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The non-dystrophic myotonias are inherited skeletal muscle disorders characterized by skeletal muscle stiffness after voluntary contraction, without muscle atrophy. Based on their clinical features, non-dystrophic myotonias are classified into myotonia congenita, paramyotonia congenita, and sodium channel myotonia. Using whole-exome next-generation sequencing, we identified a L703P mutation (c.2108TC, p.L703P) in SCN4A in a Chinese family diagnosed with non-dystrophic myotonias. The clinical findings of patients in this family included muscle stiffness and hypertrophy. The biophysical properties of wildtype and mutant channels were investigated using whole-cell patch clamp. L703P causes both gain-of-function and loss-of-function changes in Nav1.4 properties, including decreased current density, impaired recovery, enhanced activation and slow inactivation. Our study demonstrates that L703P is a pathogenic variant for myotonia, and provides additional electrophysiological information for understanding the pathogenic mechanism of SCN4A-associated channelopathies.

Research on speech-to-speech translation (S2ST) has progressed rapidly in recent years. Many end-to-end systems have been proposed and show advantages over conventional cascade systems, which are often composed of recognition, translation and synthesis sub-systems. However, most of the end-to-end systems still rely on intermediate textual supervision during training, which makes it infeasible to work for languages without written forms. In this work, we propose a novel model, Textless Translatotron, which is based on Translatotron 2, for training an end-to-end direct S2ST model without any textual supervision. Instead of jointly training with an auxiliary task predicting target phonemes as in Translatotron 2, the proposed model uses an auxiliary task predicting discrete speech representations which are obtained from learned or random speech quantizers. When a speech encoder pre-trained with unsupervised speech data is used for both models, the proposed model obtains translation quality nearly on-par with Translatotron 2 on the multilingual CVSS-C corpus as well as the bilingual Fisher Spanish-English corpus. On the latter, it outperforms the prior state-of-the-art textless model by +18.5 BLEU.

We connected polyglutamic acid and methotrexate (MTX) through disulfide bonds to prepare glutathione-responsive nanoparticles (MTX NPs) and encapsulated doxorubicin (DOX) to obtain dual drug-loaded NPs (DOX/MTX NPs) (Fig. 1). The appearance of the carbonyl stretching vibration peak at approximately 1640 cm−1 in the results of the infrared spectrum proved the successful synthesis of three kinds of nanoparticles (NPs) with different feeding ratios. The particle sizes of NPs with different feeding ratios were 100–200 nm, and the encapsulation of DOX slightly increased the size, while the surface charge was always negative. The release of MTX at 10 mM glutathione (GSH) was as high as 91.45%, and that of DOX was 89.44%, suggesting that the breakage of disulfide bonds leads to the disintegration of NPs. The results of the cell experiment showed that the encapsulation of DOX effectively increased toxicity and side effects in 143B cells and significantly induced cell apoptosis, and the inhibition of the migration rate increased as the feeding ratio increased. In animal experiments, DOX/MTX NPs significantly induced tumor cell apoptosis and inhibited cell proliferation and tumor growth. The nanoparticles had excellent tumor-targeting properties. Tumor-targeted NPs with the combined action of the two drugs provided a good strategy for the efficient and precise treatment of osteosarcoma.

Background To compare the probability of posterior capsular opacification treatment with Nd:YAG laser after cataract extraction surgery with the AT Lisa tri 839 MP lens, ZMB00 lens, AA lens and ZCB00 lens, and to investigate the factors influencing posterior capsular opacification treatment with Nd:YAG laser.Methods We retrospectively analyzed patients who underwent cataract surgery with the AT Lisa tri 839 MP lens, ZMB00 lens, AA lens, and ZCB00 lens at our hospital from July 2018 to June 2021, analyzed the probability of posterior capsular opacification with Nd:YAG laser in these patients, as well as the factors affecting posterior capsular opacification with Nd:YAG laser treatment.Results A total of 395 eyes were treated with Nd:YAG laser in 317 patients, with an overall incidence of 6.1%. 14 eyes (42.4%) in the AT Lisa tri 839 MP group were treated with Nd:YAG laser, 3 eyes (1.9%) in the ZMB00 group were treated with Nd:YAG laser, 6 eyes (5.2%) in the AA group were treated with Nd:YAG laser, and 1 eye (1.1%) in the ZCB00 group was treated with Nd:YAG laser.Conclusion Hydrophilic IOLs with hydrophobic surface were more likely to have posterior capsular opacification treated with the Nd:YAG laser than hydrophobic IOLs .

To cancel the multipath self-interference at the receiver of a wideband in-band full-duplex (IBFD) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radio-over-fiber (RoF) transmission system, a photonic-assisted approach is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. A multipath optical tunable delay line (MOTDL) module with a large adjusting arrangement and high tuning precision is designed to manipulate the local reference signals, which are modulated onto several optical wavelengths and then poured into the MOTDL via a dense wavelength division multiplexer (DWDM). By tuning the time delay and attenuation of each path in the MOTDL, all the self-interference signals can be cancelled from other local transmit antennas of the MIMO RoF transmission system, and the desired radio frequency (RF) signal can be recovered. A proof-of-concept experiment is carried out to verify the feasibility. Results show that at the receiver of a 3 3 MIMO RoF transmission system, the multipath self-interference cancellation depths of 30.18 dB, 24.9 dB, 22.7 dB, and 20.88 dB at 16.6 GHz are achieved for the bandwidths of 100 MHz, 500 MHz, 1 GHz, and 2 GHz, respectively.

To expedite research progress on terahertz (THz) communications, we analyze the outage performance of THz communication systems by a compound channel model in this paper. Different from existing models, the compound channel model incorporates the effects of spreading loss, molecular absorption loss, shadowing, and multi-path fading via a composite distribution. By using this model, we maintain an equilibrium of the outage performance analysis between mathematical tractability and the fidelity of realistic THz channels. Specifically, by utilizing the compound channel model, outage performance analysis can get rid of sophisticated case-specific channel modeling relying on field measurement and the ray-tracing assessment. To facilitate the application of the proposed channel model, we also design a maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) based channel parameter estimation approach for the compound channel model. The analytical results of outage performance by using the compound channel model are given in closed form and verified by numerical results.

Additional file 1: Figure S1-S3 Original blot images.

To improve the receiver sensitivity of the digitized radio-over-fiber (DRoF) transmission system, a vector quantization scheme based on probabilistic quantization codeword shaping (PQCS) is proposed. The PQCS performs quantization bits (QBs) rematching on the original codebook to optimize the proportion distribution of level ‘0’ and level ‘2’ in 4-Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM-4) for improving system sensitivity. A 16-Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (16-QAM) DRoF transmission system using intensity-modulation/direct-detection is employed to experimentally verify the proposed scheme. The experimental results indicate that, compared to the traditional vector quantization scheme, the PQCS method offers 1.45 dB shaping gain for system sensitivity at a bit error rate (BER) of 5 × 10−4. Nevertheless, the error vector magnitude (EVM) can be obtained below 2% when 6 and 7 QBs are adopted for 64-QAM and 256-QAM, respectively.

Polychlorotrifluoroethylene material is used in industry as a material with excellent insulation, impact resistance and acid and alkali resistance. In this study, we used a magnetic abrasive finishing process with renewable abrasive particles to finish the surface of the polychlorotrifluoroethylene resin plate. Magnetic Abrasive Finishing (MAF) process is a technology that uses flexible magnetic brushes to improve the surface quality of materials. The performance of the magnetic brush is a key factor in surface finishing. In conventional MAF finishing, the number of abrasive particles in the magnetic brush is limited, and the position of the abrasive particles is relatively fixed, which will cause the cutting edge of the abrasive particles to gradually become dull and the finishing efficiency gradually decreases. This paper research the characteristics of the MAF process with renewable abrasive particles. This MAF process has a circulating system that uses a conveyor belt to renew abrasive particles. We use the polychlorotrifluoroethylene resin plate as the experimental processing object to conducted finishing experiment. And the surface roughness of the polychlorotrifluoroethylene resin plate is improved from 315 nm to 32 nm through this process.

In this paper, we propose a non-stationary satellite communication system model considering the impacts of Earth rotation by adopting the Earth-centered inertial (ECI), and the Earth-centered Earth-fixed (ECEF) coordinates. The position variations of a satellite (S) and a ground user (U) via coordinate transformations are demonstrated. Considering the variations of the distance between S and U, the instantaneous outage probability (OP) and channel capacity are calculated, as well as the system throughput within finite communication time. A simplified case is considered and analyzed while ignoring the Earth’s rotation. Furthermore, the asymptotic expressions for the OP, capacity, and throughput are developed in the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime to obtain some insights. We also provide new definitions for throughput and OP within a short communication duration. The application and future research directions based on the derived results, including resource allocation, satellite handover, communication scenarios with multiple satellites and mobile users, are also discussed. Finally, some selected numerical results are provided to validate our proposed analysis models.

BackgroundHuman immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) epidemic in China is featured by geographical diversity of epidemic patterns. Understanding the characteristics of regional HIV-1 epidemic allows carrying out targeted prevention and controlling measures. This seven-year cross-sectional study was conducted in Heilongjiang, one province of Northeast China, where newly diagnosed infection is fast increasing yearly, but temporal HIV-1 epidemic trend is largely unknown.MethodsInformation of 1,006 newly diagnosed HIV-1-infected participants were collected before antiretroviral therapy during 2010–2016 in Heilongjiang province. HIV-1 genotype was identified based on the viral gag and env gene sequences. Recent infection was determined by Limiting-Antigen Avidity assays. Comparison analyses on the median ages, CD4 counts, proportions of stratified age groups and CD4 count groups, and rates of recent HIV-1 infection among different population and sampling times were performed to understand temporal HIV-1 epidemic features.ResultsHomosexual contact among men who have sex with men (MSM) was the main transmission route and CRF01_AE was the most dominant HIV-1 genotype. During 2010–2016, the HIV-1 epidemic showed three new changes: the median age continued to decline, the cases with a CD4 count more than 500 cells/μl (CD4hi cases) disproportionally expanded, and the recent HIV-1 infection rate steadily increased. MSM cases determined the temporal trend of HIV-1 epidemic here. Increase of young MSM cases (aged ConclusionYoung MSM have become a new hotspot and vulnerable group for HIV-1 transmission in Heilongjiang Province, Northeast China. The rapid increase in the number of young MSM cases, mainly those with CRF01_AE infection, changed temporal HIV-1 epidemic pattern here. Measures for prevention and control of HIV-1 infection among this population are urgently needed in the future.

The spin-valley-related electronic properties of quasi-one-dimensional kagome lattices with intrinsic spin-orbit coupling are studied, based on the tight-binding formalism. Three types of kagome-lattice nanoribbons along the x-direction with various geometric boundaries are proposed, including two symmetric nanoribbons and one asymmetric one. It is found that two nonequivalent Dirac cones and helical edge states exist in all the three types of kagome-lattice nanoribbons at 1/3 filling. Among them in the asymmetric nanoribbon, the spin and valley are found to be locked to each other due to inversion symmetry breaking, resulting in spin-valley polarized edge states. Band structure and probability density of wave function show that the spin-up/-down edge states locate at the K/K′ valley, with opposite propagation direction at the upper and lower boundaries. Spin-resolved real-space local current confirms the spin-valley polarized helical edge state in the asymmetric nanoribbon. The device application of the asymmetric kagome-lattice nanoribbon is worth further investigation.

To observe the effect of acupuncture at "Sanyinjiao" (SP6) on sperm motility, testicular B cell lymphoma/leukelia-2 (Bcl-2), Bcl-2 associated X protein (Bax), and Caspase-3 in mice with oligoasthenospermia induced by microwave radiation, so as to explore its underlying mechanisms in improving oligoasthenospermia.Male BALB/C mice were randomly divided into control, model and acupuncture groups(Compared with the control group, the percentages of PR sperms, NP sperms, PR+NP sperms, Johnson score, and expression level of Bcl-2 were significantly decreased (Manual acupuncture at SP6 can improve sperm motility in oligoasthenospermia mice induced by microwave radiation, which may be related to its effects in down-regulating the expressions of Bax and Caspase-3, increasing expression of Bcl-2 in the testis.

Ultrasonic-assisted metal inert gas (U-MIG) welding experiments were performed to analyze the effect of Cu addition on the microstructure and mechanical properties of galvanized steel sheet welds, and first-principles calculations were undertaken to predict the effect of Cu on the mechanical properties of α-Fe based structures. As shown by scanning electron microscopy analysis, Cu is conducive to the refinement and uniformity of the microstructure in the weld zone. Energy-dispersive spectrometry data indicated the presence of Cu in the welds after welding with Cu powder. The elastic moduli of the welds without and with Cu powder, obtained from nanoindentation tests, were (217.66 ± 5.11) GPa and (223.13 ± 9.12) GPa, respectively, which were close to the calculated results. The mechanical properties of the crystal structures of α-Fe and α-Fe1.9Cu0.1 were calculated using Materials Studio software. Both the experimental and calculated results showed that Cu doping reduced the bulk modulus of the weld but increased its shear modulus.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) communications have been widely exploited in our daily life, which leads to rising concerns about the security issue. This work investigates the secrecy performance of a UAV-to-vehicle (UAV-2-V) communication system, where the information delivered over both downlink and uplink between a UAV ( $S$ ) acting as a temporary aerial base-station and a legitimate vehicle ( $D$ ) moving along a road which is overheard by an eavesdropping vehicle ( $E$ ) on the same road. The location of $S$ is assumed to be uniformly distributed in the sky, while the locations of $D$ and $E$ are uniformly distributed on the highway. The statistical characteristics, including the cumulative distribution function and probability density function of the received signal-to-noise ratio over both downlink and uplink, are characterized respectively. Closed-form expressions for the approximate and asymptotic secrecy outage probability (SOP) of the downlink experiencing Rician fading channels have been derived accordingly. Moreover, the secrecy outage performance of the uplink is investigated by deriving the closed-form expression of the exact and asymptotic SOP in two cases: the eavesdropping channel suffers Rician and Weibull fading, respectively. Finally, Monte-Carlo simulations are shown to verify our proposed analytical models.

The article offers a glimpse into the “history from below” of a population of previously uncharted Chinese translators, based on the data drawn from four magazines published between 1913 and 1923 b...

Terahertz (THz) wireless technology is envisioned to enable terabit-per-second (Tbps) and secure transmissions in sixth-generation (6G) communication networks and has attracted attention from academia and industry in recent years. Because the transmission range of THz radios is restricted compared to that of microwave radios, frequency reuses in the THz band become much more flexible and even possible among transceiver pairs in close proximity. However, without appropriate spatial arrangement and coordination, the frequency reuse in the THz band can also lead to severe co-channel interference and result in a low signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) or a signal-to-interference ratio (SIR), which finally degrades signal detection and network reliability. To thoroughly study the co-channel interference in the THz band, we model the co-channel interference by the compound channel model and analyze it in detail. The adopted channel model captures the key features of THz communication, such as, spreading loss, molecular absorption loss, and dynamic shadowing, which is much different and complicated than those used in the low-frequency band. The resulted SINR and SIR are investigated by approximating the sum of co-channel interference as a gamma distribution. The generalized analytical results are also reduced to specialized forms for two special cases, i.e., the single-interferer case and the case of multiple independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) interferers. Due to the generalized nature of the THz interference model constructed in this paper, the results play a meaningful role in practical implementation and can be easily extended to advanced performance analyses for THz communication systems.

Full-duplex (FD) transmission has already been regarded and developed as a promising method to improve the utilization efficiency of the limited spectrum resource, as transmitting and receiving are allowed to simultaneously occur on the same frequency band. Nowadays, benefiting from the recent development of intelligent reflecting surface (IRS), some unique electromagnetic (EM) functionalities, such as wavefront shaping, focusing, anomalous reflection, absorption, frequency shifting, and nonreciprocity, can be realized by soft-controlled elements at the IRS, showing the capability of reconfiguring the wireless propagation environment with no hardware cost and nearly zero energy consumption. To demonstrate the virtues of FD-enabled IRS systems, in this article we first introduce several EM functionalities of IRS that are profitable for FD transmission. Then, some designs of FD-enabled IRS systems are proposed and discussed, followed by numerical results to demonstrate the achieved benefits. Finally, the challenges and directions of realizing FD-enabled IRS systems are outlined and elaborated upon.

Objective Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection disturbs the balance of CD4+ T cells and monocytes in the immune system. In the early stage of infection, the virus stimulates the activation and proliferation of immune cells, induces the release of cytokines, destroys CD4+ T cells, and accelerates HIV-1 replication and AIDS progression. It is essential to explore cytokine changes after HIV-1 infection and further understand the underlying mechanism of HIV infection. Materials and methods In this study, we enrolled 38 HIV-infected subjects and 30 healthy subjects. We measured and compared CD4+ T cell counts, the tropism of HIV and the serum cytokine levels in different groups. Results Our results showed significantly higher serum levels of IL-1β, IL-2, IL-4, IL-7, IL-10, IL-17, IFN-γ, and TNF-α in HIV-infected patients. Higher levels of IL-6 and IL-17 were observed in the + T cell count group, and higher levels of IL-2 were observed in the CCR5-tropic HIV strain group. Conclusion In conclusion, we found that HIV infection-induced activation of the immune system. IL-6 and IL-17 may predict the severity of HIV disease and regulate HIV infection. The level of IL-2 depended on the type of virus strain.

This study evaluated the relationship between dietary inflammatory index (DII) and metabolic health in the Chinese elderly.A total of 6,730 participants from the "Community-based Cardiovascular and Health Promotion Study" (CoCHPS) cohort were included in this study. The DII scores were acquired using a validated 125-item food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) (ranged -5.84 to 3.90). The correlation of DII with metabolic health indexes was evaluated with logistic regression and multivariable cox regression using SPSS and R software.Compared with low DII scores, subjects in the highest DII score quartiles had higher odds of metabolic dysfunction (OR=1.36, 95% CI: 1.07-1.68, p trend=0.023). In the subgroup analyses, the effect of a pro-inflammatory diet on metabolic dysfunction was particularly evident among people with hyperglycaemia (HR=1.58, 95% CI: 1.35-2.14), hypertension (HR=1.48, 95% CI: 1.07-2.09), dyslipidemia (HR=1.45, 95% CI: 1.24-1.87), abdominal obesity (HR=2.16, 95% CI: 1.57-2.96), and ≥60 years old (HR=1.32, 95% CI: 1.04-1.56) or who were women (HR=1.35, 95% CI: 1.08-1.67).DII score was associated with metabolic health. Further studies are needed to deepen our understanding of dietary parameters and different populations.

Training a model with limited data is an essential task for machine learning and visual recognition. Few-shot learning approaches meta-learn a task-level inductive bias from SEEN class few-shot tasks, and the meta-model is expected to facilitate the few-shot learning with UNSEEN classes. Inspired by the idea that unlabeled data can be utilized to smooth the model space in traditional semi-supervised learning, we propose TAsk COoperation (TACO) which takes advantage of unsupervised tasks to smooth the meta-model space. Specifically, we couple the labeled support set in a few-shot task with easily-collected unlabeled instances, prediction agreement on which encodes the relationship between tasks. The learned smooth meta-model promotes the generalization ability on supervised UNSEEN few-shot tasks. The state-of-the-art few-shot classification results on MiniImageNet and TieredImageNet verify the superiority of TACO to leverage unlabeled data and task relationship in meta-learning.