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Background: According to previous studies on professional English course teaching, the evaluation of course teaching was positive, but the vast majorities focus on medical English literature reading, professional English vocabulary, and professional English translation. As an alternative, the course design based on academic learning needs under the outcome-oriented education/model emphasizes the improvement of students’ comprehensive ability in oral expression, literature reading, writing, and academic communication. Objectives: The objective of this study was to analyze nursing postgraduates’ opinions on learning the outcome-oriented academic English course. Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study. A total of 150 first-year nursing postgraduates enrolled in the “Academic Professional English for Nursing Postgraduates” course. After completing the course learning, students scanned QR codes generated by the online questionnaire and completed it anonymously within 48 h. Results: The students who participated in this course strongly believed that it “helped them strengthen their English speakability” (4.8 points), “made them more confident to participate in international academic conferences and exchanges in the future” (4.8 points), and “helped them apply English more in the nursing professional field in the future” (4.7 points). Conclusions: The implementation of outcome-oriented course teaching helps students to understand the research of foreign scholars and effectively express their own research content with English as a tool. It motivates them to continuously use English for professional and academic communication.

BackgroundThis study was intended to construct a brand new prognostic nomogram after combine clinical and pathological characteristics to increases prognostic value in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.MethodsA total of 1,634 patients were included. Subsequently, the tumor tissues of all patients were prepared into tissue microarrays. AIPATHWELL software was employed to explore tissue microarrays and calculate the tumor-stroma ratio. X-tile was adopted to find the optimal cut-off value. Univariate and multivariate Cox analyses were used to screen out remarkable characteristics for constructing the nomogram in the total populations. A novel prognostic nomogram with clinical and pathological characteristics was constructed on the basis of the training cohort (n=1,144). What’s more performance was validated in the validation cohort (n=490). Clinical-pathological nomogram were assessed by concordance index, time-dependent receiver operating characteristic, calibration curve and decision curve analysis.ResultsThe patients can divide into two groups with cut-off value of 69.78 for the tumor-stroma ratio. It is noteworthy that the survival difference was noticeable (PPConclusionsAs evidently revealed by the research findings, tumor-stroma ratio is an independent prognostic factor in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. The clinical-pathological nomogram has an incremental value compared TNM stage in predicting overall survival.

Pulsar timing array (PTA) is expected to detect gravitational wave background (GWB) in the nanohertz band within the next decade. This provides an opportunity to test the gravity theory and cosmology. A typical data analysis method to detect GWB is cross-correlation analysis. The overlap reduction function (ORF) plays an important role in the correlation data analysis of GWB. The present approach to dealing with the intricate integration in ORF is to use short-wave approximation to drop out the tricky terms. In this paper, we provide the full analytic expression of the ORF for PTA without any approximation for all possible polarizations allowed by modifications of general relativity. Compared with the numerical simulation and short-wave approximation, our results are more efficient and widely applicable. Especially for the scalar-longitudinal mode where the short-wave approximation is not available, our analytical expression is particularly significant.

The time delay interferometry (TDI) is an algorithm proposed to suppress the laser frequency noise in space-borne gravitational wave detectors. As a post-processing technique, it is implemented by constructing a virtual equal arm interferometer through an appropriate combination of the time-shifted data streams. Such an approach is tailored to the intrinsic feature of the space-based gravitational wave detection, namely, the distances between spacecraft are governed by the orbit dynamics and thus can not be held constant. Among different implementations, the geometric TDI was introduced as a method of exhaustion to evaluate the second-generation TDI combinations. The applications of the algebraic approach based on computational algebraic geometry, on the other hand, are mostly restricted to the first and the modified first-generation TDI. Besides, geometric TDI furnishes an intuitive physical interpretation about the synthesis of the virtual optical paths. In this paper, the geometric TDI is utilized to investigate the modified second-generation TDI combinations in conjunction with a ternary search algorithm. The distinction between the second-generation and modified second-generation TDI solutions is elaborated regarding the rate of change of the arm lengths with respect to the opposite cyclic directions. For the sixteen-link combinations, forty second-generation TDI solutions are recovered, among which nine of them are identified as the modified second-generation ones.

Gut bacterial β-glucuronidases (GUS) play an important role in deconjugation of various O-glucuronides, which are tightly linked with the drug-induced intestinal toxicity. Increasing evidence has indicated that inhibition of bacterial GUS could alleviate GUS-associated intestinal toxicity, but the potent and broad-spectrum inhibitors against multiple bacterial GUS have been rarely reported. This study aimed to find potent and broad-spectrum GUS inhibitors from Ginkgo biloba. It was found that amentoflavone displayed relatively strong inhibition on three GUS including CpGUS, SpasGUS and EcGUS. Further investigations demonstrated that amentoflavone could inhibit GUS-mediated PNPG hydrolysis in a dose-dependent manner with IC50 values of 2.36 μM, 2.88 μM and 3.43 μM for CpGUS, SpasGUS and EcGUS, respectively. Inhibition kinetic studies showed that amentoflavone functioned as a non-competitive inhibitor against all tested GUS with Ki values of less than 2 μM. Docking simulations indicated that amentoflavone could tightly bind on allosteric sites of three GUS mainly via hydrogen bonding interactions, and the number of hydroxyl groups of amentoflavone played crucial roles in these interactions. Collectively, our findings suggested that amentoflavone was a potent broad-spectrum inhibitor against bacterial GUS, which can be used as a promising lead compound for developing novel agents to alleviate GUS-associated intestinal toxicity.

ObjectiveTo explore the level and influencing factors of frontline nurses’ post-traumatic growth (PTG) during COVID-19 epidemic.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted in February 2020 in three hospitals in China. The Post-traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI) was used to investigate the PTG of frontline nurses. Data on related factors, including demographic characteristics and subjective variables, were collected. The Event-Related Rumination Inventory was used to assess rumination. Pearson’s or Spearman’s correlation was calculated for bivariate analysis. Independent sample t-tests or one-way analysis of variance and multiple linear regression analysis were used to examine the related factors.ResultsA total of 179 frontline nurses were recruited, and 167 were included in the analyses. The mean PTG score was 70.53±17.26. The bivariate analyses showed that deliberate rumination was modestly positively correlated with PTG (r=0.557, pConclusionsThe PTG of frontline nurses was at a medium to high level and was influenced by working years, self-confidence in frontline work, awareness of risk, psychological intervention or training and deliberate rumination. It is necessary to strengthen psychological guidance and training for frontline nurses and promote their deliberate rumination on epidemic events to improve their PTG.

PurposeThe success of social commerce depends on consumers' willingness to participate in social commerce activities. Practitioners have attached increasing attention to facilitating social commerce intention with influencer strategies. However, theoretical understanding or empirical investigation on the impact of digital influencers on consumers' social commerce intention is limited. This study aims to provide new insights into the drivers of two forms of social commerce intention: social shopping and social sharing intention. Based on the theoretical lens of social power, this study answers how digital influencers affect consumer satisfaction and ultimately boost their intention to conduct social commerce activities.Design/methodology/approachA field interview is conducted to determine the appropriate social power forms. An online survey on a large social commerce site in China with 310 respondents is conducted to test the proposed model.FindingsResults indicate that expert power and referent power derived from digital influencers predict most of the consumers' economic satisfaction, whereas referent power and reciprocity power explain consumers' social satisfaction. Economic satisfaction affects social shopping and social sharing intention, whereas social satisfaction only influences social sharing intention.Originality/valueThis study sheds new light on the theoretical understanding of the effect of digital influencers through a lens of social power. It provides new insight into the determinants of social commerce intention. It also compensates for the neglect of social satisfaction in the social commerce context.

Two mononuclear copper(II) compounds, [Cu(HL)2](ClO4)2 · (H2L)ClO4 · 3H2O (1) and [CuL2] (2), where L is the monoanionic form of N′-(1-(pyridin-2-yl)ethylidene)isonicotinohydrazide (HL), have been ...

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is one of the most common aggressive malignancies worldwide, particularly in northern China. The absence of specific early symptoms and biomarkers leads to late-stage diagnosis, while early diagnosis and risk stratification are crucial for improving overall prognosis. We performed UPLC-MS/MS on 450 ESCC patients and 588 controls consisting of a discovery group and two validation groups to identify biomarkers for early detection and prognosis. Bioinformatics and clinical statistical methods were used for profiling metabolites and evaluating potential biomarkers. A total of 105 differential metabolites were identified as reliable biomarker candidates for ESCC with the same tendency in three cohorts, mainly including amino acids and fatty acyls. A predictive model of 15 metabolites [all-trans-13,14-dihydroretinol, (±)-myristylcarnitine, (2S,3S)-3-methylphenylalanine, 3-(pyrazol-1-yl)-L-alanine, carnitine C10:1, carnitine C10:1 isomer1, carnitine C14-OH, carnitine C16:2-OH, carnitine C9:1, formononetin, hyodeoxycholic acid, indole-3-carboxylic acid, PysoPE 20:3, PysoPE 20:3(2n isomer1), and resolvin E1] was developed by logistic regression after LASSO and random forest analysis. This model held high predictive accuracies on distinguishing ESCC from controls in the discovery and validation groups (accuracies > 89%). In addition, the levels of four downregulated metabolites [hyodeoxycholic acid, (2S,3S)-3-methylphenylalanine, carnitine C9:1, and indole-3-carboxylic acid] were significantly higher in early cancer than advanced cancer. Furthermore, three independent prognostic markers were identified by multivariate Cox regression analyses with and without clinical indicators: a high level of MG(20:4)isomer and low levels of 9,12-octadecadienoic acid and L-isoleucine correlated with an unfavorable prognosis; the risk score based on these three metabolites was able to stratify patients into low or high risk. Moreover, pathway analysis indicated that retinol metabolism and linoleic acid metabolism were prominent perturbed pathways in ESCC. In conclusion, metabolic profiling revealed that perturbed amino acids and lipid metabolism were crucial metabolic signatures of ESCC. Both panels of diagnostic and prognostic markers showed excellent predictive performances. Targeting retinol and linoleic acid metabolism pathways may be new promising mechanism-based therapeutic approaches. Thus, this study would provide novel insights for the early detection and risk stratification for the clinical management of ESCC and potentially improve the outcomes of ESCC.

A crucial challenge to the ongoing endeavor of spaceborne gravitational wave (GW) detection resides in the laser phase noise, typically 7 to 8 orders of magnitude above the inevitable noise. The arm locking technique was proposed to suppress the noise in pre-stabilized laser beams. Based on the feedback control theory, it is implemented by appropriate design of the signal routing architecture, particularly the controllers' transfer functions. Theoretically and experimentally, the technique has been demonstrated to be capable of suppressing the laser phase noise by approximately 2-4 orders of magnitude while taking into account various aspects such as the gain and distribution of nulls in the Bode plot and the laser frequency pulling associated with the Doppler frequency subtraction. Consequently, the resultant noise floor is composed of the sources attributed to the clock jitter, optical bench motion, test mass fluctuations, shot-noise phase fluctuations at the photodetectors, whereas the magnitudes of these noises largely remain unchanged during the process. Besides, the original GW signals are deformed through the arm-locking control loop and therefore bear specific features governed by the associated arm-locking scheme. Nonetheless, the remaining laser phase noise from the arm-locking feedback routing settles within the capability threshold of the time-delay interferometry (TDI). In this regard, it is generally understood that the output of arm locking furnishes the input of TDI, through which the residual noise is further reduced to the desired level at a post-processing stage. In this work, we investigate the specific schemes regarding how the arm locking output is processed further by the TDI algorithm. Specific forms of the TDI combinations are derived in accordance with suppressed laser phase noise and deformed signals of GW.

We generalize the combinatorial algebraic approach first proposed by Dhurandhar et al. to construct various classes of modified second-generation time-delay interferometry (TDI) solutions. The main idea behind the algorithm is to enumerate, in a given order, a specific type of commutator between two monomials defined by the products of particular time-displacement operators. On the one hand, the above commutators can be systematically rewritten as the elements of a left ideal, defined by the l.h.s. of the relevant equation for the TDI solution. On the other hand, these commutators are shown to vanish if we only keep up the first-order contributions regarding the rate of change of armlengths. In other words, each commutator furnishes a valid TDI solution pertaining to the given type of modified second-generation combinations. In this work, the original algorithm, which only involves time-delay operators, is extended by introducing the time-advance ones and then utilized to seek solutions of the Beacon, Relay, Monitor, Sagnac, and fully symmetric Sagnac types. We discuss the relation between the present scheme's solutions and those obtained by the geometric TDI approach, a well-known method of exhaustion of virtual optical paths. In particular, we report the results on novel Sagnac-inspired solutions that cannot be straightforwardly obtained using the geometric TDI algorithm. The average response functions, floor noise power spectral densities, and sensitivity functions are evaluated for the obtained solutions.

A pair of new oxidovanadium(V) complexes, [VOLL1] (1) and [VOLL2] (2), where L is the dianionic form of the hydrazone ligand N′-(2-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzylidene)-3-methylbenzohydrazide (H2L)...

Gut bacterial β-glucuronidases (GUS) play an important role in deconjugation of various

In this paper, the electromagnetic-thermal cosimulation method based on large scale parallel discontinuous Galerkin time-domain (DGTD) method and finite-element timedomain (FETD) method is proposed. The DGTD method is utilized for EM simulation, while the FETD method is adopted for thermal simulation. The temperature-dependent properties of electrical material is considered in the modeling. In order to further improve the capability of the proposed electromagnetic-thermal co-simulation method, the large-scale message passing interface (MPI) parallel technique is applied to both the DGTD and FETD solution process. Numerical examples are given to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method. Index Terms—discontinuous Galerkin time-domain (DGTD) method, finite-element time-domain (FETD) method, message passing interface (MPI)

Direct observation of gravitational waves offers us numerous novel possibilities to further explore the Universe. In practice, the efficiency of the experimental facility for a given gravitational wave source can be measured in terms of the sensitivity function of the instrument. The latter essentially indicates the least incident amplitude required in order to achieve the desired level of the signal-to-noise ratio. Among others, the resultant sensitivity function depends on the specific polarization state of the incident gravitational wave as well as the spatial layout of the detector and its orientation to the wave source. Theoretically, Einstein's general relativity predicts two tensor polarization modes, from a total of six possible modes arising from an arbitrary perturbation of the spacetime metric. Therefore, in this context, the feasibility of measuring nontensorial polarization states provides access to an alternative theory of gravity. In the present study, we analytically evaluate the response functions for arbitrary time-delay interferometry combinations while enumerating all possible polarization modes. The derivation is accomplished by separating the average on the all-sky solid angle from the remaining expression, which, in turn, gives rise to a few factors independent of the time-delay interferometry combination in question. Moreover, we applied the obtained results to the LISA and TianQin missions, and the asymptotic behavior of the resultant sensitivity functions is analyzed and discussed. Among others, it is observed that, for Sagnac combinations, the averaged response function of the breathing mode attains zero at specific discrete frequencies. Such a frequency value corresponds to a multiple of the reciprocal of the one-way light propagation time along the detector arm, irrelevant to the orientation of the wave source. For all six polarization modes, the present findings can be readily applied to an arbitrary time-delay interferometry combination with improved efficiency and accuracy.

With the continuous improvement of the technological level of integrated circuits (ICs), the operating frequency and integration density are becoming higher and higher, which brings huge challenges to the simulation of integrated circuits. On one hand, the wave effect becomes noticeable as the working frequency increases. For instance, the electromagnetic coupling between the interconnects and package will lead to the signal integrity problem. In this situation, the simulation accuracy cannot be guaranteed if only the classical circuit theory is adopted. Therefore, full-wave electromagnetic simulation method must be included to implement electromagnetic-circuital cosimulation. On the other hand, high integration level will not only raise the density of the devices and interconnects, but also increase the power density, resulting in difficulties in thermal management. As a result, the mutual effects between EM and thermal must also be taken into account. To sum up, the electromagnetic-circuital-thermal multiphysics simulation becomes necessary and significant in the design of ICs. In this paper, an electromagnetic-thermal co-simulation method based on discontinuous Galerkin time-domain (DGTD) method and finite-element time-domain (FETD) method with higher order basis functions is proposed. The DGTD method is utilized for EM simulation [2], while the FETD method is adopted for thermal simulation [3]–[5]. The higher order hierachical basis function is utilized to decrease the mesh density and reduce the number of spatial unknowns. The large-scale parallel computing technique based on message passing interface (MPI) is employed to accelerate both the DGTD and FETD algorithm. Numerical examples are computed on distributed clusters to validate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method.

Background: Panax notoginseng (Burkill) F. H. Chen is a Chinese medicinal plant of the Araliaceae family commonly used in the treatment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases in Asia and elsewhere. To meet an increase in Chinese herbal medicine market demand, most P. notoginseng is planted artificially, and is vulnerable to various plant diseases. Root rot disease, in particular, causes substantial P. notoginseng yield reduction and economic losses. High-depth next-generation sequencing technology was used to analyze the rhizosphere and root endophyte microbial communities of P. notoginseng to compare the characteristics of these two communities between healthy and root rot diseased P. notoginseng plants, and to clarify the relationship between these microbial communities and root rot disease.Results: The P. notoginseng rhizosphere microbial community was more diverse than the root endophyte community, and the difference in functional pathways between healthy and diseased P. notoginseng plants was greater in the root endophyte than in the rhizosphere communities. Multi-database annotation results showed that the highest number of endophytic bacteria occurred in the roots of diseased plants. The number of carbohydrate-active enzymes database families was also higher in diseased roots. The RND antibiotic efflux function was higher in the healthy samples. A high abundance of Variovorax paradoxus and Pseudomonas fluorescens occurred in the healthy and diseased root endophyte communities, respectively. Ilyonectria mors-panacis and Pseudopyrenochaeta lycopersici were most abundant in the diseased samples. In addition, the complete genome of two unknown Flavobacteriaceae species and one unknown Bacteroides species were obtained based on binning analysis.Conclusions: The rhizosphere and root endophyte microbial communities of healthy and root rot diseased P. notoginseng showed marked differences in diversity and functional pathways. The higher mapping values obtained for the diseased samples reflected the occurrence of root rot disease at the molecular level. Variovorax paradoxus and Pseudomonas fluorescens may be antagonistic bacteria of root rot in P. notoginseng, whereas Ilyonectria mors-panacis and Pseudopyrenochaeta lycopersici appear to be P. notoginseng root rot pathogens. Our study provides a theoretical basis for understanding the occurrence of root rot in P. notoginseng and for further research on potential biological control agents.

Two mononuclear zinc(II) and manganese(II) compounds, [ZnL 2 ] ( 1 ) and [MnL(HL)]ClO 4 ( 2 ), where L is the monoanionic form of N’ -(1-(pyridin-2-yl)ethylidene)isonicotinohydrazide (HL), and HL is the zwitterionic form of HL, have been prepared and characterized by elemental analyses, IR and UV-Vis spectroscopy, and single-crystal X-ray crystallographic determination. Compound 1 contains a neutral [ZnL 2 ] complex molecule. Compound 2 contains a [MnL(HL)] + complex cation and one perchlorate anion. The metal atoms in the complexes are in octahedral coordination. The hydrazone ligands coordinate to the metal atoms through the pyridine N, imine N, and enolate O atoms. The compounds were investigated for their antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus , Escherichia coli , and Candida albicans .

Recently, several randomized controlled trials on the use of cholinesterase inhibitors or memantine as treatments for cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease (CIND-PD), Parkinson's disease with dementia (PDD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) were completed. The present study provided a meta-analysis of these studies to evaluate the efficacy of cholinesterase inhibitors and memantine on CIND-PD, PDD and DLB. The Cochrane Library, Pubmed, Embase and Web of Science databases were searched to retrieve eligible studies. As primary efficacy outcomes, cognitive function, global impression, behavioral symptoms and motor function were selected, while falling and adverse events were regarded as safety outcomes. Of note, domain-specific cognitive function was assessed as a primary efficacy outcome and falling as a safety outcome, which, to the best of our knowledge, has not been studied previously in CIND-PD, PDD and DLB. A total of 15 trials were included in the present meta-analysis. The results revealed that treatment with cholinesterase inhibitors resulted in improvements in cognitive function, the clinician's global impression, behavioral symptoms and motor function, in accordance with the results of previous studies. Furthermore, it was revealed that cholinesterase inhibitors had a significant effect on attention, processing speed, executive functions, memory and language; however, they did not improve visuospatial cognition compared with placebos. Memantine had a significant effect on attention, processing speed and executive functions. In addition, cholinesterase inhibitors and memantine did not significantly reduce falling. It was demonstrated that an increased number of adverse events occurred in the pooled cholinesterase inhibitors and memantine group, compared with that in the placebo group (risk ratio (RR)=1.09; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.04-1.16; P=0.001); however, in the subgroup analysis, only the rivastigmine group experienced significantly more adverse events than the placebo group (85 vs. 73%; RR=1.18; 95% CI: 1.08-1.29; P=0.0001), but donepezil and memantine did not produce any significant adverse events. In conclusion, cholinesterase inhibitors and memantine have an effect not only on global cognitive function and motor function, but also on attention, processing speed, executive functions, memory and language. However, careful monitoring of the side effects of rivastigmine may be required. Further clinical trials are required to verify these conclusions.

A new mononuclear dioxomolybdenum(VI) complex, [MoO 2 L 1 ], and a new linear trinuclear nickel(II) complex, [Ni{NiL 2 (μ 1 -η 1 :η 0 -OAc)(μ 2 -η 1 :η 1 -OAc)} 2 ]·H 2 O, where L 1 is the dianionic form of N,N’ -bis(5-fluorosalicylidene)-1,3-propanediamine (H 2 L 1 ), L 2 is the dianionic form of N,N’ -bis(5-fluoro-2-hydroxybenzylidene)-2-hydroxy-1,3-propanediamine (H 2 L 2 ), have been synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, FT-IR spectroscopy, and single-crystal X-ray determination. The Mo atom in the molybdenum complex is coordinated by four donor atoms of the Schiff base ligand, and two oxo groups, forming an octahedral coordination. In the nickel complex, there are three bridges across the Ni-Ni atom pairs, involving two phenolate O atoms of a Schiff base ligand, and an O–C–O moiety of a μ 2 -η 1 :η 1 -OAc group. The central Ni atom is located on an inversion center and has octahedral coordination involving four bridging O atoms from two Schiff base ligands in the equatorial plane and two O atoms from two μ 2 -η 1 :η 1 -OAc ligands in the axial positions. The coordination around the terminal Ni atoms is also octahedral, with two imino N and two phenolate O atoms from a Schiff base ligand defining the equatorial plane, and with two O atoms respectively from a μ 1 -η 1 :η 0 -OAc and a μ 2 -η 1 :η 1 -OAc ligands occupying the axial positions. The molybdenum complex has excellent catalytic property for sulfoxidation reactions.

The principal aim of the space-based gravitational wave detectors is to explore the gravitational waves in the 0.1 mHz-1 Hz frequency band. To maximize the potential capability of the experimental apparatus regarding the instrument performance, one needs to acquire accurate information on its sensitivity limit. The sensitivity curve in question, by definition, depends on the amplitudes of signal and noise involved in the measurement. In this work, we explicitly derive, under rather universal assumptions irrelevant to the detailed form of the time-delay interferometry combination, general results of the sensitivity functions. The key feature of the present approach is that both the all-sky and polarization average can be factorized and henceforth evaluated analytically. The resultant expressions are then applied to a variety of time-delay interferometry combinations, inclusively for the optimal channels. In particular, the asymptotical forms of the sensitivity functions are obtained at the high and low frequency limits, and the subsequential implications are analyzed. When compared with the approaches in terms of numerical integration, the obtained formulism furnishes a more straightforward as well as efficient access to the relevant signal noise ratios for the spaceborne gravitational wave detectors.

The ongoing development of the space-based laser interferometer missions is aiming at unprecedented gravitational wave detections in the millihertz frequency band. The spaceborne nature of the experimental setups leads to a degree of subtlety regarding the otherwise overwhelming laser frequency noise. The cancellation of the latter is accomplished through the time-delay interferometry technique. Moreover, to eventually achieve the desired noise level, the phase fluctuations of the onboard ultra-stable oscillator must also be suppressed. This can be fulfilled by introducing sideband signals which, in turn, give rise to an improved cancellation scheme accounting for the clock-jitter noise. Nonetheless, for certain Sagnac-type interferometry layouts, it can be shown that resultant residual clock noise found in the literature can be further improved. In this regard, we propose refined cancellation combinations for two specific clock noise patterns. This is achieved by employing the so-called geometric time-delay interferometry interpretation. It is shown that for specific Sagnac combinations, the residual noise diminishes significantly to attain the experimentally acceptable sensitivity level. Moreover, we argue that the derived combination, in addition to the existing ones in the literature, furnishes a general-purpose cancellation scheme that serves for arbitrary time-delay interferometry combinations. The subsequential residual noise will only involve factors proportional to the commutators between the delay operators. Our arguments reside in the form of the clock noise expressed in terms of the coefficients of the generating set of the first module of syzygies, the linear combination of which originally constitutes the very solution for laser noise reduction.

Objective The clock‐drawing test (CDT) is a widely used screening tool for detecting cognitive decline. However, normative data for Chinese individuals are scarce. Our study aimed to provide standardized values for the three quantitative CDT scoring methods that were tailored for Chinese‐speaking adults in Shijiazhuang City and explore the discriminant validity of the CDT scores in patients with acute ischemic stroke. Methods We conducted the CDT among 418 healthy individuals aged between 35 and 84 years. The CDT was administered and scored by five raters using the method derived from the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Rouleau's, and Babins’ scoring systems. The influence of age, education, and sex on the performance in the CDT was analyzed. Furthermore, 336 patients with acute ischemic stroke were enrolled to explore the discriminant validity of CDT scores. Results In all three scoring systems, CDT scores were significantly correlated with age and years of education but not with sex. Normative data stratified for age and years of education were established. Interrater and intersystem reliability were high in our study. CDT total scores and subscores showed significant differences between stroke patients and healthy individuals. Conclusions Our study provides CDT normative data using three quantitative scoring methods for Chinese‐speaking adults in Shijiazhuang City. Age and education level were the key factors that affected the CDT scores. CDT total scores and subscores provided good discriminant validity for patients with acute ischemic stroke., Age and education level were the key factors that affected the CDT scores. Normative data stratified for age and years of education were established. CDT total scores and subscores provided good discriminant validity for patients with acute ischemic stroke.

Background: Primary lymphoma of bone (PLB) is an extremely rare malignancy arising in the skeletal system. There is no consensus over the best definition of PLB. Most of the published articles are single-institutional retrospective studies with a limited sample size. The rarity of PLB and discrepancies on diagnostic criteria has resulted in a vague understanding of PLB. Methods We retrospectively analyzed the clinical characteristics and prognostic factors of 2558 PLB patients who were registered in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database from 1973 to 2016. Survival rates were calculated using the Kaplan–Meier method. The effects of various factors on survival outcomes were analyzed by using the log-rank test. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted by using the Cox proportional hazards model to determine independent prognostic factors. Results: The median follow-up time of all eligible patients was 58 months. There seemed no sex preponderance in PLB incidence. The most involved sites are axial skeletons. The most common histological subtype was diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. The 3-, 5-, 10-, and 20-year overall survival (OS) rates were 70.70%, 65.70%, 54.40% and 39.50%, respectively. PLB patients whose primary tumor sites were appendicular and craniofacial skeletons had a significant survival advantage [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.694, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.552–0.872; HR = 0.729, 95% CI 0.597–0.889, respectively] over those with axial skeletons as primary tumor sites. Patients with Hodgkin lymphoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL)–mature B-cell lymphoma, and NHL-precursor-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma also had a significant OS advantage (HR = 0.392, 95% CI 0.200–0.771; HR = 0.826, 95% CI 0.700–0.973; and HR = 0.453, 95% CI 0.223–0.923, respectively). Patients with Ann Arbor stage III–IV at diagnosis were at higher risk of death than those with stage I–II (HR = 1.348, 95% CI 1.107–1.641). Chemotherapy was an independent favorable prognostic factor (HR = 0.734, 95% CI 0.605–0.890). Conclusions: Primary anatomic site, histology type, higher Ann Arbor stage and chemotherapy were independent prognostic factors. Chemotherapy played a pivotal role in PLB treatment.