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Background/Aim: Although genetic differences in cell-cycle control genes have been associated with cancer risk, to our knowledge, no report has specifically examined the role of gene variants in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1B (CDKN1B; also known as p27/KIP1) is a cell-cycle regulating gene. This study aimed at investigating the association between CDKN1B genotypes and childhood ALL risk. Materials and Methods: In 266 childhood ALL cases and 266 healthy controls, the CDKN1B rs34330 and 2066827 polymorphisms were genotyped, and the association of CDKN1B genotypes with childhood ALL risk were analyzed. Results: The genotypes of CDKN1B rs34330 and 2066827 were similarly distributed between the control and case groups (p for trend=0.8718 and 0.4030, respectively). The allelic frequency also exhibited no statistical difference (p=1.0000 and 0.6666, respectively). There was no significant interaction between CDKN1B genotypes and age or sex. Conclusion: CDKN1B genotypes were not found to be minor contributors to childhood ALL susceptibility in Taiwan.

BackgroundSkeletal maturity can evaluate the growth and development potential of children and provide a guide for the management of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). Recent studies have demonstrated the advantages of the Humeral Head Ossification System (HHOS) and the Proximal Femur Maturity Index (PFMI), based on standard scoliosis films, in the management of AIS patients. We further assessed the HHOS and the PFMI method's reliability in the interrater and intrarater.MethodsThe data from 38 patients, including the humeral head and proximal femur on standard scoliosis films, were distributed to the eight raters in the form of a PowerPoint presentation. On 38 independent standard spine radiographs, raters utilized the HHOS and PFMI to assign grades. The PPT sequence was randomly changed and then reevaluated 2 weeks later. For every system, the 95% confidence interval (95% CI) and intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) were calculated to evaluate the interrater and intrarater reliability.ResultsThe HHOS was extremely reliable, with an intraobserver ICC of 0.802. In the first round, the interobserver ICC reliability for the HHOS was 0.955 (0.929–0.974), while in the second round, it was 0.939 (0.905–0.964). The PFMI was extremely reliable, with an intraobserver ICC of 0.888. In the first round, the interobserver ICC reliability for the PFMI was 0.967 (0.948–0.981), while in the second round, it was 0.973 (0.957–0.984).ConclusionsThe HHOS and PFMI classifications had excellent reliability. These two methods are beneficial to reduce additional exposure to radiation and expense for AIS. There are advantages and disadvantages to each classification. Clinicians should choose a personalized and reasonable method to assess skeletal maturity, which will assist in the management of adolescent scoliosis patients.

Depth estimation is a fundamental problem in the perception system of autonomous driving scenes. Although autonomous driving is challenging, much prior knowledge can still be utilized, by which the sophistication of the problem can be effectively restricted. Some previous works introduce the road plane prior to the depth estimation problem according to the Planar Parallax Geometry. However, we find that their usages are not effective, leaving the network cannot learn the geometric information. To this end, we analyze this problem in detail and reveal that explicit warping of consecutive frames and flow pre-training can effectively bring the geometric prior into learning. Furthermore, we propose Planar Position Embedding to deal with the intrinsic weakness of plane parallax geometry. Comprehensive experimental results on autonomous driving datasets like KITTI and Waymo Open Dataset (WOD) demonstrate that our Planar Parallax Network(PPNet) dramatically outperforms existing learning-based methods.

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-inq-10.1177_00469580231159747 for Positive Emotion and Media Dependence: Measuring Risk Information Seeking and Perception in the COVID-19 Pandemic Prevention by Jinye Huang, Wujiong Ren, Shiwen Wang, Yifan Zhou and Ya Yang in INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing

The semitauonic $B_c^- \to J/ψτ^-\barν_τ$ decay is optimal to scrutinize possible new physics effects in $b \to c τ^- \barν_τ$ transitions as indicated by the current data on $R(D^{(*)})$ anomalies. In this work, we study the $B_c^- \to J/ψτ^-\barν_τ$ decay with both polarized $τ$ and $J/ψ$. Their subsequent decays, with $J/ψ\to μ^+ μ^-$ as well as $τ^- \to π^- ν_τ$, $τ^- \to ρ^- ν_τ$ and $τ^- \to \ell^-\barν_\ellν_τ$, are exploited to extract the energy and angular distributions of the charged final-state particles in the processes. Starting with the most general effective Hamiltonian relevant for the $b \to c τ^- \barν_τ$ transitions, including all possible Lorentz structures of the dimension-six operators with both left- and right-handed neutrinos, we first derive the five-fold differential decay rate in terms of the visible final-state kinematics. From this distribution, we then construct in total 34 normalized observables, among which nine refer to the CP-violating triple product asymmetries that vanish within the Standard Model. We also construct five new observables based on the combinations of these normalized observables that can only be attributed to the right-handed neutrinos. On the other hand, considering the low statistics of the fully differential distribution, we introduce some integrated observables with only one kinematic variable left, which are more promising to be measured due to the largely increased statistics. The sensitivities of all these observables to the different new physics scenarios are investigated in detail. Finally, assuming an ideal circumstance, we give an estimate of the statistical uncertainties of the nine CP-conserving observables at LHCb and found that $τ^-\to π^-ν_τ$ has the highest analyzing power among the three $τ$ decay channels., 40 pages, 7 figures and 2 tables; SM predictions in different q2 bins added, final version published in the journal

Motivated by the latest CDF $W$-mass measurement as well as the muon $g-2$ anomaly and the discrepancies observed in $b \to s \ell^+ \ell^-$ transitions, we propose an extension of the Standard Model (SM) with the $SU(2)_L$-singlet vector-like fermion partners that are featured by additional $U(1)^\prime$ gauge symmetry. The fermion partners have the same SM quantum numbers as of the right-handed SM fermions, and can therefore mix with the latter after the electroweak and the $U(1)^\prime$ symmetry breaking. As a result, desirable loop-level corrections to the $(g-2)_\mu$, the $W$-boson mass $m_W$ and the Wilson coefficient $C_9$ in $b \to s \mu^+ \mu^-$ transitions can be obtained. The final allowed parameter space is also consistent with the constraints from the $Z \to \mu^+ \mu^-$ decay, the neutrino trident production and the LHC direct searches for the vector-like quarks and leptons., Comment: 34 pages, 15 figures, comments welcome

Additional file 1. All the original uncropped Western Blots in the article.

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-inq-10.1177_00469580231159747 for Positive Emotion and Media Dependence: Measuring Risk Information Seeking and Perception in the COVID-19 Pandemic Prevention by Jinye Huang, Wujiong Ren, Shiwen Wang, Yifan Zhou and Ya Yang in INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing

Misinformation has become a growing issue on online social platforms (OSPs), especially during elections or pandemics. To combat this, OSPs have implemented various policies, such as tagging, to notify users about potentially misleading information. However, these policies are often transparent and therefore susceptible to being exploited by content creators, who may not be willing to invest effort into producing authentic content, causing the viral spread of misinformation. Instead of mitigating the reach of existing misinformation, this work focuses on a solution of prevention, aiming to stop the spread of misinformation before it has a chance to gain momentum. We propose a Bayesian persuaded branching process ($\operatorname{BP}^2$) to model the strategic interactions among the OSP, the content creator, and the user. The misinformation spread on OSP is modeled by a multi-type branching process, where users' positive and negative comments influence the misinformation spreading. Using a Lagrangian induced by Bayesian plausibility, we characterize the OSP's optimal policy under the perfect Bayesian equilibrium. The convexity of the Lagrangian implies that the OSP's optimal policy is simply the fully informative tagging policy: revealing the content's accuracy to the user. Such a tagging policy solicits the best effort from the content creator in reducing misinformation, even though the OSP exerts no direct control over the content creator. We corroborate our findings using numerical simulations., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures

Tenofovir (TDF) and entecavir (ETV) are first-line treatments for patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. However, the effect of TDF versus ETV on the prognosis of HBV-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has not been fully clarified yet. PubMed, Embase and Web of science were searched up to March, 2021. Meta-analyses were performed for overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) to assess the effect of TDF versus ETV on the prognosis of HBV-related HCC. A total of 10 studies comprising 4706 Asian patients were included. The pooled results revealed that TDF was associated with better OS (adjusted HR = 0.50, 95% CI: 0.40–0.62; I2 = 36.0%, p = 0.167) and better RFS/DFS (adjusted HR = 0.70, 95% CI: 0.55–0.89, I2 = 71.9%, p = 0.002) than ETV in treatment of HBV-related HCC. Subgroup analysis revealed that OS benefit from TDF was generally consistent, except for patients who underwent non-surgical treatment for HCC. Subgroup analysis also indicated that TDF reduces the risk of late recurrence (HR = 0.41, 95% CI: 0.18–0.0.93; I2 = 63.0%, p = 0.067) rather than early recurrence (HR = 0.99, 95% CI: 0.64–1.52; I2 = 61.3%, p = 0.076). Compared with ETV, TDF has the advantage of improving OS and reducing late recurrence of patients with HBV-related HCC patients who underwent resection.

The absence of semitauonic decays of charmed hadrons makes the decay processes mediated by the quark-level $c\to d τ^+ ν_τ$ transition inadequate for probing a generic new physics (NP) with all kinds of Dirac structures. To fill in this gap, we consider in this paper the quasielastic neutrino scattering process $ν_τ+n\to τ^-+Λ_c$, and propose searching for NP through the polarizations of the $τ$ lepton and the $Λ_c$ baryon. In the framework of a general low-energy effective Lagrangian, we perform a comprehensive analysis of the (differential) cross sections and polarization vectors of the process both within the Standard Model and in various NP scenarios, and scrutinize possible NP signals. We also explore the influence on our findings due to the uncertainties and the different parametrizations of the $Λ_c \to N$ transition form factors, and show that they have become one of the major challenges to further constrain possible NP through the quasielastic scattering process., 31 pages, 17 figures, and 3 tables. Comments are welcome

Background and Aims Genome size is an important plant trait, with substantial interspecies variation. The mechanisms and selective pressures underlying genome size evolution are important topics in evolutionary biology. There is considerable diversity in Allium from the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau, where genome size variation and related evolutionary mechanisms are poorly understood. Methods We reconstructed the Allium phylogeny using DNA sequences from 71 species. We also estimated genome sizes of 62 species, and determined chromosome numbers in 65 species. We examined the phylogenetic signal associated with genome size variation, and tested how well the data fit different evolutionary models. Correlations between genome size variations and seed mass, altitude and 19 bioclimatic factors were determined. Key Results Allium genome sizes differed substantially between species and within diploids, triploids, tetraploids, hexaploids and octaploids. Size per monoploid genome (1Cx) tended to decrease with increasing ploidy levels. Allium polyploids tended to grow at a higher altitude than diploids. The phylogenetic tree was divided into three evolutionary branches. The genomes in Clade I were mostly close to the ancestral genome (18.781 pg) while those in Clades II and III tended to expand and contract, respectively. A weak phylogenetic signal was detected for Allium genome size. Furthermore, significant positive correlations were detected between genome size and seed mass, as well as between genome size and altitude. However, genome size was not correlated with 19 bioclimatic variables. Conclusions Allium genome size shows gradual evolution, followed by subsequent adaptive radiation. The three well-supported Allium clades are consistent with previous studies. The evolutionary patterns in different Allium clades revealed genome contraction, expansion and relative stasis. The Allium species in Clade II may follow adaptive radiation. The genome contraction in Clade III may be due to DNA loss after polyploidization. Allium genome size might be influenced by selective pressure due to the conditions on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau (low temperature, high UV irradiation and abundant phosphate in the soil).

Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) in human and animals belonged usually to antibiotic-associated diarrhea, ranging in severity from mild to life-threatening intestinal tract illnesses. This study aimed to isolation and characterization, toxin genes test, molecular typing, and drug sensitivity of Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) which were isolated from clinical diseased dogs and cats. A total of 247 clinical samples were collected from five animal hospitals in Lanzhou City of Northwest China, of which dogs and cats accounted for 74.9% (185/247) and 25.1% (62/247), respectively. We successfully identified 24 C. difficile strains by 16S rRNA and Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time of Fight Mass Spectroscopy (MALDI-TOF-MS). 10.3% (19/185) of dogs and 8.1% (5/62) of cats were positive for C. difficile. Among them, 16 strains were toxic and 8 were non-toxic, with a toxic rate of 57.9% (11/19) in dogs and 100% (5/5) in cats. A total of 10 STs and 10 RTs were identified in this study. The percentages of ST42 (RT106) and ST2 (RT014/LW01) among 16 toxic strains were 41.7 and 12.5%, respectively. However, ST3 (RT001), ST1 (RT027), ST133 (LW04), and ST-UN (LW04) had only one strain. ST42 (RT106) was the most common genotype and RT027 strain was first isolated in China from pets. Antimicrobial susceptibility test showed that isolates were extremely sensitive to vancomycin and metronidazole but were resistant to erythromycin and ciprofloxacin. The drug resistant rates to clindamycin, levofloxacin, moxifloxacin and meropenem were 62.5, 20.8, 16.7, and 8.3%, respectively. In conclusion, C. difficile was quietly prevalent in dogs and cats in Lanzhou city with RT106 and RT014 as the main ribotypes. The CDI in pets should be paying more attention and further studies are needed.

We update the Standard Model (SM) predictions for the branching ratios of the rare top-quark decays $$t \rightarrow cg(g)$$ t → c g ( g ) , and evaluate the maximum rates that can be reached in the aligned as well as in the four conventional two-Higgs-doublet models (2HDMs) with $$\mathcal {Z}_2$$ Z 2 symmetries. Taking into account the relevant constraints on the model parameters resulting from a global fit obtained at the $$95.5\%$$ 95.5 % confidence level, we find that the branching ratios of $$t \rightarrow cg$$ t → c g and $$t \rightarrow cgg$$ t → c g g decays can reach up to $$3.36\times 10^{-9}$$ 3.36 × 10 - 9 and $$2.95\times 10^{-9}$$ 2.95 × 10 - 9 respectively, being therefore of the same order, in the aligned 2HDM (A2HDM). This is obviously different from the SM case, where the predicted branching ratio of the three-body decay $$t \rightarrow cgg$$ t → c g g is about two orders of magnitude larger than that of the two-body decay $$t \rightarrow cg$$ t → c g . On the other hand, compared with the SM predictions, no significant enhancements are observed in the four conventional 2HDMs with $$\mathcal {Z}_2$$ Z 2 symmetries for the branching ratios of these two decays. Nevertheless, the predicted branching ratios of $$t \rightarrow cg$$ t → c g and $$t \rightarrow cgg$$ t → c g g decays in the A2HDM are still out of the expected sensitivities of the future high-luminosity Large Hadron Collider and the Future Circular Collider in hadron-hadron mode.

Aconitine is a natural toxic substance belonging to the family of aconitum alkaloids, which is used in small doses by Traditional Chinese practitioners. We present a case of accidental death due to acute aconitine poisoning. A 65-year-old Chinese man presented to a medical clinic with fever and shoulder pain. Soon after administration of intravenous ceftriaxone, a bottle of Chinese medicinal wine was administered. The man rapidly experienced headache, hearing loss and tinnitus, nausea, diarrhea, numbness of the lips, tongue, face, and the upper and lower extremities, cold sweat, fall of blood pressure, and discomfort of the entire body, and he died on the same day. Postmortem examination showed cyanosis of the nail beds, severe congestion in lungs and other organs, bilateral pleural effusions, and infiltration of basophils in the intestinal submucosa. No significant increase of IgE was found in the blood. Toxicological analysis detected aconitine in the medicinal wine, blood, and stomach contents by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS⁄MS). Aconitine was quantified in cardiac blood as 16.4 ng/ml, and in stomach contents (63.8 ng/ml) and wine sample (10.1 ug/ml). The cause of death was aconitine poisoning. This case report highlights the danger of aconitine. LC-MS⁄MS has the advantages of high analytic speed, sensitivity, and accuracy. It would be desirable for the government to control the use of aconitine-containing herbal extracts.

Ya-Ting Yang,1,2 Han-Yun Chang,1 Chung-Yao Hsu,3 Jamie M Zeitzer2,4 1Institute of Education, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan City, Taiwan; 2Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; 3Department of Neurology, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan; 4Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA, USACorrespondence: Jamie M Zeitzer Email jzeitzer@stanford.eduPurpose: The Cleveland Adolescent Sleepiness Questionnaire was originally developed and published in English and has served as a valid and effective tool for the assessment of adolescents’ experiences with sleepiness in a variety of situations. To allow for comparisons between sleepiness in adolescents from different cultures, and with different linguistic backgrounds, reliable and valid measurement tools are necessary. The purpose of this study was to translate and validate a Chinese version of the Cleveland Adolescent Sleepiness Questionnaire (C-CASQ).Materials and Methods: Sensitivity, specificity, internal consistency, and criterion validity data for the C-CASQ were tested using 458 adolescents in Taiwan. Data from 191 participants were used to establish internal consistency reliability and conduct exploratory factor analysis (EFA), while data from 267 participants were used to establish criterion validity and conduct confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Initial criterion validity was established through a comparison of the C-CASQ with scores from the Chinese version of the Morningness-Eveningness Scale for Children, a measure of chronotype.Results: EFA resulted in four factors, consistent with the original English version of the CASQ, while CFA established goodness of fit. The scale demonstrated acceptable to good internal consistency (α = 0.77∼ 0.86). Initial criterion validity was evident as the total score and each of the subscale scores on the C-CASQ was significantly higher (greater sleepiness) in evening-types.Conclusion: The C-CASQ appears to be a psychometrically sound measure to evaluate sleepiness in Chinese-speaking adolescents.Keywords: teens, sleep, alertness, chronotype

Previous voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and cortical thickness (CT) studies on Parkinson's disease (PD) have mainly reported the gray matter size reduction, whereas the shape of cortical surface can also change in PD patients. For the first time, we analyzed sulcal depth (SD) patterns in PD patients by using whole brain region of interest (ROI)-based approach. In a cross-sectional study, high-resolution brain structural MRI images were collected from 60 PD patients without dementia and 56 age-and sex-matched healthy controls (HC). SD and CT were estimated using the Computational Anatomy Toolbox (CAT12) and statistically compared between groups on whole brain ROI-based level using statistical parametric mapping 12 (SPM12). Additionally, correlations between regional brain changes and clinical variables were also examined. Compared to HC, PD patients showed lower SD in widespread regions, including temporal (the bilateral transverse temporal, the left inferior temporal, the right middle temporal and the right superior temporal), insular (the left insula), frontal (the left pars triangularis, the left pars opercularis and the left precentral), parietal (the bilateral superior parietal) and occipital (the right cuneus) regions. For CT, only the left pars opercularis showed lower CT in PD patients compared to HC. No regions showed higher SD or CT in PD patients compared to HC. In PD patients, a significant positive correlation was found between SD of the left pars opercularis and MMSE scores, such that lower MMSE scores were related to lower SD of the left pars opercularis. Our results of widespread lower SD, but relatively localized lower CT, indicate that SD seems to be more sensitive to brain changes than CT and may be mainly affected by white matter damage. Hence, SD may be a more promising indicator to investigate the surface shape changes in PD patients. The significant positive correlation between SD of the left pars opercularis and MMSE scores suggests that SD may be prognostic of future cognitive decline.

Cryptococcus neoformans is a major etiological agent of fungal meningoencephalitis. The outcome of cryptococcosis depends on the complex interactions between the pathogenic fungus and host immunity. The understanding of how C. neoformans manipulates the host immune response through its pathogenic factors remains incomplete. In this study, we defined the roles of a previously uncharacterized protein, Csn1201, in cryptococcal fitness and host immunity. Use of both inhalational and intravenous mouse models demonstrated that the CSN1201 deletion significantly blocked the pulmonary infection and extrapulmonary dissemination of C. neoformans. The in vivo hypovirulent phenotype of the csn1201Δ mutant was attributed to a combination of multiple factors, including preferential dendritic cell accumulation, enhanced Th1 and Th17 immune responses, decreased intracellular survival inside macrophages, and attenuated blood–brain barrier transcytosis rather than exclusively to pathogenic fitness. The csn1201Δ mutant exhibited decreased tolerance to various stressors in vitro, along with reduced capsule production and enhanced cell wall thickness under host-relevant conditions, indicating that the CSN1201 deletion might promote the exposure of cell wall components and thus induce a protective immune response. Taken together, our results strongly support the importance of cryptococcal Csn1201 in pulmonary immune responses and disseminated infection.

Background: Biologics are used to treat moderate-to-severe psoriasis, and persistence to biologics may reflect clinical effectiveness. Limited information describing how biologics are used in patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis in Asian countries is available. We conducted a population-based, retrospective, new user cohort study using the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) in Taiwan to assess treatment persistence and adherence to biologics.Methods: Adults with a diagnosis of psoriasis between 01 January 2015 and 31 December 2017 were identified in the NHIRD (ICD-9-CM 696.1; ICD-10 L40.0). New users were patients who initiated treatment with etanercept, adalimumab, ustekinumab or secukinumab between 01 January 2015 and 31 December 2017. All eligible patients were followed until 31 December 2018, death or disenrollment. Kaplan-Meier analysis was conducted to estimate persistence of treatment for index biologics. A Cox-proportional hazard regression model was used to compare risks of biologic discontinuation between biologic groups. Adjustments for potential confounding factors (age, gender and Charlson comorbidity index score) were made in the Cox model.Results: There were 1,397 new biologic users with psoriasis during the study period. The ratio men:women was approximately 4:1. Mean age of patients ranged from 44.6 to 47.7 years across exposure groups. The 1-year/2-years persistence rates were 94.2%/84.9% for ustekinumab, 96.2%/not calculated (due to too few patients at year 2) for secukinumab, 66.0%/29.9% for etanercept, and 59.8%/40.3% for adalimumab. The risk of discontinuation was significantly lower in patients initiating ustekinumab compared with adalimumab (hazard ratio adjusted for age, sex and co-morbidities 0.289, 95%CI 0.247–0.339, p < 0.0001). Drug survival was significantly higher for ustekinumab compared with adalimumab and etanercept (log-rank test p < 0.0001). The proportions of patients with 1-year/2-years medication possession ratios of ≥80% were 95.3%/92.0% for ustekinumab, 98.1%/not calculated for secukinumab, 89.4%/83.1% for etanercept, and 70.8%/59.4% for adalimumab.Limitations: Clinical improvement and response to treatment data were not available.Conclusion: There was relatively high persistence amongst biologic users with psoriasis in Taiwan. There is a trend towards greater persistence of ustekinumab compared to other biologics, the magnitude of which depends on the treatment gap used for its calculation. This study provides real-world evidence that may facilitate optimal treatment choice.

Nephrotic syndrome (NS) tends to be more common in patients with history of allergies. Atopic dermatitis (AD) is one of the most common allergic diseases in children. Dupilumab, a dual IL-4 and IL-13 inhibitor, has been widely used to treat AD patients. However, the efficacy and safety of Dupilumab in NS is unclear. We reported two AD patients with NS comorbidities treated with Dupilumab. The outcomes showed the good control of NS and less systemic steroids and/or immunosuppressive agents use during the Dupilumab treatment period, accompanied by significant relief of AD symptoms. We suggest prospective pilot studies and randomized controlled trials could be carried out to validate the efficacy and safety of Dupilumab in the treatment of NS patients.

The Dirac neutrino masses could be simply generated by a neutrinophilic scalar doublet with a vacuum being dramatically different from the electroweak one. While the case with an eV-scale vacuum has been widely explored previously, we exploit in this work the desert where the scalar vacuum is of scale. In this regime, there would be rare hope to probe the keV-vacuum neutrinophilic scalar model via the lepton-flavor-violating processes, which makes it distinguishable from the widely considered eV-scale vacuum. Although such a keV-vacuum scenario is inert in the low-energy flavor physics, we show that the baryogenesis realized via the lightest Dirac neutrino can be a natural candidate in explaining the baryon asymmetry of the Universe. Furthermore, the Dirac neutrinos with a keV-vacuum scalar can generate a shift of the effective neutrino number within the range , which can be probed by the future Simons Observatory experiments. In particular, the model with a minimal value can already be falsified by the future CMB Stage-IV and Large Scale Structure surveys, providing consequently striking exploratory avenues in the cosmological regime for such a keV-vacuum scenario.

Additional file 1.

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-cat-10.1177_10760296221132551 for Prescribing Trends of Oral Anticoagulants from 2010 to 2020 in Shanghai, China: A Retrospective Study by Chi Zhang, Jia Wang, Ya Yang, Er-Li Ma, Hou-Wen Lin, Bing-Long Liu and Zhi-Chun Gu in Clinical and Applied Thrombosis/Hemostasis

Additional file 1: Supplementary appendix.

We investigate the potential for searching and identifying the leptoquark (LQ) effects in the charm sector through the low-energy polarized scattering processes $\vec{e}^{\,-}p\to e^-Λ_c$, $e^-\vec{p}\to e^-Λ_c$, and $\vec{e}^{\,-}\vec{p}\to e^-Λ_c$. Considering only the longitudinally polarized processes, we show that the different LQ models can be disentangled from each other by measuring the four spin asymmetries, $A_{L}^e$, $A_{L}^p$, $A_{L3}^{ep}$, and $A_{L6}^{ep}$, constructed in terms of the polarized cross sections. Although it is challenging to accomplish the same goal with transversely polarized processes, we find that investing them in future experiments is especially beneficial, since they can directly probe into the imaginary part of the Wilson coefficients in the general low-energy effective Lagrangian. With our properly designed experimental setups, it is also demonstrated that promising event rates can be expected for all these processes and, even in the worst-case scenario -- no LQ signals are observed at all, they can still provide a competitive potential for constraining the new physics, compared with those from the conventional charmed-hadron weak decays and the high-$p_T$ dilepton invariant mass tails at high-energy colliders., 24 pages, 11 tables, and 7 figures; more discussions and references added, final version published in the journal

This thesis considers political exclusion of temporary migrant workers (TMWs) a challenge to the legitimacy of the liberal democratic constitutional state, asking whether, and on what basis, the right to political participation is necessary for protecting TMWs and for legitimising the state’s coercive power over TMWs. It compares TMW programmes in Taiwan and Canada to demonstrate the common legal techniques of temporariness and alienage, which generate a particularly precarious and exploitable labour force. The temporariness and alienage of TMWs also mean TMWs are deemed irrelevant to the democratic legitimacy of the host state. To challenge this conventional view, this thesis critically engages with the neo-republican conception of freedom as non-domination to argue that the work relations of TMWs constitute private domination, which is conceptually connected with their exclusion from public participation. Moreover, the democratic boundary of the state should be drawn to include all who are present in the state’s territory and who are subject to the entire legal system, regardless of their legal citizenship. These arguments anticipate a conception of democratic citizenship applicable to TMWs. This thesis thus distinguishes itself from the two major camps for TMW protection: rights and citizenship approaches. It also suggests that TMW programmes, as they are now, weaken the democratic legitimacy of the liberal, democratic, constitutional order.

The recently updated measurement of the $W$-boson mass by the CDF collaboration exhibits a $7\sigma$ deviation from the SM expectation, which may imply a sign of new physics beyond the SM. The observed discrepancy could be explained by new fermions that carry the electroweak gauge charges and affect the vacuum polarization of gauge bosons. Notably, if the new fermions also have the same quantum numbers as of the SM quarks, they can mix with the latter and thus modify the penguin diagrams governing the $b \to s \ell^+ \ell^-$ transitions. Therefore, the $W$-boson mass shift could be related to the $b \to s \ell^+ \ell^-$ anomalies observed by the LHCb collaboration during the past few years. To investigate this possibility, we consider in this paper a model containing a vector-like top partner gauged under a new $U(1)^\prime$ symmetry. It is found that the latest CDF $m_W$ measurement and the $b \to s \ell^+ \ell^-$ anomalies can be simultaneously accommodated at $2\sigma$ level., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, typos fixed, figures refined, and references added

In this paper we investigate the traces of the adjacency tensor of hypergraphs (simply called the traces of hypergraphs). We give new expressions for the traces of hypertrees and linear unicyclic hypergraphs by the weight function assigned to their connected sub-hypergraphs, and provide some perturbation results for the traces of a hypergraph with cut vertices. As applications we determine the unique hypertree with maximum Estrada index among all hypertrees with fixed number of edges and perfect matchings, and the unique unicyclic hypergraph with maximum Estrada index among all unicyclic hypergraph with fixed number of edges and girth $3$.

Additional file 1: Appendix 1. Derivation of the variance of measurement error. Appendix 2. Taiwan island used in the simulation. Appendix 3. Simulation scenarios. Appendix 4. The spatiotemporal dynamic maps for the standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) and the annual percent changes (APCs) in the SIRs of oral cancer in men in Taiwan, 1997 to 2017. Appendix 5. The spatiotemporal dynamic maps for the standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) and the annual percent changes (APCs) in the SIRs of breast cancer in women in Taiwan, 1997 to 2017. Appendix 6. The local-administrative-area-based spatiotemporal map of the original disease rates of oral cancer in men in Taiwan, 1997 to 2017. Appendix 7. The local-administrative-area-based spatiotemporal map of the original disease rates of breast cancer in women in Taiwan, 1997 to 2017. Appendix 8. The traditional nugget-unadjusted spatiotemporal kriging map for the standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) of oral cancer in men in Taiwan, 1997 to 2017. Appendix 9. The traditional nugget-unadjusted spatiotemporal kriging map for the standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) of breast cancer in women in Taiwan, 1997 to 2017. Appendix 10. The traditional nugget-adjusted spatiotemporal kriging map for the standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) of oral cancer in men in Taiwan, 1997 to 2017. Appendix 11. The traditional nugget-adjusted spatiotemporal kriging map for the standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) of breast cancer in women in Taiwan, 1997 to 2017. Appendix 12. The time-series plot of the standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) of breast cancer in women in Taiwan, 1997 to 2017, for two hot spot centroids (Left: Zhongzheng District in Taipei City; Right: Yanping Township in Taitung County).

Additional file 1. Exploratory factor analysis of trusts in health information: rotated factor loadings.

Background: Metabolic syndrome is characterized by cardiovascular and chronic disease risk factors that cause health problems. Inequalities in medical resources and information present a challenge in this context. Indigenous communities may be unaware of their risk for metabolic syndrome. Aims: This study explored factors associated with metabolic syndrome-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors among Taiwanese indigenous communities. Methods: For this descriptive cross-sectional survey, we collected anthropometric data and used a self-administered questionnaire between 1 July 2016, to 31 July 2017, from a convenience sample of an indigenous tribe in eastern Taiwan. The response rate was 92%. Results: The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was as high as 71%, and the average correct knowledge rate was 39.1%. The participants’ self-management attitudes were mainly negative, and the self-management behaviors were low in this population. Stepwise regression analysis showed that knowledge, attitude, age, perception of physical condition, and body mass index, which accounted for 65% of the total variance, were the most predictive variables for self-management behaviors. Conclusions: This is the first study to report the relationship between metabolic syndrome knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors in an indigenous population. There is an urgent need to develop safety-based MetS health education programs that can provide access to the right information and enhance self-management approaches to lessen the growing burden of MetS in indigenous communities.

PurposeThis study aimed to develop machine learning models for the diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease (PD) using multiple structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features and validate their performance.MethodsBrain structural MRI scans of 60 patients with PD and 56 normal controls (NCs) were enrolled as development dataset and 69 patients with PD and 71 NCs from Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) dataset as independent test dataset. First, multiple structural MRI features were extracted from cerebellar, subcortical, and cortical regions of the brain. Then, the Pearson’s correlation test and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression were used to select the most discriminating features. Finally, using logistic regression (LR) classifier with the 5-fold cross-validation scheme in the development dataset, the cerebellar, subcortical, cortical, and a combined model based on all features were constructed separately. The diagnostic performance and clinical net benefit of each model were evaluated with the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis and the decision curve analysis (DCA) in both datasets.ResultsAfter feature selection, 5 cerebellar (absolute value of left lobule crus II cortical thickness (CT) and right lobule IV volume, relative value of right lobule VIIIA CT and lobule VI/VIIIA gray matter volume), 3 subcortical (asymmetry index of caudate volume, relative value of left caudate volume, and absolute value of right lateral ventricle), and 4 cortical features (local gyrification index of right anterior circular insular sulcus and anterior agranular insula complex, local fractal dimension of right middle insular area, and CT of left supplementary and cingulate eye field) were selected as the most distinguishing features. The area under the curve (AUC) values of the cerebellar, subcortical, cortical, and combined models were 0.679, 0.555, 0.767, and 0.781, respectively, for the development dataset and 0.646, 0.632, 0.690, and 0.756, respectively, for the independent test dataset, respectively. The combined model showed higher performance than the other models (Delong’s test, all p-values < 0.05). All models showed good calibration, and the DCA demonstrated that the combined model has a higher net benefit than other models.ConclusionThe combined model showed favorable diagnostic performance and clinical net benefit and had the potential to be used as a non-invasive method for the diagnosis of PD.

Data for Raman spectroscopic imaging on coral ultrastructures.

Most senior veterans who live in veteran homes in Taiwan have few interpersonal relationships. Aging is often accompanied by solitude and illness, which causes senior veterans to doubt the meaning of life and to lose confidence in the value of life. This study tested the effectiveness of a group reminiscence therapy protocol on the depression and meaning of life among elderly institutionalized veterans. A quasi-experimental design was applied. A convenience sample of older adults was drawn from two veteran homes in southern Taiwan. Participants were assigned to intervention or control groups based on the veterans' homes they attended. The participants in the intervention group carried out group reminiscence therapy for 8 weeks in addition to their daily activities. The participants in the comparison group maintained their daily activities. Both groups were evaluated using the GDS-SF and MLS scale including two aspects of depression mood and meaning of life in weeks 1 and 8. The overall life satisfaction increased significantly over time for the intervention group compared to the comparison group from week 1 to week 8. The group reminiscence therapy programs showed promising effects in improving the depression and meaning of life of older veterans living in veteran homes.

국가의 정보화 발전전략이 부단히 추진되고 있는 상황에서 국가주도 의 자원형식이 점차적으로 공공자원, 사회자원, 시장자원 등의 다원화 된 주체의 형식으로 변화하고 있으며, 분쟁해결에 있어서도 소송의 이 른바 “외나무다리(独木桥)”라는 현상을 맞으면서 화해, 조정, 중재 등과 상호 관련하여 해결할 수 있는 시스템으로 발전하고 있다. 분쟁해결에 대하여 인민 대중의 만족을 위하여 인터넷 중재시스템의 혁신과 발전의 시기를 마주하고 있다. 인터넷 중재는 인터넷 비즈니스 분쟁에 착안하 여 인터넷 플랫폼인 전자기술과 빅데이터, 클라우드 등의 종합적 사용방안을 활용하여, 당사자에게 분쟁해결서비스를 제고할 수 있을 것이라 보고 있다. 이 에 분쟁안건의 “양(量)”을 분류하고, 분쟁해결의 실현에 있어 “질(质)”적 개선 을 촉진할 수 있을 것이다. 그리고 인터넷 중재는 중국에서 보편적이지 않아 중재 의식고 신뢰가 부족하므로 다양한 면에서 장애가 존재한다. 이러한 장애 를 제거하는 관건은 법률의 강력한 보장과 실무에서의 효율성 제고에 있다. 이 에 기초하여, 첫 번째는 입법적 통일을 통하여 인터넷 중재의 전체 구조를 확 립함으로써 건전한 법률체계를 포함하여 인터넷 신뢰표준제도 및 인터넷 중재 판결서의 송달과 집행을 보장하여야 한다. 둘째, 필요한 기술을 통하여 플랫폼 시스템과 안건 처리에 있어 빅데이터를 탄력적으로 운영한다. 또한, 일반 대중 의 인터넷 중재에 관한 의식을 제고할 수 있도록 한다. 이를 통해 인터넷 중재 가 발휘할 수 있는 효능을 보장할 수 있으며, 인터넷 중재시스템이나 새로운 유형의 분쟁해결시스템에 대한 정보화 발전을 촉진할 것이다.

The present study investigated the effect of roasting process (temperature: 150, 180, and 210 °C; time: 10, 20, and 30 min) of licorice on the browning index (BI), total flavonoid content (TFC), and antioxidant activity for ingredient of Makgeolli. The antioxidant activity was measured by assaying DPPH radical scavenging activity (DPPH·IC(50)) and Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC). In addition, the quality characteristics of Makgeolli with different amount (0%, 6%, 12%, and 18%) of roasted licorice extract (RLE) were measured comparison to un-roasted licorice extract (ULE). When superimposing the contour plots of the responses in which the limits of each response were determined, the optimum conditions for roasting licorice were 178 °C for 24 min. Moreover, results revealed that Makgeolli with 12% RLE under optimum roasting condition was superior with respect to antioxidant activity and more acceptable based on sensory properties than ULE.

Hyperlipidemia is an important lipid disorder and a risk factor for health. Aspirin eugenol ester (AEE) is a novel synthetic compound which is made up of two chemical structural units from aspirin and eugenol. Therapeutic effect of AEE on hyperlipidemia has been confirmed in animal model. But the action mechanism of AEE on hyperlipidemia is still poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the effects of AEE on liver and feces metabolic profile through UPLC-Q-TOF/MS-based untargeted metabolomics in hyperlipidemia hamster induced with high fat diet (HFD), and the effects of AEE on the expression of genes and proteins related to cholesterol and bile acid (BA) in HFD-induced hyperlipidemia SD rat. The concentrations of 26 bile acids (BAs) in the liver from hyperlipidemia SD rat were also quantified with the application of BA targeted metabolomics. The results of untargeted metabolomics showed that the underlying mechanism of AEE on hyperlipidemia was mainly associated with amino acid metabolism, glutathione metabolism, energy metabolism, BA metabolism, and glycerophospholipid metabolism. AEE induced the expression of the BA-synthetic enzymes cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase (CYP7A1) by the inhibition of BA nuclear receptor farnesoid X receptor (FXR) in liver, which resulted in accelerating the conversion of cholesterol into bile acids and excrete in feces. The results of BA targeted metabolomics showed that AEE elevated the glycine-conjugated BA level and decreased the tauro-conjugated BA level. In conclusion, this study found that AEE decreased FXR and increased CYP7A1 in the liver, which might be the possible molecular mechanisms and targets of AEE for anti-hyperlipidemia therapies.

Several antimicrobial combination therapies are used to treat multiple drug resistant (MDR) and extensively drug resistant (XDR) Acinetobacter baumannii infections. A novel antibiotic, eravacycline, shows a higher potency than tigecycline. The efficacies of eravacycline-based therapies have not yet been evaluated. We demonstrated the effectiveness of eravacycline- and tigecycline-based combination therapies in XDR and especially tigecycline resistant A. baumannii. Thirteen eligible isolates were selected from 642 non-duplicate Acinetobacter blood isolates from four medical centres in 2010–2014. Tigecycline/imipenem and eravacycline/imipenem combinations were simultaneously effective against some isolates in vitro with fractional inhibitory concentration index of 0.5. In contrast, eravacycline- and tigecycline-based combination therapies provided no additional benefits in mouse survival compared to those for monotherapy. In summary, colistin is still the final resort for XDR-A. baumannii treatment according to the sensitivities. Owning to rapid development of resistance in A. baumannii, novel antibiotics are urgently needed.

Additional file 6: Table S3 Univariate and Multivariate Analysis of Prognostic Factors of DFS

The poorly resolved pathway of the sub-thermocline waters (>300 m) within the Makassar Strait, the primary inflow path of the Indonesian Throughflow, is investigated using in situ mooring measurements and Argo profiles at the entrance to the Indonesian Seas. We focus on the strong subthermocline intrusion in the summer of 2016, when significant changes of sub-thermocline transport thrice as large as the interannual standard deviation occurred. Analysis suggests that the intrusion was drawn from the North Equatorial Subsurface Current (NESC) flowing westward below the North Equatorial Countercurrent, which was composed of a mixture of intermediate-depth waters from both the North and South Pacific. The anomalously strong NESC to the Makassar sub-thermocline in the summer 2016 is suggested to be in response to the 2015/2016 extreme El Niño event, forced by the trade wind anomalies over the western-central Pacific Ocean through westward and downward propagating baroclinic Rossby wave

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-2-ict-10.1177_15347354211031650 for Traditional Chinese Medicine in Cancer Care: An Overview of 5834 Randomized Controlled Trials Published in Chinese by Chun-Li Lu, Xun Li, Hong-Mei Zhou, Chi Zhang, Ya-Yue Yang, Ru-Li Feng, Chao-Jun Long, Fang-Yuan Deng, Jing-Chun Li, Ze-Ming Cao, Qi-Yuan Mao, Jin-Pu Zhu, Yan-Fei Hong, Shou-Yu Huang, Jia-Ying Qiu, Yi-Xiu Liu, Ying Wang, Yu-Qian Yan, Jia-Min Dong, Yu-Xin Luo, Yun-Meng Chen, Ying-Jie Guan, Lisa Susan Wieland, Nicola Robinson and Jian-Ping Liu in Integrative Cancer Therapies

Additional file 8. Materials and Methods.

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-3-car-10.1177_1947603520988153 for Infrapatellar Fat Pads–Derived Stem Cell Is a Favorable Cell Source for Articular Cartilage Tissue Engineering: An In Vitro and Ex Vivo Study Based on 3D Organized Self-Assembled Biomimetic Scaffold by Chen-Chie Wang, Ing-Ho Chen, Ya-Ting Yang, Yi-Ru Chen and Kai-Chiang Yang in CARTILAGE

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-cath-10.1177_10760296211051704 for Prediction Model of in-Hospital Venous Thromboembolism in Chinese Adult Patients after Hernia Surgery: The CHAT Score by Zhi-Chun Gu, Chi Zhang, Ya Yang, Ming-Gang Wang, Hang-Yu Li and Guang-Yong Zhang in Clinical and Applied Thrombosis/Hemostasis