting in a poor prognosis for FK. Oxymatrine (OMT) is a natural alkaloid, which has rich pharmacological effects, such as antioxidant and anti-inflammation. However, its antifungal activity and the mechanism of action in FK have not been elucidated. This study confirmed that OMT suppressed Aspergillus fumigatus growth, biofilm formation, the integrity of fungal cell and conidial adherence. OMT not only effectively reduced corneal fungal load but also inflammation responses. OMT lessened the recruitment of neutrophils and macrophages in FK. In addition, OMT up-regulated the expression of Nrf2 and down-regulated the expression of IL-18, IL-1β, caspase-1, NLRP3 and GSDMD. Pre-treatment with Nrf2 inhibitor up-regulated the expression of IL-1β, IL-18, caspase-1, NLRP3 and GSDMD supressed by OMT. In conclusion, OMT has efficient anti-inflammatory and antifungal effects by suppressing fungal activity and restricting pyroptosis via Nrf2 pathway. OMT is considered as a potential option for the treatment of FK., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The objective of the present study was to investigate the potential role of immunization against INH on follicular development, serum reproductive hormone (FSH, E 2 , and P 4 ) concentrations, and reproductive performance in beef cattle. A total of 196 non-lactating female beef cattle (4-5 years old) with identical calving records (3 records) were immunized with 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, or 2.0 mg [(T1, n = 58), (T2, n = 46), (T3, n = 42) and (T4, n = 36), respectively] of the pcISI plasmid. The control (C) group (n = 14) was immunized with 1.0 mL 0.9% saline. At 21d after primary immunization, all beef cattle were boosted with half of the primary immunization dose. On day 10 after primary immunization, the beef cattle immunized with INH DNA vaccine evidently induced anti-INH antibody except for the T1 group. The T3 group had the greatest P/N value peak among all the groups. The anti-INH antibody positive rates in T2, T3 and T4 groups were significantly higher than that in C and T1 groups. RIA results indicated that serum FSH concentration in T2 group increased markedly on day 45 after booster immunization; the E 2 amount in T3 group was significantly increased on day 10 after primary immunization, and the levels of E 2 also improved in T2 and T3 groups after booster immunization; the P 4 concentration in T2 group was significantly improved on day 21 after primary immunization. Ultrasonography results revealed that the follicles with different diameter sizes were increased, meanwhile, the diameter and growth speed of ovulatory follicle were significantly increased. Furthermore, the rates of estrous, ovulation, conception, and twinning rate were also significantly enhanced. These findings clearly illustrated that INH DNA vaccine was capable of promoting the follicle development, thereby improving the behavioral of estrous and ovulation, eventually leading to an augment in the conception rates and twinning rate of beef cattle., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Meng, Li, Xiao, Liu, Gao, Gong, Lan and Wang.)

Background: The geriatric nutritional risk index (GNRI) has been wildly used to predict the prognosis of patients with solid cancer, but it's value in postoperative complications remains unclear. The aim of our study was to systematically explore the value of the GNRI in postoperative complications in patients with solid cancer., Method: The study conducted a systematic literature search using electronic databases to investigate the influence of the GNRI on postoperative complications in patients with solid cancer. The search covered articles published up until May 2023. The odds ratio (OR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) was employed to assess the effect of GNRI on postoperative complications., Result: A total of 11 studies with 11,002 patients were enrolled in our meta-analysis. The results suggested that patients with a low GNRI have a higher risk of experiencing postoperative complications (OR=2.51, 95%CI 2.05-3.02, z=9.86, p<0.001), a higher risk of suffering Clavien-Dindo (CD) grades≥2 complications(OR=2.24, 95%CI 1.84-2.73, z=8.01, p<0.001), a higher risk of suffering infection (OR=1.85, 95%CI 1.18-2.88, z=2.70, p=0.007) and a higher risk of suffering respiratory complications(OR = 2.94, 95%CI: 1.56-5.55, z=3.31, p=0.001)., Conclusion: Based on existing evidence, the GNRI was a valuable predictor of postoperative complications in patients with solid cancer., Systematic Review Registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display&#95;record.php?RecordID=434299, identifier CRD42023434299., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Liu, Li, Lian, Hou and Ling.)

Objective: Eye-tracking technology is commonly used for identifying objects of visual attention. However, applying this technology to virtual reality (VR) applications is challenging. This report analyzes the performance of two gaze-to-object mapping (GTOM) algorithms applied to eye-gaze data acquired during a "real-world" VR cue-reactivity paradigm., Methods: Two groups of participants completed a VR paradigm using an HTC Vive Pro Eye. The gazed objects were determined by the reported gaze rays and one of two GTOM algorithms - naïve ray-casting (n=18) or a combination of ray-casting and Tobii's G2OM algorithm (n=18). Percent gaze duration was calculated from 1-second intervals before each object interaction to estimate gaze accuracy. The object volume of maximal divergence between algorithms was determined by maximizing the difference in Hedge's G effect sizes between small and large percent gaze duration distributions. Differences in percent gaze duration based on algorithm and target object size were tested with a mixed ANOVA., Results: The maximum Hedge's G effect sizes differentiating large and small target objects was observed at an 800cm 3 threshold. The combination algorithm performed better than the naïve ray-casting algorithm ( p =.003, η p 2 =.23), and large objects (>800cm 3 ) were associated with a higher gaze duration percentage than small objects (≤800cm 3 ; p <.001, η p 2 =.76). No significant interaction between algorithm and size was observed., Conclusions: Results demonstrated that Tobii's G2OM method outperformed naïve ray-casting in this "real-world" paradigm. As both algorithms show a clear decrease in performance for detecting objects with volumes <800cm 3 , we recommend using gaze-interactable objects >800cm 3 for future HTC Vive Pro Eye applications.

Addition is a fundamental computer arithmetic operation that is widely performed in microprocessors, digital signal processors, and application-specific processors. The design of a high-speed and energy-efficient adder is thus useful and important for practical applications. In this context, this paper presents the designs of novel asynchronous carry look-ahead adders (CLAs) viz. a standard CLA (SCLA) and a block CLA (BCLA). The proposed CLAs are monotonic, dual-rail encoded, and are realized according to return-to-zero handshake (RZH) and return-to-one handshake (ROH) protocols using a 28-nm CMOS process technology. The proposed BCLA has a slight edge over the proposed SCLA, and the proposed BCLA reports the following optimizations in design metrics such as cycle time (delay), area, and power compared to a recently presented state-of-the-art asynchronous CLA for a 32-bit addition: (i) 32.6% reduction in cycle time, 29% reduction in area, 4.3% reduction in power, and 35.5% reduction in energy for RZH, and (ii) 31.4% reduction in cycle time, 28.9% reduction in area, 4.4% reduction in power, and 34.4% reduction in energy for ROH. Also, the proposed BCLA reports reductions in cycle time and power/energy compared to many other asynchronous adders., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Balasubramanian, Liu. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Background: Various nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) against COVID-19 continue to have an impact on socioeconomic and population behaviour patterns. However, the effect of NPIs on notifiable infectious diseases remains inconclusive due to the variability of the disease spectrum, high-incidence endemic diseases and environmental factors across different geographical regions. Thus, it is of public health interest to explore the influence of NPIs on notifiable infectious diseases in Yinchuan, Northwest China., Methods: Based on data on notifiable infectious diseases (NIDs), air pollutants, meteorological data, and the number of health institutional personnel in Yinchuan, we first fitted dynamic regression time series models to the incidence of NIDs from 2013 to 2019 and then estimated the incidence for 2020. Then, we compared the projected time series data with the observed incidence of NIDs in 2020. We calculated the relative reduction in NIDs at different emergency response levels in 2020 to identify the impacts of NIPs on NIDs in Yinchuan., Results: A total of 15,711 cases of NIDs were reported in Yinchuan in 2020, which was 42.59% lower than the average annual number of cases from 2013 to 2019. Natural focal diseases and vector-borne infectious diseases showed an increasing trend, as the observed incidence in 2020 was 46.86% higher than the estimated cases. The observed number of cases changed in respiratory infectious diseases, intestinal infectious diseases and sexually transmitted or bloodborne diseases were 65.27%, 58.45% and 35.01% higher than the expected number, respectively. The NIDs with the highest reductions in each subgroup were hand, foot, and mouth disease (5854 cases), infectious diarrhoea (2157 cases) and scarlet fever (832 cases), respectively. In addition, it was also found that the expected relative reduction in NIDs in 2020 showed a decline across different emergency response levels, as the relative reduction dropped from 65.65% (95% CI: -65.86%, 80.84%) during the level 1 response to 52.72% (95% CI: 20.84%, 66.30%) during the level 3 response., Conclusions: The widespread implementation of NPIs in 2020 may have had significant inhibitory effects on the incidence of respiratory infectious diseases, intestinal infectious diseases and sexually transmitted or bloodborne diseases. The relative reduction in NIDs during different emergency response levels in 2020 showed a declining trend as the response level changed from level 1 to level 3. These results can serve as essential guidance for policy-makers and stakeholders to take specific actions to control infectious diseases and protect vulnerable populations in the future., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

In this study, we examined China's Young Thousand Talents (YTT) program and evaluated its effectiveness in recruiting elite expatriate scientists and in nurturing the returnee scientists' productivity. We find that YTT scientists are generally of high caliber in research but, as a group, fall below the top category in pre-return productivity. We further find that YTT scientists are associated with a post-return publication gain across journal-quality tiers. However, this gain mainly takes place in last-authored publications and for high-caliber (albeit not top-caliber) recruits and can be explained by YTT scientists' access to greater funding and larger research teams. This paper has policy implications for the mobility of scientific talent, especially as early-career scientists face growing challenges in accessing research funding in the United States and European Union.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread worldwide in unprecedented speed, and diverse negative impacts have seriously endangered human society. Accurately forecasting the number of COVID-19 cases can help governments and public health organizations develop the right prevention strategies in advance to contain outbreaks. In this work, a long-term 6-month COVID-19 pandemic forecast in second half of 2021 and a short-term 30-day daily ahead COVID-19 forecast in December 2021 are successfully implemented via a novel nanophotonic reservoir computing based on silicon optomechanical oscillators with photonic crystal cavities, benefitting from its simpler learning algorithm, abundant nonlinear characteristics, and some unique advantages such as CMOS compatibility, fabrication cost, and monolithic integration. In essence, the nonlinear time series related to COVID-19 are mapped to the high-dimensional nonlinear space by the optical nonlinear properties of nanophotonic reservoir computing. The testing-dataset forecast results of new cases, new deaths, cumulative cases, and cumulative deaths for six countries demonstrate that the forecasted blue curves are awfully close to the real red curves with exceedingly small forecast errors. Moreover, the forecast results commendably reflect the variations of the actual case data, revealing the different epidemic transmission laws in developed and developing countries. More importantly, the daily ahead forecast results during December 2021 of four kinds of cases for six countries illustrate that the daily forecasted values are highly coincident with the real values, while the relevant forecast errors are tiny enough to verify the good forecasting competence of COVID-19 pandemic dominated by Omicron strain. Therefore, the implemented nanophotonic reservoir computing can provide some foreknowledge on prevention strategy and healthcare management for COVID-19 pandemic., Competing Interests: Conflict of interestThe authors declare that they have no conflict of interest., (© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2022, Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.)

The proliferation and refinement of affordable virtual reality (VR) technologies and wearable sensors have opened new frontiers in cognitive and behavioral neuroscience. This chapter offers a broad overview of VR for anyone interested in leveraging it as a research tool. In the first section, it examines the fundamental functionalities of VR and outlines important considerations that inform the development of immersive content that stimulates the senses. In the second section, the focus of the discussion shifts to the implementation of VR in the context of the neuroscience lab. Practical advice is offered on adapting commercial, off-the-shelf devices to a researcher's specific purposes. Further, methods are explored for recording, synchronizing, and fusing heterogeneous forms of data obtained through the VR system or add-on sensors, as well as for labeling events and capturing game play. The reader should come away with an understanding of fundamental considerations that need to be addressed in order to launch a successful VR neuroscience research program., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.)

Objective: Despite studies reporting alterations in the brain networks of patients with ADHD, alterations in the modularity of white matter (WM) networks are still unclear., Method: Based on the results of module division by generalized Louvain algorithm, the modularity of ADHD was evaluated. The correlation between the modular changes of ADHD and its clinical characteristics was analyzed., Results: The participation coefficient and the connectivity between modules of ADHD increased, and the modularity coefficient decreased. Provincial hubs of ADHD did not change, and the number of connector hubs increased. All results showed that the modular segregation of WM networks of ADHD decreased. Modules with reduced modular segregation are mainly responsible for language and motor functions. Moreover, modularity showed evident correlation with the symptoms of ADHD., Conclusion: The modularity changes in WM network provided a novel insight into the understanding of brain cognitive alterations in ADHD.

Dynamic multiobjective optimization problem (DMOP) denotes the multiobjective optimization problem, which contains objectives that may vary over time. Due to the widespread applications of DMOP existed in reality, DMOP has attracted much research attention in the last decade. In this article, we propose to solve DMOPs via an autoencoding evolutionary search. In particular, for tracking the dynamic changes of a given DMOP, an autoencoder is derived to predict the moving of the Pareto-optimal solutions based on the nondominated solutions obtained before the dynamic occurs. This autoencoder can be easily integrated into the existing multiobjective evolutionary algorithms (EAs), for example, NSGA-II, MOEA/D, etc., for solving DMOP. In contrast to the existing approaches, the proposed prediction method holds a closed-form solution, which thus will not bring much computational burden in the iterative evolutionary search process. Furthermore, the proposed prediction of dynamic change is automatically learned from the nondominated solutions found along the dynamic optimization process, which could provide more accurate Pareto-optimal solution prediction. To investigate the performance of the proposed autoencoding evolutionary search for solving DMOP, comprehensive empirical studies have been conducted by comparing three state-of-the-art prediction-based dynamic multiobjective EAs. The results obtained on the commonly used DMOP benchmarks confirmed the efficacy of the proposed method.

Background: Craving is a clinically important phenotype for the development and maintenance of nicotine addiction. Virtual reality (VR) paradigms are successful in eliciting cue-induced subjective craving and may even elicit stronger craving than traditional picture-cue methods. However, few studies have leveraged the advances of this technology to improve the assessment of craving., Objective: This report details the development of a novel, translatable VR paradigm designed to both elicit nicotine craving and assess multiple eye-related characteristics as potential objective correlates of craving., Methods: A VR paradigm was developed, which includes three Active scenes with nicotine and tobacco product (NTP) cues present, and three Neutral scenes devoid of NTP cues. A pilot sample (N=31) of NTP users underwent the paradigm and completed subjective measures of nicotine craving, sense of presence in the VR paradigm, and VR-related sickness. Eye-gaze fixation time ("attentional bias") and pupil diameter toward Active versus Neutral cues, as well as spontaneous blink rate during the Active and Neutral scenes, were recorded., Results: The NTP Cue VR paradigm was found to elicit a moderate sense of presence (mean Igroup Presence Questionnaire score 60.05, SD 9.66) and low VR-related sickness (mean Virtual Reality Sickness Questionnaire score 16.25, SD 13.94). Scene-specific effects on attentional bias and pupil diameter were observed, with two of the three Active scenes eliciting greater NTP versus control cue attentional bias and pupil diameter (Cohen d=0.30-0.92). The spontaneous blink rate metrics did not differ across Active and Neutral scenes., Conclusions: This report outlines the development of the NTP Cue VR paradigm. Our results support the potential of this paradigm as an effective laboratory-based cue-exposure task and provide early evidence of the utility of attentional bias and pupillometry, as measured during VR, as useful markers for nicotine addiction., (©Weichen Liu, Gianna Andrade, Jurgen Schulze, Neal Doran, Kelly E Courtney. Originally published in JMIR Serious Games (https://games.jmir.org), 15.02.2022.)

Syphilis, a sexually transmitted infectious disease caused by the bacterium treponema pallidum, has re-emerged as a global public health issue with an estimated 12 million people infected each year. Understanding the impacts of health awareness and behaviors on transmission dynamics of syphilis can help to establish optimal control strategy in different regions. In this paper, we develop a multiple-stage SIRS epidemic model taking into account the public health awareness and behaviors of syphilis. First, the basic reproduction number R 0 is obtained, which determines the global dynamics behaviors of the model. We derive the necessary conditions for implementing optimal control and the corresponding optimal solution for mitigation syphilis by using Pontryagin's Maximum Principle. Based on the data of syphilis in Ningxia from 2006 to 2018, the parameterizations and model calibration are carried out. The fitting results are in good agreement with the data. Moreover, sensitivity analysis shows that the public awareness induced protective behaviors C e , compliance of condom-induced preventability ε and treatment for the primary syphilis m 1 play an important role in mitigating the risk of syphilis outbreaks. These results can help us gain insights into the epidemiology of syphilis and provide guidance for the public health authorities to implement health education programs., Competing Interests: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper. All authors read and agree to submit this manuscript to your journal., (© 2021 The Authors.)