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Zhuangzhi Zhou,1 Yao Chen,2 Na Tan,1 Li Hu3 1Department of Dermatology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Neurosurgery, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Nursing, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, People’s Republic of China Correspondence : Li Hu, Email 993602708@qq.comBackground: Extramammary Paget’s disease (EMPD) is a rare skin cancer with unclear pathogenesis, insidious progression, and high recurrence rate. The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical features and postoperative recurrence factors of primary EMPD.Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of 40 patients with primary EMPD who underwent wide local excision surgery at a single medical center between 2009 and 2019. Risk factors for recurrence of primary EMPD were analyzed using multivariate binary logistic regression.Results: The study included 40 patients with primary EMPD, comprising 31 males (77.5%) and 9 females (22.5%), with a median age of 75.52 years (range 52– 99 years). The most common lesion location was the scrotum (22 cases, 55.0%), followed by the vulva, penis, scrotum, underarm and anus. Multivariable regression analysis revealed significant differences in the presence of ill-defined tumour borders, exudation and nodules in the primary lesion affecting the relapse of primary EMPD (p< 0.05).Conclusion: Our findings indicate that ill-defined tumour borders, exudation and nodules in the primary site should be considered as independent risk factors for disease recurrence, which may provide useful suggestions for the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of primary EMPD.Keywords: extramammary paget’s disease, factors, recurrence, postoperative, retrospective

ABSTRACTThe secrecy performance of wireless networks powered up by a dedicated power beacon (PB) is addressed in this work. Particularly, the closed-form expression of the secrecy outage probability (SOP) under the presence of multiple eavesdroppers is given. The considered networks are asymmetric since there are multiple eavesdroppers but only a single legitimate receiver. As a consequence, two wiretap schemes are employed, namely, non-colluding and colluding schemes, to take advantage of multiple eavesdroppers. To draw insights from the derived framework, the asymptotic framework of the SOP under the high transmit power regime is also provided. Next, Monte Carlo simulations are provided to validate the theoretical foundations of the proposed approach. Our findings show that by increasing the transmit power from −10 dB to 30 dB, the SOP ameliorates almost a thousand times. Additionally, the SOP is a monotonic decreasing function with a time-switching ratio. We also make comparisons with work in the literature in which the full-duplex relay is employed to help the legitimate link. Numerical results illustrate that the proposed network outperforms those described in the literature. Particularly, through reliance on the setup, the SOP under the proposed system is better than those of the literature by about twofold.

ABSTRACTThe average transmit power and coverage probability (Pcov) of uplink energy harvesting-enabled long-range networks are investigated in the present paper. Particularly, we model the end-device (EDs) according to the homogeneous Poisson point process while the power beacon is randomly distributed on the circle in the middle of the network. All EDs rely on the harvested energy to perform their operations and transmissions. Under this context, the upper bound of the average transmit power of an end-device is derived in the closed-form expression. The signal-to-noise-ratio condition of the coverage probability is given in the closed-form expression as well. Simulation results are provided to corroborate the accuracy of the derived mathematical framework as well as to feature the impact of some key parameters on the considered metrics. Our findings unveil that increasing either the number of power beacons or their transmit power will monotonically ameliorate the Pcov. Nevertheless, rising the average number of EDs will significantly decline the Pcov's performance.

Terrestrial networks form the fundamental infrastructure of modern communication systems, serving more than 4 billion users globally. However, terrestrial networks are facing a wide range of challenges, from coverage and reliability to interference and congestion. As the demands of the 6G era are expected to be much higher, it is crucial to address these challenges to ensure a robust and efficient communication infrastructure for the future. To address these problems, Non-terrestrial Network (NTN) has emerged to be a promising solution. NTNs are communication networks that leverage airborne (e.g., unmanned aerial vehicles) and spaceborne vehicles (e.g., satellites) to facilitate ultra-reliable communications and connectivity with high data rates and low latency over expansive regions. This article aims to provide a comprehensive survey on the utilization of network slicing, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML), and Open Radio Access Network (ORAN) to address diverse challenges of NTNs from the perspectives of both academia and industry. Particularly, we first provide an in-depth tutorial on NTN and the key enabling technologies including network slicing, AI/ML, and ORAN. Then, we provide a comprehensive survey on how network slicing and AI/ML have been leveraged to overcome the challenges that NTNs are facing. Moreover, we present how ORAN can be utilized for NTNs. Finally, we highlight important challenges, open issues, and future research directions of NTN in the 6G era.

In this paper, we evaluate short packet communication (SPC) for a cooperative system where one relay assists data transmission between one multi-antenna source and one single antenna destination with the presence of co-channel interference at the relay. Two transmission schemes, i.e., transmit antenna selection (TAS) scheme and beamforming scheme (BF), are considered. Based on metric of SPC, we derive the average block error rate (BLER) for the system in asymptotic and closed-form expressions for both schemes. In addition, a solution of optimal power allocation (OPA) to maximize end-to-end effective system throughput is proposed. Effects of parameters such as total transmit power, number of the source’s antennas, number of co-channel interference, and packet length on the performance of the system are evaluated. Finally, the results reveal that the performance of the OPA scheme outperforms that of the benchmark scheme, i.e., equal power allocation solution, in terms of BLER and the effective throughput for both the TAS and BF schemes. Moreover, the performance of the system reaches to saturation value with more antennas at the source. The findings indicate that the TAS and BF schemes have the same performance in terms of both the BLER and the effective throughput.

Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) technology is projected to significantly increase the spectrum efficiency of the fifth-generation and subsequent wireless networks. Holographic reconfigurable Intelligent surfaces (HRISs) are a revolutionary technology that can deliver excellent spectral and energy efficiency at a cheap cost in wireless networks. In this letter, we investigate the short-packet communication (SPC) with the NOMA-based HRIS system with the internet of things (IoT). A base station (BS) communicates with two NOMA users by using HRIS in the proposed system to enhance spectral efficiency. Furthermore, we derived the exact closed-form expression of the average block error rate (BLER) for two NOMA users. To get more insight into the proposed system, the asymptotic BLER analysis was also carried out at high signal-to-noise ratio regime. The numerical results validate the current analysis and show that the presented NOMA strategy exceeds orthogonal multiple access-based approaches in terms of BLER and throughput.

ABSTRACTIn this paper, we consider an uplink non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) for energy harvesting at the base station or access point in the wireless system. By exploiting energy enough, a base station or access point can serve many users at the downlink. The fixed power allocation factors are adopted, and the power splitting energy harvesting protocol brings many benefits to both the uplink and downlink of a wireless system. The closed-form expressions of outage probability are investigated and examined in a group of two users. Moreover, the optimal outage probability for two users is shown numerically. Finally, Monte Carlo simulations are presented to further support the validity of our framework and findings.

Hanwen Cheng,1,&ast; Haoyu Wu,1,&ast; Ni Tan,2,&ast; Zhuojie Liu,1 Ning Wang,1 Ningyi Chen,1 Chunhai Li1,3 1Department of Orthopaedics, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, People’s Republic of China; 2Cellular and Molecular Diagnostics Center, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, People’s Republic of China; 3Teaching and Research Bureau of Surgery, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Chunhai Li, Department of Orthopaedics, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat‐sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, 510000, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-18602079796, Fax +86-(20)81332523, Email lichhai@mail.sysu.edu.cnPurpose: Early diagnosis of spinal infections remains challenging, and emerging metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) technology holds promise in addressing this issue. The aim of this study is to investigate the diagnostic efficacy of mNGS in spinal infections.Patients and Methods: A total of 78 cases with suspected spinal infections were enrolled in this study, all of whom underwent laboratory, histopathological and mNGS examinations upon admission. Lesion samples were obtained by surgical or C-arm-guided puncture. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of culture and mNGS were calculated for statistical analysis.Results: With histopathological results as the reference, the included 78 patients were categorized into 50 cases in the spinal infection group and 28 cases in the aseptic group. The sensitivity (84%) and negative predictive value (77.14%) of mNGS were significantly higher than those of culture (32% and 44.26%, respectively), whereas no significant differences were observed in terms of specificity and positive predictive value. In the subgroup analysis for Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the sensitivity of mNGS (90.91%) and T-spot (90.91%) was significantly higher than that of culture (0). Additionally, mNGS demonstrated markedly higher specificity (100%) compared to T-spot (85.07%).Conclusion: This study underscores the substantial advantages of mNGS in terms of diagnostic accuracy and bacterial coverage for spinal infections. The findings provide compelling clinical evidence that supports the enhanced diagnostic efficacy of mNGS.Keywords: culture, diagnosis, sensitivity, specificity, bacteria, clinical evidence

ABSTRACTThe performance of broadcasting networks employing Fountain codes with receiver diversity techniques is investigated in the present work. Particularly, we derive the closed-form expressions of the cumulative distribution function (CDF), the probability mass function (PMF), and the raw moments of the number of the needed time slots to deliver a common message to all users under two diversity schemes, namely, maximal ratio combining (MRC) and selection combining (SC). Numerical results are supplied to verify the accuracy of the considered networks and highlight the behaviours of these metrics as a function of some vital parameters such as the number of receivers, and the number of received antennae. Additionally, we also confirm the advantages of the MRC scheme compared with the SC scheme in the broadcasting networks.

ABSTRACTThe performance of the simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) enabled full-duplex (FD) relaying in non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) networks is investigated in both reliability and security aspects. More precisely, for the viewpoint of reliability, we derive in the closed-form expression the outage probability (OP) at both end-users. On the other hand, intercept probability (IP) is considered a helpful metric to measure the security of the considered systems. Moreover, we derive the IP in the closed-form expression too. Numerical results are also given to confirm the correctness of the derived mathematical framework as well as to identify the insights of both metrics as a function of some key parameters such as the transmit power, the power-splitting (PS) ratio, and the power allocation ratio.

Ran Cheng,1 Ning Tan,2 Hao Luo,2 Qian Kang,2 Xiaoyuan Xu3 1Department of Infectious Diseases, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Infectious Diseases, Peking University First Hospital, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Gastroenterology, Peking University First Hospital, Beijing, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Xiaoyuan Xu, Department of Gastroenterology, Peking University First Hospital, 8 Xishiku Street, Beijing, 100034, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-010-83575787, Fax +86-010-83575787, Email xiaoyuanxu6@163.comBackground and Aims: The performance of noninvasive assessments to rule-in or rule-out fibrosis may improve when combined. We aimed to evaluate the efficiencies of sequential algorithms based on the aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio index (APRI), the fibrosis index based on four factors (FIB-4), and transient elastography (TE) for the assessment of advanced fibrosis (AF) and cirrhosis.Methods: This study enrolled 179 CHB subjects who underwent liver biopsy (LB) before antiviral treatment.Results: AF and cirrhosis were identified in 71 (39.7%) and 28 (15.7%) patients, respectively. Compared with TE alone, sequential FIB-4-TE and APRI-TE algorithms saved a slightly higher number of liver biopsies for the identification of advanced fibrosis (69.3% or 68.2% vs 63.7%, P=0.263 or P=0.372, respectively). For the identification of cirrhosis, sequential FIB-4-TE and APRI-TE algorithms saved a significantly higher number of liver biopsies than TE alone (83.2% or 88.3% vs 69.8%, P=0.003 or P=0.000, respectively). No significant difference was found between the sequential algorithms and TE alone in the diagnostic accuracy for the detection of AF and cirrhosis.Conclusion: The sequential algorithms could significantly reduce the need for liver biopsy with high accuracy for diagnosis of AF and cirrhosis in CHB patients, which would be optimal especially in resource-limited areas.Keywords: noninvasive assessments, advanced liver fibrosis, cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis B

Abstract Heat networks play a vital role in the energy sector by offering thermal energy to residents in certain countries. Effective management and optimization of heat networks require a deep understanding of users' heat usage patterns. Irregular patterns, such as peak usage periods, can exceed the design capacities of the system. However, previous work has mostly neglected the analysis of heat usage profiles or performed on a small scale. To close the gap, this study proposes a data-driven approach to analyze and predict heat load in a district heating network. The study uses data from over eight heating seasons of a cogeneration DH plant in Cheongju, Korea, to build analysis and forecast models using supervised machine learning (ML) algorithms, including support vector regression (SVR), boosting algorithms, and multilayer perceptron (MLP). The models take weather data, holiday information, and historical hourly heat load as input variables. The performance of these algorithms is compared using different training sample sizes of the dataset. The results show that boosting algorithms, particularly XGBoost, are more suitable ML algorithms with lower prediction errors than SVR and MLP. Finally, different explainable artificial intelligence approaches are applied to provide an in-depth interpretation of the trained model and the importance of input variables.

Hanwen Cheng,1,&ast; Ni Tan,2,&ast; Yiwen Lu,3,&ast; Haoyu Wu,1 Zhuojie Liu,1 Di Zhang,1 Zixin Xu,4 Chunhai Li1,5 1Department of Orthopaedics, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, People’s Republic of China; 2Cellular & Molecular Diagnostics Center, Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, People’s Republic of China; 3Breast Cancer Center, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Urology, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, People’s Republic of China; 5Teaching and Research Bureau of Surgery, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Chunhai Li, Department of Orthopaedics, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Sun Yat‐sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, 510000, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-18602079796, Fax +86-2081332523, Email lichhai@mail.sysu.edu.cnBackground: Eikenella corrodens is a part of the inherent flora on the surface of human mucosa. It usually does not cause disease unless the patient has been bitten, injured or surgically infected. Lumbar spine infection caused by Eikenella corrodens usually presents with conventional symptoms such as low back pain and fever. Herein, we report a case of lumbar intervertebral space infection with Eikenella corrodens presented as abdominal pain.Case Presentation: A 38-year-old man with no medical history of note presented with abdominal pain. Initially, local doctors suspected that the patient had abdominal disease. However, abdominal diseases were ruled out and only lumbar spine infection was confirmed. Then, the patient was misdiagnosed as lumbar tuberculosis. Finally, anaerobic culture and metagenomic next-generation sequencing confirmed the Eikenella corrodens, which was rarely involved in lumbar intervertebral space infection. The patient recovered after operation and antibiotic therapy.Conclusion: This case indicated a rare symptom of lumbar spine infection, abdominal cramping, which is caused by Eikenella corrodens. Blood culture had low sensitivity as a diagnostic method for Eikenella corrodens, but lesion sample culture or metagenomic next-generation sequencing had high sensitivity for early diagnosis.Keywords: non-specific spinal infection, lumbar intervertebral space infection, metagenomic next-generation sequencing, misdiagnosis

This paper presents a controllable analysis framework for evaluating the reliability and security of underlay cognitive radio networks (CRs) relying on non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA). In such systems, a secondary base station (BS) transmits confidential information to multiple secondary users uniformly distributed in the presence of a nearby located external eavesdropper. Moreover, transmit power constraints are introduced to limit the interference to the primary imposed by cognitive base stations. As an effective approach of multiple input single output (MISO) systems, the transmit antenna selection (TAS) is selected in the BS to improve the secrecy performance of the primary networks. Furthermore, we first consider the impact of quadrature-phase imbalance (IQI) to characterize the secure performance of the considered network in practice. Then, the degraded performance is evaluated in terms of outage probability (OP), intercept probability (IP), and effective secrecy throughput (EST) of two NOMA users. The optimal EST can be achieved through simulations while the results of OP and IP provide guidelines in the design of IQI-aware CR-NOMA systems. Finally, the trade-off between OP and IP with transmit signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the BS is investigated for reflecting the security characteristic. Finally, the trade-off between OP and IP with transmit signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the BS is studied for displaying the security characteristic. Numerical results show that increasing the number of transmit antennas at the BS and other main parameters improves performance. Moreover, when the system parameters are reasonably set, the secondary NOMA user in CR-NOMA can be reached secure requirements regardless of the controlled IQI.

To enhance the service quality of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), the UAV-aided Internet of Things (IoT) systems could deploy a Deep Neural Network (DNN) for performance prediction for the users. Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is applied to such networks in order to improve spectrum efficiency, and results in improved quality of service at the ground users under the mobility of UAV. The outage and ergodic capacity requirements of the IoT users may not be satisfied due to some imperfect system parameters such as hardware noise. A DNN-based algorithm for performance prediction and the design of multiple antennas at the UAV under hardware noise is proposed. In this DNN-based UAV-NOMA, the central controller (server) collects system parameters periodically based on observing the state of IoT system and performs adjustments to the dynamic environment. The closed-form expressions for the outage probability and the ergodic capacity are derived to evaluate the performance of a group of IoT users. Our numerical results demonstrate that: i) In contrast to the traditional UAV-NOMA system, the UAV cannot know the performance at each IoT user in order to adjust the parameters (i.e. power allocation factors) before transmitting the signals to the devices; while the proposed DNN-based IoT system is capable of predicting the performance; ii) The performance of the IoT users can be significantly improved by integrating more antennas at the UAV and limiting levels of hardware noise; iii) By designing NOMA, the UAV-NOMA-based IoT system can increase the throughput to the tune of 40% compared with the benchmark (the orthogonal multiple access (OMA)-based IoT).

In this paper, we propose to utilize multiple aerial intelligent reflecting surfaces (AIRSs) for significantly enhancing the ergodic capacity of a non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) network. Unlike previous works where only one AIRS was often utilized to support only two NOMA users, $Q$ AIRSs and $L$ users are applied in the proposed NOMA-AIRS network. We mathematically derive the ergodic capacity (EC) expressions at the multiple users of the proposed NOMA-AIRS network over Nakagami- $m$ channels recommended for use in the fifth and beyond generations (5G & B5G) of mobile communications. Numerical results show that the proposed NOMA-AIRS network can deeply exploit the advantages of AIRSs. In particular, by using $Q=4$ AIRSs where each AIRS has 20 reflecting elements (REs), the ECs of the proposed NOMA-AIRS network are significantly higher than the ECs of the conventional NOMA network (without AIRSs). Moreover, the ECs of the proposed NOMA-AIRS network can be two times higher than those of the conventional NOMA network in the low transmit power regime. However, if the transmit power is high enough, the benefits of AIRSs are reduced due to the NOMA features. Besides confirming the advantages of AIRSs, the effects of key parameters such as the number of REs and total of REs in the AIRSs, bandwidth, altitudes of AIRSs, and carrier frequency are thoroughly determined. Based on the achieved observations, we give some recommendations to enhance the EC performance of the proposed NOMA-AIRS network in practice scenarios.

Physical layer security (PLS) and simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) in cooperative relaying have gained great interest as technologies for security and energy enhancement in Internet-of-Things (IoT) networks. In this work, we investigate PLS for a SWIPT- and AF-enabled cooperative wireless IoT system, consisting of one source, multiple energy harvesting (EH) relays, and one destination, in the presence of an eavesdropper that tries to overhear the confidential information. Furthermore, an EH-friendly jammer is deployed to transmit jamming signals aimed at the eavesdropper to improve the security system. In this context, a low-complexity, sub-optimal, but efficient relay selection method is proposed. More specifically, the relay is selected to convey information such that it has the best channel to the source. Based on the proposed system model, the performance analysis of the intercept probability (IP), asymptotic IP, and non-zero secrecy probability (NZSP) is analyzed by considering the time switching (TS)-based relaying strategy. Particularly, the exact closed-form expression of IP is achieved by applying modified Bessel function expansion. Monte-Carlo simulations are employed to corroborate the correctness and efficiency of our mathematical analysis. The time splitting factor $\alpha $ makes variations on the IP of about $3\times $ as $\alpha \in [{0.1, 0.8}]$ . However, a dramatic reduction of the IP up to $317\times $ is observed as $\alpha $ increases from 0.8 to 0.9.

This paper investigates the performance of NOMA-based hybrid Satellite-Terrestrial relays system (HSTR) using the millimeter wave (mmWave) technology. Furthermore, the relays are equipped with multiple antennas and utilize the amplify and forward (AF) protocol to forward the satellite’s superimposed information to multiple destinations. Then, the rain coefficient is considered as the fading factor of the mmWave band to choose the best relay. We considered the shadowed-Rician fading and Nakagami-m fading for satellite links and terrestrial links respectively, and in addition, we evaluated the shadowing effect for satellite links with two modes of: frequent heavy shadowing (FHS) and average shadowing (AS). With these suggestions, the closed-form outage probability (OP) and approximate ergodic capacity (EC) are derived to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed system. Next contribution of the research is an asymptotic analysis for the OP, which is derived in order to gain additional insight into important system parameters. Finally, the theoretical derivation is validated through simulation results and analyzed the impact of significant parameters. These results demonstrate NOMA’s superiority to the traditional orthogonal multiple access (OMA) method in the proposed system.

Yeshen Zhang,1,2,&ast; Zhengrong Xu,3,&ast; Wenfei He,4,&ast; Zehuo Lin,1,2 Yaoxin Liu,1,2 Yining Dai,1,2 Wei Chen,5 Weikun Chen,1,2 Wenlong He,1,2 Chongyang Duan,6 Pengcheng He,1,2 Yuanhui Liu,1,2 Ning Tan1,2 1Department of Cardiology, Guangdong Cardiovascular Institute, Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 2Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Coronary Heart Disease Prevention, Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Cardiology, People’s Hospital of Baoan Shenzhen, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Cardiology, Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital’s Nanhai Hospital, the Second People’s Hospital of Nanhai District Foshan City, Foshan, People’s Republic of China; 5Department of Cardiology, Fujian Provincial Clinical College of Fujian Medical University, Fujian Provincial Hospital, Fujian Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, Fuzhou, People’s Republic of China; 6Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Ning Tan; Yuanhui Liu, Department of Cardiology, Guangdong Cardiovascular Institute, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Coronary Heart Disease Prevention, Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, 510080, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86-20-83819161, Fax +86-20-83824369, Email gdtanning@126.com; liuyuanhui@gdph.org.cnBackground: The serum uric acid/albumin ratio (sUAR), a novel inflammatory marker, effectively predicts acute kidney injury (AKI) and cardiovascular outcomes. However, whether the sUAR predicts post-contrast acute kidney injury (PC-AKI) in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) remains uncertain. In this study, we evaluated the association between the sUAR and PC-AKI in patients with STEMI undergoing PCI.Methods: We consecutively recruited patients with STEMI who underwent PCI and stratified them into three groups according to the terciles of the sUAR. The primary outcome was the incidence of PC-AKI. The association between the sUAR and PC-AKI was assessed by multivariate logistic regression analysis.Results: A total of 2861 patients with STEMI were included in this study. The incidence of PC-AKI increased stepwise with increasing sUAR tercile (2.6% vs 4.0% vs 11.6%, p < 0.001), and the incidence of in-hospital major adverse clinical events (MACEs) was highest among patients in the Q3 group. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that the sUAR was also an independent predictor of PC-AKI (continuous sUAR, per 1-unit increase, odds ratio [OR] [95% confidence interval (CI)]: 1.06 [1.02– 1.10], p = 0.005; tercile of sUAR, OR [95% CI] for Q2 and Q3: 1.18 [0.69– 2.01] and 1.85 [1.12– 3.06], respectively, with Q1 as a reference) but not in-hospital MACEs. In the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, the area under the curve (AUC) of the sUAR for predicting PC-AKI was 0.708 (95% CI: 0.666– 0.751), and ROC analysis also showed that the sUAR was superior to uric acid and albumin alone in predicting PC-AKI.Conclusion: Increasing sUAR was significantly associated with a higher risk of PC-AKI but not in-hospital MACEs in patients with STEMI who underwent PCI, suggesting that sUAR had a predictive value for PC-AKI after PCI in patients with STEMI. Further studies are required to confirm this finding.Keywords: serum uric acid/albumin ratio, post-contrast acute kidney injury, ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction

In this paper, we propose three interference cancellation based multi-hop decode-and-forward (DF) relaying protocols to enhance end-to-end system throughput under constraint of half-duplex and hardware imperfection. In the first proposed protocol, the successive interference cancellation technique is used at each hop to send N signals from a source to a destination. Hence, the first proposed protocol can increase N times of the data rate, as compared with the corresponding conventional multi-hop DF relaying protocol in which only one source data is hop-by-hop relayed to the destination via M intermediate hops. In the second one, the source and relays can at the same time transmit their signals, and the interference cancellation can be performed to remove co-channel interference components. Therefore, the data rate of the second proposed protocol can increase M/2 times, as compared with the corresponding conventional protocol. The third proposed protocol is an efficient combination of the first and second proposed ones, and hence its data rate is higher N times than the second proposed one. Moreover, the imperfect co-channel interference cancellation is also considered in the second and third protocols. For performance evaluation, we derive exact closed-form expressions of the end-to-end throughput for three proposed protocols over Nakagami-m fading channel. We also perform simulations to verify the analytical formulas, and propose an simple transmit power allocation strategy to mitigate impact of the co-channel interference and imperfect co-channel interference cancellation.

Abstract Heat usage patterns, which are greatly affected by the users' behaviors, network performances, and control logic, are a crucial indicator of the effective and efficient management of district heating networks. The variations in the heat load can be daily or seasonal. The daily variations are primarily influenced by the customers' social behaviors, whereas the seasonal variations are mainly caused by the large temperature differences between the seasons over the year. Irregular heat load patterns can significantly raise costs due to pricey peak fuels and increased peak heat load capacities. The in-depth analyses of heat load profiles are regrettably quite rare and small-scale up until now. Therefore, this study offers a comprehensive investigation of a district heating network operation in order to exploit the major features of the heat usage patterns and discover the big factors that affect the heat load patterns. In addition, this study also provides detailed explanations of the features that can be considered the main drivers of the users' heat load demand. Finally, two primary daily heat usage patterns are extracted, which are exploited to efficiently train the prediction model.

Hongyu Chen,1 Jianxiang Liu,2 Qian Kang,1 Hao Luo,1 Ning Tan,1 Jiali Pan,1 Yuqing Yang,1 Min Yu,1 Dan Liu,1 Hongli Xi,1 Yifan Han,1 Ran Cheng,1 Yanyan Yu,1 Xiaoyuan Xu1 1Departments of Infectious Diseases, Peking University First Hospital, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Gastroenterology, Peking University First Hospital, Beijing, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Xiaoyuan Xu; Yanyan Yu, Email xiaoyuanxu6@163.com; yyy@bjmu.edu.cnBackground: Since oral direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs) became available, the global hepatitis C treatment situation has undergone tremendous changes. However there are still many issues worthy of attention in treatment.Methods: We selected 53 HCV-infected patients who were treated and followed up in the Peking University First Hospital from December 2017 to January 2021 to detect the RASs in HCV. Pearson correlation analysis was used to analyze HCV RNA and HCV cAg, the Fisher exact test and chi-square test was used to compare the effects of RASs on the rate of decline of HCV RNA and HCV core antigen (cAg) during DAA treatment.Results: The RASs and its prevalence on the NS3 are mainly Y56F 2.56% (1/39), Q80K 23.08% (9/39), S122G 71.79% (28/39), and V170I 38.46% (15/39). On the NS5A were R30Q 10.53% (4/38), P32A 5.26% (2/38), P58S 2.63% (1/39), and Y93H 21.05% (8/38). On NS5B were C316N 71.05% (27/38), C451H 2.63% (1/38), and I585C 2.63% (1/38). There was no significant correlation between the RASs (Y93H, V179I, Q80K, S122G, C316N) and HCV genotype (p > 0.05). The baseline serum HCV RNA and HCV cAg had a significant medium-degree correlation (r = 0.601, p = 0.002). After 1 week of DAA treatment was weak correlation (r = 0.413, p = 0.032). Q80K, S122G, V170I, Y93H, and C316N had no effect on the clearance of HCV RNA and HCV cAg within the first week of DAA treatment (p> 0.05).Conclusion: The HCV genotype may have a limited impact on the presence of the five RASs (Y93H, V179I, Q80K, S122G, and C316N) as shown in this study. HCV RNA and HCV cAg have a correlation, especially at baseline is the highest; the appearance of some RASs has no effect on DAA treatment in most chronic hepatitis C patients.Keywords: hepatitis C virus, chronic hepatitis C, drug resistance, sequencing

Background Digital health literacy (DHL) enables healthy decisions, improves protective behaviors and adherence to COVID-19 measures, especially during the era of the “infodemic”, and enhances psychological well-being. Objective We aimed to explore the mediating roles of fear of COVID-19, information satisfaction, and the importance of online information searching on the association between DHL and well-being. Methods A cross-sectional web-based survey was conducted among 1631 Taiwanese university students, aged 18 years and above, from June 2021 to March 2022. The collected data include sociodemographic characteristics (sex, age, social status, and financial satisfaction), the importance of online information searching, information satisfaction, fear of COVID-19, DHL, and well-being. A linear regression model was utilized to investigate factors associated with well-being, followed by a pathway analysis to assess the direct and indirect relationship between DHL and well-being. Results The scores of DHL and overall well-being were 3.1 ± 0.4 and 74.4 ± 19.7, respectively. Social status (B = 2.40, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.73–3.07, p

Yinhua Luo,1,&ast; Ni Tan,2,&ast; Jingbo Zhao,3 Yuanhong Li3 1Department of Central Hospital of Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Hubei University of Medicine, Shiyan, Hubei Province, 442000, People’s Republic of China; 2Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Central Hospital of Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Hubei University of Medicine, Enshi Prefecture, Hubei Province, 445000, People’s Republic of China; 3Cardiovascular Disease Center, Central Hospital of Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Enshi Prefecture, Hubei Province, 445000, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Yuanhong Li, Cardiovascular Disease Center, Central Hospital of Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Hubei University of Medicine, Enshi Prefecture, People’s Republic of China, Email lyh0101@vip.163.comObjective: In-stent restenosis (ISR) is a fatal complication of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). An early predictive model with the medical history of patients, angiographic characteristics, inflammatory indicators and blood biochemical index is urgently needed to predict ISR events. We aim to establish a risk prediction model for ISR in CAD patients undergoing PCI.Methods: A total of 477 CAD patients who underwent PCI with DES (drug-eluting stents) between January 2017 and December 2020 were retrospectively enrolled. And the preoperative factors were compared between the non-ISR and ISR groups. The least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and multi-factor logistic regression were used for statistical analysis. The prediction model was evaluated using receiver operator characteristic (ROC) analysis, the Hosmer–Lemeshow 2 statistic, and the calibration curve.Results: In this study, 94 patients developed ISR after PCI. Univariate analysis showed that post-PCI ISR was associated with the underlying disease (COPD), higher Gensini score (GS score), higher LDL-C, higher neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio, and higher remnant cholesterol (RC). The multi-factor logistic regression analysis suggested that remnant cholesterol (odds ratio [OR] = 2.09, 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.40– 3.11], P < 0.001), GS score (OR = 1.01, 95% CI [1.00, 1.02], P = 0.002), medical history of COPD (OR = 4.56, 95% CI [1.98, 10.40], P < 0.001), and monocyte (OR = 1.30, 95% CI [1.04, 1.70], P < 0.001) were independent risk factors for ISR. A nomogram was generated and displayed favorable fitting (Hosmer-Lemeshow test P = 0.609), discrimination (area under ROC curve was 0.847), and clinical usefulness by decision curve analysis.Conclusion: Patients with certain preoperative characteristics, such as a history of COPD, higher GS scores, higher levels of RC, and monocytes, who undergo PCI may have a higher risk of developing ISR. The predictive nomogram, based on the above predictors, can be used to help identify patients who are at a higher risk of ISR early on, with a view to provide post-PCI health management for patients.Keywords: in-stent restenosis, ISR, percutaneous coronary intervention, PCI, coronary heart disease, CHD, nomogram map

This article presents a novel approach to estimate the flexural capacity of reinforced concrete-filled composite plate shear walls using an optimized computational intelligence model. The proposed model was developed and validated based on 47 laboratory data points and the Transit Search (TS) optimization algorithm. Using 80% of the experimental dataset, the optimized model was selected by determining the unknown coefficients of the network-based computational structure. The remaining 20% of the data was used to evaluate the accuracy of the model, and the best-performing structure was selected. Furthermore, the final neural network details were subjected to statistical analysis to extract a user-friendly formula, making it easier to apply in practice. The proposed ANN model and the proposed user-friendly formula were then compared with the AISC 341-16 and experimental results and demonstrated their efficacy in predicting the flexural behavior of composite shear walls. Overall, the proposed approach provides a more reliable and efficient framework for estimating the flexural behavior of composite shear walls.

This paper investigates the security–reliability of simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT)-assisted amplify-and-forward (AF) full-duplex (FD) relay networks. In practice, an AF-FD relay harvests energy from the source (S) using the power-splitting (PS) protocol. We propose an analysis of the related reliability and security by deriving closed-form formulas for outage probability (OP) and intercept probability (IP). The next contribution of this research is an asymptotic analysis of OP and IP, which was generated to obtain more insight into important system parameters. We validate the analytical formulas and analyze the impact on the key system parameters using Monte Carlo simulations. Finally, we propose a deep learning network (DNN) with minimal computation complexity and great accuracy for OP and IP predictions. The effects of the system’s primary parameters on OP and IP are examined and described, along with the numerical data.

In this paper, the advantages of multiple reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) assisted wireless systems and direct link between two terminals are exploited by considering a cooperative communication system where reflecting links created by multiple RISs and the direct link are combined at the receiver. We mathematically analyze the performance of the cooperative multiple RISs - direct link (RIS-D) system over Nakagami- $m$ fading channels by obtaining the symbol error probability (SEP) expression. In addition, the SEP of the single-input single-output (SISO) system without RISs (i.e., there is only direct link between two terminals) is also obtained for convenience in comparison the performance of the cooperative RIS-D and SISO systems. We demonstrate the correctness of the derived expressions via Monte-Carlo simulations. Numerical results show that the SEP of the cooperative RIS-D system significantly lower than that of the SISO system for a certain transmission power of the transmitter. Also, for a certain SEP target, the cooperative RIS-D system can greatly save energy consumption in comparison with the SISO system. Specifically, increasing the number of RISs or the number of reflecting elements (REs) in the RISs can remarkably reduce the SEP of the cooperative RIS-D system. On the other hand, the impacts of the system parameters such as the number of RISs, the number of REs, and the Nakagami- $m$ fading channels are fully investigated to clearly indicate their influences on the SEP of the cooperative RIS-D system.

Yongjun Liu,1,&ast; Yuee Chen,2,&ast; Jie Chen,3 Yukung Kuang,4 Niandi Tan,5 Ke Jiang,6 Shuihui Peng,7 Chunlin Hu2 1Department of Critical Care Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510080, Province Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Emergency Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510080, Province Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Critical Care Medicine, Dongguan People’s Hospital, Dongguan, Province Guangdong, 523059, People’s Republic of China; 4Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510080, Province Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 5Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510080, People’s Republic of China; 6Department of Thoracic Surgery, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430022, People’s Republic of China; 7Department of Pharmacy Intravenous Admixture Services, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510080, Province Guangdong, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Chunlin HuDepartment of Emergency Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510080, Province Guangdong, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail huchunl@mail.sysu.edu.cnShuihui PengDepartment of Pharmacy Intravenous Admixture Services, The First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510080, Province Guangdong, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail pengshh@mail.sysu.edu.cnObjective: To observe hemodynamic characteristics in a series of patients with myocardial injury caused by severe COVID-19-related pneumonia.Materials and Methods: We continuously collected clinical data from severe COVID-19-related pneumonia patients from the West Campus of Union Hospital in Wuhan and Dongguan People’s Hospital in Dongguan to explore the prevalence of myocardial injury and hemodynamic characteristics after circulatory failure. Doppler ultrasound and PiCCO2 were used to evaluate the hemodynamics of each patient, and arterial blood gas analysis was performed at the same time. Pearson correlation analysis was used to clarify the relationship between the parameters.Results: A total of 376 patients were observed during the study period. Eighty-seven patients had myocardial injury after admission, and the mean time of myocardial injury after admission was 6 (2, 30) days, from which 16 patients developed hemodynamic instability and 15 died of cardiogenic shock or combined with MODS. Cardiac echocardiography found that the LVEF of all patients was in the normal range and that diastolic function was slightly to moderately impaired. The PiCCO2 data showed that the GEF was significantly decreased in all patients. The dpmx was in normal range. EVLWI, SVRI and GEDI were significantly increased in most patients. Pearson correlation analysis showed that cTNI was significantly related to BNP at hemodynamic instability (r = 0.662, p = 0.005); GEF was related to EVLWI (r = − 0.572, p = 0.021) and LAC (r = 0.692, p = 0.003); and EVLWI was affected by LVEF (r = − 0.564, p = 0.023), LVDF (r = − 0.734, p = 0.001) and PVPI (r = − 0.524, p = 0.037).Conclusion: Hemodynamic status after myocardial injury and cardiogenic shock caused by severe COVID-19-related pneumonia was characterized by cardiac preload and increased EVLWI, accompanied by a decline in GEF.Keywords: COVID-19, PiCCO2, myocardial injury, hemodynamic instability

Background: Extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (E-CPR) is a method of CPR that passes the patient’s blood through an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) device to provide mechanical haemodynamic and oxygenation support in cardiac arrest patients who are not responsive to conventional CPR (C-CPR). E-CPR is being adopted rapidly worldwide despite the absence of high quality trial data and its substantial cost. Published cost-effectiveness data for E-CPR are scarce. Methods: We developed a mathematical model to estimate the cost-effectiveness of E-CPR relative to C-CPR in adult patients with refractory out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). The model was a combination of a decision tree for the acute treatment phase and a Markov model for long-term periods. Cost-effectiveness was evaluated from the Australian health system perspective over lifetime. Cost-effectiveness was expressed as Australian dollars (AUD, 2021 value) per quality-adjusted life year (QALY) gained. Variables were parameterised using published data. Probabilistic and univariate sensitivity analyses were performed. Results: The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of E-CPR was estimated to be AUD 45,716 per QALY gained over lifetime (95% uncertainty range 22,102–292,904). The cost-effectiveness of E-CPR was most sensitive to the outcome of the therapy. Conclusion: E-CPR has median ICER that is below common accepted willingness-to-pay thresholds. Local factors within the health care system need to be considered to determine the feasibility of implementing an effective E-CPR program.

Pumpkins are a nutritious and globally enjoyed fruit for their rich and earthy flavor. The biophysical properties of pumpkins play an important role in determining their yield. However, manual in-field techniques for monitoring these properties can be time-consuming and labor-intensive. To address this, this research introduces a novel approach that feeds high-resolution pumpkin images to train a mathematical model to automate the measurement of each pumpkin’s biophysical properties. Color correction was performed on the dataset using a color-checker panel to minimize the impact of varying light conditions on the RGB images. A segmentation model was then trained to effectively recognize two fundamental components of each pumpkin: the fruit and vine. Real-life measurements of various biophysical properties, including fruit length, fruit width, stem length, stem width and fruit peel color, were computed and compared with manual measurements. The experimental results on 10 different pumpkin samples revealed that the framework obtained a small average mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of 2.5% compared to the manual method, highlighting the potential of this approach as a faster and more efficient alternative to conventional techniques for monitoring the biophysical properties of pumpkins.

White radish is a nutritious and delectable vegetable that is enjoyed globally. Conventional techniques for monitoring radish growth are arduous and time-consuming, encouraging the development of novel methods for quicker measurements and greater sampling density. This research introduces a mathematical model working on high-resolution images to measure radish’s biophysical properties automatically. A color calibration was performed on the dataset using a color checker panel to minimize the impact of varying light conditions on the RGB images. Subsequently, a Mask-RCNN model was trained to effectively segment different components of the radishes. The observations of the segmented results included leaf length, leaf width, root width, root length, leaf length to width, root length to width, root shoulder color, and root peel color. The automated real-life measurements of these observations were then conducted and compared with actual results. The validation results, based on a set of white radish samples, demonstrated the models’ effectiveness in utilizing images for quantifying phenotypic traits. The average accuracy of the automated method was confirmed to be 96.2% when compared to the manual method.

Ran Cheng,&ast; Jinghang Xu,&ast; Ning Tan, Hao Luo, Jiali Pan, Xiaoyuan Xu Department of Infectious Diseases, Peking University First Hospital, Beijing, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this work.Correspondence: Xiaoyuan XuDepartment of Infectious Diseases, Peking University First Hospital, 8 Xishiku Street, Beijing, 100034, People’s Republic of ChinaTel/Fax +86-10-83575787Email xiaoyuanxu6@163.comObjective: Many scores have been constructed to predict liver-related events in chronic hepatitis B, while most of them are based on baseline clinical parameters. The objective of this study was to develop nomograms based on on-treatment improvement in established scores to predict clinical outcomes in patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related cirrhosis who are receiving antiviral therapy.Methods: The Cox proportional hazards regression model was used. Nomograms were constructed for the prediction of liver-related events, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and liver-related mortality risk during long-term antiviral therapy.Results: A total of 277 treatment-naive patients with HBV-associated cirrhosis were enrolled from January 2010 to December 2013. After a median follow-up of 63.3 months, 95 patients developed liver-related events, including 59 patients with liver-related death. Multivariate Cox analysis showed that the albumin-bilirubin score at year 1 was an independent predictor of liver-related events, liver-related mortality, and HCC. Age, decompensation, and delayed virological remission were independent factors for liver-related mortality. Age was also a risk factor for liver-related events. The concordance index values of event-nomogram, mortality-nomogram, and HCC-nomogram were 0.742 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.691∼ 0.793), 0.799 (95% CI, 0.748∼ 0.850), and 0.613 (95% CI, 0.540∼ 0.686), respectively. The calibration plots showed an agreement between the predicted and observed incidences, which indicates good calibration of the model of event-nomogram and mortality-nomogram.Conclusion: The nomograms achieved an optimal preoperative prediction of liver-related events, mortality, and HCC development in patients with HBV-related cirrhosis receiving antiviral therapy. These findings may help to identify high-risk patients for further optimal surveillance and intervention strategies.Keywords: antiviral therapy, liver-related events, hepatocellular carcinoma, liver-related mortality, albumin-bilirubin

Haozhang Huang,1,2,* Ziling Mai,1,3,* Liling Chen,4,* Qiang Li,1 Shiqun Chen,1 Kunming Bao,4 Ronghui Tang,5 Wen Wei,4 Yaren Yu,6 Zhidong Huang,1 Wenguang Lai,1,3 Bo Wang,1 Ning Tan,1– 3 Jiyan Chen,1– 3 Jin Liu,1 Yong Liu1– 3 1Department of Cardiology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Coronary Heart Disease Prevention, Guangdong Cardiovascular Institute, Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, 510080, People’s Republic of China; 2The Second School of Clinical Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, People’s Republic of China; 3Guangdong General Hospital, Affiliated with South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510515, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Cardiology, Longyan First Hospital Affiliated with Fujian Medical University, Longyan, 364000, People’s Republic of China; 5Yunnan Fuwai Cardiovascular Hospital, Department of Ultrasound Imaging, Yunnan, 650000, People’s Republic of China; 6The First People’s Hospital of Foshan, Foshan, Guangdong Province, 528000, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Yong Liu; Jin LiuDepartment of Cardiology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Coronary Heart Disease Prevention, Guangdong Cardiovascular Institute, Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Guangzhou, 510080, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86 2083827812-10528Fax +86 2083851483Email liuyong@gdph.org.cn; ljaw397017568@163.comPurpose: Hypochloremia is a predictor for short-term mortality in patients with cardiovascular disease, but its association with coronary artery disease (CAD) is still unclear. We aimed to assess the impact of hypochloremia on all-cause mortality (short-and long-term) among patients with CAD.Patients and Methods: Based on the registry at Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital in China, we analyzed data of 49,025 hospitalized patients who underwent coronary angiography (CAG) and were diagnosed with CAD from January 2007 to December 2018. To assess the association between hypochloremia and the study endpoints, a logistic-regression model (for 30-day all-cause mortality) and a Cox regression model (for long-term all-cause mortality) were fitted.Results: Overall, 4.4% of the study population showed hypochloremia (< 98 mmol/L). During a median follow-up of 5.2 (3.1– 7.8) years, a total of 6486 (13.2%) patients died. Patients with hypochloremia were generally older and at risk for diabetes, cardiorenal dysfunction, and morbidity than those without hypochloremia. After adjustment for confounders, hypochloremia remained a significant predictor of mortality risk (30-day all-cause death: adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.99; 95% confidence interval, 1.08– 3.18; P=0.017 and long-term all-cause death: adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 1.32; 95% confidence interval, 1.19– 1.47; P< 0.001).Conclusion: Hypochloremia is mildly common in patients with CAD and is associated with increased short-and long-term mortality. Meanwhile, it is necessary to further investigate effective and preventive measures and the potential mechanisms of hypochloremia in patients with CAD.Keywords: hypochloremia, coronary artery disease, prevalence, short- and long-term mortality

Yanqing Xu,&ast; Yongrong Yao,&ast; Linxiao Wang, Huachao Chen, Ninghua Tan State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, School of Traditional Chinese Pharmacy, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, 211198, People’s Republic of China&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Ninghua Tan; Huachao ChenState Key Laboratory of Natural Medicines, School of Traditional Chinese Pharmacy, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, 211198, People’s Republic of ChinaTel/Fax +86 25 86185772Email nhtan@cpu.edu.cn; huachao.chen@cpu.edu.cnBackground: Natural cyclopeptide RA-XII, isolated from Rubia yunnanensis, is a promising chemotherapeutic agent for colon cancer. The photosensitizer protoporphyrin-IX attached with triphenylphosphonium (TPP) could possess mitochondria targeting capacity and exert photodynamic therapy (PDT) by inducing oxidizing damage to the mitochondria and cell apoptosis eventually. In this work, pH-sensitive liposomes were constructed to simultaneously deliver RA-XII as a chemotherapeutic drug and modified porphyrin as a mitochondria-targeting photosensitizer to treat colon cancer, and verified its mechanism of action and antitumor therapeutic efficacy.Methods: The colon cancer targeting liposome nanoparticle RA/TPPP-Lip was synthesized using thin film hydration. The therapeutic effect and targeting ability of RA/TPPP-Lip was investigated in vitro. And use HCT116 cell allogeneic subcutaneous transplantation tumor model to investigate the anti-tumor and targeting effects of RA/TPPP-Lip in vivo.Results: RA/TPPP-Lip gained the targeting ability through surface-modified HA to increase the accumulation of RA-XII and TPPP in colon cancer cells. A series of in vitro experimental results showed that TPPP produced cytotoxic ROS under laser irradiation to directly damage cell mitochondria and played a combined role with RA-XII, making RA/TPPP-Lip the best colon cancer cell growth inhibitory effect. Furthermore, in vivo antitumor experiments showed that the RA/TPPP-Lip substantially accumulated at the tumor site and efficiently repressed tumor growth in nude mice.Conclusion: We have successfully designed a new cancer-targeted nanomedicine platform (RA/TPPP-Lip) for the collaborative treatment of colon cancer, which can achieve the targeted continuous release of multiple therapeutic drugs. This work provides a new strategy for precise combination therapy, which may promote the further development of collaborative cancer treatment platforms.Keywords: natural cyclic peptide, liposome, mitochondrial targeted, photosensitizer, combination therapy nanosystem, colon cancer

In this paper, we exploit the benefits of full-duplex (FD) transmission and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) by considering a bidirectional full-duplex wireless communication system with the support of RISs. Specifically, cooperative communications are applied at two FD terminals in a RISs-assisted bidirectional full-duplex (RIS-FD) system. In this context, we successfully derive the mathematical expressions of the outage probability (OP) and the ergodic capacity (EC) of the RIS-FD system with a direct link between two terminals and multiple reflecting paths created by RISs over the Rayleigh fading channel. Numerical results show that the performance of the considered RIS-FD system depends significantly on the total number of reflecting elements in the RISs. Particularly, when the total number of reflecting elements is small, the OP and EC saturate at a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). However, when the total number of reflecting elements is large enough, OP decreases greatly while EC enhances significantly. In addition, the effect of residual self-interference (SI) caused by FD transmission on OP and EC is remarkable, even the residual SI level is very small. On the other hand, the influence of other system parameters such as the number of RISs ( $N$ ) and the number of reflecting elements ( $L$ ) are also investigated to fully consider the performance of the RIS-FD system. An important observation is that when current techniques cannot completely eliminate SI in FD transmission, the use of multiple RISs with larger $L$ can indirectly reduce the impact of SI and significantly improve the performance of the proposed RIS-FD system. Finally, the obtained expressions are validated via Monte-Carlo simulations.

Wireless power transfer is considered as a novel solution for energy harvesting in wireless communication networks. In this paper, the system performance of the non-linear energy harvesting based power splitting relaying in the full-duplex relaying sensor network is investigated. We considered the system model network with one source, one destination, and one relay node in both the amplify-and-forward and decode-and-forward modes. The closed-form expressions of the system outage (OP) are analysed and derived for verifying system performance. Then, the correctness of the OP closed-form expression is verified by using the Monte Carlo simulation. Furthermore, the influence of the primary system parameters on the system OP is suggested and investigated. The research results indicated that the simulation curves and the analytical curves overlapped, verifying the correctness of the analytical expressions.

In recent years, physical layer security has been considered as an effective method to enhance the information security beside the cryptographic techniques that are used in upper layers. In this paper, we provide the security analysis for a two-way relay network, where the two sources can only communicate through the intermediate relay nodes. In particular, we consider the scenario that there is an eavesdropper in the vicinity of one source node. Both reliability and security aspects are taken into consideration in our work. To enhance the reliability of communication, the intermediate relays are supplied with the energy harvested from the sources' radio frequency (RF) signals using hybrid time-switching and power splitting (TPSR) protocol. Also, we apply the relay selection technique to select the best relay for the information exchange between two sources. Regarding security, the secrecy of information is improved with the help of friendly jammers nearby the eavesdropper. We provide the in-dept reliability and security analysis in terms of the closed-form expressions of the outage probability (OP) at the source nodes, the intercept probability (IP) at the eavesdropper, the secrecy outage probability (SOP), and the average secrecy capacity (ASC) of the system. Finally, the Monte Carlo simulations are also conducted to verify the correctness of our analysis and the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. Numerical results confirms that with the appropriate and feasible choices of involved parameters, both outage OP and IP can be kept at small values to guarantee the reliable and secure communication of the system.

As a key technology of intelligent transportation system, the intelligent vehicle is the carrier of comprehensive integration of many technologies. Although vision-based autonomous driving has shown excellent prospects, there is still a problem of how to analyze the complicated traffic situation by the collected data. Recently, autonomous driving has been formulated as many tasks separately by using different models, such as object detection task and intention recognition task. In this study, a vision-based system was developed to detect and identity various objects and predict the intention of pedestrians in the traffic scene. The main contributions of this research are (1) an optimized model was presented to detect 10 kinds of objects based on the structure of YOLOv4; (2) a fine-tuned Part Affinity Fields approach was proposed to estimate the pose of pedestrians; (3) Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) technology is added to explain and assist the estimation results in the risk assessment phase; (4) an elaborate self-driving dataset that includes several different subsets for each corresponding task was introduced; and (5) an end-to-end system containing multiple models with high accuracy was developed. Experimental results proved that the total parameters of optimized YOLOv4 are reduced by 74%, which satisfies the real-time capability. In addition, the detection precision of the optimized YOLOv4 achieved an improvement of 2.6% compared to the state-of-the-art.

Outage probability (OP) and potential throughput (PT) of multihop full-duplex (FD) nonorthogonal multiple access (NOMA) systems are addressed in the present paper. More precisely, two metrics are derived in the closed-form expressions under the impact of both imperfect successive interference cancellation (SIC) and imperfect self-interference cancellation. Moreover, to model short transmission distance from the transmit and receive antennae at relays, the near-field path-loss is taken into consideration. Additionally, the impact of the total transmit power on the performance of these metrics is rigorously derived. Furthermore, the mathematical framework of the baseline systems is provided too. Computer-based simulations via the Monte Carlo method are given to verify the accuracy of the proposed framework, confirm our findings, and highlight the benefits of the proposed systems compared with the baseline one.

Background: Spatiotemporal analysis of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) risk is essential to design targeted public health strategies. Such information is lacking in the state of Queensland and Australia more broadly. Methods: We developed a spatiotemporal Bayesian model accounting for spatial and temporal dimensions, space-time interactions, and demographic factors. The model was fit to data of all OHCA cases attended by paramedics in Queensland between January 2007 and December 2019. Parameter inference was performed using the integrated nested Laplace approximation method. We estimated and thematically mapped area-year risk of OHCA occurrence for all 78 local government areas (LGAs) in Queensland. Results: We observed spatial variability in OHCA risk among the LGAs. Areas in the north half of the state and two areas in the south exhibited the highest risk; whereas OHCA risk was lowest in the west and south west parts of the state. Demographic factors did not have significant impact on the heterogeneity of risk between the LGAs. An overall trend of modestly decreasing risk of OHCA was found. Conclusions: This study identified areas of high OHCA risk in Queensland, providing valuable information to guide public health policy and optimise resource allocation. Further research is needed to investigate the specifics of the areas that may explain their risk profile.

Tuberculosis (TB) exhibits considerable spatial heterogeneity, occurring in clusters that may act as hubs of community transmission. We evaluated the impact of an intervention targeting spatial TB hotspots in a rural region of Ethiopia. To evaluate the impact of targeted active case finding (ACF), we used a spatially structured mathematical model that has previously been described. From model equilibrium, we simulated the impact of a hotspot-targeted strategy (HTS) on TB incidence ten years from intervention commencement and the associated cost-effectiveness. HTS was also compared with an untargeted strategy (UTS). We used logistic cost-coverage analysis to estimate cost-effectiveness of interventions. At a community screening coverage level of 95 % in a hotspot region, which corresponds to screening 20 % of the total population, HTS would reduce overall TB incidence by 52 % compared with baseline. For UTS to achieve an equivalent effect, it would be necessary to screen more than 80 % of the total population. Compared to the existing passive case detection strategy, the HTS at a CDR of 75 percent in hotspot regions is expected to avert 1,023 new TB cases over ten years saving USD 170 per averted case. Similarly, at the same CDR, the UTS will detect 1316 cases over the same period saving USD 3 per averted TB case. The incremental-cost effectiveness-ratio (ICER) of UTS compared with HTS is USD 582 per averted case corresponding to 293 more TB cases averted at an additional cost of USD 170,700. Where regional TB program spending was capped at current levels, maximum gains in incidence reduction were seen when the regional budget was shared between hotspots and non-hotspot regions in the ratio of 40% : 60%. Our analysis suggests that a spatially targeted strategy is efficient and cost-saving, with the potential for significant reduction in overall TB burden.

Due to the tremendous energy consumption growth with ever-increasing connected devices, alternative wireless information and power transfer techniques are important not only for theoretical research but also for saving operational costs and for a sustainable growth of wireless communications. In this paper, we investigate the multi-source in decode-and-forward cooperative networks with the power splitting protocol based full-duplex energy harvesting relaying network over a Rayleigh fading channel. In this system model, the multi-source and the destination communicate with each other by both the direct link and an intermediate helping relay. First, we investigate source selection for the best system performance. Then, the closed-form expression of the outage probability and the symbol error ratio are derived. Finally, the Monte Carlo simulation is used for validating the analytical expressions in connection with all main possible system parameters. The research results show that the analytical and simulation results matched well with each other.

Bo Jian,1,2 Wei Wu,2 Yingliang Song,1 Naiwen Tan,3 Chao Ma1 1State Key Laboratory of Military Stomatology, Department of Implant Dentistry, School of Stomatology, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, 710032, China; 2Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, School of Stomatology, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, China; 3Department of Stomatology, Hospital 463 of PLA, Shenyang, Liaoning, People’s Republic of China Purpose: We aimed to fabricate guided bone regeneration (GBR) membrane using polyglycerol sebacate (PGS) and investigate the impact of scaffold pore size on osteogenesis.Materials and methods: PGS microporous membrane was fabricated by salt-leaching technique with various pore sizes. Twenty-eight male New Zealand rabbits were randomly divided into four groups: 25 µm PGS membrane, 53 µm PGS membrane, collagen membrane, and blank control group. Subsequently, standardized and critical-sized tibia defects were made in rabbits and the defective regions were covered with the specifically prepared membranes. After 4 and 12 weeks of in vivo incubation, bone samples were harvested from tibia. Micro-computed tomography scanning was performed on all bone samples. A three-dimensional visible representation of the constructs was obtained and used to compare the ratios of the ossifying volume to total construct volume (bone volume to tissue volume [BV/TV]) of each sample in different groups; then, bone samples were stained with H&E and Masson’s trichrome stain for general histology.Results: At 4 weeks, the BV/TV in the 25 µm PGS group was found higher than that in the 53 µm PGS and collagen groups. At 12 weeks, the bone defect site guided by the 25 µm PGS membrane was almost completely covered by the new bone. However, the site guided by the 53 µm PGS membrane or collagen membrane was covered only most of the defects and the left part of the defect was unoccupied. Histological observation further verified these findings.Conclusion: We thus concluded that the 25 µm PGS membrane played an advantageous role during 4–12 weeks as compared with those earlier degraded counterparts. Keywords: bone defect, biological membrane, degradation, salt-leaching technique, tibia

This article presents a formation tracking control method for the operation of multi-agent systems under disturbances. This study aims to ensure that the followers of a quadcopter converge into the desired formation while the center formation of the follower quadcopters tracks the leader’s trajectory within a finite time. The distributed finite-time formation control problem is first investigated using the fast terminal sliding mode control (FTSMC) theory. A disturbance observer is then integrated into the FTSMC to overcome the model uncertainties and bounded disturbances. Subsequently, the Lyapunov function is proposed to ensure the stability of the system. It is shown that formation tracking control can be achieved even in the presence of disturbances. Simulation and experimental results verify the effectiveness of the proposed formation tracking control method compared to existing ones.

In this paper, we investigate the full-duplex (FD) decode-and-forward (DF) cooperative relaying system, whereas the relay node can harvest energy from radiofrequency (RF) signals of the source and then utilize the harvested energy to transfer the information to the destination. Specifically, a hybrid time-power switching-based relaying method is adopted, which leverages the benefits of time-switching relaying (TSR) and power-splitting relaying (PSR) protocols. While energy harvesting (EH) helps to reduce the limited energy at the relay, full-duplex is one of the most important techniques to enhance the spectrum efficiency by its capacity of transmitting and receiving signals simultaneously. Based on the proposed system model, the performance of the proposed relaying system in terms of the ergodic capacity (EC) is analyzed. Specifically, we derive the exact closed form for upper bound EC by applying some special function mathematics. Then, the Monte Carlo simulations are performed to validate the mathematical analysis and numerical results.

This paper investigates the decode-and-forward (DF) full-duplex (FD) cooperative relaying system with SWIPT. Specifically, the relay node can harvest energy from the source’s RF signal, and then the harvested energy is used for transferring information to the destination. Besides, we consider both direct and two-hop relaying links to transmit data from the source to the destination. In the performance analysis, we derive the exact expressions for outage probability (OP) by applying the receiver’s selection combining (SC) technique. Then, the Monte Carlo simulation is performed to verify the correctness of the mathematical analysis. Finally, the simulations show that the mathematic expressions match simulation results, which authenticates the mathematical analysis.

This paper investigates the decode-and-forward (DF) full-duplex (FD) relaying system under the presence of an eavesdropper. Moreover, the relay node is able to harvest energy from a transmitter, and then it uses the harvested energy for conveying information to the receiver. Besides, both two-hop and direct relaying links are taking into consideration. In the mathematical analysis, we derived the exact expressions for intercept probability and outage probability (OP) by applying maximal ratio combining (MRC) and selection combining (SC) techniques at the receiver. Next, the Monte Carlo simulation is performed to validate the mathematical analysis. The results show that the simulation curves match the mathematic expressions, which confirms the analysis section.

This work studies the SWIPT-based half-duplex (HD) decode-and-forward (DF) relay network, wherein the relay user can scavenge power from the source’s radio-frequency (RF) signals and then utilize it to convey the information to the destination. Specifically, two SWIPT-based relaying schemes, termed static power splitting- (SPS-) based relaying (SPSR) and optimal dynamic power splitting- (DPS-) based relaying (ODPSR), are proposed to investigate the benefits of each one fully. Based on the above discussions, the relaying system’s performance for outage probability (OP) is studied. Concretely, we derive the analytical expressions for both SPSR and DPSR methods. Finally, the numerical simulations are executed to corroborate the analysis and simulation results.