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Errors are common issues in quantum computing platforms, among which leakage is one of the most challenging to address. This is because leakage, i.e., the loss of information stored in the computational subspace to undesired subspaces in a larger Hilbert space, is more difficult to detect and correct than errors that preserve the computational subspace. As a result, leakage presents a significant obstacle to the development of fault-tolerant quantum computation. In this paper, we propose an efficient and accurate benchmarking framework called leakage randomized benchmarking (LRB) for measuring leakage rates on multi-qubit quantum systems. Our approach is more insensitive to state preparation and measurement (SPAM) noise than existing leakage benchmarking protocols, requires fewer assumptions about the gate set itself, and can be used to benchmark multi-qubit leakages, which was not done previously. We also extend the LRB protocol to an interleaved variant called interleaved LRB (iLRB), which can benchmark the average leakage rate of generic n-site quantum gates with reasonable noise assumptions. We demonstrate the iLRB protocol on benchmarking generic two-qubit gates realized using flux tuning, and analyze the behavior of iLRB under corresponding leakage models. Our numerical experiments show good agreement with theoretical estimations, indicating the feasibility of both the LRB and iLRB protocols., 27 pages, 5 figures

Additional file 2: Figure S1. Emission spectra of myoepithelium, TN and tumor cells obtained with an excitation wavelength of 810 nm. Figure S2. Types of TN1. A Lesions surrounded by invasive breast cancer cells. B Lesions in duct. M: myoepithelium (white arrow). Figure S3. Types of TN2. A Lesions surrounded possibly DCIS with regressive changes. B Lesions in the stroma. Figure S4. Types of TN4. A Lesions surrounded by myoepithelium and tumor cells. B Lesions surrounded by collagen and tumor cells. C Lesions surrounded by tumor cells but with collagen fibers. M: myoepithelium (white arrow). Figure S5. 5-year DFS of patients with IBC stratified by tumor size ≤ 2 cm (A and B) and > 2 cm (C and D) in training and validation sets. Figure S6. Correlation analysis between individual TNs and 5-year DFS for three sets. Figure S7. Comparison of TN classification by MPM or H&E. In (A) and (C), TNs were classified as TN4 by MPM, because necrotic lesions were surrounded by collagen and tumor cells, while the corresponding TNs were classified as TN1 by H&E, because necrotic lesions on H&E images were only surrounded by tumor cells (B and D). White arrow: collagen, blue arrow: tumor cells.

Scaling bottlenecks the making of digital quantum computers, posing challenges from both the quantum and the classical components. We present a classical architecture to cope with a comprehensive list of the latter challenges {\em all at once}, and implement it fully in an end-to-end system by integrating a multi-core RISC-V CPU with our in-house control electronics. Our architecture enables scalable, high-precision control of large quantum processors and accommodates evolving requirements of quantum hardware. A central feature is a microarchitecture executing quantum operations in parallel on arbitrary predefined qubit groups. Another key feature is a reconfigurable quantum instruction set that supports easy qubit re-grouping and instructions extensions. As a demonstration, we implement the widely-studied surface code quantum computing workflow, which is instructive for being demanding on both the controllers and the integrated classical computation. Our design, for the first time, reduces instruction issuing and transmission costs to constants, which do not scale with the number of qubits, without adding any overheads in decoding or dispatching. Rather than relying on specialized hardware for syndrome decoding, our system uses a dedicated multi-core CPU for both qubit control and classical computation, including syndrome decoding. This simplifies the system design and facilitates load-balancing between the quantum and classical components. We implement recent proposals as decoding firmware on a RISC-V system-on-chip (SoC) that parallelizes general inner decoders. By using our in-house Union-Find and PyMatching 2 implementations, we can achieve unprecedented decoding capabilities of up to distances 47 and 67 with the currently available SoCs, under realistic and optimistic assumptions of physical error rate $p=0.001 and p=0.0001, respectively, all in just 1 \textmu s., Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures

Additional file 1: Table S1. Characteristics of patients in the training and validation sets. Table S2. Quantified patient-specific data based on the training set. Table S3. Clinicopathological variables of patients stratified by the presence/absence classification and TN classification in training and validation set. Table S4. Distribution of the four types of TN in training and validation sets. Table S5. Recurrence patterns of patients stratified by the presence/absence classification and TN classification. Table S6 (part 1). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis of association of risk factors with 5-year DFS in patients with necrosis in the training set (only independent prognosticators were included in multivariate analysis). Table S6 (part 2). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis of association of risk factors with 5-year DFS in patients with necrosis in the training set (all prognosticators, except endocrine therapy and targeted therapy strongly correlated with the molecular subtype, were included in multivariate analysis). Table S6 (part 3). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis of association of risk factors with 5-year DFS in patients with necrosis in the training set (all prognosticators were included in multivariate analysis).

We develop an algorithmic framework for contracting tensor networks and demonstrate its power by classically simulating quantum computation of sizes previously deemed out of reach. Our main contribution, index slicing, is a method that efficiently parallelizes the contraction by breaking it down into much smaller and identically structured subtasks, which can then be executed in parallel without dependencies. We benchmark our algorithm on a class of random quantum circuits, achieving greater than 105 times acceleration over the original estimate of the simulation cost. We then demonstrate applications of the simulation framework for aiding the development of quantum algorithms and quantum error correction. As tensor networks are widely used in computational science, our simulation framework may find further applications. An efficient method for parallelizing the contraction of tensor networks pushes the boundaries for the classical simulation of quantum computation, and aids the development of quantum algorithms and hardware.

With the advent of quantum processors exceeding $100$ qubits and the high engineering complexities involved, there is a need for holistically benchmarking the processor to have quality assurance. Linear cross-entropy benchmarking (XEB) has been used extensively for systems with $50$ or more qubits but is fundamentally limited in scale due to the exponentially large computational resources required for classical simulation. In this work we propose conducting linear XEB with Clifford circuits, a scheme we call Clifford XEB. Since Clifford circuits can be simulated in polynomial time, Clifford XEB can be scaled to much larger systems. To validate this claim, we run numerical simulations for particular classes of Clifford circuits with noise and observe exponential decays. When noise levels are low, the decay rates are well-correlated with the noise of each cycle assuming a digital error model. We perform simulations of systems up to 1,225 qubits, where the classical processing task can be easily dealt with by a workstation. Furthermore, using the theoretical guarantees in Chen et al. (arXiv:2203.12703), we prove that Clifford XEB with our proposed Clifford circuits must yield exponential decays under a general error model for sufficiently low errors. Our theoretical results explain some of the phenomena observed in the simulations and shed light on the behavior of general linear XEB experiments.

Additional file 5. Primer and probe sequence information.

Fast classical processing is essential for most quantum fault-tolerance architectures. We introduce a sliding-window decoding scheme that provides fast classical processing for the surface code through parallelism. Our scheme divides the syndromes in spacetime into overlapping windows along the time direction, which can be decoded in parallel with any inner decoder. With this parallelism, our scheme can solve the decoding throughput problem as the code scales up, even if the inner decoder is slow. When using min-weight perfect matching and union-find as the inner decoders, we observe circuit-level thresholds of $0.68\%$ and $0.55\%$, respectively, which are almost identical to $0.70\%$ and $0.55\%$ for the batch decoding., Comment: Main text: 6 pages, 3 figures. Supplementary material: 18 pages, 14 figures. V2: added data and updated general formalism

Patients diagnosed as lung adenocarcinoma with brain metastasis usually result in poor prognosis with limited survival time. Palliative systematic therapy has emerged as the primary choice for non-small cell lung cancer patients with brain metastasis harboring wild-type drive genes. However, the objective response rate and long-term survival for patients treated with this therapy remained unsatisfied. Herein, we present a case with lung adenocarcinoma accompanied with symptomatic brain metastasis who achieved radiologic complete response after receiving combined therapy including stereotactic body radiation therapy, anti-angiogenesis, and chemotherapy. He has achieved a duration of disease-free survival of thirty-six months, and is still in extension.

Background: The present network meta-analysis was conducted to perform an indirect comparison among ramucirumab, regorafenib, and cabozantinib in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) progressed on sorafenib treatment. Methods: A systematic review through Medline, Embase, and Cochrane library was developed, with eligible randomized clinical trials been included. Hazard ratios (HRs) including progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), odds ratios of disease control rate (DCR), objective response rate (ORR), and adverse events were compared indirectly with network meta-analysis using random model in software STATA version 13.0. Results: A total of 4 randomized clinical trials including 2137 patients met the eligibility criteria and enrolled. Indirect comparisons showed that there was no statistical difference observed in the indirect comparison of PFS, OS, ORR, or DCR among agents of regorafenib, cabozantinib, and ramucirumab in advanced HCC patients with elevated α-fetoprotein (AFP) (400 ng/mL or higher). However, in patients with low-level AFP (lower than 400 ng/mL), regorafenib was the only agent associated with significant superiority in OS, compared with placebo (hazard ratio 0.67, 95% CI, 0.50–0.90). Conclusions: The present network meta-analysis revealed that there might be no statistical difference observed in the indirect comparison of PFS, OS, ORR, or DCR among regorafenib, cabozantinib, or ramucirumab in advanced HCC patients with elevated AFP (400 ng/mL or higher). However, in patients with low-level AFP (lower than 400 ng/mL), regorafenib might be associated with significant superiority in OS, compared to placebo, which need further investigation in clinical practice.

Background: In recent years, immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) including atezolizumab, durvalumab, pembrolizumab, and nivolumab have reported their efficacy and safety profile in patients with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC). However, given the diverse efficacy and inconsistent safety among the ICIs, with the absence of head-to-head researches designed to evaluate the efficacy among them, it might bring with confusion on selection in clinical practice. Objectives: The present systematic review and network meta-analysis was performed to conduct indirect comparisons on efficacy and safety profile among ICIs, including atezolizumab, durvalumab, pembrolizumab, and nivolumab as first-line treatment in patients with ES-SCLC. Design: Several databases were retrieved with established criteria until June 20, 2020, with the main MeSH Terms and their similarities. Hazard ratios of overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS), odds ratios (ORs) of disease control rate (DCR), objective response rate (ORR), and adverse events (AEs) were compared indirectly with network meta-analysis. Data sources: Medline, Cochrane library, and Embase. Eligibility criteria: Prospective, randomized, controlled clinical studies, which reported PFS, OS, and AEs. Data extraction and synthesis: Clinical characteristics were extracted by the 2 authors independently. Comparisons of HRs were calculated for PFS and OS by random effect model. ORR, DCR, and AEs were presented with ORs. Based on surface under the cumulative ranking curve, and forest plots, efficacy and safety of the treatments were ranked, with predicted histogram described. Results: In total, there were 4 studies including 1547 patients who met the eligibility criteria and enrolled. For indirect comparisons, no significant difference on PFS was observed between atezolizumab and durvalumab (HR 0.96, 95% CI, 0.72–1.29), or between atezolizumab and pembrolizumab (HR 1.05, 95% CI, 0.78–1.43), or between atezolizumab and nivolumab (HR 1.18, 95% CI, 0.79–1.79), or between durvalumab and pembrolizumab (HR 1.10, 95% CI, 0.84–1.43). or between durvalumab and nivolumab (HR 1.23, 95% CI, 0.83–1.82), or between pembrolizumab and nivolumab (HR 1.12, 95% CI, 0.76–1.66), nor significant difference on OS observed between atezolizumab and durvalumab (HR 0.93, 95% CI, 0.67–1.30), or between atezolizumab and pembrolizumab (HR 0.88, 95% CI, 0.62–1.24), or between atezolizumab and nivolumab (HR 1.04, 95% CI, 0.66–1.66), or between durvalumab and pembrolizumab (HR 0.94, 95% CI, 0.70–1.25), or between durvalumab and nivolumab (HR 1.12, 95% CI, 0.73–1.71), or between pembrolizumab and nivolumab (HR 1.19, 95% CI, 0.77–1.84). However, durvalumab was shown statistical superiority on ORR when compared with atezolizumab (HR 0.79, 95% CI, 0.64–0.98), also with significantly higher risk on immune-related AEs when compared with atezolizumab (OR 0.22, 95% CI, 0.10–0.50), and pembrolizumab (OR 3.12, 95% CI, 1.27–7.64). Conclusions: Results of the study revealed that there was no statistical difference on PFS or OS among agents of atezolizumab, durvalumab, pembrolizumab, and nivolumab as first-line treatment in patients with ES-SCLC. However, durvalumab was shown superiority on ORR when compared with atezolizumab, also with significantly higher risk on immune-related AEs.

Jianxin Chen,1 Haizhou Lou2 1Department of Medical Oncology, Quzhou People’s Hospital, Quzhou, 324000, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Oncology, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310016, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Haizhou LouDepartment of Oncology, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Zhejiang, 310016, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail lhz30098@163.comBackground: Polymerase epsilon (POLE) mutations are considered as one of the most potential and promising biomarkers for immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in patients with colorectal cancer. However, the treatment of ICIs sometimes also resulted in unsatisfactory results in patients with POLE mutations, which revealed that not all mutations on POLE contribute to tumor regression in colorectal cancer.Case Presentation: We herein reported a case in which the patient with advanced colon cancer harboring somatic POLE F367S mutation, along with microsatellite stability status, has achieved efficacy of complete response to the programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) receptor inhibitor pembrolizumab, as well as a progression-free survival more than 49 months, and still in extension.Conclusion: Somatic POLE F367S mutation might be presented as a sensitive predictor to pembrolizumab in patients with colon cancer.Keywords: POLE mutation, colon cancer, pembrolizumab, complete response

Zijuan tea is a representative anthocyanin-rich tea cultivar in China. In this study, Zijuan tea was used to produce a novel kombucha beverage (ZTK). The physicochemical, sensory properties, and antioxidant activity of ZTK were compared with that of black tea kombucha (BTK) and green tea kombucha (GTK). Results indicated that after fermentation, the color of ZTK changed from yellowish-brown to salmon-pink, because its anthocyanins (4.5 mg/L) appeared red in acidic conditions. Meanwhile no significant changes of color were observed in BTK and GTK. The dynamic changes of pH, biomass, and concentrations of sugars, amino acids, and main organic acids were similar in three kombucha beverages, except catechins showing different trends. Moreover, ZTK showed the highest overall acceptability score, antioxidant activity, and concentration of volatiles among the three kombucha beverages. Therefore, Zijuan tea is suitable for the preparation of kombucha beverage with attractive color and health benefits.

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-ipe-10.1177_20416695211018714 for The Modulation of Exogenous Attention on Emotional Audiovisual Integration by Yueying Li, Zimo Li, Aihui Deng, Hewu Zheng, Jianxin Chen, Yanna Ren and Weiping Yang in i-Perception

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-ipe-10.1177_20416695211018714 for The Modulation of Exogenous Attention on Emotional Audiovisual Integration by Yueying Li, Zimo Li, Aihui Deng, Hewu Zheng, Jianxin Chen, Yanna Ren and Weiping Yang in i-Perception

Additional file 1: Supplementary Methods: 1.1 Multiphoton imaging system. 1.2 TACS-score calculation formula. 1.3 Morphological features. 1.4 Texture features. 1.5 TCMF-score calculation formula. Figures S1-S10: Fig. S1. Recruitment pathways for patients. Fig. S2. Distribution histogram of TCMF-score, TACS-score and TCMF+TACS-score. Fig. S3. Hazard ratio of 5-year recurrence for all patients according to the TCMF+TACS-score classifier in different subgroups stratified by clinical parameters. Fig. S4. Forest plot shows the concordance index (C-index) of different prediction models (TCMF, TACS, and TCMF+TACS) in the different risk combination patients. Fig. S5. Kaplan-Meier survival curves for comparing the risk stratification ability of the CLI-score under four different situations (TACS-low risk and TCMF-low risk, TACS-high risk and TCMF-low risk, TACS-low risk and TCMF-high risk, TACS-high risk and TCMF-high risk). Fig. S6. Nomogram and Calibration curves. Fig. S7. TCMF selection using LASSO cox regression analysis. Fig. S8. Schematic of extracting TACS corresponding microscopy features (TCMF). Fig. S9. Kaplan-Meier curves of DFS according to the CLI, TCMF, TACS, TCMF+TACS, and CLI+TCMF+TACS models for the low risk and high risk patients classified by the treatment guideline. Fig. S10. Representative MPM images of three patients to illustrate the extraction of TCMF. Tables S1-S11: Table S1. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analyses of the association of variables with DFS in the training cohort. Table S2. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analyses of the association of variables with DFS in the internal validation cohort. Table S3. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analyses of the association of variables with DFS in the external validation cohort. Table S4. Risk stratification ability of TCMF+TACS-score in subgroups of the three cohorts. Table S5. Risk stratification ability of the five prediction models in three cohorts. Table S6. Prognosis performance of the five models at 5-year DFS in patients stratified by the combination of different risk factors. Table S7. The number of likely undertreated (orange-highlighted) and overtreated (purple-highlighted) patients according to the Chinese treatment guideline and four models. Table S8. Morphological features. Table S9. First order intensity histogram features. Table S10. Grey-level co-occurrence matrix-based features. Table S11. Gabor wavelet transform features.

In this study, the fermentation process of black tea wine was optimized, and the changes in catechins, organic acids, and aroma components during fermentation were investigated. The optimal fermentation conditions for tea wine were determined as follows: the addition of 15% sucrose and 0.75% tea leaves, and a fermentation temperature of 25 ºC. Under the optimal conditions, the alcohol content and sensory evaluation score of tea wine were 8.9 %ABV and 88, respectively. The contents of catechins and organic acids in tea wine were 21.29 mg/L and 3.68 mg/mL, which were 1.32-fold and 10.51-fold higher than those of tea infusion, respectively. L-malic acid was the main organic acid in tea wine, which accounted for 56.3% of the total amount of organic acids. A total number of 34 and 33 kinds of aroma components were detected in tea wine and tea infusion, respectively. The main aroma components of tea wine were esters and alcohols, which accounted for 39.7% and 45.9% of the total amount of aroma components, respectively, while the main aroma components of tea infusion were esters and aldehydes, accounting for 34.6% and 33.2%, respectively.

A cooperative estimation algorithm is proposed for mutli-sensor networks with imprecise measurements caused by electromagnetic interferences, abnormal currents and other faults in the multi-sensor measurement process. Adaptive schemes based on a reference model are introduced to overcome the adverse effects of multiplicative interference on the estimated information. Then, rigorous theoretical proofs are developed to analyze the adaptive estimation algorithm. Finally, numerical simulation results are carried out to verify the effectiveness of the theoretical analysis.

Jianxin Chen,1 Junhui Wang,2 Xilin Wu1 1Department of Medical Oncology, Quzhou People′s Hospital, Quzhou, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Radiation Oncology, Quzhou People′s Hospital, Quzhou, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Xilin WuDepartment of Medical Oncology, Quzhou People′s Hospital, Quzhou, Zhejiang 324000, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail wuxilin1544@163.comBackground: Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in trans-C797S alteration has been considered as one of the mechanisms, which leads to the resistance to third-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI). Several reports have suggested that combination therapy with first- and third-generation TKIs might be effective for acquired trans-C797S alteration.Case Presentation: Herein, we report a patient diagnosed with lung adenocarcinoma harboring EGFR 19Del/T790M/in trans-C797S mutations with co-occurring CTNNB1 alteration showing a negative response to combination therapy with first- and third-generation TKIs.Conclusion: Our report highlights the importance of deploying more informed molecular diagnosis and real-time monitoring strategies to detect co-alterations that drive disease progression and drug resistance, in order to find more effective treatment.Keywords: EGFR, in trans-C797S, CTNNB1, resistance

With the vigorous development of distributed energy, the national energy industry has undergone major changes, but the imperfection of distributed energy trading systems has limited the development of distributed energy in China. Blockchain technology, as a disruptive information and communication technology, has brought about major changes in the financial and energy industries due to its decentralization, security, openness and independence. Distributed energy trading combined with blockchain can create a decentralized electricity market and promote the development of distributed energy. In this paper the market situation of distributed energy trading is analyzed and a distributed energy trading scheme is designed based on distributed energy trading and blockchain technology. The pain points of opaque information and cumbersome transaction are solved by combining the advantages of the blockchain, which gives users more initiative.

With the increasing demand of distributed energy in the energy system, the existing centralized energy trading model can no longer meet the effective interaction of a large number of distributed energy entities in the case of non-trust. Considering the advantages of low energy consumption and high efficiency of graphene blockchain, a distributed energy trading architecture and process based on graphene blockchain is designed. The trading system consists of five levels: user layer, application layer, contract layer, network layer and data layer, with clear overall architecture, self-discipline node and strong scalability and optimization. The entire transaction process is automatically completed on time through smart contracts, effectively improving the automation and intelligence of the transaction under the premise of ensuring the rights of both parties to the transaction. Through the comparative analysis of different distributed energy trading modes, the distributed energy trading model based on graphene blockchain has high feasibility, advancement and sustainability.

Introduction: A novel coronavirus, tentatively designated as 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), now called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, emerged in Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019 and which continues to expand. On February 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) named the disease coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). On February 28, WHO increased our assessment of the risk of spread and the risk of impact of COVID-19 to very high at a global level. The COVID-19 poses significant threats to international health. Computed tomography (CT) has been an important imaging modality in assisting in the diagnosis and management of patients withCOVID-19. Some retrospective imaging studies have reported chest CT findings of COVID-19 in the past 2 months, suggesting that several CT findings may be characteristic. To our knowledge, there has been no prospective multicentre imaging study of COVID-19 to date. We proposed a hypothesis: There are some specific CT features on Chest CT of COVID-19 patients. And the mechanism of these CT features is explicable based on pathological findings. Objective: To investigate the specific CT features of COVID-19 and the formation mechanism of these CT features. Method: This study is a prospective multicenter observational study. We will recruit 100 patients with COVID-19 at 55 hospitals. All patients undergo chest CT examination with the same scan protocol. The distribution and morphology of lesions on chest CT, clinical data will be recorded. A number of patients will be pathologically examined after permission is granted. The data of these three aspects will be analyzed synthetically. Discussion: This study will help us to identify the chest CT features of COVID-19 and its mechanism. Ethics and dissemination: This retrospective study was approved by the Biomedical Research Ethics Committee of West China Hospital of Sichuan University (No. 2020–140). Written informed consent will be obtained from all study participants prior to enrollment in the study. To protect privacy of participants, all private information were kept anonymous. The results will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and will be disseminated electronically and in print regardless of results.

Background. Cerebral ischemic stroke is one of the severe diseases with a pathological condition that leads to nerve cell dysfunction with seldom available therapy options. Currently, there are few proven effective treatments available for improving cerebral ischemic stroke outcome. However, recently, there is increasing evidence that inhibition of histone deacetylase (HDAC) activity exerts a strong protective effect in in vivo and vitro models of ischemic stroke. Review Summary. HDAC is a posttranslational modification that is negatively regulated by histone acetyltransferase (HATS) and histone deacetylase. Based on function and DNA sequence similarity, histone deacetylases (HDACs) are organized into four different subclasses (I-IV). Modifications of histones play a crucial role in cerebral ischemic affair development after translation by modulating disrupted acetylation homeostasis. HDAC inhibitors (HDACi) mainly exert neuroprotective effects by enhancing histone and nonhistone acetylation levels and enhancing gene expression and protein modification functions. This article reviews HDAC and its inhibitors, hoping to find meaningful therapeutic targets. Conclusions. HDAC may be a new biological target for cerebral ischemic stroke. Future drug development targeting HDAC may make it a potentially effective anticerebral ischemic stroke drug.

High speed mid-wave infrared (MWIR) photodetectors have important applications in the emerging areas such high-precision frequency comb spectroscopy and light detection and ranging (LIDAR). In this work, we report a high-speed room-temperature mid-wave infrared interband cascade photodetector (ICIP) based on a type-II InAs/GaSb superlattice. The devices show an optical cut-off wavelength around 5um and a 3-dB bandwidth up to 7.04 GHz. The relatively low dark current density around 9.39 x 10-2 A/cm2 under -0.1 V is also demonstrated at 300 K. These results validate the advantages of ICIPs to achieve both high-frequency operation and low noise at room temperature. Limitations on the high-speed performance of the detector are also discussed based on the S-parameter analysis and other RF performance measurement.

We report, in a sequence of notes, our work on the Alibaba Cloud Quantum Development Platform (AC-QDP). AC-QDP provides a set of tools for aiding the development of both quantum computing algorithms and quantum processors, and is powered by a large-scale classical simulator deployed on Alibaba Cloud. In this note, we simulate a distance-3 logical qubit encoded in the 17-qubit surface code using experimental noise parameters for transmon qubits in a planar circuit QED architecture. Our simulation features crosstalk induced by ZZ-interactions. We show that at the current-stage noise levels, crosstalk contributes significantly to the dephasing of the logical qubit. This results in a total phase-flip probability of $\sim 0.6\%$, about $60\%$ higher than expected without considering crosstalk. This indicates that for the code considered, the current noise parameters approach, but do not yet meet, the break-even fault-tolerance regime., Comment: 23 pages, 6 figures

Semantic segmentation with deep learning has achieved great progress in classifying the pixels in the image. However, the local location information is usually ignored in the high-level feature extraction by the deep learning, which is important for image semantic segmentation. To avoid this problem, we propose a graph model initialized by a fully convolutional network (FCN) named Graph-FCN for image semantic segmentation. Firstly, the image grid data is extended to graph structure data by a convolutional network, which transforms the semantic segmentation problem into a graph node classification problem. Then we apply graph convolutional network to solve this graph node classification problem. As far as we know, it is the first time that we apply the graph convolutional network in image semantic segmentation. Our method achieves competitive performance in mean intersection over union (mIOU) on the VOC dataset(about 1.34% improvement), compared to the original FCN model.

It is believed that random quantum circuits are difficult to simulate classically. These have been used to demonstrate quantum supremacy: the execution of a computational task on a quantum computer that is infeasible for any classical computer. The task underlying the assertion of quantum supremacy by Arute et al. (Nature, 574, 505--510 (2019)) was initially estimated to require Summit, the world's most powerful supercomputer today, approximately 10,000 years. The same task was performed on the Sycamore quantum processor in only 200 seconds. In this work, we present a tensor network-based classical simulation algorithm. Using a Summit-comparable cluster, we estimate that our simulator can perform this task in less than 20 days. On moderately-sized instances, we reduce the runtime from years to minutes, running several times faster than Sycamore itself. These estimates are based on explicit simulations of parallel subtasks, and leave no room for hidden costs. The simulator's key ingredient is identifying and optimizing the "stem" of the computation: a sequence of pairwise tensor contractions that dominates the computational cost. This orders-of-magnitude reduction in classical simulation time, together with proposals for further significant improvements, indicates that achieving quantum supremacy may require a period of continuing quantum hardware developments without an unequivocal first demonstration., Comment: This manuscript subsumes arXiv:1805.01450 and arXiv:1907.11217, significantly improving on both

Jianxin Chen,1 Junhui Wang,2 Qinhong Zheng,1 Meiling Weng,1 Xilin Wu1 1Department of Medical Oncology, Quzhou People’s Hospital, Quzhou, Zhejiang 324000, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Radiation Oncology, Quzhou People’s Hospital, Quzhou, Zhejiang 324000, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Xilin WuDepartment of Medical Oncology, Quzhou People’s Hospital, Quzhou, Zhejiang 324000, People’s Republic of ChinaEmail wuxilin1544@163.comAbstract: Patients diagnosed as lung adenocarcinoma with brain metastasis usually result in poor prognosis with limited survival time. Palliative systematic therapy has emerged as the primary choice for non-small cell lung cancer patients with brain metastasis harboring wild-type drive genes. However, the objective response rate and long-term survival for patients treated with this therapy remained unsatisfied. Herein, we present a case with lung adenocarcinoma accompanied with symptomatic brain metastasis who achieved radiologic complete response after receiving combined therapy including stereotactic body radiation therapy, anti-angiogenesis, and chemotherapy. He has achieved a duration of disease-free survival of thirty-six months, and is still in extension.Keywords: complete response, lung adenocarcinoma, brain metastasis, systematic therapy

The objective of this meta-analysis was to identify the correlation between arterial blood gas (ABG) and venous blood gas (VBG) analysis in patients with acute exacerbation chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD). Seven relevant literature entries from PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) on 1234 patients were included in the analysis. Variables derived from the investigations, which were presented as mean ± standard deviation (SD) in both ABG and VBG, were converted into mean differences (MDs) (mean ± SD) by subtracting venous values from arterial values. For the purposes of pooling the MDs, 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were required. Stata version 13.0 software was used to perform the statistical analysis. As a result, the pooled MD for the potential of hydrogen (pH) was 0.02 pH units (ABG minus VBG) (95% CI, 0.02–0.03), for partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PCO2) −2.91 mm Hg (95% CI, −4.23 to −1.59), for partial pressure of oxygen (PO2) 13.13 mm Hg (95% CI, 9.13–17.12), and for bicarbonate (HCO3−) −0.22 mmol/l (95% CI, −0.62 to 0.18). In conclusion, VBG analysis compares well with ABG for pH, PCO2, and HCO3 estimations, but not for PO2 in patients with AECOPD.

The effects of brewing water on the sensory attributes and physicochemical properties of tea infusions made from Chinese teas were investigated. The tea infusions brewed in water with higher pH and total dissolved solids (TDS), generally had a darker color and lower overall sensory acceptability. Moreover, those infusions had less catechins, particularly galloylated-catechins, and lower antioxidant capacity. The teas with less fermentation contained more galloylated-catechins and had higher antioxidant capacity, but were much more susceptible to high mineral brewing water. Green tea was proved to be the most susceptible one, whereas dark tea the most stable one. Green tea infusions prepared with higher pH/TDS water were more rapidly oxidized, resulting in a darker color due to polymerization of catechins, when exposed to the air. These findings suggested that low mineral brewing water was better for Chinese tea, both from the sensory and health benefit perspectives.

The physicochemical characteristics, sensory quality, and antioxidant activity of tea infusions prepared with purified water (PW), mineral water (MW), mountain spring water (MSW), and tap water (TW) from Hangzhou were investigated. The results showed that the taste quality, catechin concentration, and antioxidant capacity of green, oolong, and black tea infusions prepared using MW and TW were significantly lower than those prepared using PW. Extraction of catechins and caffeine was reduced with high-conductivity water, while high pH influenced the stability of catechins. PW and MSW were more suitable for brewing green and oolong teas, while MSW, with low pH and moderate ion concentration, was the most suitable water for brewing black tea. Lowering the pH of mineral water partially improved the taste quality and increased the concentration of catechins in the infusions. These results aid selection of the most appropriate water for brewing Chinese teas.

Aroma deterioration is one of the biggest problems in processing tea beverages. The aroma of tea infusion deteriorates fast during heat sterilization and the presence of ferrous ion (Fe2+) aggravates it. The underlying mechanism remains unveiled. In this study, Fe2+ was verified to deteriorate the aroma quality of green tea infusion with heat treatment. Catechins were necessary for Fe2+-mediated aroma deterioration. By enhancing the degradation of catechins, Fe2+ dramatically increased the production of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Fe2+ and H2O2 together exacerbated the aroma of green tea infusion with heat treatment. GC-MS analysis revealed that the presence of Fe2+ enhanced the loss of green/grassy volatiles and promoted the formation of new volatiles with diversified aroma characteristics, resulting in a dull scent of green tea infusion. Our results revealed how Fe2+ induced aroma deterioration of green tea infusion with heat treatment and could help guide tea producers in attenuating the aroma deterioration of tea infusion during processing.

Fresh tea leaves were crushed into juice and then fermented (oxidation) to obtain fermented black tea juice, which can be used to prepare black tea beverage. The effects of addition of oolong tea infusion or tossing of tea leaves on the sensory quality and theaflavins (TFs) concentration of fermented black tea juice were investigated. The results showed that both addition of tea infusion and tossing of fresh tea leaves increased the TFs/thearubigins (TRs) ratio and improved the sensory quality of fermented black tea juice. The TFs/TRs ratio was found to be significantly correlated with the scores for flavor (r = 0.98), mouth feel (r = 0.94), and overall acceptability (r = 0.91) of the fermented black tea juices from different processes. This result suggested that a relatively high concentration of catechins and stepwise enzymatic oxidation were the crucial factors that increased the TFs/TRs ratio and improved the sensory quality. The combination of adding tea infusion and tossing fresh tea leaves greatly improved the quality of the fermented black tea juice by markedly increasing the TFs/TRs ratio (87%). Results of the present study provided useful information for improving the quality of fermented black tea juice.

We report our work on the Alibaba Cloud Quantum Development Platform (AC-QDP). The capability of AC-QDP's computational engine was already reported in \cite{CZH+18, ZHN+19}.In this follow-up article, we demonstrate with figures how AC-QDP helps in testing large-scale quantum algorithms (currently within the QAOA framework). We give new benchmark results on regular graphs. AC-QDP's QAOA framework can simulate thousands of qubits for up to $4$ layers. Then we discuss two interesting use cases we have implemented on the platform: 1. Optimal QAOA sequences for small-cycle free graphs; 2. Graph structure discovery.

This paper proposes two different electric-continuously variable transmission (EVT) configurations for a typical hybrid electric bus (HEB). The two proposed configurations are the Output-split Configuration with Dual Planetary gearsets (OCDP) and the Input-split Configuration with Single Planetary gearset equipped with a Clutch (C-ICSP), respectively. Then the power performance and efficiency of the two configurations are analyzed and compared based on the lever analogy. The analysis indicates the OCDP cannot apply for the HEB because the motor speed exceeds the reasonable range, because the efficiency in high-speed area is low. Only the C-ICSP has good applicability to the HEB.

Background: This study aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of S-1 and capecitabine in patients with metastatic colorectal carcinoma (mCRC). Methods: Eligible prospective clinical trials were searched and available data were extracted. Odds ratio and hazard ratio of available outcomes including objective response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and adverse events (AEs) were pooled for analysis. Results: A total of 6 studies including 828 patients were included. The results of pooled analysis showed no statistical difference in short-term efficacy including ORR (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.68–1.19; P = .48) or DCR (95% CI: 0.65–1.29; P = .61), or long-term efficacy including PFS (95% CI: 0.75–1.08; P = .26) or OS (95% CI: 0.78–1.13; P = .50). Symptoms of diarrhea at any grade were more prevalent (95% CI: 1.21–2.29; P = .002) in patients treated with S-1, while hand-foot syndrome (HFS) at any grade (95% CI: 0.24–0.48; P .05). Conclusions: This meta-analysis reveals that S-1 has comparable efficacy, lower risk of HFS and higher incidence of diarrhea compared to capecitabine for treatment in patients with mCRC.

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text, Background: We performed the present systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the efficacy and safety for S-1-based regimens comparing to intravenous fluorouracil-based ones in Asian patients with metastatic colorectal carcinoma (mCRC). Methods: Eligible prospective and controlled randomized clinical trials (RCT) were included, of which data were extracted by inclusion criteria and exclusion ones. Odds ratio (OR) and Hazard ratio (HR) of outcomes including objective response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), progressive-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and adverse events (AEs) were explored for the final analysis between the 2 groups. Results: A total of 23 eligible prospective, controlled RCTs including 2269 patients were enrolled for the pooled analysis. With the meta-analysis of available data, the results of the present research showed that there was no statistical difference on short-term efficacy including ORR (HR = 0.85, 95% CI: 0.71–1.01; P = .07) or DCR (HR = 0.88, 95% CI: 0.69–1.11; P = .27), as well as long-term efficacy including PFS (HR = 1.00, 95% CI: 0.90–1.11; P = .98) or OS (HR = 0.95, 95% CI: 0.82–1.10; P = .50). In addition, the incidences of AEs including leucopenia, neutropenia, and vomiting were statistically lower in S-1-based regimens comparing to intravenous fluorouracil-based ones, regardless of all grade or high grade (all P .05). Conclusions: The present meta-analysis revealed that S-1-based regimens might be associated with comparable efficacy, as well as lower risk of leucopenia, neutropenia, and vomiting at all/high grade comparing to intravenous fluorouracil-based ones in Asian patients with mCRC.

In this work, we introduce a new circuit optimization technique to reduce the number of T gates in Clifford+T circuits by treating T gates conjugated by Clifford gates as $\frac{\pi}{4}$-rotations around Pauli operators. The tested benchmarks shows up to $71.43\%$ and an average $42.67\%$ reduction in T-count, both surpass the best performance reported. The worst case complexity of our algorithm is $O(nk^2)$ where $n$ is the number of qubits and $k$ is the number of T gates in the original Clifford+T circuit., Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures, comments are welcome

The physicochemical changes of the instant green tea powders added with β-cyclodextrin and sodium ascorbate stored at 4°C and 25°C were investigated by determining moisture, polyphenols, caffeine, amino acids, catechins, color, sensory quality, and the total microbial count. The results showed that addition of both β-cyclodextrin (6%, w/w) and sodium ascorbate (2%, w/w) reduced the changes of moisture, polyphenols, and catechins contents, helped to maintain the sensory quality, and limited the microbial count. The low temperature (4°C) was also found to maintain the sensory quality and limit of the microbial count of instant green tea powder. The combination of low temperature and addition of β-cyclodextrin with sodium ascorbate were the best treatment for the storage of instant green tea powder. These results could provide useful information for the quality improvement of instant green tea powder during storage.

In this work, we introduce a new circuit optimization technique to reduce the number of T gates in Clifford+T circuits by treating T gates conjugated by Clifford gates as $\frac��{4}$-rotations around Pauli operators. The tested benchmarks shows up to $71.43\%$ and an average $42.67\%$ reduction in T-count, both surpass the best performance reported. The worst case complexity of our algorithm is $O(nk^2)$ where $n$ is the number of qubits and $k$ is the number of T gates in the original Clifford+T circuit., 10 pages, 2 figures, comments are welcome

We report, in a sequence of notes, our work on the Alibaba Cloud Quantum Development Platform(AC-QDP). AC-QDP provides a set of tools for aiding the development of both quantum computing algorithms and quantum processors, and is powered by a large-scale classical simulator deployed on Alibaba Cloud. In this note, we report the computational experiments demonstrating the classical simulation capability of AC-QDP. We use as a benchmark the random quantum circuits designed for Google's Bristlecone QPU {\cite{GRCS}}. We simulate Bristlecone-70 circuits with depth $1 + 32 + 1$ in $0.43$ second per amplitude, using $1449$ Alibaba Cloud Elastic Computing Service (ECS) instances, each with $88$ Intel Xeon(Skylake) Platinum 8163 vCPU cores @ 2.5 GHz and $160$ gigabytes of memory. By comparison, the previously best reported results for the same tasks are $104$ and $135$ seconds, using NASA's HPC Pleiades and Electra systems, respectively ({arXiv:1811.09599}). Furthermore, we report simulations of Bristlecone-70 with depth $1+36+1$ and depth $1+40+1$ in $5.6$ and $580.7$ seconds per amplitude, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, these are the first successful simulations of instances at these depths., Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure. Comments are welcome. We renamed our platform to avoid confusion with other products with similar name

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Ischaemic stroke is a leading cause of death and long‐term disability. Promising neuroprotective compounds are urgently needed to overcome clinical therapeutic limitations. Neuroprotective agents are limited to single‐target agents, which further limit their clinical effectiveness. Due to the brain's particular energy requirements, the energy micro‐environment, centred in mitochondria, is a new research hotspot in the complex pathology of ischaemic stroke. Here, we studied the effects of neferine (Nef), a bis‐benzylisoquinoline alkaloid extracted from the seed embryo of Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn, on ischaemic stroke and its underlying mitochondrial protective mechanisms. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH: Rats with permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion (pMCAO)‐induced focal cerebral ischaemia and tert‐butyl hydroperoxide (t‐BHP)‐injured PC12 cells were used to investigate the neuroprotective effects of Nef, particularly with regard to energy micro‐environment regulation by mitochondria and its mechanism in vivo and in vitro. KEY RESULTS: Nef protected t‐BHP‐injured PC12 cells in vitro and ameliorated neurological score, infarct volume, regional cerebral blood flow, cerebral microstructure and oxidant‐related enzyme deficits in pMCAO rats in vivo. Nef also prevented mitochondrial dysfunction both in vivo and in vitro. The underlying mechanism of the mitochondrial protective effect of Nef might be attributed to the increased translocation of Nrf2 to the nucleus. Furthermore, the translocation of Nrf2 to nucleus was also decreased by sequestosome 1 (p62) knockdown. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Our results demonstrated that Nef might have therapeutic potential for ischaemic stroke and may exert its protective role through mitochondrial protection. This protection might be attributed to the modulation of Nrf2 signalling.

Docker is rapidly changing the rules of operation in the field of cloud computing, and completely subverts the development of cloud technology. Swarm is a Docker container-based cluster management tool. By analyzing and researching the overall architecture and scheduling strategy of Swarm, in this paper, we propose a Particle Swarm Optimization-based container scheduling algorithm of Docker platform, which to have solved the problem of insufficient resource utilization and load balance. We distribute application containers on Docker hosts, balance resource usage, and ultimately improve application performance. Experimental results show that the performance of the PSO is improved 20% and 19% higher than the spread and improved random respectively under the same host configuration.

Cloud computing provides a variety of services. However, the data center for cloud computing consumes a lot of power. Reducing the power consumption of data center is very important. In this paper, we propose a Power-aware ACO algorithm for the cloud computing platform, which optimizes the ACO algorithm with the goal of minimizing power consumption. In order to solve the problem of too many hosts for migration that the classic ACO cannot solve, we treat the idle hosts and active hosts differently. Together with the initialization based on the modified Power-aware Best Fit Decreasing algorithm, our Power-aware ACO can handle VM migration problems no matter there are too many hosts or not. The simulation results show that our Power-aware ACO is able to reduce 20% and 91% power consumption compared with VMP-ACO in two different circumstances. In addition, our algorithm is also proved to be stable and reliable after different tests with various initial conditions.